of all the transactions that have occurred since the beginning of the year: sales, purchases, payroll transactions, and everything and anything else: If you do the right-way conversion retroactively, you need to re-enter each of these transactions into the new system. You actually enter the information after you complete the QuickBooks Setup process, which I describe later in this chapter, but you might as well get all this information together now, while you’re searching for the rest of the items for this scavenger hunt.
Stepping through QuickBooks Setup
After you decide when you want to convert, prepare a trial balance as of the conversion date, and collect the additional raw data that you need, you’re ready to step through QuickBooks Setup. You need to start QuickBooks and then walk through the steps.
To start QuickBooks 2017 in Windows 10, click the QuickBooks 2017 tile on the Windows Desktop. Or click the Windows Start button and then click the menu choice that leads to QuickBooks. (I choose Start ⇒ All Apps ⇒ QuickBooks ⇒ QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions 17.0.)
❯❯ QuickBooks Pro: The Pro version includes the job costing and time-estimating features, which I briefly describe in Chapter 16; it also includes the capability to share a QuickBooks file over a network, as I describe in Appendix C.
❯❯ QuickBooks Premier: The Premier version adds features to QuickBooks Pro and also comes in a variety of industry-specific flavors, including an Accountant edition that mimics most of these other flavors.
❯❯ QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions: This version is nearly identical to QuickBooks Premier but allows for very large QuickBooks files, including much larger customer, vendor, and employee lists.
If you’ve started QuickBooks for the first time, QuickBooks first tells you how it plans to use your Internet connection to regularly update the QuickBooks software. After you click the button that indicates “Okay, yeah, I’m good with that,” QuickBooks displays the No Company Open dialog box (not shown). Then you click the Create a New Company button so that QuickBooks displays the QuickBooks Setup dialog box with the message Let’s get your business set up quickly! (see Figure 2-1).
FIGURE 2-1: The first QuickBooks Setup window.
I should mention that the first QuickBooks Setup dialog box (the one shown in Figure 2-1) identifies some other setup options you can use to get started. The dialog box gives you the Detailed Start option, for example, which lets you control the setup and fine-tune the company file. The dialog box also gives you the option to create a new file from an old file. It also suggests that you might want to upgrade from Quicken or some other accounting system. (Basically, that upgrade means that you want QuickBooks to try using your existing accounting system’s data as a starting point.)
Two simple bits of advice: Don’t fiddle with Detailed Setup unless you’re an accounting expert, and don’t attempt to “upgrade” Quicken or some other accounting program’s data. It’s just as easy and usually considerably cleaner to work from a trial balance.
QuickBooks 2017 provides you a very fast setup process compared with other accounting software programs and even with old versions of the QuickBooks software. Basically, you fill in some boxes and click some buttons, and voilà – you’ve largely set up QuickBooks. Because I can give you some tips, identify some shortcuts, and warn you of some traps to avoid, I’m providing these step-by-step instructions:
1. In the first QuickBooks Setup dialog box (refer to Figure 2-1), choose Express Setup.
With the first QuickBooks Setup dialog box displayed, click the Express Start button. QuickBooks displays the Glad You’re Here! dialog box, shown in Figure 2-2.
2. Specify the business name.
The name you specify goes on QuickBooks reports and appears on invoices you send customers. Accordingly, you want to use your “real” business name. If your business is incorporated or formed as a limited liability company (LLC), you want to use the right suffix or acronym in your name. Don’t use Acme Supplies, for example, but Acme Supplies Inc. or Acme Supplies LLC.
Note: QuickBooks also uses the company name for the QuickBooks data file.
3. Identify your industry.
If you’re in the construction business, for example, type construction. When you type something in the Industry field, QuickBooks turns the box into a drop-down menu showing the industries that it recognizes. You can pick an industry from this menu (or pick the industry that’s closest to your business).
4. Identify the tax return you file.
Use the Business Type field to specify the tax return that your business files. You can click that field and then make a choice from the menu that QuickBooks provides.
