A Presentation of TeachUcomp Incorporated.

Copyright © TeachUcomp, Inc. 2011

Advanced
QuickBooks

TeachUcomp, Inc.
…it’s all about you

Advanced QuickBooks
 Advanced QuickBooks

Copyright:

Copyright © 2011 by TeachUcomp, Inc. All rights reserved. This publication, or any part thereof,
may not be reproduced or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, recording, photocopying, or otherwise, without the express written permission of
TeachUcomp, Inc.
For PDF manuals, TeachUcomp, Inc. allows the owner of the PDF manual to make up to 2
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Trademark Acknowledgements:

Intuit, Quicken, QuickBooks, QuickBooks Pro, QuickBooks Premier, Turbo Tax, EasyStep,
QuickReports, and QuickZoom are registered trademarks of Intuit, Inc. Windows, Windows 95, Windows 98,
Windows NT, Windows Me, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Microsoft Word 97, Microsoft Word 2000,
Microsoft Word XP, Microsoft Word 2003, Microsoft Word 2007, Microsoft Excel 97, Microsoft Excel 200,
Microsoft Excel XP, Microsoft Excel 2003, Microsoft Excel 2007 and Outlook are registered trademarks of
Microsoft Corporation. Other brand names and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of
their respective holders.

Disclaimer:

While every precaution has been made in the production of this book, TeachUcomp, Inc. assumes
no responsibility for errors or omissions. Nor is any liability assumed for damages resulting from the use of
the information contained herein. These training materials are provided without any warranty whatsoever,
including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. All
names of persons or companies in this manual are fictional, unless otherwise noted.

TeachUcomp, Inc.
Phone: (877) 925-8080
Web: http://www.teachucomp.com

©TeachUcomp, Inc. Advanced QuickBooks 2

 Introduction and Overview

Welcome to the advanced section of Teachucomp, Inc.’s

Mastering QuickBooks Made Easy™ course. This class furthers
the student’s knowledge of Intuit’s QuickBooks application.
QuickBooks is one of the most popular accounting and
bookkeeping programs available today. The advanced section of
this class is designed to give the student with a basic skill set in
using QuickBooks further enhancements to their knowledge base.
QuickBooks is a terrific program to learn, as the skills that
you learn in QuickBooks can save valuable time and money by
automating, organizing and structuring the bookkeeping of your
company.
QuickBooks is a multi-featured program that allows you to
create invoices, create customer statements, pay your bills, write
vendor checks, track inventory, and manage your payroll, as well
as perform many other accounting and business-management
related tasks.

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 Table Of Contents

Chapters/Lessons: Pages: Chapters/Lessons: Pages:

CHAPTER 15- Reporting 6 CHAPTER 20- Payroll 48
Graph and Report Preferences 7 The Payroll Process 49
Using QuickReports 7-8 Creating Payroll Items 50
Using QuickZoom 8 Setting Employee Defaults 50
Preset Reports 9 Setting Up Employee Payroll Information 50
Modifying and Filtering Reports 10-12 Writing Paychecks to Employees- 2003:2006 51
Memorizing Reports 12 Writing Paychecks to Employees- 2007:2012 51-52
Memorized Report Groups 12 Voiding Paychecks 52
Printing Reports 13 Tracking Your Tax Liabilities 52
Printing Forms 13 Paying Your Payroll Tax Liabilities 53
Exporting Reports to Microsoft Excel 13 Adjusting Payroll Liabilities 53-54
Saving Forms and Reports as PDF Documents- 2004:2012 13 Entering Liability Refund Checks 54
Reporting- Actions 14-18 Process Payroll Forms 54
Reporting- Exercise 19 Tracking Workers Compensation- 2005:2012 55
Payroll- Actions 56-62
CHAPTER 16- Using Graphs 20 Payroll- Exercise 63-64
Using Graphs 21
Using Graphs- Actions 22 CHAPTER 21- Using Credit Card Accounts 65
Using Graphs- Exercise 23 Creating Credit Card Accounts 66
Entering Charges on Credit Cards 66
CHAPTER 17- Customizing Forms 24 Reconciling and Paying Credit Cards 67
Creating New Form Templates 25 Using Credit Card Accounts- Actions 68
Using the Customize Window- 2003:2006 26 Using Credit Card Accounts- Exercise 69
Customizing Form Templates- 2007:2012 27
Using the Layout Designer 27 CHAPTER 22- Assets and Liabilities 70
Customizing Forms- Actions 28-29 Assets and Liabilities 71
Customizing Forms- Exercise 30 Using the Other Current Asset Account Type 71
Removing Value from Other Current Asset Accounts 71
CHAPTER 18- Estimating 31 Creating Fixed Asset Accounts 72
Making Estimates for a Job 32 Setting the Original Cost of the Fixed Asset 72
Duplicating Estimates 32 Tracking Depreciation 73
Invoicing from an Estimate 32-33 Liability Accounts 73
Updating Job Statuses 34 The Loan Manager- 2004:2012 73-74
Inactivating Estimates 34 The Fixed Asset Item List- 2004:2012 74
Making Purchases for a Job 34 Assets and Liabilities- Actions 75-78
Invoicing for Job Costs 34 Assets and Liabilities- Exercise 79
Using Job Reports 35
Estimating- Actions 36-38 CHAPTER 23- Equity Accounts 80
Estimating- Exercise 39 Equity Accounts 81
Recording an Owner’s Draw 81
CHAPTER 19- Time Tracking 40 Recording a Capital Investment 81
Time Tracking 41 Equity Accounts- Actions 82
Weekly Timesheets 42 Equity Accounts- Exercise 83
Time/Enter Single Activity 42
Invoicing from Time Data 42 CHAPTER 24- Writing Letters with QuickBooks 84
Using Time Reports 43 Using the Write Letters Wizard 85
Tracking Vehicle Mileage- 2004:2012 43-44 Editing Letter Templates 85
Charging Customers for Mileage- 2004:2012 44 Writing Letters with QuickBooks- Actions 86
Time Tracking- Actions 45-46 Writing Letters with QuickBooks- Exercise 87
Time Tracking- Exercise 47

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 Table Of Contents

Chapters/Lessons: Pages:
CHAPTER 25- Company Management 88
Viewing Your Company Information 89
Setting Up Budgets 89
Using the To Do List 89
Using Reminders and Setting Preferences 89
Making Journal Entries 90
Using the Cash Flow Projector- 2004:2012 90
Company Management- Actions 91-92
Company Management- Exercise 93

CHAPTER 26- Using QuickBooks Tools 94

Company File Cleanup 95
Exporting List Data to an IIF File 95
Advanced Importing of Data- 2004:2012 95-96
Updating QuickBooks 96
Using the Calculator 96
Using Portable Company Files- 2006 97
Using Portable Company Files- 2007:2012 97-98
Using the Calendar- 2012 98
Using QuickBooks Tools- Actions 99-101
Using QuickBooks Tools- Exercise 102

CHAPTER 27- Using the Accountant’s Review 103

Creating an Accountant’s Copy 104
Using the Accountant’s Copy 104
Importing Changes to Your Company File 104
Using the Accountant’s Review- Actions 105
Using the Accountant’s Review- Exercise 106

CHAPTER 28- Using the Help Menu 107

Using Help 108
Using the Help Menu- Actions 109
Using the Help Menu- Exercise 110

QuickBooks Keyboard Shortcuts 111

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 CHAPTER 15-
Reporting
15.1- Graph and Report Preferences

15.2- Using QuickReports

15.3- Using QuickZoom

15.4- Preset Reports

15.5- Modifying and Filtering Reports

15.6- Memorizing Reports

15.7- Memorized Report Groups

15.8- Printing Reports

15.9- Printing Forms

15.10- Exporting Reports to Microsoft Excel

15.11- Saving Forms and Reports as PDF Files- 2004:2012

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 Reporting

15.1- Graph and Report Preferences:

You can set both your default personal and company preferences for any of the reports and graphs
that you create within QuickBooks by editing the settings within the “Preferences” dialog box. You can
access these default report and graph settings by selecting “Edit| Preferences…” from the Menu Bar to
open the “Preferences” dialog box, first.
In the “Preferences” dialog box, click the “Reports & Graphs” icon in the listing of categories shown
in the list at the left side of the “Preferences” window. You can then set personal report preferences on the
“My Preferences” tab at the right. Also to the right, you can set the default company preferences for reports
and graphs. If you click the “My Preferences” tab, you can set user preferences for reports and graphs. In
the “Reports and Graphs” section, you select how you want QuickBooks to behave when the data within a
report needs to be refreshed. You can select either “Prompt me to refresh,” “Refresh automatically,” or
“Don’t refresh.” If you select the “Refresh automatically” option, then when you change a report parameter,
QuickBooks will refresh the report to show you the change immediately. In the “Graphs Only” section, you
can check the “Draw graphs in 2D (faster)” option in order to show graphs in 2D versus 3D, if desired. If you
prefer to use patterns versus colors when rendering graphs, then you can check the “Use patterns”
checkbox.
If you click the “Company Preferences” tab, you can set the default preferences for graphs and
reports for your company file. In the “Summary Reports Basis” section, you can select how you prefer your
summary reports to be displayed, by default. You can select either “Cash” or “Accrual.” In the “Aging
Reports” section, you can select which date to use as the basis for your aging reports- “Age from due date”
or “Age from transaction date.” Also, in the “Reports- Show Accounts by:” section, you can select how to
display accounts within your reports. You can select to show either the “Name only,” “Description Only,” or
“Name and Description.” If you wish to choose which account balances are included in the “Operating,”
“Investing,” or “Financing” sections of the “Statement of Cash Flows” report, then you can click the “Classify
Cash…” button to open the “Classify Cash” dialog box. Here you can select an account shown and then
check either the “Operating,” “Investing,” or “Financing” columns to assign that account balance to the
selected section of the “Statement of Cash Flows” report for your company. Make any changes that you
need to here, and then click the “OK” button to return to the “Preferences” dialog box.
Once you have set your graph and report preferences as desired, you can then click the “OK” button
to apply your preferences.

15.2- Using QuickReports:

One way to see a report on your QuickBooks data is to create a QuickReport. QuickReports are
predesigned reports that display information about the items you are currently viewing onscreen. Whenever
you have a list, a register, or a form displayed onscreen, you can click a button or hyperlink to have
QuickBooks create a QuickReport on the data displayed.
For example, if you are viewing the “Vendor List” and you want to see a transaction history for a
selected vendor, you can create a QuickReport. To do this in QuickBooks 2006:2012, select the vendor’s
name from the “Vendors” tab within the Vendor Center and then click the “QuickReport” hyperlink in the
upper-right corner of the Vendor Center. If you are using QuickBooks 2003 through 2005, then you can
instead select the vendor’s name within the “Vendor List” and then click the “Reports” button at the bottom
of the “Vendor List” and select “QuickReport” from the pop-up menu.
At that point, in all versions, you will see a QuickReport appear that lists your transactions with the
selected vendor for the current accounting period. Note that you can also generate a QuickReport on any

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15.2- Using QuickReports (cont.):

form displayed in QuickBooks or on any selected record in a list by simply pressing “Ctrl”+“Q” on your
keyboard with the form displayed or the list entry selected. The QuickReport will display within its own
window, which you may close when you are done viewing the report by clicking the small “x” in the upper
right corner of the QuickReport window.

15.3- Using QuickZoom:

When using reports in QuickBooks you will often see application transaction data displayed, or you
will see summary totals of those transactions. You can use the QuickZoom feature in reports within
QuickBooks to view the detail data used for report summary values. These details will appear in a separate
report window that opens. You can also use this feature on any transaction entry displayed in order to open
that transaction itself in a separate window. Also, when viewing graphs in QuickBooks, you can use the
QuickZoom feature to view a breakdown of the graphic data in either a separate graph, or in a separate
report. Basically, you can use this feature to trace report data back to its original sources. As such, this tool
can be an easy way to open transaction data from within reports when viewing the report data.
To use the QuickZoom feature on any report displayed in QuickBooks, hold your mouse pointer over
any line within a report until you see your mouse pointer turn into the QuickZoom symbol. The QuickZoom
symbol is a magnifying glass with a small “Z” inside of it. When you see your mouse pointer turn into this
symbol, you can double-click the report line to display the original transaction or detail report for the
selected report line in a separate report window within QuickBooks.

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15.4- Preset Reports:

In addition to the QuickReports that you can view on any data selected within QuickBooks or on any
form displayed within QuickBooks, QuickBooks also provides dozens of preset reports that you can view,
customize, and then save as your own custom reports. The preset reports provided include many different
types of standard business reports, such as the profit and loss report, balance sheet report, accounts
receivable reports, sales reports, accounts payable reports, inventory reports, and many other types of
useful business reports.
The “Reports” menu within the Menu Bar groups the preset reports that are provided into twelve
major categories, which are listed in the table below. To access any report in QuickBooks, you can click the
“Reports” command in the Menu Bar, roll your mouse pointer over the desired report category, and then
click on the name of the report that you want to open from the side menu of report choices for the selected
category that then appears.

Category: Description:

Company & Financial Includes the Profit and Loss reports that give you a global view of your company’s income,
expenses, and net profit or loss over a specified period of time. Also includes the Balance Sheet
Reports that show the financial position of your business by listing assets, liabilities, and equity.
Also includes the Statement of Cash Flows report that shows the net change in your cash
during a period of time.

Customers & Contains reports about the receivables side of your company: which invoices are due or overdue,
Receivables how much each customer owes, etc… .

Sales Contains reports about what you sold and to whom.

Job & Time (2003) or Contains reports about the status and profitability of the jobs/projects you track.
Jobs, Time & Mileage
(2004:2012)
(QuickBooks Pro only)

Vendors & Payables Contains reports about the payables side of your business: which bills are due or overdue, who
those bills are to, etc… .

Purchases Contains reports about your purchase orders and purchase information.

Inventory Contains reports to assist you in tracking inventory.

Employees & Payroll Summarizes the information you need to pay your current payroll liabilities and fill out your tax
forms.

Banking Contains reports about banking: check details, deposit details, and missing check reports.

Accountant & Taxes Contains reports helpful to your accountant and also tax reporting: includes income tax summary,
income tax detail, general ledger, journal, transaction journal, and audit trail reports.

Budgets Shows how your income and expenses compare to the budgets you have set up.

List Lets you report on any information stored in a QuickBooks list.

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15.5- Modifying and Filtering Reports:

While the preset reports that are provided in QuickBooks are very useful, you may also want to
create your own custom reports for your company. You can create reports that either detail or summarize
the data stored in your QuickBooks company file. You can create a custom transaction detail or summary
report from scratch, specifying all of the report’s features, or you can simply use one of the preset reports
and then modify it until it displays the data that you want. That can often save you a few steps in creating a
custom report, especially if there is a preset report that closely resembles the data that you want to see.
Once you have modified the preset report, you can then memorize the report to save it as your own custom
report. This can often be a time saver, and is also a very good way to learn about report customization
options in QuickBooks. Once you have mastered the options available for reporting, you can then design
your own custom transaction detail and summary reports with much more confidence.
The report options that are available for customization will depend upon whether or not the report
that you select to modify or create is a “Transaction Detail” or “Summary” report. A “Transaction Detail”
report will display detailed transaction information about data within QuickBooks. A “Summary” report will
summarize totals from transaction detail within QuickBooks. With the “Summary” reports, you will have
more summarization options available for your report data. In this lesson, we will examine how to set
reporting options for both “Transaction Detail” and “Summary” reports within QuickBooks.
If you want to begin modifying a report based on a preset report, first open the desired preset report
that you want to use as the basis for your own custom report. You can then click the “Customize Report”
button in QuickBooks 2012 (“Modify Report…” in QuickBooks 2003:2011) in the small toolbar at the top of
the preset report in order to access the “Modify Report” dialog box. You can then use the “Modify Report”
dialog box to customize the report settings for your report.
If you want to create a new transaction detail or summary report from scratch within QuickBooks
2012, select “Reports| Custom Reports” from the Menu Bar and then choose “Transaction Detail” or
“Summary.” If using QuickBooks 2003:2011, select either “Reports| Custom Transaction Detail Report” or
“Reports| Custom Summary Report.” In the “Modify Report” dialog box that appears, you can then set all of
the report’s aspects on the tabs shown in order to create your own custom report.
In the “Modify Report” dialog box you will see the major categories of report customization displayed
as tabs across the top of the dialog box. These tabs are “Display,” “Filters,” “Header/Footer,” and “Fonts &
Numbers.” Generally, on the “Display” tab you can add and/or customize report columns as well as change
the date range of the report. You use the “Filters” tab to change the underlying source of the data that is
being displayed within the report. Simply using the report settings that are available on the “Display” tab and
the “Filters” tab allows you to change the report to show almost anything you want to see about your
QuickBooks data. Most of your report editing changes will be made on these two tabs. In addition to the
“Display” and “Filters” tabs, you use the “Header/Footer” tab and the “Fonts & Numbers” tab to control the
general display appearance of the header and footer, and the text and number displayed within the reports.
If you click the “Display” tab, you will see slightly different options depending upon which type of
report you are creating: transaction detail or summary. For both types of reports, you will see the “Report
Date Range” section where you select the range of dates to use for the report. This filters the report by
restricting what records are included within the report by transaction date. You can use the “Dates” drop-
down to select from a listing of the most commonly used report ranges, or you can use the “From” and “To”
date selectors to specify a starting date and ending date for the records that you want to use.
Also, for both types of reports, you will be able to select how the report calculates and displays
income and expenses by choosing either “Accrual” or “Cash,” as desired, from the “Report Basis” section.
The next section, “Columns,” is where you will see the main difference between the “Transaction
Detail” and the “Summary” reports within QuickBooks. If you are creating a “Transaction Detail” report, then

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15.5- Modifying and Filtering Reports (cont.):

in the “Columns” section you will click on the name of any column shown in the scrollable listing of possible
columns to add in order to place a checkmark next to it. If you wish to remove a column that you have
marked to add, then click it again to remove the check from next to the column name and remove its display
from your report. You can then use the “Sort by” drop-down to choose by which column’s values you wish to
sort the report. You can choose any report column that you have added to the report from this drop-down
menu. You can then select either “Ascending order” or “Descending order” to select the sorting method to
use on the chosen column’s values.
Next, for transaction detail reports, you can click the “Advanced…” button to open the “Advanced
Options” dialog box. For transaction details reports, you will see the “Include” and “Open Balance / Aging”
sections. In the “Include” section, you can select either the “All” option to include all accounts, regardless of
whether or not there was any activity within the account for the date range you selected, or you can select
the “In Use” option to only use accounts that had activity within the date range you specified. For aging
reports, you can select to view the customer’s open balance as of the “Current” date or “As of Report Date”
by selecting the desired option button. Once you have set any advanced options, if needed, click the “OK”
button to apply them and return to the “Modify Report” window.
You can click the “Filters” tab within the “Modify Report” window to set or modify the report filters
which allow you to further refine your data selection in the report. For example, assuming that you decided
to display the account name column within your report on the “Display” tab, you could then apply a filter to
the account name column to only display “Expense” account types. This is simply one example of filtering
the displayed report data, and you can set and modify any of the available filters shown within this tab to
customize your report content to create hundreds of possible filter variations.
If the report that you are modifying already has report filtering applied, such as the filters applied to
many of the preset reports, you will see the applied filters and their settings shown in the “Current Filter
Choices” section of the “Filters” tab. You can click on any filter shown in this list to view its settings to the
left, within the “Choose Filter” section. In this section, you can change the settings of the filter by using the
options available. Depending upon which filter you select, the options for filtering may vary. Some filter
values need you to type a matching value, some allow you to select from a drop-down menu of choices, and
some simply allow you to select a desired option from one or two possible options.
You may also add new filters to the report by selecting the name of the filter to apply from the
“Choose Filter” list, and then applying any settings as desired. If you want to read a bit more about how a
filter that you have selected is applied, you can click the “Tell me more…” button to open a help file about
the filter and how it can be used in reports. This is a very good way to familiarize yourself with many of the
report filtering options that are available.
If you want to completely remove a filter that has been applied to a report, start by selecting the
name of the filter to remove from the “Current Filter Choices” list at the right side of the “Filters” tab. Then
click the “Remove Selected Filter” button to delete the filter from the report.
You can click the “Header/Footer” tab in the “Modify Report” window in order to change settings
related to the display of content within the header and footer of your report. In the “Show Header
Information” section, check any content that you want to show in the header of your report. You can then
type the text to display for the selected content into the boxes available. You then repeat this process for the
“Show Footer Information” section in order to display report content in the report footer area. You can then
use the “Alignment” drop-down in the “Page Layout” section to select the desired layout for your header and
footer content within the report.
You can click the “Fonts & Numbers” tab in the “Modify Report” window in order to set the display of
the font used for the various sections of your report that are listed in the “Fonts” section of this tab. You can

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15.5- Modifying and Filtering Reports (cont.):

also set the display of number values in your report using the options available within this tab. To set the
display of the font for a report section, start by selecting the report section that you want to format from the
listing shown in the “Change Font For” list. The current font used for the display of the selected item will be
shown to the right of the list. You can click the “Change Font…” button to open a dialog box that will allow
you to change the appearance of the text. Select your desired font options from the choices shown in this
dialog box and then click the “OK” button to apply them and return to the “Modify Report” window. You can
then repeat this process for any other report sections whose fonts you wish to modify. You can then set the
display of negative numbers within the report by making your desired selections from the options shown in
the “Show Negative Numbers” section. You can then set optional display settings for all numbers in the
“Show All Numbers” section by checking either or both checkboxes, if desired.
Once you have set your custom report options, you can then click the “OK” button within the “Modify
Report” window to apply your report settings.

15.6- Memorizing Reports:

After you have customized the report to show the information that you need, you can have
QuickBooks memorize the report’s settings so that in the future you can quickly reproduce the same report
without having to reapply all of your customization.
To memorize a customized report, click the “Memorize” button in the toolbar at the top of the report
window to bring up the “Memorize Report” dialog box, where you can name the custom report. Note that
you can also save it into a Memorized Report Group, if you have one created.
Note that when you are memorizing a report, you cannot name it the same thing as one of the preset
reports because that would overwrite them. So you will have to modify the name in some way if customizing
a report that was originally based on one of the preset reports.
Once you have memorized the report, you can access it in the future by selecting “Reports|
Memorized Reports” from the Menu Bar. You will see the names of all of your memorized reports in a side
menu from which you can select the name of the custom report that you wish to generate.

15.7- Memorized Report Groups:

As you begin to create your own custom reports within QuickBooks, you can create memorized
report groups that allow you to organize your memorized reports in a way that makes sense for your
company. Memorized report groups allow you to quickly print or view a batch of memorized reports at once.
For illustrative purposes, QuickBooks comes with a few preset report groups that contain common
reporting examples for each grouping. You can add your own memorized report to these memorized report
groups, or you can create your own groups. When you create a memorized report, note that you can click
the checkbox for “Save in Memorized Report Group” to save it to the group that you select from the drop-
down that follows it to the right.
To create a new memorized report group, select “Reports| Memorized Reports| Memorized Report
List” from the Menu Bar. In the “Memorized Report List” window, click the “Memorized Report” button and
select “New Group” from the pop-up menu that appears. In the “Name” field of the “New Memorized Report
Group” window, type a name for the new report group. Click “OK” to have QuickBooks add this report group
to the list of available report groups.

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15.8- Printing Reports:

You can easily print any report displayed in QuickBooks. To do this, open the report you want to
print and then click the “Print” button in the toolbar of the report. That will display the “Print Reports” window
where you can set options for the printer that you would like to use, page orientation, page breaking
behavior, the print range, and the number of copies of the report. Once you have set the options that you
would prefer, just click the “Print” button in the “Print Reports” window to print the currently displayed report.

15.9- Printing Forms:

If you want to “batch print” a set of forms, like all your paychecks or all your bill payment checks, you
can. You can also print mailing labels and other assorted forms. To print forms, you can select “File| Print
Forms| (form type)” from the Menu Bar. You can see that there are a wide variety of forms available for
printing in QuickBooks.

15.10- Exporting Reports to Microsoft Excel:

You can export report data from QuickBooks to Microsoft Excel. Since the data is exported to Excel,
changes that you make to it in Excel will not impact the data in QuickBooks. So feel free to change it as
needed in Excel. To do this, open the report that you want to export in QuickBooks and then click the
“Export…” button (if using QuickBooks 2004:2011), or the “Excel” button (if using QuickBooks 2012 or
2003). If using QuickBooks 2012, then select either “Create New Worksheet” or “Update Existing
Worksheet.” You must have Excel 2000, XP, 2003, 2007, or 2010 for this feature to work and either
QuickBooks Pro or Premier.
When you export a report to Excel in the dialog box, you can save it as a new sheet in a workbook
or create a new workbook. In 2004:2012, you can also save it as a CSV file (which would be opened using
Excel). You can also indicate whether or not you want to preserve the QuickBooks formatting by clicking the
“Advanced…” tab in QuickBooks 2004:2011 or by clicking the “Advanced” button in QuickBooks 2012 or
2003. You can then turn on or off several Excel options, including: AutoFit, which sets column widths in
Excel wide enough to display all of the data; Freeze Panes, which allows you to scroll through information
while keeping row and column headers in view; and Show Gridlines, which shows the gridlines in Excel.
Also in QuickBooks 2012, you can select the option to update an existing worksheet. When you are ready,
click the “Export” button to export your report data.

