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 Part 1: Quickly Into Quickbooks 5 Chapter 1: QuickBooks: The Heart of Your Business 7 Why QuickBooks? 7 Why you need an accounting system 8 What QuickBooks does 9 Why not QuickBooks online? 10 What Explains QuickBooks'' Popularity? 11 What''s Next, Dude? 12 How to Succeed with QuickBooks 13 Budget wisely, Grasshopper 13 Don''t focus on features 14 Outsource payroll 15 Get professional help 16 Use both the profit and loss statement and the balance sheet 16 Chapter 2: The Big Setup 17 Getting Ready for QuickBooks Setup 17 The big decision 18 The trial balance of the century 19 The mother of all scavenger hunts 22 Stepping through QuickBooks Setup 23 Starting QuickBooks 23 Using the Express Setup 25 The Rest of the Story 32 Should You Get Your Accountant''s Help? 32 Chapter 3: Populating QuickBooks Lists 35 The Magic and Mystery of Items 35 Adding items you might include on invoices 37 Creating other wacky items for invoices 45 Editing items 48 Adding Employees to Your Employee List 49 Customers Are Your Business 51 It''s Just a Job 55 Adding Vendors to Your Vendor List 58 The Other Lists 62 The Fixed Asset Item list 63 The Price Level list 64 The Billing Rate Levels list 64 The Sales Tax Code list 64 The Class list 64 The Other Names list 65 The Sales Rep list 65 Customer, Vendor, and Job Types list 66 The Terms list 66 The Customer Message list 66 The Payment Method list 67 The Ship Via list 67 The Vehicle list 67 The Memorized Transaction list 68 The Reminders list 68 Organizing Lists 68 Printing Lists 69 Exporting List Items to Your Word Processor 69 Dealing with the Chart of Accounts List 70 Describing customer balances 70 Describing vendor balances 70 Camouflaging some accounting goofiness 71 Supplying the missing numbers 77 Checking your work one more time 79 Part 2: Daily Entry Tasks 81 Chapter 4: Creating Invoices and Credit Memos 83 Making Sure That You''re Ready to Invoice Customers 84 Preparing an Invoice 84 Fixing Invoice Mistakes 91 If the invoice is still displayed onscreen 91 If the invoice isn''t displayed onscreen 91 Deleting an invoice 92 Preparing a Credit Memo 92 Fixing Credit Memo Mistakes 96 Printing Invoices and Credit Memos 97 Loading the forms into the printer 97 Setting up the invoice printer 97 Printing invoices and credit memos as you create them 100 Printing invoices in a batch 102 Printing credit memos in a batch 103 Sending Invoices and Credit Memos via Email 104 Customizing Your Invoices and Credit Memos 105 Chapter 5: Reeling in the Dough 109 Recording a Sales Receipt 110 Printing a Sales Receipt 114 Special Tips for Retailers 116 Correcting Sales Receipt Mistakes 117 Recording Customer Payments 118 Correcting Mistakes in Customer Payments Entries 122 Making Bank Deposits 123 Improving Your Cash Inflow 126 Tracking what your customers owe 126 Assessing finance charges 128 Dealing with deposits 132 Chapter 6: Paying the Bills 133 Pay Now or Pay Later? 133 Recording Your Bills by Writing Checks 134 The slow way to write checks 134 The fast way to write checks 140 Recording Your Bills the Accounts Payable Way 142 Recording your bills 143 Entering your bills the fast way 146 Deleting a bill 148 Remind me to pay that bill, will you? 149 Paying Your Bills 150 Tracking Vehicle Mileage 154 Paying Sales Tax 155 Chapter 7: Inventory Magic 157 Setting Up Inventory Items 158 When You Buy Stuff 159 Recording items that you pay for up front 159 Recording items that don''t come with a bill 159 Paying for items when you get the bill 161 Recording items and paying the bill all at once 163 When You Sell Stuff 163 How Purchase Orders Work 164 Customizing a purchase order form 165 Filling out a purchase order 165 Checking up on purchase orders 168 Receiving purchase order items 168 Assembling a Product 169 Identifying the components 169 Building the assembly 170 Time for a Reality Check 172 Dealing with Multiple Inventory Locations 173 Manually keep separate inventory-by-location counts 174 Use