Information about Products and Supplies

QuickBooks Accounting & Payroll--project tracking and accounting all in one!

QuickBooks supplies

Information and procedures for...

Entering historical transactions

Handling cash

Mixing business and personal funds

Using the QuickBooks stock feature

Contact Management

For previous users of...

QuickBooks 2.0 or 3.0

Quicken


Entering historical transactions

Printing this document and returning to the interview

Historical transactions overview

First, enter sales transactions

Second, enter purchase transactions

Third, enter payroll transactions

Last, enter adjustments to your bank account

Changing your start date

Printing this document and returning to the interview

To print this document:

From the File menu, choose Print.

To return to the interview:

Close this Help window.

Historical transactions overview

The EasyStep Interview has helped you summarise the status of your company as of your start date.

Now you have to enter every transaction that has occurred between your start date and today. Then all your account balances will be up to date and you will be able to get accurate reports.

You don't have to enter these historical transactions right away. You can start using QuickBooks before entering older transactions.

Important:	You must enter your historical transactions in a specific order; do not start with your bank account.

Read before your start

If your start date is more than a month or two ago, it is probably going to be quite a bit of work to enter all your historical transactions. We strongly recommend that you read the "Entering historical transactions" chapter in your User's Guide before you begin.

What you have already set up

Here is what should be set up in your QuickBooks company file if you have gone through the entire EasyStep Interview:

 	Income accounts, to use in categorising the type of income you generate

 	Expense accounts, to use in categorising the type of expenses you have

Bank accounts with account balance on or prior to your start date

Accounts receivable account (if you need it) with each customer's unpaid balance as of your start date

 	Accounts payable account (if you need it) with each vendor's unpaid balance as of your start date

 	Other accounts (for example, assets or loans), each with an account balance as of your start date

 	Item list (if you need it), to use on sales forms and purchase forms

 	Payroll information about each employee (if you have them) and a summary of payroll activity from April 6th of this year through your start date.

Adding to your lists

As you enter historical transactions, you may need to add to the lists you set up in the EasyStep Interview.

For example, you may need to add items to your Item list to use on sales forms. Or, you may need to add expense accounts to use on bills.

You can add to lists as you work. QuickBooks prompts you whenever something you need is not yet set up. Just follow the onscreen prompts to add to your lists. (For guidance in filling in fields in a setup window, read the yellow Qcards or click Help.)

First, enter sales transactions

As you enter your sales transactions, enter the dates of the original transactions. Enter the transactions in the following order:

 	Invoices

 	Cash sales

 	Returns

 	Payments from customers

 	Deposits of payments

 	Payments of VAT

 	Purchase orders

Second, enter purchase transactions

As you enter your purchase transactions, enter the dates of the original transactions. Enter the transactions in the following order:

 	Bills

 	Credits from vendors

 	Payments

 	Cheque numbers

Third, enter payroll transactions

Before you enter payroll transactions for the period between your start date and today, be sure that you have completed payroll setup.

Enter your historical payroll transactions in the following order:

 	Pay cheques

 	Payments of payroll taxes and liabilities

 	Cheque numbers

Last, enter adjustments to your bank account

The only remaining entries you have to make in your bank account are the following:

 	Cheques, other charges, or deposits that are dated prior to your start date but that did not appear on any bank statement prior to your start date. (These probably appeared on a later bank statement unless you have outstanding old cheques that have never been cleared.)

 	Cheques for all credit card statements you paid after your start date

 	Other cheques you wrote after your start date that were not for bills or accounts payable

 	Deposits you made after your start date that were not payments from customers

 	Miscellaneous bank charges and fees

Changing your start date

You may find that you want to choose a different start date after you have already entered some of your historical transactions.  You may want a later start date so that you don't have to enter so many "catch-up" historical transactions, or you may want an ealier start date to track detail for an ealier period.

Refer to the "Entering historical transactions" chapter in the User's Guide for details.


Mixing business and personal funds

Printing this document and returning to the interview

Business and personal funds overview

Set up your tracking account

Paying for business expenses with personal funds

Paying for personal expenses with business funds

Buying or transferring fixed assets to your business

Year-end considerations

Printing this document and returning to the interview

To print this document:

From the File menu, choose Print.

To return to the interview:

Close this Help window.

Business and personal funds overview

If you pay for company purchases or assets with a personal cheque, credit card, or cash, you have, in effect, made a "loan" to your company. So you'll want to track these purchases in a QuickBooks' Other Current Liability account. You can use this same liability account to track personal purchases made with a company cheque, credit card, or cash. (You can think of using company funds for personal purchases as loans your company makes to you.)

If you have bank or credit card accounts that you use for both business and personal purchases, you need to categorise each account of this type as either "business funds" or "personal funds." If you track the account in QuickBooks, it is "business funds" for the purpose of this document. If you don't track the account in QuickBooks, it is "personal funds" for the purpose of this document.

Set up your tracking account

Set up an Other Current Liability account to track all the money you spend in a mixed business and personal fund environment. If your company is a partnership, you may want to set up an account for each partner.

Note:	For the purposes of this document, we have named our Other Current Liability account "Company Owes Me". This account name is used throughout the procedures. Please substitute your account name wherever it is used.

To set up your tracking account:

1.	From the Lists menu, choose Chart of Accounts.

2.	From the Account menu button, choose New.

3.	Select an account type of Other Current Liability.

4.	Enter an account name like "Company Owes Me."

5.	Enter the opening balance (if any).

6.	Click OK.

Paying for business expenses with personal funds

If you pay for business items with personal funds, you'll want to record the transaction in your "Company Owes Me" Other Current Liability account, indicating that the business now owes you this amount.

Use this procedure when you're entering historical transactions, as well as current transactions.

To enter business expenses paid for with personal funds:

1.	From the Lists menu, choose Chart of Accounts.

2.	Select your Company Owes Me account and double-click to display the account's register.

3.	In the Increase column, enter the amount you spent for your company and tab to the next line.

If you also bought personal items in the same transaction, you don't need to enter those items or amounts. They are not relevant for your company's books.

4.	In the Account field, select the appropriate expense account. If the amount you are entering is for more than one expense account and/or is reimbursable by one of your customers, click the Splits button. In the Splits window, associate the appropriate portions of the cheque to the appropriate accounts and choose the customer:job name in the Customer:Job field.  If there is VAT associated with this transaction, select the correct VAT code in the Splits window.

5.	Click Record.

You can use this same procedure to record business assets you purchase with personal funds, as described later in this document.

Paying for personal expenses with business funds

Use your QuickBooks Other Current Liability account to track use of business funds for personal expenses.

If you buy personal items with business funds, you'll need to enter the transaction in the appropriate QuickBooks Bank, Petty Cash or credit card window or register, using your "Company Owes Me" account. This transaction will decrease the amount that the company owes you.

To enter personal expenses paid for with business funds:

1.	From the Activities menu, choose Write Cheques or Enter Credit Card Charges.

2.	Select the appropriate bank or credit card account.

3.	(Optional) Enter the name of the payee or vendor.

4.	Enter the amount you spent.

5.	In the Account field, enter Company Owes Me.

6.	(Optional) Enter any memo.

7.	Click Record.

If you buy both personal and business items with one cheque or credit card charge, use the detail area of the Write Cheques or Enter Credit Card Charges windows to indicate the appropriate accounts.

