Tutorials

Does your business require you to drive on a regular basis? Well, you aren’t alone. Millions of business owners and freelance workers drive as part of their regular work-related activities. While driving can be a nuisance, especially when there’s heavy traffic, you can typically deduct this expense from your taxes. So, what’s the best way to track mileage using the Quickbooks accounting software?

You won’t find any feature in Quickbooks that’s designed specifically for mileage tracking. However, you can still track mileage by creating a bill and making the driver a vendor or supplier. Assuming you want to track mileage for multiple employees, you can make all of them a vendor or supplier.

To do this, you’ll need to create a new expense account for mileage. This is done by logging in to your Quickbooks account and selecting the Gear icon > Chart of Accounts > New. From here, enter the requested information about the new account, and when you are finished, click “Finish” to complete the process.

After creating a new expense account for mileage, you’ll need to create a new Product/Service. This is done by clicking the Gear icon > Products/Services > New. You can then enter a name for the expense account (e.g. “mileage” or “driving mileage”). From here, select the box for “I sell this product/service to my customers” and also “I purchase this product/service from a vendor/supplier.” Quickbooks will then prompt you to enter a description for the account as well as the amount you pay per mile. After completing this information, assign the newly created expense account and click “Save.”

Congratulations, you’ve just created an expense account for tracking mileage in Quickbooks. Keep in mind that your employee is also a vendor/supplier; therefore, you’ll need to pay their mileage bill. You can refer to this Intuit help article for more tips on how to pay mileage bills for your employees.

Mileage tracking has become a hot topic in recent years due to the rise of ridesharing apps like Lyft and Uber. According to Market Watch, analysts believe the industry could grow to a whopping $285 billion by 2030. It’s become such a popular means of transportation, in fact, that it has threatened the very livelihood of traditional taxis. And with this growth comes the need for miletracking tracking, which as explained above, is something that you can accomplish using Quickbooks.

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Trying to figure out how to run a report detailing all payments made to a vendor? If you’re reading this, I’m assuming the answer is yes. Thankfully, Intuit’s Quickbooks accounting software makes this process a breeze. In just a few simple steps, you can easily run a report with vendor totals. To learn more about this process, keep reading.

Before we begin, it’s important to note that the “Expenses by Vendor Summary” report only shows payments associated with expense accounts. They do not show the true vendor totals.

When you are ready to run a report with vendor totals, go ahead and log in to your Quickbooks account and access “Reports.” from here, enter “Transaction List by Date” in the “Go to reports” field. This will bring a new menu, at which point you can click Customize > Set Transaction Date. You must now select the appropriate year for the report. The year you select here will cover all payments made to the vendor for that period. So, if you want to run a report with all payments made to a vendor in the year 2016, you need to select 2016.

After selecting the year for your report, choose “Vendor” for the “Group by” option. Next, click “Lists” on the left-hand side of the page, followed by the “Select Multiple” for the “Transaction Type.” You will now be prompted to enter the transactions for which you want to run the report. Quickbooks supports a variety of transaction types, including bill payment check, bill payment credit card, cash expense, check, credit card expense, credit card credit and vendor credits. Feel free to select as many as you wish. Just remember that any transaction type you choose will appear on the vendor report.

You may also want to run a report for a vendor or group, in which case you can click the drop-down menu labeled “Name” and select the vendor. For multiple vendors, click “Select Multiple,” at which point you can select every vendor whom you’d like to include

When you are finished, click “OK,” followed by “Run Report.” Quickbooks will then create your report using the information specified in the steps mentioned above. For a total of all payments, you can click the “Excel” button at the top of the report page.

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When depositing checks, you may find that some of your customers’ payments remain in the “payments to deposit” window. As explained by Intuit, Quickbooks uses the “Undeposited Funds” section as a holding account. When you receive a payment from an invoice or sales receipt, the funds will be temporarily held here until you actually deposit them to Quickbooks. The “payment to deposit” window is essentially a reflection of the “Undeposited Funds” section, revealing which payments you haven’t officially deposited.

But what if you’ve already deposited a payment, and it still appears in the “payment to deposit” window? In this case, you’ll need to check the “Undeposited Funds” and “Transaction History” for the payment so you’ll know which one to delete.

You can delete payments in the “Undeposited Funds” window by logging in to your Quickbooks account and choosing Lists > Chart of Accounts > Undeposited Funds > Amount > right-click on “Amount” > Delete Deposit. Quickbooks will then ask you to confirm, at which point you should click “OK.” This will delete the payment from your “Undeposited Funds” window.