15.11- Saving Forms and Reports as PDF Files- 2004:2012:

Note that if you sign up with the additional services with QuickBooks, you can then click the “E-mail”
button to send the report, invoice, or any other form through QuickBooks. However, you can also save any
report, invoice, estimate or any other form as a PDF (Portable Document Format) file that you can then
send as an e-mail attachment through your own e-mail program (instead of sending this information through
the QuickBooks service).
To save any form or report as a PDF document, just open up the form or report that you want to
save as a PDF document. Then select “File| Save as PDF…” from the Menu Bar. This will launch the “Save
document as PDF” dialog box where you can select where you want to save the document file and what to
name it. Just click “Save” when you are done to create the PDF file.

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 ACTIONS-
Reporting
VIEWING A QUICKREPORT:

1. Select an item in a list, open a transaction form, or otherwise display the data.
2. Press “Ctrl” + “Q” on your keyboard.
3. The QuickReport will appear in a separate window.
4. Close the report when finished.

QUICKZOOMING A REPORT:

1. Open a report.
2. Put your mouse pointer on an entry in the report until a magnifying glass with a “Z” inside of it appears.
3. Double-click on the entry.
4. The original transaction information or another report showing the transaction appears in a new window.
5. Close it when finished.

MOVING REPORT COLUMNS IN THE REPORT WINDOW:

1. Open a report.
2. Put your mouse pointer on the column you want to move. The mouse pointer will now look like a hand.
3. Click and drag the column to the new location in the report.
4. You should see an arrow appear between the columns as you drag with your mouse to show where it
will insert itself.
5. Release the left mouse button to insert the column into its new location.

OPENING A REPORT:

1. Choose “Reports” from the Menu Bar and roll your mouse pointer over a report category.
2. A side menu will appear, listing the individual reports available in the selected category.
3. Click on the name of the report in the side menu that you would like to open.

MODIFYING A TRANSACTION DETAIL REPORT:

1. Open the detail report you would like to modify,

2. Click the “Customize Report” (“Modify Report…” in 2003:2011) button in the toolbar shown at the top of
the window.
3. Click the “Display” tab of the “Modify Report” window.
4. To set the date range for the report,
a. Select the appropriate range from the “Dates” drop-down at the top of the “Display” tab
b. OR select both a “From” date and a “To” date using the calendar drop-downs for those fields.
5. In the “Columns” section in the “Display” tab,
a. Click on the names of the columns you want displayed in the report.
b. QuickBooks will place a check next to them once they are selected.

(cont…)

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 ACTIONS-
Reporting
MODIFYING A TRANSACTION DETAIL REPORT (CONT.):

6. Use the “Sort by” drop-down to select the column name. The report will be sorted based on this column.
7. Determine how you would like the data sorted.
a. Select “Ascending order” (A-Z, 1-10)
b. OR select “Descending order” (Z-A, 10-1).
8. To select and modify report filters
a. Click the “Filters” tab in the “Modify Report” dialog box.
b. Select a filter by clicking the name of the field in the “Filter” list box at the left side of the screen.
c. Set the filter criteria in the area immediately to the right of the “Filter” list box.
d. Criteria will appear in the “Current Filter Choices” list box at the right side of the screen.
9. To remove filters from a report
a. Select the filter from the “Current Filter Choices” box at the right side of the “Filters” tab.
b. Click the “Remove Selected Filter” button below the “Current Filter Choices” box.
10. Click the “Header/Footer” tab to set information to display in the header and footer sections.
a. Select and deselect the boxes to show/hide details in the “Show Header Information” section.
b. Select and deselect the boxes to show/hide details in the “Show Footer Information” section.
c. For the selected options, type in or select the information to display as necessary.
11. To set up report alignment
a. Click “Header/Footer” tab.
b. Select report “Alignment” from the drop-down under the “Page Layout”.
12. Click the “Fonts & Numbers” tab to change the font and number formatting in your report.
a. Click on an item in the “Change Font For” list to view the formatting used for each section.
b. The current font style for that type of data will display in a preview to the right.
c. Click the “Change Font…” button to change the font.
d. Select a different font, font style, font size, and font color in the dialog box that opens.
e. Click “OK” at the bottom of this dialog box to set your choices.
13. Click the “Fonts and Numbers” tab to set display options for numbers.
a. Set display options for negative numbers in the “Show Negative Numbers”.
b. Set options in the “Show All Numbers” section that affect the display of all numbers in the report.
14. Click “OK” at the bottom of the “Modify Report” dialog box when you are finished.

MODIFYING A SUMMARY REPORT:

1. Open the summary report you would like to modify.

2. Click the “Customize Report” (“Modify Report…” in 2003:2011) button in the toolbar shown at the top of
the report window.
3. To set the date range for the report
a. Click the “Display” tab.
b. Select the desired range from the “Dates” drop-down at the top of the “Display” tab.
c. OR select both a “From” date and a “To” date using the calendar drop-downs available.
4. To select whether “Cash” or “Accrual” basis reporting
a. Select the “Display” tab.
b. Click the “Cash” or “Accrual” option button in the “Report Basis” section.

(cont…)

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 ACTIONS-
Reporting
MODIFYING A SUMMARY REPORT (CONT.):

5. To modify the columns in your report

a. Select the “Display” tab.
b. In the “Columns” section, select your column display using the “Display columns by” drop-down.
c. Click the boxes associated with any additional subcolumns you want to appear in the report.
d. Select either “Total” or “Default“ from the “Sort by” drop-down.
e. Select to sort in either “Ascending order” (A-Z, 1-10) or “Descending order” (Z-A, 10-1).
6. To select and modify report filters
a. Click the “Filters” tab in the “Modify Report” dialog box.
b. Select a filter by clicking the name of the field in the “Filter” list box at the left side of the screen.
c. Set the filter criteria in the area immediately to the right of the “Filter” list box.
d. Criteria will appear in the “Current Filter Choices” list box at the right side of the screen.
7. To remove filters from a report
a. Select the filter from the “Current Filter Choices” box at the right side of the “Filters” tab.
b. Click the “Remove Selected Filter” button below the “Current Filter Choices” box.
8. Click the “Header/Footer” tab to set information to display in the header and footer sections.
a. Select and deselect the boxes to show/hide details in the “Show Header Information” section.
b. Select and deselect the boxes to show/hide details in the “Show Footer Information” section.
c. For the selected options, type in or select the information to display as necessary.
9. To set up report alignment
a. Click “Header/Footer” tab.
b. Select report “Alignment” from the drop-down under the “Page Layout”.
10. Click the “Fonts & Numbers” tab to change the font and number formatting in your report.
a. Click on an item in the “Change Font For” list to view the formatting used for each section.
b. The current font style for that type of data will display in a preview to the right.
c. Click the “Change Font…” button to change the font.
d. Select a different font, font style, font size, and font color in the dialog box that opens.
e. Click “OK” at the bottom of this dialog box to set your choices.
11. Click the “Fonts and Numbers” tab to set display options for numbers.
a. Set display options for negative numbers in the “Show Negative Numbers”.
b. Set options in the “Show All Numbers” section that affect the display of all numbers in the report.
12. Click “OK” at the bottom of the “Modify Report” dialog box when you are finished.

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 ACTIONS-
Reporting
CREATING A MEMORIZED REPORT GROUP:

1. Select “Reports| Memorized Reports| Memorized Report List” from the Menu Bar.
2. In the “Memorized Report List” window, click the “Memorized Report” button and select “New Group”
from the pop-up menu that appears.
3. In the “Name” field of the “New Memorized Report Group” window, type a name for the new report
group.
4. Click “OK” to have QuickBooks add this report group to the list of available report groups.

MEMORIZING A REPORT:

1. Open the modified report that you want to memorize in QuickBooks.

2. Click the “Memorize” button in the toolbar of the report window.
3. Enter the unique name of the report into the “Name” field of the “Memorize Report” dialog box. It cannot
be named the same as any of the preset reports.
4. To save in a Memorized Report Group
1. Click the “Save in Memorized Report Group:” box.
2. Select the memorized report group from the drop-down list of choices, if desired.
5. Click “OK” to finish memorizing the report.

PRINTING A REPORT:

1. Display the report that you want to print in QuickBooks.

2. Click the “Print” button in the toolbar at the top of the report window.
3. QuickBooks will display the “Print Reports” window where you can set the print options.
4. Select the printer to which you want to print the report from the “Printer:” drop-down.
5. Select either the “Portrait” or “Landscape” option button in the “Orientation:” section.
6. To set a page range
a. Select “All” in the “Page Range” section to print all of the pages in the report.
b. OR select and enter information into “Pages: From” (first page #) “to” (last page #).
7. Set “Page Breaks” options.
8. Enter the number of copies of the report you want to print into the “Number of copies:” text box.
9. Click “Print” to print the report.

PRINTING REPORTS IN A MEMORIZED REPORT GROUP:

1. Select “Reports| Memorized Reports| Memorized Report List” from the Menu Bar.
2. Select the name of the report group that contains the reports that you’d like to print.
3. Click the “Display” button.
4. The “Process Multiple Reports” window appears.
5. Select which reports in the group to print. A check mark will appear next to the reports to be printed.
6. Set the date ranges for any selected report using the “From:” and “To:” calendar drop-downs.
7. Click the “Print” button at the bottom of the window.

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 ACTIONS-
Reporting
EXPORTING REPORT DATA TO MICROSOFT EXCEL (QUICKBOOKS PRO AND PREMIER ONLY):

1. Open the report to export in QuickBooks.

2. If using QuickBooks 2003 or 2012
a. Click the “Excel” button in the toolbar of the report window.
b. If using QuickBooks 2012, then choose either “Create New Worksheet” or “Update Existing
Worksheet.”
3. If using QuickBooks 2004:2011
a. Click the “Export…” button in the toolbar of the report window.
b. This will launch the “Export Report” dialog box.
4. Select the export options that you want to use.
1. In the QuickBooks 2004:2012 versions, you can select “a comma separated values (.csv) file”.
2. OR (for all QuickBooks versions) select to send the data to “a new Excel workbook .”
3. OR select to append it as a new page into “an existing Excel workbook.”
5. Click the “Advanced…” button.
1. Found in the lower left corner for QuickBooks 2003 and 2012.
2. A tab at the top of the dialog box if for QuickBooks 2004:2012.
6. Select or deselect the checkboxes for to preserve QuickBooks formatting in Excel as desired.
7. Select or deselect the checkboxes to enable or disable options for Excel features as desired.
8. Under “Printing Options,” select or deselect the options for printing as desired.
9. In QuickBooks 2003 and 2012, click “OK” to save your advanced options.
10. In QuickBooks 2003, click “OK” to export the report data to Microsoft Excel.
11. If using QuickBooks 2004:2012, click the “Export” button at the bottom of the dialog box.

SAVING A FORM OR REPORT AS A PDF DOCUMENT- 2004:2012:

1. Open up the form or report that you want to save as a PDF document.
2. Select “File| Save as PDF…” from the Menu Bar.
3. QuickBooks will open the “Save document as PDF” dialog box.
4. Browse and select the location where you will save the document.
5. Enter a name into the box.
6. Click the “Save” button when you are finished to create the PDF file.

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 EXERCISES-
Reporting
Purpose:

To be able to create, modify, and memorize the reports that you customize in QuickBooks

Exercises:

1. Open up QuickBooks.
2. Select “File| Close Company” from the Menu Bar if you have a company file open to get to the “No
Company Open” dialog box.
3. Click the “Open a sample file” button, and select “Sample product-based business” from the drop-
down of choices.
4. Click “OK” on the sample file message box.
5. Select “File| Back Up…” from the Menu Bar and make a backup of this company file, so that you
may restore the file back to its original condition when you are done playing with it.
6. After backing up the file, select “Reports| Customers & Receivables| Open Invoices” from the Menu
Bar.
7. Click the “Customize Report” (“Modify Report…” in 2003:2011) button in the report toolbar.
8. Click the “Filters” tab.
9. In the “Current Filter Choices” section, click on the “Paid Status” field.
10. In the “Choose Filter” section, click the “Closed” option.
11. Click the “Header/Footer” tab.
12. Type “Closed Invoices” in the “Report Title” text box.
13. Click “OK.”
14. Click the “Memorize…” button in the report’s toolbar.
15. Click “OK.”
16. Click the “X” in the upper right corner of the report to close it.
17. Select “Reports| Memorized Reports| Closed Invoices” from the Menu Bar to open the memorized
report again.
18. Click the “X” in the upper right corner of the report to close it again.
19. You can close the company file by selecting “File| Close Company” from the Menu Bar.
20. You can close QuickBooks by selecting “File| Exit” from the Menu Bar.

©TeachUcomp, Inc. Advanced QuickBooks 19

 CHAPTER 16-
Using Graphs
16.1- Using Graphs

©TeachUcomp, Inc. Advanced QuickBooks 20

 Using Graphs

16.1- Using Graphs:

While a report can show numbers that are critical to understanding your business’ overall health,
some people like a visual representation of the data. That’s where graphs come into play in QuickBooks. A
QuickInsight graph shows your data as either a bar graph or a pie chart (except for the “Budget vs. Actual”
and “Net Worth” graphs). The bar graphs and pie charts are just different visual ways of presenting the
same financial information that you view in a typical report. QuickBooks has six types of graphs that can
provide up to 15 different views of your data. The types of graphs available are shown in the table below.

GRAPH NAME: DESCRIPTION:

Income and Expense Graph Show the company’s income and expenses for the date range that you specify.

Sales Graph Shows your company’s sales income for the period that you specify.

Accounts Receivable Graph Shows how much your customers owe your company.

Accounts Payable Graph Shows how much your company owes its vendors.

Net Worth Graph Shows your company’s net worth.

Budget vs. Actual Graph Shows the difference between budgeted and actual amounts earned or spent.

The QuickInsight graphs that

QuickBooks produces have several features
in common. One commonality is that every
graph window (except “Net Worth” and
“Budget vs. Actual”) shows a bar graph in the
top half of the graph window and a pie chart in
the bottom half of the window. In the graph
window, the bar graph will display totals of the
data broken down by a specified period and
the pie chart will show a summary total of
some type of information shown in the bar
graph above.
Also, every graph comes with a graph
toolbar which you can use to customize the
graphs in much the same way as reports. Like
the reports, you can also use QuickZoom in a
graph to see the actual numbers represented
by the selected items in the graph. You will
typically get summary reports that you can
continue to QuickZoom to trace backwards to
the original transactions from which the totals
you view in the graph are derived.

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 ACTIONS-
Using Graphs
USING GRAPHS:

1. Graphs are distributed among report categories found under the “Reports” command in the Menu Bar.
2. Open the graph that you want to display.
3. Use the toolbar at the top of the graph window to change the data displayed in the graph area.
4. Set the date range used for the graph data.
5. You can double-click on any item in a graph to view the detail data using QuickZoom. This will bring up
another graph or another report which you can then also QuickZoom.

©TeachUcomp, Inc. Advanced QuickBooks 22

 EXERCISES-
Using Graphs
Purpose:

To be able to create and modify a graph.

Exercises:

1. Open up QuickBooks.
2. Select “File| Close Company” from the Menu Bar if you have a company file open to get to the “No
Company Open” dialog box.
3. Click the “Open a sample file” button, and select “Sample product-based business” from the drop-
down of choices.
4. Click “OK” on the sample file message box.
5. Select “File| Back Up…” from the Menu Bar and make a backup of this company file, so that you
may restore the file back to its original condition when you are done playing with it.
6. After backing up the file, select “Reports| Company & Financial| Income & Expense Graph” from the
Menu Bar.
7. Click the “Dates…” button in the upper left corner of the graph.
8. Use the “Graph Dates” drop-down to select “Last Quarter.”
9. Click “OK.”
10. Click the ”By Customer” button in the graph’s toolbar to view the data by customer.
11. In the “Show on Pie Chart” section at the bottom of the graph, click “Income.”
12. Double-click the “Income” column in the graph for “Aug” to view the income summary for that month
in a separate graph. Close the income summary graph.
13. Click the “X” in the upper right corner of the Income and Expense graph window to close it.
14. You can close the company file by selecting “File| Close Company” from the Menu Bar.
15. You can close QuickBooks by selecting “File| Exit” from the Menu Bar.

©TeachUcomp, Inc. Advanced QuickBooks 23

 CHAPTER 17-
Customizing Forms
17.1- Creating New Form Templates

17.2- Using the Customize Window- 2003:2006

17.3- Customizing Form Templates- 2007:2012

17.4- Using the Layout Designer

©TeachUcomp, Inc. Advanced QuickBooks 24

 Customizing Forms

17.1- Creating New Form Templates:

Every form that you enter information into has its own layout of fields, images and labels used for
data entry and display. However, you can customize the layout of a form and use that instead! For example,
there are three preset formats for invoices: professional, service, and product. If these templates don’t
precisely fulfill your needs, you can customize them as needed. You can also customize much more than
just invoices in QuickBooks. The forms that you can customize in QuickBooks are: invoices, sales receipts,
credit memos, statements, purchase orders, and estimates (with QuickBooks Premier and Pro only). For
each form, you can choose which fields and columns to include, where they are placed in the form, and
what they are called. Once you have finished customizing the form, you can save the new layout as a
custom template to use at your convenience.
In QuickBooks, you use the “Basic Customization” and “Additional Customization” windows to make
general customization settings for your forms in QuickBooks 2007:2012. In previous versions of
QuickBooks, you made all of the general customization through the “Customize (Form type)” window. This
corresponds to the options that are now shown in the “Additional Customization” window in QuickBooks
2007:2012. In these windows, you decide what fields to add to your form. After performing the basic
customization, you can then use the “Layout Designer” to arrange the selected fields, set additional
formatting options, or add text boxes and other images to the form.
You begin the process by selecting “Lists| Templates” from the Menu Bar to bring up the Templates
List. In the Templates List, you can click the “Templates” button in the lower left corner to show a menu of
choices. To make a new template, select the “New” command from the pop-up menu. That will present you
with the “Select Template Type” dialog box, where you select the option button that corresponds to the type
of form you are trying to create and click “OK” to begin customizing your selected form.

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 Customizing Forms

17.2- Using the Customize Window- 2003:2006:

If using QuickBooks 2003 through 2006, once you have selected a type of form to customize, you
will then be presented with the “Customize (Form Type)” window. This window uses several tabs to display
different sets of options for customizing the various sections of the form. Each area of the form is
represented by a tab. Just click on the tab that corresponds to the area of the form you would like to
customize. Then check or uncheck the checkboxes next to the fields that you want to show or hide within
the “Screen” version of the form (where you perform data entry) and the “Print” version of the form (the
version you print). Then enter the titles you want to use for those fields.
On each tab, you will see the available fields for that specific section. For each field, you can specify
a title to display and whether it should appear in the screen version or printed version of the form. For
instance, if you want to enter or view information while entering an invoice but don’t want your customer to
see this information, you can select the “Screen” checkbox for that field and clear the “Print” checkbox. You
can enter a new title for a field by selecting the currently displayed title and then typing over it.
On the “Columns” tab, you can change the order in which the columns in the line item area of the
form display from left to right by typing a number in the “Order” field. The columns will display from left to
right from lowest to highest number. When you are done making your changes to the form, click “OK” to
save your new custom template.
Once you have set what information to add to the form, you can change the placement of the fields
in the printed version of the form by clicking the “Layout Designer” button at the right side of the “Customize
(Form Type)” dialog box to launch the “Layout Designer” in a new window.

©TeachUcomp, Inc. Advanced QuickBooks 26

 Customizing Forms

17.3- Customizing Form Templates- 2007:2012:

If using QuickBooks 2007:2012, once you have selected a type of form to customize, you will then
be presented with the “Basic Customization” window. This window displays the most commonly used and
basic customization options for forms. You can make any changes to the options shown here, and then
examine how your choice impacts the preview of the form shown in the right side of the window.
To set additional form customization options, or for upgrading users who are more familiar with the
older style of form customization, you can click the “Additional Customization…” button to open the
“Additional Customization” window. The “Additional Customization…” window uses several tabs to display
different sets of options for customizing the various sections of the form. Each area of the form is
represented by a tab. Just click on the tab that corresponds to the area of the form you would like to
customize. Next, check or uncheck the checkboxes next to the fields that you want to show or hide within
the “Screen” version of the form- where you perform data entry, and the “Print” version of the form- which is
the version that you print. Then enter the titles you want to use for those fields in the adjacent text boxes.
For example, if you want to enter or view information while entering an invoice but don’t want your customer
to see this information, you can select the “Screen” checkbox for that field and clear the “Print” checkbox.
On the “Columns” tab, you can change the order in which the columns in the line item area of the
form display from left to right by typing a number into the “Order” field. The columns will display from left to
right from lowest to highest number. If you are done making your additional customization changes to the
form, click “OK” to save your new custom template into the “Template List.”
Note that if you want to change the placement of the fields within the printed version of the form, you
can further customize the appearance of the printed version of the form by clicking the “Layout Designer”
button to launch the “Layout Designer” in a new window.

17.4- Using the Layout Designer:

The “Layout Designer” window lets you change the appearance and placement of form fields. To
move form fields in the “Layout Designer,” click and drag the fields from one place to another in the form. To
move two or more fields simultaneously, click the first one to select it and then hold down the “Shift” key
with your free hand. Then click on any other fields that you want to select. Let go of the “Shift” key, and then
click and drag one of the selected field in the group to move them all. This can be helpful when you want to
move paired fields and labels without disrupting their relational placement to each other.
In the “Layout Designer” you can also resize selected fields. To do this, click on the field that you
want to resize to select it. You should notice that a form object is selected, it will appear with six to eight
black squares around its border. These are the resizing handles. To resize the selected field, just place your
mouse pointer over one of the black squares until the mouse pointer turns into a double-pointed arrow. At
that point, click and drag the field to resize it in either direction shown by the arrows.
You can change the font, font style, font size, font effects, font color, text alignment, border
placement, and border color of selected fields in the “Layout Designer.” To do this, double-click on the field
that you want to format to view the “Properties” dialog box. Here you can set the properties for the “Text,”
“Border,” or “Background” of the object by changing the settings on the tabs of the same name.
You can also add additional images, data fields, and text boxes by using the “Add” button drop-down
in the toolbar at the top of the “Layout Designer.” You can remove objects by selecting them and then
clicking the “Remove” button in this toolbar, as well. You can also see where envelope windows would
appear in the form, if you use window envelopes, by clicking the “Show envelope window” checkbox at the
bottom of the “Layout Designer.” Click “OK” after making any changes to return to the “Customize” window.
Click “OK” in that window to save the custom form you created into the Templates List.

©TeachUcomp, Inc. Advanced QuickBooks 27

 ACTIONS-
Customizing Forms
CREATING A NEW FORM TEMPLATE- 2003:2006:

1. Select “Lists| Templates” from the Menu Bar.

2. Click the “Templates” button in the lower left corner.
3. Click “New” in the pop-up menu that appears.
4. In the “Select Template Type” dialog box, select the button that corresponds to the template you want.
5. In the “Customize (form)” window, type a name for the template into the “Template Name” box.
6. Click the section of the template that you want to customize to view your options.
7. Customize the print and screen versions of the form
a. Check the boxes that you want to show for both the “Screen” and the “Print” versions.
b. Uncheck the boxes that you want to show for both the “Screen” and the “Print” versions.
c. Enter the titles you want to use for those fields in the adjacent text boxes.
8. On the “Columns” tab, type a number into the “Order” field. Columns display left to right, lowest to
highest number.
9. Click “Default” at the right side of the screen to reset the template to its original settings, if necessary.
10. Click “OK” to save your changes.

CREATING A NEW FORM TEMPLATE- 2007:2012:

1. Select “Lists| Templates” from the Menu Bar.

2. Click the “Templates” button in the lower left corner.
3. Click “New” in the pop-up menu that appears.
4. In the “Select Template Type” dialog box, select the button that corresponds to the template you want.
5. In the “Basic Customization” window,
a. Make any changes to the options shown here.
b. Examine how your choice impacts the preview of the form shown on the right.
6. To set additional form customization options, or for upgrading users who are more familiar with the older
style of form customization, click the “Additional Customization…” button.
7. Click on the tab that corresponds to the area of the form you would like to customize in the “Additional
Customization…” window.
8. Customize the print and screen versions of the form
a. Check the boxes that you want to show for both the “Screen” and the “Print” versions.
b. Uncheck the boxes that you want to show for both the “Screen” and the “Print” versions.
c. Enter the titles you want to use for those fields in the adjacent text boxes.
9. On the “Columns” tab, type a number into the “Order” field. The columns will display from left to right
from lowest to highest number.
10. Click “OK” to save your new custom template into the “Template List when you are finished.

©TeachUcomp, Inc. Advanced QuickBooks 28

 ACTIONS-
Customizing Forms
VIEWING A TEMPLATE IN THE LAYOUT DESIGNER:

1. Select “Lists| Templates” from the Menu Bar.

2. Select the template that you would like to edit from the list.
3. Click “Templates” in the lower left corner and select “Edit Template” (“Edit” in 2003) from the menu.
4. In the window that appears, click “Layout Designer”.

MOVING TEMPLATE FIELDS IN THE LAYOUT DESIGNER:

1. Open the template you want to edit in the “Layout Designer” window.
2. Click and drag on a field within the template to move it from one place to another.

RESIZING TEMPLATE FIELDS IN THE LAYOUT DESIGNER:

1. Open the template you want to edit in the “Layout Designer” window.
2. Select the field you want to resize by clicking it. It will appear with eight black resizing squares around it.
3. Place your mouse pointer over the resizing handle until it turns into a double-pointed arrow.
4. Click and drag with the mouse in either direction shown by the arrow to change the size of the field.

SELECTING MULTIPLE FIELDS SIMULTANEOUSLY IN THE LAYOUT DESIGNER:

1. Open the template you want to edit in the “Layout Designer” window.
2. Click on the first field that you want to select.
3. Hold down the “Shift” key on your keyboard.
4. Click on any other fields that you want to include in the group to select those, as well.
5. Release the “Shift” key.

