Configuration & Preferences

What Does the New Collections Center In QuickBooks 2011 Do?

Chief Mechanic · September 18, 2010 ·

QuickBooks 2011 and Enterprise Solutions 11.0 include a new Collections Center that enables you to quickly and selectively send bulk emails to customers with overdue or almost due invoices.

To access the Collections Center, start by opening the Customer Center, then click on the Collections Center link at the top of the window.

The Collections Center has 2 tabs: one showing Overdue invoices, and the other showing Almost Due invoices. You can selectively send emails to customers with invoices appearing on either list, and the techniques for doing so are the same. We’ll focus on sending emails to customers with overdue invoices.

Invoices are grouped by Customer Name, and you can sort the list by either Customer Name, the total customer Balance, or the Days Overdue. To sort by a particular column, simply click on the column header.

The Contact column contains the customer’s phone number, so the Collections Center could serve as a great tool for a call list. You can document a phone conversation with the customer or any other internal information (such as the reasoning for a decision not to call or send an email) by clicking on the icon in the Notes/Warnings column. This will bring up an editor that is positioned at the top of the note and has already added a date/time stamp. Previously recorded notes are saved and appear below.

QuickBooks 2011 Collections Center Notes

When you’re ready to select which customers (and for which invoices) should be sent emails, click the Select and Send Email link at the top of the Collections Center. If you want to return to reviewing the list, click the Back button.

QuickBooks 2011 Collections Center Send Mass Email

You can select which customers will receive emails by clicking the checkbox to the left of the invoice number. By default, all overdue invoices for all customers on the Overdue tab are selected, but you can easily deselect one or more invoices from any customer. If you remove the checkbox on all invoices for a given customer, that customer won’t receive an email. Selected invoices are attached as PDF files to your email and are sent using your selection of email client. To make sending forms easier, QuickBooks 2011 includes updated options for sending forms.

In the email form to the right of the list, you can change the default email message. Only 1 message will be sent to all customers currently selected, so be sure to craft a generic message that applies to all of your selections. If you want to send different email messages to different customer groups, you’ll have to select each customer group and complete the sending process before selecting another customer group.

When you’re satisfied with both your selections and email message, click the Send button. QuickBooks will notify you that the process is complete, but you can choose to block this message after the first appearance.

To manage the default messages for overdue and almost due invoices, QuickBooks 2011 has added 2 new message options. You can manage the default message for any form, including these 2 new options, by clicking on the Company Preferences tab of the Send Forms sub-menu on the Edit->Preferences menu selection.

The Collections Center is a valuable addition for businesses that want a unified tool to review customer invoices, document any discussions with customers or internal decisions, and easily send selected invoices to customers in bulk.

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Does QuickBooks 2011 Offer New Ways To Send Forms?

Chief Mechanic · September 17, 2010 ·

Yes. Starting with QuickBooks 2011 and Enterprise Solutions 11.0, in addition to Outlook and QuickBooks Email, QuickBooks users can choose to send forms, such as invoices or statements, via web-based email systems, including:

Gmail
Hotmail/Live
Yahoo
Other SMTP email

Here’s a screenshot of the Send Forms sub-menu of the Edit->Preferences menu selection:

Users of versions prior to QuickBooks 2011 have more limited methods to send forms.

With the addition of new web-based email options, Intuit removed QuickBooks Email as an option unless you’ve paid more to be an active subscriber to another Intuit supported service, including:

Intuit Payroll
QuickBooks Merchant Services
ProAdvisor Program
Accountant’s Copy File Transfer
QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions Full Service Plan
QuickBooks Billing Solutions
Intuit Solution Provider Program
QuickBooks Pro/Premier Plus

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How Do I Change an Onscreen Form Such As Create Invoices To Show More Line Items?

Chief Mechanic · September 12, 2010 ·

Making changes to the windows of QuickBooks is easy.

Let’s use the Create Invoices window as an example. By default, this window shows just 2 invoice lines. In this article, we’ll change the default look. An important point to keep in mind is that you should not close the Create Invoices window until you’ve completed all the steps in this article. Otherwise, you’ll lose your work and need to start over.

Here’s the Create Invoices window in its smallest form. Pay close attention to the right border. We’ve positioned our mouse pointer directly on the border, and it’s now turned into a left-right arrow. It only provides this functionality when your mouse is positioned directly on the border; if you move it off the border, your pointer shape and function will change.

QuickBooks Premier 2009 Create Invoices Right Border

With your mouse pointer positioned directly on the border, make the Create Invoices window bigger by dragging this border to the right. To drag something in Windows, hold down your primary mouse button while moving it to the desired position. Since we started with the smallest form, we can’t drag it to the left. Next, drag the bottom border down and watch more invoice line items immediately appear. Re-size the window to fit your needs.

Let’s carry our customization 1 step further. Position your mouse directly on the fine line between any 2 columns, such as the one between U/M and Rate. Your mouse pointer will change to another type of left-right arrow.

