1. Getting Started

   1. Chapter 1 Creating a Company in QuickBooks

      1. Opening QuickBooks
      2. Creating a New Company
      3. Steps to Take Before You Create Your Company File
      4. Starting the EasyStep Interview
      5. What's Next
      6. Open an Existing Company File
      7. Convert a Quicken File to QuickBooks
      8. Restore a Backup File
      9. Modifying Company Information

   2. Chapter 2 Setting Up a Chart of Accounts

      1. Obtaining a Chart of Accounts
      2. Account Naming and Numbering
      3. Creating Accounts and Subaccounts
      4. Modifying Accounts
      5. Merging Accounts
      6. Hiding and Deleting Accounts

   3. Chapter 3 Setting Up Customers and Jobs

      1. What to Do Before You Create Customers and Jobs
      2. Creating Customers in QuickBooks
      3. Importing and Exporting Customer Information
      4. Creating Jobs in QuickBooks
      5. Modifying Customer and Job Information
      6. Adding Notes About Customers
      7. Merging Customer Records
      8. Hiding and Deleting Customers

   4. Chapter 4 Setting Up Invoice Items

      1. What Items Do
      2. When You Don't Need Items
      3. Should You Track Inventory with Items?
      4. The QuickBooks Item Types
      5. Planning Your Items
      6. Setting Up Sales Tax
      7. Creating Items
      8. Modifying Items
      9. Hiding and Deleting Items

   5. Chapter 5 Setting Up Other QuickBooks Lists

      1. The Vendor List
      2. Classes
      3. Price Levels
      4. Customer & Vendor Profile Lists
      5. Memorized Transactions
      6. Fixed Asset Items
      7. Creating and Editing List Entries
      8. Merging List Entries
      9. Hiding and Deleting List Entries
      10. Sorting Lists
      11. Printing Lists

   6. Chapter 6 Configuring Preferences to Fit Your Company

      1. An Introduction to Preferences
      2. Accounting Preferences
      3. Checking
      4. Desktop View
      5. Finance Charge
      6. General
      7. Jobs & Estimates
      8. Payroll & Employees
      9. Purchases & Vendors
      10. Reminders
      11. Reports and Graphs
      12. Sales & Customers
      13. Sales Tax
      14. Send Forms
      15. Spelling
      16. Tax: 1099
      17. Time Tracking

   7. Chapter 7 Managing QuickBooks Files

      1. Where to Store Your Company Files
      2. Backing Up Files
      3. Restoring Backups
      4. Sending Company Files to Others
      5. Verifying Your QuickBooks Data
      6. Cleaning Up Data
      7. Deleting Files

2. Accounting with QuickBooks

   1. Chapter 8 Invoicing

      1. Choosing the Right Type of Form
      2. Creating Invoices
      3. Filling in Invoice Header Fields
      4. The Rest of the Header Fields
      5. Entering Invoice Line Items
      6. Invoicing for Backordered Products
      7. Memorizing Recurring Invoices
      8. Estimating Jobs
      9. Creating Progress Invoices
      10. Producing Statements
      11. Finding Invoices (and Other Sales Forms)
      12. Editing Invoices and Sales Receipts
      13. Voiding and Deleting Invoices and Sales Receipts
      14. Handling Refunds and Credits
      15. Sending Sales Forms

   2. Chapter 9 Managing Accounts Receivable

      1. The Aging of Receivables
      2. Receiving Payments for Invoiced Income
      3. Applying Credits to Invoices
      4. Discounting for Early Payment
      5. Deposits, Down Payments, and Retainers
      6. Applying Finance Charges
      7. Cash Sales
      8. Making Deposits

   3. Chapter 10 Paying for Expenses

      1. When to Pay Expenses
      2. Entering Bills in QuickBooks
      3. Automating Recurring Bills
      4. Purchasing Inventory
      5. Handling Reimbursable Expenses
      6. Paying Your Bills
      7. Producing Checks
      8. Writing Checks Without Entering Bills
      9. Paying with Cash
      10. Paying with Credit Cards
      11. Recording Vendor Credits
      12. Paying Sales Tax

   4. Chapter 11 Payroll

      1. Choosing a Payroll Service
      2. Applying for a Payroll Service
      3. Setting Up Payroll
      4. Entering Historical Payroll
      5. Running Payroll
      6. Paying Payroll Taxes
      7. Preparing Payroll Tax Forms

   5. Chapter 12 Bank Accounts, Credit Cards, and Petty Cash

      1. Entering Transactions in an Account Register
      2. Handling Bounced Checks
      3. Transferring Funds
      4. Reconciling Accounts
      5. Managing Loans
      6. Tracking Petty Cash

   6. Chapter 13 Making Journal Entries

      1. Balancing Debit and Credit Amounts
      2. Some Reasons to Use Journal Entries
      3. Creating General Journal Entries
      4. Filling in General Journal Entry Fields
      5. Checking General Journal Entries
      6. Reclassifications and Corrections
      7. Depreciation

