Quickbooks 2001 For Dummies

Visit us at dummies.com Discover how to track expenses and payments with ease Packed with expert tips to increase your profits Take control of your finances and keep your business in the black If you're like most small-business people, accounting is the last thing you want to spend lots of time on. That's where this friendly guide comes in. Written by a CPA, it quickly walks you through bookkeeping basics - and shows how QuickBooks can put your accounts in order and help keep the cash flowing. Discover how to: Customize QuickBooks for your business Set up online banking and bill paying Keep track of receivables, payables, and cash Monitor inventory levels Produce income statements and financial reports Handle payroll and print checks The Dummies Way Explanations in plain English "Get in, get out" information Icons and other navigational aids Tear-out cheat sheet Top ten lists A dash of humor and fun Get smart! www dummies.com Register to win cool prizes Browse exclusive articles and excerpts Get a free Dummies Dailye-mail newsletter Chat with authors and preview other books Talk to us, ask questions, get answers

Table of Contents:
Introduction; About This Book; What You Can Safely Ignore; What You Should Not Ignore (Unless You're a Masochist); Three Foolish Assumptions; How This Book Is Organized; PART I: You Gotta Start Someplace; PART II: Daily Chores; PART III: Stuff You Do Every So Often; PART IV: The Part of Tens; PART V: Appendixes; Conventions Used in This Book; Special Icons; PART I: You Gotta Start Someplace; Chapter 1: The Big Interview; Getting Ready for the Big Interview; The big decision; The trial balance of the century; The mother of all scavenger hunts; Doing the EasyStep Interview; Tip 1: Learn the interview protocol; Tip 2: Take your time; Tip 3: Get industry-specific advice; Tip 4: Accept the suggested filename and location; Tip 5: Go with the suggested chart of accounts; Tip 6: Consider tracking all your expenses with your checkbook; Tip 7: Add accounts you need; The Rest of the Story; Should you get your accountant's help?; Adjusting for accrual-basis accounting; Supplying the missing numbers; Checking your work one more time; Chapter 2: Lots of Lists; The Magic and Mystery of Items; Adding items you may include on invoices; Creating other wacky items for invoices; Editing items; Adding Employees to Your Employee List; Customers Are Your Business; It's Just a Job; Adding Vendors to Your Vendor List; The Other Lists; The Class list; The Other Names list; The Sales Rep list; Customer, Vendor, and Job Types list; The Terms list; The Customer Message list; The Payment Method list; The Ship Via list; The Memorized Transaction list; The Reminders list; Working with Your Lists; Organizing lists; Jotting down notes for list items; Printing lists; Exporting list items to your word processor; Chapter 3: Sharing QuickBooks Files; Sharing a QuickBooks File on a Network; User permissions; Record locking; Installing QuickBooks for Network Use; Designating the QuickBooks Administrator; Setting Up User Permissions; Specifying Multi-User Mode; Working in Multi-User Mode; PART II: Daily Chores; Chapter 4: Invoices and Credit Memos; Making Sure That You're Ready to Invoice Customers; Preparing an Invoice; Fixing Invoice Mistakes; If the invoice is still displayed on-screen; If the invoice isn't displayed on-screen; Deleting an invoice; Preparing a Credit Memo; Fixing Credit Memo Mistakes; Printing Invoices and Credit Memos; Loading the forms into the printer; Setting up the invoice printer; And now for the main event; Sending Invoices and Credit Memos via E-Mail; Customizing Your Invoices and Credit Memos; Chapter 5: Reeling In the Dough; Recording a Cash Sales Receipt; Printing a Sales Receipt; Correcting Cash Sales Receipt Mistakes; If the cash sales receipt is still displayed on-screen; If the cash sales receipt isn't displayed on-screen; If you don't want the cash sales receipt; Recording Customer Payments; Correcting Mistakes in Customer Payments Entries; In the Bank; Improving Your