Introduction 1 About This Book 1 Foolish Assumptions 2 Icons Used in This Book 3 Beyond the Book 3 Where to Go from Here 3 Book 1: An Accounting Primer 5 Chapter 1: Principles of Accounting 7 The Purpose of Accounting 7 Reviewing the Common Financial Statements 10 The Philosophy of Accounting 23 A Few Words about Tax Accounting 26 Chapter 2: Double-Entry Bookkeeping 27 The Fiddle-Faddle Method of Accounting 28 How Double-Entry Bookkeeping Works 31 Almost a Real-Life Example 37 A Few Words about How QuickBooks Works 44 Chapter 3: Special Accounting Problems 47 Working with Accounts Receivable 48 Recording Accounts Payable Transactions 51 Inventory Accounting 54 Accounting for Fixed Assets 58 Recognizing Liabilities 61 Closing Out Revenue and Expense Accounts 66 One More Thing 69 Book 2: Getting Ready to Use Quickbooks 71 Chapter 1: Setting Up QuickBooks 73 Planning Your New QuickBooks System 73 Installing QuickBooks 76 Dealing with the Presetup Jitters 77 Running the QuickBooks Setup Wizard 79 Identifying the Starting Trial Balance 87 Chapter 2: Loading the Master File Lists 91 Setting Up the Chart of Accounts List 92 Setting Up the Item List 96 Working with the Price Level List 97 Using Sales Tax Codes 97 Setting Up a Payroll Item List 98 Setting Up Classes 99 Setting Up a Customer List 101 Setting Up the Vendor List 105 Setting Up a Fixed Assets List 109 Setting Up a Price Level List 110 Setting Up a Billing Rate Level List 110 Setting Up Your Employees 111 Setting Up an Other Names List 111 Setting Up the Profile Lists 112 Chapter 3: Fine-Tuning QuickBooks 115 Accessing the Preferences Settings 116 Setting the Accounting Preferences 118 Setting the Bills Preferences 121 Setting the Calendar Preferences 121 Setting the Checking Preferences 121 Changing the Desktop View 123 Setting Finance Charge Calculation Rules 125 Setting General Preferences 125 Controlling Integrated Applications 127 Controlling Inventory 128 Controlling How Jobs and Estimates Work 130 Dealing with Multiple Currencies 131 Starting Integrated Payment Processing 131 Controlling How Payroll Works 132 Telling QuickBooks How Reminders Should Work 134 Specifying Reports & Graphs Preferences 135 Setting Sales & Customers Preferences 138 Specifying How Sales Are Taxed 139 Setting the Search Preferences 141 Setting the Send Forms Preferences 141 Fine-Tuning the Service Connection 142 Controlling Spell Checking 143 Controlling How 1099 Tax Reporting Works 144 Setting Time & Expenses Preferences 145 Book 3: Bookkeeping Chores 147 Chapter 1: Invoicing Customers 149 Choosing an Invoice Form 149 Customizing an Invoice Form 150 Invoicing a Customer 160 Billing for Time 166 Printing Invoices 170 Emailing Invoices 171 Recording Sales Receipts 172 Recording Credit Memos 174 Receiving Customer Payments 176 Assessing Finance Charges 178 Using Odds and Ends on the Customers Menu 180 Chapter 2: Paying Vendors 183 Creating a Purchase Order 183 Recording the Receipt of Items 187 Simultaneously Recording the Receipt and the Bill 191 Entering a Bill 192 Paying Bills 196 Reviewing the Other Vendor Menu Commands 199 Chapter 3: Tracking Inventory and Items 203 Looking at Your Item List 204 Adding Items to the Item List 206 Editing Items 220 Managing Inventory in a Manufacturing Firm 227 Chapter 4: Managing Cash and Bank Accounts 233 Writing Checks 233 Making Bank Deposits 241 Transferring Money between Bank Accounts 244 Working with the Register 245 Using Edit Menu Commands 251 Reconciling the Bank Account 255 Reviewing the Other Banking Commands 260 Chapter 5: Paying Employees 263 Setting Up Basic Payroll 264 Scheduling Payroll Runs 270 Paying Employees 270 Editing and Voiding Paychecks 272 Paying Payroll Liabilities 272 Book 4: Accounting Chores 275 Chapter 1: For Accountants Only 277 Working with QuickBooks Journal Entries 277 Updating Company Information 280 Working with Memorized