Read the full article here.

Sign up for free webinar: September 12 (12-1pm Central) or September 25 (12-1pm Central)

Here are just a few of the new and improved features:

Multi-Monitor Support: Tailor your work space for more productivity by moving individual QuickBooks windows onto up to three connected monitors.

Multiple Monitor Support for QuickBooks 2018

Search in Chart of Accounts: Use the search box on the Chart of Accounts to more efficiently navigate a long list instead of scrolling through the list.

Search in Chart of Accounts

Mobile Inventory Scanning and Sales Order Fulfillment: For QuickBooks Enterprise users with Advanced Inventory

Using a bar code device or Android phone to record inventory picking quantities at the warehouse (anywhere there is Internet).

Use a bar code to scan or manually update quantities

QuickBooks Enterprise is updated remotely with the picked quantities for real-time efficiency and accuracy.

Update QuickBooks Enterprise with picked quantities

Read the full article here.

Sign up for free webinar: September 12 (12-1pm Central) or September 25 (12-1pm Central)

Want to learn about all of the new and improved features in QuickBooks Desktop 2017? Want an easy to read, technically packed document?

Click Here to Sign Up For Your Free Copy – An email will be sent to you with a link to a 21 page detailed guide of everything you need to know about these new and improved features.

Here is a sampling of a few of the new and improved features included with QuickBooks Desktop 2017:

New! Scheduled Reports

Select from your memorized report list and schedule reports for automatic email delivery to your accountant or other key personnel.

Attachments are in PDF format and are password protected.

New! Smart Search

QuickBooks finds list names quicker when typing just a few characters of the name.

In this image ‘042’ was typed and two matches were found: one match in the third word and the other in the first word.

New! Report Filters View and Modification

Filters in reports can now be displayed with the report. Click on the blue hyperlink text to quickly edit the selected filter.

Filter descriptions print on a last page added to the report.

New! Copy / Paste Time Sheet Line Details

Efficiently copy and paste line details in weekly time cards.

Improved! Credit Card Cleared Status

QuickBooks will now display a Cleared status when a credit card charge or credit has been reconciled to the merchant’s statement.

Want to learn about all of the new and improved features in QuickBooks Desktop 2017? Want an easy to read, technically packed document?

Click Here to Sign Up For Your Free Copy – An email will be sent to you with a link to a 21 page detailed guide of everything you need to know about these new and improved features.

• Same service or product item
• Same price
• Same billing frequency
• Same invoice template

If you answered yes to each of these questions, you will save time invoicing using the QuickBooks Batch Invoicing feature. There are three basic steps when working with Batch Invoicing:

1. Creating your billing group involves naming the group and then assigning customers and/or jobs.
2. Selecting the line items and rates for the batch invoices.
3. Reviewing the list of invoices to be prepared.

–> Note: To successfully use Batch Invoicing, make sure that each customer or job has important information in their records, including Terms, Send Method, and Tax Status. These items are more difficult to change after processing a batch of invoices.

Using Batch Invoicing

To practice using Batch Invoicing, open the sample data file. You might also use these instructions if you are creating Batch Invoicing with your own data:

1. From the menu bar select Customers, Create Batch Invoices.
2. If the warning message Is Your Customer Info Set Up Correctly? displays, read the information provided. Your success with using Batch Invoicing is dependent on how well your customer records are set up. The message refers to the following fields that should be defined for each customer before creating invoices using the Batch Invoicing feature:
   • Customer payment terms
   • Customer sales tax rates
   • Customer and Job preferred send method
3. Click OK to dismiss the message for this practice.
4. The Batch Invoice dialog box displays. Click the Billing Group drop-down list (top right) and select Add New.
5. In the Group Name field, type Monthly , and then click Save. Or, if you are creating a Billing Group in your own data, provide a name that is meaningful to your business. Click Save.
6. In the Search Results box, which displays all active jobs, select a few jobs of your choice. In this example, three jobs were selected, as shown below. Notice you can search for a specific list of customers, or choose Select All or Clear All for ease in setting up your Billing Group.
   

   When creating a Billing Group, select the Customers or Customer:Jobs you want to issue a recurring invoice for.

7. Click Save Group. You can return to this dialog box at any time to modify the list of customers or jobs included.
8. Click Next. Step 2 of 3 displays, as depicted below. Leave the Rock Castle invoice template selected. If you are working in your own data, select the invoice template you want to use.
   

