Quote:
Originally Posted by Worm324
Thanks guys for the info 
I ended up getting Quickbooks a few days ago. So far I think it's going to work out pretty good for my needs. It's incredible powerful I have to say. I'm not really sure what features I need, but so far I added a few customers and printed a few invoices. I don't really understand why there is a separate invoice, payment received form, and a sales receipt?
It seems I need to create the invoice to get it into the system. Then I use the payment received form to show the money coming in. Then I guess I would print off the sales receipt for the customer. Kinda strait forward i guess, but I just have no experience with this type of stuff.
I need a few training videos or something I think
Best,
Jay |
Quickbooks is a double entry accounting system. An Invoice means someone bought something but they haven't paid for it yet. It's recorded into Accounts Receivable at that point. A Payment moves the entry from A/R to an income account. The receipt is for the customer, acknowledging the payment.
Understanding some basic accounting would help here. Money moves into "buckets" and gets transferred from bucket to bucket depending on where it's going (in, out, bank, etc.). Each bucket is a general ledger account within your system. If money moves from one bucket to another, it needs to be subtracted in the first account and added to the second account...hence the name "double entry".
Quickbooks makes a lot more sense once you can get your head around that.
Glad you found something that will work for you. Now is the time to make sure it's set up correctly, though, so if you get too confused, get an accountant to help you out. It would only take a few hours to get you comfortable with it and the accountant would make sure it's started the right way. Starting wrong and having to go back to fix everything involves a LOT more work for everyone and costs more money in the long run.