Navigating within QuickBooks

Navigating within QuickBooks The simplest way to navigate within QuickBooks is to work from the home page. Looking at the home page, you will notice the most common functions within QuickBooks are represented by an icon. Additionally, you will notice the icons are arranged in the order which events are likely to happen. For example, the first thing many companies do when dealing with a vendor is to create a purchase order. The purchase order icon is listed to the far left hand side of the screen. There is an arrow from the purchase orders to the receive inventory icon which is the next step in the process. Following the diagram flow you will find the icon to enter a bill against the inventory you received and then the diagram takes you to the final step of paying the bill. www.hugocpa.com/quickbooks-2010- home-page-tutorial/ 2

You can access the home page by either clicking on the HOME icon in the tool bar or by selecting COMPANY then HOME PAGE. 3

Chart of Accounts The chart of accounts is a listing of the accounts that you code individual transactions to when entering them into QuickBooks. There are five main categories of account types. 1. Assets 2. Liabilities 3. Equity 4. Income 5. Expenses The chart of accounts can be displayed by holding down CTRL and A on your keyboard or by selecting LISTS then CHART OF ACCOUNTS. 4

To set up a new account click on account at the bottom of the screen then select new or you can hold down CTRL and N at the same time. At this point you will need to select what type of account that you are setting up (i.e. asset, liability, equity, etc.). We will assume you are setting up a new income account called new home sales. You can also enter an account number, however, this is optional. Your new account can be a sub-account of an existing account by selecting the box subaccount of and then selecting an account. Do not worry about assigning a tax-line mapping as your CPA will know what line the account should appear on your tax return. Next select SAVE & CLOSE. 5

Your new account should now be visible in the chart of accounts. A lot of thought should go into designing your company s chart of accounts to enable you to track what is important in managing your business. Having a detailed chart of accounts and being consistent with how you record various transactions will allow you to compare one period to another period. For example, if you have an office phone and a cell phone I would recommend that you have two accounts, one for the office phone and one for the cell phone. This will allow you to identify any variances in the charges each month. Staying with the above example, I would recommend that you setup your utility accounts as follows: 6

The same holds true for income items. It is advisable to have different income accounts instead of just one account called sales where all sales would be recorded. By having the sub accounts, you could tell by looking at your profit and loss how much of your sales were due to new home sales and how much to design income, etc. This will allow you to know where to focus your sales efforts. To make an account inactive simply right click on the account and select EDIT ACCOUNT. Then click on ACCOUNT IS INACTIVE at the bottom of the screen. If you want to make the account active again, just right click on the account again and uncheck the box. www.hugocpa.com/chart-ofaccounts/ 7

Items Items are the services and/or products that you sell in your business. Items can be added or edited from the item list. At the bottom of the Item List click on ITEM then click on NEW. Then select the item type (i.e. service, inventory part, non-inventory part, etc.). Let s assume you are setting up a service item. First, you will enter the produce item name or number. Then, you have the option to make the item a sub-item by selecting the SUB-ITEM OF box. If the service is provided by a subcontractor or partner, then you need to check the box below. 8

The only difference between a service being provided by a subcontractor or partner is that you will have to enter in a description on the purchase transaction and select an expense account. After you have entered in the cost of the service and the expense account, you will enter a description to appear on the sales transactions. The description you enter for the purchase transactions and sales transactions can always be overridden when entering a bill/purchase order or a sales receipt/invoice. You will then need to enter in the sales price of the item and a tax code and income account. Setting up an inventory part is basically the same as setting up a service with a couple exceptions. You can enter a manufacturer s part number, which will allow you to cross reference your item number with the part number from the manufacturer. Additionally, you will need to enter an inventory asset account. This is the account that will be increased when you receive your inventory. Also, notice that the number on hand is displayed along with the average cost. www.hugocpa.com/items/ 9

Adding Customers To add customers go to the Customer Center. From within the Customer Center just click on NEW CUSTOMER & JOB drop down menu then click NEW CUSTOMER. This will open a form to enter a new customer. On the screen below, you will notice there are four tabs (Address Info, Additional Info, Payment Info and Job Info). On the address info tab, you will enter the customer s name, address phone number, etc. One thing to note on this screen is the ability to send an invoice to one address and a bill to a different address. For example, sometimes companies will receive their inventory at a warehouse and the billing address is the accounting department which is in a separate location. 10