different item numbers for different locations 174 Upgrade to QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions 174 The Lazy Person''s Approach to Inventory 175 How periodic inventory systems work in QuickBooks 175 The good and bad of a periodic inventory 176 Chapter 8: Keeping Your Checkbook 177 Writing Checks 177 Writing checks from the Write Checks window 178 Writing checks from the register 179 Changing a check that you''ve written 181 Packing more checks into the register 181 Depositing Money in a Checking Account 183 Recording simple deposits 183 Depositing income from customers 184 Transferring Money between Accounts 186 Setting up a second bank account 187 Recording deposits into the new account 187 About the other half of the transfer 188 Changing a transfer that you''ve already entered 189 Working with Multiple Currencies 189 To Delete or to Void? 190 Handling NSF Checks from Customers 192 The Big Register Phenomenon 192 Moving through a big register 193 Finding that darn transaction 193 Chapter 9: Paying with Plastic 195 Tracking Business Credit Cards 195 Setting up a credit card account 196 Selecting a credit card account so that you can use it 197 Entering Credit Card Transactions 198 Recording a credit card charge 199 Changing charges that you''ve already entered 201 Reconciling Your Credit Card Statement and Paying the Bill 202 So What about Debit and ATM Cards? 203 So What about Customer Credit Cards? 203 Part 3: Stuff You Do From Time to Time 205 Chapter 10: Printing Checks 207 Getting the Printer Ready 207 Printing a Check 210 A few words about printing checks 211 Printing a check as you write it 211 Printing checks by the bushel 213 What if I make a mistake? 215 Oh where, oh where do unprinted checks go? 216 Printing a Checking Register 216 Chapter 11: Payroll 219 Getting Ready to Do Payroll without Help from QuickBooks 219 Doing Taxes the Right Way 220 Getting an employer ID number 220 Signing up for EFTPS 221 Employees and employers do their part 221 Getting Ready to Do Payroll with QuickBooks 221 Paying Your Employees 223 Paying Payroll Liabilities 226 Paying tax liabilities if you use a full-meal-deal payroll service 226 Paying tax liabilities if you don''t use a full-meal-deal payroll service 226 Paying other nontax liabilities 227 Preparing Quarterly Payroll Tax Returns 227 Using the Basic Payroll service 228 Using a full-meal-deal payroll service 228 Using the QuickBooks Enhanced Payroll service 228 Filing Annual Returns and Wage Statements 229 The State Wants Some Money, Too 230 Chapter 12: Building the Perfect Budget 231 Is This a Game You Want to Play? 231 All Joking Aside: Some Basic Budgeting Tips 232 A Budgeting Secret You Won''t Learn in College 233 Setting Up a Secret Plan 234 Adjusting a Secret Plan 237 Forecasting Profits and Losses 237 Projecting Cash Flows 237 Using the Business Planner Tools 238 Chapter 13: Online with QuickBooks 239 Doing the Electronic Banking Thing 239 So what''s the commotion about? 239 A handful of reasons to be cautious about banking online 240 Making sense of online banking 242 Signing up for the service 243 Making an online payment 243 Transferring money electronically 245 Changing instructions 246 Transmitting instructions 246 Message in a bottle 247 A Quick Review of the Other Online Opportunities 248 Part 4: Housekeeping Chores 249 Chapter 14: The Balancing Act 251 Balancing a Bank Account 252 Giving QuickBooks information from the bank statement 252 Marking cleared checks and deposits 254 Eleven Things to Do If Your Non-Online Account Doesn''t Balance 259 Chapter 15: Reporting on the State of Affairs 263 What Kinds of Reports Are There, Anyway? 264 Creating and Printing a Report 266 Visiting the report dog-and-pony show 268 Editing and rearranging reports 269 Reports Made to Order 273 Processing Multiple Reports 275 Your Other Reporting Options 275 Last but Not Least: The QuickReport 276 Chapter 16: Job Estimating, Billing, and Tracking 279 Turning On Job Costing 279 Setting Up a J.