FORMATTING FIELDS IN THE LAYOUT DESIGNER:

1. Open the template you want to edit in the “Layout Designer” window.
2. Double-click on the field to display the “Properties” dialog box.
3. Click the “Text” tab.
a. Set any options you want for the text alignment.
b. Click the “Font…” button to set up the font used in a separate dialog box.
4. Click the “Border” tab.
a. Set any properties that you want to apply to the border of the selected object.
5. Click the “Background” tab.
a. Set any properties that you want to apply to the background of the selected object.
6. Click “OK” to apply the properties of the selected field when you are finished.

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 EXERCISES-
Customizing Forms
Purpose:

To be able to create and modify an invoice template.

Exercises:

1. Open up QuickBooks.
2. Select “File| Close Company” from the Menu Bar if you have a company file open to get to the “No
Company Open” dialog box.
3. Click the “Open a sample file” button, and select “Sample product-based business” from the drop-
down of choices.
4. Click “OK” on the sample file message box.
5. Select “File| Back Up…” from the Menu Bar and make a backup of this company file, so that you
may restore the file back to its original condition when you are done playing with it.
6. After backing up the file, select “Lists| Templates” from the Menu Bar.
7. Click the “Templates” button in the lower left corner of the screen and select “New” from the pop-up
menu that appears.
8. If using QuickBooks 2003 through 2006, enter the name of “Service Invoice” into the template name
field at the top of the window that appears.
9. In the “Select Template Type” dialog box, click the “Invoice” option button and then click “OK.”
10. If using QuickBooks 2007:2012, click the “Additional Customization…” button at the bottom of the
“Basic Customization” window that appears.
11. If using QuickBooks 2007:2012, click the “Header” tab. If using QuickBooks 2003 through 2006,
click the “Fields” tab, instead.
12. Remove the checks for the “Screen” and “Print” columns next to the “P.O. Number” field.
13. Place checkmarks under the “Screen” and “Print” columns next to the “Due Date” field.
14. Click the “Layout Designer…” button to launch the Layout Designer.
15. Double-click the “Rock Castle Construction” field in the upper left corner of the window.
16. On the “Text” tab, click the “Color” button and select a different color for the font from the “Change
Color” dialog box. Click “OK” to set the new color.
17. Click “OK” in the “Properties” dialog box to see the change applied.
18. Click “OK” in the Layout Designer” window to save your changes.
19. Click “OK” in any other customization windows that are opened to save your template into the
“Templates List.”
20. Select the name of the invoice template that you just created from the listing shown in the “Template
List.”
21. Click the “Open Form” button to view the screen version.
22. Click the drop-down arrow next to the “Print” button in the toolbar at the top of the invoice screen
and select “Preview” from the drop-down menu.
23. Click in the upper left corner to zoom in and view the changes made to the “Print” version.
24. Click the “Close” button in the toolbar at the top of the Print Preview window.
25. Press the “Esc” key on your keyboard twice to shut down the invoice and the templates list.
26. You can close the company file by selecting “File| Close Company” from the Menu Bar.
27. You can close QuickBooks by selecting “File| Exit” from the Menu Bar.

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 CHAPTER 18-
Estimating
18.1- Making Estimates for a Job

18.2- Duplicating Estimates

18.3- Invoicing From an Estimate

18.4- Updating Job Statuses

18.5- Inactivating Estimates

18.6- Making Purchases for a Job

18.7- Invoicing for Job Costs

18.8- Using Job Reports

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 Estimating

18.1- Making Estimates for a Job:

An estimate is a preliminary proposal of work or products that you are making to sell to a customer.
You can create multiple estimates for each customer or each job. If the customer accepts an estimate, you
can create an invoice from the estimate, changing it as needed. QuickBooks allows you to create invoices
from estimates either by transferring the entire estimate amount to an invoice or by billing only a portion of
the estimate amount out over several invoices. The ability to bill for only a percentage of the estimate or for
various amount of selected items on an estimate is called progress invoicing or partial billing.
You can create a job for a customer in the “Customers” list. To do this, first select the name of the
customer for whom you want to make a job from within the “Customers” list. Then, if using QuickBooks
2006 through 2012, click the “New Customer & Job” button in the upper-left corner of the Customer Center
and choose the “Add Job…” command from the drop-down. If using QuickBooks 2003 through 2005, click
the “Customer” button in the lower-left corner of the list and then choose the “Add Job” command from the
pop-up menu that appears. Either way, this will open the “New Job” window. This window is just like the
“New Customer” window, except that the first three tabs in the dialog box will already be filled-in with the
selected customer’s information. All you will need to do is click the “Job Info” tab and enter the specific job
information there. When you are finished, you can then click “OK” to add the job to the “Customers” list.
Once you have a job for which you’d like to create an estimate, you can then select “Customers|
Create Estimates” from the Menu Bar to make an estimate for the customer’s job. When you create an
estimate, it’s very much like creating an invoice, except that it doesn’t affect any posting accounts within the
Chart of Accounts.

18.2- Duplicating Estimates:

You can create multiple estimates for the same job. Perhaps you have a client that needs a couple
of different pricing options for a job, and thus needs multiple estimates for the same job. With QuickBooks,
you can easily duplicate and modify an estimate to save time. If you make a copy of an estimate and then
make modifications to the copy, as needed, you’ll probably save some typing time. To do this, just bring up
the estimate that you want to duplicate and then select “Edit| Duplicate Estimate” from the Menu Bar. Of
course, you could always just type up a new estimate for the job, as well. Also, it is important to be careful
when you select this command- as it is located right next to the “Delete Estimate” command in the menu!

18.3- Invoicing From an Estimate:

Once you’ve created an estimate and the customer has approved it, you can use the estimate to
invoice the customer. You can either send them an invoice for the entire amount or you can send out
several invoices for smaller portions of the estimated amounts. This is called progress invoicing. Progress
invoicing (which is sometimes called progress billing or partial billing), allows you to invoice for jobs that you
work on and complete in phases. When you’re using progress invoicing, you start by creating an estimate
for the total job. Then when you complete each phase, you can easily transfer items from the original
estimate to an invoice. You can specify which items to include on each invoice and change the estimated
amounts or percentages of each item. When you use estimates to create progress invoices, you can run
reports to help you compare your estimated cost and revenue versus your actual cost and revenue.
To create an invoice from an estimate, create an invoice and select the job for which you’ve created
an estimate from the “Customer:Job” drop-down list and then exit the field. QuickBooks will automatically
display the “Available Estimates” window, where you can select the estimate from which you want to create
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 Estimating

18.3- Invoicing From an Estimate- (cont.):

the invoice. Then click the “OK” button to continue. This will open the “Create Progress Invoice Based on
Estimate” window. In this window, you can either bill for the remaining balance of the estimate, a
percentage of the entire estimate, or simply bill for specific amounts or percentages of only selected items
within the estimate.

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 Estimating

18.4- Updating Job Statuses:

Every time you change the status of a job, you should update its status in the “Customers” list. For
instance, if you began work on a job that was labeled “Pending,” you should update the information for the
job to reflect the fact that you’ve started work on it. You do this by double-clicking on the job entry within in
the “Customers” list and then clicking on the “Job Info” tab. In the “Edit Job” window, just use the “Job
Status” drop-down to change the job’s status. Click “OK” to save your changes.

18.5- Inactivating Estimates:

Once you have a customer with multiple outstanding estimates that accepts one of the estimates,
you should make any other estimates for that job inactive. When you make an estimate inactive,
QuickBooks keeps a record of it but removes its value from the total estimated amount for the selected job.

18.6- Making Purchases for a Job:

You can also assign purchases that you make to a specific customer or job, so that you can bill them
for the costs later. To do this, simply use the “Customer:Job” drop-down to select the customer’s job that
you will be billing for the purchase as you create a bill in the “Enter Bills” window. You should notice that this
column appears in almost every form, from bills to checks to credit cards. So you can always use this
column to assign any amounts to a customer’s job for later billing, or simply for job costing purposes.
If you are using QuickBooks 2003 through 2006 and you want to bill the customer for the costs later,
then leave the small picture of the invoice at the far right end of the costing line item open for any billable
line item costs. If you want to record the cost, but do not intend to bill the customer for the cost, then you
must click the small picture of the invoice at the right end of the line item that you assigned to the
customer’s job in order to place a big red “X” through the picture of the invoice. This will record the cost, but
not show it as an “unbilled” job cost in the reporting. If you are using QuickBooks 2007:2012, you will notice
that you will still assign the cost of the line item to the customer by using the “Customer:Job” drop-down.
However in QuickBooks 2007:2012, the “Billable?” column replaces the older picture of the invoice. If you
wish to make the line item non-billable, then simply click the checkbox for that line item in order to remove
the check from the box.

18.7- Invoicing for Job Costs:

If you assign the costs that you incur to the correct customer or job, then the next time that you
create an invoice for that customer’s job, you can bill for the costs. To do that, bring up an invoice for the
customer’s job to which you have assigned job costs. In the invoice window is a “Add Time/Costs…” button
if using QuickBooks 2007:2012, or a “Time/Costs…” button if using QuickBooks 2003 through 2006. You
can click that button to open the “Choose Billable Time and Costs” window. Here you can select the
expenses which you want to bill to the customer. If you have billable expenses, you can even mark them
up, if needed. Check the items and expenses for which you wish to bill the customer in this window and
then click “OK” to add them in the invoice.

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 Estimating

18.8- Using Job Reports:

QuickBooks provides you with various reports that apply to jobs and estimates. You can access
these reports from the “Reports” menu in the Menu Bar, under “Jobs & Time” in QuickBooks Pro 2003 or
“Jobs, Time & Mileage” in QuickBooks Pro 2004 through 2012. If you are using an older version of the
software, or if you do not have jobs and estimates enabled, you may not have all of these reports available.
The names of the reports and descriptions of their functions are listed below.

REPORT NAME: DESCRIPTION:

Job Profitability Summary Summarizes the money made from each customer’s job.

Job Profitability Detail Shows the details of how much was made for a single customer’s job.

Job Estimates vs. Actuals Summary Compares estimated cost to actual cost and estimated revenue to
actual revenue for all customers and jobs.

Job Estimates vs. Actuals Detail For a selected customer or job, compares estimated costs to actual
costs and estimated revenues to actual revenues.

Job Progress Invoices vs. Estimates Compares estimates to the estimate’s progress invoices.

Item Profitability Shows how much money has been made from each item sold.

Item Estimates vs. Actuals For each item, compares estimated cost to actual cost and estimated
revenue to actual revenue.

Profit & Loss by Job Shows how much money has been made or lost on each job.

Estimates by Job Lists all estimates by job.

Unbilled Costs by Job Shows all unbilled costs for each customer job.

Open Purchase Orders by Job Shows all open purchase orders for each customer job.

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 ACTIONS-
Estimating
TO CREATE A NEW JOB:

1. Depending on your version of QuickBooks, open the

a. “Customers & Jobs” tab in the Customer Center, if using QuickBooks 2006:2008.
b. “Customer:Job” list, if using QuickBooks 2003:2005.
2. Select the name of the customer in the list for the new job.
3. Depending on your version of Quickbooks, click
a. the “New Customer & Job” button and choose the “Add Job…” command from the drop-down
that appears, iff using QuickBooks 2006 through 2012.
b. the “Customer:Job” button and choose the “Add Job” command from the pop-up menu that
appears, if using QuickBooks 2003:2005.
4. In the “New Job” window, type a name for the job into the “Job Name” field.
5. Click the “Job Info” tab.
6. In the “Job Status” field, select a status for the job from the drop-down menu.
7. In the “Start Date” field, enter the start date of the job.
8. In the “Projected End Date” field, enter a projected end date for the job.
9. Make sure that there is nothing in the “End Date” field (as you probably aren’t done with the job yet).
10. Type a description of the job into the “Job Description” field.
11. Select the type of job it is from the “Job Type” drop-down, or enter a new job type.
12. Click “OK” when you are done.

TO CREATE A JOB ESTIMATE:

1. Select “Customers| Create Estimates” from the Menu Bar.

2. Select the customer:job for whom you want to create the estimate from the “Customer:Job” drop-down.
3. Click into the “Item” column and select the first item for the estimate.
4. Press “Tab” on your keyboard to move to the “QTY” column where you can enter in the quantity, if
necessary.
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 until you have filled in all of the items needed for the estimate.
6. Click “Save & Close” when you are done.

DUPLICATING ESTIMATES:

1. Open the estimate that you’d like to duplicate.

2. Select “Edit| Duplicate Estimate” from the Menu Bar.
3. Edit the new estimate, as needed, to create another estimate.
4. Click “Save & Close” to save the new estimate.

CREATING AN INVOICE FROM AN ESTIMATE:

1. Open the estimate on which you will base the invoice.

2. Click the “Create Invoice” button at the right end of the toolbar at the top of the estimate window.
3. Select the invoice creation method from the “Create Progress Invoice Based On Estimate” window.
4. Click “OK” when you are done.
5. Adjust the invoice as needed, and click “Save & Close” when you are done.

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 ACTIONS-
Estimating
UPDATING JOB STATUS:

1. Double-click the job entry with the status that you’d like to update within the “Customers” list.
2. Click the “Job Info” tab in the “Edit Job” window.
3. Change the “Job Status” field to reflect the current status of the job.
4. Click “OK” to save your changes.

MAKING ESTIMATES INACTIVE:

1. Select based on your Quickbooks version:

a. “Reports| Jobs & Time” from the Menu Bar, if using QuickBooks 2003.
b. “Reports| Jobs, Time & Mileage” from the Menu Bar, if using QuickBooks 2004:2012.
2. Select “Estimates by Job” from the side menu that appears.
3. Double-click on the estimate in the report that you want to make inactive and QuickBooks will display it.
4. Click to clear the checkmark from the “Estimate Active” checkbox at the top of the estimate.
5. Click “Save & Close” to save and close the estimate, making it inactive.

DISPLAYING JOB AND ESTIMATE REPORTS:

1. Select based on your version of Quickbooks:

a. “Reports| Jobs & Time” from the Menu Bar, if using QuickBooks 2003.
b. “Reports| Jobs, Time & Mileage” from the Menu Bar, if using QuickBooks 2004:2012.
2. Select the name of the report that you would like to see from the side menu of reports.

MAKING JOB PURCHASES:

1. Open the “Enter Bills” window.

2. Use the “Customer:Job” drop-down to select the customer’s job that you will be billing for the purchase.
a. Notice that this column appears in almost every form, from bills to checks to credit cards. So you
can always use this column to assign any amounts to a customer’s job for later billing, or simply
for job costing purposes.
3. If you are using QuickBooks 2003:2006 and you want to bill the customer for the costs later,
a. To bill for costs later, leave the small picture of the invoice at the far right end of the costing line
b. To record the cost, but not bill the customer for the cost, then you must click the small picture of
the invoice at the right end of the line item that you assigned to the customer’s job in order to
place a big red “X” through the picture of the invoice. This will record the cost, but not show it as
an “unbilled” job cost in the reporting.
4. If you are using QuickBooks 2007 through 2012,
a. Use the “Customer:Job” drop-down.
b. The “Billable?” column replaces the picture of the invoice from previous versions.
c. To make the line item non-billable, click to remove the check from the box.

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 ACTIONS-
Estimating
INVOICING FOR BILLABLE JOB COSTS:

1. Create an invoice for the customer’s job that has unbilled job costs.
2. Select based your version of Quickbooks
a. The “Add Time/Costs…” button if using QuickBooks 2007:2012,
b. The “Time/Costs…” button if using QuickBooks 2003 through 2006.
3. The “Choose Billable Time and Costs” window will open.
4. Select the expenses that you have recorded as “Billable”.
5. Check the items and expenses you wish to bill to the customer.
6. Click “OK” to add them into the invoice.

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 EXERCISES-
Estimating
Purpose:

To be able to create an estimate.

Exercises:

1. Open up QuickBooks.
2. Select “File| Close Company” from the Menu Bar if you have a company file open to get to the “No
Company Open” dialog box.
3. Click the “Open a sample file” button, and select “Sample product-based business” from the drop-
down of choices.
4. Click “OK” on the sample file message box.
5. Select “File| Back Up…” from the Menu Bar and make a backup of this company file, so that you
may restore the file back to its original condition when you are done playing with it.
6. After backing up the file, select “Customers| Create Estimates” from the Menu Bar.
7. In the “Estimate” screen, use the “Customer:Job” drop-down to select “Natiello, Ernesto:Kitchen”
from the list.
8. Click into the first row under the “Item” column, and type “Removal.”
9. Press “Tab” on your keyboard twice to move to the “Qty” column. Type “40.”
10. Click “Save & Close.”
11. Select “Customers| Create Invoices” from the Menu Bar.
12. In the “Invoice” screen, use the “Customer:Job” drop-down to select “Natiello, Ernesto:Kitchen” from
the list.
13. Select the estimate you just created in the “Available Estimates” window that appears (it should be
for $1,400.00), and click “OK.”
14. Click the option button for “Create invoice for a percentage of the entire estimate,” and type “33.333”
in the “% of estimate” text box.
15. Click “OK.”
16. If you see a message box informing you of outstanding billable time or costs, click “OK” to close the
dialog box. If using QuickBooks 2007:2012, first choose the “Exclude outstanding billable….” option
and then click the “OK” button.
17. Use the “Template” drop-down in the upper right corner of the invoice screen to select “Progress
Invoice.”
18. Click “Save & Close” to save the progress invoice.
19. Click “Ignore All” if the spell check runs when you close the invoice.
20. You can close the company file by selecting “File| Close Company” from the Menu Bar.
21. You can close QuickBooks by selecting “File| Exit” from the Menu Bar.

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 CHAPTER 19-
Time Tracking
19.1- Time Tracking

19.2- Weekly Timesheets

19.3- Time/Enter Single Activity

19.4- Invoicing from Time Data

19.5- Using Time Reports

19.6- Tracking Vehicle Mileage- 2004:2012

19.7- Charging Customers for Mileage- 2004:2012

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 Time Tracking

19.1- Time Tracking:

QuickBooks provides time tracking for any job. Time tracking lets you keep track of the time that a
person spends on each job. The person whose time you track can be an employee, an owner, a partner, or
a subcontractor (a vendor).
You can then use the time data to do tasks like invoicing the customer for time spent doing a job,
providing hours worked on an employee’s paycheck, tracking the cost of an employee’s gross pay by job, or
simply reporting the number of hours worked by a person on a job or with an item (equipment).
You can enter data into QuickBooks using the “Weekly Timesheet” window or the “Time/Enter
Single Activity” window. If you want to enter time for multiple jobs or multiple days, then the “Weekly
Timesheet” window is the best choice. If you tend to enter a lot of detailed notes about your activities or
prefer to enter time data as you complete an activity, then use the “Time/Enter Single Activity” window.
Either way, the time information that you record in one displays in the other. They are simply two different
ways of recording the same information. So- don’t enter the same data into both forms, as that would
duplicate the time data recorded!

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 Time Tracking

19.2- Weekly Timesheets:

You can use the weekly timesheet to enter the hours worked by a person, what they did, where they
did it (for which customer:job), and, optionally, how much you paid them to do it. If using QuickBooks 2006
through 2012, you can open the “Weekly Timesheet” window by choosing “Employees| Enter Time| Use
Weekly Timesheet” from the Menu Bar. If using QuickBooks 2003 through 2005, you can open the “Weekly
Timesheet” by choosing “Employees| Time Tracking| Use Weekly Timesheet…” from the Menu Bar.
In the “Weekly Timesheet” window, use the “Name” drop-down to select the name of the individual
for whom you want to view or track time. If you want to change the week you are viewing in QuickBooks
2003:2009, just click the “Set Date…” button in the lower left corner of this screen. That will bring up the
“Set Date” dialog box. Use the calendar drop-down to select any date that is in the week for which you want
to view or enter data, and then click the “OK” button. In QuickBooks 2010:2012, instead select a date in the
week from the calendar selector button at the top of the window.
Then you can enter or simply view the “Customer:Job,” “Service Item,” “Payroll Item,” (if you enable
your employees to enter hours via the timesheet) “Notes,” and hours that the selected person spent doing
work. If you make entries to the data shown in the timesheet, click the “Save & Close” button to save and
close the time sheet window when you are finished.

19.3- Time/Enter Single Activity:

You can use the “Time/Enter Single Activity” timesheet to enter the hours worked by a person, what
they did, where they did it (for which customer:job), and (optionally) how much you paid them to do it for a
single day. You can bring up the “Time/Enter Single Activity” window in QuickBooks 2006 through 2012 by
selecting “Employees| Enter Time| Time/Enter Single Activity…” from the Menu Bar. In QuickBooks 2003
through 2005, you instead select “Employees| Time Tracking| Time/Enter Single Activity…” from the Menu
Bar, instead.
Set the date for the activity in the “Date” field, and then use the “Name” drop-down to select for
whom you are tracking the time. Then enter the “Customer:Job,” “Service Item,” “Payroll Item,” (if you
enable your employees to enter hours via the timesheet) and “Notes.” You can then type the duration of
time into the “Duration” box. When you are done, just click the “Save & Close” button to save and close the
window and record the data.

19.4- Invoicing from Time Data:

Once you have recorded the time that your employees spend fulfilling a customer job, you can then
bill the customer for the labor in an invoice. To do this, just create an invoice for the customer job for which
you entered the hours and services, and then click either the “Add Time/Costs…” button if using
QuickBooks 2007 through 2012, or the “Time/Costs…” button if using QuickBooks 2003 through 2006. In
the “Choose Billable Time and Costs” screen, click the “Time” tab and place checkmarks in front of the
recorded services for which you would like to bill the customer job. Then click the “OK” button to see the
items appear in the customer’s invoice.

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 Time Tracking

19.5- Using Time Reports:

QuickBooks provides you with reports that assist you in time tracking. They can be accessed by
selecting “Reports| Jobs & Time” from the Menu Bar in QuickBooks 2003 or “Reports| Jobs, Time &
Mileage” from the Menu Bar in QuickBooks 2004 through 2012. While the exact reports available vary
slightly depending on the version of QuickBooks you are running, the following is a listing of the names and
functions of the time reports available in QuickBooks Pro 2010:2012.

REPORT NAME: DESCRIPTION:

Time by Job Summary Shows hours worked totaled by customer job, and then totaled by
service item per job.

Time by Job Detail Lists each time activity (work done by a person for a particular
customer or job on a specific date), and shows whether the work is
billed, unbilled, or not billable. The report groups and subtotals the
activities first by customer and job and then by service item.

Time by Name Shows hours worked (or tracked as sick or vacation time), subtotaled
first by the name of the person who performed the work, and then by
the customer job for whom the work was performed.

Time by Item Totals the hours by service item, and then subtotals the hours worked
by customer job.

19.6- Tracking Vehicle Mileage- 2004:2012:

You can track mileage for your vehicles in QuickBooks so that you have a record of your vehicle’s
mileage for tax purposes. You can also assign mileage to a specific customer job, so that you can bill the
customer for the mileage. There are some limitations to the use of this data, however. You cannot use the
data to reimburse employees or vendors for mileage. You also cannot track specific vehicle expenses like
tolls paid, gas and other types of expenses. You can work around this by simply entering these charges as
a bill, which can be charged to the customer. Also, vehicle mileage information from Quicken will not be
imported into QuickBooks.
Generally, you can use either the Standard mileage rate or the actual expenses for calculating
vehicle mileage expenses. You should consult with your tax advisor or the IRS to determine which method
you should use, if any.
To enter vehicle mileage, select “Company| Enter Vehicle Mileage…” from the Menu Bar. This will
launch the “Enter Vehicle Mileage” window. Use the “Vehicle” drop-down at the top of the window to select
for which vehicle you will be entering mileage. You can type a new vehicle description into this dialog box
and then use the “Quick Add” feature to quickly add the vehicle to the “Vehicle List.” Note that you also have
a button at the top of this window that allows you to access the list of vehicles.
Next, use the “Trip Start Date” and “Trip End Date” calendar drop-down fields to input the start and
end dates of the trip you are recording. Then input the odometer start and end values into the boxes
provided. That will fill-in the “Total Miles” by subtracting the two values. You may also simply type the total
miles of the trip into the “Total Miles” box, if needed.

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 Time Tracking

19.6- Tracking Vehicle Mileage- 2004:2012 (cont.):

If you want to assign the miles to a specific customer or job, check the “Billable” checkbox in the
upper right corner of the window and then use the “Customer:Job” drop-down to select which customer or
job to assign the mileage. You can then use the “Item” drop-down to select an item from your Item List. If
you are going to be reimbursed by the customer, then you will need to create a “Mileage” item as an “Other
Charge” or “Service” type item so that you can use this to collect the amounts in an invoice at a later point.
Feel free to add any additional notes into the “Notes” field, and then click “Save & Close” when you are
finished.
Note the “Mileage Rates” button at the top of the “Enter Vehicle Mileage” window. If you click this
button, you will be presented with the “Mileage Rates” dialog box. Here you can input the most recent
“Effective Date” of the federal mileage rate in the column available. You can also set the rate in the “Rate”
column next to the specified date. You should check with the IRS for any effective rate changes and make
sure that you keep this information current. Just click “Close” when you are finished entering the rates.

19.7- Charging Customers for Mileage- 2004:2012:

As long as you entered the mileage, marked it as billable, and assigned it to a customer job, you can
then invoice the customer job to collect the mileage. Just open an invoice, select the customer job to which
you assigned the billable mileage, and click the “Add Time/Costs” (“Time/Costs…” in older versions of
QuickBooks) button.
This will bring up the “Choose Billable Time and Costs” window. Here, click the “Mileage” tab. You
will see the billable mileage that you have assigned to the customer job. Click in the leftmost column to
check the mileage which you want to invoice. You can click the “Options” button on this tab to select what
method you want to use for combining activities in the mileage tab. Then just click “OK” button to use the
selected miles in the sales form.

