Money Management Software Articles

Cheat Sheet / Updated 05-02-2022

QuickBooks 2019 makes small-business accounting fast and easy. But your day-to-day business bookkeeping will go even more smoothly if you employ a handful of QuickBooks user interface tricks, editing tricks, and keyboard shortcuts.

Cheat Sheet / Updated 04-27-2022

Keeping track of your accounting with QuickBooks Simple Start means organizing your debits and credits, applying user interface tips, using calculating and editing tricks, working efficiently with keyboard shortcuts, and right-clicking on your mouse to perform basic tasks in QuickBooks Simple Start.

Cheat Sheet / Updated 03-02-2022

You can make the most of your work in QuickBooks Online (QBO) and QuickBooks Online Accountant (QBOL) using handy and time-savings shortcuts and tool buttons. Using QBO keyboard shortcuts means that you can seamlessly access various windows and pages without touching a mouse. The various icons at the top of the QBO page help you quickly search for items, create new items, or display transactions.

Cheat Sheet / Updated 02-18-2022

You can make the most of your work in QuickBooks Online (QBO) and QuickBooks Online Accountant (QBOA) using handy and time-savings shortcuts and tool buttons. Using QBO keyboard shortcuts means you can seamlessly access various windows and pages without touching a mouse. The various icons at the top of the QBO page help you quickly search for items, create new items, or display transactions.

Cheat Sheet / Updated 02-17-2022

QuickBooks 2021 makes small business accounting fast and easy. But your day-to-day business bookkeeping will go even more smoothly if you employ a handful of QuickBooks user interface tricks, editing tricks, and keyboard shortcuts.

Cheat Sheet / Updated 02-07-2022

Using the Xero cloud-based accounting system makes small business accounting fast, easy and enjoyable. This cheat sheet gives you extra tips and tricks for working with this collaborative accounting tool. Discover how to adjust settings on your computer and in Xero to make the most from working in the cloud, access Xero on the go, and find your way around the home dashboard.

Cheat Sheet / Updated 10-01-2021

QuickBooks 2022 makes small-business accounting fast and easy. But your day-to-day business bookkeeping will go even more smoothly if you employ a handful of QuickBooks user interface tricks, editing tricks, and keyboard shortcuts.

