Author: Ida_Bencomo

If you’ve only been on the receiving end of a paycheck, you may not know just how much prep work went into your neatly-organized paystubs. Those official-looking columns of numbers that described how much you earned and how much was taken out – and for what purpose – were the result of a tremendous amount of data entry when you were hired.
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Now it’s your turn to discover how complex that recordkeeping task is. QuickBooks Online was designed for small businesspeople who weren’t schooled in the intricacies of double-entry accounting, so it simplifies the process of preparing for payroll as much as possible. Still, it will probably be the most challenging element of your web-based bookkeeping.

We can help you navigate these sometimes-choppy waters so that you’ll be ready to run your payroll with confidence. Here’s an overview, though, of one of the most critical steps: creating employee records comprehensively and accurately.

Just the Facts
The left vertical toolbar in QuickBooks Online contains a link for Employees. This is where you’ll add and edit staff records. Once you’re set up and have begun running payrolls, the page that this link opens will display your current year’s payroll cost totals. There will also be a list of employees and their pay rates and payment methods; you’ll be able to click on their entries to view and edit their record details.

To get started, though, you’ll click on Add Employee. This opens a page that asks for the individual’s:

• Full name,
• Withholdings (you’ll enter W-4 information here),
• Pay frequency,
• Pay type and amount (multiple options are available here besides salary and hourly),
• Deductions (retirement, health care, etc.), and
• Pay method (check or direct deposit).

Some of these requests for information have a small pencil icon next to them. This means that there are additional screens where you can provide the needed details. In the example above, you’re defining pay types that will be available to the employee, like sick pay and vacation pay.

Depending on your company’s benefits, entering deduction information may be the most detailed and time-consuming task. QuickBooks Online first lets you choose between entering a deduction/contribution or garnishment. If it’s health insurance, for example, you’ll have to indicate how much money will be deducted from employees’ earnings each pay period (in dollars or a percentage) and what the company-paid contribution will be (if any). If there’s an annual maximum, you’ll also enter it here, and you’ll indicate whether the premium amount is taxable or pre-tax.

A sample check is displayed in the right column of this page. As you enter information, the check will be filled in with the correct amounts. If you don’t have a particular detail at hand, you can save what you’ve done and come back later to finish the record. And you can always return to edit data you’ve supplied.
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When you’ve completed all of this and clicked Done, you’ll be back at the Employees screen. Click on the name of the staff person whose records you just created, and you’ll see something like this:

There will undoubtedly be times when you’ll want to see your employee data in report form rather than clicking through numerous individual records. QuickBooks Online offers several report templates that accommodate this. You’ll click on Reports in the left vertical toolbar, and then All Reports | Manage Payroll. The most relevant here in terms of viewing employee-related information are:

• Vacation and Sick Leave,
• Employee Details,
• Payroll Deductions/Contributions,
• Workers’ Compensation, and
• Employee Directory.

Running your first payroll can be daunting. We hope you’ll let us help you prepare for it.

QuickBooks Online has grown tremendously since its introduction more than a decade ago. It’s not quite as mature as the top-of-the-line desktop versions, but it’s not far behind anymore.
No matter which version of QuickBooks you first used, there may be elements of Windows functionality that you miss in the application, like:

• The traditional file menus,
• Keyboard shortcuts, and
• The ability to open the software and let it stay open all day, minimizing it when you didn’t need it.

The recently released QuickBooks Online for PC (and Mac) App offers all of those features. It may also be faster than the browser-based version because it loads the whole application at once and keeps the pages cached. It’s free; here’s the download link.

Getting started is easy. You click the download link and then install the app like you would any Windows or Mac software. When the download is complete, you’ll find a new shortcut icon on your desktop’s home screen. Click on it, and you can either sign into an existing account or register for a new one.

The first thing you’ll notice is that it still looks like QuickBooks Online – because it is. But if you look at the upper left of the screen, you’ll see what looks like a series of Windows desktop menus – because it is. But the menu options don’t match Windows desktop menus. Instead they’re designed to mirror the navigation tools in QuickBooks Online. You can use either or both.
Note: Windows that open when you click on one of these menu options can act in one of two ways.