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 ACTIONS-
Time Tracking
TO PRINT BLANK WEEKLY TIMESHEETS:

1. If using QuickBooks 2006 through 2012, select “Employees| Enter Time| Use Weekly Timesheet…”
from the Menu Bar. If using QuickBooks 2003 through 2005, select “Employees| Time Tracking| Use
Weekly Timesheet…” from the Menu Bar.
2. Click the drop-down arrow to the right of the “Print” button and select “Print Blank Timesheet….”
3. In the “Print Timesheets” window, click “Print.”

ENTERING INFORMATION IN A WEEKLY TIMESHEET:

1. From the menu bar, select based on your version of QuickBooks:

a. If using QuickBooks 2006:2012, select “Employees| Enter Time| Use Weekly Timesheet…”
b. If using QuickBooks 2003:2005, select “Employees| Time Tracking| Use Weekly Timesheet…”
2. Select the name of the from the “Name” drop-down at the top of the sheet.
3. In the “Customer:Job” column, select the job with which you want to associate the time you are entering.
4. In the “Service Item” column, select the service performed.
5. Click under the appropriate date column, and enter in the number of hours worked for each day.
6. If you will not invoice the customer for time worked, click the invoice icon at the far right end of the time
entry row. It will place a red “X” over it.
7. When you are done, click “Save & Close” to save and close the time sheet.

ENTERING INFORMATION IN THE TIME/ENTER SINGLE ACTIVITY WINDOW:

1. From the menu bar, select based on your version of QuickBooks:

a. For QuickBooks 2006:2012, select “Employees| Enter Time| Time/Enter Single Activity…”
b. For QuickBooks 2003:2005, select “Employees| Time Tracking| Time/Enter Single Activity …”
2. Enter the date of the entry from the “Date” drop-down.
3. Select the name of the individual whose time you are tracking from the “Name” drop-down.
4. In the “Customer:Job” column, select the job with which you want to associate the time you are entering.
5. In the “Service Item” column, select the service performed.
6. If you do not plan to invoice the customer for time worked, click the “Billable” box to remove the check.
7. When you are done, click “Save & Close” to save and close the screen.

INVOICING A CUSTOMER BASED ON TIME:

1. Select “Customers| Create Invoices” from the Menu Bar.

2. Select the customer:job for whom you want to create an invoice from the “Customer:Job” drop-down.
3. In the “Date” field, enter the desired invoice date.
4. Click the “Add Time/Costs…” (QuickBooks 2007:2012)
5. Click the “Time/Costs" button (QuickBooks 2003:2006)
6. Click the “Time” tab.
7. Click any hours that you want to bill to place a checkmark next to them.
8. Click “OK” when you are ready to bill for the selected hours.
9. Click “Save & Close” to save the invoice.

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 ACTIONS-
Time Tracking
DISPLAYING TIME TRACKING REPORTS:

1. Select “Reports| Jobs, Time & Mileage’ (or “Jobs and Time” in 2003) from the Menu Bar.
2. In the submenu that appears, select the name of the report that you want to view.

TO ENTER VEHICLE MILEAGE- 2004:2012:

1. Select “Company| Enter Vehicle Mileage…” from the Menu Bar.

2. Use the “Vehicle” drop-down at the top of the window to select the appropriate vehicle.
3. Use the “Trip Start Date” and “Trip End Date” calendar fields to input start and end dates of the trip.
4. Enter mileage by
a. Input the odometer start and end values into the boxes provided
b. Or type the total miles of the trip into the “Total Miles” box.
5. If you want to assign the miles to a specific customer or job,
a. Check the “Billable” checkbox in the upper right corner of the window
b. Use the “Customer:Job” drop-down to select which customer or job to assign the mileage.
c. Use the “Item” drop-down to select the item for which the customer will reimburse you.
6. Add any additional notes into the “Notes” field.
7. Click “Save & Close” when you are finished.

TO ENTER STANDARD MILEAGE RATES- 2004:2012:

1. Select “Company| Enter Vehicle Mileage…” from the Menu Bar.

2. Click the “Mileage Rates” button at the top of the “Enter Vehicle Mileage” window.
3. In the “Mileage Rates” dialog box input the most recent “Effective Date” of the federal mileage rate.
4. Set the rate in the “Rate” column next to the specified date.
5. Click “Close.”

TO INVOICE A CUSTOMER FOR MILEAGE ENTERED- 2004:2012:

1. Select “Customers| Create Invoices…” from the Menu Bar.

2. Select the customer or job from the “Customer:Job” drop-down.
3. Click the “Add Time/Costs” (“Time/Costs…” in older versions of QuickBooks) button.
4. Click the “Mileage” tab in the “Choose Billable Time and Costs” window.
5. Check all of the mileage for which you want to be reimbursed.
6. Click the “Options” button.
7. Select how the billable mileage will appear in the invoice.
8. Click “OK” to enter the mileage into the invoice.
9. Click “Save & Close” to save the invoice.

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 EXERCISES-
Time Tracking
Purpose:

To be able to enter hours worked in a weekly timesheet.

Exercises:

1. Open up QuickBooks.
2. Select “File| Close Company” from the Menu Bar if you have a company file open to get to the “No
Company Open” dialog box.
3. Click the “Open a sample file” button and select “Sample product-based business” from the drop-
down of choices.
4. Click “OK” on the sample file message box.
5. Select “File| Back Up…” from the Menu Bar and make a backup of this company file, so that you
may restore the file back to its original condition when you are done playing with it.
6. After backing up the file, select “Employees| Time Tracking| Use Weekly Timesheet…” from the
Menu Bar.
7. Use the “Name” drop-down to select “Gregg O. Schneider” from the list.
8. Click into the next available blank row in the “Customer:Job” column and select “Melton,
Johnny:Dental office” from the list.
9. Click into the “Service” column, and type “Removal.”
10. If available, select “Regular Pay” from the “Payroll Item” column.
11. Type “8” under “W,” “Th,” and “F.”
12. Click “Save & Close.”
13. You can close the company file by selecting “File| Close Company” from the Menu Bar.
14. You can close QuickBooks by selecting “File| Exit” from the Menu Bar.

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 CHAPTER 20-
Payroll
20.1- The Payroll Process

20.2- Creating Payroll Items

20.3- Setting Employee Defaults

20.4- Setting Up Employee Payroll Information

20.5- Writing Paychecks to Employees- 2003:2006

20.6- Writing Paychecks to Employees- 2007:2012

20.7- Voiding Paychecks

20.8- Tracking Your Tax Liabilities

20.9- Paying Your Payroll Tax Liabilities

20.10- Adjusting Payroll Liabilities

20.11- Entering Liability Refund Checks

20.12- Process Payroll Forms

20.13- Tracking Workers Compensation- 2005:2012

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20.1- The Payroll Process:

Before you can use the payroll features of QuickBooks, you must set up payroll for your company in
QuickBooks. To find out how you do this, select “Employees| Payroll| Learn About Payroll Options…” from
the Menu Bar. In the window that then appears, you can purchase a payroll plan through QuickBooks and
begin the setup of your initial payroll data.
To setup the basic payroll information, select “Employees| Payroll Setup” from the Menu Bar if using
QuickBooks 2006 through 2012. If using QuickBooks 2003 through 2005, instead select “Employees|
Payroll Services| Set Up Payroll…” from the Menu Bar. Use the “QuickBooks Payroll Setup” wizard to input
the information that QuickBooks will need to know in order to begin processing payroll. You use the tax
tables that come with the payroll subscription to then calculate employee payroll. QuickBooks calculates
each employee’s gross pay and then calculates taxes and deductions to arrive at the net pay. In
QuickBooks, you can write the paycheck, record the transactions in the correct accounts, print payroll
forms, and keep track of your tax liabilities.
As an employer, you must subtract taxes and other deductions before issuing an employee’s
paycheck. Some typical paycheck deductions are federal and state withholding (income) taxes, social
security taxes (FICA), Medicare taxes, and state unemployment insurance. You may also deduct for
benefits such as 401 (k) plan, or contributions to your company’s medical/dental plan. When you withhold
social security, Medicare, and federal withholding taxes from employee paychecks, you must submit regular
deposits of the withheld money and file quarterly forms that list the amounts withheld from each employee
paycheck. Here is an overview of the payroll process and the steps that you must complete to do payroll.

INFORMATION: DESCRIPTION:

Information about your company. This includes information about your federal and state tax ID numbers.
You enter this information when you set up your QuickBooks company
in the EasyStep interview. You can view most company information by
selecting “Company| Company Information” from the Menu Bar.

Information about your employees. The QuickBooks employee list stores general information about your
employees, and specific information related to payroll (such as the
employee’s salary or hourly rate, filing status, number of exemptions,
and miscellaneous additions, deductions, and company contributions).
You can store payroll information that most employees have in
common in employee defaults. Then, whenever you have a new
employee to add, simply enter information that’s specific to that
employee (name, address, etc…).

Information about your payroll items. QuickBooks maintains a list of items that affect the amount on a
payroll check, including company expenses related to payroll. When
you specify you want to use payroll, QuickBooks creates a number of
payroll items for you. You add others as you need them.

Tax tables for fed, state, and local withholdings. QuickBooks uses tax tables for payroll calculations. You get the current
tax tables and keep them current when you subscribe to one of the
QuickBooks payroll options. If you choose not to subscribe to one of
these services, then you must calculate and enter your payroll tax
deductions manually for each paycheck

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20.2- Creating Payroll Items:

QuickBooks maintains a list of all of the things that affect payroll amounts, including all of the
expenses related to payroll, in the “Payroll Item” list. There are payroll items for compensation, taxes, other
additions and deductions, and employer-paid expenses. QuickBooks uses payroll items to track individual
amounts on a paycheck and accumulated year-to-date wage and tax amounts for each employee.
When you set up payroll for your company in QuickBooks, some items are added to the list for you.
You can add others as you need them. You work directly with these items as you do payroll tasks. You can
view the current payroll items by selecting “Lists| Payroll Items List” from the Menu Bar. You can access the
commands that you need to manage the entries in this list by clicking the “Payroll Item” button in the lower-
left corner of this list.
To add a new payroll items, you can click the “Payroll Item” button in the lower-left corner of the
“Payroll Items List” and then select the “New” command from the pop-up menu that appears. In the “Add
new payroll item” window, answer the questions posed to you on each screen and click the “Next” or
“Continue” button until you have set up the new item. Click “Finish” when you are done to add the selected
item into the “Payroll Items” list.

20.3- Setting Employee Defaults:

You can store information that you would like to set as default values when you create a new
employee record into your “employee defaults” in the “Employees” list. After setting default employee
values, when you later add a new employee, QuickBooks will automatically fill-in the default information
from the employee defaults so that you won’t have to re-enter it. All you will need to do is enter the
employee-specific information.
In QuickBooks 2006 through 2012, you can access the employee defaults in the Employee Center.
In QuickBooks 2007:2012, you can click the “Manage Employee Information” button, and then select the
“Change New Employee Default Settings” command. In QuickBooks 2006, you click the “Related Activities”
drop-down button in the toolbar at the top of the Employee Center window, and then select “Employee
Defaults” from the drop-down menu that appears. In QuickBooks 2003 through 2005, you access the
employee defaults in the “Employee List” by clicking the “Employee” button, and then selecting “Employee
Defaults” from the pop-up menu that appears.
In the “Employee Defaults” window that appears, you enter any information that you would like to
have appear by default whenever you create a new employee record. You can also set default tax
information, or default sick and vacation time information, by clicking either the “Taxes…” or
“Sick/Vacation…” buttons to set values in the separate dialog boxes. When you have finished setting all of
your employee defaults, click the “OK” button to save them.

20.4- Setting Up Employee Payroll Information:

You set up employee payroll information when you add new employees to the “Employees” list. You
can also edit the employee’s payroll data in this list, if it changes. In either the “New Employee” or “Edit
Employee” windows, you can enter or edit the payroll information by selecting the “Payroll and
Compensation Info” choice from the “Change tabs:” drop-down at the top of the window. On the “Payroll
Info” tab, you can set the type of pay that the employee receives, enter any additions or deductions, set their
tax rates, and set up sick and/or vacation time. Basically, you can use this tab to access any employee
payroll information that you need. When you are finished setting up the employee, just click the “OK” button
to close the window and save your changes.

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20.5- Writing Paychecks to Employees- 2003:2006:

You can print employee paychecks as a batch, or you can create and print them individually. You
may want to process the paychecks of the salaried employees in a batch and do payroll for the hourly
employees one at a time.
You can create and/or print checks by selecting “Employees| Pay Employees…” from the Menu Bar.
This will launch the “Select Employees to Pay” window. Here you can select to either print the paychecks or
assign them a check number (if you are not going to print them yourself). Then you check which employees
need to be paid in the employee list shown.
There are also two or three option buttons that allow you to choose how you would like to enter the
hours for your employees. In all versions, you can choose to enter the hours and preview the checks before
creating them, or simply create the checks using hours shown and the last quantities. Starting in
QuickBooks 2005, you can also select to enter the hours using Rapid Time Entry.
If you select to enter the hours and preview the checks before creating them, you will be able to
inspect each paycheck for errors. If you select that option, then when you click the “Create” button, you will
be presented with a series of paycheck previews for the selected employees. You can edit the information
in the preview window to correct errors, and then click the “Create” button in the preview screens to create
the checks. Once you have entered the checks, you can view and print the payroll checks in the payroll
account register. You can also print additional paystubs, if necessary.

20.6- Writing Paychecks to Employees- 2007:2012:

In QuickBooks 2007:2012, you print employee paychecks by using the scheduled payroll feature.
You can also print unscheduled employee paychecks, as needed. You can create and/or print employee
paychecks by selecting “Employees| Pay Employees” from the Menu Bar and then selecting either
“Scheduled Payroll” to create a scheduled paycheck, or selecting “Unscheduled Payroll” to create an
unscheduled paycheck. You could also simply click the “Pay Employees” button in the Home page to open
the “Employee Center: Payroll Center” window.
Before you can make use of the scheduled payroll in QuickBooks, you must first create at least one
payroll schedule for your employees. You can create and modify your payroll schedules by selecting
“Employees| Add or Edit Payroll Schedules” from the Menu Bar. That will open the “Payroll Schedule List.”
To create a new payroll schedule, click the “Payroll Schedule” button and then choose the “New”
command. In the “New Payroll Schedule” window that appears, you begin by entering a name for the payroll
schedule into the “What do you want to name this payroll schedule?” field. You then use the next field’s
drop-down to select the frequency with which this payroll will recur. After that, use the “What is the pay
period end date?” field’s drop-down to select the final date in the next pay period. Then use the “What date
should appear on paychecks for this pay period?” field’s drop-down arrow to select the paycheck date for
the payroll specified. If you specified a semimonthly or monthly payroll, you may also need to answer a few
more date-related questions in this screen. Once you have filled-in any necessary information, click the
“OK” button. You can then follow the onscreen prompts to assign employees with the same pay frequency
to the selected schedule.
To pay the employees that are included in the payroll schedule, you select “Employees| Pay
Employees| Scheduled Payroll” from the Menu Bar to open the “Employee Center: Payroll Center” window.
In the right side of the window, first select the name of the payroll schedule that you want to pay from the
listing shown. Then simply click the “Start Scheduled Payroll…” button.
Next, you will see a window that shows the employees that have been assigned to the selected
payroll schedule. All of the employees that you want to pay should appear in this window with a checkmark
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20.6- Writing Paychecks to Employees- 2007:2012 (cont.):

next to their names. You will then need to check to make sure that the data shown in the “Payroll
Information” section is correct. Also review the hours worked and amounts for each employee shown. If you
need to make changes to a paycheck, you can click one of the checked names in this list to open their
paycheck where you can edit the information, as necessary. Once you have ensured that the information is
correct, you can then click the “Continue” button to continue paying the employees.
Next, review the summary information in the “Review and Create Paychecks” window. You can then
click the “Create Paychecks” button to create the selected paychecks for the scheduled payroll. You can
then use the “Confirmation and Next Steps” window that appears to finish the payroll. You can click the
“Print Paychecks” button to print the paychecks that you just created. You can click the “Print Paystubs”
button to print paystubs for the checks, if needed. Once you have finished, click the “Close” button.
You can also create unscheduled paychecks for termination pay or for additional checks, like bonus
checks. You can select “Employees| Pay Employees| Unscheduled Payroll” from the Menu Bar to open the
“Enter Payroll Information” window. Here you manually set the “Pay Period Ends” and “Check Date.” Then
select the account from which the funds will be withdrawn from the “Bank Account:” drop-down. You then
place a checkmark next to the names of the employees that you want to pay. When you are ready, click the
“Continue” button to continue creating the paychecks. In the next screen, select whether the check should
be printed, or assigned a check number. You can then click on the name of the employee shown in the list
to open the “Preview Paycheck” window where you can review and edit the payroll information, if needed.
Once you are ready to create the paychecks, click the “Create Paychecks” button. You can then click either
the “Print Paychecks” or “Print Paystubs” button, as needed. When you are finished, you can then click the
“Close” button to finish.

20.7- Voiding Paychecks:

You can void paychecks, if needed. To void a paycheck, you will need to display the paycheck that
you want to void in the main screen. You can access the pay checks using the appropriate checking
account register. Then select “Edit| Void Paycheck” from the Menu Bar.

20.8- Tracking Your Tax Liabilities:

As the employer, you need to track both the payroll expenses and payroll liabilities. The payroll
expenses you need to track are the employee’s gross pay and the employer’s payroll taxes. QuickBooks
uses an account called “Payroll Expenses” to track the actual costs to your company. Whatever funds you
deduct from employee paychecks aren’t shown here. Those funds are placed into an account called
“Payroll Liabilities.” That makes it easy to see what payroll taxes you owe, so that you can have the
necessary cash available for payment.
As long as you have a valid subscription to one of the QuickBooks payroll options, QuickBooks uses
the current payroll tax tables to keep track of your tax liabilities as they accrue, so that you know how much
you owe as of a given date.
When you are ready to pay your payroll liabilities, you may want to see the amount you will be
paying. You can run a “Payroll Liabilities” report to see how much you owe in payroll liabilities. You can
access this report by selecting “Reports| Employees & Payroll| Payroll Liability Balances” from the Menu
Bar.

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 Payroll

20.9- Paying Your Payroll Tax Liabilities:

Once you are ready to write a check for the payroll liabilities, you must write a “Liability Check.”
Don’t just write a check to cover payroll liabilities! Unless you use the method shown, QuickBooks
will not properly adjust the Payroll Liabilities account! When you write a check (or enter a General
Journal entry) against the “Payroll Liabilities” account without specifying which liabilities are adjusted, it will
take the total amount of the adjustment and disburse it amongst the individual liabilities. This will then cause
the balance of each individual liability to be incorrect! While you can fix it by making liability adjustments to
the individual liabilities, it is tedious to fix and best avoided.
In QuickBooks 2007:2012, when you subscribe to one of the QuickBooks payroll tax services, you
set up scheduled liability payments as part of the Payroll Setup process. You can view this information
within the Payroll Center in QuickBooks. To pay your scheduled payroll liabilities, just select “Employees|
Payroll Taxes and Liabilities| Pay Scheduled Liabilities” from the Menu Bar. You can then check the
scheduled payments that you would like to make from the listing shown in the “Pay Scheduled Liabilities”
section. You can then click the “View/Pay” button to open the “Liability Check” window where you can
review the liability check that are to be created. You can then click the “Save & Close” button to finish and
save the checks for printing.
To pay your payroll liabilities in QuickBooks 2003 through 2006, select “Employees| Process Payroll
Liabilities| Pay Payroll Liabilities” from the Menu Bar. In the window that appears, you will enter the date
range for which you need to pay the payroll liabilities. Note that this is the same window that appears when
you select “Employees| Payroll Taxes and Liabilities| Create Custom Liability Payments” in QuickBooks
2007:2012. In QuickBooks 2007:2012, you can use this window to create custom liability payments for your
payroll liabilities. Either way, in this window you select the date range of the liabilities to pay. Then click the
“OK” button to view the “Pay Liabilities” window.
In this window, you will place a checkmark next to the individual payroll liabilities that you want to
pay. If you want to create checks for printing, then ensure that the “To be printed” checkbox is selected.
Next, make sure that the option button for “Review liability check to enter expenses/penalties” is selected
and then click the “Create” button to create the “Liability Checks.” Note that this type of check has a special
tab at the bottom that indicates exactly which liabilities are being paid with that check. If you have additional
penalties to add, you can to that on the “Expenses” tab. If you do make modifications to the check, just save
and close the check when finished to save any changes that you have made.

20.10- Adjusting Payroll Liabilities:

If you are using Assisted Payroll, you can’t adjust the liability balance for liabilities paid by the payroll
service (federal and state tax liabilities). However, you can adjust the liability balance for local or other taxes
not supported by the payroll service.
If you're not using Assisted Payroll (or are in the process of signing up for it), you can enter an
adjustment for any payroll item. Liability balance adjustments change the amounts that QuickBooks shows
in your payroll reports.
To adjust the liability balance in QuickBooks 2007:2012, select “Employees| Payroll Taxes and
Liabilities| Adjust Payroll Liabilities” from the Menu Bar. In QuickBooks 2003 through 2006, you instead
select “Employees| Process Payroll Liabilities| Adjust Payroll Liabilities…” from the Menu Bar.
Next, in the “Date” field, enter the date for which you are making the adjustment. In the “Effective
Date” field, enter the date that you want this adjustment to affect your liability balances. QuickBooks uses
this date to calculate amounts on your Forms 940 and 941 and on the payroll liability balances report.
Then choose whether this liability adjustment is for the company or a specific employee. In the “Item
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20.10- Adjusting Payroll Liabilities (cont.):

Name” field, choose the payroll liability to adjust and in the “Amount” field, enter the amount of the
adjustment. You can either enter a positive number or a negative number, as is appropriate. Click “OK”
when you are done to enter in the adjustment which will appear as of the “Effective Date” that you entered.

20.11- Entering Liability Refund Checks:

If you overpay your payroll liabilities and taxes, you may receive a refund check which you would
then need to record in QuickBooks to correct your liability balance. To do this, select “Employees| Payroll
Taxes and Liabilities| Deposit Refund of Liabilities” from the Menu Bar, if using QuickBooks 2007:2012. In
QuickBooks 2003 through 2006, you instead select “Employees| Process Payroll Liabilities| Deposit Refund
of Liabilities...” from the Menu Bar.
Either way, QuickBooks will open the “Refund Deposit for Taxes and Liabilities” window. In this
window, from the “Vendor” drop-down list, choose the vendor from whom you received the refund check.
Then in the “Refund Date” field, enter the date that you want this refund check to enter your bank account.
In the “For Period Beginning” field, enter the beginning date of the pay period that this refund affects. In
previous versions of QuickBooks, you instead selected the date that the payroll ended from a “For Period
Ending” calendar.
Next, indicate whether you want QuickBooks to group this payment with other undeposited funds or
deposit it directly into a bank account. In the “Item Name” column, choose the payroll liability to adjust. In
the “Amount” field, enter the amount of the refund as a positive amount. If the refund is for more than one
payroll item, enter the additional payroll items and their amounts. Just click “OK” when you are finished. If
you overpay your payroll liabilities, your liability balance is then negative. After you record the refund check,
QuickBooks increases the liability for the tax you specified which should correct the liability balance.

20.12- Process Payroll Forms:

You can print out your annual and quarterly federal payroll forms by selecting “Employees| Payroll
Tax Forms & W-2’s| Process Payroll Forms” from the Menu Bar in QuickBooks 2009:2012. In QuickBooks
2007:2008, select “Employees| Payroll Forms” from the Menu Bar, instead. In QuickBooks 2003 through
2006, you select “Employees| Process Payroll Forms…” from the Menu Bar, instead.
At that point, starting in QuickBooks 2005, you can then select the “Federal forms” option from the
“Select Form Type” dialog box. Then click “OK” to continue. In the “Select Payroll Form” dialog box, select
which document you would like to create from the list shown and then ensure that you have the correct filing
period selected in the “Select filing period” section. Then click “OK” to continue.
Depending upon which form you selected, a specific wizard that will then launch to pose questions
and show you information QuickBooks has collected, just like the Easy Step Interview does. Use the
wizards to enter or verify information that QuickBooks has collected and answer all of the questions on each
screen until you are finished creating the forms.

