This video tutorial provides a comprehensive guide to using QuickBooks Desktop software. The tutorial covers setting up a new QuickBooks file, including chart of accounts configuration and initial data entry. It then details the workflows for managing customers and vendors, including creating estimates, invoices, purchase orders, and bills. The video also explains how to manage bank accounts and reconcile transactions, emphasizing the importance of accurate record-keeping. Finally, it introduces basic reporting functionalities within QuickBooks, focusing on profit and loss statements.

QuickBooks Study Guide

Quiz

1. What is the significance of choosing a fiscal year start month in QuickBooks setup? The fiscal year start month determines the accounting period for your business. Most businesses use a January-December calendar year, but some may have a different fiscal year (e.g., July-June). The start month affects how tax returns are filed, as most corporations use March 15.
2. When setting up QuickBooks, where is it recommended to save the company file and why? It is not recommended to save the company file on the desktop because it can be easily deleted or misplaced, instead, the file should be saved in a dedicated folder, such as in ‘Documents’. In a multi-user environment, the file should be placed on the server, with assistance from IT.
3. What are the three options for what you sell in QuickBooks setup and how do you know which to pick? The three options are “products,” “services,” or “both.” Choose “products” if you sell physical goods, “services” if your business provides labor or rentals, and “both” if you sell both physical products and services.
4. Explain what “progress invoicing” means in the context of QuickBooks. Progress invoicing is used for long-term projects, such as construction. It allows you to bill your client in installments, or milestones, according to the completion of specific phases of the project rather than just billing for the entire project at once.
5. What is the difference between tracking inventory and not tracking it in QuickBooks? Tracking inventory means you maintain a count of the products you buy, stock, and sell, and account for discrepancies. Not tracking inventory means you may charge for goods but not record individual items. If a business resells materials without keeping them in stock, it may not be necessary to track inventory.
6. What is the purpose of the “open window list” in QuickBooks? The “open window list” is a navigational tool that displays all the windows that are currently open. This makes it easy to switch between different screens like invoices, bills, and estimates, without having to minimize or search through many open pages.
7. How can you access QuickBooks functions that do not have a control key shortcut? You can access almost every function by using the Alt key. For example, to open the Item List, press Alt + L, then I. The underlined letter on the menu is the letter you press after Alt.
8. Why is it important to enter opening balances when creating new accounts in QuickBooks? If you are setting up QuickBooks for a company that has been operating prior to the start of the QuickBooks file, you need to enter opening balances for each balance sheet account to have a clear financial picture at the start date of your QuickBooks file. This accurately sets the beginning balances for assets, liabilities, and equity.
9. When setting up a new chart of accounts, what is the difference between income/expense accounts and balance sheet accounts? Balance sheet accounts (e.g., assets, liabilities, equity) carry opening balances and reflect a company’s financial position. Income and expense accounts do not carry opening balances and are used to track revenue and costs during the accounting period. Balance sheet accounts are “point in time” accounts, while income and expense accounts are “period of time” accounts.
10. How do you merge two redundant accounts in the Chart of Accounts and why would you do this? To merge two accounts, edit the name of the account you want to eliminate and change the name to match the account you want to keep. Quickbooks will ask if you want to merge the accounts. This is useful when you have created similar accounts for the same purpose. This allows you to create consolidated reports for better financial tracking.

Essay Questions

1. Discuss the importance of setting up QuickBooks correctly for a small business. What decisions must the business owner make, and why do these decisions matter?
2. Explain the relationship between the chart of accounts and the items list in QuickBooks. How do these lists work together to create accurate transactions?
3. Describe the steps involved in the workflow from a customer requesting an estimate to receiving payment in QuickBooks.
4. Compare and contrast the use of ‘Enter Bills’ and ‘Write Checks’ in QuickBooks. What are the circumstances when you should use each option?
5. Explain how to use the various financial reports in QuickBooks, including the profit and loss, balance sheet, and statement of cash flows. How do these reports work together to give a business a clear financial picture?

Glossary of Key Terms

Accounts Payable: Money owed to vendors for goods or services purchased on credit.

Accounts Receivable: Money owed to a business by its customers for goods or services sold on credit.

Accrual Basis Accounting: An accounting method that recognizes revenue when earned and expenses when incurred, regardless of when cash is received or paid.

Administrative Password: A password that gives access to change settings and control the QuickBooks company file.

Balance Sheet: A financial statement that provides a snapshot of a company’s assets, liabilities, and equity at a specific point in time.

Bill: A document from a vendor that states what is owed for goods or services.

Book Value: The net value of an asset calculated by subtracting the accumulated depreciation from the asset’s original cost.

Cash Basis Accounting: An accounting method that recognizes revenue when cash is received and expenses when cash is paid.

Chart of Accounts: A list of all the financial categories used by a business to categorize all financial transactions.

Cost of Goods Sold (COGS): The direct costs associated with producing goods or services that are sold by a business.

Credit Card Register: A ledger that tracks all credit card transactions for a business.

Customer Center: A central area in QuickBooks for managing customer information and transactions.

Depreciation: The decrease in value of an asset over time due to use, wear and tear, or obsolescence.

Estimate: A non-binding quote or proposal given to a customer for work to be done.

Fiscal Year: The 12-month period that a company uses for accounting purposes.

Fixed Assets: Long-term tangible pieces of property that are not easily turned into cash.

Item List: A list of the products and services that a business buys or sells.

Item Receipt: A document that verifies inventory has been received from a vendor and is not tied to an invoice.

Job: A subcategory of a customer that is used to track specific projects.

Markup: A percentage or dollar amount added to a product’s cost to arrive at a sales price.

Non-Inventory Part: An item that is bought and sold but not tracked as inventory.

On the Positive Funds: A temporary holding account in QuickBooks for customer payments before they are deposited into a bank account.

Opening Balance: The initial balance of an account at the start of a new QuickBooks file.

Other Charge: An item for miscellaneous fees or charges that are not part of the main business income.

Pay Bills: A feature in QuickBooks that is used to pay bills that have been entered using the ‘Enter Bills’ function.

Purchase Order (PO): A document sent to a vendor requesting goods or services.

QuickReport: A detailed history of an item in Quickbooks.

Register: A ledger that tracks all financial transactions for a particular account, typically a bank or credit card account.

Sales Order: A document that records a customer order and is used to track inventory and fulfill orders.

Service Item: An item that represents a service that is provided by the business.

Statement of Cash Flows: A financial statement that reports on a company’s cash inflows and outflows over a specific period.

Sub-Account: A smaller category nested under a larger, primary account.

Subtotal: An item used to calculate the total amount of multiple items.

Vendor: A person or business that provides goods or services to a company.

Vendor Center: A central area in QuickBooks for managing vendor information and transactions.

QuickBooks Setup and Navigation Guide

Okay, here is a detailed briefing document summarizing the key themes and ideas from the provided text excerpts.

Briefing Document: QuickBooks Setup and Navigation

Overview:

This document summarizes the key concepts and procedures detailed in the provided text excerpts related to setting up a new QuickBooks file, basic navigation within the software, managing the chart of accounts, working with items, creating customers and vendors, and handling various customer and vendor transactions. The sources appear to be transcripts of instructional videos or guides for QuickBooks users.

I. Initial QuickBooks Setup:

• Business Structure: The user is guided to select the appropriate business structure, with the S-corporation being highlighted as a typical choice for small companies.
• Quote: “…i’m gonna go ahead and pick uh s-corporation which is uh tends to be one of the most uh typical ones here for a small company…”
• Fiscal Year: Users must specify their fiscal year start month (typically January). They’re also instructed to alter this setting if their fiscal year does not align with the calendar year.
• Quote: “…if you’re a regular calendar year company where you start january and december… you’re going to leave january there but if you happen to close your year let’s say june 30th…then you’re gonna pick my fiscal year starts july…”
• Administrative Password: Setting an administrative password is crucial for security.
• File Location: The importance of saving the QuickBooks file in an appropriate location (not the desktop) is emphasized, especially in multi-user environments.
• Quote: “…don’t put it in the desktop because typically in the desktop you’ll be sort of inclined to put it in the trash can or something like that…” It is also recommended to consult with an IT professional to determine the correct location when in a multi user environment.
• Company Customization: QuickBooks asks a series of questions to tailor the software to the user’s specific needs.
• Sales Type: The software requests information on whether the company sells products, services, or both.
• Quote: “First question is what do you sell products services or both”
• Sales Tax: The system prompts the user to indicate if they charge sales tax and if needed, to seek advice from an accountant regarding the taxability of their products.
• Estimates: Users are asked whether they create estimates for clients.
• Quote: “…if you want to give somebody a quote a proposal basically like a pre-invoice very organized with a total then you want to pick yes there for estimate…”
• Customer Orders: The setup asks if the user tracks customer orders. It is mentioned that for basic use, sales orders might not be necessary but that those who work with QuickBooks premier, accountant or enterprise, and have inventory, and who take orders for things not in stock will need the sales order.
• Quote: “…if you are working with quickbooks premier accountant or enterprise and you have inventory and you take orders for things you don’t have in stock yet and you want to take that order and then sort of remind you and have a mechanism to go order the product through your vendor that’s what a sales order will be…”
• Billing Statements: The system inquires about the use of billing statements for clients.
• Quote: “…basically you want to give a client a statement monthly quarterly that shows all the payments all the invoices it’s like an invoice of invoices…”
• Progress Invoicing: It asks if the user utilizes progress invoicing, commonly used in construction or project-based billing.
• Quote: “…if you are in the construction industry if you sell projects that are sort of long term if your contract says you know the whole thing’s a hundred thousand and if you meet condition a b and c you can build your first 25 percent and then if you hit meet condition c d and f then you can build another 30 percent that sort of building is called progress invoicing…”
• Bill Management: The system asks if users want to track bills they owe to vendors for future payments.
• Quote: “…do you want to track accounts payable do you want uh to put vendor bills that you want to pay later set them in quickbooks now recognize the expense now pay them later track how much money you owe in the future that would be a bill…”
• Inventory Tracking: The system prompts users to indicate if they track inventory.
• Quote: “…if you purchase product you stock it you put it in the warehouse you maintain it you make sure that it doesn’t break you make sure you don’t lose it you count it… then you do track inventory…”
• Time Tracking: The user is asked if they track time for employees and billing purposes.
• Quote: “…if i’m gonna have time sheets and those timesheets are gonna be used to understand how much our employees time is worth uh in each project or maybe i want to generate a paycheck with it or maybe i just want to bill my client the hours that i spent on the project…”
• Employees & Subcontractors: The user is asked about having employees or subcontractors and if using 1099 subcontractors, the option should be selected.
• Start Date: The user is prompted for their start date for accounting and that ideally it should be at the start of the fiscal year but that it is possible to start in the middle of a fiscal year with no issues.
• Quote: “The question essentially is do you want to start your accounting at the beginning of this fiscal year…very very common but you don’t have to…”
• Suggested Accounts: The software suggests income and expense accounts based on the user’s previous answers to the setup questions.

II. Basic Navigation:

• Open Window List: A key navigation tool that allows users to easily switch between multiple open windows within QuickBooks. It provides an alternative to manually managing overlapping windows.
• Quote: “…this open window list here on the left when it makes it really easy because you can just quickly go to the window you want…”
• Left Icon Bar: An alternative method for accessing open windows.
• Escape Key: The escape key is used to close active windows. A “close all” option can close every single window.
• Quote: “…the escape key in quickbooks will close a window…”
• Keyboard Shortcuts: Menus and transactions show keyboard shortcuts (e.g., Ctrl+R for “Use Register,” Ctrl+F for “Find”). The “Alt” key can also be used to access many functions using underlined letters in menus (e.g., Alt+L+I for “Item List”).
• Quote: “…you actually can access almost every not every but almost every function in quickbooks using the alt key…”

III. Chart of Accounts:

• Account Types: The source material discusses setting up various types of accounts, including bank accounts, fixed assets, loans, income, and expenses.
• Opening Balances: For balance sheet accounts, it’s emphasized that when setting up a new QuickBooks file with a starting date in the middle of a fiscal year, you will need to enter opening balances from the previous year.
• Quote: “…because I’m setting up quickbooks for the first time and there was in fact activity or there was accounting before we started this fiscal year I have to put every single uh balance sheet account that i create i have to put opening balance…”
• Bank Account Setup: The account setup emphasizes using explicit account names. Also the inclusion of the last four digits of an account is suggested as good practice for identifying multiple bank accounts.
• Quote: “…i’m gonna call this one wells fargo maybe i put the word checking and then the last four digits of the account…that could be a good use for that…”
• Fixed Asset and Depreciation: The process includes creating accounts for fixed assets and accumulated depreciation.
• Loan Account Setup: The text guides the user through creating a loan account, including the opening balance of the loan.
• Income & Expense Categories: The setup process involves creating income and expense categories, also including sub-categories of accounts for further clarification.
• Account Customization: Users can rename, edit, and create new accounts. They can also create sub-accounts.
• Hiding Accounts Accounts can be made inactive and hidden from view without deleting them permanently.
• Deleting Accounts: Accounts can be deleted if they have no prior transactions and when trying to delete an account that does have transactions, it can only be made inactive.
• Merging Accounts: Redundant accounts can be merged to consolidate data.
• Quote: “…if i hit yes it will merge them together as if no separate accounts ever existed…”

IV. Item List:

• Connection to Chart of Accounts: The close relationship between the item list and the chart of accounts is noted.
• Item Types: Various item types are discussed, including service, inventory part, non-inventory part, other charge, subtotal, group, discount, and payment.
• Service Items: Creating service items with descriptions and rates is covered.
• Non-Inventory Parts: Non-inventory parts, such as cables, can be set up with both sales and purchase prices.
• Other Charges: Items for miscellaneous charges, such as delivery fees, can be created.
• Inventory Parts: The creation of inventory parts, with details such as purchase description, cost, sales description, sales price, and reorder points are detailed.
• Quote: “You will notice immediately that there’s no like little weird checkbox asking me to expand or collapse the items to be double or single sided automatically because they’re inventory part you are forced to have an expense site and a sales side all right…”
• Double-Sided Items: Some items can be used for both sales and purchases.
• Markup and Margin: The text notes that a feature to show markup and margin is only available in QuickBooks Enterprise.
• Import and Export: Items can be imported from Excel. (not explicitly stated in source but implied and included for completeness)

V. Customers and Vendors:

• Customer Center: The Customer Center is used to create new customers, jobs, and manage customer information.
• Creating Customers: The creation process includes storing contact information, billing details, payment terms, and other pertinent data.
• Customer Jobs: Jobs are sub-categories of customers, used to track specific projects, and it is noted that jobs should be used when a customer has multiple locations and projects. Jobs are also often used when payment for a project is separate than for a customer in general.
• Moving Customers & Jobs: The user can move a customer from a job to a customer by dragging and dropping the diamond symbol on the record.
• Quick Customer/Job Creation: A customer/job can be created on the fly through an invoice by typing a colon after the customer name.
• Vendor Center: Similar to the Customer Center, the Vendor Center manages all vendor-related information.
• Creating Vendors: This involves inputting contact information, payment terms, and 1099 eligibility.
• Vendor Types: Vendors can be grouped into categories.
• Open Balance: It is noted that opening balances for vendors should be avoided.
• Renaming and Deleting Vendors: Vendors can be renamed or made inactive. Vendors cannot be deleted after having been used in a transaction.
• Quote: “…however because of accounting i can’t just delete the vendor because it’s been used in a transaction…”

VI. Customer Transactions:

• Estimates: The process of creating estimates for customers using items is explained. It’s pointed out that estimates can contain a mixture of both products and services.
• Estimate Layout: Estimates can be modified using a variety of templates that display more or less detailed information.
• Duplicating Estimates: Estimates can be duplicated for ease of creation.
• Estimates to Invoices: The document discusses converting estimates to invoices and it also mentions the possibility of receiving payments prior to creating an invoice for a customer and that such payments will be treated as a deposit for that customer.
• Partial Payments: It is noted that partial payment can also be received.
• Customer Payments: Methods of receiving payments, including recording customer payments and making bank deposits are detailed.
• Undeposited Funds: The use of undeposited funds for handling payments prior to bank deposits is covered.
• Prepayments: When prepayments are made, they are applied to the customer account.

VII. Vendor Transactions:

• Purchase Orders: Creating purchase orders to buy products from vendors is described. Purchase orders can include both inventory items and other items such as shipping.
• PO Customer Job Customers jobs can be added to a line of a PO in order to track specific purchases for specific customers.
• Line Item Operations: Users are instructed on how to add, copy, paste, and delete lines in a purchase order.
• Shipping Costs: Adding shipping costs to purchase orders is explained.
• Attaching Files: It is noted that files can be attached to a purchase order and sent to the vendor.
• Item Receipts: Receiving inventory using item receipts is detailed, and it is noted that it is possible to receive inventory from multiple POs on one item receipt.
• Billable Item: It is mentioned that products can be marked as billable when they are received and assigned to a customer. It is stressed that this feature should not be used if a estimate or sales order has already been created.
• Converting Item Receipts to Bills: The process of turning item receipts into bills is noted.
• Bills (No PO): Creating bills for expenses not linked to purchase orders is discussed, emphasizing the use of the “Expenses” tab rather than “Items.”
• Paying Bills: The process of paying vendor bills is detailed, showing how to manage and print checks or record other forms of payment.
• Quote: “…this is a screen used for for me to print the check and if I don’t print checks if I write checks by hand then I want to make sure that if I write a check by hand that I’m also recording it in quickbooks…”
• Pay Bills Screen: Users are instructed on how to use the Pay Bills window, filtering, and sorting options.

VIII. Check Register:

• Accessing Register: The Check Register can be accessed through multiple methods, including a home screen button, banking menu, and keyboard shortcut.
• Entering Transactions: Manually entering transactions, such as withdrawals, debit card charges, and checks in the check register, is explained.
• Reference Numbers: The use of reference numbers and memo fields in the register is clarified.
• Debit Card Transactions: It is noted that when using debit card transactions, check numbers should not be used to ensure accuracy.
• Printing Checks: It is noted that checks can be printed directly from the Right Check screen.
• Batch Printing Checks: Checks can be marked to print later and printed in batch.

IX. Financial Reports

• Balance Sheet: The balance sheet report shows the assets, liabilities, and equity of the company at a specific point in time.
• Profit and Loss Statement: The profit and loss statement is also known as the income statement and shows the revenues and expenses of the company over a period of time.
• Statement of Cash Flows: The statement of cash flows details the movement of cash within the company.
• Cash vs. Accrual Basis: The concepts of cash and accrual accounting methods for the financial reports are detailed.

Conclusion:

These excerpts provide a foundational understanding of how to set up and navigate QuickBooks, manage financial records, and execute various transactions. The information is presented in a step-by-step manner with explanations of key concepts and functions, emphasizing the importance of accuracy, and data integrity. This document serves as a guide to navigating the initial steps of using QuickBooks.

QuickBooks Setup and Navigation Guide

QuickBooks Setup & Basics

• What is an S-corporation and why is it a common choice for small businesses? An S-corporation is a specific type of business structure that allows profits and losses to be passed through directly to the owners’ personal income, avoiding corporate level income tax. It is a typical structure chosen by small business owners for its tax benefits and relative ease of setup compared to other forms of incorporation.
• How do you determine your fiscal year start month in QuickBooks? Your fiscal year start month is typically January if you operate on a calendar year (January to December). If your company closes its accounting year on a different date (e.g., June 30th), then you would select the appropriate start month, such as July. Most companies operate on a standard January to December calendar year.
• Why is it important to choose the right save location when setting up a new QuickBooks file? Choosing the right save location is critical to ensure your QuickBooks file works correctly, especially in a multi-user network environment. Avoid saving it on the desktop where it might accidentally be deleted. It’s recommended to save it within a dedicated folder in a location that makes sense, such as within the documents folder. It’s best to consult with IT personnel when using multi-user server environments.
• What are the main questions QuickBooks asks during setup, and why are they important? QuickBooks asks several questions during setup to tailor the software to your specific business needs. These questions include: whether you sell products, services, or both; whether you charge sales tax; if you create estimates; if you track customer orders; if you use billing statements; if you use progress invoicing; if you manage bills you owe; if you track inventory; if you track time; and if you have employees or subcontractors. These options help set up the correct accounting workflows and features, which helps to tailor QuickBooks functionality specific to your business.

QuickBooks Navigation & Chart of Accounts

• How can you effectively manage multiple open windows in QuickBooks? QuickBooks offers several ways to manage multiple open windows. The “Open Window List” on the left side allows you to easily switch between different open windows. Additionally, the “Left Icon Bar” can be expanded to also view the open windows. You can also use the escape key to close windows one by one or “Window->Close All” to close all windows at once.
• What keyboard shortcuts can help with QuickBooks navigation? QuickBooks has many keyboard shortcuts that can help speed up your work. Common shortcuts include “Ctrl + R” to open the register, “Ctrl + F” to find transactions, and “Ctrl + A” for the chart of accounts. Many menu items display keyboard shortcuts next to them in the menus, such as “Ctrl + I” for invoice creation. Additionally, you can use the “Alt” key to access any function in the menus by hitting Alt, then the underlined letter in the menu and then the underlined letter of the menu option (e.g., Alt+L+I opens the item list).
• What is the importance of entering opening balances for balance sheet accounts in QuickBooks and how is it done? Opening balances for balance sheet accounts are necessary for ensuring that your QuickBooks file is accurate from the start, especially if you are setting it up mid-year. When creating a balance sheet account in QuickBooks, you use the “Enter Opening Balance” feature and obtain the balance from prior balance sheets or bank statements as of the day before your QuickBooks start date, and enter them in the screen. The date and amount are the actual balance of the prior financial statements.
• How can you customize the Chart of Accounts in QuickBooks, and why is that important? You can customize the chart of accounts by creating new accounts, editing existing ones, creating sub-accounts and merging duplicate accounts. It’s also possible to make them inactive, rename them, or delete if there have been no transactions. The Chart of Accounts is the foundation for proper financial reporting, so having categories for different types of income, expense, assets, and liabilities that fit your particular business operations is essential. For instance, you may need multiple income accounts to track different revenue streams such as “Training Services”, add insurance sub-categories like “Life insurance for key persons,” or create additional accounts for different types of auto expenses such as, “fuel,” “parking,” and “auto maintenance”.

QuickBooks Company Setup Guide

To set up QuickBooks, it is recommended to use the detail start or advanced setup, as this will guide you step by step with questions to match your business and industry. The express start option only asks for your company name, industry, and business type.

Here are the steps involved in setting up a new company file in QuickBooks:

• Company Name and Address: You will need to enter your company name and address. You can also include a tax ID, phone number, email, and website, but these are not required.
• Industry: Choose the industry that best matches your business. QuickBooks will customize your chart of accounts and the types of transactions you work with based on your industry. If you can’t find your specific industry, you can choose a general product-based or service-based option.
• Company Organization: You will need to specify how your company is organized for tax purposes, such as a sole proprietorship, partnership, LLC, or corporation. If you are unsure, consult your accountant or lawyer.
• Fiscal Year: Select your company’s fiscal year start month. Most companies operate on a January to December calendar year.
• Administrator Password: Create a password for the administrator account. If you are setting up the company for the first time, you will likely be the administrator.
• Save Location: Choose a location on your computer to save the company file. It is recommended not to save it on the desktop. If you are working in a multi-user environment, consult your IT person.
• Customization: After saving, QuickBooks will ask a series of questions to further customize the setup. These questions include:
• What you sell: products, services, or both
• Whether you charge sales tax
• Whether you create estimates
• Whether you track customer orders
• Whether you use billing statements
• Whether you use progress invoicing
• Whether you manage bills you owe
• Whether you track inventory
• Whether you track time
• Whether you have employees or subcontractors
• Start Date: You will need to choose a start date for your accounting. You can choose the beginning of the fiscal year or any other date. Keep in mind you will need to enter all beginning balances as of that date.
• Chart of Accounts: QuickBooks will suggest a chart of accounts based on the options selected. You can select or deselect categories or sub-accounts as needed. If you are unsure, you can select the “Ask My Accountant” option.

Once the initial setup is complete, a QuickBooks setup screen will appear, but you won’t see it again. You can then start working on setting up customers, products, and bank accounts.

The chart of accounts is the heart of your accounting system, and it categorizes every transaction. It is accessed through the List menu, the home page, or by using the Ctrl+A keyboard shortcut. There are two major types of accounts, balance sheet accounts and profit and loss accounts. Balance sheet accounts have a running balance and appear on the balance sheet, while profit and loss accounts show up on the profit and loss statement.

QuickBooks Sales Transactions

Sales transactions in QuickBooks involve several steps, beginning with an estimate, proceeding to an invoice, and concluding with receiving payment.

Here is a breakdown of the sales transaction process:

• Estimates:
• Estimates are used to provide a formal written price quote for a product or service to a customer.
• They serve as a record of the prices offered to customers.
• Estimates can include internal cost rates and markups, which can be hidden from the customer.
• When creating an estimate, you can choose items from your item list, and the descriptions and prices will populate automatically.
• You can modify the item descriptions on the estimate, and you can also add a quantity for each item.
• If you are using an hourly service item, the quantity should be in hours.
• You can use different templates to modify what information is visible to the customer on the estimate [2, 4].
• You can create an estimate by clicking on the “Estimates” icon on the home page or by selecting “Estimates” from the “Customers” menu [1].
• You can create an estimate for a specific customer and job [3].
• If a customer approves the estimate, you can convert it into an invoice [5].
• Invoices:
• Invoices are created after the product is delivered or the service is completed [1].
• The purpose of an invoice is to notify a client that they owe money for work completed or goods provided [1].
• When you create an invoice from an estimate, the information from the estimate (item descriptions, quantities, prices) will transfer to the invoice [5].
• Invoices can include terms, which specify the number of days a customer has to pay [6].
• You can print or email invoices to clients [6].
• You can create an invoice by clicking on the “Create Invoices” icon on the home page or by selecting “Create Invoices” from the “Customers” menu [1].
• If you do not want to use an estimate, you can create an invoice from scratch, but this requires re-entering all the information [5].
• If you are managing inventory, you should not invoice items that you do not have in stock, as this will create a negative inventory transaction [7].
• Sales Receipts:
• A sales receipt is used when a customer pays at the same time the work is performed or the product is delivered [6].
• A sales receipt combines the invoice and the payment into a single transaction [6].
• It is an alternative to the invoice payment workflow [6].
• Customer Payments:
• Customer payments are recorded separately from invoicing, and this is for when payments are received after the work or service is complete [1].
• When you receive a payment, QuickBooks will ask you where to deposit the payment [1].
• You can record payments in cash, check, credit/debit card, or other payment methods, such as wire transfers [8].
• If a customer pays by check, it is recommended to record the check number in QuickBooks [8].
• If a customer makes a partial payment you can record that [6].
• QuickBooks Payments is a service that allows clients to pay electronically [8].
• Payments are typically deposited into a temporary account called “undeposited funds” before being deposited into a bank account [9].
• A deposit is recorded when the money is transferred from the undeposited funds account to a bank account [9].
• To record a payment, click the “Receive Payments” icon on the home page or select “Receive Payments” from the “Customers” menu [1, 6].
• To record a deposit, click the “Record Deposits” icon on the home page [9].

It is important to keep track of all estimates and invoices in your records and understand the difference between cash and accrual accounting. Accrual accounting recognizes income and expenses when they are incurred, whereas cash accounting only records income when payment is received and expenses when payment is made [10, 11].

QuickBooks Vendor Transaction Workflow

Vendor transactions in QuickBooks involve a workflow that begins with a purchase order, may include an item receipt, continues to a bill, and ends with paying the bill [1].

Here’s a detailed breakdown of the vendor transaction process:

• Purchase Orders:A purchase order is created when a business orders products or services from a vendor [1].
• Purchase orders can be created from scratch for inventory, or based on a sales transaction like an estimate or sales order [1].
• To create a purchase order, you can click the “Purchase Order” icon on the home page, select “Create Purchase Order” from the “Vendors” menu, or use the keyboard shortcut Alt + O + U [2]. You can also access purchase orders in the vendor center [2].
• You will need to select a vendor, and you can add a new vendor on the fly if needed [3].
• You can specify a “drop ship to” location, which is the customer’s address if the vendor is shipping directly to the customer [3].
• The purchase order number is automatically generated by QuickBooks and should not be manually changed [3].
• You can add a memo to the purchase order, such as a sales order or estimate number, that caused the need for the purchase order [4].
• You can add items to the purchase order, including quantity, description, and customer job for internal purposes [4, 5].
• If you know the shipping cost, you can add a freight or shipping line to the purchase order using the “other charge” item type [5, 6].
• Purchase orders can be printed, emailed, or saved with attachments [7, 8].
• Receiving Inventory:When the vendor ships the order, you can either receive the inventory with a bill or receive it without a bill [8].
• If you choose to receive inventory without a bill, it creates an item receipt, which is essentially a bill that doesn’t post to the “Pay Bills” window [8, 9].
• You can access the item receipt screen by clicking on “Receive Inventory” on the home page [8].
• When receiving inventory, you can select a vendor, which will prompt QuickBooks to show you any outstanding purchase orders from that vendor [9].
• You can choose to receive all or some of the items from a purchase order, and you can select multiple purchase orders to be included in a single item receipt [9].
• The items tab will display the items, quantity, and price from the purchase order, and you can specify a customer job associated with the item [10].
• If an item was ordered for a specific customer but you do not have an estimate or sales order, you can mark it as billable so that QuickBooks reminds you to bill the customer [10].
• You will also need to include the reference number, which is typically the invoice number from your vendor [10].
• The item receipt will update your inventory levels [11].
• You can convert an item receipt to a bill by checking the box labeled “Bill Received” at the top of the screen [8, 9].
• Alternatively, you can create a bill later based on an item receipt [12].
• If you choose to receive inventory with a bill, this skips the item receipt step, and goes directly to creating a bill from the purchase order [12].
• Bills:A bill is created when you receive an invoice from a vendor for goods or services [13].
• Bills can be created from an item receipt or a purchase order, or they can be created for expenses that do not involve a purchase order, such as utilities or rent [11, 13].
• To create a bill, you can click on the “Enter Bills” icon on the home page or select “Enter Bills” from the “Vendors” menu [13].
• You will need to select a vendor, and you can add a new vendor on the fly if needed [13].
• Bills that are related to items purchased or received are entered in the Items tab, while expenses that are not related to inventory are entered in the expenses tab [13].
• When entering a bill, you should include the vendor’s invoice number in the reference number field [13].
• Paying Bills:To pay bills, you can click on the “Pay Bills” icon on the home page or select “Pay Bills” from the “Vendors” menu [14].
• You can filter the bills you want to pay by due date, vendor, or reference number [15].
• The “Pay Bills” screen is used to record the payment, whether by check, credit card, wire transfer, or other method [16].
• You can sort the bills by date, vendor name, and other fields [15].
• You can see your bank balance in the “Pay Bills” window, which will be reduced by paying the selected bills [15].
• You can choose to pay bills with a check, which you can print from Quickbooks or write by hand; and if you write a check by hand, you will still need to record it in the “Pay Bills” window [16]. You can record the check number from the physical check in this window [16].
• If you pay by credit card or wire transfer, you will still use the “Pay Bills” window and select check as the payment method [16].
• You can pay selected bills, and choose which bank account the payment comes from [16].
• You can also pay bills using a debit card [17].
• Using the “Write Checks” function is not recommended for paying bills, because it does not properly link to accounts payable [14]. This can cause problems with your bank balance and with managing your payables [14]. The “Write Checks” function should only be used to pay a vendor or supplier in cases where you do not want to use the accounts payable feature [17].

It is important to note that the “Pay Bills” screen is used for recording the payment, not actually making the payment [16]. The actual payment is made through your bank, credit card company, etc.

QuickBooks Chart of Accounts

The chart of accounts is a fundamental part of QuickBooks, serving as the heart of the accounting system [1]. It is where all financial transactions are categorized [1].

Here’s a breakdown of key aspects of the chart of accounts:

• Purpose: The chart of accounts is a list of all the categories or financial accounts used to organize every transaction [1]. Each transaction is recorded under one of these categories [1].
• Accessing the Chart of Accounts:
• The chart of accounts can be accessed through the “List” menu, then “Chart of Accounts” [1].
• The keyboard shortcut to access the chart of accounts is Ctrl + A [1].
• If the home page is open, the chart of accounts can be accessed by clicking on the “Chart of Accounts” icon in the company section [1].
• Types of Accounts: The chart of accounts has two major types of account categories [1]:
• Balance Sheet Accounts: These accounts appear on the balance sheet financial statement [1]. They track what the company owns (assets), what it owes (liabilities), and the owner’s equity [2-4]. Balance sheet accounts have a running balance [1]. Examples of balance sheet accounts include:
• Assets: bank accounts, fixed assets (like trucks and equipment), accounts receivable [2].
• Liabilities: loans, credit cards, accounts payable [2].
• Equity: opening balance equity, retained earnings [2].
• Profit and Loss (Income Statement) Accounts: These accounts appear on the profit and loss statement (also known as the income statement) [1]. They track income, cost of goods sold, and expenses [1, 3, 5]. Profit and loss accounts do not carry opening balances [6]. Examples include:
• Income: consulting income, sales of hardware, training services [6].
• Cost of Goods Sold: subcontracted services, purchases of hardware [6].
• Expenses: insurance, automobile, travel, utilities, rent [7].
• Creating New Accounts:
• To create a new account, right-click within the chart of accounts and select “New” [2]. You can also click on the “Account” button at the bottom and select “New”, or use the shortcut Ctrl + N [2, 8].
• When creating a new account, you will need to select the account type (income, expense, bank, fixed asset, etc.) [2].
• Bank Accounts: When creating a new bank account, provide a name that easily identifies the account (e.g., “Wells Fargo Checking,” “Chase Savings”) [2]. You will need to enter an opening balance from the bank statement as of the day before the QuickBooks start date [9].
• When setting up a new account, it’s important to set the appropriate opening balance if there were prior transactions before the QuickBooks start date [9].
• When entering an opening balance for an asset, QuickBooks will automatically create a counterbalancing entry in the “Opening Balance Equity” account [10].
• Subaccounts: Accounts can have subaccounts, which provide further categorization. For example, “Insurance Expense” may have subaccounts for “General Liability” and “Health Insurance” [11].
• Editing and Managing Accounts:
• To edit an account, right-click on it and select “Edit” [7].
• To rename an account, edit the name, and save [12].
• To delete an account, right-click on it and select “Delete Account” [13].
• You can only delete an account if it has no transactions associated with it [13].
• To hide an account, right-click on it and select “Make Account Inactive” [13]. This does not erase the history [13].
• Inactive accounts can be viewed by checking the “Include Inactive” box [14].
• Inactive accounts can be reactivated by right-clicking and selecting “Make Account Active” or clicking on the “x” next to the account [14].
• Merging Accounts: If you have duplicate or redundant accounts, you can merge them by editing the name of the account you want to get rid of to match the name of the account you want to keep. QuickBooks will then prompt you to merge the two accounts [12].
• Linking Accounts to Items: It is important to understand the link between the chart of accounts and the item list. Income accounts and cost of goods sold accounts in the chart of accounts are essential for setting up items, particularly inventory items [8]. Each item (service, inventory part, etc.) needs to be linked to an appropriate income and/or expense account from your chart of accounts [15].
• Using the “Select from Examples” Button: When creating a new expense account, you can click the “Select from examples” button to select from a list of categories that you didn’t choose when setting up the company file [13].

Understanding the chart of accounts is crucial because it provides the structure for organizing all financial information in QuickBooks [1].

QuickBooks Financial Reporting

Financial reports in QuickBooks provide insights into a company’s financial performance and position [1]. Here’s a breakdown of key financial reports:

• Profit and Loss (Income Statement):
• The profit and loss statement (also known as the income statement) shows a company’s income, cost of goods sold, and expenses over a specific period [1, 2].
• It helps assess a company’s profitability [3].
• The report can be accessed through “Reports” menu, then “Company Financial,” then “Profit & Loss Standard” [1].
• The report can be customized by date range (today, this week, this month, this year, last year, or custom date range) [1].
• The report can be sorted by total amount or by default (alphabetical order of the account names) [1].
• The profit and loss report includes income statement accounts from the chart of accounts: income, cost of goods sold, and expenses [4].
• By default, QuickBooks only shows accounts with activity, but you can customize the report to show all accounts, even those with zero balances [4].
• Balance Sheet:
• The balance sheet shows a company’s assets, liabilities, and equity at a specific point in time [2, 4].
• It helps assess a company’s financial position [2].
• The report can be accessed through “Reports” menu, then “Company Financial,” then “Balance Sheet Standard” [4].
• The balance sheet includes balance sheet accounts from the chart of accounts: assets, liabilities, and equity [2, 4].
• The balance sheet is a more complete report than the profit and loss, because it includes the summary result of the profit and loss and additional information [3].
• Statement of Cash Flows:The statement of cash flows shows the movement of cash in and out of a company over a specific period [3].
• It explains the difference between net income and the actual money in the bank [5].
• The report can be accessed through “Reports” menu, then “Company Financial,” then “Statement of Cash Flows” [3].
• Accrual vs. Cash Basis:
• Financial reports can be generated using either the accrual basis or the cash basis [5].
• Accrual Basis:Accrual basis reports include all income and expenses, regardless of whether payment has been received or made [5, 6].
• Accrual reports will show accounts receivable (money owed by customers) and accounts payable (money owed to vendors) [6].
• Cash Basis:Cash basis reports only include income when payments have been received and expenses when payments have been made [6].
• Cash basis reports do not include outstanding invoices or bills [6].
• You can switch between accrual and cash basis by clicking on “Customize Report” and choosing the accounting method [6].
• It is important to use the same accounting method (either cash or accrual) for all reports to ensure the numbers tie together [6].
• Net Income:
• The net income from the profit and loss statement is linked to the balance sheet. The balance sheet includes the summary result of the profit and loss [3].
• The net income or loss from the profit and loss report is reflected in the equity section of the balance sheet [3].
• If the profit and loss and the balance sheet are viewed for the same period, the net income on both reports should match, whether on a cash or accrual basis [3, 6].

These reports can be customized by date range and other criteria [1]. It’s important to understand the differences between cash and accrual accounting methods and to choose the one that’s most appropriate for your business [6]. It is recommended to view the profit and loss statement in conjunction with the balance sheet rather than separately because they provide different perspectives of a company’s financial condition [6].

By Amjad Izhar
Contact: amjad.izhar@gmail.com
https://amjadizhar.blog

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This text offers a detailed guide to using QuickBooks Desktop 2022. It covers a wide range of functions, including setting up company files, customizing the user environment, and managing customers and vendors. The text further explains handling inventory, creating invoices, managing bills, and generating financial reports. It also provides guidance on setting up users, managing payroll, and using the income tracker, aiming to help users optimize their QuickBooks experience. The guide walks users through detailed tasks like creating invoices from estimates, entering bills against inventory, and applying vendor credits.

QuickBooks Online/Desktop Study Guide

Quiz

Answer each question in 2-3 sentences.

1. What is the purpose of setting a start date when creating a new bank account in QuickBooks?
2. Explain the difference between a fixed asset and a liquid asset.
3. Why is it recommended to create “big bucket categories” for assets instead of listing each asset individually?
4. What is a liability in the context of accounting and QuickBooks? Give an example.
5. Why should a business owner think about organizing expenses into sub-accounts?
6. What does “net 30” mean in the context of customer invoicing?
7. What is a sub-customer in QuickBooks, and why might a business use them?
8. Why can’t you delete a customer in QuickBooks Online?
9. Explain the purpose of “undeposited funds” in QuickBooks.
10. What is a customer statement and what information does it typically include?

Quiz Answer Key

1. The start date is used to begin tracking the money in the account and helps when reconciling with bank statements. It’s best to choose a date that corresponds with the beginning of a bank statement period to ensure accurate records.
2. A fixed asset is something a business owns and plans to keep long-term, like a vehicle or property, whereas a liquid asset is something more easily converted to cash, like inventory. Liquid assets are meant to be sold or used quickly.
3. Creating big bucket categories for assets keeps the chart of accounts organized and prevents it from becoming overwhelming. It simplifies financial reporting and makes it easier to understand the overall asset picture of the business.
4. A liability is something a business owes to others, such as a loan from a bank. It represents an obligation to pay money or provide goods/services in the future.
5. Organizing expenses into sub-accounts allows for more detailed tracking and reporting of specific expense types, such as fuel being a sub-account of car and truck expenses. This enables better analysis of where money is being spent and helps identify areas for potential cost savings.
6. “Net 30” means that the full payment for an invoice is due 30 days from the invoice date. It’s a common payment term used to grant customers a specific period to settle their outstanding balance.
7. A sub-customer is a way of adding a level underneath a main customer; it can be a specific job, project, or location associated with that customer. Businesses use sub-customers to track revenue and expenses for individual projects or locations related to a single client.
8. QuickBooks Online doesn’t allow customer deletion to maintain data integrity and prevent the loss of historical transaction information. Instead of deleting, customers can be made inactive, which hides them from most lists but preserves their data in the system.
9. “Undeposited funds” is a temporary holding account in QuickBooks for payments that have been received but not yet deposited into a bank account. This allows you to accurately record when money was received versus when it was actually deposited, especially when combining multiple payments into a single deposit.
10. A customer statement is a summary of a customer’s account activity, typically sent at the end of each month, to remind them of any outstanding balances. It includes a listing of invoices, payments, credits, and the total amount due.

Essay Questions

1. Discuss the importance of setting up a well-structured chart of accounts in QuickBooks. How does it impact financial reporting and decision-making for a business? Provide specific examples of how different account types (assets, liabilities, equity, income, expenses) contribute to a clear financial picture.
2. Explain the accounts receivable workflow in QuickBooks. From creating a customer to receiving payment, outline each step and discuss the key features and reports available to manage and track customer balances effectively.
3. Describe the differences between using sales receipts and invoices in QuickBooks. In what scenarios would each be most appropriate, and what are the implications for accounting and financial tracking?
4. Discuss the process of managing vendor relationships and accounts payable in QuickBooks. How can QuickBooks help a business track bills, schedule payments, and manage vendor credits effectively?
5. Explain the purpose of the tags feature in QuickBooks and how it can be used to improve financial tracking and reporting. Provide specific examples of how businesses can leverage tags to gain insights into their revenue and expenses.

Glossary of Key Terms

• Account Type: A classification within the chart of accounts that defines the nature of a financial element (e.g., asset, liability, equity, income, expense).
• Asset: Something a business owns that has economic value (e.g., cash, accounts receivable, inventory, equipment).
• Liability: Something a business owes to others (e.g., accounts payable, loans).
• Equity: The owner’s stake in the business, representing the residual value of assets after deducting liabilities.
• Income: Revenue generated from the sale of goods or services.
• Expense: Costs incurred in the process of generating revenue.
• Chart of Accounts: A structured list of all the accounts used to record financial transactions in a general ledger.
• Sub-Account: An account that falls under a main account, providing more detailed categorization and tracking.
• Accounts Receivable: The money owed to a business by its customers for goods or services sold on credit.
• Invoice: A bill issued to a customer for goods or services, requesting payment within a specified timeframe.
• Sales Receipt: A record of a sale where payment is received at the time of the transaction.
• Customer: An individual or business that purchases goods or services from another business.
• Vendor: An individual or business that supplies goods or services to another business.
• Credit Memo: A document issued to a customer to reduce the amount they owe, often due to returns, allowances, or errors.
• Undeposited Funds: An account used to temporarily hold customer payments before they are deposited into the bank.
• Statement: A summary of a customer’s account activity, including invoices, payments, and outstanding balance.
• Tags: Customizable labels that can be assigned to transactions to categorize and track specific aspects of a business’s finances.
• Purchase Order: A document issued to a vendor, authorizing the purchase of goods or services.
• Inventory Part: A physical item that a business buys, stocks, and sells.
• Service Item: A non-physical service that a business provides.
• Cost of Goods Sold (COGS): The direct costs associated with producing goods or services that a company sells.
• General Ledger Number: A unique number assigned to each account in the chart of accounts for identification and organization.

QuickBooks Account, Customer, and Inventory Management Guide

Okay, here’s a briefing document summarizing the key themes and ideas from the provided source, including relevant quotes:

Briefing Document: QuickBooks Account Setup, Customer Management, & Inventory

Overview:

This document reviews key aspects of setting up and managing accounts, customers, and inventory within QuickBooks. It covers topics ranging from chart of accounts configuration to managing customer invoices and payments, as well as utilizing features like “Tags” for enhanced reporting. It covers both online and desktop versions of Quickbooks.

Key Themes and Ideas:

1. Chart of Accounts Setup:

• Account Types: The document emphasizes selecting the appropriate account type (e.g., Bank, Asset, Liability, Equity, Income, Cost of Goods Sold, Expense) when creating new accounts. “First thing you’re going to do is pick the account type in this case it will be bank but notice all the other types we’re going to be talking about.”
• Naming Conventions: Flexibility is offered in naming accounts. “When you name your account you can name it anything you want.” Examples include naming bank accounts by bank name or using descriptive names like “Operating Account” or “Payroll Account.”
• Start Dates and Balances: The importance of using accurate start dates and beginning balances is highlighted to ensure accurate financial tracking. “Just try to make it correspond to the start date of your bank statement.”
• Sub-Accounts: The briefing details the use of sub-accounts for more granular tracking within a main account. “See how fuel looks like it’s indented a little bit that’s a sub account and there’s going to be a lot of these you’ll want to add.” Examples include fuel and insurance under auto, and accounting/attorney fees under legal and professional fees.
• Assets: Differentiates between fixed assets (long-term, like vehicles or property) and liquid assets (like inventory). Emphasizes using “big bucket categories” for assets rather than listing each item individually.
• Liabilities: Differentiates between short term and long term liabilities. “When you think about your liabilities there to the new option in the top right of your screen here you are going to create a new account and it has to be the same type as the main account so that means this one has to be an expense account and in this case it is Auto and I want to name this one fuel”

2. Customer Management (Accounts Receivable):

• Customer List Navigation: Explains how to access and navigate the customer list, emphasizing alphabetical organization by last name for easy searching.
• Customer Information: Details the information that can be stored for each customer, including company name, contact details, billing/shipping addresses, and email addresses.
• Sub-Customers (Jobs/Projects): Describes how to set up sub-customers to track different jobs or projects for the same customer. This enables detailed reporting at both the customer and project levels. “A sub customer is basically going to be a way of adding a level underneath your main customer if you have different jobs that you work on for a particular customer you can actually separate those jobs by actually creating sub customers then you can look at reports for the entire customer but also per sub customer”
• Inactivating Customers: Explains how to make customers inactive rather than deleting them, particularly if they have a history of transactions. “Inactive customers actually will not show up when you’re working in other areas of QuickBooks but if you wanted to actually turn them back on you could go and activate them again”
• Importing Customers: Details the process of importing customer lists from Excel or CSV files.

3. Sales and Invoicing:

• Sales Receipts vs. Invoices: Clarifies the distinction between sales receipts (for immediate payment) and invoices (for future payment). “…the difference in a sales receipt and an invoice is that on a sales receipt the customer is standing right there”
• Creating Sales Receipts: Explains how to create sales receipts, including selecting products/services, quantities, prices, payment methods, and deposit accounts (including “undeposited funds”).
• Invoicing Customers: Details how to create and send invoices, including customizing invoice templates, adding line items, and applying customer discounts.
• Receiving Payments: Describes the process of recording customer payments against open invoices. Explains the function of undeposited funds.
• Deposits: “Now that we’ve made a sale for our business we’ve actually invoiced a customer in this case we got paid and now we want to take that money and put it in the bank and that’s where the make deposits option comes in”
• Credit Memos: Explains how to issue credit memos to customers, either to correct errors or to provide refunds.
• Statements: States that “…a statement is basically a gentle reminder to your customers that they owe you some money typically statements are sent at the end of each month and they show the activity that happened during that month you don’t have to send out statements but it’s a nice little feature to keep your customers abreast of what’s going on with their account”
• Customer groups “This is a newer tool designed to help small business owners with one of the hardest problems that they have and that’s actually getting your customers to pay you”

4. Inventory Management:

• Item Types: Explains the various item types available in QuickBooks (Service, Inventory Part, Non-Inventory Part, Other Charge, Subtotal, Group, Discount, Payment, Sales Tax Item, Sales Tax Group).
• Inventory Parts Setup: Describes how to set up inventory parts, including defining purchase and sales descriptions, costs, prices, preferred vendors, and initial quantities on hand.
• Purchase Orders: Details the process of creating purchase orders to track inventory orders.
• Vendor credits “Sometimes a vendor will issue you a credit that you need to apply to a bill or it could be you want to apply it to your account and use it in the future but I want to show you how to handle those once the vendor sends them to you”

5. Quickbooks Preferences

• “The preferences in QuickBooks control how QuickBooks is set up and that way it matches your business needs” *You can change how different features are set up in the Quickbooks Desktop Version.

6. Users

• You do not have to set up users in Quickbooks but it is higly suggested.
• Setting up users will allow you to set up different permissions for different people who use Quickbooks

7. Tags:

• A brand new feature in Quickbooks online that will allow you to create words that will appear on a drop down list when you are in different transactions.

8. Jobs

• “For example, you might want to keep track of how profitable it was to remodel the kitchen versus building an addition”

Conclusion:

This document provides a high-level overview of setting up and managing critical business functions within QuickBooks. By following these guidelines, businesses can establish a solid foundation for accurate financial tracking and efficient customer relationship management.

QuickBooks Online and Desktop: Common Accounting Tasks

QuickBooks Online and Desktop FAQ

• How do I set up a new bank account in QuickBooks? First, select the bank account type. Then, name the account (e.g., “Checking,” “Operating Account”). An optional description can be added. Select a start date for tracking money; using the beginning of the fiscal year or month is recommended. Enter the ending balance from the prior period’s bank statement as the starting balance. Remember this impacts opening balance equity. Bank accounts can also be set up for PayPal, Square, etc.
• What are assets in QuickBooks, and how should I categorize them? Assets are items your business owns that add value. They are divided into fixed assets (long-term, like vehicles or property) and other current assets (more liquid, like inventory). Create broad categories for assets (e.g., “Vehicles,” “Furniture and Fixtures,” “Equipment”) rather than listing each item separately. Aim for 7-10 categories. An accountant can help you decide categories and values, including depreciation (which QuickBooks does not automatically handle).
• How do I create sub-accounts in QuickBooks, and what are they used for? When creating a new account, choose the “sub-account of” option and select the main account. Sub-accounts provide more detail within a broader category, such as “Fuel” as a sub-account of “Car and Truck.” This helps organize expenses and other categories for detailed reporting.
• What is Accounts Receivable, and how do I manage customers in QuickBooks? Accounts Receivable represents money owed to your business by customers. To manage customers, navigate to the “Sales” section, then “Customers.” You can view open invoices, overdue amounts, and payment history. The customer list displays names, phone numbers, and balances. Customers can be added manually or imported from Excel.
• How do I add a new customer and a sub-customer (job) in QuickBooks? To add a customer, click “New Customer” and enter company and contact details, billing/shipping addresses, and payment settings. Display names can be customized. To add a sub-customer, click “New Customer” again, enter the sub-customer’s name and details, and choose the parent customer under the “Is sub-customer” option. This allows you to track income and expenses related to specific projects or jobs.
• What is the difference between a sales receipt and an invoice, and how do I create each in QuickBooks? A sales receipt is used when a customer pays immediately, while an invoice is used when a customer will pay later. To create a sales receipt, select “Sales Receipt” from the “+” menu. Choose the customer, payment method, products/services sold, and deposit account. To create an invoice, select “Invoice” from the “+” menu, enter customer details, billing address, payment terms, and products/services.
• What are “undeposited funds” in QuickBooks, and how do I use them when recording payments and making deposits? “Undeposited Funds” is an account used to temporarily hold payments received before they are deposited into a bank account. When receiving a payment, deposit it to “Undeposited Funds.” When you make a bank deposit, group all the payments included in that deposit from “Undeposited Funds” into a single transaction, so the deposit matches your bank statement.
• How can I track different aspects of my business using “Tags” in QuickBooks? Tags are a new feature that allows you to categorize transactions with custom labels. You can create tags for different aspects of your business, such as “Fountains,” “Landscaping,” or “Pest Control,” and assign them to invoices, expenses, and other transactions. This helps you to run reports and analyze your business performance based on specific categories.

QuickBooks Live Bookkeeping: Collaborative Accounting Solution

QuickBooks offers a Live Bookkeeping service where you can pay Intuit for a bookkeeper to manage the books. With this service, both you and the bookkeeper have logins to the company file, facilitating collaboration and the ability to have live conversations.

QuickBooks will soon offer a Cash Flow Center to provide insights into your cash accounts, such as checking accounts. The Cash Flow Center will allow you to monitor the flow of cash in and out of your accounts. You can join a wait list to receive updates and information about the Cash Flow Center when it becomes available.

The gear icon is located in the top right-hand corner of the QuickBooks dashboard and provides access to various lists and tools within QuickBooks. It allows customization of the company file.

The gear menu provides access to:

• Tools
• Company options (such as address)
• Profile menu for the Intuit account
• Chart of accounts

To customize the company file, navigate to the gear icon and then to Account and Settings. This area allows you to:

• Add a company logo.
• Edit the company name.
• Input an Employer Identification Number (EIN) or Social Security number.
• Select the tax form used when filing taxes.
• Manage company and customer-facing emails.
• Enter the company phone number and website.
• Manage company addresses.

The gear icon should not be confused with the “new” option that is used to create a new transaction.

QuickBooks can send payment reminders to customers with outstanding invoices. If this feature is desired, it can be set up to prompt at a certain time of day, and can be set up daily or weekly.

To set up customer invoice reminders:

• Go to Edit then Preferences.
• Go to Payments.
• Choose to send reminders to customers that have payments that are due.
• Set the time of day to prompt.
• Choose daily or weekly prompting.

The Chart of Accounts is a listing of different areas where you might spend or receive money and is the backbone of all accounting. It is the most important thing in QuickBooks, and every single thing in QuickBooks will flow through it. Every transaction in QuickBooks runs through one of the accounts in the Chart of Accounts.

Here’s what the Chart of Accounts includes:

• Lists of different areas where you might actually spend money
• Different areas where you might receive money

The Chart of Accounts screen includes:

• The name of the account.
• The type of account.
• The detail type, giving more information about the type chosen.
• The QuickBooks balance.
• The bank balance, if downloading transactions from the bank.

Here are some important points regarding the Chart of Accounts:

• When setting up the Chart of Accounts, name the accounts in a way that makes sense.
• When looking at the list, the names are alphabetical.
• If you want to close them, you have to go to the Advanced section in Account and Settings.
• If you want to turn on general ledger numbers, you have the option to do that.
• You can access the chart of accounts by going through the gear icon.
• You can access the chart of accounts by going to the left and clicking on Accounting.
• Everything in QuickBooks will run through the chart of accounts.
• Make sure information goes into the correct categories so that when reports are run, the information is accurate.
• There is a part two to the chart of accounts.

To customize the company file, navigate to the gear icon and then to Account and Settings.