They can either replace the current window, which is the default in QuickBooks Online, or they can open in a new window. To change the current setting, open the Window drop-down menu and check or un-check Menu Items Open New Windows.

Multiple Updated Windows
It’s not difficult to switch screens in the browser-based version of QuickBooks Online. But it’s time consuming if you need to consult two or three different pages. You find yourself switching back and forth and probably having to make notes about what you learned from the other screen(s).
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The new QuickBooks Online for Windows App makes this process easier and faster. Some navigation links now have a small arrow-in-a-box icon to their right, called a Detach icon. Click on one of those, and the item opens in a new window. Any changes you make in one window are automatically reflected in the other open windows.

This new functionality isn’t available everywhere in the app. You’ll see the Detach icons when you hover over transaction types by clicking on the + sign at the top of the screen, with the exception of Pay Checks, Single Time Activity, Weekly Timesheets, Pay Bills, and Statements. To open a transaction form in a new window, you must click directly on the icon. You can also open most reports in new windows; the new icons appear when you open a list of them.

So if you’re looking at a report that you don’t want to close and you want to enter a related transaction, you’d simply click on the + sign and select the transaction type by clicking directly on the Detach icon. The new window opens; you fill out the form and save it, and you’re back at your report, where you can see the new entry in the report.

If you have a transaction open and you want to consult a report, though, you’d need to select it from the Reports menu at the top, after making sure that the Menu Items Open New Windows entry in the Window menu was checked.

And if you’re still a fan of keyboard shortcuts and miss them in QBO, you’ll find them active in the app.

The QuickBooks Online for Windows App is totally optional; you can keep using the browser-based version if you prefer. The ability to keep the app running without signing in and out all day may appeal to you – if there’s no chance someone else could access your computer while you’re away from your desk.
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You may or may not experience faster performance, depending on your system configuration. And the app’s other capabilities are a matter of personal preference. Let us know if you need help working with this new option – or if you have other questions about QuickBooks Online.

You probably don’t get as many paper forms in the U.S. Mail as you used to. But when you do, do you draw conclusions about the business that sent them based on what their forms look like?
Whether or not you think you do, most people make judgements on businesses based on collateral materials. You might notice that there’s no company logo, or that there are unnecessary blank fields. Maybe the print is very light or blurry, and there’s no message at the bottom thanking you for your business and your payment.

How you present yourself on paper does matter. There’s a lot of competition out there, and you need to use all of the tools available to you to stand out. QuickBooks provides one way to do so with its simple forms customization features.

Getting Started
To see what forms are available for customization, open the Lists menu and select Templates to open this window:

Before you try your hand at customizing a form, make a copy to work with first. Highlight Intuit Product Invoice. Click the down arrow next to Templates in the lower left, and select Duplicate. A small window will open, displaying your options. Select Invoice and click OK.

QuickBooks will then take you back to the Templates window, and you’ll see a new entry labeled Copy of: Intuit Product Invoice. Right-click on it and select Edit Template from the menu that opens. This will open the Basic Customization window.

There are two parts to this screen. The editing options for the template you selected will appear on the left, and a preview of your invoice will display on the right. As you make modifications to the template, the preview will change to reflect them.

​The best, most noticeable thing you can do to customize your invoice is to add a logo. Click the box in front of Use logo, and locate the file in the computer directory that opens. Double-click it. You logo will appear to the left of your company name and address in the upper left corner of the preview.

You can make numerous changes to your template in this window, like:
•        Selecting a new color scheme,
•        Changing fonts,
•        Deciding how much of your contact information should appear, and
•        Indicating whether the Print Status Stamp (PAID, PENDING, etc.) should appear where appropriate on your invoices.

Note: You can choose to use the same modified design on multiple types of forms. This is a little complicated; let us help you.

More Customizing Options
The changes you just made were fairly superficial. However, QuickBooks offers tools that let you go much further, modifying the actual content of the invoice itself, its columns, and its fields. To get started on this, click the Additional Customization button at the bottom of the screen. The window that opens displays a preview of your invoice on the right side, just like in the previous window.

Your customization options appear on the left side, divided into five different sections. You’ll work primarily with three of them for your invoice:

Header. This includes all of the information that appears on about the top third of the form, like Bill To, Terms, Due Date, and Project/Job.

