QuickBooks 2008: The Missing Manual

Book description

There have been many improvements to QuickBooks over the years, but the program's documentation is not one of them. Luckily, QuickBooks 2008: The Missing Manual picks up where QuickBook's help resources leave off. With this book, you don't just learn how to use the software, you learn why and when to use specific features. And you get basic accounting advice so that it all makes sense to you along the way. With its Simple Start, Basic, Pro, Premier, and industry-specific Enterprise editions, QuickBooks can handle many of the financial tasks companies face, but the price you pay is an overabundance of features. With this book, you get advice on which features you need to use to get your work done efficiently, along with step-by-step instructions on how to use them. QuickBooks 2008: The Missing Manual helps you:

  • Get more out of QuickBooks whether you're a beginner or an old pro.

  • Learn how QuickBooks can help you boost sales, control spending, and save on taxes.

  • Set up and manage your files to fit your company's specific needs.

  • Use QuickBooks reports to evaluate every aspect of your enterprise.

  • Follow the money all the way from customer invoices to year-end tasks.

  • Discover new tips and tricks on the best timesaving options for your business.

  • Build budgets and plan for the future to make your business more successful.

  • And a lot more. This book is designed to accommodate readers at every technical level. If you're a first-time QuickBooks user, special boxes with the title "Up To Speed" provide the introductory information you need to understand the topic at hand. For advanced users, there are similar boxes called "Power Users' Clinic" that offer more technical tips, tricks, and shortcuts for the experienced QuickBooks fan.

    For a topic as complicated as accounting software, why trust anything else?