Article / Updated 04-06-2021

Balancing a bank account is remarkably easy in QuickBooks. In fact, I’ll go so far as to say that if you have any problems, they stem from . . . well, sloppy record keeping that preceded your use of QuickBooks. Enough of this blather. I get started by describing how you reconcile an account. Give QuickBooks information from the bank statement In a reconciliation, as you probably know, you compare your records of a bank account with the bank’s records of the same account. You should be able to explain any difference between the two accounts — usually by pointing to checks you wrote that haven’t yet cleared. (Sometimes, deposits fall into the same category; you record a deposit and mail it, but the bank hasn’t yet credited your account.) The first step, then, is supplying the bank’s account information to QuickBooks. You get this information from your monthly statement. Give QuickBooks the figures it needs, as follows: 1. Choose Banking→Reconcile, or click the Reconcile icon on the home screen. QuickBooks displays the Begin Reconciliation dialog box, as shown. If you have several bank accounts, you may have to choose the account you want to reconcile. 2. If the bank account shown isn’t the one you want to reconcile, open the Account drop-down menu, and choose the correct account. 3. Enter the bank statement date in the Statement Date text box. You can adjust a date one day at a time by using the plus (+) and minus (–) keys. You can also click the Calendar button at the right end of the Statement Date text box to select a date from the calendar. See the online Cheat Sheet for a list of other secret date-editing tricks. 4. Verify the bank statement opening balance. QuickBooks displays an amount in the Beginning Balance section of the screen. 5. Enter the ending balance from your bank statement in the Ending Balance text box. 6. Enter the bank’s service charge. If the bank statement shows a service charge, and you haven’t already entered it, move the cursor to the Service Charge text box, and type the amount. (Type 10 for a $10 service charge, for example.) 7. Enter a transaction date for the service-charge transaction. QuickBooks adds one month to the service-charge date from the last time you reconciled. If this date isn’t correct, type the correct one. 8. Assign the bank’s service charge to an account. Enter the expense account to which you assign bank service charges in the first Account text box — the one beside the Date text box. Activate the drop-down menu by clicking the down arrow, highlight the category by using the arrow keys, and then press Enter. I’ll bet anything that you record these charges in the Bank Service Charges account that QuickBooks sets up by default. If you told QuickBooks that you also want to track income and expense amounts by using classes, QuickBooks adds Class text boxes to the Begin Reconciliation dialog box so that you can collect this information. 9. Enter the account’s interest income. If the account earned interest for the month, and you haven’t already entered this figure, type an amount in the Interest Earned text box. 10. Enter a transaction date for the interest income transaction. You already know how to enter dates. I won’t bore you by explaining it again (but see step 3 if you have trouble). 11. Assign the interest to an account. In the second Account text box, enter the account to which this account’s interest should be assigned. I bet that you record this one under the Interest Income account, which is near the bottom of the Account drop-down menu. To choose a category from the Account menu, activate the menu by clicking the down arrow, highlight the category, and then press Enter. 12. Click the Continue button. QuickBooks displays the Reconcile window, as shown. Mark cleared checks and deposits In the Reconcile window, you tell QuickBooks which deposits and checks have cleared at the bank. (Refer to your bank statement for this information.) Follow these steps: 1. Identify the first deposit that has cleared. You know how to do this, I’m sure. Just leaf through the bank statement to find the first deposit listed. 2. Mark the first cleared deposit as cleared. Scroll through the transactions listed in the Deposits and Other Credits section of the Reconcile window, find the deposit, and then click it. Alternatively, you can highlight the deposit by using the Tab or arrow keys and then pressing the spacebar. QuickBooks places a check mark in front of the deposit to mark it as cleared and updates the cleared statement balance. If you have a large number of deposits to clear, and you can identify them quickly, click the Mark All button and then simply unmark the transactions that aren’t on the bank statement. To unmark a transaction, click it. The check mark disappears. 3. Record any cleared but missing deposits. If you can’t find a deposit in the Reconcile window, you haven’t entered it into the register yet. I can only guess why you haven’t entered it. Maybe you just forgot. Close or deactivate the Reconcile window by clicking the Leave button. Now open the register and enter the deposit in the register in the usual way. To return to the Reconcile window, either reopen it or reactivate it. Or, if you like, choose Banking→Make Deposits and open the deposit screen right on top of the Reconcile window. Record the deposit and then click the Save & Close button. When you open the Reconcile window again, the deposit appears in the Deposits and Other Credits area. 4. Repeat steps 1–3 for all deposits listed on the bank statement. Make sure that the dates match and that the amounts of the deposits are correct. If they’re not, go back to the transactions to correct them. To get to a transaction, click the Go To button. You see the Write Checks or Make Deposits window where the transaction was originally recorded. Make the corrections there and then click Save & Close. You return to the Reconcile window. 