Tutorials

Looking to add one or more lines to an invoice? Assuming you have Quickbooks, this is actually a simple process that should only take a few minutes.

To add a new line to an invoice, log into your Quickbooks account and open the respective invoice. Next, click on a row followed by the green + sign (located on the left). This should create a new line on the row you just clicked. If you wish to add the line to a different row, simply click the appropriate row.

Alternatively, you can add new lines by clicking the final line on your invoice or form. Doing so will automatically add an additional line below the current, final line. You can still add more lines, however, by clicking the “Add lines” button, which is found on the bottom table of the sales form. Clicking this button doesn’t just a single line. Rather, it adds a block of four new lines.

There’s also an option to remove all text and lines from your invoice. If you accidentally entered the wrong information on your invoice, for instance, clicking this button will erase it. Just click the “Clear all lines” button to automatically remove any and all text and lines from the respective invoice.

But what if you want to remove a single line on an invoice instead of all lines? Well, this is another feature that’s supported by Quickbooks. Simply hover your cursor over the row and click the trashcan icon (found on the right). This will delete the row you previously clicked. Keep in mind that you cannot undo a deleted line. So if you happen to accidentally delete the wrong line, you’ll need to go back and recreate it.

Of course, the best approach is to create your invoices correctly the first time, in which case you won’t need to go back and add new lines. Try to get into the habit of double-checking your invoices before creating them. Is the total correct? Is your business’s information being displayed correctly? To whom is the invoice addressed? These are all things you should check, and then double check, before creating an invoice. But if you happen to make an error, you can always go back and add or delete lines by following these instructions.

In addition to invoices, you can also add or delete lines on the estimates, sales receipts, purchase orders, cash expenses, credit card expenses, journal entries and deposits.

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Reconciliation reports are an important component of the Quickbooks accounting software. By running these reports, you can identify (and fix) discrepancies that would otherwise throw off your books. But what if you need to access and print a reconciliation report from a previous year? Thankfully, there’s a simple solution to this problem, which we’re going to discuss in today’s blog post.

If you need to print a reconciliation report from a previous year, log into your Quickbooks account and click the Gear icon > Reconcile > choose the appropriate account from the drop-down menu, at which point you should see a list of all reconciliation reports that you’ve run from your account.

Depending on the size of this list, finding a specific reconciliation report may or may not be easy. Regardless, you’ll need to scroll through this list until you find the report. You may then click the report, followed by “Print” to print it. Sorry if you were expecting more, but that’s all it takes to print a previous reconciliation report in Quickbooks!

If you didn’t print the report initially, you can still print the reconciliation report now. However, it requires a few additional steps. Go ahead and log into your Quickbooks account and select the Gear icon > Chart of Accounts > Run report. Now in the upper left-hand corner, click the Customize button. Leave the From field of the Transaction Date section empty and enter the last date of the report’s statement in the To field.

In the Rows/Columns section, click Change Columns. Now click Add> on Last Modified followed by OK. On the Dates From and To fields, enter the date in which the report was finished (note: you can set this to All Dates if you cannot find or remember this date). When you are finished, click Reconciled on the left click Status screen. You can now click Run Report at the bottom of this screen to run the reconciliation report.

By following the steps listed above, you should be able to run a reconciliation report from a previous year. It’s not uncommon for small business owners to conduct internal audits of their own finances, in which case these reports will prove useful. So, bookmark this page and refer back to it whenever you need to run a previous reconciliation report.

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It’s not uncommon for small business owners and professional accountants to “close” previous years, preventing any accidental transactions or changes being made to those years. If you are 100% certain that you don’t need to make any changes to a particular year, for instance, it’s best to close that year. Doing so reduces the risk of errors which could otherwise throw off your bookkeeping.

While there’s no option to close previous years in Quickbooks, you can still “lock” them. The purpose of locking previous years is the same: it prevents changes from being made to the locked year or years. Some business owners prefer to leave their years open, which isn’t necessarily bad if you have to make regular changes to previous years. But if you don’t make such changes, it’s best to lock these years to prevent errors and discrepancies.