Columns. What are you billing the customer for? Item, Description, Quantity, Rate, etc.

​Footer. What information will you want to enter after you’ve completed the invoice’s product or service content? You’ll likely want fields like Total, Balance Due, and Payments/Credits, perhaps a Message.

As you can see in the above image, QuickBooks lets you choose whether specific fields and columns will appear on your invoices onscreen and/or in print. You can also change field labels if you’d like. And if you have overlapping fields or want to further modify the appearance of the invoice, you can use the Layout Designer. It’s a simple tool, but it requires some design skills.

Of course, you may not be printing many invoices at all if you’re set up to email them and accept payments online. But your customers, of course, will still see how carefully you’ve crafted your forms, which will feed into their overall perception of you. Let this impression be a good one.

It’s probably one of your favorite QuickBooks activities. Be sure you understand the mechanics of recording payments. There are numerous ways to prioritize your workday. Do the most difficult things first. Get important phone calls out of the way. Respond to customer emails.
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But it’s likely that one activity takes precedence when you see that it needs to be done: recording payments. While you’re probably very careful with this process, it’s critical that your actions here are accurate. If they’re not, you could either lose money that you’ve earned or anger customers by requesting payments they’ve already made.

QuickBooks comes with some helpful pre-defined payment types; however, you also have the flexibility to edit that list and add new types. To see your list, open the Lists menu and select Customer & Vendor Profile Lists, then Payment Method List. This window opens:

To make changes to this list, click the down arrow to the right of Payment Method. By selecting items from this menu, you can add, edit, and delete payment methods. You can also make one temporarily inactive if for some reason you’re not going to support that option right now but don’t want to delete it, either. Click in the box next to Include Inactive if you want it to remain on the list (an X will appear next to it). When you want to reinstate it, open the Payment Method menu again and select Make Payment Method Active.

To search for every transaction that used a specific payment method, highlight it in the list and select Find in Transactions. QuickBooks will open the Find window with that filter already applied.
When you’re done working with that window, click the x in the upper right to close it.

Applying the Funds
Ideally, you or someone on your staff will be working frequently with the Receive Payments screen frequently. To get there, open the Customers menu and select Receive Payments, or click Receive Payments on the home page. This is the screen you will work with if you’re recording a payment that is to be applied to an invoice that you sent.

First, select a customer by clicking on the down arrow in the field to the right of RECEIVED FROM. If there are outstanding invoices, they will appear in the table below. Enter the PAYMENT AMOUNT in the field below, and change the date if necessary. Click on the icon representing the payment method. If you don’t see it there, click the down arrow below MORE and add it or select it. Your chosen icon will turn green. Then:

• For cash or e-checks: Just enter any REFERENCE #
• For checks: Enter the CHECK #.
• For credit/debit cards: If you’ve saved the customer’s preferred payment method in his or her record, the number will fill in automatically. If not, or you need to change it, enter it manually. As you know, you need a merchant account in order to accept credit/debit cards and e-checks. If you haven’t set one up and want to, let us help.

If the payment amount equals the total of all outstanding invoices, there will be a check mark in the first column of every line in the table. If the payment is for any less than the CUSTOMER BALANCE in the upper right, QuickBooks automatically pays the oldest invoice(s) first. You’ll also see an UNDERPAYMENT box in the lower left corner. Click the button in front of your preference here (leave as underpayment or write off the extra). When you’re done, click one of the Save buttons.

Other Types of Payments
You’ll also use the Receive Payments window to record down payments and overpayments. And there are situations where you’ll have to complete other forms to document the incoming money. For example, if a customer makes a partial payment for products or services that haven’t yet been invoiced, you’d use a Payment Item. A customer who pays for a product at the time it is received would get a Sales Receipt.

This may all sound a little confusing. But it won’t be if you gain a thorough understanding of the right way to record different types of payments. We can go over all of this with you to ensure that your incoming money is documented correctly, which will take less time than trying to retrace your steps when a mistake has occurred.

Intuit discontinued its own QuickBooks mobile app a while back, but there’s still plenty of processing power available for your smartphone or tablet. In days gone by, running a company was a 40 hour per week proposition. You might have taken work home some evenings or gone into the office on weekends.
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Those days are over, thanks to the internet and mobile technology. This fundamental change in the way we do business means that it’s now hard to get away from work.  Your smartphone and tablet are usually within easy reach, and they’re always tempting you to check in.

