QuickBooks 2014 For Dummies E-Book

Stephen L. Nelson

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013

Seitenzahl: 549

Beschreibung

Take control of the books and keep your finances in the black with QuickBooks and For Dummies With over four million of his books in print, CPA and perennial bestselling For Dummies author Stephen L. Nelson knows how to make QuickBooks and basic accounting easy for the rest of us. Small business owners, managers, and employees: if you want to use QuickBooks for your business, the new edition of this annual bestseller is the best place to start. From setting up the software to creating invoices, recording and paying bills, tracking inventory, getting reports, and crunching numbers for tax prep, you'll discover how to do it, why to do it, and get way more organized in the process. * Gives small business owners the power to manage their own business accounting and financial management tasks using QuickBooks 2014 * Helps you build the perfect budget, process payroll, create invoices, manage inventory, track costs, generate financial reports, balance accounts, and simplify your tax return prep * Walks you through basic bookkeeping concepts, data management fundamentals, and need-to-know accounting guidelines to help you track your finances with ease Keep your business finances on track, on budget, and in control with QuickBooks 2014 and QuickBooks 2014 For Dummies.

Leseprobe

QuickBooks® 2014 For Dummies®

Published by: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774, www.wiley.com

Copyright © 2013 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey

Media and software compilation copyright © 2013 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

Published simultaneously in Canada

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Trademarks: Wiley, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, Dummies.com, Making Everything Easier, and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and may not be used without written permission. QuickBooks is a registered trademark of the Intuit Corporation. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2013944874

ISBN 978-1-118-72005-9 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-118-72110-0 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-72123-0 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-72102-5 (ebk)

Manufactured in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

QuickBooks "X" For Dummies®

Visit www.dummies.com/cheatsheet/quickbooks2014 to view this book's cheat sheet.

Table of Contents

Introduction

About This Book

Foolish Assumptions

Icons Used in This Book

Beyond the Book

Where to Go from Here

Part I: Quickly into QuickBooks

Chapter 1: QuickBooks: The Heart of Your Business

Why QuickBooks?

Why you need an accounting system

What QuickBooks does

What Explains QuickBooks’ Popularity?

What’s Next, Dude?

How to Succeed with QuickBooks

Budget wisely, Grasshopper

Don’t focus on features

Outsource payroll

Get professional help

Use both the profit and loss statement and the balance sheet

Chapter 2: The Big Setup

Getting Ready for the QuickBooks Setup

The big decision

The trial balance of the century

The mother of all scavenger hunts

Stepping through the QuickBooks Setup

Starting QuickBooks

Using the Express Setup

The Rest of the Story

Should You Get Your Accountant’s Help?

Chapter 3: Populating QuickBooks Lists

The Magic and Mystery of Items

Adding items you might include on invoices

Creating other wacky items for invoices

Editing items

Adding Employees to Your Employee List

Customers Are Your Business

It’s Just a Job

Adding Vendors to Your Vendor List

The Other Lists

The Fixed Asset Item list

The Price Level list

The Billing Rate Levels list

The Sales Tax Code list

The Class list

The Other Names list

The Sales Rep list

Customer, Vendor, and Job Types list

The Terms list

The Customer Message list

The Payment Method list

The Ship Via list

The Vehicle list

The Memorized Transaction list

The Reminders list

Organizing Lists

Printing Lists

Exporting List Items to Your Word Processor

Dealing with the Chart of Accounts List

Describing customer balances

Describing vendor balances

Camouflaging some accounting goofiness

Supplying the missing numbers

Checking your work one more time

Part II: Daily Entry Tasks

Chapter 4: Creating Invoices and Credit Memos

Making Sure That You’re Ready to Invoice Customers

Preparing an Invoice

Fixing Invoice Mistakes

If the invoice is still displayed onscreen

If the invoice isn’t displayed onscreen

Deleting an invoice

Preparing a Credit Memo

Fixing Credit Memo Mistakes

History Lessons

Printing Invoices and Credit Memos

Loading the forms into the printer

Setting up the invoice printer

Printing invoices and credit memos as you create them

Printing invoices in a batch

Printing credit memos in a batch

Sending Invoices and Credit Memos via E-Mail

Customizing Your Invoices and Credit Memos

Chapter 5: Reeling In the Dough

Recording a Sales Receipt

Printing a Sales Receipt

Special Tips for Retailers

Correcting Sales Receipt Mistakes

Recording Customer Payments

Correcting Mistakes in Customer Payments Entries

Making Bank Deposits

Improving Your Cash Inflow

Tracking what your customers owe

Assessing finance charges

Dealing with deposits

Chapter 6: Paying the Bills

Pay Now or Pay Later?