Additionally, you can check your payment history by accessing Customers > select the customer from whom you received the payment > select the invoice to which the payment is associated > Reports > Transaction History. From here, you’ll be able to view the transaction for the payment.

Keep in mind that you can also turn off the “Undeposited Funds” feature by making just a few simple changes to your account. If you struggle with deposited payments appearing here frequently, it’s a good idea to deactivate this feature. To turn off “Undeposited Funds,” log in to your Quickbooks account and choose Edit > Preferences > Payments > Company Preferences. From here, you can uncheck the option for “Use Undeposited Funds as default deposit to account.” Once deactivated, your deposited payments will no longer appear in the “Undeposited Funds” window.

Of course, some business owners and accountants may accidentally delete their deposit — and that’s okay. Quickbooks makes recovering deleted deposits a breeze. All you need to do is recreate the payment. This is done by clicking the Create (+) button, followed by “Bank Deposit” and “Select Existing Payments.” You can then scroll through your existing payments to recreate the one that you accidentally deleted. When finished, click “Save” to complete the changes and close the window.

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It’s not uncommon for small business owners to hire professional accountants to keep track of their books. Rather than worrying about bookkeeping, business owners can focus on what matters most: increasing sales and expanding their business. But if you’re thinking about using the services of a professional accountant, you should create a separate Accountant’s Copy of your Quickbooks account. Unlike the default company file, an Accountant’s Copy is a slimmed-down version that has limited functionality.

To create an Accountant’s Copy, log in to your Quickbooks account and select File > Accountant’s Copy > Client Activities > Save File > Next. You will then need to choose a dividing date, after which you can click “Next.” In the following window, you can change the location where you’d like to store the file as well as the name of the file. You can choose any location on your computer, external device or the cloud. The only requirement for the file name is that you use the .QBW extension.

After choosing the save-to location and file name for your Accountant’s Copy, click “Save.” You’ve now saved the Accountant’s Copy. If you want to send that copy to your accountant, there are a few different options. One option is to simply transfer the Accountant’s Copy to a USB flash drive and physically hand it over to your accountant. This is arguably the easiest and safest way to send an Accountant’s Copy. If your account works at a different location, however, you may want to email him or her your Accountant’s Copy.

The steps to sending an Accountant’s Copy via email varies depending on your email service provider. Basically, though, you want to add the Accountant’s Copy as a file attachment. This means you’ll create a new email, click the button for “file attachment,” locate and click the Accountant’s Copy and send it to your accountant.

There are a few things to keep in mind when creating and sending an Accountant’s Copy. If you are using the Quickbooks Accountant Copy File Transfer (ACFT), for instance, your accountant will have two weeks to download the copy once you’ve uploaded it. Furthermore, the Accountant’s Copy must use the .QBW format; otherwise, your accountant won’t be able to open it. And if you’re using Quickbooks Enterprise, you’ll need to turn off the Advanced Inventory (AI) option in order to create an Accountant’s Copy.

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It’s not uncommon for business owners to pay their employees “bonuses” in addition to their regular paycheck. Maybe the employee went above and beyond the call of duty, or perhaps the business owner wants to share the company’s success with his or her workforce. Regardless, there are times when business owners will make bonus payments to their employees. And like any financial transaction, such payments should be recorded for bookkeeping purposes. Thankfully, Intuit’s Quickbooks makes the process a breeze. To learn more about bonus payments and how to record them in Quickbooks, keep reading.

Basically, recording a bonus payment in Quickbooks requires creating a bonus check. Keep in mind that bonus checks don’t have to be associated with payrolls. On the contrary, the entire purpose of a bonus check is to be a “bonus” or additional payment. So, to make bonus check in Quickbooks, log in to your account and select Employees > Run payroll > Bonus only. From here, choose either “As net pay” or “As gross pay,” depending on your preferred method of payment. When you are finished, click Continue.

You will not be prompted to enter a pay date for the bonus payment. This is the date on which the payment will be officially recorded, so make sure it’s correct. Next, click the checkbox next to the employee’s name to whom the payment is being made. If you are making a bonus payment to two or more employees, select all of their names. If you’re only making it to a single employee, choose his or her name. When you are finished, enter the dollar amount for the bonus payment.

While optional, you may want to include a memo with your bonus payment. This is done by entering your desired message into the “Memo” box,  which will be displayed on the check or pay stub.

Next, click the “Preview payroll” button to see how the bonus payment looks. Assuming it’s correct, click “Submit payroll.” You can then click “Print checks” or “Print pay stubs” to print the bonus payment. And when you are finished, click “Finish payroll” to save your changes. Congratulations, you’ve just created and record a bonus paying in Quickbooks!

