Using the Shipping Manager

“Quicklet” - A Podcast for QuickBooks Pro, Premier, Enterprise Solutions & Point of Sale users featuring helpful information, tips, tricks and suggestions for bookkeepers, business owners, and consultants. Got a QuickBooks Mess? Ask The QuickBooks Gal!

Hi, I'm Jayne Miller, The QuickBooks Gal. Welcome to another in our series of “Quicklets” – informational podcasts about QuickBooks and related bookkeeping topics.

Shipping with FedEx and with UPS just got a whole lot faster and easier. Today, I want to tell you abut the Shipping Manager that is built right int your QuickBooks software.


With QuickBooks Shipping Manager, you can process shipments and print FedEx and UPS labels from within QuickBooks.

In Point of Sale version 7.02, you can now ship directly with UPS and you can print the shipping and address labels from that software as well.

The best thing about this feature is that it is FREE to use. You will only pay for the FedEx or UPS charges when you ship.

Shipping Manager pre-fills the shipping labels with the customer address information from your QuickBooks Invoice or Sales Receipt forms. No more writing labels by hand. And no need to enter data twice.

You can sign up for Shipping Manager through your QuickBooks software and start using it right away. When you sign up through QuickBooks, you'll find that registered QuickBooks users may qualify to save up to 16% on FedEx Express® and 12% on FedEx Ground® services.

Here's how you can access the Shipping Manager:

• Click on the File menu and select Shipping.
  
• You can also access the Shipping Manager from the Invoicing screen by clicking the Ship icon.
  
• When accessed from here, any customer contact information will automatically be pre-filled in the shipping form.
  
• If you are using QuickBooks 2006 or later, you will find an identical Ship icon in the Sales Receipt screen.

How do you set up the Shipping Manager?


FedEx - When you first open the QuickBooks Shipping Manager and select FedEx, you will be prompted to set up the service. A setup wizard will walk you through the following steps:

First you will read and accept the end user license agreement (EULA). Then you will be prompted to enter your "shipping from" info. QuickBooks will save this info, so you won't have to do this again.

Next you will enter your FedEx Account Number. If you don't have one, you can call If 1-888-411-5174.

Select Printer. Finally, you will be asked to select a default printer where your shipping labels will be printed.

Once setup is complete, the Shipping Manager will be launched allowing you to create a shipment. FedEx Express is used in this example. Here's how it works:

Step 1: Select a FedEx Service. The Shipping Manager allows you to select the FedEx Express or FedEx Ground service you need.

Step 2: Enter Shipment Details. Enter the information requested.

Step 3: Check the Rate. Click on the "Estimate Cost" link to request a rate quote before creating the label.

Step 4: Print Your Label. The label is created and sent to your laser printer or thermal printer (support for thermal printers in QuickBooks 2007 and higher).

For more information about Shipping Manager, follow the link on my blog. This is a great feature in QuickBooks that I hope you will explore and use.

That's it for now. I will be away for a couple of weeks for the holidays. I want to thank all of my listeners and clients who have made the QuickBooks Gal such a success in 2007 and hope you will all return (and tell your friends) next year. Have a safe and wonderful Holiday Season.

I'm Jayne Miller, The QuickBooks Gal. Thanks for listening.

Jayne Miller, is the owner of Custom Business Solutions, is a consulting firm in Reno, NV that specializes in providing bookkeeping and software support. © 2007

How Was That Credit Applied?

“Quicklet” - A Podcast for QuickBooks Pro, Premier, Enterprise Solutions & Point of Sale users featuring helpful information, tips, tricks and suggestions for bookkeepers, business owners, and consultants. Got a QuickBooks Mess? Ask The QuickBooks Gal!

Hi, I'm Jayne Miller, The QuickBooks Gal. Welcome to another in our series of “Quicklets” – informational podcasts about QuickBooks and related bookkeeping topics.

