QuickBooks® 2010 For Dummies®

QuickBooks® 2010 For Dummies®

by Stephen L. Nelson
Released November 2009
Publisher(s): For Dummies
ISBN: 9780470505359

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Book description

The annual update of a perennial bestseller, fully revised for the newest QuickBooks release

QuickBooks is the leading software package for small business accounting, updated each year so it remains cutting-edge. QuickBooks "X" For Dummies provides all the information you need to start using the newest version in your business.

You'll learn to set up your business accounting functions on QuickBooks and use all the newest features. You'll be able to create budgets, process payroll, manage inventory and invoices, track job costs, balance accounts, and make things easier at tax preparation time.

  • Shows you, in plain English, how to set up QuickBooks and manage your small business accounting on your own

  • Explains how to set up your business on QuickBooks, create invoices and credit memos, record sales receipts, set up inventory items, and track business credit cards

  • Covers recording and paying bills, printing checks, processing payroll, and preparing payroll taxes

  • Discusses building a budget, going online with QuickBooks, balancing accounts, generating financial reports, simplifying tax return preparation, and backing up data

  • Also explores job estimating, billing, and tracking jobs and invoices

    • Written by Stephen L. Nelson, author of all previous editions and an experienced CPA, QuickBooks "X" For Dummies will help you become your own accountant and keep your business in the black.

