Introduction 1
About QuickBooks 1
About This Book 2
What You Can Safely Ignore 2
What You Should Not Ignore (Unless Youre a Masochist) 3
Three Foolish Assumptions 4
How This Book Is Organized 4
Part I: Quickly into QuickBooks 4
Part II: Daily Entry Tasks 5
Part III: Stuff You Do from Time to Time 5
Part IV: Housekeeping Chores 5
Part V: The Part of Tens 5
Part VI: Appendixes 6
Conventions Used in This Book 6
Part I: Quickly into QuickBooks 7
Chapter 1: QuickBooks: The Heart of Your Business 9
Why QuickBooks? 9
Why you need an accounting system 10
What QuickBooks does 10
What Explains QuickBooks Popularity? 12
Whats Next, Dude? 13
How to Succeed with QuickBooks 14
Budget wisely, Grasshopper 14
Dont focus on features 15
Outsource payroll 16
Get professional help 17
Use both the profit and loss statement and the balance sheet 17
Chapter 2: Answering Mr. Wizard 19
Getting Ready for the Big Interview 19
The big decision 20
The trial balance of the century 21
The mother of all scavenger hunts 24
Doing the EasyStep Interview 25
Tip 1: Get to know the interview protocol 27
Tip 2: Take your time 28
Tip 3: Get industry-specific advice 28
Tip 4: Accept the suggested filename and location 29
Tip 5: Go with the suggested Chart of Accounts 30
Tip 6: Consider tracking all your expenses with your checkbook 30
Tip 7: Add accounts you need 31
The Rest of the Story 32
Should You Get Your Accountants Help? 33
Chapter 3: Populating QuickBooks Lists 35
The Magic and Mystery of Items 35
Adding items you might include on invoices 37
Creating other wacky items for invoices 45
Editing items 47
Adding Employees to Your Employee List 48
Customers Are Your Business 50
Its Just a Job 54
Adding Vendors to Your Vendor List 58
The Other Lists 62
The Fixed Asset list62
The Price Level list 63
The Sales Tax Code list 63
The Class list 64
The Other Names list.64
The Sales Rep list 65
Customer, Vendor, and Job Types list 65
The Terms list 66
The Customer Message list 66
The Payment Method list 66
The Ship Via list 66
The Vehicle list.67
The Memorized Transaction list 67
The Reminders list 67
Organizing Lists 67
Printing Lists 68
Exporting List Items to Your Word Processor 68
Dealing with the Chart of Accounts List 69
Describing customer balances 69
Describing vendor balances 70
Camouflaging some accounting goofiness 70
Supplying the missing numbers 75
Checking your work one more time 76
Part II: Daily Entry Tasks 79
Chapter 4: Creating Invoices and Credit Memos 81
Making Sure That Youre Ready to Invoice Customers 81
Preparing an Invoice 82
Fixing Invoice Mistakes 88
If the invoice is still displayed onscreen.89
If the invoice isnt displayed onscreen 89
Deleting an invoice 89
Preparing a Credit Memo 90
Fixing Credit Memo Mistakes 94
History Lessons 94
Printing Invoices and Credit Memos 95
Loading the forms into the printer 95
Setting up the invoice printer 96
Printing invoices and credit memos as you create them 98
Printing invoices in a batch 99
Printing credit memos in a batch 102
Sending Invoices and Credit Memos via E-Mail 102
Customizing Your Invoices and Credit Memos 103
Chapter 5: Reeling In the Dough 107
Recording a Sales Receipt 108
Printing a Sales Receipt 112
Special Tips for Retailers 114
Correcting Sales Receipt Mistakes 115
Recording Customer Payments 116
Correcting Mistakes in Customer Payments Entries 120
Making Bank Deposits 121
Improving Your Cash Inflow 124
Tracking what your customers owe 124
Assessing finance charges 126
Dealing with deposits 128
Chapter 6: Paying the Bills 131
Pay Now or Pay Later? 131
Recording Your Bills by Writing Checks 132
The slow way to write checks 132
The fast way to write checks 138
Recording Your Bills the Accounts Payable Way 140
Recording your bills 140
Entering your bills the fast way 144
Deleting a bill 146
Remind me to pay that bill, will you? 147
Paying Your Bills 148
Tracking Vehicle Mileage 152
Paying Sales Tax 153
