• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content

QBGarage.com

The QuickBooks Specialists

  • Home
  • Blog
  • KnowledgeBase
  • Company
  • Show Search
Hide Search
You are here: Home / Archives for vendor

vendor

How Can I Display a List of All Names?

Chief Mechanic · September 5, 2010 ·

In QuickBooks, Customers, Customer:Jobs, Vendors, and Employees are called Names.  In transaction entry screens, the selection of a Name is filtered to include only the type of Names normally associated with that transaction type.  For example, when entering a Vendor Bill, the selection of a Name is filtered to only include Vendors.

Sometimes, it’s helpful to be able to review a list of all Names in one place, especially when trying to follow a consistent pattern if an entity appears on more than 1 list.

To display a list of all Names, follow these simple steps:

  1. Open the Write Checks window by clicking on the Banking->Write Checks menu selection or using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + W
  2. In the Pay to the Order of field (ie, the check payee), use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + L to display a list of all Names
  3. Add the Name List window to the Icon Bar by clicking on the View->Add “Name List” to Icon Bar… menu selection
  4. Assign a Label and Description to the new window
  5. Optionally, change the default icon selection that will appear in the Icon Bar to represent the Name List
  6. Click Ok

You now have a list of all Names in an easy-to-access window. The list provides a consolidated window of 4 pieces of information: Active Status, Name, Name Type, and Balance Total.

QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions 10 Name List

Note that the Write Checks window was used to access all Names because a check can be written to all of the different Name types and by-passes the filtering set by QuickBooks on different transaction types.

Vote This Post DownVote This Post Up (+1 rating, 1 votes)
Loading...

How Should I Use a Receiving Voucher In POS?

Chief Mechanic · September 4, 2010 ·

A receiving voucher in POS is used to update the Average Unit Cost, Order Cost, and On-Hand Quantity of items received that are not on a purchase order.  How receiving vouchers should be used depends in large part on how POS integrates with your GL accounting software (typically, QuickBooks Pro, Premier, or Enterprise Solutions).

POS has a setting that determines where you enter vendor billing information: in POS or QuickBooks itself.  By default, POS is configured for you to enter vendor billing information in QuickBooks rather than POS.  In other words, the Enter vendor billing information in Point of Sale is not checked.  If you are not using QuickBooks of if you prefer to enter receipts in POS, you can change this preference.  A screenshot from the Edit->Preferences->Company window is shown below.

POS 8 Company Preferences Receiving

If this preference is not checked, vendor billing fields will not appear on voucher forms.

Here’s a portion of the New Receiving Voucher window where the preference Enter vendor billing information in Point of Sale is not checked:

QuickBooks POS 8 New Receiving Voucher Vendor Bill Off

And here’s that same area with the preference box checked.  Note that Billing Information can now be entered in POS.

QuickBooks POS 8 New Receiving Voucher Vendor Bill On

Next, you need to consider whether you’re integrating POS with QuickBooks at all.  POS is not a general ledger program, and therefore doesn’t produce financial statements.  Since most businesses require financial statements and recognize that an integrated solution is the best approach, integrating POS with QuickBooks is the most common configuration.

When you run QuickBooks with POS together, your inventory is not synchronized. You should use POS to manage inventory items and use QuickBooks itself to manage and pay vendors.

Entering a receiving voucher in POS will always debit your inventory asset account on your QuickBooks general ledger.  Other accounts affected depend on your preference setting for Enter vendor billing information in Point of Sale discussed above and on the values you enter on the New Receiving Voucher window if that preference is checked.

If the Enter vendor billing information in Point of Sale preference is not checked, POS will credit your AP account and increase the vendor balance by the amount of the receiving voucher.

If the Enter vendor billing information in Point of Sale preference is checked, the entries that POS makes depends on whether billing information (i. e., Invoice/Ref #) has been entered in POS.  If billing information has not been entered, POS credits the Unbilled Purchases liability account; the vendor balance is not changed.  If billing has been entered, POS credits your AP account and increases the vendor balance by the amount of the receiving voucher.  Similarly, if billing information is not entered when the receiving voucher is first created but is entered later, POS debits the Unbilled Purchases liability account (reversing the earlier entry), credits AP, and increases the vendor balance by the amount of the receiving voucher.

If the Already Paid checkbox is checked, POS sends the voucher to QuickBooks as an item receipt.  POS credits AP and increases the vendor balance by the amount of the receiving voucher.  Presumably, a payment has already been recorded in QuickBooks (which is why the receiving voucher is Already Paid).