    Table of contents

    1. Copyright
    2. About the Authors
    3. Author's Acknowledgments
    4. Publisher's Acknowledgments
    5. Introduction
      1. About QuickBooks
      2. About This Book
      3. What You Can Safely Ignore
      4. What You Should Not Ignore (Unless You're a Masochist)
      5. Three Foolish Assumptions
      6. How This Book Is Organized
        1. Part I: Quickly into QuickBooks
        2. Part II: Daily Entry Tasks
        3. Part III: Stuff You Do from Time to Time
        4. Part IV: Housekeeping Chores
        5. Part V: The Part of Tens
        6. Part VI: Appendixes
      7. Conventions Used in This Book
    6. I. Quickly into QuickBooks
      1. 1. QuickBooks: The Heart of Your Business
        1. 1.1. Why QuickBooks?
          1. 1.1.1. Why you need an accounting system
          2. 1.1.2. What QuickBooks does
        2. 1.2. What Explains QuickBooks' Popularity?
        3. 1.3. What's Next, Dude?
        4. 1.4. How to Succeed with QuickBooks
          1. 1.4.1. Budget wisely, Grasshopper
          2. 1.4.2. Don't focus on features
          3. 1.4.3. Outsource payroll
          4. 1.4.4. Get professional help
          5. 1.4.5. Use both the profit and loss statement and the balance sheet
      2. 2. Answering Mr. Wizard
        1. 2.1. Getting Ready for the Big Interview
          1. 2.1.1. The big decision
          2. 2.1.2. The trial balance of the century
          3. 2.1.3. The mother of all scavenger hunts
        2. 2.2. Doing the EasyStep Interview
          1. 2.2.1. Tip 1: Get to know the interview protocol
          2. 2.2.2. Tip 2: Take your time
          3. 2.2.3. Tip 3: Get industry-specific advice
          4. 2.2.4. Tip 4: Accept the suggested filename and location
          5. 2.2.5. Tip 5: Go with the suggested Chart of Accounts
          6. 2.2.6. Tip 6: Consider tracking all your expenses with your checkbook
          7. 2.2.7. Tip 7: Add accounts you need
        3. 2.3. The Rest of the Story
        4. 2.4. Should You Get Your Accountant's Help?
      3. 3. Populating QuickBooks Lists
        1. 3.1. The Magic and Mystery of Items
          1. 3.1.1. Adding items you might include on invoices
          2. 3.1.2. Creating other wacky items for invoices
            1. 3.1.2.1. Creating Subtotal items to stick subtotals on invoices
            2. 3.1.2.2. Creating Group items to batch stuff you sell together
            3. 3.1.2.3. Creating Discount items to add discounts to invoices
            4. 3.1.2.4. Creating Sales Tax Group items to batch sales taxes
          3. 3.1.3. Editing items
        2. 3.2. Adding Employees to Your Employee List
        3. 3.3. Customers Are Your Business
        4. 3.4. It's Just a Job
        5. 3.5. Adding Vendors to Your Vendor List
        6. 3.6. The Other Lists
          1. 3.6.1. The Fixed Asset list
          2. 3.6.2. The Price Level list
          3. 3.6.3. The Sales Tax Code list
          4. 3.6.4. The Class list
          5. 3.6.5. The Other Names list
          6. 3.6.6. The Sales Rep list
          7. 3.6.7. Customer, Vendor, and Job Types list
          8. 3.6.8. The Terms list
          9. 3.6.9. The Customer Message list
          10. 3.6.10. The Payment Method list
          11. 3.6.11. The Ship Via list
          12. 3.6.12. The Vehicle list
          13. 3.6.13. The Memorized Transaction list
          14. 3.6.14. The Reminders list
        7. 3.7. Organizing and Printing Lists
          1. 3.7.1. Printing lists
        8. 3.8. Exporting List Items to Your Word Processor
        9. 3.9. Dealing with the Chart of Accounts List
          1. 3.9.1. Describing customer balances
          2. 3.9.2. Describing vendor balances
          3. 3.9.3. Camouflaging some accounting goofiness
          4. 3.9.4. Supplying the missing numbers
          5. 3.9.5. Checking your work one more time
    7. II. Daily Entry Tasks
      1. 4. Creating Invoices and Credit Memos
        1. 4.1. Making Sure That You're Ready to Invoice Customers
        2. 4.2. Preparing an Invoice
        3. 4.3. Fixing Invoice Mistakes
          1. 4.3.1. If the invoice is still displayed onscreen
          2. 4.3.2. If the invoice isn't displayed onscreen
          3. 4.3.3. Deleting an invoice
        4. 4.4. Preparing a Credit Memo
        5. 4.5. Fixing Credit Memo Mistakes
        6. 4.6. Printing Invoices and Credit Memos
          1. 4.6.1. Loading the forms into the printer
          2. 4.6.2. Setting up the invoice printer
          3. 4.6.3. Printing invoices and credit memos as you create them
          4. 4.6.4. Printing invoices in a batch
          5. 4.6.5. Printing credit memos in a batch
        7. 4.7. Sending Invoices and Credit Memos via E-Mail
        8. 4.8. Customizing Your Invoices and Credit Memos
      2. 5. Reeling In the Dough
        1. 5.1. Recording a Sales Receipt
        2. 5.2. Printing a Sales Receipt
        3. 5.3. Special Tips for Retailers
        4. 5.4. Correcting Sales Receipt Mistakes
        5. 5.5. Recording Customer Payments
        6. 5.6. Correcting Mistakes in Customer Payments Entries
        7. 5.7. Making Bank Deposits
        8. 5.8. Improving Your Cash Inflow
          1. 5.8.1. Tracking what your customers owe
          2. 5.8.2. Assessing finance charges
          3. 5.8.3. Dealing with deposits
      3. 6. Paying the Bills
        1. 6.1. Pay Now or Pay Later?
        2. 6.2. Recording Your Bills by Writing Checks
          1. 6.2.1. The slow way to write checks
          2. 6.2.2. The fast way to write checks
