11 Tips & Tricks for QuickBooks

QuickBooks, developed by Intuit, is a popular accounting software for small business owners who don’t have professional accounting experience. Here are some quick tricks to solving QuickBooks brought to you by Edge Tax and Accounting in Prescott.

1. You can set a floating decimal in Edit/Preferences/General/My Preferences. When “Automatically place decimal point” is selected, QuickBooks will automatically place a decimal in any number you type. If you type 22, it will be entered as $0.22 cents. If you type 2341, it will be entered as $23.41.
2. If you like several windows open at once, here is a short-cut navigation bar you can use to move from window to window: View/Open Window List.
3. When troubleshooting or sleuthing, most transactions will let you view a history. Look for the button at the top of the transaction window. For example, if you are reviewing a customer payment, at the top of the window click “History.” This will show you where and when it was deposited to the bank, and to what invoice it was credited.
4. Have you upgraded to a new version and don’t like the new interface for the online banking matching of transactions? You can use the old interface by changing settings: Edit/Preferences/Checking/Company Preferences. Then choose “Register Mode.”
5. Your Undeposited Funds account should always be zero. You can find this account in the asset section of your accounts chart. If the account is not zero, there are problems with customer payments and deposits to work out.
6. Do you have a PayPal account? It should be set up, populated and reconciled just like a conventional bank account. Monies transferred between your bank account and PayPal account should be entered like a banking transfer.
7. If your company is using more than one checking account, change the background color for easy identification of which account you are using. Open the register for any checking account. Click on the Edit Menu and select “Change Account Color.”
8. Do you reconcile your checking account during the month to online data? You can also do this in QB. Just pull up the normal bank rec window and enter today’s bank balance. Check off items that have cleared so far this month until your difference is zero. But don’t click “Reconcile Now.” Click “Leave.” You can keep doing this until you are ready to reconcile at the end of the month using the bank statement.
9. Did you create two vendor names for the same vendor by mistake? You can merge them. Go to Vendor Center, double-click on the vendor name you want to keep, copy the name in the first, top field. Now double-click on the vendor name you want to delete and paste the first vendor name. It will ask you if you want to merge.
10. When setting up Items (the products that you sell), do not make the type “Inventory” unless you are truly using the accrual inventory/COGS method. Use the type “Non-Inventory” for materials and “Service” for services.
11. Ever go to reconcile your bank account and the beginning balance in the bank reconciliation screen is different (incorrect) from your bank statement beginning balance? To find out what reconciled transactions have been edited or deleted since the last reconciliation, go to Reports/Banking/Reconciliation Discrepancy.

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