Learning QuickBooks®
Beginner's Forum For the Work From Home Business Owner
Entering Sales - Expenses - Accounts Receivable - Accounts Payable
Banking and Your Cash - Learning Shortcuts - Quebec HST Setup
Click here for what you need to do to configure QuickBooks for Quebec HST effective January 1, 2013.
Learning QuickBooks® to avoid beginner's mistakes ... gives you a hint about what this chat is all about ... tips on how to use QuickBooks® software correctly.
B.C. & P.E.I Tax Changes - April 1
Intuit has released R6 to assist you in transitioning to the new sales tax effective April 1, 2013. (See below to see if you have the correct version of QuickBooks.)
There are two videos to watch to assist you in preconfiguring your sales tax setup in QuickBooks:
B.C. video to switch from HST to GST + PST.
P.E.I. video to switch from GST + PST to HST.
2 Part QuickBooks® Primer
Click on either image below to go to the chat.
 This Chat Beginner's Tips on A/R, A/P, Banking Period End Closing Adjusting Entries Shortcuts, Beginner's FORUM |
 Part 2 Accounting System Flowchart Learn How To Customize Reports Closing Procedures, Tracking GST/HST/PST |
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While I will chat about how to use QuickBooks®, please understand that this page is directed to work from home small business owners who do their own bookkeeping.
So pour some tea into your favorite teacup and let's get started. |
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What you will find in this chat ...
We are not going to be shooting the breeze about QuickBooks® POS software ... or a whole lot about advanced inventory ...
... just useful QuickBooks® tips, tricks and traps that will hopefully make your bookkeeping time more efficient ... and enjoyable ... so you have accurate financial information to make smart business decisions.
You'll find a spot to ask your QuickBooks® questions at the end of this page.
THE BOOKKEEPER'S TIP
Do You Have The Latest Version?
Do you have the latest version of QuickBooks 2011, 2012 or 2013?
To check your version, press F2 (or Control + 1) and the Product Information window will open.
You can have these maintenance updates happen automatically by ensuring the Automatic Update feature is turned on.
QuickBooks Canada only supports the last three versions of QuickBooks. This means QuickBooks 2010 will no longer be supported (probably) as of May 31, 2013. This means you not be able to obtain technical support or business services relating to the 2010 version after this date.
If you are learning QuickBooks® with a 2010 version, now may be the time to upgrade.
Learning QuickBooks® ... The Tips
GOOD TO KNOW
Quebec HST Setup
The steps to setting up Quebec HST:
- Create New Sales Tax Liability Account
- Create New Vendor
- Create New GST & QST Sales Tax Items for Sales and Purchases
- Create the New Sales Tax Groups for Sales and Purchases
- Create New Sales Tax Code
Click here for more detailed instructions.
Be sure to check Intuit's Step 6 of important things to remember.
These instructions should work for Prince Edward Island as well.
I want to start by saying that you need to be kind and patient with yourself as you are learning QuickBooks®. The program was designed for small business owners and is user friendly ... but there are a few things that have to be done a certain way.
Here are links to a few tips on QuickBooks® procedures that you should learn to ease your learning curve and make your bookkeeping go smoothly:
Vendors - Accounts Payable - Expenses
- When to use Pay Bills vs Write Cheques
- How to adjust GST for meals and entertainment
Customers - Accounts Receivable - Sales
- When to use Receive Payments vs Make Deposits (and Invoice vs Sales Receipt)
- The Bookkeeper's Alert on customer payments and Make Deposits
- How to enter customer prepayments in QuickBooks
- How to record net online sales revenue (less any service fees) directly deposited to your account
If your Accounts Receivable ledger balance does not equal your Accounts Receivable subsidiary ledger balance, check:
- Your Open Invoice report to ensure payments were applied to invoices. If they haven't, they will show up in the Open Invoice report.
- Your Open Balance report if your Undeposited Funds account is growing or you can't find customer payments. Look to see if any deposits were made directly through Make Deposits or even the banking register bypassing the Accounts Receivable subsidiary ledger.
THE BOOKKEEPER'S TIP
Naming Convention For AR and AP
When you have a business or person that is both a customer and supplier, use this naming convention:
Joe's Plumbing - c ... for the customer (c) name and Joe's Plumbing - v for the vendor (v) / supplier name.
