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INTRODUCTION TO
QUICKBOOKS
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What is QuickBooks?

QuickBooks is an industry-leading
accounting software package
designed to help businesses keep
track of its financial data.
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The primary features of QuickBooks

are designed to help manage
customers, vendors, expenses,
inventory, and revenue.
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 Chapter One 4
Getting Started In QuickBooks
Pro 2013

Lesson One
CREATE A NEW COMPANY FILE

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STEPS:

 1. To begin creating a new company, click File on the menu bar, then click New
Company.
 2. Select Advanced Setup: This will allow you to set up more features during the
beginning stages of setting up your company. It will also give you more control
when setting up the chart of accounts and other things.
 3. Enter in company information. One of the most important pieces of information
that you will enter is the Tax ID. The only way you can get a Tax ID number is to
apply for one from the federal government. If you are going to hire employees
later, then you must have a Federal Tax ID number (also called Employer Identification
Number – EIN). If you do not have a Federal Tax ID number and if you aren’t
going to hire employees, then you can use your social security number.
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 4. Choose your industry. In this lesson, we’re going to chose

Lawn and Landscaping. The industry that you choose will help
QuickBooks suggest which accounts should be included in
the chart of accounts.

 5. Choose how your company will be organized. The options are

Sole Proprietor, Partnership, LLC, Corporation, S Corporation and
Non-Profit.

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 6. Choose the first month for the fiscal year. A fiscal year is a one year reporting period
that a company uses for accounting purposes. A company can choose at its discretion when
to start and end a fiscal period. For example, the U.S. Federal Government’s fiscal year
begins on October 1 and ends on September 30 of the following year. Best Buy’s fiscal year
generally begins at the beginning of March and ends at the end of February of the following
year. At the end of a company’s chosen fiscal year, it will report what it has earned from
day 1 to day 365. However, the regular calendar year, January 1 through December 31, is
used to report revenues and expenses for the purpose of paying taxes (if applicable) to the
I.R.S. The word fiscal means of or pertaining to financial matters in general.

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 7. Create an administrative password. It is imperative to safeguard your

company’s financial information; create a password.
 8. Save file to your computer. You must choose a folder in which to save your file.
The default location for QuickBooks is inside of an folder called Intuit, and the
Intuit folder is usually located in the My Documents folder on a PC.
 9. Will you be selling services, products or both? Choose the option that best fits
your business needs.
 10. Will you be charging sales tax? If you are selling tangible items, then you will
be charging sales tax. Some states require the collection of sales tax on certain
services as well.

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 11. Will you create estimates? Most companies in service-oriented industries create
estimates for their customers. There are some product-based industries that will create
estimates as well. Our fictional company, Techarena Landscaping, will be creating estimates
for potential customers.

 12. Will your company be using statements? A statement is a list of invoices that a
company sends to a customer in a given time period – usually a one month period. It will
also include the invoice amount, invoice number and if any payments were made towards
the respective invoice, that amount will be deducted from the original invoice amount.

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 13. Progress invoicing is the ability to invoice a customer during a certain point of
completion of a job. For example, when a job is 25% complete, the company will send
an invoice to the customer for 25% of the payment. When the next stage of the job is
complete, the company will be issued an invoice for that respective stage, and so on.
our fictional company, Techarena Landscaping will be using progress invoicing.

 14. Every company needs to manage the bills its owe by using the bills feature. The
proper way to manage your bills is to enter a bill using the Bills feature. This will create
a payable, which will be listed as a liability on your company’s balance sheet.
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 15. You should keep track of the items that you purchase from your vendors if
they are going to be resold to customers as part of other services.

 16. Keeping track of time will allow you to bill your customers for things such as
drive time. You can easily add this time to an invoice upon completion of a job.

 17. Do you have employees? You should select yes even if you do not have
employees because you never know how much your business will grow and you
may eventually have to hire employees. Selecting yes will not negatively effect
anything in QuickBooks.
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 18. Setting up the chart of accounts is one of the most important steps when
creating a new company. QuickBooks will automatically select various accounts
based on the industry that you chose earlier. However, you can select or deselect
any account that you choose. We prefer to select all of the accounts. If you select
an account and realize that you do not need it, you can delete it later. You can also
add an account that you may need as well.

