3. Adding or Changing Information After the Initial Company Setup

However, you might find that you need to enter more information into your QuickBooks company file after you complete the initial setup. Using the information presented in this chapter, you can customize your QuickBooks experience so that the program produces exactly the results your company requires, as well add additional information that you might have skipped over or not thought of during the initial company setup process.

QuickBooks uses lists to keep track of everything, including your chart of accounts, your company’s vendors and customers, employees, jobs on which you’re working, different options for terms of payment, payroll items that are used for paychecks, and more. All the information entered on QuickBooks forms is stored in a list. This chapter explains how you add to lists, change information already existing on lists, change the placement of list entries, sort lists, remove entries from lists, and combine list entries. When you change an item on a list, those changes carry through to the forms you use in QuickBooks and the reports you create.

Click General on the left side of the Preferences dialog box.

Click the My Preferences tab if that tab is not already selected.

Check the Pressing Enter Moves Between Fields box if you want to use the Enter key to move between fields the way the Tab key works; otherwise, pressing Enter typically completes a transaction.

Check the Automatically Open Drop-Down Lists When Typing box if you want QuickBooks to always display a list of options for your data fields.

Check Beep When Recording a Transaction to hear a “beep” sound every time you complete a transaction.

If you want to type 1234 and have it appear as 12.34, check the Automatically Place Decimal Point box; otherwise, 1234 appears as 1,234.00.

Check the Warn When Editing a Transaction box to have a pop-up box appear every time you make changes to a previously saved transaction.

Check Bring Back All One Time Messages to restore the pop-up reminder messages that gave you an option to not see the messages again.

Click here to Turn Off Pop-up Messages for Products and Services (or uncheck if you want to start seeing them again).

When you check Show ToolTips for Clipped Text and then place your mouse over a field where the text is too long, QuickBooks displays the extended text.

The Warn When Deleting option causes a pop-up warning to appear whenever you attempt to delete a transaction or an item that hasn’t been used.

Check Keep QuickBooks Running for Quick Startups to keep QuickBooks running in the background so it’s ready when you need it.

Check Automatically Remember Account or Transaction Information if you want QuickBooks to read your mind. When using the recall options, as soon as you start typing, QuickBooks finds the customer or vendor that matches your entry and fills in the appropriate information.

Select Use Today’s Date as Default for new transactions, or you can choose the Use the Last Entered Date as Default box instead.

Choose how you want QuickBooks to treat customized descriptions that you enter on forms—keep the description you enter on a form even if you change the item selection (Always), remove the description when an item is changed (Never), or Ask with each circumstance.

Choose whether you prefer to have time shown in Decimal or Minutes format. The Minutes choice is significant if you use QuickBooks for tracking time.

Check the Always Show Years as 4 Digits (1999) box, or uncheck the box if you want to display two-digit years.

If you change the vendor or customer information on a form, QuickBooks prompts you to update the customer or vendor record. Select the Never Update option to prevent changes to the customer or vendor information.

Checking the box to Save Transactions Before Printing results in QuickBooks automatically saving your forms when you click the Print button on the form.

Click OK.

Select Edit, Preferences and then click the Desktop View option on the left side of the dialog box.

Click the My Preferences tab.

Choose whether you want to see one QuickBooks window at a time or multiple windows. Note that if you select One Window, you can still open multiple windows in QuickBooks; the windows are layered instead of appearing separately.

Select an option for the display of your desktop. If you choose the Save When Closing Company option, every time you open QuickBooks, the program reinstates the way your screen looked the last time you closed the program. Select Save Current Desktop to select items you want QuickBooks to restore when you open the program. After you save the desktop, a new selection, Keep Previously Saved Desktop, is automatically added. When you select Don’t Save the Desktop, your desktop returns to the QuickBooks startup desktop each time you reopen the program.

Check the Show Home Page When Opening a Company File box if you want to display the new Home page each time you open QuickBooks.

Check Switch to Colored Icons/Light Background on the Top Icon Bar if you do not want the grayscale icon bar.