   Batch invoices share the same item, description, quantity, rate, and tax status.

9. In the Item column, select Installation.
10. In the Quantity column, type 5.
11. Leave the U/M (Unit of Measure) blank.
12. Leave the prefilled rate of $35.00 as was originally stored with the item record. QuickBooks calculates the Amount field and assigns the Tax status recorded with the item record.
13. (Optional) Select or add a new Customer Message (not shown).
14. Click Next. Step 3 of 3 is shown here. Unclick any customers or jobs you don’t want to invoice at this time.
    

    Review the listed terms, send method, and tax settings before creating the invoices.

15. Click Create Invoices when you are ready. If any of the fields displayed are blank or show incorrect information, click Cancel. Update the corresponding customer records and then return to the Batch Invoicing menu to complete the steps listed here.
16. After you click Create Invoices, the Batch Summary dialog box displays. Here you can print or email the newly created invoices. If a Preferred Send method was not indicated in the Customer or Job record, the invoice will be included in the unmarked total.

From Laura Madeira’s QuickBooks 2013 In Depth

If your company will be using the Enter Bills process, you have to use a payee from the vendor list; the vendor bill transaction does not allow you to use an Other Names list item in the payee field.

–> Here’s a tip from From Laura Madeira’s QuickBooks 2013 In Depth: Would you like to efficiently create new vendor records? Start with entering data in the Company Name field. When you move your cursor out of the Company Name field, QuickBooks also automatically populates the Vendor Name, Billed From, and Print on Check As field (found on the Payment Settings tab). The Vendor Name field in QuickBooks is a “look-up” name; this field also controls how your vendors are automatically sorted in the Vendor Center. If you prefer to use a different vendor look-up name, be sure to enter the proper vendor name in the Print On Check As field on the Payment Settings tab.

Adding a New Vendor

To practice adding a new vendor record, open the sample data file. If you are working in your own file, use these instructions to begin entering the vendors you purchase goods and services from:

1. Click the Vendors button on the Home page. Alternatively, from the menu bar select Vendors, Vendor Center.
2. If the New Feature highlights display, read the information provided. To dismiss these message in the future, click the X in the What’s New dialog box. You can re-enable help from the menu bar by selecting Help, What’s New.
3. In the New Vendor drop-down list in the upper-left corner of the Vendor Center, select New Vendor.
4. The New Vendor dialog box displays (as shown below). In the Vendor Name field, type ABC Subcontractor. It is important to mention that no two names from any of the lists in QuickBooks can be the same.
   

   Completing the contact information for your vendor is good practice for your record keeping.

5. Leave the Opening Balance field blank. If you are a new business, you will later enter a vendor bill to increase the balance owed to the vendor instead of entering an Opening Balance amount in the New Vendor record. The As Of (date) field does not have any effect in your QuickBooks file, if a dollar value was not entered in the Opening Balance field.
6. On the Address Info tab, consider completing the Salutation, First Name, and Last Name fields so you have the option to send letters to your vendors in the future.
7. Complete any remaining fields you deem applicable, such as contact information and address.
8. Click the Payment Settings tab, as shown below. In the Account No. field, enter the account number your vendor has assigned to you, if applicable. This account number can optionally be printed on the memo line of a vendor bill payment check.
   

   Completing the contact information for your vendor is good practice for your record keeping.

9. Select the appropriate payment terms, such as Net 30 days, your vendor has assigned to your account. If the specific term needed is not displayed, select Add New to add additional payment terms to the list.
10. (Optional) Complete the Print Name on Check As field. This field is necessary only if the printed name on the check differs from the Vendor Name field.
11. If you are using QuickBooks Premier, Accountant, or Enterprise, you have the option of selecting a Billing Rate Level for your vendor. Billing rates allow you to mark up billable time you will later add to a customer invoice.
12. Click the Tax Settings tab to enter the Vendor’s Tax ID and assign the vendor as eligible for 1099 reporting. Note that if you do not have this information handy when you first create the vendor, you can add this information at a later date without any loss of tracking the details.
13. Click the Account Settings. Select the Repairs:Building Repairs expense account. You can assign up to three different accounts that will display automatically when you create a new transaction using this vendor as the payee. If you also download transactions from your bank or credit card, click the link to review the information provided about how Account Prefill works with Online Banking.
14. Click the Additional Info tab. From the drop-down Vendor Type menu, select from the provided types or select Add New to create a new vendor type. Use the Vendor Type field to categorize your vendors, which you can then use to filter your vendor and transaction reports.
15. If you have created a Custom Field, complete the value for that field. Custom fields allow you to track supplemental information about your vendors. Click the Define Fields button to add or remove custom fields.
16. At any time, you can select or deselect the Vendor Is Inactive checkbox. In such cases, the vendor still appears on reports, but will not appear in most drop-down lists you use for creating new transactions.
17. Click OK to save your changes and close the New Vendor dialog box, or click Cancel to discard your work.

