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Tips

General
You can close any window in QuickBooks by hitting the escape key.

You can quickly highlight any item, name, or account, on a long list—just type the first two or three letters of that item.

You can rearrange the accounts in your Chart of Accounts. Just open the Chart of Accounts, click on the diamond next to the account you want to move and, holding the mouse button down, drag it to the desired location on the Chart of Accounts.

While in any register in QuickBooks, you can quickly move to the bottom of the register by holding down the CTRL key then hit the END key on your keyboard.

You can quickly change the date of any transaction in QuickBooks without retyping the date—just highlight the date with your mouse, then use the + or - keys to change the date a day at a time.

Banking
You can see the register for any cheque in QuickBooks—just hold down the CTRL and R keys to bring up the bank register from which the cheque is written.

You can stop QuickBooks from automatically filling in all of the information on a cheque: from the File menu, choose Preferences, then General, and then clear the Automatically Recall Last Transaction for This Name check box.

When entering bills and cheques, if you only know the total amount of your purchases, you can do a backwards calculation to figure out the before tax amount using the QuickMath feature:

• Enter the amount of the gross amount (for each line) into the net amount column, then hit the forward slash key (a little calculator tape will appear on your screen), you can then divide the number by a factor such as 1.05 (tax code “G”) or 1.13 (tax code “S”). The net amount will now be calculated and the sales tax allocated based on the tax code assigned.

How do I set up automatic bank withdrawals?

1. From the Activities Menu, select Write Cheques
2. Make sure the To Be Printed box is unchecked
3. In the No. field, located above the cheque date, change the number to the word debit or any other word that describes an automatic withdrawal
4. Enter the expense information at the bottom of the cheque
5. Memorize the Cheque by clicking on Memorize Cheque on the Edit menu or type CTRL & M at the same time
6. Select how often you want the cheque entered and whether or not you would like to be reminded before QuickBooks enters it
7. Click OK and then OK again to save the cheque

Customers and Accounts Receivable
How can I get a report that will show all my Billed & Unbilled costs (reimbursable expenses) that I have recorded for my customer jobs?

1. Click on the Reports menu
2. Click on Profit and Loss, then Itemized
3. Click on Filter > filter for selected transaction types - bills and cheques
4. Filter for Name all customers Jobs. Click OK.
5. Click on Customize, then remove the columns class, clr & split
6. Add the columns paid and source name. Click OK.
7. Click on the Header/Footer button to change the report title (e.g. Reimbursable Costs by Customer)
8. Click on the Memorize button to memorize the report

This generates a report that shows all the Customers and their respective billing. The costs that are paid (by the company) are shown as cleared.

How can I get a report that will show all of my invoices sorted by invoice number?

1. Click on the Reports menu > Other Reports > Missing Cheques
2. Choose any bank account > click OK
3. Click on the Filters button
4. Click on Account, then All Accounts Receivable
5. Click on Transaction Type, then Invoice. Click OK.
6. Click on the Header/Footer button, and change report title (e.g. A/R Invoices) > click OK
7. Click on the Memorize button to memorize the report

How do I get my company name and address to print on my invoices?

1. Click on Lists pull-down menu, then Templates
2. Choose the invoice template you are using
3. In Options tab, click on Print Company Name and Print Company Address
4. Click OK—the default will now be set for invoices printed on the template
5. How do I get GST and PST amounts to print at the bottom of the invoice?
6. Edit the invoice template. Check off the GST/PST on the footer tab. If you are using an Intuit invoice, you must create a duplicate template first

How do I record customer credit card payments?

1. Customers > Receive Payment
2. Select the Payment method from the drop down list
3. Select invoice being paid
4. Ensure Group with Undeposited Funds is selected > Save
5. Enter next credit card payment

How do I make a deposit?

1. Once all payments have been entered > Banking > Make Deposit
2. Select all payments that were transmitted in the batch
3. Ensure the total payments selected agree to the total transmitted (this amount will appear on your bank statement)
4. Save
5. Repeat this procedure for each credit card payment method

How do I enter the daily sales of my retail store?
The total of all sales, sales taxes and payments for the day is normally produced by the cash register. First, create the following items:

Name	Type	Tax Code	Account
Daily sales	Service	S	Sales
Sales	Adjustments	S	Sales
PST Payable	Service	E	PST Payable
Paid Out	Other Charge	E	Cost of Goods
Cash & Cheque	Payment		Bank
Visa	Payment		Bank
Interact	Payment		Bank
MasterCard	Payment		Bank
Amex	Payment		Amex Receivable

The account for the payment item is the bank account that the funds are deposited into.

Create an invoice with all of the above items. Memorize it.
Complete one invoice per day. Every invoice should total to $0.

Refunds: If the refunds for a payment type are greater than the charges for that day, use the following procedure. For example, assume that the MasterCard charges for today were $50 and the MasterCard credits were $200. The net MasterCard for the day is negative $150.

1. Create the regular daily sales invoice except that the payment item that is negative (MasterCard) is changed to Sales Adjustments. Enter all amounts. The invoice should total to zero.
2. Create a credit memo (same date as above). First choose the payment item that is negative (i.e. MasterCard) and enter the net negative amount for the day. Choose Sales Adjustment as the second line and enter the same amount as a negative. The credit memo should also total to zero.