5. Identify the first check that has cleared. No sweat, right? Just find the first check or withdrawal listed on the bank statement. QuickBooks enables you to sort the transactions listed in the Reconcile window by clicking the column headings in the Checks and Payments section and in the Deposits and Other Credits section. You may want to experiment a bit with this handy feature. Sorting and re-sorting transactions — particularly in high-transaction volume bank accounts — often eases the work of reconciling a bank account. 6. Mark the first cleared check as cleared. Scroll through the transactions listed in the Checks and Payments section of the Reconcile window; find the first check; and then click it. You also can highlight it by pressing Tab and an arrow key. Then press the spacebar. QuickBooks inserts a check mark to label this transaction as cleared and updates the cleared statement balance. 7. Record any missing but cleared checks. If you can’t find a check or withdrawal in QuickBooks, guess what? You haven’t entered it in the register yet. Close or deactivate the Reconcile window by clicking its Leave button or by activating another window. Then display the register and enter the check or withdrawal. To return to the Reconcile window, reopen or reactivate it. Or you can choose Banking→Write Checks, create the check right on top of the Reconcile window, and then click Save & Close to return to the Reconcile screen and carry on from where you left off. 8. Repeat steps 5–7 for all withdrawals listed on the bank statement. These steps don’t take very long. Reconciling my account each month takes me about two minutes. I’m not joking or exaggerating. By two minutes, I really mean two minutes. If the difference equals zero After you mark all the cleared checks and deposits, the difference between the Cleared Balance for the account and the bank statement’s Ending Balance should equal zero. Notice that I said should—not will. The background window in the above figure is a Reconcile window in which everything is hunky-dory. See that there’s zero difference in the bottom-right corner of the Reconcile window in the above figure? That means your bank account and QuickBooks file are in sync. If the difference is small, look for small differences between the amounts of the checks in the register and the actual cleared checks in the bank statement. If you find a discrepancy with a particular check, click the Go To button to go to the check and change the amount. Click Save & Close to go right back to the Reconcile window. If the difference does equal zero, you’re finished. Click the Reconcile Now button. QuickBooks displays a congratulatory message box (see figure above) telling you that the reconciliation is complete. As a reward for being such a good boy or girl, the message box asks whether you want to print a free, all-expenses-paid Summary or Detail reconciliation report. Click Summary or Detail and then click OK if you want to print the report; otherwise, just click Close. Can’t decide whether to print the reconciliation report? Unless you’re a business bookkeeper or an accountant who is reconciling a bank account for someone else — your employer or a client, for example — you don’t need to print the reconciliation report. All that printing does is prove that you reconciled the account. (Basically, this proof is the reason why you should print the report if you’re a bookkeeper or an accountant. The person for whom you’re reconciling the account will know that you did your job and will have a piece of paper to refer to later with any questions.) Also, you can always come back and print the report later, if necessary. To access the reconciliation reports that QuickBooks saved, choose Reports→Banking→Previous Reconciliation. Now each deposit, withdrawal, and check that you cleared is marked with a check mark in your register. If you don’t believe me, open the register and find out. If the difference doesn’t equal zero If the difference doesn’t equal zero, you have a problem. If you click the Reconcile Now button, QuickBooks shows you the Reconcile Adjustment dialog box, shown below. This dialog box tells you how unbalanced your account is and asks whether you want to adjust your maladjusted account. Click the Return to Reconcile button if you want to go back to the Reconcile window and start the search for the missing or incorrectly entered transaction. If you want to force the two amounts to agree, click OK. Forcing the two amounts to agree isn’t a very good idea. To do so, QuickBooks adds a cleared transaction equal to the difference. Postponing a reconciliation (by clicking the Leave Reconcile button) and not choosing to adjust the bank account balance usually is the best approach, because you can locate and correct the problem later, when you have fresh eyes. Then you can restart the reconciliation and finish your work. (You restart a reconciliation the same way that you originate one.)

