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Quickbooks Tips
Please take a look at these shortcuts and "tricks of the
trade" designed to save you time and make your QuickBooks
experience even more productive.
Save up to 20% on the newest version of QuickBooks.
Why Quickbooks
10 Reasons Why You Should Use QuickBooks
QuickBooks is the ideal business accounting software for small
to mid-sized business owners. Here's 10 reasons why you should
be using QuickBooks.
1. You save time on bookkeeping and paperwork because many of
simple bookkeeping tasks are handled automatically making it
easier to run your business.
2. You can easily generate the reports with the information
you need, so you always know where your business stands. You
instantly know whether you're making money and whether your
business is healthy.
3. You save money because QuickBooks is so affordable. You can
use it to run a $5 million or a $25 million business for a few
hundred bucks. PC accounting software is truly one of the
great bargains in business.
4. Your business can grow with QuickBooks. QuickBooks will
help you design a business plan to use when trying to secure a
small business loan or line of credit or to plan for the
future. QuickBooks will create a projected balance sheet,
profit and loss statement and statement of cash flows in the
format recommended by the U.S. Small Business Administration.
5. You can customize QuickBooks to work the way you want.
QuickBooks is specifically designed to be flexible and
adaptable to a wide range of small businesses. To broaden its
appeal, QuickBooks has recently added customized accounting
packages for Contractors, Retailers, Health Care
Professionals, and Non-Profit organizations.
6. You can rest assured knowing that QuickBooks is a stable,
reliable and proven product. Hundreds of thousands of small
businesses throughout the world have chosen QuickBooks as
their accounting software. You can't go wrong with a software
program with such an extensive installed user base.
7. You save typing time and errors by sharing data between
QuickBooks and over 100 business applications. You can even
share data with popular programs, such as Microsoft Excel,
Word, Outlook and ACT.
8. You will get paid faster with QuickBooks online payments.
E-mail an invoice or statement and with QuickBooks Online
Billing, your customer can easily pay you with a credit card
or bank account transfer. No more waiting for the check in the
mail!
9. You can easily accept Credit Cards. With QuickBooks
Merchant Account Service, you can accept credit cards with
ease. QuickBooks Merchant Account Service is the only credit
card acceptance service integrated with QuickBooks software,
which means you don't have to enter the same data twice. No
additional software or hardware is required. Your customers
can use Visa, MasterCard, or American Express.
10. You can pay your bills and bank online. Setup your current
bank account in QuickBooks, and you're ready to pay your bills
without licking envelopes, sticking stamps, or printing paper
checks. Just write checks in QuickBooks as you normally would,
then click a button and your participating bank does the rest!
Pay anyone in the U.S. from your credit card companies to your
pizza service. Online Banking also lets you download your
monthly statement from your participating bank directly into
QuickBooks for easier reconciliation.
QuickBooks Setup
Although QuickBooks is designed for the layman to understand,
the initial setup and installation must be done correctly in
order for future information to be accurate.
All information necessary to setup manual accounting records
is also necessary to setup and install QuickBooks on your
desktop. This task is even more complicated if you switch from
manual accounting operations to QuickBooks in the middle of
the year.
Which accounting method will you use? What chart of accounts
do you need for your business? How do you handle beginning
balances?
An expert can easily answer all of these questions and
complete the initial Setup and Installation in a timely
manner. In addition, your accounting employees receive
training on the accounting software to enhance their
performance.
How much does it cost? We first want to find out a little more
about your business and your accounting records before we
quote you an exact price. Rest assured that we work with many
small business owners and our rates are designed to fit the
budgets of our clients.
As with any accounting software program, installation and
training take time - time taken away from managing your
business. Here's a short list of the services we provide
during your QuickBooks setup:
-
Study and evaluate
your software and accounting needs.
-
Recommend software
and hardware requirements.
-
Install software,
design and set up chart of accounts and entire accounting
package including payroll, accounts receivable, inventory,
accounts payable, etc.
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Determination of
your QuickBooks starting date
-
Loading your chart
of account and balances as of that starting date
-
Preparation of a
list of the items that you sell to your customers. This list
includes services, inventory parts, non-inventory parts, other
charges and sales taxes
-
Entering your
outstanding accounts receivable and accounts payable details
as of your starting date
-
Entering your
ending statement bank balances and outstanding checks &
deposits in transit as of your starting date
-
Printing a trial
balance as of your starting date and comparing it to your
trial balance from your old system
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Entering your
transactions since your starting dates into QuickBooks
-
Train client or
client staff in use of software to meet their accounting,
management and tax needs.
