QuickBooks 2012: The Missing Manual

by Bonnie Biafore

Overview

Your bookkeeping workflow will be smoother and faster with QuickBooks 2012 for Windows—but only if you spend more time using the program than figuring out how it works. This book puts you in control: you get step-by-step instructions on how and when to use specific features, along with basic accounting advice to guide you through the learning process.

The important stuff you need to know:

• Get started. Set up your accounts, customers, jobs, and invoice items quickly.
• Manage your business. Track spending, income, invoices, inventory, and payroll.
• Spend less time on bookkeeping. Use QuickBooks to create invoices or timesheets in batches.
• Follow the money. Examine everything from billable time and expenses to year-end tasks.
• Find key info quickly. Rely on QuickBooks’ vendor, customer, inventory, and employee centers.
• Exchange data with other programs. Move data between QuickBooks and Microsoft Office.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781449398514
Publisher:	O'Reilly Media, Incorporated
Publication date:	11/01/2011
Pages:	756
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 9.20(h) x 2.00(d)

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

The Missing Credits; About the Author; About the Creative Team; Acknowledgments; Introduction; What’s New in QuickBooks 2012; When QuickBooks May Not Be the Answer; Choosing the Right Edition; Accounting Basics: The Important Stuff; About This Book; About the Outline; The Very Basics; About→These→Arrows; About MissingManuals.com; Safari® Books Online; Part One: Getting Started; Chapter 1: Creating a Company File; 1.1 Opening QuickBooks; 1.2 Before You Create a Company File; 1.3 Creating a Company File; 1.4 Creating a New Company File from an Existing One; 1.5 Modifying Company Info; 1.6 What’s Next?; 1.7 Opening an Existing Company File; 1.8 Converting from Another Program to QuickBooks; Chapter 2: Getting Around in QuickBooks; 2.1 The QuickBooks Home Page; 2.2 The Company Snapshot; 2.3 Using Menus and the Icon Bar; 2.4 Switching Among Open Windows; Chapter 3: Setting Up a Chart of Accounts; 3.1 Using QuickBooks’ Built-in Accounts; 3.2 Acquiring a Chart of Accounts; 3.3 Naming and Numbering Accounts; 3.4 Creating Accounts and Subaccounts; 3.5 Modifying Accounts; 3.6 Hiding and Deleting Accounts; 3.7 Merging Accounts; Chapter 4: Setting Up Customers, Jobs, and Vendors; 4.1 Creating Customers in QuickBooks; 4.2 Creating Jobs in QuickBooks; 4.3 Modifying Customer and Job Information; 4.4 Categorizing Customers and Jobs; 4.5 Adding Notes about Customers; 4.6 Working with Leads; 4.7 Merging Customer Records; 4.8 Hiding and Deleting Customers; 4.9 Setting Up Vendors; 4.10 Data Entry Shortcuts; 4.11 Tracking To-Dos; Chapter 5: Setting Up Items; 5.1 What Items Do; 5.2 When You Don’t Need Items; 5.3 Should You Track Inventory with Items?; 5.4 Planning Your Items; 5.5 Creating Items; 5.6 Service Items; 5.7 Product Items; 5.8 Other Types of Items; 5.9 Setting Up Sales Tax; 5.10 Modifying Items; 5.11 Hiding and Deleting Items; Chapter 6: Setting Up Other QuickBooks Lists; 6.1 Categorizing with Classes; 6.2 Price Levels; 6.3 Customer and Vendor Profile Lists; 6.4 Fixed Asset Items; 6.5 Creating and Editing List Entries; 6.6 Hiding and Deleting List Entries; 6.7 Sorting Lists; 6.8 Printing Lists; Chapter 7: Managing QuickBooks Files; 7.1 Switching Between Multi- and Single-User Mode; 7.2 Backing Up Files; 7.3 Restoring Backups; 7.4 Sending Company Files to Others; 7.5 Verifying Your QuickBooks Data; 7.6 Condensing Data; 7.7 Cleaning Up after Deleting Files; Part Two: Bookkeeping; Chapter 8: Tracking Time and Mileage; 8.1 Setting Up Time Tracking; 8.2 Entering Time in QuickBooks; 8.3 Running Time Reports; 8.4 Tracking Mileage; 8.5 Generating Mileage Reports; Chapter 9: Paying for Expenses; 9.1 When to Pay Expenses; 9.2 Entering Bills; 9.3 Automating Recurring Bills; 9.4 Purchasing Inventory; 9.5 Handling Reimbursable Expenses; 9.6 Recording Vendor Refunds and Credits; 9.7 Paying Your Bills; 9.8 Producing Checks; 9.9 Writing Checks Without Entering Bills; 9.10 Paying with Cash; 9.11 Paying with Credit Cards; 9.12 Running Expense-Related Reports; 9.13 Paying Sales Tax; Chapter 10: Invoicing; 10.1 Choosing the Right Type of Form; 10.2 Sales Forms and Accounts; 10.3 Creating Invoices; 10.4 