The additional info tab contains additional information regarding your customer. 11

Customer Type Allows you to organize your customers in a way that is meaningful to your business. For example, you could have a customer type for each way you obtain new customers (i.e. phone book, referral, radio, television). Terms Enter the payment terms you have established with your customer. Common terms are due upon receipt, net 15, net 30, 2% 10 net 30. Rep If your customer has been assigned a representative from your business to deal with. Preferred Send Method Allows you to establish which method your customer prefers to receive their invoices. Tax Code You can enter if the customer is subject to sales tax and under which jurisdiction. Also, you can enter a resale certificate number if the customer is going to resale your product. Price level This allows you to deviate from standard pricing for a customer or group of customers. This is a very powerful tool. Custom Fields By selecting the define fields button you can enter additional fields to track specific information regarding your customer. For example, if you want to track the birthdays of your customers and employees you can do that by putting a checkmark in their respective columns. 12

The Payment Info tab contains information regarding your customers means of payment. You can enter their credit card information and give them an account number and establish a credit limit. If you establish a credit limit of $10,000 for a customer and that customer currently has a balance of $9,000 and you try to enter an invoice for $3,000, QuickBooks will prompt you that the customer is over their credit limit. You can override this feature by clicking DISREGARD. Finally, the Job Info tab contains information on the job status. 13

Another way to add a customer is just to go to either the invoice screen or the sales receipt screen and add the customer on the fly. In the customer field just start typing the customer s name and click TAB you will get the following message. From there, you can either select QUICK ADD and the customer is setup with only their name or you can select SET UP and then it will take you in the new customer screen where you can all the customer s information. www.hugocpa.com/setting-up-a-customer/ 14

Sales When handling sales with your customers, there are two options available to process your sale. When a customer is present and paying in cash for the services or products, a sales receipt should be generated. To generate a sales receipt, from the Home screen, click the Create Sales Receipts icon. This will take you to the sales receipt form. 15

When filling out the Sales Receipt, it is important to have entered your customer s name and information in the Customer Center, as this will prefill the sales receipt with the appropriate information. Next, you will select the item you are selling. 16

Note: if you entered an amount in the rate screen when you set-up your item then it will automatically pre-fill on the form Verify that the correct selection is made concerning a taxable or nontaxable sale and that the amount is correct. Then select whether you will print or e-mail the receipt. After you have made your selection, click Save & Close. To print or e-mail your receipt, select FILE then PRINT FORMS or SEND FORMS. When a customer needs to receive an invoice for a purchase, there are two steps to follow: 1. Create the Invoice 17

2. Receive the Payment To create an invoice from the Home screen click CREATE INVOICES. Follow the same steps you followed when filling out a sales receipt. After you click SAVE AND CLOSE, you are finished with the first step. When you receive a payment for the invoice, select RECEIVE PAYMENTS on the Home screen Click the drop down box for the Received From screen and select the customer that will be making the payment. 18

In the middle of the screen, a list of invoices will appear. Select the invoice that is being paid. After selecting this invoice, the amount above will pre-fill with the whole amount owed. If you are only receiving a partial payment, you can change this is in the amount screen. After entering the Pmt. Method and Check #, click SAVE & CLOSE. After you have completed this process, you have successfully completed the billing of a customer. In order to ensure the accuracy of recording a deposit, QuickBooks will place the amounts you receive from invoices and sales receipts in an undeposited funds account. To move the payment from the undeposited funds account to the bank account, click RECORD DEPOSITS on the Home screen. 19

At the next screen select the payments that need to be deposited to the checking account. After you click OK, you will be recording the deposit that will be made into the appropriate checking account. On the deposit screen be sure to check DEPOSIT TO ACCOUNT and verify that the correct account is selected. Also, fill in the Received From, Chk No. and Pmt Meth. fields. The remaining fields will automatically be filled. If you choose to receive cash back from the deposit, you may utilize the fields on the bottom left hand corner of the screen. 20

After filling in these fields, click SAVE & CLOSE and the money will now appear in the bank account selected. www.hugocpa.com/sales/ 21

Price Levels Price levels can be used to facilitate charging a group of customers a lower or higher price than your standard price. For example, if an agreement is reached with a commercial customer to provide them a 10% discount on all their purchases because of the volume of business they do with your company, this can be setup in QuickBooks to be handled automatically. You can find the price level list under the Lists heading at the top of the screen. To setup a new price level, just click on the PRICE LEVEL button at the bottom of the screen and click NEW. 22