Your business expenses should use the appropriate expense account from your chart of accounts.

Your personal expense should use your Company Owes Me account. The amount entered here decreases what the company owes.

Buying or transferring fixed assets to your business

You may personally own assets that you want to transfer to your business, or you may purchase fixed asset for your business with personal funds.

You'll need to set up fixed asset accounts, and if you plan to track depreciation, you'll need to set up separate subaccounts for original costs and for accumulated depreciation. Refer to the "Asset accounts" chapter in your User's Guide for information about setting up fixed assets.

For new asset purchases

After you have entered all the asset account information, you'll need to add an entry to your "Company Owes Me" account.

To enter a fixed asset bought with personal funds:

1.	From the Lists menu, choose Chart of Accounts.

2.	Select your Company Owes Me account and double-click to display the account's register.

3.	(Optional) Enter the name of the payee.

4.	In the Increase column, enter the price you paid and tab to the next line.

5.	In the Account field, select the appropriate Asset account.

6.	(Optional) Enter a memo.

7.	Click Record.

For assets you want to transfer from your personal holdings to your business

After you have entered all the asset account information into QuickBooks, you'll need to add an entry to an equity account. The transfer of a personal asset is an investment in your business, so you'll use an equity account, rather than the "Company Owes Me" liability account.

To transfer a fixed asset from your personal holdings to your business:

1.	From the Lists menu, choose Chart of Accounts.

2.	Select the equity account you use to track owner investments and double-click to display the account's register.

3.	(Optional) Enter your name.

4.	In the Increase column, enter the depreciated value of the asset and tab to the next line.

5.	In the Account field, select the appropriate asset account.

6.	(Optional) Enter a memo.

7.	Click Record.

Year end considerations

You may want to zero out this liability account at the end of the year, since this liability (from an accountant's or bank's perspective) is not relevant to your business's financial health as a liability to a bank or credit card company would be. Also, if the company happens to owe you at the end of the year, rather than you owing the company, your liability will have a negative balance, which would look odd on your balance sheet reports.

Important:	These procedures are only suggestions and are not required.

If your version of the Company Owes Me account shows a greater-than-zero amount:

If this account shows a negative balance, indicating that your company owes you money, consider doing one of the following:

Write a business cheque for the money owed to yourself or another employee

Reinvest the money in your company by moving it to an equity account

To write a business cheque to reimburse yourself:

1.	From the Activities menu, choose Write Cheques.

2.	Enter your name in the Pay to the Order of field.

3.	In the amount field, enter the amount remaining in your version of the "Company Owes Me" account.

4.	In the Account column, enter your version of the "Company Owes Me" account.

5.	Make sure the "To be printed" checkbox is selected.

6.	Click OK.

Choosing an equity account to transfer the money to

If you have only one equity account, as many businesses do, use that equity account in the following procedure. If you have several equity accounts or subaccounts, for example:

Owner's equity	4800.00
Owner's investment	7500.00
Owner's drawings	2700.00

Use the account you use to track investments, since you're now investing this money in your company.

To transfer the money to an equity account:

1.	From the Activities menu, choose Make Journal Entry.

2.	In the Account column, choose your version of "Company Owes Me" from the drop-down list.

3.	In the Debit column, enter the amount remaining in the account.

4.	(Optional) Enter any memo.

5.	In the Account column, choose the appropriate equity account from the drop-down list.

6.	In the Credit column, enter the amount to be credited to this account (this will be the same amount as you entered in the Debit column).

7.	Click OK.

If your version of the Company Owes Me account shows a negative balance

If this account shows a negative balance, indicating that you owe your company money, consider doing one of the following:

 	Write a personal cheque to cover any money owed to the company

  	Subtract the money from your equity account

To deposit a personal cheque to zero out the account:

1.	From the Activities menu, choose Make Deposits.

2.	Deposit your personal cheque to your current account or other Bank account.

3.	In the Received From column, enter your name.

4.	In the Amount column, enter the amount of the cheque.

This amount should zero out the account.

5.	Select your Company Owes Me account from the "From Account" drop-down list.

6.	Click OK.

This deposit will show up in your Company Owes Me register. The balance of this account should now be zero.

Using an equity account instead of a liability account

If you prefer, you can record each of the transactions described in this document using an equity account (called Company Owes Me, or whatever you choose) instead of an other current liability account.

You may prefer using an equity account, because if the balance of the account is ever negative, you won't have to have a negative liability on your balance sheet. In addition, you wouldn't have to transfer the balance of the account to equity at the end of the year.


Questions & Answers about the QuickBooks inventory feature
Questions & Answers about the QuickBooks stock feature

Q:  If I sell products, why should I track stock with QuickBooks?

A:  The stock feature in QuickBooks can answer these important questions:

How much of each stock item do I have in stock?

How much did each stock item cost?

For each stock item, what do I have on order with vendors?

When is it due to arrive?

When should I reorder each stock item?

Q:  If I sell products, are there disadvantages of tracking stock in QuickBooks?

A:  The main "disadvantage" is that you must let QuickBooks know about every sale and every purchase of every product.  For most users, telling QuickBooks about product purchases is easy. QuickBooks records product purchase information when you use the Stock commands in the Activities menu or if you buy stock over-the-counter and enter the purchase information in the Write Cheques and Enter Credit Card Charges windows.  However, for some users, telling QuickBooks about every product sale could be time consuming.

To tell QuickBooks about the sale of every product, here are your alternatives:

Write an invoice per sale.  If you issue invoices anyway, this is easy.  QuickBooks will automatically decrease your stock for each item you invoice your customers for.

Write a "cash sale form" per sale.  QuickBooks will automatically decrease your stock for each item you put on the cash sale form.

Summarise your sales by item at the end of the day.  You can enter this summary information (quantity sold of each item) in a cash sale form.

If you don't wish to use one of the above methods, we suggest you do not use the QuickBooks stock feature.  Instead, we have a document which describes how to manage a product-oriented business without using the QuickBooks stock feature.

Q:  What are some other considerations in deciding whether or not to use the QuickBooks stock feature?

A:  If you do manufacturing, you should not use the QuickBooks stock feature.  QuickBooks will track the quantity on hand of components, but it will not track the quantity on hand of finished goods.

For example, if you are a bicycle manufacturer, and you have 4 bicycle tires and 2 bicycle frames on hand, QuickBooks will track that information.  However, if you assemble those components into 2 bicycles, QuickBooks will still indicate that you have 4 tires and 2 frames, rather than 2 bicycles.  When you sell the 2 bicycles you can write an invoice for 2 bicycles, and QuickBooks will decrease your stock correctly and tell you it is time to reorder tires and frames.  However, QuickBooks won't ever tell you your quantity on hand of bicycles.  Also, QuickBooks won't automatically include manufacturing labour costs in your stock cost of goods sold.

If you wish to use the LIFO or FIFO methods of valuing stock, you should know that QuickBooks only handles the average cost method of valuing stock.  Many people let their accountant worry about this and use the QuickBooks stock feature anyway, but you should be aware of this limitation.

If you have a very large number of products, you should not use the QuickBooks stock feature.  QuickBooks can handle a maximum of 14,500 different part numbers or names.  However, even if you have over 5,000 different part numbers you should realise that it will be time-consuming to enter and track all that information into QuickBooks.

For more information, refer to the "Stock" chapter in the User's Guide.


