How to Use Quickbooks: Learn the Basics

QuickBooks is one of the most trusted and popular accounting software programs. QuickBooks-Blog, in a Sept 2008 blog post, estimates that QuickBooks sales account for 78 percent to 94.2 percent of all small business accounting software program sales. These numbers remain true in 2011.

Learning how to use QuickBooks is a valuable skill for both the accountant and the small business owner. Using QuickBooks properly can make routine bookkeeping tasks less time consuming and more accurate. Less time spent on bookkeeping frees up more time to spend on managing your business and increasing your sales. QuickBooks also gives you the tools for getting better and more accurate information for financial reports, management decisions, and tax returns.

Before you begin to learn how to use QuickBooks, take some time to review the volume and type of data that you have in your business. The main areas of bookkeeping for a typical small business tend to be invoicing, writing checks, managing sales orders, and payroll.

Once you have determined the basic needs and volume of your business bookkeeping, then choose your QuickBooks program. The two main choices for a typical small business are QuickBooks Online (free trial and then $12.95 per month as of Jan 2011) and QuickBooks Pro (less than $200.00 as of Jan 2011). For a beginner, these are good packages to start with, and you likely will never have a need to upgrade from either of these.

QuickBooks Premier offers specialized packages, such as contractor, nonprofit, or manufacturing packages. These packages can be very beneficial. However, I generally recommend to clients that they start with QuickBooks Pro, become familiar with the programs, and then determine if they want to upgrade to Premier. The data will transfer when you upgrade.

QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions is not really a beginner program and is best installed with the assistance of a skilled accountant or QuickBooks professional. Among other features, it has the capacity to maintain inventory in detail and also has the capacity for much more volume than Pro or Premier. Again, for a beginner or for a small business intending to maintain their own books, it is probably best to start with QuickBooks Pro and then migrate up to Enterprise once you have learned QuickBooks basics and have a very good sense of exactly what functions you want QuickBooks to do for your business.

If you want to have QuickBooks calculate your payroll and print your payroll forms, then you will need to purchase a separate Payroll module, such as QuickBooks Payroll Enhanced to use with your QuickBooks package. This usually costs less than $200.00 per year. This package is not required if you are willing to manually calculate your payroll and fill out your own payroll forms, or if you use an outside payroll service.

It is important that your QuickBooks be set up and installed properly before you begin using it. QuickBooks has an excellent "interview" process for setting up a new company when you first start your software. You should carefully use each of the steps, including choosing a standard chart of accounts. Most skilled bookkeepers will easily use these interview steps. If you are uncomfortable with the set up process, then have a QuickBooks professional help you with the set up of your program.

Now you are ready to learn QuickBooks. It is advisable to start with one section of your bookkeeping, such as writing checks, and learn this function for a week or two and then add other functions, such as invoicing, becoming comfortable with each function before adding another.

Another option would be to set up a mock company with your QuickBooks program, using a name such as My Training Company, and use this to key in your data and practice while you are learning how to use QuickBooks. You can then set up your "real" company file when you are comfortable with QuickBooks.