How to work in Quickbooks

QuickBooks is an accounting software program that is used by businesses of all sizes to manage their finances. It is a powerful tool that can help you keep track of your income and expenses, create invoices, and generate financial reports. In this blog post, we will discuss how to use QuickBooks to its fullest potential. We will cover topics such as setting up your company, entering transactions, creating invoices, and generating financial reports. We will also provide tips and tricks to help you get the most out of QuickBooks. With the help of this blog post, you will be able to quickly and easily learn how to use QuickBooks and make the most of its features.

Step 1: Get Started

1. Download QuickBooks Desktop: QuickBooks Desktop is a financial accounting software that can be downloaded online. It provides tools to manage and track finances, invoices, bills, and taxes. Before using QuickBooks, it must first be downloaded and installed onto a computer.

2. Set up Your Company File: After downloading QuickBooks, the next step will be to create a company file. This file will contain information about the company such as income, expenses, customer records, products, services, and more. This file will be a crucial part of using QuickBooks and can be setup using the onboarding wizard.

3. Enter Your Company Information: Once the company file has been created, the next step is to enter all the necessary information into the file. This will include information such as the company’s bank accounts, sales tax options, payment methods, and customer records. This step is important to ensure that QuickBooks is properly set up and ready to go.

4. Activate Your License and Subscription: After the company file has been created and set up, the next step is to activate the QuickBooks license and subscription. This will provide access to additional features and functionality such as payroll, inventory, and customer support.

5. Connect Your Bank Accounts: The final step is to connect all of the company’s bank accounts to QuickBooks. This will allow all transactions to be tracked and managed within the software. It will also provide an easy way to reconcile bank statements and provide quick access to important financial data.

Step 2: Customize Your Company File

Set Up Your Chart of Accounts: Your chart of accounts lists the categories for all of your income, expenses, assets and liabilities. It’s important to have a chart of accounts that is tailored to your business. In QuickBooks, you’ll be able to import your existing chart of accounts or create a custom chart.

Manage Users: If you want to give someone else access to your QuickBooks account, you can do so in the Manage Users section. This section allows you to create and manage different user permissions, as well as reset passwords.

Set Up Sales Tax: When you use QuickBooks to track sales tax, the software can automatically calculate your taxes and submit them to the appropriate government agency. You can set up your sales tax in the Settings tab, beginning by entering your location’s tax rate.

Set Up Products and Services: In this section, you can add all of the products and services that you offer, along with their related prices. You can also customize the list of products and services that you offer, as well as set up customer-specific pricing.

Enter Your Opening Balances: If you already had existing transactions when you set up your QuickBooks account, you’ll need to enter your opening balances to ensure accuracy. This section allows you to enter your opening balances for each account and make sure that your QuickBooks account accurately reflects your existing financial records.

Step 3: Manage Your Business

Set Up Your Preferences: QuickBooks offers a comprehensive suite of tools to help you stay organized. To get started, you can set up your preferences, including storing contact information, setting up tax information, and creating custom fields. This information can be used to keep customer and vendor records up to date, as well as generate professional-looking invoices and estimates.

Enter and Pay Bills: QuickBooks allows you to enter and pay bills, as well as track expenses. You can use this feature to enter expenses from vendors, as well as attach documents and pictures to bills. You can also set up automated payments from your bank, as well as set up recurring payments for certain vendors.

Enter Sales and Receive Payments: QuickBooks allows you to enter sales, track customer payments, and process refunds. You can also generate professional invoices and estimates, as well as track customer payments and account balances. You can also use the payment processing feature to accept credit card payments from customers.

Track and Pay Sales Tax: QuickBooks allows you to track and pay sales tax. You can set up sales tax rates for different jurisdictions, as well as track sales tax liabilities and payments. You can also generate sales tax reports to help you stay up to date on your taxes.

Track Your Inventory: QuickBooks allows you to track and manage your inventory. This includes setting up item codes, tracking inventory levels, and setting reorder points. You can also use the inventory tracking feature to generate detailed inventory reports, as well as manage stock levels and cost of goods sold.

Create Estimates and Invoices: QuickBooks allows you to create estimates and invoices for customers. This includes setting up custom templates, entering line items and discounts, and generating professional-looking invoices and estimates. You can also track unpaid invoices, as well as set up automated payment reminders for customers.

Analyze Your Business Performance: QuickBooks offers a range of powerful analysis tools to help you track your business performance. This includes generating detailed reports, tracking financial trends over time, and comparing performance against different metrics. With these tools, you can gain insight into your business and make informed decisions.

Step 4: Track Your Time

The Time and Expenses Center within QuickBooks allows users to effectively keep track of time worked and expenses accrued while they are working on various projects. The Center provides tools to help users quickly set up projects and tasks, estimate job costs, and monitor their time and expenses.

