Greetings The CPA911 Newsletter October 2009 ------ > Contents < ------ QuickBooks 2010 Preview QuickBooks Tips Contact Info Subscription Info ------ > QuickBooks 2010 Preview < ------ Intuit has announced that QuickBooks 2010 is available now from Intuit's direct sales channels, and will be available at retail locations on October 7th. We've been using it for several months and we've found some nifty new features, and some very effective enhancements to existing features. We cover a few of these in this issue. *** Add/Edit Multiple List Entries *** Need to add or change data in specific fields for multiple list entries? Want to change sales tax items for multiple customers quickly? Want to enter credit limits for a slew of customers without opening each customer record one at a time? Do you need to change the terms of multiple customers or vendors? Want to change the name of multiple inventory items without losing the transaction history? QuickBooks 2010 has a new, easy-to-use feature named Add/Edit Multiple List Entries that not only lets you accomplish these tasks (and more), but it also checks for errors. You can't accidently add terms, tax items, etc. that don't exist in the company file. If you DO want to add new terms, tax items, and other data that is stored in lists, you can also accomplish that right in the Add/Edit Multiple List Entries window. We've put a summary article about Add/Edit Multiple List Entries on our website (the article is an edited excerpt from our upcoming book, "Running QuickBooks 2010 Premier Editions"). Here's the URL: http://www.cpa911.com/read_article.asp?ID=287 *** New Powerful Client Data Review Tools *** In QuickBooks 2010, the Client Data Review utility has some new, powerful, features. You can automatically write off open balances, automatically fix improperly posted sales tax (when you wrote a check instead of using the Pay Sales Tax function), and some clever tools to make sure inventory is being tracked accurately. Our favorite is the ability to reclassify transactions. Here's the introduction to that subject from "Running QuickBooks 2010 Premier Editions", which explains why users and accountants will like this tool too: Does this sound familiar? You learned from a client (or from your bookkeeper who visited the client on-site) that a slew of bills or checks to a vendor were posted to the wrong account. Sometimes, some checks were posted correctly but others were not. The question you heard is, "Is there a way to change all the wrong postings without opening all 55 transactions, one at a time, and changing the account?" Your answer was, "No sorry, there's no way to do this except one transaction at a time." Now you can say, "Of course, we can do this for you." Incidentally, it took us a while to create a company file with more than 100 transactions to 20 vendors, where we deliberately posted almost half the transactions to a variety of incorrect accounts. It took us less than 2 minutes to fix everything. *** New Electronic Banking Features *** QuickBooks 2010 offers two new banking features that can help you avoid trips to the bank: Check Scanning, and Electronic Checks (sometimes called "telephone checks"). These features require a QuickBooks merchant account, which many users already have for credit card transactions). To scan checks you use a scanner that scans both sides of a document (available from the Intuit merchant account service) to send the check images, including your endorsement, to the merchant account, which deposits the checks into your bank account. For electronic checks, you fill in the bank account information online and the amount is deposited into your bank account. You can do this with checks you've received, or take the check information from your customer on the telephone and fill in the data. Many large companies, including credit card companies and utilities, have been doing this for a long time; read the fine print on the bill to learn that you won't get your check back from the bank because it's being deposited electronically. You must notify your customers that you're using an electronic check; add a note to the bottom of your invoice form, or send customers a notice of your intention to process checks in this manner. (The online form includes a check box where you state that you've notified your customer by phone or e-mail, but you can also check the box if you've used other means to notify your customers.) (Some banks are offering these services to business customers, and if your bank does, compare the services and fees.) *** Registration Glitch to Watch for in QuickBooks 2010 *** Registration this year is more automated, and as much as possible, will be conducted online. In most cases, this means that users who upgrade will have to input less data, which will save them time and trouble. However, there's a potential problem. If you begin registration and have a file open, the data in the file will automatically populate the registration fields. If the open file doesn't contain the information you need to use for registration (or if you're an accountant and the file that's open belongs to a client), this could be troublesome. Fixing an incorrect registration requires phone calls to Customer Service, and can take some time. If you notice what is happening onscreen, there's a "Clear Fields" button at the top of the registration screen to remove the data that was automatically filled in. Then fill in the correct data. If you have an existing Intuit account, enter the email address or user name associated with that account. The data associated with that account will be imported to populate many fields in the online form. To avoid any possibility of a false registration, if you open QuickBooks with a company file loaded that does not contain your own company information, decline the offer to register right away. Instead, either open your own company file or choose Close Company, and then proceed with registration. TIP: If you press and hold the Ctrl key when opening the desktop shortcut, QuickBooks opens without loading a company file. ------ > QuickBooks TIPS < ------ *** Postings for Vendor Transactions *** A reader wrote to ask how to make it easier to enter vendor transactions when some of the purchases involve a two-sided item, and some are posted directly to expense accounts. He doesn't enter bills; instead, he uses direct checks. However, when he has both an item posting and an expense account posting he enters separate bills (one for the item and one for the expense posting) in order to print a single check to the vendor. You can use both the Expenses tab and the Items tab in a single check or a single vendor bill. The amount of the check/bill equals the totals of both tabs. *** PO Received Quantity Vs. Amount Paid *** A reader wrote that he received the items on a PO, along with a bill from the vendor. He made a partial payment on the bill, leaving a balance due. When he looks at the PO it says Received in Full. In addition, the PO doesn't show up on the Open Purchase Orders report. He wants to know why the PO is marked "In Full" and is no longer open when he hasn't finished paying for the items. A PO tracks items that are received. This reader received all the items. The fact that there is an open balance on the bill has nothing to do with the fact that the items were received, which is what the PO tracks. *** Another Solution for E-mailed Transaction Documents *** In our last newsletter we explained how to e-mail transaction documents to multiple recipients. Several readers wrote to suggest an alternative solution. Use QB to email the document to yourself instead of to the customer or vendor. When you receive the e-mail, copy the attachment and attach it to an e-mail message in your regular e-mail software. Send the message to as many recipients as needed. Thanks to our knowledgeable readers for this solution. ------ > CONTACT INFO < ------ Copyright 2009 CPA911. Comments or questions? Write to: editor@cpa911.com. Visit our web site: http://www.cpa911.com. ------ > SUBSCRIPTION INFO < ------ You can forward this newsletter to anyone, as long as you forward it in its entirety. 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