Article / Updated 03-29-2021

QuickBooks Online (QBO) and QuickBooks Online Accountant (QBOA) fall into the category of Software as a Service (SaaS). As such, you don’t buy the software. Instead, you rent it; that is, you buy a subscription to use the software for a time period specified by the seller. Traditionally, you buy a license to use software that you install on your computer, and typically, that license permits you to install the software on only one computer. And, of course, a QBO user can pay varying amounts for a subscription, depending on the subscription level purchased. QBO is available at five different subscription levels, and each subsequent subscription level costs more and contains more functionality. The QBO subscriptions available at this writing are: Self-Employed Simple Start Essentials Plus Advanced All versions of QBO share three attributes in common. First, you can use a tablet, Android or iOS smartphone, or desktop computer to access your data. Second, your data is automatically backed up online. And third, all versions of QBO use 128-bit Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), the same security and encryption used by banks to secure data sent over the internet. After you assess your needs, use the following information to identify the lowest subscription level that will meet your requirements. At this point in time, you can upgrade to a higher level, but you cannot downgrade to a lower level. Accounting professionals signing up clients for QBO and creating client companies originally couldn’t switch client companies from one version of QBO to another if the accounting professional created the client as part of the Intuit Wholesale Pricing program. However, except for the Self-Employed version, that’s no longer true. So, you no longer need to anticipate your client’s requirements for more advanced features like the ability to track inventory or employing class tracking. The QBO Self-Employed version This version of QBO is aimed at freelancers and self-employed individuals, basically, those who receive Federal Form 1099 to account for the money they’ve been paid and pay their taxes using Schedule C of IRS Form 1040. Be aware, though, that the QuickBooks Self-Employed version (QBSE) is not currently part of the QBO product line, and that means that you cannot upgrade from QBSE to any other QBO product directly—an important fact to keep in mind when deciding to start with QBSE. If your business has business bank accounts, you should not use the Self Employed version. QBSE enables you to separate personal and business expenses and mileage, so it’s really geared to the “side hustle” gig economy, like Uber and Lyft drivers. Using the Self-Employed version, you can: Download transactions from your bank and credit card accounts. Separate business from personal spending. Create and send invoices at any time, and personalize your invoices using your logo as well as customize the subject line and main message of the invoice email. Send a mobile reminder to customers before payment is due; and, QBSE lets you know when your invoice is viewed and paid. Send receipts for paid invoices. Duplicate prior invoices to send them again, eliminating busy work. Accept mobile payments and take advantage of free bank transfers. Track mileage using your phone’s GPS and delete trips, along with mileage, in bulk. Use your phone to take photos of receipts for your expenses; QBSE automatically extracts key data from the receipt and uses the information to match an existing transaction or to create a new expense. Use QBSE’s Expense Finder feature to identify more potential deductions by securely connecting your bank accounts to pull in business expenses from the entire past year and sort them into Schedule C categories. When you sign in to QBSE for the first time from March 20 to April 15, select “No, I am still working on 2020 taxes” to access the Expense Finder feature. You can then connect to your bank accounts to securely import all 2020 expenses in just minutes. The Expense Finder feature automatically finds work expenses and organizes them by Schedule C category. Calculate and pay estimated quarterly taxes. Use QBSE Labs to test drive new features. If you need more guidance or have loyalties to a tax preparer, you can invite your tax preparer to work with your QBSE data using QBOA. Like the other versions of QBO, you can use a tablet, an Android or iOS smartphone, or desktop computer to access your data. In addition, QBSE uses the same security and encryption as banks, and your data is automatically backed up online. As you might expect, this version has the fewest reports available, and only one person and an invited accountant can access QBSE. Use this link to purchase QuickBooks Self-Employed. If you opt to include TurboTax in your subscription, you also can pay your estimated quarterly taxes online and export Schedule C information from QBO to TurboTax so that you can prepare your tax return more easily. With TurboTax as part of your subscription, you receive one federal and one state electronic tax return filing at no extra cost. The Simple Start version The Simple Start version of QBO is great for a new business with basic bookkeeping needs. With Simple Start, you can: Track your income and expenses. Download transactions from your bank and credit card accounts. Create an unlimited number of customers. Send unlimited estimates and invoices. Print checks and record