1. Quickbooks Startup And Quick Reference Guide
2. Quick Reference Guide Amadeus

Quantity: Price: 1-49 $5.75 50-99 $4.60 100-499 $4.20 500-999 $3.85 1000+ $3.45 Qty: Product Description Designed with the busy professional in mind, this 4-page laminated quick reference guide provides step-by-step instructions in QuickBooks Pro 2017. When you need an answer fast, you will find it right at your fingertips. Durable and easy-to-use, quick reference cards are perfect for individuals, businesses and as supplemental training materials.

Chapter 1. Creating a Company File A company file is where you store your company’s financial records in QuickBooks, so it’s the first thing you need to work on in the program. You can create a company file from scratch or convert records that you previously kept in a different small-business accounting program, Quicken, or even another edition of QuickBooks like QuickBooks for Mac. If you’re new to bookkeeping, another approach is to use a file that someone else created. For example, if you’ve worked with an accountant to set up your company, she might provide you with a QuickBooks company file already configured for your business so you can hit the ground running. This chapter starts by explaining how to launch your copy of QuickBooks. Then, if you need to create your company file yourself, you’ll learn how to use the QuickBooks Setup dialog box or the EasyStep Interview to get started (and find out which other chapters explain how to finish the job).

If you’re converting your records from another program, this chapter provides some hints for making the transition as smooth as possible. Finally, you’ll learn how to open a company file, update one to a new version of QuickBooks, and modify basic company information. Desktop icon.

Double-click the desktop shortcut that QuickBooks created during installation. Windows taskbar. The fastest way to open QuickBooks is to click its icon on the Windows taskbar, shown in —but first you have to put it there. To do that in Windows 7 and Windows 8.1, right-click the QuickBooks desktop icon and then, on the shortcut menu that appears, choose “Pin to Taskbar.” If you’re still using Windows 8 (not 8.1), pinning the QuickBooks desktop icon to the taskbar takes a few more steps: Point the cursor at the screen’s upper-right corner to display the Charms menu, click the Search icon (the magnifying glass), type quickbooks in the Search box, and then press Enter. When you see the QuickBooks icon, right-click it, and then choose “Pin to Taskbar.”. Figure 1-1. Windows’ taskbar keeps your favorite icons near at hand. The taskbar is easy to reach, because program windows don’t hide it the way they do desktop shortcuts.

You can rename desktop icons, as was done here. To do that, right-click the icon, and then choose Rename on the shortcut menu. Type the label you want to use, and then press Enter. Start menu.

You can also launch QuickBooks from the Start menu. In Windows 7, click Start→QuickBooks Pro 2015 (or QuickBooks Premier 2015). If QuickBooks isn’t already listed in the Start menu, choose Start→All Programs→QuickBooks→QuickBooks Pro 2015 (or QuickBooks Premier 2015). In Windows 8, point the cursor at the screen’s upper-right corner to display the Charms menu, click Start, and then click the QuickBooks icon on the screen’s right.

And in Windows 8.1, you can right-click the QuickBooks desktop icon and choose “Pin to Start.” The first time you launch QuickBooks, you’re greeted by the QuickBooks Setup dialog box, whose sole purpose is to help you create a company file in one way or another. The rest of this chapter explains how to create a company file, and then how to open company files you create. After that, you’ll be ready to dive into bookkeeping. Before You Create a Company File If you’ve just started a business and want to inaugurate your books with QuickBooks, your prep work will be a snap. If, on the other hand, you have existing records for your business, you have a few small tasks to complete before you jump into QuickBooks’ setup.

Whether your books are paper ledgers or electronic files in another program, gather your company information before you open QuickBooks. That way, you can hunker down in front of your computer and crank out a company file in record time. This section explains what you need to create a company file in QuickBooks. Choosing a Start Date To keep your entire financial history at your fingertips, you need to put every transaction and speck of financial information in your QuickBooks company file. But you have better things to do than enter years’ worth of checks, invoices, and deposits, so the comprehensive approach is practical only if you just recently started your company. The more realistic approach is to enter your financial data into QuickBooks starting as of a specific date and, from then on, add all new transactions to QuickBooks. The date you choose is called the start date.

(The start date isn’t something that you enter in a field in QuickBooks; it’s simply the earliest transaction date in your company file.) You should choose it carefully. Here are your start date options and the ramifications of each one. The last day of the previous fiscal year.

