QuickBooks 2005: The Missing Manual: The Missing Manual

by Bonnie Biafore

Overview

Every company large and small wants to boost its sales, control its spending, and keep the auditors at the Internal Revenue Service happy. But, no company wants to waste time on more paperwork. These days, a growing number of companies are turning to QuickBooks accounting software not only to speed up their bookkeeping efforts, but manage their businesses more effectively.Organizations come in all shapes, sizes, and business models, so it's no surprise that accounting practices can be a convoluted road to travel. QuickBooks can handle many of the financial tasks companies face, but the price you pay is an overabundance of software features. To make the learning curve even more challenging, QuickBooks doesn't come with a manual.Fortunately, to help pave the road to accounting success, there's QuickBooks 2005: The Missing Manual, a comprehensive guide from O'Reilly that examines everything the QuickBooks Pro edition has to offer, from invoices and inventory to assets and accounts payable.With QuickBooks 2005: The Missing Manual, financial managers can quickly learn how to use the program's tools to implement and maintain critical accounting processes. By covering details in a friendly and light-hearted way, the book explains when and why a feature is useful, and then offers indispensable, relevant advice. Each page of this Missing Manual provides insightful tips and tricks to help readers become more efficient, sophisticated users no matter what the extent of their existing knowledge is.Whether you're interested in QuickBooks for its basic bookkeeping features or its more powerful, business planning tools, the only way to truly harness its power is to read the book that should have been in the box: QuickBooks 2005: The Missing Manual.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780596552572
Publisher:	O'Reilly Media, Incorporated
Publication date:	02/24/2005
Series:	Missing Manual Series
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	608
File size:	24 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Bonnie Biafore is a Project Management Professional (PMP) with more than 20 year's experience helping clients, large and small, make project management excellence part of their business strategies. She is the author of 20 books about project management, investing, personal finance, Microsoft Project, QuickBooks, and other software programs.

Table of Contents

Copyright; The Missing Credits; About the Author; About the Creative Team; Acknowledgements; The Missing Manual Series; Introduction; What's New in QuickBooks 2005; Getting to Know QuickBooks; Choosing the Right QuickBooks Product; Accounting Basics—The Important Stuff; About This Book; About the Outline; The Very Basics; About? These? Arrows; About MissingManuals.com; Part I: Getting Started; Chapter 1: Creating a Company in QuickBooks; 1.1 Opening QuickBooks; 1.2 Creating a New Company; 1.3 Steps to Take Before You Create Your Company File; 1.4 Starting the EasyStep Interview; 1.5 Income & Expenses; 1.6 Income Details; 1.7 Opening Balances; 1.8 Open an Existing Company File; 1.9 Convert a Quicken File to QuickBooks; 1.10 Restore a Backup File; 1.11 Modifying Company Information; Chapter 2: Setting Up a Chart of AccountsChart of Accounts; 2.1 Chart of AccountsobtainingObtaining a Chart of Accounts; 2.2 Account Naming and Numbering; 2.3 Creating Accounts and Subaccounts; 2.4 Modifying Accounts; 