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How Does QuickBooks Attached Documents Handle Security?

Chief Mechanic · March 19, 2011 ·

QuickBooks Attached Documents Manage Users
QuickBooks Attached Documents addresses the need for security by providing 4 levels of application permissions across 8 areas of QuickBooks functionality under an account overseen by a single user.

Users log into Intuit’s secure servers using an email address and password. While we’re on the subject of security, there’s one small drawback: the password is not case-sensitive and is therefore not considered a strong password.

A QuickBooks Attached Documents subscription is managed by a Company Administrator, the sole pre-defined role supported by the service. A user with the role of Company Administrator can:

  • Edit the business profile
  • Add other Attached Documents subscriptions
  • Update the current subscription

Here’s a screenshot of the screen to add a new user, which shows the range of security settings. After a user is added, security settings can be modified by clicking on the Manage Users button in the upper right of the browser screen, followed by editing a specific user. You can only manage users from a browser-based interface, not from within QuickBooks itself. The Setup and Manage Users menu selection will only open browser access to Attached Documents.

Quickbooks Attached Documents Add User

The service supports 4 levels of application permissions:

  • Administrator: can perform all functions and manage users
  • Full Access: can perform all functions but cannot manage users
  • View Only: can view any attachment in any area but cannot add new attachments and cannot modify or delete existing documents
  • Custom Access: controlled access across 8 functional areas

Necessarily, the user with the role of Company Administrator must have Administrator application permissions, but other users can have Administrator application permissions as well. While those users will have powerful capabilities, they won’t have the powers specific to the role of Company Administrator, such as editing the company profile.

The Custom Access permission is used to control access to documents in functional areas of QuickBooks. Custom Access supports 8 functional areas:

  1. Sales and Accounts Receivable
  2. Purchases and Accounts Payable
  3. Checking and Credit Cards
  4. Time Tracking
  5. Payroll and Employees
  6. Inventory
  7. Sensitive Accounting Activities
  8. Company Documents

Within these 8 areas, there are 4 capabilities:

  • Add: this is a global permission; if a user can add an attached document, he can add it to any area
  • View: this permission allows a user to look at but not modify or delete a document
  • Modify: this permission necessarily includes the View permission
  • Delete: this permission is only available to a user with Modify permissions in the same area

Users assigned a Custom Access level can make use of their capabilities (i. e., Add, View, Modify, or Delete) on lists and transactions associated with that area of accounting. A user can be assigned to more than one area, a necessity in a small firm that still wants to set some restrictions on document access.

Before examining how Custom Access applies in specific areas, it’s important to understand how access to files in the Document Inbox is controlled. Any user with View permission in any area can see all unattached documents in the Document Inbox. Custom Access can’t take affect until after a document is attached and put into a specific area. Therefore, for documents requiring controlled access, care must be taken to start the upload process by attaching them from within QuickBooks. If you elect to upload a document to the Document Inbox and attach it later, it is viewable by any user with View permissions until it is attached to a list item or transaction.

8 Functional Areas

Let’s review which lists and transactions are associated with specific areas. Note that a list or transaction type can appear in more than 1 area. For example, the Other Names list appears in both the Sales and Accounts Receivable and the Purchases and Accounts Payable areas.

Sales and Accounts Receivable: Customers, Other Names, Fixed Asset Item List, Estimates, Sales Orders, Invoices, Sales Receipts, Credit Memos, and Payments.

Purchases and Accounts Payable: Vendors, Other Names, Fixed Asset Items, Bills, Bill Credits, Bill Payments, Credit Card charges, Credit Card credits, and Purchase Orders. Note that Checks – which represent a different transaction type – cannot be seen unless the user has View permissions in the area of Checking and Credit Cards.

Checking and Credit Cards: Vendors, Other Names, Fixed Asset Items, Checks, Deposits, Credit Card charges, and Credit Card credits. Note that users with View permission can see documents attached to transactions in bank or credit card accounts but cannot see documents attached to the bank or credit card accounts themselves. Note also that Transfers are not included in this area.

Time Tracking: Other Names and Timers.

Payroll and Employees: Employees, Other Names, Paychecks, Payroll Liability Checks, Liability Adjustments, and Year-To-Date Adjustments.

Inventory: Items, Vendors, Other Names, Fixed Asset Items, Bills, Bill Credits, Bill Payments, Purchase Orders, Item Receipts, Inventory Adjustments, and Build Assemblies.

Sensitive Accounting Activities: Accounts, Journal entries, and Transfers. Note that users with View permission can see documents attached to general ledger Accounts, but to also see documents attached to transactions in a particular area, View permission for that area is required. For example, to view a document attached to a Check, a user must have View permissions in the Checking and Credit Cards area.

