Getting to Know QuickBooks
When you run a business (or a nonprofit), you track company finances for two reasons: to keep your business running smoothly and to generate the reports required by the IRS, the SEC, and any other stakeholders to whom you are responsible. QuickBooks helps you perform your basic financial tasks, track your financial situation, and manage your business to make it even better. Before you read any further, here are a few things you shouldn't try to do with QuickBooks:
Track personal finances. Even if you are a company of one, keeping your personal finances separate from your business finances is a good move, particularly when it comes to tax reporting. In addition to opening a separate checking account for your business, track your personal finances somewhere else. If that somewhere else is QuickBooks, at least create a separate company file for your personal financial information.
Track the performance of stocks and bonds. QuickBooks isn't meant to keep track of the capital gains and dividends you earn from investments such as stocks and bonds. But companies have investments, of course. A machine that costs hundreds of thousands of dollars is an investment that you hope will generate lots of income and you should track it in QuickBooks. However, in QuickBooks, these types of investments show up as assets of the company (page 6).
Manage customer relationships. Lots of information goes into keeping customers happy. With QuickBooks, you can stay on top ...
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