Introduction to QuickBooks 2011

About This Course

Use the power of QuickBooks 2011 software to take control of your business finances!

In these lessons, you’ll learn how to set up a chart of accounts, pay bills, invoice customers, create receipts, and reconcile your checking account. In addition, you’ll discover how to track your accounts payable and receivable, manage your assets, control inventory, and generate estimates and reports.

This course is perfect for beginners or experienced QuickBooks users, and it’s also ideal if you’re a Quicken user who’s seeking a more traditional approach to accounting. As you build your abilities step-by-step in each lesson, you’ll be amazed at how quickly you master a wide range of accounting skills that will save you time, effort, and money.

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

In our first lesson, you'll become familiar with the QuickBooks interface. You'll find out how the pros use QuickBooks to simultaneously manage common accounting tasks for multiple companies, you'll get to set up a QuickBooks Company of your very own, and you'll learn some QuickBooks terminology.

Friday - Lesson 02

The Chart of Accounts is the heart and soul of QuickBooks. In today's lesson, you'll learn how to take fullest advantage of this powerful tool to add, edit, and access accounts that you can use to track the value of your business or monitor your income and expenses.

Week 2

Wednesday - Lesson 03

Today, we'll learn how to use company lists in QuickBooks to gather and organize all of the information you'll need to properly conduct your business. By the time you finish this lesson, you'll know how to store and retrieve all manner of useful facts, including data on customers, vendors, products, services, important events, and more.

Friday - Lesson 04

Today, you'll become comfortable working with bank accounts in QuickBooks. You'll learn how to tell QuickBooks about checks, withdrawals, and transfers between accounts. You'll get firsthand experience with adding, finding, and editing or voiding all manner of checking and savings account transactions. You'll even be prepared to reconcile your QuickBooks checking account with your monthly bank statement to ensure that no errors were made.

Week 3

Wednesday - Lesson 05

The physical objects you rely on to help you run your business (like furniture, machinery, vehicles, computers, telephones, or even the building that houses your business) all have significant value. The total value of these assets has a direct impact on the overall worth of your business, and there are tax implications if you sell an asset or if its value changes. As such, it is important for you to keep an accurate tally of everything your business owns. Today's lesson will provide you with plenty of opportunities to do just that.

Friday - Lesson 06

Without an organized system for managing all the bills your business receives, they can really start to stack up. And when bills pile up, it isn't hard to overlook one or two from time to time. That, of course, can result in late fees and credit difficulties. Today, you'll learn how to use QuickBooks to make sure you are paying all of your bills right on time--not too early, and not too late.

Week 4

Wednesday - Lesson 07

Today, we're going to finish our discussion of QuickBooks' accounts payable tools. You'll learn how to get QuickBooks to memorize bills that you find yourself paying over and over again, month after month. Then, you'll learn how to create some useful accounts payable reports.

Friday - Lesson 08

You'll find today's lesson useful if your business ever finds itself required to collect payment from a customer long after the products or services have been delivered. Today is the day you'll get some hands-on experience with invoicing. You'll find out how to create an invoice, fill it with invoice items, edit it, print it, and even email it to your customers.

Week 5

Wednesday - Lesson 09

Okay, so you've created an invoice and delivered it to your customer. With a little bit of luck, your customer will place the invoice on his or her "to do" list and, eventually, you'll receive some form of payment for your troubles. Now what? You'll find out in today's lesson.

Friday - Lesson 10

Today, we'll explore some useful customer-related reports that can help you keep track of exactly who owes you what. Then, you'll learn what to do if you ever incur a charge on behalf of a customer and wish to be reimbursed for that expense.

Week 6

Wednesday - Lesson 11

Today, you're going to learn how to customize your QuickBooks invoices to give them a more professional look. You'll also learn how to work with two of QuickBooks' more advanced features: inventory tracking and estimating.

Friday - Lesson 12

In our final lesson, you'll find out how to create, use, and memorize a wide variety of useful reports that can help you locate, organize, sort, total, summarize, and otherwise make sense of all those transactions you've painstakingly entered into QuickBooks.

Requirements

You will need QuickBooks Pro 2011 or QuickBooks Premier 2011 (please be sure to install this software on your computer before the course begins); Microsoft Windows 7, Vista, or XP; Internet access, email, 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, or 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.