QuickBooks 2019 For Dummies
1st Edition
Published on 14. December 2018
Book
Paperback/Softback
416 pages
978-1-119-52053-5 (ISBN)
Description
The bestselling guide to QuickBooks-now in a new edition
QuickBooks 2019 For Dummies is here to make it easier than ever to familiarize yourself with the latest version of the software. It shows you step by step how to build the perfect budget, simplify tax return preparation, manage inventory, track job costs, generate income statements and financial reports, and every other accounting-related task that crosses your desk at work.
Written by CPA Stephen L. Nelson, this perennial bestseller shows you how to get the most out of the software that helps over six million small businesses manage their finances. Removing the need to hire expensive financial professionals, it empowers you to take your small business' finances into your own hands.
Handle your financial and business management tasks more effectively
Implement QuickBooks and get the most out of its features
Create invoices and credit memos with ease
Pay bills, prepare payroll, and record sales receipts
If you're a small business owner, manager, or employee who utilizes QuickBooks at work, this bestselling guide has answers for all of your business accounting needs.
QuickBooks 2019 For Dummies is here to make it easier than ever to familiarize yourself with the latest version of the software. It shows you step by step how to build the perfect budget, simplify tax return preparation, manage inventory, track job costs, generate income statements and financial reports, and every other accounting-related task that crosses your desk at work.
Written by CPA Stephen L. Nelson, this perennial bestseller shows you how to get the most out of the software that helps over six million small businesses manage their finances. Removing the need to hire expensive financial professionals, it empowers you to take your small business' finances into your own hands.
Handle your financial and business management tasks more effectively
Implement QuickBooks and get the most out of its features
Create invoices and credit memos with ease
Pay bills, prepare payroll, and record sales receipts
If you're a small business owner, manager, or employee who utilizes QuickBooks at work, this bestselling guide has answers for all of your business accounting needs.
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Stephen L. Nelson, MBA, CPA, MS in Taxation, provides accounting, business advisory, tax planning, and tax preparation services to small businesses. His more than 100 books, including all editions of QuickBooks For Dummies, have sold over 5 million copies.
Content
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 Job 280
Creating a Job Estimate 281
Revising an Estimate 284
Turning an Estimate into an Invoice 284
Comparing Estimated Item Amounts with Actual
Item Amounts 286
Charging for Actual Time and Costs 287
Tracking Job Costs 288
Chapter 17: File Management Tips 289
Backing Up Is (Not That) Hard to Do 289
Backing up the quick-and-dirty way 291
Getting back the QuickBooks data you backed up 295
Using the Accountant's Copy 298
Working with Portable Files 299
Using an Audit Trail 300
Using a Closing Password 300
Chapter 18: Fixed Assets and Vehicle Lists 303
What Is Fixed-Assets Accounting? 303
Fixed-Assets Accounting in QuickBooks 305
Setting Up a Fixed Asset List 306
Adding items to the Fixed Asset list 306
Adding fixed-asset items on the fly 308
Editing items in the Fixed Asset list 309
Tracking Vehicle Mileage 310
Identifying your vehicles 310
Recording vehicle miles 312
Using the vehicle reports 313
Updating vehicle mileage rates 313
Part 5: The Part of Tens 315
Chapter 19: Tips for Handling (Almost) Ten Tricky Situations 317
Tracking Depreciation 317
Selling an Asset 318
Selling a Depreciable Asset 319
Owner's Equity in a Sole Proprietorship 320
Owner's Equity in a Partnership 320
Owner's Equity in a Corporation 321
Multiple-State Accounting 322
Getting a Loan 322
Repaying a Loan 323
Chapter 20: (Almost) Ten Secret Business Formulas 325
The First "Most Expensive Money You Can Borrow" Formula 326
The Second "Most Expensive Money You Can Borrow" Formula 328
The "How Do I Break Even?" Formula 328
