Learning QuickBooks®
Beginner's Forum For Business Owners Working From Home

by L. Kenway BComm CPB Retired

What You'll Find In This Chat

Let's chat about good bookkeeping practices.

Hubdoc-QBO bank feed data integration
Optimize QBO workflow with a Chrome browser
PayPal data sync to QBO
Accounts Receivable
Recording Sales
Entering Online Business Income
Accounts Payable
Posting Expenses
Banking and Your Cash
Learning Shortcuts

Learning QuickBooks® to avoid beginner's mistakes ... gives you a hint about what this chat is all about ... tips on how to use QuickBooks® software correctly.

While I will chat about how to use QuickBooks®, please understand that this page is directed to work from home small business owners who do their own bookkeeping.

It is not intended to instruct the "power" users or advanced users of QuickBooks® ... there are a lot of sites out there that cover that material better than I ever could.

So pour some tea into your favorite teacup and let's get started.

QuickBooks setup for transitioning to new sales tax on April 1, 2013.

QBO Canada Customizing Your Sales Tax Codes

Let me walk you through how to setup some customized sales tax codes that will make your data entry easier when learning QuickBooks® Online Canada.

Learn how to setup the meal split code in QBO Canada and how to setup a self-assessing PST code.

These two videos can assist you in preconfiguring your sales tax setup in the QuickBook Canada desktop (not online) version:

B.C. video to switch from HST to GST + PST.

P.E.I. video to switch from GST + PST to HST.

We are not going to be shooting the breeze about QuickBooks® POS software ... or a whole lot about advanced inventory ...

... just useful QuickBooks® tips, tricks and traps that will hopefully make your bookkeeping time more efficient ... and enjoyable ... so you have accurate financial information to make smart business decisions.

You'll find a spot to ask your QuickBooks® questions at the end of this page.

Learn QuickBooks so you can avoid beginner's mistakes.

good bookkeeping practice
THE BOOKKEEPER'S|TIP

Do You Have The Latest Version?

Do you have the latest version of QuickBooks 2012 or 2013? Are you using a version from 2011 or earlier? Are you aware of Intuit's sunset clause?

The 2014 version is now out. I don't switch until I know they have release 3 or higher is out. I think R1 and R2 are for those people that love the beta experience.

To check your version, press F2 (or Control + 1) and the Product Information window will open.

You can have these maintenance updates happen automatically by ensuring the Automatic Update feature is turned on.

QuickBooks Canada (and the U.S. too) only supports the last three versions of QuickBooks. This means QuickBooks 2011 will no longer be supported as of May 31, 2014. This means you will not be able to obtain technical support or business services (such as payroll or downloading your bank transactions) relating to the 2011 version after this date.

If you are learning QuickBooks® with a 2011 version, now may be the time to upgrade.

The 2014 version now lets you attach a document to a record, is supposed to automatically handle bounced cheques, have easier tracking of all income, and some improvements to the payroll center.

Learning QuickBooks® ... The Tips

I want to start by saying that you need to be kind and patient with yourself as you are learning QuickBooks®. The program was designed for small business owners and is user friendly ... but there are a few things that have to be done a certain way.

Here are links to a few tips on QuickBooks® procedures that you should learn to ease your learning curve and make your bookkeeping go smoothly:

Vendors - Accounts Payable - Expenses

When to use Pay Bills vs Write Cheques

✔ Pay Bills is used if the bill you are paying is sitting in Accounts Payable
✔ Write Cheques/Expense is used if the bill you are paying was NEVER entered into AP
How to adjust GST ITCs for meals and entertainment

✔ CRA only allows you to claim 50% of your input tax credits for meals

Customers - Accounts Receivable - Sales

When to use Invoice vs Sales Receipt

✔ Invoice is used if YOU are extending credit to your customer. It places the amount in Accounts Receivable.
✔ Sales Receipt is used if the customer is paying you with cash, debit card or credit card at the time of the sale. The amount does not get posted to AR. If a credit card is used, the AR is the credit card company's problem, not yours.
When to use Receive Payments vs Make Deposits

✔ Receive Payments is used if the invoice being paid is sitting in Accounts Receivable
✔ Make Deposits is used if an invoice was NEVER issued and entered into AR
The Bookkeeper's Alert on customer payments and Make Deposits
How to enter customer prepayments/deposits in QuickBooks
How to record net online sales revenue (less any service fees) directly deposited to your account

THE BOOKKEEPER'S TIP

How To Record Online Business Income

NEVER use Make Deposits in QuickBooks to record online business income. Interest income ... okay. Earned business income ... not okay. Why?

An important concept when learning QuickBooks is to remember it has modules ... one for customers, one for suppliers, one for employees.

You need to use the correct module to enter your data if you want it to report properly. Otherwise garbage in, garbage out as they say.

