QuickBooks Desktop Pro 2024 for Lawyers Training Tutorial

QuickBooks Desktop Pro displays the “Home” window when you open a company file. The Home window contains the “Home Page” and “Insights” tabs in the upper-left corner of the page. You can switch between them by clicking the tabs. This shows the different content on each tab within the “Home” window. The Home window appears by default whenever you open a new company file. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

In QuickBooks you have access to four main “Centers” called the “Customer Center,” the “Vendor Center,” the “Employee/Payroll Center,” and the “Report Center.” These centers let you perform tasks related to the topic of the center. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

QuickBooks contains a Menu Bar at the top of the application window that lets you access all its commands and features. To perform a command, click a Menu Bar command category, like “File,” “Edit,” or “Lists,” to display a drop-down menu of sub-commands for the command category. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

In QuickBooks, you enter information and perform tasks in many different windows. Unless you close the windows after using them, they remain open for ease of access. You can view a listing of the opened windows in QuickBooks to quickly switch between opened windows. This listing is called the “Open Windows” list. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

Another tool that helps you complete the most common tasks in QuickBooks is the Icon Bar. The Icon Bar is located at the left side of the QuickBooks window by default. However, you can also place it at the top of the window, if you prefer. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

You can customize the Icon Bar by adding and removing buttons. To do this, select “View| Customize Icon Bar…” from the Menu Bar to open the “Customize Icon Bar” window. All your current button choices are shown in the left window pane. To add a new button, click the “Add…” button at the right side of this window to open the “Add Icon Bar Item” window. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

Although you do not have to be fluent in accounting terminology to understand QuickBooks, it is necessary to have a basic understanding of some accounting concepts prior to entering information into the program. The first concept to discuss is the “Chart of Accounts.” A chart of accounts is a listing of all the accounts used within your company file. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

Once you begin your business, you need to decide which bookkeeping method to use- “Cash” or “Accrual.” This will determine the method used to report income and expenses on your tax forms. Please check with your accountant, tax advisor, or the IRS, before choosing a bookkeeping method for tax purposes. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

You also need to know how to measure your company’s profitability. Two very important reports that assist you in figuring this out are the Balance Sheet and the Profit and Loss Statement (also called an Income Statement). These are most often the reports that will be requested by banks and CPAs. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

The Express Start feature lets you quickly create a new company file. This feature simplifies and segments the steps in the EasyStep Interview into shorter sections, so you can start using QuickBooks right away. When you first open QuickBooks, the option to create a company file using the Express Start feature is shown in the “QuickBooks Desktop Setup” screen. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

In QuickBooks, you can also use the EasyStep Interview to create a company file. You complete the EasyStep Interview by entering information into different screens shown in the Interview. After entering information into a screen, click the “Next >” button to proceed to the next screen and repeat the process. After answering all questions in all the screens, click the “Go To Setup” button to start using QuickBooks. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

You can leave the EasyStep Interview at any point after you have saved the company file by clicking the “Leave…” button in the lower-left corner of the EasyStep Interview. When you return at a later point to continue filling out the EasyStep Interview (which can be a lengthy process), just opening the company file will automatically return you to the point at which you left off in the EasyStep Interview. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

You should always backup your data to prevent data loss. You must be in single-user mode to do this. QuickBooks recommends you backup your files daily. That way, if the data in your company file becomes corrupted or lost, you can restore a copy of the file from a backup. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

If you corrupt your company’s data file and need to restore the data from a local backup copy, you can- as long as you created local backup copies. You must be in single-user mode to do this. In addition, QuickBooks Desktop Pro requires you to enter or create a password for the “Administrator” user before you can finish restoring a company file that contains sensitive data, such as credit card numbers, social security numbers, or FEIN information, for example. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

QuickBooks lets you create user accounts and passwords for the individuals that will access your company file. You can decide which types of activities users can perform and what areas of the application they can access. You can set up users by selecting “Company| Set Up Users and Passwords| Set Up Users…” from the Menu Bar. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

Some activities, like creating a backup file or restoring a company file, require that you open QuickBooks in single-user mode. You must make sure all other users of the application are logged off before you switch user modes. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

To close your company file, select “File| Close Company” from the Menu Bar. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

To open a company file in QuickBooks, you can select “File| Open or Restore Company…” from the Menu Bar. Alternately, if the “No Company Open” dialog box is showing onscreen, you can click the “Open or restore an existing company” button to launch the same dialog box. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

In QuickBooks, you store much of the information for your company file in lists. In QuickBooks you keep lists for all your vendors, customers, inventory items, and accounts. They are there so you will not need to retype information you use frequently every time you want to place it into a form. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

One of the most important lists in QuickBooks is the chart of accounts. To open this list, select “Lists| Chart of Accounts” from the Menu Bar. The chart of accounts lists all the accounts in your company file. These accounts track all incoming and outgoing money and tell you how much you currently own and owe. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

You can perform all activities associated with your customers through the Customer Center. While there are many features available in the Customer Center, one of the most important parts of it is the “Customers & Jobs” list. This list is where you can add, edit, and display all of your customer’s information as well as information for any jobs that you create for each customer, if you use the “Jobs” features in QuickBooks. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