For users of previous versions of QuickBooks for Windows

Printing this document and returning to QuickBooks

New features in QuickBooks Accounting and QuickBooks  Accounting & Payroll

Updating your old QuickBooks data

Updating from an old version of QuickBooks and moving to a new computer

What to do next

Printing this document and returning QuickBooks

To print this document:

From the File menu, choose Print.

To return to QuickBooks:

Close this Help window.

New features in QuickBooks Accounting and QuickBooks Accounting & Payroll

Following are highlights of the new features in QuickBooks 5.0.  For more information, refer to the QuickBooks 5.0 Getting Started Guide, or the User Guide.

Payroll (QuickBooks Accounting & Payroll only)

QuickBooks Accounting & Payroll has fully integrated payroll which can handle all of 	your payroll tasks.  It calculates Income Tax, National Insurance contributions, tracks 	sick and holiday hours/pay handles additions and deductions to pay cheques, and prints 	the P60 and reports for the P11 and P35CS.  Finally, it automatically updates all of the 	appropriate income, expense and liability accounts in QuickBooks.

 	Customisable forms

You can create multiple custom invoices, statements and other forms.  Using the Layout Designer you can create your own arrangement of fields and columns.

 	Accountant's Review

If you give a copy of your QuickBooks data file to your accountant to make adjustments, you can continue using QuickBooks while your accountant is working. When your accountant returns the updated file, you can import the adjustments into your QuickBooks data file.

 	QuickBooks Navigator

The QuickBooks Navigator is a graphical tool that makes it easier to learn and use QuickBooks

 	Easier printer setup

The new printer setup allows you to quickly switch from printer to fax at print time so you can easily fax invoices and other forms to your customers.

Shorten your drop-down lists by making old customers, vendors, employess, and items inactive so that they don't appear on the lists.

Explore the menu buttons at the bottom of list windows to perform tasks associated with the list.

Start doing payroll in QuickBooks if you have employees and have been using some other method.

Use estimates either to send to customers or to plan a job.

If you invoice in stages based on an estimate, turn on progress invoicing.

Use the Timer to time your own work, or give copies to your employees so they can create their own time data.

Set up your employees so that pay cheques use time data to calculate hours worked or to assign wages to various jobs.

Updating your old QuickBooks data

QuickBooks for Windows updates a copy of your existing company file and forces you to make a backup prior to updating your company to QuickBooks 5.0.

The update program scans through your data three times, looking for different kinds of information to update.  The process may stay at a certain percentage of completion (even 100%) for a long time. If you notice activity occurring on the hard drive (i.e. you can hear the hard drive or can see the light flashing), let the conversion continue.

Important:	Many people upgrade to new computer systems and want to begin using QuickBooks for Windows with their data from QuickBooks 2.0 or 3.0.  If you're changing computers, skip to the section titled, "Updating from an old version of QuickBooks and moving to another computer," later in this document.

To update your QuickBooks 2.0 or 3.0 data into a QuickBooks 5.0 for Windows company:

1.	Be sure that QuickBooks 2.0 or 3.0 is not running.

2.	Double-click the QuickBooks 5.0 for Windows icon to run the program.

If you are starting QuickBooks for the first time, QuickBooks displays the welcome window, which offers several options.

  	Now is a good time to view the QuickBooks Overview.

  	In the Welcome to the EasyStep Interview window, if you choose to upgrade data from QuickBooks, QuickBooks displays this document and then asks a couple of questions before suggesting that you refer to the manual for instructions on how to upgrade from a previous version.

3.	From the File menu in QuickBooks for Windows, choose Open Company.

4.	In the Directories field, change to the directory with your QuickBooks 2.0 or 3.0 data file.

5.	Select the QuickBooks data file you want to update and click OK.

6.	Enter a name for your new QuickBooks for Windows data file.

7.	(Optional) Choose another directory for your new data file.

8.	Click OK.

QuickBooks for Windows displays messages that data file needs to be updated in order to work properly. If you have a large data file, this process may take several hours.

When a message shows the conversion is 100% successful, you've created a QuickBooks 5.0 for Windows file with your old QuickBooks data. You're ready to enter transactions in your new QuickBooks 5.0 for Windows company.

Updating from an old version of QuickBooks and moving to a new computer

If you're changing computers and updating, you'll need to do the following:

  	Backup your old QuickBooks data files to one or more floppy disks

  	Restore the old QuickBooks data from the disks to your new computer system

  	Update your data to QuickBooks 5.0 for Windows.

What to do next

Become familiar with Windows

If you're new to Windows, you'll need to learn some basic techniques. Try the tutorial that comes with Windows.


QuickBooks Pro gives you project tracking and accounting all in one!
QuickBooks Accounting & Payroll gives you project tracking and accounting all in one!

QuickBooks Accounting & Payroll is the fastest, easiest way to track projects and manage your business!  It has all the features of QuickBooks, plus additional features you need to track projects and manage time better than ever.

Tracks time quickly and easily

Do you invoice by the hour or pay employees by the job? Simply enter time spent on projects or jobs on weekly timesheets or single activity forms and QuickBooks Accounting & Payroll does the rest.

Because QuickBooks Accounting & Payroll integrates time tracking with accounting and payroll, the time information automatically flows to editable invoices, pay cheques, and reports.

Produces professional estimates fast

Just type the first few letters of a customer's name, item or service you plan to sell on an estimate form and QuickFill automatically fills in the rest for you.

When you're ready to invoice your customer, click a button and QuickBooks Accounting & Payroll instantly generates an editable invoice from the estimate.

Modify estimate formats easily by pointing and clicking.

Tracks job costs so you can bid smarter

Instantly compare estimated job costs to actuals with the click of a button.  Knowing how your estimates vary from actual time spent helps make your future estimates more accurate, so you won't underprice your services.

Eleven customisable project reports give you a wealth of information to help you improve your bottom line.

QuickBooks or QuickBooks Accounting & Payroll... Which one is right for your business?

In your business, do you  need to:	QuickBooks	QuickBooks Accounting & Payroll
Prepare estimates or bids for jobs and projects		X
Track time by employee, activity or project		X
Compare estimated vs. actual job costs		X
Quickly find costs of jobs from last year		X
Create invoices based on timesheet entries		X
Create customisable invoices	X	X
Track expenses by customer or project	X	X
Write and print cheques (including pay cheques)	X	X
Calculate payroll earnings and deductions	X	X
Track accounts payable & accounts receivable	X	X
Track stock	X	X
Write purchase orders	X	X
Manage company credit card & checking accounts	X	X
Manage cash flow	X	X
Create and track project budgets	X	X
Maintain an audit trail	X	X
Report tax figures quickly and easily	X	X
Print financial reports and graphs	X	X
Keep track of customers and vendors	X	X
What kinds of businesses use QuickBooks Accounting & Payroll?

Businesses that prepare estimates or track time and expenses by project, job or client.  Businesses like:

Accountants & bookkeepers	Electricians	Painters
Advertising agencies	Engineering firms	Photographers
Appliance installers	General contractors	Plumbers
Architects	Graphic designers	Printing service bureaus
Construction firms	Interior designers	Repair shops
Consultants	Landscapers	Subcontractors
Copywriters	Legal firms	and many more!!


QuickBooks supplies

Extend the power of QuickBooks with QuickBooks cheques and forms.

What can QuickBooks cheques and forms do for me?