No more guessing the name, initials, abbreviations!
Banking - Cash
- A good way to record cash taken when it is not deposited in the bank
- How to reimburse the owner for expenses paid with personal funds
- How to handle stale dated cheques in QuickBooks
- How QuickBooks undeposited funds account works
- How to deposit loan proceeds received in QuickBooks
- How to handle NSF (bounced) cheques
Company - Period End Closing
Government Compliance
- When to delete vs void a transaction
- How to write-off a bad debt
- The best way to make adjusting entries in QuickBooks
- How to file GST/HST in QuickBooks® using the Quick Method
What trouble are you having learning QuickBooks®?
Learning QuickBooks® ... The Shortcuts
The QuickBooks® accounting system has keyboard shortcuts to make data entry more efficient. There are six different types or categories of shortcut keys:
- General
- Dates - my favorite category so I talk about it below
- Editing
- Help window
- Activity - I give you a few of my favorites below
- Moving around in a window
If you key in "keyboard shortcuts" to the QuickBooks® help menu, the above categories will come up. Click on the one you are interested in.
My favorite shortcut keys are the dates. It is really quick and easy to enter dates using these shortcuts.
- The + or - key can be used to increase or decrease the date by one day to the next day or the previous day.
- Typing T in the date field will give you Today's date.
- W gives you the first day of the Week
- K gives you the last day of the Week.
- M gives you the first day of the Month
- H gives you the last day of the Month.
- Y gives you the first day of the Year
- R gives you the last day of the Year.
- If you want the date calendar to pop open, your shortcut key is Alt + down arrow.
As
you can see, the keys are easy to remember because they are tied to
what you want to accomplish and they are not case sensitive ... one of
the reasons these are my favorite keys ... I can actually remember with
no effort. That is great accounting system design.
A few activity shortcut keys that are very useful ...
Ctrl + G ... transfers you to the line/entry of the account register
directly from the entry you are in ... a real time saver when working on
the bank reconciliation and one of my all time favorites!
Ctrl + M ... is one I use frequently to memorize a recurring transaction or report.
Ctrl + T ... takes you to your memorized transaction list.
Ctrl
+ Y ... opens up the transaction journal so you can see the entry in
debits and credits ... bookkeepers like this one. :0) It's especially
useful when using the forms to see the other side of the entry.
Ctrl + I ... quickly opens a customer invoice.
Ctrl + A ... brings up your COA but I prefer use my icon bar to get to my COA.
F2
let's you see the number of vendors, employees, and customers ... and
the version you are using along with what updates have been installed.
F1 gets you to the contextual Help menu ... which helps to let you exhale while you are learning QuickBooks®! :0)
What are your favorite shortcut keys in QuickBooks®?
Learning QuickBooks® ... The Reporting
Follow these links for customized QuickBooks® reports and other useful information to assist the management of some of your balance sheet accounts.
- What Are QuickBooks® Closing Procedures
- How to Track Cheques Issued
- How to Track Customer Deposits
- How to Track Construction Holdbacks
- How QuickBooks® Handles HST/GST
- if you are an HST/GST registrant
(GST collected vs GST paid [ITC]) - if you are NOT an HST/GST registrant
Do you have a customized QuickBooks® report that has made your job easier?
The Forum
Ask A Free Learning QuickBooks® Question Here
Are you learning how to use QuickBooks®? Maybe this forum can help you out ... it is strictly for beginner's ... no advanced stuff here.
Ask your beginner QuickBooks® questions here ... I promise the answer won't be to go talk to a professional.
Hopefully others who know QuickBooks® will join in too ... offering to share their expertise.
Contributions to this site are moderated. They may be edited for grammar, spelling, and presentation. (I may even change your title if I think it will help the search engines find your page.)
Your contribution will appear below once it has been approved.
Learning QuickBooks® Questions & Answers
Visitors Have Already Asked ...
Click below to see the contributions that have been made already. Enter the discussions. There is usually more than one right answer or more than one way to do something ... so tell us what you think!
You can help make Learning QuickBooks® better by adding your comments and ratings to one or more contributions.
