Читать книгу QuickBooks 2017 For Dummies - Nelson Stephen L. - Страница 11

After you decide when you want to convert, prepare a trial balance as of the conversion date, and collect the additional raw data that you need, you’re ready to step through QuickBooks Setup. You need to start QuickBooks and then walk through the steps.

Starting QuickBooks

To start QuickBooks 2017 in Windows 10, click the QuickBooks 2017 tile on the Windows Desktop. Or click the Windows Start button and then click the menu choice that leads to QuickBooks. (I choose Start ⇒ All Apps ⇒ QuickBooks ⇒ QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions 17.0.)

QuickBooks comes in several flavors. The most common flavors are

❯❯ QuickBooks Pro: The Pro version includes the job costing and time-estimating features, which I briefly describe in Chapter 16; it also includes the capability to share a QuickBooks file over a network, as I describe in Appendix C.

❯❯ QuickBooks Premier: The Premier version adds features to QuickBooks Pro and also comes in a variety of industry-specific flavors, including an Accountant edition that mimics most of these other flavors.

❯❯ QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions: This version is nearly identical to QuickBooks Premier but allows for very large QuickBooks files, including much larger customer, vendor, and employee lists.

I use the Accountant edition flavor of QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions, so some of the figures might differ a wee bit from what you see onscreen. But know this: Aside from minor cosmetic differences, the various versions of QuickBooks all work the same way. You can use this book for any of these program versions.

If you’ve started QuickBooks for the first time, QuickBooks first tells you how it plans to use your Internet connection to regularly update the QuickBooks software. After you click the button that indicates “Okay, yeah, I’m good with that,” QuickBooks displays the No Company Open dialog box (not shown). Then you click the Create a New Company button so that QuickBooks displays the QuickBooks Setup dialog box with the message Let’s get your business set up quickly! (see Figure 2-1).

FIGURE 2-1: The first QuickBooks Setup window.

If you’ve been using an earlier version of QuickBooks, QuickBooks should prompt you to open (and possibly convert) an existing file – and you don’t need to be reading this chapter.

If you aren’t starting QuickBooks for the first time but want to step through QuickBooks Setup to set up a new company anyway, choose File ⇒ New Company.

I should mention that the first QuickBooks Setup dialog box (the one shown in Figure 2-1) identifies some other setup options you can use to get started. The dialog box gives you the Detailed Start option, for example, which lets you control the setup and fine-tune the company file. The dialog box also gives you the option to create a new file from an old file. It also suggests that you might want to upgrade from Quicken or some other accounting system. (Basically, that upgrade means that you want QuickBooks to try using your existing accounting system’s data as a starting point.)

Two simple bits of advice: Don’t fiddle with Detailed Setup unless you’re an accounting expert, and don’t attempt to “upgrade” Quicken or some other accounting program’s data. It’s just as easy and usually considerably cleaner to work from a trial balance.

The one group of new QuickBooks users who probably should try upgrading their old accounting system’s data are people who’ve done a really good job of keeping their books with the old system, including complete balance sheet information. No offense, but you probably aren’t in this category. Sorry.

Using the Express Setup

QuickBooks 2017 provides you a very fast setup process compared with other accounting software programs and even with old versions of the QuickBooks software. Basically, you fill in some boxes and click some buttons, and voilà – you’ve largely set up QuickBooks. Because I can give you some tips, identify some shortcuts, and warn you of some traps to avoid, I’m providing these step-by-step instructions:

1. In the first QuickBooks Setup dialog box (refer to Figure 2-1), choose Express Setup.

With the first QuickBooks Setup dialog box displayed, click the Express Start button. QuickBooks displays the Glad You’re Here! dialog box, shown in Figure 2-2.

2. Specify the business name.

The name you specify goes on QuickBooks reports and appears on invoices you send customers. Accordingly, you want to use your “real” business name. If your business is incorporated or formed as a limited liability company (LLC), you want to use the right suffix or acronym in your name. Don’t use Acme Supplies, for example, but Acme Supplies Inc. or Acme Supplies LLC.

Note: QuickBooks also uses the company name for the QuickBooks data file.

3. Identify your industry.

If you’re in the construction business, for example, type construction. When you type something in the Industry field, QuickBooks turns the box into a drop-down menu showing the industries that it recognizes. You can pick an industry from this menu (or pick the industry that’s closest to your business).

Be thoughtful and cautious about the industry you specify. QuickBooks sets up a starting chart of accounts for you based on the industry. A chart of accounts lists the asset, liability, income, and expense accounts (or categories) that QuickBooks will use to categorize your business’s finances.

4. Identify the tax return you file.

Use the Business Type field to specify the tax return that your business files. You can click that field and then make a choice from the menu that QuickBooks provides.

The QuickBooks menu of tax return options includes only two options for LLCs: single-member LLCs that file their taxes with the LLC owner’s 1040 tax return, and multiple-member LLCs that file their taxes as a partnership by using a 1065 tax return. An LLC can also file its taxes as an S corporation or regular C corporation, however (part of the reason accountants love LLCs). If you’re running an LLC that files its taxes as an S corporation, do select the S corporation tax return option. And if you’re running an LLC that files as a regular C corporation, select that tax return option.

5. Provide your Employer Identification Number.

Use the Employer Identification Number (EIN) field to provide your business taxpayer identification number. If you’re a sole proprietorship without employees, your tax identification number may be your Social Security number. In all other cases, your taxpayer identification number is your Employer Identification Number.

6. Provide your business address information.

Use the Business Address fields to provide your firm’s address and contact information. I hope you don’t feel cheated that I’m not giving you instructions like “Enter your street address in the Address box” and “Please remember that your telephone number goes in the Phone box.”