 19. Click the Start Working button at the bottom right of the window.

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 LESSON TWO 13
Change the Location of Icons On the Icon
Bar
 1. We will begin by changing the location of the icon bar (this is optional). To change the
default location of the icon bar, click the View menu, then click Top Icon Bar to place the icon
bar at the top of the page.

 2. Next, we will begin changing the order of the icons. Click View on the menu bar, then click
Customize Icon Bar.

 3. We will now rearrange the icons on the icon bar. In the Icon Bar Content field, click and hold
the small diamond next to the name of the icon. Drag it up or down until you place it in your
desired position.

 4. If you want to add/remove an icon, click Add or Delete on the left side of the window.

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 5. You can add a separator to separate a group of icons from other icons. If you
want to add a separator to the icon bar, select the name of the icon first, then click
add separator. A separator will be placed AFTER the icon that you selected.

 6. You can choose to view just the icon on the icon bar, or you can view the icon
and its text. In the Icon Bar Display Options field, choose the which option you
would like to be displayed.

 7. After you have customized the icon bar, click OK to save your changes.

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 LESSON THREE 15
Add or Remove an Icon in
QuickBooks Pro
 1. Now that the Icon Bar is in place, we will customize it by adding and removing
icons. To do this, click the “View” menu, then select “Customize Icon Bar.”

 2. In this example, I will delete the icon labeled “Online Banking.” Select “Online
Banking” (or any icon you choose), then click delete.

 3. After you click delete, click “ok” at the bottom of the dialog box to finalize the
removal of the icon. As you can see here, the “Online Banking” icon has
been removed.

 4. Now we will add an icon. To add an icon to the Icon Bar, select the view menu, then
select “Customize Icon Bar.” When the dialog box appears, click “Add.”

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 5. After you click “Add,” you will see the “Add Icon Bar Item” dialog box. Choose the icon you
wish to add by clicking the text on the left. I will choose “Calculator.” You can change the
default Label and/or Description located at the top right of the dialog box if you wish, but I will
not change it. When complete, click “OK.”

 6. Now you will see the “Calculator” text in the “Customize Icon Bar” dialog box. Please note the
small diamond on the left side of the text. You will click, hold and drag the diamond to position
the icon if you choose (See step 7).

 7. To move the icon to a different location, click the diamond on the left side of the text and
hold the left mouse button until you see a double-sided arrow (similar to the one above) then
drag to your preferred location. I will place this icon behind the Reports icon.

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 LESSON FOUR 17
Change An Icon’s Graphic, Text and
Description

In this we will give you a step-by-step account on how to change the

text, graphic picture and the description of an icon on the icon bar in
QuickBooks Pro 2013. The text is located immediately beneath the
icon’s graphic, and the description of the icon will appear when you
hover your mouse over the icon. To change the icon’s graphic, text or
description, perform the following steps below:

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 1. To begin changing the icon’s text, graphic and description click View on the menu bar,
then click Customize Icon Bar.

 2. In the Icon Bar Content field, select the name of the icon that you want to edit, then
click Edit on the right side of the dialog box.

 3. After you click Edit, you will see the Edit Icon Bar Item dialog box. To change the text
for the icon, enter a word or phrase of your choice. If you would like to change the
description of the icon, to can do so in the Description field immediately below the Label
field. On the left side, you will see several graphic icons to choose from. Make your
selection, then click OK to save your changes.

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 4. Click OK in the Customize Icon Bar dialog box to save all

changes.

 5. View the icon on the icon bar to make sure that the graphic
and text has been changed, and hover your mouse over the icon
to make sure that it has been changed as well.

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LESSON FIVE
Change The Color of the Icon Bar

In this we’ll learning how to change the color of the icon bar in addition to creating a
company color scheme. The default color of the icon bar is a dreary-looking black and
gray.