The two buttons in the Windows Settings area open Windows program dialog boxes that give you format options that affect Windows on your computer, not just in QuickBooks.

Select from a variety of color schemes for your desktop display.

Click OK.

Open the Preferences window by selecting Edit, Preferences. Click Accounting on the left side of the window.

Click the Company Preferences tab at the top of the window.

Check the Use Account Numbers box to turn on the account numbers feature.

Check the Show Lowest Subaccount Only box if you use account numbers and you want to shorten the account name that displays on a transaction.

Check the Require Accounts box to prevent a user from exiting a form without entering related account information. When this box is left unchecked, transaction information not assigned to accounts gets placed in the Uncategorized Income or Uncategorized Expense accounts.

Check the Use Class Tracking box to enable the Class feature in QuickBooks. If you check this feature, you have an option of requesting that the user be prompted to assign classes.

Check the Automatically Assign General Journal Entry Number box if you want QuickBooks to keep track of the last journal entry number you used and automatically increment the number for the next journal entry.

Check the Warn When Posting a Transaction to Retained Earnings box if you want QuickBooks to provide a pop-up warning when changes are about to be made to Retained Earnings.

Check the Date Warnings options and set a range of days in the past and the future if you want to receive a warning box alerting you to transactions that have dates outside the designated range.

Click Set Date/Password to set up a closing date and password protection for entries that occurred before your closing date.

Check Exclude Estimates, Sales Orders and Purchase Orders from Closing Date Restrictions if you want them excluded.

Indicate a date in the Closing Date field after which no entries can be made to your company file unless a password is entered.

Enter a password to protect entries that occurred before your closing date.

Re-enter the password.

Click OK.

Click OK to close the Preferences window.

Open the Chart of Accounts window by selecting Chart of Accounts from the Lists menu or Company menu.

Click the Account button at the bottom of the window and select New from the drop-down menu, or press Ctrl+N.

In the Add New Account: Choose Account Type window, select the type of account. Cost of Goods Sold has been selected in the figure. The information that displays in the next screen is determined by the type of account you choose.

Click Continue.

Enter a unique name for this account. The name you enter appears on company financial statements, so be sure the spelling and capitalization are correct.

If this account is to appear on financial statements as a subaccount of another account, check the Subaccount Of check box and select the parent account from the drop-down list.

Enter an optional description for this account. The Description field, and, if visible, the Note or Bank account fields are optional fields.

Use the Tax-Line Mapping drop-down list to select a tax line for this account if you plan to use QuickBooks to prepare information for your company’s income tax return. Pick the line on which information from this account is to be summarized on your tax return.

Your new account window might include an Opening Balance field. If there is a balance in the account when you begin using QuickBooks, enter that balance in this field.

Click a Save option.

Turn on account numbering by selecting Edit, Preferences, and selecting Accounting in the Preferences window.

Click the Company Preferences tab, and then check the Use Account Numbers option to make account numbering available for your company.

Click OK to save this change.

View account numbers by pressing Ctrl+A to open the Chart of Accounts window.

Add or change an account number by clicking once on the account name, and then pressing Ctrl+E to edit the account.

Enter the account number for this account.

Click Save & Close to save the new account number.

Select a list from the Lists menu to display that list on your screen.

Click the heading of one of the columns to sort the list by that column. Notice that an up arrow displays at the top of the column, indicating that the list is sorted by that column alphabetically or numerically (depending on the type of content) in ascending order.

Click the column arrow once to change the direction of the arrow and change to a descending sort order.

Click the heading of any other column to sort by that column.

Click the diamond that displays to the left of the first column to return the list to the default sort order.

Open a form. For this example, an invoice has been opened.

Place your cursor in a field (for example, the Vendor field, Customer field, or Item field) on your form.

Method #1: Click the drop-down arrow that displays in the field.

Scroll as needed and click an item on the list to select it.

Method #2: Instead of clicking the drop-down arrow, you can press Alt+down arrow on your keyboard.

