QuickBooks 2011 For Dummies E-Book

Stephen L. Nelson

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2010

Seitenzahl: 551

Beschreibung

Bestselling author Stephen Nelson returns with big help for small businesses Offering expert advice, bestselling author Stephen Nelson returns with updated coverage of the latest revisions and enhancements to the leading small business accounting software package: QuickBooks. After a quick review of bookkeeping basics, you'll discover how QuickBooks can help you build the perfect budget, process payroll, simplify your tax return prep work, create invoices, manage inventory, generate income statements, balance accounts, and much more. * Veteran author Stephen Nelson updates his perennial bestseller and offers you easy-to-understand coverage of the newest release of QuickBooks * Encourages you to take control of managing your own business accounting and financial management tasks so you can avoid having to hire expensive outside help * Provides expert advice for building the perfect budget, processing payroll, creating invoices, managing inventory, tracking job costs, generating income statements, balancing accounts, creating financial reports, and more QuickBooks 2011 For Dummies helps you handle your financial management tasks more effectively so that you can effectively manage your business!

Leseprobe

QuickBooks 2011® For Dummies®

Table of Contents

Introduction

About QuickBooks

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: Quickly into QuickBooks

Part II: Daily Entry Tasks

Part III: Stuff You Do from Time to Time

Part IV: Housekeeping Chores

Part V: The Part of Tens

Part VI: Appendixes

Conventions Used in This Book

Part I: Quickly into QuickBooks

Chapter 1: QuickBooks: The Heart of Your Business

Why QuickBooks?

Why you need an accounting system

What QuickBooks does

What Explains QuickBooks’ Popularity?

What’s Next, Dude?

How to Succeed with QuickBooks

Budget wisely, Grasshopper

Don’t focus on features

Outsource payroll

Get professional help

Use both the profit and loss statement and the balance sheet

Chapter 2: Answering Mr. Wizard

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: Get to know 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?

Chapter 3: Populating QuickBooks Lists

The Magic and Mystery of Items

Adding items you might 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 Fixed Asset list

The Price Level list

The Sales Tax Code list

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 Vehicle list

The Memorized Transaction list

The Reminders list

Organizing Lists

Printing Lists

Exporting List Items to Your Word Processor

Dealing with the Chart of Accounts List

Describing customer balances

Describing vendor balances

Camouflaging some accounting goofiness

Supplying the missing numbers

Checking your work one more time

Part II: Daily Entry Tasks

Chapter 4: Creating 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 onscreen

If the invoice isn’t displayed onscreen

Deleting an invoice

Preparing a Credit Memo

Fixing Credit Memo Mistakes

History Lessons

Printing Invoices and Credit Memos

Loading the forms into the printer

Setting up the invoice printer

Printing invoices and credit memos as you create them

Printing invoices in a batch

Printing credit memos in a batch

Sending Invoices and Credit Memos via E-Mail

Customizing Your Invoices and Credit Memos

Chapter 5: Reeling In the Dough

Recording a Sales Receipt

Printing a Sales Receipt

Special Tips for Retailers

Correcting Sales Receipt Mistakes

Recording Customer Payments

Correcting Mistakes in Customer Payments Entries

Making Bank Deposits

Improving Your Cash Inflow

Tracking what your customers owe

Assessing finance charges

Dealing with deposits

Chapter 6: Paying the 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

Tracking Vehicle Mileage

Paying Sales Tax

A Quick Word on the Vendor Center Window

Chapter 7: Inventory Magic

Setting Up Inventory Items

When You Buy Stuff

Recording items that you pay for upfront

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

Customizing a purchase order form

Filling out a purchase order

Checking up on purchase orders

Receiving purchase order items

Assembling a Product

Identifying the components

Building the assembly

Time for a Reality Check

Dealing with Multiple Inventory Locations

Manually keep separate inventory-by-location counts

Use different item numbers for different locations

Upgrade to QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions

The Lazy Person’s Approach to Inventory

How periodic inventory systems work in QuickBooks

The good and bad of a periodic inventory

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

Working with Multiple Currencies

To Delete or to Void?

Handling NSF Checks from Customers

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?

So What about Customer Credit Cards?

Part III: Stuff You Do from Time to Time

Chapter 10: Printing Checks

Getting the Printer Ready

Printing a Check

A few words about printing checks

Printing a check as you write it

Printing checks by the bushel

What if I make a mistake?

