Here are some solutions to the most common QuickBooks problems
Using the Undeposited Funds Account & Removing Old Payments From It:
The Undeposited Funds account is used to hold several payment checks from your customers until you add up the total amount and take them to the bank. Undeposited Funds plays an important role in your bank reconciliation, by letting you reconcile the actual amount deposited and instead of guessing which individual check was in included in each deposit. Depending on your version of QB, the Undeposited Funds preference will be turned on automatically. You can turn the preference on or off under Preferences- Jobs & Customers-Company Preference. A common problem is that a customer's payment is posted in Customer Payment, which posts it to Undeposited Funds. The owner now deposits the check again in the Deposit Window. This overstates income and leaves the original payment in Undeposited Funds. To correct, first reconcile your checking account, you might be able to tie individual payments in Undeposited Funds to deposits to your bank. Review & correct your Accounts Receivable to make sure a payment has not been posted twice. If your balance in Undeposited Funds remains after your bank reconciliation, you can remove those fund for each year individually. Open your Deposit window, the list of Undeposited Funds will open, click all deposit in one year, click OK. After the last line of deposits, add a line, entering the account that was overstated by the incorrect deposit, most likely an income account, with a NEGATIVE number effectively this makes the deposit zero. Repeat for each year until you Undeposited Funds account only included payments that have not yet been deposited. DEBITS & CREDITS: Type of Account Increases Decreases Normal Balance Assets: Debit Credit Debit Bank Account Building Equipment Accounts Receivables Liabilities Credit Debit Credit Credit Cards Loans Payroll Liabilities Accounts Payable Owner's Capital Credit Debit Credit Income Credit Debit Credit Expenses Debit Credit Debit |
NSF Checks:
1. Click on Lists, Item List, New to create a "bounced check" item 2. In the New Item dialog box, choose Other Charge Item, in Number/Name/Description field enter "Bounced Check" 3. Leave the Amount field blank, assign "Non" as tax code. As Account select the bank account that was deducted for the returned check. 4. Using the same steps as in 1. to 3. create an additional Other Charge item called "Returned Check Charge"; use this item to invoice customer for bank fees you incurred for the NSF check 5. Leave Amount blank, set tax code to "Non" and as account select your "Bank Charges" expense account 6. Click Customer, Create Invoices and in the dialog box that appears, select the customer with the NSF check. On the first line of the new invoice, use the "Bounced Check" item and enter the amount of the NSF check. On the second line of the invoice use the "Returned Check Charge" item and enter the amount your bank charged you for the NSF check. Send invoice to customer. Adding Detail with Sub Accounts: 1. Your advertising expenses are high; you can track what you spend for various forms of advertising by creating sub accounts in the chart of accounts. 2. The advertising categories could be: newspaper, internet, customer appreciation, flyers, TV, radio 3. In the Chart of Accounts, create a new account, name it "Newspaper" and make it a sub account of Advertising by marking the sub account box. Repeat until you have all sub accounts you need. 4. Make sure you do not post anything to the "mother" account Advertising, always choose one of the sub accounts. Anything posted to "Advertising" will show up on your P&L as Advertising-Other. If you see this on your report, double click the amount and the detail will show which items need to be spread to their sub accounts. Merging Accounts: 1. You find multiple accounts for the same purpose, like separate accounts for Postage and Mail Expense. 2. You can merge these accounts. Only accounts of the same type can be merged, so Postage Expense cannot be merged with COGS Postage. 3. To merge 2 accounts, open Chart of Accounts, select the account to be merged (eliminated), press Ctrl+E to edit the account, change the account number and description to exactly the same as the account you are merging into, the one you are keeping. Click OK, click "YES" to merge accounts. |