Use the arrow up or down keys on your keyboard to the select the item you want and hit Enter.

Method #3: Simply begin typing the list name, and QuickBooks autofills the field with a name that begins with the matching letter. For example, enter “Fra” and you can quickly select Framing from the list by tabbing to the next field (not shown).

Method #4: With your cursor in the field you want to fill, press Ctrl+L. A separate list window displays.

Arrow down to the item you want (not shown).

Press Ctrl+U. The item is selected and placed in the appropriate field (not shown).

Click the New Customer & Job button at the top of the Customer Center window and then click New Customer from the drop-down menu (or press Ctrl+N).

On the Address Info tab, enter the information you have about this customer, including company name, full name, and job title.

Enter additional info such as main phone, mobile number, email address, and more. Note you can select the fields desired from the drop-down lists based on the information for the customer. You can select fields from drop-down lists for website, Facebook, Twitter, and Skype ID based on your needs and preferences.

Enter the Invoice/Bill To address for the invoice. Clicking the Copy button enables you to quickly transfer address information from the Bill To address field to the Ship To field. Note you can add more than one Ship To address and edit or delete the shipping addresses as needed.

Click the Payment Settings tab to progress to the next customer information screen.

Enter an Account No. if applicable.

Select the Payment Terms for the customer or Select Add New to create your own terms.

Select a Preferred Delivery Method of E-mail, Mail, or None.

Enter a Preferred Payment Method for the customer.

Enter the customer’s Credit Card Information if you use Intuit Merchant Services to process credit card payments from QuickBooks.

Enter a Credit Limit for the customer if applicable.

Enter Price Level if applicable and available in your version of QuickBooks.

Select the appropriate criteria for Add Online Payment Link to Invoices if you subscribe to this service.

Click the Sales Tax Settings tab to progress to the next customer information screen.

If your company is required to collect sales tax from this customer, you should identify the Tax Code that applies to this customer and indicate that the customer is taxable in the Sales Tax Information section of the window.

Select the appropriate Tax Item or and a New Item if needed.

If the customer is tax exempt, enter the Resale No (or exemption number).

Click the Additional Info tab to progress to the next customer information screen.

If you plan to track customer type, choose from the drop-down type menu options or select Add New to create a new type.

Enter the initials of the REP for the customer.

You can use the Custom Fields area to create useful fields of your own. Click the Define Fields button to add your own fields to this area.

Click the Job Info tab to enter information such as job description, type, status, start date, projected end date, and end date (not shown).

Click OK.

From the icon bar, select Customers.

Arrow or scroll down to select the particular customer whose information you want to view.

View the customer information and click Edit (the pencil icon) to modify if needed.

Click the customer name and then click the QuickReport button to view the details of transactions relating to this customer. Press Esc to close the QuickReport.

Alternatively, click on the Transactions tab to see details of transactions.

Click the Show drop-down list to select from a variety of transactions to display.

Filter the data. The filtering options vary depending on the option you choose in the previous step.

Filter for a specific date range.

Click Contacts to manage contacts for the customer.

Click To Do’s to add, edit, or manage To Do’s for the customer.

Click the Notes tab to retrieve or enter informational notes about this customer or related jobs.

Click Sent Email to see the history of emails sent to the customer.

Right-click a customer to access a menu of tasks, reports, and more.

Click the Transactions tab in the Customer Center to view a list of transactions for all customers.

Choose the type of transaction you want to view.

Click the Filter By drop-down arrow to choose whether you want to see all the transactions for the type you selected, or particular transactions. For example, you can choose to filter the list by All Estimates or Open Estimates.

Click the Date field to select a date range for the transactions that appear on the list.

Enter a name for the vendor. This is the name you will use to select the vendor from your Vendor List. It doesn’t have to be the name printed on vendor forms or checks.

If a balance is due to this vendor at your company’s QuickBooks start date, enter the amount and the start date in the Opening Balance field. However, it is preferable to enter these amounts on a vendor bill form so the reports are accurate.

Enter the vendor’s legal name in the Company Name field. This is the name that displays on forms you prepare for this vendor.