Saves time

When you use QuickBooks cheques and forms, you can enter, record and print your cheques and forms all at once.  No more hand-writing or typing.

It's easy

 Just hit the print button and your cheques and forms are printed automatically.

Conveys a professional image

Printed cheques and forms help you look your best.

You can personalise your forms by adding your business logo.

A complete system

Choose from distinctive styles of invoices, statements, cheques, labels, and letterhead for use with both QuickBooks Accounting and QuickBooks Accounting & Payroll. Plus choose pay slips and giros for use with QuickBooks Accounting & Payroll. We have everything you need.

Call our UK partners, Business Stationery Direct, on 0800 374285 for more information or to order QuickBooks cheques and forms.

You can also find out more about our complete line of cheques, forms, and other financial supplies for use with QuickBooks from the brochure in your QuickBooks package.

If you are using QuickBooks Accounting & Payroll, prepare yourself for any changes in Payroll Tax legislation with QuickBooks Payroll Update Cover.

What can QuickBooks Payroll Update Cover do for me?

Peace of mind

As an employer you are responsible for ensuring that you always calculate and withhold the correct tax amounts from your employees. If you take out QuickBooks Payroll Update Cover, you wont have to worry any more as well automatically send you modified software and tax tables to cater for any legislation changes that affect the way QuickBooks calculates tax withholdings.

Saves time

No need to spend time researching and understanding the nuances of tax legislation changes as the automatic updates you receive will handle these changes for you.

Call the QuickBooks Payroll Update Cover line on 0800 072 7375 for more information or to subscribe to the QuickBooks Payroll Update Cover service.

You can also find out more about the QuickBooks Cover services from the brochure in your QuickBooks package.

Refer to the QuickBooks User Guide or the Payroll update Cover website at

http://www.intuit.co.uk/support/quickbooks/services/tts.htm

for the complete terms and conditions of the QuickBooks Payroll Update Cover service.


Handling Cash

Depositing money into the Petty Cash Account

Paying Bills with Petty Cash

Handing out Petty Cash to employees

Converting your DOS QuickBooks data

Converting from DOS QuickBooks and moving to a new computer

What to do next

To deposit money into the petty cash account:

1.	Click on Activities => Make Deposits.

2.	Tick the payments received that you wish to deposit into the petty cash account, and click OK.

3.	Enter the name of the petty cash account in the Deposit to field at the top of the window.

4.	Change the date to the date you made the deposit, and click OK.

To pay bills with petty cash:

1.	Click on Activities => Pay Bills.

2.	In the Pay by field tick the dial for Cheque.

3.	Tick the To be printed box so that a cheque number is not entered in the account number field.

4.	Tick the bills you want to pay with cash just like you would normally do.

5.	Click OK.

To pay bills with cash that have not been entered in the enter bills window, or to hand out petty cash to employees:

1.	Open the Write Cheques window and select the Petty Cash account in the Bank Account field at the top of the Write Cheques window.

2.	In the cheque number field put the word cash.  If the word to print is in this field take the tick out of the to be printed box on the right hand side.

3.	Fill in the cheque as normal, and click OK.

What to do next

Become familiar with Windows

If you're new to Windows, you'll need to learn some basic techniques. Try the tutorial that comes with Windows.


Contact management

Printing this document and returning to the interview

Contact management overview

Taking notes about customers

Scheduling callbacks to customers

Tracking special customer information

Viewing the history of a customer's balance

Creating special mailings to customers

Transferring data to and from other programs

Printing this document and returning to the interview

To print this document:

From the File menu, choose Print.

To return to the interview:

Close this Help window.

Contact management overview

QuickBooks provides several ways for you to stay in touch with your customers. Using QuickBooks features, you can take notes about customers, schedule times to call customers, track special information, view a customer's balance history, and send mailings to customers.

For more information, see the "Keeping in contact" and the "Customers and jobs" chapters in the User's Guide.

Taking notes about customers

QuickBooks provides a "notepad" on which you can make notes about a customer or a specific job for a customer. These notes can help you keep track of important dates and information for a customer or job.

Your notes are always available. You can return to your notes by doing any of the following:

Double-clicking the notepad icon in the Customer:Job list

Clicking Notes when you are viewing the customer's record

Choosing Notepad from the Edit menu when you are writing an invoice

Scheduling callbacks to customers

When you are entering notes about a customer, you can also schedule a time to call the customer back. QuickBooks reminds you when the time comes.

To schedule a callback, all you have to do is click the New To Do button when you are entering notes about the customer. You then type a reminder to yourself to call the customer and enter the date you want QuickBooks to display the reminder.

Tracking special customer information

Have you ever needed sales information about a particular segment of your customer base? Would you like to make customised mailings to customers who have special interests? Do you need to keep track of specialised information about each customer? You can do all of these things in QuickBooks by using customer types and custom fields.

Use customer types to categorise your customers

The New Customer and Edit Customer windows have a Type field on the Additional Info tab. You can use this field to categorise each customer in a way that is meaningful to your business. This, in turn, helps you see what kind of customer does the most business with you.

Here are a few examples:

A commercial photographer might use customer types to record a customer's primary interest: christenings, portraiture, weddings, etc.

A building contractor might use customer types to record a client's market segment: residential, commercial, or industrial.

Once you have set up your customer types, you can create reports that provide useful information about the different types of customers you serve. For example, if you have categorised your customers by market segment, you can create a separate sales report for each segment. For details on how to limit a report to specific data, see the section on filtering reports in the "Reports and graphs" chapter of the User's Guide.

Use customer types to set up special mailings

Another advantage of customer types is that you can use them to set up special mailings. When you print mailing labels, you can print them only for particular customer types.

Use custom fields to enter special information

Custom fields let you associate special information with customers. For example, you can add a field to keep track of customer birthdays. Your custom fields appear on the Additional Info tab of each customer's record.

Here are a few examples of the kind of customer-related information you can track through custom fields:

Birthdays

Names of family members

E-mail addresses

Credit ratings

Sales regions

Product line preferences

For details on how to add custom fields to your sales forms, see the section on customising sales forms in the "Forms" chapter of the User's Guide.

Viewing the history of a customer's balance

QuickBooks provides two ways to get information about a customer's balance: a customer register and a QuickReport. You can display both with just a few clicks of the mouse.

If you need to see the entire history of a customer's balance, you can open the customer's register. A customer register is an accounts receivable register for just one customer -- every customer (and every job) on your Customer:Job list has one. The register lists all invoices, payments, and credit memos you've entered for that customer (or job) since you began keeping your QuickBooks records.

Creating special mailings to customers

QuickBooks provides two features to help you create special mailings to customers: mail merge and mailing labels.

Writing form letters

You can use QuickBooks' mail merge feature in combination with a word processor to create form letters. For example, if your company is moving and you want to send a letter to your customers about your new address, you would first write the letter in a word processor and then use mail merge to incorporate the customer names and addresses in the letter.

Printing mailing labels

QuickBooks makes it easy to print mailing labels. All you have to do is select the names for the labels you want to print. You can have QuickBooks sort the labels by either name or postal code. And if you want to print labels for a special segment of your customer base, you can use customer types to limit the mailing to just those customers.

Transferring data to and from other programs

You can transfer data you've entered about your customers to other programs such as spreadsheets, databases, and word processors. Mail merge, which transfers names and addresses to word processors, is one example of what you can do. You can also transfer all of your customer-related information -- including your customer notes and custom field entries -- by using the Export command on the File menu.