The Original Text

foreign [Music] says subscribe and click on the Bell icon to receive notifications we’ve made a downloadable transcript of this tutorial available as a free study tool just click the link below in the video details to get this hello welcome to QuickBooks Online my name is Cindy mceugan and I’m going to help walk you through this series of videos I wanted to take a few moments in this introduction video and just give you a little bit of information about what to expect as you go through the course and also let you know a little bit about myself and my background I’ve actually been a software trainer for about 20 years I teach a lot of different types of software QuickBooks being one of those I’m also a QuickBooks consultant I work with both the desktop and the online version I’m going to be able to relay some information about both as we go along but more importantly we’re talking about the online version here the online version has an advantage and that is that you’ll be able to access your company file from anywhere you happen to be that has internet access if you work out in the field for example you might have your laptop with you or need to access it through your phone and these are great reasons to sign up with a subscription for the QuickBooks online service we’re going to actually take this from the very beginning I’m not going to assume you know anything I’m going to actually start off showing you how to go online and pick the correct subscription we’ll talk a little bit about working with QuickBooks online and mobile devices and then we’ll take it from there and start actually setting up our company file we’re going to work with customers that side of things is called accounts receivable you’ll need to know how to create invoices what to do when the customer pays you how to actually put that money in the bank we’re also going to talk about the flip side which is your accounts payable that’s anything that has to do with the bills that come in the mail that you have to pay you’ll want to track those so that you know at any time how much you owe we’re going to be going through and talking a little bit about products and services those are physical things and sometimes they’re a service you provide but sometimes you buy products and you also sell products and we need to know how to set those up properly we’ll be looking quickly at payroll there’s a lot of other things we’ll look at but I want you to have a really good foundation for building your company file from the very beginning when you watch these videos make sure you watch them in order they won’t make very much sense if you get them out of order make sure you watch them all and make sure you watch them till the very end because a lot of times there’s a really good piece of information right at the very end of one of these videos if you have questions as we go along feel free to shoot us an email and we’ll get right back to you and answer your questions with that being said let’s go ahead and get started we’re going to flip over to section two and talk about the different subscriptions that you have available when you decide to go with QuickBooks Online thanks for coming back we are just getting started and the very first thing you’ll need to do before you start using QuickBooks is actually sign up with one of their subscription Services it is not free to use the QuickBooks Online you do have to pay for it monthly and they have four different subscriptions that you can subscribe to I want to go ahead and pull up the website so that you can actually look and compare the different ones with me as we go through this all right what you’ll want to do is make sure you navigate to quickbooks.intuit.com and you’ll see this screen right here which will give you a lot of different information on their subscription services one thing I want to point out is that they do have a try it free for 30 days for each of these that way you can see if you like it before you actually jump in and make a purchase I want to scroll down here because you’ll notice that this is where they have the different subscriptions listed and I want to compare these with you the pricing that you see here may change depending on when you watch this video you’ll notice for each of these that they have a monthly fee and right now you can save 50 off if you sign up for this three months at a time The Simple Start is the really basic one that you’ll want to start with if you’re a brand new business and you don’t have a lot of customers maybe not a lot going on with your business yet it’s great to start with this one and then you can always upgrade as you need more of the features let me go ahead and go through some of these features with you you’ll notice for The Simple Start that you can only have one user and that basically means that only one person can log in with that username and password if you need more you’ll notice that if you look at the essentials you can have up to three users uh the plus has up to five and then you can have up to 25 if you’re actually using the advanced let me scroll down a second because I want to show you that there are a lot of really good things about the Simple Start you’ll see for example that in addition to multiple users you can track your income expenses they’ll all let you do that all of these will help you maximize your tax deductions they’ll all have mileage invoicing and accepting payments they’re all going to have reports as well but you’ll notice that the Simple Start and the one that’s to the right of it only give you the basic reports where if you need some more advanced reporting then you’ll want to go with these two over here which are the plus and the advanced and even with the basic reports you’re going to have a lot of reports QuickBooks is really good about reporting you can do estimates in all of these if you think about a construction company you would want to actually estimate a job before you actually start doing the work and getting paid for it and that’s a really great feature they all have let me see scrolling down here you’ll notice that you can track sales and sales tax in all of these you can capture and organize your receipts meaning you can scan them in you can also manage 1099 contractors in all of these and that’s real important because those are what you call your subcontractors and you need to know how to properly handle those you’re going to be able to actually manage the bills if you go with the essentials the Plus or the advanced so notice that if you have the Simple Start you can’t handle the bills in QuickBooks and to me that’s really important because you want to track everything you owe because you’re going to need to really stick to your budget when you first start your business you cannot track time if you have Simple Start or you can’t do what they call tracking job profitability in The Simple Start even though like I said this is great for a new business starting out you’ll quickly want to upgrade to one of the others moving on to the essentials the essentials just doesn’t have the inventory feature the job tracking profitability you can kind of see the things here it does not have you can’t send batch invoices and really if you don’t do a lot of these it may not be important to you the one that sometimes people want is the inventory feature and you would have to upgrade to the Plus or the advanced to get that you’ll notice that the plus is the most popular one and it does not have the options for importing and sending batch invoices it doesn’t have the business analytics and insights options but you may not need these if you do want all of that you’ll want to go up to the advanced subscription here the other thing I want you to know is that you may go back and forth with these subscriptions because it could be that you add users like we saw earlier and you need to have maybe four people accessing your QuickBooks so there’s a lot of different things you need to think about and you can always call them if you’re really not sure which one would work best for your business I wanted you to be aware of that because the next thing you’ll have to do is actually start with one of these and you can actually choose to go ahead and buy now or like I showed you earlier you can go up to the top of the screen and you can actually try free for 30 days and that’s where I want to stop right now we’re going to go through and talk about setting up your company file after you pick a subscription over module two but before we do that I want to briefly talk to you a little bit about how QuickBooks Online works with mobile devices over in section three I’ll see you there shortly before we go ahead and wrap up module one I wanted to briefly talk to you a little bit about some things QuickBooks does with the online version and how mobile devices actually work with QuickBooks Online the first thing I want you to know is that your online version is constantly evolving you might log in one time and be used to where a particular option happens to be and the next time you log in it may not be there at all or maybe in a different location or look different when they roll out the changes they do not roll them out across the board for everyone at the same time that’s why your friend may have a version and he or she does not see the updates that you see but you’ll eventually get there the other thing I wanted to mention is that you have the ability to use different mobile apps for QuickBooks and they sync with QuickBooks depending on if you have an Android or an iPhone you can just go into your Play Store or go into the App Store in your iPhone and just look for the QuickBooks apps and you’ll notice that if you download one of them you’ll be able to take it out in the field with you and for example if you need to create an invoice out in the field you can do it right there on your phone and it will sync with your actual online version now the apps will not have all of the options that are available but they will have the basic most common ones that you would want to use go ahead also and look in your app store and see if there are other software apps that aren’t made by Intuit but would work well with QuickBooks and it might be something that you might need in your business so there’s all kind of apps that work with QuickBooks I just want to make you aware of that and if you ever wanted to just get a handle on what some of the changes are that they’re making in your version you can actually log into quickbooks.intuit.com forward slash blog and then you’ll be able to see all of the changes and stay on top of what’s new that’s going to wrap up module one let’s go ahead and jump into module two and start talking a little bit about working with the company files that you have to set up in QuickBooks we’re starting to work in module two now and this is where we’re going to talk a little bit about the QuickBooks company files anytime you create a file in QuickBooks it is called a company you can have as many companies as you would like often what you will see is a small business owner might set up one company with his personal information and another company that has the business information Company files do not talk to each other you don’t have to worry about the data getting mixed up and like I said you can have as many as you’d like in QuickBooks you have to either create a brand new one which we’ll do in section three you might already have the desktop version of QuickBooks and you want to upload your file to the online version we’ll look at that in section two but real quick what I want to talk to you about here is the fact that you do have the availability of a sample file that you can go in and play with as much as you want you do not have to sign up with a subscription or anything like that to access the sample file all you have to do is head on over to Qbo Dot intuit.com forward slash r-e-d-r forward slash test drive and the company file you’re going to be working with here is Craig’s design and landscaping services it is a service based business let’s go ahead and head on over there and we’ll check out Craig’s design and landscaping services the first thing you will have to do is just verify your real person I’m going to check the box I’m not a robot and then in this case it asks me to pick all the bicycles I’m going to go through the list and make sure I got them all and I’ll hit verify now it knows a real person and I can access Craig’s design and landscaping services now while this is pulling up let me just mention a couple of other things about the sample file every day they update the date so you’ll see that date change you’re actually going to be working in the year 2021 in the practice exercise so just kind of know that when you go in here and this is what QuickBooks looks like when you first open it up now I do want to go through the screen and get you familiar with everything but I want to do that over in section four before we actually go through this I want to show you how to upload your data if you wanted to bring your desktop file over or in Section 3 talk about creating a new file so we’ll come back to Craig’s design and landscaping services a little bit later right now I want you to head over to section two and let me show you how to upload your QuickBooks desktop files to the online version okay we’ve already looked at some of the sample files that QuickBooks has we now need to talk about how do you actually go through and set up your new QuickBooks online account all we’re going to do is navigate to where we looked at the different online subscriptions over module one and then we’ll go ahead and decide which of those subscriptions we’d like to sign up with or we can sign up with the 30-day free trial let me go ahead and flip over and we will sign up for that 30-day free trial to show you how this works all right as you can see I’ve navigated back to quickbooks.intuit.com I think I’ll take advantage of the free 30-day trial I’m going to use this link right here if you see a pop-up that asks you if you’d like to sign up with the 30-day free trial you can use that option as well what I’m going to have to do here is create an Intuit account and I can do this a couple different ways I can actually sign up with Google and if I have multiple Intuit products then I can go ahead and use that one login for all of them I might also choose to use an email address and sign up that way I think I’ll go ahead and do that and use one that I just set up for this and it’s got my name here also it asks you to plug in your mobile number that’s recommended but you don’t have to and the reason that you may want to go ahead and do that is if you happen to forget your username or your login information and to it can help you recover that information by looking at your telephone number that you’ve plugged in you will want to create a password and make sure it’s something that you’re going to remember but hard enough that someone else can’t actually try to get into your account remember a good password anywhere in your computer will have at least eight to twelve characters you’re going to have a combination of capital letters small letters you might have special characters I’m going to go ahead and choose a sign up with email once I’m done and this is going to create my Intuit account I do get the option to skip the trial and go ahead and purchase my subscription but I think I’ll go ahead and continue with the trial for now what’s going to happen now is it’s going to start setting up what we call our company file each file in QuickBooks is called a company you can have as many companies as you like in QuickBooks you this is going to launch us through What’s called the easy step interview where it’s going to ask us some questions and based on how we answer those questions it will set up all the options in our company file for us first we’ll see some basic information it wants to know what is the name of your business I’m going to call mine a b c services and then the next thing it will ask us is to describe the type of business you do now if you start typing in things like Plumbing electrical things like that then it’s going to start pulling from a drop down list and looking for those first few characters there and if you see something close to what you do on the list just choose it there’s no wrong answer here just choose something close to what you do I’m going to pick for example services and you’ll notice that there are several types of services that it thinks I may want to choose from I’ll just pick Professional Services in this case another thing that you have an option to do is if you’ve been using the desktop version of QuickBooks and you’d like to bring that data into your online version you have the ability to do that you can check this box and then it will take you into your computer so you can find that file we are going to talk over in Section 3 about how to prepare that desktop file so that you can pull it into your QuickBooks Online file I’m going to leave it unchecked for now and click next the next thing you want to know is what would you like to do in QuickBooks and you might want to do a lot of these different things you might want to send and track invoices organize your expenses manage your inventory if you have retail sales you’ll want to choose this if you don’t you may want to leave that alone maybe track your bills track your sales tax pay your employees and track your hours so you can see that you can choose a few of these or all of these I’m going to click next at the bottom and now it says what is your role at the business are you an owner are you the bookkeeper maybe the employee usually the owner of the company is the one that sets up the file or it could have been that the accountant set it up for the owner whichever person set it up is actually going to be the admin or the administrator of the file meaning that you’ll actually own it I’m going to go ahead and choose owner in this case and if I scroll down a little bit you’ll see that it says do you have an accountant or bookkeeper right now and you don’t have to say yes even if you do have one it’s just asking you this because it’s going to set up some of the options as we go down the road for the accountant if you happen to have one I’m going to say right now that I’m just going to do all by myself and I’m going to say all set at the bottom and now what you have is a basic setup for your QuickBooks company file there’s still a lot we have to do because it’s really a blank company file right now but at least we have the file set up so that we can work on it if you wanted to go through a 30-second tour to help you get down to business on QuickBooks you can do that I’m going to go ahead and close that out and then that is what it looks like when you first log in you are on What’s called the dashboard right now and the dashboard is just a quick way to see an overview of how different areas of your company happen to be doing now I do want to take time and go through this whole what we call user interface here I want to do that over in section four so right now let me show you how to log out and then where to go to log back in if you notice in the top right hand corner of your screen you have a gear icon and you can use the sign out option right here and that will go ahead and take you back to the screen now let me navigate away from this and then we will come back and you will see how to log back in so I’m at Google Now and when you’re ready to log in you want to go to QuickBooks dot intuit.com which is where we were earlier when we first created our account and this time you want to go over here where it says sign in notice that you’ll sign up with the particular one that you actually subscribe to if you haven’t subscribed and you’re still using that 30 day free trial just use the QuickBooks online option which is the first one and then that’ll take you back in and you’ll be able to log in right over here and that’s all you need to know right now as far as setting up your company file well let’s go ahead now and talk real quick over in section three about how to actually go ahead and upload your QuickBooks desktop file if you wanted to bring it into your online account if you happen to have been using the QuickBooks desktop version and now you’d like to pull that data into the online version there’s a little process you need to go through and once you go through the process then you’ll want to run some reports to make sure that all your data pulled in let me go ahead and show you how this process works what you want to do is open up your company file in the desktop version and then go to your menu and click on company and down near the bottom you will see export company file to QuickBooks Online if you don’t see that option what it means is that you have some updates that you need to do in this version of QuickBooks before you can export this in order to do those updates just go to help and you’re going to see It’ll say update QuickBooks right here now go through that update process and when you’re finished close the company file then open it back up and when you do you should see the option to export your company file to QuickBooks Online now what’s going to happen here is it’s going to ask you to log into your online account once you click Start Your export here’s where you have to log in so I’ll go ahead and put in my email address again gmail.com and I’ll go ahead and put in my password and I’m going to sign in now what’s going to happen here is if it doesn’t recognize you then it’ll want to send a code to your email to confirm your account if you had plugged in your phone number when you set up your account then it could send you a text that way I’m going to go ahead and tell it to confirm and I’m going to flip over to my email and get that six digit code and I’ll be right back I’ve got my code now I’m going to go ahead and plug it in and then I’m going to hit continue at the bottom it’s going to ask me a couple of quick things before it can actually pull it up to the online version this particular one says do you want to bring over your inventory if you say yes you want to go ahead and select a date that you want to go ahead and pull it in from I’m going to go ahead and say I’ll pull it in from January of 2020 and I’ll go ahead and hit continue the next thing is it wants me to choose my existing QuickBooks Online company file now if I have more than one you’ll see them all listed here and I just choose the one that I want and then I’m going to go ahead and hit continue at the bottom and now it’s preparing my company file which is Larry’s landscaping and Garden Supply here this process could take a while what will happen is you will actually get an email from Intuit once this process is complete once it is complete what we’ll want to do is go ahead and open both the desktop version and the online version and run some reports now this one finished pretty quickly I’m going to go ahead and click on okay and now I should get an email from Intuit remember if you don’t get that email it’s not finished yet it might look like it’s frozen but it’s really not you’ll get it eventually now let me show you the reports that you want to run to compare your data in either version it doesn’t matter which one you do first you’re going to run a profit loss and a balance sheet in the desktop version you’ll go to reports company and Financial profit and loss standard now when the report comes up there’s a couple things that you need to do make sure the dates are all that way you capture everything in your company file also make sure you’re running this on an accrual basis right up here you’re going to want to run that one then you’re going to want to run the balance sheet you’re going to go back to reports company and financial and run a balance sheet standard make sure that you pick all dates you’ll have to scroll up to the top for that and make sure you’re running it on a cruel basis even if in real life use the cash basis for this report run it on accrual so that you can make sure you’ve got everything here now I’m gonna go flip over to the online version and show you where to go in there to pull those same reports back into online version the way you run your reports is if you notice on the left hand side over here you’ll see it says reports and then you’ll notice that both the balance sheet and the profit loss are already set under your favorites you can run either one first doesn’t really matter I’ll just start with the profit and loss and if you get screens like this that says customize go ahead and just close that out for now and what you’ll want to do is make sure that you choose all from the top of the list here and then make sure you hit run report and you can see there’s the data now you’ll do the same thing with that balance sheet you’ll go back to reports over here on the left you’ll run the balance sheet make sure that you’re running this on a cruel basis and also make sure you’re looking at the dates all at the top you’ll want to make sure accrual is chosen right there like I said and then run your report now print those out and compare those two if all the data is the same on both of those then you’ve got everything but if one’s different than the other then it didn’t actually export all your data and pull it up to the online version and you may want to try it again and that’s how you’re going to pull your data from your desktop version into your online version let’s go ahead now and move over into section four and I’m going to give you a quick overview of how the screen looks we call this your user interface okay what I’d like to do in section four is go ahead and give you a quick overview of what the user interface looks like basically the screen when you pull it up what is it you’re seeing and how do all those pieces and parts work let’s flip over to QuickBooks and I’ll give you a quick overview when you first log into your company file you’re going to be on what we call the dashboard right here and basically the dashboard is just a quick overview of how the different areas of your company are doing a couple things you’ll notice you have the ability to add your logo you can just click here search your computer for your logo and Pull It in there are some things over here that it asks if you’d like to start doing you can click there so if you wanted to start invoicing for example you could choose that option you can also go ahead and set up some payments send your first invoice and swipe cards in person with your mobile app if you happen to have that set up now some of these things are not free they are fee based meaning that Intuit will sell these to you so for example if you’d like to be able to accept credit cards then they can set you up with the merchant services account you’ll notice down here are all of your invoice options so think of this as your accounts receivable this would be the amount of invoices that you have outstanding they have not yet been paid over here your expenses those would be the bills that you’ve put in you would be able to see any of those you had not paid yet as well so think of this area as accounts receivable and this as accounts payable here where it says profit and loss that is the most important report in QuickBooks because it will tell you if you’ve made money or if you’ve lost money and then over here you’ll just see all of your bank accounts and if you wanted to click on one you could let’s say for example I wanted to go to my checking account this one here is called checking if I double click and open it up that’ll take me directly to the checkbook register now I’m going to close this message real quick we’re going to spend some time in the register a little bit later but that’s a quick way to get into the register now if I wanted to go back to the dashboard all I have to do is come back over to my navigation pane which is what this is called and click on the dashboard and I’ll be back to where I just was this is called the navigation pane on the left if you went down to banking you would see all of your banking options I’m going to click on banking here and what this is going to show me is how to actually set up my account so that it is connected to the bank and I can pull in my transactions now I’m going to talk about this a little bit later but you don’t always want to do this if you are actually using the invoicing feature in QuickBooks like you should and receiving payments or if you’re using the bill feature and paying the bills correctly then you don’t want to enter information twice so you can set it up but you’re not always going to want to pull in data from the bank now if you had a credit card it would work perfectly now I know that probably doesn’t make sense yet but we will talk about some of that stuff a little bit later on over under expenses here expenses are things that you have to pay out you had to enter some bills you wrote some checks to pay those maybe use the purchase order system you can kind of see all that right down here the next thing is your sales these are the things that you actually sell to your customers you’ll notice that under sales I can look at invoices I can also look at my customer list as an example and I’ll just show you what that looks like real quick this is going to be a list of all of your customers and you can see that they’re set up alphabetical in this case by last name we’re going to spend time on customers a little bit later but that’s how you get to the customer list you also have different projects that you might work on in the desktop version they call these jobs in here they’re called projects you might have a particular customer you’re working with but you might have multiple jobs or projects going for that customer under the workers option this is where you’re going to find your payroll options there’s a ton of reports we’re going to be looking at a little bit later you’ve also got a place where you can go in and look at your sales tax and also payroll taxes if you’re doing payroll through QuickBooks you’ve got an option for mileage where you can go in and plug in which vehicle you drove which job you went to which customer you worked with those types of things accounting now this is going to be the one thing you want to remember how to get to because this is very important this chart of accounts is the backbone of all accounting when you spend money what did you spend the money for if you receive money was it a sale you made from your business you’re going to have to tell QuickBooks where all the money connects to in what we call the chart of accounts we are going to be going through the chart of accounts over in module three notice also this is where you would reconcile if you wanted to reconcile your credit card accounts or your bank accounts you do that right there you’re going to see my accountant which is the next one here if you actually have signed up with Intuit to use one of their QuickBooks bookkeeper accountant people that they have available then this is where you would go to actually find that person and invite them to be a partner with you as they call it there’s also some apps that work with QuickBooks you’ll see that right down here they’ve got a list of some of the more popular ones some of the trending ones or if you wanted to look through some of the different apps down here at the bottom and pick one that you might want to use you can do that down here where it says live bookkeeping this is actually where we were just talking about a few moments ago you could actually go to my accountant and have an accountant partner with you they also have what they call live bookkeeping where you can actually pay into it and you get a bookkeeper that will take care of your books for you and both of you have logins to your company file so you can both get in there and do your work and you can also have conversations so you’ll be able to talk to them live as well and then the last thing here is what we call a cash flow this is something new that will be coming to QuickBooks very soon it’s called the cash flow Center and you can see that it’s going to let you know what all is going on with your cash accounts meaning with your checking account and things like that and you get a screenshot over here if you want you can join the wait list and when the actual cash flow Center is ready to go then they will send you an email just give you some more information about it now one thing to keep in mind I did tell you Way Back in the beginning that if you happen to log in tomorrow and let’s say for example this new button here is not there look for it or look for the options that were underneath it already because they’ve just moved them somewhere else and that’s just something they did recently actually is they used to have those options right over here and then they moved them here recently now just to tell you what the new is anytime you want to create something new like a new invoice or maybe add a bill those types of things you’ll see that in this list and you’ll notice that where it says money in all of these options are your accounts receivable anything having to do with customers wears money out is your accounts payable and then where it says other these are just some other things that you can create new transactions in QuickBooks if you click on one of these particular options the other thing I want you to be aware of is what we call the gear and you’re going to see that right over here in the top right of your screen and we’re going to go through the gear options over in module three I just want to give you a quick overview of how this whole user interface looks and how it works now that you have a quick overview let’s head over into module three and that’s where I want to spend time talking to you about customizing your QuickBooks files we’re starting module 3 now and I want to start off this module by briefly just talking to you about the gear menu there’s going to be a lot of places in QuickBooks where you can customize things to make it work a little bit better for you but let’s go ahead and start there so that you can see what some of the options are and where you would go to make some changes to your company file the gear option is in the top right hand corner of your dashboard right here and you’re going to see that when I click on this it’s going to give you some lists that you can look at it’s going to give you some of the tools that are in QuickBooks you’re going to have access to some of your company options that you might want to go in and change like maybe the address things like that and also it’s got what they call a profile menu for your Intuit account right over here when you’re looking in here you want to get really really really familiar with a couple of these specifically this chart of accounts right here we’re going to spend more time on that later in this particular module specifically in section four we’ll get started with that but everything in QuickBooks will run through the chart of accounts that’s why it’s so important that you know where that is don’t confuse the gear icon with this new Option way over here this is where you’re going to click if you want to create a new transaction maybe you need to create an invoice maybe you need to create a bill maybe you need to do something like track your mileage those are all new transactions you could create just recently they’ve moved this new button over here and renamed it it used to be right up here and everyone got confused between the gear icon and this now they’ve moved it way over here so that you don’t get confused anymore and it says new meaning new transaction that’s really all I want you to know about the gear menu right now what I want to do now is take you over into section two where we’re going to use the gear icon to go ahead and customize some of the options for your company file hey welcome back let’s go ahead and finish up talking about customizing your company file this is actually part two of section two let’s go back down to reminders I’m going to click the pencil icon there’s a couple of options that you want to be familiar with in here you have the ability to set up invoice reminder emails for an example if your customer is late paying an invoice or you just need some reason that you want to remind your customer to pay that invoice then you can go ahead and either use the standard message or you can go ahead and edit the one that you see down here and you’ll see it just basically says this is a reminder we haven’t received your payment yet you do have the ability to insert a placeholder which basically means that anywhere in here you can put in the company name or the invoice number and that would actually be a merged transaction is what they call it it’ll pull from QuickBooks that information you can email yourself a copy and you can go ahead and save this when you’re done you also have options for online delivery down here at the bottom you’ll see these are email options for all of your sales forms your options for this will be when you actually email your sales form over to your customer do you want to have a short summary show up in the email or show the full details in the email you can also attach it as a PDF right here and some additional options you have is if it’s an online invoice you can actually set it up for edge2ml or if you want it to show up in plain text but you probably want to leave it online invoice and then click save and the last one I want to mention at the bottom here are statements and I’ll go ahead and show you those options a statement goes out at the end of the month and basically it starts with the balance from the prior month it shows all of the transactions that month and then what the customer owes at that point it’s really a gentle reminder for your customer to go ahead and pay you statements are not mandatory but they certainly do help when you’re trying to collect money you’ll notice that when you print statements you have an option to list each transaction on a single line or List each one including all the details on that particular one you can also show the Aging table at the bottom of the statement and what that means is it will have a field that says one to Thirty Days another one says 31 to 60 and another says 61 to 90 and that way your customer will know where they fall in that particular aging table I’m going to go ahead and hit save and those are your options that happen to be under the sales let’s look at the options for expenses expenses are things you have to pay bills that come in the mail that you have to pay for example your options are to show item table on expense and purchase forms you can track expenses and items by customer make expenses and items billable and default bill payment terms make expenses and items billable let me just tell you what that means real quick if you have to purchase a product or service and you want to make sure that you invoice your customers so you can get reimbursed for it instead of just manually putting those receipts in the car or keeping them on your desk QuickBooks will remember those expenses and when you’re ready to invoice the customer you can just pull them in you also have the ability to use the purchase order system so if you don’t use purchase orders you might decide to turn this off also you have this option called messages at the bottom this is a default message that will be sent when you send purchase orders I’ll go ahead and open that one so you can see the default message you can also edit this to say anything you’d like and then make sure you save it when you’re done the next tab on the left says payments this would be customers paying you there’s a couple things you can do one is if you want you can sign up with QuickBooks to receive payments quicker by going through this little service QuickBooks has that’s very similar to the way PayPal or Zell might work you just sign up for it if you want to learn more you can click here and that way you can actually email an invoice to a customer for example they can click a button right there and pay you right then and there QuickBooks will automatically be updated once you’re paid from your customer if you already have some sort of existing account with Intuit for example they have something called GoPayment or merchant services you can connect it to your QuickBooks as well right here and this is where you connect and the last option says Advanced there’s several things here I’ll just mention briefly if you want to have the first month of your fiscal year start maybe in September you can actually go ahead and change this it’s going to default to January make it correspond with your real existing start of your fiscal year you might have a different date for the beginning of your income tax year so you can go in and change those your accounting method is set for accrual when you run reports you can run them on accrual basis or cash basis accrual basically means that as soon as you invoice it shows up as income where their customers paid you or not as soon as you enter a bill it will show up as an expense whether you’ve paid it or not if you change this to what they call Cash basis you will only show the income once you receive the money from the customer or you’ll only show the expense once you actually spend that money I want to mention closing the books as well because this is an option that you’ll want to think about in real life accounting what happens is you close the books at the end of the month and you close the books at the end of the year and what that means is if you want to make a change in a closed period you can’t do it you need to make an offsetting entry in the current period your books are not closed automatically in QuickBooks it doesn’t remind you anything so if you want to close them you have to come here you’ll be able to go in and you’ll be able to tell QuickBooks that you do want to close the books and then you can set a closing date let’s say you set it for December 31 of 2019 that means that after you are working in the next year but you see a change you want to make in 2019 prior to December 31 you’re not going to be able to change it I’m going to go ahead and cancel out at that we talked a little bit about tax forms earlier you want to make sure you keep that one also the chart of accounts I know you haven’t seen it yet but basically everything in QuickBooks will run through this chart of accounts and currently they do not have general ledger numbers they’re just a list alphabetical per each type if you want to turn on general ledger numbers you can turn them on right here also you have some options for the markup income account and we’ll address that a little bit later let me mention real quick the track classes and the track locations locations means if you have different physical locations for your business you can turn this option on and every transaction that you work in you can choose which location you want that to go to classes is very similar except it’s not really locations think about this let’s say that you happen to have two different divisions of your company you might use those for your class list and everything you do make sure you pick the correct option from the list there’s some things about forms where you can have it pre-filled automatically automatically apply payments things like that you might want to look through that at some point a project would be like a job related activity you’ll notice that you have the ability to organize all of those job related activities in one place and that is turned on you’re also viewing QuickBooks in the business view there is an option to go ahead and also see this in what they call the accountant View time tracking if you want to be able to track the time that you or your employees spend working on different projects or jobs you have the ability to do that you can also come down and change the currency there’s some date options and things like that all the way down here that means there’s a lot of options in here that you can go through and set you’re going to want to look through these you don’t have to get them all right away but at some point if you want to set these you just come back in and make all these changes I’m going to go ahead and close that with the X at the top right and that’s going to take me back to the dashboard let’s go ahead and now move over to section three and I’ll show you how to manage users in section one we got familiar with the gear menu there were lots of different options in there that you can use to customize how your company file works and I want to take you into the gear menu now and into some of those options and show you how to customize some of those different things so that your company file works best for you let me go ahead and flip over to QuickBooks and we will Dive Right In I’m going to click on the gear icon and I want to start over in the First Column underneath where it says your company you’ll see an option that says account and settings these are going to be like preferences or options that you can turn on or off or edit in QuickBooks as we go down the tabs on the left and we’ll start with company if you want to change anything in these different sections just go over to the right and click on the little pencil icon and that will take you into the edit option you’ll notice here that I can add my company logo just by clicking the plus sign and that will let me navigate through my computer to find my logo I could edit the name of the company if I like also you might want to put in your EIN number or your social security number you’re going to use your social if you’re a sole proprietor and you really don’t have payroll if you do have payroll you’re going to have to have your EIN number in here so that QuickBooks can use it to help you with your payroll I’m going to hit save and that’s going to save that little section the next little section says company type and you’ll notice the first thing is the tax form and then the industry I’m going to click over on the pencil icon here and I want you to notice that you have the ability to add whatever type of tax form that you actually file when you do your taxes at the end of the year you can add that here now let me just make a little Point here you do not have to pick anything here as a matter of fact if you do not file your own taxes if you have an accountant then I would pick other or none every single time your accountant will know what type of tax form that you file if you pick any of these options what will happen is when you’re working in different places in QuickBooks there will be an extra field that says Which tax line on the tax form would you like to put this on you’re not going to have a clue if you’re not an accountant and you’ll just get stuck there every single time so why see that field and get yourself stuck I’m just gonna pick not sure other or none and the other thing is you have an industry you chose when you first set up your company file I chose Professional Services you can change that if you want but I’m going to leave that and hit save the next little section you’ll see here has to do with your company email you’re going to have your customer facing email the difference is that the company email is the private email that you like different things sent to from Intuit for example the customer facing email is the one you want the customer to see and that can actually be redirected to your company email if you don’t want to have to open 15 different email accounts you can always have as many email accounts as you want and redirect them to the one you’d like to funnel everything into there’s a place to put in your company phone and your company website here again you would edit that over on the right and the company address down at the bottom same thing you can have a company address that’s seen on the back end and then one that’s called customer facing meaning that’s the one that the customer actually sees let me go down on the left here to billing and subscription this is where you’re going to be able to go in and upgrade your existing subscription if you’d like you’ll notice that you can subscribe right from here and you can see all of the options and we’ve talked a little bit about these before so I’m not going to spend much time on that the next one on the left is usage there are some limits to some of these different subscriptions for example when you’re using the QuickBooks Online plus and you need more room you’ll want to go ahead and upgrade your subscription for example the one that I’m using only allows me one user if I want to add a user I may need to upgrade my subscription there is a number of items you can put in the chart of accounts as an example it’s 250. just a little FYI the desktop version allows you to have 14 500. if I need 251 then I need to upgrade my subscription and then down here where it says classes and locations you can have up to 40 and if you need more then that’s another reason you would want to upgrade your subscription I’m going to go over to sales on the left and there’s several things in here that you may want to go ahead and work with now later on we’ll look at customizing the look and feel of your different forms for example if you have an invoice and you want to add your logo or something like that but these are some things you can turn on or off right here in your forms for example let’s say that you like to invoice your customers and you want the customers to automatically have terms of Net10 for example well currently they’re net 30. let me go ahead and click on the pencil icon and show you some of these here’s where I could change this to one of these other preferred invoice terms if you’re not familiar with the ones that say one percent Net10 like these three and there’s two percent knit ten and eight basically what that means is the customer invoice will be due in 30 days but if they paid in 10 days they can take one percent off it’s a way to get your customers to pay you early if you have a preferred delivery method you can choose it right here do you like to print things now or would you like to send things later I’m referring to an invoice as an example here where it says shipping if you don’t ship anything then you can go ahead and uncheck this and this will say off if you do ship things then you had some options down here where you can have sales reps and put in purchase order numbers things like that these are custom fields you can also turn those off if you don’t need them if you want PO number not sales rep for example just uncheck the sales rep option you can have custom transaction numbers and that basically means that if you want to put in your own transaction numbers you can go ahead and set that series up you can have a service date field you can also have fields for the discounts deposits or tips or gratuity if you use that you can just go in and turn these on or off I’m going to hit save right there the next thing you’re going to see is products and services right over here and you’ll see there are several different options related to that that you can turn on or off for example if you don’t track inventory you can actually turn off this inventory option right here I’m going to go ahead and cancel that there’s also some options for late fees there’s also some for Progress invoicing and let me just mention what that is just so you’ll know if you estimate jobs construction is a prime example you’re going to want to take that estimate and turn it into an invoice at some point so that your customer can pay you you do not have to pull everything from the estimate into an invoice you can pull in 30 percent for example or maybe you want to pull in certain items that were on that estimate into an invoice if you do estimates you will want progress invoicing there’s a couple more options here let me scroll down there is an option for messages when you actually email a form so let’s say it’s an invoice for example or what they call a sales form you have the ability to email it directly to your customer you can set the default message and I’ll go ahead and click on that one so we can see you can say dear or you can say two notice you can have a merge field if you want to have their full name their last name first name and you can use the standard message that you see right here below when you’re actually sending out that email you can also have a copy email to yourself every time if you’d like I’m going to go ahead and hit save down at the bottom a couple more things I want to point out you’ll notice there is an option for reminders and I want to briefly tell you how reminders work but before we do that I think we’ll go ahead and stop the video right here let’s go over into the next section and I’m going to talk to you a little bit more about some of these other options here for account and settings one of the things that you will want to do is make sure that each person that is using QuickBooks has their own login you’ll give each person their own username and their own password only the administrator can add edit or delete users you can have up to five users in your QuickBooks file if you need additional ones you can think about upgrading your subscription or purchasing those additional ones that you might need the reason you want to have these additional users set up is because if you want to track down errors then you’ll want to know who was logged in at the time that that particular transaction was changed you can run an audit Trail to see a report on which user was logged in with the transaction used to look like and what it looks like now you also will be able to limit the user’s access to certain areas of QuickBooks let’s go ahead and flip over and I will show you how to manage the users keep in mind that the administrator has to be logged in in order to work with the users I’m going to go up to my gear icon in the top right hand side of the screen and in the First Column you’ll see an option that says manage users the first thing I want to point out is that normally if you’re using one of the basic subscriptions then you only have five what they call billable users in your plan and like I mentioned earlier you do have to upgrade if you want to have additional users the admin is considered one of the five users and you can see here is the admin name if you wanted to edit the admin information you can choose the edit over on the right and then come over here to edit user settings typically when you first set up QuickBooks you’re going to see the email address that you signed up with right here under the first name field and there won’t be anything where it says last name you could come up here and change those like I did I’m going to go ahead and hit save at the bottom if you want to add a user just come over to the right here and click on add user your user that you’re setting up can have what they call Standard rights which means that you can choose to give them full rights but you can also choose to limit their access to certain areas or you can give them company admin rights which means they have access to everything these options up here count towards your five user limit we discussed these here don’t because you might have someone you want to be able to log in just to run reports or maybe just to do time tracking I’m going to go ahead and choose standard user at the top and click next in the bottom right hand corner of the screen the first thing it asks me is how much access do I want to give this user now if you say all notice it will include payroll and it will check that and you can see all the different things they have access to over here if I go ahead and uncheck that you’ll notice that the things they don’t have access to do or down at the bottom they can’t add or edit employees in this case or delete payroll transactions it could be that I say none I don’t want them to have rights to any of these accounting features but they can still manage other things in QuickBooks like submitting their own timesheets things like that I can also give them limited access meaning if I want them to be able to do things with customers you can see the choices here or if I want them to do things with vendors or both you can see I can check both and you’ll see all the options here as well I’m going to go ahead and click next and now it asks me do you want this user to add edit and remove users we’re going to say no and I wouldn’t change that because you want the administrator to have rights to everyone if you start giving everyone full rights to change users and that sort of thing then what’s the point in even setting those up notice that you can also give this person permission to edit the company info or if you want them to manage the subscriptions you have the ability to do that as well I’m going to go ahead and click next at the bottom then it says we’ll invite them to create a QuickBooks account and password for each to access the company file what you’re basically going to do here is the new user you’d like to set up you’re going to put in their first and last name here put in their email and they will actually get an email saying that the administrator would like them to become a user they would accept and then they can set up the username and password make sure that the administrator knows that information you wouldn’t want to have an employee that has their own username and login information and the administrator doesn’t know what it is and can’t have access to what they do that’s going to be very important for you I’m going to go ahead and just X out of this because at this point what would happen is once they accept it then you would see their name down here as a user and that’s really how the users will work I do want to show you the audit trail report but we’ll do that when we get over to reports a little bit later let’s go ahead and wrap up this section and let’s talk over in section 4 about the chart of accounts we’re getting ready now here in section four to talk about the chart of accounts the chart of accounts is probably the most important thing in QuickBooks every single thing in QuickBooks will flow through the chart of accounts somewhere the chart of accounts is basically a listing of different areas where you might actually spend money or you might receive money as well and you want to make sure that your information goes into the correct categories that way when you run reports you have accurate information there is a part two to the chart of accounts make sure you watch both parts so that you have a really good understanding of how the chart of accounts Works let’s go ahead and flip over to QuickBooks and we’ll get started there are a few different ways to get to the chart of accounts one way is to go through the gear icon and in the First Column you will see the chart of accounts another way is just go over to the left and click on accounting and there you will see the chart of accounts as well and this is what your chart of accounts looks like remember that every single thing in QuickBooks runs through one of these that’s why it’s so important that this is set up correctly but let me quickly give you a quick overview of how the screen looks you’ll notice the First Column is the name of your account when you’re setting these up you can pretty much name these accounts anything you’d like but make sure that you name them something that makes sense to you or whoever happens to be looking at your reports the second column is the type and notice that it’s currently sorted by type we’re going to be going through all the different types so that you will know which ones you need to set up to make sure that you have everything you need I want you to notice also that when you’re looking down this list and you see the type for example income notice that the names are alphabetical and that will be true of each of these types if you look at the expenses here then these are alphabetical if you want to turn on general ledger numbers you have the option to do that and let me show you what it will look like if you do you’ll actually go up to your gear icon then you’re going to go into account and settings then you’ll want to choose Advanced on the left hand side and under Advanced you’re going to see an option that says enable account numbers right here currently they’re off if I choose on just by clicking there and choose enable account numbers notice that turned it on and I can show account numbers and then save and I’ll show you what this looks like now let me go ahead and close this and you’re going to see now that you’ll have a new column at the beginning here where you can actually go through and put in your own account numbers there will not be in here automatically you have to add them the way you would add them is the way you would edit any of these accounts just come over to that line that the account you want to edit is on you’ll see a down arrow and you’ll choose edit and in this window you have the opportunity to add your new account number right here I’m going to go through this screen in a minute so I’ll just close that for now and I’m going to go back and turn those account numbers off for just a moment account and settings it’s going to be the advanced option on the left and I’m going to go ahead and turn off enable account numbers just by clicking that word on and I’ll uncheck these and save that now let’s go back and finish going down our list here the next column that you’re going to see next to the type is going to be the detail type and that’s just telling you a little bit more information about the type that you chose there’s also the QuickBooks balance and the bank balance the QuickBooks balance would be if you had entered some transactions in QuickBooks what is that balance for that account the bank balance column will allow you if you pull in your entries from the bank that’s called downloading your transactions then you’ll see what that balance is as well and you can see that you can match those up and see if you’re in sync here and we’ll be getting into that a little bit later but right now what I want to do is start talking to you about the different types of accounts you’d want to add and then we’ll add a few so you can get a feel over how this works the first type that I want to talk about are bank accounts you’ll notice there are no bank accounts at the top of this list that means that right now you do not have a checking account you don’t have a savings account any kind of bank account you have the ability to add these you’re going to be doing this by clicking over here where it says new and the

first thing you’re going to do is pick the account type in this case it will be bank but notice all the other types we’re going to be talking about where it says detail type right here just go ahead and pick the option from the list that closely matches the account type you’ve chosen over here is the name of the account when you name your account you can name it anything you want if you want to call it your bank name you could do that if you want to call it operating account and maybe another one called payroll account you can do that just whatever you like to name it I’m going to go ahead and leave it on checking for now description is totally optional and there’s not a sub account right now but later on I’ll talk to you about how sub accounts work the other thing you want to think about is a start date to start tracking the money in this checking account now what you want to do is if it’s the beginning of the year like it is currently then you probably want to go back to January 1 or the beginning of your fiscal year and put in all the entries if that’s the case then you can choose beginning of this year you might decide if it’s later in the year and you’re starting your QuickBooks file to go ahead and start with the beginning of that current month you can also pick other the reason you might want to pick other is what if you have a bank statement that cuts off in the middle of the month that would be an option where you can tell it a specific date to start with it really doesn’t matter what date you start with just try to make it correspond to the start date of your bank statement I’m going to go ahead and say beginning of this year and I’m going to go ahead and put in the balance the ending balance on 12 31 of 2019 would be the exact same number as the beginning balance of 1 1 2020. you’ll want to get that number from your bank statement I’m going to go ahead and say it was 250.62 and I’ll go ahead and hit save and close at the bottom and now you’ll see at the top you have a checking account and you have a balance of 250 and 62 cents you also have the ability to view the register I just want to show you that real quick if I come over here to view register then this is what the checkbook register actually looks like I’m going to close this this is just some information on what a register looks like and what it’s supposed to do anytime you want to go back to the chart of accounts you’ll notice right up here it says back to chart of accounts and that’s going to take me back to the screen now I also want you to notice something that happened anytime in accounting you do something like this then you will have a debit and a credit for that transaction you’ll notice that in this case the flip side the money went to an account called opening balance equity and that’s the way it should be you can’t change that just know that whenever you have a starting balance which could be a minus number if you have a loan but this is going to be an actual picture what your books look like so don’t freak out if you see a negative number there it’s an accurate picture of your books let’s go ahead and talk about some other bank accounts you obviously would have savings money market accounts things like that but think about do you have PayPal do you accept Square those are bank accounts as well so if you do accept those then you want to set this up as bank accounts what would eventually happen is you would transfer money from PayPal or square into your checking account or sometimes you go the other way but those are just Bank transfers the next type I want to talk to you about are your assets and you’ll see there are a couple of these here an asset is something that your business owns that makes it more valuable you’re going to have equipment you’re going to have chairs desk lamps Vehicles property assets fall into one of two types there are fixed assets which are things you plan to keep long term like the vehicle or the property then there are what we call more liquid assets or QuickBooks calls them other current inventory is a great example of that because I’m worth more right now because I have inventory in the back room but my goal is to sell it and get it out the door now what’s going to happen with assets is you’re going to set up big bucket categories and what I mean by that is instead of listing each vehicle the business owns you’re going to have a category called vehicles and they’ll all dump into that one category you don’t want to have a hundred different categories for your assets because no one wants to sit there and look at that just have big buckets maybe seven to ten good ones some of the common ones that I see are Vehicles you might have one called furniture and fixtures you might have one called property if you have a lot of property you might have equipment but again they’re just big buckets this is where the accountant’s going to be very helpful to you because the account is going to help you decide which categories to set up and also when you start talking about the money part then the account that’s going to help you plug in how much the vehicles were worth and depreciation and things like that QuickBooks does not do depreciation and that’s because there are multiple ways to do it if you had 10 accountants they might all tell you a different way they want it done so just know you want to have the account set up so that if you go to the bank to get a loan for example the bank will know that you do have some assets we’re going to move down the list but before we do I want to go ahead and stop the video here and have you go over into part two and we will continue talking about the different types that you’ll need to set up we’re in section four and we’ve just talked a little bit about how to start setting up some of the accounts in your chart of accounts I want to go ahead and finish telling you how to set up the rest of those accounts so let’s flip over to QuickBooks and we’ll keep going the next type that I want to talk to you about are what we call your liabilities a liability is something you owe now I’m not talking about the monthly payments you have to pay for the electric bill things like that what I’m talking about is a loan you’ve taken out of the bank when you think about your liabilities there are really two types there are what we call long term which are things that you’re going to pay on for more than 12 or 13 months and then there are short term which is under a year basically and QuickBooks calls them other current liabilities when you set up your liabilities you want to set up a separate one for each loan that you have and when I say loan it could be a car loan it could be you as the owner decide to set up a loan where you put money into the business and you want to get paid back you might have borrowed from the bank those are all different liabilities you want to set up and each one should be set up separately let’s set up a car payment so you can get an idea of how you would set up these accounts I’m going to click on new and the first thing it asks me is to pick the account type here you’re going to see your other current which is the short term and your long-term liabilities which is what I’m going to choose in this case another thing to notice is that where it says detail type if you see notes payable that’s just an accounting term for a loan basically over where the name goes this is where you’re going to pick the name that you want for your loan I’m going to call mine the bank of any City but you can call this anything you want sometimes what I’ll see people do is put the last couple digits of their account number here just so that they can see which loan they’re looking at when they have it pulled up in front of them description is totally optional this is where you might say that this is my 2019 Jeep Cherokee loan or you can leave it blank and then we’re going to have to pick a start date now remember if we’re starting our company the beginning of the year what you’ll want to do is for your beginning balance here find out what the amount you owed as of in this case January 1 was so that you can plug that in it’s not the amount you started with when you purchased the vehicle two years ago it’s the amount you owed as of the start date of your company file I’m going to put fifteen thousand dollars in here and then hit save and close at the bottom and now what you’re going to see is that you have a loan right here notice it says Bank of any City and the balance is fifteen thousand dollars every time you make a payment on the loan this is the account you want to put it to your car payment is not an expense to the business do not set it up as an expense account it is a loan and you want to know when you’ve paid off the loan you’ll also be able to on each individual check that you write you’re going to be able to put in how much is principal and how much is interest there the other thing I want you to notice here is look at your opening balance Equity it’s a negative number and that’s because I said that when you owe something it’s a negative number and this is an accurate picture of what your books look like let’s talk about credit cards a little bit and I’m talking about credit cards that your business uses to purchase items for the business this has nothing to do with accepting customer credit cards you want to set each credit card account up separately so that you can track each one I’m going to go ahead and set up a new one for you the type is going to be credit card I’m going to name my card I’ll just call it visa and I’m going to pick the start date of my company file the beginning of this year and the starting balance would be the starting balance from my January bank statement if you don’t have your January bank statement then you can grab your December of 2019 and plug that number in I’m going to say it was twenty five hundred dollars and I’ll save and close and now what you should see is that you have a credit card and you owe 2500 when you make a payment towards the credit card you’re going to actually put it to this account always do not try to break it up that so much is gas and so much was meals because there is another way to do that in QuickBooks all the payments go directly to the credit card account going down the list the next type that I want to mention is where you see Equity Equity basically means equal if you think about it you’re the owner of the company when you take money out that’s considered an owner draw when you put money in it’s considered an owner contribution now they’ve got some other terminology you’ll notice owner investment is when the owner puts money into the business and owner pay and personal expenses is when the owner takes money out of the business what I don’t want you to do is make a deposit from your personal account and consider it income it is not income to the business it’s considered equity the next type that I want to talk to you about are your income accounts I’m going to scroll down just a little bit here you’re going to see that there is one called sales income and typically when you make a sale for your business this is the account that you want your sales to dump into you can have a few extra ones added if you’d like maybe you have different areas that you do business in and what I mean by that is in your company maybe you have different things that you do and you’ll want to actually set those up so you can see how much income you’re getting from each one that’s certainly okay keep that list pretty short though no one wants to Read 50 different lines of income accounts but sales is normally where you’ll see most of that go into the next thing I want to mention is your cost of goods sold think about the things that you have to buy to make a product or service in your business you have to buy materials you’re going to need subcontractors sometimes maybe you have Freight that’s part of that anything that you have to buy to make a product or service in your business is considered a cost of goods sold and you want it to show up on a profit loss as being deducted from your total income the largest grouping that you’re going to see are your expense accounts and you’ll see there are a ton of these here you’ll also add a lot of these let me show you how to add some sub-accounts so you’ll see how this works let’s use car and truck as an example we have the main account here but I want to add a sub account called gas and maybe another one called repairs and maintenance all you’re going to do is go back up to the new option in the top right of your screen here you are going to create a new account and it has to be the same type as the main account so that means this one has to be an expense account and in this case it is Auto and I want to name this one fuel what I’m going to do is check it’s a sub account of and then from this list here what I’m going to end up picking is car and truck so see how the fuel is a sub account of car and truck and when I click save and close at the bottom I want to show you how sub-accounts look see how fuel looks like it’s indented a little bit that’s a sub account and there’s going to be a lot of these you’ll want to add when you’re going down this list think about insurance you might have general liability you might have auto insurance those would be sub-accounts of insurance going down under legal and professional fees often what I’ll see is accounting and the attorney will be sub accounts of legal and professional fees and you can just come down and make this list look any way you want there’s utilities at the bottom you’ll want to have telephone underneath gas electric any of the utilities that the business pays that’s going to give you a quick overview of setting up your chart of accounts make sure you spend some time on this and get it set up the way you want it you want it to be as detailed as you need it to be to get your numbers but don’t make it so detailed that no one wants to read it you can always set up accounts later as you go along as well because you’re not going to catch them all right away well that’s going to wrap up the chart of accounts let’s go ahead now and move over into module 4 and we’re going to talk a little bit about working with accounts receivable and we’ll start with learning how to set up customers foreign we are getting ready to start talking a little bit about the accounts receivable portion of QuickBooks if you’re not familiar with that term anything happen to do with customers in your business that’s called accounts receivable customers are people or businesses that buy from you you’re typically going to make a sale and that’s going to be income to your business we need to talk first of all about how the customer list is set up and then once we do that we’ll go into the second section and I’ll show you how to add some customers to this list the way you’re going to get to a list of your customers is to go over to your navigation bar on the left point to sales and then you’ll see customers in the list at the very top of your customer list here you can see the dollar amount for any of these categories you can see that for open invoices I have 35 810 these are invoices that have been created and the customer has not paid them even if they owe a penny if you had any of this amount that was overdue you would see that over here and overdue means that if you had set specific terms on an invoice let’s say net 30 meaning that invoice was due in 30 days and the customer has not paid you by then then some of this moves over into the overdue category you can also see how much was paid in the last 30 days in this case nothing there’s also a dollar amount for what we call unbilled activity and for estimates sometimes you will get little messages like you see here right above your actual customer list you can close this with the little X in the right hand corner and then you can actually see the list the customer list is set up alphabetical by last name you’ll notice that when you look down this list the list is set up by last name comma first name you’ll want to do that because it’s a lot easier to find someone when you’re looking for them if it’s set up that way obviously a business like Adam’s candy shop would not have a last name and a first name so it just sorts the first letter which is a in this case with the A’s in the list if you see a little envelope to the right of some of your customers that means that if you click there you can actually send that customer an email if their email address was set up when you actually set up the customer then it would pull it like you see here if not you’re going to notice that there’s no envelope meaning that you have not put in a customer email address in the customer information these are what we call sub customers sometimes they’re called jobs sometimes they’re called projects and the online version the technical term is a sub customer they’re both sub customers of in this case Mike ballick you can also see the customer’s phone number and the open balance meaning how much money that customer owes you there’s also a column for actions if you happen to be on this screen and you’d like to take one of these actions related to this customer you could do that for example you could go ahead and create a statement or an invoice right from here just know that you’re not always going to be on this screen when you want to do those things so there are other ways to do those actions notice you can also search for a customer right up here so if you want to look for Mike ballick for example you can start typing the last few characters of their name and then you’ll see that it pops up in the list over on the right hand side you have the ability to print a list of your customers you can also export this list to excel if you’d like and there’s also some settings and I want to click on those for a moment because I want to show you that these are going to be the columns that you see up here if I’d like to see their email address I just choose that and notice now I have a column for email or if I’d like to see their address I can click on that and now I see their address as well it’s just how do you want to actually look at this list another thing I’ll mention way back over on the left where it says batch actions if you have multiple customers selected from the drop down list you can actually email all three of these customers or you can make them inactive an inactive customer is a customer you’ve used in the past therefore you can’t to delete them but if you haven’t seen them in a long time and you just want to hide them from the list you can make them inactive that’s a quick overview of the screen itself here what I’d like to do now is take you over into the second section and show you how to add a customer to the customer list now that you’ve gotten a quick overview of what the customer list looks like and how it works we need to start adding some customers to this list let’s go ahead and flip over to QuickBooks and I will show you how to add your first customer if you’re in your customer list you’ll notice in the top right hand corner there’s an option to add a new customer there’s also a down arrow to the right of that because you can also choose to import customers what if you have a list of customers already set up in Excel you can just import those so that you don’t have to set them up one at a time we are going to talk about importing customers from Excel over in Section 5 of this module for now I’m going to click on new customer we’re going to put in some customer information on this screen and you’ll notice the first thing it asks for is the company name remember that a customer can be a company a customer can also be an individual that works for a company or it could just be an individual and there’s no company in that case you wouldn’t put anything in the company name field but I’m going to go ahead and put in this customer’s company it’s BRC supplies and you’ll notice that because I’ve typed a b it starts pulling down a list of different companies that it’s found and their addresses so if I want to just choose one of these I could but since I’m typing this in from scratch I’m going to go ahead and just click over to the side somewhere and then I can come back over and finish filling this out this customer’s name is Tom Allen and notice it now has a display name as Tom Allen you can change that display name to show as the company name or last name comma first name display name means the way you see it in the list over here remember we talked about the easiest way to find customers is to type it in last name comma first name just be consistent with however you decide to do it it’s also going to use the display name as the same way it’s going to put their name on checks it looks kind of funny if I write a check to Alan comma Tom I’m going to uncheck the box and then I’m going to put in Tom Allen and that way that’s how his checks will appear when we put his name in there over on the right you see I can type in an email I’ll just say Tom Yahoo you can also put in Tom’s phone number Tom’s mobile fax other end website also if this is a sub customer I can check the box and choose the customer that he is a sub customer of we’re actually going to do that over in section four now notice I’m on the address Tab and this is where I’m going to put in the billing address I’m going to go ahead and say he’s at one two three and we’re going to say this is Billings Road this is going to be in the city of Bayshore California States California and the zip code is 94326 the country we’ll just say USA now you’ll notice that the shipping address is the exact same as the billing address if you don’t ship anything you don’t have to worry about that but if you do they may want their invoices going to one address and the actual things you’re shipping going to a different address you can uncheck the box and change that information if you need to I’m going to go ahead and hit save and let’s see if Tom Allen is in the list he should be in here’s Alan comma Tom and he is you can see it right over here now I want to mention a couple of things when you’re in this list if you have a customer that you accidentally put in you cannot delete that customer the online version of QuickBooks lets you make a customer inactive meaning you hide them from the list but you cannot delete them now what you’re going to see is all the information you had set up about Tom Allen notice a couple of things you can add some notes if you want to this customer’s record I’ll just click add notes just to show you let’s just say that we can put in here this is a new customer for the year 2020. and that’s a note that’s all you have to do there and now that will show up anytime you want to see that notice also there is a tab for the transaction list down here and obviously we have no transactions yet but as we start creating invoices receiving payments that sort of thing they’ll show up right down here the projects these are going to be the jobs that we actually do for these customers there aren’t any set up yet here we can also see customer details this is where we’ve got all of the information we had just set up for this customer and then also if there were any late fees you would see that listed here as well and that’s how you set up a new customer I’m going to hit this customers link here in the top left and that’ll take me back to the list of customers and notice Tom Allen has an envelope to the right because we did put in an email address for Tom Allen that’s pretty much how you put in a new customer what I want to do now is take you over into section three and I’m going to show you how to add a sub customer now that you know how to add a customer let’s talk about how to add sub customers a sub customer is basically going to be a way of adding a level underneath your main customer if you have different jobs that you work on for a particular customer you can actually separate those jobs by actually creating sub customers then you can look at reports for the entire customer but also per sub customer in the desktop version of QuickBooks they actually call these jobs sometimes they’re called projects here like I said the terminology is a sub customer let me show you how to set those up to create a sub customer we’re still going to use the new customer button because it is a new customer we’re setting up they’re just a sub of another one we already have existing when this comes up all you want to do is put in the display name you can see in their case they’re using street addresses I’m going to make up one 124 and this will be Scottsdale Drive and the only other thing you want to do is come over here where it says is sub customer and underneath it pick the customer that you want to apply this to you can also see it says bill with parent over on the right and you do want to keep this together you can also build this customer individually we’re going to leave it on build with parent and you’ll see that it actually pre-populated all of this information from Tom Allen’s setup we don’t need to change any of this unless it happens to be different we’re just going to hit save and then that’s going to be our next level we’ve created you can see it right over here and that’s all there is to creating a sub customer now a couple things you need to know if you’re using the sub customer feature you want to use it consistently throughout QuickBooks if you don’t let’s say that you’re working on some transaction and instead of picking 124 Scottsdale I picked Tom Allen it’s still going to go to the right main customer but on reports you’ll see other and you’ll go what’s going on you want to make sure that you put it to the correct sub customer if you’re using the sub customers option not every business will use the sub customer option but it’s really great if you need to break out different projects like I said or maybe you have different locations for a particular customer things like that that’s really all there is to working with sub customers let’s go ahead now and move over into section four and I will show you how to edit an existing customer once you have a few customers set up you’re going to realize that you need to edit some of the information maybe you actually set up the information wrong or it could be that the customer information has changed maybe they’ve moved they have a new address you want to add a website you can always go in and edit the information about your customers and it’s a pretty easy process so let me show you how that works if you want to edit a customer’s information make sure you click on your customer over on the customer list and then come over here and choose this edit option let’s say that Tom’s email really includes his last name I’m going to go ahead and add Alan and let’s say that when we set this up we did not look at any of these tabs so let’s go through those real quick so that you’ll know what other types of information you might want to set up when you’re setting up your customers we’ve looked at the address tab now let’s take a peek at notes this is where you can add any notes you would like pertaining to this customer the best thing to do is just drop down after the previous node pop in the date and then pop in any notes that you might have pertaining to this particular customer the third tab over says tax info this has to do with collecting sales tax from your customer if you sell physical items and you charge sales tax you need to tell QuickBooks that this customer is taxable and what the default tax code is we’re going to talk about sales tax later on but just to give you a heads up what you’re going to have to do is where you’re setting up the items or the different things you sell they actually call them products and services in here then what’s going to happen is you’re going to set up each sales tax you need to collect and then you’ll group them together to create one big tax so that you’re charging the customer correctly and that’s where you would put that tax code let’s say that it happens to be the San Domingo we’ll choose that and now what will happen is when we invoice a customer it’ll pull that tax code automatically the next one is payment and billing a lot of this is just information for you first of all the preferred payment method does this customer usually like to pay you with cash check barter MasterCard you can kind of see the list there if you need to add a new way that the customer can pay maybe PayPal Square you can just hit add new right here and then you can actually type in the name of that new payment method and then hit save and now PayPal will be on the list since I just added it it does not mean that the customer pays you with PayPal every time it just means that’s their preferred way they typically like to pay you preferred delivery method how do they like to have their invoice sent to them do they like to have them printed and you can print them later or do they like to have them sent via email where you can send those later or do they not have a preference terms you can have different due date terms per customer if you have a really good customer you might have net 30. if you have a customer that’s brand new you might say do a pen receipt now let me tell you why you have this opening balance field here as of the start date of your company file how much money did this customer owe you let’s just say it was a thousand dollars you could plug that in there and the accounting would be correct but you would not have a way to go back and see that that was actually three separate invoices you sent them that total eight thousand dollars I’d like to go back and put each invoice in that the customer still owed me for and not fill this in But whichever way works for you would be fine as long as the numbers come out correctly and then of course if you did put an opening balance you would put in the date that that would be as of which would really be the start date of your company file the next tab over says language this will default to English but if you’d like to send your invoices to the customer in French Spanish Italian you can see the list there you can also have attachments for this customer what this would be is let’s say that you had some sort of file that you actually created or it could be a bill that you received something related to this customer instead of having to get out of QuickBooks and search your computer for that file you’ll be able to open it right here from QuickBooks because it will be attached if I click on attachments here it will allow me to search my computer and find that file and attach it here the last tab says additional info you might have different ways you like to categorize your customers you’ll notice they have commercial customers and residential customers but you can set up this list any way you like it and that’s going to be how those tabs work right there all you have to do when you’ve changed all the information is hit save and that information is now saved in QuickBooks now one quick thing I want to mention to you especially about sales tax if you have a customer you have set up where you charge a certain tax and later you go back and edit the information and change it it’s not going to go back to any prior invoices and change that sales tax it’s only for any new ones you create from this point forward well that’s how you’re going to edit your customers let’s go ahead now and move over into section five and I’ll talk to you a little bit about making customers inactive one of the things you can do in QuickBooks is with any list you’re working in whether it be customers chart of accounts vendors it doesn’t matter if you have an item on that list that you’d like to temporarily hide from the list you can make it inactive inactive customers actually will not show up when you’re working in other areas of QuickBooks but if you wanted to actually turn them back on you could go and activate them again let me go ahead and show you how to make a customer inactive and then you’ll know how to do it when you’re working in other lists and QuickBooks as well let’s say that I want to make Edward Blackwell inactive notice that Edward still owes me 1 125 I wouldn’t want to make him inactive because I’m going to be using this customer he’s going to make a payment and I’ll need to be able to apply money typically you make a customer inactive if you haven’t seen them for a while or maybe it was someone you set up and you never used those would be reasons to make a customer inactive let me show you what happens if you try to make Mr Blackwell inactive and he still owes you money I’m going to go ahead and click on edit and here’s where you go to make a customer inactive now this message is telling me that Edward still owes me money he has a non-zero balance if I say yes and make him inactive then QuickBooks will create an adjusting entry so that he doesn’t owe me money anymore I’m going to click yes and notice there’s a little error message and that’s because this customer has what’s called a recurring template that’s being used anytime you have something recurring you have to actually delete the recurrence of that whatever it is before you can go in and delete the customer in this case I’m going to go ahead and hit cancel at the bottom and let’s use a different customer Tom Allen because he doesn’t owe us any money we just set him up I’m going to go ahead and click on Tom Allen and then click edit on the right make inactive and now it tells me that Tom has a sub customers or projects making him inactive will also make all his sub customers and projects inactive and that’s what you want I’m going to click yes and now you’ll notice it says Tom Allen is deleted just a little FYI QuickBooks does not have a feature to delete anything from a list in this case a customer if you wanted to quote delete them you’d have to make them inactive and they’re still not really deleted because they show up in the list they’re just hidden so you can always activate them again now if you notice over here it says make active that’s how I go back and activate my customer again I’m going to click make active and now you’ll see over here it does not say deleted but notice the sub customer does you’ll want to repeat that process with your sub customer select them from the left and make them active and that’s a quick overview of how to make your customers inactive well let’s move on we’ve got one more thing to cover in this particular module I want to talk to you in section 6 about importing an existing list of customers that you might already have into QuickBooks thank you the last thing I want to talk to you about in module 4 is how to import your customers into QuickBooks you might already have a list of your customers in Excel for example or in a CSV file and it’d be really nice to be able just to import them into QuickBooks instead of having to enter them one at a time you will need to set them up a certain way I want to go ahead and pull up the Excel file that I have so you can see how it’s set up and even if you don’t have the feels the exact same you can map them once you go through this import process but let me go ahead and pull up the Excel file and show it to you and then I’ll pull up QuickBooks and we’ll go through and import those customers here I have a list of three customers I’d like to pull in from this Excel spreadsheet into QuickBooks and you’ll notice that I’ve got them set up by name company name email phone you can see the list here those are the names of the fields that are in QuickBooks that you want to pull the information into if you can set it up this way that’s the best way to do it but you can also map the fields if you want once you get inside QuickBooks but I wanted you to see this so that you would know exactly how to set it up and make sure you save it somewhere that you can pull it in pretty easily when you go to look for it let me go ahead and flip over to QuickBooks and we’ll pull in John Ellen and Doris all you need to do is make sure you’re on your customer list and go up to the down arrow next to new customer and choose import customers here’s where you’re going to select your Excel or your CSV file that you currently have your customers in mine’s called customer list and I’ll just choose that and you can see it brought that file in now all I have to do is Click next at the bottom and here I can map my fields to the fields that are in QuickBooks you’ll notice the First Column are the names of the QuickBooks fields and over here will be the names of the fields you had in your file if the names don’t match exactly like this one says name but maybe in your Excel spreadsheet this one said first name for example then you would choose it from the down arrow if there’s not a match like company for example when I look in my Excel sheet I did not have one called company then I’ll just say no match and it won’t be able to pull anything in the ones with the check mark that you see are the ones that actually have a match to the QuickBooks fields that sees the exact same name that it sees over in your Excel spreadsheet in this case once you’re finished going through that list you want to go ahead and click next at the bottom and you’ll see that there are three customers now that are ready to be imported if I had a lot of these I could go in and search for these by filtering and typing in the name of that customer it’s going to be pulling in the ones that have the check mark next to them I’m going to go ahead and import all three of those I’ll just choose import at the bottom and now you’ll see that it’s brought in those three customers let’s look first of all for Mr Stewart we’re going to go down the list here and you’ll notice that here is Jon Stewart he was the first one on our list it has now imported all the information within that Excel spreadsheet well that’s going to wrap up module 4 where we’ve talked a lot about customers now that we have our customers in we can move over to module 5 and talk about sales transactions using these customers hey there we’re working now in module five and in this module we’re looking at all the different types of sales transactions that can occur when working with customers these are going to be things like are you invoicing customers are you receiving payments from those customers maybe making deposits credit memos things like that before we get started over in section one I want to go through very quickly with you the sales tab that’s in QuickBooks and show you an overview of how it works and what type of information you can get out of it let’s go ahead and flip over to QuickBooks and we’ll look at the sales yeah let’s go over to our navigation bar and point to sales and then I’m going to click on overview this is just a quick overview of your income over time you can see that I’ve got 220 dollars that it looks like I made this month and I made that the week of February 16th through 22nd notice I can actually point right up here as well and see that information if I wanted to change this and see how much I’d made this month this quarter for example you can see last year this year you’ve got different choices here I’m going to go ahead and choose last month and it looks like last month we brought in over seven thousand dollars and you can see the high points of when you brought in the most money in this case January 19-25 down here I can see how many invoices are overdue and also the ones that I’ve already sent out that are not due yet and that’s 3976 dollars I might also have some money I’ve received that’s not deposited yet and you can see that here and also I can see the amount that I actually did deposit over on the right here these are some things that you can opt to set up with QuickBooks and some of these are paid subscriptions but if you want to set these up you’ve got different ways customers can pay you that would be Apple pay if you want them to be able to pay you direct deposit things like that you can set those up with into it you can also set up to get paid anywhere so if you have an app you’ve downloaded to your phone you can accept payment right there or you can send out an invoice to your customer that they can pay online they can actually click that invoice and then pay you right then and there like I said some of these are paid you will want to look into those before you sign up with one of those subscriptions if you’re interested in learning how the QuickBooks payments allow you to get paid online or in person you can watch this video here and then they have some shortcuts to some of the things we’re going to be talking about as we go along right down here but this is a quick overview of your accounts receivable now notice the next tab over will show all of your sales here you’ll see all the information on any sales transactions you can see all the transactions listed at the bottom so you’re going to see invoices payments credit memos if you look down the list here’s a Time charge there’s a sales receipt or refund any transaction that happened with your customers going to be on this list you’re going to see all the information about the transaction the balance the total and all the way over on the right you can take an action related to that particular transaction if you click the down arrow notice that you can either copy this you might want to delete it you might want to send a reminder you can kind of see your choices there the next tab at the top that you’re going to see are your invoices these are just invoices that are not yet paid you’ll notice it shows you all the information about each of the invoices the balance the total if it’s overdue maybe not sent or if it’s partially paid you can see some of these and then of course here’s your actions again if you want to take one of these actions related to one of these invoices the tab that’s next is your customer Tab and we’ve spent a lot of time on that and the last tab says products and services products and services are things that you either buy or sell to your customer they can be a physical item it could even be inventory or just a service you provide and you can see for all of these that you can look at all kinds of options related to whatever is underneath that particular tab that gives you a quick overview of how to use the sales option what I want to do now is take you back and let’s go ahead and get started looking at how to actually create sales receipts for those customers that want to go ahead and buy something and pay you at the same time foreign to a customer there are a couple different ways to record that sale one way is to create what’s called a sales receipt this is almost like point of sale if a customer comes in makes a purchase and gives you the money right then you can put all of that on one transaction and send them on their way with a receipt the other way that we’re going to talk about in section three is actually invoicing customers and that’s where you send out an invoice and the customer pays you after the fact but right now let’s focus on sales receipts let’s flip over to QuickBooks and I’ll show you how to enter sales receipt you want to start by going to your customers list look down the list and find your customer and the sub customer that you’d like to send a sales receipt to if you’re using sub customers always pick the sub customer if you just pick the main customer what will happen is you’ll look at reports and you’ll see other and you won’t know what that refers to so just make sure you always choose the sub customer notice when I go all the way to the right here and click the down arrow I have an option to create a sales receipt the first thing you’ll notice is that it brought in the customer and the sub customer you chose if you want to change those you can actually pick those from the drop down list the next thing you’ll see is a place to put in the email if you want to email this to more than one email address notice that you can type them both in here but just separate them with a comma and if you need the CC or BCC some additional email addresses you’ll see those here there’s also a check box that says send later that’s because you have the ability to set up the sales receipt and not actually send it right now it could be that you’re not really sure of the quantity but you want to go ahead and get this set up and saved you could do that you’ll see it brought in the billing address and it also has the sales receipt date which would be the current date if you want to change this date you can just click the little calendar like I did and change the date now in this case they’ve customized this sales receipt to have an additional field that says crew number if you wanted to plug something in there you would just type in the number for that crew or not use it at all now we’re going to come back to the payment method in a moment let’s go down to product service if you click your mouse in the first area there you’ll see that there’s a drop down list of all the products and services that you sell your customer if I go down this list you’ll see there are rocks these are garden rocks and if I choose that it will bring in a description and I can edit that description or add to this as much as I like I can go over to the quantity and put in how many of these the customers purchasing and the rate we’ll say we sell these for 25 dollars notice when I tab through it it’ll do the calculation three of these at 25 cost 75 dollars and this is subject to sales tax typically physical items are but Services you provide are not the little trash can that you see at the end would allow you to delete this line now let’s say I’m going to add one more to this I’m going to go down and pick a service let’s say that we have Design Services and I’ll just put this over in the description and then I’ll say the quantity is 1 and we’re going to charge a hundred dollars for this and notice this one is not automatically subject to sales tax I do have a third line available if I want to put something else in here if you don’t see an available line click where it says add lines and that’ll give you a line to type in notice you can also clear out all the lines if you wanted to do that right underneath it you have a message that will be displayed on the sales receipt it currently says thank you for your business and have a great day but you can put anything you like in there and also if you wanted to put a message and have it displayed on statements you could put that in here and just type it in over on the right you’ll see it shows us our subtotal you can see that 75 dollars of it is subject to sales tax and in this case they’re using a sales tax called California and it’s eight percent six dollars in this case if you want to give your customer a discount you can get them a percentage discount or a value meaning a dollar amount let’s say I want to give them 10 percent I’ll just type in 10 with a percent sign and notice it deducts 18 cents and if I scroll down it’ll show me the amount received and the balance due now remember because this is a sales receipt we’re going to put on this the payment amount they’re assuming we’ve received all of the payment back up here is where I can choose the payment method if they pay me with Visa or if they pay me with a check I can pick any option I like and there’s a little place for a reference number now if you had a Visa card you wouldn’t have a reference number with a check that would be a check number the next thing you’ll see is deposit two and it says undeposited funds your other choices would be to go ahead and deposit this to maybe a checking account for example you can see the list let me explain undeposited funds for just a moment in your chart of accounts you will have an account called undeposited funds this is a place where money sits that you’ve collected but you have not yet taken to the bank a customer came in paid you with a check you want to show QuickBooks the sales receipt is paid so you’ll choose deposit two undeposited funds but it might be that you’re going to collect all the monies you receive today and make them all one big deposit that’s when you choose undeposited funds if you knew this was the only thing that was going to be in this deposit you could choose checking and skip the next step of making a deposit I’m going to go ahead and leave it in undeposited funds and when you’re finished down the bottom you’ll want to either just save this or you can choose save and send which will email it or from the down arrow you can say saving close we’re going to close this and now that transaction has been completed you’re going to notice when we look at this that was Tom Allen 124 Scottsdale does not owe us any money however if we go over to the all sales and look here we should see Tom Allen’s sales receipt right here for a hundred and eighty dollars and 82 cents and it says it’s paid here’s where we could go and actually print this I want to view or edit this you’ll see here that this is your sales receipt where you can make that change if you need to I’m going to go ahead and get out of this I’m going to hit the X and cancel it and that’s how you would go in and actually create a sales receipt that money is now sitting in undeposited funds I want to take you over to your chart of accounts which happens to be over here under accounting and show you that account so that you can see the money there let’s see our chart of accounts and here’s undeposited funds now you can see it has 2 243 dollars in there but if I view the register over here you’ll see the transaction that we did and also which is right here any others that were already sitting in undeposited funds so hold that and when we talk about making deposits in section five you’ll see how this all comes into play but one way to keep a check on yourself is if you know everything’s been deposited then there shouldn’t be any money in undeposited funds okay let’s go ahead now and go over into section three and talk about invoicing customers we’ve talked a little bit about sales receipts and now let’s talk a little bit about sending out invoices to your customers remember the difference in a sales receipt and an invoice is that on a sales receipt the customer is standing right there you’re going to put in the line item they purchased you’re going to put in they made a payment the invoice is where you’re going to send an invoice to your customer and wait for payment at a later date sometimes you email these sometimes you mail them really doesn’t matter you’re going to receive the payment at a later date let me show you how to create invoices for your customers it’s very similar to the sales receipts but I want to show you where to go to get started creating invoices there are a couple different ways to get started creating an invoice you’re going to head over to the navigation Pane and point to sales you can either use the invoice option here or the customers if you choose the invoices option here you’re going to see a list of all of your invoices that you currently have and if you want to create a new one you can choose new invoice from right here if you started with the customers you would just come back to sales and go to customers this way then what would happen is if you had a customer you want to create an invoice for you could check them off head all the way to the right under the action column and then you can create an invoice this way either way would work whatever works for you ‘ll notice this way because I had a customer selected it pulled in all that customer’s information now if I wanted to change that I just click the down arrow and choose the new customer from the list remember I told you that if you’re using sub customers always always always pick the sub customer you want to go with the lowest level so that when you look at reports you don’t see other on your reports I’m going to start with Freeman Sporting Goods I’ll choose 55 twin Lane and now you’ll see it’s changed the customer email and the billing address if you didn’t have an email set up in your customer setup then you could physically type an email here you can also choose to BCC or CC someone just by choosing this option and putting their email addresses in here I’m going to hit cancel you can also send this later if you have this checked that means that you can create this invoice and then save it and then create another one and check the same box if you’ve done that you can email both of them at the same time that’s called sending a batch or emailing a batch if you happen to see that something’s changed with the billing address go ahead and change it here it’ll prompt you when you go to save it and ask if you want to save this permanently in their record because we had terms of net 30 set up in the customer setup you’ll notice the invoice date is 212 but the due date is 313 which is 30 days from the invoice date if I change this to Net10 you’ll see the due date is 10 days just make sure the due date is the date that you want the invoice to actually be due to you the crew number is a field they custom set up for this particular exercise you can go ahead and plug in some number just to keep it consistent there and then you can pick a product or service from the list to invoice your customer I’m going to choose installation and let’s say that I’m going to charge them a quantity of one at two hundred dollars remember a service is non-taxable so you will not see a green check mark there if you happen to see one just uncheck it and if you have a second line you’re just going to type on the second line whatever information you want to invoice the customer for here’s where you have your message that will appear in your invoice automatically you can type in there and change that to anything you like also when you’re sending out a statement to your customer then you can have a message on that statement appear as well whatever you typed in here you’ll notice that you can also put in an attachment let me scroll down just a little bit so you can see that if you happen to have some sort of file that was already saved in your computer you could attach it here an example might be if I’m installing landscape design I might have hired a subcontractor to do that and maybe the subcontractor has already sent me a bill and I want to attach that to this invoice over on the right if you’re going to give your customer a discount you can give them a percentage discount or a value discount I’ll choose value and give them 25 dollars and you’ll see it will deduct it from my 200 so now that the balance due is 175. couple things at the bottom you’re going to be able to do you can print or preview this right here you can also make it recurring and what recurring means is if this is something that happens on a regular basis then you can set QuickBooks up to automatically just put this in whenever you’ve told it to let’s say once a month it inserts this invoice automatically and then you can customize this a little bit if you want to do things like they added the crew number you’d be able to add Fields like that at the bottom you have an option that says save you have your save and close and if you wanted to create a new one you could click the arrow and choose save and new I’m going to choose save and close though and you’ll see now that our invoice has been completed if I wanted to go back and look at this I could actually come up here to invoices and then I can look down this list and find the one I’m looking for and that’s how you’re going to create an invoice for a customer let’s go ahead and move on into section four and I’ll show you how to record the payment once a customer actually pays you now that you’ve created your first invoice the customer is going to mail you a payment at some point now it doesn’t matter how the customer paid you you’re going to record their payment the same exact way we’re going to go in and tell QuickBooks how much the customer paid the date they paid all the pertinent information and when we’re done we’ll see that the invoice will show as being paid if they’ve paid the full amount if they haven’t it’ll show the balance or if it’s an overpayment it will show that as well let me show you how to record a customer payment for me before we receive our first payment I’d like to take you over to the reports section QuickBooks just head over to your navigation bar click on reports and the reports from the sub menu and this is all the reports that are in QuickBooks we are going to take some time in a later module and look through the different reports but right now I’d like you to head down to a section that says who owes you these are your accounts receivable reports if you head over to the second column you’ll see the second one is called the open invoices report and you can just click to run that one now these are all of the invoices that you’ve sent out that have not yet been paid even if the customer owes you a penny if you remember in the previous section we actually created an invoice for Freeman sporting goods and we did one for 25 Twin Lake and here it is right here 175 dollars I want you to notice that in any report if you want to go to that particular transaction you can see this is a link and you can just click anywhere and actually open up that invoice I wanted to show you this first because once we receive our payment this invoice will actually disappear if it’s paid in full or you will see this invoice and the balance is owed right over here not the 175 dollars that it originally was invoiced for now that you see that let’s head back over to our customers we’ll go to sales and we’ll go down to customers now let’s go down find our customer we’re going to receive the payment for and this is going to be Freeman Sporting Goods 55 Twin Lake you’ll notice over in the action column that you can receive a payment this is the receive payment window and the first thing you’ll notice is it pulled in my customer and my job I don’t need to change that unless I happen to want to pick a different customer and job I can look for an invoice by invoice number if I want to I can click there just type in the invoice number and hit find and it will search for it for me the next thing is the payment date I’m going to say this was received on February the 28th and here’s the payment method now here’s where you can pick the way that the customer actually paid you did they pay you with cash did they pay you with MasterCard Visa PayPal if you happen to take other payment methods you’d like to add like venmo or Square or even Bitcoin just come up here to add new and all you have to do is type in that new payment and then just hit save and from now on that payment method will actually be on the list there now I’m just going to say in this case it was a check though and I’ll put in the reference number that would be the check number and then just notice the money is going to go to an account called undeposited funds now hope that for a moment we’ll come back I want to finish the rest of this and explain this part to you now over here it assumed that my customer paid me the entire balance they owe for all of their invoices and we know that’s not always the case here I’m going to put in the amount that the customer did pay me let’s say the customer paid me 179 dollars now if you notice down at the bottom these are all of the invoices that are still open even if the customer owes me a penny you’ll notice what QuickBooks does is assumes the customer is paying all of the first one the rest of the money goes to the next one and then the balance of the money goes down to the next one all the way down now that’s not always how the customer has asked you to apply their payments let’s say in this case they’re not paying the first one they’re paying 175 dollars on this last one and they’re going to pay the four dollars on this one and that’s why it was 179 dollars always make sure that you have the correct invoices checked off and the correct amount over here that the customer is paying towards each of the invoices a couple of other things to notice when you look down at the bottom there’s going to be 179 dollars worth of money that’s applied and there’s no credit memos right now but if you had one you had issued for this customer then you could apply that credit memo to one of these invoices that would be open here if you want to clear the payment you could that would let you start all over filling this form out and then notice at the bottom there’s a place for a memo over on the left and there’s also a place for any attachments if you wanted to add something here and that’s all you need to do to receive payments it’s pretty easy process but I do want to go back up to this right here where it says deposit two and talk to you about what your options are currently if you receive payments the money’s going into this account called undeposited funds I’m going to go ahead and save this real quick and then I want to show you where undeposited funds is and then we’re going to come back in a second so I can show you where the other options are now if I close the receive payment window and head back to the chart of accounts I’m going to go down here to accounting chart of accounts you’ll notice that if I go down the list there’s this account called undeposited funds currently there’s two thousand two hundred and forty one dollars and fifty two cents in that account this is where money sits that you’ve received but have not yet deposited into the bank a good way to keep a check on yourself if you know that everything’s been deposited this should be zero let’s look at this for a second and see if we can figure out what money happens to be sitting in here notice you can click to view the register over on the right and what you’re going to notice is that right now it looks like there are three payments sitting in undeposited funds one of them is being the one that we just received none of these three are in the checkbook yet because they have not yet been deposited okay so let’s head back over to our payment that we just looked at I’m going to go to sales and go back to customers and let’s go down and find our customer Freeman Sporting Goods 55 Twin Lake and I’m just going to click on that for a moment and here you will see the payment that we just received I’m going to go ahead and click on that just to open it back up here were your other choices I could go ahead and put the money right in the checking account and this will skip the next step that we’re going to do but let me tell you why you may or may not want to do this if the 179 dollars is the only thing that’s going to be in that deposit then you can click checking hit save and close at the bottom and you are done with the whole process

