How to use your webmail account with QuickBooks

Some users really struggle with email and QuickBooks.  Recently (I think it was in 2011) Intuit offered a way for a user to use their own personal email account for their email settings in QuickBooks.  Intuit also started to charge a fee for users to use their email servers.  So, in order to avoid that fee (there is no fee for ProAdvisors with a current membership), you have to set up your email settings to use your web mail account. Intuit did make it very easy to set up.  Especially if you use a gmail or yahoo email account.  If you do not, you need to know your mail server addresses or just sign up for a gmail or yahoo account for this purpose. Here is how you set this up in QuickBooks: That is really all you have to do to use your web mail account in QuickBooks.  Remember to set up the bcc to be your email as well since you will not have any way to know when the email was sent when you use your own web mail account.  Unfortunately, the history button that shows an email was sent only works with Intuit's mail servers.  So in order to keep a record of what you sent and when you sent it, you need to bcc your own email.  That is done by simply clicking edit>preferences>send forms and add your email to the bcc line. Have a wonderful week!

Searching for deposits in QuickBooks

I personally use the find feature in write checks when trying to troubleshoot for clients for when they used bill/bill payment instead of vendor/pay sales tax and other times when someone has perhaps used write checks to pay a payroll liability instead of using the payroll functionality.  I also use find when searching for an invoice or a bill (if I get a duplicate warning).  It is a very powerful function in QuickBooks. But what if you are searching for a deposit?  There is no "find" button at the top of the make deposit's screen, like there is at the "write checks" level or at the invoice level. Here is how you can search for other types of transactions:   That is really all you have to do to search.  There are other things you can search for under the advanced tab.  You can really filter it down, as well, to define the search.  Of course, if you are using the newer version of QuickBooks, it has a really wonderful search key right on the icon bar that is akin to the old "google" search feature of the older version of QuickBooks.  I will demonstrate that feature in an upcoming post.  

How do I enter a bank fee in QuickBooks that was refunded back to me from my bank?

Sounds like a simple enough question.   You are charged a bank service charge, you call the bank to complain and they remove the fee the next month.  So how is it entered into QuickBooks?  Here are the steps:       That is really all there is to it.  As you can see from the report, the bank service charge has been reversed and the account balance is zero.   I really hope you all have a fabulous, happy, healthy, and prosperous 2012!    

Year End Reflections on QuickBooks and 2011

 Where did 2011 go?  For most bookkeepers, this is a busy time of the year.  It is time for you to check your records for the year end.  Do you have extra capital and want to purchase a new computer or other piece of equipment?  Now is the time to purchase it so you can expense it on your 2011 records. 2011 was a little better than 2010 was for most of the business I worked with.  Let's hope that means the economy is on the upswing.  It does seem to be much better in the Fort Myers, Estero, Bonita Springs and Naples, and all throughout the Southwest Florida area.  This is good news for the businesses I work with locally.  I only can hope that 2012 will be better for my client's up north in Rhode Island.  That economy seems stuck or worse.  Definitely the first state into the recession and will probably be the last out. It is also a time for reflecting on how your business is doing and what direction it needs to take for 2012.  I have been pondering a new direction for my business for the new year.  I am also excited that I will be getting a new website and blog going in the upcoming months.  Just yesterday, I met with a talented web designer, Mark Pine, his business which is also located right here in Southwest Florida, SEO Design Consult, Inc.  He will be helping me with my new website and I will be assisting him with QuickBooks. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all of my blog followers.   I hope you all had a successful 2011 and wish you all a happy, healthy and prosperous 2012. Lynda  Check out my website www.artesanibookkeeping.com Lynda

How to tag a customer for late payment in QuickBooks

There are a few features I would like to see added to QuickBooks.  This is one of them.  Especially for a larger firm that has a few people entering accounts receivable transactions.  If you want to show a customer name and have it marked not to be used in another sale because the person has not paid the last invoice or has an open balance, how do you do this? Here is my workaround: Hopefully some day they will make a feature for customers where you can somehow get a box to pop up that will tell you not to use the customer.  Or a lock to lock out the customer either permanently or temporarily.  But for now, this is the only way I can think of to notify the user not to use the customer in a new sale. Lynda Check out my website www.artesanibookkeeping.com Lynda

In QuickBooks, my bill payment stub does not show a credit I applied

This is a work-around for the annoying fact that in QuickBooks, if you apply a vendor credit and it completely credits out the entire bill you are paying, it will not show on the bill payment stub to your vendor. See the series of screen shots below: So, how can you work around this issue?  Well, you have to apply the credit by leaving one penny open on the bill you are crediting.  Apply the penny to another bill. See these pictures below for how to do this: This is the only way I have found to have the bill payment stub print properly.  Maybe someday they will fix this glitch in the program and make it show on the stub without having to perform the above steps.  But at least this will get you by till a future program addresses this issue. Lynda  Check out my website www.artesanibookkeeping.com Lynda