You can also transfer a list of customer names and addresses into QuickBooks from another program such as a contact manager or a spreadsheet. To make the transfer, you must first prepare the list as an import file.

For more information

For details on how to export your Customer:Job list to another program, see the section on exporting data in the "Maintaining your data" chapter of the User's Guide.

For details on how to create an import file for QuickBooks, go to QuickBooks on-line Help. In the Help window, click Search and search for "import files." In the list of topics, double-click "Creating an import file."


For users of Quicken (Windows, Macintosh, and DOS)
For users of Quicken for Windows
and Quicken 6 for DOS

Printing this document and returning to QuickBooks

Quicken users overview

Comparing QuickBooks and Quicken

Which conversion option should I choose?

Preparing your Quicken data for conversion

Creating a QuickBooks company with Quicken data

Changing to QuickBooks accounts receivable

Changing to QuickBooks accounts payable

Differences in your new QuickBooks data/Cash Accounting notes

Editing your Other Names list

Before you begin using QuickBooks

Printing this document and returning to QuickBooks

To print this document:

From the File menu, choose Print Topic.

To return to QuickBooks:

Close this Help window.

Quicken users overview

This document explains how to convert your Quicken data into QuickBooks data and the differences you will see between the two programs.

You'll need to make some adjustments to your new QuickBooks company to take advantage of features that Quicken does not offer.

QuickBooks incorporates what Intuit has learned from the experiences and needs of hundreds of thousands of business users of Quicken. If you've been using Quicken for your small business, QuickBooks will seem very familiar. But don't assume QuickBooks works exactly like Quicken!

QuickBooks includes features specifically tailored to business needs. You should expect to spend more time becoming acquainted with QuickBooks than you may have spent in the past with upgrade versions of Quicken.

Versions of Quicken you can convert

The following table shows what you'll need to do for specific versions of Quicken,and QuickInvoice data:

If your data is from:	QuickBooks 5.0 can read and update from versions:
Quicken for Windows	2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Quicken for DOS	6
QuickInvoice	1
Comparing QuickBooks and Quicken

Look over the terminology and feature differences between Quicken and QuickBooks. Once you understand the few differences between the programs, QuickBooks will feel very familiar.

Terminology differences

Quicken uses terms familiar to anyone who has used a chequebook . QuickBooks uses a few terms that are standard in business bookkeeping and terms that reflect the increased power and convenience of QuickBooks for business.

The following table lists the most important differences in terms. It does not list the many completely new QuickBooks 5.0 features and terms.

Quicken term	QuickBooks term	Definition
File	Company	All records related to one bookkeeping entity (one set of books).
Account	Balance sheet account	A grouping of records related to one kind of asset, liability, or equity.  These accounts appear on a balance sheet.
Category	Income or expense account	A grouping of transactions related to one kind of income or expense.  These accounts appear on a profit and loss statement (income statement).
Category and Transfer List plus Account List	Chart of Accounts	The QuickBooks Chart of Accounts is equal to the Quicken account list (balance sheet accounts) plus the Quicken category list (income and expense accounts).  You can add, edit, or delete any kind of account in QuickBooks.
Feature differences

The following table lists features that exist in both Quicken and QuickBooks, but that work differently in QuickBooks than what you're used to in Quicken.

Feature	Quicken	QuickBooks
Entering transactions	Enters most transactions in registers.	Enters most transactions in forms (cheque window, invoice window, and so on).  (You can also enter transactions in most registers.
Write Cheques	Displays a cheque that looks like a paper cheque..	Displays a business cheque with voucher area (so the "split" is part of the cheque form).
Classes	Use a slash (/) to separate a category from a class in transactions.	Enter classes in separate fields. No need for a slash (/) as a separator.  In QuickBooks, jobs and projects can be associated with customers as part of the Customer:Job list, so you can use classes for different kinds of classification.
Transfers	Use brackets [  ] to indicate a transfer to another balance sheet account.	No need to use brackets. QuickBooks handles transfers like any other transaction.
Passwords	One password for entering and viewing data.	Four levels of password protection (including one for payroll).
Reports	Offers reports for personal finance and investments. Has only a few business reports.	Omits personal finance reports and investment reports. Offers over 60 pre-designed reports for businesses that can be customised as necessary.
Subaccounts	Categories can have subcategories, but accounts cannot have subaccounts.	All accounts, even balance sheet accounts, can have subaccounts.
Payroll accounts  (If you set up your accounts as described in the Quicken manual)	A separate liability account for each tax withheld and for each other payroll liability.	You can continue using your old liability accounts. However, with the new system of tracking by using payroll items, you can put all payroll liabilities into a single liability account and track all of your payroll expenses in a single expense type account
New and renamed balance sheet accounts

Balance sheet accounts (assets, liabilities, and equity) are those accounts whose balances affect your balance sheet report. QuickBooks and Quicken have similar kinds of balance sheet accounts, but QuickBooks adds some and uses different names for some account types. When you convert a Quicken file for use in QuickBooks, the program automatically creates QuickBooks accounts most like your Quicken accounts.

Should you continue using Quicken for some things?

Once you're using QuickBooks for your business, you'll probably want to continue using Quicken for your personal finances.

Here are some personal finance activities you can perform only with Quicken:

Track investments

Quicken includes investment tracking and reporting. Quicken updates the market values when you enter the latest share prices, and it reports on average annual total return, capital gains, and investment income.

Amortise mortgage loans

Each time you record a payment made on a loan, Quicken updates the amount of payments made and calculates the amount credited to principal and interest.

Create reports for personal finances

Quicken has many preset reports, such as the tax return report, designed for personal use.

Which conversion option should I choose?

If you are currently using Quicken to do your business' bookkeeping and are considering converting your Quicken data to QuickBooks, please read the following:

Quicken is a flexible tool that allows you to enter bills, invoices, payments and other business transactions in many different ways. You may choose to enter a set of bills, invoices, payments, etc. into Quicken in a completely different manner than another person. Unfortunately, this flexibility means that Quicken can not report critical business information, such as ageing status of invoices, paid status of bills, equity, invoice due reminders, etc. Quicken has no way of knowing exactly how you have chosen to enter the information. A payee on one transaction can be a customer, while a payee on another transaction can be a vendor or even a general description of the transaction. Also, you can apply VAT to any type of transaction ranging from an invoice to a transfer of funds from one account to another. Because of the generic format of this data, Quicken has no way of analysing it effectively for the purposes of supplying sophisticated business information in clear understandable reports.

QuickBooks has been developed specifically to address the additional reporting sophistication that many small and medium sized businesses require. In order to provide ageing reports, payment links, equity accounts, reminders, etc. QuickBooks provides for more structured data entry. Every transaction must have a name from the customer, vendor, employee, or other names list. Invoices must be entered in special Accounts Receivable accounts while bills must be entered in special Accounts Payable accounts. VAT can only be applied to the types of transactions that normally include VAT, i.e. invoices, bills, cheques, cash sales receipts and credit card charges.

The differences between Quicken and QuickBooks mean that converting all of your Quicken transactions, lists, standing orders etc. to QuickBooks is not a completely trivial task. The conversion routine has to try its best to interpret the information you have entered in Quicken and create QuickBooks transactions that will result in the same figures appearing on your Balance Sheet, P & L, and VAT reports.

