Video script

Last week, Wally the Web Designer sent one of his customers, Hannah, an invoice for the work he did to redesign her web site. Today he got Hannah’s check in the mail.

Wally’s not planning a trip to the bank for several days, but he wants to tell QuickBooks that Hannah paid him. So he decides to receive her payment. Wally picks Hannah out of the Customer:Jobs list. QuickBooks shows him all the unpaid invoices he has for Hannah—in this case just the one. He enters the amount of Hannah’s check into the Amount field.

Wally fills in the Payment Method as a check, adds the check number, and chooses Group With Other Undeposited Funds.

Wally checks over the info in the Receive Payments window one more time to make sure everything is correct.
That’s it! Wally clicks Save. QuickBooks saves the payment and closes the Receive Payment window.
Later this week, Wally’s got to go to the bank to deposit Hannah’s check. After he does that, he’ll go back to QuickBooks to record his deposit.

Since he’s done with QuickBooks today, so Wally spends the rest of the day on web designs for new customers sites for his customers.

Video script

Small business owner Hannah recently hired Wally the Web designer to give her magic shop’s web site a major overhaul. She loves it! After she’s done admiring her beautiful site, Hannah checks her email and sees that Wally has sent her an invoice for the work.

Before she sends Wally a check, Hannah needs to put the info in this invoice into QuickBooks. It’s a knee-jerk thing—on her QuickBooks home page, Hannah puts her mouse on Pay Bills. But that’s NOT the best place to start!

Hannah remembers that first, she’s got to enter this bill. On the Enter Bills window, she chooses Wally’s name in the Vendor list. Because she’s worked with Wally before, he’s already in her QuickBooks vendor list.

Hannah fills out the info on the slip at the top of the Bill window—the date she got the bill, the invoice number, the amount due, the date due, the terms of the bill. Then she fills out the bottom of the window, entering the items from the invoice in the Items table. Hannah saves the bill and closes the Enter Bills window.

Wally has offered Hannah a 5% discount if she pays her bill in full within 5 days of receiving it. Her cash flow is fine, and she wants that discount! So she goes back to her QuickBooks home page and clicks Pay Bills.

This time it’s the right choice. Because she’s entered Wally’s invoice info as a bill, now she can find it and choose it.
In the Pay Bills window, Hannah chooses Wally’s bill, to pay Wally by check, to print this check, and to use her Checking Account to pay this bill.

Hannah clicks the Discount Info button. Because Hannah entered Wally’s payment terms—5% Net 5—in the Enter Bills Window, QuickBooks knows how much to discount her bill.

Hannah clicks OK on the Discount pane. Then she clicks OK on the Pay Bills window.

The Pay Bills window disappears, and QuickBooks records this bill as paid. Cool!

All that’s left for Hannah to do is to print out the check QuickBooks has already written for her, stick it in an envelope, and drop it in the mail.

Video Script

It’s that time—the first month’s rent on Hannah’s store is due, so she needs to enter and pay her rent.

She opens up the QuickBooks page. Her first thought is “I’ve got a bill to pay.” Then she remembers—to record the bills she pays in QuickBooks, she has to go to Enter Bills first. In QuickBooks, entering a bill records information about the bill, including the expenses or items she’s paying for. Paying a bill actually means recording the money as it goes out the door.

Hannah enters the information for her landlord in the Enter Bills window and saves it.

Because the rent’s due soon, Hannah opens up Pay Bills so she can get it done today. Hannah picks her rent out on the Pay Bills window and marks it for payment immediately. Because Hannah pays her rent by check and prints out checks on her printer, she marks this payment as a Check to be printed then clicks OK to record this month’s payment in QuickBooks.

Now Hannah needs to write one more check before she prints today’s checks out on the blank checks she buys from Intuit. Hannah opens the Write Checks window and fills out a check for some new magic books she’s buying from a mail-order catalog. After she confirms that the check has all the right info on it, she clicks the Print Queue button at the bottom of the window, then saves the check.