Recording Your Bills by Writing Checks

The slow way to write checks

The fast way to write checks

Recording Your Bills the Accounts Payable Way

Recording your bills

Entering your bills the fast way

Deleting a bill

Remind me to pay that bill, will you?

Paying Your Bills

Tracking Vehicle Mileage

Paying Sales Tax

A Quick Word on the Vendor Center Window

Chapter 7: Inventory Magic

Setting Up Inventory Items

When You Buy Stuff

Recording items that you pay for upfront

Recording items that don’t come with a bill

Paying for items when you get the bill

Recording items and paying the bill all at once

When You Sell Stuff

How Purchase Orders Work

Customizing a purchase order form

Filling out a purchase order

Checking up on purchase orders

Receiving purchase order items

Assembling a Product

Identifying the components

Building the assembly

Time for a Reality Check

Dealing with Multiple Inventory Locations

Manually keep separate inventory-by-location counts

Use different item numbers for different locations

Upgrade to QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions

The Lazy Person’s Approach to Inventory

How periodic inventory systems work in QuickBooks

The good and bad of a periodic inventory

Chapter 8: Keeping Your Checkbook

Writing Checks

Writing checks from the Write Checks window

Writing checks from the register

Changing a check that you’ve written

Packing more checks into the register

Depositing Money into a Checking Account

Recording simple deposits

Depositing income from customers

Transferring Money between Accounts

Setting up a second bank account

Recording deposits into the new account

About the other half of the transfer

Changing a transfer that you’ve already entered

Working with Multiple Currencies

To Delete or to Void?

Handling NSF Checks from Customers

The Big Register Phenomenon

Moving through a big register

Finding that darn transaction

Chapter 9: Paying with Plastic

Tracking Business Credit Cards

Setting up a credit card account

Selecting a credit card account so that you can use it

Entering Credit Card Transactions

Recording a credit card charge

Changing charges that you’ve already entered

Reconciling Your Credit Card Statement and Paying the Bill

So What about Debit and ATM Cards?

So What about Customer Credit Cards?

Part III: Stuff You Do from Time to Time

Chapter 10: Printing Checks

Getting the Printer Ready

Printing a Check

A few words about printing checks

Printing a check as you write it

Printing checks by the bushel

What if I make a mistake?

Oh where, oh where do unprinted checks go?

Printing a Checking Register

Chapter 11: Payroll

Getting Ready to Do Payroll without Help from QuickBooks

Doing Taxes the Right Way

Getting an employer ID number

Signing up for EFTPS

Employees and employers do their part

Getting Ready to Do Payroll with QuickBooks

Paying Your Employees

Paying Payroll Liabilities

Paying tax liabilities if you use the full-meal-deal Payroll service

Paying tax liabilities if you don’t use the full-meal-deal Payroll service

Paying other nontax liabilities

Preparing Quarterly Payroll Tax Returns

Using the Basic Payroll service

Using the Assisted Payroll service

Using the QuickBooks Enhanced Payroll service

Filing Annual Returns and Wage Statements

The State Wants Some Money, Too

Chapter 12: Building the Perfect Budget

Is This a Game You Want to Play?

All Joking Aside: Some Basic Budgeting Tips

A Budgeting Secret You Won’t Learn in College

Setting Up a Secret Plan

Adjusting a Secret Plan

Forecasting Profits and Losses

Projecting Cash Flows

Using the Business Planner Tools

Chapter 13: Online with QuickBooks

Doing the Electronic Banking Thing

So what’s the commotion about?

A handful of reasons not to bank online

Making sense of online banking

Signing up for the service

Making an online payment

Transferring money electronically

Changing instructions

Transmitting instructions

Message in a bottle

Using the Intuit PaymentNetwork

A Quick Review of the Other Online Opportunities

Part IV: Housekeeping Chores

Chapter 14: The Balancing Act

Balancing a Bank Account

Giving QuickBooks information from the bank statement

Marking cleared checks and deposits

Eleven Things to Do If Your Non-Online Account Doesn’t Balance

Chapter 15: Reporting on the State of Affairs

What Kinds of Reports Are There, Anyway?

Creating and Printing a Report

Visiting the report dog-and-pony show

Editing and rearranging reports

Reports Made to Order

Processing Multiple Reports

Your Other Reporting Options

Last but Not Least: The QuickReport

Chapter 16: Job Estimating, Billing, and Tracking

Turning On Job Costing

Setting Up a Job

Creating a Job Estimate

Revising an Estimate

Turning an Estimate into an Invoice

Comparing Estimated Item Amounts with Actual Item Amounts

Charging for Actual Time and Costs

Tracking Job Costs

Chapter 17: File Management Tips

Backing Up Is (Not That) Hard to Do

Backing up the quick-and-dirty way

Getting back the QuickBooks data you backed up

Accountant’s Copy

Working with Portable Files

Using an Audit Trail

Using a Closing Password

Chapter 18: Fixed Assets and Vehicle Lists

What Is Fixed Assets Accounting?