Unfortunately, this can result in confusing entries in your new QuickBooks data and will likely require a substantial amount of your time tidying the various lists and registers that the conversion creates.


Do you have more than 500 Quicken transactions? ------------------------------------------

If you have more than about 500 Quicken transactions you will likely find that it takes too much time to tidy up your QuickBooks data if you choose to convert all of your Quicken data to QuickBooks.

Remember that every transaction in QuickBooks must have a name from a list. That means that every payee you have ever entered in Quicken will be added to your QuickBooks Other Names list. For example if you had payees such as "Joe Bloggs", "J. Bloggs", and "Temporary Cash Advance" in Quicken transactions, they would all appear separately on your Other Names list in QuickBooks. You can see that this Other Names list will become quite large if you have a number of different payees in Quicken. You can merge these names as described in the "General Notes On Conversion" below, but this can take a great deal of time.

Do you have VAT tracking enabled for any assets or liabilities in Quicken? ------------

If you have VAT tracking enabled for any assets or liabilities in Quicken (with the exception of your Accounts Receivable account) and you have entered VAT related transactions in those accounts, you will end up with what appear to be confusing entries in QuickBooks if you choose to convert all of your Quicken data to QuickBooks.

QuickBooks does not allow you to apply VAT to transactions appearing in other asset or other liability accounts or to deposits directly into your bank accounts. If you have used Quicken to track Accounts Payable or have entered any transactions with VAT codes into these types of accounts, the conversion will create a bank account called Quicken Special Transactions. It will then enter 0 amount multiple line cheques into this account in order to record the VAT properly. After conversion you may find that you have quite a number of these confusing entries in your new QuickBooks data file, but you can not delete them because this will change the figures on your reports.

Do you track VAT on a cash basis? ---------------------------------

If you have been applying VAT codes to the payments you receive from customers when you enter these deposits in Quicken you will end up with what appear to be confusing entries in QuickBooks, if you choose to convert all of your Quicken data.

QuickBooks handles cash based VAT in a very different and much superior manner to Quicken (please see the manual for more information on how to track VAT on a cash basis in QuickBooks). If you have entered VAT codes on the deposits from your customers in Quicken, the conversion has to create a bank account called Quicken Special Transactions and record multiple line cheques to ensure that the numbers appear correctly on your QuickBooks reports. Unfortunately, these entries can be quite confusing and are inconsistent with the way you will track cash based VAT from this point onward.


If you fall into any of the categories above, Intuit strongly recommend that you follow the steps for the "List Only Conversion" below as this requires the least QuickBooks data refinement on your part. If you choose either of the two remaining conversion options, please be prepared to spend a significant amount of time tidying up and be aware that your QuickBooks data will probably contain many transactions that are not immediately clear.

See the three options described below for more information.

Option 1 - List Only Conversion -------------------------------

Do you have more than about 500 transactions in your Quicken file?

Do you track Accounts Payable?

Do you tracking VAT on a cash basis?

If you answered "Yes" to ANY of these questions, Intuit strongly recommend this limited conversion option in favour of the more comprehensive options because it results in the most immediately useable QuickBooks data file.

After following the "List Only Conversion" steps, your QuickBooks data file will contain your chart of accounts, your opening balances in each of your balance sheet accounts, your vendors' names and addresses, your standing order list, your class list, your income and expense account budgets, and your customer and item lists if you use QuickInvoice.

Note: This conversion should ideally be done at the end of your next VAT quarter so that you don't have to refer to both Quicken and QuickBooks to complete your VAT return.

1.  Open your business data from within Quicken.

2.  Print whatever report you use to determine what your customers owe you as of the beginning of your new VAT quarter.

3.  Print whatever report you use to determine what you owe your vendors as of the beginning of your new VAT quarter.

4.  Choose File->File Operations->Copy from the menu bar.

5.  Enter the first 8 letters of your company name (without spaces) for the new file name.  Make a note of this name here __________

6.  Leave the location as is.

7.  Enter the first day of your new VAT quarter for the "From" date and enter the same for the "To" date .

8.  Uncheck "Copy All Prior Uncleared Transactions, and press Enter.

9.  Once the file has successfully been copied, choose "Load New Copy" and press  Enter.

10. Be sure that the title bar reads "Quicken 3[or 2] for Windows - <Filename from step 5>".

11. Choose Edit->Preferences->QuickFill from Quicken 3 for Windows or Preferences->QuickFill from Quicken 2 for Windows.

12. If you do NOT use Quicken to print cheques, skip to 17. 13. If you do use Quicken to print cheques, be sure to check the box that reads "Automatic Memorisation of New Transactions" and press ENTER.

14. Press CTRL+T to access the Memorised Transaction List.

15. Delete any memorised transactions that are not of type "Chq".

16. Skip to 18.

17. Be sure to uncheck "Automatic Memorisation of New Transactions" and press ENTER.

18. Exit Quicken and follow the steps in the Getting Started Guide for converting your data to QuickBooks and choose the file name from step 5 when asked which file to convert.

19. Use the report from step 2 to enter a dummy invoice in your Accounts Receivable account for each of your customers. On each invoice, use the day before your new VAT quarter as the date, use the invoice item called "Open Bal" (that you create with Opening Balance Equity as account and no VAT code) as the item, enter an amount equal to that which your customer owes you and no VAT code.  Once you have recorded all of these dummy invoices, the balance of your A/R account should be exactly twice what it originally was. If so, delete the entry assigned to "No Name" that the conversion entered in the Accounts Receivable account.

20. Use the report from step 3 to enter the opening balances for each of your vendors as described in the Getting Started Guide.

21. View the chart of accounts in QuickBooks and make a note of the current balances of accounts you had been reconciling in Quicken. Open each of these accounts in Quicken. If any of the transactions in Quicken don't have an "X" in the "Clr" column, you will have to re-enter these in QuickBooks so that you can reconcile them against your bank and credit card statements in the future. Once you have entered all of these transactions, be sure to adjust the entry in each of these accounts that is transferred to the Opening Balance Equity account, so that the current balances of these accounts match what you made a note of earlier.

Your QuickBooks data file should now be ready for regular use.

Option 2 - Current Financial Year Conversion --------------------------------------------

Do you have fewer than 500 transactions in your current financial year?

Do you have relatively few Accounts Payable transactions? Do you track VAT on an Accrual basis?

If you answered "Yes" to ALL of these questions, this conversion option may be worthwhile.

After following the "Current Financial Year Conversion" steps below, your QuickBooks data file will contain all of the information described in the "List Only Conversion" routine above in addition to all of your transactions for this financial year. Thus your Balance Sheet, P & L, and VAT Reports will show the correct figures for this financial year.

1.  Open your business data from within Quicken.

2.  Print whatever report you use to determine what your customers owe you as of the beginning of your current financial year.

3.  Print whatever report you use to determine what you owe your vendors as of the beginning of your current financial year.

4.  Choose File->File Operations->Copy from the menu bar.

5.  Enter the first 8 letters of your company name (without spaces) for the new file name.  Make a note of this name here __________

6.  Leave the location as is.

7.  Enter the day before your current financial year for the "From" date and leave the "To" date as is.

8.  Uncheck "Copy All Prior Uncleared Transactions", and press Enter.

9.  Once the file has successfully been copied, choose "Load New Copy" and press Enter.

10. Be sure that the title bar reads "Quicken 3[or 2] for Windows - <Filename from step 5>".

11. Exit Quicken and follow the steps in the Getting Started Guide for converting your data to QuickBooks and choose the file name from step 5 when asked which file to convert.