QuickBooks Premier 2009 Create Invoices Column

To change the width of a column, drag the pointer when it’s positioned directly on the line between 2 columns and is in the shape shown above. Again, it only provides this functionality when your mouse is positioned directly between 2 columns; if you move it away from this position, your pointer shape and function will change. One common need in re-sizing a window such as the Create Invoices window is to increase the width of the description field. With this knowledge, that’s now an easy task. Re-size any column to suit your needs.

Once you’ve completed customizing the look of your Create Invoices window, you need to save your work. To do that, do not close the Create Invoices window. Instead, go to the Edit->Preferences menu, and choose Desktop View from the submenu shown. Since QuickBooks can store different desktop settings for individual users, be sure you’re on the My Preferences tab.

QuickBooks Premier 2009 Preferences Save Current Desktop

Click the radio button Save current desktop and click OK. Your changes to the Create Invoices window are now saved. To confirm that, close the Create Invoices window and re-open it. It should now open to your customized size and layout. Since you’ve just saved your desktop with the Create Invoices window open, that window will open the next time you start QuickBooks. If you want different windows to open by default, simply open them and save the desktop in that state.

This same technique can be applied to most, if not all, data entry screens in QuickBooks.

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What Is a Sales Tax Item and How Should I Use One?

Chief Mechanic · September 12, 2010 ·

A sales tax item is a special type of Item, the list of goods and services that you sell. It is used to specify the sales tax rate and the tax authority collecting it that will be charged on each invoice.

See our article on all of the Item types supported by QuickBooks for more information.

Sales tax items can be grouped into another special type of item, a sales tax group, to combine multiple sales tax items on a single invoice.

You should create 1 sales tax item for each tax authority for which you collect tax.

Sales tax items are maintained on the Lists->Items menu. There is a secondary method to maintain sales tax items by visiting the Edit->Preferences menu and choosing the Add sales tax item… button on the Company Preferences tab of the Sales Tax submenu.

Primary Method to Maintain Sales Tax Items

Secondary Method to Maintain Sales Tax Items

QuickBooks Premier 2009 Preferences Sales Tax Items

You can specify the default sales tax item for new customers in the Preferences window. To do so, use the pull down on the Your most common sales tax item selection.

When you add or edit a customer, you can use a sales tax item to specify that customer’s default tax rate. The sales tax item is on the Additional Info tab in the New and Edit Customer windows.

QuickBooks Premier 2009 New Customer Sales Tax Item

When an invoice is created in the Create Invoices window, the sales tax item can be entered for the overall invoice. This value defaults to the sales tax item for that customer, but it can be changed for this invoice only. For example, this capability could be used to apply a different tax rate on a single invoice for a shipment to a location different from the normal location of a taxable customer.

QuickBooks Premier 2009 Create Invoices Sales Tax Item

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What Is a Sales Tax Group and How Do I Create One?

Chief Mechanic · September 12, 2010 ·

A Sales Tax Group is a type of Item that is maintained on the Item List. It’s used to combine multiple Sales Tax Items (which are themselves another type of Item) into a single sales tax charge on a customer invoice.

See our article on all of the Item types supported by QuickBooks for more information.

Since QuickBooks only supports 1 sales tax code (item or group) on an invoice, a Sales Tax Group is a way to reduce the number of codes needed to invoice a customer. In turn, that reduces the chance of data entry error while at the same time calculating all required sales taxes.

Before you can set up a Sales Tax Group, make sure that you have:

Set the preference to collect and track sales taxes
Already created all of the individual Sales Tax Items that will be combined into a Sales Tax Group

With those steps completed, you can create a Sales Tax Group by completing these steps:

Open the Item List from the Lists->Item List menu selection
Click the Item button in the lower left corner of the Item List window
Select New from the menu or press the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + N
When the New Item window appears, choose Sales Tax Group from the pull down menu
Enter the Group Name and Description
Add all the single Sales Tax Items that make up the Sales Tax Group
As you add the Sales Tax Items, QuickBooks will update the Group Rate, the total tax rate for this Sales Tax Group
Click Ok to save your work

Note:

You may observe a minor display bug in early releases of QuickBooks 2009. Here’s a screenshot from QuickBooks 2009 Premier Accountant Edition R3P. Instead of displaying the Sales Tax Group as a percentage similar to a Sales Tax Item, the Sales Tax Group is displayed as a rounded decimal. In this example, the Sales Tax Group is shown as 0.08 even though it is a combination of East Bayshore and San Domingo, for a total of 0.078, or 7.8%. However, although the Sales Tax Group is displayed incorrectly, QuickBooks calculates the tax total for the Sales Tax Group correctly.

QuickBooks Premier 2009 Sales Tax Group Display Bug

Here’s a similar display from QuickBooks Premier Accountant 2008 R6P, where the Sales Tax Group is shown as a percentage accurate to 2 decimal places:

QuickBooks Premier 2008 Sales Tax Group No Display Bug

This display bug was fixed in later releases of QuickBooks 2009 and doesn’t affect QuickBooks 2010. If you’re running an old release of QuickBooks 2009, update your QuickBooks to the latest release.

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Configuration & Preferences

Accounting

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Intuit