Next, simply give the price level a name and select the Price Level Type, i.e. Fixed % or Per Item. Then select DECREASE or INCREASE, depending if you are charging more or less to the customer in this price level. Finally, enter the percentage of the decrease or increase and what to do if there is a rounding issue. 23

Once you have the price level established, the next step is to assign customers to the price level. This is done in the Customer Center. Select the customer you would like to assign a price level to and then double click the customer s name. Select the Additional Info tab and the click the drop down arrow next to Price Level and select the price level you want to assign to this customer and click OK. From this point forward, whenever you prepare an estimate, invoice or a sales receipt for this customer, the item/service will be reduced by the amount you set in the price level screen. The great thing about assigning a price level to a customer is that when the customer buys something, the person that is entering the invoice does not have to remember to give that person their discount. Application Price levels can be setup for trade organizations, such as a Chamber of Commerce or other professional organizations. You could setup a price level for that organization and then go into each customer s profile that is a member of that organization and assign them to that price level. Also, this is commonly used for customers that purchase in bulk where you will make up the loss in margin based on the volume of business that customer does with your company. www.hugocpa.com/price-levels/ 24

Adding Vendors To add vendors go to the Vendor Center. From within the Vendor Center just click on the NEW VENDOR drop down menu then click NEW VENDOR. This will open a form to enter a new customer. On the screen below, you will notice there are three tabs (Address Info, Additional Info, and Account Prefill). 25

Enter all of the customer s contact information on the above screen. One thing to note is that QuickBooks allows you to enter a different name to print on the check. In some cases a vendor may request you make the check payable to a specific company name that is different from the company name you have setup as a vendor. Within the Additional Info tab,n you can enter the account number the vendor has assigned to you along with the terms and credit limit. Also, you can note if the vendor is eligible for a 1099 and their tax identification number. You can also add custom fields for additional information that you want to track about your vendors, but there is not a place in QuickBooks to record that information. Finally, you can assign a vendor type (i.e. consultant, sub-contractor, tax agency, supplies, etc.). From the Account Prefill tab, you can select specific accounts that will be used as a default general ledger account when you enter a bill for a particular vendor. For example, if you are setting up your CPA firm you would select accounting fees on the drop down menu. 26

Just like customers, vendors can be setup by going to the Enter Bill screen and typing in the vendor s name and then hitting the TAB key. You will receive the following message. Hit Quick Add if you want to add the vendor name into your vendor list. If you want to setup the vendor with their mailing address, phone number, etc. select SET UP. www.hugocpa.com/vendors/ 27

Entering & Paying Bills To enter and pay a bill, you must first enter the bill from the Enter Bills window. To access this window, just click on the icon that is located on the Home screen. Entering Bills Once you are in the enter bills section, you will first enter the vendor (the sender) of the bill. Continue to fill in the criteria that is required, such as Date that you received the bill, Reference number, Amount Due, Terms, and the Bill Due date. 28

Located below the bill, you will see a section where you will assign an account for the bill. You can use more than one account if needed. You can also enter items such as inventory or other items from the Items list, but this must be entered on the Items tab which is located to the right of the Expenses tab. Once you have finished entering your bill, and all the required fields have been entered, click the SAVE AND NEW button to enter another bill or the SAVE AND CLOSE button if you are finished. If you have a recurring bill that is the same amount each time, you can right click and MEMORIZE THE BILL. This will give you the option to have the bill automatically entered for you. 29

Paying Bills From the Home screen, click on the PAY BILLS icon. You will only pay bills from this screen if you have previously entered them in the enter bills section. You will not see any bills here that have not been entered. You can filter and sort the way the bills are shown on the screen. Also you can show all bills or only the ones that are due on or before a particular date. 30

To pay a bill(s), first select which one(s) from the left side of the screen by clicking in the box next to the bill. Make sure there is a check mark in the box or the bill will not be paid. Next, you will select the Payment Date and the Payment Method that you will be using. This is located at the bottom of the Pay Bills screen. Notice that there are three methods of payments to choose from. If you choose to pay by check, then you have to also choose which bank account that you will be paying from. Also, you have the option of assigning a check number to the bill payment (this is done when using hand written checks) or marking the check to be printed from your printer. If you choose the credit card method of payment then you must choose which credit card to use. This credit card must be set up in the chart of accounts before you can choose it. If you choose the online bank payment, you must have enabled the use of online banking features through QuickBooks prior to this option. 31