On the flip side, that kind of 24/7/365 accessibility has numerous benefits. There are, for example, apps that can be integrated with your desktop QuickBooks company file, which enable you to:

• Make sales wherever you are,
• Document expenses as they’re incurred, and
• Monitor employee time for payroll purposes.

Let’s take a look at these in more detail.

Payment-processing on smartphones has become commonplace these days. You’ve probably seen merchants accepting credit cards on mobile phones in one of two ways: by swiping the card on a small card reader that attach to their device or by entering bank cards numbers directly.
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Intuit’s GoPayment lets you do either. You can download the free app and process a customer’s payment on your smartphone. However, you still have to download it into QuickBooks and either create a sales receipt or match it to an open invoice. This isn’t a difficult process once you understand it, but you must be sure to do it correctly from the start. We can do some practice runs with you. Benefit: Improved sales that aren’t dependent on location

One of the smartest, most useful apps that has ever been created is the expense reporter – particularly when used by your road warriors for on-the-go expenses. There are a handful of these. Travelers can record expenses in two ways: they can either enter the information directly or snap a picture of a receipt with a smartphone. When your employees get back to the office, they’re able to prepare complete expense reports, whose approved data can be transferred into QuickBooks.

Concur is one of these apps. When you set it up, it imports Account Codes, Customers, Jobs and Classes, and Vendor and Employee Records from QuickBooks so that these can be assigned for each expense entry. Credit card transactions can be imported directly. When an expense report is completed, it can be sent to a manager for approval, and reimbursement is then deposited in the employee’s bank account.

Tallie works similarly. It can automatically categorize expenses and alert approvers to expense policy violations. Used in conjunction with Bill.com and SmartVault, it can accommodate a sophisticated, seamless accounting workflow. We’ll see more multi-app integration as cloud-based financial solutions mature, but if you’re going to attempt such a setup, let us help you with the initial mechanics.

Benefit: More accurate, policy-compliant expense reports

Time-Tracking and Timesheets
If all of your employees walk through the office door every morning and stay there, you don’t need a mobile app for time-tracking. But for businesses whose cash flow depends on recovering and recording every minute of billable time, a smartphone time-tracker is ideal.
TSheets Time Tracker can help improve your bottom line in numerous ways. This particular app:

• Accommodates real-time mobile data entry,
• Tracks employee locations using GPS, and
• Creates timesheets that can be synchronized with QuickBooks, tracking billable time by customer, job, employee, etc.

Benefits: Employee accountability; recovery and correct classification of all billable hours; and less time required to create timesheets.

Moving Toward Integration
Given the size limitations of smartphones, some mobile apps contain only a subset of the features found in their desktop counterparts. But that subset is chosen based on the needs of mobile users.

Fewer features mean that your learning time for the mobile apps that integrate with QuickBooks will be minimal. But the steps to sync with QuickBooks must be followed to the letter, and you may not be familiar with such a process. We want you to experience the benefits that these smartphone solutions can offer without compromising the integrity of your QuickBooks company file. Let us introduce you to these forward-looking, beneficial tools.

Let’s go over this…You send invoices because you sold products and/or services. Purchase orders go out when you’re running low on inventory, and it seems there are always bills to pay. All of this activity is important in itself, but what’s probably the most critical element of QuickBooks… is “reports”.

Reports can tell you how many forest green sweatshirts you sold in April, what you paid for health insurance premiums in the first quarter of this year, and how much you bought from your favorite vendor last month. They’re very good at drilling down to get the precise set of numbers you need.

But reports – carefully customized and properly analyzed – can do more than tell you how many items you have/sold, and if you are starting to pay too much for your phone bill. They can help you make the business decisions that will help you take your company to the next level. There are several that you should be looking at regularly, and we can help you with the interpretation of the more complex financial reports.