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20.13- Tracking Workers Compensation- 2005:2012:

If you are using QuickBooks 2005 through 2012 and also subscribe to the QuickBooks Enhanced
Payroll service, then you can take advantage of the workers compensation tracking feature to manage
tracking workers compensation hours and make the required payments. You must, however, set up the
workers compensation feature before you run a payroll. If you do not, the information may be inaccurate or
incomplete. Also, this feature must be enabled at the beginning of the insurance policy coverage year in
order to completely track the information in QuickBooks. There is no way to enter “year-to-date” data if
starting in the middle of the insurance coverage year. In that case, you must combine the data in
QuickBooks with any information you have manually tracked in order to get the correct totals for the year.
When you first sign up for the QuickBooks enhanced payroll, the workers compensation feature is
not enabled. You can turn it on by selecting “Edit| Preferences…” from the Menu Bar. This will launch the
“Preferences” dialog box, where you can select the “Payroll & Employees” icon from the scroll box at the left
side. Then click the “Company Preferences” tab. In QuickBooks 2010:2012, click the “Workers
Compensation” button. In QuickBooks 2005:2009, click the “Set Preferences” button in the “Workers
Compensation” section of the tab to open the “Workers Comp Preferences” dialog box. You can place a
checkmark into the “Track Workers Comp” checkbox to enable the feature. You can also check the “Display
message to assign codes” checkbox to enable a classification prompt when entering employee hours into
the “Pay Employees” or time tracking windows. You can also check the “Exclude overtime premium from
Workers Comp calculation” checkbox if your workers compensation insurance company directs you to treat
all overtime hours as if they were paid at the regular wage rate. Once you have set the desired option, click
“OK” to return to the “Preferences” dialog box, where you must click “OK” once again to set the preferences.
Now you must continue to set up workers compensation tracking by using the Workers
Compensation Setup wizard. To open this wizard, select “Employees| Workers Compensation| Set Up
Workers Comp” from the Menu Bar. The first screen will display information which you will need in order to
complete the wizard, and you can gather that information from your insurance company, if necessary. Then
enter the information into the screens and click “Next” to move through the wizard.
After you have set up the employees and what codes they are assigned by default, you can then
issue paychecks as normal and the workers compensation will be accrued as you issue paychecks. Note
that if you assign a default workers compensation code to an employee, that code will be used by default
when issuing paychecks or entering hours in a timesheet. You can also change the code used for any
earning line item in these windows, if needed. You can view the workers compensation information in the
“Preview Paycheck” window as you review the employee paychecks.
When it comes time to actually pay the workers compensation premiums, you can first run a workers
compensation report by selecting “Reports| Employees & Payroll| Workers Comp Detail” from the Menu
Bar. You can verify the amount to pay and where it came from using this report. Since workers
compensation is tracked as a payroll liability, you can pay the premium using the “Pay Liabilities” window to
create the liability check.
You can also create and modify the codes used for workers compensation classification in the
“Workers Comp List.” You can open this list by selecting “Lists| Workers Comp List” from the Menu Bar
when you have workers compensation tracking enabled. You can set up new codes and enter and edit
experience modification factors used for calculations, if needed.

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 ACTIONS-
Payroll
LEARNING ABOUT PAYROLL OPTIONS:

1. Select “Employees| Payroll| Learn About Payroll Options…” from the Menu Bar.
2. Review the various methods of payroll that you can set up in QuickBooks in the window that appears.

INITIALLY SETTING UP PAYROLL IN QUICKBOOKS:

1. Select “Employees| Payroll Setup” from the Menu Bar if using QuickBooks 2006 through 2012. If using
QuickBooks 2003 through 2005, select “Employees| Payroll Services| Set Up Payroll…” instead.
2. In the wizard that appears, answer the questions posed to you and provide the required information in
each screen.

VIEWING THE PAYROLL ITEMS LIST:

1. Select “Lists| Payroll Items List” from the Menu Bar.

ADDING NEW PAYROLL ITEMS TO THE PAYROLL ITEMS LIST:

1. Select “Lists| Payroll Items List” from the Menu Bar.

2. Click the “Payroll Item” menu button in the lower left corner of the window.
3. Select “New” from the pop-up menu that appears.
4. In the “Add new payroll item” window, answer the questions posed to you on each screen.
5. Click “Next” or “Continue” until you have set up the item needed.
6. Click “Finish” when you are done to add the selected item into the “Payroll Items” list.

VIEWING THE EMPLOYEES LIST:

1. If using QuickBooks 2006:2012,

a. Click the “Employee Center” button in the QuickBooks toolbar.
b. Click the “Employees” tab.
2. If using QuickBooks 2003:2005, select “Lists| Employee List” from the Menu Bar.

SETTING EMPLOYEE DEFAULTS:

1. In QuickBooks 2007:2012,
a. Click the “Manage Employee Information” button,
b. Select the “Change New Employee Default Settings” command from the “Employee Center.”
2. In QuickBooks 2006,
a. Click the “Related Activities” drop-down button in the toolbar at the top of the Employee Center.
b. Select “Employee Defaults” from the drop-down menu that appears.
3. In QuickBooks 2003:2005,
1. Open the “Employee List” and then click the “Employee” button.
2. Select “Employee Defaults” from the pop-up menu that appears.
4. Use this window to enter any information that will appear by default for all new employee records.
5. Click “OK” when you are done.

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 ACTIONS-
Payroll
ADDING A NEW EMPLOYEE:

1. Open the “New Employee” window

a. From either the Employee Center (2006:2012).
b. From the Employee List (2003:2005).
2. Use the “Change Tabs:” drop-down at the top of the “New Employee” window to select “Personal Info.”
3. Type in the name and address information on the “Personal,” “Address and Contact,” and “Additional
Info” tabs in the “New Employee” window.
4. Use the “Change Tabs:” drop-down to select “Payroll and Compensation Info.”
5. Use the “Payroll Info” tab in the “New Employee” window and enter in any payroll information.
6. Click the “Taxes…” button here to set up taxes in a separate window.
7. Click the “Sick/Vacation…” button to set up sick and vacation tracking.
8. Use the “Change Tabs:” drop-down to select “Employment Info.”
9. Enter any information needed on the “Employment” tab of this window.
10. If using workers compensation tracking in QuickBooks 2005:2012, assign a default classification code:
a. Select “Workers Compensation” from the “Change tabs:” drop-down menu
b. Enter the desired code from the “Assign Workers Comp Code:” drop-down.
11. Click “OK” when you are done.

WRITING A PAYCHECK- 2003:2006:

1. Select “Employees| Pay Employees…” from the Menu Bar.

2. Enter the bank account from which to write the checks from the “Bank Account” drop-down.
3. Select whether to print the checks or assign them a check number in the “Paycheck Options” section.
4. If you are assigning a check number, type the first check number in the text box provided.
5. Select one of the following:
a. “Enter hours and preview check before creating,”
b. “Create check without preview using hours below and last quantities,” or (in 2005:2006 only)
c. “Enter hours using Rapid Time Entry.” If you select this last option, enter the pay rates and hours
in the window that appears when you click the “Enter Hours” button.
6. Enter the date that you want the check to be issued in the “Check Date” field.
7. In the “Pay Period Ends” date box, select the date that the pay period ends.
8. Select which employees to pay by marking them with a checkmark in the far left column.
9. Click the “Create” button to create the check or checks. If you used Rapid Time Entry, then you will
instead click the “Enter Hours” button and enter the hours into a separate window.
10. If QuickBooks indicates that there isn’t any time data for the employee, click “OK” to enter in the hours
that the employee worked in a preview window.
11. In the “Earnings” section of the paycheck preview window, click the “Item Name” drop-down and select
the type of pay that they earn.
12. Type the rate for that pay in the “Rate” column, if needed.
13. In the hours column, type in the number of hours that the employee worked at that pay rate, if needed.
14. Edit the rest of the check as needed and then click “Create.”
15. Repeat steps 10 through 13 for all of the selected employees until you are finished. It will still display the
“Select Employees to Pay” window again.
16. Click “Leave” to leave the “Select Employees to Pay” window.

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 ACTIONS-
Payroll
WRITING A PAYCHECK- 2007:2012:

1. Before you can use the scheduled payroll in QuickBooks, you must create at least one payroll schedule.
2. Create and modify payroll schedules by selecting “Employees| Add or Edit Payroll Schedules” from the
Menu Bar.
3. In the “Payroll Schedule List,” to create a new payroll schedule,
a. Click the “Payroll Schedule” button.
b. Choose the “New” command.
c. In the “New Payroll Schedule” window, enter a name for the payroll schedule into the “What do
you want to name this payroll schedule?” field.
d. Use the next field’s drop-down to select the frequency with which this payroll will recur.
e. Use the “What is the pay period end date?” drop-down to set the end date in the next pay period.
f. Use the “What date should appear on paychecks for this pay period?” drop-down to select the
paycheck date for the payroll specified. If you selected a semimonthly or monthly payroll, you
may need to answer a few more date-related questions in this screen.
g. Click the “OK” button.
h. Follow the onscreen prompts to assign employees to the selected schedule.
4. To pay the employees that are included in the payroll schedule, select “Employees| Pay Employees|
Scheduled Payroll” from the Menu Bar.
5. In the right side of the “Employee Center: Payroll Center” window,
a. Select the name of the payroll schedule that you want to pay from the listing shown.
b. Click the “Start Scheduled Payroll…” button.
6. A window that shows the employees in the selected payroll schedule will appear.
a. All of the employees that you want to pay should appear in this window with a checkmark.
b. Check to make sure that the data shown in the “Payroll Information” section is correct.
c. Also review the hours worked and amounts for each employee shown.
7. If you need to make changes to a paycheck,
a. Click one of the checked names in this list to open the employee’s paycheck.
b. Edit the information as necessary.
c. Click the “Continue” button to continue paying the employees.
8. Review the summary information in the “Review and Create Paychecks” window.
9. Click the “Create Paychecks” button to create the selected paychecks for the scheduled payroll.
10. Use the “Confirmation and Next Steps” window that appears to finish the payroll.
11. Click “Print Paychecks” to print the paychecks or click “Print Paystubs” to print paystubs for the checks.
12. Once you have finished, click the “Close” button.
13. To create unscheduled paychecks (termination checks, bonus checks, etc…)
a. Select “Employees| Pay Employees| Unscheduled Payroll” from the Menu Bar to open the “Enter
Payroll Information” window.
b. Manually enter the “Pay Period Ends” and “Check Date.”
c. Select the account from which the funds will be withdrawn from the “Bank Account:” drop-down.
d. Place a checkmark next to the names of the employees that you want to pay.
e. Click the “Continue” button to continue creating the paychecks.
f. In the next screen, select whether the check should be printed, or assigned a check number.
g. Click on the name of the employee shown in the list to open the “Preview Paycheck” window.
h. Review and edit the payroll information, if needed.
i. Click the “Create Paychecks” button.
j. Click either the “Print Paychecks” or “Print Paystubs” button, as needed.
k. Click the “Close” button to finish.
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 ACTIONS-
Payroll
VIEWING THE PAYCHECK ENTRIES IN THE CHECKING REGISTER:

1. Select “Lists| Chart of Accounts” from the Menu Bar.

2. Double-click the payroll checking account.
3. You should see the paychecks as entries in the register.
4. Double-click on any one of them to bring them up in the “Write Checks” window.
5. Click the “Paycheck Detail…” button to edit the check in the paycheck preview window before printing, if
you need to make any changes.

TO DISPLAY THE PAYROLL EXPENSES QUICKREPORT:

1. Select “Lists| Chart of Accounts” from the Menu Bar.

2. Select the “Payroll Expenses” account.
3. Click the “Reports” button.
4. Select “QuickReport” to view the QuickReport for the “Payroll Expenses” account.

CREATING A PAYROLL LIABILITIES REPORT:

1. Select “Reports| Employees & Payroll| Payroll Liability Balances” from the Menu Bar.

VOIDING A PAYCHECK ENTRY IN THE CHECKING REGISTER:

1. Select “Lists| Chart of Accounts” from the Menu Bar.

2. Double-click the payroll checking account.
3. You should see the paychecks as entries in the register.
4. Double-click on any one of them to bring them up in the “Write Checks” window.
5. Select “Edit| Void Paycheck” from the Menu Bar.
6. If needed, type “Yes” and click the “Void” button to void the paycheck.

WRITING A CHECK FOR PAYROLL TAXES- 2003:2006:

1. Select “Employees| Pay Payroll Liabilities” from the Menu Bar.

2. In the “Select Date Range For Liabilities” window, select the first and last dates in the range for which
you need to pay your liabilities.
3. Click “OK.”
4. If you want to print the checks, leave the checkmark in the “To be printed” checkbox. If you want to
assign the check a number, remove the check from the box.
5. Select the bank account that you will use to pay the liabilities from the “Bank Account” drop-down.
6. Enter the date of the check into the “Check Date” box.
7. In the “Pay Liabilities” window, check the column at the left each “Payroll Item” that you need to pay.
8. Make sure the “Review liability check to enter expenses/penalties” is selected.
9. Click the “Create” button to view the check.
10. Enter any penalties on the “Expenses” tab, if needed.
11. Click “Save & Close” to record the check.

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 ACTIONS-
Payroll
PAYING YOUR PAYROLL TAXES AND LIABILITIES- 2007:2012:

1. In QuickBooks 2007:2012, when you subscribe to one of the QuickBooks payroll tax services, you set
up scheduled liability payments as part of the Payroll Setup process. You can view this information
within the Payroll Center in QuickBooks.
2. To pay your scheduled payroll liabilities,
a. select “Employees| Payroll Taxes and Liabilities| Pay Scheduled Liabilities” from the Menu Bar.
b. Select the scheduled payments from the listing shown in the “Pay Scheduled Liabilities” section.
c. Click the “View/Pay” button to open the “Liability Check” window for review.
d. Click the “Save & Close” button to finish and save the checks for printing.
3. To create custom payroll tax and liability payment in QuickBooks 2007:2012,
a. Select “Employees| Payroll Taxes and Liabilities| Create Custom Liability Payments” from the
Menu Bar.
b. In the window that appears, enter the date range for which you need to pay the payroll liabilities.
c. Click the “OK” button to view the “Pay Liabilities” window.
d. Place a checkmark next to the individual payroll liabilities that you want to pay.
e. If you want to print checks, ensure that the “To be printed” checkbox is selected.
f. Make sure that the option button for “Review liability check to enter expenses/penalties” is
selected.
g. Click the “Create” button to create the “Liability Checks.”
h. Enter any additional penalties on the “Expenses” tab.
i. If you do make modifications to the check, just save and close the check when finished to save
any changes that you have made.

ADJUSTING PAYROLL LIABILITIES:

1. To adjust the liability balance choose from the Menu Bar:

a. In QuickBooks 2007:2012, select “Employees| Payroll Taxes and Liabilities| Adjust Payroll
Liabilities.”
b. In QuickBooks 2003:2006, select “Employees| Process Payroll Liabilities| Adjust Payroll
Liabilities…”
2. In the “Date” field, enter the date for which you are making the adjustment.
3. In the “Effective Date” field, enter the date that you want this adjustment to affect your liability balance.
4. Choose whether to associate this liability adjustment with the company or a specific employee.
5. In the “Item Name” column, choose the payroll item.
6. Enter the amount of the adjustment in the “Amount” column. You can either enter a positive number or a
negative number, as appropriate.
7. Click “OK” when you are done.

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 ACTIONS-
Payroll
ENTERING LIABILITY REFUND CHECKS:

1. From the menu bar,

a. Select “Employees| Payroll Taxes and Liabilities| Deposit Refund of Liabilities” if using
QuickBooks 2007:2012.
b. In QuickBooks 2003:2006, select “Employees| Process Payroll Liabilities| Deposit Refund of
Liabilities...”
2. Use the “Vendor” drop-down list to choose the tax vendor from whom you received the refund check.
3. In the “Refund Date” field, enter the date that you received the refund check.
4. In the “For Period Beginning” field, enter the beginning date of the pay period that this refund affects. In
older versions of QuickBooks, select the payroll end date from a “For Period Ending” calendar.
5. Indicate how you want QuickBooks to handle the payment by choose one of the following buttons:
a. Group this payment with other undeposited funds.
b. Deposit it directly into a bank account.
6. In the “Item Name” field, choose the payroll item(s).
7. In the “Amount” field enter the amount(s) of the refund(s) as a positive amount.
8. Click “OK” when you are finished.

ENABLING WORKERS COMP TRACKING- 2005:2012:

1. Select “Edit| Preferences…” from the Menu Bar.

2. In the “Preferences” dialog box, select the “Payroll & Employees” icon from the scroll box at the left side.
3. Click the “Company Preferences” tab.
4. In QuickBooks 2010:2012, click the “Workers Compensation” button. In QuickBooks 2005:2009 click the
“Set Preferences” button in the “Workers Compensation” section of the tab to open the “Workers Comp
Preferences” dialog box.
5. Place a checkmark into the “Track Workers Comp” checkbox to enable the feature.
6. Check the “Display message to assign codes” box to enable a classification prompt when entering
employee hours into the “Pay Employees” or time tracking windows.
7. Check the “Exclude overtime premium from Workers Comp calculation” checkbox if your workers
compensation insurance company directs you to treat all overtime hours as if they were paid at the
regular wage rate.
8. Once you have set the desired option, click “OK” to return to the “Preferences” dialog box,
9. Click “OK” once again to set the preferences.

SETTING UP WORKERS COMP TRACKING- 2005:2012:

1. Select “Employees| Workers Compensation| Set Up Workers Comp” from the Menu Bar.
2. In the “Workers Comp Setup” wizard, enter the information into the screens and click “Next” to move
through the wizard until you are finished.
3. After you have set up the employees and what codes they are assigned by default, you can then issue
paychecks as normal and the workers compensation will be accrued as you issue paychecks.

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 ACTIONS-
Payroll
PAYING WORKERS COMP- 2005:2012:

1. When it comes time to actually pay the workers compensation premiums, you can first run a workers
compensation report by selecting “Reports| Employees & Payroll| Workers Comp Detail” from the Menu
Bar.
2. Pay the premium using the “Pay Liabilities” window to create the liability check, just as you would any
normal payroll liability.

USING THE WORKERS COMP LIST- 2005:2012:

1. Select “Lists| Workers Comp List” from the Menu Bar with workers compensation tracking enabled.
2. You can set up new codes and enter and edit experience modification factors used for calculations, if
needed.

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 EXERCISES-
Payroll
Purpose:

To be able to pay scheduled employees in QuickBooks 2007:2012.

Exercises- QuickBooks 2007:2012:

1. Open up QuickBooks.
2. Select “File| Close Company” from the Menu Bar if you have a company file open to get to the “No
Company Open” dialog box.
3. Click the “Open a sample file” button, and select “Sample product-based business” from the drop-
down of choices.
4. Click “OK” on the sample file message box.
5. Select “File| Back Up…” from the Menu Bar and make a backup of this company file, so that you
may restore the file back to its original condition when you are done playing with it.
6. After backing up the file, select “Employees| Pay Employees| Scheduled Payroll” from the Menu Bar.
7. Click the “Start Scheduled Payroll…” button in the “Pay Employees” section of the Payroll Center.
8. To accept the default scheduled payroll, simply click the “Continue” button.
9. Ensure that the “Print paychecks from QuickBooks” option button is selected in the “Paycheck
Options” section.
10. Click the “Create Paychecks” button in the lower right corner of the screen.
11. Click the “Close” button at the bottom of the “Confirmation and Next Steps” window.
12. In the “Pay Scheduled Liabilities” section of the Payroll Center note the upcoming payroll liabilities
for the company file.
13. You can close the company file by selecting “File| Close Company” from the Menu Bar.
14. You can close QuickBooks by selecting “File| Exit” from the Menu Bar.

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 EXERCISES-
Payroll
Purpose:

To be able to pay an employee and pay payroll liabilities in QuickBooks 2003 through 2006.

Exercises- QuickBooks 2003:2006 Only:

1. Open up QuickBooks.
2. Select “File| Close Company” from the Menu Bar if you have a company file open to get to the “No
Company Open” dialog box.
3. Click the “Open a sample file” button, and select “Sample product-based business” from the drop-
down of choices.
4. Click “OK” on the sample file message box.
5. Select “File| Back Up…” from the Menu Bar and make a backup of this company file, so that you
may restore the file back to its original condition when you are done playing with it.
6. After backing up the file, select “Employees| Pay Employees…” from the Menu Bar.
7. Set the “Check Date” to “12/29/2007.”
8. Set the “Pay Period Ends” date to “12/29/2007.”
9. Ensure that the “To be printed” option is selected in the “Paycheck Options” section.
10. Select the “Enter hours and preview check before creating” option button is selected at the top of the
window.
11. Place a checkmark in front of “Elizabeth N. Mason” to select to pay her.
12. Click the “Create” button in the upper right corner of the screen.
13. Click the “Create” button at the bottom of the “Preview Paycheck” window.
14. Click the “Leave” button in the “Select Employees to Pay” window.
15. Select “Employees| Process Payroll Liabilities| Pay Payroll Liabilities…” from the Menu Bar.
16. Click “OK” and accept the default date range.
17. Place a checkmark in front of “Social Security Company,” “Medicare Company,” “Federal
Withholding,” and “Federal Unemployment.” Note the other liabilities that are also marked as a
safeguard.
18. Click the “Create” button in the upper right corner of the window.
19. If necessary, click the “Save & Close” button at the bottom of the liability check.
20. You can close the company file by selecting “File| Close Company” from the Menu Bar.
21. You can close QuickBooks by selecting “File| Exit” from the Menu Bar.

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 CHAPTER 21-
Using Credit Card Accounts
21.1- Creating Credit Card Accounts

21.2- Entering Charges on Credit Cards

21.3- Reconciling and Paying Credit Cards

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 Using Credit Card Accounts

21.1- Creating Credit Card Accounts:

You should set up a QuickBooks credit card account in the Chart of Accounts for each credit card
you use in your business. Like any QuickBooks account, a credit card account has its own register. The
register lists all the charges and credits you’ve recorded, as well a payments you’ve made.

21.2- Entering Charges on Credit Cards:

QuickBooks allows you to choose when you enter your credit card charges. You can enter credit
card charges when you charge an item, or when you receive the bill. Your choice depends on whether you
enjoy entering information incrementally or all at once. The advantage to entering the charges as you
charge items is that you can keep close track of how much you owe. Also, if the charge is made for a
particular customer:job, you can keep track of how much you are spending on that job.
To enter credit card charges, select “Banking| Enter Credit Card Charges” from the Menu Bar. When
you select the command, that will display the “Enter Credit Card Charges” window, where you will input the
information about the charge. After you have input the charge, QuickBooks adds the charge amount to the
credit card register, increasing the liability by the charge amount. It will add the same amount to the
appropriate expense account once the bill for the credit card is entered or paid.

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 Using Credit Card Accounts

21.3- Reconciling and Paying Credit Cards:

If you enter credit card charges incrementally, you can then reconcile the entries that have been
made against the bill when it arrives. This can be helpful in preventing unauthorized charges on the card.
Reconciling a credit card account is almost identical to reconciling a bank account.
To reconcile a credit card account, open the chart of accounts and click the credit card account that
you want to reconcile to select it. From there, you will click the “Activities” button in the lower left corner of
the chart of accounts and select “Reconcile Credit Card” from the pop-up menu that appears.
That will display the “Begin Reconciliation” dialog box. Here you will input the statement date from
your credit card statement, the ending balance from your statement, any finance charges you accrued, the
date, and the account that you use to track those charges. Then click “Continue” at the bottom of the “Begin
Reconciliation” dialog box to display the “Reconcile Credit Card” window for the selected account.
In this window, you will see all of the transactions that haven’t cleared. You’ll use this window to
check off the transactions listed on your credit card statement. Click on each transaction to place a check
mark in front of each transaction that matches your credit card statement to mark it as cleared. When you
are done the “Difference” (in the lower right corner), should be zero. Click “Reconcile Now” to reconcile the
account, and to select the options for the report that you’d like to have generated.
Once you’ve reconciled your credit card account, QuickBooks gives you a chance to pay all or part
of the balance due by taking you immediately to either the “Write Checks” or “Enter Bills” window depending
on which option you select in the dialog box that appears. The bill or check will already be set to the credit
card account. The amount due for your credit card will also be entered already. You just have to select the
name of the company to whom you pay the balance and then print the check or save the bill.

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 ACTIONS-
Using Credit Card Accounts
TO ENTER A CREDIT CARD CHARGE:

1. Select “Banking| Enter Credit Card Charges” from the Menu Bar.

OR

1. Select “Banking| Record Credit Card Charges| Enter Credit Card Charges” from the Menu Bar.
2. In the “Enter Credit Card Charges” window, select the appropriate credit card account from the “Credit
Card” drop-down at the top of this window.
3. In the “Purchased From” field, select the vendor from whom you made the purchase.
4. The next field, “Ref No.,” allows you to input the transaction number from the credit card receipt (usually
near the top). This is an optional field.
5. Enter the amount of the charge into the “Amount:” field.
6. Click the “Expenses” tab below and assign the charge to the appropriate expense account(s).
7. Click “Save & Close” to record the transaction and close the window.

RECONCILING A CREDIT CARD STATEMENT:

1. Select “Lists| Chart of Accounts” from the Menu Bar.

2. Click the credit card account that you would like to reconcile to select it.
3. Click the “Activities” button and select “Reconcile Credit Card” from the pop-up menu that appears.
4. In the “Begin Reconciliation” window, enter the ending balance and the statement date from your credit
card bill (statement). Enter in any finance charges, if applicable.
5. Press “Continue” below to continue to the “Reconcile Credit Card” window.
6. Compare your credit card bill to the transactions listed that haven’t cleared. Click on the transactions in
this window that you find in your statement to mark them as “cleared.” QuickBooks should place a
checkmark to the left of each transaction you select.
7. When you are done, click the “Reconcile Now” button to display the “Select Reconciliation Report”
dialog box.
8. Make sure that the “Detail” button is selected, and the click “Display” to view the report.
9. Click “OK” at the message that QuickBooks displays.
10. After you have finished reconciling your credit card account, QuickBooks asks you if you would like to
pay the bill for the balance due. Select the option that you prefer: “Write a check for payment now” or
“Enter a bill for payment later.” Then click “OK” after making your selection.
11. Select the name of the company to pay for the credit card amount from the “Pay to the Order of” field in
the “Write Checks” window or the “Vendor” field in the “Enter Bills” window.
12. Click the “Save & Close” button to save the transaction.

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 EXERCISES-
Using Credit Card Accounts
Purpose:

To be able to enter credit card charges.

