Changing a customer to a vendor in QuickBooks & Memorial Day

I used quick add feature and added a person as a customer and they should have been a vendor.  What can I do to fix that? 

Well, there is no easy, one click answer within QuickBooks.   You will need to create the vendor first, use the same name with "-new" after the name.  Don't forget, QuickBooks will not let you have a vendor and a customer with the same name.  

Click photo to enlarge

Click photo to enlarge

Next run a quick report on the customer for all dates and move the transactions to the new  vendor with the "-new" name.  Once all transactions are removed, you can delete the customer and remove the -new.

Those are the steps. 

Since today is Memorial Day, it is a time we need to think about our veteran's that helped us be the great country that we are.  A special thanks to our veteran's past and present, especially the ones overseas fighting for our country right now. 

Lynda

Check out my website www.artesanibookkeeping.com

Deleting a Data File

You created a test company file and you want to remove it from the list and delete the company file all together.  Or you somehow have saved more than one copy of your data file in two places an you want to remove one so you don't accidentally open the wrong/not active file.

How do you do that?

Easy, but this is not a function within the QuickBooks program like many people think.  While in windows, do a windows search and search for .qbw files (data files).  I keep my files in a My Documents folder on my C drive called "QB data files".  Open the file, find the company file you want to delete and right-click delete it.

Next, open your QuickBooks program, open previous and the file path to the deleted file still exists.  If you click on it,  you will not be able to access the file because it is gone.  To remove it from the previous file list:

• Go to file.
• Open previous company>set number of previous companies>select 1.  This will clear your list. 

Then once you have done that, you can open your working data file and then go to:
 

• Open previous company
• set number of previous companies, select a number and enter the amount of active companies you do have.  
• As you open them, it will create a new previous companies list.

Lynda

Check out my website www.artesanibookkeeping.com

How do you Reconcile within QuickBooks?

Seems like a simple enough question, but many of the people I meet are intimidated by reconciling, so they just flat out don't do it.  I ask them, "how are you sure your cash is correct?" 

Then I show them how easy it is to reconcile within the QuickBooks program.  Here are the steps:

• On your home page, click reconcile. 
• Now take your bank statement, enter the ending balance and any service charge (enter bank service charge for the acct. to apply this cost) or interest income (enter interest income acct. for the acct. to apply this cost) and then click continue. 
• Next check off all checks and debits (matching your bank statement); do the same for your deposits.  At the bottom, you will see a total of the check/debit side and the deposit side, including how many transactions were checked off.
• Then when the difference says zero, click reconcile now and you will have cleared your checks.
• Don't forget to print your report or save as a PDF for future reference (only necessary for the Pro version, Premier saves it for you).

If you are stuck and cannot find a particular check or deposit, you can sort by the column headings.  The sort feature allows for sorting by payee, check amount, deposit amount, cleared or uncleared*, and date.

*Watch out when sorting by cleared or uncleared acct.  If you try to click on a transaction to look at it, it clears it and places it with the cleared items below.  I used this sort column only for viewing and re-sort by amount or payee before viewing an entry.

And that is how easy it is to reconcile in QuickBooks!

Lynda

Check out my website www.artesanibookkeeping.com

Doing things "on the run". Getting the Warning message to come back

I am known for this (just ask my husband), I do things too fast.  I read too fast,  type too fast, talk too fast, etc.   The only thing I don't do fast is run.  Ironic, isn't it?

I love the new feature that says, "Are you sure you want to exit QuickBooks?".  But there is a way to not have that message show (for people who don't move fast, I am guessing).  Well,  by moving fast, I checked off, "yes, please do not show this warning anymore" button.  Whoops, wait, I didn't mean to check that box off.  Now, I don't have the warning.  And when I think I am closing out of a report, boom!  I am closing out of QuickBooks.

So here is how to turn that warning message (and all warning messages) back on:

Click on the Edit menu

Select Preferences

Choose General

Under the My Preferences tab, check-mark "Bring back all one time messages"

Click OK

Lynda

Check out my website www.artesanibookkeeping.com

Reinstating a Vendor Credit

Has this ever happened to you?  You have your QuickBooks set up to automatically apply a credit to bill payments (so you won't forget to use them) and you pay some of your bills and a bill credit is applied (automatically), but to the wrong bill.  

What do you do?  You delete the bill payment, redo the bill payment and do not apply the credit.  Now you go back to make a second payment to the vendor and you now want to use that vendor credit, and it is not there when you click on credits?  Why not?  You deleted the first bill payment and redid it without using it, shouldn't it be available again?  You go back to the vendor and you can see it is still there, but not available in the pay bills screen.

How do you get it back?