but if you think you might receive another payment possibly from another customer and this one and the new payment are going to be together in the same deposit that’s when you want to pick undeposited funds and this will make more sense once we go through and make the deposit over in the next section but I’m going to go ahead and click save and close at the bottom here and let’s see if that invoice shows that it’s been paid when I go down the list and look at the invoice for 175 dollars it does show that it’s been paid in full if there was one penny left it would not say paid right here that’s how you receive a payment for a customer when you’ve sent out an invoice the next step in the process would be to actually take that money and make a deposit why don’t we head over into section five and I’ll show you how to make deposits foreign now that we’ve made a sale for our business we’ve actually invoiced a customer in this case we got paid and now we want to take that money and put it in the bank and that’s where the make deposits option comes in it’s always going to be the last step in this process no matter how you receive the payment whether it was a Visa card cash a check you’re going to have to make deposits and you want to make sure that your deposits in QuickBooks match what actually happened at the bank let’s go ahead and flip over to QuickBooks and talk about the make deposits option the easiest way to record that deposit is to click the new button right here and over on the right here under other you’ll see bank deposit this one down here is going to be your actual deposit slip a couple things you’ll want to double check on is make sure you have the correct bank account chosen here it’s very easy to have the bank account that you last use show up in that field and then you can’t find your deposit notice that the balance in the checking account is one thousand two hundred and one dollars and this is the date of the deposit let’s say I’m going to make this deposit on March the second now down at the bottom these are the three sets of monies that we saw that were sitting in undeposited funds what you’re going to do is check off all of the ones that are going in this deposit if all three are going to be in this deposit you check them all off if maybe the first two were going to be in that deposit and then maybe this last one was in a separate deposit do them separately because you want these to match what actually happened at the bank let’s say in this case though all three are going to be deposited a couple of things when you’re looking at this list here you can go and change the payment type if you didn’t do it when you were actually receiving the payment you’ve also got a place for a memo if you’d like to fill that in and then you can see there’s the reference number column and then the amount column over on the right my deposit will be 2241.52 cents now right down here it says cashback goes to If you happen to have a business bank account you’re not going to be able to get cash back but as a sole proprietor you could if you’re going to keep some cash then you would say cash back goes to this account and you would pick whichever account this went to you would also be able to have a memo and if you were going to keep 20 bucks you could type that in and it would deduct it from this total right up here there’s also a place to add funds to this deposit if I click this little arrow it’s going to open up this part here and I can add some additional monies now this could be something like maybe you got a rebate from Staples you could type that in if that was the situation it would say received from Staples the account would be office expenses or office supplies pick whichever account you actually use when you purchased the items for that rebate and put it back to the same account you’ve got a place for description the method and the amount of money it could be you’re also going to put some personal money into the business if that’s the case then the account you want to choose is that owner Equity if your members talking about that in an earlier module but remember that everything that goes into a deposit is not always income to the business so make sure that this goes back to the correct account if you’re adding additional funds notice if you need more than the two lines you could add additional lines and have as many lines as you’d like here you can also add a memo to this deposit if you’d like or add an attachment down at the bottom and that’s all you need to do as far as making a deposit now a couple just other options you could print this deposit out down at the bottom or make it recurring it could be that you have a customer set up on automatic draft where they actually pay you a thousand dollars a month let’s say and this would be that deposit lots of different scenarios there I’m going to go ahead and hit save and close now at the bottom and at this point the money is actually going to be in my checking account remember it’s 2 000 240 152. now that whole process of invoicing a customer receiving a payment and making that deposit has been taken care of now let’s go look in the checking account and see if we can find it it just so happens that on the overview right over here where we are the checking account is here that is one way to link to it to look at the balance another way would be going down to accounting to our chart of accounts and just opening it that way any of this would work I’m going to go ahead and view the register when I look in the register you’ll notice that there’s my deposit right there notice it says split because it’s split amongst multiple line items in this case we had three different transactions that went on the deposit itself I’m going to go ahead and cancel that and that’s the process of actually making a deposit the next thing I want to do is take you over into section 6 and show you how to set up credit memos for customers there are times when you will want to issue a credit memo to an invoice let’s say you have a customer that just isn’t happy with your services and they refuse to pay one of your invoices you can actually leave it on the books for a while if you’d like but eventually you might want to credit that off let me go ahead and show you how to create a credit memo the first thing that you want to do is look up the original invoice and see what it is that you charge them for to begin with I’m going to look at Red Rock Diner and you’ll see there’s an invoice for seventy dollars here I’ll just go ahead and open it up and you’re going to notice that we charge them for Pest Control it looks like probably two hours at 35 dollars an hour for a total of seventy dollars now let’s say the customer just wasn’t happy with us and we’re going to just credit that invoice when we create the credit memo we need to use the exact same product or service that we charge for to begin with the way you’re going to create the credit memo is come up here and click on new underneath customers you’re going to see credit memo plug in the customer’s name in this case it is Redrock Diner you’ll see it populates their email their billing address and it’s going to have the current date for the credit memo date just make sure you put the date that you would like we’re going to be looking at tags over in section 9. let’s just hold that for a moment and let’s go down to product or service here’s where we’re going to put in Pest Control remember you want to credit the same product or service that you invoice for to begin with we’re going to choose the quantity of 2 at 35 and that’s going to give us a total of 70. all we have to do now is go ahead and go down to save and close now that the credit memo has been created I want to show you two things that happen on your customer’s account notice here’s the credit memo and it says it’s closed and then there’s a payment that wasn’t there before now this payment is where you’re going to go to actually apply the 70 dollars to the correct invoice because see how the invoice is still open over here I’m going to click on the payment now if it sees an exact match it will go ahead and check it often but if it doesn’t come down and choose the correct invoice and then notice the credit memos at the bottom so you want to make sure those two are checked so they apply to each other so you’ll notice down here the amount to apply is seventy dollars and that’s all we have to do we’re going to save and close at the bottom and because this transaction is linked to others it will ask us if we’re sure we want to modify this and the answer is yes and now when we go back and look we’ll see that the credit memo is closed the payment is closed and the invoice is actually paid so remember this is a two-step process you have to create the credit memo then go back to the payment and actually apply that credit memo to the correct invoice now that you know how to create credit memos I want to show you over in section 7 how to actually give your customers a refund there are times when you want to issue a refund to a customer and that would be if a customer has purchased something and paid in full and you want to actually give them their money back that’s the difference in a refund and a credit a credit usually sits in their account until you just credit the money off of your books whereas refunds you actually give customers the money back let me go ahead and show you how to create a refund we’re going to create a refund receipt but before we can do that we need to go ahead and look up our customer and see what it is that we’re actually going to refund them for this is Duke’s basketball camp if you notice they have an invoice here for 460.40 that is paid in full I’m going to click on invoice to actually open this up and you’ll see that the second line are some Garden rocks that they purchase from us they purchased six of them at twelve dollars and let’s say that they’re going to return three of them at 12 because they didn’t need all six of these we’re going to go ahead and close this now and now we’re going to create our refund receipt we’re going to go over to the new option on the navigation pane we’re going to come down to refund receipt here we’re going to pick our customer’s name in this case it’s going to be Duke’s basketball camp you can see it pulls in their email and their billing address and we just need to make sure we have the correct refund receipt date down here where it says payment method this is how the customer actually paid you they wrote us a check let’s say and we’re going to refund them from our checking account if you’re going to actually print them a check then it’s going to let you print this later or if you want to go ahead and print it from here you could leave that check number now let’s go ahead and put in the correct product or service and we decided that this was Garden rocks and so we’re going to go ahead and choose that and remember they’re returning 3 at 12 and that makes 36 dollars if the item was subject to sales tax when the purchase was originally made then QuickBooks will automatically choose the tax option to give them their tax back as well you’ll notice this equates to 36 dollars the total amount refunding will be 38.88 I’m going to go ahead and hit save and new at the bottom and now that refund receipt is done I’m going to click OK here when it says it was successful and now let’s go back and look at their account if I’m looking at Duke’s basketball camp you’ll see here’s the refund right here and you’ll notice that it says it is paid now if you want to actually go ahead and print a check then all you have to do is over here it says print check and you’ll notice that it automatically has Duke’s basketball camp and a check waiting to be printed for 38.88 just double check that you have the correct checking account at the top and make sure you have the correct check number that your check is going to be now if you were giving them cash you would have chosen cash from the option back over in the refund receipt and then that would have just been done that’s really all you have to do at this point you can actually go down and you can preview and print this and then that will be the end of it there’s the preview you would hit print and it would print out and that’s how you create a refund for a customer it’s called a refund receipt let’s go ahead and take a peek now at creating statements for your customers one of the things you have the ability to do in QuickBooks is send statements to your customers a statement is basically a gentle reminder to your customers that they owe you some money typically statements are sent at the end of each month and they show the activity that happened during that month you don’t have to send out statements but it’s a nice little feature to keep your customers abreast of what’s going on with their account let’s go ahead and flip over to QuickBooks and we’ll see how statements are created when you’re ready to create statements for your customers just go to your navigation Pane and choose the new option over here where you see other if you look down you’ll see statement the first thing you have to do is pick a statement type you can choose a balance forward any open items for the last year basically and then you can also choose a transaction statement I’ll choose balance forward for the statement date you generally want to pick the end of the month that means that in this case the start date would be January 1 and the end date would be January 31. for the customer balance status you can choose all open or overdue I’m going to choose all and then apply and these are all of my customers who met the criteria they call this the recipients list if you’re looking down this list and you see one that you don’t want to send a statement to just come over here and uncheck the Box now when you’re ready you can print or preview these down here in the middle I’m going to click on print or preview so that we can see what a statement looks like now I’m going to have one here for each customer you’ll see as I go down the list there you go and for each one you’re going to be able to see all of the activity for January 1 through January 31. the first thing you’ll always see is the balance forward from the previous month notice up here tells you the total do and there’s a place where the customer can actually send you a check and if they want to type in the amount closed or write it in right there they can do that and then down at the bottom of the statement it shows you how much of this is in the currently due category how much is in each of these categories and then again the total over on the right and that’s what a statement looks like you can pick any date range you like when you’re creating statements if you just want to send one to one customer you can do that but that’s an overview of what statements look like and how they work I’m going to go ahead and close this and you really don’t need to save or save and send this once you’ve printed these out you can go ahead and just X out at the top and then it’s ready and you can print them the next time well let’s go ahead now and look over in section 9 and talk a little bit about how a new feature of QuickBooks called Tags is going to work there is a brand new feature in QuickBooks online that they’re rolling out right now called Tags and what tax will allow you to do is create certain words that will appear on a drop down when you’re in different transactions in QuickBooks and you can choose those and later you can use those to search for things or to run reports based on those tags if you’re familiar with Gmail we’ve got something similar in there where we can create a list and tag different emails and then search for anything that would have that particular tag we’re looking for this is still in beta right now if you happen to not see it when you open up your QuickBooks Online just know it’s coming they’re just rolling out in stages right now and you may not have all the options related to tags to get but just know it will be coming somewhere down the line let me give you an example of how you might use this feature currently we have a feature in QuickBooks called classes and we’ve kind of been using that in the way that tags will work but let’s say that you have an attorney’s office and you have four different attorneys in that office you might want to run reports on the company as a whole but you might also want to run reports on each attorney if you had this list of classes set up you could just pick from the drop down list in each transaction you’re in which attorney that this should be tagged to and we’re going to use tags in the exact same way I don’t know if they’re going to get rid of classes down the road somewhere but tags are going to be a really nice feature so let me flip over and show you what’s in there now and like I said if you don’t see these options or you see something new down the road it’s because they’re rolling it out it’s still in beta the way you’re going to access your tags option is through the gear icon on the top right hand side of your screen and underneath the list right here you’ll see tags now currently we don’t have any tags set up but once we do set up our first tag you’re going to see the top of the screen change and you’ll see a section that says money in and money out let me give you an example of what we’re going to do with our tags this is a company called Craig’s design and Landscape Services they actually do two different things they do design work and they do Pest Control and as part of their design work they have three different areas they focus on they focus on fountains landscaping and sprinklers if I wanted to put my tags in a group then I could do that as well and you will see the groups listed right here along with the tags but let’s start with just a tag I’m going to come over here and under new I’m going to choose tag and let’s say that I use fountains as my first tag if I wanted to put it in a group I could but I don’t have any groups set up yet so right now I’m just going to hit save at the bottom and now you’ll see my first tag called fountains and notice it’s ungrouped is not part of a group now here’s what I would say in a second ago about the money in and money out once I start applying these tags to different transactions I can come here and see the money in or out based on those tags I have now let me go ahead and create a group to show you how this works I’m going to create a tag group and I want to create a group called design and I’m going to create another one in a minute called Pest Control now you’ll notice that from this screen here if I wanted to add a tag I could do it right from here without having to go back out and hit new tag I’m going to add two more because I have fountains and I want to add Landscaping and we’re also going to add sprinklers and I’ll just hit add tag there now let me go ahead and click done at the bottom and now what you’re going to see is design is a group and notice the down arrow in order to see the two tags in there I click the arrow and then I see those two now fountains are still ungrouped if I wanted to add it to this Design Group I can come over here where it says edit tag and then I can select the group I’d like it to belong to in this case design and when I save it now you’ll see design has three tags underneath now let me create one more tag group I’m going to create one called Pest Control and let’s say under pest control that I’m going to create two tags I’m going to create one for residential and one for commercial customers I’ll add that one and come back and ADD commercial and then add that and now I’m going to say done at the bottom and now you can see at the bottom I’ve got two different tags I’ve got one that’s pest control and one that’s design now the other thing is notice the color blue I can leave it like this but if you want each tag group can have a different color scheme going on if I come over here to edit the group you’ll notice that here I can change the color maybe this one can be this yellow color and I can save that and notice it also made all the tags below it that same color and that way they just stand out a little bit when I’m looking at different reports of things now let me show you where you’re going to use these tags or tag groups this will be in any transaction let’s say that I go over and I create a new invoice you’ll notice that in here you have an option that says tags you can choose from the drop down list and you can choose more than one if you need to this might have fountains and it might also have some pest control and there’s your two tags that we’re going to be using now I will be able to look up reports based on the product or service but I can also look at the reports based on fountains or commercial now let me just go ahead and set something up here so you can see how this works I’ll pick Tom Allen we’re going to go down and pick for a product or service we’re going to go ahead and say this is gardening and we’re going to say one at fifty dollars and then let’s say for the next one here we pick fountains we’ll do a rock film and that one was 275. now let’s say also we’re going to do some Pest Control around this rock Fountain so that we don’t have bugs in there and now we’ve got a couple of different products and services here now when I go ahead and click save and close here we’re going to go back to our tags and see if we have any money that’s in or out of these and now you’ll see that there’s 382 dollars money in because remember QuickBooks considers at the time you create the invoice it to be part of your income when you actually write a check use your credit card that sort of thing that will be on the money outside so if you had to actually buy some materials related to one of these and you tagged those transactions you would see the money out show up over here and that’s basically how tags are going to work it’s going to be a great new feature that’s really going to help you drill down a little bit deeper than you can now to see where your money is coming in or money is going out let’s go ahead and do one more thing in this module we’re going to look at some of the reports that have to do with your customers and sales QuickBooks has a ton of different reports related to your customers and your sales and I want to take you through and show you some of these different ones that you will want to run on a regular basis to see how your company is doing in these different areas let me go ahead and flip over to QuickBooks and I will show you a couple of these different reports I’m going to head over to the navigation Pane and I’m going to click on reports there were several different categories of reports here but I want to focus right now on the one that says who owes you and then below it are your sales and customers underneath who owes you probably one of the most common reports is the open invoices right here which you’ve seen before and this is just a list of all of your customers who still owe you money even if they owe you a penny you’ll notice that it shows you all the information you need about the transaction like the dates you can see the amount and if you’re on that line and you just point to any of these pieces of information you’ll see that you can click and actually go to that transaction if you actually change that transaction and then get out of it when you come back here as long as you save the transaction the report will be updated another one I’m going to go back to reports that you’ll want to look at is going to be under who owes you customer balance detail this report will show you all the transactions that occurred for each customer and each job or sub customer when you first come in it might look like you’re just looking at the invoices anything open what you need to do is go up to the top right and choose customize come down to where you see filter and you’ll notice that where it says AR paid it says unpaid right now go ahead and choose all from the list and then run the report at the bottom and now you’ll see each transaction that happened for each customer sub customer and or job here I’m going to go ahead and go back to reports we’ll look at a few more here back down to who owes you there are some other ones that you might want to look at for example you might want to run a collections report this one is going to show you all of the information about the customer this time you’ll notice there’s a phone number here as well so if you needed to make some phone calls and call some of these people you’ve got that information right here on this report I’m going back to reports some other ones just to notice you do have the ability to run an accounts receivable aging detail and an aging summary anytime you see a summary and a detail this summer we will show you the line item and one total whereas the Aging detail will show every single option that made up that category or that line item that you would normally see you can see an invoice list here if you like you can see a terms list there’s a statement list just all kinds of things you can look at underneath who owes you now done under sales and customers here’s where you can run things like a customer contact list this is just going to give you each customer their phone number their email that sort of thing you can also go in and look at estimates by customer you might want to see if you have any income by customer you might want to see all your payment methods product lists and services your sales you can look at those by customer you can look at them by product and you can also look at them by time or activities so just know that there’s a lot of different reports under those two options right there now most of your reports can be customized if you happen to run for example a sales by customer detail you’ll notice that you can come up here and change the report period I can look at all dates and then I can hit run the report and I’ll see all of the information for each customer I can group these by customer I can group them by product I’ve got all different kind of ways I can group this report and also something else to notice is that all of your reports are automatically run on a cruel basis not a cash basis and you can change it per report if you need to accrual basically means that as soon as you invoice a customer it’s going to show as income to your business and QuickBooks whether they’ve paid it or not if you had any expenses let’s say you entered a bill it would show it as an expense whether you paid that bill or not we’re going to see how this really works when we look at a profit and loss a little bit later but let’s go ahead and just kind of wrap this up I just want you to see the reports that were available for customers and for your sales and most of them will be under these two headings let’s go ahead now and move over to module 6 and talk a little bit about products and services okay we’re just starting module 6 now and in this module I want to talk to you about how products and services work in QuickBooks a product or service is something that you either sell your customer or sometimes you purchase those products and services as well and you want to set those up and make sure you set them up correctly so that you have accurate reports as far as inventory or as far as some of your profit loss those types of things let’s go ahead and flip over to QuickBooks and start talking a little bit about how products and services work I’m going to give you a quick overview and then I’ll take you into section two and show you how to add some of those products and services to get to a list of your products and services go to the gear icon on the top right of your screen then underneath the list you’ll see products and services this is a list of all the products and services that you have set up remember that sometimes you buy these and sometimes you sell these and there are different types of products and services you can create you’ll notice currently mine are sorted by type if I wanted to sort by any of these other columns I would click on the name and just sort by that column you’ll see there are Services you provide like Landscaping trimming you’ll see that there are different Pest Control those are all services you provide when you get past the service items you’re going to see that there are actual inventory items as well inventory means that you actually sell physical products and you count how many you have for example when I look at Rock Fountain you’ll notice that it looks like I have two on hand and I can buy more and add to my inventory or I can sell these and that will take it out of my inventory there are other types of items that you can have as well you can have non-inventory items those are actually items that you don’t want to check how many you have in the back but they’re physical items that you either buy or sell you’ll notice when you’re looking at this list that you can see the name of the item if you’re using SKU numbers and you’ve got those set up you’d be able to see that here the item type a description and this is the description that automatically appears when you pull that item onto an invoice or some sort of form in QuickBooks you’ve got the sales price if there’s one set up sometimes it’s different for every customer so they just don’t set up a price you just do it when you’re actually invoicing the customer or if you happen to buy this whenever you’re purchasing it if this item is subject to sales tax you would see that here if it’s inventory we saw that you can see the quantity on hand and the reorder point that basically means that when you get down to a certain number that QuickBooks will pop up and tell you you need to order some more and you can see that they did not set that up in this exercise the last column that you see is the action column here’s where you can edit to one of these items if you need to make it inactive adjust the quantity that you might have on hand those types of things but this is where your list of products and services is going to live what I want to do now is show you how to set up some of these products and services so let’s head on over to section two so you can see how to do that now that you’ve had a quick overview of what the products and services screen looks like I want to take you in and show you how to create your own products and services some of you may only have six or seven in your business other businesses might have thousands it just really depends on what your business does let’s go ahead and flip over and talk about how to add those new products and services the way you’re going to add a new product or service is head up to the new option in the products and services window the first thing you need to tell QuickBooks is what type of product or service is this that you’re adding is it going to be inventory inventory means that you want to keep some on hand and then have QuickBooks remind you when you get down to a low number so you can order some more that’s called true inventory you can check how many you sold and how many you purchased sometimes you don’t want to keep any in the back room and that’s what we call non-inventory it might be a physical product that you buy or sell but you just run reports when you need to to see how many you bought or sold you don’t really need to keep any in the back room a service is a service you provide and then you have the option to take any of those three and put them into what’s called a bundle the example they use here is a gift basket of fruit cheese and wine you might actually add something else to that gift basket like a spoon or a cup or something like that and you can actually set those up as one of these three types and then you can create a bundle which includes those three items let’s go ahead for now and say that we’re going to set up a service the first thing we’re going to do is go ahead and give our service a name and I’m just going to call this maintenance you have the ability if you have SKU numbers for your products and services to put that number in here and also you can add a picture of that particular product or service from over here where this little pencil is this would have to be a picture that’s already in your computer that you can go and grab and pull in you can also put your products and services in different categories there’s a few already created for the exercise but if you wanted to add a new category you could do that by hitting the add new Option and creating a category like you see here they’ve got design landscaping and pest control as categories the next thing is the description when you actually put this on an invoice which means you’re selling this to your customer what is the description that appears let’s say that it says quarterly maintenance and then the next thing is going to be the sales price if you have a flat rate you charge for this then you can type that in and it will pre-populate for you but if it’s different every single time then you’ll want to just leave this blank nothing happens here it’s only when you buy or sell the product or service that numbers play into your reports but let’s just say that we have a flat rate of 250 a quarter we charge for this and then the next thing which is the most important thing on this screen is the income account that you want this money to go back to when you put this on an invoice in this case they’ve got it automatically going back to Services income which is where I would probably leave it but if you wanted to put this in any other account feel free it’s just it needs to be an income account now if you don’t pick an income account QuickBooks will not say anything to you about it but you’ll look at reports and they’ll be really wrong and you can’t figure out why look at the word the word is income meaning it needs to go to an income account if this was a particular product or service that you were going to charge sales tax on then here’s where you tell QuickBooks this is a taxable product or service or non-taxable product or service typically Services you provide are non-taxable and physical items you sell are taxable now if this happens to be a particular product or service that you buy from a vendor that you like you can check the box and put in the vendor information but I’m going to go ahead and uncheck that and click save and close at the bottom and now you’ll notice that I have a new service in my list here it’s called maintenance and you can see all of the information all the way across now if I needed to edit that information I can click on edit here that will take me back to this screen and I can change whatever I need to and save and close again and then it will be updated you do have a couple of other actions you can take under this drop down arrow here you can make this service inactive if you need to you can also run a report on this service or you can duplicate it and that’s a quick way to go ahead and set up your new products and services now that you know how to set up a service let’s go ahead and look at setting up an inventory product that way you can see how to tell QuickBooks how many you currently have on hand and then you can see how inventory is added to or deducted from that number now that you know how to add new products and services in QuickBooks let’s talk specifically about adding inventory products true inventory means that you want to keep a count on how many of these products you have in your office you want QuickBooks to let you know when you get low so you can order some more you’ll want to actually know how many you have on hand when you first set up your new inventory product and once you’ve done that then as you invoice customers that is how your products will get out of inventory and as you purchase them that’s how your products will get back into inventory let’s go ahead and flip over to QuickBooks and I will show you how to add an inventory product you’re going to add an inventory product the same way we added the new products and services over in section two go to the top of your products and services list and choose the new option this time we’re going to choose inventory the first thing you’re going to do is give your inventory a name I’m going to call this one sprinkler clamps and then we’re going to give it a skew I’ll call this one 55 and then we’ll choose a category and let’s say in this case that we’re going to put it under Landscaping now here’s where you put in the initial quantity on hand this means you’re going to do a count before you set up your product and if you have 10 in the back room you’re going to put that in here and that gives it a starting number you also want to have a date to start this with and let’s just say in this case that I want to go back to the beginning of February reorder Point what this means is what number do you want to get down to before QuickBooks pops up and tells you that you need to order some more let’s just say in this case when we get down to three the next thing you’re going to see is inventory asset account now do not change this this is the account that the value of the inventory will actually go into in your chart of accounts remember that inventory is an asset to your business you are worth more because you have it right now but your goal is to sell it and get it out the door this is the asset account the inventory will sit in and then we’re going to put in a description now I would put in the same thing we’ll put a new sprinkler clamps and then if you have a set rate that you charge for this you’ll want to type this in if you don’t have one that’s different every single time then you can just leave it blank let’s say that we sell it for 2.75 you don’t want to change this either because this is the income account that this will go into when you make a sale when I put sprinkler clamps on an invoice and I sell this it will go into the sales of product income account if this is a taxable product you want to make sure that this says taxable and now we have the purchasing information this was the selling information up here this is when you purchase it down here the first thing it asks for is a description when you order this from whatever company you order them from what is their description and sometimes it’ll be the same other times it might have a part number at the end there’s just all kinds of different things that this could say what is the cost and this means on average what do you buy it for it does not mean that the last time you purchased this it was 1.75 let’s just say on average though it is a dollar seventy five and it will go to an expense account called cost of goods sold if you have a preferred vendor then you can pick them from the list here it could be that you like to get these from Hicks Hardware and that’s all you need to tell it I’m going to go ahead and click save and close at the bottom and now I should see my sprinkler clamps right here you can see the SKU number we typed in the sale price the cost there’s 10 of these currently and when we get down to three it’s going to pop up and ask us if we want to order some more don’t forget you have some options over here under your action column if you wanted to go and adjust the quantity maybe you discovered there’s really only nine in the back room you’ll be able to do that you also have the ability to adjust the starting value and that’s really all there is to adding inventory products let’s go ahead now and move over to section four and talk a little bit about purchase orders if your company buys a lot of products you might want to create a purchase order system for your business when you do this it’s a way of actually tracking everything you’ve ordered and that way you can see what’s come in if there’s anything back ordered that sort of thing and this is also going to be a way to start the process of receiving your items into inventory let me go ahead and show you how to create a purchase order before we get started there’s a couple things that you need to know first of all if you’d like to use the purchase order feature in QuickBooks you have to be enrolled in the QuickBooks Online plus Edition that’s the addition that actually handles purchase orders the other thing is you’re going to have to actually turn on the purchase order feature in the account settings let me show you where to go for that you go up to the gear icon you’re going over to account and settings make sure you’re clicked on expenses and here’s where you see purchase orders if this is not on just come over here to this pencil and then make sure you check the box here to use purchase orders as long as that’s good then you should be fine I’m going to go ahead and close with the X and let’s go and look real quick at our products and services because I want to show you how we’re going to order some more and put it into our inventory I’m going to click on the gear icon under the list the second column I’m going to click products and services if you remember we talked about some of these being inventory and one of these that I want to talk about right here is going to be this rock fountain now let’s say we have two of these but we’re getting ready to do a new job and we need to order two more to have a total of four this is what we’re going to order create a new purchase order I’m going to go to the navigation bar and click on new I’m going to go down in the second column and click on purchase order and the first thing I need to do when creating a purchase order is to pick my vendor I’m going to go down the list here and we’re going to pick Hicks Hardware if you had Hicks Hardware’s email it would be pulled in right here you can see there’s the mailing address and then let’s talk about the ship too for a second if you want to have Hicks Hardware ship these directly to your customer you can choose your customer from here if not then it’s just going to come to your office you don’t need to choose anything there here’s the date of your purchase order and in this case they’re using the crew number field so we’re going to plug something in there you can also set a ship via which would say USPS FedEx you can also set a sales rep if you had those as well now looking down the list you want to use the item details not the category details here and remember we’re getting ready to order some more rock fountains now let’s take the other ones out of the list we’re just going to go ahead and click the little trash can over on the right and I want to get two of these so that I have a total of four when I’m done again if it’s related to a particular customer you’ll want to plug that information in right here if you were ordering other things as well you can go ahead and put all of these in here you have a place to put a message to your vendor a memo and at the bottom some attachments once this is done you’re going to go ahead and send this over to your vendor I’m going to go ahead and say save and close and that’s how that works if you had the vendor’s email address you could have emailed this directly to them other than that maybe you call them on the phone and ordered it but you do have your PO in here now so that whenever you go to receive these items you have something to receive it against that’s how you actually create a purchase order the next step in the process is that your products actually come in and you’re going to go in and receive those products into your inventory let’s go ahead and head over to section five so I can show you how that works now that you’ve created a purchase order you can actually receive the items into your inventory The Logical process is that once you order the items from your vendor they’re going to come in the next week 10 days probably and you’re going to want to receive them into your inventory let’s go ahead and flip over to QuickBooks so I can show you how that process works let’s head back to our products and services for a moment I want to show you that if we go down and look at Rock Fountain we still just have two and that’s because all we’ve done at this point is order two more once we get through going through this receiving products into inventory feature then you’re going to notice that this number will go up to four all you have to do is head over to the navigation bar and click on new and we’re going to create a new bill the first thing I’d ask you is who is your vendor and this is where I’m going to pick Hicks Hardware and you’ll notice as soon as I do that that this little window pops up over on the right and this is letting me know that I have an open purchase order if you want to actually add the items on this purchase order to this bill just click add and if you look down here it’s added the rock fountains it’s added two of them and it’s got a rate amount and everything we talked about here because this is an actual bill from the vendor we want to make sure that the rate and the amount and all of that is correct if there happen to be a sale and that’s why we had ordered two of these we would change the rate and of course the amount would change in that case going back up to the top you’ll see that it pulled in our mailing address for Hicks Hardware we’re going to want to choose the terms that are on that bill we’re going to say net 30. here’s the bill date meaning the date that it was actually printed and the due date meaning the date it was actually due we’ll also want to plug in our bill number over here and that’s really all we need to do there’s a place for a memo down on the bottom left we can add attachments if we want and when we’re finished we’re going to save and close now let’s go see how many we have in inventory now and if we’re looking at Rock Fountain we have four of those and that’s one of the ways that things get into inventory through a purchase order now we’ll be looking at some other ways things get into inventory it could be you’ve written a check it could be that you’ve actually gone in to use your debit card but this is a way of creating an order and then receiving that order all right hey there welcome to QuickBooks desktop 2022 my name is Cindy mceuken and I’m going to be your instructor and help walk you through this course I wanted to take a few moments and just give you a quick introduction and also tell you a little bit about what to expect as you go through this series of videos I’ve actually been a QuickBooks instructor for over 20 years I’ve worked with all the different versions of QuickBooks I’ve actually taught large classes I work with individuals and anything in between what we’re going to do in this course is we’re going to start the very beginning I’m not going to assume you know anything I want to make sure that you have a really good foundation and you set up your QuickBooks file the correct way we’re going to start by going through the screen itself getting you familiar with what you’re looking at and then we’ll jump right in and start creating what we call the chart of accounts we’ll spend some time in there because that’s going to be the most important part of QuickBooks because all of your money will flow through one of these accounts we’re going to see we’ll look at the accounts payable section of QuickBooks we’re going to look at the accounts receivable section we’ll be looking at sales tax payroll and pretty much anything you would need to get your business set up the correct way in QuickBooks you might want to get out of pen and paper so that you can take notes feel free to go through these videos as many times as you need to and if you have any questions feel free to just shoot us an email and we’ll be more than glad to get back with you we want to make sure you’re well set up and on your way to getting your QuickBooks desktop file set up the correct way so you can have success in the future well let’s go ahead now and get started I’ve got a few things in this first module that I just want to talk to you about so we’ll talk next about what’s the difference in the desktop and the online version and then really in module two we’ll start jumping into how to get this company file set up and go in the correct way well let’s go ahead now and flip over to the next video and we will just talk about the desktop versus the online version of QuickBooks in two it makes both a desktop version of QuickBooks and an online version of QuickBooks and I wanted to take a moment and just talk to you about the differences in the two hey this is Cindy again and we’re actually in module one working in the second video the reason I wanted to actually show you the online version is because at some point you may want to take your data from your desktop version and upload it to the online version or vice versa maybe you’re currently using the online version and you prefer to go to the desktop version if that’s the case you’ll need to ask Intuit to actually grab your data file for you and then they’ll send it to you and you can upload it into your desktop version either way I just want you to be familiar with both so that you make an informed decision when you’re working with QuickBooks now a couple things to know as of the 2022 version of QuickBooks desktop it is now subscription based just like the online version one of the things that desktop users really liked was the fact that they didn’t have to go out and purchase the desktop version every single year now you have to if you do not update your subscription every year it will actually stop working now the online version has always been subscription based most people will actually pay for it by the month some people will pay for it by the year the advantage of working with the online version is that you have the ability as long as you have internet access to log in anywhere in the world that you happen to be and access your data now you can’t really do that with the desktop version unless you have some sort of software that will allow you into your actual computer let’s go ahead and take a peek at what each one of these looks like briefly so that you can see some of the differences visually here I went ahead and put these side by side so that we could get a good visual this side is the desktop version and this is the online version and the first thing you’ll notice is that they don’t really look alike it’s a little bit harder to work with the online version because it doesn’t really have the home screen set up the way the desktop version does on this home screen you’ve got different sections and you have a flow chart that really tells you what to do next where you don’t really have that over on the online version one thing that a lot of people just assume is that the online version allows you to download all your transactions from the bank and that is true but you can also do that in the desktop version as well a lot of times people will choose the online because they assume that’s the only one that will download their transactions and that’s not really the case the other thing is you’ll notice that you have a menu over here on the left just like you have here but again they’re set up differently so you really just have to learn your way around when you’re working with the online version of QuickBooks if you’re currently using the desktop and you’d like to try out the online they do have a free 30-day trial that you can go and try it out if you’d like if you go to the website go to intuit.com and you can look for the online version and they’ll have all the different subscriptions that they sell and you can look for the one that would fit your budget and that would have all the options that you want in that particular version if you don’t like it you can always come back to your desktop version so I just wanted to give you a quick feel for that and let you know that you have that option available if you want let’s go ahead now and flip over to the third video in this module and I’ll talk to you a little bit about some of the differences in the different versions of the desktop that into it has available for you hey there welcome to module two this is the module where we’re going to talk about getting started with QuickBooks hi this is Cindy I’m your instructor and we’re working in this first video now in module two where we’re going to talk about how to set up your company file each file you create in QuickBooks is called a company you can have as many Company files as you like and neither one talks to the other so if you have a need to keep them separate this is the perfect way to do it sometimes you might want to keep your business separate from your personal it could be if you’re a bookkeeper you have multiple customers you can have each one of those set up with their own company file let me go ahead and take you over to QuickBooks right now and I’ll show you how to get started setting up that company file when you first load QuickBooks you’re going to see a screen that looks like this in this area here if you’ve previously opened any company files you would see them listed so that you could double click and go to that particular file here’s where you would create a new company file you can also open an existing one that may not be on the list or if you’ve actually created a backup and you want to restore that backup you could do that here and there’s also some sample files there’s always a product base and a service based one here that you can work with what we’re going to do is we’re going to hop on over to the next video and talk a little bit about using What’s called the easy step interview we’ll create a new company and that will launch us right into that easy step interview before we can start using QuickBooks we have to go through and actually set up our company file and we’re going to do that by using something called the easy step interview hi this is Cindy I’m your instructor and we’re actually working in module two now the getting started module we’re on the second video using the easy step interview part one the easy step interview is going to ask you different questions and based on how you answer the questions it’s going to set up your company file for you let’s go ahead and flip over to QuickBooks and we’ll get started using the easy step interview to get started creating your new company file you’re just going to click right here and this will launch you into the easy step interview you’re going to get a screen like this that asks you who you’re creating your company file for for yourself or for someone else you’ll want to go ahead and choose myself let me just mention down here where the other options are you do have the ability if you happen to be using quick and now you can convert that data into QuickBooks or if you’ve got another accounting software you’d like to use you can convert it from here notice there’s also an advanced setup and that’s typically where I suggest you start with because even though it’s going to take you a little bit longer to get through it this is the easy step interview and it will ask you most of the questions you will need to get the company file set up correctly so take a little bit of extra time and fill this out this first screen asks a little bit of information about the company itself I’m going to go ahead and say this is ABC Plumbing this is just a fictitious company and notice as you’re going through here the only thing that you have to put in is the company name now I do suggest that if you’re going to send out correspondence to customers or vendors then you go ahead and fill out the rest of this information that way you don’t have to come back and do it later if you don’t have a different legal name you don’t have to put that in there there’s also a feel for the tax ID now feel free to type this in if you like but just so you’ll know you don’t really need this unless you’re going to be printing some 1099s or doing payroll or something where it needs that tax ID number the next thing you’ll want to do is put in the street address or if you have a PO box and you’d like to use that for mailing you can put that in as well I’m going to go ahead and make up a city and state here you’ll notice the country populates with us so if you happen to be in a different country you can go ahead and choose that from the list the next thing you’ll want to put in is the phone number now the reason that you do want to put the phone number here is because remember if you’re actually going to send correspondence out to customers or vendors you probably want that phone number on those invoices or anything you’re sending out there’s a place for a fax number as well and an email address and a website I’m going to click on next now this page asks you to select your industry you can see as you’re looking through the list of different Industries there’s pretty much an industry for everything but if you can’t figure out which one works best for you at the bottom of this list is a general product and a general service based business I’ll just go ahead for now and pick the general product based business and click next this next screen asks you how is your company organized you can see there are different choices here there is the sole proprietor option you might be an LLC an S corp but honestly if you have an accountant that does your taxes I’d probably pick other or none from the list and here’s why what’s going to happen is when you start setting up different accounts in the chart of accounts it’s going to have an extra field that will ask you which line in your text forms you’d like to put this to you’re not going to know because you’re not an accountant the reason that you want to use those is if you were doing your own taxes and you were using a software like TurboTax for example it would have to know where to pull each line onto that tax form but since you’re not doing your own taxes pick other or none and it won’t even ask you that question I’m going to click next and that would ask me to select the first month of my fiscal year now this will default to January unless you have a different fiscal year then I would go ahead and leave that on January and click next and now it’s asking us about setting up our administrator password now let’s take a few minutes and talk about this as soon as you open QuickBooks it will launch you directly into the last company file that you had open if you would like QuickBooks to ask for a username and password before it launches you into that company file then you’ll want to go ahead and set up that password right here for the administrator this is very highly suggested that you do this you do have the ability to also set up different passwords for different people who will be using QuickBooks and that way you can limit their access to certain areas and we’ll talk about that a little bit later but right now let’s go ahead and set up a password a really good password will have 10 to 12 characters it’s going to have capital letters It’s going to have numbers it’s going to have special characters but make sure it’s something that you’ll remember because if you lose your password it’s very hard to find it I’m going to go ahead and click on next and now it will say creating your company file you’ll want to go ahead and save this somewhere so that you know where to find it I’m going to go ahead and just stick this on my desktop real quick you’ll see it’s now creating my new company file for me you can actually see right back here that it has my company name and you can see over here the icon bar now we could actually go ahead and leave at this point but let’s go ahead and finish the easy step interview I’m going to click next and this section we’ll talk a little bit about what I have that I sell in my business so you can see it ask me do I sell Services only products only or both there’s no wrong answer here if you currently sell services but you’re thinking that later down the road you might want to sell products go ahead and turn them both on you’re actually just turning icons on or off on the screen when you choose these different options I’ll choose both and click next this question asks if I’d like to create estimates in QuickBooks construction is a prime example of an estimate if I want to have my kitchen remodeled I’m probably going to ask for a quote or an estimate for the job before I actually hire someone to do the work I’ll just go ahead and say Yes here this screen asks me about using statements in QuickBooks if you have customers that you invoice you may want to send statements at the end of the month those statements will actually be a summary of everything that happened that month with that customer it will show each invoice any payments they’ve made any credits and it’s a gentle reminder to your customer that they owe you money I’m going to go ahead and turn those on and now it asks me about progress invoicing now this question really goes with that estimate question because if you estimate jobs then you have the ability to turn those estimates into an invoice so that you can receive money from your customer you may not always want to invoice everything that’s on that estimate maybe you want to pull 50 percent maybe you want to pull certain items you have the ability to do that if you use progress invoicing I usually suggest if you are estimating jobs that you do want progress invoicing I’m going to click next and now it asks about managing the bills that I owe you know a lot of people actually just receive a bill and they throw that bill on their desk in a basket and then when it’s time to pay bills they’ll look through the bills and decide which ones to pay that’s certainly okay however if you want to really make good use of QuickBooks go ahead and enter all of the bills whether you receive them in the mail or if they’re just ones that are electronically withdrawn just enter all of those in QuickBooks as bills and that way you can track all of the bills that you owe you’ll be able to run reports to see who you owe if any of it’s over 90 days that sort of thing if not you won’t be able to run any reports on accounts payable I’m going to go ahead and say Yes here and click next and now it asks me if I’d like to track inventory now before I answer this question this video is getting a little bit long so why don’t we go ahead and look over at part two and we will continue talking about how to use the easy step interview hey there welcome back it’s Cindy again we started talking about how to use the easy step interview over in part one now let’s go ahead and finish that video this is part two of using the easy step interview now we’re going to talk a little bit about tracking inventory this screen asks if we’d like to track inventory in QuickBooks true inventory means that you sell physical

products and you need to know at any time how many you might have in the store room you might want to run reports to see how many of a particular product you’ve sold so you can order some more if you track inventory you will want to say yes to this question in QuickBooks let me also mention here that it could be that you don’t really track inventory you might sell physical products but you don’t need to track how many you have in the store room if that’s the situation you still want to say yes here because you probably use purchase orders anytime you use the purchase order system in QuickBooks you will want to have this option set to yes so that the purchase order options show up on your home screen I’m going to choose yes there and click next this screen is asking us about tracking time in QuickBooks now there are a couple different ways you can use this feature if you actually work on different projects for customers and you want to track the time that you spent working on that project then you’ll want to turn this option on you can also track the amount of time that your employees or your subcontractor spend working on a particular project or job if you’re wanting to track time just go ahead and say Yes here and then click next this question asks do you have employees now I want you to make sure that you don’t confuse employees with 1099 contractors because they’re totally different so this question can be very misleading if you tell it yes here then you’re telling QuickBooks that you do want to track payroll in QuickBooks we’ll talk about payroll in a later module because payroll is a subscription you’ll want to sign up for it’s not free the other thing we’ll talk about a little bit later is your 1099 contractors if you want to send 1099s there’s a certain way you have to set them up and they’re not set up in the employee section of QuickBooks if you just want to turn on the option for payroll you would say yes or you can leave it on no I’m going to leave it on now and click next now we’re getting ready to get into this last little section here this is just saying that we’re going to talk a little bit about using accounts and QuickBooks QuickBooks has to have a date to start tracking your finances you can either choose the beginning of your fiscal year or you can choose today’s date or Tuesday date of your choice I suggest that if you’re just purchasing QuickBooks for the first time and let’s just say it’s towards the end of the year you might want to go ahead and start with maybe the beginning of this month and just put in enough information to finish this year and this could practice for you and then next year you can have a full Year’s worth of information now if you really want to go back and put a full year in that’s certainly your prerogative to do and even if you put in a date whether you choose it or you choose the beginning of the fiscal year you can still enter something prior to that date it just needs a date to start with I’m just going to say the beginning of this fiscal year and click next now we’re almost at the end here it’s asking us to review our income and expense accounts now we’re going to talk more about this in a later module this is what we call your chart of accounts anything you do in QuickBooks runs through one of these now if you happen to be looking through here and you say you know I don’t use a particular one that’s here or maybe there’s one I do want to use let’s say I do want to use business licenses and permits you can go ahead and check those and turn them on here or you can wait until you get into the actual chart of accounts itself and then you’ll be able to add or delete ones you do or don’t want to use so I’m just going to go ahead and click next at this point and it’s going to say congratulations and you can now go to the button that says go to setup right here at the bottom if you get a screen that looks like this it’s asking you if you want to go ahead now and add the people you do business with those would be your customers or your vendors you can add your products and services you sell or your bank accounts it doesn’t hurt to add them here but we’re going to go through these in a later module so if you want to go ahead and click the X in the top right of that window to close it then that will be fine for now now you’re on what we call the home screen in QuickBooks well that’s going to wrap up part two of using the easy step interview let’s head on over now to video four and talk very quickly about the place where you go if you want to actually change the information about the company like the name the address the phone number that’s in a section called my company and we’re going to look at a quick overview of that welcome back to QuickBooks desktop 2022 my name is Cindy and we are actually walking through module 2 right now this is the fourth video and we’re going to talk a little bit in this video about a little option called my company when you actually set up your company file and you went through the easy step interview the very first screen asked you to go ahead and set up the information about your company you set up the name the legal name you set up the address the website the phone number things like that well where would you go if you needed to edit that information you would actually go into this option called my company and that’s where I want to take you right now let’s head on over to QuickBooks and I’ll show you where this option is and we’ll go ahead and make a few changes to that company information you set up when you went through the easy step interview one of the questions I get asked often is how do you go back to the easy step interview if someone’s asking me that question it means that they want to go back and make a change to something they originally set up most of those changes are going to be made under the preferences in QuickBooks now we’re going to look at those preferences in module 3 it’ll be the first and second video but if you want to make a change to the company address the company phone number any of that information you set up on the very first screen when you went through the easy step interview you have to do it this way if you go to your menu and click on company you’ll see an option that says my company here you’ll see the address information that you set up when you went through the easy step interview you’ll notice both of these will be the same unless you happen to have changed some information on the legal name if you want to edit any of this all you have to do is click on this little pencil where it says edit and now you can make any changes you want let’s say that you’d like to add your phone number right underneath your city state and zip all you have to do is type it in and anytime you actually work in QuickBooks and you want to actually pull in the address block now we’ll pull all of this instead of pulling these as two separate blocks we’ll talk more about that in a later module when we talk about customizing your invoices we’ll work with the layout designer and you’ll see what this comes into play I could also go down and add this information if I’d like notice if I want to change the legal information I’ll click over here and edit that information I can change the company identification that’s going to be the federal ID number if you wanted to go ahead and put that in there’s some information on reporting if you want to change your fiscal year and then also some payroll tax information here if you just want to put in a contact for the person who’s signing the payroll tax forms things like that I’m just going to go ahead and click OK here and it will always tell you that you didn’t update your legal address if you didn’t do that and you will have a chance to go back and do that but I’m just going to go ahead at this point and say no I don’t want to go back to the legal address because I’ve already decided that’s correct I’ll click no and now you’ll see that it’s actually added my phone number right here but notice it’s not over here and that’s because I told it I didn’t want to update the legal name and address now I want to point out a couple of other things on this screen that will be very helpful to you look over on the right hand side because sometimes you will have to have this information maybe you’re placing a phone call for some support here is the version of QuickBooks that you have there’s your license number and product number you can also see this has been activated and if you want to view the owner you could do that there’s also some apps that work with QuickBooks some of these are subscription-based services and you can see some of these down here if you wanted to use these you could actually click these options right here and go ahead and sign up with any of these you’d like one I want to mention is this payroll we’re going to talk about payroll in a later module but payroll is not free it is subscription based and these are other things that Intuit can actually sell you if you would like to have a merchant services account with into it you could do that by choosing this option you can order checks from them if you’d like by choosing this option and something to keep in mind is you don’t need to order checks from QuickBooks from Intuit you can order them from wherever you’d like but I just want to give you a quick overview of this my company option here I’m going to go ahead and close that and that will wrap up this video here let’s go ahead now and move over into the next video which is number five and that is where we’re going to talk about how to identify all the components of your home screen here in the QuickBooks environment hey there welcome back this is Cindy again we are working now in module two and we’re talking about getting started with QuickBooks this is video five identifying the components of the QuickBooks environment what I basically want to do is just go over the home screen with you so that you will know what types of options are there and where to go when you get started actually using QuickBooks let’s go ahead and flip over now and we’ll start talking about how to identify those different components of the QuickBooks environment this is what we call your home screen in QuickBooks when you open your company file it will automatically show you the home screen first if you happen to be somewhere else in QuickBooks and you don’t see this screen the easiest way to get back to it is you’ll notice on the left you have a home option right here that you can just click on and it will take you back to this screen now before we start working with this home screen I wanted to show you two quick things that you will want to do to make your home screen work a little bit easier for you you might have noticed there is an icon bar here on the left certainly okay to keep it that it’s a matter of personal preference but I’ll just show you another option that will free up some room on your screen for you if you go to your menu and you click on view you’ll see there’s an option that says top icon bar if you click on that notice now your icon bar is moved to the top up here the next thing you’ll want to do is you’ll want to go ahead and go back to view and click on the first option that says open Windows list and that will appear on the left hand side of your screen and just to tell you what this is every time you click one of these icons you’re going to open that window so if I clicked here for example I would open this window and this is where I would go to enter any bills I want to track in QuickBooks now you’ll notice I have two options over here if I don’t want to close this bills window I can click on home and go back to the home screen or back to enter bills and I’ll be back on the bill screen now if I close this bill screen just by going to the top right and clicking the X not the one at the very top that’ll close QuickBooks but the one right under it will close that window and now you can see it’s gone over here because that window is closed let’s take a few moments and see how this home screen is actually set up there’s actually five sections here this first section at the top where it says vendors this is your accounts payable section anything having to do with the people or businesses that you buy from those are called vendors you’re going to be able to enter the bills you receive from your vendors you’re going to be able to track inventory things like that in this section this next section here where it says customers this is your accounts receivable anything having to do with your customers these would be people that buy from you and you can see that sometimes you invoice customers you might want to receive payments from them send them a statement so this section here is all about your accounts receivable this third section at the bottom where it says employees this is your payroll at the top right you’ll see a section that says company these icons don’t really have anything to do directly with the customers or vendors but they have to do with the file itself and I want you to get really familiar with this one right here the chart of accounts this is your most important part of QuickBooks because everything will flow through there and we’re going to spend more time talking about that over in module three notice there’s also items and services those would be physical products that you might sell or Services you provide this is where you could set those up the last section I want to point out here is called banking think about things you would do at the bank you would make a deposit you could actually open your check register from here maybe print checks from here these are considered banking functions and you’ll find those in this section when you’re looking at your home screen you’ll notice there’s a flowchart and you want to always follow the flowchart from the beginning to the end for example with customers you may or may not estimate jobs in your business but let’s say that you do the next thing you would do is create an invoice then you would receive the money from the customer at some point and then you would actually record that money and put it in the bank so follow the flowchart from the beginning to the end for every one of these and you’ll have no problem with whatever you’re doing now I do want to point out a couple things on the very right hand side of your screen first of all where it says account balances once you start setting up your accounts your checking accounts Savings credit cards all of those accounts in the chart of accounts you will see them here and you’ll also see the balance and a quick way to go to one of those accounts is to click on it from here and open it up this section here really has to do more with things that Intuit can sell you for example they have merchant services accounts available if you accept credit cards if you want to order checks and supplies from them you can if you don’t want to see this section here just hit this little arrow and it will kind of hide that section for you and then notice this backup status one of the things that happens with the QuickBooks desktop version is you will need to back it up on a regular basis and one of the ways to do that is to choose this backup now option another option you have is for a fee into it we’ll back it up for you and you can sign up with that right here online by going to this link here but again if you don’t want to see this just hit the little arrow and that will hide it so you don’t have to keep looking at it that’s a quick overview of the home screen itself you’ll want to get very very familiar with it let’s go ahead now and look at the last video in this section I want to talk to you before we leave about how to convert your QuickBooks desktop data to the online version if you ever decide that you want to actually move all of your information to the cloud so you can access it from anywhere in the world hey welcome back it’s Cindy again we are wrapping up module two the getting started module we’re actually on video number six now I want to show you how to convert your QuickBooks desktop data to the online version you might decide at some point that you want to try the online version because that way you could have access to your data wherever you happen to be as long as you have internet access you can actually convert that data now you can’t go the other way you can’t have the online version and then download it to QuickBooks desktop in two it has to do that for you but it’s pretty easy to go the other way so let’s flip over to QuickBooks and I’ll show you how to convert that desktop data to the online version the first thing I suggest you do is back up your company file if you want to jump ahead go down and look at module 17 it’s video number 10 where I show you how to backup your company file once you’ve done that go ahead and click on file from your menu come down to utilities and then you’ll see an option that says copy company file for QuickBooks Online QuickBooks does have to close all the windows before it exports your company file just go ahead and choose OK here and then you can save your file anywhere you like I’m going to save mine to this QuickBooks desktop data file folder I set up notice it’s a DOT OE file go ahead and click on Save and now it’s actually exporting your data and you can see that didn’t take very long it says you’ve successfully exported your company file all you have to do at this point is Click ok the next thing you need to do is go online and get a subscription for your QuickBooks Online there will be an option in there where you can actually upload your data file that you just exported and that’s all you have to do to convert your QuickBooks desktop data to the online version well that’s going to wrap up module 2 getting started now we’re going to go into module 3 and talk a little bit about customizing the QuickBooks environment foreign we’ve made it all the way down to module 3 now and we’re going to talk in this module about different ways to customize the QuickBooks environment I wanted to start off in this first video which is the preferences and talk to you a little bit about the options that you can change that make working with QuickBooks a little bit easier a lot of these options we’re going to talk about in this preferences section are going to be options that you told it in the easy step interview you did or did not want to turn on or off there are two parts to this so make sure you watch both parts so that you get a full idea of all the preferences that are available for you to work with let’s go ahead and start now with preferences part one when you first set up your company file you went through the easy step interview in that easy step interview it asked you a series of questions and based on how you answer those questions it turned icons on or off on your home screen for example if you told it that you do not estimate jobs you wouldn’t have this estimates icon here you can turn most of these on or off in the preferences along with some other things you’re going to see that will make QuickBooks a lot easier for you to use let’s head on over to the preferences we’re going to click on edit from the menu and come down to preferences you’ll notice there are several options on the left that you can click on each of these will have a tab that says my preferences or company preferences when you click on them let’s start at the top with accounting and we’ll work our way down you’ll notice under accounting there are no options under my preferences I’ll go ahead and click on company preferences and there are a few here that you’ll want to know about let’s take a peek at this first one use account numbers this has to do with using general ledger numbers in your chart of accounts I’m going to cancel this for a moment and just go over to the chart of accounts right here just to show you what it currently looks like this is what we call your chart of accounts it’s the most important part of QuickBooks we’re going to spend more time talking about this in videos four five and six in this module but for now what I want you to notice is that there are different types of accounts and if you have a type that’s the same like these fixed assets there are two of these then you’ll notice the names of these two are in alphabetical order Once you turn on the general ledger numbers they’re going to be in numerical order I’m going to head back to edit and back to preferences under company preferences I’m going to check the box next to use account numbers and click ok and now you’ll see next to each of these you have general ledger numbers you can edit these numbers but for now you’ll see the generic ones that QuickBooks decided to use notice they’re in numerical order based on the type I’m going to head back to edit and head back to preferences same place back under accounting I’m going back to the company preferences here’s another one that you may want to use not every type of business will use this class feature but if you need it it’s a really great option here’s some examples of how this would work let’s say that your business has three locations and you would like to track your reports based on location you could have a class list set up that would list each of the locations and each time you create a new transaction you can choose the location that that transaction goes to and that’s a great way to run a report on the whole company or if you want to use it to run a report just on those different locations you can do that as well if you start entering transactions that are 90 days in the past as far as the data is concerned or in the future you will see that it will pop up and warn you and if you don’t want it to do that maybe you’re entering a lot of things that are over 90 days old then you can just come in and uncheck these I did also want to mention this date through which the books are closed in real life accounting you close the books at the end of every month and you close the books at the end of the year if you had closed the books through the end of the month and you see a mistake in a prior closed period you would make an offsetting entry in the current period to adjust for that QuickBooks will not automatically close your books it’s not going to warn you it’s not going to say anything if you want to close the books you have to come here you would set a date and a password for example this might say December the 31st of 2021 and then of course you would have a password Here what would happen is if someone went to make a change in that closed period it would pop up and say you’ve closed the books through such and such date do you still want to make that change and if you knew the password you could do that let’s jump down on the left to the general option and I’m going to click on the my preferences tab this very first one I always suggest that you turn on it says pressing enter to move between the fields if you do not have this on what will happen is you will be working in a form let’s say you’re in an invoice for example and you’re thinking that by hitting the enter key you’re going to move to the next field what will actually happen is you will save and close and your screen will disappear and you’ll wonder what happened if you turn this on you can use the enter key or the Tab Key to move between your fields there are several other options you might want to just take a peek at right up here I do want to mention this one here automatically recall last transaction for this name this is a good one because it will save you some work and keep your accounting consistent let’s say that you had previously filled out a check for your electric company what would happen is the next time you went to write a check and you put in that vendor name it will automatically fill all the information from the last time you use that vendor name and all you would really need to do is change the amount of money and save it save you a lot of time here’s another one that you probably want to turn on use today’s date as default if you don’t turn this on then whatever the last date you entered on one of your transactions that’s going to use the same date when you go to the next transaction let’s look now at items and inventory there are no options under my preferences I’ll click on the company preferences tab if you remember one of the questions in the easy step interview asked if you actually track inventory if you had said no none of these options would be checked and they wouldn’t show up on your home screen here by checking all of these you’re going to see options for purchase orders and you’ll also be able to enter invoices and you’ll be able to track inventory as well the next one down says jobs and estimates if you happen to work with different jobs in your business construction being a prime example then you may have different terminology for these you can go in and change that terminology if you want and here’s the question about estimates do you create estimates yes or no and over here is the progress invoicing question if you create estimates you probably do want progress invoicing the next one down I want to mention is payments and you’ll notice sometimes when you make a change that it will pop up and ask you if you want to save your changes I’m going to say yes here and sometimes it will have to close all the windows to make this change I’ll just click ok and now we’re on the payments option one of the things QuickBooks will do is when you receive a payment for a customer and you want to enter that payment you’re going to see in that payment window a list of invoices you’ll see the oldest on down and QuickBooks will automatically apply the payments to the oldest ones you may not want it to do that you may want to manually apply the payments to those invoices the other thing it will do is it will automatically put that payment in an account in your chart of accounts called undeposited funds if you don’t want to do that then you can uncheck that here and we’ll talk about that a little bit later you’ll see here that your customers can pay you online you can actually send them an invoice you can send it through email and it will have a button where the customer can click to pay you automatically their credit card or bank transfer and you can actually set that up with Intuit also down here where it says payment reminders if you wanted to send reminders to your customers that they have payments that are due you can do that and it will prompt you at a certain time of day and also if you want to prompt your daily or weekly you can set that up as well right here now let’s go over to payroll and employees if you’re going to be using payroll through into it you would have to actually set that up with Intuit it is not free it is subscription based but if you’re going to use that here’s a couple of preferences if you’re going to use the full payroll option you’ll click here and that will turn on some options on your home screen so that you can go ahead and set up some of your payroll if not you can leave it on no payroll you also have some options over here for pay stubs for workers comp and sick and vacation time down here at the bottom you can display your employee list by first name last name and you’ll see there’s some other options here that you may want to just look at if you decide you’re going to run your payroll through QuickBooks the next option I want to look at over on the left are your reminders notice I made a change in the payroll section so it asked me if I want to save those changes I will say yes here and then you’ll see some options pop up about reminders this is a list of different items that QuickBooks can remind you of reminders do not show up automatically where they show up is when you first open the company file if you’ve told QuickBooks to remind you you will see a window that pops up that will have those reminders in that window once you close it again you don’t see that until the next time you open QuickBooks you can see here that there are checks to print there’s overdue invoices options to be reminded about inventory reorder money to deposit you can see the options there you can have QuickBooks show you in that window a summary of all the checks to print for example you might want an individual list of each of the checks to print or you can say don’t remind me at all if you have told it to remind you of some of these options then you can go next each one of these and tell it how many days before or after that you want it to remind you of that option so you just go through here and set all of your choices for reminders go ahead and stop the video right here I want to go ahead and look at part two and we’ll continue talking about the remainder of these preferences hey there welcome back to QuickBooks desktop 2022 my name is Cindy and we are working through module 3 where we’ve been looking at different ways to customize the QuickBooks environment we just finished looking at the very first video which is part one of the preferences I want to go ahead and continue that now and just take up where we left off after part one if you got out of the preferences window you can go back to it by clicking on edit from the menu and coming down to preferences let’s go ahead and start where we left off after part one we’re going to actually click on the left where it says reports and graphs there’s one thing in particular that I really want to point out here and that’s under the company preferences tab when you run reports in QuickBooks they’re automatically run on an accrual basis you can choose to run them on a cash basis now we’ll talk more about reports in module 11 but just to tell you what this means when a report is run on a cruel basis that means when you’re looking at your income that number would include any invoices you created that have not yet been paid also as far as expenses go if you’ve entered any bills that you haven’t yet paid they would show up in this report as well as expenses versus if you use the cash option it’s only going to show invoices you’ve actually received money for that you’ve been paid for and it’s also only going to show expenses that you actually spent the money for already and that’s going to be the difference you’ll see when you’re on a report you can also change it as a one-time thing there but just know that your reports are automatically run on an accrual basis you can see there are other options here as well that you might want to look at as far as reports are concerned let’s go down to sales and customers on the left and talk about a few things here I’m going to the my preferences tab one thing I want to point out is there is an option to prompt for time slash cost to add there’s an option in QuickBooks that we’re going to talk about in a later module that will let you take any expenses you’ve accumulated that might go towards a job you’re working on and you can actually pull those expenses into an invoice and that way you can get reimbursed from your customer now if you want QuickBooks to prompt you for those you can choose this option here to do that under the company preferences tab there are a few things that you might want to look at for example if you create sales forms which we’ll talk about in a later module you might have a particular shipping method that you like to use automatically you can choose options like that let’s go look at sales tax if your company collects sales tax from your customers you’ll want to set up those sales tax items now you can do that here but we’re going to talk later when we look at the items list at how to set them up there because you’ll have several different ones you’ll want to set up and you need to make sure you do it the correct way but here you can tell QuickBooks that you do charge sales tax or you don’t and then you can also choose your most common sales tax if you’ve already set it up if you haven’t set it up yet then you’re going to need to wait until you get it set up before you can choose your most common sales tax here this little section here what will happen is if you had items that are taxable and some that are non-taxable you’re going to see that you can have this code right here that says tax or you can create a new one and the same thing for non-taxable I usually just leave those but some people prefer to have different wording for those and you can set that up also items that are taxable will have a t all the way to the right of that line item when we get into the invoicing section you’ll see more about how that works let’s go down on the left and look real quick at send forms you have the ability in QuickBooks to send a form and an example of that would be an invoice you create an invoice and instead of printing it out and mailing it you can actually send it right from QuickBooks if you do that there’s going to be a default template that goes with that you can see they’ve got one already set up here called basic invoice I’ll just edit to show you what that looks like you can see here it would have the customer’s name it’s going to have the invoice number thank you for your business you can see this if you want to edit this you can do this right here so that it pulls the new template I’m going to go ahead and cancel that you can also add a new one if you want in this particular window you’ll see it’s not just for invoices there are other forms as well there’s credit memos there are pay stubs and if you want to edit any of those or create a new one you can do it right from here I’m going to scroll down a little bit on the left here and we see a couple more I want to look at spelling if you’ve made a change to your send forms preferences you’ll want to go ahead and say Yes here I didn’t make any changes but I’ll go ahead and say Yes anyway now under spelling here on the left I’m going back to the my preferences tab you’ll see that it will always check your spelling before it prints or sends any forms it’s a very good idea to spell check any forms that you sent out so that you look professional but if you don’t want that you can uncheck that there are also some options down here for 1099s you’ll want to click on the company preferences tab here’s where it just asks you do you file 1099 forms yes or no and then one last thing I’ll mention on the left under time and expenses you have an option in QuickBooks to track your time now there are a couple of different ways that can be used it could be if you’re in a business where you invoice your customers based on the time you spend working on their projects then you can turn on a timer in QuickBooks and have it track that time for you and then pull it into an invoice it could be that you’re just trying to track the time that your subcontractors worked on a job or your employees so you could turn that option on here if it’s not on and also look at the first day of your work week it’s currently set to Monday but you can choose Sunday through Saturday that’s really the most important options that I think you’re going to work with here in QuickBooks you might want to take time and look through the other ones just go through it anytime and go ahead and make these changes and once you’ve made those go ahead and click OK and now you’ve finished the preferences now that we’ve looked at all of the preferences in QuickBooks let’s go ahead and move over to video number three and talk about how to work with different users in QuickBooks hey there welcome back it is Cindy again we are working in QuickBooks desktop for version 2022. this is video three of module three I want to talk to you a little bit in this video about how to work with the users option in QuickBooks when you open QuickBooks if you’d like to have that user type in a username and password you would need to set up those users in order to be able to do that this is not something you have to do in QuickBooks but it is very highly recommended setting up users will allow you to set up different permissions for different people who use QuickBooks you can actually set it up so they can access certain areas and maybe not access others let’s go ahead and flip over to QuickBooks and I’ll show you how to set up those users you do not have to set up users in QuickBooks but it’s very highly suggested when you set up users that means that when you double click to open your company file each time it will ask whoever’s using it to put in their username and their password in order to allow them access to your company file you do have to be the administrator in order to actually work with the users make sure that administrator is logged in what you’ll want to do is go to the menu and click on company and then you’ll see an option that says set up users and passwords and in the sub menu choose setup users if you did have a password set for the administrator maybe you set it up when you set up your company file through the easy step wizard it would ask you to go ahead and log in and then you just click OK and now you’ll see the user list here you can see the admin is logged in you can add up to five users in QuickBooks each one will have a different login as the administrator you’ll want to be the one to set up these users so that you can write down their username and password and if that user leaves the company go ahead and delete them over here or if you want to edit the user that was there previously you could do that but make sure you have the current user set up let’s say that we’ve hired a new employee and that employee is going to come in a couple days a week and just pay the bills and we just want to give them access to those areas I’m going to click on add user and we’ll put in the user’s name let’s say the name is Carol and we’ll set up a password for Carol you’ll want to make sure you type it in twice and then you’ll want to click next the first thing QuickBooks ask is what do you want this user to have access to notice you can give Carol access to all areas of QuickBooks selected areas which we’re going to choose and I also want to point out this last option for the external accountant if you have an accountant that you want to have access to your QuickBooks file you can give them their own username and password they won’t have access to what we call sensitive customer data credit card numbers things like that I’m going to choose selected areas and click next the first area it asks about is sales and accounts receivable now this has to do with invoicing our customers I’m going to leave that on no access and click next this next question asks about purchases and accounts payable this is what I hired Carol to do I’m going to give her full access notice I could give her selected access where she can only do these three items that you see here but I’ll go ahead and give her full access to accounts payable the next option is checking and credit cards I don’t want her to go in and make deposits and enter credit card charges things like that so I’ll just say no access this screen asks about inventory I’m not going to give her access to inventory not going to give her access to time tracking or payroll this option asks about sensitive accounting activities those are things like do you want Carol to be able to make journal entries in QuickBooks do you want her to have access to online banking functions again I’m going to say no and sensitive financial reporting those are the reports that go with that previous screen now it asks me do I want Carol to have the option to change or delete transactions I usually leave this where it defaults the first option asks do I want Carol to have the ability to change or delete transactions in the area she has access to of course what if she enters a bill twice and needs to delete one of them this option says do you want Carol to be able to change or delete transactions recorded before the closing date if you remember in the preferences there was an option to close the books if you use that function you may not want Carol to go in and make changes in those closed periods this last option just gives me a summary of all of the options I chose I’m going to hit finish and now you’re going to see that our new user Carol has appeared on this list if I ever want to edit her I can come over to edit or delete her I’m going to close this window I want to show you how this option actually works each time you are finished using QuickBooks you want to go ahead and log out you want to click on file and the go down to where it says close company and log off if you do not do this you’re still logged in and the next person that comes in will be logged in as you sometimes QuickBooks will ask you if you want to back up your data we’ll talk about that a little bit later I’ll just say no here and that’s actually going to take me back to this screen that you’re going to be very familiar with where you’re actually able to open an existing file our new user is coming in to work the new user is going to double click on the company file ABC Plumbing in this case and it’s going to bring up a window where Carol has to put in her name and her password notice it has the last username that was logged in I’m going to put in Carol and I’m going to go down and put in her password now Carol has access to this company file you might notice that the icon bar is back on the left hand side again any preferences that are changed are per user now I want to show you how QuickBooks will allow Carol to access areas she should be in and not allow her into other areas we gave Carol permission to work with bills so she will definitely be able to enter bills like this okay let me close that I did not give her access to work with accounts receivable that’s this area down here I’m going to click on create invoices and notice gives me a warning and says that you need sales and accounts receivable permission to perform this action I’m going to go ahead and click OK and that’s how the users work in QuickBooks let me go ahead and log off here I’m going to close company log off and I’ll log back in as the admin again and go ahead and put in the admins password I had set up see how it says Carol I’m going to put in admin and I’ll put in that password again and go ahead and click OK and now I will be back in QuickBooks and I’ll be able to access everything because I am the admin that’s how you’re going to set up users in QuickBooks remember you have to be logged in as the administrator in order to make any changes to the users let’s go ahead now and wrap up this video we’re still in module three I want to go down now to video number four we’re going to talk about working with the chart of accounts in the next few videos video number four is called what is the chart of accounts hey there welcome back to QuickBooks desktop 2022 my name is Cindy and we are walking through module 3 customizing the QuickBooks environment we’re all the way down now to video number four where I want to talk to you about the chart of accounts the chart of accounts is the most important part of QuickBook it’s very important that it’s set up correctly if it’s not then you’re going to run reports and the data will not be accurate and you’ll wonder why let’s go ahead and flip over to QuickBooks and we’ll start talking about how that chart of accounts works the easiest way to access the chart of accounts is from the home screen you’ll see an icon right here that says chart of accounts this is a listing of all the different accounts that are in this company file this list was created based on how you answer the questions when you set up the company file you might look at a different company file that has some of the same accounts but it might have some different accounts and both are correct initially you’ll want to go through this list and add any accounts that you know you’re going to want to use you will want to delete ones you know you’ll never use and if you need to edit the name of some of these you can do that as well it’s very important when you set up this list that you’ve got the types set up correctly over in this column and we’re going to go through each one of the types before we do that I want to point out that currently the list is set up by type and the accounts are set up alphabetically so there are two fixed asset accounts you can see we’ve got accumulated depreciation and furniture and Equipment there you’ll notice also that the general ledger numbers are not on automatically and this is a preference you do not have to use them but if you want to here’s how you turn them on if you go up to edit on the menu come down to preferences make sure on the left you’re clicked on accounting and choose the company preferences tab in here is a check box that says use account numbers you’ll want to make sure that’s checked and then just click OK and now you’ll see you have general ledger numbers over on the left hand side these can be edited if you want to use them but you want a different number you could just edit these just right click and choose this edit option and that will let you go in and edit any of the information that you have set up as far as this account is concerned I want to go through the different types with you now just to make sure you’ve got those set up correctly the first thing you’ll notice is we don’t have any bank accounts here they’re usually set up as the first type here if I wanted to actually enter a debit card transaction I couldn’t do it because I don’t have a bank account set up yet let’s go ahead and add a bank account you can just right click anywhere in this list to access this new option the first thing QuickBooks will ask you is what type of account is this this is a bank account and notice it gives you a couple of examples of what a bank account would be bank accounts are any checking accounts that the company has any savings accounts any money market accounts if you have PayPal you would want to set that up as a bank account if you have a lot of cash expenditures for your business you would want to set one up to have a place to put those those are examples of bank accounts I’m going to click continue at the bottom and the first thing you’ll notice is that if I happen to have chosen the wrong bank account on the previous screen I can go here and actually edit that now the next thing you’ll notice is a place to put the general ledger number I’m just going to add one here and then you put in the name of the account now you can name your accounts anything you like I’m going to call this one checking often I’ll see them referred to as operating account or payroll account you might have your bank name in there as long as you know that it’s a checking account then you’re good this is not a sub account of another one we’ll talk about that in a little while you don’t really need a description unless you want to put something in there someone would have to be on this exact screen to see the description the bank account number and the routing number and I wouldn’t put the bank account number or the routing number in here QuickBooks does not needed what you would need to do though is enter the opening balance as of the start date of your company file what was the balance in this checking account I’m going to say that I had fifteen hundred dollars and I’m going to put the statement ending date as January the 1st of 2022 in this case there’s also an option here that says remind me to order checks when I reach a certain check number it will just pop up there and let you know it’s time to order checks and ask you if you’d like to order them from into it I’m going to hit save and close and now you’re going to see that we have a bank account set up called checking if you get this message they’re asking you if you want to set up your bank feeds we’ll talk about that in a later module for now I’m just going to say no and it will close that window you’ll notice now that you have a bank account and you have fifteen hundred dollars in that account every transaction has a debit and a credit the good thing for you is you don’t have to know the flip side of the transaction because QuickBooks did that for you notice there’s an account here called opening balance equity and it now has fifteen hundred dollars that’s the flip side of your transaction let’s go ahead and set up another one I’m going to right click and choose new I’m going to make this a bank account again this will be a savings account this time I’ve got bank account here I’m going to say savings and I’ll go ahead and open that with a five thousand dollar balance as uh the first of 2022. you can also click this calendar if you want to pick from this list I’m going to click ok and then saving clothes and now you’ll notice that I have five thousand dollars back here in a savings account now notice something that happened here you’ll notice that my checking account had a general ledger number but my savings account did not I want to edit that I’ll just right click on savings and go ahead and edit that account notice it takes me right back to the screen and I’ll go ahead and put in 11 000 and go ahead and save and close and now you’ll see that I’ve got my checking and my savings and they’re both bank accounts with the balance in each notice that the opening balance Equity account now has sixty five hundred dollars if you had a loan where you owe the money then this would be a negative number possibly and don’t freak out when you see that because it’s an accurate picture of your books the next type of account I want to mention are your asset accounts right here an asset is something that your company owns that makes it more valuable you might have furniture desk lamps you might have inventory in the back those assets can fall into one of two categories you can have fixed assets like you see here for furniture and fixtures or you can have what QuickBooks calls other current other current assets are assets that you have right now that make the company more valuable but your goal is to sell those and get them out the door they’re more liquid that’s an other current asset this is the one place where your accountant is going to be very helpful because you’re not really going to know what numbers to plug into your asset accounts when you set up your asset accounts you want to have maybe seven to ten you don’t want to have a ton of asset accounts and they’re going to be more generic you’re going to have asset accounts like furniture and fixtures that you see here you’re going to have one that might be called Vehicles you might have one that’s called equipment those are just big buckets that you’re going to be able to plug those numbers that relate to assets into and this is where your accountant will become very helpful because he or she will help you figure out which accounts to set up and which numbers to plug into those accounts the next one I want to point out here is one that says accounts payable accounts payable is an account where all of the bills you’ve entered will show up if they’re not paid they’ll show up in the accounts payable balance you see right over here once you’ve entered a bill and you’ve paid that bill it will not be part of your balance anymore it’s not considered accounts payable you’ll also have one called accounts receivable that will show up down here once you create your first invoice invoices that have not been paid will show up in the balance of the accounts receivable account once they’ve been paid they will not show up in that balance anymore and we’ll see some of those as we move into one of our sample files in a later module the next thing I want to point out are your liabilities a liability is something that the business owes like a loan for example each loan or liability should be set up separately in accounting you have short-term liabilities and long-term liabilities a short-term liability is something you’re going to pay off in 12 13 months and a long-term liability is something that you’re going to pay off long term maybe five years down the road let me show you how to set up a loan I’m going to right click and choose new you’ll notice that QuickBooks has the loan option here and this is a short-term liability if you’re looking for the long-term liability option they’ve got it listed here under other account types I’ll just choose long-term liability and click continue the first thing I want to do is make sure I have the name of my account set up and again you can name these anything you want I’m just going to say car loan it’s not a sub-account of another if I want a description I could add one maybe the make and model of the car if I want to add the account number I could but QuickBooks doesn’t need it I do need an opening balance however as at the start date of my company file how much did I owe on that loan let’s just say it was twelve thousand dollars and that would be as of the first of this year and I’m going to click OK and then save and close now you’ll see that I’ve got my long-term liability my car loan and I owe 12 000 on that loan now you’ll notice again I don’t have a general ledger number so I’m just going to edit to that I’m going to right click and choose edit and put in a general ledger number now I can click save and close and you’ll see there it is and again I owe twelve thousand dollars on that loan now something super important to know when you make a payment on the vehicle always always always the principal amount goes back to this account you should not set up a car loan as an expense in this list it’s not an expense to the business it is a liability you’ll notice also that the opening balance Equity now has a negative number like I mentioned earlier that’s because you owe more than the actual equity in the business right now that’s an actual accurate picture of what your books look like you can’t change that you want to go through and set up each loan separately so that you can track the balance you owe at any given time let’s go over to video number five working with the chart of accounts part two hey there welcome back it’s Cindy again we’re still working in QuickBooks we’re in desktop 2022. we’re going to go ahead and finish talking about the chart of accounts this is video number five in module three where we’re customizing the QuickBooks environment we’re back in the chart of accounts here when we left off in part one we had just set up a long-term liability we had set up a car payment remember a long-term liability is something you owe and you’re going to pay on it long term the other type of liability is a short-term or other current as QuickBooks calls them and you’ll see an example of one right here sales tax payable when you collect sales tax you are actually going to have to forward that money to the appropriate entity typically that’s done once a month it could be more but it’s on a short-term basis and that’s why those are set up as other current liabilities if you do collect sales tax you won’t have to set this account up because QuickBooks will set it up for you automatically and the balance that you see here will be the balance that is accumulated from all the invoices you’ve created and you have it forwarded those sales tax payments yet let’s talk about Equity accounts you’ll see there are a few here already set up here’s your opening balance Equity we’ve mentioned a few times but a really popular one that you’ll want to think about is owner equity think about the word Equity meaning equal if you own the company and you decide to take one hundred dollars out that would be an owner draw or owner Equity as it’s called if you decide to put that same one hundred dollars into the business that’s called an owner contribution if you’re not Incorporated the way you would pay yourself as a small business owner is by taking draws once you incorporate yourself you want to think about setting up actual payroll where you’re deducting taxes but I want to go ahead and set one up for you just to show you how you would set up an equity account and also this will show you how to set up sub-accounts we’re going to set up one for the owner draws and one for the owner contributions the first thing you want to do is right click and choose new and you’ll want to set up an equity account for the main account which we’re going to call owner all you have to do is put in the account name you really don’t need any of this other information right now there’s probably not going to be an opening balance instead of me saving and closing and then having to create another one I’m going to choose save a new you can see this took me to a blank screen it already has Equity filled in up here now what I’m going to do is create an account for owner draws I’m just going to call this one draws but notice it will be a sub-account of in this case owner and I’m going to save a new and create one more I’m going to create the contributions account remember this is when you put money into the business as a small business owner and this will be a sub account again of owner now I’m going to save and close and you can see all three of these are right here and you’ll notice how contributions and draws look like they’re indented underneath owner that’s because they’re sub-accounts QuickBooks will let you have as many levels as you need typically if you need more than three you’re going to get yourself confused so stay stay with two or three and you’ll be fine you’ll sometimes see other terminology for these sometimes you will see the contributions referred to as shareholder equity there’s many different terms that you might see for that so just set that up however you’d like to see it on reports the next type I want to talk to you about are your income accounts when you actually make a sale in your business that’s considered income you can have just one income account if you like or you can have multiple the next one I want to talk about is a cost of goods sold type anytime that you have to spend money to buy product or buy a service to make a product or service for your business that’s considered a cost of goods sold some examples would be if you buy a lot of materials for your job you might have one called job materials set up if you use subcontractors you might have one set up for subcontractors let’s set up a couple of these so you can see how this works I’m going to right click and choose new you’re going to have to go to where it says other account types and drop the list down and from here I’m going to choose cost of goods sold then I’m going to hit continue and I’m just going to call this one job materials and this would be any time that you have to buy any type of material at all to create that product or service for your business I’m going to hit save and close and you can see now it says job materials if I wanted to go back and add a general ledger number I could do that I could just right click and edit and I’m going to save and close and now you can see it has a general ledger number let’s talk a little bit about setting up one for subcontractors if you have a lot of subcontractors you deal with go ahead and set up the main account called subcontractors and then the sub-accounts can be the different types if you want to break it down that way I’m going to go ahead and right click here I’m going to go back to the other account types and choose cost of goods sold and hit continue I’ll call this one subcontractors and then I’ll go ahead and click save and close and you can see it’s on the list here now let me go ahead and edit that one and give it a general ledger number and then we’ll add some sub-accounts below that now let’s go ahead and add a couple of sub-accounts I’m going to right click and choose new I’m going to choose cost of goods sold I want to call this first one HVAC and we’re going to say it’s a sub-account of and in this case it’s going to be subcontractors now I’m going to hit save and close and you can see how it shows up underneath subcontractors I don’t have a general ledger number again so I’m going to right click and add one here and then I’m going to save and close and you can see that it’s indented underneath subcontractors indicating that it is a sub-account the next type you’re going to see are your expenses down here at the bottom and you can see there are quite a few expenses here I’m going to go ahead and stop the video and let’s go ahead and move over to part three and we will continue setting up your chart of accounts hey it’s Cindy again welcome back to QuickBooks desktop 2022 we’ve been working in module 3 where we’re talking about customizing the QuickBooks environment this is going to be part three of working with the chart of accounts you want to make sure you watch part one and two and then you can go on and watch part three to make sure you have a full understanding of how to set up this entire chart of accounts let’s go ahead and flip over to QuickBooks and we’ll keep going with the chart of accounts we’re back in the chart of accounts now and I want to take a look at your expense accounts here you’re going to add quite a few expense accounts to this list you’ll probably also add quite a few sub-accounts let’s just look at a few of these just so you get an idea of what types of accounts are here and which ones you might want to add the first one you’ll see here is advertising and promotion this is typically where you’re going to add any advertising that you do whether it’s social media advertising whether you do print maybe you do some TV advertising and if you want to have sub accounts below to break that out you could do that I want to point out automobile expense right now you could dump your gas in here you might actually add any repairs and maintenance to your vehicles but if you wanted to run a report on gas you wouldn’t be able to do that because you have it all in one account let me just add a couple of sub-accounts here just again to refresh your memory on how to do this I’m going to right click on automobile expense and I’m going to add a new account when you add a sub account it has to be the same type as the main account so this will be an expense I’ll hit continue and I’ll just call this one gas you want to make sure that it is a sub account of in this case automobile expense if you want to add your general ledger number make sure you do that here and then go ahead and save and close and now you’ll see gas is a sub-account under automobile expense next you’ll see Bank service charges typically this is where you’re going to put your 14 a month to have the account you’re going to put NSF fees maybe you wire some money you have a fee for that you might