If you’re an existing business with inventory on hand setting up POS for the first time and you have already used QuickBooks financial accounting software to record at least some vendor purchases for that inventory, we recommend that you first get your retail inventory accurate in QuickBooks itself before using POS to record live data or checking the Use with QuickBooks Financial Software preference in POS.  Once you turn that preference on in POS, you won’t be able to manage retail inventory in QuickBooks.  Any changes you make to inventory in POS will affect vendors and AP in QuickBooks.  Even if you record transactions in POS with that preference turned off and later turn it on, those transactions will be exchanged with QuickBooks.  That in turn will modify vendor balances and AP in QuickBooks.  For an existing businesses with at least some inventory, it’s far easier to get inventory balances and balance sheet account balances correct in QuickBooks and then turn on the the Use with QuickBooks Financial Software preference in POS.

Vote This Post DownVote This Post Up (No Ratings Yet)
Loading...

How Do I Enable Automatically Invoicing Customers For Reimbursable Expenses?

Chief Mechanic · September 1, 2010 ·

The first step to automatically invoice customers or clients for reimbursable expenses is to set a QuickBooks preference.

For more information on handling reimbursable expenses, see our related articles on what distinguishes a reimbursable expense from other expenses, invoicing a customer for reimbursable expenses, removing expenses from the list of billable expenses to be invoiced to a customer, and finding out which reimbursable expenses haven’t been billed to a customer.

Click on the Edit->Preferences menu selection to open the Preferences window.  On the Company tab, click on the Time & Expenses sub menu.  Be sure that under the Invoicing options block, the preference to Create invoices from a list of time and expenses is checked.  This preference must be set before entering vendor bills for which you plan to seek reimbursement from a customer or client by issuing an invoice.

QuickBooks Premier 2009 Preferences Time & Expenses Invoicing

If you select the preference Track reimbursed expenses as income, then the income – but not the markup – associated with billing a customer for each reimbursable expense can be sent to a specific income account as discussed below.

If you don’t specify an income account for each expense account, the income associated with invoicing a customer for a reimbursed expense will be sent to the expense account itself.  The Default Markup Percentage is the percentage that the reimbursed expenses will be marked up.  If your markup is a positive percentage – that is, you’re charging your customer more than the actual expense to account for administrative or handling charges – the markup is sent to the Default Markup Account.  The amount charged to a customer excluding the markup is either sent to an income account you specify or to the expense account.

If you specify a positive Default Markup Percentage, QuickBooks will automatically create a new Item in your Item List – a Group named Reimb Group.  With a positive markup, QuickBooks will automatically subtotal reimbursable expenses on an invoice and display the markup and the total of the markup and the reimbursable expenses themselves.

For each General Ledger Expense account that you’d like to match to a corresponding Income account, edit the General Ledger account by clicking on the Company->Chart of Accounts menu selection or using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + A.  Select the Expense account you’d like to match to an Income account and edit the account by clicking on the Account button at the bottom of the Chart of Accounts window or using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + E.  Click the checkbox for the Track reimbursed expenses in Income Acct. setting and specify the Income account in the pulldown list.

QuickBooks Premier 2009 GL Add Account Track Reimbursed

You must assign a different Income account to each Expense account.  Otherwise, you’ll receive this warning:

QuickBooks Premier 2009 General Ledger Warning 7

Enabling the preference and setting the relationships between income and expense accounts for reimbursable expenses is just the first step in automatically invoicing customers or clients for these types of expenses.  Other steps include marking expenses as reimbursable, finding uninvoiced reimbursable expenses, and removing an expense from the list of those to be billed to a customer.

Vote This Post DownVote This Post Up (No Ratings Yet)
Loading...

What Distinguishes a Reimbursable Expense From Other Expenses?

Chief Mechanic · September 1, 2010 ·

A reimbursable expense is an expense that you expect to invoice to a customer or client either at the actual cost or with a markup.  QuickBooks includes features to distinguish reimbursable expenses from other types of expenses and to track which reimbursable expenses have in fact been invoiced to a customer. 

For more information on handling reimbursable expenses, see our related articles on enabling automatically invoicing customers for reimbursable expenses, invoicing a customer for reimbursable expenses, removing expenses from the list of billable expenses to be invoiced to a customer, and finding out which reimbursable expenses haven’t been billed to a customer.