    Table of contents

    1. Table of Contents (1/3)
    2. Table of Contents (2/3)
    3. Table of Contents (3/3)
    4. The Missing Credits
      1. About the Author
      2. About the Creative Team
      3. Acknowledgements
      4. The Missing Manual Series
    5. Introduction
      1. What’s New in QuickBooks 2008
      2. Getting to Know QuickBooks
      3. Choosing the Right QuickBooks Product
        1. The QuickBooks Premier Choices
      4. Accounting Basics—The Important Stuff
      5. About This Book
      6. About the Outline
      7. The Very Basics
      8. About › These › Arrows
      9. About MissingManuals.com
        1. Safari® Books Online
    6. Creating a Company in QuickBooks
      1. Opening QuickBooks
      2. Creating a New Company
      3. Steps to Take Before You Create Your Company File
        1. Start Date
        2. Account Balances
        3. Other Important Information
      4. Starting the EasyStep Interview
        1. Company Information
        2. Creating Your Company File
        3. Customizing Your Company File
      5. Modifying Company Information
      6. What’s Next
      7. Opening an Existing Company File
      8. Converting from Another Program to QuickBooks
        1. Converting from Quicken Home & Business
        2. Converting from a Non-Intuit Program
    7. Setting Up a Chart of Accounts
      1. Obtaining a Chart of Accounts
      2. Account Naming and Numbering
        1. Setting Up Account Numbers
        2. Standardizing Account Names
      3. Creating Accounts and Subaccounts
        1. Creating an Account
        2. Viewing Account Names and Numbers
      4. Modifying Accounts
      5. Hiding and Deleting Accounts
        1. Hiding Accounts
        2. Deleting Accounts
      6. Merging Accounts
    8. Setting Up Customers and Jobs
      1. Before You Create Customers and Jobs
        1. Categorizing Customers and Jobs
          1. Understanding customer types
          2. Creating a customer type
          3. Categorizing jobs
      2. Creating Customers in QuickBooks
        1. Creating a New Customer
          1. Entering address information
          2. Specifying additional customer information
          3. Designating payment information
      3. Importing and Exporting Customer Information
        1. Importing Customer Information
        2. Exporting Customer Information
          1. Exporting to Excel
          2. Customized exports using the Contact List report
          3. Exporting a text file
      4. Creating Jobs in QuickBooks
        1. Creating a New Job
      5. Modifying Customer and Job Information
      6. Adding Notes About Customers
      7. Merging Customer Records
      8. Hiding and Deleting Customers
        1. Deleting Customers
        2. Hiding Customers
    9. Setting Up Invoice Items
      1. What Items Do
      2. When You Don’t Need Items
      3. Should You Track Inventory with Items?
      4. The QuickBooks Item Types
        1. Items for Services
        2. Items for Products
        3. Other Types of Items
      5. Planning Your Items
        1. Generic or Specific?
        2. Naming Items
        3. Subitems
        4. Taxing Decisions
      6. Setting Up Sales Tax
        1. Sales Tax Codes
          1. Assigning tax codes to customers
          2. Assigning tax codes to items
          3. Creating additional sales tax codes
        2. Sales Tax Items
      7. Creating Items
        1. Service Fields
        2. Inventory Part Fields
        3. Non-Inventory Part Fields
        4. Other Charge Fields
        5. Subtotal
        6. Group
        7. Discount
        8. Payment
        9. Sales Tax Item
      8. Modifying Items
      9. Hiding and Deleting Items
        1. Hiding Items
        2. Deleting Items
    10. Setting Up Other QuickBooks Lists
      1. The Vendor List
        1. Entering Address Information
        2. Additional Info
        3. Filling in Expense Accounts Automatically
      2. Categorizing with Classes
      3. Price Levels
        1. Creating a Price Level
        2. Applying a Price Level
      4. Customer and Vendor Profile Lists
        1. Sales Rep List
        2. Customer Type List
        3. Vendor Type List
        4. Job Type List
        5. Terms List
          1. Setting up terms using elapsed time
          2. Setting up date-driven terms
        6. Customer Message
        7. Payment Method List
        8. Ship Via List
        9. Vehicle List
      5. Memorized Transactions
      6. Fixed Asset Items