   7. Chapter 14 Working with Financial Statements

      1. The Profit & Loss Report
      2. The Balance Sheet
      3. The Statement of Cash Flows

3. Managing Your Business

   1. Chapter 15 End-of-Year Tasks

      1. Viewing the Trial Balance
      2. Generating Year-End Financial Reports
      3. Generating Tax Reports
      4. Sharing the Company File with Your Accountant
      5. 1099s
      6. Closing the Books for the Year

   2. Chapter 16 Managing Inventory

      1. The QuickBooks Inventory Process
      2. Running Inventory Reports
      3. Performing a Physical Inventory
      4. Adjusting Inventory in QuickBooks

   3. Chapter 17 Tracking Time and Mileage

      1. Setting Up Time Tracking
      2. Entering Time in Timesheets
      3. Setting Up the Standalone Timer
      4. Using Timer to Track Time
      5. Running Time Reports
      6. Tracking Mileage
      7. Generating Mileage Reports

   4. Chapter 18 Budgeting and Planning

      1. Types of Budgets
      2. Ways to Build Budgets
      3. Creating Budgets in QuickBooks
      4. Filling in Budget Values
      5. Creating Additional Customer:Job or Class Budgets
      6. Copying Budgets and Creating What-if Budgets
      7. Running Budget Reports
      8. Planning with QuickBooks Decision Tools

   5. Chapter 19 Tracking Your Business with Reports

      1. Finding the Right Reports
      2. A Quick Guide to QuickBooks Reports
      3. A Review of Report Preferences
      4. Running Reports
      5. Customizing Reports
      6. Date Ranges
      7. Subtotals
      8. Customizing the Columns in Reports
      9. Sorting Reports
      10. Filtering Reports
      11. Report Headers and Footers
      12. Fonts and Numbers
      13. Memorizing Reports
      14. Swapping Reports Between Company Files
      15. Importing Report Templates

4. QuickBooks Power

   1. Chapter 20 Online Banking Services

      1. Setting Up Your Internet Connection
      2. Setting Up Your Accounts for Online Services
      3. Exchanging Data with Your Financial Institution
      4. Creating Online Items for Direct Connections
      5. Viewing and Matching Downloaded Transactions
      6. Paying Bills Online

   2. Chapter 21 Sharing QuickBooks Data with Other Programs

      1. Mail Merge to a Word Document
      2. Synchronizing Contacts
      3. Finding Third-Party Integrated Applications
      4. Setting Up an Integrated Application
      5. Exporting QuickBooks Data
      6. Importing Data from Other Programs
      7. QuickBooks Add-on Services

   3. Chapter 22 Customizing QuickBooks

      1. Customizing the Home Page
      2. Customizing the Icon Bar
      3. Customizing Forms

   4. Chapter 23 Keeping Your QuickBooks Data Secure

      1. Setting Up the Administrator
      2. Creating QuickBooks Users
      3. Restricting Access to Features and Data
      4. Audit Trails

5. Appendixes

   1. Appendix A Installing QuickBooks

      1. Before You Install
      2. Installing QuickBooks
      3. Registering QuickBooks
      4. Setting Up QuickBooks on a Network

   2. Appendix B Finding Help

      1. QuickBooks Help
      2. Help As You Work
      3. Other Help Resources

   3. Appendix C Keyboard Shortcuts

      1. Task Shortcuts
      2. Transaction Shortcuts
      3. Date Shortcuts
      4. Window Shortcuts
      5. Miscellaneous Shortcuts

1. Colophon

Marlowe Shaeffer was the production editor for QuickBooks 2006: The Missing Manual. Marlowe Shaeffer and Reba Libby proofread the book. Sanders Kleinfeld and Claire Cloutier provided quality control. Johnna Dinse wrote the index. Loranah Dimant provided production assistance.

The cover of this book is based on a series design by David Freedman. Karen Montgomery produced the cover layout with Adobe InDesign CS using Adobe's Minion and Gill Sans fonts.

David Futato designed the interior layout, based on a series design by Phil Simpson. This book was converted by Keith Fahlgren to FrameMaker 5.5.6. The text font is Adobe Minion; the heading font is Adobe Formata Condensed; and the code font is LucasFont's TheSans Mono Condensed. The illustrations that appear in the book were produced by Robert Romano, Jessamyn Read, and Lesley Borash using Macromedia FreeHand MX and Adobe Photoshop CS.The production editors for Book Title, eMatter Edition were Ellie Cutler and Jeff Liggett. Linda Walsh was the product manager. Kathleen Wilson provided design support. Lenny Muellner, Mike Sierra, Erik Ray, and Benn Salter provided technical support. This eMatter Edition was produced with FrameMaker 5.5.6.