The Joy of Accounting Jargon and QuickBooks


Go here for some questions and answerson using Quickbooks

Go here for some more useful tips

Accounts : Categories for assets, liabilities, equities, revenues and expenses in which you record transactions.
Accounts Payable : The money that you owe to your vendors for goods and services.
Accounts Receivable : The money that customers owe you for goods and services.
Accrual : Recognising an expense or revenue when the transaction occurs, not when money is actually exchanged. A more precise system for determining profits.
Ageing : Listing accounts according to when the payments are due.
Balance Sheet : A financial statement that shows where your business is financially at a specific time.
Bank Reconciliation : The process of accounting for the differences that appear on your bank statement and the balance of cash according to your records (balancing your chequebook).
Cash Disbursement : Any money that's paid out, usually by cheque.
Chart of Accounts : A list of all accounts that a business uses, in which each account has a unique number referenced by the ledger.
Credit : The portion of a double-entry accounting transaction that increases liabilities and equity, but reduces assets. Also known as the "right side of the account".
Debit : The portion of a double-entry accounting transaction that increases assets, but reduces liabilities and equity. Also known as the "left side of the account".
Equity : What a business is worth to the owner. This is the difference between the assets and the liabilities.
Financial Statements : The formal reports used to communicate financial information about a business.
General Ledger : A complete list of a company's accounts, with current balances.
Income Statement : A financial statement that shows how much a business has earned or lost in a given accounting period.
Job Costing : The process of assigning income and expenses to a project.
Journal : A record of all the transactions of a business in the order that they occurred.
Liabilities : Any debt, including money or services, that is owed to others.
POS : Point Of Sale.
Posting : The process of taking journal information and transferring it to the general ledger.
SME : Small to Medium sized Enterprise.



Q. I want to setup my company on QuickBooks and want to be up and running with this new software as soon as possible. Are there any shortcuts I can take to speed up the process?

A. Because the initial setup process takes the most time and it can be frustrating to try to set up all of the accounts you think you will need, it might be a good idea to utilize QuickBooks' "On The Fly" setup of accounts. In other words, it may be beneficial for some companies to just start with the basic accounts and add any accounts needed when they are needed to cut down on the initial setup time.

Q. But, what if I am so busy that I do not even have enough time to deal with setting up basic accounts for my new company?

A. Most companies can get around the time consuming process of setting up basic accounts by using one of the preset chart of accounts templates that comes with QuickBooks (There are 25 to choose from) instead of starting entirely from scratch. QuickBooks will ask you to choose a type of business that most closely resembles yours when going through the process of setting up a new company. Additional accounts or changes to existing accounts can then be made "On The Fly."

Q. It seems to take me forever to use my mouse to scroll through lists and select a vendor or an account on QuickBooks. How can I speed up the process of entering vendors on purchase orders or selecting a specific account from the my long chart of accounts listing?

A. A very helpful tip in using QuickBooks is to learn to type the name of the account, vendor, etc. instead of scrolling through long lists using the mouse. QuickBooks will go to the correct account usually within 2 or three letters typed in.

Q. I have several identical transactions that recur every month and I really hate going through the process of re-entering these every single month. Is there any way I can avoid doing this repetitive work?

A. Yes. To save some time in the future, utilize QuickBooks' "Memorized Transactions" feature. QuickBooks can save you some time each month by automatically completing the transaction for you so that you will not have to re-enter the transaction again. Depreciation and monthly rent are two recurring transactions for many companies.

Q. I have five different cash accounts and would like to keep them separate on the books, but show them combined in a single cash account on the balance sheet. What should I do?

A. When initially setting up a company, keep in mind that you can create sub-accounts. In other words, if you have five different cash accounts and don't want each one to show up separately on a balance sheet, you should create a separate sub-account for each one of you cash accounts under the basic cash account.


 
Further Tips

Tracking expenses by job. To keep accurate track of all expenses and income for a job, select Transactions from the Preferences menu, and then select Track expenses by Customer:Job. Then be sure to always enter the customer and job name in the Customer:Job field on transactions.


Printing labels for selected customers. Did you know that you can print mailing labels to go with the invoices you're printing? Just choose the invoices you want to print from the Select Invoices to Print window, and then click the Print Mailing Labels button to print labels for just those customers.


Skipping Undeposited Funds. You can now skip Undeposited Funds and the Make Deposit step when entering a Cash Sale. If you wish to directly deposit the Cash Sale, click the Deposit To button in the Receive Payments window and select your bank account.