So… The below listed reports, are the ones you’ll want to run often:

Who Owes Money? This is a big one!
That’s probably a question you ask yourself every day. You don’t have to run the A/R Aging Detail report every day, but you will want to run it frequently. It tells you who owes you money and whether they’ve passed the due date (and by how many days). See the example picture below:

As with any report, you can modify it to include the columns, data set and date range

Figure 1: By running the A/R Aging Detail report, you can see whether you need to follow up with customers who have past due invoices.
As with any report, you can modify it to include the columns, data set and date range you want by clicking the Customize button. When you create a report in a format that you think you might want to run again, click the Memorize button. Enter a name that you’ll remember, and assign it to a Memorized Report Group.

Getting There… Help:
There are two ways to find the reports you want to see. You can open the Reports menu and move your cursor down to the category you want, like Customers & Receivables, which will open a slide-out menu of options there.

Or you can open the Report Center, which lets you explore reports in more depth. Each is represented by a small graphic with four icons under it. There, you can:

• Run the report with your own data in it
• Open a small informational window
• Designate it as a Favorite, and
• View QuickBooks help.

Figure 2: If you access QuickBooks reports through the Report Center, you’ll have several related options.

Other accounts receivable reports that you should consult periodically include Open Invoices and Average Days to Pay.

** Sound like too much to remember or go through? Relax… we are here to help you with these or any related tasks with QuickBooks! We can either handle it ALL for you, OR we can teach you how to become proficient and effective while doing your own bookkeeping: 972-495-8877

Tracking What You Owe
Reports can also keep you up-to-date on money that you owe to other people and companies. An important one is Unpaid Bills Detail, accessible through the Vendors & Payables menu item. Though you can modify its columns, this report basically tells you who is expecting money from you, the date the bill was issued,  its due date, any number assigned to it, the balance due, and relevant aging information.

Vendor Balance Detail is critical, as well. This report displays every transaction (invoices, payments, etc.) that contributes to the balance you have with each vendor.

Figure 3: We hope you’ll let us help you by running and interpreting these standard financial reports for you!

QuickBooks report categories include one labeled Company & Financial. These are reports that you can run yourself, but they’re critical for understanding your company’s financial status. We can customize and analyze these for you on a regular basis so you’ll know where you stand, to make it easier for you. They include:

• Balance Sheet. What is the value of your company? The balance sheet breaks out this information by account (under the umbrella of assets, liabilities and equity).
• Income Statement. Often referred to as Profit & Loss, this shows you how much money your business made or lost over a specific time period.
• Statement of Cash Flows. How much money came in and went out during a specified time range?

Reports can only generate information about what you’ve entered in QuickBooks and exactly where it’s been entered. So it’s crucial that you follow standard accounting practices as you proceed through your daily workflow. We’re always available to answer questions you have about QuickBooks’ structure and your activity there. Your reports – and your critical business decisions – depend on it… So we can teach you how to operate these effectively, OR we can simply take care of it all for you!

Let’s go over this…You send invoices because you sold products and/or services. Purchase orders go out when you’re running low on inventory, and it seems there are always bills to pay. All of this activity is important in itself, but what’s probably the most critical element of QuickBooks… is “reports”.
​
Reports can tell you how many forest green sweatshirts you sold in April, what you paid for health insurance premiums in the first quarter of this year, and how much you bought from your favorite vendor last month. They’re very good at drilling down to get the precise set of numbers you need.

But reports – carefully customized and properly analyzed – can do more than tell you how many items you have/sold, and if you are starting to pay too much for your phone bill. They can help you make the business decisions that will help you take your company to the next level. There are several that you should be looking at regularly, and we can help you with the interpretation of the more complex financial reports.
So… The below listed reports, are the ones you’ll want to run often:

That’s probably a question you ask yourself every day. You don’t have to run the A/R Aging Detail report every day, but you will want to run it frequently. It tells you who owes you money and whether they’ve passed the due date (and by how many days). See the example picture below:
As with any report, you can modify it to include the columns, data set and date range

Figure 1: By running the A/R Aging Detail report, you can see whether you need to follow up with customers who have past due invoices.
As with any report, you can modify it to include the columns, data set and date range you want by clicking the Customize button. When you create a report in a format that you think you might want to run again, click the Memorize button. Enter a name that you’ll remember, and assign it to a Memorized Report Group.
Getting There… Help:
There are two ways to find the reports you want to see. You can open the Reports menu and move your cursor down to the category you want, like Customers & Receivables, which will open a slide-out menu of options there.
Or you can open the Report Center, which lets you explore reports in more depth. Each is represented by a small graphic with four icons under it. There, you can:
Run the report with your own data in it
Open a small informational window
Designate it as a Favorite, and View QuickBooks help.