To set up the Time and Expenses Center, users can create a job and enter the contact information, start and end dates, and total estimated cost of the project. They can also attach any related documents or notes to the job, and enter any items that will be billed to the customer.

Once the job is created, users can enter their time and expenses for each task within that job. They can enter their start and end times for each task, as well as any other applicable information. They can also enter any applicable expenses for each task, such as mileage, materials, or subcontractor costs.

Finally, users can create invoices from the time and expenses that are entered. They can select which tasks and expenses to include on the invoice, and then enter any other applicable information such as discounts, shipping costs, or taxes. The invoices can then be printed or emailed to the customer.

Step 5: Use Advanced Features

Create Assessable Forms: Assessable forms are the documents used to track income and expenses related to your business. In QuickBooks, you can create forms such as invoices, bills, purchase orders, estimates, and time sheets for tracking money in and out of your business.

Set Up and Manage Classes: Classes are ways to categorize income and expenses within QuickBooks. This helps you better manage your accounting and reporting. You can set up different classes to identify areas within your business such as locations, departments, and types of customers.

Set Up and Manage Locations: Locations are a way to categorize income and expenses within QuickBooks that is related to a particular place or store. You can create separate locations to identify different places of business, or different parts of the same business.

Set Up Multiple Currencies: QuickBooks allows you to set up and manage multiple currencies so you can track your international transactions. This can help you better understand the movement of money in and out of your business.

Track Sales by Customer Type: QuickBooks allows you to track sales by customer type in order to better understand customer preferences and buying habits. This can help you refine your sales strategy and more accurately assess customer needs.

Share Your Company File: QuickBooks allows you to securely share your company file with others. This can be useful for managing multiple users or for collaboration with other businesses. You can control who has access to the data, and set up specific permissions for each user.

Step 6: Generate Reports

Create a Report: The QuickBooks software allows users to create reports that summarize account information, such as income and expenses. To create a report within QuickBooks, first select the “Reports” tab from the main menu. From there, users can choose from a wide variety of report templates, such as Profit & Loss, Balance Sheet, and Accounts Receivable Aging. Additionally, users can customize reports to meet their specific needs. To customize a report, select the “Customize” option and choose the desired report settings.

Print and Export Reports: After users create reports within QuickBooks, they can then print or export them to other formats, such as PDF or Excel. To print a report, select the “Print” button from the report settings. To export the report to another format, select the “Export” button and choose the desired format. After the report is exported, users can then save the file to their computer or share it with other users.

Step 7: Integrate with Other Business Programs

Connect to Your Accountant: This allows you to securely connect to your accountant to exchange data. Your accountant can access your books and make changes as needed. This eliminates manual data entry and ensures accuracy.

Connect to Your Bank: This allows you to quickly and safely connect to your bank so you can import transactions. This makes it easy to reconcile accounts and track transactions in real time.

Connect with Apps: With apps, you can connect to other popular business and accounting software, allowing you to extend the functionality of QuickBooks. This allows you to easily integrate and sync data between different apps and software.

Connect with Other Versions of QuickBooks: This allows you to quickly and easily connect with other versions of QuickBooks, from desktop to online to mobile. This makes it easy to collaborate and share data across different platforms, ensuring all your files are up to date and secure.

Step 8: Customize QuickBooks

Customizing Invoices, Estimates, and Other Forms: Quickbooks offers users the ability to customize their invoices, estimates, and other forms. This can be done by going to the “Forms” section of the software and selecting the form that needs to be customized. For example, if a user wanted to customize the invoice template, they would select the “Invoice” option from the Form section and then customize the template to their desired specifications. This can include adding their own logo, changing colors, and adding custom fields, among other things.

Create Custom Reports: Quickbooks also allows users to create custom reports that can be easily shared with other users or clients. This can be done by going to the “Reports” section of the software and selecting “New Report.” From there, users can choose what type of report they would like to create, such as an income statement or balance sheet. They can then customize the report with the information they need and save it for future use.

Create Custom Fields: Another useful feature in Quickbooks is the ability to create custom fields. This is done by going to the “Settings” section of the software and selecting “Custom Fields.” From here, users can create fields to store additional information not already available in the software. This can include custom fields for tracking information like customer preferences or product SKUs.

Create Custom Templates: Finally, Quickbooks also allows users to create custom templates for their invoices, estimates, and other forms. This can be done by going to the “Templates” section of the software and selecting “New Template.” From there, users can customize their template to their exact specifications, such as adding their own logo, changing colors, font sizes, and more. These templates can then be easily shared with other users or clients.