Company Documents: Documents attached to the company file itself via the Company Information window.

This last area is not an accounting function similar to managing A/R or A/P. Instead, it includes more general corporate documents that are connected to accounting and recordkeeping. Documents here include those attached to the Company Information via the Company->Company Information… menu selection. A screenshot of this point of attachment is shown below. Examples of documents that might be attached here include corporate organization documents such as articles of incorporation, bylaws, or meeting minutes.

QuickBooks Attached Documents Company File

A few examples of how applying security in QuickBooks Attached Documents will illustrate the power and flexibility of this security model. First, consider the need to upload bank statements but to restrict access to selected individuals. Bank statements attached to the Account are only viewable by users with access to Sensitive Accounting Activities, so the specific bank account to which the statement applies is the best point of attachment. We don’t recommend bank statements be attached to other list entities, such as Other Names, because documents attached to those lists are accessible to other areas.

Next, consider the need to upload payroll tax forms. If every user requiring access to the payroll tax forms will also have access to the Sensitive Accounting Activities area, one good point of attachment might be the liability account to which the tax form relates. Another approach might be to treat these forms as Company Documents, and attach them to the Company Information. A workable but slightly less desirable method would be to create employees representing the tax agency as placeholders and attach tax forms to the relevant placeholder employee. However, even though a tax form is often accompanied by a payment to a Vendor, we don’t recommend attaching a tax form to a Vendor because documents attached to that list item would be accessible to other areas, such as Purchase and Accounts Payable.

Both of these examples illustrate an important concept in making use of security in Attached Documents. Start by attaching a document to an area with the greatest restrictions and only attach it to other areas as required. If you attach a document to areas that include lists or transaction types that overlap, you may end up making the document available to a wider audience than you originally intended.

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Are There Restrictions On Making General Journal Entries To A/R and A/P Accounts?

Chief Mechanic · September 13, 2010 ·

Yes, there are a few restrictions on making General Journal Entries to Accounts Receivable (A/R) and Accounts Payable (A/P) accounts.

Normally, the preferred way to change the balance in an A/R or A/P account is by recording transactions, such as customer invoices or vendor bills. However, sometimes it’s more convenient to make a General Journal Entry.  A common use of General Journal Entries to A/R or A/P accounts is to set up customer or vendor balances in a new QuickBooks company file.

If you opt to make a General Journal Entry to an A/R or A/P account, such entries are subject to these restrictions:

  1. You can’t use more than 1 A/R or A/P account in a single journal entry
  2. You must enter a customer name for a General Journal Entry to an A/R account and a vendor name for a entry to a A/P account

Here are some of the warnings you’ll see if you attempt to violate these restrictions:

QuickBooks Premier 2009 General Ledger Warning 1
QuickBooks Premier 2009 General Ledger Warning 2
QuickBooks Premier 2009 General Ledger Warning 3

Here’s an example of a General Journal Entry to 1 A/P account that meets the restrictions:

QuickBooks Premier 2009 GL Make General Journal Entries Accounts Payable

While not an absolute requirement, QuickBooks prefers that transactions involving A/R or A/P accounts have that account on the first line of the General Journal Entry.  The first line of a General Journal Entry is the source of the transaction.  Sources and targets are an important concept in QuickBooks.  For more information, see our article on sources and targets.

When you record a General Journal Entry to an A/R or A/P account, the General Journal Entry will appear in the transaction list for the customer or vendor specified in either the Customer Center or Vendor Center – provided that the A/R or A/P account is on the first line of the general journal entry and is therefore the transaction source.  General Journal Entries that debit (increase) A/R will be similar to a customer invoice and can be paid in a similar fashion.  General Journal Entries that credit (increase) A/P will be similar to a vendor bill and likewise can be paid just like other vendor bills.  However, some data fields are not filled in when recording transactions for a customer or vendor via a General Journal Entry.  For example, the Terms and Due Date fields on a General Journal Entry for a vendor are left blank, as shown below. (Note: The single screenshot below shows a customized Vendor Center with the separate Pay Bills window placed on top of it to illustrate several of the points discussed in this article.)

QuickBooks Premier 2009 Vendor Center Plus Pay Bills

Beyond restrictions on making General Journal Entries to an A/R or A/P account, there are other restrictions that apply to making General Journal Entries, such as currency restrictions in multicurrency environments.

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What Are Sources and Targets?

Chief Mechanic · September 11, 2010 ·

Sources and targets are important concepts to understand reporting in QuickBooks and use of the Advanced Find function.