The best choice is to fill in your records for the entire current fiscal year. To do that, use the last day of your company’s previous fiscal year as the company file’s start date. That way, the account balances on your start date are like the ending balances on a bank statement, and you’re ready to start bookkeeping fresh on the first day of the fiscal year. Yes, you have to enter checks, credit card charges, invoices, payments, and other transactions that have happened since the beginning of your fiscal year (see the box on ), but that won’t take as much time as you think. And you’ll regain those hours when tax time rolls around, as you nimbly generate the reports you need to complete your tax returns. If more than half of your fiscal year has already passed, the best approach is to be patient and postpone your QuickBooks setup until the next fiscal year.

(Intuit releases new versions of QuickBooks in October or November each year for just that reason.) But waiting isn’t always feasible. In cases like that, go with the next option in this list. Tip For practice, you can start entering transactions that occur after the closing date of your bank statement from the month before you begin entering transactions in QuickBooks. For example, if you plan to start tracking your business finances in QuickBooks starting January 1, grab the bank statement whose closing date is before that (December 15, say). In QuickBooks, record all the transactions that occurred between that statement’s opening and closing dates—November 16 through December 15, in this example.

Then you can practice reconciling that statement with your QuickBooks records. The last day of the previous fiscal period. The next best start date is the last day of the previous fiscal quarter (or fiscal month, at the very least). Since your company file won’t contain a full year’s worth of detail if you go this route, you might have to switch between QuickBooks and your old filing cabinets to prepare your tax returns and look up financial information. Add purchase transactions, such as purchase orders, bills, bill payments, checks, credit card charges, and so on. By entering these transactions first, you’ll have inventory information and reimbursable expenses ready to go when you start entering invoices and other sales transactions.

If you charge customers for hours worked or pay employees by the hour, then enter timesheet information next. By doing so, you can create invoices or generate paychecks for hours worked. Enter sales transactions, such as sales receipts, invoices, and credit memos.

You need these transactions in place before you can record customer payments or process sales tax. Record customer payments and other deposits. Record sales tax payments for the goods and services you sold. If you use QuickBooks for payroll, add payroll transactions. Enter other bank transactions, such as transfers and bank fees. Account Balances and Transactions Unless you begin using QuickBooks when you start your business, to get things rolling, you need to know your account balances as of your selected start date. For example, if your checking account has $342 at the end of the year, that value goes into QuickBooks during setup.

You also need every transaction that’s happened since the start date you chose—expenses you’ve incurred, sales you’ve made, payroll and tax transactions, and so on—to establish your asset, liability, equity, income, and expense accounts. So dig that information out of your existing accounting system (or shoebox).

(If you don’t want to record individual transactions, the box on tells you how to quickly enter your account totals as of a specific date.) Here are the balances and transactions you need and where you can find them in your records. Cash balances. For each bank account you use in your business (checking, savings, money market, and so on), find the bank statements with statement dates as close to—but earlier than—the start date of your QuickBooks company file. Hop onto your bank’s website to identify the transactions that haven’t yet cleared; you’ll need them to enter transactions, unless you download transactions from your bank. If you have petty cash lying around, count it and use that number to set up your petty cash account. Tip For Subchapter C corporations, Subchapter S corporations, and partnerships, the balance sheet that you included with your previous year’s tax return is a great starting point for account balances.

Your tax return also shows your federal tax ID number, which you’ll need, too. Customer balances. If customers owe you money, pull the paper copy of every unpaid invoice or statement out of your filing cabinet (or find the electronic versions you saved on your computer) so you can give QuickBooks what it needs to calculate your Accounts Receivable balance. If you didn’t keep copies, you can ask your customers for copies of the invoices they haven’t paid or simply create invoices in QuickBooks to match the payments you receive. Vendor balances. If your company thinks handing out cash before you have to is more painful than data entry, then find the bills you haven’t yet paid and get ready to enter them in QuickBooks so you can generate your Accounts Payable balance.

(Or, to reduce the number of transactions you have to enter, simply pay those outstanding bills and then record the bill payments in QuickBooks.). Asset values. When you own assets such as buildings or equipment, their value depreciates over time. If you included a balance sheet with the tax return you filed for your company, you can find asset values and accumulated depreciation on your most recent tax return (yet another reason to start using QuickBooks at the beginning of your fiscal year).

If you haven’t filed a tax return for your company yet, an asset’s value is typically the price you paid for it. Liability balances. Find the current balances you owe on any business loans or mortgages. If you stock products that you sell and track them as inventory, you need to know how many items you had in stock as of the start date, how much you paid for them, and what you expect to sell them for. Payroll services are a great value for the money, which you’ll grow to appreciate as you collect the info you need for payroll (including salaries and wages, tax deductions, benefits, pensions, 401(k) deductions, and other stray payroll deductions you might have).