also put your PayPal charges in here looking down this list you’ve got your business licenses the permits charitable contributions computer and internet expense this is where you’re going to put your monthly cable bill for the internet or if you have to have the computer fixed you might put that expense here let’s say that you don’t use Continuum education all you have to do is right click on that account and just delete it if you’ve used this account before it will not let you delete it and it will give you a message telling you that if you see this one that says are you sure you want to delete that means you’ve never used it and you can click OK and go on here’s Insurance expense some people put their automobile insurance under this one some people put it back under automobile expense it’s not wrong either way it’s just how would you like to see it when you run a report looking down this list you’ll see interest expense there are two that you’ll want to add underneath this one you’ll want to add loan interest and credit card finance charges let me just add those two so that you can see these here I’ll just right click and new this will be an expense I’ll hit continue and the first one I’ll add is finance charges and this is going to be finance charges related to credit cards typically I’ll go ahead and make that a sub-account of interest expense and I’m going to add the other one here so I’ll say save a new and this one here will say loan interest any loan interest will go to this account now I’m going to hit save and close and you’ll see I’ve added those there and you can go back and add a general ledger number if you want I want to talk to you next about payroll expenses quite often I will see that businesses actually Outsource their payroll usually when that happens you’re going to want to add three accounts as sub-accounts underneath payroll expenses you’re going to add one for the admin fee you’re going to add one for the total of the net checks and another for the total of the net taxes you’ll see Postage and delivery and then professional fees typically under professional fees you’ll see one for the accountant and you’ll see another sub-account for attorneys fees looking down this list I want to point out that there is utilities here and telephone expenses right above it here if you wanted to move telephone expense under utilities all you have to do is right click on Telephone expenses edit that account and make it a sub account of utilities you’ll also see one at the bottom that says ask my accountant if you ever have a situation where you don’t know where to put one of the lines on the transaction you’re entering then you can go ahead and add it to this ask my accountant and later you can go back and move it this gives you a really good idea of how to set up this chart of accounts remember it’s super important that it’s set up correctly from the beginning because if you don’t have the correct type then what will happen is you’ll run reports and they will not be accurate let’s go ahead now move over to video number seven and we’re going to talk real quick about some of the different sample files that are in QuickBooks if you happen to be working in one of your company files you’ll want to go ahead and close that company just go up to file on the menu and then come down to the closed company slash log off option when you’re on this window you’ll notice there’s an option here to open a sample file the down arrow will give you a list of the sample files that are loaded into your version of QuickBooks you can see there’s a product based business which is a construction company and there’s a service based business which is a landscaping company you probably want to use the product based business because here you can see everything the way it should be set up the proper way you’ll be able to go in and actually see how things were done and anytime you’re using the sample file it will just give you this message and you can see that it’s letting me know that once I get in the date will be set to December 15th of 2023. all you do is Click OK and then you’ll be inside the sample file you’ll be able to look up anything you’d like if you’re having an issue setting up an account in the chart of accounts for example just go over to the chart of accounts and look and see how it was set up here and set Yours up the exact same way well I just want you to know where those two files are they’re going to be very helpful for you when you have questions about different things as far as setting up your company file well let’s go ahead and move over to video number eight and I want to quickly just talk to you about how to use the company file search option in QuickBooks hey there welcome back we are wrapping up module three we’re here in video number eight we’re going to talk a little bit about how to use the company file search option in QuickBooks for desktop 2022. there are many ways to search in QuickBooks but if you just need to search quickly for something there’s a search box you can just type things into and it will pull up any data that meets your search criteria let’s flip over to QuickBooks and I’ll show you where that file search option happens to be we’re here in one of the sample files this is the sample product based business the first thing you’ll notice is your icon bar is still on the left hand side I wanted to point this out because we’re going to talk about a search box that should appear right up here that way if you’re looking for an amount of money or a name you can just type it in but since there’s not one let me show you how to actually get it to show up if you remember we can actually put the icon bar at the top I’ll click on view from the menu and then choose top icon bar once you do that you’ll see over here now we have a search box let’s say I want to search for a payment for two thousand dollars I can just quickly put in 2000 here and then once I go ahead and hit the enter key you’ll see it pulled up this search history here and you’ll see that it’s got exactly and it’s looked up everything for two thousand dollars so if I happen to be here and I see that I’m looking for this particular payment down here let’s say this one and I want to open it up I can just click open here and go right to that particular transaction in this case it’s a payment while we have the search box open let me just show you a couple of things you’ll see over on the left here that we’re looking through transactions there were 13 that met my criteria I could actually click that Arrow that’s to the left of transactions and it will show me that three of those happen to be bills five of those happen to be payments you can see that list I could be looking just through customers or just through vendors you can see when I click on these that I can put in some criteria down in this section right here where it says amount I had typed in 2000 so it was looking for an exact match but I could be looking for anything greater than 2000 or less than or a range which allows me to put in two different numbers I might be looking for anything between 1 000 and 2000. notice I can also put in a date range down here all of these options make searching really easy in QuickBooks remember that it starts with this search box here you can put text in here too if you’d like it doesn’t have to be just numbers and it will search for any text that you’ve typed in there are other ways to search in QuickBooks we’ll talk about a lot of those down in module 17 but for now I just wanted to see that quick way to search for something in QuickBooks well that’s going to wrap up module 3 where we talked about customizing the QuickBooks environment let’s go ahead and move now over to module 4 and we’ll go ahead and get started with the first video where we’re going to talk about working with customers and jobs hey there welcome back it is Cindy we’re working in QuickBooks desktop 2022 and we’ve made it all the way down now to module 4. this is the module where we’re going to talk about working with customers and jobs you can actually call this accounts receivable we’re going to talk about setting up customers in this module invoicing we’re going to talk about estimating receiving payments anything having to do with accounts receivable we’re going to cover in this module this is the first video where I want to start helping you set up your customers and your jobs there are two parts so make sure you watch part one and two to make sure you have your customers and jobs set up correctly let’s go ahead and flip over to QuickBooks and we’ll get started working with those customers and jobs a customer is a person or a business that buys from you a customer might have different jobs that you’re working on for them as well I want to take you into the customer center and show you where the list of customers and jobs is and how to work with that list before we do that remember that this section here is your accounts receivable section and this is where you’re going to do most everything related to customers the easiest way to access the customer center is to click right here but before I do that let me just point out you can also access the customer center from your icon bar or you can go up to customers on the menu and choose the first option the customer center and I’ll go ahead and do that this is a listing of all of the customers and jobs that you have already set up in QuickBooks before we get started looking at the list let me just tell you a little bit about how this screen is actually set up you’ll notice here on the left you’re seeing every one of your customers last name comma first name and they’re in alphabetical order these that look indented these are jobs for that customer this is the balance the customer owes you and this column over here would allow you to create an attachment and actually attach a file to that customer and that way you don’t have to get all the way out of QuickBooks if you’re looking for something specific that you’ve already attached if you’re clicked on a customer you’ll see that because there’s information right over in this section you can see all of their information as far as their address their phone number their email and over on the right you’re going to see some reports for this customer or job this section here allows you to look at different transactions for that customer maybe you want to look at contacts to Do’s notes or send emails and we’re going to go through all of this but I want you to get just familiar with the screen itself let’s go ahead and add a customer so that you can see all of the information needed when you’re creating customers and jobs the easiest way to do this is you’ll see an option right here that says new customer and job when you click the down arrow you’ll see three choices the first one being to add a new customer the first thing you need to tell QuickBooks is what is the name of the customer if you remember the customer name was alphabetical last name comma first name it’s not going to alphabetize them automatically you’ll need to actually type in their last name and then put a comma and put the first name then it will sort by the first letter of the last name there the next field that you see says opening balance what this means is how much money did the customer owe you as of the start date of your company file you might want to leave that blank if you’re just starting your company file new what you might want to do is actually enter the invoices that aren’t yet paid for that customer if you just have a balance here your accounting will be correct but you won’t have any way of going back and looking at one of those invoices that’s still open notice that I’m on the address info Tab and the first thing it asks me is what is the name of the company if Tom Allen works for a company then you can type it in if not you can leave this blank and I’m going to say he works for ABC Plumbing notice there is a place for the full name you can say mister Tom and of course you’ve got the middle initial and last name a common question is if I have the name here why do I need to put it in here this field right here allows you to put the customer’s name in that list that we saw right over here remember this it’s going to put it in that list however if I wanted to do a mail merge it would pull from these fields right here so it’s important to have these filled in you can see that you can fill in the job title and then all of these fields down here you can actually edit that field to represent any of these options that you see on the drop down now here’s something really important you’ll see when I typed in ABC Plumbing Tom Allen that it populated this right here but this is the actual address block that’s going on a customer’s invoice so you may want to click in there and set it up the way you’d like it to be I’m going to say attention Tom Allen and then I’m going to go ahead and put in a P.O box here I’ll put in the street address we’ll just use a PO Box in this case then I can go ahead and hit the enter key and go ahead and put in the city state and zip and we’ll just say this person is in Charlotte North Carolina if you wanted to have a separate shipping address maybe you like things for this customer shipped to the job site as an example you could type that in over here or you can just copy this address to this one but if you don’t ship anything you really don’t need to fill in this section right over here now let’s go up to our tabs on the left and click on payment settings the first thing you’ll see here on the payment settings tab is there is a field for the account number if you give your customers account numbers you can fill this in if you don’t you can leave this blank the next one you’ll see is for payment terms you might give different payment terms to different customers maybe if it’s a new customer you give them terms of Duo from receipt and maybe if it’s someone you know well then you might get them net 30. we’ll just add net 30 in this case the next field asked you what is their preferred delivery method do they prefer to have things emailed to them mailed or neither and is there a preferred payment method now this doesn’t mean that they’re going to pay you with their Visa card every time it’s just giving you information letting you know that they usually prefer to pay with their credit card you’ll notice there is a place down here to store your customers credit card information I probably wouldn’t do that because if someone gets into your computer you are liable for that as a business if you’ve got someone that wants you to keep their credit card number on file just write it down somewhere and just keep it safe so that no one can get access to it you’ll see over on the right there’s a feel for a credit limit what would happen is if you set a credit limit for your customer and you invoice and those invoices exceed the credit limit it will pop up and ask you would you still like to sell them something and then you can just bypass that there’s also a field for Price levels if you decide that all of your commercial customers should get a 10 discount as an example then you can set that up I’m just going to click on add new for a moment and just show you what the screen looks like the first thing you would do is put in a price level name commercial for example and then you can see that you can tell QuickBooks that every time you invoice a commercial customer their price level will either increase or decrease by whatever percentage you type in and we’ve got commercial already set up back here so I’ll cancel that but that’s how that would work and it would automatically give them that discount you can also set up online payments for your customers if you want to have a button that they can click on once you email the invoice to them that button would allow them to actually pay you with either bank transfer or credit card and you could set that up with Intuit let’s go over to the sales tax settings tab if you charge sales tax to your customers then you can specify whether this customer is a non-taxable or a taxable customer a non-profit organization for example would be non-taxable where a regular customer would be charged sales tax you also would tell QuickBooks what is the most common tax item you would have to have these set up already or go through and set them up here these are actually set up in the items list and we’ll discuss this in a later module and also there’s a feel for the resale number all that means is let’s say that I sell physical products in my store and one of my customers sells physical products as well they might have a resale number already set up that they can give me so that when they purchase those products for me they don’t have to pay sales tax and this would be a good place for you just to keep that information the next tab says additional info this is where you can categorize your customers you can see in this example they have commercial customers and residential customers if you work with sales reps in your organization you can set them up here as well and then these fields that you see on the right these are created by you all you have to do is click on Define Fields And if you have a new field you want to add just type the name of it here and then check underneath each of these if you want that field available for customers vendors and or employees so you don’t have to set it up three different times now the last tab says job info you obviously wouldn’t use this one setting up a customer but if this was a job you could put a description of the job you could have a type of job if you want a status for the job you can put in a start date and end date and a projected end date and those are options you would use if you were creating a new customer I’m going to click OK and let’s see if our new customers in the list and you can see there’s Tom Allen right there now that you have a new customer Tom Allen let’s go ahead and add a job for this customer as long as you’re clicked on your customer you can come up here where it says new customer and job and choose the add job option I want to call this job kitchen remodel I really don’t need to fill in any of this other information it pulls in the information from that customer so unless something’s different all you have to do is Click OK at the bottom and now you’ll see you have a job for your customer if you want to edit any of the information for your customer or your job just make sure your clicked on that customer or job and you can come right over here where you see this little pencil and that means edit and that will take you right back into the screen so you make any changes you want when you’re finished click ok and you’ll see that your customer dropper now created let’s go ahead and now move over into customers and jobs part two and we’ll finish talking about setting up these customers hey there welcome back it’s Cindy again we’re working in QuickBooks desktop 2022 we just got through with customers and jobs part one I want to go ahead and continue talking to you a little bit about setting up your customers and jobs this is part two let’s go ahead and flip over to QuickBooks and we’ll keep going I am back in the customer center just in case you forgot how to get here I’ll go back to the home screen for just a moment from the home screen you can access the Customer Center from here you can access it from the Icon bar under the icon that says customers or you can go to customers on your menu and you’ll see the very first option says Customer Center whichever customer you’re clicked on on the left you’ll see their information in this area of the screen I’m clicked on Christy Abercrombie and you can see that I’ve put in information like her billing address I’ve got her phone number her email address you’ll also see here a map and directions to Christie’s Bill to address and just to show you how this works if I click directions it’s going to open Google Maps and the address will be 5647 Cypress Hill Road let me go ahead and do that so you can see how this works and now I know how to get to Christie’s office let me go ahead and close this a couple things on the right that I want to point out first of all you’ll see there’s a box right here underneath note and when I point there you’re going to see three notes and you can see the dates for each one now those notes actually come from this tab here that says notes that’s these three notes if I wanted to pin one of those notes Here I could do that I could just go ahead and click the pen option here or here and that would actually stick it here permanently so that I can see those notes whenever I come into Christie’s account you’ll notice below this you’ll see a couple of reports for Christy I can run a quick report I can run an open balance meaning every invoice I’ve created for Christy that she has not paid me yet I can show estimates for Christy and also there’s a customer snapshot the other thing I want to mention up here is this little paper clip if you have a file you’d like to attach to Christie’s account all you have to do is make sure that file has a name I’m going to click the paper clip all you would have to do is search your computer if you have the file already saved if it’s on your phone you can actually connect that there’s also a document Center here these would be any documents you’ve already scanned that might be in QuickBooks you can also just take a file and just drop it into this area here maybe it’s on your desktop currently and that will attach it as well if you have a file attached you will see a little paper clip show up right over here and that way you can click there anytime you want to see that file let’s look at some of these tabs down at the bottom I’m going to click on transactions this is one of the easiest ways to look for a transaction related to a customer instead of running a report which you could certainly do or doing a search if you can just come here and look down the list sometimes it’s easier just to pick out the transaction you’re looking for you’ll see these transactions are currently sorted by date you can see the little down arrow there but I could sort them by type or number if I wanted to any of these column headings if you want to open one of these transactions let’s just say the very first one just double click on it in this case it’s a payment and you can see that it brought up that payment for Christie if you needed to make a change to this transaction you could do it right here save and close at the bottom and when you come back you will see that change reflected on this line notice I’m currently looking at all the transactions but I might want to filter this list maybe I just want to see invoices for some reason you can also over here instead of showing all the transactions you can filter it by this date range you can come down and say last month or if you want to see anything last fiscal year this fiscal year you can see your choices here notice at the bottom of this tab you see an option that says manage transactions and there’s a down arrow to the right of it here’s where you can go in and create an estimate an invoice a sales receipt you can create any of these transactions you want right from here chances are you’re not going to be in this screen though but just know that you could if you wanted to this edit selected transaction is the same thing as double clicking and making that change and saving it you’ve also got some reports down here at the bottom if you click the down arrow I can view this entire screen here as a report if I want to let’s take a look at the contacts tab a contact is a person that you want to keep a record of that maybe works for that company it could be that when you call this company you always speak to a certain person maybe Steve you can see Steve is set up as a contact here if I come to the bottom and click the down arrow you can see I can add a new contact here I can edit the one that’s selected or can delete the selected contact I’m just going to click edit because I want to show you the information that you can fill in when you’re editing or adding a contact you would have to put in their name you can see they’ve got Christie’s first and last name notice they have her last name in the same field as the first name I’m going to go ahead and actually cut that out and paste it down here the next thing is I can add her work phone Fax mobile and again these fields can represent whatever you’d like them to just by clicking the down arrow and seeing your choices Christy is a primary contact but notice I could set up an additional contact or a secondary I’ll go ahead and save and close and now you’ll see there’s Christy Abercrombie she’s still our primary contact let’s look at the to do’s a to-do is something you have to do related to this customer if you had any to-do’s already set up you would see them listed here to create a new to do come down to the managed to Do’s at the bottom click the down arrow and you’ll see create new a to-do can be a phone call a fax an email a meeting an appointment or a task you decide I’ll go ahead and say it’s a call and set the priority is it a high priority task or a low priority task it’s going to assume it’s with this customer but notice you can change that if you want to this can actually be with the lead possibly or a vendor or an employee you can set the due date if you want to set a time on that date you just click this check box and set the time now at the bottom is where you type in the details you can also change the status when you first set this up it will be an active to do but you can actually say this to-do has been done or make it inactive I’m going to go ahead and click ok and now you’ll see that this to do has been set up once you’ve completed this task or this to do notice that over in this done column you can actually double click and that will open up this to do you can actually come down here and say done and click OK and now you’ll see there’s a check mark indicating that you’ve completed that to do you can also run reports on your to-do’s notice you can launch a to-do report which looks just like this and you’ll see all the to-do’s that you have set up not just for this customer I’m going to go ahead and close that the last thing I want to mention is the tab that says sent email once you send an email through QuickBooks you’re going to see that email is listed here and that way if you want to go back and see a record of all the emails sent to this client you would have that list now there’s a couple of other things here I just want to mention real quick before we wrap up working with customers and jobs you’ll notice at the top here the new transactions we’ve seen this screen already we saw this under transactions when we went to manage transactions we could create these new items this is the same list chances are you won’t be on this screen when you want to create these and all of these happen to be on your home screen by the way as well but if you happen to be here you can do it from here if you wanted to print you could print your customer list you might print just job information or customer and job transaction list you can also export this customer list over to excel that way you have a list that’s separate from QuickBooks if you needed it for some reason you can export the transactions you can also import from Excel if you have a list of customers already set up then you can either import them or paste them in from Excel and just to show you this screen I’m going to click on paste from Excel when you look at this screen what you see here is a listing of all of your customers and each field of information what you can do if you have a lot of customers you want to add you can go to the bottom and just start typing the new customer information in these fields and when you’re finished you can save changes and they’ll be in QuickBooks just as if you set them up from within QuickBooks you also have the ability if you want to do a mail merge with Microsoft Word you can do that from here and we’re going to go through all of this in a later module and then also you have what’s called an income tracker that you can look at we’re going to cover this in a later module as well but just want to give you an idea of what types of things you’re going to see in the customer center well that’s going to wrap up customers and jobs let’s go ahead now and go over to the next video which is number three and talk about customer groups hey there welcome back it is Cindy again we are working in QuickBooks for desktop version 2022 we’re down in video number three now and I want to talk to you about a newer feature that QuickBooks has called customer groups this is a newer tool designed to help small business owners with one of the hardest problems that they have and that’s actually getting your customers to pay you can actually categorize your customers and based on that you can create groups of customers so that you only have to send one email instead of a separate email to each customer let’s flip over to QuickBooks now I’ll show you how to set up customer groups and then I’ll also show you how you can create an email and send it to that group to access the groups option you’ll need to head up to the menu and click on list and you’ll see the very bottom options as manage groups if you had any groups already set up you would see them listed here I don’t so I’m going to click on create customer group and set up my first group the first thing I want to do is give my group a name I’m going to call this one my commercial customers and if you wanted to add a description you could certainly do that but I’m going to click on next and set up some criteria the first thing I’m going to do is drop down this list where it says field what I’d like to do is all of my commercial customers I want to be able to send them emails separate from my residential customers I have customer types already set up so I’ll choose customer type then I’ll select the operator I want any customer types that equal residential and these are the two customer types that I had set up over in QuickBooks once you’ve filled in those three options go ahead and click on ADD and then you’ll see it on this list of selected fields I’m going to click next and now it gives me a list of all of the customers that meet that criteria if you see one that you don’t want to be in this list you can uncheck it if you do uncheck one QuickBooks will give you a message letting you know that if you want to add this customer back to the list you’ll have to manually do that I’m going to go ahead and say no in this case and I’m going to hit finish at the bottom now my group called commercial customers has been created successfully I’m going to click OK and now you’ll see it in the list there if I want to create another group here’s the button to create that new customer group now that I have a customer group here you’ll notice under actions there’s a down arrow this is where you would go if you want to edit the group maybe you want to change the name of the group you can delete the entire group or you can actually send the group an email I’ll click on email so you can see how this works now this can be any type of email it doesn’t have to be an email regarding their payment you’ll notice that it actually pulled up a list of all the customers that met my criteria if I don’t want to send an email this one time to one of these customers I can just uncheck them so just go through this list and check or uncheck the ones you do or don’t want to send to you’ll notice the one that you’re clicked on you will see that customer’s email address if I click on Chris Baker you’ll see this changes to Chris B it is going to send an email to each customer if you wanted to add another email address you can actually click here and type that in here you can attach a file if you’d like to send a file with this and then you can put in a subject I’ll just put in here payment and then you can set up the body of your email I just put in hope you’re doing well I see that your account is overdue do you think you can make a payment by Friday you can see the rest of that message you want to check your spelling just to make sure that you look very professional you wouldn’t want to have any misspelled words here and then when you’re ready to send this you’ll just hit send now notice also that it tells you down here in this case QuickBooks will take 16 minutes to send these emails and won’t be available just make note of that because if you go ahead and send and then you’re trying to use QuickBooks it might not allow you to do certain things because it’s still trying to actually get those emails out for you and that’s how your customer groups are going to work I’m going to go ahead and close this one let’s go ahead now and head over to video number four of this module one of the new features that QuickBooks 2022 has is the ability to add multiple customer contacts to your emails and I want to show you how to do that thank you hey there welcome back it’s Cindy we’re in QuickBooks desktop 2022. I’ve got a really short video this time because I just want to show you a new feature that’s been added to the desktop 2022 version and that is the ability to add multiple customer contacts to your emails or any forms that you’re actually going to send out let’s go ahead and flip over to QuickBooks and I’ll show you how to do that really quick books allows you to email a form to your customer or vendor in this case I’m on an invoice and I’d like to email it to my customer I’m going to click on email and then I’m going to choose invoice you see that it tells me I have information that’s missing or invalid and that’s because I don’t have an email address set up in Tom Allen’s customer setup window I’m going to go ahead and set it up here if I wanted to add an additional email to this I would put in a semicolon at the end and then put in that second email address because I copied this in you can see it put in that semicolon for me but if I was typing it I would have to type that semicolon and you can put in as many email addresses as you’d like and that’s how you would go ahead and add more than one email address to a form that you’re actually sending out to a customer or a vendor I told you this would be a really short video let’s go ahead and wrap this one up now and head over to video number five where we start talking about estimates welcome back to QuickBooks desktop 2022 this is Cindy and we are working through module four where we’re going through and talking about setting up customers and jobs we’re going to start talking a little bit about estimating jobs in the next couple of videos if you do not create estimates as part of your business then skip on down to video number nine and go ahead and look through invoicing customers for products and services we’re going to go ahead now though and start talking a little bit about creating estimates this is part one make sure you watch both parts so that you get a full understanding of how estimates work let’s flip over to QuickBooks and we’ll start talking about estimating jobs QuickBooks offers the ability to create estimates or quotes So that you can turn those quotes into invoices to get paid from your customer you can actually do what they call progress invoicing meaning that you invoice your customer for certain items that are on that estimate until everything is pulled over on your home screen you’re going to see the estimate icon right here if by chance you don’t see it it’s probably because you told it when you set up the company file that you do not create estimates Let me refresh your memory on how to turn that back on if you go up to edit on the menu come down to preferences make sure on their left you’re clicked on jobs and estimates and then the company preferences tab here’s where you turn on the option to create estimates remember if you’re creating estimates you probably do want progress invoicing as well make sure this one says yes and then go ahead and click ok now you should see your estimate icon appear if you do not use estimates and you want to leave this icon here it doesn’t hurt a thing you would just start with the create invoices if you invoice in your business something else just to know is estimates and purchase orders are on the same line here and that’s because they’re both considered non-posting if you create estimates for a potential customer and you never hear back from them it doesn’t really affect your books you’d have to actually run special estimate reports to even see that estimate let’s go ahead and start the process I’ll show you how this works let’s go ahead and click on estimates the first thing you want to do is choose your customer and your job if you’re working with the job feature always always always click the job underneath your customer that you’re wanting to work with if you just choose the customer name you’re going to run reports and see other and you won’t know which job those transactions go to make sure you click on the customer and the job the next thing you’ll want to do is choose the class if you’re using the class feature if you’re going to use the class feature use it consistently because it doesn’t do you any good to use it sometimes and not others reports won’t be accurate I’m going to choose remodel in this case there are also different templates you could use when it comes to estimates invoices any of your forms if you look over in module 10 that’s where you’re going to see how to actually customize these different templates we’ll just use the one that it pulls up automatically in this case the next thing you want to look at is the date it’s going to pull in the current date but you can change that date if you need to and also notice the estimate number any transaction that’s numbered in QuickBooks whether it’s a check or an invoice or an estimate it’s going to start with number one you probably want to start off by changing that number and then it will number sequentially after that for you unless you change it again you’ll see here it pulled in the name and address of your customer and if you happen to be shipping items somewhere then you’ll want to choose a ship to address over here if you don’t have one you can add it if you don’t need this field at all just leave that blank let’s go look down in the body of the estimate if you notice there’s a column that says item and if you click right underneath it a down arrow appears this will give you a list of all the different items you have set up in QuickBooks items are things that you sell to your customers sometimes you purchase items as well items are set up by different types you’ll see that some of these items are Services you provide you’ll see some of these are actual Parts physical parts there’s inventory and there’s non-inventory you’re going to have different categories that items can fall into we’re going to be looking at these in a later module but for now we’re just going to use a couple that are on the list to show you how this works I want to start with framing you’ll notice once I click framing it pulls in a description and you can type over that you can add to this this will word wrap so you’ve got plenty of space to type in that description if you need a lengthy one I’m going to go over to the quantity field and I’m going to put in 10 and you’ll notice that it calculated my 10 times the cost of 55. this 55 was set up when the item was set up you can type over that if you want to change it this one time only you’ll notice that it calculated the quantity times the cost to give me an amount in this column now we skipped over the unit of measurement you’ll see it’s grayed out right here if you have something you sell by the foot the yard that by the case possibly you could set that up as a unit of measurement and choose one case one yard we don’t have that set up in this example that’s why it’s grayed out let’s take a minute and talk about the markup column you have the ability to mark up an item a dollar amount or a percentage I’m going to say 30 percent in this case you have to put the percents on or it won’t do the percentages then if You tab through it you’ll notice that it calculated that for you to give you a total the last column says tax that means that for sales tax purposes framing is a labor and this is a non-taxable item let’s go put in one more we’ll do a physical part this time let me scroll down and find some wood doors we’re going to choose exterior wood door and I want to add two of these we’ll just use the cost that it brings in I wanted to point out the markup in this case the reason that this markup pulled in automatically and it’s a negative number is because when you’re setting up an item you can tell Quickbooks on average how much you pay for it and on average how much you sell it for if those two were set up it will pull in a markup for you we obviously don’t want that one we’ll just delete it and we’ll put in a dollar amount in this case I’ll just say a thousand dollars and notice it did the calculation for me this is a taxable item because it’s a physical product that we’re selling our customer like you could keep going down the list and add as many items as you want this line here is not the very bottom you it will keep going as long as you keep adding items let’s take a look at a few things at the bottom of the screen on the left side you’ll see there’s an area for customer message there are some that are pre-set up but if you want to add your own you would click add new and add one right below that is a field for a memo just something quick you might want to say that the customer won’t see and this also tells me the customer is taxable as far as sales tax is concerned on the right hand side you can see it gives me the subtotal the total of the markup if there were sales tax it has the sales tax rate pulled in and you see that amount and then there’s a total at the very bottom that gives you a general idea of how to set up the body of the estimate what I want to do now is head on over to part two and we’re going to go up and look at some of these options that you see on your icon bars up here and a few of these different tabs we’ll be looking through some of the reports and things like that so let’s head over to part two and I’ll see you shortly hey there welcome back to QuickBooks desktop 2022 this is Cindy we just completed estimates part one where we were able to set up an estimate for a potential customer let’s go ahead now and finish talking about some of the other options available for estimates this is part two let’s flip over to QuickBooks and we’ll keep going in part one we actually created an estimate for a customer and I’d like to go back to that estimate since I’m on the home screen the easiest way to do that is to go back to the customer center right here and look at the transactions for my customer we were using Tom Allen and you can see that here is Tom Allen’s estimate all I have to do is double click and go right to it now that we have the estimate created what I’d like to do is go for some of the options with you and we’ll go to the top of your screen and go through these four tabs starting with the main tab here you’ll see the first thing you can do is use the find feature that QuickBooks has to find an estimate you could use the arrows that go left or right to go to the next or previous estimate keep in mind that every transaction in QuickBooks is set up in date order that means that if you had previously entered an estimate and maybe you backdated it a few days it may not be the previous one when you hit this arrow and you have to keep clicking on it if you can’t find it that way you can click on this find option right here and this will allow you to put in some criteria you can see that you can put in a customer and job name a date beginning and end date here an estimate number and an amount and you can fill in all or any of this information you’d like and then have it find for you and that would generally find that estimate the other option I want to mention is this Advanced option right here you can go in and put in any of this criteria under this filter column that you see and search that way we are going to look at the whole search option a little bit later let’s go ahead and close out of this I just wanted you to know that advanced option was there the next option you see here says new and this will allow you to create a new blank estimate this is the exact same thing as going to the bottom of your screen and clicking on Save and new that you see down here the next option over says save if you’re working on this and you want to save what you’ve done so far you can hit that save option notice there’s a down arrow there that will also let you save this as a PDF file if you’d like to do that here’s where you would delete this estimate if you’d like you can also create a copy that’s handy if you need to create another one exactly like this and maybe just make one or two changes saves you a lot of work we’re also going to be looking at memorizing transactions in a later module but this would allow you to basically tell QuickBooks that every month as an example I would like to see the same estimate in QuickBooks you can also Mark a transaction as inactive now what happens is if you have a transaction that’s inactive it will still be in QuickBooks but it’s not counted as any of your numbers when you run reports if you ran an estimate report for example it wouldn’t be counted in those totals the next option you see is the option to print this you’ve got a couple things you can do you can preview this which we’re going to do in a second you can also just print the estimate right here you can print an envelope which will do a mail merge with Microsoft Word and you can also save this as a PDF let’s start with the preview option I’m going to just click anywhere in the middle and that will zoom in and I wanted you to take a peek at what your estimates will currently look like because you will want to customize this you can see it’s very plain it has your company name and address at the top you may want to add a logo your telephone number the website email address you can do that by using one of the templates that’s available to customize in QuickBooks and we’re going to do that in a later module you’ll see here’s the date of the estimate the estimate number here’s where it automatically puts the job name notice they call it project that would be something else you may want to customize the big things I wanted you to notice here is that when you have an estimate the customer does not see the name of your item they also don’t see the markup column now you could turn those on if you wanted the customer to see those but generally you don’t want them to so QuickBooks doesn’t turn them on automatically you’ll notice at the bottom you can see the subtotal and the sales tax and the total of the estimate as well and again those are some things you can customize I’m going to close out of that here at the top the next thing I want to point out is the email option you have the option to email this to your customer if you had several that you had set up that you wanted to email you would make sure this little check box where it says email later is checked and then you can email the batch notice you can also attach a file to this this could be a Word document or something you’ve scanned in notice you can also create an invoice from here chances are you will not be in this screen when you want to create an invoice but you can do that from here and just to mention the start project there are several different add-on packages you can buy for QuickBooks in two it does make a project management type software and this is where you can go and get a 30-day free trial if you’d like it’s called Maven link and that way you can manage the project the expenses anything related to it let’s look at the formatting tab I mentioned a few moments ago that you could customize this template for this estimate this is where you would be doing some of that and like I said we’re going to look at that in a later module here’s where you can run your spell check you can also insert a line whichever line you happen to be clicked on if you insert a line notice you insert one above the one you’re clicked on if you’re clicked on a line you can also delete that entire line or you can copy the line you’re clicked on and here’s some more customization options we’ll look at in a later module now let’s talk about the send slash ship option I mentioned earlier that QuickBooks can do mail merges with Microsoft Word you can merge envelopes letters and this is where you would work with those options we will work with those in a later module as well and then let’s look at the reports for a moment there are a couple of generic reports already set up for you that are related to estimates you can see you can run an estimate by job if you’d like if you want to see an estimate versus actual you can do that and then you can also see an item price list I also want to point out the transaction history which you have none right now but if you’d already created an invoice based on this estimate maybe received a payment that would create a history you could go look at and sometimes that’s very helpful to narrow down where to find certain transactions typically the main tab is where you’re going to be working so I’ll just click back on that and that’s how estimates work in QuickBooks I’m going to go ahead and save and close at the bottom and if you’ve made any changes to your transaction it will ask you if you’d like to save them just go ahead and say yes now that you know how to create estimates in QuickBooks let’s head over to the next video and we’re going to start talking about how to create invoices based on those estimates that you’ve already created hey there it’s Cindy again welcome back we are working in module four we’re talking about customers and jobs this is actually video number seven where I want to introduce you to how to invoice from estimates if you do not create estimates in your business then you can skip 4-7 and 4-8 and just go right down to 4-9 and just start with invoicing customers for products and services but let’s talk about how to take your estimates and turn them into invoices let’s flip over to QuickBooks and we will go ahead and get started now that you’ve created an estimate for your customer you’ll want to go ahead and pull some of those items onto an invoice that way you can send the invoice out and get paid for some of that hard work you’ve been doing before we do that we’re going to be talking about progress invoicing as we go through and create this invoice and I want to make sure again that you know where that option is in case it’s not turned on if you go back to edit on your menu and come down to preferences you want to make sure on the left here that you’re clicked on jobs and estimates company preferences tab and make sure you’ve chosen yes for the option that says do you do progress invoicing this is what’s going to allow you to pull items from that estimate onto an invoice I’m going to go ahead and click OK because that looks okay and let’s get started I’m going to choose create invoices the first thing I want to point out is if you have this gray bar you can click this Arrow to show the history this may be on already and you want to actually hide the history by clicking on this arrow that will give you more room to work with on your screen the history will just give you the recent transactions any notes customer payments things like that that you may want to see as you’re creating this invoice we’re going to go ahead and hide that for now and notice the first thing that QuickBooks wants to know is who is my customer and my job that I’m actually creating an invoice for I’m going to choose Tom Allen’s sunroom now you have a list of available estimates these are estimates that you’ve created for Tom Ellen’s sunroom and you haven’t pulled everything onto an invoice yet if this window doesn’t pop up the first thing I would do is check your estimate to see if you have the exact same customer and job if I created the estimate originally and I just had Tom Allen and not the sun room but here I chose the sun room there’s not going to be an exact match so this window won’t pop up I’m going to go ahead and click on the estimate I’d like to pull from and then click ok and now you see the progress invoicing window this is what I wanted to make sure was turned on over in the preferences here I have three choices I can go ahead and pull everything on the estimate onto this invoice that would be the first one the next thing I could do is create an invoice for a percentage if I wanted to create an invoice for 30 percent I would just type in the 30. it will let you put the percent sign in that’s okay but it does know it’s a percentage and then the third option at the bottom notice is where you would create an invoice for selected items I’m going to show you how that one works I’ll just click on OK and here you’ll see each item that you had actually pulled on to your estimate you can also see the quantity and all the information about each one if you want to pull over three of the hours of framing you would just type that in the quantity area and then here let’s say I pull over one of the wood doors you could also go in and put in the percentages if you prefer to do that I’m going to click OK and now you can see that it pulled in those quantities that I just told it I wanted to pull over if you wanted to add something to this just click on the next line down and type it in you can add as many items as you want to maybe there’s a freight charge that you want to get reimbursed for they actually already have an item set up called Freight reimbursement here I’m just going to say there’s a quantity of one of these and I’ll just make up an amount 193.26 and you can see it tracks all of that you can see at the bottom here that the sales tax that I’m using is San Thomas and the tax it’s charging is 84.51 you can see the total if there were payments applied you would see that here you wouldn’t see any payments applied until you’ve saved this and then recorded a payment and then opened this back up that’s when you will see any payments have been applied and of course there’s the balance is due right down at the bottom over on the left hand side you can see there’s a place for a customer message they have a few of these already set up but if you wanted to add a new one you would just choose add new and type that in I’ll just choose this one here that says please sign and date this proposal there’s a place for a memo below that and no one will see this memo except you it’s not going to print out on your invoice there’s also a place for the customer text code this just means this customer is subject to sales tax couple things at the top I want to go over real quick if you’re using the class feature make sure that you choose the correct class you want to use that consistently if you’re going to use it so that your reports are accurate there’s also a place for the template that you want to use for this invoice we’re going to cover templates in a later module here’s the date of your invoice I’m going to change this to December 27th the invoice number is populated automatically you can change that if you’d like and double check that your billing information is correct for your customer this customer has terms of net 30. I can change that if I like you can see that if I choose net 15 as an example that this due date reflects 15 days from this date right here when you’re finished just go ahead and save and close if you’re finished or if you want to create another one you can choose save a new I’m going to save and close for now and you’ll notice that I changed the terms over here and this is asking me do I want QuickBooks to change those terms permanently in the customer’s record I’ll go ahead and say yes for now and that invoice has now been completed let’s go ahead and move over now to part two that’s going to be video number 4-8 and we’ll continue and talk about some of the options you have when you’re creating that invoice hey there it’s Cindy again welcome back we just wrapped up invoicing from estimates part one we actually went through and created an invoice based on an estimate what I want to do now is go ahead and take you into part two we’re going to complete another invoice based on that estimate and then we’ll go over some of the options you have available when you’re working with that invoice you’ve created let’s go ahead and flip over to QuickBooks and we will continue with part two I want to head back to the customer center I still have it open on the left just to show you that we do have our estimate and then we have one invoice we created what I want to do now is go ahead and create an invoice for whatever was left on that estimate because we’ve completed that job and we’ll just follow the same process I’m going to go back to the home screen and choose create invoices the first thing I want to do is pick my customer and my job I’m going to pick Tom Allen’s sunroom it does tell me I have some available estimates as long as you have even one penny left on that estimate this window will pop up you won’t get this window for this customer and job once you’ve pulled everything from that estimate but I’ll go ahead and choose the estimate I’d like to pull from and click ok and now I get my progress invoicing window again one thing that’s a little bit different from the first time we saw this is notice the first option now says create an invoice for the remaining amounts of the estimate which is what I’m going to do but I could choose another percentage or if I want to pick selected items like we did with the first one I could do that as well I’m going to click OK here and you can see that it pulled in whatever was left on that estimate that had not yet been invoiced I’m just going to double check some of the options on the screen I want to change the date in this case I’ll say that it’s January the 9th notice it does give me the next invoice number my bill to information is correct you want to make sure you check the terms and the due date if you want to add anything to this remember just click on the next line down and you can add anything you’d like to this invoice you do have at the bottom your sales tax your payments applied and your balance due we talked about all of that once you’re finished you can go ahead and save and close or save a new if you want to create a new one before I save and close I want to go through some of the options that you have up under your tabs at the top of your window these are options that pertain to this invoice you’re probably going to stay on the main tab most of the time and some of these options you’ll already be familiar with because you saw them when we actually created the estimate but let’s go back through these the first thing you’ll notice is you have the option to find if you’re looking for an invoice and you just can’t find it using these arrows that go left or right go ahead and click on the find option and that way you can put in some search criteria and have QuickBooks search for you your next option is your new button this allows you to create a new blank invoice remember this is the exact same as coming down to the bottom of your screen and choosing save and new you do have the option to save this invoice if it’s taking a while and you have a lot of line items you might want to save it at various points notice also that you can save this as a PDF just by clicking that down arrow the next thing you’ll see is the delete option this is how you’re going to delete this invoice notice when I click the down arrow I also have an option to just void it if I delete it it’s going to be gone but if I void it it will stay in QuickBooks and it will just say void across it with a zero balance if I wanted to create a copy of this I could I could also memorize this and we’ll talk about memorizing in a later module also Market as pending remember if you mark something as pending it’s going to be in QuickBooks but QuickBooks will not count it in your numbers it could be that you set this up a little bit early and maybe you’re not quite ready to send it out but you don’t want to delete it you could leave it in here and that way it’s not part of your accounts receivable you do have the option to print this I want to show you a preview of what your invoices look like I’ll just click anywhere to zoom in a little bit you can see that it has your company name and your address you will want to customize this a little bit so you have some more information here possibly the telephone number the email address you’ll notice over on the right it says invoice there’s a place for the date and the invoice number and then all of the information that’s on that invoice remember you can customize this like I mentioned and we’ll do that in a later module I’m going to hit the close button at the top and that’ll take me back now underneath print there are a few other options here’s where you can actually print that invoice out or print a batch and what a batch means is if you notice there’s a check box here that says print later if you’ve got several invoices created the ones that have the check mark if you choose the batch option those will be printed if you’re going to be shipping items here’s where you can create a packing slip a shipping label or an envelope these will do mail merges with Microsoft Word and then notice you can also save this as a PDF file you have the ability to email your forms in QuickBooks if you want to email this invoice to your customer you could just choose invoice here and that would let you email it if you want to email the batch all the ones that have the check mark that say email later would be included in that batch here you can attach a file you might have some file that you’ve scanned in or it’s a file that you can access in your computer and actually attach to this so that way you don’t have to go out of QuickBooks and search for those files and open them up they’re right here you do have an option to add your time and your cost we’ll actually talk about this over in the next video which is video number nine invoicing customers for products and services so we’ll hold that and you can also apply credits we’ll hold that one as well and talk about those in the next video and just to tell you what progress means if you wanted to see a timeline of I’ve estimated this job I created an invoice I received a payment that would show you the progress and you can see the

progress too as to how much you’ve actually pulled from that estimate here’s a way to receive a payment against this invoice chances are you’re not going to be on this screen when you want to receive a payment but you can do that you can also create a batch what that basically does is takes one invoice and allows you to send it to multiple customers maybe if you have three customers that are each going to pay a third then you’ll be able to send this to all three and there’s also a place for a refunder credit and we’ll talk about that a little bit later in this module as well I just want you to be familiar with those options because that’s where you’re going to find most of the things you’ll use on a daily basis we’ll look at some of these other tabs when we get over into the next video as well I just want to make sure here that you know how to actually pull all of the information from your estimates onto invoices once you’re finished go ahead and save and close and that’s how you’re going to create your invoices based on estimates let’s go ahead now move over to video 9 in this module and talk about invoicing customers for products and services hey there it’s Cindy again welcome back to QuickBooks desktop 2022. I want to go ahead in this video which is video number nine of module four and talk to you a little bit about invoicing your customers for products and services we’ve been talking about invoicing in the previous videos but that was actually taking estimates you’ve created and turned them into invoices not every business uses the estimate feature if that’s the case you would just start here and just start with the invoicing and go forward let’s move over to QuickBooks and I will show you how to create an invoice to create an invoice for a customer you’ll find the create invoices icon right here on your home screen the first thing you’ll want to do is go ahead and choose your customer and your job I’ll just choose Robert Allard remodel job make sure you choose the class if you’re using the class feature remember to use this consistently so that your reports are accurate you’ve also got an option to choose a template I’m going to use the default one we’ll talk about templates in a later module but you can choose different templates for each invoice you’ll want to make sure you choose the correct date that you’re creating the invoice and remember that invoices are numbered it’s going to number the next one sequentially unless you change that number invoice numbers can include letters if you’d like you just type those in you want to make sure you have the correct billing address for your customer as well each customer can have different terms I’m going to go ahead and say net 30 for this one and you’ll notice that if I choose net 30 the due date defaults to 30 days from this date here you can always change the due date if you want a specific date to be the date this is due here’s where you’re going to click down in the body of the invoice and you’re going to choose an item that you’re going to invoice your customer for you’ll see on this list these are the items that are already set up if you wanted to create a new one you would click on add new and we’ll go through that in a later module right now we’re just going to choose a couple of these we’ll choose floor plans and if you wanted to add a different description this will let you type as much as you want it will word wrap all the way down to the bottom let’s say that we’re going to charge our customer for two sets of floor plans and we’re going to charge a thousand dollars a piece you’ll see that it does the calculation for you when you tab over to the amount column and the last column tells you that for sales tax purposes this item is not subject to sales tax on the next line down I’m going to choose labor and I’ll add a description I’ll add labor for getting the kitchen to prepare for the remodel we’ll say it was a quantity of 30 hours to do that and we charge fifty dollars an hour you can see it did the calculation it’s 1500 for the total amount and this is also a non-taxable item and you can keep adding as many items as you like to this list a couple things to notice at the bottom on the left you have a place for a customer message there are some pre-built ones but if you wanted to add your own you would click on add new and create a new message to add to this list that you could use in the future underneath that it says memo that is strictly for you that memo will not print on the invoice and then you’ll see that this customer is subject to sales tax if you charge sales tax in your business if you wanted to change that you would change it to non-taxable sales on the right hand side if your customer is subject to sales tax you will see the tax they’re being charged the total for that tax if they’ve made any payments to this invoice you would see that right here you wouldn’t see any payments until actually this has been saved and then you’ve applied a payment and opened this back up and that’s when you would see if there were any payments applied and then of course the balance due right here all you need to do at this point is go ahead and save and close and if you’ve made any changes if you remember I changed the class up here and I also changed the terms it will ask you if you like those changes to be reflected in the setup just go ahead and say yes and now that invoice has been created let’s go to our Customer Center over on the left here just to look if I go ahead and click on Robert Allard you will see that there are now two invoices the top one is the one that we just did it was dated December 28th if I just want to see the invoices for that job then I would click on the remodel job on the left and see just those invoices if you want to open that invoice up just double click anywhere on that line and now you will see that invoice you can make changes if you need to and then save it and those changes will be saved a couple things I want to point out at the very top you’ll notice there is a main tab and this is the tab you’re going to use the most often there are several different items here that I want to point out first if you’re looking through your invoices for a particular one and you just can’t find it use these arrows to go left or right to look at the next or previous and if you still can’t find it you can click on this find option and then put in some criteria and QuickBooks will search for you here’s your new option if you want to create a new blank invoice this will save the one you’re on this is the exact same thing as if you came down to the bottom and clicked on Save and new next you can save your invoice if you’re working on this and it’s taking a while you can go ahead and just say save invoice you can also save this as a PDF file if you’d like here’s where you would delete that invoice you can create a copy of this invoice if you need to create another one that’s very similar you can go ahead and make a copy and then just change whatever you need to change and save it we’re going to talk about memorizing in a later module but what this would allow you to do is if you had an invoice that needed to go out once a month let’s say you can actually memorize it and QuickBooks will automatically create that invoice for you next month and then you can send it out you can also Mark this as pending and what that basically means is that if you have an invoice that you want to put in QuickBooks but you don’t want it to count in your numbers when you run reports you can do that it will be inactive and you can always turn it back on when you’re ready to activate it again let’s look at print preview so that you can see what this invoice will look like you can see this invoice actually has the company name and address it doesn’t have the phone number fax email any of that information so you probably want to customize this template you can see it has the word invoice on the right there’s the date the invoice number and then all the information about the invoice we’re going to customize in a later module I’ll go ahead and hit close at the top you’ll also notice that you can email this now notice there is a check box over here for print later and email later if you’ve got several that you’re working on you can check those boxes and when you’re ready to email all of them you can email the batch or if you’re ready to print them all you’ll see there’s an option for batchender here as well here you can attach a file if there’s some file that would pertain to this invoice and you don’t want to have to get out of QuickBooks and go find it you can attach it here and open it up easily here’s an option that we haven’t talked about yet add time slash cost if you’re doing job costing in your business that basically means that you want to make sure every transaction you enter is tied to a job then you can run job costing reports you could run a profit and loss for example to see how much you’ve made or lost on a particular job each transaction will have a place where you can choose the customer or job that it pertains to if you want to be reimbursed from your customer for certain expenses that you might have incurred when you create those expenses whether it be a check credit card transaction whatever it happens to be if you’ve told QuickBooks that it pertains to a particular customer and job then when you come into this invoice you can add time slash cost you can see that here’s the time tab if you had any time you’d created related you could pull that in here’s expenses if you had actually used a credit card and purchased something and tied it back to this job that would be listed you could check it off click OK and then that way it would pull in those expenses you’ve got mileage and also items I’m going to go ahead and click OK there you can also apply credits if you have an existing invoice and you’ve created a credit memo you can apply those credits right here you can also receive a payment for this invoice here chances are you’re not going to be on this screen you’ll probably be on the home screen but you can do it here you can create a batch and that means that if three different customers were going to pay this one invoice you could actually send this to all three customers and then also here’s refund or credit you would use this if the customer had already paid the invoice and you were going to issue a refund or credit memo for them to use for future invoice there’s also a formatting tab here I just want you to be aware that this is here we’re going to be looking at some of the options for customizing your templates that I mentioned over here a few minutes ago we’ll look at that a little bit later here’s your spell check if you want to insert a line delete a line or copy a line you can do that there’s also some options for sending and shipping if you ship items and you typically ship through one of these FedEx UPS or US Postal Service then you can set all that up right from here and the last tab has some different reports you can run related to invoicing most of the time you’ll be using that main Tab and that’s really all there is to actually creating an invoice let’s go ahead and click save and close at the bottom if you’ve made any changes you might want to go ahead and save those if it asks you and now that invoice has been completed let’s go ahead and move over to video number 10 now and we’re going to talk about receiving customer payments towards those invoices hey there welcome back to QuickBooks desktop 2022 this is Cindy we are all the way down now to video number 10 in module 4 and I want to show you in this video how to receive customer payments once you send an invoice to a customer and they pay you how do you actually receive that payment in QuickBooks let’s go ahead and flip over to QuickBooks and I’ll show you how to receive this customer payments when you receive a payment from a customer you want to go ahead and enter it through this receive payment window notice if you’re following the flowchart it’s the next thing after creating voices it doesn’t matter how the customer paid you it doesn’t matter how much they paid you you’re going to enter all of that information in this window if there’s a balance due QuickBooks will remember that the first thing you want to do is put in who the payment was received from if you’re using the job feature always click the job I’m going to say this is for Tom Allen’s sunroom as soon as you choose the customer job you’ll notice that any invoices that are still open for that customer job will appear at the bottom here and it will also let you know the amount that’s due just in case something had already been applied to this you’ll also notice in the top right this is the customer balance the next thing you want to do is put in the amount that the customer paid you I’m going to say in this case it’s 3193 dollars and I’ll leave off the sixth sense just to show you what happens when there’s an over or under payment if you noticed at the bottom this appeared now because it says I have an underpayment of six cents and it’s asking me what would I like to do with that I can just leave it on their account which is what I’m going to do in this case hopefully they’ll pay me next time or if you know you want to write it off you can go ahead and do that with this option right here the other thing to notice is that QuickBooks automatically assumed that all of the first invoice would be paid in full and the balance would go to the second invoice you want to make sure you apply payments correctly because if not six months down the road you’re going to end up with a situation where your books don’t match your customers books if you need to uncheck one of these or if you need to check one you can do that and you can also type over here how much the customer has specified that you apply to each invoice always choose the correct date of the payment and you also have a feel for the reference number over here you’ll notice this is a way to tell QuickBooks how the customer paid you did they give you cash did they write a check you can see that based on which option you choose this may change when I was clicked on cash this said reference number and that would just be any reference number I’d like to pop in there but notice when I click on check it gives me a place to put in the customer’s check number if you click on Visa you’re going to see that it pops up and asks you to enter the card information if you’re not using the Intuit merchant services then you don’t really need to fill this in because you’re not running their card through in QuickBooks it would just be a matter of you keeping that information for your records I’m going to cancel that there are some other options here notice there’s a down arrow that has a few payment methods listed it could be the customer Bartered this with you but if you need to add a new payment method just click on new payment method here and then put in the method they paid you with I’ll add sell to the list and I’ll just say that the payment type is cash but notice my other choices here I’ll just click OK and now that will be on my list for any customers that pay me with zazelle now let’s take a look at some of your options up here under your tabs you can see that we’re under the main Tab and a lot of these options you’re already familiar with you know how to find a customer payment if you’re looking for one here’s a way to create a new customer payment that’s the same thing as that save and new in the bottom right here’s a way to delete the payment you could also come over here and print the payment I’ll just show you what that looks like if you’re going to print the payment it does ask you what you’d like your payment receipt template to look like you have the ability to customize this if you wanted to do that you would click on customize template down here but right now this is what it’s going to look like I’m going to go ahead and say not now and preview this so that you can see here’s what the payment receive actually looks like you can see it’s a little different than an invoice or an estimate it has a place for the date of that payment and also the payment method and you can see where this was a check number and they have that check number in there over on the right is the total amount of the payment and the invoices listed that it paid below I’m going to go ahead and close the next thing I’ll point out is the email option if you want to email that payment receipt you can do that and email it to your customer here’s where you can attach a file you can also look up a customer and an invoice if you click on that this will allow you to search right here it says invoice number and I could search for any customer that has a particular invoice number but I could also search by one of these options as well if I wanted to unapply a payment that basically is going to uncheck all of this see how these are unchecked now I’ll just go back and check them and then if there were any discounts or credits that you’re going to give your customer related to this you could go ahead and enter that now you would enter the amount of the discount you’re going to give the discount account and then a class if you happen to be using that this process payments just allows you to process a credit card payment if you’re using the Intuit merchant services here’s where you could sign up for that if you wanted to check out the options you do have a formatting tab in the back you’ll notice a couple of things here for the payment receipt we saw a few moments ago you can go through and actually use the standard one here or customize it there’s also a tab for reports if you wanted to look at open invoices for this customer or some of these other reports that you see right here you could do that and the last tab over says payments if you wanted to check out again the credit card processing from Intuit you could do that most of the time you’ll stay under the main tab before we save this let’s go ahead and go to the bottom right and you’ll notice that it tells you the amount due how much was applied and if there were any discounts and payments applied here all you have to do when you’re finished is go ahead and save and close and if you’ve made any changes to your transaction you can go ahead and say yes if it asks you if you want to record your changes and that’s how you’re going to receive payments for customers now before we leave let me go ahead and go back to the customer center I’m going to click on customers and if you notice I’m on Tom Allen’s sun room over here and you can see there’s the estimate we created the two invoices we created and then there’s the payment right there if you need to make a change to that payment or open it up to look at it for any reason just double click on it and then you can look and see what’s going on with this payment there is one quick thing that I wanted to mention there’s a question here that says where does this payment go let me just show you real quick where the payment’s going to end up I’m going to go back to the chart of accounts I just clicked on home over on the left here and I’m going to the chart of accounts you’re going to see an account called undeposited funds you’ll see it right here that money that we just received for that payment is in this total right here let me open this up so you can see it here it is right down here at the bottom something to know about undeposited funds these are monies that you’ve received but you have not yet taken to the bank as far as QuickBooks is concerned it’s not a deposit in your checking account one of the ways to keep a check on yourself is this should always say zero if you’ve already deposited all of the money now how does that get to zero well we’re going to talk about that when we talk about recording deposits I’m going to have you go ahead and head over to video number 11. we’ll talk about payment links and then when we get to video 12 we’ll be going through the deposits right here so you can see how that money gets out of undeposited funds and into the actual checking account hey there welcome back to QuickBooks desktop 2022 this is Cindy we’re working through module four and we’re down to video 11 now I want to talk to you about a new feature that QuickBooks has that will allow you to send your customer a link the customer can use that link to go to a secure site and actually send you a payment you can use this whether you’ve invoiced the customer or not it could be that you need to get an advance payment for something you can just send this link via email and have the customer pay you the money will actually be deposited to your account within two to three business days let’s go ahead and flip over to QuickBooks and we’ll look at those payment links this new payment links option is going to be a really great tool to help you collect payments before you even send an invoice if you require down payments in your business this is a great way to email your customer a secure link they click the link they go to a secure site that lets them put in their debit or credit card information and then you receive the funds automatically through direct deposit into your bank account within two to three business days in order to access the payment links option you need to go through the menu and click on customers and then you’ll see payment links the first thing you’ll need to do is decide if you’d like to actually set up what they call a QuickBooks payment account or if you want to use pay as you go the QuickBooks payment account that you see on the left here is a merchant services account you would pay a monthly fee for that whereas the pay as you go is good if you don’t accept a lot of down payments but you want to use this feature whenever someone needs to pay you I’m going to use the pay as you go option and click get started QuickBooks will want a little bit of information from me before it takes me over to the screen where I set up the payment link you can see there’s business info personal info and deposits account info I’m going to start with business info and just click on start and answer a few questions the first thing QuickBooks is asking me is what is the business type and this is where you’re going to pick one of these options that you see here the next thing it asks you is do you have a particular industry or you can pick one that happens to be the closest match I’ll pick the first one accounting auditing and bookkeeping services you can see it did bring in the business name I would also want to put in the website and that’s an optional thing notice my address is already in I don’t have a state so I’ll go ahead and choose that and then you’ll notice that there’s a place to put in your business email I’ll just go ahead and put mine in the next thing you want to do is when you scroll down you’ll see that it actually takes you to the personal info here I’ll click on start and here’s where you want to put in the owner’s first and last name some of your personal information date of birth social and all this is required to set up the account I’m not going to put this in now but you would put it in and click next the last option down the bottom is the deposits account info when you click Start here what this allows you to do is go ahead and add your bank account here’s where you put in the account number and the routing number and then click save I’m going to go ahead and finish setting this up off camera and then I will come back and I’ll show you how to set up that link I went ahead and closed that window because I wanted to show you that once you get out of that window you won’t see that same screen again when you’re ready to actually send that link now all you have to do is go back to customers and back to payment links and what you’re going to see this time is that it’s going to connect you to your Intuit Payment Solutions account which you just created and here it will allow you to go ahead and create that payment link from this button right here I’m going to go ahead and click on that the first thing you want to do is put in the amount of money that you’re wanting to get from your customer and you can put in a product or service or some kind of description right down here so you might say that’s down payment for kitchen remodel here’s where you’re actually going to put in the name of your customer and you can put in your customers email you’ll see here at the bottom that you have the ability to choose the ways that you’d like to get paid if you want to give your customer the option to pay you with a credit card or a bank transfer you can leave both of those selected if you don’t want one or the other just slide this to the left and then that option won’t be available all you have to do now is send the payment link the customer is actually going to receive this they’re going to be able to click that link and pay you and the money will show up in your bank account within two to four business days and that’s how that new payment links feature Works in QuickBooks now that you know how the payment links work in QuickBooks let’s go ahead and head over to video number 12 and we’re going to talk about how to make deposits in QuickBooks now that you know how to receive payments in QuickBooks let’s talk about how to take that payment you’ve received and actually make a deposit so that it shows up in your checkbook register hi this is Cindy welcome back to QuickBooks desktop 2022. we’re going to talk in this video about making deposits in QuickBooks if you’re invoicing customers and receiving payments then most of your deposits will be from those payments you received sometimes though you might have a deposit that’s just strictly something you’re putting into the bank let’s go ahead and flip over to QuickBooks and look at making deposits when you look at the flow chart the last thing you did was receive a payment from a customer following the flow chart to the end you’ll see the next thing is to record your deposit and that’s what you want to do let me just mention that new in the QuickBooks 2022 there’s an icon that says merchant service deposit this has to do with your online banking that we’ll talk about in module seven so we’ll hold this until we get there I’m going to have you follow the flow chart all the way across let me mention a couple of things that I want you to be aware of when you’re making deposits when you were in this receive payment window one of the things that happened is you had an option of where to put your money remember that if you have not turned on the preference telling it where you’d like to put the money this money will automatically go into an account called undeposited funds and that’s what this question is asking you right here if I go back to the chart of accounts I’ll just show you that real quick undeposited funds is actually an account where money sits that’s been received but not deposited yet one of the ways to check yourself is if you have money sitting in here but you know that everything has been deposited then you’ve done something wrong and you can see currently there’s fifty six hundred and thirty three dollars sitting in that account the other thing I want you to be aware of is once you receive your payment do not go over here to the checkbook register and type in that payment the reason is you’re bypassing the record deposits window that money will stay in undeposited funds if you put it directly in the register the other thing is if you’re typing in the register you will have to tell QuickBooks which account in the chart of accounts does this go back to most people will pick accounts receivable which is wrong because you’ve already been there done that or they will pick one of the income accounts and if you do that you’re doubling your income so this will mess you up every time do not do it this way follow the flow chart all the way to the end I’m going to click on record deposits this is a listing of all the payments you’ve collected that went into undeposited funds what you want to do is any of these that actually were deposited into this account you want to check off I could check off the first two for example and now I have a deposit for two thousand four hundred forty dollars if I click OK you’re going to see it pulls in those two payments if by chance you pulled in the wrong ones you’ll notice right up here there’s a button that says payments you can click on and you can check or uncheck these you want to make sure this matches the actual deposit that went into the bank do not come in here and change where it says from account because this is where the money actually came from it came from undeposited funds you can see that it tells you who the money’s from the account over here if it was a check and you had typed in the check number you could pop that in if you forgot to put in a check number just type it right in here there’s your payment method the class and the amount over to the right if you needed to add something to this you could you would just click on the next line down and add it what if you as the business owner wanted to put some personal money into the business account you could do that here remember here’s your chart of accounts and you would just pick the correct account in a situation like that don’t pick an income account because it’s not income to your business this is where you’d want to use one of those owner accounts that you set up it could be the liability or if you wanted to use it as a owner draw you could do that as well in this case they actually call it Capital stock right here you can go ahead and put in a memo if you’d like and then go over to the amount column and put in the amount that you’re depositing you could be actually putting in a rebate if you were doing something like that you would want to choose the account that the money actually was expended from to begin with let’s say it was an office supply you would put it back to office supplies just make sure that you recognize everything that you put here is not income you’ll notice at the top make sure you have the correct account you’re depositing the money to because it’s very easy to put it in the wrong account and it doesn’t show up in your checkbook register and then make sure you have the correct date of the deposit there’s also a place for a memo right here it usually defaults to the word deposit but you can change that to anything you like down at the bottom left you’ll see a couple of things there is a field where you can keep some money from this deposit if you’re a sole proprietor and tell QuickBooks which account that money goes back to there’s a place for a memo and the amount and it would subtract it from your deposit total down here at the bottom let’s go back up and look at a couple of options you have at the top here’s your next and previous if you wanted to actually go through and look for a specific deposit you could do it that way you could save this you could also go through and print a deposit slip that you can actually take to the bank or deposit summary we talked about the payments button and let me just talk to you about the history button for a moment this deposit will have a history once you save this you can see right now it does not but once I save it I can go back and look at the actual payments that were received and from there I could go back and look at the invoices that were all related to this deposit I can also attach a file here if I’d like I’m going to go ahead down to the bottom and a saving close and this deposit for three thousand four hundred and forty dollars will now show up in our checkbook register let’s just go to the checkbook register and see if it’s there I’m going to choose my checking account and click ok and now you’ll see there’s your deposit right there that we just made of three thousand four hundred and forty dollars the blue line just means it’s post-dated so don’t worry about that we’re going to look more at the register in module 7 but for now I just want to make sure you know how to correctly enter a deposit the other thing I want to mention is that if you had a deposit that was not related to an invoice or payment you received you could just type it directly in the register just make sure that you have the correct account chosen from this list and again like I said we’ll get into this a little bit later but that’s how you make deposits in QuickBooks let’s go ahead now and go over to the next video number 13 and talk about how to create credit memos in QuickBooks hey there welcome back it is Cindy we are working in QuickBooks desktop 2022. we’re down to video number 13 in module 4 now and I want to talk to you a little bit in this video about how to create credit memos for your customers you might have a customer that returns a physical product and wants a refund or it could be that you just want to issue a credit towards their account either way we’re going to go through this whole creating credit memos process for you let’s go ahead and flip over to QuickBooks and we’ll see how to get those started when you’re creating a credit memo or refund it’s important to go back to that invoice and see exactly what it is you’re crediting or refunding and the amount you can do that a couple of ways we’ve been working with Tom Allen let’s go ahead and go to the customer center I have it open here on the left here’s Tom Allen’s sunroom and you can see here’s the invoice I’m going to go ahead and open that up because I want to show you that Tom still owes six cents on this invoice and I will go ahead and issue a credit memo to write that off since it’s been hanging out there for a while the other thing I want you to notice is I’m going to show you how to return an item to inventory if they return something and give your customer a refund you can see here is the exterior wood door it’s a thousand ninety dollars and 39 cents I’m going to go ahead and close that because I want to jump ahead and show you one other way that you can look to see how much is owed on an invoice we’re going to jump ahead here we’re going to talk about reports in module 11 but let me show you a very quick report that you can run if you go up to reports on your menu go down to customers and receivables and you’ll see one called open invoices this is going to be any invoice that has a balance even if it’s just a penny when I look at this report I don’t see Tom Allen on the list and that’s because I’m only looking at invoices that are due before December 15th if you come up here and change this date then click inside the report that will update it and you can see now that here’s Tom Allen’s sun room there’s that invoice we just looked at and he has a sixth sense once we create the credit memo and apply it this will disappear from this report let’s go back to the home screen and I’ll show you how to get started issuing that credit memo or refund you’ll see right down here it says refunds and credits the first thing you want to do is pull in your customer and your job I’ll pick Tom Allen’s sunroom you want to make sure you choose the class if you’re using a class feature in this case it’s new construction and here are the different templates you could use we’ll be looking at templates in a different module so we’ll leave that for now make sure you change the date to the date that you’re issuing the credit memo it’s going to pull in the next credit memo number you can change that if you want to but it numbers sequentially and of course you want to make sure you have the customer information correct which it should be at this point here’s what you’re going to do down here where it says item if your customer is returning a physical item or you’re wanting to credit a particular item you want to choose it from the list if it’s something like the sixth sense that’s just hanging out there and I want to write it off my books that’s called bad debt and that is an item they have already set up in this list here I’m going to type it in so that it’ll save us a little time here and anytime you have bad debt it will pop up and give you this warning telling you it’s associated with an expense account you can just click OK and get past that you’ll notice the description that comes up says bad debt or write-off amounts you can edit that to say anything you want but you want to go ahead and make sure that when you put this in you put a quantity of one and you want to make sure you have the exact amount you’re going to write off and make sure this says non-taxable here because if you charge tax you’re actually going to end up with another credit so make sure that it ends up being exactly six cents at the bottom like this says and that’s really all you have to do for this you can go down to the bottom and add a customer message or a memo if you want on the left a couple things at the top you’re familiar with most of these already but here’s where you can search if you want to look for a particular credit memo use the arrows or your find feature if you want to create a new credit memo you can click here that’s the same thing as saving new down at the bottom here’s your save option notice you can save it as a PDF if you choose to you can delete this make a copy memorize it I think you’re familiar with most of these we’ve talked about them in previous videos the only thing that’s a little different that I want to point out is notice because it’s a credit memo you now have the ability to use this to give them a refund or apply this to an invoice in this case we’re trying to wipe out the sixth sense that’s still open I’m going to use it to apply to an invoice you’ll notice that any invoice that’s open will appear here if there’s an exact match it will actually check it off and that is the one I want to apply it to so I’m going to click done at the bottom and saving clothes now let’s go back over to the open invoices on the left you’ll see it says refresh needed indicating that a change has been made to that report and when you look at this notice it’s still February 3rd so Tom Allen’s should show up at the top of the list and you can see that it’s gone because it is paid in full now let’s go back and look at a refund for Tom I’m going to go back to home and refunds and credits again now this time Tom is actually returning one of the wood doors so we’re going to give him a refund go ahead and choose the customer in the job make sure you check everything out over here I’ll go ahead and change this date this time what I’m going to choose is that exterior wood door that we originally invoiced him for and you can type anything you want in this description area you want to make sure that when you put this in you have the correct amount that you charged him for to begin with this one was a thousand ninety dollars and thirty nine cents and we did charge sales tax and that’s all you have to do now at the top you’ll notice that there is an option that says use credit to give a refund I’m going to click on that and it pulls in all of the information you’ll probably want to check the date here and make sure that it has the date that you’re issuing that refund the other thing is how do you want this refund issued via a check do you want to put it back on their Visa card I’ll go ahead and just choose check and you can see there’s the ending balance in the checking account so make sure you have the correct bank account chosen there and the correct class that this goes to and that’s all you have to do this means you’ll be able to print the check but once I click OK this check is actually going to be in the register I’m going to change this date again to make sure I have the correct date here I’m going to go ahead and click OK and now that check is in the register I’m going to hit save and close at the bottom and let’s see how this looks let’s go to our check register I’ll just go right over here and I will open up checking and there is the check that you just created all you have to do now is go in and print it and you are good to go that’s how you’re going to create credit memos and refunds for your customers let’s go ahead now and go over to video number 14 and we’ll talk about creating statements that you can send to your customers at the end of the month so they know exactly how much they owe hey there welcome back to QuickBooks desktop 2022 my name is Cindy and we are all the way down now to module 4 and we’re talking in this video which is number 14 about how to create statements in QuickBooks a statement is basically a history of what happened that month that you can send out to your customers usually you send statements at the end of the month you do not have to send statements but it’s really a great way to gently remind your customers if they owe you money that they need to pay let’s go ahead and flip over to QuickBooks and I’ll show you how to create those statements to get started creating statements for your customers head over to your home screen and click on the icon that says statements the first thing you need to let QuickBooks know is what is your statement date typically statements are sent the end of the month I’m going to set this for December 31st and the statement period would be that same month the beginning of the month through the end of the month but you can also choose whatever date range you would like notice also as far as dates are concerned that you might choose this option here to just include all the open transactions as of that statement date and you will have an option to include any transactions over in this case 30 days past due and you can see you can change that it will default to sending statements to all of your customers but notice you could choose multiple if you choose multiple customers then you click this choose button and you just click on the customers you’d like to send a statement to if you’re wanting to send a statement to One customer choose the One customer option and then you can choose that customer from the drop down list you can also choose to send statements to customers of a particular type that you might have set up or only ones that have a preferred send method maybe they like their statements mail or emailed when you’re through you can always preview what your statement looks like at this point I’m going to hit the preview option and here’s what your statements look like I’ll just click in the middle to zoom in you’ll see it says statement right up at the top it has your company name and address and then of course the customer’s name and address here and notice at the bottom it has the balance forward from the previous month and then any transactions that occurred that month will show up on this statement whether it’s an invoice a payment at the bottom you’re actually going to see for each of these categories the amount that’s due I’m going to hit close at the top and show you some other options you have for statements over on the right you do have template options you can change for your statements we’ll cover that in a later module but notice some of the check boxes here you might not want to see any of the details or you might want to show them you can check or uncheck that option you can choose to print statements by their billing address ZIP code this would actually sort them numerically by ZIP code it’s going to print the due date automatically if you don’t want it to do that just uncheck that option you might choose to not send statements to your customers who don’t owe you money that would be this option here or if they owe you less than let’s just say five dollars maybe you don’t want to send a statement you could actually check the box and choose that amount there if they didn’t have any activity you might not want to send them a statement or if they’re an inactive customer you might not want to send a statement if you’re assessing finance charges you do have the ability to click here and set all those options up for the finance charges after you’ve previewed this you can print these if you’d like and send them through the mail or if you’d like to email them you can do that as well there is an option now also to automate sending your statements this way you don’t have to remember to manually go in and do this every single month let’s go ahead and click on go to payment reminders now that you’re in the payment reminders window the first thing you’ll want to do is create a schedule for these statements up here at the top there’s a drop down and you’ll choose statement from the list the next thing you want to do is tell QuickBooks to send reminders to whichever customer group you have set up if you do not have a customer group set up you can choose add new from here and create one but we’ll just choose commercial customers for now once you have your customer group set up you’ll want to click on add reminder and then fill in some of these options the first thing I’d ask you is what is the statement date you’d like to have on your statements so you can set it for a particular date you can say every week every month every quarter we’ll just go ahead and set this for the first of every month the statement period let’s go and include the previous month if you’re setting this for the first then you’ll want to include the previous month on your statement notice you could also generate a statement for any of these transactions that are open or overdue you just choose whichever option you want I’m going to go back and say statement period for the previous month the next thing it asks you is which invoice details do you want to include notice you can include all the details from each of the transactions you’d include a memo if you’d like and a due date I’ll just go ahead and choose a couple of these the next thing QuickBooks ask is how would you want your statements to look if you’ve chosen different statement templates you can choose them from the list here notice you can also go ahead from here and customize one and we’re going to talk about customizing in a later module the next thing is the email template if you’ve got some set up you’ll see them on the list if not you can go ahead and edit or create one from here and the last thing QuickBooks wants to know is if you want to separate your statements by each job that you’ve done for your customer once you’ve chosen your options go ahead and click on OK and now the statement reminders are set up and every month on the first it will send those out automatically for you that’s really all there is to creating statements for your customers let’s go ahead now and move over to video number 15 and I’ll show you how to use the income tracker in QuickBooks hey there welcome back it’s Cindy again we’re working in QuickBooks desktop 2022. we’re on the last video in module four this is video number 15 where I want to take a few moments and just introduce you to the income tracker that’s available in QuickBooks the income tracker is going to allow you to see on one screen any invoices you’ve sent out that haven’t been paid what has been paid if you have expenses you’re going to be able to see all that in one screen let’s go ahead and flip over to QuickBooks and I will show you how the income tracker works when you’re looking at the home screen you will not see an icon for the income tracker the easiest way to access it is to look for a button that says income tracker here or if you have it on the left you’ll see it I’ll go ahead and click on the income tracker and this is what it looks like this is showing me a list of all the transactions I have set up and you’ve got different ways you can sort this list but I want to show you at the very top across here it shows you that you have so much that’s unbilled meaning that you have estimates you have it turned into invoices yet you’ve got so much that falls in the category of time and expenses related to these jobs here it tells you how many open invoices you have these are invoices that have not yet been paid and how many of those are overdue and this last option here will show you how many were paid in the last 30 days on this next row you can add some filtering options currently I’m looking at all the customers and jobs but if I only want to see a particular customer and job let’s say Christy here then you can see it narrowed the list for me all will always be the Top Choice on the list if you want to see everything the next thing is the type of transaction do you want to look at just invoices do you want to look at any payments you’ve received you just choose the options that work for you the next thing is the status do I want to see invoices that are open overdue or paid or all and then of course you have a date option over on the right hand side where you can see anything this year the last 90 days those are some of your choices there for each of these you can go down the list and check off a particular transaction let’s say that it’s Brian Cook’s invoice on this line right here you’ll notice all the way to the right I have some options where I can go in and receive a payment for that invoice right from this window I can print this row or email this row if you’re on a line that has an estimate you’ll notice that your options are a little bit different I can convert this estimate to an invoice Market is inactive or go ahead and print or email that row so this is a quick way if you just want to go down the list and receive several different payments or if you want to just look and see how many estimates you have there’s all kinds of information that you can actually see from this window another thing I want to point out is let’s say you have several of these selected you can do what’s called a batch action down at the bottom you can actually click the arrow next to batch actions and you can choose invoices or if you want to batch email them you can do that as well you can also see the managed transactions options over here so if you wanted to go to sales receipts or receive payments you could do that take a few minutes and look through this because it might make things a lot easier for you than just hunting for the correct icon and entering things one at a time just an option I’ll go ahead and close the income tracker here and that actually wraps up module four let’s go ahead now and jump over to module 5 and we’re going to talk about working with the vendors hey there welcome back it is Cindy again we are talking about QuickBooks desktop 2022. we’ve made it down to module 5 now and this is the module where we’re going to discuss vendors vendors are people or businesses that you buy from sometimes you buy inventory sometimes you buy a service but anyone you buy from is considered a vendor I wanted to take time in this first video and give you a little bit of information on how to set up your vendors in QuickBooks let’s head on over and to set up some vendors just like with customers we had a customer center we also have a vendor Center you can access it from the home screen by clicking here where it says vendors you can also go up here and click on vendors or if you want to go to vendors from the menu you can do that as well I’m going to the vendor Center this is a list of all of your vendors in alphabetical order you can also see the balance that you owe that vendor if you’ve put in bills that’s the only way you’re going to know a balance and also notice there’s a column where you can attach a file over here you’re currently looking at all of the active vendors if you drop the list down you can see that if you just want to see the ones with open balances you can do that you can also look at all the vendors that would include any that you had made inactive as well I’ll just click on the active vendors whichever vendor you have selected here on the left you’re going to see information about that vendor over on the right you’re going to see their company name you’re going to see their billing address phone number fax email all the same information that we saw when we were looking at the customer center you’ve got a map to their location and directions here and over on the right you can see that if you wanted to run a couple of reports for this vendor like a quick report or an open balance report you can do that as well notice the option to order 1099 forms from Intuit if you want to but you don’t have to order them from into it you can buy them anywhere you like or if you want to order checks from Intuit you can do that right here here’s where you would go up and attach a file this would be any file that you want related to this vendor it could be a bill that you’ve made a copy of and if you want to edit the information for that vendor you would choose this option right here down here at the bottom you’ll notice under the transactions tab you’re looking at all the transactions related to this vendor the types of transactions you’re going to see here are going to be bills you’ve entered purchase orders if you’re using the purchase order system any what we call Bill payment checks you’re going to see all of those listed here you will have options to sort or filter this list you can see that right now you’re filtering it by all of the transactions but you can also filter it by a different date range if you’d like the next tab over has all of your contacts related to this vendor you have any to Do’s related to this vendor under the to-do’s tab and then any notes related to this vendor you’d be able to enter those here also if you’ve sent any emails through QuickBooks to these vendors then you would see them listed here as well what I want to do now is take you in and show you how to actually enter a new vendor what you’re going to do is right up here at the top where it says new vendor you’re going to click and you’re going to enter a new vendor the first thing you want to do is put in the name of the vendor we’re going to say this vendor’s name is Smith painting and you’ll see there’s a place to put in the open balance this field is set up so that you can put any money you owe the vendor as of your start date you can put that number in here as a starting balance I suggest that you don’t put anything here and you actually put in the bills that you still owe as of your start date that way you can go back and look at them at any time the first thing you’ll notice at the bottom here is we’re under the address info and this is where we’re going to put in the address the phone number things like that this is Smith painting now I know we have Smith painting already up here but remember that if you’re going to do mail merges with Microsoft Word it’s going to pull from this field so you want to make sure you’ve got information there if you wanted to put in a name for a particular person there you can do that we’ll say this is Randy Smith if you want to put his job title in there you could do that we’ll say he’s the owner and then you can see there are fields for the phone numbers the faxes emails website and all of these fields can be changed if you want them to represent something different down at the bottom where it says build from this is going to be the billing address that is set up for this vendor I’ve got Smith painting in here I might put in attention Randy Smith and then go ahead and put in whatever Randy’s address is the next tab over to the left is the payment settings tab the first thing that it asks you is do you have an account number with this vendor if you don’t have one just leave that blank what are the payment terms for this vendor we’re going to say net 30 in this case notice there’s a field also so that you can put in the name that the vendor wants printed on their checks this would be the payable to field if the vendor gives you a credit limit you can put that in here and also a billing rate level this means that if you happen to do certain things for this vendor at a particular rate and other things for a different rate you can set those up the next tab I want to point out is the tax setting Tab and this one’s really important if you have 1099 contractors these are not employees these are people that you call in to do special projects they need to actually send you a bill and then you pay that bill that’s the correct way to handle that if you have 1099 vendors you want to have their tax ID in here and also check the box that they’re eligible for 10.99 if you do not do this when it’s time to print 1099s they will not get a 1099. the next tab on the left is account settings if you know that every time you create a check or some type of entry for this vendor there is a certain account for the chart of accounts you want this to go to then you can pick from the list you can assign up to three of these and that way you don’t have to choose those accounts every time you’re working on a transaction and the last tab is additional info if you want to categorize your vendors you can do that you can see there are several different types here I’ll just pick subcontractors and also there are custom Fields over on the right if you want to create additional custom Fields come down to Define fields type in whatever you want that field label or name to be and then check off whether you want that field available for customers vendors and or employees I’m going to click OK and we should see Smith painting in our list you can see it right down here it’s in alphabetical order once we create our first transaction for Smith painting then you will actually see a balance and then you’ll see those transactions show up over here under the transactions tab while we’re in this window I do want to mention a couple things notice if you go up here where it says new transactions there are several different options here you can enter bills pay bills create purchase orders you can see the list but chances are you’re not going to be on this screen when you want to create those transactions you can also come up here and you can print your vendor list you can also export this list to Excel or you can import a list of vendors you have from Excel already you can also do mail merges with Microsoft Word those are some of the options you’re going to be able to do when you’re working with vendors now that we know how to set up vendors let’s go ahead and move over into the second video and talk about how to enter bills in QuickBooks using these vendor names hey there welcome back to QuickBooks desktop 2022 my name is Cindy we are working in module 5 and we’re talking about vendors in this module this is the second video where I want to talk to you a little bit about how to enter bills in QuickBooks bills come in the mail that you have to pay they could be emailed to you but it’s something you know that you’re going to have to pay at a future date you could enter that bill so that you could run reports at any time and see who you owe if you’re on the 30-day overdue category just different things that you’ll want to know about upcoming expenses that you have let’s go ahead and flip over to QuickBooks and I’ll show you how to get started entering bills when you’re looking at your home screen you’ll see this section here is your accounts payable section anything having to do with bills paying bills purchasing inventory things like that will show up in this section when you’re entering bills if it’s just a normal Bill like an electric bill for example you would start here if your business deals with inventory and the purchase order system then you would actually start here and follow the flow chart all the way across to this enter bills button right here you can see from there the flowchart would go this way before I get started I wanted to mention that a lot of people don’t enter bills in QuickBooks they just have them on their desk or know that they’re due and they’ll go ahead and make that payment and enter the payment in QuickBooks that’s certainly okay your accounting will be correct but if you need to forecast your expenses you will want to use the enter bills feature that you see right here and enter all of your bills you will have some things that are automatically deducted like a car payment for example you might not think to enter a bill for that but I would go ahead and do that because it’s part of your forecasting of your expenses for the next few months anything you want to show up in those reports you want to put in the enter Bill section right here let’s go ahead and start with the inter bills and let’s say that our subcontractor Smith painting has sent us a bill for some work that he’s completed he expects to get paid you can see I typed in SM for Smith’s painting and it popped up I could also click the down arrow and choose that vendor from the list if it’s a brand new vendor that you haven’t entered yet you’ll notice at the top of this list it says add new that keeps you from having to go back to your home screen and enter them through the vendor Center you could do it right from here once you click down in the address section you’ll see that the address appeared if you needed to edit that you could edit it right here and once you save this transaction QuickBooks would let you know that it’s going to change it permanently for you ‘ll notice right below that it says the terms are net 30. that’s because we set up the terms of net 30 when we set up the vendor over in the vendor Center if you notice over here it pulls in today’s date and the build date is 30 days from that date what you want to do is put in the correct build date that means if you have a paper bill in front of you go ahead and put in the date it was printed you will want to make sure that the bill due date is correct in a case like that you can go ahead and change that to 30 days or if it says specifically on the bill that is due on a certain date then you change that because this date here is important so when you pull reports you’ll know when things are actually due this reference number would be the number that is on the bill then you have the amount to do we’re going to say it’s 500 dollars you also have a place to put a memo if you’d like you’ll notice down the bottom there are two tabs there is the expenses Tab and there’s the items tab when you’re finished these two tabs have to Total this amount due to the penny or will not let you save it you’ll notice under the expenses tab if you click on the first line this is your chart of accounts you can choose whatever account you’d like to put this to if you have subcontractors then you probably have set these up as a cost of goods sold and you can pick any one of these I’ll just choose subcontractors the next thing you’ll see is the amount this is five hundred dollars for this one account but this can be broken up into as