A Quick Word on the Vendor Center Window 154
Chapter 7: Inventory Magic 155
Setting Up Inventory Items 155
When You Buy Stuff 156
Recording items that you pay for upfront 157
Recording items that dont come with a bill 157
Paying for items when you get the bill 159
Recording items and paying the bill all at once 160
When You Sell Stuff 161
How Purchase Orders Work 162
Customizing a purchase order form 162
Filling out a purchase order 163
Checking up on purchase orders 165
Receiving purchase order items 165
Assembling a Product 166
Identifying the components 167
Building the assembly 167
Time for a Reality Check 168
Dealing with Multiple Inventory Locations 170
Manually keep separate inventory-by-location counts 170
Use different item numbers for different locations 170
Upgrade to QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions 171
The Lazy Persons Approach to Inventory 171
How periodic inventory systems twork in QuickBooks 172
The good and bad of a periodic inventory 173
Chapter 8: Keeping Your Checkbook 175
Writing Checks 175
Writing checks from the Write Checks window 175
Writing checks from the Checking register 177
Changing a check that youve written 179
Packing more checks into the register 179
Depositing Money into a Checking Account 181
Recording simple deposits 181
Depositing income from customers 182
Transferring Money between Accounts 184
Setting up a second bank account 185
About the other half of the transfer 186
Changing a transfer that youve already entered 186
Working with Multiple Currencies 188
To Delete or to Void? 188
Handling NSF Checks from Customers 189
The Big Register Phenomenon 190
Moving through a big register 190
Finding that darn transaction.191
Chapter 9: Paying with Plastic 193
Tracking Business Credit Cards 193
Setting up a credit card account 194
Selecting a credit card account so that you can use it 195
Entering Credit Card Transactions 196
Recording a credit card charge 197
Changing charges that youve already entered 199
Reconciling Your Credit Card Statement and Paying the Bill 200
So What about Debit Cards? 201
So What about Customer Credit Cards? 201
Part III: Stuff You Do from Time to Time 203
Chapter 10: Printing Checks 205
Getting the Printer Ready 205
Printing a Check 208
A few words about printing checks 209
Printing a check as you write it 209
Printing checks by the bushel 211
What if I make a mistake?213
Oh where, oh where do unprinted checks go? 214
Printing a Checking Register 214
Chapter 11: Payroll 217
Getting Ready to Do Payroll without Help from QuickBooks 217
Doing Taxes the Right Way 218
Getting an employer ID number 218
Having employees do their part 218
Getting Ready to Do Payroll with QuickBooks 219
Paying Your Employees 220
Paying Payroll Liabilities 222
Paying tax liabilities if you use the full-meal-deal Payroll service 222
Paying tax liabilities if you dont use the full-meal-deal Payroll service 223
Paying other nontax liabilities 224
Preparing Quarterly Payroll Tax Returns 224
Using the QuickBooks full-meal-deal Payroll service 224
Using the other QuickBooks Payroll services 225
Filing Annual Returns and Wage Statements 225
Using the QuickBooks full-meal-deal Payroll service 226
Using the QuickBooks economy Payroll services 226
The State Wants Some Money, Too 226
Chapter 12: Building the Perfect Budget 229
Is This a Game You Want to Play? 229
All Joking Aside: Some Basic Budgeting Tips 230
A Budgeting Secret You Wont Learn in College 231
Setting Up a Secret Plan 232
Adjusting a Secret Plan 235
Forecasting Profits and Losses 235
Projecting Cash Flows 235
Using the Business Planner Tools 236
Chapter 13: Online with QuickBooks 237
Doing the Electronic Banking Thing 237
So whats the commotion about? 237
A thousand reasons not to bank online 238
Making sense of online banking 240
Signing up for the service 241
Making an online payment 241
Transferring money electronically 243
Changing instructions 244