You also need to know who receives withholdings, such as tax agencies or the company handling your 401(k) plan. Oh, yeah—and you also need payroll details for each employee. Explains the payroll options available inside and outside of QuickBooks. WORKAROUND WORKSHOP: Summarizing Midyear Account Balances If you need to switch to QuickBooks in the middle of a fiscal year but don’t want to trudge through transaction data entry, don’t despair. A single journal entry can bring your income and expense account totals up to date.

Although you won’t have the details you get from individual transactions, your account balances will be accurate and ready for tasks like creating financial reports and filing taxes. First, you need to know your income and expense accounts’ totals. To get those numbers, generate an income statement from your previous accounting system. (Run a cash-basis or accrual-basis report, depending on which method you use.

See to learn about cash versus accrual accounting.) To record those year-to-date income and expense numbers in QuickBooks, create a journal entry. Fill in the Date field with the last day of the historical period, such as 6/30/15, to record financial results for the first half of the calendar year. In the journal entry’s table, add a line for each income and expense account, as shown in.

Quickbooks Startup And Quick Reference Guide

Finally, enter values for income accounts in the Credit column and values for expense accounts in the Debit column. Figure 1-2. A journal entry that records income and expense totals is a compromise you can make when you must start using QuickBooks midyear. Each row in the journal entry’s table allocates funds to an income or expense account. Enter an income account total in the Credit cell. Enter an expense account total in the Debit cell.

If total expense is less than total income, assign the leftover amount in the debit column to the Opening Balance Equity account. (That remaining amount is profit, which becomes your equity in the company, as described on page 454.). GEM IN THE ROUGH: Experimenting with a Sample File You don’t have to use your real company file to test out QuickBooks features you’ve never used.

The program comes with a couple of sample files: one for a basic product-based business and one for a basic service-based business. And if you have QuickBooks Premier, you can experiment with several other sample files for more specialized pursuits like contracting, consulting, manufacturing, and so on. To experiment with QuickBooks features before you put them into production, in the No Company Open window, click “Open a sample file,” and then choose the one you want.

(To display the No Company Open window, you have to close any open company files by choosing File→Close Company or File→Close Company/Logoff if there’s more than one user set up for the file. If the QuickBooks Setup dialog box is open, close it, too.) Don’t try to use one of these sample files as your actual company file. They come with accounts, customers, vendors, and transactions (such as checks, invoices, and purchase orders). Besides, QuickBooks sets “today’s” date in these files to, which makes transactions later than you or your vendors would like (although you can edit the values in date boxes). QuickBooks makes it easy to create a company file from scratch. (The box on tells you how to find someone who can help you create one.) You can opt for a short and sweet process, which asks you for the bare minimum of info before it creates your file. Or you can use a wizard that guides you through the process with a series of questions that takes about 15 minutes to answer.

The questions cover the basics of creating and customizing a company file to fit your business. QuickBooks needs to know some company information, the industry you’re in, and the features you want to use. The program then sets your preferences and creates a few accounts (like basic income and expense accounts and your checking account).

The box on lists additional setup tasks you need to perform to flesh out your company file—and where in this book to learn more about those tasks. UP TO SPEED: Getting Help Creating a New Company File The proud owners of brand-new businesses face a dilemma: They have more important things to do than muddle through setting up company files in QuickBooks, but money is usually as short as free time. If you don’t know much about bookkeeping or accounting, a few hours of an accountant’s time is a worthwhile investment when you’re getting started in QuickBooks. You’ll not only save untold hours, but you’ll also know that your books are set up properly. Accountants well versed in QuickBooks can create a flawless company file without breaking a sweat. If you plan to do without an accountant but you want some help setting up your company file, you can choose Help→Find A Local QuickBooks Expert.

By answering a few questions on the Local QuickBooks Expert website , you can locate someone in your area who can help you get started. The three basic approaches to creating a company file are covered by the QuickBooks Setup dialog box’s three buttons. Express Start. This button is in pole position because it’s the best option if this is your first time creating a company file. If you go this route, QuickBooks holds your hand and asks for a few bits of info at a time before moving to each new screen. If you stop filling in information before QuickBooks creates your company file, the program won’t save any of the values you entered.

So make sure you have at least 15 minutes to complete the first set of steps. Instructions for Express Start begin on. Advanced Setup. If you’ve been around the QuickBooks block before, choose this option to launch the EasyStep Interview window, which asks for more information on each screen than Express Start does.

If you need help during the process, you can always click the “Get answers” link at the top right of the window. You can also use Advanced Setup to go back and modify info you entered previously, whether you entered it using Express Start or the EasyStep Interview. (The instructions for the EasyStep Interview begin on.