many accounts as you like if some of the money went to a different account you would just click on the next line down and choose that account and that amount from the list the other thing I want you to notice is there’s a place for a memo and also very important if you are tracking job costing your business you would want to choose the job the customer and the job that this particular expense needs to relate back to if you’re using the class feature you can see that the class option is here and I’ll go ahead and pick remodel now this little box that says billable in the middle here when we talked about invoices there was an option to pull in any expenses that you had incurred relating to this particular customer job that you wanted to be reimbursed for if this is checked then you’ll be able to do that now I do want to mention the items tab over here when you look at items these are physical products that you sell in your business if you are purchasing inventory for example you’ll want to make sure that you pick that particular product from this list so that it goes into your inventory count if you don’t do that and you just say it’s an expense over on this tab then it will not show up in your inventory I’m just going to choose expenses and I’m choosing the subcontractors in this case and I’m going to go ahead and save and close and now that bill has been entered now let’s go back and look at a couple of things first of all I’m going to my vendor Center up here and I’m just going to go down and pick my vendor which is Smith painting and when I click on Smith painting on the left now you’ll see the bill that I entered for Smith painting I’m going to double click and open it back up and there you’ll see it over on the right hand side of your screen you can actually hide this history or if you want to show this history you can basically what it will do is just give you some history like it says of this particular vendor you can see there’s a summary if there was any purchase orders that needed to be received here’s the bill we just entered you won’t see this until it’s saved but since this was saved and we opened it we now see that bill and any notes we had entered down here I’m going to hide that for a few moments and let’s look at a couple of options we have up at the top I want to point out that this is a bill but sometimes a vendor May issue you a credit we’re going to go for vendor credits in video number six of this module but just notice that option a lot of these options on your icon bar you’ll already be familiar with you know how to search you can go backwards or forwards and search for a particular bill you can also hit find and put in some criteria this new option would be the same thing as the save and new Option at the bottom right of your screen and of course if you’re working on this and you’re not finished you can hit save so that you don’t lose any of your information if you wanted to delete this bill this is where you would delete it you could also just avoid it meaning it would stay in the system but it would be voided and the amount due would be zero if you had another bill you wanted to enter that was very similar to this one you could create a copy and then make those few changes on that copy we’re going to talk about memorizing in a later module but if you have a bill that you need to pay on a repetitive basis the car payment is a really good example you pay it every month on the first of the month you could enter that bill one time and then QuickBooks would automatically enter it each month for you because it was memorized here’s where you can print this you can also attach a file here if you had a physical paper bill that you want to attach to this you could do that so you could open it up from here if you need to look at it also if you’re working with purchase orders and you happen to have chosen the wrong one you can go ahead and select the correct one from here and if you needed to enter some time associated with this you could do that this would go into your job costing and we’re going to talk more about this in a later module clear splits that basically means that if you have multiple lines of accounts chosen for example or items you get to clear that and start over you can also calculate or upload and review your bills this is a new feature right here where QuickBooks will actually try to match a bill that you might have as a PDF file for example and we’re going to look at this over in the next video which is number three and of course you can pay your bill from here chances are you’re not going to be on this screen when you’re ready to pay this bill but you can if you happen to be here there are a couple of reports I just want to mention and we’re going to go over reports in a later module but if you wanted to run some reports just on bills you can look at the transaction history here and that would actually show you if there were any payments made towards this you could see that history there you could run an item listing which would just list all of your items if you had some quantity on hand things like that that you might need to know you can look at open purchase orders your vendor balance detail for every vendor you can look at unpaid bills and you can also look at purchases by vendor in a detail format I’m going to hit save and close at the bottom and that’s how you’re going to enter bills and QuickBooks let’s head on over now to video number three in module five and I want to show you a new feature where you have the ability to upload and review your bills right here in QuickBooks hey there welcome back to QuickBooks desktop 2022 my name is Cindy and we are working now in module 5 where we’re talking about the accounts payable function in QuickBooks module 5 is all about vendors and we’re down now to video number five where I want to show you the correct way to pay your bills in QuickBooks let’s head on over to QuickBooks and I will show you how to get those started pain bills is easy in QuickBooks if you look at your home screen this is where you had previously entered that bill and now what you want to do is follow the flow chart all the way across to the pay bills icon before I click on that I just want to mention a couple of things what you don’t want to do is have a bill that you’ve entered and then come down here to either the right checks or the check register to enter that payment if you just come directly to one of these icons what will happen is the bill will stay open because it doesn’t see an association between the bill and the payment make sure you follow the flow chart all the way across to the pay bills once you complete this pay bills option here it will automatically put that payment in the register for you I’m going to click on pay bills this is a list of all the bills that you owe even if you owe a penny and you’ll see that currently they’re listed by vendor in alphabetical order if you want to change that use this sort right here you can sort these by the due date or if you want to sort them by any that might have a discount or credit you can see different options on this list but we’ll leave it sorted by vendor for now you can also filter the list if you’re looking for a particular vendor let’s just say it’s CU Electric then you can actually hide all the other vendors and just work on paying these two I’m going to go back and show all and that’s going to be at the top of the list it says all vendors notice I’m also showing all the bills if I just want to see ones due before a particular date I can choose this option here let’s say I’ve got a couple of different ones that I want to pay I do want to pay CU electric notice there are two bills for that vendor I’ll just pay them both if you’ve got multiple vendors you’re going to pay bills for you can just check them all at the same time and it will write Separate Checks and it will create separate payments for each or if you want to do them one at a time you could do that as well once you check those off you’ll notice that over to the right it assumes you want to pay all of that bill if you’re wanting to make a partial payment just change this amount right here to whatever it is you’re going to pay and it will remember the rest some of your options down at the bottom are to go to that bill this is one of the few places in QuickBooks you can’t double click on the bill itself you have to actually have that bill selected and then choose go to Bill you can also set your discount here if the vendor is giving you a discount for paying early or for some other reason you can go ahead and take that discount here you would type in the amount of that discount you’re taking and then you would have an account set up in your chart of accounts for that discount and if you’re using the class you might have one of those set up as well if your vendor has issued you a credit you can actually apply that credit here you would need to have that credit already set up in QuickBooks and here you could set that here’s the date of your payment the method of your payment it can be check credit card or bank payment remember that if you’re using a debit card or it’s automatically drafted just choose the check option to be printed you would use this option if you’re going to actually put checks in your printer and print these out if you’re going to just pay it online or maybe it’s automatically deducted just choose the assign check number option and you can type anything you want in that check number field make sure you have the correct bank account Chosen and then choose pay selected bills now here’s the check number field when I mentioned to you a moment ago to use the assigned check number if you’re using a debit card you can leave this field blank or you can put the word debit in there any code that you’d like to show QuickBooks what type of payment that is I’m going to click ok and now that payment has been made this is the payment summary window just letting you see the payments you just made if you have more bills to pay you can choose this option or you can say done you also have in the middle of it an option to print a bill payment stub you would print that if you wanted to send a check and maybe a stub with it there’s your print or email Now options I’m going to click on done and let’s see if it’s in our register I’m going over to the check register here on the right I’m going to use my checking account because that’s the bank account I paid this from and here is your payment for CU electric you’ll see that it says bill payment it does not say check that’s how you know you did this correctly that you actually entered a bill and then you made a bill payment to pay this bill I do want to show you one other way that you can pay your bills especially if you have a lot of them this might be a little quicker for you notice I have the vendor Center opened on the left here in the vendor Center you’re going to see this button that says build tracker this will let you see all of the expenses you have related to a particular customer or job or even if they’re just for the office you can see all of that here notice some of these are purchase orders some of these are bills that have been entered and at the top it gives you some totals here’s the total of your 10 purchase orders any open bills if you want to see if any of these are overdue you can look here and you can also see the total that were paid in the last 30 days now you’ll notice that if you’ve got a purchase order you can convert it to a bill we will be talking about purchase orders over in module six also notice if you have a bill that there’s an option to pay that bill all you would have to do is check the box all the way to the left of that bill and then you’ll see it says pay bill here you can also copy or print that bill if you wanted to you also have options to copy or print that bill but when you’re ready to pay it just come down here where it says batch actions and then choose pay bills you’ll see this is your pay bills window that appears you can actually click on that bill if it’s not already chosen if we have another one you want to add to that since there’s another one for Perry Windows I’ll go ahead and check that one as well and then all of the options we just talked about are right here in this window once you’ve made your choices you can pay your selected bills now that payment is in the register as well as the one we did a few moments ago I’m going to choose done and that’s how you pay your bills in QuickBooks now that you know how to pay your bills let’s go ahead and move over into video number six and we’re going to look at how to set up credits that your vendor has given you towards a bill hey there welcome back it’s Cindy we’re working in QuickBooks desktop 2022 and I want to talk to you about vendor credits sometimes a vendor will issue you a credit that you need to apply to a bill or it could be you want to apply it to your account and use it in the future but I want to show you how to handle those once the vendor sends them to you let’s go ahead and flip over to QuickBooks and I’ll show you how to set up those vendor credits I’m here in the vendor Center and you can see that this company owes Cal Gas and Electric 122.68 calgastic electric has issued a credit memo of 25 towards that bill I want to show you how to enter that credit memo and then how to apply it to that bill I’m going back to the home screen and what you’re going to do is you’re going to use the enter bills option the only difference is you’re going to set this as a credit right here and then just fill out the rest of the form this vendor was Cal Gas and Electric we’ll say they issued this credit memo on December the 20th you can put in a reference number and I’ll just put in it’s for 25 dollars if you want to pin a memo here you can do that in this case since it’s Gas and Electric you want to make sure that you pick the correct account from the chart of accounts remember if you’re getting a credit for a physical item that you’ve returned you want to use the items Tab and choose that item if this is for a particular customer or job you want to choose it from the list and also make sure that you’re using the correct class if you’re using the class list I’m going to go ahead and save and close at the bottom now let’s go ahead and follow the flow chart all the way to the end where it says pay bills what I want to show you is if you look at Cow Gas and Electric right here if you go ahead and click on that you’re going to see right down here where it says set credits there’s a 25 credit available so you’re not going to see it when you look up here as long as you have the bill selected you want to apply it to all you have to do is set credits you’ll notice this credit appears right here and all you have to do is click done and now you’ll see that credit is used right up here and it shows you there is an amount to pay now of 97.68 if you’re going to pay that just go ahead and make sure it’s checked off and go through the process and pay the selected bill and that’s all you need to do to enter a credit memo and then apply it to a bill I’m going to go ahead and cancel out of this let’s go ahead now and move over into video number six where we’re going to talk about a new feature in QuickBooks where you can schedule and pay your bills directly from QuickBooks foreign hey there welcome back to QuickBooks desktop 2022 this is Cindy we are moving now into module six where we’re talking about how to work with items and inventory we’re going to start off in this first video just talking about where the items list is and how you would actually go through and set up an item or an inventory part there are actually two parts to this video so make sure you watch videos number one and two let’s go ahead and flip over to QuickBooks and we’ll get started entering some of those items if you’re looking at your home screen you’re going to see an icon here that says items and services that’s where you want to click to go ahead and see all of these different items that you would either sell to your customers or purchase maybe for resale when you first set up your QuickBooks company file this list will be empty you won’t have any items you’ll have to go through and set these up yourself I wanted to go through this list because I want to point out that each of the items that you create can be set up as one of these different types that you see in this column some companies will have three or four maybe six seven items other companies might have over a thousand it just depends on what your business actually does let’s go through and look at some of these starting with the type called service what you’ll find is that based on the type the names will be in alphabetical order over here think of a service as an actual service that you provide to your customers if you look at framing that’s a service you provide labor would be a service repairing that would be a service as well sometimes you’re going to have items that are main items and then you’ll have sub items below carpet and drywall are sub items of this word Subs the next type that you’re going to see down here are your inventory parts you’ll notice for each of these inventory Parts you’re going to see the total quantity that you have on hand these are physical parts that you buy or sell the way that this number changes is when you sell this item meaning you put it on an invoice to sell it this number will go down when you purchase this the number will go up when you’re entering your expenses where you’ve actually made the purchase of these items you’re going to see on the bottom of that screen will be a tab that says items and you’ll be able to actually put that item on that tab let me show you what I’m referring to I’m going to flip back to home for a moment and let’s just say that you were using the right checks feature down here now I know we haven’t gone through this yet but you’re going to see on every type of expense that you enter you’re going to have the same screen down here you could either put this to an expense which is your chart of accounts or this is your items tab here where you can pick an item if I pick door frame and I say that I ordered quantity of two of these then what will happen is over here when I look at door frame this 21 will actually go to 23. you can also manually adjust this inventory we’re actually going to talk about that down in video number seven of this module the next type I want to point out are non-inventory parts these are physical products or parts that you have but you don’t keep a record of how many you have in inventory you might keep two or three on hand all the time just in case you need them or you might order them as you need them but you don’t really keep track of the quantity you have for non-inventory parts below that you’re going to see what they call other charges these are miscellaneous type things you’ll notice there’s a freight reimbursement here there’s a delivery charge they’ve got one set up for permit I did want to point out this next one that says subtotal over here you may not use this very often but what will happen is if you had six or seven line items on an invoice or an estimate and you want to subtotal those you can just add this as the next line and it will actually subtotal everything above it that it has it already subtotaled these are groups down here if you create estimates and you’re constantly creating an estimate for the same thing and maybe it has 100 different line items instead of typing those line items every time you can create a group and that group can include those line items that way the next time you need to put those on an estimate or an invoice you just type this group name and it will pre-populate all of those items for you there is a place to put a discount on your invoice if you’d like and it will figure the discount for you and also you can set up a line item as a payment I personally wouldn’t put payments on an invoice I would make this a separate transaction but you do have that ability and then the last couple of types I want to mention are your sales tax items and your sales tax group when we get to the videos where we talk about sales tax this is where we’re going to come to actually create those items and then if you have several you pay and pay to one entity you can create a group to include those that gives you a quick overview of the different types of items that you can set up in QuickBooks what I want to do now is go ahead and set up a service item with you just so you can get a feel for how to set up these items anywhere in this list you just right click and you’ll see the new Option here notice there’s also an edit option if you need to edit one of the items you already created you can duplicate an item if there’s a new one you need that’s similar to one you already have you can duplicate it and then make those few changes you need you can also delete an item you cannot delete an item if you’ve ever used it if you want to hide it from the list maybe you’re not going to use it in the future then go down here and make it inactive so it hides it from this list for now we’re going back to New so that we can create our new service item the first thing quick to ask you is what type of item is this and these are the types we just mentioned I’m going to say it’s a service item and we’ll actually call this one a consultation if this is a sub item of another you can check the box and pick the item it’s a sub item of remember the example where carpet is a sub item of Subs but this one’s not this is just a new item and then if you’re using the unit of measurement feature you can create a new unit of measurement they have one set up here it looks like they sell things each by the case for example and then of course you have a description area if this is going to change all the time you can just leave it blank I’m just going to duplicate the same item name there and then that can be changed when you’re actually on an invoice if you have a standard rate you charge for this item you’ll want to go ahead and put it in if it’s going to be different every time just leave that on zero and then change it on the invoice or estimate as you need to the next thing QuickBooks ask you is this a taxable item or not this is for sales tax purposes and then the most important thing on this screen is the account this is the chart of accounts and QuickBooks wants to know which account in the chart of accounts do you want this to relay back to nine out of 10 times you want it to relate back to an income account and this is where I see a lot of people have problems because if you don’t point this back to an income account your profit loss will not be correct there’s very few exceptions to that so if you just always pick an income account you’ll be good I don’t see one I’d like to use I’d like to have one called consultation income I’ll just create that I’ll go to the top of the list and choose add new I’m going to put in the account name and I really don’t need to fill any of this other stuff in I’m going to go ahead and hit save and close at the bottom and now you’ll see that it has my new account name there I’m going to click OK and now that item has been created you’ll see it right here at the top of the list that’s how you’re going to create a new service item what I want to do now is stop the video here and let’s move over to part two because I do want to show you how to set up inventory items so that you can go ahead and tell QuickBooks what the quantity is that you have currently and then you have the correct number to move forward with hey there it’s Cindy again welcome back to QuickBooks desktop 2022 we are working in module 6 where we’re talking about items and inventory we just completed part one where I showed you how to go through the items list and start adding items to that list now I want to show you how to specifically add inventory parts to that list let’s head over to QuickBooks and get started we’re back in the items list in QuickBooks in case you forgot how to get here go back to your home screen and you’ll see an icon right here that says items and services we’ll just head back over there to create any new item in your list just right click anywhere in the list and choose the new option the first thing you have to tell QuickBooks is what type of item is this and this is an inventory part let me just mention that if you don’t have inventory part on this drop down list it’s because when you set up the company file you told QuickBooks you do not keep inventory now if you want to change that at this point all you have to do is go back up to edit and back to your preferences in here you want to click items and inventory on the left then choose your company preferences Tab and make sure all of these are checked once you’ve done that go ahead and click OK and then you will see inventory part appear on this list this is going to be a screen door if this was a sub item of another I would click sub item of and choose that item from the list but this is not and notice there’s a place now for the manufacturer’s part number this is just helpful information for you whenever you’re ordering this part that way you don’t have to keep guessing of what that number is if you’re using the unit of measurement you’ll want to choose that from the drop down list you’ll notice when you’re entering inventory that you have two sides to the screen you’ve got the purchase information side and then over here you have the sales information side this is when you buy this item and this is when you sell this item I’m going to put a description in here I’ll just say screen door and of course you can edit that whenever you’re on an estimate or an invoice and what you’ll notice is if you click on the right it’ll put that same description here and of course you can edit that as well this would typically be the description that you would see when you’re purchasing this item from your vendor the next thing you’ll see on the left is the cost on average what do you pay for this if it’s totally different every single time you can leave it on zero I’ll just put in 200. but the sales price is what you charge for this that means anytime you put this on an invoice or an estimate it will pull in in this case 550 and of course you can type over that if you need to if it’s going to vary every single time again then go ahead and leave that blank over here the cost of goods sold account you really don’t want to change this unless you have some sub accounts underneath that you specifically want it to go to but this is considered a cost of goods sold because you have to buy this product to make or sell this product in your business to make sure that stays on a cost of goods sold below that is a feel for the preferred vendor if you have a specific vendor you’d like to buy this from then you can go ahead and pick them from the list if not you can just leave that blank over on the right for sales tax purposes is this item subject to sales tax and typically if it’s a physical item it is and the most important thing on this whole screen again is the income account this word says income so that means pick one of these income accounts that you want this to go to when you’re selling this item where do you want it to end up I’ll just say in this case I wanted to end up under materials income because this is inventory you’ve got some options down at the bottom you can plug in you don’t want to change the asset account this is the account the assets going into inventory is considered an asset to your business because it’s worth something it makes your company more valuable but it is liquid and you’ll want to sell it and get it out the door there is a place to plug in a minimum reorder point and a maximum and what that means is do you want QuickBooks to tell you when you have two left to order some more so you don’t run out and what if you get too many maybe you want to have a Max of 10 in the back room and you want QuickBooks to tell you that here’s where you’re going to put in how many you have on hand that’s the starting number QuickBooks will have and remember if you have one every time you purchase it we’ll add to that number and anytime you sell this it will take away from that number and that’s really all you have to plug in when you’re setting up an inventory part I’m going to click OK and it should tell us that we have one of these let’s go look and see here you can see our screen door and you can see that we have one of them that’s how you’re going to set up inventory and get started with that whole inventory process that’s going to go ahead and wrap up the items and inventory part of this module let’s go ahead and move over to video number three and we’ll talk about purchase orders hey there welcome back to QuickBooks desktop 2022 this is Cindy we are working in module 6 where we’re talking about items and inventory and we’re down now to video number three I want to show you how purchase orders work in QuickBooks if your company uses the purchase order system that means that when you order an item you’re going to actually enter a purchase order once that inventory comes in you’re going to actually enter an item received and then eventually you’re going to pay for that and that’s the purchase order system but let’s go ahead and start with video number three here and I’ll show you how to enter purchase orders before we get started I want to go back to the items list and show you that we have one screen door right now as an inventory part and we want to order three more we’re going to use the purchase order system to do that back on the home screen you should have an icon here that says purchase orders if you do not have this icon it’s because you told QuickBooks when you set up the company file that you do not track inventory to turn that on you would go back to edit down to preferences make sure you’re under the items and inventory option on the left and then click on company preferences you want to make sure all three of these are on and that way your icon will show up on your home screen I’m going to click on purchase orders and we’re going to enter the purchase order the first thing it asks me is who is the vendor that you want to order this from and we’re going to say this is Perry windows and doors this would be my vendored list if you’re using the class feature then you’ll want to go ahead and choose which class this would pertain to if you want to drop ship this to a particular customer site that means when you order it you want the vendor to send it to the customer site then you could choose it from the list but if you’re not doing that you’re just going to put them in your office then you don’t want to choose anything here you can also choose a template for your purchase orders we only have one right now but we can create those and we’ll talk about that in a later module the next thing you want to do is check the date this is going to be the date you’re creating the purchase order and then you want to put in the purchase order number QuickBooks will number sequentially if you want to change that number then you just change it to whatever you’d like it to be here is the vendor information that it pulled in when you chose your vendor right up here at the top and next to that is the ship to information if you were shipping it directly to a client site or if you’re not you’ll see it pulled in that your company information what you want to do is go down on the first line under item and you just want to pick screen door and if you want to add a description this would be the description the vendor uses they might have a particular part number they might call it a particular brand name but you can change that to say anything you’d like we’re going to order three more of these and let’s say that we’re ordering three because they’re on sale they’re 185 dollars so see I’m going to change that right there if they were for a particular customer again you would pick the customer job from this list and if you were using the unit of measurement you would choose it from that list if you could and you can see pulled over the total there of 555. you can keep adding as many items as you like to this purchase order a couple of quick things you’ll notice at the bottom left of the screen there is a place for a vendor message that would be something that you would put in there that only you would see and then a place for a memo over the right hand side you can see your history here if you want to hide that just use the arrow to hide the history or the left Arrow to show the history but that’s just going to show you information about the vendor you can see their phone number if you have an open balance with them if you have any purchase orders still that need to be received and then recent transactions will show up here now let’s head up to the top and see if there’s anything new I think you’re familiar with most of this already you know how to print email these let’s go ahead and see what a purchase order would look like I’ll preview this you can see it just says purchase order here at the top it has all the information on it you can see the company information here on the left there’s the vendor name and address and the ship to name and address and what you’re actually ordering I’m going to close that screen one thing that you haven’t seen yet is this icon here that says create item receipts now that’s going to be the next thing in the process once you receive the physical products into your office chances are you’re not going to be on this screen when you want to receive your items but you could do that and you would also select your item receipts from here but again we’re going to do that back from the home screen there are some reports you can run back here if you want to look at any open purchase orders you can do that you can look at purchase orders by job you can look at them by item detail you might see an item listing and then purchases by vendor detail I’m going to click save and close at the bottom and now that purchase order has been created what I want to do is go back to the items list and just show you that you still only have one screen door right here and that’s because you’ve only ordered it you have not received it into inventory yet and that’s the next thing we’re going to talk about if you’ll head on over to video number four we’re going to talk about how to receive those items into inventory hey there it’s Cindy again welcome back to QuickBooks desktop 2022 we are working our way down through module 6 where we’re talking about items and inventory we’re down to video number four now we’re going to talk about how to receive items into inventory these would be items you’ve already created a purchase order for and now you’ve received them you want to update QuickBooks so that your inventory number is correct let’s flip over to QuickBooks and we will look at how to receive those items into inventory in QuickBooks we’re back in our items list and I wanted to point out the screen doors you still only have one as far as the quantity is concerned because we’ve ordered three more but we haven’t received them now that they’ve come in I want to show you how to go ahead and receive those so that they’ll show up in this list and this quantity will change to four I’m going to go back to the home screen and following the flow chart I’m going to go to the receive inventory icon you’ll notice here that there’s a down arrow because there are two ways that this can happen one you can receive your inventory and the bill is actually in the box with it or you can receive it and later the bill will come in the mail they’ll just have a packing slip for you to look at right now but let’s go ahead and use the bottom option we’ll say without the bill because that’s normally the way it happens and now you’re on what’s called an item receipt now you have to have a purchase order in here already in order to pull from that purchase order the first thing QuickBooks wants to know is who is the vendor in this case it was Perry windows and doors because we have an open purchase order then it’s letting us know that we can receive against one or more of these we’re going to say yes this is how you’re going to close the purchase order you’ll see there are two purchase orders here and you’re going to choose the one you want to receive against let’s just say I picked this one and I click ok you’ll notice it pulled in those three screen doors what if you clicked the wrong purchase order and you want to go back and pick the correct one instead of getting out of this whole thing notice you have a button up here that says select po you would uncheck the one you pulled in check the correct one and then click ok and you can see that I really needed that first one so I’ll go back and choose that first one but the point is that you can actually change the purchase order that you pulled in the next thing I want to do is go ahead and pick the date this is the date that I actually received the items let’s go ahead and say it was January the 3rd you wanted to put in a reference number you could and then the total and that total shouldn’t change because this is not a bill where they would add shipping or tax this should be the same amount that was actually on the purchase order now the only exception is what if when you’re looking at these items here they only sent you two of those doors then you would change this to two which obviously would change your total up at the top and then you could go through the same process when that last one actually comes in going across you’ll see it pulled in the cost it pulled in the amount and if you wanted to make this billable meaning that you would have the customer reimburse you you could click here and you can see it pulled everything you need right from here let’s go back up and see if there’s any new buttons that you’re not familiar with up here you should be familiar with all of these we talked about selecting a PO if you choose the wrong one you could also enter some time what this means is if you are tracking the time that it takes you or an employee to actually process this maybe open the box put the things in inventory the whole process then you can do this because it’s part of your job costing you just pick a start date and an end date for this and then you would click ok you can also clear the splits that means that if you had multiple line items you could clear that and start over and you could recalculate it there are some reports you can run as well related to items there’s an item listing which just list all your items if you want to see the details about any purchase orders that are open you can do that there’s a vendor balance detail and unpaid bills detail and purchases by vendor let’s go ahead and click save and close at the bottom and see if our item list has been updated when I look at screen doors you can now see that I have four screen doors so you can see that once you create those purchase orders it’s not going to change your quantity but once you receive the item in inventory then it will that’s how you’re going to receive items into inventory in QuickBooks let’s move over to the next video number five and we’ll quickly walk through how to handle the bills for those items that you just received hey there welcome back it’s Cindy again we are working through QuickBooks desktop 2022. right now we’re in module number six where we’ve been discussing items and inventory and I want to take a quick moment in this fifth video here and talk to you about how to handle the bills for items that have gone through the purchase order process it’s really going to be fairly easy it’s very similar to just entering any Bill and paying it but I want to follow the flowchart and show you how to take this all the way through let’s go ahead and flip over to QuickBooks and we’ll get started if you have a bill you need to enter that’s for items that went through the whole purchase order system you want to enter those here because you want to complete the flowchart I’m going to click on enter bills against inventory the first thing you want to do is choose an item receipt and you need to pick the vendor this was Perry windows and doors in the previous video we had actually ordered a three screen doors and now we’re ready to enter that bill you can see that an item receipt came up for Perry windows and doors you want to make sure you choose the correct one this would be any items you received through this receive inventory button right here I’m going to click ok and now you can see a bill and it’s pulled in all three of the screen doors that we had ordered when you receive a bill you’ll probably have some additional charges like a shipping charge or something else go ahead and just change all the information needed to make this correct this bill would be for six hundred dollars in this case and I’ll just put in a reference number that would be the bill number or the invoice on the vendor side as they would call it make sure you have to build date correct and make sure you have the due date correct that’s the important one that way when you run reports you’ll have accurate dates when your bills are due now in this case we’re going to break up our amount due we know that 550 is for the items we purchased but the rest of it is for a shipping or freight charge you would click on the expenses Tab and choose Freight and delivery from this drop down list and then put in that amount go ahead and save and close and QuickBooks will say that this transaction is linked to others are you sure you want to change it and you would just say yes here now that Bill is in QuickBooks ready for you to pay it let’s go ahead now and hop over to video six and we’ll go ahead and get those items paid for hey there welcome back to QuickBooks 2022 this is the desktop version and we are going through module six items and inventory we’re down to video number six now paying for items there’s a couple different ways you’re going to be able to actually enter those items in QuickBooks especially if you have inventory and you want it to increase as you make those purchases it could be that it’s a bill you’ve put in and you just want to pay that bill or it could be that you’re actually using a check or debit card or purchasing them online let’s go ahead and flip over to QuickBooks and we’ll look at how to pay for those items let’s go ahead and start with the easiest thing first so far in this module we’ve gone through this whole purchase order system we actually ordered some items we ordered three screen doors we actually received that into inventory and this is when your inventory number increased and then we actually entered the bill when you get ready to pay the bill just follow the flow chart all the way down to this pay bills option right here if you remember we actually purchased our doors from Perry windows and doors and looking down this list you can see there are several you just want to go ahead and check off the one or ones that you’re going to pay and pay this like you normally would when you’re paying any Bill I’m going to go down and change the date that I’m making the payment I’ll choose the method I’ll just leave a signed check number and go ahead and pay selected bills remember that when this screen pops up you can enter anything you want the check number field I’ll just say that I used a debit card to pay this and I’ll click ok and now that is done I’m going to go ahead and choose the done option so that’s the first thing I wanted to point out is paying the bill the next thing is when you’re entering the expense let’s say that you actually went to your local store and you purchased those screen doors maybe you wrote a check used your debit card it really doesn’t matter how you paid for it in QuickBooks desktop anytime you have something that comes out of the checking account it’s considered a check you can use the right checks window whether you paid for it online debit card it doesn’t matter you can use that window or you can use the check register I’m going to use the right checks let’s say that I want to purchase one more screen door I’ll go back to Perry windows and doors notice it tells me I have open purchase orders since I’m purchasing this and I’m not actually applying this to a purchase order I’m going to say no in this case and that way the purchase orders stay open for the next time I’m going to say that the door was 185 dollars now here’s the important thing this is your chart of accounts when you’re under the expenses tab you could most certainly if you’re not tracking inventory then you could come down and pick that this was a job material or whatever account you’d like to use however in this case I want to add that door to my inventory so that means I need to delete this line here and make sure I put it under the items tab just a quick little trick whenever you’re trying to delete an entire line anywhere in QuickBooks just click on that line and all you have to do is hold Ctrl and hit your delete key and it will delete the entire line now I’m going to go to the items Tab and I’m going to put in screen door and there you can see it pops up I’m purchasing one of these it looks like it’s 185 dollars and if it is for a particular customer job I can choose that here but if I’m trying just to keep that in my inventory I’ll just leave that empty now I’m going to go ahead and save this and then close this window when we go back to our items and services let’s see how many we actually have right now we’re going to go down and find a screen door and we have five of them one of them was just added to our inventory we haven’t yet talked about credit cards but if you’re using a credit card to make that purchase the same thing would apply you would click here and you would still see that you have the two tabs you’d want to make sure it’s under the items tab so that goes into your inventory and that’s what I wanted to point out to you about actually paying for those items specifically when you want items to go into your inventory let’s go ahead and finish up module 6 over in the seventh video I’ll show you how to manually adjust your inventory because inventory is going to get off and you want it to always be as accurate as possible hey there welcome back to QuickBooks desktop 2022 this is Cindy we are getting ready to wrap up module six we’ve spent some time talking about items and inventory and then this last video I want to show you how to manually adjust inventory inventory is just going to get off and every now and then you’ll go in the back room and you’ll count and you’ll want to adjust the number in QuickBooks to match what you actually have I want to show you how to do that let’s go ahead and flip over to QuickBooks and we’ll see how to adjust that inventory on the home screen you’ll want to navigate to the items and services icon and that way you can see your list of items if you look at your screen doors here we have five we’re going to adjust this because let’s say there’s only four that we actually have on hand we need to decrease that number by one at the bottom of your items list there are a lot of different options most of these options you can get to by right clicking anywhere on your screen you’ll see there is the adjust quantity value on hand option which you would also find under activities the very bottom option down here the first thing you need to tell QuickBooks is what type of adjustment is this are you adjusting the quantity the total value or both we’re just in the quantity set your adjustment date whatever date you’re doing this adjustment and then you want to have an adjustment account now I’ve set up one called inventory adjustments you’ll want to go ahead and set that up yourself because it will not automatically be in the list QuickBooks will number each one of these adjustments you can change that reference number if you like also if you’re adjusting this for a particular customer job you can choose that from the list if you’re just suggesting inventory on hand then you leave that blank make sure you choose the class this would apply to as well the next thing you want to do is go down and find the item from the items list that you’re adjusting in this case it’s a screen door it tells me I have five but the new quantity I want is four that means there will be a negative one adjustment I’m decreasing by one if you want to put a memo here you can down at the bottom but that’s really all you need to do I’m going to save and close and now if we go down and look at our screen doors we should have four and we do you can see it right there and that’s how you’re going to adjust your inventory that you have on hand well that’s going to go ahead and wrap up module 6 where we’ve talked about items and inventory why don’t we move over now to module 7 and we’re going to look at all the different options related to banking features in QuickBooks if you’re not a subscriber click down below to subscribe so you get notified about similar videos we upload now to get the course transcript and follow along with this video click right over there and click over there to watch more videos on YouTube from Simon says it

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https://amjadizhar.blog

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The text is a tutorial on using QuickBooks Online. It guides users through various aspects of the platform, starting with subscription options and initial company setup. The tutorial demonstrates how to manage customer lists, handle sales transactions, and utilize features like invoices, sales receipts, and credit memos. Finally, the tutorial covers product and service setup, purchase orders, and related reports, providing a comprehensive overview for new QuickBooks Online users.

QuickBooks Online: A Comprehensive Study Guide

Quiz

Instructions: Answer the following questions in 2-3 sentences each.

1. How can a user access the sample file (Craig’s Design & Landscaping Services) in QuickBooks Online without a subscription?
2. What are the two primary ways to create an Intuit account when signing up for QuickBooks Online?
3. Where can users find the sign-out option in QuickBooks Online, and what icon is associated with it?
4. Why is it important to understand the Chart of Accounts in QuickBooks Online?
5. Explain the difference between the “Company email” and “Customer facing email” settings in QuickBooks Online.
6. How can you give another user access to your company file and can that user change the company info or manage subscriptions?
7. Why should businesses set up a separate liability account for each loan they have?
8. Explain the difference between “owner investment” and income in QuickBooks Online.
9. What is the function of sub-customers in QuickBooks, and how does it differ from the desktop version?
10. What is the purpose of “Undeposited Funds” in QuickBooks Online?

Quiz Answer Key

1. Users can access the sample file by navigating to qbo.intuit.com/r/edr/testdrive. This allows them to explore the features using a pre-populated company file without needing a paid subscription.
2. Users can create an Intuit account by signing up with a Google account or by using an email address and creating a password. This centralizes their Intuit product logins.
3. The sign-out option is located in the top right-hand corner of the screen, accessible by clicking on the gear icon. This ensures secure access control.
4. The Chart of Accounts is the backbone of all accounting in QuickBooks. It categorizes where money is spent and received and is necessary for generating accurate financial reports.
5. The “Company email” is a private email address used for internal communications from Intuit, while the “Customer facing email” is the email address customers see. The latter can be redirected to the company email for ease of management.
6. Give another user access by going to Gear Icon > Manage Users > Add User. Administrators control user permissions, and an employee cannot change company info or manage subscriptions unless permission is granted to them by the adminstrator.
7. Setting up separate liability accounts for each loan allows businesses to accurately track the principal and interest payments for each debt. This helps monitor individual loan balances and payment progress.
8. “Owner investment” refers to personal funds the owner puts into the business, which is considered equity, not income. Income is revenue generated from business operations.
9. Sub-customers are used to organize jobs or projects related to a main customer, enabling detailed tracking of income and expenses for each project. In the desktop version of QuickBooks, these are often called “jobs”.
10. “Undeposited Funds” serves as a temporary holding account for payments received from customers before they are deposited into a bank account. This is a useful holding pattern when you collect money and plan to make a bulk deposit at the end of the day.

Essay Questions

1. Discuss the importance of customizing QuickBooks Online settings through the gear icon, providing specific examples of how these customizations can improve efficiency and accuracy for different types of businesses.
2. Explain the process of setting up a new company file in QuickBooks Online, including the steps involved in the easy step interview, and discuss the significance of accurately answering the initial setup questions.
3. Describe the different types of accounts in the Chart of Accounts, and explain how each type affects the accuracy of financial reports.
4. Analyze the benefits and drawbacks of using the sales receipt versus invoice features in QuickBooks Online, and provide scenarios in which each method would be most appropriate.
5. Evaluate the utility of the tagging feature in QuickBooks Online, explaining how tags can be used to track specific aspects of a business and improve reporting capabilities, and compare it to QuickBooks’ “classes” feature.

Glossary of Key Terms

• Chart of Accounts: A list of all the accounts used to categorize financial transactions in QuickBooks Online.
• Company File: A QuickBooks term for the data file that contains all of a company’s financial information.
• Dashboard: The main screen in QuickBooks Online that provides a quick overview of a company’s financial performance.
• Intuit Account: A single login that allows access to multiple Intuit products and services.
• Navigation Pane: The menu on the left side of the QuickBooks Online interface that provides access to different areas of the program.
• Sales Receipt: A record of a sale where the customer pays at the time of purchase.
• Invoice: A bill sent to a customer requesting payment for goods or services.
• Accounts Receivable: The money owed to a company by its customers.
• Accounts Payable: The money owed by a company to its vendors.
• Undeposited Funds: A temporary holding account in QuickBooks for payments received but not yet deposited into a bank account.
• Credit Memo: A document issued to a customer that reduces the amount they owe, usually due to a return or service issue.
• Refund Receipt: A record of money returned to a customer for a purchase.
• Statement: A summary of a customer’s account activity, including invoices, payments, and balances.
• Tags: Customizable labels used to categorize transactions for detailed reporting and tracking.
• Product and Service: A sellable item or billable service provided by a business.
• Purchase Order: A document sent to a vendor requesting an order of goods or services.
• SKU (Stock Keeping Unit): A unique identifier for a product or service.
• Inventory: Goods held for sale to customers.
• Vendor: An individual or company from whom a business purchases goods or services.
• Sub-customer: A customer that is a sub-division of a main customer, enabling job or project tracking.
• Equity: The owner’s stake in the company.
• Liability: A debt or obligation owed to others.
• Asset: A resource controlled by the company as a result of past events and from which future economic benefits are expected to flow to the company.
• Accrual Basis Accounting: Recognition of income when earned and expenses when incurred, regardless of cash flow.

QuickBooks Online: Setup, Navigation, Customer Management, and More

Okay, here’s a detailed briefing document summarizing the key themes and ideas from the provided text excerpts.

Briefing Document: QuickBooks Online Overview and Key Features

Executive Summary:

This document summarizes key functionalities within QuickBooks Online (QBO), focusing on initial setup, navigation, customer and vendor management, sales transactions, product/service inventory, and reporting. It highlights the use of sample files for practice, the process of creating and customizing a new company file, managing customers and vendors, handling sales transactions, managing inventory with purchase orders, and utilizing reports to understand your business.

1. Introduction and Initial Setup

• Theme: Getting started with QuickBooks Online.
• Key Ideas/Facts:Sample File: Users can experiment with a sample file (“Craig’s design & landscaping services”) without a subscription. Access via “QBO dot Intuit comm /r e dr forward slash test drive.”
• 30-Day Free Trial: A 30-day free trial is available by signing up.
• Intuit Account: Creating an Intuit account (using Google or email) is required. Mobile number is recommended for account recovery.
• Company File: Each QuickBooks file is a “company.” Users can have multiple companies.
• EasyStep Interview: QBO uses an “easy step interview” to gather initial company information and configure settings.
• Dashboard: The dashboard provides a quick overview of different company areas.
• Logging In/Out: Use the gear icon in the top right to sign out. To log back in, go to QuickBooks.Intuit.com and select “Sign In.”

2. Navigation and Customization

• Theme: Understanding the QBO interface and customizing company settings.
• Key Ideas/Facts:Gear Icon: The gear icon provides access to customization options, tools, and company settings.
• Chart of Accounts: “Everything in QuickBooks will run through the chart of accounts.” It is accessible via the gear icon.
• “New” Button: The “New” button (formerly located near the gear icon) is for creating new transactions.
• Account Settings: Accessible through the Gear Icon.
• Company Information: Allows editing of company name, legal name, industry, email addresses (customer-facing vs. company), phone number, website, and addresses.
• Billing and Subscription: Used to upgrade QBO subscriptions. Subscription levels have limits (e.g., users, chart of account items, classes/locations).
• Usage: Helps to monitor limits to the subscription level.
• Sales Tab: Has customisation settings that help to manage how sales are processed.

3. User Management

• Theme: Adding and managing users within QBO.
• Key Ideas/Facts:Multiple Users: Different QBO subscriptions allow for a different number of users.
• User Permissions: Administrators can assign different levels of access. It is critical that administrators know usernames and passwords.
• Invitation Process: New users receive an email invitation and set up their own username and password.
• Audit Trail: Can be reviewed under Reports.

4. Chart of Accounts

• Theme: The fundamental role of the chart of accounts in QBO.
• Key Ideas/Facts:Core Accounting Structure: The chart of accounts is “the backbone of all accounting,” a listing of where money is spent or received.
• Account Types: Important account types include:
• Bank Accounts: (Checking, Savings, PayPal, Square).
• Assets: (Fixed Assets like vehicles, furniture, and current assets like inventory). Group assets into “big bucket categories.”
• Liabilities: (Loans – separate accounts for each loan, Credit Cards – separate for each card).
• Equity: (Owner draws, Owner contributions).
• Income Accounts: (Sales income).
• Cost of Goods Sold
• Expense Accounts:
• Sub-Accounts: Can be created under main accounts (e.g., “Fuel” as a sub-account of “Car and Truck”).
• Opening Balance: A starting balance creates debit and credit entries.

5. Customer Management (Accounts Receivable)

• Theme: Managing customer information and sales transactions.
• Key Ideas/Facts:Navigation: Access customer lists via the “Sales” tab on the navigation bar.
• Customer List Overview: Includes open invoices, overdue amounts, payments in the last 30 days, unbilled activity, and estimates.
• Customer List Features: Sorting, email links (if email address is present), phone number, open balance, actions (creating statements/invoices).
• Search Function: Ability to search for customers.
• Batch Actions: Option to email multiple customers or make them inactive.
• Adding New Customers: Requires entering company name (if applicable), name, display name, email, phone number, billing address (and shipping address if different).
• Sub-Customers: Used for different jobs/projects for a customer.
• Editing Customer Information: You cannot delete customers. You can only make them inactive. Customer information can be edited.
• Customer Details Tabs: Include notes, transaction list, projects, customer details, and late fees.
• Customer Custom Fields: Options include preferred payment method, payment terms, opening balances, language, attachments, and additional info.
• Inactive Customers: Hiding customers from the list.
• Importing Customers: Import customer lists from Excel or CSV files.

6. Sales Transactions

• Theme: Recording sales to customers.
• Key Ideas/Facts:Sales Overview: A quick overview of income over time, overdue invoices and bank accounts.
• Sales Transactions: Can be reviewed for each customer and each transaction
• Sales Receipts: Used when customers pay immediately.
• Invoices: Used when sending invoices and payment occurs at a later date.
• Sales Receipts Details:Customer information.
• Billing address.
• Date.
• Payment method.
• Product/service details (description, quantity, rate, tax).
• Discounts.
• “Undeposited Funds” account.
• Invoice Details:Customer selection.
• Email options (including sending later).
• Billing address.
• Invoice date and due date.
• Product/service details (description, quantity, rate, tax).
• Attachments.
• Discounts.
• Receiving Payments: Record how much customers paid, the date paid and when completed the invoice will show as paid.
• Deposits Deposits must be made separately, particularly if multiple payments contribute to a single deposit. Money goes into the checking account.
• Credit Memos Used to credit an invoice.
• Refunds Used when you want to issue a refund to a customer that has purchased something and paid in full.
• Statements: Gentle reminders that they owe money, shows all activity.

7. Tags

• Theme: Categorizing customers.
• Key Ideas/Facts:Tags: new feature that allows the user to create certain words that will appear on a drop-down when you are in different transactions in QuickBooks.
• Tag Groups: Allows the user to put tags into groups.

8. Products and Services

• Theme: Adding products and services
• Key Ideas/Facts:Sorting: Sort products and services by type.
• Non-Inventory: Physical items that you buy and sell.
• Service: Service you provide.
• Inventory Product: Tracking physical items.
• Bundle: Combine items together.
• SKU: Put in the SKU.
• Income account: Account you want money to go back to.
• Preferred vendor: Vendors you prefer.
• Purchase Orders: Track what you have ordered.
• New bills: Create a new bill
• Open purchase order: Order you need to pay.

9. Reporting

• Theme: Reports to analyze information
• Key Ideas/Facts:List of reports: Report for vendors and customer
• Open purchase order detail: Report for vendors and customer
• Customization: Can change the information in the report.
• Filter options: Can look at all accounts.
• Accrual basis: All reports are run on the accrual basis.

Note: This briefing document is based solely on the provided text excerpts and does not represent a complete guide to all QuickBooks Online features.

QuickBooks Online: Setup, Navigation, and User Management

QuickBooks Online FAQ

• How can I explore QuickBooks Online without a subscription?
• You can use a sample company file, “Craig’s Design & Landscaping Services,” without needing a subscription. To access it, go to QBO.Intuit.com/r/edr/testdrive. You’ll need to verify you’re not a robot. The data in the sample file is updated daily, and you will be working with information from 2021.
• How do I set up a new QuickBooks Online account?
• Navigate to the QuickBooks website where the online subscriptions are displayed. Choose a subscription or sign up for the 30-day free trial. To create an Intuit account, you can sign up with a Google account or an email address. Providing a mobile number is recommended for account recovery purposes. Create a strong password with at least 8-12 characters, including uppercase and lowercase letters, and special characters. Then you will start the easy step interview that will ask you about your business, such as its name and industry, and set up the company file for you.
• How do I log in to QuickBooks Online once my account is set up?
• Go to the QuickBooks Online website (QuickBooks.Intuit.com) and click “Sign In.” If you are using a trial subscription, just use the “QuickBooks Online” option. Then, enter your Intuit account username and password.
• What is the dashboard and how do I navigate QuickBooks Online?
• The dashboard provides an overview of your company’s performance. The navigation pane on the left side of the screen is used to access different sections, such as banking, expenses, sales, workers, reports, accounting, and apps. Each option will provide another set of options related to the original choice.
• How do I customize QuickBooks Online settings?
• Click the gear icon in the top right corner to access the settings menu. Here, you can customize various company settings such as the chart of accounts, address, contact information, sales settings and add users.
• How do I add and manage users in QuickBooks Online?
• Go to the gear icon, select “Manage Users,” and then “Add User.” Choose the user type and specify access rights. Enter the new user’s first name, last name, and email address. QuickBooks will send an invitation email with instructions for setting up their account.
• What is the Chart of Accounts and why is it important?
• The Chart of Accounts is a comprehensive listing of all accounts used to categorize financial transactions. It’s the backbone of QuickBooks, as every transaction flows through these accounts. It defines where money is spent (expenses) and where money is received (income). To access it, click the gear icon and choose “Chart of Accounts.”
• How do I manage customers in QuickBooks Online?
• To access customer information, go to “Sales” and then “Customers” in the left navigation pane. Here you can view open invoices, overdue amounts, and payment history. You can add new customers by clicking “New Customer”. You can edit customer details, including contact information, billing/shipping addresses, preferred payment methods, and payment terms.

QuickBooks Online: Features, Setup, and Management Guide

QuickBooks Online is a paid subscription service that allows you to access your company file from any location with internet access. It is designed to help you manage various aspects of your business finances.

Key aspects of QuickBooks Online:

• Accessibility: QuickBooks Online allows access to company files from any device with internet.
• Accounts Receivable: Manages customer-related transactions, including creating invoices and recording payments.
• Accounts Payable: Tracks and manages bills to monitor how much is owed.
• Products and Services: Helps set up and manage physical products and services.
• Payroll: Includes tools for managing payroll.
• Mobile Devices: QuickBooks Online works with mobile devices, allowing users to manage their business on the go. Mobile apps are available for both Android and iPhone.
• Company Files: Each file created in QuickBooks is called a company, and multiple company files can be created.
• User Interface: The dashboard provides a quick overview of the company’s performance. The navigation pane on the left provides access to various features.
• Customization: QuickBooks Online allows customization of various settings to fit the specific needs of a business. The gear icon provides access to customization options.
• Chart of Accounts: The chart of accounts is the backbone of all accounting in QuickBooks. Every transaction in QuickBooks flows through the chart of accounts.
• Sales Transactions: Manages sales transactions, including invoicing customers, receiving payments, and making deposits.
• Customer Management: Manages customer lists and related transactions.
• Inventory Management: Manages inventory, tracking quantities on hand and reorder points.
• Vendor and Expense Management: Manages vendors and expenses, including purchase orders.
• Reporting: Offers a variety of reports to provide insights into your business finances.

Subscription Options and Costs:

• There are multiple subscription options available, each with different features and monthly fees.
• The Simple Start subscription is the most basic and is suitable for new businesses.
• The Essentials, Plus, and Advanced subscriptions offer additional features and capabilities.
• The Plus subscription is the most popular.
• The number of users that can access the online version depends on the subscription.
• QuickBooks Online is not free; it requires a monthly subscription.
• A free 30-day trial is typically available.

Setting up QuickBooks Online:

• To begin using QuickBooks Online, you must sign up for one of the subscription services.
• You can sign up for a 30-day free trial.
• During the setup process, you’ll be asked to provide information about your business.
• QuickBooks will guide you through an easy step interview to gather information and set up your company file.
• You can import data from a desktop version of QuickBooks.

Mobile Apps:

• QuickBooks Online offers mobile apps that sync with the online version.
• These apps allow you to manage your business on the go.
• You can create invoices, track expenses, and perform other tasks from your mobile device.
• The apps may not have all the features available in the online version.

Sample Company File:

• QuickBooks Online provides a sample company file called Craig’s Design & Landscaping Services that you can use to explore the software.
• The sample file is updated every day, allowing you to practice with current data.

Customizing QuickBooks Online:

• The gear icon provides access to various customization options.
• You can customize your company settings, manage users, and access other tools.
• It is important to understand the chart of accounts and how it works.
• You can enable account numbers in the chart of accounts.

Users:

• Each person using QuickBooks should have their own login.
• The administrator can add, edit, or delete users.
• The number of users depends on the subscription.
• You can limit users’ access to certain areas of QuickBooks.

Sales Transactions:

• QuickBooks Online allows you to manage sales transactions, including creating invoices, receiving payments, and making deposits.
• You can create sales receipts for immediate payments or invoices for later payments.
• You can record customer payments and apply them to specific invoices.
• You can make deposits to record the transfer of funds to your bank account.
• You can create credit memos for customers.
• You can issue refunds to customers.
• You can create and send statements to customers.

Products and Services:

• QuickBooks Online allows you to set up and manage products and services.
• You can create inventory products, non-inventory products, and services.
• You can track quantities on hand, set reorder points, and manage inventory.
• If the inventory feature isn’t available, consider upgrading to Plus or Advanced.

Vendors and Expenses:

• You can manage vendors and expenses in QuickBooks Online.
• You can create purchase orders to order products from vendors.

Reporting:

• QuickBooks Online offers a variety of reports to provide insights into your business finances.
• Reports can be customized to show specific data and time periods.
• Common reports include open invoices, customer balance details, and sales by customer.

QuickBooks Online is constantly evolving, so the options may change or move over time. To stay updated you can log into QuickBooks.Intuit.com/blog to see recent changes.

QuickBooks Online: Subscription Options and Features

QuickBooks Online requires a paid monthly subscription, with four different subscriptions available. Here’s what you should know about them:

• Pricing and Discounts: The monthly fee for each subscription can change, but discounts such as 50% off for the first three months are often available.
• Free Trial: A 30-day free trial is offered for each subscription, allowing you to test the software before purchasing.
• Subscription Levels and Features:
• Simple Start: This is the most basic subscription, best for new businesses with few customers. It’s a good starting point and you can upgrade as needed.
• Essentials: This level lacks the inventory feature and job tracking profitability, and batch invoices.
• Plus: The Plus subscription is the most popular. However, it lacks options for importing and sending batch invoices as well as business analytics and insights options.
• Advanced: This subscription includes all available features, such as importing and sending batch invoices and business analytics.
• Upgrading and Downgrading: It’s possible to switch between subscriptions as your business needs change. For example, you may need to upgrade to allow more users to access QuickBooks, or for inventory management.
• Considerations for Choosing a Subscription: Factors to consider when choosing a subscription include the number of users needing access, the need for inventory management, and whether you require advanced features like batch invoicing or business analytics. If unsure, contacting QuickBooks directly is recommended to determine the best fit for your business.

To view the current subscriptions, navigate to QuickBooks.Intuit.com. You can also upgrade your existing subscription within QuickBooks.

QuickBooks Online: Company Files and Setup Guide

Here’s what the sources say about company files in QuickBooks Online:

• Any file that is created in QuickBooks is called a company file.
• A user can have as many company files as they want.
• Often, a small business owner might set up one company with their personal information and another company that has the business information.
• Company files do not interact with each other, so there is no concern about data being mixed up between them.
• When setting up QuickBooks, it will launch an easy step interview that will ask questions and, based on the answers, it will set up the options in the company file.
• The setup process involves providing basic information such as the name and type of business.
• After creating a company file, there is still more to do because it is initially a blank file.
• After the basic setup, the user is taken to the dashboard, which provides a quick overview of the company’s performance.
• A sample company file, Craig’s Design & Landscaping Services, is available to play with.
• To access the sample file, navigate to QBO.Intuit.com /r e dr forward slash test drive.
• It is not necessary to sign up for a subscription to access the sample file.
• The sample file is updated every day, and it is set in the year 2021.
• If you have been using the desktop version of QuickBooks, you can upload your company file to QuickBooks Online.
• To upload a company file from the desktop version, open the company file in the desktop version, go to the company menu, and select “Export Company File to QuickBooks Online”.
• If the “Export Company File to QuickBooks Online” option is not available, it means that updates are needed in the desktop version of QuickBooks.
• After exporting the company file, run a profit and loss report and a balance sheet in both the desktop and online versions to compare the data.
• If the data is not the same, try exporting the company file again.
• When logging in, users are given the option to sign up with a particular subscription.
• If still using the 30-day free trial, use the QuickBooks Online option to log in.