Oh where, oh where do unprinted checks go?

Printing a Checking Register

Chapter 11: Payroll

Getting Ready to Do Payroll without Help from QuickBooks

Doing Taxes the Right Way

Getting an employer ID number

Having employees do their part

Getting Ready to Do Payroll with QuickBooks

Paying Your Employees

Paying Payroll Liabilities

Paying tax liabilities if you use the full-meal-deal Payroll service

Paying tax liabilities if you don’t use the full-meal-deal Payroll service

Paying other nontax liabilities

Preparing Quarterly Payroll Tax Returns

Using the QuickBooks full-meal-deal Payroll service

Using the other QuickBooks Payroll services

Filing Annual Returns and Wage Statements

Using the QuickBooks full-meal-deal Payroll service

Using the QuickBooks economy Payroll services

The State Wants Some Money, Too

Chapter 12: Building the Perfect Budget

Is This a Game You Want to Play?

All Joking Aside: Some Basic Budgeting Tips

A Budgeting Secret You Won’t Learn in College

Setting Up a Secret Plan

Adjusting a Secret Plan

Forecasting Profits and Losses

Projecting Cash Flows

Using the Business Planner Tools

Chapter 13: Online with QuickBooks

Doing the Electronic Banking Thing

So what’s the commotion about?

A thousand reasons not to bank online

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

A Quick Review of the Other Online Opportunities

Part IV: Housekeeping Chores

Chapter 14: The Balancing Act

Balancing a Bank Account

Giving QuickBooks information from the bank statement

Marking cleared checks and deposits

Eleven Things to Do If Your Non-Online Account Doesn’t Balance

Chapter 15: 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 16: Job Estimating, Billing, and Tracking

Turning On Job Costing

Setting Up a Job

Creating a Job Estimate

Revising an Estimate

Turning an Estimate into an Invoice

Comparing Estimated Item Amounts with Actual Item Amounts

Charging for Actual Time and Costs

Tracking Job Costs

Chapter 17: File Management Tips

Backing Up Is (Not That) Hard to Do

Backing up the quick-and-dirty way

Getting back the QuickBooks data you backed up

Accountant’s Copy

Working with Portable Files

Using an Audit Trail

Using a Closing Password

Chapter 18: Fixed Assets and Vehicle Lists

What Is Fixed Assets Accounting?

Fixed Assets Accounting in QuickBooks

Setting Up a Fixed Asset List

Adding items to the Fixed Asset list

Adding fixed asset items on-the-fly

Editing items on the Fixed Asset list

Tracking Vehicle Mileage

Identifying your vehicles

Recording vehicle miles

Using the vehicle reports

Updating vehicle mileage rates

Part V: The Part of Tens

Chapter 19: (Almost) 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

Regularly Review Your Financial Statements

Choose an Appropriate Accounting System

If QuickBooks Doesn’t Work for Your Business

Keep Things Simple

Chapter 20: Tips for Handling (Almost) 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 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

How to calculate sustainable growth

The First “What Happens If . . . ?” Formula

The Second “What Happens If . . . ?” Formula

The Economic Order Quantity (Isaac Newton) Formula

The Rule of 72

Part VI: Appendixes

Appendix A: Installing QuickBooks in Ten Easy Steps

Appendix B: If Numbers Are Your Friends

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

And now for the blow-by-blow

Blow-by-blow, Part II

How does QuickBooks help?

The first dark shadow

The second dark shadow

Appendix C: Sharing QuickBooks Files

User permissions

Record locking

QuickBooks® 2011 For Dummies®

by Stephen L. Nelson

CPA, MBA (finance), MS (taxation)

QuickBooks® 2011 For Dummies®

Published byWiley Publishing, Inc.111 River St.Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774www.wiley.com

Copyright © 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published simultaneously in Canada

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, [phone], fax [phone]. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, [phone], fax [phone], or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2010935588

ISBN: 978-0-470-64649-6

Manufactured in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

About the Author

Stephen L. Nelson, CPA, MBA (finance), MS (taxation), has a simple purpose in life: He wants to help you (and people like you) manage your business finances by using computers. Oh, sure, this personal mandate won’t win him a Nobel Prize or anything, but it’s his own little contribution to the world.