In QuickBooks, the 4 principal ways to record expenses for a business are:

  1. Recording a vendor bill using the Vendor->Enter Bills menu selection
  2. Writing a check using the Banking->Write Checks menu selection or Ctrl + W keyboard shortcut
  3. Recording a credit card transaction using the Banking->Enter Credit Card Charges menu selection
  4. Via a General Journal entry using the Company->Make General Journal Entries… menu selection

When you record an expense using 1 of these 4 methods, you can associate line items on the transaction with one or more Customer:Jobs.  Doing so will enable you to analyze both the expenses as well as the revenues from a job.

When you add a Customer:Job to a line item on a check, vendor bill, credit card charge, or General Journal entry, QuickBooks will automatically put a check mark in the Billable? field.  That check mark in the Billable? field indicates this is a reimbursable expense to be invoiced to a customer or client.  If it’s not, simply remove the check mark by clicking on it.

Unfortunately, there’s presently no way to set the default for the Billable? field to being unchecked for those organizations who want to simply assign expenses to customers and not seek reimbursement.  Leaving this field checked won’t interfere with associating expenses with customers; it’s an important detail if your organization does want to use it to track reimbursable expenses. In either case, with a Customer:Job associated with the line item for the expense, you’ll be able to use QuickBooks to perform job profitability analysis, more commonly known as job costing.

The screens for each of the 4 principal ways to record an expense are shown below.  Here’s the Enter Bills window:

QuickBooks Premier 2009 Enter Bill Reimbursable Expense Tab

The Write Checks window:

QuickBooks Premier 2009 Write Checks Billable

The Enter Credit Card Charges window:

QuickBooks Premier 2009 Enter Credit Card Charge Billable

And the Make General Journal Entries window:

QuickBooks Premier 2009 Make General Journal Entries Billable

Note that the field where you enter the Customer:Job on the Make General Journal Entries window is actually called Name because General Journal entries can be recorded for an entity that isn’t a Customer:Job, such as a Vendor, Employee, or Other Name.

Vote This Post DownVote This Post Up (+2 rating, 2 votes)
Loading...

How Do I Invoice a Customer for Reimbursable Expenses?

Chief Mechanic · September 1, 2010 ·

In order to easily invoice a customer or client for reimbursable expenses, you first need to make sure your QuickBooks installation is properly configured for this task.  Your configuration depends on how you intend to account for reimbursable expenses.

For more information on handling reimbursable expenses, see our related articles on enabling automatically invoicing customers for reimbursable expenses, what distinguishes a reimbursable expense from other expenses, removing expenses from the list of billable expenses to be invoiced to a customer, and finding out which reimbursable expenses haven’t been billed to a customer.

In addition, note that a key preference setting to enable the approaches discussed in this article is not available in QuickBooks Pro. See our article on the feature differences between QuickBooks Pro and Premier for more information. That means QuickBooks Premier is required to use these methods.

There are 2 general approaches to account for reimbursable expenses:

  1. record the amount your vendor bills you in an expense account and the amount you invoice the customer or client in an income account
  2. record the amount your vendor bills you in an expense account and the amount you invoice the customer or client as an offset to this same expense account

The first approach allows you to track both the revenues and the overall level of expenses for that account; it’s the preferred method, especially if you charge customers more than the amount of the corresponding vendor bill.  The second tracks only the net level of expenses for that account.  It’s a simpler method used by some firms that bill a customer the exact amount of a corresponding vendor bill and monitor the balance of a general ledger account to track reimbursable expenses for which a customer has not yet been invoiced.

For either method, the first step is to set a QuickBooks preference to enable you to easily create invoices for reimbursable expenses.  Click on the Edit->Preferences menu selection to open the Preferences window.  On the Company tab, click on the Time & Expenses sub menu.  Be sure that under the Invoicing options block, the preference to Create invoices from a list of time and expenses is checked.  This preference must be set before entering vendor bills for which you plan to seek reimbursement from a customer or client by issuing an invoice.

QuickBooks Premier 2009 Preferences Time & Expenses Invoicing

Setting this preference and the role of the other preferences in the Invoicing options block are discussed more fully in our article on enabling automatically invoicing customers for reimbursable expenses.

The remainder of the steps to invoice a customer or client for reimbursable expenses depends on the method you choose to account for such expenses.  The first 2 methods record the expense and revenue separately; the third method records the revenue as an offset to the expense account.

Method 1 – Record Both the Expense and Revenue Separately With An Optional Markup

If you select the preference Track reimbursed expenses as income as shown in the above screenshot and assign a different Income account to each General Ledger Expense account for which you want to track reimbursable expenses, you can record both the expense and revenue associated with reimbursable expenses in different accounts.

To use this method after you’ve enabled the preferences and made your account assignments, record vendor bills on the Expenses tab of the Enter Bills window.  Enter an Expense account for which you’ve matched an Income account and enter a Customer:Job.  The Billable? checkbox will be selected by default once you enter a Customer:Job.  Click the Save & Close or Save & New button to record the bill.

