Scott Gregory, QuickBooks Expert

Tracking Credit Cards in QuickBooks - A New Webinar

Learn how to track purchases made on your credit card the right way in my upcoming webinar.

In the webinar, you will learn:

• How to properly set up the credit card in chart of accounts
• The right way to record purchases and payments on the card
• How to reconcile the card activity every month
• The best way to transfer balances between cards
• Much more!

THE WEBINAR WILL BE RECORDED

If you can't make the live webinar, no worries. A link will be sent to everyone that registers so you can play back the webinar at a time that works best for you.

COMPLETE DETAILS AND REGISTRATION FOR - TRACKING CREDIT CARDS IN QUICKBOOKS: THE RIGHT WAY!

BONUS! Use discount code save20 to save 20% on your registration. Discount code is only good through 5/31/11, so register today.

______________________________________________________________________________________________

How to Close an Open Sales Order in QuickBooks

Need to manually close a sales order in QuickBooks?

This situation can sometimes be the result of orders not shipping in their entirety, customers cancelling backorders or other issues.

You will find it a snap to manually close a sales order in QuickBooks.

Here's how:

• Find the sales order that needs to be closed and put it on your screen
• Head to the bottom of the order and click the "Closed" box
• A "Closed" stamp will appear at the top of the sales order as shown below (click the image for a larger display):
    

RELATED INFORMATION:

• Understanding sales orders in QuickBooks
• How to combine multiple sales orders into one invoice in QuickBooks
• What is a sales order in QuickBooks and how can it help your business?

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Put on Your Hard Hat and Rebuild Your QuickBooks Data File

There is nothing worse than starting your workday and discovering that a problem exists within your QuickBooks data file.

You can be proactive and reduce the chances of this happening by following two simple steps:

1. Verify your QuickBooks data on a regular basis
   
   By clicking in File > Utilities > Verify Data (in the menu bar), you will allow QuickBooks to run some self-diagnostics to ensure that all is well within your important critical accounting data. My suggestion is to run this at least once per month. Doing it more frequently certainly won't hurt anything.
   
   This step is especially important if your QuickBooks data is stored on a server. Many times, it is "assumed" that the data on the server is being backed up and cared for properly. Bad assumption! Unless you or someone on your staff verifies your data on a regular basis, you will have no idea that trouble is lurking in your file.
   
   
2. Rebuild Your Data File Periodically
   
   Also tucked away at the File > Utilities menu is the option to Rebuild Data. I encourage you to be proactive and do this on a regular basis as well.
   
   Think of your QuickBooks data as a series of filing cabinets that store various information. As you know from the paper-based filing cabinets in your office, things can get unorganized and messy inside those cabinets pretty fast. The same can happen inside your QuickBooks "filing cabinets".
   
   The Rebuild Data feature allows you to get in and reorganize the filing cabinets and keep your QuickBooks running in optimum fashion. My recommendation is to run this at least on a monthly basis as well. In some cases, the verification process mentioned above will indicate that a data rebuild is required and walk you through the steps to take care of it.

Naturally, other issues may exist that prevent you from accessing your QuickBooks information (i.e. computer problems, network outage, etc.). However, by verifying and rebuilding your data on a regular basis, you will have the ability to manage and monitor things and possibly prevent a headache down the road.

RELATED INFORMATION:

• Help! My QuickBooks Data File is About to Implode!
• Did Your QuickBooks Barf on Itself This Morning?

___________________________________________________________________________________________

How Do I Eliminate the Zeroes From My QuickBooks Profit and Loss?

So the boss is really picky and doesn't want accounts with a zero balance showing on your QuickBooks profit and loss report?

Good news! There is a fix for that.

THE ADVANCED BUTTON AWAITS YOU

Here is how to tell QuickBooks not to show zero balances on your profit and loss (or any other) report:

• Open the Profit and Loss Report
• Click the Modify Report Button in the upper left hand corner of the report
• On the Display tab, click on the Advanced button in the lower part of the window
• Here you will see three options - one of them that says Display Rows. Here, you'll want to click on the "Non-Zero" option as shown in the screen shot below
   

Once you do that, click OK and every row that had a zero on it before will no longer appear in your profit and loss report.

RELATED INFORMATION ABOUT REPORTS

• Can I add a % of income column to my profit and loss report?
• Using the Audit Trail Report in QuickBooks

___________________________________________________________________________________________

The Explanation That QuickBooks Online Users Should Have Received

As tens of thousands of QuickBooks Online users know all too well, there have been several significant service outages in the last nine months.

Unfortunately, industry-leading Amazon also suffered an outage to some of their online services recently as well.

How refreshing it was to see the detailed explanation of what happened in the Amazon outage compared to the weak attempt at offering an explanation that Intuit provided during their recent outage.

Here's hoping that Intuit learns from one of the best about how to communicate effectively with those impacted by a problem with their service!

WERE YOU IMPACTED BY THE QUICKBOOKS ONLINE OUTAGE?

Please share your thoughts about how Intuit handled the outage in the comment box below. I welcome your feedback.

__________________________________________________________________________________________