When you have selected the date, payment method and payment account, you will click on the PAY SELECTED BILLS button located at the bottom right corner of the screen. A payment summary will appear showing the Payment Date, Payment Account, Payment Method, and a list of the bills that were paid. You can either print out the checks or return to the pay bills screen by selecting the PAY MORE BILLS option or the DONE option if you have finished. Do not use the Enter Bills, and Pay Bills screens if you are paying a bill the same day you received the bill. Simply use the Write Checks screen for this situation. www.hugocpa.com/paying-bills-inquickbooks/ 32

Purchase Orders Purchase orders are used to order inventory from suppliers. Purchase orders are a non-posting transaction thus when you enter a purchase order it will not appear on your financial statements. You can run a report on all your open purchase orders by clicking on REPORTS then PURCHASES and select OPEN PURCHASE ORDERS. To enter a purchase order, go to your Home screen and click on the Purchase Orders icon. 33

This will open up the Purchase Order screen where you can select the vendor you are ordering from and the Items and Quantity you are ordering. You can also tag the order to a specific customer. Once you have the information entered, select SAVE & CLOSE or SAVE & NEW. To receive the inventory from a purchase order, go to the Home screen and click on the drop down box by the Receive Inventory icon. Then select if you are receiving the inventory and the bill or receiving inventory without the bill. If you select receiving the inventory with the bill, this will automatically add the bill to the accounts payable system. 34

Enter the vendor s name and, if there is an open purchase order for that vendor, the following dialogue box will appear. If you are entering a bill related the receipt of inventory from an open purchase order, click YES and a list of open purchase orders for that vendor will appear. Check next to the purchase order you want to receive against and select OK. This will open up a bill that will have the items you ordered on your purchase order already pre-filled. If you did not receive everything you ordered, you will need to change the quantity to what was actually received. 35

If there was a shipping charge on the bill, go to the Expenses tab and enter it there. Select SAVE & CLOSE or SAVE & NEW to enter the transaction. www.hugocpa.com/creating-a-purchase-order-and-receivinginventory/ 36

Transfer of Funds To transfer funds from a checking account into a savings, payroll, or any other type of bank account: 1. From the Banking Menu located on the top tool bar, select TRANSFER OF FUNDS. 2. Enter the date of the transfer in the Date field. 3. Within the Transfer Funds From field; select the bank account that you are removing the funds out of. 4. Within the Transfer Funds To field; select the bank account that you are depositing the funds into. 5. Enter the dollar amount in the Transfer Amount $ field. 37

6. In the Memo field enter the reason for the transfer. 7. Select SAVE & CLOSE or, if you have another transfer, select SAVE & NEW. You can also transfer funds to and from petty cash and a bank account, but you cannot transfer funds between A/R and A/P accounts. www.hugocpa.com/transfer-funds-between-bank-accounts-inquickbooks/ 38

Credit Cards When utilizing a credit card to make purchases for you business, it is important to remember to set up your credit card account in QuickBooks in order to accurately record your charges. A credit card is treated similarly to a bank account in QuickBooks. To set up your credit card in QuickBooks, go to the chart of accounts. You may get to the Chart of Accounts by typing CTRL+A or clicking List then selecting CHART OF ACCOUNTS. Once you reach the chart of accounts you will need to set up a new account. You may type CTRL+N, or select Account in the bottom left hand corner, then select NEW. 39

On the next screen, you will indicate that you are setting up a credit card by choosing the Credit Card account type. After selecting this account type, click on CONTINUE. Next, you will want to choose the account name for this credit card. You can choose a name that will describe the function of the credit card. (i..e business card, work credit card or XYZ bank card, etc) 40

Lastly, you will choose SAVE & CLOSE or ALT+A. You have completed the set up of your credit card and it should appear in your chart of accounts. Next you will need to enter the charges you made on your credit card. This will be done by selecting the HOME button in the top left corner. Then choose enter credit card charges. 41

Now you are ready to enter your charges for your credit card. The first step is to make sure that you have the correct account chosen in the top left hand corner. After you have verified this information, you can click on the Purchased From line and enter the store where the purchase took place. Press the TAB key and enter the total amount of the purchase. Then enter the account for the type of expense incurred. 42

