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Recording all of your business related expenses is one of the most important steps in the accounting process. Whether your business is small, large or anywhere in between, chances are you’ll have expenses to account for. Properly recording these expenses will help you identify exactly how much net profit your business is receiving. Of course, it will also prove to be helpful when the upcoming tax season rolls around. To learn more about the steps to entering expense bills into Quickbooks, keep reading.

When you are ready to enter expense bills, fire up your Quickbooks account and log in as either the administrator or a user with the necessary privileges. Click on the “Vendor Menu” button and select “Enter Bills.” You should now see a drop-down menu with all of your account’s vendors listed. Select the vendor associated with your expense bill. If the vendor is new and not yet added to your account, click the button to enter a new one.

With the appropriate vendor selected, you can now attach a new expense bill. Double check the date of the bill to ensure it’s correct. Taking an extra minute or two to enter the appropriate bill date will make the process easier. In addition, it will also let you or other people working on the Quickbooks account know when the bill is overdue.

As long as you followed the steps previously mentioned, you should now see an “Amount Due” field. Enter in the amount of the expense here and double check the date before continuing.

Depending on what type of expense bill you are setting up, you may wish to add a memo or terms. For most basic expense bills, this isn’t necessary. However, you can add a memo as a reminder for specific transactions and deals. When you are dealing with hundreds or even thousands of expense bills, memos will prove to be highly useful.

Lastly, you will need to fill the account field with all of the appropriate information. Click on the “Expense” tab and select the expense that you previously entered. Make sure the expense is tied to the correct account and click “Save.” If you need to attach the expense bill to multiple accounts, click in another account field and manually enter it here. Your expense bill should now be set up. You can go back and view it from the Quickbooks home screen to ensure it’s attached correctly.

Just because a customer writes you a check doesn’t necessarily mean you will receive the funds. For instance, the customer may not have the appropriate amount of funds in their account, at which point the check will either bounce or be returned with a “NSF” label. Either way, you’ll need to address this issue in your Quickbooks account to ensure the balance is correct. Taking a few minutes to record NSF and bounced checks will allow for a smoother reconciliation process.

I can’t stress enough the importance of recording NSF and bounced checks in your Quickbooks account. If you overlook the critical element, it could result in unaccounted fees to your business account. Once this happens, it can throw your entire balance out of order, making it even more difficult to reconcile your account in the future. The bottom line is that you must record any NSF or bounced checks you receive from customers.

The first step is to log into your Quickbooks account and click on the “List” tab followed by “Item List.” From here, click on the “Item” tab from the drop-down menu and select “New.” Now, click “Type” from the drop-down menu and select “Other Charge.” This will bring up a new box that allows you to manually enter a name for the charge, such as “bounced check.”

Since the customer’s check was bad, select “$0.00” in the amount field. Click on the “Tax” tab and select “Non.” Next, select the “Account” tab from the drop-down box and choose your bank account. If you have multiple business bank accounts, select the one associated with the bad check. If a customer wrote a bad check to business account A, then you’ll want to select business account A. You will then have to choose another name for the bad check. To help keep things organized, it’s recommended that you choose the same, or similar, name as previously used.

Select the “Account” tab from the drop-down menu once again and select the income amount. Most banks use the same fee structure for bounced or NSF checks, so you should find the income amount listed here. In the rare event that it’s not listed here, you can choose “Add New” from the drop-down menu to manually enter in the amount. After the amount is entered, click on “Next” to save the items. The fee associated with the customer’s bad check should now be recorded in your Quickbooks.

Performing a reconciliation of your Quickbooks account is necessary to identify any potential typos, errors or miscalculations. No matter hard you try to prevent it, errors are bound to happen when you are performing accounting work in Quickbooks. Thankfully, reconciling your account will identify such errors, allowing you to get your account back in order. Once you’ve identified a discrepancy, though, you’ll then need to fix it. In this post, we’re going to cover the basic steps on how to fix reconciliation discrepancies in Quickbooks.

Run a Reconciliation Report

The first step in fixing a discrepancy is to run a reconciliation report. Doing so will reveal any and all transactions from the last statement up until now that were modified. To perform a reconciliation report, click on “Reports,” “Banking” and “Reconciliation Discrepancy.” You should now have a list of all your accounts. Select the one in question to see all of the recent transaction modifications. Go over each and every transaction to identify which one is incorrect. Depending on the size of your account, this may or may not be an easy process. However, it’s imperative that you carefully analyze these transactions to identify which one is the cause of your discrepancy.

Missing Transactions

Another instance when reconciliation discrepancies occur is from missing transactions. If you or someone else overlooked a specific transaction, your entire Quickbooks account will be thrown out of order. As a result, a discrepancy will appear when you run a reconciliation report. To identify missing transactions, select “Reports,” “Banking,” “Missing Checks,” and then enter in the amount of the transaction (as shown in the discrepancy).