Ongoing Services:
-
Follow up training
to ensure the client is "on the right track".
-
Monthly, quarterly
or annual review of client QuickBooks data to assist in tax
preparation and management reports.
QuickBooks
Training
Once QuickBooks is set-up and working properly, we can train
you or your employees to properly operate QuickBooks
specifically for your business.
Why choose one-on-one attention instead of taking a class?
-
We come to your
location.
-
We focus on the
individual issues facing your business.
-
We will be there
to answer your specific questions and concerns.
-
No need to spend
time on features that don’t impact your business!
Call today to
set-up an appointment.
We will come to your location!!
QuickTuneup
Overhaul your accounting system with a QuickBooks Tune-up.
Whether you need to prepare for tax time, a financial review
or you just need to clean up some problem areas, you'll be
prepared with a QuickBooks Tune-up. In four (4) hours, a
QuickBooks Professional Advisor will help you clean up and
organize your bookkeeping system.
Tune-up Topics:
-
Reviewing your
transactions for the year
-
Cleaning up stray
entries
-
Customizing
reports
-
Balancing general
ledger to subsidiary records
-
Additional
personalized training
Price: $295
A QuickBooks Tune-up is a smart and affordable way to get a
handle on your books. Accurate records allow you to make
educated decisions for your business and will save you money!
QuickBooks Tips
Please take a look at these shortcuts and "tricks of the
trade" designed to save you time and make your QuickBooks
experience even more productive.
Filtering a Report - Selecting most of the items from a list
When filtering reports in QuickBooks, you may want to select
most of the items on a particular list, but not all items to
appear on your report. First choose the "selected" option from
the list (selected accounts, selected names, etc).
Normally you would check each item that you want to appear on
your report. However, if you want to check all the items on
the list, click the first item and do not release the mouse
button. While holding down the mouse button, slide the mouse
pointer down just below the list.
When QuickBooks is done – all of the items on the list will be
checked. Release the mouse button. Now you can manually click
the items to remove the ones that you do not wish to include
in your filter.
Password Protecting QuickBooks
To password protect your QuickBooks data file click on Company
in the menu bar, then Set Up Users. From here, you can assign
a password for the main (Administrator) account in QuickBooks.
You can also set up user accounts, passwords, and different
levels of access if you have multiple people using your
QuickBooks file. Make sure you keep your newly created
password in a safe place (just in case you forget it!)
How To Setup QuickBooks to share with another computer.
To allow the sharing of your QuickBooks file, your best option
is to have a computer network in place. This network will
provide the foundation for you to then share the file between
two or more computers. You can have either a wired or wireless
network within your office.
It is also possible to take a backup copy of the QuickBooks
file from one computer and restore it to a second computer to
allow sharing of the information. However, I don't recommend
this if both computers will be entering QuickBooks data. If
you do this, you won't know who has the most recent copy of
the data file, and things can get messed up quite easily. Your
best bet is to talk to a local computer consultant about a
network for your home or office.
Use QuickBooks Pro
to manage your business and personal checking account.
QuickBooks Pro can be used to manage many different files. In
your case, you could have a QuickBooks file called "Business",
and a completely separate QuickBooks file called "Home" to
manage the separate checkbooks. For more information on the
creation of a new company file, click on File in the menu bar,
then New Company.
Deleting invoices off the "Select Invoices to Print" window.
Here's how you delete some of those old invoices that have
been hanging around since 2002. This is a common problem in
QuickBooks. Here's the fix - for each entry that is showing up
in your Reminders list under "Invoices to Print", double-
click on it. This action should take you to the invoice
itself. Once here, remove the check mark in the box in the
lower left hand corner that says "to be printed", then click
"Save and Close". This invoice should no longer show up in the
"Invoices to Print" list.
How to set up
accounts for contractors that will be given 1099s.
The first thing you must do is tell QuickBooks that you will
be issuing 1099s. Click on Edit (from the menu bar), then
Preferences. Scroll down until you find the picture that says
"Tax:1099" and click on it. On the Company Preferences tab,
answer yes to the question about the issuance of 1099 forms,
then follow the rest of the instructions on this screen.
Next, you'll need to identify those vendors who are eligible
to receive a 1099. Click on Vendors, then Vendor List.