Click SAVE & CLOSE. When you receive your credit card bill, you will need to reconcile your bill for the credit card by utilizing the reconciliation feature. This feature is covered in detail in another chapter. You can locate this feature by selecting BANKING then RECONCILE. Then make sure you elect to reconcile the credit card. Once you have completed your reconciliation, you will be given the choice to pay the bill or write a bill for payment later. If you choose to write a bill, then be sure to go back later and pay the bill as discussed in the chapter on bill payments. www.hugocpa.com/credit-cards/ 43

Reconciliations Bank and Credit Cards From the Home screen select the Reconciliation icon. To begin reconciliation, you will need your statements from your bank and/or your credit card. 44

1. Select the account that you are going to reconcile. 2. Input the date shown on the statement. 3. Compare the beginning balance displayed on the screen to your statement. 4. Enter the ending balance from your statement. 5. Enter any service charges or interest earned in the appropriate fields. 6. Select the continue button. 7. Compare the checks and debits displayed within the reconciliation screen against the withdrawals shown on your statement. Place a checkmark next to the transactions that match to mark it as cleared.. If there is a transaction that cleared for a different amount, you can edit the transaction from the reconciliation screen. To edit a transaction from this screen, select the GO TO button when the selected transaction is highlighted. Change the transaction to match the amount that shows on the statement and save the changes. Return to the Reconciliation screen. 45

8. Match and clear the deposits and credits in the same manner as the checks and debits. 9. When all transactions have been matched and cleared, look at the difference amount located at the bottom right corner of the Reconciliation screen. If the amount displayed is 0.00, then you are ready to finish the reconciliation. Select RECONCILE NOW and then you can display or print a reconciliation report. If the amount displayed is NOT 0.00, then you need to correct the transactions that do not match or add any transactions that are missing. Continue this step until the difference amount is 0.00 If you choose to reconcile even if the difference is NOT 0.00, QuickBooks makes an adjustment to balance the account. You should only choose this option if the difference amount is insignificant. 10. If you cannot finish the reconciliation, or you need to leave the reconciliation screen and resume the reconciliation at a later time, select the LEAVE button. QuickBooks will save the process that you started and you can come back at a later time to pick up where you left off. 46

If you are having difficulty balancing your account to the statement; compare the number of items and amounts cleared shown at the bottom left of the reconciliation screen to the amounts shown on your statement. This will help to narrow the differences to either the checks and debits side or the deposits and credits side. (Or both). This process works for both Bank and Credit Card reconciliations. www.hugocpa.com/reconciliations/ 47

Adding Fixed Assets With QuickBooks Premier you can keep a detailed listing of your fixed assets by using the fixed asset item list in QuickBooks. From here you can see all your fixed assets and add new fixed assets. 48

You can modify how the list looks by right clicking in the list and selecting CUSTOMIZE COLUMNS. To add a new fixed asset, you can right click in the list and select NEW or just click on ITEM at the bottom of the screen and select NEW. 49

Once you are in the new fixed asset screen, you can enter information about the asset. See picture below for an example of the new fixed asset screen and the information you can enter. Most of the information you can enter on the new fixed asset screen is pretty basic, however, the one area that people seem to have the most trouble with is which asset account to assign the asset. Most companies will have several broad categories of fixed assets on their balance sheet such as: Furniture and Equipment Vehicles Buildings and Improvements Construction Equipment Land 50

On you balance sheet you want to see a total of all your fixed assets in each category. However, your fixed asset item list will keep the detail that makes up the totals for each category. You will still need to record the actual purchase of the asset in QuickBooks. For example, if you purchased a new vehicle for your business and you wrote a check for it, you would simply code the check to the vehicle account. However if you took a loan to purchase the vehicle then you could record that transaction by making a journal entry. If you have several loans setup, you might want to include the last four digits of the loan number in the name so you can distinguish the loans. 51

There is a loan manager under banking (see the section on setting up loans for information on using the loan manager). For example, if a company decided to buy a new 2010 Chevy truck to use for delivery. The company got a loan and purchased the truck. What steps do you need to take to account for this transaction in the QuickBooks file? First, the company will need to set up the asset that it is purchasing. To set up the asset, begin in the Chart of Accounts (press CTRL+A). At the Chart of Accounts screen, click the ACCOUNT button at the bottom right-hand corner to start a new account or press CTRL + N. 52