Steve’s experiences mesh nicely with his special purpose. A CPA in Redmond, Washington, his past small business experience includes a stint as an adjunct professor of taxation (S corporations and limited liability companies) at Golden Gate University graduate tax school and a few years working as a senior consultant and CPA with Arthur Andersen & Co. (er, yeah, that Arthur Andersen — but, hey, it was nearly 30 years ago). Steve, whose books have sold more than 4 million copies in English and have been translated into 11 other languages, is also the bestselling author of Quicken 2010 For Dummies.

Dedication

To the entrepreneurs and small-business people of the world. You folks create most of the new jobs.

Author’s Acknowledgments

Hey, reader, lots of folks spent lots of time working on this book to make QuickBooks easier for you. You should know who these people are. You may just possibly meet one of them someday at a produce shop, squeezing cantaloupe, eating grapes, and looking for the perfect peach.

First, a huge thanks to the wonderful folks at Intuit who helped me by providing the beta software and other friendly assistance for this and past editions of this book.

Another big thank-you goes to the editorial folks at Wiley Publishing, Inc., including Kevin Kirschner (project editor), Jen Riggs (copy editor), and Bob Woerner (executive editor). Thanks also to David Ringstrom for his technical assistance and superb attention to detail. Finally, thanks, too, to the composition staff.

Publisher’s Acknowledgments

We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments through our online registration form located at www.dummies.com/register/.

Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:

Acquisitions, Editorial

Project Editor: Kevin Kirschner

Executive Editor: Bob Woerner

Copy Editor: Jen Riggs

Technical Editor: David H. Ringstrom

Editorial Assistant: Amanda Graham

Sr. Editorial Assistant: Cherie Case

Cartoons: Rich Tennant (www.the5thwave.com)

Composition Services

Project Coordinator: Katie Crocker

Layout and Graphics: Samantha K. Cherolis

Proofreaders: Melissa Cossell, Cynthia Fields

Indexer: Claudia Bourbeau

Publishing and Editorial for Technology Dummies

Richard Swadley, Vice President and Executive Group Publisher

Andy Cummings, Vice President and Publisher

Mary Bednarek, Executive Acquisitions Director

Mary C. Corder, Editorial Director

Publishing for Consumer Dummies

Diane Graves Steele, Vice President and Publisher

Composition Services

Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services

Introduction

Running or working in a small business is one of the coolest things a person can do. Really. I mean it. Sure, sometimes the environment is dangerous — kind of like the Old West — but it’s an environment in which you have the opportunity to make tons of money. And it’s also an environment in which you can build a company or a job that fits you. In comparison, many brothers and sisters working in big-company corporate America are furiously trying to fit their round pegs into painfully square holes. Yuck.

You’re wondering, of course, what any of this has to do with this book or with QuickBooks. Quite a lot, actually. The whole purpose of this book is to make it easier for you to run or work in a small business by using QuickBooks.

About QuickBooks

Let me start off with a minor but useful point: QuickBooks comes in several different flavors, including QuickBooks Basic, QuickBooks Pro, QuickBooks Premier, QuickBooks Premier Accountants Edition, and QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions.

This book, however, talks about QuickBooks Premier Edition.

Does this mean that I somehow leave you adrift if you have one of the other flavors? No way. I wouldn’t do that to you. QuickBooks Premier is a superset of QuickBooks Simple Start and QuickBooks Pro, and is identical in most areas to QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions. By describing how you use QuickBooks Premier, I also tell you how to use the other flavors of QuickBooks.

What’s more, for the readers of this book, there’s no discernible difference between QuickBooks Premier and QuickBooks Pro. You aren’t reading this book to prepare for the CPA exam, right? Right. The extra whistles and bells that make QuickBooks Premier, well, premier are all things that only accountants care about: remote access to QuickBooks and your QuickBooks data, reversal of general entries, extra security for general ledger closings, and so on. So I don’t talk much about those things.

The bottom line? Yes, there are several flavors of QuickBooks, but if you’re just trying to get started and want to use QuickBooks, this book works for QuickBooks Pro, QuickBooks Premier, and QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions.

About This Book

This book isn’t meant to be read from cover to cover, like some Stieg Larsson page-turner. Instead, it’s organized into tiny, no-sweat descriptions of how you do the things you need to do. If you’re the sort of person who just doesn’t feel right not reading a book from cover to cover, you can (of course) go ahead and read this thing from front to back. You can start reading Chapter 1 and continue all the way to the end (which means through Chapter 21 and the appendixes).