Follow these steps should allow you to create and record bonus payments using the Quickbooks accounting software.

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Normally, only a single account can be associated with transactions entered into the Quickbooks register. There are times, however, when a transaction may have two or more accounts associated with it. If two accounts are paying the invoice, for instance, you’ll need to record this as a split deposit in your Quickbooks account. To learn more about split deposits and how to record them in Quickbooks, keep reading.

For Quickbooks Online, Intuit recommends recording a split transaction by entering it on the transaction page. So, after logging in to your Quickbooks Online accoint, open the form for the transaction associated with the split payment (e.g. deposit, check, etc.). Next, enter each partial payment on a separate line while selecting the appropriate account for each of the partial payments. Double-check to make sure the information is correct, after which you can save the transaction.

This is the easiest and most efficient way to record a split transaction in Quickbooks. But what if you’ve already entered the transaction in your register? As previously stated, online a single account can be associated with transactions listed in the Quickbooks register. Therefore, you’ll need to take a different approach when attempting to record a split deposit. Refer to the walkthrough below to record the transaction with the split payment in Quickbooks.

If you’ve already entered the transaction in your Quickbooks register, you’ll need to edit it from your Chart of Accounts. This is done by logging in to your account and choosing Accounting > Chart of Accounts. Next, select “View Register/Account History” under the “Action” column. This will bring up your Chart of Accounts, at which point you can search through all of your transactions. Locate the transaction associated with the split payment and click “Edit.” You will then see a new entry screen for the transaction. Go ahead and enter the partial payment amounts. Assuming it’s a split payment between two accounts, you should add the two totals to ensure they equal the total amount for the transaction. When you are finished, click “Save” to complete the process and save your changes.

After completing these steps, the transaction should reveal the correct total in your register while also displaying “split” in the account column. Sorry if you were expecting more, but that’s all it takes to record a split payment in Quickbooks!

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Assuming you have one more employees working for your business, you’ll need to pay them. While you can always use Intuit’s add-on Payroll service, another option is to handle it yourself. Assuming you have Quickbooks Desktop, you can manually set up payroll in just a few easy to steps. So, if you’re interested in manually setting up payroll in Quickbooks, keep reading for a step-by-step walkthrough.

To begin, go ahead and log in to your Quickbooks account and choose Help > Quickbooks Help. From the search field, enter “manual payroll,” after which you should select “Calculate payroll manually.” You should see an option for “manual payroll calculations.” Click this link and choose the option for “Set my company file to use manual calculations.” As its sounds, this option enables your account to use manual calculations for payroll. When you are finished, restart Quickbooks to apply the changes.

Once Quickbooks has restarted, go ahead and access the payroll section. You should see “Payroll Items” in the List Menu. Furthermore, you should now have access to all of the features that Intuit’s Payroll service’s members have access to. The only real difference is that you’ll have to enter your payroll information manually as opposed to having automatically filled.

There are a few things you should keep in mind when manually setting up payroll, however.

• You’ll need to calculate payroll taxes manually.
• Rates for some payroll items like Medicare and Social Security generally remain constant. There are times, however, when rates change. Therefore, you should double check the rates for your state to ensure they are accurate.
• Even with manual payroll enabled, you can still go back and sign up for Intuit’s Payroll service.
• You won’t be able to prepare payroll tax forms using this feature.
• If you are using Hosted Quickbooks — the services of a third-party vendor — you’ll need to contact the respective hosting provider to request manual payroll services. Only they can set up manual payroll in your Quickbooks account.

Perhaps the most important tip when using manual payroll is to double check your information to ensure it’s correct. If you make the wrong payment to an employee and that employee cashes his or her check, you may have a headache getting it back, especially if it involves multiple payments. To prevent headaches, double check your payroll information before issuing new payments.

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It’s not uncommon for vendors to require partial payment of a product or service prior to its delivery. Before the vendor will perform the service or deliver the goods, for instance, they may ask you make a down payment. Maybe it’s 10% of the total or perhaps it’s 50%. Regardless, you’ll need to record the prepayment in your Quickbooks account; otherwise, it could throw off your books. So, what’s the best way to record a prepayment such as this in Quickbooks?

Accounts Payable

There are several ways to record a prepayment to a vendor in Quickbooks, one of which is to use Accounts Payable. Basically, this involves writing a check to the vendor and recording it to your Accounts Payable account. When done correctly, it will decrease the balance of the bill.