However, you can change it to a more colorful appearance which resembles the colors in
previous versions of QuickBooks. Also, you can add a company to identify which company
you are working in if you have more than one company file. The color will be displayed at
the top of every window and dialog box in QuickBooks. To change the color of the icon
bar and create a company color scheme, please follow the steps below:

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 1. Change the default location of the icon bar by clicking View on the menu bar, then click
Top Icon Bar.

 2. We are now going to change the default color of the black and gray color combination to
something more appealing. To change the color of the icon bar, click the Edit menu, then
click Preferences.

 3. Select Desktop view on the left side of the Preferences window.

 4. Select the “My Preferences” tab, then click the empty box next to “Switch to colored
icons / light background on the Top Icon Bar.” You will see the icon bar change to a light
background and the icons will be different colors.
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 5. Towards the bottom of the window, you will see a section called
Company File Color Scheme. Click the drop-down arrow in the field and
choose a color for your company.

 6. After you choose a color, you will immediately see the color bar at the
top of each window will change to the color that you selected.

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LESSON SIX
Setup The Favorites Menu

The Favorites menu allows you to list up to 30 QuickBooks options that you use
most often. It is similar to the favorites menu that you use in your web browser.
Setting up the Favorites menu will allow you to work more efficiently because
the options that you use the most will be in one location. To add your most
frequently used tools to the Favorites menu, perform the steps below:

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 1. Do you see the Favorites menu located in the menu bar? (The menu bar is located
immediately above the icon bar). If it is not there, click the “View” menu, then click
“Favorites Menu.”

 2. Now you will see the Favorites menu located in the menu bar.

 3. Now we will add items to the Favorites menu. To do this, click the Favorites menu,
then click “Customize Favorites.”

 4. The “Customize Your Menus” dialog box will appear. This box will allow you to add
items to the Favorites menu. (Note the Add button that we will use in the next step).

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 5. For this example, I will select three items: Item List, Price
Level List and Sales Tax Code List. Click Add after you have
selected each item that you want to add to the Favorites menu.

 6. Now check your Favorites menu. Click Favorites, and you will
see the items that you just added to the menu.

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LESSON SEVEN
What is the Chart Of Accounts?

The Chart of Accounts is a list of all accounts a company uses to keep track of
business transactions. To familiarize yourself with how it works, think about your
personal transactions when you receive your paycheck from your place of
employment. When you receive your paycheck, you may want to keep track of
how your money is spent, and the best way to do that is to allocate those expenses
to various accounts. For example, when you pay your electric, gas and water bill,
those payments can be allocated to an account called “Utilities.”

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If you go to the movies, a concert or to the zoo, you can allocate those
expenses to “Entertainment.” The complete list of all the accounts is
called the Chart of Accounts. Also, not all transactions are expenses. A
transaction can be a bank deposit such as when you deposit your paycheck
into your bank account. The funds in your bank account are considered to
be an “Asset.”

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If the previous transactions had taken place at a business, account numbers would
be assigned to each individual account. To do this, the company would first develop
a numbering system to determine a range of numbers in which to place an account.
For example, expense accounts might range from 501 – 699, and the number
assigned to the utilities account could be 515, and 605 could be assigned to
the entertainment account. The account number assigned to each account is
determined by the accountant or management. That numbering system may look
similar to the chart below:

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After the number system is finalized,

each individual account is then
assigned an account number based on
the numbering system above. Please
review some examples below:

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…please note:

Setting up a numbering system and assigning account numbers must be completed

before a company can make a transaction. QuickBooks already has a default numbering
system in place so you do not have to concern yourself with creating one. When
you create a new company file, QuickBooks will recommend that certain accounts be
added to your chart of accounts, and those accounts will be given an account number
according to the default numbering system. If you add an account after the company file
has been created, you will have the ability to give each account an account number. It is
important to follow the default numbering system in QuickBooks so that your accounts
remain in the proper order.

