Greetings The CPA911 Newsletter February 2010 ------ > Contents < ------ QuickBooks Tips New Book from CPA911 Publishing - You Helped Write It New Training and Certification Opportunities from Intuit New Poll - VOTE Contact Info Subscription Info ------ > QuickBooks TIPS < ------ *** Redefining the Word "Check" *** Every month we receive dozens of queries from users who don't know how to enter transactions that involve "virtual checks". Some samples: "I use my bank's ACH services to pay vendor bills, but in the Pay Bills window I only have the option to write checks or use credit cards." "My credit card is paid in full with automatic withdrawals from my bank account. How do I enter the transaction with all the appropriate expense categories, since I can't use Write Checks because this isn't a check?". "How do I enter a purchase I made with a debit card, since it isn't a check?" In every case, the transaction IS a check. Withdrawals from your bank account are checks. A physical check has a check number; all other checks (virtual checks) lack a check number but in bookkeeping, these are still checks. When you use a virtual check (in the Write Checks window, the Pay Bills window, or directly in the bank account register) you can either leave the check number blank or use a "code" for the check (e.g. ACH, E-Check, DebitCard, etc.). The decision about using a code or not depends on the way your bank arranges your statement. Our bank account, for example, lists all physical checks first and then lists all electronic withdrawals in date order. To make it easier to reconcile the bank in QuickBooks, we leave check numbers blank for virtual checks. If your bank lists ACH transactions separately from Debit Card transactions, then using codes will make it easier to use the QuickBooks Reconcile window. *** Recovering Loan Manager Files *** When users restore a backup (either because of a problem or as part of an upgrade to a new version), or move a company file to a different folder, they write to ask why they can't find their Loan Manager files. When they open the Loan Manager program, the file that loads is empty. Loan Manager runs as an add-on, it's not embedded in QuickBooks. Therefore, the Loan Manager file isn't part of your QuickBooks company file. The Loan Manager file is a separate file with the filename .lmr and it's usually saved in the same folder as your QuickBooks company file. To restore your Loan Manager file, search your computer to find files with the extension .lmr (use *.lmr as the search criteria). You'll probably find two files with the same name in separate locations. The file with the recent date is the new, empty file that was created when you opened Loan Manager. The file with the less recent date is probably your "real" Loan Manager file. Copy the older file to the folder that has the new, empty, file and respond Yes when Windows asks if you want to replace the file. Now, when you open Loan Manager, your original file, along with its data, should appear. *** Can't Find a Customer? *** A reader wrote to say he can't find one of his customers in his company file. The customer name isn't displayed in the Customer Center. He can locate payments from the customer in the bank register, and he can open those payments and locate the invoice by clicking the History link on the payment. But using the QuickBooks Find feature won't locate any transactions linked to this customer. He's rebuilt the company file, but nothing helps. We wrote back to ask him to choose All Customers in the top field of the Customer List in order to check for customers who were marked "Inactive", and sure enough, that's what had happened. This is a common occurrence, so if any list element is missing always check for Inactive entries. Judging from the volume of mail we receive about missing list elements, it's not unusual for the Inactive status to be applied inadvertently. *** Billed Costs Disappear if you Void or Delete an Invoice *** If you link costs or time to a customer or job, it's very easy to include those amounts when you create an invoice. As soon as you select the customer in the Create Invoices transaction window, QuickBooks asks if you want to add those costs or time charges to the invoice you're creating. However, once the costs have been linked to a saved invoice or a printed invoice (by default, QuickBooks automatically saves before printing) they're marked as "Billed", and changing the invoice in any way that eliminates any of the billed costs doesn't return the costs to a "billable" status. Voiding or deleting an invoice, or removing a line item that contains a billed cost causes this problem. This lack of logic is a major flaw in the software. We should be offered the option to return the time and costs in the invoice to billable status. Until QuickBooks fixes this, we have a workaround that lets you mark the costs and/or time charges Billable again, so they're available for future invoices. The article titled " Billed Costs Disappear if you Void, Delete, or Change an Invoice" is in the QuickBooks Tips section of our website. To go directly to the article enter the following URL in your browser's Address Bar: http://www.cpa911.com/read_article.asp?ID=299 ------ > New Book from CPA911 Publishing < ------ Our parent company, CPA911 Publishing, is releasing a new book and you helped write it! Available later this month from your favorite bookstore, "Accounting Savvy for Business Owners" is based on the most frequently asked questions from business owners who write to us. Written by Philip B. Goodman CPA, a small business and QuickBooks specialist, this book demystifies the accounting processes and jargon so you can understand your business finances. The book will also be available directly from the CPA911 Publishing website around the middle of February (www.cpa911publishing.com). This book helps you get a grip on the jargon and learn the basic rules of accounting. Whether you do your own data entry or just want to understand the financial reports your bookkeeper provides, this book makes it easy to translate financial records into information you can understand. ------ > New Training and Certification Programs for ProLine and Lacerte < ----- You may or may not be aware that Intuit has an Accountant Work Exchange that offers people looking for work and people looking for help a way to meet. Opportunities for part-time, specific project, and full-time work exist. Learn more at https://workexchange.intuit.com/client/workexchange.html# Now, Intuit has added a certification program for people looking for work. Get certified in ProSeries or Lacerte and your name appears more prominently when employers are searching for help. Free training and resources are available to help you prepare for certification. (The free training is available even if you haven't opted to purchase the certification exam.) You can learn more about the program at http://learn.intuit.com/learncenter.asp?id=178421&page=80 ------ > Cast Your Vote in Our New Poll < ------ Every year, as users upgrade to the newest version of QuickBooks, we receive a great many messages asking why the new version hasn't fixed . Many of the complaints include the same problems year after year after year. We usually recommend that users take advantage of the Feedback command on the Help menu, because many folks at Intuit tell us that the company pays attention to messages from users. However, the evidence doesn't support that statement. According to our mail, several problems have generated user complaints for many years. We've been posting the most common complaints we hear about "unfixed annoyances" in a poll on our Home Page at www.cpa911.com. Last month we presented three of he "top annoyances" and this month we're presenting three more. Here are the results of the last poll where we asked you to choose the problem you're most annoyed about and want Intuit to fix ASAP: Select Multiple Listings with the Ctrl Key (a standard Windows function that most software supports) = 46% Separate Numbering for Credit Memos = 42% Separate Printer Setup for Each Company File = 12% We hope all our readers will use the "winning complaint" each month in a feedback message (on the Help menu) to see if that will hasten the fix. ------ > CONTACT INFO < ------ Copyright 2010 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. If you received a forwarded copy, subscribe for yourself (it's free) at http://www.cpa911.com/newsletter.asp.