Sources and targets are terms assigned by Intuit to describe transactions.

In most instances, the source of a transaction is the summary or total of the transaction.  For example, the source of a check includes the amount of the check, the payee, and the bank account from which the check was written.  The target of a transaction is the distribution of the source into 1 or more other accounts.  For example, a check might be used to pay expenses in 2 different General Ledger accounts, which appear on the Expenses tab below the check payee information.  The targets of this check include the information on these 2 lines.

A transaction can have 1 source and 1 or more targets.  In most instances, the source is equal to the sum of the targets.  Forms or windows in QuickBooks determine what information will be the source and what will be the target.  Your only control over what is the source or target is what you enter (subject to validation) in the appropriate area of the form.  In the check example below, the top part of the check form is always the source, and the bottom part always contains the target information.  However, don’t extend too far the thought that the “sources are on top of the form and targets on the bottom.”  That only applies to A/R & A/P transactions.

General Journal Entries are one important exception to the discussion of sources and targets.  The first line of a general Journal Entry is the source, and all other lines are targets.  Depending on how one enters a general journal entry, the source may not be equal to the sum of the targets.  Since you have direct control over the order of lines in a general journal entry, you do control what the source and targets are for general journal entries.

Payments, statement charges, and transfers don’t follow the model that the source is on the top of the form and targets on the bottom.

Here are the source and targets for QuickBooks transaction types:

  • Invoice: A/R is the source; income accounts associated with the line items are the targets
  • Bill: A/P is the source; expense accounts on the line items are the targets
  • Deposit: The Deposit To account is the source; the accounts on the line items are the targets
  • Payment: The Deposit To account is the source; A/R is the target

To learn the source and targets for any transaction, click the Journal button or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Y.  The source is the first line listed.  The targets are the lines listed after the source.

QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions 10 Check
QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions 10 Check Transaction Journal

In this example, the source is the first line of the report that shows the payee and check amount.  There is 1 target, the second line that contains the distribution information.  We’ve added Source Name as an additional column to the standard Transaction Journal report to better illustrate sources and targets. Note that the Name field for the target is the Customer:Job name, but the Source Name is the check payee.  Reports that show target information won’t show the check payee in the Name field.

That leads to confusion among QuickBooks users that aren’t familiar with sources, targets, and the type of information that appears on a report.  A report that shows check information in an expense account is reporting target information.  The report is not indicating that a check was written to the information shown in the Name field.

According to Intuit:

  • sources and targets are database concepts and have nothing to do with debits or credits
  • a source can be a debit or credit, just as a target can be a debit or credit
  • most reports display a mixture of source and target data
  • the Inventory Valuation Summary and Inventory Valuation Detail reports are examples of exceptions in that they display only target data

This Intuit knowledge base article offers additional information on sources and targets.  When reading it, don’t forget the general journal entry exception to statements about sources and targets.  Some of the statements in Intuit’s own materials don’t repeat that exception, and they’re only true with that exception noted.

Issues involving confusion about sources and targets are fairly common.  To address these issues, Intuit also offers explanations of the source and target data sets, the report set, where reports get their data, and how conflicting report filters produce unexpected results.

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What General Ledger Account Types Does QuickBooks Support?

Chief Mechanic · September 7, 2010 ·

QuickBooks supports 16 total general ledger account types in its Chart of Accounts.  Each account is assigned a single account type, which can be changed, subject to certain restrictions.

5 Income/Expense Account Types for the Profit & Loss (P & L) Statement

  • Income
  • Expense
  • Cost of Goods Sold
  • Other Income
  • Other Expense

11 Asset/Liability/Equity Account Types for the Balance Sheet

  • Fixed Asset
  • Bank
  • Loan
  • Credit Card
  • Equity
  • Accounts Receivable
  • Other Current Asset
  • Other Asset
  • Accounts Payable
  • Other Current Liability
  • Long Term Liability
QuickBooks Premier 2009 GL Account Types

The Chart of Accounts can be accessed by one of several menu selections, Company->Chart of Accounts and Lists->Chart of Accounts, or by clicking Ctrl + A.

If account numbers are used, the numbers should follow certain broad account types.  See our article on assigning general ledger account numbers based on the account type.

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How Can I Use Reports To Assist Rebuilding a Damaged Company File?

Chief Mechanic · September 5, 2010 ·

QuickBooks reports can be a valuable complement to the process of rebuilding a damaged company file (.qbw).  After running the Rebuild Data utility, Intuit recommends that you proceed through these steps in the order listed to identify data damage that the rebuilding process repaired and to confirm that further data problems don’t exist.