QuickBooks Online: Mastering the Chart of Accounts

Here’s what the sources say about the chart of accounts in QuickBooks Online:

• The chart of accounts is the backbone of all accounting in QuickBooks Online. Every single transaction flows through one of the accounts listed in the chart of accounts.
• The chart of accounts is a listing of different areas where money is spent or received. It is important to ensure information goes into the correct categories for accurate reports.
• To access the chart of accounts, navigate to the gear icon and then select “Chart of Accounts”. Another way is to go to the left navigation bar and click on “Accounting”.
• The first column is the name of the account, which can be customized. The second column shows the type. The names are alphabetical within each type. The “Detail Type” column provides more information about the type chosen. It also shows QuickBooks balance and bank balance.
• Account Types:
• Bank Accounts: These include checking, savings, money market accounts, PayPal, and Square.
• Assets: These are things the business owns. Assets can be fixed (long-term, like vehicles or property) or liquid/current (like inventory).
• Liabilities: These are debts the business owes. They can be long-term (paid over more than 12 months) or short-term/other current liabilities (paid in under a year). Set up a separate account for each loan.
• Credit Cards: These are for business credit cards. Set up each credit card account separately to track them properly.
• Equity: This reflects the owner’s stake in the company. Owner draws are when the owner takes money out, and owner contributions are when the owner puts money in.
• Income: This is where sales income is tracked.
• Cost of Goods Sold: These are the costs of the products or services a business sells.
• Expenses: This is a large grouping of expense accounts.
• To add a new account, click “New”. Pick the account type and then the detail type that closely matches.
• Subaccounts: To add subaccounts, the type has to be the same as the main account. Design the list so that it provides the needed level of detail without being overwhelming.
• Starting Balances: When adding a new account, a start date and beginning balance is needed. For a checking account, this would be the ending balance on the last bank statement. The other side of this transaction goes to “Opening Balance Equity”.
• You can enable account numbers by going to the gear icon, then “Account and Settings,” then “Advanced”. Turn on “Enable account numbers”. A new column will appear at the beginning of the chart of accounts to add the numbers.

QuickBooks Online: Recording Sales Transactions, Invoices, and Payments

Here’s what the sources say about sales transactions in QuickBooks Online:

• There are a couple of different ways to record a sale to a customer. One way is to create a sales receipt and the other is by invoicing customers.
• Any transaction that happened with a customer will be listed under the sales tab. You will see information on invoices, payments, credit memos, time charges, sales receipts or refunds.
• Under the invoices tab you will see all the information on any sales transactions.

Sales Receipts

• Creating a sales receipt is almost like a point-of-sale transaction.
• If a customer comes in, makes a purchase, and pays the money right then, you can put all of that on one transaction and provide them with a receipt.
• To create a sales receipt, go to your customer list, find your customer, and select create a sales receipt.
• Here you can enter the customer’s email, billing address, and the sales receipt date.
• Then you can select the product/service that the customer is purchasing.
• You will be able to edit the description, quantity, and rate.
• Below this, you can enter a message that will be displayed on the sales receipt and on statements.
• On the right, you can see the subtotal and the total subject to sales tax.
• At the bottom, you will be able to see the amount received and the balance due.
• Because it is a sales receipt, it is assumed that you have received all of the payment.
• At the top, you can choose the payment method.
• The next thing you’ll see is deposit to undeposited funds. In your chart of accounts there is an account called undeposited funds, this is where money sits that you’ve collected but you have not yet taken to the bank.
• When you’re finished, you can save, save and send, or save and close.

Invoices

• The invoice is where you will send an invoice to your customer and wait for payment at a later date.
• You may email or mail these.
• To create invoices, go to the navigation pane and select sales.
• You can either use the invoice option or the customers option.
• If you select invoices, you can choose new invoice.
• If you select customers, you can select a customer, go to the action column, and create an invoice.
• If you are using sub-customers, always pick the sub customer.
• You can change the customer email and billing address.
• If you select send later, you can create the invoice, save it, and then email it at a later time.
• You can change the invoice date and due date.
• Select a product or service from the list to invoice your customer.
• Remember that a service is non-taxable.
• You can add an attachment.

Receiving Payments

• After you have sent the invoice, you will want to record the payment when it is received.
• To do this, navigate to sales and then customers.
• In the action column, select receive payment.
• Here you can select the payment date and method.
• Then you can select where to deposit the funds.
• You can deposit the funds to the undeposited funds account or directly into the checking account.
• Then save and close.

Making Deposits

• The make deposits option is always going to be the last step in this process, no matter how you receive the payment.
• You want to make sure that your deposits in QuickBooks match what actually happened at the bank.
• To record the deposit, select new and then bank deposit.
• Make sure you have the correct bank account chosen.
• Check off all of the monies that are going in this deposit.
• You can also add funds to this deposit.
• Then, save and close.

Credit Memos

• There are times when you will want to issue a credit memo to an invoice.
• For example, if a customer is not happy with your services, you can issue a credit memo.
• To do this, first, look up the original invoice.
• Then, go to new and under customers, select credit memo.
• Plug in the customer’s name.
• Make sure you put the date you would like.
• Under product/service, enter the same product or service that was on the original invoice.
• Then, save and close.
• Then, go to the payment and apply the credit memo to the correct invoice.

Refund Receipts

• There may be times where you have to give your customer a refund.
• To do this, go to new and under customers, select refund receipt.
• Select the customer you need to give a refund to.
• Plug in the date and the refund method.
• Select the product/service to refund.
• Then, select save and print.

Statements

• One of the things you have the ability to do in QuickBooks is send statements to your customers.
• A statement is basically a gentle reminder to your customers that they owe you some money.
• Typically statements are sent at the end of each month.
• To create statements, go to new and under other, select statement.
• Pick a statement type, statement date, and customer balance status.
• Then, apply.

Tags

• Tags will allow you to create certain words that will appear on a drop-down when you’re in different transactions in QuickBooks and you can choose those.
• You can also create tag groups.
• You can use these tags in any transaction.

The Original Text

hello welcome to QuickBooks Online my name is Cindy macdougan and I’m going to help walk you through this series of videos I wanted to take a few moments in this introduction video and just give you a little bit of information about what to expect as you go through the course and also let you know a little bit about myself and my background I’ve actually been a software trainer for about 20 years I teach a lot of different types of software QuickBooks being one of those I’m also a QuickBooks consultant I work with both the desktop and the online version I’m going to be able to relay some information about both as we go along but more importantly we’re talking about the online version here the online version has an advantage and that is that you’ll be able to access your company file from anywhere you happen to be that has internet access if you work out in the field for example you might have your laptop with you or need to access it through your phone and these are great reasons to sign up with a subscription for the QuickBooks online service we’re gonna actually take this from the very beginning I’m not going to assume you know anything I’m gonna actually start off showing you how to go online and pick the correct subscription we’re talk a little bit about working with QuickBooks Online and mobile devices and then we’ll take it from there and start actually setting up our company file we’re going to work with customers that side of things is called accounts receivable you’ll need to know how to create invoices what to do in the customer pays you how to actually put that money in the bank we’re also going to talk about the flip side which is your accounts payable that’s anything that has to do with the bills that come in the mail that you have to pay you’ll want to track those so that you know at any time how much you owe we’re going to be going through and talking a little bit about products and services those are physical things and sometimes you’re a service you provide but sometimes you buy products and you also sell products and we need to know how to set this up properly we’ll be looking quickly a payroll there’s a lot of other things we’ll look at but I want you to have a really good foundation for building your company file from the very beginning when you watch these videos make sure you watch them in order they won’t make very much sense if you get them out of order make sure you watch them all and make sure you watch them till the very end because a lot of times there’s a really good piece of information right at the very end of one of these videos if you have questions as we go along feel free to shoot us an email and we’ll get right back to you and answer your questions with that being said let’s go ahead and get started we’re going to flip over to section two and talk about the different subscriptions that you have available when you decide to go with QuickBooks Online thanks for coming back we are just getting started and the very first thing you’ll need to do before you start using QuickBooks is actually sign up with one of their subscription services it is not free to use the QuickBooks Online you do have to pay for it monthly and they have four different subscriptions that you can subscribe to I want to go ahead and pull up the website so that you can actually look and compare the different ones with me as we go through this alright what you’ll want to do is make sure you navigate to QuickBooks Intuit calm and you’ll see this screen right here which will give you a lot of different information on their subscription services one thing I want to point out is that they do have a try it free for 30 days for each of these that way you can see if you like it before you actually jump in and make a purchase I want to scroll down here because you’ll notice that this is where they have the different subscriptions listed and I want to compare these with you the pricing that you see here may change depending on when you watch this video you’ll notice for each of these that they have a monthly fee and right now you can say 50% off if you sign up for this three months at a time the simple start is the really basic one that you’ll want to start with if you’re a brand new business and you don’t have a lot of customers maybe not a lot going on with your business yet it’s great to start with this one and then you can always upgrade as you need more of the features let me go ahead and go through some of these features with you you’ll notice for the simple start that you can only have one user and that basically means that only one person can log in with that username and password if you need more you’ll notice that if you look at the essentials you can have up to three users the plus has up to five and then you can have up to 25 if you’re actually using the advanced let me scroll down a second because I want to show you that there are a lot of really good things about the Simple Start you’ll see for example that in addition to multiple users you can track your coming expenses they’ll all let you do that all of these will help you maximize your tax deductions they’ll all have mileage invoicing and accepting payments they’re all going to have reports as well but you’ll notice that the simple start and the one that’s to the right of it only give you the basic reports where if you need some more advanced reporting then you’ll want to go with these two over here which are the plus and the advanced and even with the basic reports you’re going to have a lot of reports quickbooks was really good about reporting you can do estimates in all of these if you think about a construction company you would want to actually estimate a job before you actually start doing the work and getting paid for it and that’s a really great feature they all have let me see scrolling down here you’ll notice that you can track sales and sales tax in all of these you can capture and organize your receipts mean you can scan them in you can also manage 1099 contractors in all of these and that’s really important because those are what you call your subcontractors and you need to know how to properly handle those you’re going to be able to actually manage the bills if you go with the essentials the plus or the advanced so notice that if you have the simple start you can’t handle the bills in QuickBooks and to me that’s really important because you want to track everything you owe because you’re going to need to really stick to your budget when you first start your business you cannot track time if you have simple start or you can’t do what they call tracking job profitability in the simple start even though like I said this is great for a new business starting out you’ll quickly want to upgrade to one of the others moving on to the essentials the essentials just doesn’t have the inventory feature the job tracking profitability you can kind of see the things here does not have you can’t send batch invoices and really if you don’t do a lot of these that may not be important to you the one that sometimes people want is the inventory feature and you would have to upgrade to the plus or the advanced to get that you’ll notice that the plus is the most popular one and it does not have the options for importing and sending batch invoices it doesn’t have the business analytics and insights options but you may not need these if you do want all of that you’ll want to go up to the advanced subscription here the other thing I want you to know is that you may go back and forth with these subscriptions because it could be that you add users like we saw earlier and you need to have maybe four people accessing your QuickBooks so as a lot of different things you need to think about and you can always call them if you’re really not sure which one would work best for your business I wanted you to be aware of that because the next thing you’ll have to do is actually start with one of these and you can actually choose to go ahead and buy now or like I showed you earlier you can go up to the top of the screen and you can actually try it free for 30 days and that’s where I want to stop right now we’re going to go through and talk about setting up your company file after you pick a subscription / module – but before we do that I want to briefly talk to you a little bit about how QuickBooks Online works with mobile devices over in section 3 I’ll see you there shortly before we go ahead and wrap up module one I wanted to briefly talk to you a little bit about some things QuickBooks does with the online version and how mobile devices actually work with QuickBooks Online the first thing I want you to know is that your online version is constantly evolving you might log in one time and be used to where a particular option happens to be and the next time you log in it may not be there at all or may be in a different location or look different when they rule out the changes they do not roll them out across the board for everyone at the same time that’s why your friend may have a version and he or she does not see the updates that you see but you’ll eventually get there the other thing I want to mention is that you have the ability to use different mobile apps for QuickBooks and they synch with QuickBooks depending on if you have an Android or an iPhone you can just go into your Play Store go into the app store in your iPhone and just look for that QuickBooks apps and you’ll notice that if you download one of them you can be able to take it out on the field with you and for example if you need to create an invoice out in the field you can do it right there on your phone and it will sync with your actual online version now the apps will not have all of the options that are available but they will have the basic most common ones that you would want to use go ahead also and look in your app store and see if there are other software apps that aren’t made by into it but would work well with QuickBooks and it might be something that you might need in your business so there’s all kind of apps that work with QuickBooks I just want to make you aware of that and if you ever wanted to just get a handle on what some of the changes are that they’re making in your version you can actually log into QuickBooks Intuit comm /blog and then you’ll be able to see all of the changes and stay on top of what’s new that’s going to wrap up module one let’s go ahead and jump into module two and start talking a little bit about working with the company files that you have to set up in QuickBooks we’re starting to work in module two now and this is where we’re going to talk a little bit about the QuickBooks company files anytime you create a file in QuickBooks it is called a company you can have as many companies as you would like often what you will see as a small business owner might set up one company with his personal information and another company that has the business information company files do not talk to each other you don’t have to worry about the data getting mixed up and like I said you can have as many as you’d like in QuickBooks you have to either create a brand new one which we’ll do in Section three you might already have the desktop version of QuickBooks and you want to upload your file to the online version we’ll look at that in Section two but real quick what I want to talk to you about here is the fact that you do have the availability of a sample file that you can go in and play with as much as you want you do not have to sign up with a subscription or anything like that to access the sample file all you have to do is head on over to QBO dot Intuit comm /r e dr forward slash test drive and the company file you’re going to be working with here is Craig’s design and landscaping services it is a service based business let’s go ahead and head on over there and we’ll check out Craig’s design & landscaping services the first thing you will have to do is just verify your real person I’m going to check the box I’m not a robot and then in this case it asked me to pick all the bicycles I’m gonna go through the list and make sure I got them all and I’ll hit verify now it knows a real person and I can access Craig’s design and landscaping services now while this is pulling up let me just mention a couple of other things about the sample file every day they update the date so you’ll see that date change you’re actually going to be working in the year 2021 in the practice exercise so just kind of know that when you go in here and this is what QuickBooks looks like when you first open it up now I do want to go through this Green and get you familiar with everything but I want to do that over in Section four before we actually go through this I want to show you how to upload your data if you wanted to bring your desktop file over or in section 3 talk about creating a new file so we’ll come back to Craig’s design & landscaping services a little bit later right now I want you to head over to section 2 and let me show you how to upload your QuickBooks desktop files to the online version okay we’ve already looked at some of the sample files that QuickBooks has we now need to talk about how do you actually go through and set up your new quickbooks online account all we’re going to do is navigate to where we looked at the different online subscriptions over a module one and then we’ll go ahead and decide which of those subscriptions we’d like to sign up with or we can sign up with a 30-day free trial let me go ahead and flip over and we will sign it for that 30-day free trial to show you how this works as you can see I’ve navigated back to QuickBooks to accom I think I’ll take advantage of the free 30-day trial I’m going to use this link right here if you see a pop-up that asks you if you’d like to sign up with the 30-day free trial you can use that option as well what I’m going to have to do here is create and intuit account and I can do this a couple of different ways I can actually sign up with Google and if I have multiple Intuit products then I can go ahead and use that one login for all of them I might also choose to use an email address and sign up that way I think I’ll go ahead and do that and use one that I just set up for this and it’s got my name here also it asks you to plug in your mobile number that’s recommended but you don’t have to and the reason that you may want to go ahead and do that is if you happen to forget your username or your login information and – it can help you recover that information by looking at your telephone number that you’ve plugged in you will want to create a password and make sure it’s something that you’re going to remember but hard enough that someone else can’t actually try to get into account remember a good password anywhere in your computer will have at least eight to twelve characters you’re gonna have a combination of capital letters small letters you might have special characters I’m gonna go ahead and choose a sign up with email once I’m done and this is going to create my intuit account I do get the option to skip the trial and go ahead and purchase my subscription but I think I’ll go ahead and continue with the trial for now what’s going to happen now is it’s going to start setting up what we call our company file each file in QuickBooks is called a company you can have as many companies as you like in QuickBooks this is going to launch us through what’s called the easy step interview where it’s going to ask us some questions and based on how we answer those questions it will set up all the options in our company file for us first we’ll see some basic information it wants to know what is the name of your business I’m gonna call mine a BC services and then the next thing it will ask us is to describe the type of business you do now if you start typing in things like plumbing electrical things like that then it’s going to start pulling from a drop-down list and looking for those first few characters there and if you see something close to what you do on the list just choose it there’s no wrong answer here just choose something close to what you do I’m gonna pick for example services and you’ll notice that there are several types of services that it thinks I may want to choose from I’ll just pick professional services in this case another thing that you have an option to do is if you’ve been using the desktop version of QuickBooks and you’d like to bring that data into your online version you have the ability to do that you can check this box and then it will take you into your computer so you can find that file we are going to talk over in section 3 about how to prepare that desktop file so that you can pull it into your quickbooks online file i’m gonna leave it unchecked for now and click Next the next thing I wants to know is what would you like to do in QuickBooks and you might want to do a lot of these different things you might want to send attract invoices organize your expenses manage your inventory if you have retail sales you’ll want to choose this if you don’t you may want to leave that alone maybe track your bills track your sales tax pay your employees and track your hours so you can see that you can choose a few of these or all of these I’m going to click Next to the bottom and now it says what is your role at the business are you an owner are you the bookkeeper maybe the employee usually the owner of the company is the one that sets up the file or it could have been that the accountant set it up for the owner whichever person set it up is actually going to be the admin or the administrator of the file meaning that you’ll actually own it I’m gonna go ahead and choose owner in this case and if I scroll down a little bit you’ll see that it says do you have an accountant or bookkeeper right now and you don’t have to say yes even if you do have one it’s just asking you this because it’s going to set up some of the options as we go down the road for the accountant if you happen to have one I’m gonna say right now then I’m just gonna do it all by myself and I’m gonna say all set at the bottom and now what you have is a basic setup for your QuickBooks company file there’s still a lot we have to do because it’s really a blank company file right now but at least we have the file set up so that we can work on it if you wanted to go through a 30 second tour to help you get down to business on QuickBooks you can do that I’m going to go ahead and close that out and then that is what it looks like when you first log in you are on what’s called the dashboard right now and the dashboard is just a quick way to see an overview of how different areas of your company happen to be doing now do you want to take time and go through this whole what we call user interface here I want to do that over in section 4 so right now let me show you how to logout and then where to go to log back in if you notice in the top right hand corner of your screen you have a gear icon and you can use the sign out option right here and that will go ahead and take you back to the screen now let me navigate away from this and then we will come back and you will see how to log back in so I’m at Google now and when you’re ready to login you want to go to QuickBooks dot Intuit comm which is where we were earlier when we first created our account and this time you want to go over here it says sign-in notice that you’ll sign up with a particular one that you actually subscribe to if you haven’t subscribed and you’re still using that 30-day free trial just use the QuickBooks online option which is the first one and then that’ll take you back in and you’ll be able to log in right over here and that’s all you need to know right now as far as setting up your company file well let’s go ahead now and talk real quick over in section 3 about how to actually go ahead and upload your QuickBooks desktop file if you wanted to bring it into your online account if you happen to have been using the QuickBooks desktop version and now you’d like to pull that data into the online version there’s a little process you need to go through and once you go through the process then you’ll want to run to reports to make sure that all your data pulled in let me go ahead and show you how this process works what you want to do is open up your company file in the desktop version and then go to your menu and click on company and down near the bottom you will see export company file to quickbooks online if you don’t see that option what it means is that you have some updates that you need to do in this version of QuickBooks before you can export this in order to do those updates just go to help and you’re gonna see it’ll say update QuickBooks right here now go through that update process and when you’re finished close the company file then open it back up and when you do you should see the option to export your company file to quickbooks online now what’s going to happen here is it’s going to ask you to log in to your online account once you click start your x4 here’s where you have to login so I’ll go ahead and put in my email address again gmail.com and I’ll go ahead and put in my password and I’m going to sign in now what’s going to happen here is if it doesn’t recognize you then it’ll want to send a code to your email to confirm your account if you had plugged in your phone number when you set up your account that it could send you a text that way I’m going to go ahead and tell it to confirm and I’m going to flip over to my email and get that six digit code and I’ll be right back I’ve got my coat now I’m going to go ahead and plug it in and then I’m going to hit continue at the bottom it’s going to ask me a couple of quick things before it can actually pull it up to the online version this particular one says do you want to bring over your inventory if you say yes you want to go ahead and select a date then you want to go ahead and pull it in from I’m gonna go ahead and say I’ll pull it in from January of 2020 and I’ll go ahead and hit continue the next thing is it wants me to choose my existing quickbooks online company file now if i have more than one you’ll see them all listed here and i just choose the one that i want and then I’m going to go ahead and hit continue at the bottom and now it’s preparing my company file which is Larry’s landscaping and garden supply here this process could take a while what will happen is you will actually get an email from Intuit once this process is complete once it is complete what we’ll want to do is go ahead and open both the desktop version and the online version and run some reports now this one finished pretty quickly I’m gonna go ahead and click on OK and now I should get an email from Intuit remember if you don’t get that email it’s not finished yet it might look like it’s frozen but it’s really not you’ll get it eventually now let me show you the reports that you want to run to compare your data in either version it doesn’t matter which one you do first you’re going to run a profit loss and a balance sheet in the desktop version you’ll get a reports company and financial profit and loss standard now when the report comes up there’s a couple things that you need to do make sure the dates are all that way you capture everything in your company file also make sure you’re running this on an accrual basis right up here you’re gonna want to run that one thing you’re gonna want to run the balance sheet you’re gonna go back to reports company and financial and run a balance sheet standard make sure that you pick all dates you’ll have to scroll up to the top for that and make sure you’re running it on the cruel basis even if in real life use the cash basis for this report we’re going on accrual so that you can make sure you’ve got everything here now I’m gonna go flip over to the online version and show you where to go in there to pull those same reports back in the online version the way you run your reports is if you notice on the left hand side over here you’ll see it says reports and then you’ll notice that both the balance sheet and the profit loss are already set under your favorites you can run either one first it doesn’t really matter I’ll just start with the profit and loss and if you get screens like this that says customize go ahead and just close that out for now and what you want to do is make sure that you choose all from the top of the list here and then make sure you hit run report and you can see there’s the data now you’ll do the same thing with that balance sheet you’ll go back to reports over here on the Left you’ll run the balance sheet make sure that you’re running this on accrual basis and also make sure you’re looking at the dates all at the top you’ll want to make sure accrual is chosen right there like I said and then run your report now print those out and compare those two if all the days it’s the same on both of those then you’ve got everything but if once different than the other then it didn’t actually export all your data and pull it up to the online version and you may want to try it again and that’s how you’re going to pull your data from your desktop version into your online version let’s go ahead now and move over into sections or and I’m gonna give you a quick overview of how the screen looks we call this your user interface okay what I’d like to do in section 4 is go ahead and give you a quick overview of what the user interface looks like basically the screen when you pull it up what is it you’re seeing and how do all those pieces and parts work let’s flip over to QuickBooks and I’ll give you a quick overview when you first log into your company file you’re going to be on what we call the dashboard right here and basically the dashboard is just a quick overview of how the different areas of your company are doing a couple things you’ll notice you have the ability to add your logo you can just click here search your computer for your logo and pull it in there are some things over here that it asked if you’d like to start doing you can click there so if you wanted to start invoicing for example you could choose that option you can also go ahead and set up some payments send your first invoice and swipe cards in person with your mobile app if you happen to have that set up now some of these things are not free they are fee based meaning that in two it will sell these to you so for example if you’d like to be able to accept credit cards then they can set you up with the merchant services account you’ll notice down here are all of your invoice options so think of this as your accounts receivable this would be the amount of invoices that you have outstanding they have not yet been paid over here your expenses those would be the bills that you’ve put in you would be able to see any of those you had not paid yet as well so think of this area as accounts receivable and this as accounts payable here where it says profit loss that is the most important report in QuickBooks because it will tell you if you’ve made money or if you’ve lost money and then over here you’ll just see all of your bank accounts and if you wanted to click on one you could let’s say for example I wanted to go to my checking account this one here is called checking if I double click and open it up that’ll take me directly to the checkbook register now imma close this message real quick we’re gonna spend some time in the register a little bit later but that’s a quick way to get into the register now if I wanted to go back to the dashboard all I have to do is come back over to my navigation pane which is what this is called and click on the dashboard and I’ll be back to where I just was this is called the navigation pane on the left if you went down to banking you would see all of your banking options I’m gonna click on banking here and what this is going to show me is how to actually set up my account so that it is connected to the bank and I can pull in my transactions now I’m going to talk about this a little bit later but you don’t always want to do this if you are actually using the invoicing feature in QuickBooks like you should and receiving payments or if you’re using the bill feature and paying the bills correctly then you don’t want to enter information twice so you can set it up but you’re not always going to want to pull in data from the bank now if you had a credit card it would work perfectly now I know that probably doesn’t make sense yet but we will talk about some of that stuff a little bit later on over/under expenses here expenses are things that you have to pay out you had to enter some bills you wrote some checks to pay those maybe use the purchase order system you can kind of see all that right down here the next thing is your sales these are the things that you actually sell to your customers you’ll notice that under sales I can look at invoices I can also look at my customer list as an example and I’ll just show you what that looks like real quick this is going to be a list of all of your customers and you can see that they’re set up alphabetical in this case by last name we’re going to spend time on customers a little bit later but that’s how you get to the customer list you also have different projects that you might work on in the desktop version they call these jobs in here they’re called projects you might have a particular customer you’re working with but you might have multiple jobs or projects going for that customer under the workers option this is where you’re going to find your payroll options there’s a ton of reports we’re going to be looking at a little bit later you’ve also got a place where you can go in and look at your sales tax and also payroll taxes if you’re doing payroll to QuickBooks you’ve got an option for mileage where you can go in and plug in which vehicle you drove which job you went to which customer you worked with those types of things accounting now this is going to be the one thing you want to remember how to get to because this is very important this chart of accounts is the backbone of all accounting when you spend money when did you spend the money for if you receive money was it a sale you made from your business you’re gonna have to tell QuickBooks where all the money connects to in what we call the chart of accounts we are going to be going through the chart of accounts over in module 3 notice also this is where you would reconcile if you wanted to reconcile your credit card accounts or your bank accounts you do that right there you’re gonna see my accountant which is the next one here if you actually have signed up with Intuit to use one of their QuickBooks bookkeeper accountant people that they have available then this is where you would go to actually find that person and invite them to be a partner with you as they call it there’s also some apps that work with QuickBooks you’ll see that right down here they’ve got a list of some of the more popular ones some of the trending ones or if you wanted to look through some of the different apps down here at the bottom and pick one that you might want to use you can do that down here where it says live bookkeeping this is actually where we were just talking about a few moments ago you could actually go to my accountant and have a an accountant partner with you they also have what they call live bookkeeping where you can actually pay into it and you get a bookkeeper that will take care of your books for you and both of you have logins to your company file so you can both get in there and do work and you can also have conversations so you’ll be able to talk to them live as well and then the last thing here is what we call a cash flow this is something new that will be coming to QuickBooks very soon is called a cash flow Center and you can see that it’s gonna let you know what else going on with your cash accounts meaning with your checking account and things like that and you get a screenshot over here if you want you can join the wait list and when the actual cash flow Center is ready to go then they will send you an email and just give you some more information about it now one thing to keep in mind I did tell you way back in the beginning that if you happen to log in tomorrow and let’s say for example this new button here is not there look for it or look for the options that were underneath it already because they’ve just moved them somewhere else and that’s just something they did recently actually is they used to have those options right over here and then they moved up here recently now just to tell you what the new is anytime you want to create something new like a new invoice or maybe add a bill those types of things you’ll see that in this list and you’ll notice that where it says money in all of these options are your accounts receivable anything having to do with customers whereas money out is your accounts payable and then where it says other these are just some other things that you can create new transactions in QuickBooks if you click on one of these particular options the other thing I want you to be aware of is what we call the gear and you’re going to see that right over here in the top right of your screen and we’re going to go through the gear options over in module 3 I just wanted to give you a quick overview of how this whole user interface looks and how it works now that you have a quick overview let’s head over into module 3 and that’s where I want to spend time talking to you about customizing your QuickBooks files we’re starting module 3 now and I want to start this module by briefly just talking to you about the gear menu there’s gonna be a lot of places in QuickBooks where you can customize things to make it work a little bit better for you but let’s go ahead and start there so that you can see what some of the options are and where you would go to make some changes to your company file the gear option is in the top right hand corner of your dashboard right here and you’re gonna see that when I click on this it’s going to give you some lists that you can look at it’s going to give you some of the tools that are in QuickBooks you’re gonna have access to some of your company options that you might want to go in and change like maybe the address things like that and also it’s got what they call a profile menu for your intuit account right over here when you’re looking in here you want to get really really really familiar with a couple of these specifically this chart of accounts right here we’re gonna spend more time on that later in this particular module specifically in section 4 we’ll get started with that but everything in QuickBooks will run through the chart of accounts that’s why it’s so important that you know where that is don’t confuse the gear icon with this new option way over here this is where you’re going to click if you want to create a new transaction maybe you need to create an invoice maybe you need to create a bill maybe you need to do something like track your mileage those are all new transactions you could create just recently they’ve moved this new button over here and renamed it it used to be right up here and everyone got confused between the gear icon and this now they’ve moved it way over here so that you don’t get confused anymore and it says new meaning new transaction that’s really all I want you to know about the gear menu right now what I want to do now is take you over into section 2 where we’re going to use the gear icon to go ahead and customize some of the options for your company file in section 1 we got familiar with the gear menu there were lots of different options there that you can use to customize how your company file works and I want to take you into the gear menu now and into some of those options and show you how to customize some of those different things so that your company file works best for you let me go ahead and flip over to QuickBooks and we will dive right in I’m going to click on the gear icon and I want to start over in the first column underneath where it says your company you’ll see an option that says account and settings these are going to be like preferences or options that you can turn on or off or edit in QuickBooks as we go down the tabs on the left and we’ll start with company if you want to change anything in these different sections just go over to the right and click on the little pencil icon and that will take you into the edit option you’ll notice here that I can add my company logo just by clicking the plus sign and that will let me navigate through my computer to find my logo I could edit the name of the company if I like also you might want to put in your EIN number or your social security number you’re gonna use your social if you’re a sole proprietor and you really don’t have payroll if you do have payroll you’re going to have to have your EIN number in here so that quickbooks can use it to help you with your payroll i’m going to hit save and that’s gonna save that little section the next little section says company type and you’ll notice the first thing is the tax form and then the industry I’m going to click over on the pencil icon here and I want you to notice that you have the ability to add whatever type of tax form that you actually file when you do your taxes at the end of the year you can add that here now let me just make a little point here you do not have to pick anything here as a matter of fact if you do not file your own taxes if you have an accountant then I would pick other or none every single time your accountant will know what type of tax form that you file if you pick any of these options what will happen is when you’re working in different places in QuickBooks there will be an extra field that says which tax line on the tax form would you like to put this on you’re not going to have a clue if you’re not an accountant and you’ll just get stuck there every single time so why see that field and get yourself stuck I’m just gonna pick not sure other or none and the other thing is you have an industry you chose when you first set up your company file I chose professional services you can change that if you want but I’m going to leave that and hit save the next little section you’ll see here has to do with your company email you’re going to have your customer facing email the difference is that the company email is the private email that you’d like different things sent to from Intuit for example the customer facing email is the one you want the customer to see and that can actually be redirected to your company email if you don’t want to have to open 15 different email accounts you can always have as many email accounts as you want and redirect them to the one you’d like to funnel everything into there’s a place of putting your company phone and your company website here again you would edit that over on the right and the company address down at the bottom same thing you can have a company address that’s seen on the back end and then one that’s called customer facing meaning that’s the one that the customer actually sees let me go down on the left here to billing and subscription this is where you’re going to be able to go in and upgrade your existing subscription if you’d like you’ll notice that you can subscribe right from here and you can see all of the options and we’ve talked a little bit about these before so I’m not going to spend much time on that the next one on the left is usage there are some limits to some of these different subscriptions for example when you’re using the QuickBooks Online Plus and you need more room you’ll want to go ahead and upgrade your subscription for example the one that I’m using only allows me one user if I want to add a user I may need to upgrade my subscription there is a number of items you can put in the chart of accounts as an example it’s 250 just a little fYI the desktop allows you to have 14,500 if I need 251 than I need to upgrade my subscription and then down here where it says classes and locations you can have up to 40 and if you need more than that’s another reason you would want to upgrade your subscription I’m going to go over to sales on the left and there’s several things in here that you may want to go ahead and work with now later on we’ll look at customizing the look and feel of your different forms for example if you have an invoice and you want to add your logo or something like that but these are some things you can turn on or off right here in your forms for example let’s say that you like to invoice your customers and you want the customers to automatically have terms of net10 for example well currently their net 30 let me go ahead and click on the pencil icon and show you some of these here’s where I could change this to one of these other preferred invoice terms if you’re not familiar with the ones that say 1% net10 like these three and there’s two percent notes in and eight basically what that means is the customer invoice will be due in 30 days but if they paid in 10 days they can take one percent off it’s a way to get your customers to pay you early if you have a preferred delivery method you can choose it right here do you like to print things now or would you like to send things later I’m referring to an invoice as an example here where it says shipping if you don’t ship anything then you can go ahead and uncheck this and this will say off if you do ship things then you had some options down here where you can have sales reps and put in purchase order numbers things like that these are custom fields you can also turn those off if you don’t need them if you want pio number not sales rep for example just uncheck the sales rep option you can have custom transaction numbers and that basically means that if you want to put in your own transaction numbers you can go ahead and set that series up you can have a service date field you can also have fields for the discount and deposits or tips or gratuity if you use that you can just go in and turn these on or off I’m gonna hit save right there the next thing you’re going to see is products and services right over here and you’ll see there are several different options related to that that you can turn on or off for example if you don’t track inventory you can actually turn off this inventory option right here I’m going to go ahead and cancel that there’s also some options for late fees there’s also some for progress invoicing and let me just mention what that is just so you’ll know if you estimate jobs construction is a prime example you’re going to want to take that estimate and turn it into an invoice at some point so that your customer can pay you you do not have to pull everything from the estimate into an invoice you can pull in 30% for example or maybe you want to pull in certain items that were on that estimate into an invoice if you do estimates you will want progress invoicing there’s a couple more options here let me scroll down there is an option for messages when you actually email a form so let’s say it’s an invoice for example or what they call a sales form you have the ability to email it directly to your customer you can set the default message and I’ll go ahead and click on that one so we can see you can say Deere or you can say to notice you can have a merge field if you want to have their full name there’s lastname firstname and you can use the standard message that you see right here below when you’re actually sending out that email you can also have a copy email to yourself every time if you’d like I’m gonna go ahead and hit save down at the bottom a couple more things I want to point out you’ll notice there is an option for reminders and I want to briefly tell you how reminders work but before we do that I think we’ll go ahead and stop the video right here let’s go over into the next section and I’m going to talk to you a little bit more about some of these other options here for account and settings hey welcome back let’s go ahead and finish up talking about customizing your company file this is actually part two of section two let’s go back down to reminders I’m going to click the pencil icon there’s a couple of options that you want to be familiar with in here you have the ability to set up invoice reminder emails for an example if your customer is late paying an invoice or you just need some reason that you want to remind your customer to pay that invoice then you can go ahead and either use the standard message or you can go ahead and edit the one that you see down here and you’ll see it just basically says this is a reminder we haven’t received your payment yet you do have the ability to insert a placeholder which basically means that anywhere in here you can put in the company name or the invoice number and that would actually be a merged transaction as what they call it it’ll pull from QuickBooks that information you can email yourself a copy and you can go ahead and save this when you’re done you also have options for online delivery down here at the bottom you’ll see these are email options for all of your sales forms your options for this will be when you actually email your sales form over to your customer do you want to have a short summary show up in the email or show the full details in the email you can also attach it as a PDF right here and some additional options you have is if it’s an online invoice you can actually set it up for HTML or if you want it to show up in plain text but you probably want to leave it online invoice and then click Save and the last one I want to mention at the bottom here are statements and I’ll go ahead and show you those options a statement goes out at the end of the month and basically it starts with the balance from the prior month it shows all of the transactions that month and then what the customer owes at that point it’s really a gentle reminder for your customer to go ahead and pay you statements are not mandatory but they certainly do help when you’re trying to collect money you’ll notice that when you print statements you have an option to list each transaction on a single line or list each one including all the details on that particular one you can also show the aging table at the bottom of the statement and what that means is it will have a field that says one to thirty days another one says 31 to 60 and another says 61 to 90 and that way your customer will know where they fall in that particular aging table I’m gonna go ahead and hit save and those are your options that happen to be under the sales let’s look at the options for expenses expenses are things you have to pay bills that come in the mail that you have to pay for example your options are to show item table on expense and purchase forms you can track expenses and items by customer make expenses and items billable and default bill payment terms make expenses in items billable let me just tell you what that means real quick if you have to purchase a product or service and you want to make sure that you invoice your customer so you can get reimbursed for it instead of just manually putting those receipts in the car or keeping them on your desk QuickBooks will remember those expenses and when you’re ready to invoice the customer you can just pull them in you also have the ability to use the purchase order system so if you don’t use purchase orders you might decide to turn this off also you have this option called messages at the bottom this is a default message that will be sent when you send purchase orders I’ll go ahead and open that one so you can see the default message you can also edit this to say anything you’d like and then make sure you save it when you’re done the next tab on the Left says payments this would be customers paying you there’s a couple things you can do one is if you want you can sign up with QuickBooks to receive payments quicker by going through this little service QuickBooks has it’s very similar to the way PayPal or zel might work you just signup forward if you wanna learn more you can click here and that way you can actually email an invoice to a customer for example they can click a button right there and pay you right then in there QuickBooks will automatically be updated once you’re paid from your customer if you already have some sort of existing account with Intuit for example they have something called go payment or merchant services you can connect it to your QuickBooks as well right here and this is where you connect and the last option says advanced there are several things here I’ll just mention briefly if you want to have the first month of your fiscal year start maybe in September you can actually go ahead and change this it’s going to default to January make it correspond with your real existing started or fiscal year you might have a different date for the beginning of your income tax year so you can go in and change those your accounting method is set for accrual when you run reports you can run them on an accrual basis or cash basis accrual basically means that as soon as you invoice it shows up as income where their customers paid you or not as soon as you enter a bill it will show up as an expense whether you’ve paid it or not if you change this to what they call cash basis you will only show the income once you receive the money from the customer or you’ll only show the expense once you actually spend that money I want to mention closing the books as well because this is an option that you’ll want to think about in real life accounting what happens is you close the books at the end of the month and you close the books at the end of the year and what that means is if you want to make a change in a closed period you can’t do it you need to make an offsetting entry in the current period your books are not closed automatically in QuickBooks it doesn’t remind you anything so if you want to close them you have to come here you’ll be able to go in and you’ll be able to tell QuickBooks that you do want to close the books and then you can set a closing date let’s say you set it for December 31 of 2019 that means that after you are working in the next year but you see a change you want to make in 2019 prior to December 31 you’re not going to be able to change it I’m gonna go ahead and cancel out at that we talked a little bit about tax forms earlier you want to make sure you keep that one also the chart of accounts I know you haven’t seen it yet but basically everything in QuickBooks will run through this chart of accounts and currently they do not have general ledger numbers they’re just a list alphabetical for each type if you want to turn on general ledger numbers you can turn them on right here also you have some options for the markup income account and we’ll address that a little bit later let me mention real quick the track classes and the track locations locations means if you have different physical locations for your business you can turn this option on and every transaction that you work in you can choose which location you want that to go to classes is very similar except it’s not really locations think about this let’s say that you happen to have two different divisions of your company you might use those for your class list and everything you do make sure you pick the correct option from the list there’s some things about forms where you can have it pre-fill automatically automatically apply payments things like that you might want to look through that at some point a project would be like a job related activity you’ll notice that you have the ability to organize all of those job related activities in one place and that is turned on you’re also viewing QuickBooks in the business view there is an option to go ahead and also see this in what they call the accountant view time tracking if you want to be able to track the time that you or your employees spend working on different projects or jobs you have the ability to do that you can also come down and change the currency there’s some date options and things like that all the way down here that means there’s a lot of options in you can go through and set you’re going to want to look through these you don’t have to get them all right away but at some point if you want to set these you just come back in and make all these changes I’m going to go ahead and close that with the X at the top right and that’s going to take me back to the dashboard let’s go ahead & Nail move over to section three and I’ll show you how to manage users one of the things that you will want to do is make sure that each person that is using QuickBooks has their own login you’ll give each person their own username and their own password only the administrator can add edit or delete users you can have up to five users in your QuickBooks file if you need additional ones you can think about upgrading your subscription or purchasing those additional ones that you might need the reason you want to have these additional users set up is because if you want to track down the errors then you’ll want to know who was logged in at the time that that particular transaction was changed you can run an audit trail to see a report on which user was logged in with the transaction used to look like and what it looks like now you also will be able to limit the users access to certain areas of QuickBooks let’s go ahead and flip over and I will show you how to manage the users keep in mind that the administrator has to be logged in in order to work with the users I’m going to go up to my gear icon in the top right-hand side of the screen and in the first column you’ll see an option that says manage users the first thing I want to point out is that normally if you’re using one of the basic subscriptions then you only have five what they call billable users in your plan and like I mentioned earlier you do have to upgrade if you want to have additional users the admin is considered one of the five users and you can see here is the admin name if you wanted to edit the admin information you can choose the Edit over on the right and then come over here to edit user settings typically when you first set up QuickBooks you’re gonna see the email address that you signed up with right here under the first name field and there won’t be anything where it says last name you could come up here and change those like I did I’m going to go ahead and hit save at the bottom if you want to add a user just come over to the right here and click on add user your user that you’re setting up can have what they call standard rights which means that you can choose to give them full rights but you can also choose to limit their access to certain areas or you can give them company admin rights which means they have access to everything these options up here count towards your five user limit we discussed these here don’t because you might have someone you want to be able to log in just to run reports or maybe just to do time tracking I’m gonna go ahead and choose standard user at the top and click Next in the bottom right hand corner of the screen the first thing it asks me is how much access do I want to give this user now if you say all notice it will include payroll and it will check that and you can see all the different things they have access to over here if I go ahead and uncheck that you’ll notice that the things they don’t have access to do or down the bottom they can’t add or edit employees in this case or delete payroll transactions it could be that I say none I don’t want them to have rights to any of these accounting features but they can still manage other things in QuickBooks like submitting their own timesheets things like that I can also give them limited access meaning if I want them to be able to do things with customers you can see the choices here or if I want them to do things with vendors or both you can see I can check both and you’ll see all the options here as well I’m gonna go ahead and click Next and now it asks me do you want this user to add edit and remove users we’re going to say no and I wouldn’t change that because you want the administrator to have rights to everyone if you start giving everyone full rights to change users and that sort of thing then what’s the point in even setting those up notice that you can also give this person permission to add the company info or if you want them to manage the subscriptions you have the ability to do that as well I’m gonna go ahead and click Next at the bottom then it says we’ll invite them to create a QuickBooks account and password for each to access the company file what you’re basically going to do here is the new user you’d like to setup you’re going to put in their first and last name here put in their email and they will actually get an email saying that the administrator would like them to become a user they would accept and then they can set up the username and password make sure that the administrator knows that information you wouldn’t want to have an employee that has their own username and login information and the administrator doesn’t know what it is and can’t have access to what they do that’s going to be very important for you I’m going to go ahead and just X out of this because at this point what would happen is once they accept it then you would see their name down here as a user and that’s really how the users will work I do want to show you the audit trail report but we’ll do that when we get over to reports a little bit later let’s go ahead and wrap up this section and let’s talk over in section 4 about the chart of accounts we’re getting ready now here in section 4 to talk about the chart of accounts the chart of accounts is probably the most important thing in QuickBooks every single thing in QuickBooks will flow through the chart of accounts somewhere the chart of accounts is basically a listing of different areas where you might actually spend money or you might receive money as well and you’ll want to make sure that your information goes into the correct categories that way when you run reports you have accurate information there is a part two to the chart of accounts make sure you watch both parts so that you have a really good understanding of how the chart of accounts works let’s go ahead and flip over to QuickBooks and we’ll get started there are a few different ways to get to the chart of accounts one way is to go through the gear icon and in the first column you will see the chart of accounts another way is just go over to the left and click on accounting and there you will see the chart of accounts as well and this is what your chart of accounts looks like remember that every single thing in QuickBooks runs through one of these that’s why it’s so important that this is set up correctly but let me quickly give you a quick overview of how the screen looks you’ll notice the first column is the name of your account when you’re setting these up you can pretty much name this accounts anything you’d like but make sure that you name them something that makes sense to you or whoever happens to be looking at your reports the second column is the type and notice that it’s currently sorted by type we’re going to be going through all the different types so that you will know which ones you need to set up to make sure that you have everything you need I want you to notice also that when you’re looking down this list and you see the type for example income notice that the names are alphabetical and that will be true of each of these types if you look at the expenses here then these are alphabetical if you want to turn on general ledger numbers you have the option to do that and let me show you what it will look like if you do you’ll actually go up to your gear icon then you’re going to go into account and settings then you’ll want to choose advanced on the left-hand side and under advanced you’re going to see an option that says enable account numbers right here currently they’re off if I choose on just by clicking there and choose enable account numbers notice that turned it on and I can show account numbers and then save and I’ll show you what this looks like now let me go ahead and close this and you’re going to see now that you’ll have a new column at the beginning here where you can actually go through and putting your own account numbers there will not be in here automatically you have to add them the way you would add them is the way you would edit any of these accounts just come over to that line that the account you want to edit is on you’ll see a down arrow and you’ll choose edit and in this window you have the opportunity to add your new account number right here I’m gonna go through this screen in a minute so I’ll just close that for now and I’m going to go back and turn those account numbers off for just a moment account in settings it’s going to be the advanced option on the left and I’m gonna go ahead and turn off enable account numbers just by clicking that word on and I’ll uncheck these and save that now let’s go back and finish going down our list here the next column that you’re going to see next to the type is going to be the detail type and that’s just telling you a little bit more information about the type that you chose there’s also the QuickBooks balance and the bank balance the QuickBooks balance would be if you had entered some transactions in QuickBooks what is that balance for that account the bank balance column will allow you if you pull in your entries from the bank that’s called downloading your transactions then you’ll see what that balance is as well and you can see that you can match those up and see if you’re in sync here and we’ll be getting into that a little bit later but right now what I want to do is start talking to you about the different types of accounts you’d want to add and then we’ll add a few so you can get a feel for how this works the first type that I want to talk about our bank accounts you’ll notice there are no bank accounts at the top of this list that means that right now you do not have a checking account you don’t have a savings account any kind of bank account you have the ability to add these you’re going to be doing this by clicking over here where it says new and the first thing you’re going to do is pick the account type in this case it will be Bank but notice all the other types we’re going to be talking about weird says detail type right here just go ahead and pick the option from the list that closely matches the account type you’ve chosen over here is the name of the account when you name your account you can name it anything you want if you want to call it your bank name you could do that if you want to call it operating account and maybe another ring called payroll account you can do that whatever you like to name it I’m gonna go ahead and leave it on checking for now description is totally optional and there’s not a sub account right now but later on I’ll talk to you about how sub accounts work the other thing you want to think about is a start date to start tracking the money in this checking account now what you want to do is if it’s the beginning of the year like it is currently then you probably want to go back to January 1 or the beginning of your fiscal year and put in all the entries if that’s the case then you can choose beginning of this year you might decide if it’s later in the year and you’re starting your QuickBooks file to go ahead and start with the beginning of that current month you can also pick other the reason you might want to pick other is what if you have a bank statement that cuts off in the middle of the month that would be an option where you can tell it a specific date to start with it really doesn’t matter what date you start with just try to make it correspond to the start date of your bank statement I’m going to go ahead and say beginning of this year and I’m gonna go ahead and put in the balance the ending balance on 12/31 of 2019 would be the exact same number as the beginning balance of 1 1 2020 you’ll want to get that number from your bank statement I’m gonna go ahead and say it was 250 dollars and 62 cents and I’ll go ahead and hit save and close at the bottom and now you’ll see at the top you have a checking account and you have a balance of two 50 and 62 cents you also have the ability to view the register I just want to show you that real quick if I come over here to view register then this is what the checkbook register actually looks like I’m gonna close this this is just some information on what a register looks like and what it’s supposed to do anytime you want to go back to the chart of accounts you’ll notice right up here it says back to chart of accounts and that’s going to take me back to the screen now I also want you to notice something that happened any time in accounting you do something like this then you will have a debit and a credit for that transaction you’ll notice that in this case the flipside the money went to an account called opening balance equity and that’s the way it should be you can’t change that just know that whenever you have a starting balance which could be a minus number if you have a loan but this is going to be an actual picture of what your books look like so don’t freak out if you see a negative number there it’s an accurate picture of your books let’s go ahead and talk about some other bank accounts you obviously would have savings money market accounts things like that but think about do you have PayPal do you accept square those are bank accounts as well so if you do accept those then you want to set this up as bank accounts what would eventually happen is you would transfer money from PayPal or square into your checking account or sometimes you go the other way but those are just bank transfers the next type I want to talk to you about are your assets and you’ll see there are a couple of these here an asset is something that your business owns that makes it more valuable you’re going to have equipment you’re going to have chairs desk lamps vehicles property assets fall into one of two types there are fixed assets which are things you plan to keep long-term like the vehicle or property then there are what we call more liquid assets or QuickBooks cause some other current inventory is a great example of that because I’m worth more right now because I have inventory in the back room but my goal is to sell it and get it out the door now what’s going to happen with assets is you’re going to set up big bucket categories and what I mean by that is instead of listing each vehicle the business owns you’re going to have a category called vehicles and they’ll all dump into that one category you don’t want to have a hundred different categories for your assets because no one wants to sit there and look at that just have big buckets maybe seven to ten good ones some of the common ones that I see are vehicles you might have one called furniture and fixtures you might have one called property if you have a lot of property you might have equipment but again they’re just big buckets this is where the accountants going to be very helpful to you because the accountants going to help you decide which categories to set up and also when you start talking about the money part then the account it’s going to help you plug in how much the vehicles were worth and depreciation and things like that QuickBooks does not do depreciation and that’s because there are multiple ways to do it if you had ten accountants they might all tell you a different way they want it done so just know you want to have the account set up so that if you go to the bank to get a loan for example the bank will know that you do have some assets we’re going to move down the list but before we do I want to go ahead and stop the video here and have you go over into part two and we will continue talking about the different types that you’ll need to set up we’re in Section four and we’ve just talked a little bit about how to start setting up some of the accounts and your chart of accounts I want to go ahead and finish telling you how to set up the rest of those accounts so let’s flip over to QuickBooks and we’ll keep going the next type that I want to talk to you about our what we call your liabilities a liability is something you owe now I’m not talking about the monthly payments you have to pay for the electric bill things like that what I’m talking about is a loan you’ve taken out the bank when you think about your liabilities there are really two types there are what we call long term which are things that you’re going to pay on for more than 12 or 13 months and then there are short term which is under a year basically and QuickBooks calls them other current liabilities when you set up your liabilities you want to set up a separate one for each loan that you have and when I say loan it could be a car loan it could be you as the owner decide to set up a loan where you put money into the business and you want to get paid back you might have borrowed from the bank those are all different liabilities you want to set up and each one should be set up separately let’s set up a car payment so you can get an idea of how you would set up these accounts I’m going to click on new and the first thing it asks me is to pick the account type here you’re going to see your other current which is a short term and your long term liabilities which what I’m gonna choose in this case another thing to notice is that where says detail type if you see notes payable that’s just an accounting term for a loan basically over where the name goes this is where you’re gonna pick the name that you want for your loan I’m gonna call mine the bank of any city but you can call this anything you want sometimes what I’ll see people do is put the last couple digits of their account number here just so that they can see which loan they’re looking at when they have it pulled up in front of them description is totally optional this is where you might say that this is my 2019 Jeep Cherokee loan or you can leave it blank and then we’re going to have to pick a start date now remember if we’re starting your company the beginning of the year what you’ll want to do is for your beginning balance here find out what the amount you owed as of in this case January 1 was so that you can plug that in it’s not the amount you started with when you purchase the vehicle two years ago it’s the amount you owed as of the start date of your company file I’m gonna put $15,000 in here and then hit save and close at the bottom and now what you’re going to see is that you have a loan right here notice it says Bank of any city and the balance is $15,000 every time you make a payment on the loan this is the account you want to put it to your car payment is not an expense to the business do not set it up as an expense account it is a loan and you want to know when you’ve paid off the loan you’ll also be able to on each individual check that you write you’re going to be able to put in how much is principal and how much is interest there the other thing I want you to notice here is look at your opening balance equity it’s a negative number and that’s because I said that when you owe something it’s a negative number and this is an accurate picture of what your books look like let’s talk about credit cards a little bit and I’m talking about credit cards that your business uses to purchase items for the business this has nothing to do with accepting customer credit cards you want to set each credit card account up separately so that you can track each one I’m gonna go ahead and set up a new one for you the type is going to be credit card I’m going to name my card I’ll just call it visa and I’m going to pick the start date of my company file the beginning of this year and the starting balance would be the starting balance from my January bank statement if you don’t have your January bank statement then you can grab your December of 2019 and plug that number in I’m gonna say was $2,500 and I’ll save and close and now what you should see is that you have a credit card and you owe $2,500 when you make a payment towards the credit card you’re going to actually put it to this account always do not try to break it up that so much as gasps and so much was meals because there is another way to do that in QuickBooks all the payments go directly to the credit card account going down the list the next type that I want to mention is where you see equity equity basically means equal if you think about it you’re the owner of the company when you take money out that’s considered an owner draw when you put money in is considered an owner contribution now they’ve got some other terminology you’ll notice owner investment is when the owner puts money into the business and owner pay and personal expenses is when the owner takes money out of the business what I don’t want you to do is make a deposit from your personal account and consider it income it is not income to the business it’s considered equity the next type that I want to talk to you about are your income accounts I’m going to scroll down just a little bit here you’re going to see that there is one called sales income and typically when you make a sale for your business this is the account that you want your sales to dump into you can have a few extra ones added if you’d like maybe you have different areas that you do business in and what I mean by that is in your company maybe you have different things that you do and you’ll want to actually set those up so you can see how much income you’re getting from each one that’s certainly okay keep that list pretty short though no one wants to read 50 different lines of income accounts but sales is normally where you’ll see most of that go into the next thing I want to mention is your cost of goods sold think about the things that you have to buy to make a product or service in your business you have to buy materials you’re going to need subcontractors sometimes maybe you have Freight that’s part of that anything that you have to buy to make a product or service in your business is considered a cost of goods sold and you want it to show up on a profit loss as being deducted from your total income the largest grouping that you’re going to see are your expense accounts and you’ll see there are a ton of these here you’ll also add a lot of these let me show you how to add some sub accounts so you’ll see how this works let’s use car and truck as an example we have the main account here but I want to add a sub account called gas and maybe another one called repairs and maintenance all you’re going to do is go back up to the new option and the top right of your screen here you are going to create a new account and it has to be the same type as the main account so that means this one has to be an expense account and in this case it is Auto and I want to name this one fuel what I’m going to do is check it’s a sub-account of and then from this list here what I’m going to end up picking is car and truck so see how that fuel is a sub-account of car and truck and when I click Save and close at the bottom I want to show you how sub accounts look see how fuel looks like it’s indented a little bit that’s a sub account and there’s going to be a lot of these you’ll want to add when you’re going down this list think about insurance you might have general liability you might have auto insurance those would be sub accounts of insurance going down under legal and professional fees often what I’ll see is accounting and the attorney will be sub-accounts of legal and professional fees and you can just come down and make this list look any way you want there’s utilities at the bottom you’ll want to have telephone underneath gas electric any of the utilities that the business pays that’s going to give you a quick overview of setting up your chart of accounts make sure you spend some time on this and get it set up the way you want it you want it to be as detailed as you need it to be to get your numbers but don’t make it so detailed that no one wants to read it you can always set up accounts later as you go along as well because you’re not going to catch them all right away well that’s going to wrap up the chart of accounts let’s go ahead now and move over into module four and we’re going to talk a little bit about working with accounts receivable and we’ll start with learning how to set up customers we are getting ready to start talking a little bit about the accounts receivable portion of QuickBooks if you’re not familiar with that term anything happened to do with customers in your business that’s called accounts receivable customers are people or businesses that buy from you you’re typically going to make a sale and that’s going to be income to your business we need to talk first of all about how the customer list is set up and then once we do that we’ll go into the second section and I’ll show you how to add some customers to this list the way you’re going to get to a list of your customers is to go over to your navigation bar on the left point to sales and then you’ll see customers in the list at the very top of your customer list here you can see the dollar amount for any of these categories you can see that for open invoices I have thirty five thousand eight hundred and ten dollars these are invoices that have been created and the customer has not paid them even if they owe a penny if you had any of this amount that was overdue you would see that over here and overdue means that if you had set specific terms on an invoice say net 30 meaning that invoice was due in 30 days and the customer has not paid you by then then some of this moves over into the overdue category you can also see how much was paid in the last 30 days in this case nothing there’s also a dollar amount for what we call unbilled activity and for estimates sometimes you will get little messages like you see here right above your actual customer list you can close those with the little X in the right-hand corner and then you can actually see the list the customer list is set up alphabetical by last name you’ll notice that when you look down this list the list is set up by last name comma first name you’ll want to do that because it’s a lot easier to find someone when you’re looking for them if it’s set up that way obviously a business like Adams candy shop would not have it last name and a first name so it just sorts the first letter which is a in this case with the A’s in the list if you see a little envelope to the right of some of your customers that means that if you click there you can actually send that customer and email if their email address was set up when you actually set up the customer then it would pull it like you see here if not you’re going to notice that there’s no envelope meaning that you have not put in a customer email address in the customer information these are what we call sub customers sometimes they’re called jobs sometimes they’re called projects in the online version the technical term is a sub customer they’re both sub customers of in this case Mike Ballack you can also see the customers phone number and the open balance meaning how much money that customer owes you there’s also a column for actions if you happen to be on this screen and you’d like to take one of these actions related to this customer you could do that for example you can go ahead and create a statement or an invoice right from here just know that you’re not always going to be on this screen when you want to do those things so there are other ways to do those actions notice you can also search for a customer right up here so if you wanted to look for Mike bellick for example you can start typing the last few characters of their name and then you’ll see that it pops up in the list over on the right-hand side you have the ability to print a list of your customers you can also export this list to excel if you’d like and there’s also some settings and I want to click on those for a moment because I want to show you that these are going to be the columns that you see up here if I’d like to see their email address I just choose that and notice now I have a column for email or if I’d like to see their address I can click on that and now I see their address as well it’s just how do you want to actually look at this list another thing I’ll mention way back over in the left where it says batch actions if you have multiple customers selected from the drop-down list you can actually email all three of these customers or you can make them inactive an inactive customer is a customer you’ve used in the past therefore you can’t delete them but if you haven’t seen them in a long time and you just want to hide them from the list you can make them inactive that’s a quick overview of the screen itself here what I’d like to do now is take you over into the second section and show you how to add a customer to the customer list now that you’ve gotten a quick overview of what the customer list looks like and how it works we need to start adding some customers to this list let’s go ahead and flip over to QuickBooks and I will show you how to add your first customer if you’re in your customer list you’ll notice in the top right hand corner there’s an option to add a new customer there’s also a down arrow to the right of that because you can also choose to import customers what if you have a list of customers already set up in Excel you can just import those so that you don’t have to set them up one at a time we are going to talk about importing customers from Excel over in section 5 of this module for now I’m going to click on new customer we’re going to put in some customer information on this screen and you’ll notice the first thing it asks for is the company name remember that a customer can be a company a customer can also be an individual that works for a company or it could just be an individual and there’s no company in that case you wouldn’t put anything in the company name field but I’m going to go ahead and put in this customers company its BRC supplies and you’ll notice that because I typed a B it starts pulling down a list of different companies that it’s failed and their addresses so if I want to just choose one of these I could but since I’m typing this inference garage I’m going to go ahead just click over to the side somewhere and then I can come back over and finish filling this out this customers name is Tom Allen and notice it now has a display name as Tom Allen you can change that display name to show as the company name or last name comma first name display name means the way you see it in the list over here remember we talked about the easiest way to find customers is to type it in last name comma first name just be consistent with however you decide to do it it’s also going to use the display name as the same way it’s going to put their name on checks it looks kind of funny if I write a check to Allen comma Tom I’m gonna uncheck the box and then I’m gonna put in Tom Allen and that way that’s how his checks will appear when we put his name in there over on the right you see I can type in an email I’ll just say Tom at Yahoo you can also put in Toms phone number Tom’s mobile fax other end website also if this is a sub customer I can check the box and choose the customer that he is a sub customer of we’re actually going to do that over in section 4 now notice I’m on the address tab and this is where I’m going to put in the billing address I’m going to go ahead and say he’s at 1 2 3 and we’re going to say this is Billings Road this is gonna be in the city of Bayshore California States California and the zip code is nine four three two six the country will just say USA now you’ll notice that the shipping address is the exact same as the billing address if you don’t ship anything you don’t have to worry about that but if you do they may want their invoices going to one address and the actual things your shipping going to a different address you can uncheck the box and change that information if you need to I’m going to go ahead and hit save and let’s see if Tom Allen is in the list he should be in here’s Allen comma Tom and he is you can see it right over here now what I mentioned a couple of things when you’re in this list if you have a customer that you accidentally put in you cannot delete that customer the online version of QuickBooks lets you make a customer in active meaning you hide them from the list but you cannot delete them now what you’re going to see is all the information you had set up about Tom Allen notice a couple of things you can add some notes if you want to this customers record I’ll just click add notes just to show you let’s just say that we can put in here this is a new customer for the year 2020 and that’s a note that’s all you have to do there and now that will show up any time you want to see that notice also there is a tab for the transaction list down here and obviously we have no transactions yet but as we start creating invoices receiving payments that sort of thing they’ll show up right down here the projects these are going to be the jobs that we actually do for these customers there aren’t any set up yet here we can also see customer details this is where we’ve got all of the information we had just set up for this customer and then also if there were any late fees you would see that listed here as well and that’s how you set up a new customer I’m going to hit this customers link here on the top left and take me back to the list of customers and notice Tom Allen has an envelope to the right because we did put in an email address for Tom Allen that’s pretty much how you put in a new customer what I want to do now is take you over into section three and I’m going to show you how to add a sub customer now that you know how to add a customer let’s talk about how to add sub customers a sub customer is basically going to be a way of adding a level underneath your main customer if you have different jobs that you work on for a particular customer you can actually separate those jobs by actually creating sub customers then you can look at reports for the entire customer but also per sub customer in the desktop version of QuickBooks they actually call these jobs sometimes they’re called projects here like I said the terminology is a sub customer let me show you how to set those up to create a sub customer we’re still going to use the new customer button because it is a new customer we’re setting up they’re just a sub of another one we already have existing when this comes up all you want to do is put in the display name you can see in their case they’re using street addresses I’m going to make up one one twenty four and this will be Scottsdale Drive and the only other thing you want to do is come over here where it says is sub customer and underneath it pick the customer that you want to apply this to you can also see it says bill with parent over on the right and you do want to keep this together you can also build this customer individually we’re gonna leave it on bill with parent and you’ll see that it actually pre-populated all of this information from Tom Allen’s setup we don’t need to change any of this unless it happens to be different we’re just going to hit save and then that’s going to be our next level we’ve created you can see it right over here and that’s all there is to creating a sub customer now a couple things you need to know if you’re using the sub customer feature you want to use it consistently throughout QuickBooks if you don’t let’s say that you’re working on some transaction and instead of picking 120 for Scottsdale I picked Tom Allen it’s still going to go to the right main customer but on reports you’ll see other and you’ll go what’s going on you want to make sure that you put it to the correct a sub customer if you’re using the sub customers option not every business will use the sub customer option but it’s really great if you need to break out different projects like I said or maybe you have different locations for our particular customer things like that that’s really all there is to working with sub customers let’s go ahead now and move over into section 4 and I will show you how to edit an existing customer once you have a few customers set up you’re going to realize that you need to edit some of the information maybe you actually set up the information wrong or it could be that the customer information has changed maybe they’ve moved they have a new address you want to add a website you can always go in and edit the information about your customers and it’s a pretty easy process so let me show you how that works if you want to edit a customer’s information make sure you click on your customer over in the customer list and then come over here and choose this edit option let’s say that Tom’s email really includes his last name I’m going to go ahead and add and let’s say that when we set this up we did not look at any of these tabs so let’s go through those real quick so that you’ll know what other types of information you might want to set up when you’re setting up your customers we’ve looked at the address tab now let’s take a peek at notes this is where you can add any notes you would like pertaining to this customer the best thing to do is just drop down after the previous note pop in the date and then pop in any notes that you might have pertaining to this particular customer the third tab over says tax info this has to do with collecting sales tax from your customer if you sell physical items and you charge sales tax you need to tell QuickBooks that this customer is taxable and what the default tax code is we’re going to talk about sales tax later on but just to give you a heads up what you’re going to have to do is where you’re setting up the items or the different things you sell they actually call them products and services in here then what’s going to happen is you’re going to set up each sales tax you need to collect and then you’ll group them together to create one big tax so that you’re charging the customer correctly and that’s where you would put that tax code let’s say that it happens to be the San Domingo we’ll choose that and now what will happen is when we invoice a customer it’ll pull that tax code automatically the next one is payment and billing a lot of this is just information for you first of all the preferred payment method does this customer you usually like to pay you with cash check barter or MasterCard you can kind of see the list there if you need to add a new way that the customer can pay maybe PayPal Square you can just hit add new right here and then you can actually type in the name of that new payment method and then hit save and now PayPal will be on the list since I just added it it does not mean that the customer pays you with PayPal every time it just means that’s their preferred way they typically like to pay you preferred delivery method how do they like to have their invoice sent to them do they like to have them print it and you can print them later or do they like to have them sent email where you can send those later or do they not have a preference terms you can have different due date two terms per customer if you have a really good customer you might have net 30 if you have a customer that’s brand-new you might say do a pom receipt now let me tell you why you have this opening balance field here as of the start date of your company file how much money did this customer owe you let’s just say it was a thousand dollars you could plug that in there and the accounting would be correct but you would not have a way to go back and see that that was actually three separate invoices you sent them that total eight thousand dollars I like to go back and put each invoice in that the customer still owed me four and not fill this in but whichever way works for you would be fine as long as the numbers come out correctly and then of course if you did put an opening balance you would put in the date that that would be as of which would really be the start date of your company file the next tab over says language this will default to English but if you’d like to sing your invoices to the customer and French Spanish Italian you can see the list there you can also have attachments for this customer what this would be is let’s say that you had some sort of file that you actually created or it could be a bill that you received something related to this customer instead of having to get out of QuickBooks and search your computer for that file you’ll be able to open it right here from QuickBooks because it will be attached if I click on attachments here it will allow me to search my computer and find that file and attach it here the last tab says additional info you might have different ways you like to categorize your customers you’ll notice they have commercial customers and residential customers but you can set up this list any way you like it and that’s going to be how those tabs work right there all you have to do when you’ve changed all the information is hit save and that information is now saved in QuickBooks now one quick thing I want to mention to you especially about sales tax if you have a customer you have set up where you charge a certain tax and later you go back and edit the information and change it it’s not going to go back to any prior invoices and change that sales tax it’s only for any new ones you create from this point forward well that’s how you’re going to edit your customers let’s go ahead now and move over into section five and I’ll talk to you a little bit about making customers inactive one of the things you can do in QuickBooks is with any list you’re working in whether it be customers chart of accounts vendors it doesn’t matter if you have an item on that list that you’d like to temporarily hide from the list you can make it inactive inactive customers actually will not show up when you’re working in other areas of QuickBooks but if you wanted to actually turn them back on you could go and activate them again let me go ahead and show you how to make a customer inactive and then you’ll know how to do it when you’re working in other lists in QuickBooks as well let’s say that I want to make Edward Blackwell inactive notice that Edward still owes me one thousand one hundred and twenty five dollars I wouldn’t want to make him inactive because I’m going to be using this customer he’s going to make a payment and I’ll need to be able to apply money typically you make it customer inactive if you haven’t seen them for a while or maybe it was someone you set up and you never used those would be reasons to make a customer inactive let me show you what happens if you try to make mr. Blackwell inactive and he still owes you money I’m gonna go ahead and click on edit and here’s where you go to make a customer inactive now this message is telling me that Edward still owes me money he has a non-zero balance if I say yes and make him inactive then QuickBooks will create an adjusting entry so that he doesn’t owe me money anymore I’m gonna click yes and notice there’s a little error message and that’s because this customer has what’s called a recurring template that’s being used anytime you have something recurring you have to actually delete the recurrence of that whatever it is before you can go in and delete the customer in this case I’m going to go ahead and hit cancel at the bottom and let’s use a different customer Tom Allen because he doesn’t owe us any money we just sent him up I’m gonna go ahead and click on Tom Allen and then click Edit on the right make inactive and now it tells me that tom has a sub customers or projects making him inactive will also make all his sub cover and projects inactive and that’s what you want I’m gonna click yes and now you’ll notice it says Tom Allen is deleted just a little fYI QuickBooks does not have a feature to delete anything from a list in this case a customer if you wanted to quote delete them you’d have to make them inactive and they’re still not really deleted because they show up in the list they’re just hidden so you can always activate them again now if you notice over here it says make active that’s how I go back and activate my customer again I’m gonna click make active and now you’ll see over here it does not say deleted but notice the sub customer does you’ll want to repeat that process with your sub customer select them from the left and make them active and that’s a quick overview of how to make your customers inactive well let’s move on we’ve got one more thing to cover in this particular module I want to talk to you in section 6 about importing an existing list of customers that you might already have into QuickBooks the last thing I want to talk to you about in module 4 is how to import your customers into QuickBooks you might already have a list of your customers in Excel for example or in a CSV file and it’d be really nice to be able just to import them into QuickBooks instead of having to enter them one at a time you will need to set them up a certain way I want to go ahead and pull up the excel file that I have so you can see how it’s set up and even if you don’t have the fields the exact same you can map them once you go through this import process but let me go ahead and pull up the excel file and show it to you and then pull up QuickBooks and we’ll go through and import those customers here I have a list of three customers I’d like to pull in from this excel spreadsheet into QuickBooks and you’ll notice that I’ve got them set up by name company name email phone you can see the list here those are the names of the fields that are in QuickBooks that you want to pull the information into if you can set it up this way that’s the best way to do it but you can also map the fields if you want once you get inside QuickBooks but I wanted you to see this so that you would know exactly how to set it up and make sure you save it somewhere that you can pull it in pretty easily when you go to look for it let me go ahead and flip over to QuickBooks and we’ll pull in John Ellen and Doris all you need to do is make sure you’re in your customer list and go up to the down arrow next to new customer and choose import customers here’s where you’re going to select your Excel or your CSV file that you currently have your customers in minds call customer list and I’ll just choose that and you can see it brought that file in now all I have to do is click Next at the bottom and here I can map my fields to the fields that are in QuickBooks you’ll notice the first column are the names of the QuickBooks fields and over here will be the names of the fields you had in your file if the names don’t match exactly like this one says name but maybe in your Excel spreadsheet this one said first name for example then you would choose it from the down arrow if there’s not a match like company for example when I look in my excel sheet I did not have one company then I’ll just say no match and it won’t be able to pull anything in the ones with the checkmark that you see are the ones that actually have a match to the QuickBooks fields that sees the exact same name that it sees over in your Excel spreadsheet in this case once you’re finished going through that list you want to go ahead and click Next at the bottom and you’ll see that there are three customers now that are ready to be imported if I had a lot of these I could go in and search for these by filtering and typing in the name of that customer it’s going to be pulling in the ones that have the check mark next to them I’m go ahead and import all three of those I’ll just choose import at the bottom and now you’ll see that it’s brought in those three customers let’s look first of all for mr. Stewart we’re gonna go down the list here and you’ll notice that here is John Stewart he was the first one on our list it has now imported all the information was in that excel spreadsheet well that’s going to wrap up module four where we’ve talked a lot about customers now that we have our customers in we can move over to module five and talk about sales transactions using these customers hey there we’re working now in module five and in this module we’re looking at all the different types of sales transactions that can occur when working with customers these are going to be things like are you invoicing customers are you receiving payments from those customers maybe making deposits credit memos things like that before we get started over in section one I want to go through very quickly with you the sales tab that’s in QuickBooks and show you an overview of how it works and what type of information you can get out of it let’s go ahead and flip over to QuickBooks and we’ll look at the sales let’s give her to our navigation bar and point to sales and then I’m going to click on overview this is just a quick overview of your income over time you can see that I’ve got two hundred and twenty dollars that it looks like I made this month and I made that the week of February 16th through 22nd notice I can actually point right up here as well and see that information if I wanted to change this and see how much I’ve made this month this quarter for example you can see last year this year you’ve got different choices here I’m going to go ahead and choose last month and it looks like last month we brought in over $7,000 and you can see the high points of when you brought in the most money in this case January 19 through 25 down here I can see how many invoices are overdue and also the ones that I’ve already sent out that are not due yet and that’s three thousand nine hundred and seventy-six dollars I might also have some money I’ve received that’s not deposited yet and you can see that here and also I can see the amount that I actually did deposit over on the right here these are some things that you can opt to set up with QuickBooks and some of these are paid subscriptions but if you want to set these up you’ve got different ways customers can pay you that would be Apple pay if you want them to be able to pay you direct deposit things like that you can set those up with Intuit you can also set up to get paid anywhere so if you have an app you’ve downloaded to your phone you can accept payment right there or you can send out an invoice to your customer that they can pay online they can actually click that invoice and then pay you right then and there like I said some of these are paid you will want to look into those before you sign up with one of those subscriptions if you’re interested in learning how the QuickBooks payments allow you to get paid online or in person you can watch this video here and then they have some shortcuts to some of the things we’re going to be talking about as we go along right down here but this is a quick overview of your accounts receivable now notice the next tab over will show all of your sales here you’ll see all the information on any sales transactions you can see all the transactions listed at the bottom so you’re going to see invoices payments credit memos if you look down the list here’s a time charge there’s a sales receipt or refund any transaction that happened with your customer is going to be on this list you’re going to see all the information about the transaction the balance the total and all the way over on the right you can take an action related to that particular transaction if you click the down arrow notice that you can either copy this you might want to delete it you might want to send a reminder you kind of see your choices there the next tab at the top that you’re going to see are your invoices these are just invoices that are not yet paid you’ll notice it shows you all the information about each of the invoices the balance the total if it’s overdue maybe not sent or if it’s partially paid you can see some of these and then of course here’s your actions again if want to take one of these actions related to one of these invoices the tab that’s next is your customer tab and we’ve spent a lot of time on that and the last tab says products and services products and services are things that you either buy or sell to your customer they can be a physical item it could even be inventory or just a service you provide and you can see for all of these that you can look at all kinds of options related to whatever is underneath that particular tab that gives you a quick overview of how to use the sales option what I want to do now is take you back and let’s go ahead and get started looking at how to actually create sales receipts for those customers that want to go ahead and buy something and pay you at the same time when you make a sale to a customer there are a couple different ways to record that sale one way is to create what’s called a sales receipt this is almost like point-of-sale if a customer comes in makes a purchase and gives you the money right then you can put all of that on one transaction and send them on their way with a receipt the other way that we’re going to talk about in section 3 is actually invoicing customers and that’s where you send out an employees and the customer pays you after the fact but right now let’s focus on sales receipts let’s flip over to QuickBooks and I’ll show you how to enter sales receipt you want to start by going to your customer list look down the list and find your customer and the sub customer that you’d like to send a sales receipt to if you’re using sub customers always pick the sub customer if you just pick the main customer what will happen is you’ll look at reports and you’ll see other and you won’t know what that refers to so just make sure you always choose the sub customer notice when I go all the way to the right here and click the down arrow I have an option to create a sales receipt the first thing you’ll notice is that it brought in the customer and the sub customer you chose if you want to change those you can actually pick those from the drop-down list the next thing you’ll see is a place to put in the email if you want to email this to more than one email address notice that you can type them both in here but just separate them with a comma and if you need to cc or BCC some additional email addresses you’ll see those here there’s also our check box that says send later that’s because you have the ability to set up the sales receipt and not actually send it right now it could be that you’re not really sure of the quantity but you want to go ahead and get this set up and saved you could do that you’ll see abroad in the billing address and it also has the sales receipt date which would be the current to date if you want to change this date you can just click the little calendar like I did and change the date now in this case they’ve customized this sales receipt to have an additional field that says crew number if you wanted to plug something in there you would just type in the number for that crew or not use it at all and we’re going to come back to the payment method in a moment let’s go down to product slash service if you click your mouse in the first area there you’ll see that there’s a drop-down list of all the products and services that you sell your customer if I go down this list you’ll see there are rocks these are garden rocks and if I choose that it will bring in a description and I can edit the description or add to this as much as I like I can cover to the quantity and put in how many of these the customers purchasing and the rate will say we sell these for $25 notice when I tab through it it’ll do the calculation three of these at 25 cost $75 and this is subject to sales tax typically physical items are but services you provide are not the little trashcan that you see at the end would allow you to delete this line now let’s say I’m going to add one more to this I’m going to go down and pick a service let’s say that we have design services and I’ll just put this over in the description and then I’ll say the quantity is 1 and we’re going to charge $100 this and notice this one is not automatically subject to sales tax I do have a third line available if I want to put something else in here if you don’t see an available line click where it says add lines and that will give you a line to type in notice you can also clear out all the lines if you wanted to do that right underneath it you have a message that will be displayed on the sales receipt it currently says thank you for your business and have a great day but you can put anything you like in there and also if you wanted to put a message and have to display those statements you could put that in here and just type it in over the right you’ll see it shows us our subtotal you can see that $75 of it is subject to sales tax and in this case they’re using a sales tax called California and it’s 8% six dollars in this case if you want to give your customer a discount you can get them a percentage discount or a value meaning a dollar amount let’s say I want to give them 10% I’ll just type in 10 with a % and notice it deducts 18 cents and if I scroll down it’ll show me the amount received and the balance due now remember because this is a sales receipt we’re going to put on this the payment amount they’re assuming we’ve received all of the payment back up here’s where I can choose the payment method if they paid me with Visa or if they pay me with a check I can pick any option I like and there’s a little place for a reference number now if you had a Visa card you wouldn’t have a reference number with a check that would be a check number the next thing you’ll see is deposit – and it says undeposited funds your other choices would be to go ahead and deposit this – maybe a checking account for example you can see the list let me explain undeposited funds for just a moment in your chart of accounts you will have an account called undeposited funds this is a place where money sits that you’ve collected but you have not yet taken to the bank a customer came in paid you with a check you want to show QuickBooks the sales is paid so you’ll choose deposit to undeposited funds but it might be that you’re gonna collect all the monies you receive today and make them all one big deposit that’s when you choose undeposited funds if you knew this was the only thing that was going to be in this deposit you could choose checking and skip the next step of making a deposit I’m gonna go ahead and leave it in undeposited funds and when you’re finished down at the bottom you’ll want to either just save this or you can choose save and send which will email it or from the down-arrow you can say save and close we’re going to close this and now that transaction has been completed you’re going to notice when we look at this that Tom Allen 124 Scottsdale does not owe us any money however if we go over to the all sales and look here we should see Tom Allen’s sales receipt right here for a hundred and eighty dollars and 82 cents and it says it’s paid here’s where we could go and actually print this I want to view or edit this you’ll see here that this is your sales receipt where you can make that change if you need to I’m gonna go ahead and get out of this I’m gonna hit the X and cancel it and that’s how you would go in and actually create a sales receipt that money is now sitting in undeposited funds I want to take you over to your chart of accounts which happens to be over here under accounting and show you that account so that you can see the money there let’s see our chart of accounts and here’s undeposited funds now you can see it has two thousand two hundred and forty-three dollars in there but if I view the register over here you’ll see the transaction that we did and also which is right here any others that were already sitting in undeposited funds so hold that and when we talk about making deposits in section five you’ll see how this all comes into play but one way to keep a check on yourself is if you know everything’s been deposited then there shouldn’t be any money in undeposited funds okay let’s go ahead now and go over into section three and talk about invoicing customers we’ve talked a little bit about sales receipts and now let’s talk a little bit about sending out invoices to your customers remember the difference in a sales receipt and an invoice is that on a sales receipt the customer is standing right there you’re going to put in the line item they purchased you’re going to put in they made a payment the invoice is where you’re going to send an invoice to your customer and wait for payment at a later date sometimes you email these sometimes you mail them it really doesn’t matter you’re going to receive the payment at a later date let me show you how to create invoices for your customers it’s very similar to the sales receipts but I want to show you where to go to get started creating invoices there are a couple of different ways to get started creating an invoice you’re going to head over to the navigation pane and point to sales you can either use the invoice option here or the customers if you choose the invoices option here you’re going to see a list of all of your invoices that you currently have and if you want to create a new one you can choose new invoice from right here if you started with the customers you would just come back to sales and go to customers this way then what would happen is if you had a customer you want to create an invoice for you could check them off head all the way to the right under the action column and then you can create an invoice this way either way would work whatever works for you you’ll notice this way because I had a customer selected it pulled in all that customers information now if I want to change that I just click the down arrow and choose the new customer from the list remember I told you that if you’re using sub customers always always always pick the sub customer you want to go with the lowest level so that when you look at reports you don’t see other on your reports I’m going to start with Freeman Sporting Goods I’ll choose 55 twin lane and now you’ll see it’s changed the customer email and the billing address if you didn’t have an email setup in your customer setup then you could physically type an email here you can also choose to be cc or CC someone just by choosing this option and putting their email addresses in here I’m going to hit cancel you can also send this later if you have this checked that means that you can create this invoice and then save it and then create another one and check the same box if you’ve done that you can email both of them at the same time that’s called sending a batch or emailing a batch if you happen to see that something’s changed at the billing address go ahead and change it here it’ll prompt you when you go to save it and ask you if you want to save this permanently in their record because we had terms of net 30 setup in the customer setup you’ll notice the invoice date is 212 but the due date is 313 which is 30 days from the invoice date if I change this to net 10 you’ll see the due date is 10 days just make sure the due date is the date that you want the invoice to actually be due to you the crew number is a field they custom setup for this particular exercise you can go ahead and plug in some numbers just to keep it consistent there and then you can pick a product or service from the list to invoice your customer I’m going to choose installation and let’s say that I’m going to charge them a quantity of one at $200 remember a service is non-taxable so you will not see a green checkmark there if you happen to see one just uncheck it and if you have a second line you’re just going to type on the second line whatever information you want to invoice the customer for here’s where you have your message that will appear in your invoice automatically you can type in there and change that to anything you like also when you’re sending out a statement to your customer then you can have a message on that statement appear as well whatever you typed in here you’ll notice that you can also put in an attachment let me scroll down just a little bit so you can see that if you happen to have some sort of file that was already saved in your computer you could attach it here an example might be if I’m installing landscape design I might have hired a subcontractor to do that and maybe the subcontractor has already sent me a bill and I want to attach that to this invoice over on the right if you’re going to give your customer a discount you can give them a percentage discount or a value discount I’ll choose value and give them $25 and you’ll see it will deduct it from my 200 so now that the balance due is 175 couple of things at the bottom you’re going to be able to do you can print or preview this right here you can also make it recurring and what recurring means is if this is something that happens on a regular basis then you can set QuickBooks up to automatically just put this in whenever you’ve told it to let’s say once a month it inserts this invoice automatically and then you can customize this a little bit if you want to do things like they added the crew number you’d be able to add fields like that at the bottom you have an option that says save you have your save and close’ and if you wanted to create a new one you could click the arrow and choose save and new I’m going to choose a save and close though and you’ll see now that our invoice has been completed if I wanted to go back and look at this I can actually come up here to invoices and then I can look down this list and find the one I’m looking for and that’s how you’re going to create an invoice for a customer let’s go ahead and move on into section 4 and I’ll show you how to record the payment once a customer actually pays you now that you’ve created your first invoice the customer is going to mail you a payment at some point now it doesn’t matter how the customer paid you you’re going to record their payment the same exact way we’re going to go in and tell QuickBooks how much the customer paid the date they paid all the pertinent information and when we’re done we’ll see that the invoice will show as being paid if they’ve paid the full amount if they haven’t it’ll show the balance or if it’s an overpayment it will show that as well let me show you how to record a customer payment before we receive our first payment I’d like to take you over to the report section QuickBooks just head over to your navigation bar click on reports and the reports from the menu and this is all the reports that are in QuickBooks we are going to take some time in a later module and look through the different reports but right now I’d like you to head down to a section that says who owes you these are your accounts receivable reports if you head over to the second column you’ll see the second one is called the open invoices report and you can just click to run that one now these are all of the invoices that you’ve sent out that have not yet been paid even if the customer owes you a penny if you remember in the previous section we actually created an invoice for Freeman Sporting Goods and we did one for 25 Twin Lake and here it is right here 175 dollars I want you to notice that in any report if you want to go to that particular transaction you can see this is a link and you can just click anywhere and actually open up that invoice I wanted to show you this first because once we receive our payment this invoice will actually disappear if it’s paid in full or you will see this invoice and the balance is owed right over here not the hundred and seventy five dollars that it originally was invoice for now that you see that let’s head back over to our customers we’ll go to sales and we’ll go down to customers now let’s go down and find our customer we’re going to receive the payment for and this is going to be Freeman Sporting Goods 55 twin Lake you’ll notice over in the action column that you can receive a payment this is the received payment window and the first thing you’ll notice is it pulled in my customer in my job I don’t need to change that unless I happen to want to pick a different customer and job I can look for an invoice by invoice number if I want to I can click there just type in the invoice number and hit find and it will search for it for me the next thing is the payment date I’m going to say this was received on February the 28th and here’s the payment method now here’s where you can pick the way that the customer actually paid you did they pay you with cash did they pay you with MasterCard Visa PayPal if you happen to take other payment methods you’d like to add like venmo or square or even Bitcoin just come up here to add new and all you have to do is type in that new payment and then just hit save and from now on that payment method will actually be on the list there now I’m just going to say in this case it was a check though and I’ll put it in the reference number that would be the check number and then just notice the money is going to go to an account called undeposited funds now hold that for a moment we’ll come back I want to finish the rest of this and explain this part to you now over here it assumed that my customer paid me the entire balance they owe for all of their invoices and we know that’s not always the case here I’m gonna put in the amount that the customer did pay me let’s say the customer paid me a hundred and seventy nine dollars now if you notice down at the bottom these are all of the invoices that are still open even if the customer owes me a penny you’ll notice what QuickBooks does is assumes the customer is paying all of the first one the rest of the money goes to the next one and then the balance of the money goes down to the next one all the way down now that’s not always how the customer has asked you to apply their payments let’s say in this case they’re not paying the first one they’re paying one hundred and seventy five dollars on this last one and they’re gonna pay the four dollars on this one and that’s why it was a hundred and seventy nine dollars always make sure that you have the correct invoices checked off and their correct amount over here that the customer is paying towards each of the invoices a couple of other things to notice when you look down at the bottom there’s going to be a hundred and seventy nine dollars worth of money that’s applied and there’s no credit memos right now but if you had one you had issued for this customer then you can apply that credit memo to one of these employees that would be open here if you want to clear the payment you could that would let you start all over filling this form out and the notice at the bottom there’s a place for a memo over on the left and there’s also a place where any attachments if you wanted to add something here and that’s all you need to do to receive payments it’s pretty easy process but I do want to go back up to this right here with sister – and talk to you about what your options are currently if you receive payments the money’s going into this account called undeposited funds I’m going to go ahead and save this real quick and then I want to show you where undeposited funds is and then we’re going to come back in a second so I can show you where your other options are now if I close the receive payment window and head back to the chart of accounts I’m gonna go down here to accounting chart of accounts you’ll notice that if I go down the list there’s this account called undeposited funds currently there’s two thousand two hundred forty one dollars and fifty two cents in that account this is where money sits that you’ve received but have not yet deposited into the bank a good way to keep a check on yourself if you know that everything’s been deposited this should be zero let’s look at this for a second and see if we can figure out what money happens to be sitting in here notice you can click to view the register over on the right and what you’re going to notice is that right now it looks like there are three payments sitting and undeposited funds one of them is being the one that we just received none of these three are in the checkbook yet because they have not yet been deposited okay so let’s head back over to our payment that we just looked at I’m going to go to sales and go back to customers and let’s go down and find our customer Freeman Sporting Goods 55 Twin Lake and I’m just going to click on that for a moment and here you will see the payment that we just received I’m gonna go ahead and click on that just to open it back up here were your other choices I could go ahead and put the money right in the checking account and this will skip the next step that we’re going to do but let me tell you why you may or may not want to do this if the hundred and seventy nine dollars is the only thing that’s going to be in that deposit then you can click checking hits save and close at the bottom and you are done with the whole process but if you think you might receive another payment possibly from another customer and this one and the new payment are going to be together in the same deposit that’s when you want to pick undeposited funds and this will make more sense once we go through and make the deposit over in the next section but I’m going to go ahead and click Save and close at the bottom here and let’s see if that invoice shows that it’s been paid when I go down the list and look at the invoice for 175 dollars it does show that it’s been paid in full if there was one penny left it would not say paid right here that’s how you receive a payment for a customer when you’ve sent out an invoice the next step in the process would be to actually take that money and make a deposit why don’t we head over into section 5 and I’ll show you how to make deposits now that we’ve made a sale for our business we’ve actually invoiced a customer in this case we got paid and now we want to take that money and put it in the bank and that’s where the make deposits option comes in it’s always going to be the last step in this process no matter how you receive the payment whether it is a Visa card cash a cheque you’re going to have to make deposits and you want to make sure that your deposits and quickbooks match what actually happened at the bank let’s go ahead and flip over to QuickBooks and talk about the make deposits option the easiest way to record that deposit is to click the new button right here and over on the right here under other you’ll see bank deposit this window here is going to be your actual deposit slip a couple things you’ll want to double check on is make sure you have the correct bank account chosen here it’s very easy to have the bank account that you last use show up in that field and then you can’t find your deposit notice that the balance in the checking account is one thousand two hundred and one dollars and this is the date of the deposit let’s say I’m going to make this deposit on March the second now down at the bottom these are the three sets of monies that we saw they were sitting in undeposited funds what you’re going to do is check off all of the ones that are going in this deposit if all three are going to be in this deposit you check them all off if maybe the first two we’re gonna be in that deposit and then maybe this last one was in a separate deposit do them separately because you want these to match what actually happened at the bank let’s say in this case though all three are going to be deposited a couple of things when you’re looking at this list here you can go and change the payment type if you didn’t do it when you were actually receiving the payment you’ve also got a place for a memo if you’d like to fill that in and then you can see there’s the reference number column and then the amount column over on the right my deposit will be two thousand two hundred forty one dollars and fifty two cents now right down here it says cashback goes to if you happen to have a business bank account you’re not going to be able to get cash back but as a sole proprietor you could if you’re going to keep some cash then you would say cashback goes to this account and you would pick whichever account this went to you would also be able to have a memo and if you were going to keep 20 bucks you could type that in and it would deduct it from this total right up here there’s also a place to add funds to this deposit if I click this little arrow it’s gonna open up this part here and I can add some additional monies now this could be something like maybe you got a rebate from Staples you could type that in if that was the situation it would say received from Staples the account would be office expenses or office supplies pick whichever account you actually use when you purchased the items for that rebate and put it back to the same account you’ve got a place for a description the method and the amount of money it could be you’re also going to put some personal money into the business if that’s the case then the account you want to choose is that owner equity if your members talking about that in an earlier module but remember that everything that goes into a deposit is not always income to the business so make sure that this goes back to the correct account if you’re adding additional funds notice if you need more than the two lines you could add additional lines and have as many lines as you’d like here you can also add a memo to this deposit if you’d like or add an attachment down at the bottom and that’s all you need to do as far as making a deposit now couples just other options you could print this deposit out down at the bottom or make it recurring it could be that you have a customer set up on automatic draft where they actually pay you $1,000 a month let’s say and this would be that deposit lots of different scenarios there I’m going to go ahead and hit save and close down at the bottom and at this point the money is actually going to be in my checking account remember it’s two thousand to forty one fifty two now that whole process of invoicing a customer receiving a payment and making that deposit has been taken care of now let’s go look in the checking account and see if we can find it it just so happens that on the overview right over here where we are the checking account is here that is one way to link to it to look at the balance another way would be going down to accounting to our chart of accounts and just opening it that way any of this would work I’m going to go ahead and view the register when I look in the register you’ll notice that there’s my deposit right there notice it says split because it split amongst multiple line items in this case we had three different transactions that went on the deposit itself I’m gonna go ahead and cancel that and that’s the process of actually making a deposit the next thing I want to do is take you over into section six and show you how to set up credit memos for customers there are times when you will want to issue a credit memo to an invoice let’s say you have a customer that just isn’t happy with your services and they refuse to pay one of your invoices you can actually leave it on the books for awhile if you’d like but eventually you might want to credit that off let me go ahead and show you how to create a credit memo the first thing that you want to do is look up the original invoice and see what it is that you charge them for to begin with I’m going to look at Red Rock diner and you’ll see there’s an invoice for $70 here I’ll just go ahead and open it up and you’re going to notice that we charged them for pest control it looks like probably two hours at $35 an hour for total of $70 now let’s say the customer just wasn’t happy with us and we’re going to just credit that invoice when we create the credit memo we need to use the exact same product or service that we charge for to begin with the way you’re going to create the credit memo is come up here and click on new underneath customers you’re going to see credit memo plug in the customers name in this case it is Red Rock diner you’ll see it populates their email their billing address and it’s going to have the current date for the credit memo date just make sure you put the date that you would like we’re going to be looking at tags over in section nine let’s just hold that for a moment and let’s go down to product or service here’s where we’re going to put in pest control remember you want to credit the same product or service that you invoice for to begin with we’re going to choose the quantity of two at 35 and that’s going to give us a total of 70 all we have to do now is go ahead and go down to save and close now that the credit memo has been created I want to show you two things that happen on your customers account notice here’s the credit memo and it says it’s closed and then there’s a payment that wasn’t there before now this payment is where you’re going to go to actually apply the 70 dollars to the correct invoice because see how the invoice is still open over here I’m going to click on the payment now if it sees an exact to match it we’ll go ahead and check it often but if it doesn’t come down and choose the correct invoice and then notice the credit memos at the bottom so you want to make sure those two are checked so they apply to each other so you’ll notice down here the amount to apply is $70 and that’s all we have to do we’re going to save and close at the bottom and because this transaction is linked to others it will ask us if we’re sure we want to modify this and the answer is yes and now when we go back and look we’ll see that the credit memo is closed the payment is closed and if the invoice is actually paid so remember this is a two-step process you have to create the credit memo they go back to the payment and actually apply that credit memo to the correct invoice now that you know how to create credit memos I want to show you over in section seven how to actually give your customers a refund there are times when you want to issue a refund to a customer and that would be if a customer has purchased something and paid in full and you want to actually give them their money back that’s the difference in a refund and a credit a credit usually sits in their account until you just credit the money off of your books whereas refunds you actually give customers than running back let me go ahead and show you how to create a refund we’re going to create a refund receipt but before we can do that we need to go ahead and look up our customer and see what it is that we’re actually going to refund them for this is Duke’s basketball camp if you notice they have an invoice here for four hundred and sixty dollars and forty cents that is paid in full I’m going to click on invoice to actually open this up and you’ll see that the second line are some garden rocks that they purchase from us they purchased six of them at twelve dollars and let’s say that they’re going to return three of them at twelve dollars because they didn’t need all six of these we’re going to go ahead and close this now and now we’re going to create our refund receipt we’re going to go over to the new option on the navigation pane we’re going to come down to refund receipt here we’re going to pick our customers name in this case it’s going to be Duke’s basketball camp you can see it pulls in their email and their billing address and we just need to make sure we have the correct refund receipt date down here which says payment method this is how the customer actually paid you they wrote us a check let’s say and we’re going to refund them from our checking account if you’re going to actually print them a check then it’s going to let you print this later or if you want to go ahead and print it from here you could leave that check number now let’s go ahead and put in the correct product or service and we decided that this was garden rocks and so we’re going to go ahead and choose that and remember they’re returning three at twelve dollars and that makes thirty six dollars if the item was subject to sales tax when the purchase was originally made then QuickBooks will automatically choose the tax option to give them their tax back as well you’ll notice this equates to thirty six dollars the total amount refunded will be thirty eight dollars and eighty-eight cents I’m going to go ahead and hit save and new at the bottom and now that refund receipt is done I’m going to click OK here what it says it was successful and now let’s go back and look at their account if I’m looking at Duke’s basketball camp you’ll see here’s the refund right here and you’ll notice that it says it is paid now if you want to actually go ahead and print a check then all you have to do is over here it says print check and you’ll notice that it automatically has Dukes basketball camp and a checked awaiting to be printed for thirty eight dollars and eighty-eight cents just double check that you have the correct checking account at the top and make sure you have the correct check number that your check is going to be now if you were giving them cash you would have chosen cash from the option back over in the refund receipt and then that would have just been done that’s really all you have to do at this point you can actually go down and you can preview and print this and then that will be the end of it there’s the preview you would hit print and it would print out and that’s how you create a refund for a customer it’s called a refund receipt let’s go ahead and take a peek now at creating statements for your customers one of the things you have the ability to do in QuickBooks is send statements to your customers a statement is basically a gentle reminder to your customers that they owe you some money typically statements are sent at the end of each month and they show the activity that happened during that month you don’t have to send out statements but it’s a nice little feature to keep your customers abreast of what’s going on with their account let’s go ahead and flip over to QuickBooks and we’ll see how statements are created when you’re ready to create statements for your customers just go to your navigation pane and choose the new option over here where you see other if you look down you’ll see statement the first thing you have to do is pick a statement type you can choose a balance for word any open items for the last gear basically and then you can also choose a transaction statement I’ll choose balance for word for the statement date you generally want to pick the end of the month that means that in this case the start date would be January 1 and the end date would be January 31 for the customer balance status you can choose all open or overdue I’m going to choose all and then apply and these are all of my customers who met the criteria they call this the recipients list if you’re looking down this list and you see one that you don’t want to send a statement to just come over here and uncheck the box now when you’re ready you can print or preview these down here in the middle I’m going to click on print or preview so that we can see what a statement looks like now I’m going to have one here for each customer you’ll see as I go down the list there you go and for each one you’re gonna be able to see all of the activity for January 1 through January 31 the first thing you’ll always see is the balance forward from the previous month notice up here tells you the total due and there’s a place where the customer can actually send you a check and if they want to type in the amount closed or write it in right there they can do that and then down at the bottom of the statement it shows you how much of this is in the currently due category how much is in each of these categories and then again the total over on the right and that’s what a statement looks like you can pick any date range you like when you’re creating statements if you just want to send one to one customer you can do that but that’s an overview of what statements look like and how they work I’m going to go ahead and close this and you really don’t need to save or save send us once you’ve printed these out you can go ahead and just X out at the top and then it’s ready and you can print them the next time well let’s go ahead now and look over in section 9 and talk a little bit about how a new feature of QuickBooks called tags is going to work there is a brand new feature in QuickBooks Online that they’re rolling out right now called tags and what tags will allow you to do is create certain words that will appear on a drop-down when you’re in different transactions in QuickBooks and you can choose those and later you can use those to search for things or to run reports based on those tags if you’re familiar with Gmail we’ve got something similar in there where we can create a list and tag different emails and then search for anything that would have that particular tag we’re looking for this is still in beta right now if you happen to not see it when you open up your QuickBooks Online and just know it’s coming they’re just rolling out in stages right now and you may not have all the options related to tags yet but just know it will be coming somewhere down the line let me give you an example of how you might use this feature currently we have a feature in QuickBooks called classes and we’ve kind of been using that in the way that tags will work but let’s say that you have an attorney’s office and you have four different attorneys in that office you might want to run reports on the company as a whole but you might also want to run reports on each attorney if you had this list of classes set up you could just pick from the drop-down list in each transaction you’re in which attorney that this should be tagged to and we’re going to use tags in the exact same way I don’t know if they’re going to get rid of classes down the road somewhere but tags are going to be a really nice feature so let me flip over and show you what’s in there now and like I said if you don’t see these options or you see something new down the road it’s because they’re rolling it out it’s still in beta the way you’re going to access your tags option is through the gear icon on the top right hand side of your Green and underneath the list right here you’ll see tags now currently we don’t have any tags set up but once we do set up our first tag you’re going to see the top of the screen change and you’ll see a section that says money in and money out let me give you an example of what we’re going to do with our tags this is a company called Craig’s design and landscape services they actually do two different things they do design work and they do pest control and as part of their design work they have three different areas they focus on they focus on fountains landscaping and sprinklers if I wanted to put my tags in a group then I can do that as well and you will see the group’s listed right here along with the tags but let’s start with just a tag I’m going to come over here and under new I’m going to choose tag and let’s say that I use fountains as my first tag if I wanted to put it in a group I could but I don’t have any groups set up yet so right now I’m just gonna hit safe at the bottom and now you’ll see my first tag called fountains and notice it’s ungrouped it’s not part of a group now here’s what I was saying a second ago about the money in and money out once I start applying these tags to different transactions I can come here and see the money in or out based on those tags I have now let me go ahead and create a group to show you how this works I’m going to create a tag group and I want to create a group called design and I’m going to create another one in a minute called pest control now you’ll notice that from this screen here if I wanted to add a tag I can do it right from here without having to go back out and hit new tag I’m gonna add two more because I have fans and I want to add landscaping and we’re also going to add sprinklers and I’ll just hit add tag there now let me go ahead and click done at the bottom and now what you’re going to see is design is a group and notice the down arrow in order to see the two tags in there I click the arrow and then I see those two now famines are still ungrouped if I wanted to add it to this design group I can come over here what says edit tag and then I can select the group I’d like it to belong to in this case design and when I save it now you’ll see design has three tags underneath now let me create one more tag group I’m going to create one called pest control and let’s say under pest control that I’m going to create two tags I’m going to create one for residential and one for commercial customers I’ll add that one then come back and add commercial and then add that and now I’m going to say done at the bottom and now you can see at the bottom I’ve got two different tags I’ve got one that’s pest control and one that’s design now the other thing is notice the color blue I can leave it like this but if you want each tag group can have a different color scheme going on if I come over here to edit the group you’ll notice that here I can change the color maybe this one can be this yellow color and I can save that and notice it also made all the tags below it that same color and that way they just stand out a little bit when I’m looking at different reports or things now let me show you where you’re going to use these tags or tag groups this will be in any transaction let’s say that I go over and I create a new invoice you’ll notice that in here you have an option that says tags you can choose from the drop-down list and you can choose more than one if you need to this might have fountains and it might also have some pest control and there’s your two tags that we’re going to be using now I will be able to look up reports based on the product or service but I can also look at the reports based on fountains or commercial now let me just go ahead and set something up here so you can see how this works I’ll pick Tom Allen we’re going to go down and pick for a product or service we’re going to go ahead and say this is and we’re gonna say one at $50 and then let’s see for the next one here we pick fountains we’ll do a rock fountain and that one was 275 now let’s say also we’re gonna do some pest control around this rock fountain so that we don’t have bugs in there and now we’ve got a couple of different products and services here now when I go ahead and click Save and close here we’re gonna go back to our tags and see if we have any money that’s in or out of these and now you’ll see that there’s three hundred and eighty two dollars money in because remember QuickBooks considers at the time you create the invoice it to be part of your income when you actually write a check use your credit card that sort of thing that will be on the money outside so if you had to actually buy some materials related to one of these and you tagged those transactions you would see the money out show up over here and that’s basically how tags are going to work it’s going to be a great new feature that’s really going to help you drill down a little bit deeper than you can now to see where your money is coming in or money is going out let’s go ahead and do one more thing in this module we’re going to look at some of the reports that have to do with your customers and sales QuickBooks has a ton of different reports related to your customers and your sales and I want to take you through and show you some of these different ones that you will want to run on a regular basis to see how your company is doing in these different areas let me go ahead and flip over to QuickBooks and I will show you a couple of these different reports I’m going to head over to the navigation pane and I’m going to click on reports there are several different categories of reports here but I want to focus right now on the one that says who owes you and then below it are your sales and customers underneath who owes you probably one of the most common reports is the open invoices right here which you’ve seen before and this is just a list of all of your customers who still owe you money even if they owe you a penny you’ll notice that it shows you all the information you need about the transaction like the date you can see the amount and if you’re on that line and you just point to any of these pieces of information you’ll see that you can click and actually go to that transaction if you actually change that transaction and then get out of it when you come back here as long as you’re safe the transaction the report will be updated another one I’m going to go back to reports that you’ll want to look at is going to be under who owes you customer balance detail this report will show you all the transactions that occurred for each customer and each job or sub customer when you first come in it might look like you’re just looking at the invoices anything open what you need to do is go up to the top right and choose customize come down to where you see filter and you’ll notice that where it says AR paid it says unpaid right now go ahead and choose all from the list and then run the report at the bottom and now you’ll see each transaction that happened for each customer sub customer end or job here I’m going to go ahead and go back to reports we’ll look at a few more here back down to who owes you there are some other ones that you might want to look at for example you might want to run a collections report this one is going to show you all of the information about the customer this time you’ll notice there’s a phone number here as well so if you needed to make some phone calls and call some of these people you’ve got that information right here on this report I’m going back to reports some other ones just to notice you do have the ability to run an accounts receivable aging detail and an aging summary anytime you see a summary and a detail the summary will show you the line item at one total whereas the aging detail will show every single option that made up that category or that line item that you would normally see you can see an invoice list here if you like you can see a terms list there’s a statement list just all kinds of things you can look at underneath who owes you now down under sales and customer here’s where you can run things like a customer contact list this is just going to give you each customer their phone number their email that sort of thing you can also go in and look at estimates by customer you might want to see if you have any income by customer you might want to see all your payment methods product lists and services your sales you can look at those by customer you can look at them by product and you can also look at them by time or activities so just know that there’s a lot of different reports under those two options right there now most of your reports can be customized if you happen to run for example a sales by customer detail you’ll notice that you can come up here and change the report period I can look at all dates and then I can hit run report and I’ll see all of the information for each customer I can group these by customer I can group them by product I’ve got all different kind of ways I can group this report and also something else to notice is that all of your reports are automatically run on the cruel basis not a cash basis and you can change it per report if you need to accrual basically means that as soon as you invoice a customer it’s going to show as income to your business in QuickBooks whether they’ve paid it or not if you had any expenses let’s say you entered a bill it would show it as an expense whether you paid that bill or not we’re gonna see how this really works when we look at a profit and loss a little bit later but let’s go ahead and just kind of wrap this up I just wanted you to see the reports that were available for customers and for your sales and most of them will be under these two headings let’s go ahead now and move over to module six and talk a little bit about products and services we’re just starting module six now and in this module I want to talk to you about how products and services work in QuickBooks a product or service is something that you either sell your customer or sometimes you purchase those products and services as well and you want to set those up and make sure you set the correctly so that you have accurate reports as far as inventory or as far as some of your profit and loss those types of things let’s go ahead and flip over to QuickBooks and start talking a little bit about how products and services work I’m going to give you a quick overview and then I’ll take you into section two and show you how to add some of those products and services to get to a list of your products and services go to the gear icon on the top right of your screen then underneath the list you’ll see products and services this is a list of all the products and services that you have set up remember that sometimes you buy these and sometimes you sell these and there are different types of products and services you can create you’ll notice currently minors sorted by type if I want to sort by any of these other columns I would click on the name and just sort by that column you’ll see there are services you provide like landscaping trimming you’ll see that there are different pest control those are all services you provide when you get past the service items you’re going to see that there are actual inventory items as well inventory means that you actually sell physical products and you count how many you have for example when I look at rock fountain you’ll notice that it looks like I have two on hand and I can buy more and add to my inventory or I can sell these and that will take it out of my inventory there are other types of items that you can have as well you can have non inventory items those are actually items that you don’t want to check them and you have in the back but they’re physical items that you either buy or sell you’ll notice when you’re looking at this list that you can see the name of the item if you’re using SKU numbers and we got those set up you’d be able to see that here the item type a description and this is the description that automatically appears when you pull that item onto an invoice or some sort of form in QuickBooks you’ve got the sales price if there’s one set up sometimes it’s different for every customer so they just don’t set up a price you just do it when you’re actually invoicing the customer or if you happen to buy this whenever you’re purchasing it if this item is subject to sales tax you would see that here if it’s inventory we saw that you can see the quantity on hand and the reorder point that basically means that when you get down to a certain number that QuickBooks will pop up and tell you you need to order some more and you can see that they did not set that up in this exercise the last column that you see is the action column here’s where you can edit to one of these items if you need to make it inactive adjust the quantity that you might have on-hand those types of things but this is where your list of products and services is going to live what I want to do now is show you how to set up some of these products and services so let’s head on over to section two so that you can see how to do that now that you’ve had a quick overview of what the products and services screen looks like I want to take you in and show you how to create your own products and services some of you may only have six or seven in your business other businesses might have thousands it just really depends on what your business does let’s go ahead and flip over and talk about how to add those new products and services the way you’re going to add a new product or service is head up to the new option in the products and services window the first thing you need to tell QuickBooks is what type of product or service is this that you’re adding is it going to be inventory inventory means that you want to keep some on hand and then have QuickBooks remind you when you get down to a low number so that you can order some more that’s called true inventory you can track how many you sold and how many purchased sometimes you don’t want to keep any in the back room and that’s what we call non inventory it might be a physical product that you buy or sell but you just run reports when you need to to see how many you bought or sold you don’t really need to keep any in the back room a service is a service you provide and then you have the OP take any of those three and put them into what’s called a bundle the example they use here is a gift basket of fruit cheese and wine you might actually add something else to that gift basket like a spoon or a cup or something like that and you can actually set those up as one of these three types and then you can create a bundle which includes those three items let’s go ahead for now and say that we’re going to set up a service the first thing we’re going to do is go ahead and give our service a name and I’m just going to call this maintenance you have the ability if you have SKU numbers for your products and services to put that number in here and also you can add a picture of that particular product or service from over here where this little pencil is this would have to be a picture that’s already in your computer and then you can go and grab and pull in you can also put your products and services in different categories there’s a few already created for the exercise but if you wanted to add a new category you could do that by hitting the add new option and creating a category like you see here they’ve got design landscaping and pest control as categories the next thing is the description when you actually put this on an invoice which means you’re selling this to your customer what is the description that appears let’s say that it says quarterly maintenance and then the next thing is going to be the sales price if you have a flat rate you charge for this then you can type that in and it will pre-populate for you but if it’s different every single time then you’ll want to just leave this blank nothing happens here it’s only when you buy or sell the product or service that numbers play into your reports but let’s just say that we have a flat rate of $250 a quarter we charge for this and then the next thing which is the most important thing on this screen is the income account that you want this money to go back to when you put this on an invoice in this case they’ve got it automatically going back to services income which is where I would probably leave it but if you wanted to put this in any other account feel free it’s just it needs to be an income account now if you don’t pick an income account QuickBooks will not say anything to you about it but you’ll look at reports and they’ll be really wrong and you can’t figure out why look at the word the word is income meaning it needs to go to an income account if this was a particular product or service that you were going to charge sales tax on then here’s where you tell QuickBooks this is a taxable product or service or non-taxable product or service typically services you provide are non-taxable and physical items you sell are taxable now if this happens to be a particular product or service that you buy from a vendor that you like you can check the box and put in the vendor information but I’m going to go ahead and uncheck that and click Save and close at the bottom and now you’ll notice that I have a new service in my list here it’s called maintenance and you can see all of the information all the way across now if I needed to edit that information I can click on edit here that will take me back to this screen and I can change whatever I need to and save and close again and then it will be updated you do have a couple of other actions you can take under this drop-down arrow here you can make this service inactive if you need to you can also run a report on this service or you can duplicate it that’s a quick way to go ahead and set up your new products and serve says now that you know how to set up a service let’s go ahead and look at setting up an inventory product that way you can see how to tell QuickBooks how many you currently have on hand and then you can see how inventory is added to or deducted from that number now that you know how to add new products and services and QuickBooks let’s talk specifically about adding inventory products true inventory means that you want to keep a count on how many of these products you have in your office you want QuickBooks to let you know when you get low so that you can order some more you’ll want to actually know how many you have on hand when you first set up your new inventory product and once you’ve done that then as you invoice customers that is how your products will get out of inventory and as you purchase them that’s how your products will get back into inventory let’s go ahead and flip over to QuickBooks and I will show you how to add an inventory product you’re going to add an inventory product the same way we added the new products and services over in section to go to the top of your products and services list and choose the new option this time we’re going to choose inventory the first thing you’re going to do is give your inventory a name I’m going to call this one sprinkler clamps and then we’re going to give it a SKU I’ll call this one 55 and then we’ll choose a category and let’s say in this case that we’re going to put it under landscaping now here’s where you put in the initial quantity on hand this means you’re going to do a count before you set up your product and if you have 10 in the back room you’re going to put that in here and that gives it a starting number you also want to have a date to start this with and let’s just say in this case that I want to go back to the beginning of February reorder point what this means is what number do you want to get down to before QuickBooks pops up and tells you that you need to order some more let’s just say in this case when we get down two three the next thing you’re going to see is inventory asset account now do not change this this is the account that the value of the inventory will actually go into in your chart of accounts remember that inventory is an asset to your business you are worth more because you have it right now but your goal is to sell it and get it out the door this is the asset account the inventory will sit in and then we’re going to put in a description now I would put in the same thing will for new sprinkler clamps and then if you have a set rate than you charge for this you’ll want to type this in if you don’t have one that’s different every single time then you can just leave a blank let’s say that we sell it for two dollars and seventy five cents you don’t want to change this either because this is the income account that this will go into when you make a sale when I put sprinkler clamps on an invoice and I sell this it will go into the sales of product income account if this is a taxable product you’ll want to make sure that this says taxable and now we have the purchasing information this was the selling information up here this is when you purchase it down here the first thing it asks for is a description when you order this from whatever company you order them from what is their description and sometimes it’ll be the same other times it might have a part number at the end there’s just all kinds of different things that this could say what is the cost and this means on average what do you buy it for it does not mean that the last time you purchase this it was a dollar seventy-five let’s just say on average though it is a dollar seventy-five and it will go to an expense account called cost of goods sold if you have a preferred vendor then you can pick them from the list here it could be that you like to get these from Hicks hardware and that’s all you need to tell it I’m going to go ahead and click Save and close at the bottom and now I should see my sprinkler clamps right here you can see the SKU number we typed in the sale price the cost there’s ten of these currently and when we get down to three it’s going to pop up and ask us if we want to order some more don’t forget you have some options over here under your action column if you wanted to go into just the quantity maybe you discovered there’s really only nine in the back room you’ll be able to do that you also have the ability to adjust the starting value and that’s really all there is to adding inventory products let’s go ahead now and move over to section four and talk a little bit about purchase orders if your company buys a lot of products you might want to create a purchase order system for your business when you do this it’s a way of actually tracking everything you have ordered and that way you can see what’s come in if there’s anything back ordered that sort of thing and this is also going to be a way to start the process of receiving your items into inventory let me go ahead and show you how to create a purchase order before we get started there’s a couple things that you need to know first of all if you’d like to use the purchase order feature in QuickBooks you have to be enrolled in the QuickBooks Online Plus edition that’s the Edition that actually handles purchase orders the other thing is you’re going to have to actually turn on the purchase order feature in the account settings let me show you where to go for that you go up to the gear icon you’re going over to accountant settings make sure you’re clicked on expenses and here’s where you see purchase orders if this is not on just come over here to this pencil and then make sure you check the box here to use purchase orders as long as that’s good then you should be fine I’m going to go ahead and close with the X and let’s go and look real quick at our products and services because I want to show you how we’re going to order some more and put it into our inventory I’m going to click on the gear icon under the list the second column I’m going to click products and services if you remember we talked about some of these being inventory and one of these that I want to talk about right here is going to be this rock fell now let’s say we have two of these but we’re getting ready to do a new job and we need to order two more to have a total of four this is what we’re going to order to create a new purchase order I’m going to go to the navigation bar and click on new I’m going to go down in the second column and click on purchase order and the first thing I need to do when creating a purchase order is to pick my vendor I’m going to go down the list here and we’re gonna pick Hicks hardware if you had Hicks hardware’s email it would be pulled in right here you can see there’s the mailing address and then let’s talk about the ship – for a second if you want to have Hicks Hardware ship these directly to your customer you can choose your customer from here if not then it’s just going to come to your office you don’t need to choose anything there here’s the date of your purchase order and in this case they’re using the crew number field so we’re going to plug something in there you can also set a ship via which would say USPS FedEx you can also set a sales rep if you had those as well now looking down the list you want to use the item details not the category details here and remember we’re getting ready to order some more rock fountains now let’s take the other ones out of the list we’re just going to go ahead and click the little trash can over on the right and I want to get two of these so that I have a total of four when I’m done again if it’s related to a particular customer you’ll want to plug that information in right here if you were ordering other things as well you can go ahead and put all of these in here you have a place to put a message to your vendor a memo and at the bottom some attachments once this is done you’re going to go ahead and send this over to your vendor I’m going to go ahead and say save and close and that’s how that works if you have the vendors email address you could have emailed this directly to them other than that maybe you called them on the phone and ordered it but you do have your Pio in here now so that whenever you go to receive these items you have something to receive it against that’s how you actually create a purchase order the next step in the process is that your products actually come in and you’re going to go in and receive those products into your inventory let’s go ahead and head over to section 5 so I can show you how that works now that you’ve created a purchase order you can actually receive the items into your inventory the logical process is that once you order the items from your vendor they’re going to come in the next week 10 days probably and you’re going to want to receive them into your inventory let’s go ahead and flip over to QuickBooks so I can show you how that process works let’s head back to our products and services for a moment I want to show you that if we go down and look at rock film we still just have two and that’s because all we’ve done at this point is order two more once we get through going through this receiving products into inventory feature then you’re going to notice that this number will go up to four all you have to do is head over to the navigation bar and click on new and we’re going to create a new bill the first thing it asks you is who is your vendor and this is where I’m going to pick Hicks Hardware and you’ll notice as soon as I do that that this little window pops up over on the right and this is letting me know that I have an open purchase order if you want to actually add the items on this purchase order to this bill just click at and if you look down here it’s added the rock fountains it’s added two of them and it’s got a rate amount and everything we talked about here because this is an actual bill from the vendor we want to make sure that their rate and the amount and all of that is correct if there happened to be a sale and that’s why we had ordered two of these we would change the rate and of course the amount would change in that case going back up to the top you’ll see that it pulled in our mailing address for Hicks hardware we’re going to want to choose the terms that are on that bill we’re going to say thirty here’s the build date – meaning the date that it was actually printed and the due date meaning the date it was actually due we’ll also want to plug in our bill number over here and that’s really all we need to do there’s a place for a memo down on the bottom left we can add attachments if we want and when we’re finished we’re going to save and close now let’s go see how many we have in inventory now and if we’re looking at rock fountain we have four of those and that’s one of the ways that things get into inventory through a purchase order now we’ll be looking at some other ways things get into inventory it could be you’ve written a check it could be that you’ve actually gone in a debit card but this is a way of creating an order and then receiving that order I want to go ahead and look at the last section in module six here I want to look at some reports related to product and services and then we’ll be done with module six the last thing I wanted to do with you in this particular module is go through some of the reports related to products and services there are a ton of reports in here I want you take some time after watching this video and just go back through some of the ones that we didn’t talk about just to see what’s available we’re going to go ahead and flip now over to QuickBooks and I will show you how to get to those product and service reports you want to head over to your navigation pane and click on reports if you had saved some of these as your favorites they would show up at the top here but let’s scroll down until you see a heading that says expenses and vendors here are your purchase order reports right here one is a list and one is the purchase order detail let’s start with the list you’ll notice these are all of the open purchase orders and they’re listed by vendor if you’ve already received your items from the purchase order it’s not considered open anymore and it won’t show up in this list you’ve got a couple of options up here right now we’re showing purchase orders for all the dates which is what you want and they’re grouped by vendor you can also come over here and customize this a little bit if you wanted to actually look at some filter options you can go down the list and show just specific vendors or if you want to see all vendors we’ll go ahead and choose all from the list and you can see these other options here as well I’m going to go ahead and run the report and I get the same one because I was looking at the open purchase orders all of them now let me go back to the reports list and show you the difference in that one and what we call the open purchase order detail this one here I’m going to change the dates because look how there’s nothing in the report because it’s only reflecting March first but if I choose all dates and then run the report now I can see the purchase orders that are in here and the details about each one and what that means is it’s going to show me every line item in that purchase order I’m grouping this currently by product or service I might group them by vendor and run that report and of course there’s only one and then also I have the same customized options that I showed you just a minute ago if you wanted to choose some filter options you could if you wanted to go down and choose some options for the header and footer which is this area up here you could edit that and then you could run the report once you’ve made your changes now let me go ahead and go back to the report list I want to just mention some other ones here that don’t have to do with purchase orders but you are going to see that if you want to look at things like the purchases by vendor you could do that you might look at your purchases by product or you might look at a transaction list by vendor vendor contact list you can kind of see those reports there there are lots of these reports and you’ll want to run them on a regular basis just so you can see what’s going on and make sure you’ve done things correctly in QuickBooks well that’s going to wrap up module six where we talked about products and services let’s head on over to module seven and change focus and talk a little bit about vendors and expenses if you’re not a subscriber click down below to subscribe so you get notified about similar videos we upload to get a free QuickBooks Online essential keyboard shortcuts infographic click over there and click over there to watch more QuickBooks videos from Simon Says it

