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First call up a report from either the Report Center, the Memorized Report List or by choosing one of the many reports available from the various categories listed on the Report Menu. Once your report shows on the screen, click on the Modify Report button on the upper left side of your report screen. Choose the Filters Tab to choose and apply one of several available filters. In the Filter box you will see the available filters for the report you are modifying. Depending on the filter you choose, you will see in the pull down menu directly to the right of the Filter box a list of all the options you can choose to filter by. For example, should you choose the filter vendor type, your choices will be

All Vendor Types
Multiple Vendor Types
Or a list of all the individual Vendor Types you have set up

Should you choose Multiple Vendor Types a new window will open up and you will be able to check each Vendor Type you wish to see populate your report.

As you choose filters and their correspondent options your choices will be listed in the far right hand box labeled Current Filter Choices. Once you have selected all the filters you need then click on the OK button at the bottom of the screen and review your report. Of course, should you not see what you expected you can go back into the Modify Reports section and reselect or unselect filters as necessary. Once you have set up the report to your specifications you might want to memorize it for future use. This is easily accomplished by clicking on the Memorize button just to the right of the Modify Report button to open a new window where you will type in a name for the report that makes sense to you. Should you want to save the memorized report in a particular report group, click in the Save in Memorized Report Group box and choose the group for the report to be saved in. The next time you need this report you will find on the Report pull down menu under Memorized Reports and if you saved it to a Report Group under the appropriate group heading.

Using this very powerful and useful QuickBooks tool you will be able to view your financial information in many ways specific to your company. Give it a try!!!

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There are two tabs, one labeled Company and one labeled Payments.  The company tab allows you to view Account Balances, Previous Year Income Comparison, Income Breakdown by type, Previous Year Expense Comparion, Income and Expenses Trends, Who Owes you, Top Customers By Sales, Account Balances, Top Vendors By Expense, Vendors to Pay, Expense Breakdown and Reminders.

The Payment tab offers QuickLinks to Receive Payments, Create Sales Receipts, and Credit and Refunds.  Links are also available for commonly used Receivable Reports and the Report Center.  Charts available are an Invoice Payment Status, AR by Aging Period, a List of Recent Transactions, Payment Reminders and a list of customers who owe you money.

On both tabs QuickBooks recommends additional services that might be helpful to you.

You can add or remove any of the sections by clicking on the Add Content button on each tab. And most of the charts let you select specific accounting periods.  And the snapshot pages can be printed out.  Areas available to an user is based on the user access rights.  For instance an user who does not have Account Payable access will be able to see the charts that show Vendor activity.

Download the complete implementation guide to learn more!

Setting up classes is very easy. First under the Edit pull down menu, choose Preferences. In the new window in the left hand column click on Accounting and then the Company Preferences tab. Check the box titled Use Class Tracking and the Prompt to assign classes box. To set up your classes, access the List Menu and choose the Class List option. On the bottom of the window that opens up click on the Class pull down menu and choose New. Name your class and click okay.

You will see a class field on all forms and should you save an entry without filling in the class you will be prompted to add a class. However, you will have the choice to either use a class designation or not to use one.

You may run a Profit and Loss Report by class by clicking on the Report menu, choosing the Company & Financial section and selecting Profit and Loss By Class. Other reports may be modified to show data by class should you wish. For example if you would like to see all open customer invoices by class, then bring up the Customer Open Invoice Report and click on the Modify Report button at the top of the window. In the Filter tab you may choose to filter by class and then you can either choose to filter by all classes or choose to filter on multiple classes. If you choose to filter on multiple classes an additional window will open and let you choose the classes you wish to see in your report.

As always QuickBooks gives business owners many ways to see and analyze their financial information in order that they might use this information in their quests for profits and success.

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The fourth quarter for most businesses starts on October 1st. If you have not started to get ready for the year end, now is the time to start.

If you have been struggling to keep a manual set of books and your plan is to bring your tax payer a cardboard box or multiple plastic bags of receipts in January, there is a better plan and now is the time to put it into action.

Intuit offers several bookkeeping system options that range from the very simple to those that meet the needs of mid-market companies with sophisticated recording and reporting needs. And the cost of these programs start at FREE! Yes I did say free.

If you are a small company without inventory tracking needs and have limited customers and vendors than you can most likely use the free Simple Start Editions. Need more customers and vendors than Simple Start is also available in a very low cost edition.