        3. 6.3. Recording Your Bills the Accounts Payable Way
          1. 6.3.1. Recording your bills
          2. 6.3.2. Entering your bills the fast way
          3. 6.3.3. Deleting a bill
          4. 6.3.4. Remind me to pay that bill, will you?
        4. 6.4. Paying Your Bills
        5. 6.5. Tracking Vehicle Mileage
        6. 6.6. Paying Sales Tax
        7. 6.7. A Quick Word on the Vendor Center Window
      4. 7. Inventory Magic
        1. 7.1. Setting Up Inventory Items
        2. 7.2. When You Buy Stuff
          1. 7.2.1. Recording items that you pay for up-front
          2. 7.2.2. Recording items that don't come with a bill
          3. 7.2.3. Paying for items when you get the bill
          4. 7.2.4. Recording items and paying the bill all at once
        3. 7.3. When You Sell Stuff
        4. 7.4. How Purchase Orders Work
          1. 7.4.1. Choosing a purchase order form
          2. 7.4.2. Filling out a purchase order
          3. 7.4.3. Checking up on purchase orders
          4. 7.4.4. Receiving purchase order items
        5. 7.5. Assembling a Product
          1. 7.5.1. Identifying the components
          2. 7.5.2. Building the assembly
        6. 7.6. Time for a Reality Check
        7. 7.7. Dealing with Multiple Inventory Locations
          1. 7.7.1. Manually keep separate inventory-by-location counts
          2. 7.7.2. Use different item numbers for different locations
          3. 7.7.3. One more thought
        8. 7.8. The Lazy Person's Approach to Inventory
          1. 7.8.1. How periodic inventory systems work in QuickBooks
          2. 7.8.2. The good and bad of a periodic inventory
      5. 8. Keeping Your Checkbook
        1. 8.1. Writing Checks
          1. 8.1.1. Writing checks from the Write Checks window
          2. 8.1.2. Writing checks from the Checking register
          3. 8.1.3. Changing a check that you've written
          4. 8.1.4. Packing more checks into the register
        2. 8.2. Depositing Money into a Checking Account
          1. 8.2.1. Recording simple deposits
          2. 8.2.2. Depositing income from customers
        3. 8.3. Transferring Money between Accounts
          1. 8.3.1. Setting up a second bank account
          2. 8.3.2. About the other half of the transfer
          3. 8.3.3. Changing a transfer that you've already entered
        4. 8.4. To Delete or to Void?
        5. 8.5. Handling NSF Checks from Customers
        6. 8.6. The Big Register Phenomenon
          1. 8.6.1. Moving through a big register
          2. 8.6.2. Finding that darn transaction
      6. 9. Paying with Plastic
        1. 9.1. Tracking Business Credit Cards
          1. 9.1.1. Setting up a credit card account
          2. 9.1.2. Selecting a credit card account so that you can use it
        2. 9.2. Entering Credit Card Transactions
          1. 9.2.1. Recording a credit card charge
          2. 9.2.2. Changing charges that you've already entered
        3. 9.3. Reconciling Your Credit Card Statement and Paying the Bill
        4. 9.4. So What about Debit Cards?
        5. 9.5. So What about Customer Credit Cards?
    8. III. Stuff You Do from Time to Time
      1. 10. Printing Checks
        1. 10.1. Getting the Printer Ready
        2. 10.2. Printing a Check
          1. 10.2.1. A few words about printing checks
          2. 10.2.2. Printing a check as you write it
          3. 10.2.3. Printing checks by the bushel
          4. 10.2.4. What if I make a mistake?
          5. 10.2.5. Oh where, oh where do unprinted checks go?
        3. 10.3. Printing a Checking Register
      2. 11. Payroll
        1. 11.1. Getting Ready to Do Payroll without Help from QuickBooks
        2. 11.2. Doing Taxes the Right Way
          1. 11.2.1. Getting an employer ID number
          2. 11.2.2. Having employees do their part
        3. 11.3. Getting Ready to Do Payroll with QuickBooks
        4. 11.4. Paying Your Employees
        5. 11.5. Paying Payroll Liabilities
          1. 11.5.1. Paying tax liabilities if you use the full-meal-deal Payroll service
          2. 11.5.2. Paying tax liabilities if you don't use the full-meal-deal Payroll service
          3. 11.5.3. Paying other nontax liabilities
        6. 11.6. Preparing Quarterly Payroll Tax Returns
          1. 11.6.1. Using the QuickBooks full-meal-deal Payroll service
          2. 11.6.2. Using the other QuickBooks Payroll services
        7. 11.7. Filing Annual Returns and Wage Statements
          1. 11.7.1. Using the QuickBooks full-meal-deal Payroll service
          2. 11.7.2. Using the QuickBooks economy Payroll services
        8. 11.8. The State Wants Some Money, Too
      3. 12. Building the Perfect Budget
        1. 12.1. Is This a Game You Want to Play?
        2. 12.2. All Joking Aside: Some Basic Budgeting Tips
        3. 12.3. A Budgeting Secret You Won't Learn in College
        4. 12.4. Setting Up a Secret Plan
        5. 12.5. Adjusting a Secret Plan
        6. 12.6. Forecasting Profits and Losses
        7. 12.7. Projecting Cash Flows
        8. 12.8. Using the Business Planner Tools
      4. 13. Online with QuickBooks
        1. 13.1. Doing the Electronic Banking Thing
          1. 13.1.1. So what's the commotion about?
          2. 13.1.2. A thousand reasons not to bank online
          3. 13.1.3. Making sense of online banking
          4. 13.1.4. Signing up for the service
          5. 13.1.5. Making an online payment
          6. 13.1.6. Transferring money electronically
          7. 13.1.7. Changing instructions
          8. 13.1.8. Transmitting instructions
