After another long hiatus, I’m back!  I got lots of questions emailed to me since my last show and I answer some of them on this new episode.  I also make 2 big announcements but you’ll just have to listen to find out what they are!

Topics discussed include QuickBooks purchase orders, the accountant’s copy (which continues to be a very popular topic), using classes to segment your reporting and using MICR software with QuickBooks.

Lots of new things are happening here and if you’re not already on the email list now would be a great time to sign up!  Don’t miss out on the latest developments as the show continues to evolve and big changes are made.  You can sign up right on the home page.

If you have any questions that you would like answered on the show please call our new voicemail line at 781-990-8827.

This post was written by Michael Debyah.

One of the most misunderstand areas of QuickBooks is the mysterious “Undeposited Funds” account.  This really confuses a lot of people and in this episode I try to explain how it works and why it is useful.  In order to understand it, you have to think about the process of events that take place throughout the sales cycle.  First you create an invoice, then you receive payment from your customer, then you make a deposit into the bank account.  Once you analyze what happens in each of these steps, you should have a better understanding of how the Undeposited Funds account works in QuickBooks.

Was this lesson helpful to you? Please let me know in the comments section down below!

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This post was written by Michael Debyah.

After the last 2 episodes you should have a good idea of how to create invoices to your customers.  The next step is to get paid!  The “Receive Payments” procedure in QuickBooks is pretty straightforward but there are several different possibilities to think about.  The customer can either pay the exact amount that they owe, they can give you an overpayment or an underpayment.  I briefly demonstrate each of these scenarios so you can see what happens with each one.  As always, please leave any questions about this episode in the comments section below.

I also mention my new email newsletter signup that is available on the home page.  As a “thank you” for signing up you will get an e-book that I put together called the “Accounting Primer:  All the Accounting You Need To Know”.

This post was written by Michael Debyah.

I continue the discussion about using QuickBooks items on invoices, bills and checks.  I use a brand new company file with no other transactions to demonstrate the accounting that goes on behind the scenes when using different items.  The discussion veers into inventory territory for a while, but that is all related to items anyway.

Do you have a specific item related question?  Let me know in the comments section for this episode!

This post was written by Michael Debyah.

Carrying on with our discussion of customer-related activities in QuickBooks, this week we look at creating invoices.  You can’t really talk about invoices without also talking about items and how they work, so this lesson combines the two.  There is more info than will fit into one 20-minute lesson, so next week we will continue with items and invoices in more detail.

This post was written by Michael Debyah.

After a long hiatus…I’m back!  Since we’ve covered several vendor-related activities in QuickBooks, I wanted to move on to dealing with customers.  The logical place to start is with the customer center so that’s the focus of this lesson.  If you watched episode 3 “The Vendor Center” you will notice that the customer center is very similar to the vendor center.  If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments section.

This post was written by Michael Debyah.

I got a couple of email questions about using credit cards so I thought that would be a good topic for this week.  It’s very similar to the process of entering bills and the credit card account can be thought of as another accounts payable account.  You enter all of your credit card transactions and can then reconcile your QuickBooks against the credit card statement to make sure you haven’t missed anything.

This post was written by Michael Debyah.

As I mentioned last week, the Accountant’s Copy feature of QuickBooks is very useful and is very different than a regular backup.  It allows you to keep working in your QuickBooks data file while your accountant has a copy to work on also.  Then your accountant can export the changes they have made and you can merge those changes back into your data file.  This is the first recording since installing Windows 7 and I think my microphone level was a little too high so I apologize if the audio is a little off.

If you have any questions about this episode please leave them in the comments section below the video.  Thanks!

This post was written by Michael Debyah.

In this episode I walk through the process of backing up and restoring your QuickBooks data.  I also take a look at the Portable Company File which is similar to a backup.  You should take great care in developing a good backup strategy for your QuickBooks file.  The built-in backup and restore functions are pretty good and well thought out, but it tends to scare people because there is a lot of information and instruction included along the way.  Hopefully by watching this I can help those people that are unsure of how to make a backup because it is so important to have a backup so that you don’t lose all of your data to a computer catastrophe.  I mention the Intuit QuickBooks Online Backup Service too, but I have never used it.  If you have any experience with it, please let me know in the comments section on the website.

This post was written by Michael Debyah.

I got 2 questions this past week both asking about the same issue – how to account for expenses that get paid by the owner out of his/her own pocket.  It’s fairly common for a small business to not have a lot of money in the bank during the start up phase and the owner tends to pay for business expenses on their personal credit cards.   You want to make sure that you get these expenses recorded on the company books and show that the company owes the money back to the owner.  I go over how to record this in QuickBooks and how to record the check when the company finally pays that money back.

This post was written by Michael Debyah.

Join me as I explore one of the most intriguing new features of QuickBooks 2010, a built-in document management system.  This new feature allows you to scan a document (a bill from a vendor for example) and attach it to a transaction in QuickBooks (the bill as entered into the program).  It then allows you to pull up that original source document that was scanned in directly from the transaction screen.  It’s a great idea, but did Intuit get the implementation right?  Watch the video and then let me know what you think of this new feature.

This post was written by Michael Debyah.

You can get a credit from a vendor for a number of reasons.  The most common is probably for returning merchandise, but it may also be for a rebate or pricing error on the original bill.  No matter what the reason for the credit is, you should always make sure you use those credits and apply them against bills from that vendor.  Applying credits from vendors is one of those things in QuickBooks that confuses a lot of people.  Even thought it’s a pretty simple process, they way the program is designed and laid out makes it a little difficult to figure out on your own.

How many of you have had a problem in this area?  Tell me your story in the comments below the video!

This post was written by Michael Debyah.

Last week I showed you how to enter bills into QuickBooks, which adds to your accounts payable balance.  This week I cover how to pay bills in QuickBooks, which will decrease the A/P balance.  It’s actually a pretty easy process, but applying discounts and credits can be a little tricky sometimes.

This post was written by Michael Debyah.

In this episode I go over how to enter bills from vendors into QuickBooks. It doesn’t matter if you keep your books on the cash or accrual method of accounting, you can still use QuickBooks to manage, track and pay those bills.

This post was written by Michael Debyah.

Continuing our tour of the functional areas of QuickBooks takes us to the vendor center.  As the name implies, this is where you will find information about your vendors.  Here is where Quickbooks stores your vendor’s contact information as well as other set-up information about each vendor.  This is also where you will go to view historical transactions with vendors such as bills, checks and purchase orders.

This post was written by Michael Debyah.

In this episode I show you all about the Chart of Accounts in QuickBooks.  If you’re new to QuickBooks this is a good introduction to using lists.  Lists pretty much all work the same way so once you learn how to use one you can apply that knowledge to all the other lists.

Feel free to leave a comment below the video or send me a message by using either the ‘Contact Me’ page or the ‘Submit A Question’ page.

This post was written by Michael Debyah.

Finally – the first episode of my new podcast!  It’s been a long time coming with several false starts, but I’m now on my way to delivering a new episode each and every week.  I encourage you to subscribe via iTunes (or your favorite non-iTunes podcast player).  If you have any questions at all please either leave them in the comments section at the bottom of this page or use the ‘Contact Me’ page to send me a private message.

If you want to send me a specific question or problem that you’ve been having with QuickBooks for use in a future episode, please use the ‘Submit A Question’ page.

This post was written by Michael Debyah.