For those of you that require inventory tracking there is the QuickBooks Pro edition.

You can start at the lowest level that works for you now and easily move up to a more robust version in the future. And without having to relearn a brand new program as each level is based on the preceding level.

With a good set of books you will have peace of mind, knowledge of your business and your tax preparer will be thrilled when you walk through the door without a pile of receipts for him/her to wade through. And who knows you might even save some money because better organized books allows your tax preparer to take more time actually advising you and finding tax savings instead of trying to organized a whole year’s worth of work at once.

See the full range of QuickBooks products at www.cfomac.com. Click on the QuickBooks & Other Links page from the top menu.

©D. L. MacMillan, QuickBooks Training . Web Learning Dissemination of this article in its entirety is allowed under this copyright. Extractions of any content are not permitted for any purpose and the article must be disseminated in its present form without modification or change of authorship, whether in whole or in part. This dissemination allowance applies to this specific article only and does not transfer to other publications copyright protected or developed by Donna L. MacMillan, D.L. MacMillan and Associates, Bookkeeping R Us or CFOMAC.

Feel free to share the link for this article to as many people as you like.

There are two ways to search within QuickBooks, the Find feature and the Search feature.

Search uses the Google Desktop search and can be accessed by clicking on the Search button on the toolbar or by choosing Search from the Edit pull down menu. When you click on Search for the first time you will be asked if you would like to Install Google Desktop.  Google Desktop can be uninstalled later should you decide you do not want to use this tool.

So what is Google Desktop all about as it pertains to QuickBooks.  With this tool which you can access within QuickBooks you will be able to easily search and find QuickBooks transactions by searching for amounts, dates, names, item names and information included in a note field.  You can search using multiple words, specify exclusions and search for information that may not be included within your QuickBooks database but does reside on your computer.  However all this comes with a price, and that is a possible slow down of your computer’s performance.

And this is where the Find feature comes in.  While only searching within your QuickBooks database, Find is a powerful search tool which can be found by choosing Find from the Edit drop down menu.  In Find there are two available search choices: Simple and Advanced.  And because it is not indexing your entire computer it cuts down on the resources it uses making it a faster search tool and does not affect your computer’s performance.

The Simple search allows you to choose from a list of transaction types and then you may search using a date or date range, a transaction number such as an Invoice number or a transaction amount or a combination of these fields. The search result will be displayed in a table and you can double click on the result to go to the original transaction.

And the Advanced search will give you the option to filter your selection within the QuickBooks fields which will expand your ability to dig deeper into your search request.

Happy searching!

©D. L. MacMillan, QuickBooks Training Anywhere You Are . Web Learning Dissemination of this article in its entirety is allowed under this copyright.  Extractions of any content are not permitted for any purpose and the article must be disseminated in its present form without modification or change of authorship, whether in whole or in part.  This dissemination allowance applies to this specific article only and does not transfer to other publications copyright protected or developed by Donna L. MacMillan, D.L. MacMillan and Associates,  Bookkeeping R Us or CFOMAC.

Feel free to share the link for this article to as many people as you like.

If you prepared and put into place a budget for this year and have not compared your actual income and expenses yet, now is the time to do so. Most small companies’ fiscal year is based on the calendar year and the end of June is a great time to see how you are doing. Of course if you have performing this check at the end of each month, you get a gold star!

The first task that needs to be done is to print out a Budget Report for the end of June that shows your actual vs. budget. You can do this easily in QuickBooks by accessing the Reports menu, choosing the Budgets and Forecasts selection (in the Pro edition QuickBooks this selection will be labeled Budgets) and then click on the Budget vs. Actual Report. The first screen will ask you to choose the fiscal year you would like to view. Click Next.

The next screen will show you the report layout as it will appear in your report. Accept the default and click Next. And then click Finish on the next screen. You will see a listing of all of Income and Expense accounts with the actual amounts incurred for each month of the year along with columns and figures for your Original Budget amount, your Over or Under in dollar amounts and what percentage of the yearly budget you have used for each account within each month.

This report can be modified to show just the year to date amounts. Click on the Modify Report button on the top left and on the Display Tab make sure the From and To Dates are for the period you would like, which for our purpose today would be from January 1st through June 30th of the current year. Under the section titled Columns and Rows change the Display Columns By replacing Month with Year. This will give you a budget vs. actual report for each income and expense account as of the end of the reporting period you have chosen.