My office recently received a call from a client who had a bit of a mystery. Her previous bookkeeper had used part of a credit on a bill when she paid a vendor, leaving part of the credit remaining open and unapplied. She had no idea when this happened, which bill received the partial credit, and no clue how to research the history of transactions

She needed help finding the bill on which the partial credit was applied. While there may be other ways to find the answer, here's how we helped her find the answer:

1 - Go to the Vendor Center.
2 - Click on the Transactions tab.
3 - Select "Bills."
4 - Now click on the word "Type" to allow you to sort by type. This will group all Bills together and all Credits together.
5 - Now scroll down to the credit in question. Double click on it.
6 - With the "Enter Bills" window, open click on the "History" button. This will show you a transaction history for the credit, including a list of bills that it was applied to.

This is an easy way to see the activity and the application...try it the next time you need to find the original application of a partially applied credit.

As a bookkeeper, I generally don't apply partial amounts of open credits to my payments. The fact is that if I have more credits owing to a vendor than open invoices, I shouldn't be issuing a check in the first place. My policy is to hold the credit until it can be fully used on one check (preferrably one invoice).

I hope this is helpful and that you will keep this solution in mind next time you need to research the application of any vendor credit.

Don't forget to enter Intuit's Jump Start Contest for your chance to win a $50,000 Just Start grant! Ends 11:59:59 p.m. PT on December 15, 2007!

The best idea could score $40,000 in cash and over $10,000 in expert resources. Plus, two first prize winners walk away with $5K. Enter the contest, it's easy. And it is a great way to fund your new business! Good luck!

Well, that’s it for now. I appreciate your time and hope you will join us again next time for another in our Quicklet© series. If there are topics you would like me to cover, send me an email at jayne@quickbooksgal.com. I welcome your ideas, questions, and comments.







Got a QuickBooks Mess? Call The QuickBooks Gal!

I’m Jayne Miller, The QuickBooks Gal. Thanks for listening.

Jayne Miller, is the owner of Custom Business Solutions, is a consulting firm in Reno, NV that specializes in providing bookkeeping and software support. © 2007

How Do I Reconcile My Bank Account & Credit Cards in QuickBooks?

“Quicklet” - A Podcast for QuickBooks Pro, Premier, Enterprise Solutions & Point of Sale users featuring helpful information, tips, tricks and suggestions for bookkeepers, business owners, and consultants. Got a QuickBooks Mess? Ask The QuickBooks Gal!

Hi, I'm Jayne Miller, The QuickBooks Gal. Welcome to another in our series of “Quicklets” – informational podcasts about QuickBooks and related bookkeeping topics.

Today, I’m going to talk again about Reconciling Bank Accounts and Credit Card Accounts in QuickBooks®. I've gotten a lot of queries recently about the reconciliation process in QuickBooks. If you listened to my last podcast, you know that one of the significant issues addressed in QuickBooks 2008 R3 update pertains to the bank reconciliation process. I think this is a good time to review the reconciliation process.

Nothing is so important and so overlooked in the bookkeeping process as performing monthly bank reconciliations. QuickBooks makes this process as easy as it could possibly be. Everyone should be in the habit of reconciling each checking, savings, credit card, or other financial accounts when they get a statement from the bank or issuing institution that holds these accounts. Monthly reconciliations allow you make sure your that books are accurate, on-track, and gives you the opportunity to head off problems at the pass… before they become HUGE problems.

To do your bank reconciliation, just grab your statement, open your QuickBooks file, go to the “Banking” menu and select “Reconcile.” Now you should be able to enter the date of your statement, the ending balance, the date for your service charges and interest (this should be the same date as your statement), and the accounts you want to code your interest and service charges to. The beginning balance is already filled in for you and either comes from the ending balance of your last bank reconciliation or is zero because you’ve never done this before.