Just open the vendor credit and at the top, make it a bill. Save and close.  Now go to the new bill and open it on the screen and make it a credit again.  Voila!  You now have an available credit again.  Just like  magic, this work-around really works.

Lynda

Check out my website www.artesanibookkeeping.com

Protect your computer

Okay, this seems to be security week for my blog.  But it could not be more important.  Here is
a good article that I have copied from Intuit's website that really spells out the steps to take
to secure your computer:

By using safety measures and good practices to protect your home computer,
you can protect your privacy and data.

The following tips are things you must have in place to protect your records:

Install a firewall

Use anti-virus software

Use anti-spyware software

Manage your system & browser to protect your privacy

Secure your wireless network

Remember that public hot spots may not be secure.

Lynda

Check out my website www.artesanibookkeeping.com

Printers have hard drives too!

This really is not a QuickBooks issue, but it is a security issue.  I found this article on LinkedIn's ProAdvisor site.  I am definitely one of the many people they mentioned that did not know that printers had hard drives and that copies that you make are part of the hard drive.  So, if you toss your printer into the trash (or recycle it), the hard drive may contain data (Social Security numbers, etc.) from things that you may have photocopied.  Please watch this You Tube piece on the subject (it does have a commercial in the beginning):

Copy Machines, a Security Risk?

 Lynda

Check out my website www.artesanibookkeeping.com

A letter from Intuit.....and my notes on the letter.

I received this email from Intuit.  Now,  I have the program for every year since 1999, but if you are using 2007 or earlier, now is a great time to upgrade to 2010 program.  It is on sale.  Plus, if you use online download of banking or payroll, the time has come and you will have to upgrade:

 

Dear Valued QuickBooks Customer,

According to our records, you're currently using a 2007 version of QuickBooks® software. That's the reason for this important service notice: your ability to send e-mail through QuickBooks 2007 software will be discontinued as of May 31, 2010.

After May 31st, if you want to e-mail forms and reports created in QuickBooks, you have two options:

1.        Use the PDF option for QuickBooks 2007 to easily convert invoices, forms and reports to PDFs that you can send as e-mail attachments outside of QuickBooks—no need to upgrade. Learn how to send PDFs.   Please note, to send invoices this way, you will need to send them individually with extra steps.  You should upgrade if you send out bulk invoicing via email.

         

2.        Upgrade to QuickBooks 2010 and take advantage of new features to help you save time and get more organized. Like e-mailing invoices directly from Outlook without leaving QuickBooks—and easily tracking everything in your Sent folder. Learn more about QuickBooks 2010.  But if you have a pop3 mail account or Windows 7 (and cannot use Outlook Express), you will have two choices, email with QuickBooks or Outlook.

Why is QuickBooks e-mail being discontinued for QuickBooks 2007?

To keep making QuickBooks better while providing high quality services that work well with QuickBooks, we support the current version plus two versions back. To learn more about Intuit's discontinuation policy, please visit www.intuit.com/policy. Intuit is continually changing and adapting it's product.  It would be nearly impossible to support all of the older versions forever.  Just like Microsoft, you should and will need to upgrade.  I am a big believer of keeping up with the newest and most current software.  I like many of the new features.  Some will get better in time. 

We realize the options we've provided might require some extra effort. If you do choose to upgrade, we think you'll find it worthwhile. To make things a little easier, we're offering a savings of $40 on QuickBooks Pro and $80 on QuickBooks Premier, plus free shipping. This offer expires on May 31, 2010.  THIS IS IS A GREAT DEAL.  I HIGHLY RECOMMEND PREMIER AT THESE SPECIAL PRICES!

Upgrading to QuickBooks 2010 is easy:

       

    •    Call 1-866-676-9670

    •    Click here to buy online

         

         Use special offer code: 6480162492 to claim your savings.

(Enter this code in the online shopping cart or when you call.)

Please install and register the software before May 31, 2010, to avoid service disruption.

Lynda

Check out my website www.artesanibookkeeping.com

Help! My loan manager files are gone!

How can this be?  I just upgraded to a new computer and now all of my loans in the Loan Manager feature are gone!

In QuickBooks 2006 and earlier versions, you must run the backup function and manually copy some additional files to ensure you have everything you need.  Here is how you do it:

To move the company files to a new computer:

1. Create a backup of the file. Click file>backup; backup to your memory stick.
2. Additionally, manually copy the following files onto a memory stick:  Loan Manager files: .LMR (generally located in the same folder as the company file)
3. Restore the backup on the new computer. You must have QuickBooks installed on the new computer before you can restore the company file there.
4. After restoring the backup, copy the files you copied in step 2 to the same folders on the new computer.

Lynda

Check out my website www.artesanibookkeeping.com