2.5 Merging accountsMerging Accounts; 2.6 AccountshidingHiding and Deleting accountsDeleting Accounts; Chapter 3: Setting Up CustomersCustomers and JobsJobs; 3.1 What to Do Before You Create Customers and Jobs; 3.2 Creating Customers in QuickBooks; 3.3 Importing and Exporting Customer Information; 3.4 Creating Jobs in QuickBooks; 3.5 Modifying Customer and Job Information; 3.6 Customersadding notes aboutAdding Notes About Customers; 3.7 Merging customer recordsMerging Customer Records; 3.8 Hiding and Deleting Customers; Chapter 4: Setting Up Invoice ItemsItems; 4.1 What Items Do; 4.2 When You Don't Need Items; 4.3 Should You Track Inventory with Items Items?; 4.4 The QuickBooks Item Types; 4.5 Planning itemsPlanning Your Sales taxitemsItems; 4.6 Creating Items; 4.7 Modifying itemsModifying Items; 4.8 ItemshidingHiding and Deleting ItemsItems; Chapter 5: Setting Up Other QuickBooks Lists; 5.1 The Vendor ListVendor List; 5.2 Classes; 5.3 Price Levels; 5.4 Customer & Vendor Profile Lists; 5.5 Memorized Transactions; 5.6 Fixed Asset Items ListFixed Asset Items; 5.7 Creating list entriesCreating and Editing List Entries; 5.8 Merging List Entries; 5.9 Hiding and Deleting Making list entries inactiveList Entries; 5.10 List entriessortingSorting Lists; 5.11 Printing listsPrinting Lists; Chapter 6: PreferencesconfiguringConfiguring Preferences to Fit Your Company; 6.1 An Introduction to Preferences; 6.2 Accounting Preferences; 6.3 PreferencescheckingChecking; 6.4 Desktop view preferencesDesktop View; 6.5 Preferencesfinance chargeFinance Charge; 6.6 General; 6.7 PreferencesjobsJobs & Estimate preferencesEstimates; 6.8 PreferencespayrollPayroll & PreferencesemployeeEmployees; 6.9 Purchase preferencesPurchases & Vendor preferencesVendors; 6.10 ChecksremindersReminders; 6.11 Reports & Graphs; 6.12 Sales & Customers; 6.13 Sales tax preferencesSales Tax; 6.14 Send Forms; 6.15 Spelling preferencesSpelling; 6.16 Tax preferencesTax: 1099; 6.17 Time Tracking; Chapter 7: Managing QuickBooks Files; 7.1 Company filewhere to storeWhere to Store Your Company Files; 7.2 Company filebacking upBacking Up Files; 7.3 Restoring backups BackupsrestoringRestoring Backups; 7.4 Verifying dataVerifying Your QuickBooks Data; 7.5 Archiving filesArchiving and Condensing filesCondensing Files; 7.6 Deleting filesDeleting Archiving filesFiles; Part II: Accounting with QuickBooks; Chapter 8: Invoicing; 8.1 Choosing the Right Type of Form; 8.2 Creating invoicesCreating Invoices; 8.3 Filling in Invoice Invoicesheader fieldsHeader Fields; 8.4 The Rest of the Invoicesheader fieldsHeader Fields; 8.5 Entering Invoice Line items Invoicesline itemsLine Items; 8.6 InvoicingInvoicing for Invoicesbackordered products Backordered productsinvoicingBackordered Products; 8.7 Memorizing recurring invoices InvoicesmemorizingMemorizing Recurring Invoices; 8.8 Estimating jobsEstimating Jobs; 8.9 EstimatescreatingCreating Progress invoicesProgress Invoices; 8.10 Producing StatementsStatements; 8.11 Finding invoicesFinding Invoicing InvoicesfindingInvoices (and other Sales Forms); 8.12 Editing invoicesEditing InvoicingInvoices and Sales Receipts; 8.13 Voiding and Deleting Editing invoices Editing sales receipts Invoicing InvoiceseditingInvoices and Sales Receipts; 8.14 Handling RefundsRefunds and CreditsCredits; 8.15 Sending invoices Sending sales formsSending Sales Forms; Chapter 9: Managing Accounts ReceivableAccounts Receivable; 9.1 The Reportsaging Aging receivableAging of Receivables; 9.2 Receiving