If you are using QuickBooks to handle payroll and indicated that you have employees during the EasyStep Interview, you can later setup payroll for your company file and then enter employees into the Employees tab in the Employee Center. The Employee Center allows you to handle all transactions that involve your employees and payroll. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

You keep information about the companies and people from whom you purchase goods or services in the Vendors tab within the Vendor Center. In QuickBooks, you keep parts supply vendors, utility companies, subcontractors and more within this list. The list of vendors tends to be one of the larger lists you maintain. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

You can add your own customized fields to the “Customers & Jobs,” “Vendors,” “Employees,” and “Item” lists in QuickBooks. This allows you to create fields that will appear for each record in a list and lets you track information specific to your business. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

You can sort information in QuickBooks lists manually or automatically. To manually sort items within a list, click and drag the small diamond at the left side of any list entry and drop it into a new location within the list. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

In QuickBooks lists, you can only delete list items if you have not used them in any transactions. If you try to delete a list item that has been used in a transaction, QuickBooks will warn you that the item cannot be deleted. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

To print a list, open the list to print and click the button in the lower-left corner of the list. From the pop-up menu that appears, select “Print List.” Learn about this and more during this lecture.

Although there is no specific “Rename” command within the QuickBooks lists, to rename a list item you simply open the “Edit [list item]” window for the selected item from the desired list. Then type a new name for the entry into the “Name” field at the very top of the window, and the entry will adopt the new name after you click the “OK” or “Save & Close” buttons to save your changes. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

A feature that can improve the speed of company file creation is the ability to copy and paste data into lists within QuickBooks from Microsoft Excel. You can copy and paste data from an Excel worksheet into the “Customers,” “Vendors,” “Service Items,” “Inventory Part,” and “Non-inventory Part” lists. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

Customer groups in QuickBooks Desktop Pro 2022 and later let you group customers together by shared attributes. These shared customer attributes could be things like location or customer type, for example. After creating the customer groups, you can then perform related tasks for only the customers in the customer group. These tasks include sending email, statements, and payment reminders, for example. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

Collecting and paying sales tax can be complicated for some companies. For example, a company may have to collect and pay more than one sales tax. Many companies have a mix of taxable and non-taxable products and services to sell, and many also have some customers that are taxable while other customers are not. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

The first thing to do when setting up QuickBooks to collect sales tax is create the agencies for whom you collect sales taxes, and to whom you pay the sales taxes collected, as vendors within the Vendors List. This allows you to remit checks for the sales taxes collected to the selected vendors within QuickBooks when the time comes for you to pay sales tax. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

After creating the vendor records to indicate the agencies for whom you are collecting sales taxes, you then create the actual sales tax rates within the QuickBooks Item List. You can open the Item List by selecting “Lists| Item List” from the Menu Bar. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

If you have to collect a combination of sales taxes that you report separately, like a county sales tax and a city sales tax, you don’t want to possibly confuse customers by itemizing the individual sales taxes you collect as separate line items within your sales forms. Many customers may mistakenly assume they are being taxed twice. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

You should inspect your sales tax preferences within QuickBooks before you begin collecting sales taxes through your sales forms, in case you need to modify any of the default settings. To do this, select “Edit| Preferences…” from the Menu Bar to open the “Preferences” dialog box. In the scroll box at the left side of this screen, click the “Sales Tax” icon and then click the “Company Preferences” tab that appears to the right to set your company defaults for sales tax. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

To collect sales taxes in QuickBooks, you must indicate who and what gets taxed within your company file. So, in the Customer:Job list, enter which customers are taxable and non-taxable on the “Sales Tax Settings” tab within the “New Customer” or “Edit Customer” windows. On this tab, select the default tax code for the customer from the “Tax Code” drop-down by choosing either “Tax” for taxable customers or “Non” for non-taxable customers. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

For many companies, inventory is enabled if you create your company file using the “EasyStep Interview.” However, if you did not enable inventory when you created your company file, you can enable it at a later point in time. You can enable inventory within your company file and view the default inventory preferences, by selecting “Edit| Preferences…” from the Menu Bar. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

You can set up “Inventory Part” items within the Item List to create items for which you want to track the quantity and value in QuickBooks. You cannot show inventory value for a manufacturing company, or where the inventory value is changed as it goes through a process, as it is simply too complex for QuickBooks to compute. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

After entering inventory parts into the Item list, you need to order the items to keep your inventory parts stocked. While QuickBooks doesn’t require you to use purchase orders, it is recommended. If you use purchase orders, you can see what items you have ordered and when they are due to be received. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

After creating and submitting a purchase order to a vendor, you will either receive the inventory parts you ordered along with a bill for those parts, or you will receive the inventory ordered while the bill for the inventory arrives separately. In QuickBooks, you must receive the inventory ordered to sell the inventory. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

When you receive inventory items from a purchase order, you must enter the items into inventory to sell them within your sales forms. Sometimes you receive these items without a corresponding bill. In this case, you create an item receipt that you can later match to the vendor bill when it finally arrives. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

When the vendor bill for items already received finally arrives, you must match the vendor bill to the item receipt that was created for those items when you received them. To do this, select “Vendors| Enter Bill for Received Items” from the Menu Bar to open the “Select Item Receipt” window. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

When you have loss, spoilage, or send out samples of your products, you need to manually adjust your inventory levels. QuickBooks allows you to do this in the “Adjust Quantity/Value on Hand” window. To view this window, select “Vendors| Inventory Activities| Adjust Quantity/Value on Hand” from the Menu Bar. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

You can set up “Service” items in the Item List for services you provide. This helps you avoid repeatedly typing line item information into sales forms. Like all items, you create “Service” items by first opening the “Item List.” Learn about this and more during this lecture.

