Have you ever used the F2 key?

Have you ever used the F2 key while in QuickBooks?   It is a pretty cool screen that pops up when you hit the F2 key that has a lot of important information.  But what does all of the info mean?

You can find out what product you are using, your license numbers, what release you are using (especially helpful to see if your product is up to date).  On the right side, you can see list information, which includes how many customers, vendors, etc.  You can see if the company cleanup feature was ever used.  On the left side,  you can see how many data base fragments you have.  

Okay, that is cool, but what does that mean to me?  You should try to keep your client's data base fragments to less than 9.  The more fragments, the more likely to have a data file problem.  

Here is a screen shot of the Product Information Box:

My next blog post will give you steps on how to keep the data file healthy and keep the fragments down.

Lynda
Check out my website www.artesanibookkeeping.com

Accountant's copy will not work thru Inuit's servers

I am not sure if this is something Inuit is doing because of the power outage last week or if this is something they scheduled to do, but the service to send an accountant's copy using their servers will be down today.  They are changing the server that provides this service.

What does this mean to you?  Well, you can still send the accountant's copy.  Just click to save it and use your own email service to send the file.  The same thing for sending the file back to a client.  Save it and send it back.

We are told that this will be fixed by tomorrow evening.  So, let's hope that is the case. 

Lynda
Check out my website www.artesanibookkeeping.com

Intuit and their server problems

This has been a difficult week if you are an online QuickBooks user, an Intuit Merchant services client, or an online payroll client.  The issue began in June 16th and they had another server problem on June 19th.  If you read the Live Community page, there were some nasty postings on the forum by the users of these services.  This is understandable, because in this economy, even losing one customer is one too many.

Whenever you have a computer problem, the time lost is valuable time.  And computer failures eventually happen to all of us.  While I feel for the people who suffered from  the lack of these services, you have to remember that these things do happen.  You also need to understand that Intuit does not want this to happen either.  I am sure they worked furiously through the days and nights trying to get the services back up and running. 

When I worked as a manager at a large office complex in Richmond Square in Rhode Island, we had a company that hosted client's websites.  They not only had backup servers that they could switch to if there was a mechanical problem but they partnered with a firm in another state that they could switch the entire system over to if a major power failure hit in Rhode Island (they also had a generator if there was a power failure).  I am surprised that Intuit does not have a system in place similar to this emergency plan by this much smaller business.  

We may never really be told what happened or why it happened, it just goes to show you how you need to also have a backup plan if you use online QuickBooks or online payroll. Michelle Long, another ProAdvisor wrote a wonderful blog to help people out at this time of crisis.  It was such a thoughtful thing to do and I am sure she helped out many (especially those who needed to do payroll).  

Let's hope that Intuit will get a handle on what happened and will create a better emergency plan so this does not happen again.  But we all have to understand that just like our computers can go down with no warning, this can also happen on a much larger scale.  We cannot be happy about it when it does happen, so we also need to learn and put a plan in place for when it does happen again.

Lynda
Check out my website www.artesanibookkeeping.com

Signature Feature in QuickBooks

Maybe I have been reading Erica Barton's "Diary of a Bad Bookkeeper" blog too much, but I really do not like this newer feature in QuickBooks.  I can just see the problems that can occur with it.

Additionally, many users are having trouble lining up their signatures or making it large enough to see on their checks.  Or just plain frustrated with setting the whole feature up.

  

But just imagine the possibilities for fraud or embezzlement if you set up your software to print your signature on your check.  It is as bad as having that old fashioned stamp with your signature on it.  A few times a year you read about a bookkeeper who stole from their employer.  I have been hired after that bookkeeper was caught and help these employers put policies in place to protect themselves.  And by far my #1 tip is not using this signature feature.  I know signing a check takes valuable time out of your day, but it is time well spent. 

If you read Erica's blog (& I highly recommend it), you will see many tips on how to protect yourself.  Her #1 tip is to have your business bank statement mailed to your home and not the office.  That #1 tip would have saved many of the clients I have met that had the Bad Bookkeeper.

Lynda

Check out my website www.artesanibookkeeping.com

Voiding a check from a prior period

This is a question I see over and over again.  It is a feature that would be nice to be added to QuickBooks.  That is, voiding a check from a prior period.  If you have an old outstanding check from a prior period and you go to edit, void check, it will mess up your prior period's numbers. 

So, how do you handle this transaction?

Click photo to enlarge

 














Create a deposit in the current period and in the" apply to" area of the deposit to the same expense acct as the check you want to delete was written to. 

Click photo to enlarge

Then when you reconcile, you clear the deposit and the old check. This will zero out or "void" your check in the current period and not affect the prior period's numbers. 

Lynda

Check out my website www.artesanibookkeeping.com

Transferring money between bank accounts, using a check

Click photo to enlarge

Still an easy transaction, but when you use a check to transfer money, you need to process the transaction this way so you can have the check entered.  You just apply the other bank account as the "account from" and this will create a deposit into the savings account at the same time.

Lynda

Check out my website www.artesanibookkeeping.com

Transferring money between bank accounts

I am bringing this subject up because I worked for a client recently that made a simple one step transaction in QuickBooks much more difficult than it needed to be.

Without going into the creative way of entering 4 transactions that they used to enter this same transaction into their records, when I showed them all they had to do was go to banking, transfer funds, they were amazed.   Here is a screen shot of this transaction:

Click photo to enlarge

I guess that would fall under the "KISS" theory (keep it simple, stupid).  But sometimes when you are working in an accounting program, you think it is much harder to do some of the tasks without knowing that there is an easier way.  This works great when you are transferring monies from one bank account to another, like an online transfer.  If you use a check to deposit into another account, my next post will show you how to handle that transaction.

Happy Friday everyone!

Lynda
Check out my website www.artesanibookkeeping.com