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29 Replies Last post: Dec 9, 2008 3:12 PM by SBOCTeam

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Event December 9: Preparing for year-end with QuickBooks

Dec 9, 2008 12:16 PM

sboc

SBOCTeam 190 posts since
Jul 27, 2007

This event will cover some target areas that you can troubleshoot in your QuickBooks file and how to fix them, some tips and techniques to examine and verify that your QuickBooks file is as accurate as possible and how to prepare your file to be ready to take to your tax accountant.

Amy Vetter, CPA.CITP leads the Florida office for Technology In A Box, LLC and serves as CFO and Executive Director for the company. Technology In A Box, LLC is a national consulting firm that offers complete end-to-end solutions to small to mid-market businesses and franchises.

Amy Vetter is an accomplished author of QuickBooks reference materials and is a contributor and speaker for Intuit's courses for Certification and Training of QuickBooks ProAdvisors and Accountants. Amy has been recognized by The CPA Technology Advisor as an outstanding 40 under 40 technology-based Accountant and was also awarded South Florida Business Journal's Up & Comer Award in 2007 for her expertise in accounting. Visit her at http://www.TechnologyInABox.net

Amy can answer questions such as:

How does QuickBooks data directly relate to financial statements and tax returns?
When and how do I make corrections to the QuickBooks data file?
How do I identify changes made to QuickBooks lists?
Can I resolve open items in A/P and A/R?
How do I troubleshoot bank reconciliation errors?

Post your question here and then check back on December 9 at 2:00PM EST, or any time thereafter for Amy's reply. You can also pose a question any time during the event hour.

What's your QuickBooks's question?

Tags: quickbooks, intuit, taxes, tax, year_end, tips, best_technique, tax_accountant, amy_vetter, proadvisors, tax_return, financial_statements, financial_software, small_business, accountant, small_business_taxes, tax_tips, best, best_practices, legitimate, spreadsheets, accounts_payable, accounts_receivable, technology_in_a_box, technologyinabox, technology Report as inappropriate

sboc

SBOCTeam 190 posts since
Jul 27, 2007

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1. Re: Event December 9: Preparing for year-end with QuickBooks Dec 3, 2008 10:48 AM

Community,

How many of you are using QuickBooks? Amy Vetter of Technology In A Box will be here to give some tips and best practices to make your year-end tax prep that much easier.

Ask your question now or join us live on December 9 @ 2PM EST and ask it then. We hope to hear from you!

The SBOC Team

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Start-up

Robinsky 1 posts since
Dec 3, 2008

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2. Re: Event December 9: Preparing for year-end with QuickBooks Dec 3, 2008 4:48 PM

In cleaning up, if one finds outstanding numbers from a previous year that you just want to write off- do you write it off to Retained Earnings?

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Start-up

cedar13 1 posts since
Dec 3, 2008

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3. Re: Event December 9: Preparing for year-end with QuickBooks Dec 3, 2008 9:46 PM

I have customers in Canada that I have to bill in Canadian $'s. What is the best way to handle the difference collected in USD from the change in exchange rates from time of invoice to time of payment.
Thanks.

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Mogul

caffeinated 130 posts since
Apr 29, 2008

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4. Re: Event December 9: Preparing for year-end with QuickBooks Dec 4, 2008 2:22 PM

Amy,

If I converted to QuickBooks mid-year, and the first half of the year's numbers are on a convoluted spreadsheet, how do you suggest I merge the data? Is there an automated way to accomplish this? And if there is, how do I verify that all the data came across and is correct?

Thanks for helping
caffeinated

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Professional

ICEDOTS 4 posts since
Dec 8, 2008

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5. Re: Event December 9: Preparing for year-end with QuickBooks Dec 8, 2008 9:50 PM

Amy,
I use QB 2005.
In 1/08 I used Vendors Pay Bills for my purchases. When I went to reconcile I forgot to use this vendor bill and wrote a check and use the check to reconcile. I tried to correct the problem by going to my chart of accounts and delete the check and replace it with the Vendor pay Bill. How do I correct this matter without undoing the 10 previous statements?

602-725-8653

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Mogul

amspcs 237 posts since
Oct 18, 2007

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6. Re: Event December 9: Preparing for year-end with QuickBooks Dec 9, 2008 7:53 AM

Here's a QB related question I hope you can help me with:

I've updated QB version several times. The old versions remain on my hard disc and are taking up valuable space which I need as the disc is nearly full. I can't seem to UNinsall them, when I go to Control Panel and attempt to uninstall, I get some sort of error message about a missing component. Is there a trick to freeing up space by uninstalling older versions of QB? Thanks.