Exercises:

1. Open up QuickBooks.
2. Select “File| Close Company” from the Menu Bar if you have a company file open to get to the “No
Company Open” dialog box.
3. Click the “Open a sample file” button and select “Sample product-based business” from the drop-
down of choices.
4. Click “OK” on the sample file message box.
5. Select “File| Back Up…” from the Menu Bar and make a backup of this company file so that you may
restore the file back to its original condition when you are done playing with it.
6. After backing up the file, select “Banking| Enter Credit Card Charges” or “Banking| Record Credit
Card Charges| Enter Credit Card Charges…” from the Menu Bar.
7. From the “Credit Card” drop-down, select “CalOil Card.”
8. In the “Purchased From” field, enter “Bayshore CalOil Service.”
9. In the “Amount” field, type “54.”
10. In the “Expenses” tab, select “Automobile:Fuel.”
11. Click “Save & Close” to save the charge.
12. Select “Banking| Reconcile…” from the Menu Bar.
13. In the “Begin Reconciliation” screen, select “CalOil Card” from the “Account” drop-down.
14. For the “Statement Date,” type “01/14/08” for QuickBooks 2003:2007, “01/14/11” for QuickBooks
2008:2010, “1/14/15” for QuickBooks 2011, or “1/14/16” for QuickBooks 2012.
15. For the “Ending Balance” in QuickBooks 2003:2010, type “101.02.” For QuickBooks 2011:2012, type
“436.62.” Then click the “Continue” button to continue.
16. In QuickBooks 2003 through 2005, clear all of the transactions except the $5,000 entry to Kershaw
Computers. In QuickBooks 2006 and 2007, clear transactions dated “12/03/07,” “12/12/07,”
“12/29/07” from the “Charges and Cash Advances” and the transaction dated “12/02/07” in the
“Payments and Credits” window. In QuickBooks 2008:2010, clear transactions dated “12/03/11,”
“12/12/11,” “12/29/11” from the “Charges and Cash Advances” and the transaction dated “12/02/11”
in the “Payments and Credits” window. In QuickBooks 2011:2012, click the “Mark All” button to mark
all transactions as being cleared. The “Difference” should be zero.
17. Click “Reconcile Now.”
18. Click “Write a check for payment now,” and click “OK.”
19. Choose the “Detail” option button and then click the “Display” button in the “Select Reconciliation
Report” dialog box.
20. Click “OK.”
21. Click the “X” in the upper right corner of the “Reconciliation Detail” report.
22. In the “Pay to the Order of” field of the check that was created to pay the credit card bill, type “CalOil
Company.”
23. Check the “To be printed” checkbox, if necessary.
24. Click the “Save & Close” button.
25. You can close the company file by selecting “File| Close Company” from the Menu Bar.
26. You can close QuickBooks by selecting “File| Exit” from the Menu Bar.

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 CHAPTER 22-
Assets and Liabilities
22.1- Assets and Liabilities

22.2- Using the Other Current Asset Account Type

22.3- Removing Value from Other Current Asset Accounts

22.4- Creating Fixed Asset Accounts

22.5- Setting the Original Cost of the Fixed Asset

22.6- Tracking Depreciation

22.7- Liability Accounts

22.8- The Loan Manager- 2004:2012

22.9- The Fixed Asset Item List- 2004:2012

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 Assets and Liabilities

22.1- Assets and Liabilities:

QuickBooks has two account types for tracking the value of your short-term and long-term assets.
The Other Current Asset account tracks assets that are likely to be converted into cash or used up within
one year. A Fixed Asset account tracks assets your business owns that are NOT likely to be converted into
cash within a year. These are usually long-lived assets with a greater value that assist you in performing
your business. The value of these items are expensed over the “useful life” of the asset, which will vary.
QuickBooks also has two account types that track long-term and short-term liabilities. The Other
Current Liability account tracks liabilities that your company expects to pay within a year. A Long-Term
Liability account tracks debt that your business is not likely to pay off within a year.

Account Name: Description:

Asset Accounts Used to track both current assets (assets that you’re likely to convert into cash within
one year) and fixed assets (loans you made to others, equipment, buildings).
Liability Accounts Used to track both current liabilities (scheduled to be paid within the year), and long-
term liabilities (loans you have to pay back over more than one year).

22.2- Using the Other Current Asset Account Type:

The Other Current Asset account type tracks assets that your company expects to use up or convert
into cash in the next year. Other current assets might include short-term notes receivable, or prepaid
expenses. Your inventory account is an example of an other current asset.

22.3- Removing Value from Other Current Asset Accounts:

For example, let’s suppose we had a “Prepaid Rent” Other Current Asset account into which we’d
placed six months of rent that we had to prepay. As you use up part of the prepaid expense, you can enter
in each change to the value of that account directly into the register for that account. So for each month, we
would subtract the amount of the rent that we actually incurred from the “Prepaid Rent” Other Current Asset
account and then assign the value of the rent to the “Rent” expense account. You could also perform the
same function through a General Journal entry if that is more comfortable for you.

22.4- Creating Fixed Asset Accounts:

A Fixed Asset account tracks assets that your business owns that are NOT likely to be converted
into cash within a year. A fixed asset is usually something of significant value that is necessary for the
operation of your business, like vehicles, computers, furniture and some office equipment.
You set up both Other Current Asset accounts and Fixed Asset accounts in the Chart of Accounts by
clicking the “Account” button and selecting “New” from the pop-up menu. Type in a name for the account
and select the appropriate account type from the drop-down at the top of the “New Account” window. Fill in
any other pertinent information necessary, and then click “OK” when you are done to create the account.

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22.4- Creating Fixed Asset Accounts (cont.):

When the value of fixed assets declines, that is called depreciation. We will now look at tracking
depreciation for our fixed assets. There are many ways to track depreciation and this is just one suggested
method. It works well to show the original cost, the accumulated depreciation, and the current book value in
the Balance Sheet. However if you are currently tracking your asset depreciation in other ways, you can rest
assured that you can continue using your own method.
Fixed assets are not for immediate sale, but they do have a value. Since they are useful for a long
time, you don’t completely charge their entire cost to the year in which you purchased them. Instead, you
spread their cost over several years (called the “useful life” of the asset). However, because fixed assets
wear out or become obsolete (like computers), their value declines constantly from the day you purchase
them. The total amount of this decline over a period of time is called accumulated depreciation.
So when you refer to the value of a fixed asset at any point in time you need to subtract its
accumulated depreciation (total amount of depreciation since the asset’s purchase) from its original cost.
Usually, you’ll want your balance sheet to show the original cost of an asset (plus any subsequent
improvements) on one line, with the accumulated depreciation subtracted from the original cost on a second
line, and the current (net) value on a third line. The method you’ll learn in this lesson lets you see each
asset’s cost and its accumulated depreciation separately on your balance sheet. To do this, you need to set
up a separate fixed asset account for each asset and then create two subaccounts under each fixed asset
account: one for the original cost and one for the accumulated depreciation.
First, create a new Fixed Asset account for the fixed asset. You will leave the opening balance field
blank if you are purchasing the asset after your “Start date,” as that value will be determined by the two
subaccounts (“original cost” and “accumulated depreciation”) that you’ll have to create to track the value.
Next, you’ll have to create the two subaccounts that we just discussed- one for the asset’s original
cost and one for the asset’s accumulated depreciation. These two subaccounts should also be of the “Fixed
Asset” type. Make sure that you click the checkbox for “Subaccount of” in the “New Account” window and
select the correct fixed asset account for which these subaccounts will track the depreciation.
When you are creating the “Original Cost” subaccount, the “Opening Balance” is the original cost of
the asset only if you purchased it before your QuickBooks start date! If you’re buying the asset now, you will
leave the “Opening Balance” blank and fill it in later with the value of the loan you have to repay or the
checks you write to purchase the fixed asset. Typically the loan would be a long-term liability account.
When you are creating the “Accumulated Depreciation” subaccount, the amount you enter as the
“Opening Balance” also depends on whether you acquired the asset after or before your QuickBooks start
date. If you acquired the asset after your QuickBooks start date, you won’t enter in an “opening balance.” If
you did purchase the asset prior to your QuickBooks start date, you would enter the accumulated
depreciation of the asset as of the start date- as a negative number.

22.5- Setting the Original Cost of the Fixed Asset:

When you are purchasing the fixed asset, you enter any amounts that you spent or borrowed to buy
the fixed asset directly into the “Original Cost” subaccount. For instance, you could enter in the value of any
loans that you took out to purchase the fixed asset into the “Original Cost” account register for the fixed
asset and assign the amount to the long-term liability (loan) account that you create to track the loan as you
pay it off.

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 Assets and Liabilities

22.6- Tracking Depreciation:

Your accountant should provide you with the amounts to enter in for depreciation on your fixed
assets. They should at least double-check your depreciation entries. When you have those amounts, you
can enter them into the “Decrease” column of the “Accumulated Depreciation” subaccount’s register that
you created for the fixed asset. The amount will then be attributed to an expense account like “Depreciation
Expense.” The “Accumulated Depreciation” account will always have a negative balance, as it tracks the
loss of value to the fixed asset which is its parent account.

22.7- Liability Accounts:

You can set up liability accounts to track the amounts that you need to pay to someone else. If the
liability is to be paid off within the year, it is an “Other Current Liability.” If you have a line of credit, that
would be an example of an Other Current Liability. You enter each change to the amount of the liability in
the register provided with the account.
You can also set up Long Term Liability accounts. These are created for amounts that you expect to
pay off in a period greater than a year. For example, when you purchase a fixed asset you typically incur a
long term liability (for example- the loan used to purchase the fixed asset, like a car loan). The payments
that you make on the loan will then be attributed partially to the liability account and partially to interest
expense. In QuickBooks 2003, you’ll have to figure out how much to apply to each account for every
payment you make against the loan using an amortization table. On many commercial loans this
information is already provided, but if it isn’t, you can request that it be shown. You can also use many of
the handy amortization calculators online to figure out how much of each payment should be applied to the
loan principal and how much to apply to interest expense.

22.8- The Loan Manager- 2004:2012:

Assuming you have all of the relevant information about your loan, you can enter the loan into the
Loan Manager to set up a payment schedule. Using the Loan Manager allows you to manage all of the
loans that you have to pay from a single screen.
To add a loan to the Loan Manager, select “Banking| Loan Manager” from the Menu Bar. This will
launch the “Loan Manager” window where you can click the “Add a Loan…” button. In the “Add a Loan”
window, select the name of the liability account that you want to add from the “Account Name” drop-down.
The balance of the account will be shown as the “Current Balance.” Use the “Lender” drop-down to select
the name of the bank who lent you the money. Then enter the “Origination Date” of the loan. This is the date
used to calculate the loan maturity date and the number of remaining payments. Enter the original amount
of the loan into the “Original Amount” field. In the “Term” section enter the terms of the loan by typing a
number and selecting the time increments from the drop-down. Then click “Next” to continue.
On the next screen, enter the due date of the next payment in the box provided. In the “Payment
Amount” field, enter the total amount of the loan payment. Then enter the “Next Payment Number,” if
desired. In the “Payment Period” drop-down, select the type of payments that you make. If the loan has an
escrow payment, select the “Yes” option button for that question and then enter the escrow amount and the
asset account used to track escrow payments. You can also leave a check in the “Alert me 10 days before a
payment is due” checkbox to have that feature applied. Then click “Next” to continue.

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 Assets and Liabilities

22.8- The Loan Manager- 2004:2012 (cont.):

On the next screen, enter the interest rate here as a percentage into the “Interest Rate” text box. In
the “Compounding Period” drop-down select the type of compounding used for the loan: “Monthly,” or
“Exact Days.” If you select “Exact Days,” then select whether the lender is using a 360 or 365 day year for
their calculations from the “Compute Period” drop-down. Select the bank account from which you make the
payments in the “Payment Account” drop-down. Then use the “Interest Expense Account” to select the
expense account that you use to track loan interest payments. Use the “Fees/Charges Expense Account” to
select the expense account used to record the amounts assessed for late payments and other penalties.
When you are finished, click the “Finish” button. The loan will be added into the “Loan List” in the “Loan
Manager” window. You can click it to select it and then click the three tabs below it to view the “Summary” of
the loan, the “Payment Schedule,” or the “Contact Info” for the lender.
To set up a payment for a loan listed in the “Loan List,” select the loan in the list and then click the
“Set Up Payment…” button. This will launch the “Set Up Payment” dialog box where you first use the “This
payment is:” drop-down to select either “A regular payment,” or “An extra payment.” Double-check the
payment information to ensure that the amounts listed are correct. Then use the drop-down in the “Payment
Method” section to select the method of payment you wish to use. Click “OK” to view the loan payment as
either a check to pay now or bill that you can pay later, depending on your choice made from the drop-down
in the “Payment Method” section.
If you need to edit a loan, select the loan name in the “Loan List” section of the “Loan Manager”
window, and then click the “Edit Loan Details…” button. This will launch you through the same wizard that
you used to create the loan, allowing you to change any information as needed. To delete a loan from the
“Loan Manager,” select the name of the loan in the “Loan List” and then click the “Remove Loan…” button.
Click “Yes” in the confirmation dialog box to remove the selected loan.
In the “Loan Manager” window you can also click the “What If Scenarios…” button to launch the
“What If Scenarios” dialog box. You can use the drop-down at the top of this dialog box to answer
hypothetical questions about your loans, such as “What if I change my interest rate?” You can select a
question you wish to investigate further and enter in any requested information in the area below. This can
be a very useful tool to compare loans and make sure that you aren’t paying too much for the money you
have borrowed.

22.9- The Fixed Asset Item List- 2004:2012:

You can use the Fixed Asset Item List to track your individual fixed assets. If you use this tool you
can enter in information about the purchase price of the asset, its purchase date, and whether the asset
was new or used at purchase. You can also enter in the asset’s sale price if you decide to sell the asset at a
later point in time.
You use this list like you would any other list. You can select “Lists| Fixed Asset Item List” from the
Menu Bar. This will then launch that list in a new window. To add a fixed asset item, click the “Item” button
in the lower left corner of the list and select “New” from the pop-up menu. That will launch the “New Item”
window. Fill-in the asset information that you wish in this screen and click “OK” when you are finished. Note
that there are custom fields available for your fixed asset list. You can create up to five just like the Items
list. However, you must be in single-user mode to do this.

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 ACTIONS-
Assets and Liabilities
CREATING AN OTHER CURRENT ASSET ACCOUNT:

1. Display the chart of accounts by selecting “Lists| Chart of Accounts” from the Menu Bar.
2. Click the “Account” button in the lower left corner of the chart of accounts window and select “New” from
the pop-up menu that appears.
3. In the “New Account” window, select “Other Current Asset” from the “Type” drop-down at the top of the
window.
4. In the “Name” field, type in a name for the account.
5. Click “OK” when you are done.

DECREASING THE VALUE OF AN OTHER CURRENT ASSET ACCOUNT:

1. Display the chart of accounts by selecting “Lists| Chart of Accounts” from the Menu Bar.
2. Select the Other Current Asset account to which you want to enter a decrease of the value and double-
click it to view its register.
3. In the next available entry row, enter the amount by which you want to decrease the value of the Other
Current Asset into the “Decrease” column.
4. In that same entry, select the appropriate expense account from the “Account” drop-down field.
5. Click “Record” to record the register entry.

CREATING A FIXED ASSET ACCOUNT:

1. Display the chart of accounts by selecting “Lists| Chart of Accounts” from the Menu Bar.
2. Click the “Account” button in the lower left corner of the chart of accounts window, and then select
“New” from the pop-up menu that appears.
3. In the “New Account” window, select “Fixed Asset” from the “Type” drop-down at the top of the window.
4. In the “Name” field, enter a name for the account.
5. Click “OK” when you are done.

CREATING FIXED ASSET SUBACCOUNTS TO TRACK DEPRECIATION:

1. Display the chart of accounts by selecting “Lists| Chart of Accounts” from the Menu Bar.
2. Click the “Account” button in the lower left corner of the chart of accounts window and select “New” from
the pop-up menu that appears.
3. In the “New Account” window, select “Fixed Asset” from the “Type” drop-down at the top of the window.
4. In the “Name” field, type a name for the first subaccount that will track the fixed asset’s cost.
5. Leave the “Opening Balance” field blank, as you will enter it later when you actually pay for the asset. If
the asset was purchased prior to the QuickBooks start date, you would type the original cost of the
asset in the “Opening Balance” field.
6. Click “OK” when you are done creating the cost subaccount.
7. Click the “Account” button in the lower left corner of the chart of accounts window and select “New” from
the pop-up menu that appears.
8. In the “New Account” window, select “Fixed Asset” from the “Type” drop-down at the top of the window.

(cont.)

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 ACTIONS-
Assets and Liabilities
CREATING FIXED ASSET SUBACCOUNTS TO TRACK DEPRECIATION (CONT.):

9. In the “Name” field, type a name for the subaccount that will track the fixed asset’s accumulated
depreciation.
10. Leave the “Opening Balance” field blank, if you acquired the asset after the QuickBooks start date. If
you acquired the asset prior to the QuickBooks start date, you would type in the amount of the
accumulated depreciation as of the start date as a negative number.
11. Click “OK” when you are done creating the accumulated depreciation subaccount.

ENTERING A DEPRECIATION TRANSACTION:

1. Check with an accountant or tax advisor to gather your actual depreciation amounts of the assets for
which you want to track depreciation.
2. Open the chart of accounts by selecting “Lists| Chart of Accounts” from the Menu Bar.
3. Double-click the depreciation subaccount of the asset for which you need to enter in the depreciation
amount to view its register.
4. In the next available entry row, type the amount of the depreciation into the “Decrease” column.
5. Assign the value of the decrease to the appropriate balance sheet account (like “Depreciation
Expense”), by using the drop-down account selector in the “Account” field.
6. Click the “Record” button when you are done to record the depreciation transaction.

CREATING AN OTHER CURRENT LIABILITY ACCOUNT:

1. Display the chart of accounts by selecting “Lists| Chart of Accounts” from the Menu Bar.
2. Click the “Account” button in the lower left corner of the chart of accounts window and select “New” from
the pop-up menu that appears.
3. In the “New Account” window, select “Other Current Liability” from the “Type” drop-down at the top of the
window.
4. In the “Name” field, type a name for the account.
5. Click “OK” when you are done.

DECREASING THE VALUE OF AN “OTHER CURRENT LIABILITY” ACCOUNT:

1. Display the chart of accounts by selecting “Lists| Chart of Accounts” from the Menu Bar.
2. Select the “Other Current Liability” account to which you want to enter a decrease of the value and
double-click it to view its register.
3. In the next available entry, type the amount by which you want to decrease the value of the Other
Current Asset into the “Decrease” column.
4. In that same entry, select the appropriate expense account to assign the amount to from the “Account”
drop-down field.
5. Click “Record” to record the register entry.

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 ACTIONS-
Assets and Liabilities
CREATING A LONG TERM LIABILITY ACCOUNT:

1. Display the chart of accounts by selecting “Lists| Chart of Accounts” from the Menu Bar.
2. Click the “Account” button in the lower left corner of the chart of accounts window and select “New” from
the pop-up menu that appears.
3. In the “New Account” window, select “Long Term Liability” from the “Type” drop-down.
4. In the “Name” field, type a name for the account.
5. Click “OK” when you are done.

INCREASING THE VALUE OF A FIXED ASSET ORIGINAL COST ACCOUNT:

1. Display the chart of accounts by selecting “Lists| Chart of Accounts” from the Menu Bar.
2. Select the Fixed Asset’s original cost account in the account list and double-click it to view its register.
3. Type the amount of the loan that you took out to pay for the fixed asset into the “Increase” column.
4. In the “Account” drop-down field, assign the value of the loan to the long term liability account that you
created to track the repayment of the loan.
5. Click “Record” to record the transaction. This effectively sets the “opening balance” for the long-term
liability account, as well.

ADDING A LOAN TO THE LOAN MANAGER- 2004:2012:

1. Select “Banking| Loan Manager” from the Menu Bar.

2. Click the “Add a Loan…” button.
3. Select the name of the liability account that you want to add from the “Account Name” drop-down.
4. Use the “Lender” drop-down to select the name of the bank who lent you the money.
5. Enter the “Origination Date” of the loan.
6. Enter the original amount of the loan into the “Original Amount” field.
7. In the “Term” section, enter the terms of the loan by typing a number and selecting the time increments
from the drop-down.
8. Click “Next” to continue.
9. Enter the due date of the next payment in the box provided.
10. In the “Payment Amount” field, enter the total amount of the loan payment.
11. Enter the “Next Payment Number,” if desired.
12. In the “Payment Period” drop-down, select the type of payments that you make.
13. If the loan has an escrow payment, select the “Yes” option button for that question and then enter the
escrow amount and the asset account used to track escrow payments.
14. Check the “Alert me 10 days before a payment is due” checkbox to have that feature applied.
15. Click “Next” to continue.
16. Enter the interest rate here as a percentage into the “Interest Rate” text box.
17. In the “Compounding Period” drop-down select the type of compounding used for the loan: “Monthly,” or
“Exact Days.” If you select “Exact Days,” then select whether the lender is using a 360 or 365 day year
for their calculations from the “Compute Period” drop-down.
18. Select the bank account from which you make the payments in the “Payment Account” drop-down.

(cont.)

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 ACTIONS-
Assets and Liabilities
ADDING A LOAN TO THE LOAN MANAGER- 2004:2012 (CONT.):

19. Use the “Interest Expense Account” drop-down to select the expense account you use to track loan
interest payments.
20. Use the “Fees/Charges Expense Account” drop-down to select the expense account used to record the
amounts assessed for late payments and other penalties.
21. When you are finished, click the “Finish” button.

EDITING A LOAN IN THE LOAN MANAGER- 2004:2012:

1. Select the loan name in the “Loan List” section of the “Loan Manager” window.
2. Click the “Edit Loan Details…” button.
3. This will launch you through the same wizard that you used to create the loan, allowing you to change
any information needed.

DELETING A LOAN IN THE LOAN MANAGER- 2004:2012:

1. Select the name of the loan in the “Loan List” and then click the “Remove Loan…” button.
2. Click “Yes” in the confirmation dialog box to remove the selected loan.

RUNNING “WHAT IF” SCENARIOS IN THE LOAN MANAGER- 2004:2012:

1. Click the “What If Scenarios…” button to launch the “What If Scenarios” dialog box.
2. Use the drop-down at the top of this dialog box to select a hypothetical question to answer.
3. Enter any requested information in the area below.
4. Click “Close” when you are finished.

ADDING FIXED ASSET ITEMS TO THE FIXED ASSET ITEMS LIST- 2004:2012:

1. Select “Lists| Fixed Asset Item List” from the Menu Bar.
2. Click the “Item” button in the lower left corner of the list and select “New” from the pop-up menu.
3. In the “Asset Name/Number” field, type the name or number of the asset.
4. Use the “Asset Account” drop-down to select the asset account used to track the value of the asset.
5. In the “Purchase Information” section, set whether the item is “New” or “Used.”
6. You can type a purchase description into the next text box.
7. Set the purchase date in the “Date” field.
8. Enter the “Cost” of the item in that field.
9. Enter the name of the “Payee/Vendor” in the field provided.
10. Fill-in any optional information you want to track in the “Asset Information” section.
11. When you sell the asset, you can edit the item and fill-in the sales information when it is sold.
12. Click “OK” when you are finished.

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 EXERCISES-
Assets and Liabilities
Purpose:

To be able to use asset and liability accounts

Exercises:

1. Open up QuickBooks.
2. Select “File| Close Company” from the Menu Bar if you have a company file open to get to the “No
Company Open” dialog box.
3. Click the “Open a sample file” button, and select “Sample product-based business” from the drop-
down of choices.
4. Click “OK” on the sample file message box.
5. Select “File| Back Up…” from the Menu Bar and make a backup of this company file, so that you
may restore the file back to its original condition when you are done playing with it.
6. After backing up the file, select “Lists| Chart of Accounts” from the Menu Bar.
7. Press “Ctrl”+“N” on your keyboard to bring up the “New Account” window.
8. For the “Type” drop-down in QuickBooks 2003:2006, select “Fixed Asset.” in QuickBooks
2007:2012, select the “Fixed Asset (major purchases)” choice, and then click the “Continue” button.
9. For the “Name,” type “New Car.”
10. If using QuickBooks 2003:2006, click the “Next” button at the right side of the “New Account”
window. If using QuickBooks 2007:2012, click the “Save & New” button, instead.
11. Ensure the “Type” drop-down is still set to “Fixed Asset.”
12. For the “Name,” type “Original Cost.”
13. Click the “Subaccount of” checkbox, and then use the drop-down to select “New Car.”
14. If using QuickBooks 2003:2006, click the “Next” button at the right side of the “New Account”
window. If using QuickBooks 2007:2012, click the “Save & New” button, instead.
15. For the “Name,” type “Accumulated Depreciation.”
16. Click the “Subaccount of” checkbox, and then use the drop-down to select “New Car.”
17. If using QuickBooks 2003:2006, click the “Next” button at the right side of the “New Account”
window. If using QuickBooks 2007:2012, click the “Save & New” button, instead.
18. Use the “Type” drop-down to select “Long-Term Liability.”
19. For the “Name,” type “New Car Loan.”
20. If using QuickBooks 2003:2006, click the “OK” button at the right side of the “New Account” window.
If using QuickBooks 2007:2012, click the “Save & Close” button, instead.
21. Double-click on the “Original Cost” subaccount of the “New Car” account in the “Chart of Accounts”
window to open its register.
22. Select “East Bayshore Auto Mall” in the “Payee” column drop-down.
23. Under the “Increase” column, type “35000.”
24. Select “New Car Loan” from the “Account” drop-down.
25. Click “Record.”
26. Click the “X” in the upper right corner of the register to close it.
27. Inspect the chart of accounts to view the impact of the transactions on the account balances.
28. You can close the company file by selecting “File| Close Company” from the Menu Bar.
29. You can close QuickBooks by selecting “File| Exit” from the Menu Bar.