Double-click on the first vendor in the list, then the
"Additional Info" tab. In the lower left hand corner, put a
check mark in the box that says "vendor eligible for 1099" and
enter their tax ID number they have provided. Repeat this
process for any vendors that need to receive a 1099.
Finally, to run the 1099's and related information, click on
Reports, then Vendors, then either of the 1099 reports. Verify
the data, correct if necessary, and print your 1099's all
within QuickBooks.
It's important to review this topic with your accountant to
ensure you are collecting the proper information and preparing
the 1099 forms correctly for your business.
Recording of Barter Exchanges
If you have customers who are also vendors you may decide to
trade some or all of your services / products in exchange for
payment.
To record such a barter transaction, invoice the customer for
the goods provided or services performed as you normally
would. To record the "payment" use the "Receive Payment"
function to apply the barter amount against the invoice the
same as you would when receiving cash or a check as follows:
Go to Customers: Receive Payment. Payment Amount will be the
barter amount (the amount of the invoice you received from
your vendor). Pmt. Method will be Barter. Check the radio
button for "Group with other undeposited funds". Save this
transaction.
Go to Banking: Make Deposits. The payment you just received
will come up in the Payments to Deposit screen. If there are
also other payments to deposit, make sure you select only the
payment(s) being recorded for the barter exchange. When you
hit OK the Make Deposits screen will come up with the barter
deposit(s) showing. Before recording the deposit make a
negative deposit entry on the next blank line below the barter
deposit for the amount of the barter as follows:
Deposit To is your normal operating checking account. Date is
the date you would have normally paid your vendors invoice.
Memo should be changed from Deposit to Barter.
If you have entered the vendors invoice as a bill for payment,
Received From is the vendor name and From Account is Accounts
Payable.
If you have not entered the vendors invoice as a bill for
payment, leave Received From blank. In the From Account column
select the expense account you would charge the vendors
invoice to, the same as if you were entering it for payment.
In the Memo column note the vendors invoice number.
In the Amount column enter the vendors invoice amount with a
negative sign first. This negative amount should exactly
offset the deposit amount above, resulting in a "Zero" deposit
transaction. Save the "deposit" and the transaction is
complete.
Keeping Your 941 Report Accurate
Do not pay your payroll liabilities from the "Write Checks"
window. If you use this window, QuickBooks will warn you to
use the "Pay Liabilities" window, but will let you write the
check. However when you print the 941, it will not reflect any
payments that you made using the "Write Checks" window.
Use the "Pay Liabilities" window to create checks for all tax
liabilities. Using this window will ensure that the payments
are reflected accurately on the 941 report and that your
liability accounts are properly reduced.
Quickly Closing All Open QuickBooks Windows
To close all open QuickBooks Windows quickly, click on Window
on the menu bar, and then Close All.
Using the History Button
-
The History button
shows you all the transactions related to the one you are
currently viewing.
-
For example, view
any invoice that you know is paid, then click on the History
button.
-
Then you'll see
the payment details on your screen instantly.
Keys that help you
save lots of time when working with dates
(Just type the key
shown in the date field.)
-
T = today's date
-
M = First day of
the month you are working in
-
H = Last day of
the month you are working in
-
Y = First day of
the year
-
R = Last day of
the year
-
+ = Move the date
forward by one day
-
- = Move the date
backward by one day
Chart of Accounts
Shortcut
CTRL+A brings up the Chart of Accounts right away
Closing QuickBooks Shortcut
ALT+F4 closes QuickBooks software
Calculator Shortcut
When working in a register, you can use the = to bring up the
calculator when adding or subtracting from an account
How to turn on the Reminders feature when opening a company
file
1. Click on Edit
2. Click on Preferences
3. Click the picture of Reminders from the list that appears
4. Make sure a check mark is in the box marked "Show Reminders
list when opening a company file"
5. Click the OK button
How to customize the settings on your QuickBooks desktop
1. Edit
2. Preferences
3. Desktop View
Fast access to company files you have used recently
Use the Open Previous Company option found on the File menu to
give you fast access to company files you have used recently
Memorized Transaction Shortcut
CTRL+T will bring up your Memorized Transaction list
immediately
How to back up your important QuickBooks data
1. Click on File
2. Click Back Up
3. Complete the location where the file will be backed up
(i.e. floppy disk in A: or other disk)
4. Click the Back Up button
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