–> A word of caution: QuickBooks does not keep a time stamp on revisions made to your vendors’ contact information. After you make a change, all previous records reflect the change to the address or contact information. However, changes to the Account Prefill selection affect only the newly created transactions.

–> Here’s a another useful tip:

Are you using QuickBooks Enterprise? With this edition, you can choose from more robust settings when you use Custom Fields. Custom fields are assigned to items. For example, you might use custom fields when your inventory items have multiple sizes or colors. With Enterprise, you can have up to 15 custom fields. These custom fields are then assigned to items; they can be selected on transactions and can be reported on.

QuickBooks Enterprise adds more robust custom field functionality by permitting you to assign the custom field to be used for specific transaction types. With each custom field you can specify the characteristics of the data, such as a text, date, number field with or without decimals, or offer a multichoice list for the user to select when entering an item. These are just a few of the available data field types that can be assigned.

Now that you have created a new vendor in the sample file, you are prepared to create a list of your own vendors. Return to the Vendor Center anytime you need to update a vendor’s information.

To begin using Multiple Unit of Measure in your Premier or Enterprise file, you need to enable the preference setting. To do so, follow these steps:

1. Log in to the file as the Admin or External Accountant user.
2. From the menu bar, select Edit, Preferences.
3. Select the Items & Inventory—Company Preferences tab.
4. In the Unit of Measure box, click the Enable button. This button will not be present if the feature is already enabled.
5. Select either Single U/M Per Item or Multiple U/M Per Item, as shown here:
   

   To begin using Multiple Unit of Measure, first enable the preference.

6. Click Finish. Click OK to close the Preferences dialog box.

Now that the preference is enabled, create the different unit measurements you will be tracking.

After enabling the Unit of Measure preference, let’s create Multiple Unit of Measure for the Stain non-inventory part. This part was created in an earlier post titled: How to Add a Non-inventory Part in QuickBooks:

1. From the menu bar, select Lists, Item List.
2. Select the Stain non-inventory part created earlier. Double-click the stain item to open the Edit Item dialog box.
3. From the Unit of Measure drop-down list on an existing item, select Add New to open the Unit of Measure dialog box.
4. The Unit of Measure dialog box displays. Select Count (each, box, case, dozen, and so on). When working in your own file, if you do not see the desired unit displayed, select the Other option, as shown below, and follow the instructions after you click Next to create a new base unit.
   

   QuickBooks provides multiple units of measure types, or you can select Other to create your own.

5. Click Next and select Each (ea) as the Base Unit of Measure for this practice.
6. Click Next to display the Add Related Units screen, as shown here:
   

   For the unit of measure created, you define the number of base units (in this example # of ea).

7. Place a checkmark next to the individual units of measurement you want to add to the selected item (as depicted in the above image, for the quantities used in this practice). Click Next when it’s complete.
8. The Select Default Units of Measure screen displays. In the drop-down list, select the default units for Purchase, Sales, and Shipping transactions, as shown here:
   

   The benefit of working with Multiple Unit of Measurement is the capability to define the default units for specific transaction types.

9. Click Next.
10. The Name the Unit of Measure Set screen displays. Type a name for the unit of measure set or accept the default that is displayed.
11. Click Finish, and the U/M Set now shows the configured Multiple Unit of Measurement assigned to the selected item.
12. Click OK to close the New Item dialog box or Edit Item dialog box.

–> A word of caution: When working with Multiple Unit of Measures, if you edit an existing unit of measure assigned to an item, you will be warned “Any changes you make to this unit of measure set will affect all items that use this set.”

With Multiple Unit of Measure defined for this item, entering inventory on transactions will be easier and more accurate.

Individual users can be included or excluded from accessing customers’ sensitive credit card information. Also, for the company accountant, there is a user type called External Accountant. When this type is assigned to your accountant, she cannot view these sensitive customer credit card numbers.