paymentsReceiving Payments for Invoiced Income; 9.3 Applying credits to invoices Applying payments Invooooooicesapplying credits toApplying Credits to Invoices; 9.4 Discounting for Early payment discountsEarly Payment; 9.5 Working with DepositsDeposits, Down paymentsDown Payments, and RetainersRetainers; 9.6 Applying finance charges applyingFinance chargesApplying Finance Charges; 9.7 Cash salesCash Sales; 9.8 Making DepositsDeposits; Chapter 10: Paying for Expenses; 10.1 When to Pay Expenses; 10.2 Entering Bills in QuickBooks; 10.3 Automating Recurring billsRecurring Bills; 10.4 Purchasing inventoryPurchasing Inventory; 10.5 Handling ExpensesreimbursableReimbursable ExpensesExpenses; 10.6 Paying billsPaying Your Bills; 10.7 Producing Checks; 10.8 Checkswriting without entering billsWriting Checks without Entering Bills; 10.9 Paying billsPaying with Cash; 10.10 BillspayingPaying with Credit Cards; 10.11 Recording vendor creditsRecording Vendor Credits; 10.12 Paying billsPaying Sales Tax; Chapter 11: PayrollPayroll; 11.1 Choosing Undoing a reconciliationa PayrollPayroll Service; 11.2 Getting Started; 11.3 Setting Up Payroll PayrollitemsItems; 11.4 Setting Up Employee recordsEmployee Records; 11.5 Entering Historical PayrollPayroll; 11.6 Steps to Take Before Running a PayrollPayroll; 11.7 Running payrollRunning Payroll; 11.8 Paying payroll taxesPaying Payroll Taxes; 11.9 Preparing Payroll Payrolltax formsTax Forms; Chapter 12: Managing Bank Accounts, Credit Cards, and Petty Cash; 12.1 Entering transactions directly in an account registerEntering Transactions in an Account Register; 12.2 Handling Bounced checksBounced Checks; 12.3 Transferring fundsTransferring Funds; 12.4 Reconciling accountsReconciling Accounts; 12.5 Managing LoansLoans; 12.6 Tracking Petty cashPetty Cash; Chapter 13: Making Journal Entries; 13.1 Balancing Journal entriesdebitsDebits and Journal entriescredits Creditsin journal entriesCredits; 13.2 Some Reasons to Use Journal Entries; 13.3 Creating journal entries Journal entriesCreating General Journal Entries; 13.4 Filling in General Journal Entry Fields; 13.5 Checking General Journal entriesJournal Entries; 13.6 ReclassificationsReclassifications and CorrectionsCorrections; 13.7 Depreciation; Chapter 14: Working with Financial Statements; 14.1 The Profit and Loss Report; 14.2 The Statement of Cash Flow reports Cash flowreportsStatement of Cash Flow; Part III: Managing Your Business; Chapter 15: End-of-year tasksEnd-of-Year Tasks; 15.1 Viewing the Trial Balance reportsTrial Balance; 15.2 Generating Reportsyear-endYear-End Financial Reports; 15.3 Generating Tax reportsTax Reports; 15.4 1099s1099s; Chapter 16: Managing Inventory; 16.1 The QuickBooks InventoryInventory Process; 16.2 Running Inventory InventoryreportsReports; 16.3 Performing a Physical InventoryInventory; 16.4 Adjusting inventoryAdjusting Inventory in QuickBooks; Chapter 17: Tracking Time and Mileage; 17.1 Setting Up Time Tracking; 17.2 Entering Time in Timesheets TimetimesheetsTimesheets; 17.3 Setting Up the Standalone TimerTimer; 17.4 Using Timer to Track Time; 17.5 Running Time TimereportsReports; 17.6 Tracking time and mileageTracking Mileage; 17.7 Generating Mileage Reports; Chapter 18: Budgeting and Planning; BudgetstypesTypes of BudgetsBudgets; 18.2 Ways to Build Budgets; 18.3 BudgetscreatingCreating Budgets in QuickBooks; 18.4 Filling in Budget Values; 18.5 Creating Additional Customer: Job or Class BudgetsBudgets; 18.6 BudgetscopyingCopying Budgets and Creating