The "You Can Grow Too Fast" Formula 331
How net worth relates to growth 331
How to calculate sustainable growth 332
The First "What Happens If .?" Formula 333
The Second "What Happens If .?" Formula 335
The Economic Order Quantity (Isaac Newton) Formula 337
The Rule of 72 338
Part 6: Appendixes 341
Appendix A: Installing QuickBooks in Ten Easy Steps 343
Appendix B: If Numbers Are Your Friends 347
Keying In on Profit 347
Let me introduce you to the new you 347
The first day in business 348
Look at your cash flow first 348
Depreciation is an accounting gimmick 349
Accrual-basis accounting is cool 350
Now you know how to measure profits 351
Some financial brain food 352
In the Old Days, Things Were Different 352
What Does an Italian Monk Have to Do with Anything? 355
And now for the blow-by-blow 357
Blow-by-blow, Part 2 360
How does QuickBooks help? 362
Two Dark Shadows in the World of Accounting 363
The first dark shadow 363
The second dark shadow 364
The Danger of Shell Games 364
Appendix C: Sharing QuickBooks Files 367
Sharing a QuickBooks File on a Network 367
User permissions 367
Record locking 369
Installing QuickBooks for Network Use 370
Setting User Permissions 371
User permissions in Enterprise Solutions 371
User permissions in QuickBooks Pro and Premier 373
Specifying Multiuser Mode 375
Working in Multiuser Mode 375
Index 377
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 Job 280
Creating a Job Estimate 281
Revising an Estimate 284
Turning an Estimate into an Invoice 284
Comparing Estimated Item Amounts with Actual
Item Amounts 286
Charging for Actual Time and Costs 287
Tracking Job Costs 288
Chapter 17: File Management Tips 289
Backing Up Is (Not That) Hard to Do 289
Backing up the quick-and-dirty way 291
Getting back the QuickBooks data you backed up 295
Using the Accountant's Copy 298
Working with Portable Files 299
Using an Audit Trail 300
Using a Closing Password 300
Chapter 18: Fixed Assets and Vehicle Lists 303
What Is Fixed-Assets Accounting? 303
Fixed-Assets Accounting in QuickBooks 305
Setting Up a Fixed Asset List 306
Adding items to the Fixed Asset list 306
Adding fixed-asset items on the fly 308
Editing items in the Fixed Asset list 309
Tracking Vehicle Mileage 310
Identifying your vehicles 310
Recording vehicle miles 312
Using the vehicle reports 313
Updating vehicle mileage rates 313
Part 5: The Part of Tens 315
Chapter 19: Tips for Handling (Almost) Ten Tricky Situations 317
Tracking Depreciation 317
Selling an Asset 318
Selling a Depreciable Asset 319
Owner's Equity in a Sole Proprietorship 320
Owner's Equity in a Partnership 320
Owner's Equity in a Corporation 321
Multiple-State Accounting 322
Getting a Loan 322
Repaying a Loan 323
Chapter 20: (Almost) Ten Secret Business Formulas 325
The First "Most Expensive Money You Can Borrow" Formula 326
The Second "Most Expensive Money You Can Borrow" Formula 328
The "How Do I Break Even?" Formula 328
The "You Can Grow Too Fast" Formula 331
How net worth relates to growth 331
How to calculate sustainable growth 332
The First "What Happens If .?" Formula 333
The Second "What Happens If .?" Formula 335
The Economic Order Quantity (Isaac Newton) Formula 337
The Rule of 72 338
Part 6: Appendixes 341
Appendix A: Installing QuickBooks in Ten Easy Steps 343
Appendix B: If Numbers Are Your Friends 347
Keying In on Profit 347
Let me introduce you to the new you 347
The first day in business 348
Look at your cash flow first 348
Depreciation is an accounting gimmick 349
Accrual-basis accounting is cool 350
Now you know how to measure profits 351
Some financial brain food 352
In the Old Days, Things Were Different 352
What Does an Italian Monk Have to Do with Anything? 355
And now for the blow-by-blow 357
Blow-by-blow, Part 2 360
How does QuickBooks help? 362
Two Dark Shadows in the World of Accounting 363
The first dark shadow 363
The second dark shadow 364
The Danger of Shell Games 364
Appendix C: Sharing QuickBooks Files 367
Sharing a QuickBooks File on a Network 367
User permissions 367
Record locking 369
Installing QuickBooks for Network Use 370
Setting User Permissions 371
User permissions in Enterprise Solutions 371
User permissions in QuickBooks Pro and Premier 373
Specifying Multiuser Mode 375
Working in Multiuser Mode 375
Index 377