How To Use Quickbooks For Personal Finance
Quickbooks is the most popular type of business accounting software on the market with thousands of small, medium and large-sized companies placing their trust in it. It’s broad range of features and clean yet sophisticated interface allow people with little-to-no accounting experience to perform all of their bushiness’s accounting needs. In addition, however, Quickbooks can also be used to manage personal finances. If you are looking for a way to keep track of your personal finances, keep reading to learn how Quickbooks can do the job for you.
Some people might be thrown off by Quickbooks’ labeling. If you’ve ever come across this software in a store or online, it’s usually described as “business” accounting software; therefore, common sense would leave you to believe that it’s a poor choice for personal accounting. The truth, however, is that Quickbooks can be used for either business or personal finance managing. Just because it’s labeled as business accounting software doesn’t mean you can’t use it for personal finances as well.
When you are ready to start your personal finance accounting, fire up Quickbooks on your personal computer. The process of using the software for your personal accounting needs is pretty much the same as business accounting, only with a few minor differences. Once Quickbooks has loaded, use the built-in setup Wizard to walk you through the rest of the steps. If you have a checking account, savings account or any other bank account, you use the setup Wizard to connect this information to your Quickbooks. Alternatively, you can also enter this information in by hand if you aren’t comfortable connecting your financial accounts to Quickbooks. Either way is perfectly acceptable, but using the setup wizard will save you both time and energy.
Next, click on the “Vendor Center” tab at the top of your Quickbooks account and select “New Vendor.” This may be somewhat confusing at first, but vendors in a personal finance account are any bills that you must pay. For instance, your rent, electric bill, cable bill, car payment and even groceries can be labeled as a vendor. It’s important to note, however, that you’ll need to create a new vendor for each type of bill.
With your vendors set up, you can now add transactions to account for any payments you’ve sent out. The key thing to remember is that each transaction needs to have a specific vendor associated with it. Continue doing this throughout the month and you’ll be able to better keep up with your personal finances thanks to Quickbooks.