      7. Creating and Editing List Entries
        1. Creating Entries
        2. Editing Entries
      8. Merging List Entries
      9. Hiding and Deleting List Entries
        1. Hiding Entries
        2. Deleting Entries
      10. Sorting Lists
      11. Printing Lists
        1. Blasting Out a Quick List
        2. Customizing a Printed List
    11. Managing QuickBooks Files
      1. Where to Store Your Company Files
      2. Backing Up Files
        1. Backing Up to Your Computer Right Away
        2. Automated QuickBooks Backups
          1. Setting up automatic backups
          2. Scheduling backups for a single company file
        3. Choosing Standard Settings for Your Backups
      3. Restoring Backups
      4. Sending Company Files to Others
        1. Creating a Portable Company File
        2. Opening a Portable Company File
      5. Verifying Your QuickBooks Data
        1. Running the Verify Data Utility
        2. Reviewing Problems
        3. Running the Rebuild Data Utility
      6. Cleaning Up Data
        1. Running the Clean Up Company File Tool
      7. Cleaning Up After Deleting Files
    12. Tracking Time and Mileage
      1. Setting Up Time Tracking
        1. Turning on Time Tracking
        2. Setting Up the People Who Track Time
        3. Setting Up Items and Customers for Time Tracking
      2. Entering Time in Timesheets
        1. Filling in Weekly Timesheets
        2. Entering Time for One Activity
      3. Setting Up the Standalone Timer
        1. Exporting Lists for Timer Users
        2. Distributing Timer
        3. Importing Workers’ Time into QuickBooks
      4. Using Timer to Track Time
        1. Installing the Timer
        2. Setting Up the Timer Program
        3. Setting Up an Activity
        4. Entering Time
          1. Stopwatch timing
          2. Typing in time
        5. Creating an Export File of Your Time
      5. Running Time Reports
      6. Tracking Mileage
        1. Adding a Vehicle
        2. Setting the Mileage Rate
        3. Recording Mileage Driven
      7. Generating Mileage Reports
    13. Paying for Expenses
      1. When to Pay Expenses
      2. Entering Bills
      3. Automating Recurring Bills
        1. Memorizing a Bill
        2. Using a Memorized Bill
        3. Creating Memorized Groups of Bills
      4. Purchasing Inventory
        1. Creating Purchase Orders
        2. Receiving Inventory and Bills Simultaneously
        3. Receiving Inventory Before the Bill
      5. Handling Reimbursable Expenses
        1. Setting Up Reimbursements as Income
        2. Recording Reimbursable Expenses
      6. Paying Your Bills
        1. Selecting Bills to Pay
        2. Modifying Payment Amounts
        3. Applying Discounts and Credits
          1. Applying discounts manually
          2. Applying credits manually
        4. Setting the Payment Method and Account
        5. Saving Paid Bills
      7. Producing Checks
        1. Writing Checks by Hand
        2. Setting Up QuickBooks to Print Checks
        3. Printing Checks
      8. Writing Checks Without Entering Bills
        1. Using the Write Checks Dialog Box
        2. Adding Checks to an Account Register
      9. Paying with Cash
      10. Paying with Credit Cards
      11. Recording Vendor Credits
      12. Paying Sales Tax
        1. Sales Tax Payment Preferences
        2. Producing Reports of the Sales Tax You Owe
        3. Remitting Sales Taxes
    14. Invoicing
      1. Choosing the Right Type of Form
        1. Sales Receipts
        2. Statements
        3. Invoices
      2. Sales Forms and Accounts
      3. Creating Invoices
        1. Creating an Invoice
        2. Filling in Invoice Header Fields
          1. Choosing the customer or job
          2. Choosing an invoice template
          3. The other header fields
        3. Entering Invoice Line Items
          1. Inserting and deleting line items
        4. Applying Subtotals, Discounts, and Percentage Charges
        5. Adding a Message to the Customer
        6. Choosing How to Send the Invoice
        7. Adding a Memo to Yourself
      4. Invoicing for Billable Time and Costs
        1. Setting Up Invoicing for Time and Expenses
        2. Adding Billable Time and Expenses to Invoices
      5. Invoicing for Backordered Products
        1. Using Pending Invoices for Backorders
        2. Using Sales Orders for Backorders
      6. Memorizing Recurring Invoices
        1. Using a Memorized Invoice
        2. Editing a Memorized Invoice
      7. Estimating Jobs