So, how do you lock previous years in Quickbooks? You’ll need to use the program’s “Set Closing Date and Password” feature. This is done by logging into your Quickbooks account, opening your company file and choosing Edit > Preferences > Accounting > Company Preferences. From here, you’ll see a new window appear with options associated with your Quickbooks company preferences.

Click the option at the bottom of this window called “Set Date/Password,” at which point you’ll see a new window that says “To keep your financial data secure, Quickbooks recommends assigning all other users their own username and password, in Company > Set Up Users.”

But you’ll want to pay close attention to the “Closing Date” prompt, as this indicates the date before which your company file cannot be changed. If you want to lock your previous year, for instance, select December 31 of last year as the closing date.

Upon choosing a closing date for your company file, you’ll need to enter a new password. This isn’t the same password used to log into your Quickbooks account. Rather, it’s an entirely new password that’s used specifically for this purpose. Granted, you don’t have to create a password here. But if you don’t, anyone who attempts to enter a change for the closed year or years will receive a warning. This is bad because users can still make changes to the closed year or years, with Quickbooks only giving them a warning. The bottom line is that you should always create a password when closing/locking one or more years.

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Whether you are a small business owner or accountant, you probably why it’s important to back up your files. Hopefully, nothing will ever happen to your original files. But if disaster strikes, you want a secondary copy on hand to get your operations up and running again. Thankfully, Intuit’s Quickbooks accounting software has a convenient backup feature, allowing users to create a backup copy of their company file on a USB flash drive or similar device. To learn more about this feature and how to use it, keep reading.

To back up your Quickbooks company file, go ahead and open the file from your computer. Assuming you have Quickbooks installed, you can open it simply by right-clicking and choosing “open.” This should launch the Quickbooks application, at which point you can choose File > Save Copy or Backup to open the backup wizard. Next, click Backup copy > Next > Local backup.

Before proceeding, you should click the Options button to set your backup defaults. This gives you greater customization over what’s backed up and where it’s stored. You can also specify the location at which your back up is saved (insert your USB flash drive into your computer and choose it from this options page).

After customizing your backup defaults options, click Next to proceed, followed by Save right now (note: you can choose Save right now and schedule future backups if you’d like Quickbooks to automatically create backups after various intervals). Click Next after choosing either Save right now or Save and schedule.

This step is completely optional, but you can change either the name and/or location of your backup file. Simply type your preferred file name into the name field and click the Save option in the drop-down menu. You can also choose a different location for the backup file. With that said, you should not change the .qbb extension file name, as this may corrupt the file and render it inaccessible. Go ahead and click Save to begin the back up.

During the back up, Quickbooks will check the integrity of your company file using the defaults you chose earlier. This will close your company file and create a new backup. Once complete, Quickbooks will display a message telling you that your company file was successfully backed up to the specified location.

It’s important to note that you can create a backup company file on any device. While this tutorial specifically focused on USB flash drives, you can save your Quickbooks company file to any removable storage device, hard drive or local network folder.

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This is a question that many newcomers to Intuit’s popular line of accounting software ask. Perhaps you lost the original check, or maybe you need a second copy for reference purposes. Regardless, there are times during which you’ll need to reprint a check. The good news is that Quickbooks allows for reprinting checks in just a few quick and easy steps. Here’s how you do it.

There are actually two different ways to reprint a check in Quickbooks, the first of which involves accessing the Lists menu. After logging into your Quickbooks account, choose the Lists category from your main menu bar (found at the top), followed by Chart of Accounts > choose your payroll > double-click the check you want to reprint > click the Print icon within this window > click Save and Close. Sorry if you were expecting more, but that’s all it takes to reprint a check in Quickbooks! Quickbooks will now reprint the selected check, allowing you to hand it over to the respective employee or contractor.

But there’s a second way to reprint checks in Quickbooks, and some users may argue that this method is even easier than the first. This is done by accessing the Employees menu, followed by Edit/Void Paychecks > enter the paycheck date in the Show Paychecks from and through options field > click the Print icon at the top of this window to assign the number > click OK.