Year-end Trial Balance Report 
Our company year-end date is Nov 19th. I did not enter a Closing Date in the Accounting Preferences. However, in Company Information, I had to enter a …
Entering GST/HST Late Filing in QuickBooks®
Due to circumstance,s the company I just started working for was unable to file a complete GST/HST report last quarter.
Their bookkeeping was several …
How to Fix Entries Already Reconciled
How do you adjust year end entries if they already have been reconciled.
Example: I did a journal entry for an asset under misc withdrawls, for the …
HST From Purchases
Hello,
I have a question regarding entering the HST paid from purchases into QuickBooks software.
The corporation is registered for the GST/HST (although …
How to Recover Lost Data in QuickBooks
I might have deleted some entries that change the numbers in the balance sheet.
How could I use the backup file to get the previous numbers without …
QuickBooks Receive Payment
Adjusting Accounts Receivable For Deposited But "Unreceived" Payments. BEST Solution ... Follow The QuickBooks Process.
Hi,
I have a bad habit …
Petty Cash
Petty cash has been set up.
Let's say I paid Cindy (employee) $10.50 (includes GST only) from Petty Cash for Parking Expense.
In QuickBooks, …
Sales Tax Return Already Filed
I am using my newly purchased QB and filed my current quarterly Sales Tax Return.
Now I am entering data retrospectively for the last fiscal year. …
QuickBooks Bank Reconciliation
Bank Reconciliation-has not been performed in two years
Hello,
I started assisting a small business with their bookkeeping records. Apparently …
Refund of HST
Good Day!
First of all, thank you for your great website! You answered lots of questions already, but I still have a few...
We import goods from …
Accountants Copy
Accountants Copy of over 200mb books ... and mysterious password
When the books are too large, instead of being able to email, the Accountants Copy …
Personal Expense on Business Account
I failed to follow one of the basic guidelines you mention on the web site. I charged personal items to the company credit card and paid the credit card …
Entering Invoices from a Supplier
This may be a silly question, however; I'm very new to bookkeeping and Quickbooks and see a potential problem with how our accounts were set up.
Initially …
Loan Proceeds Not Deposited To Bank
How do I record an asset paid for in installments and financed by a lender?
New to Quickbooks and double entry accounting. I understand most of …
QuickBooks Conversion
I have a customer account that used to be a Partnership - the one partner has signed off and the other has assumed all business liabilities - I now need …
Vendor Prepayments
What is the best way to deal with vendor prepayments in QB?
Client wrote a cheque for $1,900 to a vendor for a leasehold improvements item. There …
Payroll Liability Refund
Recording Tax Agency Credit in Quickbooks
Hi,
Our church uses Quickbooks Pro for accounting but we don't use the payroll module (only 1 paid …
Foreign Exchange Transactions
Income lost to foreign exchange rate changes.
I have received a cheque for payment in US dollars.
The (exchange) rate has changed and I am losing …
Interest Received in a Deposit
How do you show interest received in a deposit using QuickBooks?
I'm not sure exactly what you are asking ... so I'll answer in two parts.
…
Cost of Goods Sold
In a Resale Printing Corporation
How can I use this account in my business if I do resale of the printing jobs like ...
... business cards, flyers and more?
Is it right to use Cost …
QuickBooks®
Recording a Direct Deposit
How can I show fees associated with an ACH (automated clearing house) deposit in QuickBooks®?
I am doing very basic bookkeeping for a friend. She has …
Entries for Graphic Artist Business 
My partner is a graphic arist. He produces work (brochures, for example), and has them printed at a local printer company, then they invoice him and he …
Reconciliation Issues with ...
General Journal
I did not reconcile my accounts before filing my sales tax (didn't think to do this, now I know).
I've now reconciled my accounts and found numerous …
Reimbursed Expenses
Hello,
I am trying to figure out whether or not I should include recoverable expenses in line 101 of the HST report.
I work for a patent agency. …
QuickBooks Version
Hi,
Can I work on QuickBooks Pro 2007 for QuickBooks 2009 files?
Thanks a lot. Hi Maria,
I'm not exactly sure what you are asking.
…
Inventory Entries for Restaurant Not rated yet
I would like to know how to transfer inventory totals into my QuickBooks. Inventory is done monthly for the restaurant/pub, but not tracked through QuickBooks. …
CPP Base Rate Exemption Not rated yet
When doing payroll, how does QuickBooks factor in the $3,500 exemption?
