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08Mar 2011 by Nancy Smyth

Top 10 Tuesday QuickBooks Tips From Around the Web – 3/8/2011

Top 10 Tuesday is a new feature here on the QuickBooks for Contractors blog and will feature our top 10 favorite QuickBooks tips and articles from around the web. We hope that you will find them useful too. This weeks favorites are from: Scott Gregory, QuickBooks Expert: QuickBooks and Wireless Networks - They Don't Play Nicely With Each Other QuickBooks and Beyond QuickBooks Mac 2011 Update Stopping QuickBooks Automatic Updates from Installing Nerd's Blog How To Audit Your QuickBooks file - 5 Things EVERY BUSINESS OWNER SHOULD KNOW how to do in QuickBooks QuickSource for QuickBooks blog Upgrade Bug: COGS convert to "billable" after upgrade to v2011. Very Messy Do these 2 Easy Steps to Maintain a Healthy, Lean, and Fast QuickBooks file QuickBooks and Your Business How to Repair…

03Mar 2011 by Shannon Tucker

Warning Signs: Is Your QuickBooks File Getting Too Big?

From Our Guest Bloggers, General QuickBooks News, QuickBooks Setup & Cleanup

Have you ever had a dream where you desperately needed to run fast (you’re being chased by Sasquatch, say) but your feet just won’t go? Your feet can only go in slow motion? If some of your QuickBooks reports seem stuck in molasses, or it’s taking a minute or more to save an invoice, that’s about as fun as a bad dream. Performance problems in QuickBooks are one warning sign that your QuickBooks data file is probably getting too big. (How big is too big? We’ll look at that in a minute.) Another warning sign is when you get random errors or crashes in QuickBooks. It doesn’t crash ALL the time, and you can’t reproduce the problem whenever you want (as if you want to!) But QuickBooks sometimes flakes out…

01Mar 2011 by Nancy Smyth

An IRS Audit and They Want Your QuickBooks File-Best Practices

General QuickBooks News, IRS Information

Did you receive a notice from the IRS that your business is being audited and that they want a copy of your QuickBooks (or Peachtree) data file? The first thing that you need to do, is reply as directed in the Audit notice. The next thing that you need to do, is figure out HOW you are going to give them access to your QuickBooks data file. Requesting a copy of your company file is LEGAL and is also a fairly new procedure that will no doubt grow in popularity as time goes on; and is one that cannot be avoided - because if you (or your accountant) refuse they can issue a Summons for the file; and I don't think that would be a "good thing"! I've done some…

09Feb 2011 by Nancy Smyth

Preventing Embezzlement-General QuickBooks Controls & Procedures

Be A Better Bookkeeper, General QuickBooks News, QuickBooks Setup & Cleanup

Small businesses are particularly vulnerable to theft simply because they don't have the resources or security controls in place to stop them. Employee theft is extremely common; unfortunately, we hear about it or read about it in the newspapers all of the time. While it is fair to say, most people don't steal, embezzlement does happen; so it only makes good business sense for you to consider what you can do to minimize your employees' opportunities to steal. Below are some general internal procedures that many business owners who use QuickBooks can implement quite easily. Who should be the QuickBooks Administrator? As the business owner, you should create the QuickBooks Admin account and password and be the Administrator for your own QuickBooks company data file. All too often we have…

03Feb 2011 by Nancy Smyth

QuickBooks Tip – How Much Data Can QuickBooks Hold?

Be A Better Bookkeeper, General QuickBooks News, QuickBooks Setup & Cleanup

How much data can your QuickBooks company file hold before it becomes "stuffed", overflowing like a file cabinet, and SLOW? This is a very good question that most people don't take into consideration -- well because it's software and should hold an unlimited amount of data. QuickBooks Pro and Premier are designed for small businesses with 20 or fewer employees and annual revenues of less than $1 million per year, according to the latest information from the ProAdvisor certification study materials. It is intended to store at least 2 years of detailed information in a company file - this allows you to compare your current business years performance with that of a previous year. Quickbooks Enterprise is designed for larger businesses having 20-250 employees, needing up to 30 simultaneous users,…

21Jan 2011 by Nancy Smyth

QuickBooks Tip – Upgrading to 2011 Forms & Template Errors

QuickBooks 2011 - What's New?