If you’re unsure what to put in any of the fields you’re supposed to fill in, they’re described in the Express Start section, because you fill in much of the same information regardless of which approach you use.). Other Options. This button covers the rest of the bases.

You can use it to open an existing company file or convert existing records that are in Quicken or another accounting program for use in QuickBooks. Note If you use QuickBooks Accountant edition, you can create a company file from an existing file by choosing File→“New Company from Existing Company File.” Whether you use Express Start or the EasyStep Interview, you tell QuickBooks the basic 411 about your company, such as its name and tax ID. (If any of the fields confuse you, try clicking the “Need help?

Give us a call” button in the QuickBooks Setup dialog box or the “Get answers” link in the upper-right corner of the EasyStep Interview window.) The next section has the full scoop on the information you need to provide. Company Name. Type the name you want to appear on invoices, reports, and other forms.

(QuickBooks also uses the name you type here to name your company file.) Later on, you can specify your company’s legal name. Start typing your industry in this box (as shown in ) and see if QuickBooks finds a match. If not, click “Help me choose” to the right of this field to see all your options. If you don’t see an obvious choice in the Industry list, then scroll to the bottom and choose either General Product-based Business or General Service-based Business.

Choose your industry carefully. QuickBooks adjusts its preferences and chart of accounts based on your choice to match how your business operates. For example, the program creates income and expense accounts for your type of business and automatically turns on features like sales tax and inventory if your industry typically uses them. If QuickBooks makes assumptions you don’t like, you can alter your preferences and accounts later.

Company Type. The tax form you use depends on the type of business entity you have.

This drop-down list contains the most common types, from sole proprietorships and partnerships to corporations and nonprofits. When you select a type, QuickBooks assigns the corresponding tax form to your company file. After you finish creating your company file, you can see the tax form the program selected by choosing Company→My Company, which brings up the dialog box shown in. The Income Tax Form Used box at the bottom of that dialog box lists the tax form for your company type. Figure 1-3. QuickBooks’ list of industries is robust, so chances are good you’ll find one that’s close to what your company does. You can start typing an industry, and the program displays options that match what you’ve typed so far, such as cater to display the industry “Restaurant, Caterer, or Bar” shown here.

Or you can click the “Help me choose” link to see all the industries the program offers. This box is for the federal tax ID number you use when you file taxes. You don’t have to enter it now, but you’ll need it come tax time. You’ll use a federal Employer Identification Number (EIN) if your company is a corporation or partnership, you have employees, or fit a few other criteria (go to to see if you need an EIN). Otherwise, your tax ID is your Social Security number or Individual Tax Identification Number (ITIN).

Do you have employees? The choice you make in this box doesn’t affect the settings in your company file. If this field is set to Yes (as it is initially) or to “No, but I might in the future,” then Intuit will tempt you with payroll service offers. If you don’t have employees or don’t want to receive those offers, choose No in the drop-down list.

When you finish filling out this screen, click Continue. Legal Name.

Quick Reference Guide Amadeus

This is the name you use on contracts and other legal documents. Your company name and legal name are usually the same unless you use a DBA (doing business as) company name. If you own a corporation, the legal name is what appears on your Certificate of Incorporation. Contact info. Enter your mailing address, telephone number, email address, and website address, if you have one.

The Zip and Phone fields are the only ones that are required. Click Preview Your Settings to see which features QuickBooks selected for you based on the industry and company type you provided. The Preview Your Company Settings dialog box lets you fine-tune the accounts QuickBooks selected and choose a different place to store your company file. Here’s what you can do on each tab of this dialog box. Figure 1-4. You can’t use this dialog box to change the features listed on the Features Selected tab. However, you can adjust those settings in the Preferences dialog box (page 696).

To modify the accounts in your company file or where the file is stored, click the Chart of Accounts or Company File Location tab, respectively. Company File Location. This tab shows where on your computer the program plans to save your company file.

To choose a different spot, click Change Location, and then select the folder you want. If the folder doesn’t exist, in the “Browse for Folder” dialog box, click Make New Folder, type the folder’s name, and then press Enter.

To close the “Browse for Folder” dialog box, click OK. When you’ve made the changes you want to your company settings, in the Preview Your Company Settings dialog box, click OK to return to the main QuickBooks Setup dialog box. Using the EasyStep Interview The EasyStep Interview also guides you through the setup process, but it gives you more control over setting up your company file than Express Start does. For example, you can provide more info about your company up front and choose which features to turn on. To access the EasyStep Interview, choose File→New Company and then, in the QuickBooks Setup dialog box, click Advanced Setup. The “Enter your company information” screen appears. As you enter the following info, click Next to proceed to each new screen.