By Amjad Izhar
Contact: amjad.izhar@gmail.com
https://amjadizhar.blog

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This video tutorial by Hannah Smolinski of Clara CFO Group provides a comprehensive guide to using the invoicing feature in QuickBooks Online. It emphasizes the importance of managing invoices within an accounting system for accurate tracking of payments and identification of errors. The tutorial details how to create, customize, and send invoices, including options for setting payment terms, adding custom messages, and utilizing payment links. Smolinski also highlights the use of the Accounts Receivable Aging report for monitoring outstanding invoices. Finally, the video demonstrates how QuickBooks automatically matches payments to invoices, simplifying the accounting process.

QuickBooks Online Invoicing: A Comprehensive Study Guide

Quiz

Instructions: Answer each question in 2-3 sentences.

1. Why is it beneficial to do invoicing within an accounting system like QuickBooks Online instead of a manual system?
2. What is the Accounts Receivable Aging Report, and why is it important for business owners to review?
3. Describe the basic structure of an invoice in QuickBooks Online.
4. What are the two primary ways a customer can pay an invoice directly through QuickBooks, and what setup is required to enable this feature?
5. What are some ways you can customize invoice terms, and why might a business choose to do so?
6. Besides manually entering data, how can you create a new invoice from an existing one, and what benefit does that provide?
7. What are some elements of an invoice that you can customize in QuickBooks Online under “design” and “content?”
8. What are some ways to share an invoice with a customer once it has been created within QuickBooks?
9. What advantage does having invoices within QuickBooks provide when recording payments received?
10. Why is it crucial to review the accounts receivable aging report on a regular basis?

Answer Key

1. Invoicing within an accounting system helps track what has been paid and not paid, reduces errors, and allows you to identify discrepancies more easily than a manual system. Using an accounting system also allows you to generate reports to provide valuable business insights.
2. The Accounts Receivable Aging Report shows which invoices are outstanding, how long they’ve been outstanding, and how long it has been since they’ve been paid. Reviewing this report is critical for managing cash flow and identifying delinquent payments.
3. An invoice in QuickBooks includes customer information, what was sold, the total amount due, payment options, terms, the invoice date, due date, and product and service lines. You can also include billing address.
4. Customers can pay directly through QuickBooks via ACH or credit card. This requires setting up a merchant services account and connecting your bank account to QuickBooks to receive payments.
5. You can customize invoice terms to set specific due dates, such as net 10, net 30, or by the 30th of every month. Businesses customize them to align with their industry’s standards, cash flow needs, or customer payment practices.
6. You can create a new invoice from an existing one by setting up a recurring transaction. This is beneficial for saving time on repetitive invoices, as well as for sending regular invoices for services that occur periodically.
7. Under “design,” you can add a logo, change colors, text, and font sizes, and adjust the margins. Under “content,” you can change your business information, add or remove data fields such as date or description, and customize the message to the customer.
8. You can share an invoice via email directly from QuickBooks, save it as a PDF, and email it manually, or share a direct link to the invoice with a client.
9. When invoices are within QuickBooks, the system can automatically match payments to invoices and simplify the accounting process and makes recording the payment much easier.
10. Regularly reviewing the accounts receivable aging report allows a business to identify unpaid invoices and take the necessary steps to collect those payments, which is critical for maintaining healthy cash flow.

Essay Questions

Instructions: Choose ONE of the following prompts to answer in an essay format.

1. Discuss the importance of using a system like QuickBooks Online for invoicing, detailing the risks and inefficiencies of using a manual or paper-based system.
2. Explain how QuickBooks Online enables businesses to customize invoices and payment terms, and why these customizations are crucial for a streamlined financial process.
3. Analyze the value of the Accounts Receivable Aging Report for a small business. How can this report improve cash flow and financial decision-making?
4. Discuss the ways QuickBooks facilitates seamless payments from customers, highlighting the various options businesses have for receiving payment, and the benefits of linking them to QuickBooks.
5. Imagine you are a consultant helping a small business owner who has been using a paper invoicing system. Detail the specific benefits you would emphasize when convincing them to switch to QuickBooks Online.

Glossary of Key Terms

Accounts Receivable: Money owed to a company by its customers for goods or services that have been delivered or used but not yet paid for.

Accounts Receivable Aging Report: A report that categorizes a company’s accounts receivable by the length of time an invoice has been outstanding. It is used to manage collections.

ACH (Automated Clearing House): An electronic network for financial transactions in the United States, used for direct debit and direct deposit.

Custom Terms: Payment terms on an invoice that a business can adjust to suit their industry or specific business practices.

Due Date: The date by which a payment must be received. Invoicing terms dictate when payment is due in relation to the invoice date.

Invoice Date: The date when an invoice is issued to the customer for goods or services. It’s often the start of the payment period.

Invoice Number: A unique identifier assigned to each invoice for tracking and record-keeping purposes.

Merchant Services Account: An account that allows a business to accept electronic payments like credit and debit cards and ACH. It facilitates the transaction between the customer and business.

Net Terms: Payment terms that specify how long a customer has to pay an invoice, such as “Net 30” which means payment is due within 30 days.

QuickBooks Online: A cloud-based accounting software package designed to help small businesses manage their finances, including invoicing.

Recurring Invoice: An invoice that is automatically created and sent on a regular basis. Used for repeat billing for ongoing services or subscriptions.

QuickBooks Online Invoicing Best Practices

Okay, here’s a detailed briefing document summarizing the key themes and ideas from the provided source, which is a transcript of a YouTube video about QuickBooks Online invoicing:

Briefing Document: QuickBooks Online Invoicing

Source: Excerpts from a YouTube video transcript by Hannah Smolinski of Clara CFO Group.

Date: [Implied from transcript context]

Subject: QuickBooks Online Invoicing Functionality and Best Practices

Key Themes and Ideas:

1. Importance of Invoicing within an Accounting System (QuickBooks Online):

• Centralized Tracking: The primary argument for using QuickBooks Online (or any accounting system) for invoicing is to maintain a centralized record of invoices. This helps avoid errors and ensures nothing is missed.
• Payment Tracking & Accuracy: Keeps track of what has been paid, what hasn’t been, and identifies discrepancies (underpayments, missing payments, etc.) This is much more reliable than paper-based or manual systems which have a higher chance of error.
• Reporting: Using the built-in system allows for reporting, particularly the Accounts Receivable Aging report, which is critical for managing cash flow and identifying overdue payments. “We look at that report all the time…if you have lots of outstanding invoices that is a detriment to your business.”
• Cash Flow Management: Unpaid invoices directly impact cash flow. The system helps track and follow up on outstanding invoices, ensuring money owed is received.

1. QuickBooks Online Invoicing Features:

• Dashboard Overview: QuickBooks provides a dashboard view of invoices, showing outstanding, deposited, and paid invoices. You can filter this view by date, invoice number, customer, and status.
• Invoice Creation:Customization: The invoicing platform is highly customizable. Users can add customer information, product/service details, invoice terms, due dates, and more.
• Emailing: Invoices can be sent directly to customers via email or shared via a link, allowing for easy payment.
• Payment Options: QuickBooks allows you to integrate merchant services to accept payments via credit card or ACH, streamlining the payment process, although this needs to be set up separately.
• Terms and Due Dates: Terms (e.g., Net 30, Due on Receipt) and due dates are customizable.
• Recurring Invoices: You can create recurring invoices, automating the process for regularly billed clients.
• Tagging: Invoices can be tagged for better organization and tracking within QuickBooks.
• Subtotals: You can add subtotals to the invoice to categorize different services and products if you have different categories.
• Invoice Customization:Design Templates: You can choose from design templates, add a logo, and modify color and font to match branding.
• Content Customization: You can customize what information is shown on the invoice (e.g., business name, phone number, address, website), and even change the name of “invoice”. You can also specify which product/service details are shown and how they are formatted (e.g. description underneath product/service line item, quantity, rate, total).
• Message Customization: You can add custom messages on the invoice, for example with contact details, and customize the email sent with the invoice (either as a default message or per customer).

1. Workflow and Payment Process:

• Sending Invoices: Invoices can be emailed directly or a link to the invoice can be shared.
• Payment Recording: When payments are received through QuickBooks, the system automatically matches payments to the correct invoices, streamlining reconciliation.
• Link Sharing: Invoices can be shared via links, allowing for quick access, especially in cases where email filters may prevent delivery. These links can be integrated into onboarding processes or workflows.
• Flexibility: Users can save and close, save and create a new invoice, or save and send, with each having its own uses depending on if you want to send the invoice via email immediately or via another method.

1. Accounts Receivable Management:

• Importance of AR Aging Report: The Accounts Receivable Aging report is a crucial tool for tracking outstanding invoices and understanding how long they have been unpaid. The video states that “this is a really great report you should be looking at it all the time”.
• Red Flags: Invoices older than 60 days are considered a red flag and require follow-up.
• Proactive Communication: Regularly check AR Aging and reach out to customers with outstanding invoices, offering convenient payment methods (e.g., links to pay via credit card).

Key Quotes:

• “By keeping track of things in a system you’re going to be able to know what has been paid and what has not been paid.”
• “When you do things outside of the system…it’s just has a higher likelihood of error.”
• “We look at that report [Accounts Receivable Aging] all the time…if you have lots of outstanding invoices that is a detriment to your business.”
• “The invoicing platform is really customizable in QuickBooks”
• “All of that information is really customizable.”
• “one of the reasons that we like to have this invoicing in the system is that then…when a payment comes through QuickBooks, QuickBooks will notice and recognize that hey a payment has been made for this invoice”

Overall Message:

The video strongly advocates for using QuickBooks Online’s invoicing system for its accuracy, efficiency, and reporting capabilities. It emphasizes the importance of keeping all financial processes within a centralized system to minimize errors, track payments effectively, and manage cash flow. The speaker provides detailed instruction on how to use the system and customize the invoices to suit business needs, encouraging users to adopt a professional and streamlined approach to invoicing.

QuickBooks Online Invoicing FAQ

FAQ on QuickBooks Online Invoicing

1. Why is it important to use QuickBooks Online (or any accounting system) for invoicing instead of a manual or separate system? Using an accounting system like QuickBooks for invoicing reduces errors and helps you track what has been paid and what hasn’t. It allows you to identify underpayments, missed payments, and helps you match recurring payments more effectively than a manual system. By keeping invoicing within the system, you can easily generate crucial reports like the Accounts Receivable Aging report, which helps you understand who owes you money and for how long. Ultimately, this leads to better financial management and reduces outstanding invoices that can negatively impact your cash flow.
2. How can I customize my invoices in QuickBooks Online? QuickBooks Online offers extensive customization options. You can modify the overall design by adding your logo, changing color schemes, font styles, and margins. You can also adjust the content, such as including your business’s phone number and website. You can modify labels, like changing “invoice” to “statement of work” if needed. Further, you can choose which information to display, like showing or hiding dates, product/service details, quantity, rate, or just totals. The order of information can also be adjusted and custom messages or terms can be added to the invoice. These customizations give your invoice a professional and tailored look.
3. What payment options can I offer through QuickBooks Online invoices? QuickBooks Online allows you to offer payment options, such as credit cards or ACH payments, directly through the invoice. To accept these payments, you need to set up a merchant services account and connect your bank account to QuickBooks. This feature allows customers to pay easily online and can make payment of invoices a smoother experience. You can control which payment methods are available on a per-invoice basis, allowing flexibility for large invoices (where you may want to use only ACH).
4. How can I set payment terms for my invoices in QuickBooks Online? QuickBooks Online allows you to set terms such as “due on receipt,” “net 30,” “net 60,” or custom terms (e.g., due in 10 days or by the 30th of every month). You can set up preset terms, or you can manually override the due date per invoice. This is useful to create consistency and to set expectations with clients.
5. How can I manage recurring invoices in QuickBooks Online? You can create recurring invoices from an existing invoice. This is beneficial if you have a regular service or product that you provide to the same client. This saves time by automating the creation of the invoice on a specified schedule.
6. How does QuickBooks help me track payments made against my invoices? QuickBooks recognizes payments made to an invoice in the system and automatically matches the payments to the invoice, making tracking payments more accurate and easier. This matching functionality reduces manual reconciliation of payments.
7. What is the Accounts Receivable Aging report, and why is it important? The Accounts Receivable Aging report shows all the outstanding invoices, categorized by how long they have been outstanding. It’s crucial because it allows you to quickly identify which customers have not paid and how long they have owed you money. This information allows you to take action and follow up on overdue invoices. It is particularly important to address invoices 60+ days overdue because those are significant detriments to a business’s cash flow.
8. What are some efficient ways to share invoices with customers using QuickBooks Online? QuickBooks Online offers multiple options for sharing invoices with customers, including emailing the invoice directly from the system, saving and sharing a link to the invoice that can be sent via email or other methods, or downloading a PDF copy. These options offer flexibility when sending invoices, accommodating different preferences and allowing you to resend invoices, and overcome email delivery issues.

QuickBooks Online Invoicing

QuickBooks Online has an invoicing feature that allows users to keep track of what has been paid and what has not been paid. Using the system helps to identify errors more quickly. The invoicing platform is customizable.

Key aspects of QuickBooks invoicing:

• Customization: Invoices can be customized to include business information, such as phone number, address, and website. The name of the invoice can be changed. The layout of the product and service information can be customized.
• Payment Options: Customers can pay via credit card or ACH, but this must be set up through a merchant services account and connected to a bank account.
• Terms: Invoice terms, such as due dates, can be set and customized. Options include due on receipt, a certain number of days, or a specific date.
• Email Options: Invoices can be sent directly to customers via email, and a link to the invoice can be shared. The email message can also be customized.
• Recurring Invoices: Invoices can be set up to recur.
• Reporting: QuickBooks can run reports, such as the accounts receivable aging report, which shows who has paid and who has not. This helps businesses to track outstanding payments.
• Matching Payments: When a payment is received, QuickBooks will recognize it and match it to the correct invoice, making accounting easier.

The dashboard for invoices in QuickBooks shows the outstanding invoices and those that have been paid. The view can be filtered by date, invoice number, customer, or status.

QuickBooks Online Invoicing Guide

The invoicing process in QuickBooks Online involves several key steps, from creating and customizing the invoice to receiving and matching payments.

Here’s a breakdown of the invoicing process:

• Creating an Invoice: An invoice includes customer information, what was sold, and the total amount due. The invoice date should be the date it was created or sent.
• Customization: QuickBooks allows for extensive customization of invoices.
• Design: Users can add a logo, change the color format, and adjust font and margins.
• Content: The information on the invoice, such as business name, phone number, address, and website can be customized. The name of the invoice itself can also be changed.
• Layout: Users can customize the layout of the product and service information, choosing to display the description underneath the product/service line item or remove it altogether. The quantity, rate, and total can also be customized. Subtotals can be added for different categories.
• Messages: A message to the customer can be added, such as contact information or a specific note.
• Payment Options:
• Setup: To accept credit card or ACH payments through QuickBooks, a merchant services account must be set up and connected to a bank account.
• Selection: For each invoice, users can choose whether to accept credit card or ACH payments.
• Terms: Invoice terms, such as due dates, can be set and customized. Options include due on receipt, a certain number of days, or a specific date. QuickBooks can calculate the due date automatically based on the terms, but this can also be overridden.
• Sending an Invoice:
• Email: Invoices can be sent directly to customers via email.
• Link: A link to the invoice can be shared with the customer, which is useful if the original email is lost or blocked by spam filters.
• Customizable Email: The email message can be customized for each invoice, or a default message can be set for all invoices.
• Recurring Invoices: Invoices can be set up to recur.
• Tracking Invoices: The invoice dashboard provides a view of outstanding and paid invoices and can be filtered by date, invoice number, customer, or status. Outstanding invoices are usually displayed at the top.
• Receiving Payments: When a payment is received, QuickBooks recognizes and matches it to the correct invoice, which makes accounting easier.
• Reporting: QuickBooks generates an accounts receivable aging report, which shows who has paid and who has not, which is crucial for tracking outstanding payments.

In summary, the QuickBooks invoicing process is designed to be highly customizable and integrated, making it easier for businesses to manage their billing and track payments within the accounting system.

Streamlining Invoicing with Accounting Systems

An accounting system, such as QuickBooks Online, is essential for managing invoicing and tracking payments. Using an accounting system for invoicing helps businesses to avoid errors and keep track of what has been paid and what has not.

Here’s how an accounting system enhances the invoicing process:

• Error Reduction: Keeping track of invoices and payments within a system like QuickBooks helps reduce the likelihood of errors that can occur with manual systems.
• Payment Tracking: The system records payments, making it easier to see if a payment is missed, if someone paid less than they should have, or if there are duplicate payments.
• Reporting: Accounting systems allow users to run reports such as the accounts receivable aging report, which provides insights into who has paid and who has not. This report is essential for businesses to keep track of outstanding payments and manage cash flow.
• Matching Payments: When payments are received, the system can match them to the correct invoice, which streamlines accounting.
• Customization: Accounting systems like QuickBooks allow users to customize invoices to include business information and the layout of product and service information.

By using an accounting system, businesses can have a more organized and efficient way to manage their invoices and payments. The system provides a dashboard view of all invoices, which can be filtered by date, invoice number, customer, or status. This allows businesses to quickly see their outstanding invoices and those that have been paid.

Managing Accounts Receivable with QuickBooks Online

Accounts receivable is a key concept in business accounting, representing the money owed to a company by its customers for goods or services that have been provided on credit. Managing accounts receivable is crucial for maintaining a healthy cash flow, and accounting systems like QuickBooks Online offer tools to effectively track and manage this aspect of business finances.

Key aspects of accounts receivable, as discussed in the sources:

• Tracking Payments: An accounting system like QuickBooks Online helps to track which invoices have been paid and which are still outstanding. By keeping track of invoices and payments within the system, businesses can identify errors, such as missed payments or incorrect amounts, more quickly.
• Accounts Receivable Aging Report: A key tool for managing accounts receivable is the accounts receivable aging report. This report provides a detailed breakdown of outstanding invoices, showing how long each payment has been overdue. The report is essential for understanding who owes money and how long it has been outstanding.
• This report is used to identify overdue invoices, with a focus on invoices that are 60 days or more past due, which are considered a “red flag”. Businesses can use this report to proactively follow up with clients and ensure they receive payments.
• Impact on Cash Flow: Outstanding invoices negatively impact a business’s cash flow because the money earned is not yet in the business. Keeping track of accounts receivable through the accounting system helps to ensure that a business collects the money it is owed.
• Matching Payments: When payments are received, accounting systems like QuickBooks can automatically match them to the correct invoice. This reduces the chance of errors and streamlines the accounting process.
• Proactive Measures: Businesses should use the information in the aging report to proactively contact customers with overdue payments. Providing a link to easily pay online, for example, can make it easier for customers to pay and help businesses receive money faster.

In summary, accounts receivable represents the money owed to a business, and managing this effectively using an accounting system like QuickBooks is crucial. The accounts receivable aging report is a key tool for tracking outstanding payments, and using this information can help businesses maintain healthy cash flow by ensuring that invoices are paid.

QuickBooks Online Invoice Customization

Invoice customization is a significant feature of QuickBooks Online, allowing businesses to tailor their invoices to their specific needs and branding. The customization options are extensive, covering both the design and content of the invoices.

Here’s a detailed look at the invoice customization capabilities within QuickBooks:

• Design Customization:
• Templates: Users can select from various templates to start with.
• Logo: A company logo can be added to the invoice, enhancing brand recognition.
• Color: The color scheme of the invoice can be changed to match company colors.
• Fonts: The font style and size can be adjusted.
• Margins: The margins of the invoice can be modified.
• Content Customization:
• Business Information: Businesses can customize the information displayed at the top of the invoice, such as the business name, phone number, address, and website.
• Invoice Title: The name of the invoice itself can be changed, for example to “Statement of Work,” which is useful if the term “invoice” does not fit.
• Invoice Number: The invoice number is included, and the user can choose to include other information.
• Data Fields: Users can choose which data fields to include on the invoice, such as the date, product or service, description, quantity, rate, and total. These fields can be added or removed.
• Layout: The layout of product and service information can be customized, for example, by placing the description underneath the product/service line item.
• Column Widths: The width of columns can also be adjusted.
• Subtotals: Subtotals can be added for different categories of products or services, which can make the invoice look more professional and organized.
• Message: A custom message can be added to the invoice, such as contact information or a specific note to the customer.
• Email Customization:
• Message: The email that accompanies the invoice can be customized, with specific notes or a default message that is used for all customers.
• Attachments: Users can select whether to include a summary of details and/or a PDF copy of the invoice in the email.

These customization options allow businesses to create invoices that reflect their brand and meet their specific needs. The ability to customize the content and layout ensures that the invoices are clear, professional, and provide all the necessary information to customers. Additionally, by customizing the email, businesses can add a personal touch and ensure their customers receive the invoice information.

By Amjad Izhar
Contact: amjad.izhar@gmail.com
https://amjadizhar.blog

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This series of video transcripts details using QuickBooks Desktop 2022, focusing on setup and workflow. The tutorial covers the Easy Step Interview, company file customization, managing customers and jobs, accounts payable and receivable processes (including invoicing, payments, and credit memos), and inventory management via purchase orders and item receipts. Specific features like customer groups, the income tracker, and statement generation are also explained. The instruction emphasizes consistent data entry for accurate reporting.

QuickBooks Desktop 2022 Study Guide

Short Answer Quiz

1. What is the purpose of the EasyStep Interview when setting up a company file in QuickBooks? The EasyStep Interview is designed to guide users through the initial setup of their company file by asking questions necessary to configure the company information, preferences, and basic accounting needs. It helps ensure a proper foundation for the company’s financial records.
2. Why is it important to accurately distinguish between employees and 1099 contractors in QuickBooks? Accurately distinguishing between employees and 1099 contractors is essential because they are treated differently for payroll and tax purposes. Employees require payroll tracking, while 1099 contractors necessitate specific setup for sending 1099 forms, and they should not be in the employee section of QuickBooks.
3. Explain what the “Chart of Accounts” is in QuickBooks and why it is important. The chart of accounts is a listing of all the different accounts used to track financial transactions in QuickBooks. It is essential because it categorizes income, expenses, assets, liabilities, and equity, ensuring accurate financial reporting and is the foundation of the software.
4. What is the purpose of the “Home Screen” in QuickBooks, and how can you easily access it from anywhere within the software? The Home Screen provides a central hub in QuickBooks, displaying workflow diagrams and quick access to common tasks. It can be easily accessed from anywhere in the software by clicking the “Home” option on the left-hand side navigation bar.
5. What are accounts payable and accounts receivable, and how do they function in QuickBooks? Accounts payable is a liability account that tracks the money a business owes to its vendors for unpaid bills, while accounts receivable is an asset account that tracks the money owed to the business by its customers for unpaid invoices. These accounts are crucial for managing cash flow.
6. Explain the difference between a short-term liability and a long-term liability. A short-term liability is something a business owes and expects to pay off within 12-13 months, while a long-term liability is something a business owes that will be paid off over a more extended period, like several years, such as a long-term loan.
7. How do owner draws and owner contributions affect the equity accounts in QuickBooks? Owner draws represent the money the business owner takes out of the business for personal use, which decreases equity. Owner contributions represent the money the owner puts into the business, which increases equity. Both actions are recorded in the owner’s equity accounts.
8. What is the purpose of a “customer group” in QuickBooks, and how can it help streamline customer communication? A customer group in QuickBooks allows you to categorize customers based on defined criteria, which helps streamline communication by allowing users to send emails to a group of customers instead of individually, improving efficiency and organization.
9. What is the function of an item in QuickBooks, and what different item types can you set up? An item in QuickBooks represents a product or service that you buy or sell, and item types include services, inventory parts, non-inventory parts, other charges, subtotal, groups, discounts, payments, and sales tax. Each type allows for different tracking and sales processes.
10. Explain the purpose of a credit memo and how it is different from a refund in QuickBooks? A credit memo is a document issued to a customer to reduce the amount they owe, while a refund is a reimbursement of money to the customer. Credit memos are applied to outstanding invoices, while refunds are direct payouts.

