Full Contact Accounting - Audio Edition show

Full Contact Accounting - Audio Edition

Summary: This is the audio from Full Contact Accounting, a weekly video podcast to help you learn QuickBooks accounting software. You'll also learn accounting and bookkeeping along the way, as some of those skills are required to really get the most out of QuickBooks. Hosted by Mike Debyah, a CPA and Advanced Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor who has taught hundreds of people how to use QuickBooks in a variety of businesses. Viewers are encouraged to submit questions and participate in discussions on the website.

Podcasts:

 Episode 17: Questions and Answers | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 23:34

After another long hiatus, I'm back!  I got lots of questions emailed to me since my last show and I answer some of them on this new episode.  I also make 2 big announcements but you'll just have to listen to find out what they are! Topics discussed include QuickBooks purchase orders, the accountant's copy (which continues to be a very popular topic), using classes to segment your reporting and using MICR software with QuickBooks. Lots of new things are happening here and if you're not already on the email list now would be a great time to sign up!  Don't miss out on the latest developments as the show continues to evolve and big changes are made.  You can sign up right on the home page. If you have any questions that you would like answered on the show please call our new voicemail line at 781-990-8827.

 Episode 16: Making Deposits | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 24:12

One of the most misunderstand areas of QuickBooks is the mysterious "Undeposited Funds" account.  This really confuses a lot of people and in this episode I try to explain how it works and why it is useful.  In order to understand it, you have to think about the process of events that take place throughout the sales cycle.  First you create an invoice, then you receive payment from your customer, then you make a deposit into the bank account. Once you analyze what happens in each of these steps, you should have a better understanding of how the Undeposited Funds account works in QuickBooks. Was this lesson helpful to you? Please let me know in the comments section down below! Sign up for my email list to get QuickBooks news and other info delivered to your inbox.

 Episode 15: Receiving Customer Payments | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 22:36

After the last 2 episodes you should have a good idea of how to create invoices to your customers.  The next step is to get paid!  The "Receive Payments" procedure in QuickBooks is pretty straightforward but there are several different possibilities to think about.  The customer can either pay the exact amount that they owe, they can give you an overpayment or an underpayment.  I briefly demonstrate each of these scenarios so you can see what happens with each one.  As always, please leave any questions about this episode in the comments section below. I also mention my new email newsletter signup that is available on the home page.  As a "thank you" for signing up you will get an e-book that I put together called the "Accounting Primer:  All the Accounting You Need To Know".

 Episode 14: Invoices and Items (continued) | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 24:08

I continue the discussion about using QuickBooks items on invoices, bills and checks.  I use a brand new company file with no other transactions to demonstrate the accounting that goes on behind the scenes when using different items.  The discussion veers into inventory territory for a while, but that is all related to items anyway. Do you have a specific item related question?  Let me know in the comments section for this episode!

 Episode 13: Invoices and Items | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

Carrying on with our discussion of customer-related activities in QuickBooks, this week we look at creating invoices.  You can't really talk about invoices without also talking about items and how they work, so this lesson combines the two. There is more info than will fit into one 20-minute lesson, so next week we will continue with items and invoices in more detail.

 Episode 12: The QuickBooks Customer Center | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 20:46

After a long hiatus...I'm back!  Since we've covered several vendor-related activities in QuickBooks, I wanted to move on to dealing with customers.  The logical place to start is with the customer center so that's the focus of this lesson.  If you watched episode 3 "The Vendor Center" you will notice that the customer center is very similar to the vendor center. If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments section.

 Episode 11: Tracking Credit Cards In QuickBooks | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 21:08

I got a couple of email questions about using credit cards so I thought that would be a good topic for this week.  It's very similar to the process of entering bills and the credit card account can be thought of as another accounts payable account.  You enter all of your credit card transactions and can then reconcile your QuickBooks against the credit card statement to make sure you haven't missed anything. There's a lot of discussion about how to enter vedor information on the individual credit card charges, whether it's necessary to enter the actual vendor name each time.  For example, do you enter every gas station as a vendor or do you use a generic "gas station" vendor?  I think it's a personal choice that everyone needs to make themselves, but personally I like to enter the real vendor name every time. I look at QuickBooks as a source of information and I try to make it as complete as possible.

 Episode 10: QuickBooks Accountant’s Copy | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 22:01

As I mentioned last week, the Accountant's Copy feature of QuickBooks is very useful and is very different than a regular backup.  It allows you to keep working in your QuickBooks data file while your accountant has a copy to work on also.  Then your accountant can export the changes they have made and you can merge those changes back into your data file.  This is the first recording since installing Windows 7 and I think my microphone level was a little too high so I apologize if the audio is a little off. It's important to note that you can only use the Accountant's Copy (or Accountant's Review) feature if you are running QuickBooks Accountant Edition! I don't know if I mention this fact in the recording or not. I'm so used to running the accountant edition that I didn't even think of it. If you have any questions about this episode please leave them in the comments section below the video.  Thanks!

