Top 5 QuickBooks Questions

1. Ever wonder why after very nicely downloading transactions from your bank account or Credit Card Company the balances never seem right? Of course there are uncleared items in your register; but sometimes the download gets confused about where it left off the last time you downloaded. This can cause duplicate transactions. Review your registers and see if you have duplicates (hint: check the register around the last download date) and just delete them.

2. Why does my sales tax have such a large balance even though I pay it right on time? You probably did not use the "manage sales tax" button on the home page; then select pay sales tax (Hint: make sure you edit the dates for the period end you are paying).

3. Can I add my logo or customize my invoices/estimates/sales orders? Yes you can. In QuickBooks 2012 and prior open an invoice and in the upper right hand corner select the "customize" button. In 2013 go to the menu bar and select formatting; from here you can copy a template, edit the current one or import already created templates. You can have multiple templates for various uses. To add your logo, in the customize window, select the basic customization button at the bottom of the screen. Not enough customization? Go to Layout Designer; here you can add text boxes, move things around, etc. Just remember that whenever you use this template every invoice/estimate/sales order will have the customizations.

4. What is the undeposited funds account? QuickBooks is designed to mirror real life. You probably don't deposit checks one at a time. You probably go to the bank with multiple checks. When your bank statement comes you don't see the detail of the deposit, you only see the deposit total. It can be difficult to reconcile if you have individual checks in your register. What to do? When you receive in payments from customers in the receive payment window the money should be going to undeposited funds. When you finally do get to the bank go to "make deposits" and the list of undeposited funds will come up; from here select the checks you are depositing, select OK and there is your total deposit.

5. How do I customize the homepage? Select edit/preferences/desktop view/company preferences; from here you can select functionality to turn on or off. Hint: you can also customize the icon bar by right clicking the bar and selecting "customizing the icon bar" Here you can add/remove/move around, etc.