Transmitting instructions 244
Message in a bottle 245
A Quick Review of the Other Online Opportunities 247
Part IV: Housekeeping Chores 249
Chapter 14: The Balancing Act 251
Balancing a Bank Account 251
Giving QuickBooks information from the bank statement 251
Marking cleared checks and deposits 253
Eleven Things to Do If Your Non-Online Account Doesnt Balance 257
Chapter 15: Reporting on the State of Affairs 261
What Kinds of Reports Are There, Anyway? 261
Creating and Printing a Report 264
Visiting the report dog-and-pony show 267
Editing and rearranging reports 267
Reports Made to Order 270
Processing Multiple Reports 272
Last but Not Least: The QuickReport 272
Chapter 16: Job Estimating, Billing, and Tracking 275
Turning On Job Costing 275
Setting Up a Job 276
Creating a Job Estimate 276
Revising an Estimate 279
Turning an Estimate into an Invoice 280
Comparing Estimated Item Amounts with Actual Item Amounts 281
Charging for Actual Time and Costs 282
Tracking Job Costs 283
Chapter 17: File Management Tips 285
Backing Up Is (Not That) Hard to Do 285
Backing up the quick-and-dirty way 286
Getting back the QuickBooks data you backed up 291
Accountants Copy 293
Working with Portable Files 294
Using an Audit Trail 294
Using a Closing Password 295
Chapter 18: Fixed Assets and Vehicle Lists 297
What Is Fixed Assets Accounting? 297
Fixed Assets Accounting in QuickBooks 299
Setting Up a Fixed Asset List 299
Adding items to the Fixed Asset list 299
Adding fixed asset items on-the-fly 302
Editing items on the Fixed Asset list 303
Tracking Vehicle Mileage 304
Identifying your vehicles.304
Recording vehicle miles 306
Using the vehicle reports 307
Updating vehicle mileage rates 307
Part V: The Part of Tens 309
Chapter 19: (Almost) Ten Tips for Business Owners 311
Sign All Your Own Checks 311
Dont Sign a Check the Wrong Way 312
Review Canceled Checks Before Your Bookkeeper Does 312
Choose a Bookkeeper Who Is Familiar with Computers and Knows How to Do Payroll 313
Regularly Review Your Financial Statements 313
Choose an Appropriate Accounting System 314
If QuickBooks Doesnt Work for Your Business 314
Keep Things Simple 315
Chapter 20: Tips for Handling (Almost) Ten Tricky Situations 317
Selling an Asset 318
Selling a Depreciable Asset 318
Owners Equity in a Sole Proprietorship 319
Owners Equity in a Partnership 320
Owners Equity in a Corporation 320
Multiple-State Accounting 321
Getting a Loan 322
Repaying a Loan 322
Chapter 21: (Almost) Ten Secret Business Formulas 325
The First Most Expensive Money You Can Borrow Formula 326
The Second Most Expensive Money You Can Borrow Formula 328
The How Do I Break Even? Formula 328
The You Can Grow Too Fast Formula 331
How net worth relates to growth 331
How to calculate sustainable growth 332
The First What Happens If ? Formula 333
The Second What Happens If ? Formula 335
The Economic Order Quantity (Isaac Newton) Formula 337
The Rule of 72 338
Part VI: Appendixes 341
Appendix A: Installing QuickBooks in Ten Easy Steps 343
Appendix B: If Numbers Are Your Friends 347
Keying In on Profit 347
Let me introduce you to the new you 347
The first day in business 348
Look at your cash flow first 348
Depreciation is an accounting gimmick 349
Accrual-basis accounting is cool 350
Now you know how to measure profits 351
Some financial brain food 352
In the Old Days, Things Were Different 353
What Does an Italian Monk Have to Do with Anything? 356
And now for the blow-by-blow 357
Blow-by-blow, Part II 360
How does QuickBooks help? 362
Two Dark Shadows in the World of Accounting 363
The first dark shadow 363
The second dark shadow 364
The Danger of Shell Games 365
Appendix C: Sharing QuickBooks Files 367
Sharing a QuickBooks File on a Network 367
User permissions 368
Record locking 369
Installing QuickBooks for Network Use 370
Setting Up User Permissions 371
Specifying Multi-User Mode 374
Working in Multi-User Mode 374
Index 375
