QuickBooks 2017 All-In-One For Dummies

Stephen L. Nelson

• Publisher: For Dummies
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781119281351
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Computer Science
• Subtopic: Entreprise Applications
• Index: Computer Science

Make business chores easy with QuickBooks

Managing the books for a small business can be a challenging, onerous task. If you're looking to spend fewer hours hunched over multiple spreadsheets and more time focused on other aspects of your growing business, this all-in-one guide gives you everything you need to put QuickBooks to work for you. Combining eight content-rich books into one complete package, this value-priced reference provides answers to all the questions you have about how QuickBooks can manage your business finances—even the ones you didn't know to ask!

With the help of QuickBooks 2017 All-In-One For Dummies, you'll quickly and painlessly discover how to use this fan-favorite software program to establish fundamental accounting practices that will keep your company successful and healthy. From installing the software and configuring QuickBooks to setting up payroll reminders and keeping track of your business checkbook and credit cards, everything you need to effectively—and efficiently—stay on top of those dollars and cents is only a page away!

• Organize all of your business finances in one place
• Pay vendors, invoice customers, and track inventory
• Prepare financial statements and reports
• Access your cloud-based account using your smartphone

This is your all-encompassing guide to putting your financial woes to rest and simplifying your business accounting with confidence!

Book 1

An Accounting Primer

Contents at a Glance

1. Chapter 1: Principles of Accounting
   1. The Purpose of Accounting
   2. Reviewing the Common Financial Statements
   3. The Philosophy of Accounting
   4. A Few Words about Tax Accounting
2. Chapter 2: Double-Entry Bookkeeping
   1. The Fiddle-Faddle Method of Accounting
   2. How Double-Entry Bookkeeping Works
   3. Almost a Real-Life Example
   4. A Few Words about How QuickBooks Works
3. Chapter 3: Special Accounting Problems
   1. Working with Accounts Receivable
   2. Recording Accounts Payable Transactions
   3. Inventory Accounting
   4. Accounting for Fixed Assets
   5. Recognizing Liabilities
   6. Closing Out Revenue and Expense Accounts
   7. One More Thing …

Chapter 1

Principles of Accounting

IN THIS CHAPTER

Figuring out the purpose of accounting

Taking a look at the common financial statements

Understanding the philosophy of accounting

Discovering income tax accounting and reporting

Any discussion of how to use QuickBooks to better manage your business begins with a discussion of the basics of accounting. For this reason, in this chapter and the next two, I attempt to provide the same information that you would receive in an introductory college accounting course. I tailor the entire discussion, of course, to QuickBooks and the small-business environment. What you’ll read about here and in the next chapters of this book pretty much describes how accounting works in a small-business setting using QuickBooks.

If you’ve had some experience with accounting, if you know how to read an income statement and balance sheet, or if you know how to construct a journal entry, you don’t need to read this chapter or the next. But if you’re new to accounting and business bookkeeping, take the time to read this chapter carefully. I start the chapter by giving you a high-level overview of the purpose of accounting. Then I review the common financial statements that any accounting system worth its salt produces. I also discuss some of the important principles of accounting and the philosophy of accounting. Finally, I talk a little bit about income tax law and tax accounting.

The Purpose of Accounting

In the movie Creator, Peter O’Toole plays an eccentric professor. At one point, O’Toole’s character attempts to talk a young student into working as an unpaid research assistant. When the student protests, noting that he needs 15 credit hours, O’Toole creates a special 15-credit independent-study course named “Introduction to the Big Picture.” In the next section, I describe the “big picture” of accounting. At its core, accounting makes perfect, logical sense.

The big picture

The most important thing to understand about accounting is that it provides financial information to stakeholders. Stakeholders are the people who do business with or interact with a firm; they include managers, employees, investors, banks, vendors, government authorities, and agencies that may tax a firm. Stakeholders and their information requirements deserve a bit more discussion. Why? Because the information needs of these stakeholders determine what an accounting system must do.

Managers, investors, and entrepreneurs

The first category of stakeholders includes the firm’s managers, investors, and entrepreneurs. This group needs financial information to determine whether a business is making money. This group also wants any information that gives insight into whether a business is growing or contracting and how healthy or sick it is. To fulfill its obligations and duties, this group often needs detailed information. A manager or entrepreneur may want to know which customers are particularly profitable — or unprofitable. An active investor may want to know which product lines are growing or contracting.

A related set of information requirements concerns asset and liability record keeping. An asset is something that the firm owns, such as cash, inventory, or equipment. A liability is some debt or obligation that the firm owes, such as bank loans and accounts payable.

Obviously, someone at a firm — perhaps a manager, bookkeeper, or accountant — needs to have very detailed records of the amount of cash that the firm has in its bank accounts, the inventory that the firm has in its warehouse or on its shelves, and the equipment that the firm owns and uses in its operations.

If you look over the preceding two or three paragraphs, nothing...