Budgetswhat-if scenariosWhat-If Budgets; 18.7 Running Budget BudgetsreportsReports; 18.8 PlanningPlanning with QuickBooks Decision toolsDecision Tools; Chapter 19: Tracking Your Business with ReportsReports; 19.1 Finding the Right Reports; 19.2 A Quick Guide to QuickBooks Reports; 19.3 A Review of Report ReminderspreferencesPreferences; 19.4 Running Reports; 19.5 Printing and Saving Reports; 19.6 Customizing reportsCustomizing Reports; 19.7 Date ranges for reportsDate Ranges; 19.8 Subtotals for reportsSubtotals; 19.9 Customizing reportsCustomizing the ReportsColumnsColumns in Reports; 19.10 Sorting reportsSorting Customizing reportsReports; 19.11 Filtering Reports; 19.12 Report Headers and footers for reportsHeaders and Footers; 19.13 Fonts in reportsFonts and Numbers in reportsNumbers; 19.14 Memorizing reportsMemorizing Reports; 19.15 Swapping Reports Between Company Files; 19.16 Importing Report Templates; Part IV: QuickBooks Power; Chapter 20: Online Banking Services; 20.1 Setting Up Your Internet Connection; 20.2 Accounts modifyingsetting for online servicesSetting Up Your Accounts for Online Services; 20.3 Exchanging Data with Your Financial Institution; 20.4 Creating Online itemsOnline Items for Direct Connections; 20.5 Viewing downloaded transactionsViewing and Matching Downloaded Transactions; 20.6 Paying bills onlinePaying Bills Online; Chapter 21: Sharing QuickBooks Data with Other Programs; 21.1 Mail Merge to a Word DocumentMail Merge to a Word Document; 21.2 Synchronizing contactsSynchronizing Contacts; 21.3 Finding Third-Party Integrated applicationsIntegrated Applications; 21.4 Setting Up an Integrated Application; 21.5 Exporting QuickBooks Data; 21.6 Importing data from other programsImporting Data from Other Programs; 21.7 QuickBooks QuickBooksAdd-on ServicesAdd-on Services; Chapter 22: Customizing QuickBooks; 22.1 Customizing the icon barCustomizing the Icon Bar; 22.2 Customizing the icon bar Customizing the shortcut list Shortcut ListcustomizingCustomizing the Shortcut List; 22.3 Customizing forms Shortcut Listcustomizing FormscustomizingCustomizing Forms; Chapter 23: Keeping Your QuickBooks Data Secure; 23.1 Setting Administratorsetting up Setting up the administratorSetting Up the AdministratorAdministrator; 23.2 Userscreating Creating users Creating QuickBooks usersCreating QuickBooks Users; 23.3 Restricting People's Access to Features and Data; 23.4 Audit Trails; Part V: Appendices; Chapter A: Installing QuickBooksInstalling QuickBooks; A.1 Before You Install; A.2 Installing QuickBooksInstalling QuickBooks; A.3 Registering QuickBooks QuickBooksregisteringRegistering QuickBooks; A.4 Setting up QuickBooks on a Network Net profitsetting up QuickBooks on QuickBookssetting up on a networkSetting Up QuickBooks on a Network; Chapter B: Finding Help; B.1 QuickBooks Help; B.2 QuickBooksHelpHelp As You Work; B.3 Other Help & SupportHelp Resources; Chapter C: Keyboard Shortcuts; C.1 Task Shortcuts; C.2 Working with Transactions; C.3 Dates; C.4 Moving Around in QuickBooks Windows; C.5 Miscellaneous QuickBooks Shortcuts; Colophon;

After spending 10 years as a project manager and tech writer for Electronic Data Systems, McDonnell Douglas, and others, Bonnie Biafore became a full-time financial-software writer in 1997. She's a columnist for both Quicken.com and Better Investing magazine and the author of Quick Books 2005: The Missing Manual, Quicken 2006 for Starters: The Missing Manual, and The Complete Idiot's Guide to Online Personal Finance.