In the case of online business income such as affiliate fees, eBook sales and webinar sales, you must enter it into the customer module if you want your sales tax reports to federal, provincial, state and/or territorial governments to report correctly.

Most affiliate income earned online is not paid out immediately. If you use the accrual basis of accounting, you should be creating a bill at the end of each month for the amount you have earned. When the money is deposited to your account anywhere from 10 days to 6 months later, use Receive Payment to record the receipt of cash.

If the amounts you are earning are immaterial, for example you receive a $50 payment about every 6-12 months, it would be acceptable to not setup Accounts Receivable each month and just create a Sales Receipt when the money is deposited to your account or you receive the cheque/check in the mail.

Other information on doing business online:

H E L P ! My A/R ledger is out of balance!!!!

When learning QuickBooks, sometimes you goof. (GASP) If your Accounts Receivable ledger balance does not equal your Accounts Receivable subsidiary ledger balance, then you know you've goofed somewhere in your process. Check:

Your Open Invoice report to ensure payments were applied to invoices. If they haven't, they will show up in the Open Invoice report.
Your Open Balance report if your Undeposited Funds account is growing or you can't find customer payments. Look to see if any deposits were made directly through Make Deposits or even the banking register bypassing the Accounts Receivable subsidiary ledger.

good bookkeeping practice
THE BOOKKEEPER'S|TIP

Naming Convention For AR and AP

When you have a business or person that is both a customer and supplier, use this naming convention:

Joe's Plumbing - c ... for the customer (c) name and Joe's Plumbing - v for the vendor (v) / supplier name.

No more guessing the name, initials, abbreviations!

Banking - Cash

A good way to record cash taken when it is not deposited in the bank
How to reimburse the owner for expenses paid with personal funds
How to handle stale dated cheques in QuickBooks
How QuickBooks undeposited funds account works
How to deposit loan proceeds received in QuickBooks
How to handle NSF (bounced) cheques
How to handle a refund to a debit card In QuickBooks desktop and online

Company - Period End Closing
Government Compliance

When to delete vs void a transaction
How to write-off a bad debt
The best way to make adjusting entries in QuickBooks
How to file GST/HST in QuickBooks® using the Quick Method
There is a way to enter a CRA Hiring Credit through your QB Desktop Pay Payroll Liabilities window. Contact me if you need this method for backwork.

What trouble are you having learning QuickBooks®?

Learning QuickBooks® ... The Shortcuts

The QuickBooks® accounting system has keyboard shortcuts to make data entry more efficient. There are six different types or categories of shortcut keys:

General
Dates - my favorite category so I talk about it below
Editing
Help window
Activity - I give you a few of my favorites below
Moving around in a window

If you key in "keyboard shortcuts" to the QuickBooks® help menu, the above categories will come up. Click on the one you are interested in. Take the time when learning QuickBooks to memorize the shortcuts ... it will save you time.

My favorite shortcut keys are the dates. It is really quick and easy to enter dates using these shortcuts. They work in the desktop version AND online version.

The + or - key can be used to increase or decrease the date by one day to the next day or the previous day. Please note the - does not work in QuickBooks Online Canada at the time of this writing.

Typing T in the date field will give you Today's date.

W gives you the first day of the Week
- K gives you the last day of the Week.
M gives you the first day of the Month
- H gives you the last day of the Month.
Y gives you the first day of the Year
- R gives you the last day of the Year.
If you want the date calendar to pop open, your shortcut key is Alt + down arrow.

As you can see, the keys are easy to remember because they are tied to what you want to accomplish and they are not case sensitive ... one of the reasons these are my favorite keys ... I can actually remember with no effort. That is great accounting system design.

A few activity shortcut keys that are very useful ... but only in the desktop version.

Ctrl + G ... transfers you to the line/entry of the account register directly from the entry you are in ... a real time saver when working on the bank reconciliation and one of my all time favorites!

Ctrl + M ... is one I use frequently to memorize a recurring transaction or report.

Ctrl + T ... takes you to your memorized transaction list.

Ctrl + Y ... opens up the transaction journal so you can see the entry in debits and credits ... bookkeepers like this one. :0) It's especially useful when using the forms to see the other side of the entry.

In the QuickBooks® online version, look for "More" in the module you are in ... usually near the bottom right menu bar. You will see "transaction journal" in the popup menu. See the image on the right hand side below.

Ctrl + I ... quickly opens a customer invoice.

Ctrl + A ... brings up your COA but I prefer use my icon bar to get to my COA.

F2 let's you see the number of vendors, employees, and customers ... and the version you are using along with what updates have been installed.

F1 gets you to the contextual Help menu ... which helps to let you exhale while you are learning QuickBooks®! :0)

In QuickBooks® Online Canada you do have some keyboard shortcut keys ... just less of them. You can view your options by pressing your Control+Alt keys simultaneously. I suggest you take a snapshot of the table and keep it open on your desktop while you are learning your options.