Sound like too much to remember or go through? Relax… we are here to help you with these or any related tasks with QuickBooks! We can either handle it ALL for you, OR we can teach you how to become proficient and effective while doing your own bookkeeping: 972-495-8877

Tracking What You Owe

Reports can also keep you up-to-date on money that you owe to other people and companies. An important one is Unpaid Bills Detail, accessible through the Vendors & Payables menu item.

Though you can modify its columns, this report basically tells you who is expecting money from you, the date the bill was issued,  its due date, any number assigned to it, the balance due, and relevant aging information.

​Vendor Balance Detail is critical, as well. This report displays every transaction (invoices, payments, etc.) that contributes to the balance you have with each vendor.

​QuickBooks report categories include one labeled Company & Financial.

These are reports that you can run yourself, but they’re critical for understanding your company’s financial status. We can customize and analyze these for you on a regular basis so you’ll know where you stand, to make it easier for you. They include:

• Balance Sheet. What is the value of your company? The balance sheet breaks out this information by account (under the umbrella of assets, liabilities and equity).
• Income Statement. Often referred to as Profit & Loss, this shows you how much money your business made or lost over a specific time period.
• Statement of Cash Flows. How much money came in and went out during a specified time range?

Reports can only generate information about what you’ve entered in QuickBooks and exactly where it’s been entered. So it’s crucial that you follow standard accounting practices as you proceed through your daily workflow. We’re always available to answer questions you have about QuickBooks’ structure and your activity there. Your reports – and your critical business decisions – depend on it… So we can teach you how to operate these effectively, OR we can simply take care of it all for you!

Rather than pile on tons of new features in its upgrades, Intuit – for many years – has seemed to concentrate on making it easier for you to access the tools and data that are already there.
QuickBooks 2014 can make it easier to get in and do what needs to be done quickly, and then move on to other activities that will help build your business.

A Better View
If you do upgrade to QuickBooks 2014, check out the new Income Tracker (Customers | Income Tracker). QuickBooks new feature provides possibly the best “view” we’ve seen in the software.

Figure 1: QuickBooks 2014’s new Income Tracker gives you real-time access to the status of your receivables.

This screen gives you a birds-eye view of your receivables that isn’t available anywhere else in the program. You can click on any of the four colored bars that run across the top of the screen – Estimates, Open Invoices, Overdue and Paid Last 30 Days — to change the data that appears below. Within each bar is the number of related transactions and their total dollar amount.
More Descriptive/Detailed Email
If you regularly send invoices through email, you may have wondered how many of them actually get opened by your customers in a decent, timely fashion. QuickBooks 2014 has a new tool that makes the details of an invoice available in the body of the email itself.

Figure 2: You can modify this template or leave it as is: QuickBooks 2014 will fill in the relevant details for each customer.
To access this template, open the Edit menu and select Preferences. Click on the Send Forms tab, then Company Preferences.
Some Other Smaller Changes
Intuit has made many small-but-productive features to QuickBooks 2014, all designed to help you work faster and smarter, and simply to support simpler operations. For example, the Ribbon toolbars on transactions now include a tab or menu that lets you open related reports.

Figure 3: You can now access reports directly from the Ribbon toolbar on transaction screens.
In addition:

• The program seems to run faster.
• We can communicate with you (and vice versa) through an email window that’s been embedded into the software.
• There’s been some re-doing of online banking (now called “Bank Feeds”), making it more accessible and hopefully understandable to you and other users.

Upgrading to a new version of QuickBooks can sometimes be challenging, so we encourage you to let us know if you’d like to explore the process. New functionality and usability that improves your workflow and your understanding of your finances can be worth the time and trouble.

If you make one resolution about improving your accounting procedures in 2012, it should be this: Make extensive use of the tools that QuickBooks offers for report modification.

Comprehensive, meticulously-shaped reports that flow out of your carefully-constructed records and transactions are your reward for pounding on the keys every day, conscientiously recording income and expenses. 

