by Stephen L.Nelson, MBA, CPA, MS in Taxation QuickBooks ® Simple Start ™ FOR DUMmIES ‰ 01_574620 ffirs.qxd 9/7/04 3:08 PM Page iii 01_574620 ffirs.qxd 9/7/04 3:08 PM Page ii QuickBooks ® Simple Start ™ FOR DUMmIES ‰ 01_574620 ffirs.qxd 9/7/04 3:08 PM Page i 01_574620 ffirs.qxd 9/7/04 3:08 PM Page ii by Stephen L.Nelson, MBA, CPA, MS in Taxation QuickBooks ® Simple Start ™ FOR DUMmIES ‰ 01_574620 ffirs.qxd 9/7/04 3:08 PM Page iii QuickBooks ® Simple Start  For Dummies ® Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc. 111 River Street Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774 Copyright © 2004 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published simultaneously in Canada No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permis- sion of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600. 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Library of Congress Control Number: 2004107899 ISBN: 0-7645-7462-0 Manufactured in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 1O/SS/QZ/QU/IN 01_574620 ffirs.qxd 9/7/04 3:08 PM Page iv About the Author Stephen L. Nelson, MBA, CPA, MS in Taxation has a simple purpose in life: He wants to help you (and people like you) manage your business finances by using computers. Oh, sure, this personal mandate won’t win him a Nobel Prize or anything, but it’s his own little contribution to the world. Steve’s education and experiences mesh nicely with his special purpose. He has a B.S. in accounting, an MBA in finance and a Master of Science in taxation. He’s a CPA in Redmond, Washington. He used to work as a senior consultant and CPA with Arthur Andersen & Co. (er, yeah, that Arthur Andersen — but hey it was 20 years ago). Steve, whose books have sold more than 4 million copies in English and have been translated into 11 other languages, is also the bestselling author of Quicken 2004 For Dummies (from Wiley Publishing, Inc.). 01_574620 ffirs.qxd 9/7/04 3:08 PM Page v 01_574620 ffirs.qxd 9/7/04 3:08 PM Page vi Dedication To the entrepreneurs and small-business people of the world. You folks create most of the new jobs. 01_574620 ffirs.qxd 9/7/04 3:08 PM Page vii 01_574620 ffirs.qxd 9/7/04 3:08 PM Page viii [...]... minor but useful point QuickBooks comes in several different flavors: QuickBooks Simple Start, QuickBooks Pro, QuickBooks Premier, and QuickBooks Premier: Accountants Edition This book, however, talks about QuickBooks Simple Start QuickBooks Simple Start is a skinny-ed down version of QuickBooks that’s easier to use The Simple Start version of QuickBooks isn’t as powerful as, say, QuickBooks Premier But... .6 Part I: Getting Simple Started 7 Chapter 1: Preparing to Use QuickBooks Simple Start 9 Eenie, Meenie, Minie, Moe, Chose an Entity, and You’re Ready to Go 9 For single-owner businesses .10 General rules for single-owner businesses 17 For multiple-owner businesses 18 General rules for multiple-owner businesses 21 Installing QuickBooks Simple Start 21 Running... as Small Business Windows 98 For Dummies, which I wrote; or Windows 98 For Dummies, Windows 2000 Professional For Dummies, Microsoft Windows Me For Dummies, or Windows XP For Dummies by Andy Rathbone (all published by Wiley) 3 4 QuickBooks Simple Start For Dummies How This Book Is Organized This book is divided into five mostly coherent parts Part I: Getting Simple Started Part I covers some upfront... Use QuickBooks Simple Start In This Chapter ᮣ Choosing an appropriate entity form ᮣ Installing the QuickBooks Simple Start software ᮣ Running through the Setup Interview I know you’re eager to get started You’ve got a business to run But before you can start using QuickBooks Simple Start, you need to perform some up-front work You need to install the software and set up the containers you’ll use for. .. And a simpler program — like QuickBooks Simple Start — will be much, much easier for you to figure out If you’re using one of the other versions of QuickBooks, you use the regular QuickBooks For Dummies book For example, if you’re working with QuickBooks 2005 and you want a book, you should use the QuickBooks 2005 For Dummies book and not this one Maybe you can return this book to the bookstore for an... to Do with Anything? 329 And now for the blow-by-blow 331 Blow-by-blow, part II 334 How does QuickBooks Simple Start help? 336 Two Dark Shadows in the World of Accounting .337 The first dark shadow 337 The second dark shadow 338 The Danger of Shell Games 338 Index 341 xix xx QuickBooks Simple Start For Dummies Introduction I think that running,... 149 Moving through a big register 149 Finding that darn transaction 150 xv xvi QuickBooks Simple Start For Dummies Part III: Month-End and Year-End Routines 153 Chapter 8: The Balancing Act 155 Balancing a Bank Account 155 Giving QuickBooks Simple Start information from the bank statement 155 Marking cleared checks and deposits .158... Interview 24 Step-by-step help for the Setup Interview .24 Should you get your accountant’s help? 28 Chapter 2: A Quick Tour of QuickBooks Simple Start 31 Poking Around the Program Window 31 Working with the Traditional Menus 32 Using the icon bar 36 A Few Words about Document Windows 36 xiv QuickBooks Simple Start For Dummies Understanding the... disposal .249 Dealing with Section 179 Elections 251 xvii xviii QuickBooks Simple Start For Dummies Chapter 15: Processing Payroll 253 Getting Ready for Payroll 254 Getting QuickBooks Simple Start ready 254 Getting the taxes stuff right 256 Paying someone for a job well done 257 Working with other taxes and deductions 259 Recording... upfront stuff that you need to take care of before you can start using QuickBooks Simple Start For example, this part explains how to install and setup the program I promise I won’t waste your time here I just want to make sure that you get off on the right foot Part II: Daily Chores The second part of this book explains how you use QuickBooks Simple Start for your daily financial recordkeeping: preparing . MS in Taxation QuickBooks ® Simple Start ™ FOR DUMmIES ‰ 01_574620 ffirs.qxd 9/7/04 3:08 PM Page iii 01_574620 ffirs.qxd 9/7/04 3:08 PM Page ii QuickBooks ® Simple Start ™ FOR DUMmIES ‰ 01_574620. Stephen L.Nelson, MBA, CPA, MS in Taxation QuickBooks ® Simple Start ™ FOR DUMmIES ‰ 01_574620 ffirs.qxd 9/7/04 3:08 PM Page iii QuickBooks ® Simple Start  For Dummies ® Published by Wiley Publishing,. businesses 10 General rules for single-owner businesses 17 For multiple-owner businesses 18 General rules for multiple-owner businesses 21 Installing QuickBooks Simple Start 21 Running through the