transactions to track expenses. Track and pay sales taxes. Track, create, and send 1099-Misc forms. Import data from Microsoft Excel or QuickBooks Desktop. Invite up to two accountants to access your data. Integrate with available apps in QBO’s App Center. Although the Simple Start version supports Accounts Receivable functions, you can’t set up invoices to bill customers on a recurring basis. You also can’t track bills due in the future in the Simple Start version because it doesn’t include any Accounts Payable functions. However, the Simple Start version does include a trial balance and a general ledger. Although the Simple Start version allows two accountants to work in the client’s company, Simple Start is still designed for a single user. Therefore, the accountant cannot create the client’s company for the client. At the time the company is created in QBO, whoever creates the company becomes, in QBO parlance, the Master Administrator. In addition to the single-user restriction, the Simple Start version offers more than 50 reports. And Simple Start users can memorize report settings and produce memorized reports. Use this link to purchase QuickBooks Simple Start. For subscription levels that support multiple users, the accountant can create the company for the client and then assign the master administrator role to the client. And, if the accountant doesn’t make the client the master administrator when creating the company, the accountant can, later on, transfer the master administrator role to the client. The Essentials version The Essentials version of QBO includes all the features found in Simple Start. In addition, with the Essentials version, you can: Set up invoices to automatically bill on a recurring schedule. Take advantage of Accounts Payable functions, including entering vendor bills and scheduling their payment for later. Create and post recurring transactions. Track time. Control what your users can access. The Essentials version permits three simultaneous users and two accountant users as well as an unlimited number of users who log in only to use time-tracking tools. In addition, the Essentials version contains the 57 reports found in Simple Start and 30 additional reports. The Plus version The Plus version of QBO is the most full-featured version of QBO. It contains all the features found in the Essentials version. In addition, you can: Create, send, and track purchase orders. Track inventory using the first in, first out (FIFO) inventory valuation method. QBO supports light inventory needs: If you sell finished goods, QBO should be able to manage your needs. But if you need to assemble finished goods to sell, QBO won’t meet your needs on its own. You can look for an add-on app to supplement your inventory needs. Categorize income and expenses using class tracking. Track sales and profitability by business location. You can assign only one location to a transaction, but you can assign multiple classes to a transaction. Give employees and subcontractors limited access to the QBO company to enter time worked. Track billable hours by customer. QBO supports light job-costing needs, but it does not allow you to automatically cost labor. Track projects. Create budgets to estimate future income and expenses, and you can create multiple budgets per year, location, class, or customer. The Plus version supports five simultaneous billed users and two accountant users as well as an unlimited number of users who log in only to use reports or time-tracking tools. The Plus version also contains more than 120 reports: all of the reports found in both the Simple Start and the Essentials versions, and some additional reports. The Advanced version Intuit has recently started offering QBO Advanced, a version aimed at users who have outgrown QBO Plus. In addition to all of the features you find in QBO Plus, using QBO Advanced, you can: Have up to 25 simultaneous users with full access. Connect with a dedicated Customer Success Manager to handle support questions; support calls go to the front of the line instead of waiting in queue. Customer Success Managers also provide information on online training and QuickBooks products; subscribers to QBO Advanced are entitled to five free online training courses annually. Establish custom permissions for your users. Efficiently import hundreds of invoice transactions created outside of QuickBooks through a CSV file at one time. Enable workflows to trigger reminders for customers and internal team members. Utilize up to 48 custom fields. Implement the included online backup service, which allows you to back-up and restore your accounting data. Batch create transactions, including invoices, bills, checks, and expenses. Visualize your data in the Performance Center with customizable chart widgets. Take advantage of enhanced reporting capabilities called Smart Reporting, powered by Fathom. Users of QBO Advanced face only two real limitations: They can have up to 25 billed users and 3 unbilled accountant users. Get more information on QBO Advanced. Simple Start, Essentials, Plus, and Advanced with Payroll End users who sign up for QBO Simple Start, Essentials, Plus, or Advanced on their own and create their own companies, can create the companies using the Self Service Payroll option or the Full Service Payroll option. Or, later, they can sign up for payroll from within QBO. An accountant also can create the company that uses Self Service Payroll for a client.

