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It’s not uncommon for business owners to create backups of their Quickbooks data in a portable file format. Normally, company files are used for storing and saving information. Portable files, however, are different in the sense that they only include essential information. Unlike company files, portable files contain contain letters, images, templates and logos. Therefore, they are smaller and more compact than company files, hence the name “portable file.”

Only Use if Company File Is Too Large

You really don’t need to use a portable file unless your company file is too large. Assuming you run a small business and process only a few dozen transactions per week, a company file should suffice for your Quickbooks accounting needs. On the other hand, if your business is large and processes hundreds or thousands of transactions per week, creating a portable company file might be recommended. You can use a portable file to quickly share data with colleagues via email or instant messenger.

Make Sure Quickbooks Is Up to Date

It’s always a good idea to check and make sure your Quickbooks software is up to date before restoring a company file. Quickbooks supports two options for updates :automatic or manual. With automatic updates, the software will automatically update whenever a new version is released. With manual updates, you must manually log in to Quickbooks to update the software whenever a new version is released. The former is recommended since it simplifies and automates the otherwise tedious process of checking for new releases.

Create Portable Files

You can easily create portable files in Quickbooks by logging in to your account and clicking the “File” button, followed by “Create Copy.” Next, click “Portable company file,” followed by “Next.” You can then choose the location where you’d like to save the portable file, such as your computer’s hard drive, a USB flash drive, the cloud, etc. Once you’ve selected a save-to location, click “Save” and then “OK.”

Copy to Desktop If You Can’t Restore

If you’re unable to restore a portable file, try copying and saving it to your desktop first. This is done by accessing the portable file in its original location and right-clicking, followed by selecting “Copy.” Next, right-click and choose “Paste” on your desktop to save it here. You can then reattempt to open the portable file from Quickbooks.

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Creating sales receipts is an important step in running a business. When a customer buys a product or service from your business, you must provide him or her with a sales receipt. This shows the customer the amount of money he or she paid as well as their method of payment (e.g. cash or credit card). While there are dozens of tools available that can help you create receipts for your business, one of the most effective is Quickbooks. Intuit’s popular accounting software allows you to quickly and easily create sales receipts. So, if you’re looking to create sales receipts for your business, consider using Quickbooks.

To create sales receipts in Quickbooks, fire up the program and click the (+) menu at the top of the screen. From here, select “Customers” and “Sales Receipt.” You will then a see a new screen with details about the sales receipt. This is where you’ll need to choose the customer who’s paying for the goods or services sold by your business. Assuming you’ve recorded transactions from this customer in the past, you can select his or her from the drop-down menu in the upper-left corner. If you haven’t recorded transactions from the customer, however, you’ll need to add him or her as a new customer. This is done by clicking the “Add new” button below the drop-down menu, after which you can enter the customer’s name or use an identification name.

After selecting the customer, you’ll need to enter the goods or services purchased by the customer. If it’s a new product or service, type it into the field and click “Add new.” Next, complete the requested information about the product or service, such as the sale price and date.

There are a few other steps to creating sales receipts. For instance, you’ll need to create an income account by choosing Product or Service Information > Income Account. Keep in mind that this isn’t a bank or financial account. Rather, it’s simply an account used for storing your business’s transactions.

Once you’ve created an income account, you’ll need to enter the customer’s payment method. Available options include check, cash, Discover, Mastercard, Visa, etc. Next,  choose the bank account in which you deposited the customer’s payment in the “Deposit To” field. Finally, you can print the sales receipt by clicking Customers > Sales Receipt > Print or Preview.

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When keeping track of your business’s finances using Quickbooks, you’ll probably come across the terms “credit memo,” “delayed credit” and “customer refund.” Based on the name alone, you may assume that they all refer to the process of refunding a customer. If a customer overpaid or returned his or her purchased item, for example, you might use these options to refund the customer. Although they all have a similar purpose, however, they are each designed for a specific function. To learn more about the differences between credit memo, delayed credit and customer refund in Quickbooks, keep reading.

Credit Memo

In Quickbooks, a credit memo is a transaction that you can apply to a customer’s invoice as a payment. When a customer makes a payment, you can create a credit memo for the respective invoice showing that he or she paid it.