Now that you know how to reprint a single check in Quickbooks, you might be wondering if there’s an option to reprint multiple checks. Well, there is. If you need to reprint multiple checks, just follow these instructions: log into your Quickbooks account and choose the Transaction tab from the Employee Center, followed by Paychecks (found in the left-hand column) > double-click the paycheck that you want to reprint > click Print Later next to the Print icon > Save & Close. Now, repeat these steps for each check that you want to reprint. After marking all of the necessary checks for reprint, choose File > Print Forms > Paychecks > OK. This will print all of your selected checks, allowing you to reprint all of them at once instead of one by one.

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One of the reasons why so many small business owners and professional accountants choose Quickbooks for their bookkeeping software is because of its versatility. It’s simple enough so that anyone can use it, regardless of experience level, yet it’s also loaded with features to customize the experience. Quickbooks even allows for the creation of custom reports — something that we’re going to discuss in greater detail today.

As you probably already know, Quickbooks comes loaded with several different report templates that display various information. But what if you want to change these reports and/or the way in which the information is displayed? Well, you can customize the default Quickbooks reports according to your own preference. It’s a relatively and straightforward process that should only take a couple of minutes.

To create a custom report in Quickbooks, fire up the software and navigate to the Reports page by selecting the Reports tab on the left-side navigation bar from the Home Screen. Next, go ahead and open the Profit and Loss report, followed by clicking the “Customize” button. Here you’ll see a plethora of different options to further customize the Profit and Loss report.

Now, if you are looking to create a custom Profit and Loss report that displays data by month, simply access the Rows/Columns settings and choose “Months” as the parameter in the Columns box. Next, access the Header/Footer and change title. This step is optional, although it’s recommended that you use a descriptive, unique title so you know that it’s a custom-made report. A good title, for instance, is “Monthly Profit and Loss,” as this describes what the report is.

When you are finished customizing the report, click “Save Customizations” at the top row to save the changes. You can then preview the report to see how it looks, and if necessary, make any additional changes. before using the report. The Profit and Loss report is just one of the many reports in Quickbooks that you can customize.

It’s recommended that you play around with these options to see what works best for your specific needs. There’s no single best way to create a custom report in Quickbooks, as each and every user has different needs. And besides, you don’t have save any of these changes. Just play around with the customization options so you get a better feel of the system and how it works.

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If you recently sold a product or service but don’t expect the customer to pay, you’ll need to write this “bad debt” off in your respective accounting software. Thankfully, Quickbooks makes it handling bad debt such as this a breeze. In just a few simple steps, you can write it off so you aren’t forced to pay income taxes on it.

There are actually several different ways to handle bad debt in Quickbooks, one of the easiest being the cash basis method. Assuming you file your taxes on a cash basis, this is the best way to handle bad debt. To do so, log into your Quickbooks account and void the original invoice by choosing Customers > select the appropriate customer > Open Invoices > choose the date range > select the invoice > More > Void > confirm that you wish to void the invoice by clicking “Yes.” If you have multiple invoices that you with to avoid, repeat these steps and choose the appropriate invoice.

It’s a good idea to get into the habit of adding a memo to the voided invoice so you know it’s bad debt. Voiding an invoice doesn’t delete it, so you can still reopen it and add a memo. Go back into the voided invoice and enter “Bad Debt,” along with any other information that you wish to keep for reference purposes. When you are finished, click Save to complete the process.

But what if the customer paid part of an invoice? In this case, you’ll want to open the original invoice and enter a new line using the product or service. Next, change the description to “Bad Debt,” and under the amount field, enter the balance due in the form of a negative number. If the customer owes $300, for instance, enter “-$300” in the amount field. Click Save to complete the process.

You can also make a note of a customer’s bad debt by accessing Customers > choose the customer from the drop-down list > Edit >  and in the “Display Name as” field, type “Bad Debt” or “No Credit.” When you are finished, click save to complete the process. This note will appear in lists and reports when you create a sales transaction in which the customer’s name is selected. It will not show up, however, in cash-only invoices with the respective customer.

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