I am new to quickbooks and now have the premier 2004 professional services version. I was wondering what is the usual way to get up and running with the software. I guess what is trowing me off is making sure I set up everything correctly.
I used quicken home and business for years and quicken for years before that for my personal and business accounting. Now I have quickbooks and I guess I am just freaking out because everything looks so different.
What is the best way to get up and running and did anyone have to go to the extreme of hiring someone for help. If you did the setup yourself what resources did you use?
I appreciate all your help in advance and happy new year everyone!
Sincerely,
Isabella Sevilla
C & A Computer Services
PO Box 605
Bedford Park, IL 60499-0605
(708) 924-9698
Web: www.cacomputerrepairservices.com
Email: service@cacomputerrepairservices.com
It is not that complicated, altho a basic knowledge on accounting is always great for this matter.
Quickbooks interview is really helpfull when creating the accounts you will probably use (you can create aditional accounts if you like or need to)
I just started my home-based business (service related) and so far i have not had mayor dificulties... there is always sombody nice in the forums willing to help...
You do can hire somebody to teach you Quickbooks, or at least set up the basics for you... (such as accounts etc, they will also tell you how to use it)
there is a nice book out there called "Quickbooks 2004" writen by Kathy Ivens , McGraw-Hill editorial.
its a book writen in plain english... very nice.
Anyway, if you have questions feel free to post a message or email.
Well I think I got the accounts set up ok but I notice that I am having problems with more advanced stuff. Like I used to have my bills automatically deducted from my checking account and quicken used to enter them every month automatically. I usually pay for almost everything by debit card in advance and it just seems that with this quickbooks its like jumping through so many hoops to get my stuff done. as the days go by im learning more and more. i did pick up the quickbooks 2004 official guide by kathy ivens a few weeks ago and it shed a little light on what i doing but not much. im hoping they come up with another book that has not so typical ways of doing things. more for the advanced reader.
C & A Computer Services
PO Box 605
Bedford Park, IL 60499-0605
(708) 924-9698 Local
(888) 202-4007 Toll Free
Web: www.cacomputerrepairservices.com
Email: service@cacomputerrepairservices.com
Hey... well, that sounds wierd... you just got QB and you are already doing "advanced" stuff... hehhe
However, the "automatic charges" you are talking about are well explained on the book i told you, and you already have that book....
they are called recurrent transactions and you and set them up to charge your account, every month, every other month, every day... whatever
i do not know what you mean by "seems that with this quickbooks its like jumping through so many hoops to get my stuff done", Quickbooks is not Quicken, they work in a different way (dont ask me why) however, all the things explained in your post can be done using QB...
As always, let me know if i can be of further assistance...
I am not sure if you were mocking me or not but please understand that I worked with Quicken for many years then went to Quicken Home and Business and everything is pretty much automated and much easier to set up reoccurring payments via a calendar. You were also able to skip, delete, modify, etc straight from your calendar. You didnt have to go through different channels to get stuff done. OK so I got spoiled and will have to learn everything from scratch.
I did set up the reoccurring transactions as checks but i had to enter them first and then memorize them. Then the software asks me at start up if i want to add them when they are due. Only problem is that it doesnt give you any information as to what transactions are going to be added, options for the to be added transactions or anything. All it does is give you box to accept or cancel. So, lets say for instance you dont want a particular transaction this month then you have to add it anyway go to the register to find it then delete it. Way too many steps when you could just skip the reoccurring transaction from the get go at the prompt when it wants to add it in the first place. Thats one example of what I mean by "jumping through hoops to get stuff done".
Another problem is the reconcile process, in Quicken Home & Business once you downloaded bank transactions the program would match them then auto reconcile the account. There was nothing else you had to do. Thats not the case with QB you have to go and do the reconcile manually then figure out which balance you need to use to make everything right (online balance, your register balance) and even after figuring that out you still dont get it right.
Quicken would even download all my banking automatically every morning as well. QB doesnt and you have to go into each and every account for the downloads.
So, like i said earlier I was spoiled and now I have to adapt to this new way of doing things.
As far as advanced stuff goes, everyone posts problems that are having in this message board and they are related to doing things out of the norm. Such as paying in advance for purchases with their credit card, debit card etc, or doing certain things with their invoices etc. The book that I mentioned or the QB manual doesnt cover a lot of these situations. Pre-paying for an order seems to make you do 4 or more entries into accounts. So, if this board wasnt here a lot of people would either be doing their books all wrong or would have to pay someone every time they have a question on how to do something. A book or other resource with more out of the norm or advanced ways of doing things would help everyone a lot.
Sorry for the long post.
C & A Computer Services
PO Box 605
Bedford Park, IL 60499-0605
(708) 924-9698 Local
(888) 202-4007 Toll Free
Web: www.cacomputerrepairservices.com
Email: service@cacomputerrepairservices.com