Hannah makes sure she’s got blank checks in her printer. She goes back to QuickBooks one more time and chooses File -> Print Forms -> Checks.  The checks print. Hannah puts them in envelopes drops them into her mailbox.

Hannah realizes she needs more stamps and envelops, so she makes a trip to Owen’s Office Supplies down the street and buys supplies using her business credit card. To record her purchase, Hannah goes to QuickBooks and opens Enter Credit Card Charges. She pulls out her receipt, and enters info about Oren’s Office Supplies, what she bought and how much she paid for it. Hannah saves the transaction. That’s it! Like magic, Hannah’s got all the money she paid out today recorded in QuickBooks for Mac.

Video script:

Web Designer Wally is looking for work! Hannah, who owns a magic shop called Hannah’s Illusion Supplies, has contacted Wally about creating a new web site for her business. Wally reviews Hannah’s current site. He creates an Estimate that overviews all the work he thinks he’ll need to do to give Hannah’s web site a modern, professional look.

Wally saves the estimate and emails it to Hannah. After reviewing several proposals, Hannah hires Wally for the job! Wally burns the midnight oil and delivers an excellent, modern, professional site, so it’s time for Hannah to pay him. Wally converts his original estimate to an Invoice. He also makes changes to the Invoice— as you know, jobs rarely go exactly the way you predict. Wally sends the invoice to Hannah. Hannah loved Wally’s work, so she sends him a check as soon as she gets his invoice. Wally opens up QuickBooks for Mac to receive the payment.

He enters the info about the check into Receive Payments, but he hasn’t made his monthly deposit yet so he leaves the money in Undeposited Funds. The following week, Wally deposits Hannah’s check, along with a couple of other client payments. That afternoon, Wally gets back onto QuickBooks to record his deposits. Wally records Hannah’s check so that QuickBooks can account for it in his books. That’s it! Wally’s gotten paid and used QuickBooks for Mac to record each step. When Hannah needs her web site updated, Wally will have all her info ready to go, making the bookkeeping quick and easy.

Video Script

Wally’s finished his work on the new web site he designed and built for Hannah’s Illusion Supplies. He’d really like to get paid now! So Wally goes to the QuickBooks for Mac home page and clicks Create Invoices. He enters Hannah’s name into the Customer:Job field.

The Available Estimates window rolls down. Wally chooses the Estimate he created for Hannah before he started her site. He clicks OK on Available Estimates to send the window away. A message tells Wally that Progress Invoicing is currently turned off. That’s okay with Wally—he’s invoicing Hannah for the whole job, so he doesn’t need Progress Invoicing. He clicks OK on this and any other messages that pop up about the invoice.

Wally looks over the Invoice. Some things changed after he sent Hannah the original estimate. He adds and changes items to the item list. Wally clicks his mouse in the Terms field, then reads the info on the GuideMe panel about payment terms. Wally isn’t sure of what to put in there. So he looks at the Guide Me assistance system. Wally clicks his mouse into the Terms field. Wally chooses Net 30 from the list of payment terms, which means that Hannah must pay him the full amount of the invoice within 30 days.

Wally finishes filling out the invoice, adds a customer message, and makes sure there’s no sales tax in the Tax Item field since this was a service-only job.

Wally wants to add this invoice’s due date to his iCal, so he clicks the Add to iCal button.

Wally sees that the Intuit PaymentNetwork button is already selected. That’s good– if Hannah wants to, she can click that link on the invoice to pay Wally online.

Wally wants to be sure his invoice looks nice—after all, attractive design is key to his business. He clicks the Template button, and chooses one of the templates QuickBooks offers. He clicks the Preview button to see what the invoice will look like when Hannah sees it.

Finally, it’s time for Wally to send the invoice to Hannah. He clicks Email. He checks the Include text in email box so that his cover text will get sent to Hannah. Wally clicks Send. His default email program opens, with the cover text showing and the invoice PDF attached to the email. Back in QuickBooks, he Saves the invoice for his records. Wally’s done for the day!