          9. 13.1.9. Message in a bottle
        2. 13.2. A Quick Review of the Other Online Opportunities
    9. IV. Housekeeping Chores
      1. 14. The Balancing Act
        1. 14.1. Balancing a Bank Account
          1. 14.1.1. Giving QuickBooks information from the bank statement
          2. 14.1.2. Marking cleared checks and deposits
            1. 14.1.2.1. If the difference equals zero
            2. 14.1.2.2. If the difference doesn't equal zero
        2. 14.2. Eleven Things to Do If Your Non-Online Account Doesn't Balance
      2. 15. Reporting on the State of Affairs
        1. 15.1. What Kinds of Reports Are There, Anyway?
        2. 15.2. Creating and Printing a Report
          1. 15.2.1. Visiting the report dog-and-pony show
          2. 15.2.2. Editing and rearranging reports
            1. 15.2.2.1. Modifying
            2. 15.2.2.2. Memorizing
            3. 15.2.2.3. E-mailing
            4. 15.2.2.4. Exporting
            5. 15.2.2.5. The other buttons and boxes
        3. 15.3. Reports Made to Order
        4. 15.4. Processing Multiple Reports
        5. 15.5. Last but Not Least: The QuickReport
      3. 16. Job Estimating, Billing, and Tracking
        1. 16.1. Turning On Job Costing
        2. 16.2. Setting Up a Job
        3. 16.3. Creating a Job Estimate
        4. 16.4. Revising an Estimate
        5. 16.5. Turning an Estimate into an Invoice
        6. 16.6. Comparing Estimated Item Amounts with Actual Item Amounts
        7. 16.7. Charging for Actual Time and Costs
        8. 16.8. Tracking Job Costs
      4. 17. File Management Tips
        1. 17.1. Backing Up Is (Not That) Hard to Do
          1. 17.1.1. Backing up the quick-and-dirty way
          2. 17.1.2. Getting back the QuickBooks data you backed up
        2. 17.2. Accountant's Review
        3. 17.3. Working with Portable Files
        4. 17.4. Using an Audit Trail
        5. 17.5. Using a Closing Password
      5. 18. Fixed Assets and Vehicle Lists
        1. 18.1. What Is Fixed Assets Accounting?
        2. 18.2. Fixed Assets Accounting in QuickBooks
        3. 18.3. Setting Up a Fixed Asset List
          1. 18.3.1. Adding items to the Fixed Asset list
          2. 18.3.2. Adding fixed asset items on-the-fly
          3. 18.3.3. Editing items on the Fixed Asset list
        4. 18.4. Tracking Vehicle Mileage
          1. 18.4.1. Identifying your vehicles
          2. 18.4.2. Recording vehicle miles
          3. 18.4.3. Using the vehicle reports
          4. 18.4.4. Updating vehicle mileage rates
    10. V. The Part of Tens
      1. 19. (Almost) Ten Tips for Business Owners
        1. 19.1. Sign All Your Own Checks
        2. 19.2. Don't Sign a Check the Wrong Way
        3. 19.3. Review Canceled Checks Before Your Bookkeeper Does
        4. 19.4. Choose a Bookkeeper Who Is Familiar with Computers and Knows How to Do Payroll
        5. 19.5. Choose an Appropriate Accounting System
        6. 19.6. If QuickBooks Doesn't Work for Your Business
        7. 19.7. Keep Things Simple
      2. 20. Tips for Handling (Almost) Ten Tricky Situations
        1. 20.1. Selling an Asset
        2. 20.2. Selling a Depreciable Asset
        3. 20.3. Owner's Equity in a Sole Proprietorship
        4. 20.4. Owner's Equity in a Partnership
        5. 20.5. Owner's Equity in a Corporation
        6. 20.6. Multiple-State Accounting
        7. 20.7. Getting a Loan
        8. 20.8. Repaying a Loan
      3. 21. (Almost) Ten Secret Business Formulas
        1. 21.1. The First "Most Expensive Money You Can Borrow" Formula
        2. 21.2. The Second "Most Expensive Money You Can Borrow" Formula
        3. 21.3. The "How Do I Break Even?" Formula
        4. 21.4. The "You Can Grow Too Fast" Formula
          1. 21.4.1. How net worth relates to growth
          2. 21.4.2. How to calculate sustainable growth
        5. 21.5. The First "What Happens If . . . ?" Formula
        6. 21.6. The Second "What Happens If . . . ?" Formula
        7. 21.7. The Economic Order Quantity (Isaac Newton) Formula
        8. 21.8. The Rule of 72
    11. VI. Appendixes
      1. A. Installing QuickBooks in Ten Easy Steps
      2. B. If Numbers Are Your Friends
        1. B.1. Keying In on Profit
          1. B.1.1. Let me introduce you to the new you
          2. B.1.2. The first day in business
          3. B.1.3. Look at your cash flow first
          4. B.1.4. Depreciation is an accounting gimmick
          5. B.1.5. Accrual-basis accounting is cool
          6. B.1.6. Now you know how to measure profits
          7. B.1.7. Some financial brain food
        2. B.2. In the Old Days, Things Were Different
        3. B.3. What Does an Italian Monk Have to Do with Anything?
          1. B.3.1. And now for the blow-by-blow
          2. B.3.2. Blow-by-blow, Part II
          3. B.3.3. How does QuickBooks help?
        4. B.4. Two Dark Shadows in the World of Accounting
          1. B.4.1. The first dark shadow
          2. B.4.2. The second dark shadow
        5. B.5. The Danger of Shell Games
      3. C. Sharing QuickBooks Files
        1. C.1. Sharing a QuickBooks File on a Network
          1. C.1.1. User permissions
          2. C.1.2. Record locking
        2. C.2. Installing QuickBooks for Network Use
        3. C.3. Setting Up User Permissions
        4. C.4. Specifying Multi-User Mode
        5. C.5. Working in Multi-User Mode

    Product information

    • Title: QuickBooks® 2010 For Dummies®
    • Author(s): Stephen L. Nelson
    • Release date: November 2009
    • Publisher(s): For Dummies
    • ISBN: 9780470505359