Quickbooks accounting software is popular with small and medium businesses, and their accountants.
Quickbooks supports a large variety of bookkeeping and accounting tasks, including invoicing, purchases, payroll and inventory management. It uses accepted accounting principles and double-entry bookkeeping, but users without detailed accounting knowledge can also effectively use Quickbooks.
The software is available in several different versions, and can also be used as an online service for a monthly subscription. Costs vary according to the size of the business, the number of users, the number of customers to be handled and so, but pricing is generally affordable for small businesses.
Getting Started with Quickbooks
It’s helpful to have an overview of what is involved in getting started with Quickbooks, as the process can seem intimidating to the beginner.
The first step is to choose the right version of Quickbooks for your business. Luckily the Quickbooks website provides a useful comparison chart to guide you. The majority of small business choose Quickbooks Pro, which will typically cost less than $200 to buy outright.
The second step, assuming you chose to buy Quickbooks rather than use the online service, is to install the program. Begin in the same way as with any other software, by inserting the installation DVD and following the step-by-step instructions on screen.
The third step, before you run the program for the first time, is to collect together all the information that you’ll be asked to enter. When Quickbooks first starts, it will take you through something called the “EasyStep Interview”. Here you’ll be asked for basic data about your business such as name, company number etc, and also for three important sets of records. These are:
- Your financial accounts
- Records of accounts payable, receivable, inventory and assets
- Lists of customers, suppliers, employees and inventory items
Collect as much of this information as you can, but don’t worry too much if it is not all to hand. It’s easier to enter the basics from the start, but it is always possible to add more data later.
Once you have your records to hand, start Quickbooks and choose New Company in the File menu. You’ll be asked to enter the name and details for you company, and then will be taken through the EasyStep Interview.
After entering your initial financial data, it is a good idea to make a “trial balance”. If you don’t understand the concept of a trial balance, this is one place where you might want to ask your accountant for help.
The final step is to enter what are known as your master file lists. In Quickbooks these refer to standard data that you refer to again and again, such as the names, addresses and account information of your regular customers.
Once you’ve completed these steps, you will be ready for day to day use of Quickbooks.
Invoicing with Quickbooks
All the features for working with customer matters are found in the Customers menu. Items in this menu will let you choose an invoice form to suit your needs, and customize it for your own business. For example, if you sell physical products, your invoice can be include desriptions of ordered items, whereas if you offer professional services, you could include billable hours.
Once you have designed your invoice form, use the Create Invoice command to make a new invoice and fill in the required details. Your regular customers should hopefully already be availanle for you to choose from a drop-down lists, as you will have entered all their information during the creation of your master files. However, if the invoice is for a new customer you should be able to create a new customer record at this point if you need.
After creating invoices in the system, you can choose whether to print each on individual, print them in batches, or email them.
Note that if your customers pay for items on the spot, you can create a sales receipt rather than an invoice, which let the system know. Otherwise, when you get payment for an invoice, choose the Receive Payments command in the Customers menu to enter the payment details.
Paying Vendors with Quickbooks
If you want to use formal purchase order for buying supplies from vendors, you can create and use them in the same way as invoices, but using the Vendors menu, rather than the Customers menu.
You can also track your business bills, technically termed accounts payable. To do this, select the Enter Bills command in the Vendors menu when a bill arrives. Later you can use the Pay Bills command from the Vendors menu to actually pay. Using this command you’ll be able to choose which bills to pay, which bank account to use to pay them, and whether you want to pay online or print a check.
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