To record a prepayment to a vendor using Accounts Payable, log in to your Quickbooks account and select Banking > Write Checks > enter the vendor’s name and information as well as the payment amount. Next, access the “Expenses” tab and enter “Accounts Payable” in the “Account” column. From there, click the drop-down menu for “Customer:Job” and select the vendor’s name, after which you can click “Save and Close.”

You aren’t out of the woods just yet. You’ll still need to enter the bill by accessing Vendors > Enter Bills > complete the requested fields > Save and Close. You can then apply the prepayment to the bill by accessing Vendors > Pay Bills > select the bill for the prepayment > Set Credits. This should display the prepayment in the “Set Credits” screen. Assuming it’s displayed, click “Done” to complete the process.

Asset Account

Alternatively, you can make an asset account to track prepayments made to vendors. This is done by creating an Other Current Asset (OCA) account in Quickbooks, which will be used to track the prepayment. Next, you’ll need to write a check to the vendor for the prepayment amount, followed by entering the bill when the item or service has been delivered. You can then pay the remaining balance on the bill from the “Pay Bills” menu.

Keep in mind that you can run a report to view prepayments by accessing Reports > Vendors & Payables > Vendor Balance Detail. From here, select “Customize Reports” and choose the “Filters” Tab. You can then select the “Account” drop-down menu and choose the asset created to track the prepayment.

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Wouldn’t it be great if every customer for whom you provided services or goods paid you? If your business requires payment either before or at the time of delivery, this shouldn’t be a problem. However, some businesses allow customers to pay after the product has been delivered or the service has been performed. Under this model, there’s a chance that some customers may not pay. Maybe the customer has fallen on hard financial times, or perhaps you have the wrong contact information listed for the customer. Regardless you should record the nonpayment as bad debt in your Quickbooks account.

According to Intuit, you should first check to make sure your accounts receivables Aging Detail report is clean before proceeding to record an unpaid invoice. Assuming it’s clean, you can move forward by following the steps listed below.

There are several ways to record an unpaid invoice in Quickbooks, one of which is to simply void or delete the invoice. This is done by logging in to your Quickbooks and clicking Sales > Customers > select the customer’s name > Open Invoices > enter the date range for the invoice > select the invoice for which you haven’t received payment > More > Void. You should then see a message on your screen asking if you’d like to void the invoice. Click “Yes” to proceed and void the invoice. If you have multiple unpaid invoices, repeat these steps for each one.

Once the invoice has been voided, it will remain in your account but won’t have any effect on your books. However, it’s recommended that you go back into the voided invoice to add a memo. You can include the note “bad debt” or “unpaid invoice” in the memo. This is strictly for reference purpose and won’t affect the invoice or your account. Nonetheless, it’s a good idea to include a memo on all unpaid invoices so you’ll know why they were voided.

But what if a customer only paid a partial amount for which he or she was billed? In this case, open the invoice and enter a new line for the main product service item. You can then change the description to “Bad Debt,” after which you should enter the balance due in the “Amount” field. When you are finished, enter a memo for this invoice and click “Save” to complete the process.

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It’s a good idea to close a fiscal period once you’ve conducted all of the transactions for that period. While there’s no rule requiring it, doing so will reduce the risk of changes that could otherwise throw off your books. If a business owner leaves a period open for instance, his or her company’s accountant may go back and make changes to it without their knowledge. And if these changes are incorrect, it will throw off the business owner’s books. This is why it’s recommended that you lock periods once you are finished with them.

Assuming you use Intuit’s Quickbooks accounting software, you can easily lock periods. It’s a simple and effective way to prevent other users from making changes to that period. Furthermore, you can set a password for the respective period, allowing you or other authorized users with the password to still make changes. For a step-by-step walkthrough on how to lock a period in Quickbooks, keep reading.

To lock a period in Quickbooks, log in to your account and click the Gear icon, followed by “Company Settings.” Next, choose “Account and Settings.” From there, you can click “Accounting,” after which you should place a check next to the “Close the books” box. Quickbooks will then allow you to specify the closing date. Of course, you should double check this information to ensure it’s correct. If you close the wrong date, you won’t be able to make changes to that date without a password (if you set one).

Next, choose whether to set a password. Again, if you set a password, you or someone else can go back and make changes to the locked period. You simply need to enter the password. If you don’t specify a password, you won’t be able to make changes to transactions within that period. Ultimately, it’s up to you whether or not you want to use a password. Some business owners and accountants prefer it, whereas others don’t. If you choose to use a password, store it in a safe and secure location for future reference.

After specifying whether or not you want to use a password, click “Save,” followed by “Done.” Sorry if you were expecting more, but that’s all it takes to lock a period in Quickbooks!

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