Delayed Credit

Delayed credit, on the other hand, is a transaction you create in Quickbooks that isn’t applied to the customer’s invoice until a future date. You can add it it the customer’s invoice as a line item, specifying the date on which you want the credit to be published. So, what’s the purpose of delayed credit? Delayed credit is used when a customer pays for a product or service before the actual due date. Many businesses simply publish the credit at the time the customer makes the payment, and this usually has no ill effect on their books. Some businesses, however, prefer to wait until a specific date to publish payments made by customers for the associated fiscal period. For these businesses, using a delayed credit is recommended.

Refund

Finally, a refund is exactly what it sounds like: a transaction in which money from a customer’s payment is refunded back to the customer. It’s not uncommon for customers to request a refund after buying a product or service. If a customer received the wrong size shirt from an apparel store, for example, he or she may request a refund. Refunds are also given to customers if the purchased product or service didn’t live up to the customer’s expectations. In Quickbooks Online, you can create a refund by logging in to your account and clicking the (+) button, followed by “Refund Receipt.” From here, you can select the product or service associated with the transaction as well as the amount that you want to refund the customer.

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It’s not uncommon for businesses to have multiple company files for Quickbooks. This is especially true for large companies that allow several executives to control their financial books. But when you have reports from multiple company files, you might be wondering if you can combine them in Quickbooks. Thankfully, this is completely possible, though it requires a little work. For a step-by-step walkthrough on how to combine reports from multiple company files, keep reading.

Assuming you use the Enterprise version of Quickbooks Desktop, you can use a built-in feature to combine multiple reports. This is done by logging in to your account and accessing the “Reports” menu, followed by “Combine Reports from Multiple Companies.” Next, select “Add Files,” at which point you can choose the location of your other company file (e.g. your computer hard drive or a USB flash drive). Once selected, click “Open” to open the company file. If you want to combine other company files, select and open them as well.

When finished, fill in the requested information for the “From” and “To” date fields. This is the range of dates from which Quickbooks will pull the reports. After choosing the date range, you’ll see a list of all reports from within those dates. You can then click each report that you’d like to combine. The final step is to select “Combine Reports in Excel,” at which point Microsoft Excel with automatically open on your computer, displaying all the reports combined into a single, convenient report. You are then free to modify or save the document.

This is just one way to combine reports from multiple company files. Another option is to combine them manually using Microsoft Excel. Although it’s a bit more work, it’s still a viable way to combine reports. To do this, open your company file and create a report for it. Next, export the report to Excel, at which point you can close the report and open a second company file. With both company files open, you can combine them to create a new, third document. Once you’ve combined the reports, you can save the new file.

Combining reports from multiple company files is a breeze thanks to Quickbooks. With Quickbooks Desktop, you can use the software’s built-in tool to combine reports. And even if you have a different version, you can still run reports and combine them manually into a new Excel document.

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Available for Quickbooks Desktop, advanced inventory is a feature of Intuit’s popular business accounting software that offers increased control over your business’s inventory management processes. Using this feature, you can scan inventory barcodes with your smartphone, run customizable reports (valuation summary, inventory stock, etc.), track sales and orders by location, and much more.

Unfortunately, though, many business neglect to use advanced inventory because they struggle to find this feature. Whether you’re a newcomer to Quickbooks or seasoned user, you should consider using advanced inventory. It’s one of many features that makes Quickbooks stand apart from its competitors, thereby creating a more efficient and versatile accounting system. So, how do you enable advanced inventory in Quickbooks?

To enable advanced inventory, log in to your Quickbooks Desktop account. From the home screen, click the “Edit” menu, followed by “Preferences.” You should then see a menu on the left-hand side of the page. Click “Items & Inventory,” followed by “Compact Preferences.” Next, click the empty box next to “Inventory and Purchase Orders are Active,” at which point you should see a check mark added to the box.

Assuming you’ve followed all steps thus far, you should click “Advanced Inventory Setting.” Now, you may not have the option to click this button if you haven’t purchased a license to use this feature. Advanced inventory is an addon feature that doesn’t come standard with the Quickbooks software. And if you haven’t purchased a license for it, you won’t be able to use it. But if you’ve already purchased a license, go ahead and sync your account. This is done by accessing “Help,” followed by “Manage my License” and then “Sync License Data Online.” Quickbooks will then sync your license with Intuit’s own server. Once Intuit sees that you have a license, it will allow you to click and select “Advanced Inventory Setting,” which is also known simply as advanced inventory.