Short Answer Quiz Answer Key

1. What is the purpose of the EasyStep Interview when setting up a company file in QuickBooks? The EasyStep Interview is designed to guide users through the initial setup of their company file by asking questions necessary to configure the company information, preferences, and basic accounting needs. It helps ensure a proper foundation for the company’s financial records.
2. Why is it important to accurately distinguish between employees and 1099 contractors in QuickBooks? Accurately distinguishing between employees and 1099 contractors is essential because they are treated differently for payroll and tax purposes. Employees require payroll tracking, while 1099 contractors necessitate specific setup for sending 1099 forms, and they should not be in the employee section of QuickBooks.
3. Explain what the “Chart of Accounts” is in QuickBooks and why it is important. The chart of accounts is a listing of all the different accounts used to track financial transactions in QuickBooks. It is essential because it categorizes income, expenses, assets, liabilities, and equity, ensuring accurate financial reporting and is the foundation of the software.
4. What is the purpose of the “Home Screen” in QuickBooks, and how can you easily access it from anywhere within the software? The Home Screen provides a central hub in QuickBooks, displaying workflow diagrams and quick access to common tasks. It can be easily accessed from anywhere in the software by clicking the “Home” option on the left-hand side navigation bar.
5. What are accounts payable and accounts receivable, and how do they function in QuickBooks? Accounts payable is a liability account that tracks the money a business owes to its vendors for unpaid bills, while accounts receivable is an asset account that tracks the money owed to the business by its customers for unpaid invoices. These accounts are crucial for managing cash flow.
6. Explain the difference between a short-term liability and a long-term liability. A short-term liability is something a business owes and expects to pay off within 12-13 months, while a long-term liability is something a business owes that will be paid off over a more extended period, like several years, such as a long-term loan.
7. How do owner draws and owner contributions affect the equity accounts in QuickBooks? Owner draws represent the money the business owner takes out of the business for personal use, which decreases equity. Owner contributions represent the money the owner puts into the business, which increases equity. Both actions are recorded in the owner’s equity accounts.
8. What is the purpose of a “customer group” in QuickBooks, and how can it help streamline customer communication? A customer group in QuickBooks allows you to categorize customers based on defined criteria, which helps streamline communication by allowing users to send emails to a group of customers instead of individually, improving efficiency and organization.
9. What is the function of an item in QuickBooks, and what different item types can you set up? An item in QuickBooks represents a product or service that you buy or sell, and item types include services, inventory parts, non-inventory parts, other charges, subtotal, groups, discounts, payments, and sales tax. Each type allows for different tracking and sales processes.
10. Explain the purpose of a credit memo and how it is different from a refund in QuickBooks? A credit memo is a document issued to a customer to reduce the amount they owe, while a refund is a reimbursement of money to the customer. Credit memos are applied to outstanding invoices, while refunds are direct payouts.

Essay Questions

1. Discuss the importance of setting up a company file correctly in QuickBooks, and how the EasyStep Interview contributes to this. Explain what consequences could result from an incorrect setup and suggest best practices for ensuring accuracy.
2. Explain the process of setting up and managing a “Chart of Accounts” in QuickBooks. Discuss the importance of proper account types and sub-accounts, and provide an example of how incorrect classification can lead to inaccuracies in financial reports.
3. Describe how the workflow for customer management operates in QuickBooks, including setting up customers, creating invoices, receiving payments, and creating statements. Explain best practices for managing accounts receivable and how this ensures accurate financial reporting.
4. Compare and contrast the methods for entering bills and paying them in QuickBooks. Discuss why it’s important to follow the correct workflow from entering a bill to recording the payment, and detail how to handle vendor credits effectively.
5. Explain the various types of items available in QuickBooks and discuss how they affect both inventory management and financial tracking. Provide examples of how proper use of item types leads to more accurate business accounting, and discuss the impact on financial reporting.

Glossary

• Accounts Payable: A liability account that tracks the money a business owes to its vendors for unpaid bills.
• Accounts Receivable: An asset account that tracks the money owed to the business by its customers for unpaid invoices.
• Chart of Accounts: A listing of all the different accounts used to track financial transactions in QuickBooks, categorizing income, expenses, assets, liabilities, and equity.
• Cost of Goods Sold: Direct costs attributable to the production of the goods sold by a company. This includes things like raw materials and direct labor.
• Credit Memo: A document issued to a customer to reduce the amount they owe, typically applied to outstanding invoices.
• Customer Group: A method to categorize customers in QuickBooks based on certain criteria, facilitating targeted communication and reporting.
• EasyStep Interview: A guided setup process in QuickBooks that helps users configure their company file by asking necessary questions.
• Equity: The owner’s stake in the company, representing the residual interest in the assets after deducting liabilities.
• Home Screen: The central hub in QuickBooks that displays workflow diagrams and provides quick access to common tasks.
• Item: A product or service that you buy or sell, tracked in QuickBooks with various types including services, inventory parts, non-inventory parts, and other charges.
• Long-Term Liability: Something a business owes that will be paid off over an extended period, typically more than 12-13 months.
• Owner Contributions: The money the owner puts into the business, which increases equity.
• Owner Draws: The money the business owner takes out of the business for personal use, which decreases equity.
• Refund: A reimbursement of money to the customer.
• Short-Term Liability: Something a business owes and expects to pay off within 12-13 months.
• Vendor: A person or business from whom you purchase goods or services.

QuickBooks Desktop 2022 Training Guide

Okay, here is a detailed briefing document summarizing the provided text, focusing on key themes, important ideas, and factual points, with relevant quotes:

Briefing Document: QuickBooks Desktop 2022 Training

Overall Theme: This training material provides a comprehensive guide to using QuickBooks Desktop 2022, focusing on initial setup, customization, and core business processes. It covers company setup, managing customers and vendors, handling inventory, and core accounting functions. The material is presented as a series of modules and videos, designed for step-by-step learning.

Module 1: Initial Setup

• EasyStep Interview: The training emphasizes the importance of the “EasyStep Interview” for company setup, calling it “the easy step interview” and stating that it “will ask you most of the questions you will need to get the company file set up correctly”.
• Company Information: This step collects basic company information including name, legal name (if different), tax ID (only needed for 1099s or payroll), address, phone, fax, email, and website. The user is told they “don’t really need this unless you’re going to be printing some 1099s, you’re doing payroll, or something where it needs that tax ID number.”
• Industry Selection: Users choose their industry from a comprehensive list or select “general product-based business” or “general service-based business”.
• Business Activities: Users specify if they sell services, products, or both. They are also asked if they want to create estimates, use statements, and use progress invoicing. The speaker says “there’s no wrong answer here”, and they suggest turning them both on if there’s any chance products will be sold later.
• Managing Bills: Users are asked about managing bills they owe and tracking time. They are told “a lot of people actually just receive a bill and they throw that bill on their desk in a basket and then when it’s time to pay it, they go pay it.”
• Employee Tracking: The training clarifies the distinction between employees and 1099 contractors. The user is advised not to turn the employee tracking on if they don’t want to “track payroll in QuickBooks” since “payroll is a subscription you’ll want to sign up for it’s not free.”
• Financial Start Date: Users choose their fiscal year start date, today’s date, or a custom date to begin tracking finances. It’s suggested that “if you’re just purchasing quickbooks for the first time and let’s just say it’s towards the end of the year you might want to go ahead and start with maybe the beginning of this month”
• Chart of Accounts: The EasyStep interview creates a basic chart of accounts which the user is prompted to review before moving forward. They are told, “anything you do in quickbooks runs through your chart of accounts”.
• Home Screen and Customization:
• The home screen is described as the first screen you see when opening the company file.
• The “icon bar” can be moved to the top of the screen to free up space. Users are told, “it’s a matter of personal preference, but I’ll just show you another option that will free up some room on your screen for you.”
• The “open windows list” is a helpful tool for navigating open windows.
• The home screen is organized into sections: Vendors (accounts payable), Customers (accounts receivable), Employees, and Banking.
• User Permissions:
• The training demonstrates how to set up user permissions to limit access to specific areas of Quickbooks. They state, “we gave carol permission to work with bills so she will definitely be able to enter bills… I did not give her access to work with accounts receivable that’s this area down here.”
• Only the admin can make changes to user settings. “Remember you have to be logged in as the administrator in order to make any changes to the users.”

Module 3: Chart of Accounts

• Importance: The chart of accounts is highlighted as “the most important part of QuickBooks”. It must be set up correctly for accurate reporting. “it’s very important that it’s set up correctly if it’s not then you’re going to run reports and the data will not be accurate.”
• Access: The chart of accounts can be accessed directly from the home screen.
• Customization: Users are encouraged to add necessary accounts, delete unused ones, and edit account names.
• Account Types: The training explains various account types:
• Bank: Includes checking, savings, money market, and PayPal accounts. The speaker explains, “if you have a lot of cash expenditures for your business you would want to set one up to have a place to put those.”
• Fixed Assets: Includes assets like furniture, equipment, and vehicles. The advice is given to have, “maybe seven to ten [fixed asset accounts]… and they’re going to be more generic.”
• Accounts Payable: Where entered but unpaid bills are tracked.
• Accounts Receivable: Where unpaid customer invoices are tracked. “invoices that have not been paid will show up in the balance of the accounts receivable account.”
• Liabilities:Short-term liabilities (paid in 12-13 months) e.g. sales tax payable
• Long-term liabilities (paid over a longer period) e.g. loans. “Each loan or liability should be set up separately in accounting”.
• Equity: Represents the owner’s stake in the business.
• Owner draws and contributions are tracked as subaccounts of an owner equity account. “if you decide to take 100 out that would be an owner draw…if you decide to put that same 100 into the business that’s called an owner contribution.”
• Income: Accounts for revenue from sales. “when you actually make a sale in your business that’s considered income.”
• Cost of Goods Sold: Expenses directly related to producing goods or services. “anytime that you have to spend money to buy a product or buy a service to make a product or service for your business that’s considered a cost of goods sold.”
• Expenses: General business operating costs.
• Account Numbers: Account numbers are not automatically displayed but can be turned on in preferences.
• Subaccounts: Subaccounts can be created under main accounts for more detail. Quickbooks will “let you have as many levels as you need” but it’s cautioned to stay with two or three levels to avoid confusion.

Module 4: Customers and Jobs

• Customer Center: A central place to manage customer information.
• Customer vs. Job: A customer is a person or business buying from you. A job is a specific project for a customer.
• Customer Setup:Includes contact information, payment settings, sales tax settings, additional info, and job info.
• You can edit the address block that appears on an invoice. It’s noted that, “this is the actual address block that’s going on a customer’s invoice so you may want to click in there and set it up the way you’d like it to be.”
• Payment settings include account number, payment terms, preferred delivery, and payment method.
• You can specify a customer’s sales tax status (taxable or non-taxable).
• Customer fields can be created to categorize customers (e.g., commercial, residential).
• Job Setup: Includes job description, type, status, start, and end dates.
• Customer Groups: A feature to categorize customers for targeted communication.
• Customer groups can be set up using criteria like customer type. “You can actually categorize your customers and based on that you can create groups of customers so that you only have to send one email instead of a separate email to each customer.”
• You can email a group of customers at once.
• Multiple Customer Contacts: Quickbooks 2022 has a new feature to send emails to multiple customer contacts on the same form.
• Customer Communication: The Customer Center has multiple options for keeping in touch with a customer like the Contacts tab, To-Do’s, Notes, and Sending Forms.
• Estimates:Estimates are created for potential jobs.
• Includes customer information, date, estimate number, and itemized lists of products or services. “make sure you click on the customer and the job”.
• Markup can be a percentage or a dollar amount. “you have the ability to mark up an item a dollar amount or a percentage.”
• Reports available include estimate by job, estimate vs. actual, and item price list.
• Invoicing from Estimates:Estimates can be converted to invoices.
• Users can invoice the full estimate, a percentage, or selected items.
• Invoices include customer details, terms, date, invoice number, and items with quantities and costs.
• Payment terms affect due dates.
• Invoicing for Products and Services:Invoices can also be created without an estimate as a starting point. “You can certainly do that you just would not be using those estimates you created.”
• Invoices are created using the ‘Create Invoices’ icon on the home screen.
• If you’re using a class feature, it should be used consistently for accurate reports.
• Receiving Payments:Payments are applied to open invoices.
• Payments can be applied using the ‘Receive Payments’ option on the home screen.
• Discounts and credits can be applied during payment.
• Making Deposits:Received payments go to undeposited funds first. “if you have not turned on the preference telling it where you’d like to put the money this money will automatically go into an account called undeposited funds.”
• Deposits are recorded via the ‘Record Deposits’ feature.
• The training cautions not to enter deposits directly into the check register because it bypasses the record deposits screen and that “will mess you up every time.”
• Credit Memos:Used to credit customer accounts for returned products or other reasons.
• Can be applied to open invoices or used to give a customer a refund. “if you’re wanting to credit a particular item you want to choose it from the list.”
• Statements:Sent to customers at the end of the month as a summary of transactions.
• Statements can be emailed or printed.
• Includes open invoices, payments made, and total balance due. ” a great way to gently remind your customers if they owe you money that they need to pay.”

Module 5: Vendors

• Vendor Center: A place to manage information about companies you purchase from.
• Vendor Information: Includes company details, billing address, phone number, email.
• Vendor Setup: Includes Contact Information, Payment Settings, Additional Info, and 1099 Settings. You can add custom fields to vendor profiles as well.
• Entering Bills:Bills are recorded for future payments. “it’s something you know that you’re going to have to pay at a future date”
• Include vendor, date, reference number, amount due, and accounts (or items) associated with the bill.
• Bills can be entered using the ‘Enter Bills’ option on the home screen.
• Bill Tracker: A tool to view bills and expenses.
• Paying Bills:Bills are paid using the ‘Pay Bills’ option.
• Users can pay individual bills or a batch of selected bills. “make sure you follow the flow chart all the way across to the pay bills”
• You can sort the bills using due dates or discounts, and filter by specific vendors.
• Payments are recorded to the checking account and are associated to specific bills.
• Vendor Credits:Credits are issued by vendors and can be applied to bills. “sometimes a vendor will issue you a credit that you need to apply to a bill”
• Credits are entered using ‘Enter Bills’ but designated as a credit.

Module 6: Items and Inventory

• Items List: A list of products and services you sell. It can be accessed from the home screen.
• Item Types:Service: Intangible services provided. “think of a service as an actual service that you provide to your customers”
• Inventory Part: Tracked physical products bought and sold. “these are physical parts that you buy or sell.”
• Non-Inventory Part: Physical products with no quantity tracking.
• Other Charges: Miscellaneous charges like freight and delivery.
• Subtotal: For subtotaling items on estimates or invoices.
• Group: Pre-defined groups of items to quickly add to invoices or estimates.
• Discount: To provide discounts to customers.
• Payment: For recording payments.
• Sales Tax Item/Group: Tracks sales tax collected and paid.
• Creating Items:New items are added via the ‘Items & Services’ list.
• Each item type has unique fields to fill in.
• Services must be linked to an income account in the chart of accounts. “the most important thing on this screen is the account…nine out of ten times you want it to relate back to an income account”
• Inventory parts require additional information like cost, sales price, cost of goods sold account, and preferred vendor.
• Purchase Orders:Used to order items from vendors.
• Purchase orders are not required to purchase inventory.
• When you receive items on a purchase order, you can apply the items to the existing purchase order.
• Receiving InventoryInventory can be added from an existing purchase order or can be entered via a check.
• Receiving inventory adds items to the on hand inventory total.
• Adjusting Inventory:Inventory quantities can be adjusted.
• Inventory adjustments are used when items are lost or damaged or when a physical count reveals discrepancies.

Key Takeaways:

• QuickBooks Desktop 2022 is a powerful tool for small businesses.
• Proper setup and understanding of the chart of accounts are crucial for accurate financial reporting.
• The software provides features to handle all core business processes.
• It’s important to follow the workflows and use the correct forms when recording transactions.

This briefing document provides a structured overview of the provided text, making it easier to grasp the core concepts and factual information. The quotes support the key points and give context to the material.

QuickBooks: Setup, Features, and Invoicing

QuickBooks Setup & Company Information

• What is the “Easy Step Interview” and why should I use it? The “Easy Step Interview” is a guided setup process within QuickBooks designed to help you establish your company file correctly. It prompts you with essential questions about your business, making sure crucial details are entered from the beginning, such as the company name, address, phone number, industry, and other pertinent information. Completing this thoroughly is beneficial as it prevents having to go back and fill in these details later when sending correspondence or reports. It guides users to set up key features that are commonly used including invoices, estimates and payroll options.
• What information is essential to input when setting up a new company in QuickBooks? The absolutely required field is the company name. However, to ensure that all correspondence is accurate and professional, you should also provide the legal company name (if different), the tax ID, the street or PO box address, city, state, and country (usually US), phone number, fax number (if applicable), email address, and website. While a tax ID is not required to start using the program, it is necessary if you will be printing 1099 forms or using the payroll feature. Also, include the industry in which your business operates to help QuickBooks configure appropriate settings and account lists.
• What are “progress invoices” and why should I use them? Progress invoicing allows you to invoice a customer based on partial completion of a project that was estimated, rather than needing to bill the entire estimate at once. This means you can pull a portion of the estimate, such as 50% or specific items, into an invoice for payment, making it extremely useful for projects spanning multiple stages of work. You can pick and choose which parts of the estimate to bill at any given time. This can help with cash flow and managing long projects.

QuickBooks Features & Functionality

• What is the significance of the “Chart of Accounts” in QuickBooks? The chart of accounts is the backbone of QuickBooks, listing all of your business’s financial accounts. It categorizes everything you do in QuickBooks, from income and expenses to assets and liabilities. An incorrect setup will cause inaccurate reporting in areas like Profit and Loss and Balance Sheet statements. It is essential for you to have the accounts set up correctly, and you will want to ensure that the type of account (e.g. bank account, accounts receivable, fixed asset, etc) is set properly. It is important to correctly identify each account type as you set up your company file. It should include any bank accounts (checking, savings, money market, etc), credit cards, cash accounts, vendor and customer accounts, and also loan and liability accounts.
• How do you track payroll and 1099 contractors in QuickBooks? QuickBooks handles employees and 1099 contractors differently. To track payroll for employees, you must activate a paid subscription, as payroll features are not free. In contrast, 1099 contractors should not be added in the employee section. There is a specific setup process you must follow to correctly send out 1099s at year’s end. Be sure you have chosen the correct option in the preferences whether you file 1099 forms.
• What is the “Home Screen” in QuickBooks, and how can I manage my view? The home screen in QuickBooks is the central hub you see upon opening your company file. It shows all the main areas of the program such as vendors, customers, and banking. You can customize your view of the “Home Screen” by moving the icon bar from the left side to the top for more screen space. You can do this by going to View> Top Icon Bar. The Open Windows List, in View, allows you to easily navigate between multiple open windows, enhancing your workflow efficiency.
• How do User Permissions work in QuickBooks? In QuickBooks, user permissions are controlled by the administrator to limit access to specific areas of the program. As an administrator, you have the option to grant or restrict access for each user that you set up. A user may only be able to enter bills but not have permission to work with accounts receivable. This feature enhances security and ensures that only authorized personnel can access or modify certain types of data. User settings are per user meaning if one user has a change, another user is not affected. Only the administrator has the ability to create or modify user permissions.

Customers, Jobs & Invoicing

• What are “Customer Groups” and how can they be used to manage customers? Customer groups in QuickBooks allow you to categorize your customers based on certain criteria and send them mass emails. You can group customers by type (e.g., commercial or residential), sales volume, or any other criteria. These groups simplify communication and are a good way to follow up on overdue balances. When you are creating a group you will have an opportunity to make exceptions when the list populates. You have the option to include more customers or unselect those who should not be in this particular group.

QuickBooks Setup Guide

Quickbooks setup involves several key steps, including choosing the right version, creating a company file, and customizing preferences.

Here’s a breakdown of the setup process:

• Choosing a Quickbooks Version: There are desktop and online versions of Quickbooks. The desktop version has a home screen with sections and a flowchart, while the online version does not. Both versions allow transaction downloads from banks. You can try the online version with a free 30-day trial from Intuit.
• Creating a Company File: Each file created in Quickbooks is called a “company”. You can create multiple company files that do not interact with one another. When you first load Quickbooks, you will see a screen where you can create a new company file, open an existing file, or restore a backup.
• Using the Easy Step Interview: To set up your company file, you’ll use the “easy step interview,” which asks questions to configure your file. This interview will ask if you are creating the file for yourself or someone else. It will ask how your company is organized (e.g., sole proprietor, LLC, S corp) and the first month of your fiscal year. It will also ask about setting up an administrator password.
• Company File Settings: The easy step interview will ask about what you sell (services, products, or both). It will also ask if you want to create estimates, use statements, and progress invoicing. It will also ask about managing bills, tracking inventory, and tracking time. It will ask if you have employees and the date to start tracking your finances. You will also review your income and expense accounts.
• My Company: After the easy step interview, you can edit company information such as name, address, and phone number in the “My Company” section under the “Company” menu. You can also change the legal name, company identification, fiscal year, and payroll tax information in “My Company”. You can also see your version of Quickbooks, license number, and product number, and access apps and payroll subscriptions.
• Preferences: You can customize Quickbooks by changing preferences, many of which were set in the easy step interview. These preferences include:
• Accounting: Use account numbers.
• Items and Inventory: Track inventory and purchase orders.
• Jobs and Estimates: Create estimates and use progress invoicing.
• Payments: Apply payments to the oldest invoices or manually apply them; automatically put payments in an undeposited funds account.
• Payroll and Employees: Set up payroll options and pay stubs.
• Reminders: Set reminders for checks to print, overdue invoices, inventory to reorder, and money to deposit.
• Reports and Graphs: Run reports on an accrual or cash basis.
• Sales and Customers: Prompt for time costs to add to invoices, choose a default shipping method, set up sales tax items.
• Send Forms: Choose a default template for forms.
• Spelling: Automatically check spelling before printing or sending forms.
• 1099s: Indicate if you file 1099 forms.
• Time and Expenses: Track time for invoicing and track employee or subcontractor time.
• Users: It is recommended to set up users so that each user can log in with a username and password. As the administrator, you can set up different permissions for different users, allowing access to certain areas and restricting access to others.
• Chart of Accounts: The chart of accounts is the most important part of quickbooks and must be set up correctly. The chart of accounts is a listing of all the different accounts in a company file. You should go through the list to add, delete, and edit accounts as needed. The list can be set up by type and accounts are listed alphabetically.
• Bank Accounts: Checking, savings, money market, and PayPal accounts should be set up as bank accounts.
• Liabilities: You must differentiate between long-term liabilities like car loans and short-term liabilities such as sales tax.
• Equity Accounts: The equity account includes owner’s equity, owner draws, and owner contributions.
• Cost of Goods Sold: This includes subcontractors.
• Expense Accounts: These include advertising, finance charges, payroll, and utilities.

This step-by-step approach to Quickbooks setup should allow you to get started with an organized approach.

QuickBooks Easy Step Interview Guide

The Easy Step Interview is a key part of setting up a company file in Quickbooks. This interview asks a series of questions and, based on your answers, configures the company file for you. The Easy Step Interview is launched when you create a new company file.

Here’s a breakdown of the key aspects of the Easy Step Interview:

• Who is the company file for? The interview begins by asking if the file is for yourself or someone else.
• Data Conversion: The interview provides options to convert data from Quicken or another accounting software.
• Advanced Setup: The interview provides an option to use an advanced setup which will take a little longer but will ensure the company file is set up correctly.
• Company Information: The first screen of the Easy Step Interview asks for information about the company, such as the company name, legal name, tax ID, address, phone number, fax number, email address, and website. Only the company name is required to proceed. However, it’s suggested that you fill out the rest of this information if you plan to send correspondence to customers or vendors.
• Industry Selection: The interview asks you to select your industry from a list. If you cannot find a suitable industry, you can choose a general product or service-based business.
• What do you sell? The interview asks if you sell services only, products only, or both.
• Estimates, Statements and Invoicing: The interview asks if you want to create estimates, use statements, and use progress invoicing.
• Managing Bills: The interview asks if you want to manage bills in Quickbooks.
• Inventory Tracking: The interview asks if you’d like to track inventory in Quickbooks and if you use purchase orders.
• Time Tracking: The interview asks if you want to track time for projects, employees, or subcontractors.
• Employees: The interview asks if you have employees, which determines if you want to track payroll in Quickbooks. It is important to note that employees and 1099 contractors are totally different. 1099 contractors are not set up in the employee section of Quickbooks.
• Starting Date: The interview asks for the date you want to start tracking finances, which can be the beginning of your fiscal year or a date of your choice. It is suggested that if you are starting Quickbooks towards the end of the year, you may want to choose the beginning of the current month and enter enough information to finish the year. Then the next year you can have a full year’s worth of data. You can also enter data prior to this start date.
• Chart of Accounts: The interview asks you to review your income and expense accounts, known as the chart of accounts. You can turn on or off specific accounts or wait until you get into the chart of accounts to make changes.
• Completion: After completing the interview, a screen will appear asking if you want to add customers, vendors, products and services, and bank accounts. You can close this screen and proceed to the home screen.

Changes After the Interview: If you need to change any information set up in the Easy Step Interview, you can do so. Most changes can be made under the “Preferences” section of Quickbooks, but changes to the company address, phone number, and other information from the first screen can be done in the “My Company” section under the “Company” menu.

QuickBooks Company Information Setup and Management

Company information in QuickBooks is primarily set up during the Easy Step Interview when you create a new company file. This initial setup includes details such as the company name, address, and contact information.

Here’s a breakdown of how company information is handled within QuickBooks:

• Initial Setup in Easy Step Interview:
• The first screen of the Easy Step Interview requests company details.
• This includes the company name, which is the only required field.
• You can also enter a legal name, tax ID, street address or P.O. box, city, state, country, phone number, fax number, email, and website.
• It’s recommended to fill in all the contact information if you plan to send correspondence to customers or vendors.
• Editing Company Information:
• After completing the Easy Step Interview, you can edit the company information using the “My Company” option located under the “Company” menu.
• In “My Company”, you can change the company name, address, and phone number that you set up in the Easy Step Interview.
• You can also change the legal name and address, the company identification number (federal ID), and reporting and payroll tax information.
• The “My Company” section will display the company’s address and legal address, which will be the same unless you make changes to the legal name information.
• To edit, click the pencil icon next to the information you want to change.
• Changes to the address here will be reflected on your invoices.
• Additional Information in “My Company”:
• The “My Company” section also displays the version of QuickBooks, license number, and product number.
• It shows if the product has been activated.
• It also provides access to apps that work with QuickBooks, some of which are subscription-based services.
• You can access payroll and merchant services subscriptions with Intuit from this area.
• There are options to order checks from Intuit, although it is not required that you order checks from them.
• Importance of Accurate Information:
• The information in the company section is important because it’s used on correspondence with customers and vendors.
• The phone number is important to include on invoices.
• The address information will be pulled into invoices and other forms.
• If you have the company name listed in both the company and full name field in customer information, you may want to edit how it appears on the invoice.
• When placing calls for support, you might need to provide the version of Quickbooks, license number, and product number found in “My Company”.
• Accessing “My Company”:
• To access “My Company”, go to the menu and click on “Company”, then select “My Company”.
• You can change the company address, phone number, or any other information from the first screen of the Easy Step Interview through this method.
• The “My Company” section is also where you can make changes to your fiscal year.

In summary, the company information is initially entered during the Easy Step Interview and can be edited at any time in the “My Company” section. It is important to keep this information current and accurate, as it is used in various areas of QuickBooks.

Managing Bills in QuickBooks

Managing bills in Quickbooks is a key part of the accounts payable process. This involves entering bills, tracking them, and then paying them. Here’s a breakdown of how to manage bills effectively:

• Entering Bills:
• To enter a bill, use the “Enter Bills” option in the “Vendor” section of the home screen.
• This is where you record bills that you receive either in the mail, electronically, or even for items that are automatically withdrawn from your bank account.
• When entering a bill, you will select a vendor from the list or add a new vendor.
• The bill entry screen includes fields for the vendor name, address, terms, date, due date, reference number, amount due, and memo.
• You will also use either the expenses or items tab at the bottom of the screen.
• The expenses tab is used to record expenses related to the bill. You will need to choose an account from the chart of accounts and enter the amount. You can also assign the expense to a customer and a job if you use job costing.
• The items tab is used when the bill is related to physical products that you sell. This tab is important because it will increase your inventory count.
• It is important that the total of the expenses and items tabs matches the amount due to the penny before you save the bill.
• Once a bill is saved, you can see the bill details in the vendor center.
• Importance of Entering Bills:
• Entering bills allows you to keep track of who you owe money to.
• It also allows you to run reports to see if any bills are overdue.
• Entering all bills, even recurring ones like car payments or electronically withdrawn bills, helps in forecasting expenses.
• Many people do not enter bills, and that’s okay; however, if you want to forecast expenses or use features such as purchase orders and inventory, it is important to enter your bills.
• Paying Bills:
• To pay bills, use the “Pay Bills” option in the “Vendor” section on the home screen.
• This screen shows a list of all your unpaid bills, which can be sorted by vendor or due date.
• You will select the bills that you want to pay and enter the payment date and method.
• You can select multiple bills at one time to pay, and you can also pay a bill from the vendor center or the bill tracker.
• When you pay a bill, it automatically puts that payment in the register.
• Bill Payment Methods:
• It is important to use the Pay Bills option rather than simply writing a check because the Pay Bills feature connects the payment to the bill. If you use a check or debit card to pay a bill without using the Pay Bills function, the bill will remain open because the system does not see the association between the payment and the bill.
• If you pay a bill using the Pay Bills function, the payment will be recorded as a “bill payment” in your check register.
• Vendor Credits:
• If a vendor issues a credit, it should be entered as a credit when entering bills.
• When entering a vendor credit, you must select the vendor, date, credit amount, and the chart of accounts the credit applies to.
• Vendor credits can then be applied to existing bills when you pay the bill.
• Bill Management Tools:
• QuickBooks has a bill tracker, which displays expenses by vendor, customer, or job, allowing you to quickly view open bills and purchase orders.
• The bill tracker also allows you to convert purchase orders to bills and pay bills from this screen.
• QuickBooks also has a new feature that allows you to upload and review bills. The software will try to match bills that you have in a PDF file.

By using the enter bills feature and following the flow chart to pay bills, you can keep track of your payables, forecast expenses, and maintain accurate financial records.

QuickBooks Home Screen Navigation

The QuickBooks home screen is designed to provide a central location to manage your business’s daily activities. It’s set up with different sections that guide you through the workflow.

Here’s a breakdown of the key components of the home screen:

• Icon Bar: The icon bar is a set of shortcuts to different areas of QuickBooks. By default it appears on the left side of the screen. It can be moved to the top of the screen by going to “View” in the menu and selecting “Top Icon Bar”.
• Open Windows List: The “Open Windows List” appears on the left side of the screen after selecting it under the “View” menu. This list displays all the currently open windows in Quickbooks. This can be useful when navigating multiple tasks.
• Sections: The home screen is divided into five main sections, each representing a different area of your business:
• Vendors: This section is for accounts payable, where you manage all transactions with the people or businesses you buy from. It includes options for entering bills, tracking inventory, and paying bills.
• Customers: This section is for accounts receivable, where you manage all interactions with your customers. You can create invoices, receive payments, and send statements in this section.
• Employees: This section is for payroll functions.
• Company: This section contains icons that do not directly relate to customers or vendors but to the company file itself. This includes the chart of accounts, which is a crucial part of QuickBooks. It also includes items and services, which are physical products you sell or services you provide.
• Banking: This section contains options for banking functions, such as making deposits, opening the check register, and printing checks.
• Flowchart: Each section on the home screen has a flowchart, which is a visual guide that shows you the steps to follow in that section. For example, in the customer section, the flow might include creating an estimate, creating an invoice, receiving payments, and recording deposits.
• Account Balances: On the right side of the screen, you will see a section that displays the balances of your accounts, including checking, savings, and credit card accounts. This section allows for quick access to each of these accounts.
• Intuit Services: Also on the right, there is a section that displays services offered by Intuit, such as merchant services accounts, check ordering, and online backups. This section can be hidden by clicking a small arrow.
• Backup Status: The home screen displays the backup status of your company file. You can choose to back up your file using the “backup now” option, or you can choose to have Intuit back it up for you for a fee. This can be hidden by clicking the small arrow if you don’t want to see it.
• Navigation: The home screen is the first screen that appears when you open your company file. If you’re somewhere else in QuickBooks, you can return to the home screen by clicking the “Home” option on the left menu.
• Quickbooks Online Home Screen: The online version of Quickbooks has a different home screen setup, lacking the flowchart that is included in the desktop version.

By understanding the different components of the QuickBooks home screen, you can navigate the software more efficiently and keep track of your business finances.

By Amjad Izhar
Contact: amjad.izhar@gmail.com
https://amjadizhar.blog

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This video tutorial provides a comprehensive guide to using QuickBooks Desktop software. The tutorial covers setting up a new QuickBooks file, including chart of accounts configuration and initial data entry. It then details the workflows for managing customers and vendors, including creating estimates, invoices, purchase orders, and bills. The video also explains how to manage bank accounts and reconcile transactions, emphasizing the importance of accurate record-keeping. Finally, it introduces basic reporting functionalities within QuickBooks, focusing on profit and loss statements.

QuickBooks Study Guide

Quiz

1. What is the significance of choosing a fiscal year start month in QuickBooks setup? The fiscal year start month determines the accounting period for your business. Most businesses use a January-December calendar year, but some may have a different fiscal year (e.g., July-June). The start month affects how tax returns are filed, as most corporations use March 15.
2. When setting up QuickBooks, where is it recommended to save the company file and why? It is not recommended to save the company file on the desktop because it can be easily deleted or misplaced, instead, the file should be saved in a dedicated folder, such as in ‘Documents’. In a multi-user environment, the file should be placed on the server, with assistance from IT.
3. What are the three options for what you sell in QuickBooks setup and how do you know which to pick? The three options are “products,” “services,” or “both.” Choose “products” if you sell physical goods, “services” if your business provides labor or rentals, and “both” if you sell both physical products and services.
4. Explain what “progress invoicing” means in the context of QuickBooks. Progress invoicing is used for long-term projects, such as construction. It allows you to bill your client in installments, or milestones, according to the completion of specific phases of the project rather than just billing for the entire project at once.
5. What is the difference between tracking inventory and not tracking it in QuickBooks? Tracking inventory means you maintain a count of the products you buy, stock, and sell, and account for discrepancies. Not tracking inventory means you may charge for goods but not record individual items. If a business resells materials without keeping them in stock, it may not be necessary to track inventory.
6. What is the purpose of the “open window list” in QuickBooks? The “open window list” is a navigational tool that displays all the windows that are currently open. This makes it easy to switch between different screens like invoices, bills, and estimates, without having to minimize or search through many open pages.
7. How can you access QuickBooks functions that do not have a control key shortcut? You can access almost every function by using the Alt key. For example, to open the Item List, press Alt + L, then I. The underlined letter on the menu is the letter you press after Alt.
8. Why is it important to enter opening balances when creating new accounts in QuickBooks? If you are setting up QuickBooks for a company that has been operating prior to the start of the QuickBooks file, you need to enter opening balances for each balance sheet account to have a clear financial picture at the start date of your QuickBooks file. This accurately sets the beginning balances for assets, liabilities, and equity.
9. When setting up a new chart of accounts, what is the difference between income/expense accounts and balance sheet accounts? Balance sheet accounts (e.g., assets, liabilities, equity) carry opening balances and reflect a company’s financial position. Income and expense accounts do not carry opening balances and are used to track revenue and costs during the accounting period. Balance sheet accounts are “point in time” accounts, while income and expense accounts are “period of time” accounts.
10. How do you merge two redundant accounts in the Chart of Accounts and why would you do this? To merge two accounts, edit the name of the account you want to eliminate and change the name to match the account you want to keep. Quickbooks will ask if you want to merge the accounts. This is useful when you have created similar accounts for the same purpose. This allows you to create consolidated reports for better financial tracking.

Essay Questions

1. Discuss the importance of setting up QuickBooks correctly for a small business. What decisions must the business owner make, and why do these decisions matter?
2. Explain the relationship between the chart of accounts and the items list in QuickBooks. How do these lists work together to create accurate transactions?
3. Describe the steps involved in the workflow from a customer requesting an estimate to receiving payment in QuickBooks.
4. Compare and contrast the use of ‘Enter Bills’ and ‘Write Checks’ in QuickBooks. What are the circumstances when you should use each option?
5. Explain how to use the various financial reports in QuickBooks, including the profit and loss, balance sheet, and statement of cash flows. How do these reports work together to give a business a clear financial picture?

Glossary of Key Terms

Accounts Payable: Money owed to vendors for goods or services purchased on credit.

Accounts Receivable: Money owed to a business by its customers for goods or services sold on credit.

Accrual Basis Accounting: An accounting method that recognizes revenue when earned and expenses when incurred, regardless of when cash is received or paid.

Administrative Password: A password that gives access to change settings and control the QuickBooks company file.

Balance Sheet: A financial statement that provides a snapshot of a company’s assets, liabilities, and equity at a specific point in time.

Bill: A document from a vendor that states what is owed for goods or services.

Book Value: The net value of an asset calculated by subtracting the accumulated depreciation from the asset’s original cost.

Cash Basis Accounting: An accounting method that recognizes revenue when cash is received and expenses when cash is paid.

Chart of Accounts: A list of all the financial categories used by a business to categorize all financial transactions.

Cost of Goods Sold (COGS): The direct costs associated with producing goods or services that are sold by a business.

Credit Card Register: A ledger that tracks all credit card transactions for a business.

Customer Center: A central area in QuickBooks for managing customer information and transactions.

Depreciation: The decrease in value of an asset over time due to use, wear and tear, or obsolescence.

Estimate: A non-binding quote or proposal given to a customer for work to be done.

Fiscal Year: The 12-month period that a company uses for accounting purposes.

Fixed Assets: Long-term tangible pieces of property that are not easily turned into cash.

Item List: A list of the products and services that a business buys or sells.

Item Receipt: A document that verifies inventory has been received from a vendor and is not tied to an invoice.

Job: A subcategory of a customer that is used to track specific projects.

Markup: A percentage or dollar amount added to a product’s cost to arrive at a sales price.

Non-Inventory Part: An item that is bought and sold but not tracked as inventory.

On the Positive Funds: A temporary holding account in QuickBooks for customer payments before they are deposited into a bank account.

Opening Balance: The initial balance of an account at the start of a new QuickBooks file.

Other Charge: An item for miscellaneous fees or charges that are not part of the main business income.

Pay Bills: A feature in QuickBooks that is used to pay bills that have been entered using the ‘Enter Bills’ function.

Purchase Order (PO): A document sent to a vendor requesting goods or services.

QuickReport: A detailed history of an item in Quickbooks.

Register: A ledger that tracks all financial transactions for a particular account, typically a bank or credit card account.

Sales Order: A document that records a customer order and is used to track inventory and fulfill orders.

Service Item: An item that represents a service that is provided by the business.

Statement of Cash Flows: A financial statement that reports on a company’s cash inflows and outflows over a specific period.

Sub-Account: A smaller category nested under a larger, primary account.

Subtotal: An item used to calculate the total amount of multiple items.

Vendor: A person or business that provides goods or services to a company.

Vendor Center: A central area in QuickBooks for managing vendor information and transactions.

QuickBooks Setup and Navigation Guide

Okay, here is a detailed briefing document summarizing the key themes and ideas from the provided text excerpts.

Briefing Document: QuickBooks Setup and Navigation

Overview:

This document summarizes the key concepts and procedures detailed in the provided text excerpts related to setting up a new QuickBooks file, basic navigation within the software, managing the chart of accounts, working with items, creating customers and vendors, and handling various customer and vendor transactions. The sources appear to be transcripts of instructional videos or guides for QuickBooks users.

I. Initial QuickBooks Setup:

• Business Structure: The user is guided to select the appropriate business structure, with the S-corporation being highlighted as a typical choice for small companies.
• Quote: “…i’m gonna go ahead and pick uh s-corporation which is uh tends to be one of the most uh typical ones here for a small company…”
• Fiscal Year: Users must specify their fiscal year start month (typically January). They’re also instructed to alter this setting if their fiscal year does not align with the calendar year.
• Quote: “…if you’re a regular calendar year company where you start january and december… you’re going to leave january there but if you happen to close your year let’s say june 30th…then you’re gonna pick my fiscal year starts july…”
• Administrative Password: Setting an administrative password is crucial for security.
• File Location: The importance of saving the QuickBooks file in an appropriate location (not the desktop) is emphasized, especially in multi-user environments.
• Quote: “…don’t put it in the desktop because typically in the desktop you’ll be sort of inclined to put it in the trash can or something like that…” It is also recommended to consult with an IT professional to determine the correct location when in a multi user environment.
• Company Customization: QuickBooks asks a series of questions to tailor the software to the user’s specific needs.
• Sales Type: The software requests information on whether the company sells products, services, or both.
• Quote: “First question is what do you sell products services or both”
• Sales Tax: The system prompts the user to indicate if they charge sales tax and if needed, to seek advice from an accountant regarding the taxability of their products.
• Estimates: Users are asked whether they create estimates for clients.
• Quote: “…if you want to give somebody a quote a proposal basically like a pre-invoice very organized with a total then you want to pick yes there for estimate…”
• Customer Orders: The setup asks if the user tracks customer orders. It is mentioned that for basic use, sales orders might not be necessary but that those who work with QuickBooks premier, accountant or enterprise, and have inventory, and who take orders for things not in stock will need the sales order.
• Quote: “…if you are working with quickbooks premier accountant or enterprise and you have inventory and you take orders for things you don’t have in stock yet and you want to take that order and then sort of remind you and have a mechanism to go order the product through your vendor that’s what a sales order will be…”
• Billing Statements: The system inquires about the use of billing statements for clients.
• Quote: “…basically you want to give a client a statement monthly quarterly that shows all the payments all the invoices it’s like an invoice of invoices…”
• Progress Invoicing: It asks if the user utilizes progress invoicing, commonly used in construction or project-based billing.
• Quote: “…if you are in the construction industry if you sell projects that are sort of long term if your contract says you know the whole thing’s a hundred thousand and if you meet condition a b and c you can build your first 25 percent and then if you hit meet condition c d and f then you can build another 30 percent that sort of building is called progress invoicing…”
• Bill Management: The system asks if users want to track bills they owe to vendors for future payments.
• Quote: “…do you want to track accounts payable do you want uh to put vendor bills that you want to pay later set them in quickbooks now recognize the expense now pay them later track how much money you owe in the future that would be a bill…”
• Inventory Tracking: The system prompts users to indicate if they track inventory.
• Quote: “…if you purchase product you stock it you put it in the warehouse you maintain it you make sure that it doesn’t break you make sure you don’t lose it you count it… then you do track inventory…”
• Time Tracking: The user is asked if they track time for employees and billing purposes.
• Quote: “…if i’m gonna have time sheets and those timesheets are gonna be used to understand how much our employees time is worth uh in each project or maybe i want to generate a paycheck with it or maybe i just want to bill my client the hours that i spent on the project…”
• Employees & Subcontractors: The user is asked about having employees or subcontractors and if using 1099 subcontractors, the option should be selected.
• Start Date: The user is prompted for their start date for accounting and that ideally it should be at the start of the fiscal year but that it is possible to start in the middle of a fiscal year with no issues.
• Quote: “The question essentially is do you want to start your accounting at the beginning of this fiscal year…very very common but you don’t have to…”
• Suggested Accounts: The software suggests income and expense accounts based on the user’s previous answers to the setup questions.

II. Basic Navigation:

• Open Window List: A key navigation tool that allows users to easily switch between multiple open windows within QuickBooks. It provides an alternative to manually managing overlapping windows.
• Quote: “…this open window list here on the left when it makes it really easy because you can just quickly go to the window you want…”
• Left Icon Bar: An alternative method for accessing open windows.
• Escape Key: The escape key is used to close active windows. A “close all” option can close every single window.
• Quote: “…the escape key in quickbooks will close a window…”
• Keyboard Shortcuts: Menus and transactions show keyboard shortcuts (e.g., Ctrl+R for “Use Register,” Ctrl+F for “Find”). The “Alt” key can also be used to access many functions using underlined letters in menus (e.g., Alt+L+I for “Item List”).
• Quote: “…you actually can access almost every not every but almost every function in quickbooks using the alt key…”

III. Chart of Accounts:

• Account Types: The source material discusses setting up various types of accounts, including bank accounts, fixed assets, loans, income, and expenses.
• Opening Balances: For balance sheet accounts, it’s emphasized that when setting up a new QuickBooks file with a starting date in the middle of a fiscal year, you will need to enter opening balances from the previous year.
• Quote: “…because I’m setting up quickbooks for the first time and there was in fact activity or there was accounting before we started this fiscal year I have to put every single uh balance sheet account that i create i have to put opening balance…”
• Bank Account Setup: The account setup emphasizes using explicit account names. Also the inclusion of the last four digits of an account is suggested as good practice for identifying multiple bank accounts.
• Quote: “…i’m gonna call this one wells fargo maybe i put the word checking and then the last four digits of the account…that could be a good use for that…”
• Fixed Asset and Depreciation: The process includes creating accounts for fixed assets and accumulated depreciation.
• Loan Account Setup: The text guides the user through creating a loan account, including the opening balance of the loan.
• Income & Expense Categories: The setup process involves creating income and expense categories, also including sub-categories of accounts for further clarification.
• Account Customization: Users can rename, edit, and create new accounts. They can also create sub-accounts.
• Hiding Accounts Accounts can be made inactive and hidden from view without deleting them permanently.
• Deleting Accounts: Accounts can be deleted if they have no prior transactions and when trying to delete an account that does have transactions, it can only be made inactive.
• Merging Accounts: Redundant accounts can be merged to consolidate data.
• Quote: “…if i hit yes it will merge them together as if no separate accounts ever existed…”

IV. Item List:

• Connection to Chart of Accounts: The close relationship between the item list and the chart of accounts is noted.
• Item Types: Various item types are discussed, including service, inventory part, non-inventory part, other charge, subtotal, group, discount, and payment.
• Service Items: Creating service items with descriptions and rates is covered.
• Non-Inventory Parts: Non-inventory parts, such as cables, can be set up with both sales and purchase prices.
• Other Charges: Items for miscellaneous charges, such as delivery fees, can be created.
• Inventory Parts: The creation of inventory parts, with details such as purchase description, cost, sales description, sales price, and reorder points are detailed.
• Quote: “You will notice immediately that there’s no like little weird checkbox asking me to expand or collapse the items to be double or single sided automatically because they’re inventory part you are forced to have an expense site and a sales side all right…”
• Double-Sided Items: Some items can be used for both sales and purchases.
• Markup and Margin: The text notes that a feature to show markup and margin is only available in QuickBooks Enterprise.
• Import and Export: Items can be imported from Excel. (not explicitly stated in source but implied and included for completeness)

V. Customers and Vendors:

• Customer Center: The Customer Center is used to create new customers, jobs, and manage customer information.
• Creating Customers: The creation process includes storing contact information, billing details, payment terms, and other pertinent data.
• Customer Jobs: Jobs are sub-categories of customers, used to track specific projects, and it is noted that jobs should be used when a customer has multiple locations and projects. Jobs are also often used when payment for a project is separate than for a customer in general.
• Moving Customers & Jobs: The user can move a customer from a job to a customer by dragging and dropping the diamond symbol on the record.
• Quick Customer/Job Creation: A customer/job can be created on the fly through an invoice by typing a colon after the customer name.
• Vendor Center: Similar to the Customer Center, the Vendor Center manages all vendor-related information.
• Creating Vendors: This involves inputting contact information, payment terms, and 1099 eligibility.
• Vendor Types: Vendors can be grouped into categories.
• Open Balance: It is noted that opening balances for vendors should be avoided.
• Renaming and Deleting Vendors: Vendors can be renamed or made inactive. Vendors cannot be deleted after having been used in a transaction.
• Quote: “…however because of accounting i can’t just delete the vendor because it’s been used in a transaction…”

VI. Customer Transactions:

• Estimates: The process of creating estimates for customers using items is explained. It’s pointed out that estimates can contain a mixture of both products and services.
• Estimate Layout: Estimates can be modified using a variety of templates that display more or less detailed information.
• Duplicating Estimates: Estimates can be duplicated for ease of creation.
• Estimates to Invoices: The document discusses converting estimates to invoices and it also mentions the possibility of receiving payments prior to creating an invoice for a customer and that such payments will be treated as a deposit for that customer.
• Partial Payments: It is noted that partial payment can also be received.
• Customer Payments: Methods of receiving payments, including recording customer payments and making bank deposits are detailed.
• Undeposited Funds: The use of undeposited funds for handling payments prior to bank deposits is covered.
• Prepayments: When prepayments are made, they are applied to the customer account.

VII. Vendor Transactions:

• Purchase Orders: Creating purchase orders to buy products from vendors is described. Purchase orders can include both inventory items and other items such as shipping.
• PO Customer Job Customers jobs can be added to a line of a PO in order to track specific purchases for specific customers.
• Line Item Operations: Users are instructed on how to add, copy, paste, and delete lines in a purchase order.
• Shipping Costs: Adding shipping costs to purchase orders is explained.
• Attaching Files: It is noted that files can be attached to a purchase order and sent to the vendor.
• Item Receipts: Receiving inventory using item receipts is detailed, and it is noted that it is possible to receive inventory from multiple POs on one item receipt.
• Billable Item: It is mentioned that products can be marked as billable when they are received and assigned to a customer. It is stressed that this feature should not be used if a estimate or sales order has already been created.
• Converting Item Receipts to Bills: The process of turning item receipts into bills is noted.
• Bills (No PO): Creating bills for expenses not linked to purchase orders is discussed, emphasizing the use of the “Expenses” tab rather than “Items.”
• Paying Bills: The process of paying vendor bills is detailed, showing how to manage and print checks or record other forms of payment.
• Quote: “…this is a screen used for for me to print the check and if I don’t print checks if I write checks by hand then I want to make sure that if I write a check by hand that I’m also recording it in quickbooks…”
• Pay Bills Screen: Users are instructed on how to use the Pay Bills window, filtering, and sorting options.

VIII. Check Register:

• Accessing Register: The Check Register can be accessed through multiple methods, including a home screen button, banking menu, and keyboard shortcut.
• Entering Transactions: Manually entering transactions, such as withdrawals, debit card charges, and checks in the check register, is explained.
• Reference Numbers: The use of reference numbers and memo fields in the register is clarified.
• Debit Card Transactions: It is noted that when using debit card transactions, check numbers should not be used to ensure accuracy.
• Printing Checks: It is noted that checks can be printed directly from the Right Check screen.
• Batch Printing Checks: Checks can be marked to print later and printed in batch.

IX. Financial Reports

• Balance Sheet: The balance sheet report shows the assets, liabilities, and equity of the company at a specific point in time.
• Profit and Loss Statement: The profit and loss statement is also known as the income statement and shows the revenues and expenses of the company over a period of time.
• Statement of Cash Flows: The statement of cash flows details the movement of cash within the company.
• Cash vs. Accrual Basis: The concepts of cash and accrual accounting methods for the financial reports are detailed.

Conclusion:

These excerpts provide a foundational understanding of how to set up and navigate QuickBooks, manage financial records, and execute various transactions. The information is presented in a step-by-step manner with explanations of key concepts and functions, emphasizing the importance of accuracy, and data integrity. This document serves as a guide to navigating the initial steps of using QuickBooks.

QuickBooks Setup and Navigation Guide

QuickBooks Setup & Basics

• What is an S-corporation and why is it a common choice for small businesses? An S-corporation is a specific type of business structure that allows profits and losses to be passed through directly to the owners’ personal income, avoiding corporate level income tax. It is a typical structure chosen by small business owners for its tax benefits and relative ease of setup compared to other forms of incorporation.
• How do you determine your fiscal year start month in QuickBooks? Your fiscal year start month is typically January if you operate on a calendar year (January to December). If your company closes its accounting year on a different date (e.g., June 30th), then you would select the appropriate start month, such as July. Most companies operate on a standard January to December calendar year.
• Why is it important to choose the right save location when setting up a new QuickBooks file? Choosing the right save location is critical to ensure your QuickBooks file works correctly, especially in a multi-user network environment. Avoid saving it on the desktop where it might accidentally be deleted. It’s recommended to save it within a dedicated folder in a location that makes sense, such as within the documents folder. It’s best to consult with IT personnel when using multi-user server environments.
• What are the main questions QuickBooks asks during setup, and why are they important? QuickBooks asks several questions during setup to tailor the software to your specific business needs. These questions include: whether you sell products, services, or both; whether you charge sales tax; if you create estimates; if you track customer orders; if you use billing statements; if you use progress invoicing; if you manage bills you owe; if you track inventory; if you track time; and if you have employees or subcontractors. These options help set up the correct accounting workflows and features, which helps to tailor QuickBooks functionality specific to your business.

QuickBooks Navigation & Chart of Accounts

• How can you effectively manage multiple open windows in QuickBooks? QuickBooks offers several ways to manage multiple open windows. The “Open Window List” on the left side allows you to easily switch between different open windows. Additionally, the “Left Icon Bar” can be expanded to also view the open windows. You can also use the escape key to close windows one by one or “Window->Close All” to close all windows at once.
• What keyboard shortcuts can help with QuickBooks navigation? QuickBooks has many keyboard shortcuts that can help speed up your work. Common shortcuts include “Ctrl + R” to open the register, “Ctrl + F” to find transactions, and “Ctrl + A” for the chart of accounts. Many menu items display keyboard shortcuts next to them in the menus, such as “Ctrl + I” for invoice creation. Additionally, you can use the “Alt” key to access any function in the menus by hitting Alt, then the underlined letter in the menu and then the underlined letter of the menu option (e.g., Alt+L+I opens the item list).
• What is the importance of entering opening balances for balance sheet accounts in QuickBooks and how is it done? Opening balances for balance sheet accounts are necessary for ensuring that your QuickBooks file is accurate from the start, especially if you are setting it up mid-year. When creating a balance sheet account in QuickBooks, you use the “Enter Opening Balance” feature and obtain the balance from prior balance sheets or bank statements as of the day before your QuickBooks start date, and enter them in the screen. The date and amount are the actual balance of the prior financial statements.
• How can you customize the Chart of Accounts in QuickBooks, and why is that important? You can customize the chart of accounts by creating new accounts, editing existing ones, creating sub-accounts and merging duplicate accounts. It’s also possible to make them inactive, rename them, or delete if there have been no transactions. The Chart of Accounts is the foundation for proper financial reporting, so having categories for different types of income, expense, assets, and liabilities that fit your particular business operations is essential. For instance, you may need multiple income accounts to track different revenue streams such as “Training Services”, add insurance sub-categories like “Life insurance for key persons,” or create additional accounts for different types of auto expenses such as, “fuel,” “parking,” and “auto maintenance”.

QuickBooks Company Setup Guide

To set up QuickBooks, it is recommended to use the detail start or advanced setup, as this will guide you step by step with questions to match your business and industry. The express start option only asks for your company name, industry, and business type.

Here are the steps involved in setting up a new company file in QuickBooks:

• Company Name and Address: You will need to enter your company name and address. You can also include a tax ID, phone number, email, and website, but these are not required.
• Industry: Choose the industry that best matches your business. QuickBooks will customize your chart of accounts and the types of transactions you work with based on your industry. If you can’t find your specific industry, you can choose a general product-based or service-based option.
• Company Organization: You will need to specify how your company is organized for tax purposes, such as a sole proprietorship, partnership, LLC, or corporation. If you are unsure, consult your accountant or lawyer.
• Fiscal Year: Select your company’s fiscal year start month. Most companies operate on a January to December calendar year.
• Administrator Password: Create a password for the administrator account. If you are setting up the company for the first time, you will likely be the administrator.
• Save Location: Choose a location on your computer to save the company file. It is recommended not to save it on the desktop. If you are working in a multi-user environment, consult your IT person.
• Customization: After saving, QuickBooks will ask a series of questions to further customize the setup. These questions include:
• What you sell: products, services, or both
• Whether you charge sales tax
• Whether you create estimates
• Whether you track customer orders
• Whether you use billing statements
• Whether you use progress invoicing
• Whether you manage bills you owe
• Whether you track inventory
• Whether you track time
• Whether you have employees or subcontractors
• Start Date: You will need to choose a start date for your accounting. You can choose the beginning of the fiscal year or any other date. Keep in mind you will need to enter all beginning balances as of that date.
• Chart of Accounts: QuickBooks will suggest a chart of accounts based on the options selected. You can select or deselect categories or sub-accounts as needed. If you are unsure, you can select the “Ask My Accountant” option.

Once the initial setup is complete, a QuickBooks setup screen will appear, but you won’t see it again. You can then start working on setting up customers, products, and bank accounts.

The chart of accounts is the heart of your accounting system, and it categorizes every transaction. It is accessed through the List menu, the home page, or by using the Ctrl+A keyboard shortcut. There are two major types of accounts, balance sheet accounts and profit and loss accounts. Balance sheet accounts have a running balance and appear on the balance sheet, while profit and loss accounts show up on the profit and loss statement.

QuickBooks Sales Transactions

Sales transactions in QuickBooks involve several steps, beginning with an estimate, proceeding to an invoice, and concluding with receiving payment.

Here is a breakdown of the sales transaction process:

• Estimates:
• Estimates are used to provide a formal written price quote for a product or service to a customer.
• They serve as a record of the prices offered to customers.
• Estimates can include internal cost rates and markups, which can be hidden from the customer.
• When creating an estimate, you can choose items from your item list, and the descriptions and prices will populate automatically.
• You can modify the item descriptions on the estimate, and you can also add a quantity for each item.
• If you are using an hourly service item, the quantity should be in hours.
• You can use different templates to modify what information is visible to the customer on the estimate [2, 4].
• You can create an estimate by clicking on the “Estimates” icon on the home page or by selecting “Estimates” from the “Customers” menu [1].
• You can create an estimate for a specific customer and job [3].
• If a customer approves the estimate, you can convert it into an invoice [5].
• Invoices:
• Invoices are created after the product is delivered or the service is completed [1].
• The purpose of an invoice is to notify a client that they owe money for work completed or goods provided [1].
• When you create an invoice from an estimate, the information from the estimate (item descriptions, quantities, prices) will transfer to the invoice [5].
• Invoices can include terms, which specify the number of days a customer has to pay [6].
• You can print or email invoices to clients [6].
• You can create an invoice by clicking on the “Create Invoices” icon on the home page or by selecting “Create Invoices” from the “Customers” menu [1].
• If you do not want to use an estimate, you can create an invoice from scratch, but this requires re-entering all the information [5].
• If you are managing inventory, you should not invoice items that you do not have in stock, as this will create a negative inventory transaction [7].
• Sales Receipts:
• A sales receipt is used when a customer pays at the same time the work is performed or the product is delivered [6].
• A sales receipt combines the invoice and the payment into a single transaction [6].
• It is an alternative to the invoice payment workflow [6].
• Customer Payments:
• Customer payments are recorded separately from invoicing, and this is for when payments are received after the work or service is complete [1].
• When you receive a payment, QuickBooks will ask you where to deposit the payment [1].
• You can record payments in cash, check, credit/debit card, or other payment methods, such as wire transfers [8].
• If a customer pays by check, it is recommended to record the check number in QuickBooks [8].
• If a customer makes a partial payment you can record that [6].
• QuickBooks Payments is a service that allows clients to pay electronically [8].
• Payments are typically deposited into a temporary account called “undeposited funds” before being deposited into a bank account [9].
• A deposit is recorded when the money is transferred from the undeposited funds account to a bank account [9].
• To record a payment, click the “Receive Payments” icon on the home page or select “Receive Payments” from the “Customers” menu [1, 6].
• To record a deposit, click the “Record Deposits” icon on the home page [9].

It is important to keep track of all estimates and invoices in your records and understand the difference between cash and accrual accounting. Accrual accounting recognizes income and expenses when they are incurred, whereas cash accounting only records income when payment is received and expenses when payment is made [10, 11].

QuickBooks Vendor Transaction Workflow

Vendor transactions in QuickBooks involve a workflow that begins with a purchase order, may include an item receipt, continues to a bill, and ends with paying the bill [1].

Here’s a detailed breakdown of the vendor transaction process:

• Purchase Orders:A purchase order is created when a business orders products or services from a vendor [1].
• Purchase orders can be created from scratch for inventory, or based on a sales transaction like an estimate or sales order [1].
• To create a purchase order, you can click the “Purchase Order” icon on the home page, select “Create Purchase Order” from the “Vendors” menu, or use the keyboard shortcut Alt + O + U [2]. You can also access purchase orders in the vendor center [2].
• You will need to select a vendor, and you can add a new vendor on the fly if needed [3].
• You can specify a “drop ship to” location, which is the customer’s address if the vendor is shipping directly to the customer [3].
• The purchase order number is automatically generated by QuickBooks and should not be manually changed [3].
• You can add a memo to the purchase order, such as a sales order or estimate number, that caused the need for the purchase order [4].
• You can add items to the purchase order, including quantity, description, and customer job for internal purposes [4, 5].
• If you know the shipping cost, you can add a freight or shipping line to the purchase order using the “other charge” item type [5, 6].
• Purchase orders can be printed, emailed, or saved with attachments [7, 8].
• Receiving Inventory:When the vendor ships the order, you can either receive the inventory with a bill or receive it without a bill [8].
• If you choose to receive inventory without a bill, it creates an item receipt, which is essentially a bill that doesn’t post to the “Pay Bills” window [8, 9].
• You can access the item receipt screen by clicking on “Receive Inventory” on the home page [8].
• When receiving inventory, you can select a vendor, which will prompt QuickBooks to show you any outstanding purchase orders from that vendor [9].
• You can choose to receive all or some of the items from a purchase order, and you can select multiple purchase orders to be included in a single item receipt [9].
• The items tab will display the items, quantity, and price from the purchase order, and you can specify a customer job associated with the item [10].
• If an item was ordered for a specific customer but you do not have an estimate or sales order, you can mark it as billable so that QuickBooks reminds you to bill the customer [10].
• You will also need to include the reference number, which is typically the invoice number from your vendor [10].
• The item receipt will update your inventory levels [11].
• You can convert an item receipt to a bill by checking the box labeled “Bill Received” at the top of the screen [8, 9].
• Alternatively, you can create a bill later based on an item receipt [12].
• If you choose to receive inventory with a bill, this skips the item receipt step, and goes directly to creating a bill from the purchase order [12].
• Bills:A bill is created when you receive an invoice from a vendor for goods or services [13].
• Bills can be created from an item receipt or a purchase order, or they can be created for expenses that do not involve a purchase order, such as utilities or rent [11, 13].
• To create a bill, you can click on the “Enter Bills” icon on the home page or select “Enter Bills” from the “Vendors” menu [13].
• You will need to select a vendor, and you can add a new vendor on the fly if needed [13].
• Bills that are related to items purchased or received are entered in the Items tab, while expenses that are not related to inventory are entered in the expenses tab [13].
• When entering a bill, you should include the vendor’s invoice number in the reference number field [13].
• Paying Bills:To pay bills, you can click on the “Pay Bills” icon on the home page or select “Pay Bills” from the “Vendors” menu [14].
• You can filter the bills you want to pay by due date, vendor, or reference number [15].
• The “Pay Bills” screen is used to record the payment, whether by check, credit card, wire transfer, or other method [16].
• You can sort the bills by date, vendor name, and other fields [15].
• You can see your bank balance in the “Pay Bills” window, which will be reduced by paying the selected bills [15].
• You can choose to pay bills with a check, which you can print from Quickbooks or write by hand; and if you write a check by hand, you will still need to record it in the “Pay Bills” window [16]. You can record the check number from the physical check in this window [16].
• If you pay by credit card or wire transfer, you will still use the “Pay Bills” window and select check as the payment method [16].
• You can pay selected bills, and choose which bank account the payment comes from [16].
• You can also pay bills using a debit card [17].
• Using the “Write Checks” function is not recommended for paying bills, because it does not properly link to accounts payable [14]. This can cause problems with your bank balance and with managing your payables [14]. The “Write Checks” function should only be used to pay a vendor or supplier in cases where you do not want to use the accounts payable feature [17].

It is important to note that the “Pay Bills” screen is used for recording the payment, not actually making the payment [16]. The actual payment is made through your bank, credit card company, etc.

QuickBooks Chart of Accounts

The chart of accounts is a fundamental part of QuickBooks, serving as the heart of the accounting system [1]. It is where all financial transactions are categorized [1].

Here’s a breakdown of key aspects of the chart of accounts:

• Purpose: The chart of accounts is a list of all the categories or financial accounts used to organize every transaction [1]. Each transaction is recorded under one of these categories [1].
• Accessing the Chart of Accounts:
• The chart of accounts can be accessed through the “List” menu, then “Chart of Accounts” [1].
• The keyboard shortcut to access the chart of accounts is Ctrl + A [1].
• If the home page is open, the chart of accounts can be accessed by clicking on the “Chart of Accounts” icon in the company section [1].
• Types of Accounts: The chart of accounts has two major types of account categories [1]:
• Balance Sheet Accounts: These accounts appear on the balance sheet financial statement [1]. They track what the company owns (assets), what it owes (liabilities), and the owner’s equity [2-4]. Balance sheet accounts have a running balance [1]. Examples of balance sheet accounts include:
• Assets: bank accounts, fixed assets (like trucks and equipment), accounts receivable [2].
• Liabilities: loans, credit cards, accounts payable [2].
• Equity: opening balance equity, retained earnings [2].
• Profit and Loss (Income Statement) Accounts: These accounts appear on the profit and loss statement (also known as the income statement) [1]. They track income, cost of goods sold, and expenses [1, 3, 5]. Profit and loss accounts do not carry opening balances [6]. Examples include:
• Income: consulting income, sales of hardware, training services [6].
• Cost of Goods Sold: subcontracted services, purchases of hardware [6].
• Expenses: insurance, automobile, travel, utilities, rent [7].
• Creating New Accounts:
• To create a new account, right-click within the chart of accounts and select “New” [2]. You can also click on the “Account” button at the bottom and select “New”, or use the shortcut Ctrl + N [2, 8].
• When creating a new account, you will need to select the account type (income, expense, bank, fixed asset, etc.) [2].
• Bank Accounts: When creating a new bank account, provide a name that easily identifies the account (e.g., “Wells Fargo Checking,” “Chase Savings”) [2]. You will need to enter an opening balance from the bank statement as of the day before the QuickBooks start date [9].
• When setting up a new account, it’s important to set the appropriate opening balance if there were prior transactions before the QuickBooks start date [9].
• When entering an opening balance for an asset, QuickBooks will automatically create a counterbalancing entry in the “Opening Balance Equity” account [10].
• Subaccounts: Accounts can have subaccounts, which provide further categorization. For example, “Insurance Expense” may have subaccounts for “General Liability” and “Health Insurance” [11].
• Editing and Managing Accounts:
• To edit an account, right-click on it and select “Edit” [7].
• To rename an account, edit the name, and save [12].
• To delete an account, right-click on it and select “Delete Account” [13].
• You can only delete an account if it has no transactions associated with it [13].
• To hide an account, right-click on it and select “Make Account Inactive” [13]. This does not erase the history [13].
• Inactive accounts can be viewed by checking the “Include Inactive” box [14].
• Inactive accounts can be reactivated by right-clicking and selecting “Make Account Active” or clicking on the “x” next to the account [14].
• Merging Accounts: If you have duplicate or redundant accounts, you can merge them by editing the name of the account you want to get rid of to match the name of the account you want to keep. QuickBooks will then prompt you to merge the two accounts [12].
• Linking Accounts to Items: It is important to understand the link between the chart of accounts and the item list. Income accounts and cost of goods sold accounts in the chart of accounts are essential for setting up items, particularly inventory items [8]. Each item (service, inventory part, etc.) needs to be linked to an appropriate income and/or expense account from your chart of accounts [15].
• Using the “Select from Examples” Button: When creating a new expense account, you can click the “Select from examples” button to select from a list of categories that you didn’t choose when setting up the company file [13].

Understanding the chart of accounts is crucial because it provides the structure for organizing all financial information in QuickBooks [1].

QuickBooks Financial Reporting

Financial reports in QuickBooks provide insights into a company’s financial performance and position [1]. Here’s a breakdown of key financial reports:

• Profit and Loss (Income Statement):
• The profit and loss statement (also known as the income statement) shows a company’s income, cost of goods sold, and expenses over a specific period [1, 2].
• It helps assess a company’s profitability [3].
• The report can be accessed through “Reports” menu, then “Company Financial,” then “Profit & Loss Standard” [1].
• The report can be customized by date range (today, this week, this month, this year, last year, or custom date range) [1].
• The report can be sorted by total amount or by default (alphabetical order of the account names) [1].
• The profit and loss report includes income statement accounts from the chart of accounts: income, cost of goods sold, and expenses [4].
• By default, QuickBooks only shows accounts with activity, but you can customize the report to show all accounts, even those with zero balances [4].
• Balance Sheet:
• The balance sheet shows a company’s assets, liabilities, and equity at a specific point in time [2, 4].
• It helps assess a company’s financial position [2].
• The report can be accessed through “Reports” menu, then “Company Financial,” then “Balance Sheet Standard” [4].
• The balance sheet includes balance sheet accounts from the chart of accounts: assets, liabilities, and equity [2, 4].
• The balance sheet is a more complete report than the profit and loss, because it includes the summary result of the profit and loss and additional information [3].
• Statement of Cash Flows:The statement of cash flows shows the movement of cash in and out of a company over a specific period [3].
• It explains the difference between net income and the actual money in the bank [5].
• The report can be accessed through “Reports” menu, then “Company Financial,” then “Statement of Cash Flows” [3].
• Accrual vs. Cash Basis:
• Financial reports can be generated using either the accrual basis or the cash basis [5].
• Accrual Basis:Accrual basis reports include all income and expenses, regardless of whether payment has been received or made [5, 6].
• Accrual reports will show accounts receivable (money owed by customers) and accounts payable (money owed to vendors) [6].
• Cash Basis:Cash basis reports only include income when payments have been received and expenses when payments have been made [6].
• Cash basis reports do not include outstanding invoices or bills [6].
• You can switch between accrual and cash basis by clicking on “Customize Report” and choosing the accounting method [6].
• It is important to use the same accounting method (either cash or accrual) for all reports to ensure the numbers tie together [6].
• Net Income:
• The net income from the profit and loss statement is linked to the balance sheet. The balance sheet includes the summary result of the profit and loss [3].
• The net income or loss from the profit and loss report is reflected in the equity section of the balance sheet [3].
• If the profit and loss and the balance sheet are viewed for the same period, the net income on both reports should match, whether on a cash or accrual basis [3, 6].

These reports can be customized by date range and other criteria [1]. It’s important to understand the differences between cash and accrual accounting methods and to choose the one that’s most appropriate for your business [6]. It is recommended to view the profit and loss statement in conjunction with the balance sheet rather than separately because they provide different perspectives of a company’s financial condition [6].

By Amjad Izhar
Contact: amjad.izhar@gmail.com
https://amjadizhar.blog

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