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 CHAPTER 23-
Equity Accounts
23.1- Equity Accounts

23.2- Recording an Owner’s Draw

23.3- Recording a Capital Investment

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 Equity Accounts

23.1- Equity Accounts:

Equity is basically the difference between what you have (your assets) and what you owe (your
liabilities). If you sold all your assets today and paid off your liabilities using the money received from the
sale of your assets, the money you’d have left over would be your equity.
A balance sheet shows your company assets, liabilities, and equity on a particular date. Because
equity is the difference between total assets and total liabilities, it’s also true that total assets equal the sum
of total liabilities and equity.
As you enter the opening balances of your assets and liabilities while creating the company file,
QuickBooks calculates the amount of equity and records it in an equity account called Opening Balance
Equity. In addition to the “Opening Balance Equity” account, QuickBooks often sets up another type of
equity account for you called Retained Earnings. This account tracks your company’s net income from
previous fiscal years. QuickBooks automatically transfers your profit (or loss) to Retained Earnings at the
end of each fiscal year.
If your company is a sole proprietorship, you don’t have to add any more equity accounts to your
chart of accounts. All the equity belongs to the company’s sole owner. If your business is a partnership,
you’ll probably want to set up separate equity accounts for each partner.

23.2- Recording an Owner’s Draw:

If your company is a sole proprietorship, you can take draws against the equity that you have in your
company. To record an owner’s draw, you simply create a check to yourself, which you may place in your
“Other Names” list to avoid confusion, and assign the amount of the check to the equity account that you
use to record your draws, like “Owner’s Equity:Owner’s Draws.”

23.3- Recording a Capital Investment:

As an owner of a sole proprietorship or partnership, a capital investment is personal money that you
or a business partner invests in your business. You use an equity account to track capital investments. You
may call it something like “Owner’s Equity:Owner’s Contributions.”
To create a capital investment, select “Banking| Make Deposits” from the Menu Bar. Click “Cancel”
on the “Payments to Deposit” window and any other screen that may appear, if you want to record the
investment separately, until you reach the “Make Deposits” window.
In the “Make Deposits” window, select the account into which you want to deposit the money from
the “Deposit To” drop-down. In the next blank transaction line, select the name of the person making the
investment from the “Received From” drop-down. Then select the appropriate equity account you use to
track capital investments from the “From Account” drop-down. Then enter the amount that they are
investing into the “Amount” column. Then just save the transaction by clicking the “Save & Close” button.

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 ACTIONS-
Equity Accounts
MAKING AN OWNER’S DRAW:

1. Select “Banking| Write Checks” from the Menu Bar.

2. Make the check out to the owner.
3. In the “Expenses” area of the check, assign the amount of the check to the equity account you use to
record owner's draws.
4. Click “Save & Close” to save the check.

MAKING A CAPITAL INVESTMENT:

1. Select “Banking| Make Deposits” from the Menu Bar.

2. Click “Cancel” to deposit the investment check by itself.
3. In the “Make Deposits” window, choose the bank account into which you're depositing the money.
4. In the detail area, enter the name of the person from whom you received the money and the amount of
the investment.
5. From the "From account" drop-down list, choose the appropriate equity account.
6. Save the transaction.

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 EXERCISES-
Equity Accounts
Purpose:

To be able to make an owner’s draw and record capital investments.

Exercises:

1. Open up QuickBooks.
2. Select “File| Close Company” from the Menu Bar if you have a company file open to get to the “No
Company Open” dialog box.
3. If using QuickBooks 2003:2011, click the “Open a sample file” button and select “Sample product-
based business” from the drop-down of choices.
4. If using QuickBooks 2012, click the “Open a sample file” button and select “Sample service-based
business” from the drop-down of choices.
5. Click “OK” on the sample file message box.
6. Select “File| Back Up…” from the Menu Bar and make a backup of this company file, so that you
may restore the file back to its original condition when you are done playing with it.
7. After backing up the file, select “Banking| Write Checks” from the Menu Bar.
8. If using QuickBooks 2003:2011, in the “Pay to the Order of” field, type “Tom Ferguson.” If using
QuickBooks 2012, in the “Pay to the Order of” field, type “Larry Wadford.”
9. For the “$” field, type “100.”
10. In the “Expenses” area of the check, assign the amount of the check to “Owner’s Equity:Owner's
Draw.”
11. Click “Save & Close” to save the check.
12. Select “Banking| Make Deposits” from the Menu Bar.
13. Click “Cancel” to deposit the investment check by itself.
14. In the “Make Deposits” window, select “Checking."
15. If using QuickBooks 2003:2011, in the first row, select “Tom Ferguson” from the “Received From”
drop-down. If using QuickBooks 2012, in the first row, select “Larry Wadford” from the “Received
From” drop-down.
16. From the "From account" drop-down list, choose “Owner’s Equity:Owner’s Contributions.”
17. For the “Chk No.” field, type “1234.”
18. For the “Pmt Meth.,” select “Check.”
19. For the “Amount,” type “500.”
20. Click “Save & Close.”
21. You can close the company file by selecting “File| Close Company” from the Menu Bar.
22. You can close QuickBooks by selecting “File| Exit” from the Menu Bar.

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 CHAPTER 24-
Writing Letters with QuickBooks
24.1- Using the Write Letters Wizard

24.2- Editing Letter Templates

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 Writing Letters with QuickBooks

24.1- Using the Write Letters Wizard:

Since you are already keeping much of your vendor and customer information in QuickBooks, it can
be useful to note that you can also send customized letters to them without having to retype much of the
information. QuickBooks provides you with a variety of different business letters that you can edit as needed
to suit your particular company.
QuickBooks uses the “Write Letters” wizard to assist you in creating these letters. To start the “Write
Letters” wizard in QuickBooks 2003 or 2004, select “Company| Write Letters” from the Menu Bar. If you are
using QuickBooks 2005 through 2012, then choose “Company| Prepare Letters with Envelopes” from the
Menu Bar. Then select to which group you wish to write the letters from the side menu of choices that
appears.
Just like the “Easy Step” interview, you’ll use the “Next” button to move through the screens of the
wizard, answering questions as you go. In order to use this feature, you do have to have Microsoft Word
and either QuickBooks Pro or Premier.

24.2- Editing Letter Templates:

While you can make small changes to each letter as you print them individually, you can also
enforce global editing changes to all future copies of the letter by editing the template (document original) to
make changes to all future copies of the letter that you produce.
When you edit the letter template, you can add and edit the body of the letter as well as change
dynamic information by using the available “QuickBooks Letter Fields” in the toolbar of older versions of
Microsoft Word or in the “Add-Ins” tab if using Microsoft Word 2007:2010 to add more fields of data. Be
careful, though! Any changes that you make to the letter template that you save will affect all future letters
based on the template.

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 ACTIONS-
Writing Letters with QuickBooks
CREATING NEW LETTERS USING THE WRITE LETTERS WIZARD- 2003:2004:

1. Select “Company| Write Letters” from the Menu Bar.

2. The QuickBooks Write Letters wizard will appear.
3. Answer any questions on each screen, and click the “Next” button to proceed.
4. Change the letter as needed in Microsoft Word.
5. In Microsoft Word, select “File| Print…” from the Menu Bar to set any printing options that you would like.
6. Click the “OK” button to print the letters.

EDITING THE QUICKBOOKS LETTER TEMPLATES- 2003:2004:

1. Select “Company| Write Letters” from the Menu Bar.

2. Select the “Design QuickBooks Letters” and click “Next.”
3. In the next screen, select “View or edit existing letters,” and click “Next.”
4. Select the type of letter that you want to edit from the selection box, and click the “Edit Letter” button.
5. Edit the document in Microsoft Word, adding any additional fields using the “QuickBooks Letter Fields”
that appear in a toolbar in older versions of Microsoft Word or in the “Add-Ins” tab in Microsoft Word
2007:2010.
6. Select “File| Save” from the Menu Bar to save this copy over the original.
7. Close Microsoft Word by selecting “File| Exit” from the Menu Bar.

CREATING NEW LETTERS USING THE WRITE LETTERS WIZARD- 2005:2012:

1. Select “Company| Prepare Letters with Envelopes” from the Menu Bar.
2. From the side menu that appears, select the type of recipients to whom you wish to send a letter.
3. The QuickBooks Write Letters wizard will appear.
4. Answer any questions on each screen, and click the “Next” button to proceed.
5. Change the letter as needed in Microsoft Word.
6. In Microsoft Word, select “File| Print…” from the Menu Bar to set any printing options that you would like.
7. Click the “OK” button to print the letters.

EDITING THE QUICKBOOKS LETTER TEMPLATES- 2005:2012:

1. Select “Company| Prepare Letters with Envelopes| Customize Letter Templates…” from the Menu Bar.
2. In the next screen, select “View or Edit Existing Letter Templates” and click the “Next” button.
3. Select the type of letter that you want to edit from the selection box, and click the “Next” button.
4. Edit the document in Microsoft Word, adding any additional fields using the “QuickBooks Letter Fields”
that appear in a toolbar in older versions of Microsoft Word or in the “Add-Ins” tab in Microsoft Word
2007:2010.
5. Select “File| Save” from the Menu Bar to save this copy over the original.
6. Close Microsoft Word by selecting “File| Exit” from the Menu Bar.

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 EXERCISES-
Writing Letters with QuickBooks
Purpose:

To be able to make a QuickBooks collection letter. You must have Microsoft Word installed.

Exercises:

1. Open up QuickBooks.
2. Select “File| Close Company” from the Menu Bar if you have a company file open to get to the “No
Company Open” dialog box.
3. Click the “Open a sample file” button and select “Sample product-based business” from the drop-
down of choices.
4. Click “OK” on the sample file message box.
5. Select “File| Back Up…” from the Menu Bar and make a backup of this company file, so that you
may restore the file back to its original condition when you are done playing with it.
6. After backing up the file, if using QuickBooks 2003 or 2004 select “Company| Write Letters…” from
the Menu Bar. If using QuickBooks 2005 through 2012, select “Company| Prepare Letters with
Envelopes| Collection Letters…” from the Menu Bar.
7. If using QuickBooks 2003 or 2004, click the “Prepare a Collection Letter” option and click “Next” to
continue.
8. For all versions of QuickBooks, select “Both” for the first option in the screen displayed.
9. For the second option, select “Customer.”
10. For the third option, select “1 day or more.”
11. Click “Next” to continue, and click “OK” in any dialog boxes which appear.
12. Click “Next.”
13. Select the “Friendly collection” letter by clicking it to select it.
14. Click “Next.”
15. For the “Name,” type “Tom Ferguson.”
16. For the “Title,” type “President.”
17. If using QuickBooks 2003 or 2004, click the “Create Letters” button. If using QuickBooks 2005 or
2006, just click the “Next” button.
18. Click “OK” in the message box that appears.
19. Look at the letters that Microsoft Word has created.
20. When finished, select “File| Exit” from the Menu Bar in Word and click “No” to saving your changes
when prompted.
21. You can close the company file by selecting “File| Close Company” from the Menu Bar.
22. You can close QuickBooks by selecting “File| Exit” from the Menu Bar.

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 CHAPTER 25-
Company Management
25.1- Viewing Your Company Information

25.2- Setting Up Budgets

25.3- Using the To Do List

25.4- Using Reminders and Setting Preferences

25.5- Making Journal Entries

25.6- Using the Cash Flow Projector- 2004:2012

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 Company Management

25.1- Viewing Your Company Information:

If you move or get a new phone number, you’ll want to change your company’s information to reflect
that update. To update your company’s information, you can select “Company| Company Information…”
from the Menu Bar. Here you can change any information that is inaccurate and just click “OK” to save your
changes.

25.2- Setting Up Budgets:

Budgets can be created for either Profit and Loss or Balance Sheet accounts, but they do have to be
account-based. You can create them from scratch, from actual data from the previous fiscal year, or from
the previous fiscal year's budget. A budget is uniquely identified by its fiscal year, the account type (either
Profit and Loss or Balance Sheet) and if desired, further identified by Customer:Job or Class.
To create a budget, select “Company| Planning and Budgeting| Set Up Budgets” from the Menu Bar.
If you have already created a budget, you can click the “Create New Budget” button. In the “Create New
Budget” window, choose the fiscal year for the new budget and then choose to create a budget for either
“Profit and Loss” or “Balance Sheet” accounts by clicking the desired option button. Click “Next” to continue.
If you selected a “Balance Sheet” budget, then just click “Finish” to begin entering budget data. If
you chose “Profit and Loss," you can then specify the additional criteria of segmenting it by either
“Customer:Job” or “Class," if class tracking has been turned on. You can then click “Next” again to choose
whether you want to “Create budget from scratch” or “Create budget from previous year's actual data” by
selecting the appropriate option button. Click “Finish” to create the new budget.
At that point, you can simply place the amounts that you want to spend for each account into the
months shown. When you have entered your budget, simply click “Save” to save the data. Then click “OK”
to close the budget window.

25.3- Using the To Do List:

You can remind yourself of tasks you want to complete by a certain date. You can look at your notes
in the “To Do” list at any time or you can use the “Reminders” list to see the notes whose dates are due.
To create a new “To Do” note, select “Company| To Do List” from the Menu Bar. Click the “To Do”
button and choose “New To Do” from the pop-up menu that appears. Enter the text of the note as you want
it to appear on the “To Do” list. In the “Due” ("Remind me on" in 2003:2011) field, enter the date you want
the note to appear on your Reminders list. Click “OK" when you are finished entering the new note.

25.4- Using Reminders and Setting Preferences:

A nice feature of the QuickBooks program is that when you open it up, reminders appear to tell you if
you have transactions to complete, such as paying your bills, or depositing funds. If you don’t see the
reminders window when you open up QuickBooks and you would like to, just turn it on by selecting “Edit|
Preferences…” from the Menu Bar. Select “Reminders” from the scroll box at the left side of the dialog box
and click the “My Preferences” tab. Check the “Show Reminders List when opening a Company file”
checkbox to enable the feature.

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 Company Management

25.5- Making Journal Entries:

You can create general journal entries to record transactions that you don’t enter through the other
forms and screens in QuickBooks. Actually, you create general journal entries when you make entries
directly into the account registers for transactions like depreciation expense transactions. While QuickBooks
is a terrific program because it simplifies accounting using the concept of checking registers, you can still
create general journal entries if you prefer to work with more traditional credits and debits.
General journal entries made in QuickBooks must use double-entry. That is, the credit and debit
amounts must balance for the transaction to be posted. To create a general journal entry, select “Company|
Make General Journal Entries…” from the Menu Bar. Then select the accounts involved in the transaction
and enter their credit or debit amounts. To post the balanced transaction, click “Save & Close.”

25.6- Using the Cash Flow Projector- 2004:2012:

You can use the data that you have already entered into QuickBooks along with the Cash Flow
Projector to create an estimate of the cash flow in your company for the next six weeks. After you set up the
information needed to create the cash forecast, you can then view the cash available in a report. You can
even go in and view how making changes to estimated receipts and disbursements could affect your future
cash balance.
To start the Cash Flow Projector, select “Company| Planning & Budgeting| Cash Flow Projector”
from the Menu Bar. This will launch the Cash Flow Projector. Read about what this tool will provide to you
on the initial screen and then click “Next” to continue.
In the second screen check any accounts that you want to use as the beginning cash balance for
your company. You can then enter any manual adjustments to that balance in the “Adjust Balance” box at
the bottom of this window. Note that this adjustment will be used each time you create the cash flow
forecast, although it can be changed later, if desired. Click “Next” to continue.
In the next screen, you can use the drop-down under the “Itemized Cash Receipts” section to select
which projection method you want to use for cash receipts. If you wish to learn more about the projection
methods, you can click the helpful hyperlinks in the upper right corner of the window. If you selected the
manual projection method then enter a date, description and amount for your cash receipts in the section
provided below the drop-down. Repeat this to enter all desired cash receipts for each week and then enter
any adjustments in the weekly summary section at the bottom of the screen. If you selected an automatic
projection method then edit the itemized cash receipts as necessary and enter any adjustments in the
weekly summary. If you have entered all your cash transactions in QuickBooks, an adjustment may not be
necessary. Click “Next” to continue.
In the next screen, you can enter any expenses that are not accounts payable. You can either enter
detailed expenses, or a summary of multiple expenses in one line. Enter these into the “Business
Expenses” section. You can also make adjustments at this time, as well. Note that each screen has a
“Preview Projection” button at the bottom that you can click to see how your changes will impact the
forecast. Then click “Next” to continue.
In the last screen, you can review the bills in your accounts payable account. Here you can adjust
the payment dates if needed. You can also adjust the weekly accounts payables summaries at the bottom
of the window, if needed. At that point, you can click the “Finish Projection” button to create the Cash Flow
Projection. This document can be printed by clicking the “Print…” button at the bottom of the window. You
can also click the “Save as PDF…” button to save it as a PDF document file. When you are finished, click
“Close” to close the projection. Then you can close the Cash Flow Projector by clicking the “Close” button.

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 ACTIONS-
Company Management
VIEWING YOUR COMPANY INFORMATION:

1. Select “Company| Company Information…” from the Menu Bar.

2. Change any information as needed.
3. Click “OK” to save your changes.

SETTING UP BUDGETS:

1. Select “Company| Planning & Budgeting| Set Up Budgets” from the Menu Bar.
2. Click the “Create New Budget” button.
3. In the “Create New Budget” window, choose the fiscal year for the new budget and click “Next” to
continue.
4. Then choose “Profit and Loss” or “Balance Sheet” accounts by clicking the appropriate option button,
and click “Next” to continue.
5. If you choose “Profit and Loss," you can specify additional criteria of either “Customer:Job” or “Class," if
class tracking has been turned on.
6. Then choose whether you want to “Create budget from scratch” or “Create budget from previous year's
actual data” by selecting the appropriate option button, and then clicking “Next” to continue.
7. Click “Finish” to create the new budget.
8. At that point, you can simply place the amounts that you want to spend for each account for the months
shown. When you have entered your budget, simply click “Save” to save the data.
9. Click “OK” to close the budget window.

USING THE TO DO LIST:

1. Select “Company| To Do List” from the Menu Bar.

2. Click the “To Do” button, and choose “New To Do” from the pop-up menu that appears.
3. Enter the text of the note as you want it to appear on the “To Do” list.
4. Click “OK.”

USING REMINDERS AND SETTING PREFERENCES:

1. Select “Edit| Preferences…” from the Menu Bar.

2. Click “Reminders” from the scroll box at the left.
3. Click the “My Preferences” tab, and select “Show Reminders when opening a Company file” to turn it
on.

MAKING JOURNAL ENTRIES:

1. Select “Company| Make General Journal Entries…” from the Menu Bar.
2. Select the accounts involved in the transaction and list their credit and debit amounts.
3. To post the transaction, select “Save & Close.”

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 ACTIONS-
Company Management
USING THE CASH FLOW PROJECTOR:

1. Select “Company| Planning & Budgeting| Cash Flow Projector” from the Menu Bar.
2. Click “Next” to continue.
3. Check any accounts that you want to use as the beginning cash balance for your company. You can
then enter any manual adjustments to that balance in the “Adjust Balance” box at the bottom of this
window.
4. Click “Next” to continue.
5. Use the drop-down under the “Itemized Cash Receipts” section to select which projection method you
want to use for cash receipts.
6. If you selected the manual projection method then enter a date, description and amount for your cash
receipts in the section provided below the drop-down. Repeat this to enter all desired cash receipts for
each week and then enter any adjustments in the weekly summary section at the bottom of the screen.
7. If you selected an automatic projection method then edit the itemized cash receipts as necessary and
enter any adjustments in the weekly summary. If you have entered all your cash transactions in
QuickBooks, an adjustment may not be necessary.
8. Click “Next” to continue.
9. Enter any expenses that are not accounts payable. You can either enter detailed expenses, or a
summary of multiple expenses in one line.
10. Click “Next” to continue.
11. Review the bills in your accounts payable account. Here you can adjust the payment dates, if needed.
12. Click the “Finish Projection” button to create the Cash Flow Projection.
13. This document can be printed by clicking the “Print…” button at the bottom of the window.
14. You can also click the “Save as PDF…” button to save it as a PDF document file.
15. When you are finished, click “Close” to close the projection.
16. You can close the Cash Flow Projector by clicking the “Close” button.

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 EXERCISES-
Company Management
Purpose:

To be able to manage company information.

Exercises:

1. Open up QuickBooks.
2. Select “File| Close Company” from the Menu Bar if you have a company file open to get to the “No
Company Open” dialog box.
3. Click the “Open a sample file” button, and select “Sample product-based business” from the drop-
down of choices.
4. Click “OK” on the sample file message box.
5. Select “File| Back Up…” from the Menu Bar and make a backup of this company file, so that you
may restore the file back to its original condition when you are done playing with it.
6. After backing up the file, select “Company| Company Information…”
7. Review the information, and click “OK.”
8. Select “Company| Make General Journal Entries…” from the Menu Bar.
9. Click “OK” in the message box that appears.
10. In the “Account” column, select “Office Supplies.”
11. In the “Debit” column, type “50.”
12. In the “Memo” field, type “Paper.”
13. In the next row, under the “Account” column, type “Cash Expenditures.”
14. In the “Memo” field, type “Paper.” Make sure that the “Credit” column shows “50.”
15. Click “Save & Close” to post the transaction.
16. You can close the company file by selecting “File| Close Company” from the Menu Bar.
17. You can close QuickBooks by selecting “File| Exit” from the Menu Bar.

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 CHAPTER 26-
Using QuickBooks Tools
26.1- Company File Cleanup

26.2- Exporting List Data to an IIF File

26.3- Advanced Importing of Data- 2004:2012

26.4- Updating QuickBooks

26.5- Using the Calculator

26.6- Using Portable Company Files- 2006

26.7- Using Portable Company Files- 2007:2012

26.8- Using the Calendar- 2012

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 Using QuickBooks Tools

26.1- Company File Cleanup:

In QuickBooks you can condense the data in your company file to remove old transactions from your
company file. This can remove detailed transactions prior to a specified date and inactive list records from
your company file and replace them with general journal entries. This can often improve performance in
company files with a high volume of transactions entered.
You can start the wizard by selecting “File| Utilities| Condense Data…” in QuickBooks 2012. If using
QuickBooks 2006 through 2011, select “File| Utilities| Clean Up Company Data…” from the Menu Bar. If
using QuickBooks 2003 through 2005, instead select “File| Archive and Condense Data…” from the Menu
Bar. At that point, simply step through the screens answering the questions posed to you and clicking the
“Next” button to continue. When you are ready to begin the backup process, click the “Begin Condense”
(“Begin Cleanup” in 2006:2011) button.
Note that during this process an additional copy of your company file- called the “archive copy” is
created. The archive copy contains a copy of your company’s data before any transactions are removed.
The archive file name will contain the date you run the condense process, your company name, and the
label "Archive Copy.” You should never use the archive copy for active data entry. You can use the archive
copy to run reports for those periods in which transactions have already been condensed.
If the condense process completes successfully the archive copy and the condensed data files co-
exist on your disk. If you want to keep a separate archive in another location, you must backup the archive
file in a separate backup process.

26.2- Exporting List Data to an IIF File:

You can export your list data into an IIF file. This file format stores list information in a text format for
transfer to another company file, or transfer to other applications that can use IIF files. In QuickBooks 2003
you create export files by selecting “File| Utilities| Export…” from the Menu Bar. In QuickBooks 2004 and
2005, you can select “File| Export| Lists to IIF Files…” from the Menu Bar to export the list data to an IIF file.
In QuickBooks 2006 through 2012, you select “File| Utilities| Export| Lists to IIF Files…” from the Menu Bar.
In the next screen you then choose which lists you would like to export to the IIF file. Then click “OK”
to continue and open the “Export” dialog box. Here you can select the folder into which you would like to
save the export file and what you want to name the file. When you are ready to continue, click the “Save”
button to save the IIF file with the information from the selected lists.

26.3- Advanced Importing of Data- 2004:2012:

You can import list data into QuickBooks using Microsoft Excel in QuickBooks 2004 through 2012.
Starting in QuickBooks 2010, you can easily copy and paste data from an Excel workbook into lists. To see
how you can perform this task, please review lesson “3.15- Adding Multiple List Entries from Excel-
2010:2012” in the “Introductory QuickBooks” manual. However, in addition to being able to copy and paste
the Excel data in those versions of QuickBooks, you can also perform an advanced importing of the Excel
data into your QuickBooks lists. This technique is the only way to import Excel data into your lists in
QuickBooks 2004 through 2009, but it also continues to be available in the newer versions of QuickBooks.
If you are using QuickBooks 2004 through 2012, you can import information from an Excel workbook
into QuickBooks’ customer, vendor, item or account lists. To do this if using QuickBooks 2004 or 2005,
select “File| Import| Excel Files…” from the Menu Bar. If using QuickBooks 2006 through 2012, select “File|
Utilities| Import| Excel Files…” from the Menu Bar.

