Book Contents

Your key to understanding the system..
Money Meter: Small Business Accounting with QuickBooks® delivers the knowledge you need to support your business with the full power of QuickBooks accounting software.  Here is a description of the content of this book.

Introduction
To provide the necessary fundamentals, the first six chapters of this book deliver the basics for understanding and navigating in QuickBooks, needed by all users.  The remaining chapters are designed to serve as a cookbook from which to select material as it is needed.  Each section stands alone, but depends on an understanding of the foundation material. 

• Introduction
• Accounting
• Your QuickBooks company file
• The Chart of Accounts
• Bank Accounts
• Building Blocks
• Selling It
• As the money rolls in
• Your suppliers are also in business
• Sales Tax
• The QuickBooks®  payroll system
• Reports
• Printing
• For the owner
• Customizing forms
• Time tracking
• Online banking and payment
• Accounting 2
• Accountant's ReviewTM
• Inventory Tracking
• Windows 95 operations
• Windows 3.1 operations
• Help!! Dealing with  problems
• Your data files
• Glossary
• Access Table
• Versions Covered
• Not Included

Your QuickBooks company file
Designing your accounting plan 
A checklist of essential ingredients 

The Chart of Accounts
Constructing the framework for your accounting system 
Used as a model and example for handling QuickBooks lists

Bank accounts
Launching a bank account: getting your starting balance right the first time.  Working in account registers, checks and deposits, and reconciliation can be easy and rewarding (really!).  Credit card accounts are the mirror image of bank accounts. 

Building blocks
How QuickBooks organizes everything into lists
Items, the wheels that move invoices and other forms 
Customers, vendors, employees, and other names
Custom fields 
Keys to efficiency 

Selling it
Invoices are the engine 
   Tell customers what you have delivered, what they owe you 
   Your record of Accounts Receivable 
   Income is recorded 
All the other sales documents 
Gain efficiency with memorized transactions 

As the money rolls in
Receiving and depositing payments 
Advance payments (retainers) 
Who's paying (and who's not) 
Unpleasantries (credit memos, refunds, and bad debts) 

Your suppliers are also in business
The workings of Accounts Payable 
Entering and paying bills 
When the vendor pays you 

Sales tax
Setting up to collect sales tax 
   Tax collectors as vendors (There is a reason) 
   Sales tax items 
   Taxable business items 
   Taxpaying customers 
Items on invoices collect sales tax 
Reporting and paying sales tax 
Some peculiar situations 

The QuickBooks® payroll system
USA requirements 
Checklists of information needed for setting up payroll 
Payroll and cost accounting 
Employee template simplifies entering employee records 
Deductions and company contributions 
Writing pay checks 
Government and management reporting 
Payments from withholding 

Reports
Reports:  the results of accounting 
Understanding what is provided 
Balance Sheet (Statement of Financial Position) 
Profit and Loss Report (Income Statement) 
Customizing:  Take command of the reporting system and get the information you need 

Printing
Setup instructions 
Trouble shooting 
Printing from QuickBooks is easy unless you encounter problems.  Some solutions when problems arise 

For the owner
Safety and security when someone else does the accounting 

Customizing forms
Controlling the content 
The Layout Designer: customize to fit your business 

Time Tracking
Setting up, recording and invoicing for the value of time 
The QuickBooks Pro 5 Timer:  Setting up Timer on the main computer and on additional computers 
Using Timer and bringing Timer data into the QuickBooks company file 

Online banking and payment
Electronic speed (after 4 days) 
Setup and operation based on handling real money in real bank accounts 

Accounting 2
Debits and credits as movements between places 
Reference table of how debits and credits relate to QuickBooks 

Accountant's ReviewTM
Controlling the process 
Making general journal entries 
Transferring accountant's entries into the main file 

Inventory tracking
How QuickBooks handles inventory 
Setting up for inventory, costing, tracking, and reporting 
A kluge to handle inventory in manufacturing operations 

Windows 95 operations
Essentials for the QuickBooks user 
Hints for efficiency 

Windows 3.1 operations
Essentials for the QuickBooks user 
Hints for efficiency 

Help!!! Dealing with problems
Steps you can take before calling Tech Support 

Your data files
Password protection 
Disaster planning (preparing for the unthinkable) 
Disc space concerns 
Fixing problems 

Glossary
Based on how words are used in this book 

Access Table
Successor to the index, designed for meaningful reference in your terms 

Versions covered
Basic concepts apply to all versions of QuickBooks
Illustrations in this books are from QuickBooks 5.0 and QuickBooks 4.0 domestic USA versions (including "Pro") 
The basic content applies to QuickBooks 6 and QuickBooks 99.  Those versions have added features, which are not in the book, but are covered well in the included user's guide or in Help.  A new payroll setup requires information as described in this book, but entered through a simplified format. 

Not included
Export versions of QuickBooks. 
Importing and exporting of data. 
Detail on QuickBooks for DOS.  (Web pages, including this information and a discussion of DOS system setup, are available to those buying this book.) 
The older payroll system is not covered.