Name and contact info. The first screen wants to know the name of your company, its legal name, its tax ID, and your contact info.

The “Company name” field is the only one that’s required—you can fill in the other fields later on as described on. On the “Select your industry” screen, choose the industry closest to yours. That way, most of the settings the program chooses will be what you want. Type of company. On the “How is your company organized?” screen, select the option for your company type. This setting determines which tax form, accounts, and tax form lines you’ll use to prepare your business tax return.

First month of fiscal year. When you start a company, you choose a fiscal year. On the “Select the first month of your fiscal year” screen, QuickBooks automatically sets the “My fiscal year starts in” box to January because so many businesses stick with the calendar year for simplicity. If you start your fiscal year in another month, choose it from the drop-down list. Administrator password. The administrator can do absolutely anything in your company file: set up other users, log in as other users, and access any area of the company file.

Although QuickBooks lets you click Next and skip right past the “Set up your administrator password” screen, this is no time for shortcuts, as the box on explains. Type the password you want to use in both the “Administrator password” and “Retype password” boxes, and then keep the password in a safe but memorable place. ( explains how to change the administrator name and password.). UP TO SPEED: Safe Login Practices Don’t even think about having everyone who works with a company file share one login. You don’t want everyone to have access to payroll data, and you wouldn’t know which person to fire if you found any less-than-legal transactions in the file.

Even if you run a small business from home, an administrator password prevents the chimney sweep from swiping your business credit card number. Has much more about keeping your QuickBooks files secure, but here are some password basics. Choose a password that’s at least eight characters long and is a combination of letters and numbers. Passwords are case sensitive, so make sure that Caps Lock isn’t turned on by mistake. Type the password in both the “Administrator password” and “Retype password” boxes. If you copy and paste the password from one box to the other, you could copy a typo and not be able to open the company file you just created.

If you forget the administrator login and password or lose the piece of paper they’re written on, you won’t be able to open your company file without some fancy footwork, so keep a record of them someplace safe. If you’ve tried everything and your administrator password is still missing in action, see to learn how to reset it. Creating Your Company File After you set the administrator password and click Next, the “Create your company file” screen appears. (If you’re new to QuickBooks, click the “Where should I save my company file?” link, which opens a Help Article dialog box that explains the pros and cons of storing company files in different places.) When you’re ready to create the file, on the “Create your company file” screen, click Next to wrap up the creation process by specifying the filename and location.

QuickBooks opens the “Filename for New Company” dialog box, which is really just a Save As dialog box. Navigate to the folder where you want to store your company file. QuickBooks automatically sets the “File name” box to the company name you entered, and the “Save as type” box to “QuickBooks Files (.QBW,.QBA).” Here are some guidelines for naming and saving your company file. If you want to call the file something other than the company name you entered earlier in the interview, simply type a new name in the “File name” box. For example, you may want one that’s shorter or that better identifies the company’s records within.

Consider storing your company file in a folder with the rest of your company data so that it gets backed up along with everything else. For example, if you’re the only person who uses QuickBooks, you could create a Company Files folder inside your Documents folder.

See for more about choosing a location for company files. When you click Save in the “Filename for New Company” dialog box, QuickBooks may take a minute or so to create the new file. In the meantime, a message box with a progress bar appears. When the company file is ready, the “Customizing QuickBooks for your business” screen appears. Click Next to dig in. The What do you sell?

Screen is where you tell QuickBooks whether you offer services, products, or both. When you choose one of these options, the program figures out which types of income accounts you need. If you select “Products only” or “Both services and products,” another screen later in the interview asks whether you want to track inventory. The Do you charge sales tax? Screen has only two options: Yes and No. If you’re one of the unfortunate souls who has to navigate the rocky shoals of sales tax, select Yes. If you don’t charge sales tax, select No.

For detailed instructions on dealing with sales tax in QuickBooks, see. On the Do you want to create estimates in QuickBooks?

Screen, choose Yes or No to turn the estimate feature on or off. If you prepare quotes, bids, or estimates for your customers and want to do so in QuickBooks , select Yes. Note If you use QuickBooks Premier, the “Tracking customer orders in QuickBooks” screen appears, asking whether you want to use sales orders to track backorders or other orders that you plan to fill at a later date. QuickBooks Pro doesn’t include sales orders. The Using statements in QuickBooks screen is where you tell the program whether you generate statements to send to customers. For example, your wine-of-the-month club might send monthly statements to its members. Or if you’re a consultant, you could send invoices for work performed and then send a statement that summarizes the fees, payments, and outstanding balance.