Changed Transactions

Modifying transactions in your account can also cause a reconciliation discrepancy. At the top navigation bar, select “Reports” and “Custom Transaction Detailed Report.” You can then modify the report to better identify which changed transaction is causing the discrepancy. Start by adjusting the start and end date according to when the discrepancy occurred. Next, select the appropriate account along with the amount and select “Run.” This will run a report for changed transactions that may have caused the discrepancy in your reconciliation.

Fixing a reconciliation discrepancy isn’t always an easy task. If you don’t know when or where the error occurred, you may have to do some digging to find it. However, following the steps listed here will help you identify and fix the discrepancy in a timely manner.

With its clean interface and countless number of different features, Quickbooks makes business accounting of any size a breeze. Perhaps this is why it remains the world’s leading choice of business accounting software. One of the many useful features it offers is the ability to export account data into a CSV file. As you may already know, CSV is a basic text file with entries separated by commas. The extension CSV actually stands for “comma separated value.” In this post, we’re going to cover the basic steps of exporting data into a CSV file.

Exporting Customer Data

Exporting customer data into a convenient CSV format should only take a few minutes to complete. Start by clicking on the appropriate center containing the customer data you wish to export. You should now see a dropdown box at the top of the screen. Click on the dropdown box and select “Export Customer List.” After selecting Export Customer List, you’ll be given a few different options — you can either add a new worksheet, update a current worksheet, or export to CSV format. Assuming you wish to export this data into CSV, select the last option and click the “Export” button. Select the desired location for your new CSV file and voila, you’ve just exported your customer data!

Exporting Items

Exporting Quickbooks items into CSV format requires a slightly different approach; however, it’s still straightforward and should only take you a few minutes. When you are ready to begin, Choose “Lists” followed by “Item Lists” from your Quickbooks home page. Go back to the dropdown box at the top of the screen and scroll through the available options until you come across “Export All Items.” Select this option and choose CSV format. You can now specify where exactly you wish to export the file, whether it’s on your hard drive, USB flash drive, etc..

Following the steps listed here will allow you to export Quickbooks data into convenient CSV format. Whether you are an experienced Quickbooks user or not, exporting into CSV format is quick and easy. Just open up the desired customer, vendor or item and select “Export” from the dropdown box. If you prefer to use an Excel format rather than CSV, Quickbooks will give you this option as well. Just remember to only choose Excel format if you have a program that’s capable of opening it; otherwise, you won’t be able to read the data.

Whether your business is small, large or anywhere in between, you’ll likely come upon a scenario where a check needs to be voided. Quickbooks makes creating checks a quick and easy process that only takes a couple of minutes. However, voided an already created check can be a bit more difficult, especially if you’ve never done it before. If you are still trying to figure this process out, keep reading to learn the steps to voiding a check.

Void or Delete?

Contrary to what some people may believe, voiding does not perform the same functions as deleting. Before performing either one of these actions in your Quickbooks account, it’s important that you fully understand the differences between them. Deleting check will not only prevent the transaction from going through, but it will also erase all of the data associated with it. On the other hand, voiding a check will prevent the transaction from going through while leaving all of the data (client name, date, account number, etc.) intact.

Voiding a Check

To void an already created check, fire up Quickbooks and select the “Banking” menu. From here, click on “Use Register” followed by choosing the appropriate account. This should pull the account tied to the specific check in question. Scroll through all of the checks until you find the one that needs voiding. After opening up the check, you should see an “Edit” button — click it. Along with numerous other options, a “Void” button will appear. Simply click the “Void” button and your check will cease to exist. Any transaction attempts using this check will be returned.

Remember, though, just because a check is void doesn’t mean the client’s details are gone.  The check number, client’s name, amount and date will remain on file in this same location. If you need this information in the future for any reason, simply refer back to the check.

Of course, voiding a blank check can be performed in a similar manner. The only difference, however, is that you’ll first need to create a check with a $0.00 balance. After the check is created and the appropriate client is attached, you can then follow the same steps previously mentioned to void it. After voiding the blank check, you’ll want to click on “Record” so it will go into your history. Sorry if you were expecting more, but that’s all it takes to void a check in Quickbooks!

Still trying to figure out how to apply credit to an invoice in your Quickbooks account? Although this is somewhat of a rare occurrence, clients may accidentally overpay their bill. When this happens, you’ll want to go back and credit the respective invoice so the overpayment will factor into their next bill. Quibkooks makes this process quick and easy; the entire process of crediting a client’s invoice should only take a couple minutes. Check below for our step-by-step walkthrough on how to credit an invoice in Quickbooks.

The truth is that most people will never find themselves in a position where they need to apply invoice credits. However, the one time it does in fact come around, you want to be fully prepared to deal with it. Instead of blindly starring at the computer for hours on end, read through this quick guide to learn the ropes of invoice crediting.