There are only three places where you can have errors in the bank reconciliation, and two of them are right here – the beginning and ending balance. If those are right, the only place left where you can have errors is in the actual activity, which you’ll see once you press “continue.” Once you press continue, you’ll see a new “split” window with checks and deductions in the left window and deposits and credits in the right window. At the top, you will also see a check box where you can select the option to view only activity before or as of the date of the statement you are reconciling to…put a check mark in the box to make reconciling easier. Now you simply put check marks next to each deposit, check, withdrawal, etc that matches with your bank statement. Generally, you will be able to check off everything that is on your statement, everything will match and you’ll just about be done.

However, a few complications can pop up: One I see a lot stems from the use of outside payroll services. Users often record the expenses as a single Payroll check without the detail of each individual check. If your payroll system clears individual checks through your checking account, it’s nearly impossible to reconcile. To get around this I suggest creating a “Payroll in Transit” account which can be used to reflect the difference between the bank activity that clears and the unidentified individual payroll checks that are a part of the bulk transaction that was entered from Payroll company reports.

The best way to avoid this, however, is to open a separate checking account for payroll and then just transfer funds from the operating account to the payroll account just before payroll. I like this method because I only fund the payroll account when needed and it prevents putting the entire operating account funds at risk. Whenever there is an outside source accessing my accounts, I consider all funds at risk…whether malicious or accidental. When I have a dedicated account, I can control the potential loss.

Another potential problem or difficulty in reconciling is Credit Card deposits. Some processors take the discount off the deposit as it occurs…others discount at the end of the month. Additionally, just as it happens with payroll, sometimes you close your credit card system out at the end of the day and only part of the daily activity clears and reflects on the bank statement…could be dating, could be the time of day, could be that you have AMEX and Discover mingled with Visa and MasterCard. At any rate, you may have to create an account for “Credit Cards in Transit” against which you can make adjusting entries that allow you to balance. This is why I have the same policy for accepting credit cards as I have for payroll. I have a dedicated checking account for my credit card processing. I move the funds to the operating account weekly…it makes reconciling both accounts simple.

Back to reconciling: When your statement balance and your cleared balance agree and your discrepancy balance in the lower right-hand corner of the reconciliation window is $0.00 you can tell QuickBooks to “Reconcile Now” and after a moment of processing it will congratulate you on completing a successful reconciliation and give you the option to print out a summary report, a detailed report, or both. I like to print the report and store it with my bank statement; however you can always print a copy from the Reports, Banking menu. Just select previous reconciliation report and follow on-screen instructions. This is a handy tool should any transactions that were previously cleared be deleted or altered…use this archived report to find discrepancies.

If you have questions about reconciling your accounts in QuickBooks, drop me a line at www.quickbooksgal.com. Don’t forget that we are now serving Reno, Lake Tahoe, The Carson Valley and Truckee California.

Our online & phone support subscription service is expected to be available by January 2008. Just in time for tax season! We will be offering per incident support as well as subscription services.

Enter to win a $50K Just Start grant!

The best idea could score $40K in cash and over $10K in expert resources. Plus, two first prize winners walk away with $5K. Enter the contest, it's easy. Good luck!

Well, that’s it for now. I appreciate your time and hope you will join us again next time for another in our Quicklet© series. If there are topics you would like me to cover, send me an email at jayne@quickbooksgal.com. I welcome your ideas, questions, and comments.

Got a QuickBooks Mess? Call The QuickBooks Gal!

I’m Jayne Miller, The QuickBooks Gal. Thanks for listening.

Jayne Miller, is the owner of Custom Business Solutions, is a consulting firm in Reno, NV that specializes in providing bookkeeping and software support. © 2007

QuickBooks Updates - 2008 R3, 2007 R 10, 2006 R 11

“Quicklet” - A Podcast for QuickBooks Pro, Premier, Enterprise Solutions & Point of Sale users featuring helpful information, tips, tricks and suggestions for bookkeepers, business owners, and consultants. Got a QuickBooks Mess? Ask The QuickBooks Gal!