AMSPCS

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ICEDOTS 4 posts since
Dec 8, 2008

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7. Re: Event December 9: Preparing for year-end with QuickBooks Dec 9, 2008 10:54 AM

How do I get my inventory in check? I don't use the unventory on QB.....to complicated...So I use Excel and compare a end of the month physical inventory...How do I get my inventory in check?

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Tori 43 posts since
Aug 15, 2008

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8. Re: Event December 9: Preparing for year-end with QuickBooks Dec 9, 2008 12:12 PM

Hi Amy,

Thanks for participating in the SBOC!

What's the best way to track petty cash expenses?

~Tori

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QB_Accountant 14 posts since
Oct 24, 2008

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9. Re: Event December 9: Preparing for year-end with QuickBooks Dec 9, 2008 2:02 PM

in response to: SBOCTeam

Typically you don't write it off to Retained Earnings because you don't want to affect prior period financial statements that have been submitted. So, before you do anything, you may want to speak with your CPA and decide with him or her on whether the adjustment would be in the current year or prior year and amend the return. No matter which direction you take it, the actual invoices have to be written off, not just a journal entry made. You can do this 2 ways:

1 - Create an item for Bad Debt in the Item List and link it to the Bad Debt Expense account. Create a Credit Memo for each customer with the amount you want to write off and use the Bad Debt Item. Create the Credit Memos on the same day so it is easy to track your adjustments and apply them to the invoices you want to write off. If it is for the prior year - then do them all at 1/1 in the current year.

2 - On the Receive Payments window for each customer, highlight the invoice you want to write off - choose Discounts and Credits. Enter the amount to write off and code it to Bad Debt expense for the discount account. Enter in your discounts on the dates stated in #1.

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QB_Accountant 14 posts since
Oct 24, 2008

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10. Re: Event December 9: Preparing for year-end with QuickBooks Dec 9, 2008 2:05 PM

in response to: cedar13

In 2009 there is Multicurrency Functionality in QuickBooks! You can now enable QuickBooks for Multicurrency so that it you can bill your customers in their currency and it will calculate the Exchange Gain/Loss as you receive payment. You can also do the same with your Vendors. It is definitely worth upgrading this year if this is a requirement in your business!

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QB_Accountant 14 posts since
Oct 24, 2008

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11. Re: Event December 9: Preparing for year-end with QuickBooks Dec 9, 2008 2:09 PM

in response to: caffeinated

You have to decide how much of this data is important to you. If it is absolutely a necessity to bring over the history there are tools that you can find on http://www.marketplace.intuit.com/ that will bring over date from Microsoft Excel to QuickBooks. You will need to clean up the spreadsheet first so that it is in good order when bringing it over. A tool that I have used in the past is from Big Red Consulting and has worked really well to bring over mass data into QuickBooks from Microsoft Excel.

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QB_Accountant 14 posts since
Oct 24, 2008

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12. Re: Event December 9: Preparing for year-end with QuickBooks Dec 9, 2008 2:13 PM

in response to: ICEDOTS

Great Question! Here is a better fix for that. Go back to the checks you created and change the expense account to Accounts Payable. Make sure the Vendor is the Vendor Name of the Check or in the Customer;Job field so that it will match to the Vendor coded in the Bill you recorded. Then go into the Pay Bills screen, and apply credits to the Bill. That way you do not need to unreconcile, you also take care of the expense being double-counted this way.

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sboc

SBOCTeam 190 posts since
Jul 27, 2007

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13. Re: Event December 9: Preparing for year-end with QuickBooks Dec 9, 2008 2:15 PM

All great responses Amy!

Community,

Get those questions in and remember to refresh your browsers often to see the latest content.

The SBOC Team

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QB_Accountant 14 posts since
Oct 24, 2008

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14. Re: Event December 9: Preparing for year-end with QuickBooks Dec 9, 2008 2:19 PM

in response to: ICEDOTS

Actually, if you learn about the inventory in QuickBooks, your life would actually be a lot easier. There is always a learning curve with any new feature you learn with QuickBooks - however, the time invested upfront to learn it will help you for the future to make your like more efficient. In QuickBooks, under the Vendors menu, there is an option for Inventory Activities. There you can print off a Physical Inventory Listing to do a Physical Count. Physical Counts can be done in a variety of ways.

There are people that run Perpetual Inventory counts, which means that each day you take 15-20 minutes before starting operations and section off a piece of your warehouse and count it. That way by the end of the month, you have completed a full count. You would not want it to be predictable to your staff though as to which area of the warehouse you would be counting.

The other way you can do it is at the Last Day of the Month. You will complete a full Physical Inventory and then adjust your Quantity level based on the Physical Count.

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