12. Use the report from step 2 to enter a dummy invoice in your Accounts Receivable account for each of your customers. On each invoice, use the day before your new financial year as the date, use the invoice item called "Open Bal" (that you create with Opening Balance Equity as account and no VAT code) as the item, enter an amount equal to that which your customer owes you and no VAT code. Once you have recorded all of these dummy invoices, the balance of your A/R account should be exactly twice what it originally was. If so, delete the entry assigned to "No Name" that the conversion entered in the Accounts Receivable account.

13. Use the report from step 3 to enter the opening balances for each of your vendors as described in the Getting Started Guide.

14. Finally, you can go through your list of Other Names and merge those that should be the same as described in the "General Notes On Conversion" below, but be prepared to spend some time on this.

Your QuickBooks data file should now be ready for regular use, but please note that it will likely contain entries that do not appear to make sense. QuickBooks has created these transactions so that your QuickBooks reports will contain the same information as your Quicken reports.

Option 3 - Complete Conversion ------------------------------

Do you have fewer than 500 transactions in your Quicken data file?

Do you have relatively few Accounts Payable transactions? Do you track VAT on an Accrual basis?

If you answered "Yes" to ALL of these questions, you may want to consider this conversion option.

After following the "Complete Conversion" steps below, your QuickBooks data file will contain all of the information described in the "Current Financial Year Conversion" but it will not be limited to this financial year. It will contain all of your Quicken transactions from the very first entry in Quicken. Thus, you will be able to generate Balance Sheet, P & L, and VAT reports for any year you wish.

1.  Follow the steps for converting your QuickBooks data as described in the Getting Started Guide.

2.  Once complete, you can go through your list of Other Names and merge those that should be the same, as described in the "General Notes On Conversion" below. However, be prepared to spend a substantial amount of time cleaning these lists up.

Please note that after following these steps, your QuickBooks data will probably have a large number of transactions that don't appear to make sense. The conversion has created these in order that your reports contain the same information as they did in Quicken.

Because of the time necessary to tidy up your data and because you will likely end up with a number of confusing entries if you follow the "Complete Conversion", Intuit strongly recommend that you choose the "List Only Conversion" option described above.

General Notes On Conversion ---------------------------

Every payee in Quicken will be added to either the Other Name list or Customer list in QuickBooks. If two names should really be one, i.e. "Joe Bloggs" and "J. Bloggs", you can merge them by editing the second and changing its name to exactly match that of the first. When you click OK, QuickBooks will ask whether or not you want to merge the names. Please note that if you have a large number of transactions, each merge will take several seconds or more.

The conversion has no way of knowing how you were tracking Accounts Payable. Therefore, your Quicken A/P account will be converted to an Other Current Liability in QuickBooks and you will have to manually enter your outstanding balance for each vendor as described in the Getting Started Guide.

If you entered any VAT related transactions in other asset or other liability accounts or on deposits directly into your current account in Quicken, the conversion will create a bank account call Quicken Special Transactions.

It will enter 0 amount multiple line cheques in this account in order to display the VAT information correctly on reports. If you delete these entries, your reports will no longer be correct.

QuickBooks does not have a special account type for cash. If you used a cash type account in Quicken, the conversion will convert it to a bank account in QuickBooks.

You should continue to use this account to record your petty cash payments. Any time one of these payments includes VAT, be sure to enter this transaction on the "Write Cheques" screen for this cash account. Even though this cash payment is not really a cheque, the figures will appear correctly on the reports.

The conversion automatically creates an account called Opening Balance Equity that will contain all transactions that were one-sided transfers in Quicken.

Since QuickBooks supports accounts in only one currency, it does not convert Quicken transactions in accounts in foreign currencies.

Preparing your Quicken data for conversion

You may need to make some changes to your Quicken account list, your memorised transaction list, and customer list to make the transition from Quicken to QuickBooks as smooth as possible.

If you plan to continue using Quicken with this data (for example, if you had combined business and personal finances in your Quicken file), make a backup copy of your Quicken file to convert before you make any of the following changes.

Convert only the accounts you want to use in QuickBooks

Before you convert to QuickBooks, delete accounts in Quicken that you know you won't want in QuickBooks. In QuickBooks, you cannot delete accounts that contain transactions, but in Quicken you can. So it's easier to delete accounts you know you won't want before you convert.

You might want to delete some accounts from your Quicken file in the following situations:

You have personal accounts as well as business accounts in your Quicken file.

 	You have an investment account in your Quicken file.

Your Quicken investment account would be converted to a QuickBooks Other Current Asset type account because QuickBooks does not have a special feature to track investments. You can keep the QuickBooks Other Current Asset account, using it simply as a way to include the value of your investments in your QuickBooks balance sheet. Continue tracking your investments in Quicken and update the QuickBooks Other Current Asset account balance periodically. Or you can delete the investment account from the file you're converting to QuickBooks and continue to track investments only in Quicken.

Review your memorised and scheduled transactions

If you have overdue scheduled transactions in your Quicken file, record them before converting.

If the option for memorising all transactions is turned off in Quicken, QuickBooks converts all your memorised and schedule transactions.

On the other hand, if the option is turned on, QuickBooks does not convert stand-alone memorised transactions. It converts only scheduled transactions and transaction groups (whether scheduled or not).

Therefore, if you have memorised transactions in Quicken that you'd rather not retype in QuickBooks, you can do one of two things:

Turn off the QuickFill option for memorising all transactions in Quicken. Delete any memorised transactions you do not want to convert.

 	Put all the memorised transactions you want to convert into a memorised transaction group in Quicken. QuickBooks always converts memorised transaction groups. After the conversion is complete, you can remove the memorised transactions from the group and use them as you did in Quicken.

Make customer names consistent

When you convert to QuickBooks, names in your accounts receivable register become customers, and transactions become invoices and payments. If you used different names for the same customer in Quicken, QuickBooks won't link the customer's invoices and payments correctly. (For example, perhaps you have your customer Ariana Ratzlaff listed as Ariana Ratzlaff, A. Ratzlaff, and Ariana N. Ratzlaff.) To avoid this problem, edit your customer names in Quicken so that each customer goes by only one name.

Creating a QuickBooks company with Quicken data

You can use your data from Quicken with QuickBooks. When you first choose a Quicken file to use with QuickBooks, the program automatically copies your Quicken data to files in the QuickBooks format for a "company."

QuickBooks does not change your original Quicken files in any way. You can continue to use those original files with Quicken. You may want to continue using Quicken for personal finance and for investment accounts. There is no connection between your Quicken data and your new QuickBooks company. QuickBooks has created a new set of data files for you to use with QuickBooks.

Converting your Quicken file

To convert your Quicken file into a QuickBooks company:

1.	Make sure that Quicken is not running.

2.	Double-click the QuickBooks icon to run the program.

3.	From the File menu in QuickBooks, choose Convert from Quicken.

4.	Select the Quicken data file you want to convert and click OK.

5.	Enter a filename for your new QuickBooks data file.

6.	(Optional) Change the default directory for your new data file.

7.	Click OK.

If your file is protected with a password, enter the password.

QuickBooks tells you it is converting your Quicken data.