        1. Creating an Estimate
        2. Creating Multiple Estimates
        3. Creating an Invoice from an Estimate
      8. Creating Progress Invoices
        1. Progress Invoicing Options
        2. Fine-Tuning a Progress Invoice
      9. Producing Statements
        1. Creating Statement Charges
        2. Generating Customer Statements
          1. Choosing the date range
          2. Selecting customers
          3. Setting printing options
        3. Previewing Statements
        4. Generating Statements
      10. Finding Invoices (and Other Transactions)
        1. Searching with the Customer Center
        2. Using the Find Command
      11. Editing Invoices and Sales Receipts
      12. Voiding and Deleting Invoices and Sales Receipts
      13. Handling Refunds and Credits
        1. Creating Credit Memos
        2. Creating Refund Checks
        3. Applying Credits to Invoices
      14. Sending Sales Forms
        1. Setting Print Options
        2. Aligning Forms and Paper
        3. Choosing a Send Method
        4. Print One Form
        5. Printing in Batches
        6. Printing Mailing and Shipping Labels
        7. Printing Packing Slips
        8. Emailing Sales Forms
        9. Emailing One Form
        10. Emailing in Batches
    15. Managing Accounts Receivable
      1. The Aging of Receivables
        1. Accounts Receivable Aging Reports
        2. Customer & Job Reports
      2. Receiving Payments for Invoiced Income
      3. Applying Credits to Invoices
      4. Discounting for Early Payment
      5. Deposits, Down Payments, and Retainers
        1. Setting Up QuickBooks for Prepayments
        2. Recording Prepayments
        3. Applying a Deposit, Down Payment, or Retainer to an Invoice
        4. Refunding Prepayments
      6. Applying Finance Charges
        1. Finance Charge Preferences
        2. Assessing Finance Charges on Overdue Balances
      7. Cash Sales
        1. Creating Sales Receipts
        2. Creating a Batch Sales Template
        3. Reconciling Excess and Short Cash
      8. Making Deposits
        1. Choosing Payments to Deposit
        2. Recording Deposits
        3. Depositing Money from Merchant Card Accounts
    16. Doing Payroll
      1. Choosing a Payroll Service
      2. Applying for a Payroll Service
      3. Setting Up Payroll
        1. Setting Up Compensation and Benefits
        2. Setting Up Employees
          1. Setting employee defaults
          2. Creating employee records
        3. Setting Up Payroll Taxes
      4. Entering Historical Payroll
      5. Running Payroll
        1. Printing Paychecks and Pay Stubs
      6. Paying Payroll Taxes
      7. Preparing Payroll Tax Forms
    17. Bank Accounts, Credit Cards, and Petty Cash
      1. Entering Transactions in an Account Register
        1. Opening a Register Window
        2. Creating a Transaction in an Account Register
      2. Handling Bounced Checks
        1. Setting Up QuickBooks to Handle Bounced Checks
          1. Bounced check item
          2. Service charges for bounced checks
        2. Recording Bank Charges
        3. Reinvoicing for Bounced Checks
      3. Transferring Funds
      4. Reconciling Accounts
        1. Preparing for the First Reconciliation
        2. Preparing for Every Reconciliation
        3. Starting a Reconciliation
        4. Reconciling Transactions
        5. Reconciliation Reports
        6. Modifying Transactions During Reconciliation
        7. Stopping and Restarting a Reconciliation
        8. Correcting Discrepancies
          1. The Discrepancy Report
          2. Other ways to find discrepancies
        9. Undoing the Last Reconciliation
        10. When Your Bank Makes a Mistake
      5. Managing Loans
        1. Setting Up a Loan
        2. Adding a Loan to Loan Manager
          1. Basic setup
          2. Payment information
          3. Interest rate information
        3. Modifying Loan Terms
        4. Setting Up Payments
        5. What-If Scenarios
      6. Tracking Petty Cash
        1. Recording ATM Withdrawals and Deposits to Petty Cash
        2. Recording Purchases Made with Petty Cash
    18. Making Journal Entries
      1. Balancing Debit and Credit Amounts
      2. Some Reasons to Use Journal Entries
      3. Creating General Journal Entries
        1. Filling in General Journal Entry Fields
      4. Checking General Journal Entries
      5. Reclassifications and Corrections
      6. Recording Depreciation with Journal Entries
    19. Generating Financial Statements