Fixed Assets Accounting in QuickBooks

Setting Up a Fixed Asset List

Adding items to the Fixed Asset list

Adding fixed asset items on the fly

Editing items on the Fixed Asset list

Tracking Vehicle Mileage

Identifying your vehicles

Recording vehicle miles

Using the vehicle reports

Updating vehicle mileage rates

Part V: The Part of Tens

Chapter 19: Tips for Handling (Almost) Ten Tricky Situations

Selling an Asset

Selling a Depreciable Asset

Owner’s Equity in a Sole Proprietorship

Owner’s Equity in a Partnership

Owner’s Equity in a Corporation

Multiple-State Accounting

Getting a Loan

Repaying a Loan

Chapter 20: (Almost) Ten Secret Business Formulas

The First “Most Expensive Money You Can Borrow” Formula

The Second “Most Expensive Money You Can Borrow” Formula

The “How Do I Break Even?” Formula

The “You Can Grow Too Fast” Formula

How net worth relates to growth

How to calculate sustainable growth

The First “What Happens If . . . ?” Formula

The Second “What Happens If . . . ?” Formula

The Economic Order Quantity (Isaac Newton) Formula

The Rule of 72

Part VI: Appendixes

Appendix A: Installing QuickBooks in a Dozen Easy Steps

Appendix B: If Numbers Are Your Friends

Let me introduce you to the new you

The first day in business

Look at your cash flow first

Depreciation is an accounting gimmick

Accrual-basis accounting is cool

Now you know how to measure profits

Some financial brain food

And now for the blow-by-blow

Blow-by-blow, Part II

How does QuickBooks help?

The first dark shadow

The second dark shadow

Appendix C: Sharing QuickBooks Files

User permissions

Record locking

About the Author

Cheat Sheet

Connect with Dummies

Introduction

Running or working in a small business is one of the coolest things a person can do. Really. I mean it. Sure, sometimes the environment is dangerous — kind of like the Old West — but it’s an environment in which you have the opportunity to make tons of money. And it’s also an environment in which you can build a company or a job that perfectly fits you.

In comparison, many brothers and sisters working in big-company corporate America are furiously trying to fit their round pegs into painfully square holes. Yuck.

You’re wondering, of course, what any of this has to do with this book or with QuickBooks. Quite a lot, actually. The whole purpose of this book is to make it easier for you to run or work in a small business by using QuickBooks.

About This Book

As you start your reading, though, I want to tell you a couple of things about this book.

First off, know that I fiddled a bit with the Windows display settings. For example, I noodled around with the font settings and some of the colors. The benefit is that the pictures of the QuickBooks windows and dialog boxes in this book are easier to read. And that’s good. But the cost of all this is that my pictures look a little bit different from what you see on your screen. And that’s not good. In the end, however, what the publisher found is that people are happier with increased readability.

Next point: To make the best use of your time and energy, you should know about the conventions that I use in this book, which are as follows:

When I want you to type something, such as With a stupid grin, Martin watched the tall blonde strut into the bar and order grappa, it’s in bold type. When I want you to type something that’s short and uncomplicated, such as Jennifer, it still appears in boldface type.

Except for passwords, you don’t have to worry about the case of the letters you type in QuickBooks. If I tell you to type Jennifer, you can type JENNIFER or follow poet e. e. cummings’s lead and type jennifer.

Whenever I tell you to choose a command from a menu, I say something like “Choose Lists⇒Items,” which simply means to first choose the Lists menu and then choose Items. The ⇒ separates one part of the command from the next part.

You can choose menus, commands, and dialog box elements with the mouse. Just click the thing you want.

When I provide step-by-step descriptions of tasks, something I do regularly within the pages of this tome, I describe the tasks by using bold text and then below the boldfacing give a more detailed explanation in the text that follows the step. You can skip the text that accompanies the step-by-step boldface directions if you already understand the process.

Foolish Assumptions

I make three assumptions about you:

You have a PC running Microsoft Windows. (I took pictures of the QuickBooks windows and dialog boxes while using Windows 8, in case you’re interested.)

You know a little bit about how to work with your computer.

You have or will buy a copy of QuickBooks for each computer on which you want to run the program.

This book works for QuickBooks 2014, although, in a pinch, you can probably also use it for QuickBooks 2013 or 2015. (I have to say, however, that if you have QuickBooks 2013, you may instead want to return this book and trade it in for QuickBooks 2013 For Dummies by yours truly. Furthermore, even though I’m no fortuneteller, I’m willing to predict that you’ll be able to buy a QuickBooks 2015 For Dummies book when QuickBooks 2015 comes out.)