QuickBooks Premier 2009 Enter Bill Reimbursable Expense Tab

Click on the Customers->Invoice for Time & Expenses menu selection to display a list of all customers with unbilled reimbursable expenses.  This menu selection only appears if you correctly set the preference described earlier.  To produce an invoice for the reimbursable expenses for a customer, select that customer’s name and click the Create Invoice button.  If you want to selectively invoice for reimbursable expenses, click the Let me select specific billables for the Customer:Job checkbox before clicking the Create Invoice button.

QuickBooks Premier 2009 Invoice for Time & Expenses 2

Click on the Expenses tab to select the unbilled expenses for this customer.  On the Choose Billable Time and Costs window, you can change the Markup Amount or % and the Markup Account used for this transaction.  If you enter a % in the Markup Amount or % field, QuickBooks will treat your entry as a percentage; otherwise, it will be treated as a dollar amount to be added to the expense cost as markup.  Click the Ok button to add these expenses (including the markup) to the customer invoice.

QuickBooks Premier 2009 Choose Billable Expenses

There are 2 advantages to this method:

  1. The description you record with the vendor bill is the description that will be included on the customer invoice 
  2. You can choose to markup billable expenses by a default percentage or override that default with a different percentage or a fixed dollar amount

If you expect that the description you enter with the vendor bill will appear on a customer invoice, it will be easier to record an accurate description for the reimbursable expense while you’re recording the vendor bill.  The limitation to this method is that you have to create a matching Income account for each Expense account for which you will record reimbursable expenses.  If you have a large number of Expense accounts that require matching Income accounts, expect to add a large number of accounts to your Chart of Accounts.  In addition, by recording reimbursable expenses on the Expenses tab, there is no Item associated with the expense, so they won’t be included on Item-based sales reports, such as the Sales by Item Summary or Sales by Customer Detail reports.  On balance, though, the combination of connecting the expense description to the customer invoice and the flexibility to manage the markup for reimbursable expenses makes this method the preferred approach to record and invoice for these expenses.

Method 2 – Record Both the Expense and Revenue Separately Using Items

You can also record both the expense and revenue from reimbursable expenses separately using the Items tab of the Enter Bills window.

First, make sure you have created a General Ledger Income account to track reimbursable expenses.  In this example, our account has an Account Type of Income.  It’s for Reimbursed Freight & Delivery and, since it’s for just 1 type of reimbursement income,  it’s is a Subaccount of our more comprehensive Reimbursement Income account.  Likewise, create a corresponding expense account that you want to associate with this other income.  You should have a general ledger income and expense account for each type of reimbursement income you want to track at the financial statement level.

QuickBooks Premier 2009 GL Edit Account Reimbursed

Create an Item with a Type of Other Charge for each reimbursable item type for which you’ll invoice your customers.  Check the box to indicate This item is used in assemblies or is a reimbursable charge.  Doing so will allow you to record both the Income Account and Expense Account for this Other Charge Item.  Otherwise, you’d only be able to enter an Income Account.  The Income Account should be set to the Income account you created to track for your revenue from this type of reimbursable expense; the Expense Account should be set to the corresponding expense account.  In this example, we’ll use the Freight Reimbursement item.

QuickBooks Premier 2009 Edit Item Other Charge Reimbursable

That completes the preliminary steps to invoice a customer for reimbursable expenses.  Now, we need to record the vendor bill.  In order to track both the revenue and expense for reimbursable expenses, you need to enter vendor bills on the Items tab, as shown below.  Enter the standard vendor bill information, but keep in mind that the Memo or Description will not make their way to your customer invoice.  Instead, the description on the customer invoice will come from the definition of the Item, which in our example is Freight and Delivery Reimbursement.

Click the Items tab.  Enter the Other Charge Item you previously created for this type of expense, which in our example was Freight Reimbursement.  To associate this bill with a customer or job, update the Customer:Job field.  When you do, the Billable? column will be checked by default.  Click either Save & Close or Save & New to record this transaction and save your work.  In this example, we’ll record a $100 expense for overnight delivery and associate it with a specific customer, Balak.

QuickBooks Premier 2009 Enter Bill Reimbursable Item

Click on the Customers->Invoice for Time & Expenses menu selection to display a list of all customers with unbilled reimbursable expenses.  This menu selection only appears if you correctly set the preference described earlier.  To produce an invoice for the reimbursable expenses for a customer, select that customer’s name and click the Create Invoice button.  If you want to selectively invoice for reimbursable expenses, click the Let me select specific billables for the Customer:Job checkbox before clicking the Create Invoice button.