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 LESSON EIGHT 32
Set Up The Chart Of Accounts in
QuickBooks
During the installation of QuickBooks Pro 2013,
QuickBooks recommended several accounts to be
listed in your chart of accounts. During that time, you
had the option of selecting or deselecting the
accounts that fit your business needs. When you
selected the accounts that fit your particular business,
QuickBooks automatically assigned account numbers
according to its default numbering system, and
that default numbering system is as follows:
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Some of the accounts that were selected during the initial installation were Auto and
Truck Expenses (Account Number 60,100), Interest Expense (Account Number
63,400), Members Equity (Account Number 32,000) and Payroll Liabilities (Account
Number 24,000). QuickBooks automatically assigned account numbers according to
its default numbering system. The picture below shows the chart of accounts and the
account numbers that were assigned when the company file was created.

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Now we will look at expanding the chart of accounts

by adding a new account. For beginners, the most
difficult part when creating a new account is
determining the account type. Will it be an asset,
liability, expense, revenue, etc.? You must be able
to determine the account type prior to creating the
account.

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 1. Before we begin, make sure that QuickBooks is set to display account

numbers. To do this, click the edit menu, then click preferences.

 2. In the preferences dialog box, select “Accounting” on the left side, then
select the “Company Preferences” tab, then click the box next to “Use Account
Numbers” and make sure that there is a checkmark in the box.

 3. From the QuickBooks home page, select “Chart of Accounts.”

 4. Click “Account” at the lower left corner, then select “New.”

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 5. Select the correct account type and for this example, we will choose an
expense account.

 6. Type the name of the account in the Account Name field. The name of the
account that we will create is Gasoline. After you type in the name, create an
account number. As stated previously, QuickBooks’ default numbering system
dictates that the expense account range is between 60,000 – 69,999. I will
choose account number 60,200. Type your account number in the Number field.
When complete, click the Save and Close button on the lower right hand corner.

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 LESSON NINE 37
Set Up The Chart Of Accounts in
QuickBooks
 1. Before we begin, make sure that QuickBooks is set to display account
numbers. To do this, click the edit menu, then click preferences.

 2. In the preferences dialog box, select “Accounting” on the left side, then
select the “Company Preferences” tab, then click the box next to “Use Account
Numbers” and make sure that there is a checkmark in the box.

 3. From the QuickBooks home page, select “Chart of Accounts.”

 4. Click “Account” at the lower left corner, then select “New.”

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 5. Select the correct account type and for this example, we will choose an expense account.

 6. Type the name of the account in the Account Name field. The name of the account that we
will create is Gasoline. After you type in the name, create an account number. As stated
previously, QuickBooks’ default numbering system dictates that the expense account range is
between 60,000 – 69,999. We will choose account number 60,200. Type your account
number in the Number field. When complete, click the Save and Close button on the lower
right hand corner.

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 Chapter Two 39
WORKING IN THE CUSTOMER
CENTER

Lesson Two
ADD A NEW CUSTOMER

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QuickBooks allows you to keep track of customers and the individual jobs
performed for a customer. When you create a new job for a customer, the job is
listed as a subcategory under the respective customer in the customer list.
QuickBooks allows you to add as many jobs as needed for a single customer.
Some businesses do not segregate each job performed for a customer. For
most product-based businesses, it is not imperative to create a new job for
each customer. However, if you are a service provider who will perform a
different task for your customers, it is important to track each job.

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There are several fields that must be addressed when creating a new
customer. The most important are name, address and payment terms fields.
The payment terms field is especially important because you must dictate
when you expect payment to be made towards an invoice. If you do not
indicate your terms, then your customers might not take the initiative to pay
you promptly. To enter in a single customer’s information, perform the
following steps:

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 1. Click the Customers icon on the icon bar, or you can open the customer center by
clicking Customers on the menu bar then click Customer Center.
 2. Click the “New Customer and Job” button. Select New Customer from the drop-down
menu.
 3. Click the “Address Info” tab on the left.
 4. We will fill in information for the highlighted fields only.
 5. You can copy the billing address to the Ship To field if you are shipping to the same
address.
 6. Now that we have entered in the necessary information, we will add a second shipping
address. To do this, click the “+” sign next to the Ship To field, or you can click the arrow in
the menu label directly above it.