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 Using QuickBooks Tools

26.3- Advanced Importing of Data- 2004:2012 (cont.):

That will launch the “Import a file” dialog box. If using QuickBooks 2008:2012, click the “Advanced
Import” button. On the “Set Up Import” tab, click the “Browse…” button at the right end of the “File:” text box
to launch a dialog box where you can select the Excel file to import. Then you can select which sheet in the
workbook to import from the drop-down below the file name. If the data that you are importing has column
labels, check the “This data file has header rows” checkbox to use the topmost row of data in the selected
sheet as a header.
In the “Data Mapping” section, you must then tell QuickBooks which columns in the Excel file should
be imported into which fields in the QuickBooks file. Click the “<Add New>” choice from the “Choose a
mapping:” drop-down to create a new data mapping for your Excel data. This will launch the “Mappings”
dialog box. Here you must type a name for your new data mapping into the “Mapping name:” text box. Then
select into which list you want to import the data from the “Import type:” drop-down. When you do, the
available fields in the list will appear in the left column. For each piece of data that has a match in your
Excel import file, click into the right column and select the name of the Excel column (if your list has
headers) to which the data corresponds. When you are finished, click “Save” to save the data mapping.
To preview the data before importing, click the “Preview” button. This will show you the data as it
would look when imported, along with any errors that would occur if the data was imported. At the bottom of
this window you can select how you want QuickBooks to handle imported rows that cause errors. When the
data looks good, click “Import” to import the data.

26.4- Updating QuickBooks:

In QuickBooks 2006 through 2012, you can ensure that your version of QuickBooks is current by
selecting “Help| Update QuickBooks…” from the Menu Bar. In previous versions of QuickBooks, you
selected “File| Update QuickBooks…” from the Menu Bar.
You can either manually or automatically have QuickBooks search for updates. If you want to
change that setting, in the “Update QuickBooks” screen click the “Options” tab. Here you can select to turn
the feature on or off by selecting “Yes” or “No” to the “Automatic Update” option. If you have it turned off,
then you have to connect to the Internet and click the “Update Now” button on the “Overview” screen to
download the updates manually.

26.5- Using the Calculator:

If you need to perform some quick calculations, you can access the calculator in QuickBooks by
selecting “Edit| Use Calculator” from the Menu Bar. That will bring up the calculator so you can double-
check numbers, or perform whatever other task for which you need a calculator.

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 Using QuickBooks Tools

26.6- Using Portable Company Files- 2006:

If you use QuickBooks 2006, you can create a portable company file that you can take with you on
portable media or e-mail to another for use. For example, if you wanted to email a copy of your company file
to your accountant, you could send them a portable company file, which has a .QBM extension. When they
open the file you sent them, it will open the file and create a QuickBooks company file (with the .QBW file
extension) from the data. If you make changes to a portable company file, you cannot import the changes to
your original company file later without overwriting any changes made to the original company file. If you
wish to still use the original copy while someone makes changes to another copy, which you can import
later, then use the “Accountant’s Review” feature, instead.
To make a portable company file, select “File| Portable Company File| Create File…” from the Menu
Bar. Then click “OK” at the message box that tells you QuickBooks must close and reopen the company file
first. In the “Create Portable Company File” dialog box, click the “Browse” button to select where you want
to save the portable copy of the company file and what you want to call it. When you are ready click the
“Save” button to return to the “Create Portable Company File” dialog box. Click the “Save” button in this
dialog box to save the portable copy.
To open a portable company file to create a new company file that you can use, open QuickBooks
and select “File| Portable Company File| Open File…” from the Menu Bar. In the “Open Portable Company
File” dialog box, click the “Browse” button in the “Get Portable Company File From:” section at the top of this
dialog box to launch another dialog box where you select the portable company file you would like to open,
and then click the “Open” button to return to the “Open Portable Company File” dialog box.
Next, click the “Browse” button in the “Name and Location of New Company File:” section to open
another dialog box where you can select or enter the name and location to which you want to save the
company file that will be created from the portable copy. Then click the “Save” button to return to the “Open
Portable Company File” dialog box. Then click the “Open” button to open the portable copy and create a
new company file from the data, which you can then use for data entry.

26.7- Using Portable Company Files- 2007:2012:

In QuickBooks 2007:2012, you can create a portable company file that you can take with you on
portable media or e-mail to another for use. For example, if you wanted to email a copy of your company file
to your accountant, you could send them a portable company file, which has a .QBM extension. When they
open the file you sent them, it will open the file and create a QuickBooks company file (with the .QBW file
extension) from the data. If you make changes to a portable company file, you cannot import the changes to
your original company file later without overwriting any changes made to the original company file. If you
wish to still use the original copy while someone makes changes to another copy, which you can import
later, then use the “Accountant’s Review” feature, instead.
To make a portable company file, select “File| Save Copy or Backup…” from the Menu Bar if using
QuickBooks 2007:2010. If using QuickBooks 2011:2012, select “File| Create Copy…” from the Menu Bar.
In the window that appears, select the “Portable company file” option button, and then click the
“Next” button to continue. In the “Save Portable Company File” dialog box, choose where you want to save
the portable copy of the company file and what you want to call it. When you are ready, click the “Save”
button. Then click “OK” at the message box that tells you QuickBooks must close and reopen the company
file first. QuickBooks will then create the portable copy for you. Click “OK” in the message box that appears.
To later open a portable company file to create a new company file that you can use, open
QuickBooks and select “File| Open or Restore Company…” from the Menu Bar. In the window that appears,
select the “Restore a portable file” option, and then click “Next” to continue. In the “Open Portable Company
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 Using QuickBooks Tools

26.7- Using Portable Company Files- 2007:2012 (cont.):

File” dialog box that then appears, select the portable company file you would like to open and then click the
“Open” button to return to the “Open Portable Company File” dialog box. Here you can read the information,
and then click the “Next” button when you are ready to continue.
In the “Save Company File as” dialog box that then appears, you can enter the name and location to
which you want to save the company file that will be created from the portable copy. When that has been
accomplished, click the “Save” button to open the portable copy and create a new company file from the
data, which you can then use for data entry.

26.8- Using the Calendar- 2012:

You have a new calendar feature starting in QuickBooks 2012 that allows you to see company
information, such as when bills are due, in a calendar layout. You can open the calendar by clicking the
“Calendar” button in the QuickBooks toolbar, by clicking the “Calendar” icon within the Home Page, or by
selecting “Company| Calendar” from the Menu Bar.
Within the calendar, you can see the current date selected within a month-style layout. For the
selected date, you can also see the transactions that were entered, bills due, and other company
transactions shown in a listing at the bottom of the calendar window. To the right of the calendar you can
see a listing of upcoming transaction items that are due, such as to do items and bills, as well as past due
items. Note that you can open any items shown within these areas by simply double-clicking on them to
open the original transaction window.
At the top of the calendar is a toolbar that you can use to change the dates displayed. You can use
the left and right pointing arrows to move through the months shown. The name of the currently displayed
month and year is then displayed within the toolbar. If you wish to jump back to select the current date, you
can click the “Today” button within the toolbar. You can change the layout of the calendar by clicking either
the “Daily View,” “Weekly View,” or “Monthly View” buttons.
If you wish to select a particular date within the calendar, you can either click on the date shown in
the calendar view, or you can select a date from the “Select a date” calendar drop-down shown in the
toolbar at the top of the window.
You can also filter the transactions shown within the calendar by using the “Show” drop-down. The
choice selected by default is “All Transactions,” however you can choose to view only selected transactions
by making a choice from this drop-down menu.
When you are finished viewing the calendar window, simply close it by clicking the small “x” in the
upper right corner of the window or pressing the “Esc” key on your keyboard.

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 ACTIONS-
Using QuickBooks Tools
CLEANING UP COMPANY DATA FILES:

1. Select “File| Utilities| Condense Data…” in QuickBooks 2012. If using QuickBooks 2006 through 2011,
select “File| Utilities| Clean Up Company Data…” from the Menu Bar. If using QuickBooks 2003 through
2005, instead select “File| Archive and Condense Data…” from the Menu Bar.
2. Choose a condense option. Be careful! If you select the second option, it will clear your company file.
3. Continue through the wizard screens, choosing items to be removed.
4. Click “Begin Condense” (“Begin Cleanup” in 2006:2011) when you are sure you want to proceed.
5. Click “OK” to dismiss the message and open the “Back Up Company File” window.
6. Click “Create Back Up” and then condense your file.

EXPORTING LISTS TO AN IIF FILE:

1. In QuickBooks 2003, select “File| Utilities| Export…” from the Menu Bar. In QuickBooks 2004 and 2005,
select “File| Export| Lists to IIF Files…” from the Menu Bar. In QuickBooks 2006 through 2012, select
“File| Utilities| Export| Lists to IIF Files…” from the Menu Bar.
2. Click the checkboxes for the list or lists that you want to export.
3. Click “OK.”
4. Select where to save the file, and what to call it, and then click the “Save” button to save it.

IMPORTING IIF DATA FILES:

1. In QuickBooks 2003, select “File| Utilities| Import| Import IIF Files…” from the Menu Bar. In QuickBooks
2004 or 2005, select “File| Import| IIF Files…” from the Menu Bar. In QuickBooks 2006 through 2012,
select “File| Utilities| Import| IIF Files…” from the Menu Bar.
2. Use the “Look in:” drop-down to navigate to the folder that contains the import (IIF) file.
3. Double-click on the file to import the data.

IMPORTING EXCEL DATA- 2004:2012:

1. If using QuickBooks 2004 or 2005, select “File| Import| Excel Files…” from the Menu Bar. If using
QuickBooks 2006:2012, select “File| Utilities| Import| Excel Files…” from the Menu Bar.
2. If using QuickBooks 2008:2012, click the “Advanced Import” button.
3. On the “Set Up Import” tab, click the “Browse…” button at the right end of the “File:” text box to launch a
dialog box where you can select the Excel file to import.
4. Select which sheet in the workbook to import from the drop-down below the file name.
5. If the imported data has column labels, check the “This data file has header rows” checkbox.
6. Click the “<Add New>” choice from the “Choose a mapping:” drop-down to create a new data mapping.
7. In the “Mappings” dialog box, type a name for your data mapping into the “Mapping name:” text box.
8. Select into which list you want to import the data from the “Import type:” drop-down.
9. For each piece of data in the left column that has a match in your Excel import file, click into the right
column and select the name of the Excel column to which the data corresponds.
10. When you are finished, click “Save” to save the data mapping.
11. To preview the data before importing, click the “Preview” button.
12. At the bottom of this window you can select how you want QuickBooks to handle import errors.
13. When the data looks good, click “Import” to import the data.
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 ACTIONS-
Using QuickBooks Tools
UPDATING QUICKBOOKS MANUALLY:

1. Connect to the Internet.

2. If using QuickBooks 2003 through 2005, select “File| Update QuickBooks…” from the Menu Bar. If using
QuickBooks 2006 through 2012, select “Help| Update QuickBooks…” from the Menu Bar.
3. Click the “Update Now” button to manually download and install any new updates.
4. Click the “X” in the upper right corner of the window to close it.

USING THE CALCULATOR:

1. Select “Edit| Use Calculator” from the Menu Bar.

2. Click the “X” in the upper right corner of the calculator to close it when you are finished.

CREATING PORTABLE COMPANY FILES- 2006:

1. Select “File| Portable Company File| Create File…” from the Menu Bar.
2. Click “OK” in the message box that appears.
3. In the “Create Portable Company File” dialog box, click the “Browse” button to select where you want to
save the portable copy of the company file and what you want to call it.
4. When you are ready click the “Save” button to return to the “Create Portable Company File” dialog box.
5. Click the “Save” button in this dialog box to save the portable copy.

OPENING PORTABLE COMPANY FILES- 2006:

1. Select “File| Portable Company File| Open File…” from the Menu Bar.
2. In the “Open Portable Company File” dialog box, click the “Browse” button in the “Get Portable
Company File From:” section at the top of this dialog box to launch another dialog box where you select
the portable company file you would like to open, and then click the “Open” button to return to the “Open
Portable Company File” dialog box.
3. Click the “Browse” button in the “Name and Location of New Company File:” section to open another
dialog box where you can select or enter the name and location to which you want to save the company
file that will be created from the portable copy. Then click the “Save” button to return to the “Open
Portable Company File” dialog box.
4. Click the “Open” button to open the portable copy and create a new company file from the data, which
you can then use for data entry.

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 ACTIONS-
Using QuickBooks Tools
CREATING PORTABLE COMPANY FILES- 2007:2012:

1. To make a portable company file, select “File| Save Copy or Backup…” from the Menu Bar if using
QuickBooks 2007:2010. If using QuickBooks 2011:2012, select “File| Create Copy…” from the Menu
Bar, instead.
2. In the window that appears, select the “Portable company file” option button, and then click the “Next”
button to continue.
3. In the “Save Portable Company File” dialog box, choose where you want to save the portable copy of
the company file and what you want to call it. When you are ready, click the “Save” button.
4. Then click “OK” at the message box that tells you QuickBooks must close and reopen the company file
first. QuickBooks will then create the portable copy for you.
5. Click “OK” in the message box that appears.

OPENING PORTABLE COMPANY FILES- 2007:2012:

1. To open a portable company file to create a new company file that you can use, open QuickBooks and
select “File| Open or Restore Company…” from the Menu Bar.
2. In the window that appears, select the “Restore a portable file” option, and then click “Next” to continue.
3. In the “Open Portable Company File” dialog box that then appears, select the portable company file you
would like to open and then click the “Open” button to return to the “Open Portable Company File” dialog
box.
4. Here you can read the information, and then click the “Next” button when you are ready to continue.
5. In the “Save Company File as” dialog box that then appears, you can enter the name and location to
which you want to save the company file that will be created from the portable copy.
6. When that has been accomplished, click the “Save” button to open the portable copy and create a new
company file from the data, which you can then use for data entry.

USING THE CALENDAR- 2012:

1. You can open the calendar by clicking the “Calendar” button in the QuickBooks toolbar, by clicking the
“Calendar” icon within the Home Page, or by selecting “Company| Calendar” from the Menu Bar.
2. You can use the left and right pointing arrows shown in the toolbar at the top of the calendar to move
through the months shown.
3. If you wish to jump back to select the current date, you can click the “Today” button within the toolbar.
4. You can change the layout of the calendar by clicking either the “Daily View,” “Weekly View,” or
“Monthly View” buttons.
5. If you wish to select a particular date within the calendar, you can either click on the date shown in the
calendar view, or you can select a date from the “Select a date” calendar drop-down shown in the
toolbar at the top of the window.
6. You can also filter the transactions shown within the calendar by using the “Show” drop-down. The
choice selected by default is “All Transactions,” however you can choose to view only selected
transactions by making a choice from this drop-down menu.
7. When you are finished viewing the calendar window, simply close it by clicking the small “x” in the upper
right corner of the window or pressing the “Esc” key on your keyboard.

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 EXERCISES-
Using QuickBooks Tools
Purpose:

There are no exercises for this lesson.

©TeachUcomp, Inc. Advanced QuickBooks 102

 CHAPTER 27-
Using the Accountant’s Review
27.1- Creating an Accountant’s Copy

27.2- Using the Accountant’s Copy

27.3- Importing Changes to Your Company File

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 Using the Accountant’s Review

27.1- Creating an Accountant’s Copy:

You can create an accountant’s copy of your company file to give to your accountant, should they
ask for one. When an accountant’s copy is created, you can still use your company file and then later import
changes made by your accountant in the accountant’s copy back into your company file. This gives you a
bit more flexibility for data entry than the portable company file option does.
To create an accountant’s copy, open the company file for which you want to create an accountant’s
copy and then select “File| Accountant’s Copy (“Accountant’s Review” in QuickBooks 2003:2006)| Save
File… (“Create Accountant’s Copy…” in 2003:2007) from the Menu Bar. In QuickBooks 2007:2012, you
then must click the “Next” button in the wizard that appears and then select a dividing date. The dividing
date is the date before which your accountant can make changes, but you cannot. Once that has been
selected, click the “Next” button to continue. At that point, select the removable media to which you will be
saving the copy and then click the “Save” button to create the copy. At this point, your original company file
will say that an accountant’s copy exists in its title bar. Then you give the saved file that you created to your
accountant to make the necessary changes, while you still perform normal data entry in the original
company file. Note, however, that you cannot make some kinds of changes to the company file- such as
deleting, renaming, or structurally rearranging the existing accounts in the chart of accounts.

27.2- Using the Accountant’s Copy:

If you are an accountant who uses the QuickBooks for Accountants Edition, and your customer
gives you an accountant’s copy, you can use it to make any adjusting entries that you need. To use an
accountant’s copy, select “File| Accountant’s Copy (“Accountant’s Review” in QuickBooks 2003:2006)| Start
Using Accountant’s Copy…” from the Menu Bar. In the “Open Accountant’s Copy” dialog box, select the
drive that contains the copy that you want to open, and then open it. You will then have to save another
copy of the file into which you make your adjustments. You will also have to prepare a copy of your changes
for your client after you have finished making modifications to the file you are about to create. Choose
where to save it and what to call it, and then click the “Save” button to save the copy that you will modify.
At this point, you will open the copy and make any adjusting journal entries that you need. When you
are done making all of your changes to the Accountant’s Copy, open up the Accountant’s Copy you made
and then select “File| Accountant’s Copy (“Accountant’s Review” in QuickBooks 2003:2006)| Export
Changes for Client…” from the Menu Bar. At that point, you will need to save the copy with the changes to a
removable media that you can return to your customer. Just save the file with the changes and return the
disk with the changes back to your customer.

27.3- Importing Changes to Your Company File:

After creating an accountant’s copy of your company file, later on you must import your accountant’s
changes back into your company file to restore full functionality to your original company file. To do this,
insert the copy of the changes that your accountant gave to you on the removable media (i.e. floppy disk,
CD-ROM, flash drive). Then open up your company file and select “File| Accountant’s Copy (“Accountant’s
Review” in QuickBooks 2003:2006)| Import Accountant’s Changes from File…” from the Menu Bar.
You must make a backup before you can import the accountant’s changes. Make the backup file. At
this point, navigate to the folder or drive that contains the file with the changes, and double-click on the file
to open it and import the changes. Note that the “Accountant’s Changes Pending” message in the title bar of
the company file has disappeared. That means that you have successfully imported the changes.

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 ACTIONS-
Using the Accountant’s Review
CREATING AN ACCOUNTANT’S COPY:

1. Select “File| Accountant’s Copy (“Accountant’s Review” in QuickBooks 2003:2006)| Save File…
(“Create Accountant’s Copy…” in 2003:2007) from the Menu Bar.
2. In QuickBooks 2007:2012, you then must click the “Next” button in the wizard that appears and then
select a dividing date. The dividing date is the date before which your accountant can make changes,
but you cannot. Once that has been selected, click the “Next” button to continue.
3. At that point, select the removable media to which you will be saving the copy and then click the “Save”
button to create the copy.

USING AN ACCOUNTANT’S COPY (QUICKBOOKS FOR ACCOUNTANTS ONLY:

1. Select “File| Accountant’s Copy (“Accountant’s Review” in QuickBooks 2003:2006)| Start Using
Accountant’s Copy…” from the Menu Bar.
2. In the “Open Accountant’s Copy” dialog box, select the drive that contains the copy that you want to
open, and double-click on the copy to open it.
3. You will then have to save a copy of the file into which you can make your changes. Choose where to
save it and what to call it, and click the “Save” button to save the copy that you will modify.
4. At this point you will open the copy and make any adjusting journal entries needed.
5. When you are done making all of your changes to the Accountant’s Copy, open the Accountant’s Copy
you made and then select “File| Accountant’s Copy (“Accountant’s Review” in QuickBooks 2003:2006)|
Export Changes for Client…” from the Menu Bar.
6. At that point, you will need to save the copy to a removable media that you can return to your customer.
Just save the file with the changes, and return the disk with the changes back to your customer.

IMPORTING CHANGES TO YOUR COMPANY FILE:

1. Insert the copy of the changes that your accountant gave to you on the removable media.
2. Open up your company file and select “File| Accountant’s Copy (“Accountant’s Review” in QuickBooks
2003:2006)| Import Accountant’s Changes from File…” from the Menu Bar.
3. You must make a backup before you can import the accountant’s changes. Make the backup file.
4. At this point, navigate to the folder or drive that contains the file with the changes and double-click on
the file to open it and import the changes.
5. Note that the “Accountant’s Changes Pending” in the title bar has disappeared. That means that you
have successfully imported the changes.

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 EXERCISES-
Using the Accountant’s Review
Purpose:

There are no exercises for this lesson.

©TeachUcomp, Inc. Advanced QuickBooks 106

 CHAPTER 28-
Using the Help Menu
28.1- Using Help

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 Using the Help Menu

28.1- Using Help:

QuickBooks provides a multitude of different support features. Almost any question that you need
answered is covered in the “Help Index.” You can look up help topics by subject here and display the
information that is found. Another help feature is the online “Help & Support.” Here you can find answers to
commonly asked question by searching the online database. A listing of the various help features available
within the various versions of QuickBooks are shown in the table below.

Topic Does Access by selecting…

Help Index Lists all of the QuickBooks help information in a In QuickBooks 2003:2004, select
single location for easy access by topic. “Help| Help Index… ” from the
Menu Bar.
In QuickBooks 2005:2012, select
“Help| QuickBooks Help” from the
Menu Bar.
Help & Support You can contact someone in customer support In QuickBooks 2003 through 2005,
directly, or search the online database for an select “Help| Help & Support” from
answer to your questions. the Menu Bar.
In QuickBooks 2006, select “Help|
Access Support Resources” from
the Menu Bar.
In QuickBooks 2007:2008, select
“Help| Contact Support” from the
Menu Bar.
In QuickBooks 2009:2012, select
“Help| Support” from the Menu Bar.
Live Community An online community of thousands of other In QuickBooks 2010:2012, select
(QuickBooks QuickBooks users to whom you can submit “Help| QuickBooks Help” from the
2010:2012) questions and receive answers regarding Menu Bar. Then click the “Live
QuickBooks. Community” tab.

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 ACTIONS-
Using the Help Menu
USING THE HELP INDEX:

1. In QuickBooks 2005:2012, select “Help| QuickBooks Help” from the Menu Bar. In QuickBooks
2003:2004, select “Help| Help Index…” from the Menu Bar.
2. In QuickBooks 2010 and 2012, click the “Help” tab and then click the “Search” button.
3. Type the topic that you are trying to find out more about in the text box, and then press the “Enter” key
on your keyboard to start the search.
4. You can then read through the help files that are associated with the topic for which you searched.

USING THE HELP AND SUPPORT CENTER:

1. In QuickBooks 2009:2012, select “Help| Support” from the Menu Bar. In QuickBooks 2007:2008, select
“Help| Contact Support” from the Menu Bar. In QuickBooks 2006, select “Help| Access Support
Resources” from the Menu Bar. In QuickBooks 2003:2005, select “Help| Help & Support” from the Menu
Bar.

USING LIVE COMMUNITY- QUICKBOOKS 2010:2012:

1. In QuickBooks 2010:2012, select “Help| QuickBooks Help” from the Menu Bar.
2. Click the “Live Community” tab.
3. Submit your questions to the online forums, review answers to your question posted by other users, and
also answer questions posted by other users.

©TeachUcomp, Inc. Advanced QuickBooks 109

 EXERCISES-
Using the Help Menu
Purpose:

There are no exercises for this lesson.

©TeachUcomp, Inc. Advanced QuickBooks 110

 QuickBooks Keyboard Shortcuts

General Key Activity Key

To start QuickBooks without a company Ctrl + double- Account list, display Ctrl + A
file click Check, write Ctrl + W
To suppress the desktop windows (at Alt (while Copy transaction in register Ctrl + O
Open Company window) opening)
Customer:Job list, display Ctrl + J
Display information about QuickBooks F2
Delete check, invoice, transaction, or item from Ctrl + D
Cancel Esc list
Record (when black border is around  (Enter key) Edit lists or registers Ctrl + E
OK, Next or Previous button)
QuickFill and Recall (type first few letters of abc Tab
Record (always) Ctrl +  (Enter name and press Tab, name fills in)
key)
Find transaction Ctrl + F
Dates Key Go to register of transfer account Ctrl + G
Next day + (plus key) Help in context, display F1
Previous day - (minus key) History of A/R or A/P transaction Ctrl + H
Today T Invoice, create Ctrl + I
First day of the Week W List (for current field), display Ctrl + L
Last day of the weeK K
Memorize transaction or report Ctrl + M
First day of the Month M
Memorized transaction list, display Ctrl + T
Last day of the montH H
New invoice, bill, check or list item Ctrl + N
First day of the Year Y
Paste copied transaction in register Ctrl + V
Last day of the yeaR R
Print Ctrl + P
Date calendar Alt + down arrow
QuickZoom on report  (enter key)
Editing Key QuickReport on transaction or list item Ctrl + Q
Edit transaction selected in register Ctrl + E Register, display Ctrl + R
Delete character to right of insertion Del Show list Ctrl + S
point Use list item Ctrl + U
Delete character to left of insertion point Backspace
Transaction journal, display Ctrl + Y
Delete line from detail area Ctrl + Del
Insert line in detail area Ctrl + Ins Moving around a window Key
Cut selected characters Ctrl + X Next field Tab
Copy selected characters Ctrl + C Previous field Shift + Tab
Paste cut or copied characters Ctrl + V Report column to the right Right arrow
Increase check or other from number by + (plus key) Report column to the left Left arrow
one Beginning of current field Home
Decrease check or other form number - (minus key) End of current field End
by one Line below in detail area or on report Down arrow
Undo changes made in field Ctrl + Z Line above in detail area or on report Up arrow
Help window Key Down one screen Page Down
Display Help in context F1 Up one screen Page Up
Select next option or topic Tab Next word in field Ctrl + 
Select previous option or topic Shift + Tab Previous word in field Ctrl + 
Display selected topic  (Enter key) First item on list or previous month in register Ctrl + PgUp
Close popup box Esc Last item on list or next month in register Ctrl+ PgDn
Close Help window Esc Close active window Esc

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