I don’t think this from-start-to-finish approach is bad because I tell you a bunch of stuff (tips and tricks, for example) along the way. I tried to write the book in such a way that the experience isn’t as rough as you might think, and I really do think you get good value from your reading.

But you also can use this book the way you’d use an encyclopedia. If you want to know about a subject, you can look it up in the Table of Contents or the index; then you can flip to the correct chapter or page and read as much as you need or enjoy. No muss, no fuss.

I should, however, mention one thing: Accounting software programs require you to do a certain amount of preparation before you can use them to get real work done. If you haven’t started to use QuickBooks yet, I recommend that you read through the first few chapters of this book to find out what you need to do first.

Hey. There’s something else I should tell you. I fiddled a bit with the Windows display settings. For example, I noodled around with the font settings and most of the colors. The benefit is that the pictures in this book are easy to read. And that’s good. But the cost of all this is that my pictures look a little bit different from what you see on your screen. And that’s not good. In the end, however, what the publisher found is that people are happier with increased readability. Anyway, I just thought I should mention it here, upfront, in case you have any questions about it.

What You Can Safely Ignore

Sometimes I provide step-by-step descriptions of tasks. I feel very bad about having to do this, so to make things easier for you, I describe the tasks by using bold text. That way, you know exactly what you’re supposed to do. I also provide a more detailed explanation in the text that follows the step. You can skip the text that accompanies the step-by-step boldface directions if you already understand the process.

Here’s an example that shows what I mean:

1. Press Enter.

Find the key that’s labeled Enter. Extend your index finger so that it rests ever so gently on the Enter key. In one sure, fluid motion, press the Enter key with your index finger. Then remove your finger from the key.

Okay, that example is extreme. I never go into that much detail, but you get the idea. If you know how to press Enter, you can just do that and not read further. If you need help — maybe with the finger part or something else — just read the nitty-gritty details.

Can you skip anything else? Let me see now. . . . You can skip the Technical Stuff icons, too. The information next to these icons is intended only for those of you who like that kind of technical stuff.

For that matter, I guess that you can safely ignore the stuff next to the Tip icons, too — even if the accumulated wisdom, gleaned from long hours slaving over a hot keyboard, can save you much weeping and gnashing of teeth. If you’re someone who enjoys trying to do something another way, go ahead and read the tips.

Sometimes, I use made-up examples (along with examples from my own experience) to help you understand how some topic or area of QuickBooks helps you and your business, and I mark these examples with the Case Study icon. This is just my way of continuing the giving. But sure, you can skip them.

What You Should Not Ignore (Unless You’re a Masochist)

Don’t skip the Warning icons. They’re the ones flagged with the picture of the 19th century bomb. They describe some things that you really shouldn’t do.

Out of respect for you, I don’t put advice like “Don’t smoke!” next to these icons. I figure that you’re an adult, and you can make your own lifestyle decisions. So I reserve the Warning icons for more urgent and immediate dangers — things akin to “Don’t smoke while you’re filling your car with gasoline.”

This icon is a friendly reminder to do something. Not to be too pushy, but it’s probably not a good idea to ignore these babies.

Three Foolish Assumptions

I make three assumptions about you:

You have a PC running Microsoft Windows. (I took pictures of the QuickBooks windows and dialog boxes while using Windows 7, in case you’re interested.)

You know a little bit about how to work with your computer.

You have or will buy a copy of QuickBooks Pro or QuickBooks Premier for each computer on which you want to run the program.

This book works for QuickBooks 2011, although in a pinch, you can probably also use it for QuickBooks 2010 or 2012. (I have to say, however, that if you have QuickBooks 2010, you may instead want to return this book and trade it in for QuickBooks 2010 For Dummies by yours truly.)

By the way, if you haven’t already installed QuickBooks and need help, jump to Appendix A, which tells you how to install QuickBooks in ten easy steps. And, if you’re just starting out with Microsoft Windows, peruse Chapter 1 of the Windows User’s Guide or one of these books on your flavor of Windows: Windows XP For Dummies, 2nd Edition, Windows Vista For Dummies, or Windows 7 For Dummies, all by Andy Rathbone.

How This Book Is Organized

This book is divided into six, mostly coherent parts.

Part I: Quickly into QuickBooks

Part I covers some upfront tasks that you need to take care of before you can start using QuickBooks. I promise I don’t waste your time here. I just want to make sure that you get off on the right foot.

Part II: Daily Entry Tasks

The second part of this book explains how to use QuickBooks for your daily financial record keeping: preparing customer invoices, recording sales, and paying bills — that kind of stuff.