Cash Inflow; Tracking what your customers owe; Assessing finance charges; Chapter 6: Paying Bills; Pay Now or Pay Later?; Recording Your Bills by Writing Checks; The slow way to write checks; The fast way to write checks; Recording Your Bills the Accounts Payable Way; Recording your bills; Entering your bills the fast way; Deleting a bill; Remind me to pay that bill, will you?; Paying Your Bills; Paying the Sales Tax; A Quick Word on the Vendor Details Window; Chapter 7: Inventory Magic; Setting Up Inventory Items; When You Buy Stuff; Recording items that you pay for up front; Recording items that don't come with a bill; Paying for items when you get the bill; Recording items and paying the bill all at once; When You Sell Stuff; How Purchase Orders Work; Choosing a purchase order form for you; Filling out a purchase order; Checking up on purchase orders; Receiving purchase order items; Time for a Reality Check; Dealing with Multiple Inventory Locations; Manually keep separate inventory-by-location counts; Use different item numbers for different locations; One more thought; Chapter 8: Keeping Your Checkbook; Writing Checks; Writing checks from the Write Checks window; Writing checks from the Checking register; Changing a check that you've written; Packing more checks into the register; Depositing Money into a Checking Account; Recording simple deposits; Depositing income from customers; Transferring Money between Accounts; Setting up a second bank account; About the other half of the transfer; Changing a transfer that you've already entered; To Delete or to Void?; The Big Register Phenomenon; Moving through a big register; Finding that darn transaction; Chapter 9: Paying with Plastic; Tracking Business Credit Cards; Setting up a credit card account; Selecting a credit card account so that you can use it; Entering Credit Card Transactions; Recording a credit card charge; Changing charges that you've already entered; Reconciling Your Credit Card Statement and Paying the Bill; So What About Debit Cards?; PART III: Stuff You Do Every So Often; Chapter 10: Check Printing 101; Getting the Printer Ready; Printing a Check; Printing a check as you write it; Printing checks by the bushel; A few words about printing checks; What if I make a mistake?; Oh where, oh where do unprinted checks go?; Printing a Checking Register; Chapter 11: Online with QuickBooks; Web Sites You Can Access; Doing the Electronic Banking Thing; So what's the commotion about?; Should I get wired?; Making sense of online banking; Signing up for the service; Making an online payment; Transferring money electronically; Changing instructions; Transmitting instructions; Message in a bottle; Using the Online Payroll Service; A Quick Review of the Other Online Opportunities; Chapter 12: Payroll; Getting Ready to Do Payroll without QuickBooks' Help; Getting Ready to Do Payroll with QuickBooks; Doing taxes the right way; Paying Your Employees; Paying Payroll Liabilities; Paying tax liabilities if you use the Deluxe Payroll Service; Paying tax liabilities if you use the Basic Payroll Service; Paying other non-tax liabilities; Preparing Quarterly Payroll Tax Returns; Using the Deluxe Payroll Service; Using the Basic Payroll Service; Filing Annual Returns and Wage Statements; Using the Deluxe Payroll Service; Using the Basic Payroll Service; The State Wants Some Money, Too; Chapter 13: The Balancing Act; Selecting the Account You Want to Balance; Balancing a Bank Account; Giving QuickBooks the information from the bank statement; Marking cleared checks and deposits; Ten Things to Do If Your Account Doesn't Balance; Chapter 14: Reporting on the State of Affairs; What Kinds of Reports Are There, Anyway?; Creating and Printing a Report; Visiting the report dog-and-pony show; Editing and rearranging reports; Reports Made to Order; Processing Multiple Reports; Last but Not Least: The QuickReport; Chapter 15: QuickBooks Dirty Work; Backing Up Is (Not That) Hard to Do; Backing up the quick-and-dirty way; Knowing when to back up; Getting back QuickBooks data if you've backed