Transactions 280 Reviewing the Accountant & Taxes Reports 281 Creating an Accountant''s Copy of the QuickBooks Data File 283 Using the Client Data Review Commands 291 Chapter 2: Preparing Financial Statements and Reports 293 Some Wise Words Up Front 294 Producing a Report 294 Working with the Report Window 295 Modifying a Report 304 Processing Multiple Reports 310 A Few Words about Document Retention 311 Chapter 3: Preparing a Budget 315 Reviewing Common Budgeting Tactics 315 Taking a Practical Approach to Budgeting 319 Using the Set Up Budgets Window 319 Managing with a Budget 323 Some Wrap-Up Comments on Budgeting 325 Chapter 4: Using Activity-Based Costing 327 Reviewing Traditional Overhead Allocation 328 Understanding How ABC Works 330 Implementing a Simple ABC System 335 Seeing How QuickBooks Supports ABC 337 Turning On Class Tracking 337 Using Classes for ABC 338 Chapter 5: Setting Up Project and Job Costing Systems 343 Setting Up a QuickBooks Job 343 Tracking Job or Project Costs 346 Job Cost Reporting 349 Using Job Estimates 350 Progress Billing 352 Book 5: Financial Management 355 Chapter 1: Ratio Analysis 357 Some Caveats about Ratio Analysis 358 Liquidity Ratios 359 Leverage Ratios 361 Activity Ratios 365 Profitability Ratios 369 Chapter 2: Economic Value Added Analysis 375 Introducing the Logic of EVA 375 Seeing EVA in Action 376 Reviewing Some Important Points about EVA 379 Using EVA When Your Business Has Debt 381 Chapter 3: Capital Budgeting in a Nutshell 389 Introducing the Theory of Capital Budgeting 389 Calculating the Rate of Return on Capital 392 Measuring Liquidity 402 Thinking about Risk 403 What Does All of This Have to Do with QuickBooks? 404 Book 6: Business Plans 405 Chapter 1: Profit-Volume-Cost Analysis 407 Seeing How Profit-Volume-Cost Analysis Works 408 Calculating Break-Even Points 410 Using Real QuickBooks Data for Profit-Volume-Cost Analysis 412 Recognizing the Downside of the Profit-Volume-Cost Model 414 Using the Profit-Volume-Cost Analysis Workbook 416 Chapter 2: Creating a Business Plan Forecast 427 Reviewing Financial Statements and Ratios 428 Using the Business Plan Workbook 429 Understanding the Workbook Calculations 436 Customizing the Starter Workbook 462 Chapter 3: Writing a Business Plan 465 What the Term "Business Plan" Means 465 A Few Words about Strategic Plans 466 Look, Ma: No Strategy 468 A White-Paper Business Plan 470 A New-Venture Plan 473 Book 7: Care and Maintenance 479 Chapter 1: Administering QuickBooks 481 Keeping Your Data Confidential 481 Using QuickBooks in a Multiuser Environment 483 Using Audit Trails 493 Enabling Simultaneous Multiuser Access 494 Maintaining Good Accounting Controls 495 Chapter 2: Protecting Your Data 499 Backing Up the QuickBooks Data File 499 Restoring a QuickBooks Data File 505 Condensing the QuickBooks Company Files 509 Chapter 3: Troubleshooting 517 Using the QuickBooks Help File and This Book 517 Browsing Intuit''s Product-Support Website 519 Checking Another Vendor''s Product-Support Website 521 Tapping into Intuit''s Online and Expert Communities 521 When All Else Fails 522 Book 8: Appendixes 523 Appendix A: A Crash Course in Excel 525 Starting Excel 525 Stopping Excel 526 Explaining Excel''s Workbooks 526 Putting Text, Numbers, and Formulas in Cells 527 Writing Formulas 528 Scrolling through Big Workbooks 529 Copying and Cutting Cell Contents 530 Formatting Cell Contents 533 Recognizing That Functions Are Simply Formulas 534 Saving and Opening Workbooks 537 Printing Excel Workbooks 539 One Other Thing to Know 540 Appendix B: Government Web Resources for Businesses 541 Bureau of Economic Analysis 541 Bureau of Labor Statistics 544 Census Bureau 548 Securities and Exchange Commission 551 Federal Reserve 553 Government Publishing Office 555 Internal Revenue Service 557 Appendix C: Glossary of Accounting and Financial Terms 559 Index 589.