You can create “Non-inventory Parts” in the Item List for items that are bought and/or sold, but not tracked as “inventory parts.” QuickBooks tracks neither the quantity on hand nor the value of “non-inventory part” items. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

You can set up “Other Charge” items within the Item List. An “Other Charge” item can be used to collect amounts for things such as freight charges or photocopying charges in a sales form. You could also use it to collect membership dues or assess some other type of miscellaneous fee in a sales form. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

You can set up “Subtotal” items in the Item List. A subtotal will total all the items within an invoice or sales receipt up to the last subtotal entered, if one was entered. This is useful for totaling all of the previous line items within an invoice before applying a discount to the subtotal amount. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

You can create “Groups” in the Item List for items you may purchase individually but want to display as a single line item in a sales form. For instance, if you sold gravel by the ton and assessed a service charge for the delivery, you could create both the gravel (a “non-inventory part”) and the service charge (an “other charge”), and then create a “Group” (like “Gravel Delivery”) that consists of gravel and the delivery charge. That lets you show a single line item in the invoice, instead of two separate line items. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

You can create “Discount” items in the Item List to discount the line item that was entered immediately above the “Discount” line item within a sales form. If you create a discount and use it in an invoice, it applies the discount to the line item amount directly above it- but not to any other line items previously entered. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

You can create “Payments” in the Item List to subtract the amount of a customer payment from the total amount shown in an invoice when creating an invoice. You need a payment item when you receive a partial payment you need to apply to an invoice at, or before, the time you create the invoice. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

While you can always edit an item’s price in the Item List by opening the “Edit Item” window and directly changing the price in that window, you can also change the price of multiple items in the Item List simultaneously. To do that, select “Customers| Change Item Prices” from the Menu Bar to open the “Change Item Prices” window. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

When you sell anything for your company, you must fill out one of the sales forms in QuickBooks. The sales form you use depends on whether you expect payment in the future or at the time of the sale. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

When a customer agrees to make a purchase for which payment will be made at a later point in time, you enter the sale into an invoice. The invoice lists the customer’s information, along with an itemized list of how much that customer owes for the goods or services purchased. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

You can also easily create batch invoices to give multiple, selected customers an invoice for the same products or services. Before you create batch invoices, however, you should be sure you have the customer’s information recorded correctly within the “Customers & Jobs” list in the Customer Center. QuickBooks uses the customer information you have entered to “fill-in” the specific information for each customer when it creates the invoices. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

If taking payment from the customer at the time of sale for a purchase they have made, you enter the transaction into a sales receipt. You can create a sales receipt by selecting “Customers| Enter Sales Receipts” from the Menu Bar. In the “Enter Sales Receipts” screen, you enter information in much the same way that you do within an invoice. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

To find any transaction form at a later point in time, you can use the “Find” feature of QuickBooks to locate it. To find an invoice, or any other type of transaction, open the associated form for which you want to search. Using the example of finding an invoice, you would open the “Create Invoices” window. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

To see how the currently opened sales form will look when printed, click the drop-down arrow below the “Print” button in the “Main” tab of the Ribbon. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

To print invoices or sales receipts, open the form that contains the information you want to print and click the “Print” button in the “Main” tab of the Ribbon at the top of the sales form to open the “Print” dialog box, where you can set the printing parameters. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

Sometimes businesses want to vary an item’s price when selling the item to different customer types. For instance, you may charge different rates to residential customers versus commercial customers. You can associate price levels with specific customers so each time you create a sales form for that customer, QuickBooks will use the appropriate price level when calculating rates and amounts for line items within sales forms for the selected customer. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

You can set the default preferences for finance charges assessed in customer statements within the “Preferences” window in QuickBooks. To do this, select “Edit| Preferences…” from the Menu Bar to open the “Preferences” window where you can set the default behaviors of the currently opened company file. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

Entering statement charges is the first step in preparing billing statements for customers. This can be an effective way to collect customer charges over a period of time for certain types of businesses that do not need to send out an invoice for each charge assessed to a customer. With statement charges, you simply enter the charges directly into each customer’s “accounts receivable” register as they are accrued. Learn about this and more during this lecture.

A QuickBooks statement prints information already recorded by statement charges and other receivables transactions. Therefore, you can’t edit the statement’s information directly within the statement window. A typical statement covers a time period and shows the customer’s previous balance, new charges, payments or credits you’ve received and applied to the account, and the new balance for the customer during the period specified. Learn about this and more during this lecture.