Upgrading to QuickBooks Premier Account 2011 caused some errors with my existing forms and form templates. Earlier this week I had to bite the bullet and upgrade my own QuickBooks file, moving it from the 2008 Premier Accountant version to the 2011 Premier Accountant Edition; as part of our own move from Windows XP to Windows 7. Yes, folks just like many of you we have been moving software and multitudes of data from XP machines to Windows 7 and updating our QuickBooks company data file. Not a fun task, but a necessary one. Upgrading our QuickBooks file was an easy task, we have a rather large QuickBooks file and the time it took to do the actual update seemed to be much faster than with previous upgrades. Our file…

04Jan 2011 by Nancy Smyth

QuickBooks Tips – Year End Tasks for Filing Taxes

Be A Better Bookkeeper, General QuickBooks News, QuickBooks Setup & Cleanup

The end of the year always adds even more tasks to your already busy schedule, and sometimes it is simply overwhelming and I’ve often been asked – “What do I need to do?” Intuit has built a very good “QuickBooks Year-End Guide/Checklist” and it’s included right in your QuickBooks program by going to the Help Menu and choosing Year-End Guide. Over the next few days, we’ll cover each topic listed in the Year-End Guide, and offer some additional tips on each of the three sections: Tasks to prepare for filing taxes, Tasks to do if you use subcontractors, Tasks to do if you have employees and some Tips for the upcoming year. Tasks to prepare for filing taxes: Reconcile all bank and credit card accounts – now really you should…

01Dec 2010 by Nancy Smyth

Starting a New QuickBooks File? Benefits of the EasyStep Interview

QuickBooks Setup & Cleanup

When you use the EasyStep Interview to create a new QuickBooks company file, you will be asked questions about the type of business you own as it walks you through the process of setting up your business in QuickBooks. Your answers will be used to help you get started quickly , by setting up the appropriate accounts and lists. It will take you about 30 minutes to go through the EasyStep Interview. Creating a new company file in QuickBooks is easy and you can access the new file wizard in many ways. From the File menu, choose New Company If you have been working in a sample company file, click the Start your new company file now button on the upper right corner of the Home page. From the No…

13Oct 2010 by Nancy Smyth

QuickBooks 2011-Estimates & More Excluded from Closing Date

QuickBooks 2011 - What's New?

QuickBooks 2011 offers the ability to exclude Estimates, Sales Orders and Purchase Orders from the Closing Date lock. This is a key piece of functionality that will be attractive to contractors and other business types who often have open Estimates, Sales Orders or Purchase Orders; which I just learned about yesterday in a "New Features in QuickBooks 2011" webinar presented by Joe Woodard. The Closing Date feature in QuickBooks is designed primarily to protect transactions from previous reporting periods from being changed - for example, it is often a general practice for an accounting professional to set a closing date in a clients QuickBooks file after they have finished preparing their tax returns. Setting a Closing Date allows the accountant to know that the client cannot go back and make…

12Oct 2010 by Nancy Smyth

QuickBooks 2011-Upgrade or Not Upgrade, THAT is the question

General QuickBooks News, QuickBooks 2011 - What's New?

Each year when a new version of QuickBooks is released, we are asked by our customers "should I upgrade?" and "is your software compatible with the new version". These are both important questions which deserve consideration by QuickBooks users who also use QuickBooks integrated applications. Each year my answers are usually this: Is your software compatible with the new QuickBooks version? Yes, it is, see our compatibility announcement dated 9/28/2010. As Intuit Gold Developers we "usually" have access to new versions of QuickBooks while they are in beta status. Usually we can obtain a beta version of the new QuickBooks version in August, so we can begin testing our software for compatibility; this type of early access usually includes the ability to obtain several different/updated beta releases; before we actually…

25Aug 2010 by Nancy Smyth

QuickBooks Tip – The Chart of Accounts, What It Is & It’s Many Uses In Your Business

QuickBooks Setup & Cleanup

The Chart of Accounts is the most important QuickBooks list. It is the backbone for a company to track how much money it has, how much money it owes, how much money is coming in, and how much money it is spending. [caption id="attachment_510" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Right click on the image to enlarge it."][/caption] It is not necessary to have a chart of accounts that provides for every conceivable transaction. Instead, the chart of accounts should include the minimum number of accounts necessary to capture the appropriate financial information and be flexible enough to allow for future growth. The chart of accounts should be designed to include the accounts necessary for both financial and income tax reporting. QuickBooks makes it easy for you to set up a chart of accounts.…

17May 2010 by Nancy Smyth

QuickBooks Tip – Working With Contractors – Part 4

Be A Better Bookkeeper, Construction News, QuickBooks Corner

Congratulations, you have just picked up your first construction client! As an Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor, a "contractor" or a Bookkeeper/Office Manager has contacted you for a contractor because they need "help" with their QuickBooks file. The chances are good that you have completed one of the various "New Client Interviews" that are readily available, you arrive at the contractor's office, and start to review their current QuickBooks setup only to find: A Chart of Accounts that is so long it could easily be considered a "book" OR one that is so short you wonder how they manage to keep accurate records. An Item List that is so long that it too could be considered a "book" OR one that consists of only a few items. A Payroll Item List that…

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