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 7. Fill in the information for the highlighted fields. Make a note at the bottom if necessary.
You can also change the Ship To name if needed.

 8. After you have finished entering in a new shipping address, click OK.

 9. Click the Payment Settings tab. We will focus on the Payment Terms field. The Payment
Terms dictate when your company expects to receive payment. The default payment term
is “Net 30” and that means your company would like to be paid the net amount of the
invoice in 30 days from the invoice date. However, for this example, we will choose another
payment option. There are fields that can be used to enter and save a customer’s credit
card information if needed.
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 10. Click the arrow in the Payment Terms field and select 1% 10 Net 30. This
option means that if a customer pays within 10 days of the invoice date, you will
give them a 1% discount form the total amount of the invoice. For example,
assume an invoice total is $500 and the date on the invoice is 1/1/2015. If the
customer pays the invoice by 1/10/2015, they will receive a $5 discount, which
means that they will only have to pay $495 (.01 X $500 = $5). The Credit Limit
field can be used to limit the amount of money that you extend to a customer. If
you set the credit limit at $1,000, and the customer already has $900 in
outstanding invoices, QuickBooks will display a warning if the customer makes an
additional purchase of $101 or more. You will be able to sell to the customer if they
pass this threshold, but it is at your discretion. The Price Level field allows you to
set a specific discount for certain customers. We will revisit this field in a later
lesson.
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 11. The Sales Tax field is used to set a default tax rate for a particular customer. Some
customer may not have to pay state sales tax, but they have to pay local. This is
particularly common with universities. There are tax exempt companies that will not have
to pay sales tax at all. We will revisit this field in a later lesson.

 12. The Additional Info section is used to add a salesperson or Customer Type. Additionally,
you can add a Custom Field for anything related to the business. For example, you might
want to create a field called Delivery Company, and in this field you can enter in various
delivery companies such as UPS or FedEx. When you run a report using this field, you can
sort and arrange the data as needed.

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 13. The Job Info tab allows you to enter in various information regarding a
particular job for the customer. The information listed in these fields can be seen
in various reports by clicking on the Reports Menu > List > Customer Contact >
Customize Report, then select the fields that you want to be displayed in your
report.

 14. After you click OK, all of the customer’s information that you have entered will
be displayed in this screen above.

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LESSON TWO
Add Multiple Customers At Once

We will learn how to add multiple customers at once by using the Add /
Edit Multiple List entry window. You can also customize the columns by
removing or adding the labels that you need or don’t need, and you will
learn how to use the Copy Down feature which can help you save time
when entering multiple customers at once.

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 1. Click the customers icon on the QuickBooks homepage. You can also click
Customers on the menu bar, then click Customer Center.
 2. Click the New Customer and Job tab, then click Add Multiple Customers Job.
 3. Begin by customizing the columns. Click the Customize Columns button on the
right side of the page.
 4. The Customize Columns dialog box will appear and this is where you want to add
or delete columns. In this example, I am going to remove the Fax column only. So I
will select Fax, then click Remove. Once I am finished adding or removing columns,
click OK at the bottom of the dialog box.

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 5. I have finished entering all of the information for my customers,

however, I want one column to have the same word in it. That word will be
the “Duck” in the Last Name column. Since the word Duck is in the first
row, I will copy it in the rows below it by using the Copy Down feature. To
use this feature, select the information you want copied. Right click in the
column where that information is located and you will see a menu appear.
When the menu appears, select Copy Down. This will copy the information
down to the rows below it, but it will only copy down to the rows where
there is information already in it.

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 7. If you need to delete a line, select the line / row that you want
to delete, then click the edit menu. Select delete line and the row
you selected will be deleted.

 8. Click Save and Close at the bottom of the window to save your
changes.

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