Next, choose Fixed Asset as the type of account you are setting up and click CONTINUE. On this screen, enter the type of Fixed Asset you are purchasing. In this case, it is a 2010 Chevy Truck. Then click SAVE & CLOSE. Now that you have recorded the asset, you can add the loan. In this example, assume they borrowed $15,000. You will need to add a Long Term Liability to accurately reflect this debt. 53

From the Chart of Accounts screen, (CTRL+A) you will select ACCOUNT, then NEW. On this screen, the Account Type will be Loan. On the next screen, change the account type to Long Term Liability and then type in the account name. In the example, we used 2010 Chevy Loan. You want to type whatever name will identify that loan to the corresponding asset it purchased or make it easily recognizable. Now that the Chart of Accounts reflects the loan and the fixed asset, you are ready to set up the loan amount. From the Chart of Accounts screen (CTRL+A) double click on the 2010 Chevy Loan. 54

This should take you to the loan register for the Chevy Loan. On this screen, you will make the entry to reflect the loan amount. IMPORTANT NOTE: Be sure when you are selecting the Fixed Asset we set up in the earlier step, that you do not select the 2010 Chevy loan. To make sure this is set up correctly, go back to the Chart of Accounts and look at the loan and the fixed asset. Each should have a balance of $15,000. 55

Now, when the company is ready to make a payment on the loan, it will need to go to the Write Checks screen (CTRL + W) and fill out the check for the payment amount, in this case it is $400.00. IMPORTANT NOTE: If you look on the bill from the bank it should tell you how much of your payment went to interest and how much you paid on your loan. Be sure that your payment is broken up according to these amounts. Let s summarize the steps for handling a loan transaction 1. Add the asset you are purchasing 2. Add the loan you received 3. Add the amount of the loan in the loan register 4. Check the Chart of Accounts to make sure you have a balance in your fixed asset account and the loan account. 5. Write a check for the payments and make sure that you break the payment up between Interest Expense and Principal Amount paid. 56

After you have completed the first three steps you can use the loan manager in QuickBooks to help manage the payments for your loan. This feature will allow you to track your payment schedules, make payments and run loan scenarios if you are considering refinancing, changing interest rate or the amount of your payment. It also fills out the write check screen with the appropriate payment amount and an estimate of principal and interest paid for each payment. www.hugocpa.com/fixed-assets/ 57

Classes Classes can be used in QuickBooks to track the profit and loss from a specific segment of your business. If you run a profit and loss statement, you will see the results of the entire company. However, if you run a profit and loss statement by class, you will see the profit and loss for each class individually. The first thing that must be done is to turn on the class feature in QuickBooks. To do this, select EDIT and then PREFERENCES. Next, click on ACCOUNTING on the left hand menu. Then click on the Company Preferences tab. Then select USE CLASS TRACKING and PROMPT TO ASSIGN CLASSES. 58

Application For example, assume you are a construction company that does new construction and remodel work. You could setup a class called new construction and a class called remodel. The profit and loss below shows gross profit to be $832,878.25 for the entire company. By looking at this, you would think your entire business is doing very well. In reality, only one part of your business is doing well while the other part is lagging. If you are using the class system in your QuickBooks file you can run a profit and loss statement by class and see specifically how each segment of your business is doing. The profit and loss by class will show you the revenue, cost of goods sold and general and administrative expenses for each class of your business. Upon further review of your company s financial statements, you will discover that new construction makes-up 90% of the gross profit while remodels are only 10%. Consideration needs to be given as to whether or not it is a good use of resources to continue doing remodeling jobs. Maybe a change in the pricing structure should be considered. www.hugocpa.com/classes/ 59

Basic Financial Reports QuickBooks has many reports that help you to view your company s progress, track what customers owe you, and how much you owe to your vendors. All of these reports can be found in the Report Center located on the tool bar at the top of your screen. If you do not have the icon on your tool bar, you can also choose REPORTS on the beige bar across the top of the tool bar. Once you are in the Report Center, you will notice a list of reports on the left-hand side of the screen. Within the Company & Financial tab, you will have many reports to choose from. These reports will help you determine how well your company is doing Select the PROFIT & LOSS STANDARD report. 60

This is also called an Income Statement. This report summarizes your income and expenses so you can see if your company has made a profit or a loss for a specific period of time. Each report has the option to be modified so that the user can change the dates that are displayed, or to compare these figures to previous periods. To see a list of the transactions that make up an amount on the report, double click on the amount that is in question. 61