After logging into your Quickbooks account, you’ll need to apply the credit to the customer. This will essentially give the customer credit for their overpayment or adjustment. It’s important to note, however, that this is not the same as applying it to the invoice. After giving the customer credit, you will then need to go back and connect it to the respective invoice. Only then will the transaction be complete and accurate.

To apply credit to an invoice, click on the “Customers” tab followed by “Receive Payments.” Next, you’ll want to scroll through the invoices and click on the one that requires adjusting.  Click on the “Discounts and Credits” button at the top of the screen to make the necessary adjustments on the invoice. You should see the amount that was added during the previous step. If not, you can modify the “Amount To Use” column with the correct amount. Double check the amount to ensure it’s correct before proceeding.

After applying the credit to your client’s invoice, you can then save the changes and close out of Quickbooks. Whenever you need to apply invoice credits in the future, refer back to this page for more guidance. The method listed here is the fastest and most efficient way to accomplish this task. Whether you are using a current or older version of Quickbooks, the method for applying invoice credits remains the same. Simply locate the customer and invoice before adjusting the “Discounts and Credits.”

When creating a copy of data within a Quickbooks account, you’ll have one of two different options to choose from: you can either export a portable company file or create a backup file. While there are some similarities between the two different options, there are some notable differences that shouldn’t go unnoticed. To ensure you make the right choice regarding your sensitive data, you must understand what the differences are between portable company files and backup files.

Backups

As the name suggests, backups are done to protect yourself in the unfortunate event of a hardware and/or software failure. Accounting is the structure for any successful business, and without it you simply won’t know what’s owed or to whom. Having your computer or hard drive malfunction and wipe your Quickbooks account clean is a recipe for disaster. The good news, however, is that you can prevent this from happening by backing up your Quickbooks account.

Quickbooks makes backing up all of your financial information a quick and easy task. After logging into your account, click “File” and then “Create Backup File.” You’ll then need to choose the location of your new backup file — local or cloud — along with the time and date. I recommend automatically scheduling your Quickbooks account to backup at least once a week for optimal protection. Even if nothing ever happens to your computer, you’ll still have the peace of mind knowing that your pertinent accounting information is backed up on a secure location.

Portable Company File

Now that you know the purpose of backups, you are probably wondering what exactly portable company files are used for. In short, these files are used to email or transfer company data from a Quickbooks account. Instead of emailing the entire backup, you can send a smaller, more concise file known as the portable company file. It’s a quick and easy method for transferring data from a Quickbooks account.

It’s important to note, however, that portable company files lack certain files like templates, images, letters, etc. Because these files aren’t necessary for the core data, they are omitted in portable company files. Leaving these files out creates a smaller files that faster to download and upload, which is a huge benefit for large-scale companies with equally large Quickbooks account.

After reading this, you should have a better understanding on the differences between portable company files and backup files. Remember, backup files contain everything, while portable company files are smaller and contain only the core data.

Quickbooks File Doctor is a completely free tool that’s helpful in a number of different situations. Whether you are dealing with a corrupt Quickbooks file or having problems connecting your account to the network, File Doctor is there to help. Even if you aren’t having these problems, it’s still recommended that you download and familiarize yourself with the program. To learn more about Quickbooks File Doctor and how to use it, keep reading.

First and foremost, you’ll need to download Quickbooks File Doctor and install it on your computer. You can find it on the official Inuit website — http://http-download.intuit.com/http.intuit/QBFD/qbfd.exe — so go ahead and download it. Once it’s downloaded, open the program and follow the built-in wizard to install it on your computer. After installing, restart your computer and you should see a new icon on your desktop labeled “File Doctor.” If you are still having problems installing the program, see the troubleshooting manual included in the download.

Network Problems

One of the biggest advantages of using Quickbooks File Doctor is its ability to fix basic network problems. For instance, some users might run into the problem of opening company files over the network. In this case, you simply open up your File Doctor program, click on “Advanced Settings,” and follow the given instructions. File Doctor is designed to walk you through the most common issues associated with network connections. After entering in the given information, Quickbooks will ask you for the file location. Select the file location one last time and it will then attempt to open the file over the network. If all goes well, the File Doctor will fix the problem and have you back on the network in no time at all.

Corrupted File

I think we’ve all dealt with corrupted files at one point or another. Depending on the severity of the problem, a corrupted file could halt all of your work until the fix it. Thankfully, File Doctor is designed to fix corrupted files within Quickbooks. If you are suffering from one or more corrupted files, simply run the File Doctor tool to find and fix the problem. It’s ran in the same way at the network connection fix, so follow the instructions listed above. All you need to do is open the file, follow the instructions, enter your information, and let it do the rest.

Hopefully, this will give you a better understanding on the Quickbooks File Doctor tool and how to use it.