Icons Used in This Book

The Tip icon marks tips (duh!) and shortcuts that you can use to make QuickBooks easier.

Remember icons mark the information that’s especially important to know. To siphon off the most important information in each chapter, just skim through these icons.

The Technical Stuff icon marks information of a highly technical nature that you can normally skip over.

The Warning icon tells you to watch out! It marks important information that may save you headaches when working with QuickBooks.

Beyond the Book

This book is packed with information about using and benefiting from QuickBooks. But you'll be glad to learn, I'm sure, that you can find additional relevant content at the www.dummies.com website:

The online Cheat Sheet is available at

www.dummies.com/cheatsheet/quickbooks2014

This cheat sheet is a handy reference that you’ll use over and over, or you can refer to it when you don’t have the book handy.

Online articles covering additional topics at

www.dummies.com/extras/quickbooks2014

Here you can find tangential articles about minimizing (legally) your business’s tax burden, tricks for increasing your business’s profitability, and ways to speed up the way that QuickBooks works.

Updates to this book, if any exist, are at

www.dummies.com/extras/quickbooks2014

Where to Go from Here

This book isn’t meant to be read from cover to cover like some Stieg Larsson page turner. Instead, it’s organized into tiny, no-sweat descriptions of how you do the things you need to do. If you’re the sort of person who just doesn’t feel right not reading a book from cover to cover, you can (of course) go ahead and read this thing from front to back. You can start reading Chapter 1 and continue all the way to the end (which means through Chapter 21 and the appendixes).

I don’t think this from-start-to-finish approach is bad because I tell you a bunch of stuff (tips and tricks, for example) along the way. I tried to write the book in such a way that the experience isn’t as rough as you might think, and I really do think you get good value from your reading.

But you also can use this book the way you’d use an encyclopedia. If you want to know about a subject, you can look it up in the Table of Contents or the index; then you can flip to the correct chapter or page and read as much as you need or enjoy. No muss, no fuss.

I should, however, mention one thing: Accounting software programs require you to do a certain amount of preparation before you can use them to get real work done. If you haven’t started to use QuickBooks yet, I recommend that you read through the first few chapters of this book to find out what you need to do first.

Finally, if you haven’t already installed QuickBooks and need help, jump to Appendix A, which tells you how to install QuickBooks in ten easy steps. And, if you’re just starting out with Microsoft Windows, peruse Chapter 1 of the Windows User’s Guide or one of these books on your flavor of Windows: Windows XP For Dummies, 2nd Edition; Windows Vista For Dummies;Windows 7 For Dummies; or Windows 8 For Dummies, all by Andy Rathbone.

Part I

Quickly into QuickBooks

Check out the web extras online at http://www.dummies.com/extras/quickbooks2014 to ease your setup workload with handy tricks.

In this part . . .

Understand the big picture stuff about why, how, and when you install the QuickBooks accounting software.

Get practical stratagems and commonsense tactics for quickly getting your accounting system up and running.

Load the QuickBooks master files with startup information so you’re productive and efficient from day one.

Chapter 1

QuickBooks: The Heart of Your Business

In This Chapter

Benefitting from a tool like QuickBooks

Discovering what QuickBooks actually does

Understanding why QuickBooks is a popular choice

Getting started (in general) with QuickBooks

Succeeding in setup and use of QuickBooks

I want to start this conversation by quickly covering some basic questions concerning QuickBooks, such as “Why even use QuickBooks?” and “Where and how does a guy or gal start?” — and, most importantly, “What should I not do?”

This little orientation shouldn’t take more than a few minutes. Really. And the orientation lets you understand the really big picture concerning QuickBooks.

Why QuickBooks?

Okay, I know you know that you need an accounting system. Somebody, maybe your accountant or spouse, has convinced you of this. And you, the team player that you are, have just accepted this conventional viewpoint as the truth.

But just between you and me, why do you really need QuickBooks? And what does QuickBooks do that you really, truly need done? And heck, just to be truly cynical, also ask the question, “Why QuickBooks?” Why not, for example, use some other accounting software program?

Why you need an accounting system

Start with the most basic question: Why do you even need an accounting system like QuickBooks? It’s a fair question, so let me supply you with the two-part answer.

The first reason is that federal law requires your business to maintain an accounting system. More specifically, Section 446 (General Rule for Methods of Accounting) of Title 26 (Internal Revenue Code) of the United States Code requires that you have the capability to compute taxable income by using some sort of common-sense accounting system that clearly reflects income.