Ask the QuickBooksGal! Hi, I'm Jayne Miller, The QuickBooks Gal. Welcome to another in our series of “Quicklets” – informational podcasts about QuickBooks and related bookkeeping topics.
There is a major release for QuickBooks 2008 available now for manual downloads. It will be available December 13th in automatic download, but you can get it now by going to the R8 update page.

What is the difference between a manual and an automatic update? Simply put, manual updates must be accessed and downloaded from Intuit's website and then installed to your computer. Automatic updates (which you should all have turned on) work behind the scenes to keep your version of QuickBooks up to date.

Current users of QuickBooks 2008 may notice that R3 is the first major update...that's right; there wasn't an R2 update because so many of the effects of that one overlapped those in this release. This happens sometimes, so go ahead and use this one. Again, this is a major release.

QuickBooks 2007, Release 10 is a minor release and will be live on the web and included in automatic updates on Monday December 10th. As with version 2008, the updates skipped a release number...R8 was the last one and there will not be an R9.

QuickBooks 2006, Release 11 is also a minor release and will be live on the web and included in automatic updates on Monday December 10th.

TIP: Use the "Select a Different Product" button to check on a different version of QuickBooks from the version that is your current default. Follow the on screen instructions to proceed with your version-specific download.

Here are a few of the significant improvements in QuickBooks 2008 R3:

If you are using the Accountant's Copy in QuickBooks 2008 R3, there is improved reconciliation functionality. With R3, either the client or the accounting professional can reconcile bank accounts and credit card accounts while the Accountant's Copy is being used by the Accounting Professional.

If you reconcile a specific account while your accounting professional has an Accountant's Copy, your work will be will be retained as long as your accounting professional does not also reconcile the account while he/she worked in the Accountant's Copy.

If you and your accounting professional have reconciled the same account, your accounting professional's work will be considered the dominant copy and will overwrite your work when the Accountant's Copy is restored to your system.

When using QuickBooks Premier Accountant Edition 2008, accounting professionals are now able to share an Accountant's Copy with their clients in either QuickBooks 2007 or QuickBooks 2008.

VERY IMPORTANT TO REMEMBER:

In order to take advantage of the revamped reconciliation ability; both the client and the accounting professional must have installed R3 or this will not work.

I want to remind everyone to back up your data....we're so close to the end of the year that it would be a shame to have a crash and lose all of the year's work at this late date.

I was at Costco today and saw an external, portable hard drive for $79.00 so there's just no excuse for not backing up....the technology is so easy and inexpensive!

If you haven't ordered W-2 and 1099 forms yet, visit my website store at quickbooksgal.com for money saving specials.

Enter to win a $50K Just Start grant!

The best idea could score $40K in cash and over $10K in expert resources. Plus, two first prize winners walk away with $5K. Enter the contest, it's easy. Describe what you'll Just Start.

* Fact, fiction or fantasy
* What have you always dreamed of doing?
* What are you resigning from and moving towards?
* How will the Just Start grant ($50k) help you strike out on your own?

That's it for today.
I'll be next time with a podcast about handling
sales & purchases when your customer is also your vendor.

Look for more QuickBooks Topic-Focused podcasts in the future. I hope you will continue to find my podcasts informational and helpful. If you have questions or comments, send me an email at jayne@quickbooksgal.com. If you’ve "Got A QuickBooks Mess? Call The QuickBooks Gal!"


If you have questions that you would like answered on-air, drop me a line at jayne@quickbooksgal.com


Don’t forget that we are now serving Reno, Lake Tahoe, The Carson Valley and Truckee California. Online & phone support will be available by January 2008. We will be offering subscription support or per incident support soon.


I’m Jayne Miller, The QuickBooksGal. Thanks for listening.

Jayne Miller, is the owner of Custom Business Solutions, is a consulting firm in Reno, NV that specializes in providing bookkeeping and software support. © 2007