Amex: Create an Amex Receivable (other current asset) account

1. When the cheque is received from Amex, make a deposit. The net amount should equal the Amex cheque amount
1. on the 1st line, select the Amex Receivable account and enter the original amount (+)
2. on the 2nd line, select the credit card charges account and enter the discount (-)

Printing and Reporting

How can I get my reports to only show those accounts that have balances?
If you don't want accounts with zero balances to show on the report, start with the report on the screen, click on Modify Report, and then click on Advanced and select ‘Non-zero under rows.

How do I change the width of columns for any reports?
You can widen or narrow the columns by clicking on the little diamonds (to the left and right of each column heading) and moving the vertical dotted line with the mouse pointer, left and right, to adjust the column widths.

How do I change the heading of my reports?
When customizing a report in QuickBooks, you can change the title headings of the report by clicking on the Header/Footer button at the top of the report.

How do I save the changes I make to reports?
After customizing a report in QuickBooks, you can save the settings you have chosen by clicking on the Memorize button. You can name the memorized report then access it later from the Memorized Report List.

How do I view retained earnings transactions?
To locate any transactions that have affected the Retained earnings or to determine why the retained earnings amount doesn’t match last year’s net income.

1. Using the main menu at the top of QuickBooks, select Edit > Advance Find
2. Highlight Account under the Filter column > scroll down and choose Retained Earnings from the account list
3. Highlight Detail Level > select All from the list of options
4. Press the Find button
5. Highlight one of these transactions from the list > click on Go To, to view the original entry

How do I align my cheque printing?

1. Open the client data file
2. Go to File > Printer Setup
3. Select Form Name = Cheques
4. Click Align
5. Modify vertical/horizontal settings.
6. Print sample & check alignment—adjust again as required

Payroll

How do I enter the TD1 exemption code for my employees, when setting them up in QuickBooks?
QuickBooks does not utilize the TD1 exemption code; it uses the exact amount that is reported by the employee on the TD1 form. The TD1 exemption amount can be entered by going to Payroll Taxes in the Payroll Info Tab for each employee.

How do I pay vacation pay?
Create a payroll item called Vacation Paid (type = Hourly Wage; expense account = Wage Benefits). Choose Vacation Paid (not Vacation Salary or Vacation Hourly Rate) in the earnings section of the Preview Pay cheque window. Enter the amount of vacation pay under rate and enter 1 for hours.

How do I stop QuickBooks from accruing vacation pay for my employees?

1. From the List pull-down menu, select employees
2. Highlight an employee
3. Click on Employee (at bottom of window) then Edit 
4. Click on Payroll Info tab
5. Click on Sick/Vacation button
6. Make sure no payroll items are selected

How do I set up and pay employee advances?

1. From the List menu, select chart of accounts
2. Click on Account then New, to create a new account
3. Choose Other Current Asset for type, name the account, Employee Advances, Click OK
4. From the Lists menu, select payroll items
5. Click on Payroll Item, then New to create a new payroll item
6. Choose Deduction for type, name the payroll item, Mid-month advance, select Deduct from Net Pay, select Employee Advances account in the Account field, then click OK
7. Use this deduction item to deduct the amount of the advance off of the pay cheque at the end of the month

To pay a mid-month advance:

1. Select Write Cheques from the activities menu
2. Enter the employee to pay in Pay to the order of field
3. From the expenses tab, enter Employee Advances and the amount being paid

How do I pay my Payroll Liabilities at the end of the month?
After paying employees, run the PD7A report (go to Reports menu and then Payroll reports):

• Run the report as of the last pay cheque date. Print the report as it can assist you in filling out the PD7A monthly remittance form.

• Next, click on Activities, Payroll, Pay Liabilities/Taxes—be sure to show liabilities as of the last pay cheque date. The liability amounts shown on the screen should correspond to those shown on the PD7A—simply check them off and click OK and a cheque to the Receiver General will be created at that point. This will also clear the liabilities for the next month.

Sales Tax

How do I set up HST (for Atlantic Canada)?

1. From the Lists menu, select Tax Codes
2. Click New to create a new tax code
3. Create a new tax code 'H', enter the % in the GST column, and click OK
4. HST Collected and Paid will be reported by running the GST Summary Report

The GST/HST & QST registration numbers do not print or do not print properly on my invoices or cash sale forms—how do I get these numbers to print?

1. Click on the File pull-down menu > click on Preferences
2. Click on GST/PST preferences icon
3. Type in the GST/HST registration number in the field for Business Number; you can type in the QST number in the PST Registration Number field

Please note that the GST/HST and QST registration numbers will only appear on the PRINTED copy of the invoice or cash sale form.

Inventory
For companies that use QuickBooks to track their inventory, the following procedures will ensure that the inventory tracking system has been properly used:

Open the Inventory Valuation Summary (IVS):

1. Ensure that there are no negative quantities (means quantity on invoice overstated)
2. Compare total of IVS to Balance Sheet inventory asset account, if not equal, do the following:
• Check that there were no journal entries posted to the inventory asset account
• Go to item list, make all inactive items active again, and ensure that all inactive items have a $0 balance.

For clients who can only sell a complete item, do the following as the IVS report does not indicate if a sold item has had 100% of the cost adjusted since each addition to the cost results in the quantity increasing by 1 (means quantity on invoice understated):

1. Open the Inventory valuation detail report (IVD)
2. Change date to beginning date of fiscal year to period end date
3. Scroll down list, and ensure when an item has a negative QTY (invoice) the asset value column balance for the item is $0 (meaning all costs have been expensed)