What are your favorite shortcut keys in QuickBooks®?

Learning QuickBooks® ... The Reporting

Follow these links for customized QuickBooks® reports and other useful information to assist the management of some of your balance sheet accounts.

if you are an HST/GST registrant
(GST collected vs GST paid [ITC])
if you are NOT an HST/GST registrant

Do you have a customized QuickBooks® report that has made your job easier?

The Forum

Ask A Learning QuickBooks® Question Here

Are you learning how to use QuickBooks®? Maybe this forum can help you out ... it is strictly for beginner's ... no advanced stuff here.

Ask your beginner QuickBooks® questions here ... I promise the answer won't be to go talk to a professional.

Hopefully others who know QuickBooks® will join in too ... offering to share their expertise.

Contributions to this site are moderated. They may be edited for grammar, spelling, and presentation. (I may even change your title if I think it will help the search engines find your page.)

Your contribution will appear below once it has been approved.

Enter Your Title ... It should give readers a hint of the subject

Tip - Keep it short ... 3 or 4 words is best

Click here to see the rest of the form and complete your submission.

Learning QuickBooks® Questions & Answers
Visitors Have Already Asked ...

Click below to see the contributions that have been made already. Enter the discussions. There is usually more than one right answer or more than one way to do something ... so tell us what you think!

You can help make Learning QuickBooks® better by adding your comments and ratings to one or more contributions.

How to record a double GST payment? First thing is to breathe.

How To Record A Double GST Payment?
I pay my GST annually once a year. I went to the bank and did so through the teller on October 15th for $500.00. On November 30th, the bank pulls …

How to record interest earned on loan to subcontractor
Publisher: This post was corrected January 2018. The original entries presented were incorrect. See the comments sections. Hi, I need to record …

Do I need to start a new set of books once I incorporate my sole proprietorship?

New Company - New Books
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Sales Tax on Paid Parking Tickets
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Daily Sales Summary
Our company has a website selling a high end product. As the company bookkeeper I enter each sale into our accounting software as a receivable. Once …

What the heck!<br>Why don't these QuickBooks records match the financial statements?

Fixing a QuickBooks Mess
How do I correctly fix a badly managed set of QuickBooks that hasn't been properly managed since 2010. Specifically, how do I get the QuickBooks records/data …

How To Track Customer Deposits
I need a program that will let me track cash deposits made in advance of purchase even when no final amount has been determined. There is no time limit …

Year-end Trial Balance Report
Our company year-end date is Nov 19th. I did not enter a Closing Date in the Accounting Preferences. However, in Company Information, I had to enter a …

How Do I Enter A GST/HST Late Filing into QuickBooks®?

Entering GST/HST Late Filing in QuickBooks®
Due to circumstance,s the company I just started working for was unable to file a complete GST/HST report last quarter. Their bookkeeping was several …

How to Fix Entries Already Reconciled
How do you adjust year end entries if they already have been reconciled. Example: I did a journal entry for an asset under misc withdrawls, for the …

Sales Receipt Requirements
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HST From Purchases
Hello, I have a question regarding entering the HST paid from purchases into QuickBooks software. The corporation is registered for the GST/HST (although …

Recording PayPal Fees
How to deal with payment processor skimming? I'm at a non-profit organization. If somebody donates, say, $10 through PayPal I have to issue a $10 …

How to Recover Lost Data in QuickBooks
I might have deleted some entries that change the numbers in the balance sheet. How could I use the backup file to get the previous numbers without …

This is the message you ignored when making your bank deposit for the customer payment received.

QuickBooks Receive Payment
Adjusting Accounts Receivable For Deposited But "Unreceived" Payments. BEST Solution ... Follow The QuickBooks Process. Hi, I have a bad habit …

Use Write Cheques to Enter Your Petty Cash Vouchers

Petty Cash
Petty cash has been set up. Let's say I paid Cindy (employee) $10.50 (includes GST only) from Petty Cash for Parking Expense. In QuickBooks, …

Cannot File Prior Period GST/HST Tax Return

Sales Tax Return Already Filed
I am using my newly purchased QB and filed my current quarterly Sales Tax Return. Now I am entering data retrospectively for the last fiscal year. …

QuickBooks Bank Reconciliation
Bank Reconciliation-has not been performed in two years Hello, I started assisting a small business with their bookkeeping records. Apparently …

Refund of HST
Good Day! First of all, thank you for your great website! You answered lots of questions already, but I still have a few... We import goods from …

Accountants Copy
Accountants Copy of over 200mb books ... and mysterious password When the books are too large, instead of being able to email, the Accountants Copy …

Personal Expense on Business Account
I failed to follow one of the basic guidelines you mention on the web site. I charged personal items to the company credit card and paid the credit card …

Entering Invoices from a Supplier
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Loan Proceeds Not Deposited To Bank
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Oops, I didn't file the prior sales tax return in QuickBooks.

