Intermediate QuickBooks 2013

About This Course

Learning how to use QuickBooks to its full potential goes far beyond learning the basic features of the program. Even many experienced QuickBooks users often struggle when applying certain business situations to QuickBooks. In this course, we'll go beyond the basic introductory concepts and you'll learn how to utilize many of the more advanced features and applications.

You'll learn how to manage multiple company files and how to export and import list data from one file to the next. If your business handles inventory, you'll learn how to enter price levels and track discounts and credits. You'll even learn how to enter and track mileage that you incur on any vehicles that you use in your business.

This course also covers many other common topics that small business owners encounter. You'll learn how to create customer statements, assess finance charges on overdue balances, and write off these past due balances when it appears that the customer is not going to pay.

Lastly, you'll learn how to enter common transactions that occur between the owner and the business, including when the owner takes money out of the business or invests new capital. You'll even learn how to make journal entries to deal with those difficult situations when you may pay for a business transaction using personal cash. The course concludes with a discussion of how to track loans and how to use the budgeting feature to better plan and control your business.

This course is designed for those QuickBooks users who already feel that they have a good grasp on the basics or have successfully completed the Introduction to QuickBooks course. Whether you are a small business owner, bookkeeper, or accountant needing a QuickBooks refresher, after taking this course, you'll feel more confident and secure in accounting for your business.

About The Instructor

This course includes a knowledgeable and caring instructor who will guide you through your lessons, facilitate discussions, and answer your questions. The instructor for this course will be Scott Paxton.

Scott Paxton is a Certified Public Accountant, and his background includes experience as a public accountant, a manager in the banking industry, an entrepreneur, and a college business instructor. He is a Certified QuickBooks Professional Advisor and he has authored a QuickBooks workbook that focuses on implementing and troubleshooting the program.

Syllabus

A new section of each course starts monthly. If enrolling in a series of two or more courses, please be sure to space the start date for each course at least two months apart.

Week 1

Wednesday - Lesson 01

One of the more challenging aspects of QuickBooks is learning how to manage company files. In this lesson, we'll explore some great features that will allow you to easily work with not just one, but multiple company files. You'll even learn how to export and import list information from other files into a brand new file. Once you have a new file created, you'll learn how to access the file from a remote location and how to move your file from one computer to another.

Friday - Lesson 02

Taking steps to secure your company files is one of the easiest and most effective ways to make sure your file doesn't get mishandled or corrupted in some way. In today's lesson, you'll learn how to set a closing date in your file so that no one can enter a transaction in the wrong period. You'll also learn how to create new users and limit these users to only the areas in which they work. Finally, you'll learn how to use the Condense and Verify features in QuickBooks to streamline your file and check to see if it's corrupted.

Week 2

Wednesday - Lesson 03

Lists form the backbone of QuickBooks. In this lesson, you'll explore how to add and edit multiple list items. You'll also learn how to create class items to further categorize transactions. Finally, you'll discover how to enter inventory part items and how to combine these items to build inventory assemblies.

Friday - Lesson 04

Tracking inventory in QuickBooks is a multi-step process. In this lesson, you'll learn how to enter and use Sales Orders to keep track of customer orders. We'll go over how to create Purchase Orders that you can either print or email to your vendors to order more inventory when you need it. And to help you keep track of it all, we'll discuss how to use the Inventory Center in QuickBooks to quickly view inventory transactions, edit items, and produce some amazing reports.

Week 3

Wednesday - Lesson 05

If you work with the same vendors over and over again, you may receive discounts and earn credits. In this lesson, you'll learn how to record these discounts. You'll also learn how to enter and manage vendor credits when they arise. Finally, you'll gain the skills you need to adjust your inventory balance should it get out of sync with your actual in-stock inventory.

Friday - Lesson 06

Not all customers are created equal. Many businesses charge different prices to different customers for a number of reasons. In this lesson, you'll learn how to create price levels either on a fixed percentage or on an item basis that you can assign to a particular customer. This way, whenever you create an invoice for a customer, QuickBooks automatically remembers the price that you want to charge. You'll also learn how to create discount items that you can use separately to track the total amount of discounts that you grant to your customers, and even how to use discounts to encourage your customers to pay an invoice early.

Week 4

Wednesday - Lesson 07

If you ever have to travel by car to a job site or project, you may want to track the vehicle mileage so that you can later deduct it on your tax return. In this lesson, you'll learn how to enter this mileage and the rate the IRS allows for a deduction. You'll also learn how to create some great reports that you can use as support for your tax return. Last, you'll find out how to bill a customer for the mileage you've incurred, even if it's at a different rate than the IRS allows.

Friday - Lesson 08

Sometimes you may need to bill a customer without the need to create a full-blown invoice or sales receipt. In this lesson, you'll learn how to create a statement charge directly to a customer's account. You'll also learn how to easily change the price of multiple sales items using QuickBooks' Change Item Prices feature. Last, if a customer is late to pay on an invoice, you'll learn how to assess a finance charge and how to write the balance off the books if the customer ultimately fails to pay.

Week 5

Wednesday - Lesson 09

In this lesson, you'll learn how to utilize QuickBooks' batch invoicing features to create multiple invoices at the same time to send to any of your customers on your customer list. You'll also learn how to set up billing groups that you can use over and over again to send recurring invoices. In the second half of the lesson, you'll explore how to modify a letter template and then create a form letter that you can send to your customers or vendors. You'll even learn how to create and print envelopes and labels based on your customer or vendor information.

Friday - Lesson 10

Most small businesses carry a small amount of cash on hand to pay for odds and ends. Over time, these small amounts can have a significant impact on your accounting records. In this lesson, you'll learn how you can use QuickBooks to track petty cash amounts. In addition, you're going to learn how to enter the sales of gift cards and certificates. You'll also become proficient in making entries to record when a customer redeems one of these gift cards or certificates.

Week 6

Wednesday - Lesson 11

In this lesson, you'll learn how to record an owner's infusion of capital into the business. You'll also learn how to record transactions where the owner withdraws money from the company's bank account. In addition, you'll examine when and how to use the Make General Journal Entries window to record various entries that don't involve the business bank account, including the times when the owner might use personal funds to pay for a business expense.

Friday - Lesson 12

In this lesson, you'll learn how to enter a long-term loan in which you use the proceeds of the loan to purchase an asset in your business. You'll then learn how to track this loan using the Loan Manager feature to split apart the principal and interest portions of the loan payment. We'll also dive into the planning and budgeting features built into QuickBooks. By the end of this lesson, you'll see just how easy it is to enter budget data so that you can later evaluate your company's performance using some of QuickBooks' reporting features.

Requirements QuickBooks 2013 Premier Edition is recommended for this course (please be sure to install this software on your computer before the course begins); QuickBooks Pro 2013 can be used for this course, but please be aware that there are a few features discussed in the course that are not available in the Pro edition.

This course is designed for those QuickBooks users who feel that they have a good grasp on the basics or have successfully completed the Introduction to QuickBooks course.

Microsoft Windows 7, 8, Vista or XP; Internet access, e-mail, the Microsoft Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox Web browser, and the Adobe Flash and PDF plug-ins (two free and simple downloads you obtain at http://www.adobe.com/downloads by clicking Get Adobe Flash Player and Get Adobe Reader).

The Enterprise version of the software can also be used for this course; however this course is not suitable for Macintosh users, nor for users of QuickBooks Online or QuickBooks SimpleStart.

Note: While this course is based on the U.S. version of QuickBooks, users of the Canadian and Australian versions will be supported in the Discussion Areas.