Installing Quickbooks: This is a short do it yourself guide to help you get Quickbooks set up properly.  Failing to do so can result in huge additional costs needed to have someone make sense of an accounting nightmare that you can accidentally create for yourself.  So hopefully this article will help all you do it yourself types from committing one of the most cardinal sins of bookkeeping: not getting set up properly. First off, the best advice is always to hire a bookkeeper.  We offer quickbooks set-up services and training.  But, for those who like to try things out for themselves, keep reading. Quickbooks is a user friendly program.  It's "How to" guide is very effective and easy to follow.  The problem with quickbooks is that in today's world of "I needed it yesterday," most people don't have time to set up quickbooks correctly which leads to many companies limiting the greatness of quickbooks.  In order to take advantage of all the great reporting and tracking capabilities of the program you must enter all your customer information and your vendor information thoroughly. Quickbooks offers the ability of printing 1099's for subcontractors too.  The problem is that most don't enter all the information that is need to make this process easy and efficient.  Here are some of the things required to be able to use this feature:

1. Enter Vendors Name or Company Name
2. Enter Vendors Address (don't forget city, state and zip code)
3. Phone Number (This way you can use the phone list report)
4. Email Address
5. Select the Second Tab
6. Enter EIN # or SS# (don't forget you need this before send payment)
7. Select: "1099 Vendor"

Now, remember when in Company Preferences to select which expense accounts need to be linked to 1099's so that when you use a vendor who will receive a 1099.  Quickbooks can keep track of the payments you have made to that vendor.  This can be done on your own.  But, again, it's easier to hire us. Customer List: This is were you will track all invoices sent to each customer.  You need to make sure that each customer card is complete.  Remember to get the email address, that way you can send your invoices via email and get paid quicker.  You can also enter notes for each customer in the customer card.  You can also give them a customer type.  You might be asking, "what is that?"  A customer type is a way that quickbooks can track how many jobs you did of the same type of work.  For example: A contractor could use this feature to track how many remodel jobs were done for the year.  A cater can track how many weddings, holiday parties, birthdays and so on.  Reports: Quickbooks has many pre-defined reports.  You can see the list reports.  However, each report can be redefined by selecting modify report.  A box appears and you can begin to select or deselect which options you want.  You can also use the feature memorize report so that you don't have to create the same report everytime.  The topic of reports could go on but for the sake of not overwhelming you, your best result would be to hire a bookkeeper.  We can come in and prepare these memorized reports for you. Invoicing is also a great feature.  Quickbooks allows you to use either the pre-forms or custom your own.  Did you know that you can also import your business logo also? Item List is where you set up your pricing for your services.  This is required to begin invoicing.  This feature allows you to breakdown service.  The item list can be develop as simple as you would like but keep in mind the more in depth the more in depth your report can be.  Like we mentioned before hiring us will be easier. The above is only a small peak of what quickbooks can do and what is required from the user to take advantage of those features.  Even for the do-it-yourself type hiring a bookkeeper who is famarilar with quickbooks can help speed the process up.  One thing to remember is that the hours you spend learning how to install quickbooks correctly could be better used creating more billable work.  If you would like us to come in and correctly install your quickbooks for you please contact us on our contact page or by giving us a call during business hours. Thanks, and we hope this article has helped you!