Video Script

If you’ve been running your business for a while, you probably have a list of things you sell or buy and you’d like to get that list into QuickBooks.

Hi, I’m Shelly with the QuickBooks for Mac team. Today I’m going to show you how to import your items from a spreadsheet into QuickBooks. This is a really handy tool when you’re first getting started with QuickBooks.

So first things first, let’s talk about what an item is. In QuickBooks, if you buy it or sell it, it’s an item. So say I own a pet care business. All the services I offer my clients, like dog walking or cat-sitting, are all items.

Now since I’ve been running my business for a while before I bought QuickBooks, I have a list in this Numbers spreadsheet of all the services that I offer, a brief description, and what I charge for each one. I don’t want to enter all of this all over again in QuickBooks so I’m going to import it.

To do that, I click File > Import > Items. So what I’m going to do now is go back to that Numbers spreadsheet I have and copy the columns of information to this screen in QuickBooks. So you can see now I have all my services copied here, including the cat bath that I charge $100,000 for and if you’ve ever given a cat a bath, you’ll know why.

So now for each item, I need to select what account that item is associated with. Because these are services I sell, I’m selecting the Sales account.

Now I just started a new service that I don’t have in my spreadsheet yet, but it’s no problem. I can just go down here to this menu, click Add Line and enter that new service here on this screen.

But it’s not just service items that you can import. I’m also going to use the other panels on this window to import Non-inventory items and inventory items.

When I have my items list the way I want it, I just click Import on each of the panels. Now I can go to the Items List to see the items I’ve imported. And if I want to make a change, I just double-click that item name to edit it.

So that’s how you import items in to QuickBooks. Thanks for watching.

Video Script:

Hi, I’m Shelly with the QuickBooks for Mac team. Today I’m going to show you how to import your contacts from a spreadsheet or Address Book into QuickBooks. This is really handy when you’re first getting started with QuickBooks.

For this video, say I own a dog walking business and I’ve just bought QuickBooks to help me run everything. I already have contacts saved in a Numbers spreadsheet and also a few more in Address Book. These are all people I do business with, so I want their contact info in QuickBooks.

So I click File > Import > Contacts. At this point, QuickBooks gives me the option to add them from Address Book or to Paste them from a spreadsheet. I’m going to start by pasting from that Numbers spreadsheet I have.

So what I’m going to do now is go back to that Numbers spreadsheet I have and copy the column of first names. Then I go back to QuickBooks and select the top row in the First Name column and paste the names I copied. Now I keep doing that for each of the columns until I have everything in my spreadsheet in this table in QuickBooks. Now, if I don’t have the info for a column in the table, it’s fine. I just leave that blank.

Now I want to add the contacts in my Address Book. So I go down her to the Action menu and click Add from Address Book. This window come down and you can see that all the contacts I have in my Address Book are here too. So I select all the contacts I want to import and click OK.

Now that I have all my contacts from both my spreadsheet and Address Book read to import, I can make some edits. So these two contacts aren’t customers, they’re vendors. So I’m going to change their role. And now that I’m looking everything over, I see that I’ve got a typo here that I’m going to go ahead and fix. And I’m going to add an email address. And I just got a new customer who wasn’t in either my spreadsheet or Address Book, so I’m going to add a line and enter him manually.

Now that I have my contact information the way I want it, I just click Import. So you see I’ve imported 20 customers and 2 vendors. Now I can go to the Customer Center and Vendor Center to see the contacts I’ve just imported. I can also edit any of the contact information any time.

Thanks for watching. For more videos and advice, you can go to quickbooks.com/littlesquare. And to find about about new videos and articles, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.

There’s a solution! It’s called LogMeIn Hamachi.

LogMeIn Hamachi is an application and service that allows you to easily set up a virtual private network (VPN) between Macs. All of the computers inside the VPN will be able to see one another as if they were all on the same local area network (LAN). This means that more than one computer can access your QuickBooks file in multiuser mode.