Adding notes. QuickBooks allows you to make notes about specific customers, employees, vendors, or other names that you can reference at any time. Select the appropriate list, click the name, click Edit at the bottom of the window, and then click Notes. You can enter, edit, delete, or read notes on that particular name.


Changing a date by a few days. Did you know that you can quickly change the date of any transaction without retyping the date? Just highlight the date and use the + or - keys.


QuickMath. QuickBooks can quickly add, subtract, multiply, and divide on Quantity and Amount fields. Simply use the + - * or / key to bring up the QuickMath calculator.


Creating a mail merge file. QuickBooks can create a mail merge file and optionally open Microsoft Word preconfigured to use that file. You can include Customers, Vendors, Employees, and/or Other Names in the mail merge file.


Accessing notes from the register or transaction. You can enter and view notes directly from a transaction or from the register. To view the notepad for a transaction, choose Notepad from the Edit menu when you have a transaction, such as an invoice, open or when you have a transaction selected in a register.


Using the Help system to get flow charts. To get a flowchart of procedures in QuickBooks, choose Help from the Help menu, and then click Overviews in the QuickBooks Help window. Clicking any of the topics listed gives you a flowchart that you can print. This chart displays a quick, concise view of various procedures.


Quantities on Groups. You can specify Group Items to use on sales forms. Group items contain other items whose detail can be shown or hidden on printed sales forms. You can specify the default quantities for each item in the group.


Printing long forms. You can print Custom sales forms on legal paper. If you often have many line items on your invoices, legal paper may help you save paper (you can use one sheet instead of two). From the File menu, choose Printer Setup then select the appropriate type of changes your Custom sales forms to fit on legal paper.
Printing Rolodex cards. Did you know that you can print Rolodex cards from your customer or vendors list? Choose Printer Setup from the File Menu, select Label Printer, and then select your preferred format. Next, go to Print Forms and select Print Mailing Labels.


Big reports. To fit a big report on one page, you can make the report font smaller. From the report, select Format, highlight Report Data in the Change Font For list, and then click Change font. Select a different size font. You can memorize these changes by memorizing the report and then recalling it later from the Memorized Report list.


QuickZoom to see more detail on reports. To see the numbers behind the numbers when running reports, use QuickBooks' handy QuickZoom feature. Double-click on the amount to see how QuickBooks arrived at its figures.


Changing the fonts on reports. You can change a report font on the screen by clicking the right mouse button in the area of the report where you want to change the font. QuickBooks opens a font window for you to select font type, size, style, and color.


Currency symbols. QuickBooks can print and display most currency symbols you enter in the Windows international settings. For example, to print US$, or CN$ on your invoices, go to the Program Manager, choose Control Panel International Settings | Currency Settings, and then change the Symbol. Windows 95 users: Choose Regional Settings from the Control Panel, and then select the Currency tab to make changes.


Converting Quicken data. After you convert your Quicken data, check the Other Names list (available from the Lists menu). Go through this list and re-assign all the names that you would like to have appear as Customers, Vendors, or Employees. Select the name you want to reassign, click the Edit button, and then click the Change Type button from the Edit Name window.

And Some More QuickBooks Tips

Bring up any report and double-click when the cursor turns into a magnifying glass, signifying the Zoom feature. Use this to do "account analysis". If something is coded wrong such as Fuel in the Telephone account, zoom all the way back to the original transaction and reclassify it.

Accounts not appearing in the order you wish? Move your cursor over the diamond to the left of the account you wish to move (it will turn into a black cross) and drag the account where you want it.

Do you have drafts, loan proceeds, or hand-written cheques to enter? The best way to enter these items is directly into the register of the cheque account.

Have you entered bills, then written cheques for the same bill? Uh oh, chances are your expense is overstated and your payable has not cleared. When you enter bills, you want to pay bills, not write cheques.


Speed up data entry:
Tab from field to field.
Use the plus/minus sign on your keypad to quickly adjust the date. Also don't bother entering the year when it is a current year.
If the transaction is even dollars, do not bother entering the decimal and the cents' zeroes.

Want to track your customers' birthdays but don't see a field? Use Custom Fields: In the Additional Information tab of vendors, customers, or employees, click the Define Fields button. Add the captions you want, check the boxes that are applicable, and your own custom fields will be defined.

Some of the new features of QuickBooks 5.0:

More flexibility with data relationships.
For example, class can be coded at the item level.
Ability to hide accounts.
Cash-basis GST tax return.


For more information ond help on QuickBooks visit Jim's QuickBooks Pages