Additionally, when enabled, you can track which user viewed, edited, added, or removed a customer’s credit card number with the Credit Card Audit Trail report.

These three steps provide an overview of how to use this feature correctly:

1. Enable the customer credit card protection feature.
2. Select which users are given security rights to view the credit card numbers and which users are not given this privilege.
3. View the new Credit Card Audit Trail report to track viewing, editing, adding, and deleting activity with your customers’ credit cards.

The first step to viewing details on the Credit Card Audit Trail report is to enable Customer Credit Card Protection in QuickBooks. To do so, follow these steps:

1. Log in to the data file as the Admin user. From the menu bar, select Company, Customer Credit Card Protection.
2. Click the Enable button to open the Customer Credit Card Protection Setup dialog box. Type a complex password. The complex password must be at least seven characters, including one number and one uppercase character. For example, coMp1ex is a complex password. This complete password now replaces the previous Admin password.
3. You are also required to choose a Challenge Question from the drop-down menu and provide an answer to a question. This question will be used to reset your password if you forget it. Click OK.
4. A message box opens letting you know the next steps and that you will be reminded in 90 days to change the password. Click OK.
5. QuickBooks notifies you that you have enabled Customer Credit Card Protection and details how to allow access by user to the credit card numbers (see step 6). Click OK. You are returned to QuickBooks logged in as the Admin user.
6. To select which employees have access to view the full credit card numbers, or to add or change customer credit card numbers, from the menu bar select Company, Set Up Users and Passwords, and select the Set Up Users option.
7. The QuickBooks login dialog box displays, requiring you to enter the Admin password to gain access to user security settings. Click OK to open the User List dialog box.
8. Select a username and click the Edit button. (Optional) Edit the username or password, or click Next to accept these fields as they are.
9. The Access window for the specific user opens. Choose the Selected Areas of QuickBooks option. Click Next.
10. The Sales and Accounts Receivable access options display. Choose either Full Access or Selective Access; either of these choices combined with a checkmark in the View Complete Credit Card Numbers box (as shown in the image below) enables the user to view and add, delete, or modify the credit card number. If no checkmark is placed, the user sees only the last four digits of the customer’s credit card when recording transactions that use this sensitive information.
    

    User-specific access to viewing complete customer credit card numbers.

11. Click Finish if this is the only setting you want to modify, or click Next to advance through additional security settings.

You have now properly enabled the customer credit card protection and granted or removed user access to these confidential credit card numbers.

–> Tip: When creating a login user for your accountant, select the user type External Accountant. By default, this user type cannot view your customers’ stored sensitive credit card numbers.

With this feature enabled, your data file is now tracking critical user activity about your customers’ credit card numbers. QuickBooks records when the credit card security was enabled, and maintains records of when a user enters a credit card number, modifies a credit card, or even views the credit card audit trail report. As shown here:

The Customer Credit Card Audit Trail report cannot be modified, filtered, or purged.

This Customer Credit Card Audit Trail report is always tracking customer credit card activity as long as the feature remains enabled. This report can be viewed only by logging into the file as the Admin user. However, you can use your mouse to select all or part of the report and then press Ctrl+C to copy the report to the Windows Clipboard. You can then paste the report into Excel or another program if you want to search or filter the report.

If you want to disable this setting, you must first log in to the data file as the Admin user, enter the complex password that was created when you enabled the protection. From the menu bar, select Company, Customer Credit Card Protection, and select the Disable Protection button. Click Yes to accept that your customers’ credit card number viewing, editing, and deleting activity by QuickBooks users is no longer being tracked for audit purposes.

To have QuickBooks track information for the Closing Date Exception report, you first have to set a closing date and optionally set specific users’ access to adding or modifying transactions on or before this date.

–> A word of caution: Exceptions, additions, and changes are not tracked unless a closing date has been set for a QuickBooks file.

If you have compared your own or your clients’ data to prior year financials or tax returns and the ending balances prior to the closing date have changed, you should view the Closing Date Exception report to see exactly who made the change and what specific transactions were affected. For more information on working with clients’ files, see Chapter 16 of Laura Madeira’s QuickBooks 2013 In Depth titled: “Sharing QuickBooks Data with Your Accountant.”

To create the Closing Date Exception report (see image below) from the menu bar, select Reports, Accountant & Taxes, Closing Date Exception. If you have not set a closing date, a warning prompt will display.

Review the Closing Date Exception Report for changes made to transactions dated on or before a closing date.