Another report that is commonly used is the Balance Sheet which is also found under the Company & Financial tab. This report shows you a financial snapshot of your company at a certain time. This is a great report to show the value of your company by showing the balances of your bank accounts, assets, payables, loans and equity. The reason for this report is to calculate the net worth or equity of your company by subtracting the liabilities, such as payables and loans from the assets such as equipment, amounts in bank accounts, and accounts receivable amounts and also the net income. The default date of the report is always today s date, but this can be modified to reflect a different date. 62

The Statement of Cash Flows is also found under the Company & Financial Tab. This reports shows you all of the cash inflow (received) to the company and all of the cash outflow (spent) from the company during a specific period of time. The activity is allocated to three activity types which are Operating, Investing, and Financing activities. The time period can be modified to reflect different dates. The Customers and Receivables tab has many reports that are very useful for determining what your customers owe you and who is overdue. Some of the reports under this tab include Accounts Receivable Aging Summary, Accounts Receivable Graph, Open Invoice Report, and Collections Report. Customer specific reports are also available such as Customer Balance Summary, Customer Balance Detail, Unbilled Costs by Job, and Transaction List by Customer. All are valuable reports for the day-to-day operations of your company. 63

The Vendors & Payables tab also has many useful reports to reflect what vendors you owe and how much you owe them. Reports listed under this tab include Accounts Payable Aging Summary, Accounts Payable Graph, Vendor balance Summary, Unpaid Bills Detail and Transaction List by Vendor. www.hugocpa.com/ basic-financial-reports/ 64

Custom Reports Many times it is necessary to modify existing reports to obtain the information needed. QuickBooks allows the user to customize reports to a given need. In order to effectively utilize this tool it is important to know what type of information is needed. For instance, if a user needed to see a list of any balances that were outstanding to one vendor, a report could be customized utilizing the A/P aging summary. From the Reports menu select REPORTS, VENDORS & PAYABLES and then A/P AGING SUMMARY. From the report screen, select the MODIFY REPORT button in the top left corner. 65

This will display the multiple ways that the report can be customized. Select the Filters tab. Select the Name filter and locate the vendor in question. 66

By selecting this filter, the user would get the following results. This feature in QuickBooks can be used to modify any financial report available. By understanding what reports are available and utilizing the Modify Report tab, a customized report reflecting needed information can become both efficient and very effective. www.hugocpa.com/ customfinancial-reports/ 67

Backing-up Your QuickBooks File When you are working in QuickBooks it is important that you remember to SAVE a backup copy of your company file. The process of backing up can create a reference point for your company file. The four steps to create a backup can be summarized as follows: Select save copy or backup Assign the type of backup Verify the file location Elect a backup name Select save Go to FILE and choose the option to SAVE COPY OR BACKUP. 68

Assign the type of backup Choose LOCAL BACKUP and select that you would like to save the file now. Keep in mind that you can schedule your file for backups at a particular time in the future if you prefer. 69

Verify the file location Make sure that you know the location that the file will be saved so that you can locate the file if you need to restore it. If you are using an external hard drive or a thumb drive, make sure it is connected before you click next. 70

Click BROWSE to select the location you will store your backup file. If you are using a thumb drive or an external hard drive, it should appear under MY COMPUTER. Select the drive or folder you would like to use to save your file and click OK. 71

Elect a backup name By default, QuickBooks will include a date and timestamp on the file that you are saving. If desired, you may change the file name, but it is not recommended that you remove the date and timestamp. The date and timestamp create a reference point for when you need to restore your file. Click SAVE. After you click SAVE, wait for QuickBooks to complete the backup. You have just created a backup copy of your file. 72

If you need to restore you file, you will need to select FILE and then RESTORE A BACKUP COPY. It is important to note that you will only be able to restore a file that has the letters.qbb at the end of the file name. Once you have chosen to restore a backup, you will need to navigate to the location where you saved your backup file. Click the file that you would like to restore. 73

Choose LOCAL BACKUP and click NEXT. If your file is on a thumb/flash drive or external hard drive, it will be under the My Computer tab. After you locate and click on your file, click OPEN. Allow QuickBooks to complete the restoration process. You have successfully restored your backup file. www.hugocpa.com/ backing-up-your-quickbooks-file/ 74