LogMeIn Hamachi is made by LogMeIn. It is not an Intuit product. This guide has been written to help QuickBooks for Mac users use LogMeIn Hamachi to solve the problem of accessing QuickBooks for Mac data in multiuser mode across a wide area network (WAN). The definitive guide to setting up and using LogMeIn Hamachi can be found on the LogMeIn web site.

Before you start (Important!)

Here are some really important things for you to know before you start.

• Intuit technical support cannot help you to set up or troubleshoot problems related to LogMeIn Hamachi or related to accessing your data via a LogMeIn Hamachi network.
• This set up uses QuickBooks in multiuser mode. This means setting up QuickBooks Server on a computer and sharing your file across the network you’ll create with LogMeIn Hamachi. If you aren’t currently using QuickBooks in multiuser mode, it’s a good idea to get familiar with it first. You can find information on multiuser mode in Help in QuickBooks and our QuickBooks Guide. You can also find more information here on Little Square.

Setting up LogMeIn

To set up LogMeIn, you have to do four things:

• Set up a user account on LogMeIn.com.
• Set up a VPN on LogMeIn.com. We’ll explain how to do that later.
• Deploy Hamachi to each computer that you want to access your QuickBooks file on the VPN.
• Take it for a test drive! (That’s the fun part.)

To set up a user account on LogMeIn.com:

1. Visit LogMeIn.com in a web browser.
2. Click the Products.
3. Scroll down to Hamachi and click Try It Free. (We’re going to use the free trial so you can try it out.)
4. Follow the instructions to create an account.
5. Check your email address that you used to sign up for a LogMeIn account. You will receive an email from LogMeIn with a link in it to activate your account. You must follow that link before you can go on.

That’s it! You should be inside the LogMeIn web site at this point at a page similar to this:

To set up a network:

1. Click the Create Networks button.
   
2. Enter a name and description for your network, choose Mesh for the type, and click Continue.
   
3. Now you’re going to specify options for the network. Make the settings I’ve listed below, then click Finish to complete the setup.

• For security purposes, under Join Requests, choose “Must be approved.”
• For Network Password, check the box to require a password and enter a secure password in both boxes.
• If you are trying Hamachi for the first time leave the subscription as Free. This allows you up to 5 computers in the network, which should be enough to start with.
  

You have now completed setting up the network. The next step is to deploy Hamachi on the computers you want to access your QuickBooks file.

To deploy Hamachi to other computers:

Follow these steps for each computer you want to access your QuickBooks file.

1. To the left of your screen, under Networks, click Deployment.
2. Click the Add New Link button.
   
3.  Enter a Description and a maximum number of remote installations. Check the network name you created earlier, and click Continue. The default expiration of this link is 24 hours, after that time the link will no longer be valid to set up computers on this network. In the example shown I’ve chosen 5 remote installations since that is the number of computers I plan on adding to this network. You can create as many links to a network as you want but for now it is easiest to share a single link between multiple computers. Keep in mind that the computer running QuickBooks Server will have to be on the Hamachi network and any computer you want to use remotely to access QuickBooks will need to be on the Hamachi network. (If you’re confused by what I mean by QuickBooks Server, be sure you read up on multiuser mode.)
   

You have now successfully created the link that will easily allow you to add clients to your Hamachi network. Send this link to each computer you want to add to the network. This should include whatever computer is running QuickBooks Server and whatever computers you want to be able to use remotely.

To set up Hamachi on the computer with QuickBooks Server:

1. On the computer running QuickBooks Server, open the link you created in the previous steps in a web browser. You will see the following page.
   
2. Check the box indicating you have received this link from a trusted source and click Continue. You will be taken to this page:
   
3. Click Download Now. When the download has finished open the download and run the installer. Follow the steps in the installer and when it has completed Hamachi will open automatically and look like this.
   