 Episode 9: QuickBooks Backup and Restore | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 23:08

In this episode I walk through the process of backing up and restoring your QuickBooks data.  I also take a look at the Portable Company File which is similar to a backup.  You should take great care in developing a good backup strategy for your QuickBooks file.  The built-in backup and restore functions are pretty good and well thought out, but it tends to scare people because there is a lot of information and instruction included along the way. It's important to understand this process fully because it's one way that you will be transferring information back and forth with clients or accountants and you really don't want to mess up and lose all of your data! Hopefully by watching this I can help those people that are unsure of how to make a backup because it is so important to have a backup so that you don't lose all of your data to a computer catastrophe.  I mention the Intuit QuickBooks Online Backup Service too, but I have never used it.  If you have any experience with it, please let me know in the comments section on the website.

 Episode 8: Recording Loans From Owners | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

I got 2 questions this past week both asking about the same issue - how to account for expenses that get paid by the owner out of his/her own pocket.  It's fairly common for a small business to not have a lot of money in the bank during the start up phase and the owner tends to pay for business expenses on their personal credit cards.   You want to make sure that you get these expenses recorded on the company books and show that the company owes the money back to the owner.  I go over how to record this in QuickBooks and how to record the check when the company finally pays that money back. QuickBooks still doesn't have an easy, straight-forward way to do this. I think it should be a task that has it's own icon on the home screen because practically every business that I have ever worked with has the owner putting money in and taking it back out at some point.

 Episode 7: QuickBooks 2010 Document Management | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 21:23

Join me as I explore one of the most intriguing new features of QuickBooks 2010, a built-in document management system.  This new feature allows you to scan a document (a bill from a vendor for example) and attach it to a transaction in QuickBooks (the bill as entered into the program).  It then allows you to pull up that original source document that was scanned in directly from the transaction screen. I'm a big fan of storing documents digitally since it saves a lot of physical space. It's a great idea, but did Intuit get the implementation right?  Watch the video and then let me know what you think of this new feature.

 Episode 6: Dealing With Vendor Credits | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 12:38

You can get a credit from a vendor for a number of reasons.  The most common is probably for returning merchandise, but it may also be for a rebate or pricing error on the original bill.  No matter what the reason for the credit is, you should always make sure you use those credits and apply them against bills from that vendor.  Applying credits from vendors is one of those things in QuickBooks that confuses a lot of people.  Even thought it's a pretty simple process, they way the program is designed and laid out makes it a little difficult to figure out on your own. How many of you have had a problem in this area?  Tell me your story in the comments below the video!

 Episode 5: Paying Bills in QuickBooks | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

Last week I showed you how to enter bills into QuickBooks, which adds to your accounts payable balance.  This week I cover how to pay bills in QuickBooks, which will decrease the A/P balance.  It's actually a pretty easy process, but applying discounts and credits can be a little tricky sometimes. This is one of the features in QuickBooks that almost every business uses. Many small businesses that I've worked with don't use the invoicing feature of QuickBooks but almost all of them use the accounts payable features. It's also one of the areas where I see a lot of mistakes being made. Especially when it comes to making partial payments, receiving credits from vendors and keeping the A/P account clean and accurate.

 Episode 4: Entering Bills | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

In this episode I go over how to enter bills from vendors into QuickBooks. It doesn't matter if you keep your books on the cash or accrual method of accounting, you can still use QuickBooks to manage, track and pay those bills. Once you enter a bill into the QuickBooks system you can then keep the bill in a file folder until it's ready to be paid. Everything in that folder should match up to an entry on the Accounts Payable list at any given time. It's a great system that can really help you get organized and pay your bills on time. If you can take advantage of early payment discounts it really pays off!

 Episode 3: The Vendor Center | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

Continuing our tour of the functional areas of QuickBooks takes us to the vendor center.  As the name implies, this is where you will find information about your vendors.  Here is where Quickbooks stores your vendor's contact information as well as other set-up information about each vendor.  This is also where you will go to view historical transactions with vendors such as bills, checks and purchase orders. The Vendor Center in QuickBooks has really developed into a useful feature. It's certainly come a long way since it was just the Vendor List! You can now use the Vendor Center to do any type of historical lookup and to initiate most vendor activities such as entering a bill or generating a report.

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