​QuickBooks supplies you with a wide variety of pre-formatted reports whose modification options
can help you do focused, critical analysis of your financial data. The right set of numbers will help you understand your history and plan for the future more effectively.

Note: The reports discussed and pictured here shows only one possible set of customization options. There are many variations. We can answer your questions.

CHECK YOUR PREFERENCES

When you created your company file in QuickBooks, you chose between reporting on a cash (income and expenses are recorded when money changes hands) or accrual (recorded when you invoice or receive a bill) basis. This affects summary reports, but not those that break out individual transactions or are simply lists.
If you want to change this, click Edit | Preferences | Reports & Graphs | Company Preferences and click the desired button:

Figure 1: You can establish a preference for your summary reports’ basis here.
You can set other preference in this window that will affect your report output here, too, as you can see.

ALTERING THE DISPLAY
Open the INCOME BY CUSTOMER SUMMARY report (Reports | Company & Financial). Change the dates to reflect the range you’d like to see. Also QuickBooks has a feature called “fuzzy dates”. When you choose a “fuzzy date” range for your report, like “last month” or “last quarter” and you memorize this report, it will always come up with the dates changed to reflect your “fuzzy date” no matter when you pull it up – a month later or a quarter later. Note that Figure 2 is using a “fuzzy date” – “This fiscal year-to-date”.

Want the data displayed by different time increments – like week or quarter – instead of just total?
Click the arrow next to COLUMNS and select FOUR WEEK.

Figure 2: You can do some report display alterations from this toolbar; the options it offers vary by report.
By default, your report rows display alphabetically. If you want to view a column by total in ascending or descending order, select the column by hovering over the top number until the magnifying glass appears, and click on it. Click the arrow next to Sort by and choose Total, then click the AZ [down arrow] icon (in some reports, there will be other options here).

Additional options in this toolbar let you:

• Memorize the report
• Print, email or export it to Excel
• Hide or Show the Header
• Collapse or Expand the columns
• Refresh the report if you’ve made changes that will alter data

MORE DISPLAY OPTIONS 

Click CUSTOMIZE REPORT to open this window:

Figure 3: This window outlines your report’s content options.
Some of the options here duplicate what you saw in the toolbar. In additon you can switch between CASH and ACCRUAL for just this report, and add subcolumns in some. The latter is a complicated operation, one that you must understand well in order to glean any insight from it. We can help you with this.

Sometimes the subcolumns are generic, as shown in the screen above. In other reports, they are very specific to that group of data. An example of that might be theAR AGING REPORT. Some of QuickBooks’ reports are specifically designed to do a certain type of report and they therefore refer to that specific outcome.

Clicking on REVERT takes you back to the default format, and ADVANCED OPTIONSopens addtional options specific to the current report.

Figure 4: In transaction – or detail – reports, you can alter the column structure.  
Learn the mechanics of report display modification well, and your company’s finances will come into much sharper focus, improving the wisdom of future choices. Up next month: filtering your reports for additional clarity.

​If you have questions on this or any other QuickBooks feature, call or email us. We’re your partner and we’re here to make your business better!

Keeping your accounts receivable current in this economy is a challenge. Checks can be slow to arrive and cumbersome to process. And if you’re using a non-QuickBooks merchant account for credit card transactions, you may be paying more than necessary, using a clunky terminal, and/or doing unnecessary data entry.

There’s a better solution. Intuit Merchant Service for QuickBooks lets you accept credit and debit card transactions. You’ll be able to:

• Authorize the transactions in QuickBooks
• Get paid faster
• Reduce data entry errors
• Process payments on any PC

​Recording Cards
After a quick application and setup process, you can begin. If you’re applying payments to invoices, just click Receive Payments like you normally do (you can also apply card payments to sales receipts and credit memos).

In the Customer Payment window, choose a customer, enter the amount, and select the payment method. Enter the number and expiration date (if this is already in the customer record, it will appear), check the Process xxxx payment when savingbox, and save. Upon authorization, the money will go into Undeposited Funds unless you’ve specified otherwise in Preferences.

​Let us know if you have any questions – we’ll be happy to help you get started on the right foot.