QuickBooks 2005: The Missing Manual

Introduction

Thousands of small companies and nonprofit organizations turn to QuickBooks to keep company finances on track. And over the years, Intuit has introduced editions of QuickBooks to satisfy the needs of different types of companies. Back when milk was simply milk, you either used QuickBooks or you didn't. Now that milk comes from soy beans as well as cows, and sports five different amounts of fat, it's no surprise that you can choose from QuickBooks Basic, Pro, Premier, and Enterprise editions, as well as seven industry-specific editions. From the smallest of sole proprietorships to thriving enterprises that aren't small at all, one of the QuickBooks editions is likely to meet your organization's needs and budget.

QuickBooks isn't hard to learn. Many of the techniques that you're familiar with from other programs work just as well in QuickBooks—windows, dialog boxes, drop-down lists, and keyboard shortcuts to name a few. With each new version, Intuit adds enhancements and new features to make your work flow more smoothly and finish that much faster. The challenge that remains is knowing what to do according to accounting rules as well as how to do so in QuickBooks.

What's New in QuickBooks 2005

Despite the malleable size of the tax code each year, accounting and bookkeeping practices don't change all that much. In fact, most of the changes in QuickBooks 2005 are small tweaks and subtle improvements. But a few additions might make you sit up and take notice:

• Applying credits ...