How to Install and Set Up QuickBooks 2010
You install QuickBooks 2010 on your computer in the same way that you install any application program. In general, recent versions of Microsoft Windows require that you place the QuickBooks installation CD into your CD-ROM or DVD drive. Windows recognizes that the QuickBooks CD includes a new, to-be-installed software program, so it starts the process for installing the QuickBooks software.
Simply follow the QuickBooks on-screen instructions:
You're typically prompted to enter the installation key or installation code. This code is available within the QuickBooks packaging — usually on the back of the envelope that the disc comes in.
You may have to answer questions about how you want QuickBooks installed. Almost always, you want to accept the default suggestions. In other words, QuickBooks may ask you whether it can create a new folder in which to install the QuickBooks program files — select yes.
If your version of Microsoft Windows doesn’t recognize that you’ve stuffed the QuickBooks CD into the machine’s CD or DVD drive, you have a couple of choices:
Simply wait. Probably, if you wait, Windows will recognize that you’ve placed the QuickBooks CD into the CD or DVD drive and, after a short time (even though it may seem like an eternity), Windows starts the process of installing the QuickBooks program.
Manually force the installation of the QuickBooks program. Windows includes a tool that you can use to add or remove new programs (unsurprisingly named the Add/Remove Programs tool). In a nutshell, you simply open the Control Panel window, click the Add/Remove Programs tool, and follow the on-screen instructions for telling Windows to install a program stored on the CD or DVD in the computer’s CD or DVD drive.
QuickBooks can work as a multi-user accounting system, which means that several people can use QuickBooks. The QuickBooks data file — the repository of all the QuickBooks information — typically resides on a centrally available computer or server. People who want to work with the QuickBooks data file simply install the QuickBooks program on their computers and then use the program to access centrally located QuickBooks data files.
You need to own a separate copy of QuickBooks for each computer on which you install QuickBooks. You can also buy multi-user copies of QuickBooks that let you install the QuickBooks program on up to five computers (or on up to 30 computers if you’re running QuickBooks Enterprise). You don’t want to get involved in software piracy — which is a felony — by inadvertently setting up QuickBooks in the wrong way.
The bottom line: You need a legal copy of QuickBooks for every machine on which you install it.
Accounting Glossary
accounting equation
The equation Assets = Liabilities + Equity, which demonstrates the two-sided nature of accounting and is useful for explaining the concept of double-entry accounting (or double-entry bookkeeping).
Accounting Glossary
accounting period
The time period for which financial information is being tracked in a business, such as monthly, quarterly, or annually.
Accounting Glossary
accounts receivable
An account that records the amounts that customers owe to a business.
Accounting Glossary
adjusting entry
A correction made to a bookkeeping account that adjusts for accounting errors or other necessary changes at the end of the accounting period.
Accounting Glossary
cash flows
Used to describe the source or sources of cash or how cash is used.
Accounting Glossary
Chart of Accounts
A list of all the accounts used by a business, including what types of transactions go into each account.
Accounting Glossary
debit
An accounting entry that increases an asset or expense account, and decreases a liability or income account.
Accounting Glossary
dividends
A portion of a company’s profits paid by share of common stock on a quarterly or annual basis.
Accounting Glossary
FASB
Financial Accounting Standards Board. FASB is the highest-ranking authority in the private (non-government) sector of the U.S. for making pronouncements on GAAP and for keeping accounting standards up-to-date.
Accounting Glossary
Federal Unemployment Tax
In the U.S., the fund that used to be known simply as Unemployment. Employers contribute to the fund, and states also collect taxes to fill their unemployment fund reserves. (The acronym FUTA means Federal Unemployment Tax Act.)
Accounting Glossary
fidelity bonds
A type of insurance — typically carried by employers for their employees — that helps guard against theft and reduce the risk of loss.
Accounting Glossary
FIFO
First-in, first-out. A method for costs of goods sold in which a business charges out product costs to cost of goods sold expense in the chronological order in which the goods were acquired.
Accounting Glossary
fungible
Describes a product that is interchangeable and virtually indistinguishable from another product.
Accounting Glossary
General Ledger
A summary of all of a business’s accounts and transactions.
Accounting Glossary
IASB
International Accounting Standards Board. The IASB (based in London) is the main authoritative accounting standards setter outside the U.S.
Accounting Glossary
Journals
The location in which bookkeepers keep records (in chronological order) of daily company transactions.
Accounting Glossary
LIFO
Last-in, first-out. A method for costs of goods sold that selects the last item you purchased first, and then works backward until you have the total cost for the total number of units sold during the period.
Accounting Glossary
LLP
Limited liability partnership. A legal structure that state laws offer to qualified professionals in which all the partners have limited liability.
Accounting Glossary
PC
Professional corporation. A legal structure that state laws offer to qualified professionals who otherwise would have to operate as an unlimited partnership liability.
Accounting Glossary
petty cash
A cash account that businesses keep on hand for unexpected expenses.
Accounting Glossary
revenue
Monies that are collected in the process of selling a company’s goods and services.
Accounting Glossary
salvage value
The amount that an asset is worth after it has been fully depreciated.
Accounting Glossary
statement of cash flows
A financial statement that summarizes a business’s cash inflows and outflows during an accounting period.
Accounting Glossary
transactions
Economic exchanges between a business or other entity and the parties with which the entity interacts and makes deals.
Accounting Glossary
worker’s compensation insurance
A type of insurance carried by employers that covers its employees in case they are injured on the job.
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