Reverse Sales Tax Filing in QuickBooks
Good Morning Laura, Just a quick question: Do you know if you can reverse GST filing in QuickBooks desktop?? I have a situation where I filed the …

Click here to write your own.

QuickBooks Conversion
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Vendor Prepayments
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Payroll Liability Refund
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Foreign Exchange Transactions
Income lost to foreign exchange rate changes. I have received a cheque for payment in US dollars. The (exchange) rate has changed and I am losing …

Make Deposit window found in the Banking drop down menu

Interest Received in a Deposit
How do you show interest received in a deposit using QuickBooks? I'm not sure exactly what you are asking ... so I'll answer in two parts. …

Customer Deposits
What account should I use for deposits (received) in advance from clients? I am using QuickBooks. I need to know where I should deposit the payment …

Cost of Goods Sold
In a Resale Printing Corporation
How can I use this account in my business if I do resale of the printing jobs like ... ... business cards, flyers and more? Is it right to use Cost …

QuickBooks®
Recording a Direct Deposit
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Self Assessing PST
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Entries for Graphic Artist Business
My partner is a graphic arist. He produces work (brochures, for example), and has them printed at a local printer company, then they invoice him and he …

Setting up QuickBooks
Setting up previous year balances for accounts when starting in Quickbooks I started using Quickbooks Pro 2010 at the beginning of the year and …

Accounts Receivable Clean Up
An accounts receivable has been sitting now for 1 year. I want to write it off as a bad debt. How do I get it out of the accounts receivable and put …

Reconciliation Issues with ...
General Journal
I did not reconcile my accounts before filing my sales tax (didn't think to do this, now I know). I've now reconciled my accounts and found numerous …

Reimbursed Expenses
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Payment of Owner's Expenses
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QuickBooks Version
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QuickBooks Online FX Transactions and Conversion
I am really at lost regarding the booking my foreign exchange transactions & conversions, and need your help! Here is my situation: Our books are in …

Transferring Inventory Count To QuickBooks

Inventory Entries for Restaurant
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Downloading QBO Attachments in a Batch Not rated yet
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Credit Card Bank Account Not rated yet
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QuickBooks Online vs. QuickBooks Desktop Hosted by a Cloud Server

QuickBooks Online Vs. Desktop Not rated yet
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Inventory Assembly Not rated yet
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Are painting supplies cost of goods sold or operating expenses?

COGS Help Not rated yet
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How To Enter Credit Card Charges to QuickBooks

Credit Card Data Entry Not rated yet
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Lease - School Assignment Not rated yet
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How do you input a Canada Border Services Agency invoice?

Click here to write your own.

Recording CBSA Assessed GST as ITC? Not rated yet
Hi, I'm having trouble figuring how to record GST assessed by CBSA (Canada Border Services Agency) on goods imported. We purchased the items as supplies …

Recording Pension Income Not rated yet
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QST set up Not rated yet
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Missing Sales Tax Codes Not rated yet
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GST Mapping Changes Not rated yet
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Manually Adjusting an Already Filed GST/HST Report

HST Credit Not rated yet
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How To Record Shipping and Delivery Costs

Trucking Fees From Vendors Not rated yet
When we receive an invoice (and goods) from our vendor(s), we are charged trucking, which I have set up under "Other" in Expenses. However, we also …

Memorized Transactions Not rated yet
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How do you record an artist's painting available for sale?

Cost of Goods Sold Not rated yet
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Wrong account entries Not rated yet
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QuickBooks File Set up Not rated yet
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Quickbooks Clean Up Not rated yet
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Posting Year-End Adjusting Entries in QuickBooks

Adjusting Journal Entries With HST Not rated yet
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Cost of Goods Credit Cards Not rated yet
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QuickBooks Journal Entry Rules Not rated yet
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Items Multiple Unit of Measure Not rated yet
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Prepayment to Foreign Vendor Not rated yet
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Booking Meals & Entertainment Expenses Not rated yet
Hi There, I am using QB and was wondering how I should book the meals and entertainment expenses given that they only have a 50% eligibility. Do …

Printing Customer List With Balances Not rated yet
I can't print Transactions:Invoices:and only a portion of the list. Hello Nancy, I'm not sure where you are at ... but when I want to print …

Paying Bills in QuickBooks® Not rated yet
Hey there! I am using QuickBooks® to do the bookkeeping for a company with many bank accounts. I understand how to enter in vender bills to the …

Click here to write your own.

That's it for today. I hoped you enjoyed this introduction to learning QuickBooks® and found the information useful, practical ... and not too overwhelming.