Creating Batch Invoices; 10.5 Invoicing for Billable Time and Costs; 10.6 Invoicing for Backordered Products; 10.7 Estimating Jobs; 10.8 Creating Progress Invoices; 10.9 Handling Refunds and Credits; 10.10 Editing Invoices; 10.11 Voiding and Deleting Invoices; Chapter 11: Producing Statements; 11.1 Generating Statements; Chapter 12: Transaction Timesavers; 12.1 Printing Sales Forms; 12.2 Emailing Sales Forms; 12.3 Memorized Transactions; 12.4 Finding Transactions; Chapter 13: Managing Accounts Receivable; 13.1 Receivables Aging; 13.2 Receiving Payments for Invoiced Income; 13.3 Applying Credits to Invoices; 13.4 Discounting for Early Payment; 13.5 Deposits, Down Payments, and Retainers; 13.6 Applying Finance Charges; 13.7 Cash Sales; 13.8 Making Deposits; Chapter 14: Doing Payroll; 14.1 Paying Yourself; 14.2 Recording Transactions from a Payroll Service; 14.3 Using an Intuit Payroll Service; Chapter 15: Bank Accounts and Petty Cash; 15.1 Entering Transactions in an Account Register; 15.2 Handling Bounced Checks; 15.3 Transferring Funds; 15.4 Reconciling Accounts; 15.5 Managing Loans; 15.6 Tracking Petty Cash; Chapter 16: Making Journal Entries; 16.1 Balancing Debit and Credit Amounts; 16.2 Some Reasons to Use Journal Entries; 16.3 Creating General Journal Entries; 16.4 Checking General Journal Entries; 16.5 Reclassifications and Corrections; 16.6 Recording Depreciation with Journal Entries; 16.7 Recording Owners’ Contributions; Chapter 17: Generating Financial Statements; 17.1 The Profit & Loss Report; 17.2 The Balance Sheet; 17.3 The Statement of Cash Flows; 17.4 Other Helpful Financial Reports; Chapter 18: Performing End-of-Year Tasks; 18.1 Checking for Problems; 18.2 Viewing Your Trial Balance; 18.3 Generating Year-End Financial Reports; 18.4 Generating Tax Reports; 18.5 Sharing a Company File with Your Accountant; 18.6 1099s; 18.7 Closing the Books for the Year; Part Three: Managing Your Business; Chapter 19: Managing Inventory; 19.1 QuickBooks’ Inventory Process; 19.2 Running Inventory Reports; 19.3 Performing a Physical Inventory; 19.4 Adjusting Inventory in QuickBooks; Chapter 20: Budgeting and Planning; 20.1 Types of Budgets; 20.2 Ways to Build Budgets; 20.3 Creating Budgets in QuickBooks; 20.4 Filling in Budget Values; 20.5 Creating Additional Customer:Job or Class Budgets; 20.6 Copying Budgets and Creating What-if Budgets; 20.7 Running Budget Reports; Chapter 21: Working with Reports; 21.1 Finding the Right Reports; 21.2 Running Reports; 21.3 Printing and Saving Reports; 21.4 Customizing Reports; 21.5 Memorizing Reports; 21.6 Swapping Reports Between Company Files; Part Four: QuickBooks Power; Chapter 22: Online Banking Services; 22.1 Setting Up Your Internet Connection; 22.2 Setting Up Your Accounts for Online Services; 22.3 An Intro to Exchanging Data with Your Bank; 22.4 Online Banking Using Side-by-Side Mode; 22.5 Online Banking Using Register Mode; Chapter 23: Configuring Preferences to Fit Your Company; 23.1 Preferences: The Basics; 23.2 Accounting; 23.3 Bills; 23.4 Checking; 23.5 Desktop View; 23.6 Finance Charge; 23.7 General; 23.8 Integrated Applications; 23.9 Items & Inventory; 23.10 Jobs & Estimates; 23.11 Multiple Currencies; 23.12 Payments; 23.13 Payroll & Employees; 23.14 Reminders; 23.15 Reports and Graphs; 23.16 Sales & Customers; 23.17 Sales Tax; 23.18 Search; 23.19 Send Forms; 23.20 Spelling; 23.21 Tax: 1099; 23.22 Time & Expenses; Chapter 24: Integrating QuickBooks with Other Programs; 24.1 Mail Merge to a Word Document; 24.2 Synchronizing Contacts; 24.3 Setting Up an Integrated Application; 24.4 Exporting QuickBooks Data; 24.5 Importing Data from Other Programs; Chapter 25: Customizing QuickBooks; 25.1 Customizing the Desktop; 25.2 Customizing the Home Page; 25.3 Fast Access to Favorite Commands; 25.4 Customizing the Company Snapshot; 25.5 Customizing Forms; 25.6 Managing Templates; Chapter 26: Keeping Your QuickBooks Data Secure; 26.1 Setting Up the Administrator; 26.2 Creating QuickBooks Users; 26.3 Restricting Access to Features and Data; 26.4 Audit Trails; Part Five: Appendixes; Installing QuickBooks; Before You Install; Installing QuickBooks; Registering QuickBooks; Setting Up QuickBooks on a Network; Where to Store Your Company Files; Help, Support, and Other Resources; QuickBooks Help; Intuit Community; Other Kinds of Help; Other Help Resources; QuickBooks Training; Colophon;