Article / Updated 03-29-2021

When you convert a QuickBooks Desktop company to QBO, some data fully converts, some partially converts, and some doesn’t convert at all. In addition, QBO contains comparable alternatives for some desktop QuickBooks features and doesn’t contain alternatives for others. You can import any QuickBooks Desktop for Windows company or any QuickBooks for Mac company using QuickBooks U.S., including companies with the multicurrency feature turned on, as long as the company falls within the limitation of 350,000 targets. You also can import QuickBooks Desktop companies using UK and Canadian versions, again including companies that have multicurrency turned on. In general, the following types of files won’t convert and therefore can’t be imported: You cannot import QuickBooks Desktop data into any QBO company that was created more than 60 days ago, except for accountant company files. You can import QuickBooks Desktop companies into a QBOA company within 1,060 days of creating the QBOA account. When we say “accountant company files,” we’re talking about importing a QuickBooks Desktop company file into the Your Books company available in QBOA. You cannot import a QuickBooks Desktop company into QBO subscriptions using international versions of QBO other than UK and Canadian. You cannot import non-Intuit accounting software company files. If you need to import company data from a non-Intuit product, you’ll need to work with Intuit’s full-service team. You cannot directly import accounting data stored in spreadsheet files. You can import these via a third-party app called Transaction Pro Importer. It’s important to understand that, even if your company data meets the preceding criteria, some data still won’t convert when you import; the list below identifies some of the more visible things that don’t convert: Reconciliation reports: Save your reconciliation reports in QuickBooks Desktop or as PDF files to access them later. In QBO, continue reconciling where you left off. Recurring credit card charges: At your Merchant Center, cancel each existing automatic credit card recurring charge and re-create it in QBO as a recurring sales receipt. All other recurring transactions convert and import. On the good news side, QBO imports sub-accounts it finds in your QuickBooks Desktop Chart of Accounts. Previous versions of QBO didn’t support this capability. Reports: Find a similar report in QBO and customize it to your preference. Check out QBO’s App Center for a list of reporting apps that can help your business. Audit trail: Your desktop audit trail won’t come over, but all changes going forward will be captured in the Audit Log within QBO. Non-posting transactions or accounts won’t convert except for estimates and purchase orders. QuickBooks Desktop Data That Won’t Import What Doesn’t Import Recommendation QuickBooks Desktop usernames and passwords QBO requires each user who has access to a company to log in using a password. Existing QuickBooks Desktop users do not automatically have access to QBO. Instead, the company master administrator will need to re-invite users from QBO to gain access. Be aware that, in QBO, you can limit the user’s ability to see and use different parts of QBO, but you can’t control access at the level of transactions as you can in QuickBooks Desktop. Shortcut list and icon bar settings QBO has its own distinct keyboard shortcuts. While working in QBO, press Ctrl+Alt+? to see the shortcut menu. Price levels QBO currently doesn’t support price levels or any automatic way to adjust prices. If you have price levels defined in your QuickBooks Desktop data file, the conversion process won’t convert them to QBO. Reminders Reminders don’t convert to QBO. Use an external calendar such as Google Calendar or try using recurring transactions set to remind you instead of scheduling themselves. QBOA users do have the ability to create reminders by establishing projects and tasks. Vehicle list You’ll need to set up vehicles as fixed assets and, if you don’t buy vehicles outright, you’ll need to set up corresponding loans for each vehicle. Reconciliation reports Save your reconciliation reports in QuickBooks Desktop to access them later. In QBO, just continue reconciling where you left off. And, although reconciliation reports don’t convert, all reconciled transactions in registers convert as reconciled transactions in QBO. Subtotal items You can add subtotals to transaction documents. Recurring credit card charges Cancel each existing Automatic Credit Card recurring charge from your Merchant Center, and re-create it in QBO as a recurring sales receipt. Note: All other recurring transactions will import. Memorized reports Find a similar report in QBO and customize it to your preference. Audit trail Your desktop audit trail won’t import, but all new changes you make in QBO going forward will be captured in the QBO audit log. Inventory from QuickBooks for Mac QuickBooks for Mac isn’t capable of exporting inventory to QBO. Instead, you can save your QuickBooks for Mac company as a QuickBooks for Windows file and export it from a Windows machine running QuickBooks Desktop. There. Now, that wasn’t too painful, was it?