The Using invoices in QuickBooks screen appears only if you chose No on the “Do you want to create estimates in QuickBooks?” screen. (If you chose Yes on that screen, QuickBooks automatically turns on the invoicing feature.) Select Yes to tell the program that you want to use invoices, which you probably do because invoices are the most flexible sales forms. If you answer No (if, for example, you own a restaurant), QuickBooks jumps to the “Managing bills you owe” screen. If you answer Yes on the “Using invoices in QuickBooks” screen, the Using progress invoicing screen asks whether you invoice customers based on the percentage you’ve completed on a job. See to learn why (and how) you might use this feature. The Managing bills you owe screen asks whether you plan to write checks to pay bills immediately (select No) or enter bills in QuickBooks and then pay them later (select Yes).

You can read about bill preferences on and payment preferences on. Tip Entering bills in QuickBooks requires more steps than simply writing checks without entering the bills in QuickBooks, but there’s a benefit to the extra effort: The program can remind you when bills are due or qualify for timely payment discounts, and it can keep track of the total you owe. The Tracking inventory in QuickBooks screen is where you tell the program whether you keep track of the products you have in stock. This screen provides a few examples of when to track or bypass inventory, and has info about how to decide whether tracking inventory makes sense for your business. Tracking time in QuickBooks is ideal if you bill by the hour or pay people based on the number of hours they work.

In that case, select Yes on this screen to track the hours people work and create invoices for their time. Explains how to set up time tracking. The Do you have employees?

Screen is where you specify whether you want to use QuickBooks’ payroll and 1099 features. If you do, select Yes and turn on the appropriate checkbox(es). If you use non-Intuit services to run payroll or to generate contractors’ 1099s, select No. When you click Next on the “Do you have employees?” screen, you see the “Using accounts in QuickBooks” screen, and the progress bar indicates that you’re almost done with the interview. Click Next to set these final options. The Select a date to start tracking your finances screen summarizes what you learned about start dates on. To start at the beginning of this fiscal year (which QuickBooks can figure out using the current calendar year and the starting month you select), choose the “Beginning of this fiscal year: 01/01/15” option.

(The year you see listed depends on the current calendar year.) If you’ve decided to start on a different date, select the “Use today’s date or the first day of the quarter or month” option instead. You can then type or choose any date you want in the box, such as the last day of the previous fiscal period. The Review income and expense accounts screen lists the accounts typically used by companies in your industry.

Figure 1-6. QuickBooks places a checkmark in front of the accounts that are typical for your industry. Click an empty checkmark cell to add an account that the program didn’t select, or click a cell with a checkmark to turn that account off. You can also drag your cursor over checkmark cells to turn several accounts on or off. When you click Next, you see a bright orange—but premature—“Congratulations!” You still have a few more steps to complete before you can open your company file. Click “Go to Setup,” and then read the next section. Beginning to Use QuickBooks After you create your company file with Express Start or the EasyStep Interview, you’ll see the “You’ve got a company file!” screen, which is where you perform the additional steps you have to complete, such as adding people you do business with, items you sell, and bank accounts.

If you want to dive into your work without QuickBooks’ help on these steps, click Start Working at the window’s bottom right and jump to. If you want step-by-step guidance through these processes, click the Add buttons in these sections (if your lists already contain people and items, you’ll see Add More buttons instead). Figure 1-7. Initially, QuickBooks selects the Skip option (the far-left column) for all the names. That way, you can select the option in the Customer, Vendor, or Employee column for each name you want to import to designate whether it’s a customer, vendor, or employee. You can also select a cell with info in it (like a name or an email address) and edit the info.

Add the products and services you sell. When you click the Add (or Add More) button in this section, you first choose either the Service or “Non-inventory part” option, because you fill in different fields for each type of item. Select the Service option to set up services you sell or the “Non-inventory part” option to create products you sell (see to learn about products you keep in inventory), and then click Continue. Fill in the names, description, and prices, and then click Continue again to save your items.

Add your bank accounts. For bank accounts, you fill in the account name, account number, opening balance, and opening balance date. Set up your users and passwords: See. Review and/or change the preferences that QuickBooks set: See.

Set up or edit the accounts in your chart of accounts: If you haven’t set up all your accounts yet, you can create them now. Create a journal entry to specify accounts’ opening balances: See the box on to learn how.

And see to learn how to record your initial contribution of cash or assets to your company. Create items for the products and services you sell: See. Set up sales tax: See. Set up your 1099 tracking: See. Sign up for Intuit QuickBooks Payroll Service: See online Appendix D.

