QuickBooks Training Materials – Part 6

Remember, the content within this series of articles is designed for ProAdvisors to utilize in training their clients to use QuickBooks. 

This article begins a series within the overall content that covers revenue and related concepts. I'm a little – really, very – old fashioned, so I tend to refer to things in the way QuickBooks outlined them years ago. That's why I call this section "Money-in."

Money-In and More

Different types of companies make use of different methods for capturing their sales transactions. QuickBooks is flexible enough to accommodate a variety of different methods.

For example, some businesses may send their customers an invoice for each sale, while others might use sales receipts for their sales. Still, other companies might just need a single transaction serving as a summary entry at the end of each day.

By the end of this topic, we'll cover the different ways to enter sales and receivables into QuickBooks. We'll also cover some of the reports that can help you get a clear picture of sales and receivables.

Customer Center

You can access the Customer Center from the Home page shortcut, navigation bar or from the menu bar selecting Customers > Customer Center.

The Customer, Vendor and Employee Centers in QuickBooks Desktop contain all the relevant transaction and contact information about each name within their respective list. They all look similar. You'll find many of the same options in each center.

In the Customer Center, the Customer & Jobs list is on the left and the Information pane on the right. You can resize both.

Below the Information pane, there is a customer-specific transaction list you can filter, print and view as a customizable report. In addition to transactions for customers, you have access to some CRM-like functions as well. There is a Contacts tab to add additional contacts and a To Do tab where you can manage appointments, calls and other tasks.

There is a Notes tab and a Sent Emails tab where you can view the history of any forms you have emailed to the customer from within QuickBooks.

The Transactions tab shows details about the eight types of sales forms. You can customize columns, filter, view reports and export information in this list.

Sales Transactions

Sales Transactions share a number of things in common, not the least of which is that they use QuickBooks Items. Another thing these transactions share in common is the Transaction Ribbon found at the top of the majority of QuickBooks transaction forms.

ProAdvisors need to make as many tools and options available to their clients as they can. You may find that your clients will be surprised when they learn that a feature or function is available from the transaction ribbon.  For example, "shipping manager."

Transaction Ribbon

Some of the functionality found in the ribbon also can be found in the right-click menus. Below is an example using an Invoice’s Transaction ribbon:

There are four tabs on the Invoice ribbon. There will be different tabs and options depending on which transaction form you are working with and what features are active in the file. You can hover your mouse over any option in the ribbon to see an explanation.

The above illustration is of the Main tab. You can see a variety of functions, including back-and-forth scroll buttons at the left end of the tab, and icons for New, Save and Delete or Void.

Create a Copy and Memorize can be useful features. Many forms allow you to set the form to a pending (or non-posting status) even though you have captured all of the information or in case the content is incomplete.

The Formatting tab shown below provides a preview of the form. It allows you to manage templates, check your spelling, insert/delete and copy lines, and also do some customization of the form.

The third tab (shown below) is the Send/Ship tab, which provides access to the prepare a letter feature, mailing an invoice via a QuickBooks Billing Solution service or for using the Shipping Manager functions of QuickBooks (when configured). 

The Reports tab contains reports directly related to the transaction you're working with, including a QuickReport of the source list entry.

For example, in a Money-in transaction (like an Estimate, Sales Receipt or Invoice), the "source list entry" is the Customer. In a Money-out transaction (like a Purchase Order or a Vendor Bill), the "source list entry" is the Vendor. 

The concept of "source" and "target" is very important in understanding QuickBooks reports. We'll be covering those concepts in greater detail elsewhere in this training series.

The Transaction Journal is another report found on the Reports tab. It will show you all of the accounting entries (behind-the-scenes) of any transaction. You also can access this report by pressing Ctrl + Y on your keyboard while you're in any QuickBooks transaction.

ProAdvisors should "hone in" on these two reports during client training, especially for the true bookkeepers and financial staff in the business. They always want to know, "How do I see the general ledger entries for a specific transaction?"

Another report found on this tab is the Transaction History, which shows you any related transactions. In cases of an Invoice, the related transactions might include credit-memos, customer payments and deposits.

On the far right of the open Invoice transaction is the collapsible History panel. It consists of two tabs. The Name tab summarizes customer (or vendor if you’re looking at a purchase form) information and recent transactions for the customer (or vendor).

You can jump to the Edit Customer (or Edit Vendor) screen by clicking the Edit button. Clicking any of the blue links will take you to their respective form or report.

The Transaction tab shows information related to the transaction you're viewing. You can see when it was created and modified and by whom. You also can create and view transaction-specific notes.

Next time, we'll begin looking at the various sales transaction forms themselves, including Sales Receipts, Invoices, Estimates and Sales Orders as we continue our Money-in training.