I a still working on understanding items and classes. Right now I have double clicked on a transaction in the checking account and it has pulled up a check which I can fill out to be printed. It gives me the option to choose a "customer job", and a "class". I am wondering why it does not give me the option to choose "item" in this screen.
Thanks in advance:
Scott (still a new user) (How long does it take to become an old user?)
I don't know what screen you are pulling up. When I pull up a new transaction in the check register, I don't have classes. However, at the bottom are two tabs, one for expenses and one for items. Both tabs let you select a class.
An item is something your buy or sell. It may be a widget or a hour of consulting. You set them up and tell QB whether it is an expense or an income and how much the price/cost is.
A class is a method of categorizing income and expense so you can separate them based on more that just the income or expense account they are in.
Lets say you have an item called Consulting Hour and when you bill a customer for a Consulting Hour, it goes into an account called Consulting Income. But you want to also be able to see how much consulting you do in your office and how much you do away from the office. You could break up the Consulting Income into two sub accounts, one for in office and one for out of office. Or you could assign every item a class, then subtotal reports by class to show how much was in office and out of office.
In the check register I click on the area just below the last transaction. It has fields for payee, account, memo, etc. Then I am clicking on the "split" button at the bottom because it seems to be the only way to be able to enter "class" for the transaction. But even in that split screen, although it allows me to enter a class from a drop down list, it does not offer me a chance to enter "item".
I am not seeing the 2 buttons you mentioned, of which each one offers a chance to enter classes and items.
The "split" screen offers "customer job", "class" "account", "Amount", "memo",...
but not "items".
The explanation you gave for items and classes helps alot. I should be thinking of "items" as the tangible (or intangible if it is a service") product that is being sold. So jewelry business I could use items such as necklaces, bracelets, rings, etc., and this would be OK.
Thanks. Scott
Scott:
When you click on the blank line on the check register, click on the icon in the upper part of that screen called Edit Transaction. Then you will be able to use items. You have the right idea about items and categories. Having read your other posts, I have a better idea of the business. An example of Categories would be "Christmas Sale". Suppose you held a sale and you wanted to see how much your sales increased for it. Mark all income with that category, then you can run a report on it. The money still shows up on the P&L the same, but it is another way to slice the income.
Don. I tried clicking on "edit transaction" and it still does not give me an entry field for "items". It does give me a field for "class" though. What do you think I could be doing wrong? Maybe I set something up wrong to begin with.
You would be better off entering your checks on the Write Checks form. When in the check register and you click at the top where it says Edit Transactions, you will notice that the Write Checks screen comes up. You would be better off entering all your checks there. On that screen you click the ITems tab that is right below the green check portion of the screen. This is where you select your items and enter them. If you are charging to an account instead, then click the Expenses tab on the check form and select it there. Once you have it entered, record the transaction and it will be put into your check register.