4. Click the Join network button, then click cancel. Hamachi should look like this. Note that I’m now connected to “My QuickBooks Network” which is the name I gave the network I created.
   
5. Repeat the steps in this section on all the computers you want to add to the network (all of the computers you want to use remotely). Make sure that Hamachi on each client shows you connected (green dot) to the network you created earlier.

To take it for a test drive:

1. Make sure that QuickBooks Server is running on a computer with Hamachi running and connected to your network.
2. Take your remote computer (I’m assuming you have a laptop for this) out of the office to somewhere with an Internet connection. Perhaps go to the local coffee shop or home or to a friends house.
3. On the remote computer, make sure that Hamachi is running and is connected to the network.
4. Fire up QuickBooks Mac. You should see your file show up automatically in the Shared Files section of the No Company Open screen. You should be able to connect to it and use it without any trouble.

That’s it! I wish you the best of luck on your remote adventures!

If you’ve upgraded to QuickBooks for Mac 2013, you probably already know that we’ve changed the way we help you back up your all-important company file. If you’re new to QuickBooks, you probably just want to know how backups and restoring backups of your company file works.

Setting up backup for your company file

The first thing you’ve got to do is set up your backup preferences.

Here’s how:

1. Launch QuickBooks for Mac 2013 (if you haven’t already).
2. Go to QuickBooks > Preferences.
3. Choose Backup.

Now you’ve got some options:

• Set QuickBooks to automatically back up the company file every few hours or once a day.
• Set QuickBooks to automatically back up every time you close your company file.
• Choose a place to put your backup files. If you have a secondary or backup hard drive available, it’s a good idea to set the backup location to that drive.  If you use Apple’s Time Machine, you can choose a folder on the Time Machine drive for your QuickBooks backups.
• Choose whether or not QuickBooks overwrites the backup file each time it creates a new backup.
• Decide whether to encrypt your backup and create a password or not. It’s a good idea to set a password (which automatically encrypts your backup file) if you’re backing up to Time Machine or to a cloud solution like Dropbox or Skydrive. If you’re the only user on the computer and you’re backing up to a private secondary drive, you probably don’t need a password.Tip: Be sure you pick a password you can remember. Once it’s encrypted and passworded, your backed up data cannot be unencrypted without your password—not even by us at Intuit!
• Decide whether to back up your Attached Documents Library with your company file.Tip: If you use attachments, we think it’s a good idea to choose this option.

What QuickBooks does to create a backup

When QuickBooks backs up your company file, it creates a disk image—that is, a file with a .dmg extension. Unless you’re a computer geek, you probably won’t care about the details of this kind of file.

We create .dmg backup files so that you don’t accidentally open a backup company file and start making changes in it directly. I’ve seen what happens when a user does that—it creates a huge mess!

But that does lead to the question—how do you restore your company file from one of these .dmg backup files?

Restoring from a backup

Each .dmg file QuickBooks creates when it backs up your data includes a copy of your company file and your Attached Documents Library (if you use and back up attachments).

Here’s how you use the .dmg to restore your company file:

1. Go to your backed up disk image and double-click it to mount it (open it).
2. Drag the company file (with the .qb2013 extension) where you want it to be.
3. If you use attachments and you have set up your backup preferences to back up the Attached Document Library, drag the Attached Documents Library folder where you want it to be.
   Tip: We recommend that you put your Attached Documents Library in the same place as your company file.
4. Open your company file.
5. Go to QuickBooks > Preferences.
6. Choose Attachments.
7. Click the Attached Documents Library menu and choose Select Existing.
8. Navigate to the Attached Documents Library folder you restored in Step 3 and choose it.
9. Click Open.
10. Close the Preferences window—your choice is saved automatically.

That’s it! Your company file is restored, and your Attached Documents Library is restored and connected to your restored company file.

We’re putting together a video to show you just how to create invoices in batches. Check back here soon, and we’ll have it ready for you.