This report enables you to identify changes that were made to transactions dated on or before the closing date. For modified transactions, the report details both the latest version of a transaction and the prior version (as of the closing date). If your QuickBooks access rights allow you to change closed period transactions, you can then re-create the original transaction or change the date of added transactions, so you can again agree with the ending balance from the previously closed period.

For accounting professionals, see Appendix A in QuickBooks 2013 In Depth titled “Client Data Review,” for details on using the Troubleshoot Beginning Balances feature in QuickBooks Accountant.

Even with the simple organization (money in, money out) of the Profit & Loss report, a careful review is prudent for the business owner who wants to track how well the business is doing financially. To create a Profit & Loss Standard report, from the menu bar, select Reports, Company & Financial, Profit & Loss Summary (or Profit & Loss Detail).

There are two methods for reviewing your Profit & Loss:

• Cash Basis—Income is recognized when received. Expenses are recognized when paid.
• Accrual Basis—Income is recognized as of the date of the customer’s invoice. Expenses are recognized as of the date of the vendor’s bill.

Cash basis reporting offers an incomplete snapshot in time because it shows what cash has changed hands, but doesn’t show unpaid bills from vendors or uncollected invoices from customers.

Additionally, many companies file their annual tax returns using cash basis reports. There is nothing wrong with looking at reports prepared with cash basis accounting. However, I encourage all my clients to consider reviewing the Profit & Loss Standard report in accrual basis.

Accrual basis, although more complex, provides so much more information about the business:

• Matching Principle—Revenue (customer invoice) is recorded in the same accounting period as the expenses (vendor bills, paychecks, and the like) associated with services or products sold on the customer’s invoice.
• Seasonal Variations—Track how your business performs financially, for example, by comparing the same month across multiple years.
• Tracking Receivables and Payables—This information helps with both short-term and long-term forecast planning.

With QuickBooks, you can easily change the report from cash to accrual basis by clicking the Customize Report button and manually selecting Cash or Accrual Basis on the Display tab of the Modify Report dialog box.

–> Tip: To review recurring monthly charges, it is useful to prepare your Profit & Loss by the month. From the Profit & Loss report, Columns drop-down menu at the top of the report, select Month.

When reviewing the details of your Profit & Loss Detail report, you might want to look for these types of transactions:

• Monthly charges, such as rent, utility, equipment lease expenses, or other recurring expenses. Verify that the correct number of these charges is recorded, such as 12 monthly payments for rent.
• Credit card expenses reported to the proper expense accounts.
• Nonpayroll payments to owners, which normally are recorded to draw or equity type accounts.
• Purchase of equipment with a significant cost, which should have been recorded to an asset account.
• The principle portion of loan payments for vehicles or equipment; these should have been recorded to liability accounts.

A business owner who takes the time to review the Profit & Loss Detail report can feel more confident that business decisions founded on financials are as accurate as possible.

1. Click the Company Snapshot icon on the icon bar to open the Company Snapshot. Alternatively, select Company, Company Snapshot from the menu bar.
2. With the Company Snapshot displayed, from the menu bar select Edit, Preferences, and then on the left side of the Preferences dialog box, select Desktop View.
3. On the My Preferences tab, select the Save Current Desktop option button, as shown here:
   

   The desktop preference settings control what opens automatically when you launch QuickBooks.

4. Uncheck the option to Show Home Page When Opening Company File. When you open your data file, the Company Snapshot automatically displays.

1. From the menu bar select Banking, Use Register.
2. Select the desired bank account in the Use Register dialog box.
3. On the lower left of the register is a Sort By drop-down list. Select the Cleared status from the drop-down list.
4. Scroll through the register and view those transactions that are either:
   • Cleared—Denoted by a checkmark
   • In process of being cleared—Denoted by an asterisk (*)
   • Not cleared—No checkmark or *

Often, either a transaction that is cleared, and should not have been cleared, or a transaction that is uncleared, and should have been cleared, can be the cause of the opening balance not matching.

If you need to unclear a transaction or two, double-click the checkmark next to the item in the bank register. QuickBooks replaces the checkmark with an asterisk. You can also click once more to remove the asterisk if desired.

If you attempt to make a change to the cleared status of a transaction while in the bank register, QuickBooks provides a warning message.

Using additional reporting tools in QuickBooks can help you find changes made to previously reconciled transactions. You will find that using a combination of the following reports, when troubleshooting reconciliation errors, is useful.