Overview

Before you went into business, you had a strong idea of what you were going to do, and how you were going to do it. Before you plunge into entering numbers and names into QuickBooks? , you need to understand what the program will and will not do for your business. If you are going to pay someone else to do it, the same understanding is at least as important.

Yes, I am preaching. Please note my credentials. I spent nearly two years in Technical Support, answering questions about Quickbooks from some 6000 people. Understanding the system first does pay off.

CAUTION: QuickBooks? has great reporting capabilities, but please do not assume that the reports you want are in the program. Some users have spent weeks entering data, and then run reports. The reports may have been disappointing, or worse. A minor change in data format, made early, would have made the information easily accessible, or the user might have found out that the desired reports are absolutely not available. The answer is to try out reports early in the game.

The end of this chapter contains a few facts that are important, but not big enough for a chapter of their own.