QuickBooks Premier 2009 Invoice for Time & Expenses 1

The Create Invoices window will appear with the reimbursable expenses you selected already filled in.  On that screen, click Save & Close or Save & New to record the invoice for those reimbursable expenses.  If you need to change what reimbursable expenses are being invoiced, you can click the Add Time/Costs… button to change which reimbursable expenses are included.

Another approach to billing for reimbursable expenses is to simply to start customer invoicing from the usual menu selection, Customers->Create Invoices, and enter the Customer:Job.  If that Customer:Job has outstanding billable time or costs, you’ll this window:

QuickBooks Premier 2009 Billable Time

If you make the Select the outstanding billable time and costs to add to this invoice? selection, you’ll see the Choose Billable Time and Costs window, where you can choose which costs you’d like to include on this invoice.

QuickBooks Premier 2009 Choose Billable Expenses

Unfortunately, you’ll need to check each of the 4 tabs to see under which tab the expenses appear, because until you actually select an expense (as we’ve done in the screenshot above), QuickBooks displays zero dollar amounts.  The dollar amounts displayed are the selected dollar amounts – not the available amounts.

With this method, the description of the actual expense is not connected to the description that appears on a customer’s invoice.  For some businesses that want to control the information that appears on a customer’s invoice, this is the preferred method because it insures that a consistent expense description appears on every customer invoice.  However, this approach does not automatically calculate a markup.  The customer invoice will automatically be completed with the actual expense cost, not the actual cost plus a markup.  Adding a markup or changing the expense description would require manually changing the invoice line item after completing the steps described above.

Method 3 – Record the Revenue as an Offset to the Expense Account

Some firms that don’t markup reimbursable expenses opt for a simpler approach of sending both the debit from the vendor bill and the credit from the customer invoice to the same account.  This approach enables a firm to monitor the balance in that account to verify that all reimbursable expenses have been invoiced to a customer.  If the account has a debit balance, some customer invoices haven’t been recorded.  If you don’t match an Income account to the Expense account for which you invoice reimbursable expenses as described in the first method, you’ll end up with the result of this approach – except that your markup will be sent to a different General Ledger account.

Under this method, after setting the preference discussed above, record vendor bills normally from the Vendors->Enter Bills menu selection.  On the Enter Bills window, record required vendor bill information, but be sure to record a Memo for the transaction.  Like the first method, the Memo you record will become the description on your customer invoice.  On the Expenses tab, choose your general ledger account number for this expense.  To make this expense a reimbursable expense, associate it with a Customer:Job by updating that field.  After doing so, the Billable? field will be checked by default.  Click Save & Close or Save & New to record the transaction.

QuickBooks Premier 2009 Enter Bill Reimbursable Expense

As discussed above, click on the Customers->Invoice for Time & Expenses menu selection to display a list of all customers with unbilled reimbursable expenses.  Choose the customer you are invoicing for reimbursable expenses, and click the Create Invoice button.  QuickBooks will display the Create Invoices screen for that customer, pre-filled with the Memo and amount recorded with the original vendor bill.

Under this method, the vendor bill recorded a debit to the expense account, and the customer invoice recorded an equal and offsetting credit.  This approach generally is not recommended if the amount you charge customers for reimbursable expenses is greater than what your vendor bills you.  If you do elect to use this method, it’s a good idea to have a separate expense account for non-reimbursable expenses of the same type.  This allows you to monitor the balance in a separate reimbursable expense account, which should reach a $0 balance when all vendor bills and customer invoices are recorded.

When accounting for reimbursable expenses, keep in mind that if you delete or void the customer invoice for reimbursable expenses, the reimbursable expense remains marked as having been billed.  To change that status, you’ll need to modify the Billable? field in on the vendor bill.

Vote This Post DownVote This Post Up (+2 rating, 4 votes)
Loading...
  • « Go to Previous Page
  • Go to page 1
  • Go to page 2
  • Go to page 3
  • Go to page 4
  • Go to page 5
  • Go to page 6
  • Go to Next Page »

Accounting

  • Financial Accounting Standards Board

Developer

  • Intuit Developer Network Forums
  • qbXML Onscreen Reference

Intuit

  • Enterprise Solutions
  • Intuit
  • Intuit Marketplace
  • QuickBooks
  • QuickBooks Online Community

QBGarage.com

Copyright © 2008–2022 QBGarage.com · Privacy · Terms & Conditions · Site Help