Enter the information you have on the vendor for the main phone, mobile number, email address, and more. Note you can select the fields desired from the drop-down lists based on the information for the customer. You can select fields from the drop-down lists for website, Facebook, Twitter, and Skype ID based on your needs and preferences.

Enter the Billed From address for the invoice. Clicking the Copy button enables you to quickly transfer address information from the Billed From address field to the Shipped From field.

Click the Payment Settings tab to progress to the next customer information screen.

Enter an Account Number. This is the number that this vendor has assigned to your company. If you print your checks from your QuickBooks program, the account number displays on the memo line of the checks.

In the Payment Terms field, enter the terms your vendor has given you, if applicable. The payment terms you enter allow your QuickBooks program to calculate the due date of payments owed to this vendor.

If there is a name other than the company name that needs to appear on checks to this vendor, enter that name in the space provided.

If the vendor has assigned a credit limit to your account, enter that amount in the Credit Limit field.

Enter the Billing Rate Level for the vendor if applicable (not available in all versions of QuickBooks).

Click Tax Settings.

Click the Account Settings tab.

Select the account(s) to prefill when you enter bills for this vendor.

Click Additional Info.

For categorizing purposes, enter the type of goods or service you acquire from this vendor in the Vendor Type field.

You can use the Define Fields button to create new fields that are customized to your business needs.

Click OK to complete the entries for this vendor.

To create a new item, open the Item List by clicking Item List on the Lists menu or the Customers menu. Press Ctrl+N (or right-click and select New) to open the New Item window.

Select the type of item from the Type drop-down list. Your item type must be selected from one of the ten categories offered in this list. Inventory Part is selected in this example. Your screen might differ if you select a different item type.

Enter a name by which you will identify this item when you enter the item on purchase and sales forms.

If the item is to be a subitem of another item, check the Subitem Of box and enter the parent item.

Enter the description you use for this item on purchase forms such as purchase orders and bills.

In the Cost field, enter the amount you pay when you purchase this item. If the cost varies with each purchase, leave the field blank and enter the cost on the bill when you enter the actual purchase in QuickBooks.

Enter the account to which you will charge the expense for this item in the COGS Account field.

If you purchase this item from the same vendor time after time, enter the vendor name in the Preferred Vendor field. Otherwise, leave this field blank and enter the vendor name on the bill each time you purchase the item.

If you are creating an inventory item, in the Asset Account field, enter the account to which this item is added when purchases are made. This field might not appear, depending on the type of item you are creating.

If you are entering an inventory item, enter the number of the items necessary to trigger a reorder in the Reorder Point (Min) field and the Max point, too. Enter also the quantity of items currently on hand.

Enter the description of the item as it displays on an invoice.

In the Sales Price field, enter the amount you normally charge for this item. If the sales price varies with each sale, leave the price blank and enter the price on the actual invoice when the item is sold.

Indicate whether the item is taxable in the Tax Code field.

Enter the account to which income from the item’s sale is credited in the Income Account field.

Click OK.

Select Lists, Add/Edit Multiple List Entries. Note when you add a new customer, vendor, or item, you can also select Add Multiples to access this feature (not shown).

Select Customers, Vendors, or an Item (select the specific type of item).

Click Customize Columns to add, remove, or move columns to match if you need to match a spreadsheet that will be copied into QuickBooks.

If you are not copying from a spreadsheet, then begin typing in the data into the QuickBooks “spreadsheet.” Quickly enter repeating data by selecting a row and right-clicking to duplicate information. You can right-click a cell in a column and copy down, too. Right-click to access a menu of options (not shown).

Click Save Changes.

Open an invoice by selecting Create Invoices from the Customers menu.

In the Customer:Job field, enter the name of a customer not already in your Customer:Job List.

Click in another field of the form or press Tab to move to the next field. A Customer:Job Not Found window displays.

You have three choices relating to this customer. Click Quick Add to add only the customer name to your Customer:Job list; you are ready to complete the form.