Just so you know, you’ll be amazed at how much easier QuickBooks makes your life. QuickBooks is a really cool program.

Part III: Stuff You Do from Time to Time

Part III talks about the kinds of things that you should do at the end of the week, the end of the month, or the end of the year. This part explains, for example, how to print checks, explore QuickBooks online resources, do payroll, and create a business budget.

While I’m on the subject, I also want to categorically deny that Part III contains any secret messages that you can decipher by reading backward. Yllaer.

Part IV: Housekeeping Chores

Part IV talks about some of the maintenance tasks that you need (or someone needs) to perform to keep your accounting system shipshape: account reconciliations, financial report generation, job-costing mechanics, file management — and, oh yes, fixed asset accounting.

Part V: The Part of Tens

Gravity isn’t just a good idea; it’s a law.

By tradition, the same is true for this part of a For Dummies book. The Part of Tens provides a collection of lists: ten things you should do if you own a business, ten things to do when you next visit Acapulco — oops, sorry — wrong book.

Also by tradition, these ten-item lists don’t need to have exactly ten items. You know the concept of a baker’s dozen, right? You order a dozen doughnuts but get 13 for the same price. Well, For Dummies ten-item lists have roughly ten items. (If the Dummies Man — the bug-eyed, pale-faced guy suffering from triangle-shape-head syndrome who appears on the back cover of this book and on icons throughout these pages — were running the bakery, a 10-doughnut order might mean that you get anywhere from 8 to 13 doughnuts.) Do you believe that I’m an accountant? So exacting that it’s scary.

Part VI: Appendixes

An unwritten rule says that computer books have appendixes, so I include three. Appendix A tells you how to install QuickBooks in ten easy steps. Appendix B explains small business accounting, provides a short biography of an Italian monk, and explains double-entry bookkeeping. Appendix C describes how to set up QuickBooks for use by multiple users — and for multiple users on a network. Yikes!

Conventions Used in This Book

To make the best use of your time and energy, you should know about the conventions that I use in this book.

When I want you to type something, such as With a stupid grin, Martin watched the tall blonde strut into the bar and order grappa, it’s in bold type. When I want you to type something that’s short and uncomplicated, such as Jennifer, it still appears in boldface type.

Except for passwords, you don’t have to worry about the case of the letters you type in QuickBooks. If I tell you to type Jennifer, you can type JENNIFER or follow poet e. e. cummings’ lead and type jennifer.

Whenever I tell you to choose a command from a menu, I say something like “Choose Lists⇒Items,” which simply means to first choose the Lists menu and then choose Items. The ⇒ separates one part of the command from the next part.

You can choose menus, commands, and dialog box elements with the mouse. Just click the thing you want.

Please note that some special symbols used in this ePub may not display properly on all eReader devices. If you have trouble determining any symbol, please call Wiley Product Technical Support at 800-762-2974. Outside of the United States, please call 317-572-3993. You can also contact Wiley Product Technical Support at www.wiley.com/techsupport.

Part I

Quickly into QuickBooks

In this part . . .

All accounting programs — including QuickBooks — make you do a bunch of preliminary stuff. Sure, this is sort of a bummer, but getting depressed about it won’t make things go any faster. So if you want to quickly get up and go with QuickBooks, peruse the chapters in this first part. I promise that I get you through this stuff as quickly as possible.

Chapter 1

QuickBooks: The Heart of Your Business

In This Chapter

Why you truly need a tool like QuickBooks

What QuickBooks actually does

Why QuickBooks is a popular choice

What you need to do (in general) to get started

How to succeed in setting up and using QuickBooks

I want to start this conversation by quickly covering some basic questions concerning QuickBooks, such as “Why even use QuickBooks?” and “Where and how does a guy or gal start?” — and, most importantly, “What should I not do?”

This little orientation shouldn’t take more than a few minutes. Really. And the orientation lets you understand the really big picture concerning QuickBooks.

Why QuickBooks?

Okay, I know you know that you need an accounting system. Somebody, maybe your accountant or spouse, has convinced you of this. And you, the team player that you are, have just accepted this conventional viewpoint as the truth.

But just between you and me, why do you really need QuickBooks? And what does QuickBooks do that you really, truly need done? And heck, just to be truly cynical, also ask the question “Why QuickBooks?” Why not, for example, use some other accounting software program?