If you ever decide that you want to change some piece of information that you entered on a previous page of the QuickBooks Setup dialog box, you can just click the Back button to back up.

If you’re an observant person, you may have noticed the Preview Your Settings button that appears on the Glad You’re Here! dialog box. You can safely ignore this button, but if you’re a truly curious cat, go ahead and click it. QuickBooks displays the dialog box shown in Figure 2-3, which identifies the standard QuickBooks features that the QuickBooks Setup process is turning on, as well as the asset, liability, income, and expense accounts that will initially appear in your chart of accounts. Oh, one other thing: The Preview Your Company Settings dialog box also provides a Company File Location tab that identifies where your QuickBooks data file will be located.

7. Create the QuickBooks data file.

After you provide the business contact information requested by QuickBooks, click the Create Company button. QuickBooks may display the QuickSetup dialog box, shown in Figure 2-4, which lets you name and specify the location of the company file. You can use the QuickSetup dialog box to make these changes or – my recommendation – simply let QuickBooks be QuickBooks and make these decisions for you. After you click Save, QuickBooks creates the data file it will use to store your financial information. (In some versions of QuickBooks, creating the file takes a few minutes.)

When QuickBooks finishes creating your file, it displays the Get All the Details into QuickBooks dialog box, shown in Figure 2-5.

8. Identify your customers, vendors, and employees.

With the Get All the Details into QuickBooks dialog box displayed, click the Add the People You Do Business With button. QuickBooks displays another dialog box that asks, “Perchance, are contact names and addresses stored electronically someplace else, like Microsoft Outlook or Google Gmail?”

● If you do have contact name and address information stored someplace else that QuickBooks will retrieve: Click the appropriate button and follow the onscreen instructions.

● Otherwise: Click the Paste from Excel or Enter Manually button and then click Continue.

When QuickBooks displays the Add the People You Do Business With dialog box, shown in Figure 2-6, use the rows of the displayed worksheet to describe your customers, vendors, and employees. To enter a contact into the next empty row:

a. Select the Customer, Vendor, or Employee option button (as appropriate).

b. Describe the contact using the fields provided: Name, Company Name, First Name, Last Name, Email, Phone, and so forth. Each contact goes in its own row.

c. Click the Continue button twice when you finish identifying your contacts to return to the Get All the Details into QuickBooks dialog box.

In the first Name column, which is used for customers and vendors, provide an abbreviated name or a nickname for a contact. You’ll use what you specify in the Name column within QuickBooks to refer to the contact, so you want to use something short and sweet. If you’re working with customer John Smith at IBM Corp., you might enter IBM in the Name column, IBM Corporation in the Company Name column, John in the First Name column, and so on.

If you add any customers or vendors, after you click the Continue button to leave the Add the People You Do Business With dialog box, QuickBooks asks about open balances that customers owe you or that you owe vendors. You don’t need to worry about these open balances at this point of the setup process. I describe how to cleanly and correctly deal with open customer and vendor balances in Chapter 3.

9. Identify the items (the stuff) you sell.

With the Get All the Details into QuickBooks dialog box displayed (refer to Figure 2-5), click the Add the Products and Services You Sell button. QuickBooks displays another dialog box that asks what kind of stuff you want to describe: services, stuff that you track in inventory, stuff that is inventory but that you don’t track, and so on. (Which items QuickBooks lists depends on the industry that you specify in Step 3.) Click the appropriate button.

When QuickBooks displays the Add the Products and Services You Sell dialog box, shown in Figure 2-7, use the rows of the displayed worksheet to describe a product or service. For any item, you’ll always enter a name, description, and price. For some items, however, you can specify much greater detail than just this skeletal information. Click the Continue button when you finish identifying your products and services. QuickBooks may try to sell you some extra stuff (such as Intuit checks), but feel free to click No Thanks to return to the Get All the Details into QuickBooks dialog box.

10. Describe your bank account(s).

With the Get All the Details into QuickBooks dialog box displayed (refer to Figure 2-5), click the Add Your Bank Accounts button. When QuickBooks displays the Add Your Bank Accounts dialog box, shown in Figure 2-8, use the worksheet to describe each bank account you use for your business: its name, account number, balance at the conversion date, and the actual conversion date. Click the Continue button when you finish identifying your bank accounts to return to the Get All the Details into QuickBooks dialog box.

11. Start working with QuickBooks.

With the Get All the Details into QuickBooks dialog box displayed, click the Start Working button. QuickBooks displays the QuickBooks program window. You’re done.

FIGURE 2-2: The Glad You’re Here! dialog box.

FIGURE 2-3: The Preview Your Company Settings dialog box.

FIGURE 2-4: The QuickSetup dialog box.

FIGURE 2-5: The Get All the Details into QuickBooks dialog box.

FIGURE 2-6: The Add the People You Do Business With dialog box.

FIGURE 2-7: The Add the Products and Services You Sell dialog box.

FIGURE 2-8: The Add Your Bank Accounts dialog box.

If you didn’t register during the installation process, at some point after QuickBooks starts, you see a message box that asks whether you want to register QuickBooks. If you don’t register, you can use the product roughly a few times, and then – whammo! – the program locks up, and you can no longer access your files. Either you register it, or you can’t use it. I don’t like being forced to do something, but getting worked up about having to register QuickBooks is a waste of time.

The simplest option is to just register when you see that message. Here’s how: When QuickBooks displays the message box that asks whether you want to register, click the Online button to register online, or click the Phone button to register over the phone. If you go with the Phone option, QuickBooks displays another dialog box that gives you a telephone number to call and provides a space for you to enter your registration number.