Click Set Up to open the New Customer dialog box, where you can enter all the pertinent information about this customer.

Click Cancel to close the Customer:Job window. You cannot complete the invoice form until you either add this customer to your Customer:Job list or enter a different customer name.

Open a list by selecting the list from the Lists menu. For purposes of this example, the Chart of Accounts list has been selected.

Scroll to the area of the list you want to reorder (not shown).

Place your mouse pointer on the small diamond to the left of the account you want to move. The mouse pointer becomes a four-sided arrow.

Drag the account diamond to the new location on the list.

Release the mouse. The account has been moved. The next time you open the list, the account will still be in its new location.

Open a list. This example uses the Chart of Accounts List. You can open this list quickly by pressing Ctrl+A.

Place your mouse pointer over the diamond to the left of the item that is to become the subitem. The mouse pointer turns into a black four-sided arrow.

Drag the mouse pointer so that the item is located directly beneath the item that will be its parent. A dashed horizontal black line displays where the item is to move. In this example, subitems can only be placed with other accounts of the same type.

Release the mouse pointer.

Again, place your mouse pointer over the diamond to the left of the item that is to become the subitem.

Drag the mouse pointer slightly to the right. A dashed vertical black line displays where the item is to move.

Release the mouse pointer. The item is now indented beneath its parent (the way Bond Expense is indented beneath Job Expenses).

Open a list. For this example, the Item List is used. You can open this list by selecting Item List from the Lists menu.

Scroll to the item you want to edit. Some of the item information is displayed to the right of the item name.

Double-click the name of the item. The Edit Item window displays.

Make your changes or enter new information about this item. In this example, the rate for repair work has been changed from $35.00 to $40.00.

Click OK to save the information.

Click the name of a vendor you want to mark as inactive.

Right-click the vendor name and then select Make Vendor Inactive.

Right-click an inactive list entry, and then select the Make Vendor Active choice to change the status back to Active.

Click the account you want to delete.

Right click the account (or click the Account button at the bottom of the dialog box); then select Delete Account from the drop-down menu. On a list that displays in one of the Centers, right-click on the list entry you want to delete, and then choose Delete from the pop-up menu.

Click OK when the Delete Account window displays.

Click Cancel if you change your mind and want to keep the account.

When you merge, you combine the unwanted entry into a different entry that you want to keep. For example, say you have a customer named Allard, Robert, but when you originally set up the customer, you entered the name as Robert Allard and used that name on an invoice form. Later you created a new customer named Robert Allerd and assigned transactions to that name. These steps teach you how to merge two records for the same customer into one customer record. Be careful with this task. It is not reversible, so be sure you have made a backup of your data.

Open a list. This example uses the Customer List.

Click the customer name you want to remove from the list but can’t because it has been used before.

Right-click the customer name and then select Edit Customer:Job from the drop-down menu.

When the Edit Customer window displays, change the Customer Name at the top of the window to the name of the customer with whom you want to merge this customer information. In this example, the customer name is changed from James Allard to James A. Allard, Publishing.

Click OK.

Click Yes to execute the merge. The unwanted customer name is removed from the customer list, and all transactions from that customer are transferred to the customer into which you merged.

Click Yes if presented with an alert telling you that this change will affect closed periods and previous financial reports (not shown).

To print a simple copy of the list, without adding any formatting, press Ctrl+P.

In the Print Lists window that displays, click the Print button to print the list.

Alternatively, click the Reports button at the bottom of the list to see a selection of reports you can produce and print.

Depending on the list you opened, the choices vary. Select the list you want to print.

Click the Reports on All Accounts option at the bottom of the Reports menu to see other options. After selecting a report, click the Print button on the report.

To print a list that opens in one of the centers, such as the Customer:Job List, open the Center and then click the Print button that displays at the top of the list. Choose from the menu options that appear.

Select Edit, Search to open the Search window (or press F3).

Enter the name, amount, or other information based on what you are trying to locate.

Click the Go button.

You see the search results on the right side and summarized on the top left.