Buy the book if you don't already have a copy, and download files.

Before we dive into the hands-on, let's start with an overview: how to use this book, where to download the files, and how to submit your work to get credit.

QuickBooks helps small business owners run their businesses efficiently without worrying about the debits and credits of accounting entries. However, to use QuickBooks effectively, you still need to understand how QuickBooks is structured, how its files work, how to navigate in the system to do tasks, and how to retrieve information about your business. In this chapter you’ll learn some of the basics of the QuickBooks program and then you will explore the world of accounting.

In this chapter, you will learn how QuickBooks can help you record and track revenue in your business. Each time you sell products or services, you will record the transaction using one of QuickBooks’ forms. When you fill out a QuickBooks Invoice or Sales Receipt, QuickBooks tracks the detail of each sale, allowing you to create reports about your income.

In this chapter, you will learn how QuickBooks records customer Returns and Refunds, creates Customer Statements, and processes Sales Reports.

In this chapter, we will discuss several ways to track your company’s expenditures and vendors. We will start by adding vendors to your file, and then discuss several methods of paying them. In addition, this chapter shows you how to track expenses by job.

This chapter explores common bank transactions including transfers and bounced checks. We then explore the Banking Feed, which imports transactions from the bank to confirm your existing data and expedite your remaining entry. We’ll then learn about Reconciliation, the act of confirming your accuracy.

In this chapter, you’ll learn how to create a variety of reports to help you manage your business. Every report in QuickBooks gives you immediate, up-to-date information about your company’s performance.

QuickBooks has many customizable options that allow you to configure the program to meet your own needs and preferences. This chapter introduces you to many of the ways you can make these configurations in QuickBooks using Preferences, customizing the Home page, menus, and toolbars, and creating templates for forms. This chapter also introduces some new lists, including the Terms List, and the Template List.

In this exercise, you will work with Walker Graphic Design, a new startup. You will record initial start-up costs, enter a month of business transactions, reconcile bank accounts, and answer questions about the company's finances.

QuickBooks has a number of tools for tracking goods and materials, including the Inventory Center. In this chapter, you will learn how to set up and manage your Items and Inventory in QuickBooks.

QuickBooks helps you track Billable Expenses, costs your company incurs and then passes on to a customer. Whether you need to get reimbursed for the cost of an expense, an item, or employee time, QuickBooks helps you from when the expense occurs through invoicing the client.

In this chapter, you will learn how to set up QuickBooks to track your Payroll. In order to use QuickBooks to track payroll, you must properly set up your Payroll Accounts, Payroll Items, Employees, and Opening Balances. If you plan to process payroll manually or use an outside payroll service, you will still need to set up QuickBooks to correctly record your payroll transactions.

In this chapter, you’ll learn to process your payroll smoothly using QuickBooks Payroll. It presents the use of QuickBooks Basic Payroll, which helps you create paychecks by automatically calculating the payroll taxes on each paycheck.

In this chapter, you will create a new QuickBooks data file, set up the Chart of Accounts, and enter opening balances. You will also learn how to set up user access rights and passwords for each person who will use QuickBooks. Creating a new company file can be done at the inception of a new company, or when an existing company decides to start using QuickBooks. It is also appropriate for a company that is already using QuickBooks to create a new company file when the existing one has many errors and fixing it is not worthwhile.

In this chapter, you’ll learn how Estimates, Progress Invoicing, and Customer Deposits help you track the various stages of a sales cycle.

This chapter covers various ways to make Adjustments as well as process End of year tasks. Topics include how to Edit and Void transactions in current and closed periods, and how to use Journal Entries and Zero-Dollar Checks to adjust balances and close the year. You will also learn how to Memorize transactions and use the Closing Date in QuickBooks.

In this capstone project, you will record initial start-up costs, complete one month of business transactions, including purchases, sales, deposits, accounts receivable, accounts payable, payroll and taxes as well as track inventory and reconcile a bank account. In the end, you will answer several questions about the finances for Horizon Financial Planning.

Take these quizzes to demonstrate your mastery of the material. Pass each one with an 80% or higher to complete the course, earn your credit, and receive a CPE Certificate! You may take each one as many times as necessary.