To finish the process, click “Save and close.” Congratulations, you’ve just enabled advanced inventory in Quickbooks. With this feature enabled, you’ll have greater control over your business’s inventory management processes.

Keep in mind that advanced inventory is only available in Quickbooks Desktop. If you use the cloud-based version, Quickbooks Online, you won’t be able to use this feature. You can only use in Quickbooks Desktop.

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Did a customer accidentally overpay you? This is an all-too-common scenario in the world of business. Maybe the customer misread the invoice, or perhaps he or she thought they were purchasing a more expensive product or service. Either way, it’s important that you record this overpayment in your business’s books. Assuming you use the Quickbooks accounting software, you can easily record overpayments such as this in just a few easy steps.

To record an overpayment, log in to your Quickbooks account and click the (+) button in the upper-right corner of the screen. From here, choose “Receive Payment,” after which you can select the customer from the “Receive Payment” window. It’s recommended that you double-check this information to ensure it’s correct. After all, you don’t want to record an overpayment to the wrong customer, as this will provide him or her with credits.

After selecting the customer, click the “Outstanding Transactions” window to view a list of all unpaid transactions associated with that customer. Once you’ve found the invoice on which the customer overpaid, click the adjacent box so that it creates a check mark in it. This tells Quickbooks that you want to pay the invoice. But don’t worry, you’ll actually be recording an overpayment made by the customer. After placing a check mark next to the overpaid invoice, enter the total amount that the customer paid (with the additional overpayment amount) in the “Amount received” field.

Assuming you followed these steps, that customer will now have a credit. To actually refund the customer for this credit, you must create a new check or expense. This is done by accessing the (+) button on the main screen, followed by “Check.” For the “Account” field, choose “Accounts Receivables.” You can then enter the amount that you want to refund the customer. When finished, click “Save and close” to save your changes and complete the process.

The final step to refunding a customer is to associate the check to a credit. To do this, go back to the (+) menu and click “Customer Payment.” You can then complete the requested fields — customer, date, amount, deposit to, etc. — after which you can click “Save and close.” This will allow you to record and refund the customer’s overpayment, thereby keeping your business’s books in order and your customers satisfied.

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Trying to enter a split transaction in Quickbooks? If you are reading this, I’m assuming the answer is yes. In Quickbooks Online — the cloud-based version of Intuit’s popular business accounting software — you can only link a single the account to any transaction. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean that you can’t list multiple accounts on a transaction. With a little work, you can link multiple accounts to a transaction, thereby allowing you to “split” it. So, how exactly do you enter a split transaction in Quickbooks?

To enter a split transaction in Quickbooks, you’ll need to log in to the accounting software and click “Accounting” at the top of the interface, followed by “Chart of Accounts.” Next, click the “Action” column and choose the account that you want to modify. This is the account that you want to connect to the transaction. Make sure it’s correct and click “View Register/Account History” next to the respective name. From here, click the transaction that you want to modify so that it’s highlighted. You can then click “Edit” to begin modifying the transaction.

Assuming you followed the aforementioned steps, you should see a new screen in your Quickbooks account that contains information about the transaction. Here, you can enter other accounts and their amounts. If you want two accounts tied to the transaction, each of which has a unique amount, you can enter it in this window. Make sure all this information is correct, after which you can click “Save” to complete the process and save your changes. Sorry if you were expecting more, but that’s all it takes to enter a split transaction in Quickbooks!

You can check to make sure Quickbooks saved your information correctly by logging back in to your account and accessing your register. Quickbooks should show the correct total in the register, with the column saying “split.”

Most business owners never need to record split transactions — and that’s okay. If you never have to split transaction, you don’t have to worry about this. However, circumstances may arise that require you to split one or more transactions. Rather than allowing these unorthodox transactions to negatively impact your accounting efforts, you should follow the steps listed here to record them in your Quickbooks account. In just a few quick and easy steps, you can record split transactions while maintaining excellent financial records for your business in the process.

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