      1. The Profit & Loss Report
        1. Understanding the Profit & Loss Report
        2. Generating a Profit & Loss Report
        3. Other Profit & Loss Reports
      2. The Balance Sheet
        1. Understanding the Balance Sheet
        2. Generating a Balance Sheet Report
      3. The Statement of Cash Flows
        1. Understanding the Statement of Cash Flows
        2. Generating a Statement of Cash Flows
    20. Performing End-of-Year Tasks
      1. Viewing the Trial Balance
      2. Generating Year-End Financial Reports
        1. The Year-End Profit & Loss Report
        2. The Year-End Balance Sheet
      3. Generating Tax Reports
      4. Sharing the Company File with Your Accountant
        1. Creating an Accountant’s Review Copy
        2. Sending a Copy Directly to Your Accountant
        3. Merging Accountant Changes into Your Company File
        4. Canceling an Accountant’s Review Copy
      5. 1099s
        1. Generating 1099 Reports
        2. Printing 1099-MISC Forms
      6. Closing the Books for the Year
    21. Managing Inventory
      1. The QuickBooks Inventory Process
        1. Setting Up Inventory Items
        2. Purchasing and Selling Inventory
      2. Running Inventory Reports
        1. Inventory Valuation: How Much Is Inventory Worth?
          1. Inventory Valuation Summary report
          2. Inventory Valuation Detail report
        2. Inventory Stock Status
        3. Viewing One Inventory Item
      3. Performing a Physical Inventory
      4. Adjusting Inventory in QuickBooks
        1. Adjusting Quantities
        2. Adjusting Quantities and Values
    22. Budgeting and Planning
      1. Types of Budgets
      2. Ways to Build Budgets
      3. Creating Budgets in QuickBooks
      4. Filling in Budget Values
        1. Copy Across Columns
        2. Adjust Row Amounts
      5. Creating Additional Customer:Job or Class Budgets
      6. Copying Budgets and Creating What-if Budgets
      7. Running Budget Reports
        1. The Budget Overview Report
          1. Report layouts
        2. Budget vs. Actual Report
        3. Profit & Loss Budget Performance Report
        4. Budget vs. Actual Graph
    23. Tracking Your Business with Reports
      1. Finding the Right Reports
      2. A Quick Guide to QuickBooks Reports
        1. Company & Financial Reports
          1. Profit & Loss reports
          2. Income and expenses
          3. Balance sheet
          4. Statement of Cash Flows
        2. Customers & Receivables Reports
          1. Accounts Receivable Aging reports
          2. Customer balance reports
          3. Customer lists
        3. Sales Reports
        4. Jobs, Time & Mileage
          1. Job reports
          2. Time reports
          3. Mileage reports
        5. Vendors & Payables
          1. A/P Aging and Vendor Balance reports
          2. 1099 forms
          3. Sales tax reports
        6. Purchases
        7. Inventory
        8. Employees and Payroll
        9. Banking
        10. Accountant and Taxes
        11. Budgets and Forecasts
        12. List Reports
        13. Custom Reports
      3. A Review of Report Preferences
        1. Company-Wide Report Preferences
        2. Individual Preferences
      4. Running Reports
      5. Printing and Saving Reports
        1. Saving Reports to Files
      6. Customizing Reports
        1. Date Ranges
        2. Subtotals
        3. Customizing the Columns in Reports
          1. Adding and removing columns in summary reports
          2. Adding or removing columns in detail reports
          3. Resizing and moving columns
        4. Sorting Reports
        5. Filtering Reports
        6. Report Headers and Footers
        7. Fonts and Numbers
      7. Memorizing Reports
      8. Swapping Reports Between Company Files
        1. Exporting a Report
        2. Importing Report Templates
    24. Online Banking Services
      1. Setting Up Your Internet Connection
      2. Setting Up Your Accounts for Online Services
        1. Applying for Online Services
        2. Activating Online Services for Your QuickBooks Account
      3. Exchanging Data with Your Bank
        1. Downloading Statements with WebConnect
        2. Exchanging Data via a Direct Connection
        3. Working with Online Items
      4. Creating Online Items for Direct Connections
        1. Sending a Message to Your Bank
        2. Transferring Funds Between Accounts
      5. Matching Downloaded Transactions
        1. Matching Transactions QuickBooks Couldn’t Match