up; Accountant's Review; Shrinking Files That Are Too Big for Their Own Good; Condensing defined; Condensing made simple; How condensing is summarized on registers; Chapter 16: Building the Perfect Budget; Is This a Game You Want to Play?; All Joking Aside; Some basic budgeting tips; A budgeting secret; Two things that really goof up Secret Plans; The Nelson philosophy; Setting Up a Secret Plan; PART IV: The Part of Tens; Chapter 17: (Almost) Ten Knowledge Nuggets about Web-ifying Your Business; The Mechanics Are Simple; Web Publishing Is Relatively Cheap; Why the Web Is Better Than Paper; Big benefit number one; Big benefit number two; Big benefit number three; Mom, Don't Read This; Lessons from those "other" Web sites; Applying the lessons to your business; The Web's Information-Sharing Risk; About Those Content Costs, Dude; A Scary Thought I Shouldn't Share; A Scary Prediction I Shouldn't Share; An Opportunity Comes A-Knocking; Chapter 18: Ten Tips for Business Owners; Sign All Your Own Checks; Don't Sign a Check the Wrong Way; Review Canceled Checks Before Your Bookkeeper Does; Choose a Bookkeeper Who Is Familiar with Computers and Knows How to Do Payroll; Choose an Appropriate Accounting System; If QuickBooks Doesn't Work for Your Business; Keep Things Simple; Chapter 19: Ten Tips for All QuickBooks Users; Tricks for Learning QuickBooks If You're New on the Job; Getting Started; Starting QuickBooks; Using QuickBooks; Cross-Referencing Source Documents and Filing Them; Reconciling Bank Accounts Promptly; Things You Should Do Every Month; Things You Should Do Every Year; Using Debits and Credits; Converting to QuickBooks; Income Tax Evasion; Segregating Payroll Tax Money; Chapter 20: Tips for Handling Ten Tricky Situations; Selling an Asset; Selling a Depreciable Asset; Owner's Equity in a Sole Proprietorship; Owner's Equity in a Partnership; Owner's Equity in a Corporation; Multiple-State Accounting; Getting a Loan; Repaying a Loan; Chapter 21: (Almost) Ten Little Ideas for Saving Big on Business Taxes; Trick 1: Benefit from the Appropriate Pension Device; Trick 2: Don't Take Any More Personal Vacations; Trick 3: Don't Depreciate - Expense; Trick 4: Incorporate; Trick 5: Consider the Sub S Election; Trick 6: Enjoy the Best of Both Worlds; Trick 7: Create Some Legitimate Job for Your Kids; Trick 8: Relocate Your Business; Chapter 22: (Almost) Ten Secret Business Formulas; The First "Most Expensive Money You Can Borrow" Formula; The Second "Most Expensive Money You Can Borrow" Formula; The "How Do I Break Even?" Formula; The "You Can Grow Too Fast" Formula; How net worth relates to growth; Calculating sustainable growth; The First "What Happens if " Formula; The Second "What Happens if " Formula; The Economic Order Quantity (a.k.a. Isaac Newton) Formula; The Rule of 72; PART V: Appendixes; Appendix A: How to Install QuickBooks in Ten Easy Steps; Appendix B: If Numbers Are Your Friends; Keying In on Profit; Let me introduce you to the new you; The first day in business; Look at your cash flow first; Depreciation is an accounting gimmick; Accrual-basis accounting is cool; Now you know how to measure profits; Some financial brain food; In the Old Days, Things Were Different; What Does an Italian Monk Have to Do with Anything?; And now for the blow-by-blow; Blow-by-blow, part II; How Does QuickBooks Help?; Two Dark Shadows in the World of Accounting; The first dark shadow; The second dark shadow; The Danger of Shell Games; Appendix C: Project Estimating, Billing, and Tracking; Turning On Job and Project Costing; Setting Up a Job; Creating a Job Estimate; Revising an Estimate; Turning an Estimate into an Invoice; Charging for Actual Time and Costs; Tracking Costs; Appendix D: Timing Yourself; Timing Activities; Real-time recording of the time you're spending; After-the-fact recording of the time you spent; Index; Book Registration Information

About the Author :
Stephen L. Nelson, CPA, is a former senior consultant at Arthur Anderson and the bestselling author of more than a hundred books, including Quicken 2001 For Dummies.