Converting from Another Program to QuickBooks If you launched your small business from your basement and kept your records with Quicken Home & Business, your accountant has probably recommended that you make the leap to QuickBooks. Or maybe you used another accounting program like Peachtree or Small Business Accounting and have decided to move to QuickBooks. Or perhaps you’re switching from QuickBooks for Mac to QuickBooks for Windows. Whatever your situation, this section tells you how to prep your file for a smooth conversion and bring it over into QuickBooks for Windows. Cleaning Up Your Quicken File To make the conversion proceed as smoothly as possible, some cleanup of your Quicken file is in order.

For example, record overdue scheduled transactions and send online payments before you convert your Quicken file. Also, in Quicken, delete accounts you no longer need, because once they’re in QuickBooks, you can’t delete them if they contain any transactions. And make sure that customer names are consistent and unique. QuickBooks doesn’t support repeating online payments, so you also have to tell Quicken to delete any repeating online payments you’ve set up. In addition, you need complete reports of your past payrolls because Quicken payroll transactions don’t convert to QuickBooks. Intuit publishes a detailed guide to help you prepare for a Quicken conversion.

Go to and follow the instructions there. Note If you cleaned up your Quicken file but you run into conversion problems in QuickBooks, check the QuickBooks company file for errors by choosing File→Utilities→Verify Data, as described on.

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Another potential solution is to remove transactions prior to the current fiscal year in Quicken before converting the file. If nothing you try works and you’re willing to send your Quicken file to Intuit, contact QuickBooks technical support by choosing Help→Support. A browser window opens to the Intuit QuickBooks Support page. In the horizontal navigation bar, click Contact Us. QuickBooks may agree to convert the file for you (for a fee). Enter your company information in QuickBooks. Info like your company’s legal name and address, federal Employer Identification Number, and business type don’t come over with your Quicken data.

See to learn how to add them to your company file. Set up your bank feeds in QuickBooks.

Tells you how to get your QuickBooks bank accounts and your real-world bank accounts talking. Change Quicken names to QuickBooks customers, vendors, and employees. When you convert from Quicken to QuickBooks, QuickBooks adds all the converted names to its Other Names List. See to learn how to move these names to other lists. Tip If your Quicken data file has tons of names, an easy way to convert them is to export them to a spreadsheet and then import them using QuickBooks’ Add/Edit Multiple List Entries feature.

Set up Accounts Payable in QuickBooks. If your Quicken file contained unpaid bills, simply write checks to pay them in QuickBooks. Once your vendor balances are zero, you’re ready to enter new bills in QuickBooks. When you record your first bill, the program automatically adds a new account called Accounts Payable to your chart of accounts. Converting from a Non-Intuit Program To convert files created in other accounting programs, like Peachtree or Small Business Accounting, you have to download a conversion tool from the Intuit website. In QuickBooks, choose File→Utilities→Convert, and then choose the program you want to convert from. In the browser window that opens, scroll down to the “Are you ready to convert your data?” section, click the “Convert from Peachtree, Microsoft SBA, & Microsoft Office Accounting” link, and then click the Download button that appears.

In the File Download dialog box that opens, click Save to download QuickBooksConversionToolSetup.exe to your computer. Opening an Existing Company File After you’ve opened a company file in one QuickBooks session, the next time you launch the program, it automatically opens that same company file. If you keep the books for only one company, you might never have to manually open a QuickBooks company file again. But if you’re an irrepressible entrepreneur or a bookkeeper who works on several companies’ books, you can open another company file in QuickBooks anytime, and the program automatically closes the previous one.

Because QuickBooks stores data in a database, you don’t have to save a company file before you close it. (And if you use QuickBooks Accountant edition, you can have two company files open at the same time, as the Tip below explains.) The following sections describe the different ways to open a company file. Tip With QuickBooks Accountant and QuickBooks Enterprise, you can have two company files open at the same time, although the second file that you open has some restrictions. (To learn about these restrictions, search QuickBooks Help for “second company.”) To open a second company file, choose File→Open Second Company, and your computer launches a new instance of QuickBooks.

In the new window, double-click the name of the file you want to open. The second company file opens with the text “(Secondary)” after the company name in the QuickBooks window’s title bar.

(In the first QuickBooks window, the text “(Primary)” appears after the company name.). Choose File→ “Open or Restore Company.” If the No Company Open window is visible, you can click “Open or restore an existing company” instead. In the “Open or Restore Company” dialog box, select the “Open a company file” option, and then click Next.

QuickBooks closes your current company file and then opens the “Open a Company” dialog box. Navigate to the folder with the company file you want and double-click the file’s name. You can also click the filename and then click Open. If the QuickBooks Login window appears (which it will if you’ve assigned a password to the Administrator user account or set up multiple users), type your user name and password. If the Administrator is the only user, the Password box is the only one that appears. But if you have more than one user for the company file, both the User Name and Password boxes appear. QuickBooks opens the company file, and you’re ready to keep the books.

