QuickBooks 2005: The Missing Manual

Producing Statements

Statements are the least flexible sales forms you can produce (see page 183), but they are perfect for some types of businesses, such as law offices, cable television companies, or pet-walking services. In QuickBooks, creating statements is a two-step process:

1. First, you must enter statement charges,which are the services or other items you delivered to your customers.

2. Then, after all the statement charges are complete, you generate statements for your customers.

You don't fill in a statement in QuickBooks the way you do sales receipts and invoices. Think of statements as a view of all the statement charges during the statement period. A statement's previous balance, charges, and customer payments all depend on the dates you choose for the statement. Businesses typically send statements out once a month, but you can generate statements for any time period you want.

Creating Statement Charges

Statement charges look like the line items you see in an invoice, except for a few small but important differences—omissions, to be exact. When you select an item for a statement charge, you won't see any sales tax items, percentage discounts, subtotals, groups, or payment items in your item list.

You can use items in your Item List to create statement charges as long as they're limited to these types:

• Service items

• Inventory Part items

• Non-inventory Part items

• Other Charge items

Unlike invoice line items, you create statement charges directly in the Accounts Receivable ...