Other reports available are the Budget Overview, a listing of all your Income and Expense accounts with the budget amounts you have assigned when you first set the budget. The Profit and Loss Budget Performance report is a P&L statement that includes the budget amounts for the current year, the year to date and the annual amounts. This report does not make a comparison between actual and budget, however. You also may choose to show your progress through a graph by choosing the Budget vs. Actual Graph selection.

If you take the time to review your budget now you will take advantage of a powerful tool that can help you plan for the remaining six months of the year. A budget is a goal to work towards and if your budget is vastly overstated or understated when compared with your six month actual figures you will first want to discover why and then perhaps adjust your budget to reflect a more realistic overview.

Please note that the Budget feature is only available in QuickBooks Pro, Premier and Enterprise Editions.

©D. L. MacMillan, QuickBooks Training. Web Learning  Dissemination of this article in its entirety is allowed under this copyright.  Extractions of any content are not permitted for any purpose and the article must be disseminated in its present form without modification or change of authorship, whether in whole or in part.  This dissemination allowance applies to this specific article only and does not transfer to other publications copyright protected or developed by Donna L. MacMillan, D.L. MacMillan and Associates,  Bookkeeping R Us or CFOMAC.

Feel free to share the link for this article to as many people as you like.

So here is how you book those personal expenses that you have run through your business accounts. Set up a draw account in the equity section of your books and whenever you need to post a personal expense post to that account instead of one of your expense accounts. However, if you are intending to repay your business for these personal expenses, then set up a Customer account using your name and invoice the personal expenses to that account and when you reimburse the business post the payment as you would any other customer’s payment. The balance remaining in your account at any given time is what you owe to the business. The second method is what I would recommend as the best way to handle personal expenses.

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For example, suppose your business involves meeting with a client at your office, simply open your QuickBooks database, click on the Customer pull down menu, and choose the Enter Time option prior to your client arriving and then choose the option titled Time/Enter Single Activity. Make sure the date is correct and select your name from the drop down list. If your name does not appear choose Add New from the drop down list and select Other if you do not issue paychecks or Employee if you do. Also select your clients name from the Customer: Job drop down list and the service item which is the type of work you will be conducting. Of course if this is to be a billable item make sure the Billable check box is checked. When your client arrives and you start your meeting click on the Start Button. When your meeting is over click on the Stop button. This of course also works great should you be at your client’s place of business and you have your laptop with you.

This method can also be used when you are working on a project and you wish to accumulate the time you are spending. Should you be interrupted you can click on the Pause button and then restart by clicking the Start button once you are back to your desk. No more trying to recall just when you started, how much time you took for lunch or to answer a call that came when you were working.

Should you not have access to your QuickBooks database and need to accumulate billable time, then you might think that resorting back to well kept notes might be your only option. However QuickBooks offers a better solution – an online Time Tracker. This is available as an add on service for all users of 2006 and 2007 Pro, Premium and Enterprises versions of QuickBooks. Find out more about the TimeTracker by going to your Customer pull down menu, select Enter Time and then click on Learn About Online Timesheets. As long as you have an Internet connection you can accumulate your billable hours and then transfer them directly into your QuickBooks database.

If you should not have access to the Internet then once you have returned to your office you can use the Weekly Timesheet function also found under the Customer menu then choose the Enter Time option and then Use Weekly Timesheet. Simply choose your name from the drop down list as you did in the Time/Enter Single Activity function. Moving across the time sheet choose the customer name, the type of service, class if appropriate and fill in the hours worked for each day, making sure to check if the time if billable or not. With this method you may post time against more than one customer:job, type of service and/or class within one weekly timesheet.

What ever method you chose to use, these QuickBooks features will help you track and bill the correct amount of billable time to your clients while assuring that you are not losing income due to billing errors.

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While in the Date field, to move to the next day, use the + (plus) key, or the previous day use the – (minus) key. If today’s date is what you are looking for then just type T. First day of the week, type W; last day of the week type K. First day of the month type M; last day of the month type H. First day of the year type Y, last day of the year type R.

And to access a date calendar where you can click on a particular and have it populate your date field, then click on the ALT key + the down arrow.

No more fumbling through the dates!

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