8.	During the conversion, answer the question about whether you've been tracking accounts receivable in Quicken.

Select the Quicken account or accounts you use for A/R.

Using the mouse, check off the asset account(s) you've been using as accounts receivable accounts to track customer invoices and invoice payments.

Be sure NOT to select your current account. If you choose the wrong accounts, you will have to convert again.

Click OK.

QuickBooks uses the data from your Quicken A/R account to create a QuickBooks A/R account.

9.	When QuickBooks displays messages about the Other Names list, click Display List to view the names on the list now.

10.	Click OK to the "Conversion is successful" message.

11.	(Optional) Click View Documents when QuickBooks displays a message about the documents.  Click the particular industry that is closest to your own.

Changing to QuickBooks accounts receivable

If you have been tracking accounts receivable (A/R) in Quicken and your A/R account was an asset account, you can convert your existing Quicken A/R to QuickBooks A/R.

As QuickBooks begins converting your Quicken accounts, it gives you a chance to identify which of your Quicken accounts you have been using as accounts receivable (A/R) accounts.

The transactions in your Quicken A/R account are converted in the following ways:

This item in your Quicken A/R account...	...is converted to this in QuickBooks:
Each transaction that increases your A/R balance	An invoice to a customer
Each transaction that decreases your A/R balance and has only one split line	A payment from a customer
Each transaction that decreases your A/R balance and has more than one split line, (for example: a payment with a VAT Code transferred to your bank account (When using the Cash basis Accounting method)	A credit memo to a customer
Each payee	A customer on your QuickBooks Customer:Job list
Each category	Both an item on your Item list and an income account on your chart of accounts
QuickBooks marks invoices as paid by assigning each payment it converts to the oldest invoices for that customer first.

The conversion saves you the time of typing in all your accounts receivable transactions, but you'll probably want to make some changes to the converted data.

For example, if the category you used in most A/R transactions was "Sales income," you'll want to change the name of the converted invoice item from "Sales income" to the product or service you actually sell, such as "Consulting hours." The converted income account, however, may be just fine as "Sales income."

To learn about using and viewing QuickBooks accounts receivable, see the "Accounts receivable management" chapter in the User's Guide.

Changing to QuickBooks accounts payable

The Quicken manual explains how to use Quicken for cash-basis accounts payable and for accrual-basis accounts payable. For a cash-basis system, the manual recommends using a Bank account and simply postdating cheques. For an accrual-basis system, the manual recommends using a Liability account. The transition to QuickBooks accounts payable is the same for either system.

If you used postdated cheques to track your bills, treat cheques you've already entered in your usual manner.

If you had a Quicken Liability account for accounts payable, it is now a QuickBooks Other Current Liability account. Continue to use it only for bills you already entered that are still outstanding. Track your payments of these bills as you did in Quicken.

QuickBooks automatically adds a new account named Accounts Payable to your chart of accounts when you enter your first bill. No matter which method you were using in Quicken, from now on, use the Enter Bills window to enter new bills into the new QuickBooks Accounts Payable account.

If you have any suppliers with outstanding balances in Quicken we suggest following these steps so that you can easily create reports showing this information:

1.   Create a report in Quicken that displays each of your suppliers outstanding balances and make a note of each one. (It might be easier to print the report out and keep it for reference).

2.   In QuickBooks, select Chart of Accounts from the Lists menu and double-click on 	your old Accounts Payable account (the one you were using in Quicken).

3.   For each supplier that has an outstanding Quicken balance, enter their outstanding 	balance into the  Decrease field and select Accounts Payable in the account field.

4.   Click Record to save the transaction.

Each time you enter one of these adjusting transactions QuickBooks decreases the 	balance in your old Quicken Accounts Payable account and increases the balance in the 	new QuickBooks Accounts Payable account.

5.   When the balance of the old account is 0 you are ready to continue.

Change your payees to QuickBooks vendors

Quicken payees are now on the Other Names list in QuickBooks. You must move vendor names from the Other Names list to the Vendor list before you can use them in QuickBooks accounts payable. See "Editing your Other Names list" later in this document.

If QuickBooks converted memorised transactions for Quicken accounts payable, delete them. They will not work in QuickBooks accounts payable.

For complete information about using QuickBooks for accounts payable, see the "Accounts payable management" chapter in your User's Guide.

Differences in your new QuickBooks data

Following is a list of the differences in your new QuickBooks data as compared to your Quicken data.

 	For each account in the Quicken file, QuickBooks creates a balance sheet account of the type closest to the Quicken account type. Your Quicken accounts will be classified as shown in the table below.

Quicken account type	Converted to QuickBooks account type
Bank	Bank
Credit Card	Credit Card
Cash	Other Current Asset
Asset	Other Current Asset
Liability	Other Current Liability
Investment	Other Current Asset
 	In a few cases, you may not want to continue using the account that QuickBooks created automatically.

For example, you may have been using an Other Liability account for equity in Quicken. In QuickBooks, you can change that account to an Equity type account.

To learn how to change or delete QuickBooks accounts, see the chapter titled "Chart of accounts," in your User's Guide.

QuickBooks creates an Opening Bal Equity account. This is an account that helps you set up. When you create new accounts and enter their opening balances, QuickBooks automatically enters the amount in the Opening Bal Equity account, so that your accounts balance. You can leave the Opening Bal Equity amount, or you can distribute the amount to other equity accounts.

QuickBooks does not convert memorised reports.

 	QuickBooks changes your Quicken categories and subcategories into income and expense accounts with subaccounts.

Note:  If you are using the Cash basis accounting method in Quicken the 	following things will appear in your converted QuickBooks company:

1.   On your Chart of Accounts you will see two VAT Control accounts one of 	them will have an * (asterix) before the name.

To change this you will need to delete the opening balance transaction from the VAT 	Control account that does NOT have an * asterix before the name.  Once youve 	done that you can delete that account from the Chart of Accounts.   Then if you want 	to you can edit the *VAT Control account and remove the * asterix.

2.   In Quicken when you receive or make a payment you would have probably 	entered a transfer to or from your bank account with a VAT Code assigned.  In 	QuickBooks these transactions appear as Credit Memos.  Your numbers will 	still appear correctly.

Editing your Other Names list

QuickBooks places the name or description from every Quicken transaction (except in your A/R account) on the Other Names list. Thus, your QuickBooks Other Names list will contain not only names of customers, vendors, and employees but also descriptions such as "Deposit," "Transfer," and "Interest."

Important:	Once you change the name type, you cannot undo the change.

To change the name type for several names on your Other Names list:

1.	From the Change Names Type window, click the appropriate column (Customer, Vendor, Employee) for each name you want to move to another list.

2.	Click OK.

To merge  similar names:

1.	From the Lists menu, choose Other Names.

2.	Select a name you want to merge into another name, and click Edit.

3.	Edit the name so that it is exactly like the name you want to keep.

4.	Click OK.

5.	When QuickBooks asks whether you want to merge this name with the existing name, click Yes.

Before you begin using QuickBooks

Fill in your QuickBooks company information.

From the File menu, choose Company Info.

Turn on the QuickBooks features you plan to use.

If you track VAT, turn on the VAT preference and then enter your VAT registration number and select when your VAT reporting begins.

If you track stock or write purchase orders, turn on the preference for stock and purchase orders.

If you plan to use QuickBooks for payroll, turn on the payroll feature.