ORGANIZATION STATION: Fast Access to Several Companies If you work on several sets of company books at the same time, choosing File→Open Previous Company is the quickest way to hop between company files. Out of the box, QuickBooks lists up to 20 companies on this submenu (it lists them starting with the most recent). If you work with fewer companies, the submenu may have company files that you’d rather forget. You can change the number of companies QuickBooks lists on this submenu to match the number of companies you work with.

With a clever workaround, you can also clear out old entries that you don’t want to see. Here’s how to change the number of companies on the Open Previous Company submenu. Make sure you have a company file open, and then choose File→Open Previous Company→“Set number of previous companies.”. In the “Set Number of Previous Companies” dialog box, type the maximum number of companies you want to see on the submenu, and then click OK. To clear old entries off the menu, change the number of entries to 1, and then click OK. After you do so, QuickBooks lists only the most recent company file, clearing all the others off the list. If you want to see more than one company, reset the number of entries again, this time to a higher number.

Now, when you open another company file, it will appear on the list. Opening a Portable Company File A portable file is a special type of file that makes QuickBooks company files compact so you can email them more easily. These files take up less space because they don’t contain other files related to your company file, like letters, templates, logos, and images.

A portable file also doesn’t contain a transaction log (.tlg file), which Intuit Technical Support can use to restore transactions if your file is damaged in some way. Opening a portable file is similar to opening a regular company file. FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTION: Updating a QuickBooks File How do I update a company file to the newest version of QuickBooks? If you’ve used a previous version of QuickBooks, your company file is set up to work with that version. When you upgrade to QuickBooks 2015, the program has to make some changes to your company file.

Once you update a company file, your coworkers won’t be able to open it until you install QuickBooks 2015 on their computers. So to prevent work disruptions, plan to upgrade all copies of QuickBooks and the company file during downtime. Fortunately, updating a company file is easy: All you have to do is open it in the new version of QuickBooks and follow the onscreen instructions. Here are the steps. In your new version of QuickBooks, choose File→ “Open or Restore Company.”. In the “Open or Restore Company” dialog box, select the “Open a company file” option, and then click Next. In the “Open a Company” dialog box, double-click the company file you want to update.

If you see the User Name and Password box, enter your user name and password. In the “Update Company File for New Version” dialog box, turn on the “I understand that my company file will be updated to this new version of QuickBooks” checkbox, and then click Update Now. Click OK to create a backup before you upgrade. Follow the steps to create a backup copy of your company file. When the Update Company message box appears, click Yes to start the update. Keep in mind that this process could take a while if your company file is large or if you’re updating from several QuickBooks versions back.

Choose Company→ My Company or click the My Company entry in the icon bar. The My Company window opens. As shown in (background), info about your copy of QuickBooks appears on the window’s left and your company info appears on the right.

Apps, services, and subscriptions that you’ve signed up for (like accepting credit cards, payroll, and so on) appear below your company info. Other products that Intuit would like to sell you appear at the bottom of the window. To edit your company info, click the edit icon at the window’s top right (it looks like a pencil). The Company Information dialog box opens with your company information grouped into several categories (see, foreground).

Figure 1-9. Some bits of company information change more often than others. For instance, you might relocate your office or change your phone number, email address, or website address. But stuff like your company’s legal name and address, federal Employer Identification Number, and business type (corporation, sole proprietorship, and so on) usually stays the same. To edit your company’s contact info, in the Company Information dialog box, click the Contact Information category on the left, and then make the changes you want. This category includes fields for your company address, phone number, email address, and website.

To change your company’s legal name and address, click the Legal Information category. Remember, your company’s legal name and address are the ones you use on federal and state tax forms. To edit the tax identification number you use, click the Company Identification category. This category includes the federal Employee Identification Number (EIN) and Social Security Number (SSN) fields.

Fill in (or edit) the one that you use for your company. To specify info for reports you generate, click the Report Information category.

You can specify the starting month for both your fiscal year and your tax year. In addition, this category is where you set the tax form you use for your company tax return.

If you have payroll, click the Payroll Tax Form Information category and make the changes you want. You can fill in the name, title, and phone number for the person who prepares and signs your company payroll forms, so QuickBooks can fill those fields in automatically when you use an Intuit payroll service. When you’re done editing, click OK. The Company Information dialog box closes. Click the X at the top right of the My Company window to close it, too. With Safari, you learn the way you learn best. Get unlimited access to videos, live online training, learning paths, books, interactive tutorials, and more.