1.  Examine the Uncategorized Expenses account for damaged transactions.  During the rebuild process, QuickBooks may put some transactions into this account as a way of restoring balance to your financial records.  Under normal circumstances, the only transactions that should be in this account are voided checks.  Look for transactions that don’t have an amount or account associated with them.  You’ll need to delete these transactions and re-enter them with the correct amount and account.  The Uncategorized Expenses account is created automatically by QuickBooks.  If you’ve never produced an event that would have automatically created this account, you won’t see it in your chart of accounts.  The simplest way to examine the Uncategorized Expenses account is to open the Chart of Accounts window by clicking on the Company->Chart of Accounts menu selection (or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + a).  Locate the Uncategorized Expenses account (if it exists) and double-click on it to produce a QuickReport.  Change the Dates filter to All to include all entries in the account.  The transactions reported (other than voided checks) will require attention.

Here’s a screenshot of the Uncategorized Expenses account in the Chart of Accounts list.

QuickBooks Premier 2009 GL Uncategorized Expenses

2.  Examine the Uncategorized Income account for damaged transactions.  Just like the behavior of the Uncategorized Expeses account, QuickBooks may put some transactions into this account during the rebuild process as a way of restoring balance to your financial records.  Review this account for transactions that are missing amounts or for transactions that are linked to the wrong account.  You’ll need to delete these transactions and re-enter them with the correct amount and account.

Here’s a screenshot of the Uncategorized Income account in the Chart of Accounts list.

QuickBooks Premier 2009 GL Uncategorized Income

3.  Verify that total debits less total credits equals the balance in the Undeposited Funds account.  To do this, run a Custom Transaction Detail Report (Reports->Custom Transaction Detail Report).  Be sure to include All dates from the Dates pull-down menu; click the Modify Report… button and choose the Filters tab.  On the Account pull-down menu, choose only the Undeposited Funds account.

4.  Compare the total in the Open Invoices report (Reports->Customer & Receivables->Open Invoices) to the A/R balance shown on a Balance Sheet (Reports->Company & Financial->Balance Sheet Summary) and make sure they match.  Make sure that the Dates filter for the Open Invoices report is set to Today and that your balance sheet Dates filter is set to All.  If your balance sheet filter is not set to All and you have entered customer payments after the balance sheet date, you’ll see a difference between the amounts on these 2 reports.  That difference doesn’t indicate a data problem. You can also check the current A/R balance in the Chart of Accounts window (Company->Chart of Accounts).

Here’s a screenshot of the 2 reports side by side where the A/R balances shown on the reports match perfectly.

Report Rebuild Compare Open Invoices To Balance Sheet

5.  Compare the total in the Unpaid Bills Detail report (Reports->Vendors & Payables->Unpaid Bills Detail) to the A/P Balance shown on a Balance Sheet (Reports->Company & Financial->Balance Sheet Summary) and make sure they match.  Make sure that the Dates filter for the Unpaid Bills Detail report is set to Today and that your balance sheet Dates filter is set to All.  If your balance sheet filter is not set to All and you have paid bills after the balance sheet date, you’ll see a difference between the amounts on these 2 reports.  That difference doesn’t indicate a data problem.  You can also check the current A/P balance in the Chart of Accounts window (Company->Chart of Accounts).

Here’s a screenshot of the 2 reports side by side where the A/P balances shown on the reports match perfectly.

Report Rebuild Compare Unpaid Bills To Balance Sheet

6.  Verify that ASSETS = LIABILITIES + EQUITY on both an accrual and cash basis balance sheet.   Produce a Balance Sheet Detail report (Reports->Company & Financial->Balance Sheet Detail) and confirm that Total Assets = Total Liabilities + Equity.  Note that Total Liabilities itself is the sum of Total Current Liabilities and Non-current Liabilities.  The balance sheet example shown below doesn’t include any Non-current Liabilities, and to reduce image size we’ve reproduced a Balance Sheet Summary report, rather than a detail report.

Here’s a screenshot of a Summary Balance Sheet where accounts are in balance:

Report Summary Balance Sheet

You need to verify that both accrual and cash basis balance sheets are in balance.  To change the report basis, click the Modify Report… button.  On the Display tab, select either Accrual or Cash as your Report Basis.

QuickBooks Premier 2009 Modify Report Basis

If either or both of these reports are out of balance, there are further troubleshooting steps to follow depending on which report (either the cash or accrual basis report) is out of balance.

See our related articles for more information on troubleshooting out-of-balance accrual basis balance sheets and rebuilding a company file.

For more information using the reporting function in QuickBooks to assist rebuilding a damaged company file, consult this Intuit knowledge base article.

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