Do I have to do an manual reconciliation and correction for the over-deducted …
Trucking Fees From Vendors Not rated yet
When we receive an invoice (and goods) from our vendor(s), we are charged trucking, which I have set up under "Other" in Expenses.
However, we also …
Memorized Transactions Not rated yet
I cannot balance my memorized transaction because "ghost amounts" keep appearing from before and I cannot clear them. I have even deleted the memorized …
Cost of Goods Sold Not rated yet
I recently took a job cleaning up books for a Canadian corporation. And cleaning is an understatement! However in good spirit and in a desire to learn, …
How To Track Customer Deposits Not rated yet
I need a program that will let me track cash deposits made in advance of purchase even when no final amount has been determined. There is no time limit …
Wrong account entries Not rated yet
I am learning QuickBooks and I am using my household like a company to record my expenses to practice and learn.
By mistake I recorded the expenses …
Sales Receipt Requirements Not rated yet
Hi,
My son is just starting his very own small-business. (He is 13). I am setting him up to use QuickBooks in its most simple form (sole proprietorship) …
QuickBooks File Set up Not rated yet
Is there a certain specific way to set up a company file in QuickBooks? I have heard from some business people that their QuickBooks company file was …
Quickbooks Clean Up Not rated yet
I have a few transactions from 2010 that include some duplicate credits and duplicate bills along with some old credits. These are showing up on my Profit …
Adjusting Journal Entries With HST Not rated yet
I am trying to enter my adjusting journal entries from my accountant.
One of them consists of five lines:
1 accounts receivable
2 hst on purchases …
Cost of Goods Credit Cards Not rated yet
Hi,
80 to 90% of all my customers pay with a credit card as we operate an online store.
Should the per sale credit card charge (discount rate) be …
QuickBooks Journal Entry Rules Not rated yet
I have quarter-end journal entries (JEs) to make that look like this:
DR Other Receivables
CR Capital Stock
DR Other Receivables
CR GST Payable …
Items Multiple Unit of Measure Not rated yet
How do or can I assign an item to have 2 units of measure? ex. Flooring at 21 sq.ft per box.
If I needed 1000 sq.ft type in 1000 sq.ft under "qty", …
Setting up QuickBooks Not rated yet
Setting up previous year balances for accounts when starting in Quickbooks
I started using Quickbooks Pro 2010 at the beginning of the year and …
Prepayment to Foreign Vendor Not rated yet
I am using QuickBooks and have made a payment on account to a US vendor. I do not have a US bank account.
I have applied the prepayment to invoices …
Reverse GST Filing Not rated yet
Good Morning Laura:
Just a quick question: Do you know if you can reverse GST filing in Quick Books??
I have a situation where I filed the June/30/10 …
Accounts Receivable Clean Up Not rated yet
An accounts receivable has been sitting now for 1 year. I want to write it off as a bad debt.
How do I get it out of the accounts receivable and put …
Booking Meals & Entertainment Expenses Not rated yet
Hi There,
I am using QB and was wondering how I should book the meals and entertainment expenses given that they only have a 50% eligibility.
Do …
Printing Customer List With Balances Not rated yet
I can't print Transactions:Invoices:and only a portion of the list. Hello Nancy,
I'm not sure where you are at ... but when I want to print …
Payment of Owner's Expenses Not rated yet
How do I set up an account to reimburse owner for
expenses paid?
I talk about how I like to setup my "Owed To Owner" account in QuickBooks …
Paying Bills in QuickBooks® Not rated yet
Hey there!
I am using QuickBooks® to do the bookkeeping for a company with many bank accounts.
I understand how to enter in vender bills to the …
Line of Credit Interest Not rated yet
When I have interest on my line of credit, where do I enter this interest? ... because it shows up on the line of credit and the bank account that it was …
Customer Deposits Not rated yet
What account should I use for deposits (received) in advance from clients?
I am using QuickBooks.
I need to know where I should deposit the payment …
That's it for today. I hoped you enjoyed this introduction to learning QuickBooks® and found the information useful, practical ... and not too overwhelming.
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