Category Archives: Digging Deeper

Purpose of Accounts vs. Items in QuickBooks

When you are creating your Cost of Goods Sold accounts, consider using summary accounts, such as material, labor, and subcontract, and letting your Item List track more detail. For example, if you are a construction company and you have expenses … Continue reading

Properly Tracking Job Profitability in QuickBooks

If your vendor bill, vendor credit, or check is for a Customer:Job for which you created an estimate and you want to track using the Job Profitability reports, you need to enter your cost detail on the Items tab. You … Continue reading

How to Change Subaccount Types in QuickBooks

If you need to change the subaccount to another General Ledger account type, first deselect the “Subaccount of” check box. Click Save & Close to save the change. Then edit the account and change the type. You cannot change subaccount … Continue reading

How to Bring Back One Time Messages in QuickBooks

Users often disregard these one-time messages and select the “Do Not Display This Warning in the Future” check box. See example below. Click to enlarge: To enable these messages, click Edit > Preferences > General and select the Bring Back … Continue reading

How to Merge Items in QuickBooks

If you have duplicated items, one easy method for fixing the problem is to merge items of the same type. When merging two items, you first need to decide which item is going to be merged into the other item. … Continue reading

How to Show Discounts on Invoices in QuickBooks

Did you know that if you want your customer to see the discount you are providing them on the invoice, you should not use Price Levels? Instead, create your invoice as usual and then include your discount item type on … Continue reading

How to Change Your Fiscal Year in QuickBooks

You can easily change your Fiscal Year setting in QuickBooks by choosing Company, Company Information. Changing this month does not affect individual transactions, but does ensure that the reports that filter for fiscal year-to-date transactions are correct. From Laura Madeira’s … Continue reading

How to Download Credit Card Transactions in QuickBooks

Did you know that you can download credit card transactions directly into your QuickBooks data? To find out more, click: Banking > Online Banking > Participating Financial Institutions to see whether your credit card vendor participates. From Laura Madeira’s QuickBooks … Continue reading

How to Avoid Creating Duplicate Accounts in QuickBooks

In earlier versions of QuickBooks, you might have accounts that have an asterisk (*) in front of the name to indicate a duplicate account name. This situation usually only happens when you did not select to use one of the … Continue reading

How to Use Item Types in QuickBooks

QuickBooks has 11 item types to choose from (not including the Fixed Asset Item, Price Levels, or Billing Rates) although some of the list items might not be listed in your data file, if the related feature is not enabled. … Continue reading