          1. Unmatched checks
          2. Unmatched deposits
          3. Bank charges
      6. Paying Bills Online
    25. Configuring Preferences to Fit Your Company
      1. An Introduction to Preferences
      2. Accounting
      3. Bills
      4. Checking
        1. Choosing the Bank Accounts You Use
        2. Setting the Way Company Checks Work
        3. Choosing Company-Wide Payroll Accounts
      5. Desktop View
        1. Window Preferences
        2. Preferences for Saving the Desktop
        3. Choosing a Color Scheme
        4. Setting Up the QuickBooks Home Page
      6. Finance Charge
      7. General
        1. Tuning QuickBooks to Your Liking
        2. Company-Wide General Preferences
      8. Items & Inventory
      9. Jobs & Estimates
      10. Payroll & Employees
      11. Reminders
        1. Reminders on the My Preferences Tab
        2. Reminders for Everyone
      12. Reports and Graphs
        1. Preferences for the Reports You Generate
        2. Preferences That Apply to Every Company Report
      13. Sales & Customers
      14. Sales Tax
      15. Send Forms
      16. Spelling
      17. Tax: 1099
      18. Time & Expenses
    26. Integrating QuickBooks with Other Programs
      1. Mail Merge to a Word Document
        1. Creating Letters and Envelopes in QuickBooks
      2. Synchronizing Contacts
        1. Using QuickBooks Contact Sync for Outlook
      3. Finding Third-Party Integrated Applications
        1. The QuickBooks Solutions Marketplace
        2. Other Ways to Find Third-Party Programs
      4. Setting Up an Integrated Application
      5. Exporting QuickBooks Data
        1. Exporting Lists and Addresses
          1. Exporting lists to a text file
          2. Exporting addresses
        2. Exporting Reports
      6. Importing Data from Other Programs
        1. Importing an Excel Spreadsheet
        2. Importing a Delimited File
      7. QuickBooks Add-on Services
        1. Merchant Services
        2. Intuit Payroll Services
        3. QuickBooks Billing Solutions
    27. Customizing QuickBooks
      1. Customizing the Desktop
      2. Customizing the Home Page
      3. Customizing the Icon Bar
        1. Adding and Removing Icons
        2. Adding Windows to the Icon Bar
        3. Changing Icon Appearance
        4. Changing the Order of Icons
      4. Customizing Forms
        1. Editing an Existing Form
        2. Basic Customization
          1. Adding a logo
          2. Applying a color scheme
          3. Changing fonts
          4. Including basic company and transaction information
        3. Additional Customization
        4. Laying out Forms
        5. Selecting Form Objects
        6. Moving and Resizing Objects
          1. Moving objects
          2. Resizing objects
        7. Adding, Removing, and Copying Objects
        8. Formatting Forms
        9. Other Handy Layout Tools
      5. Managing Templates
        1. Creating a New Template
        2. Making a Template Inactive
        3. Exchanging Templates Between Company Files
    28. Keeping Your QuickBooks Data Secure
      1. Setting Up the Administrator
        1. Assigning the Administrator User Name and Password
        2. Resetting the Administrator Password
        3. Complying with Credit Card Security Regulations
      2. Creating QuickBooks Users
        1. Adding New Users
        2. Resetting a User Password
      3. Restricting Access to Features and Data
        1. What the Access Areas Represent
        2. Setting Access Rights
      4. Audit Trails
    29. Installing QuickBooks
      1. Before You Install
      2. Installing QuickBooks
      3. Running QuickBooks for the First Time
      4. Registering QuickBooks
      5. Setting Up QuickBooks on a Network
        1. Storing Company Files
    30. Help, Support, and Other Resources
      1. QuickBooks Help
      2. Other Kinds of Help
      3. Other Help Resources
      4. QuickBooks Training
    31. Keyboard Shortcuts
      1. Task Shortcuts
      2. Transaction Shortcuts
      3. Date Shortcuts
      4. Window Shortcuts
      5. Miscellaneous Shortcuts
    32. Index (1/9)
    33. Index (2/9)
    34. Index (3/9)
    35. Index (4/9)
    36. Index (5/9)
    37. Index (6/9)
    38. Index (7/9)
    39. Index (8/9)
    40. Index (9/9)

    Product information

    • Title: QuickBooks 2008: The Missing Manual
    • Author(s): Bonnie Biafore
    • Release date: December 2007
    • Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
    • ISBN: 9780596515140