Chapter 6
Creating Other Lists You May Need
In this chapter:
• Fixed Asset Item list
• Price Level list
• Currency List
• Class List
• Other Names list
• Customer & Vendor Profile Lists
• Memorized Transaction List
In Chapters 2 through 5, you learned how to set up the key lists that QuickBooks uses in nearly every transaction you enter and how important these lists are. This chapter is about the other lists that you’ll find in the Lists menu.
Generally, these lists don’t require extensive amounts of data or time to set up, and you may not even use all of them. But those that you do use will not only help make your work in QuickBooks more efficient, but will make it easier to generate more meaningful reports.
Fixed Asset Item List
Use the Fixed Asset Item list to store information about the fixed assets your business owns. Choose Lists | Fixed Asset Item List to open the list that provides a way to track data about the assets you purchase and depreciate. As you can see in Figure 6-1, you can record many details about each asset.
FIGURE 6-1 |
Store information about your business’s assets in the Fixed Asset Item list. |
Keep in mind that this is not like your Item List in that it doesn’t provide links to any financial data in your QuickBooks company file. It does not interact with the chart of accounts, so any values you enter in this list have to be entered in your Fixed Asset accounts separately.
This list does not add any financial information to your company file, nor does it perform any calculations. It’s merely a way to use QuickBooks to catalog your fixed assets instead of whatever list you’re keeping in Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, a legal pad, or a shoebox full of index cards.
Caution: Be aware that items added to the Fixed Asset Item list will be visible in the drop-down list you see when you create a transaction that involves your regular items (the “regular” items you create to transact business, which are discussed in Chapters 5 and 11), such as an invoice, a cash sale, or a purchase order. If you accidentally select a fixed asset item while creating a sales transaction, for example, your financial records can become confusing. If you use the Fixed Asset Item list, consider making all the items in the list inactive to suppress their display in drop-down lists. To make an item inactive, highlight it while in list view, and then right-click and select Make Item Inactive.
ProAdvisor Tip: Using the Fixed Asset Item list to track your businesses assets can assist your accountant in the year-end tax-related chores they perform for you. If your accountant is using the Premier Accountant Edition version of QuickBooks, they can open your company file and read from your Fixed Asset Item list using a program call the Fixed Asset Manager (FAM). FAM works by pulling the information it needs from your QuickBooks company file to calculate the depreciation for a given period and then posting a journal entry back to your company file.
Price Level List
The Price Level list is an easy way to apply special pricing to customers and jobs. This list is available only if price levels are enabled in the Sales & Customers section of your Preferences. To turn on this feature, use the following steps:
1. Choose Edit | Preferences and select the Sales & Customers category in the left pane.
2. Move to the Company Preferences tab.
3. Select the option labeled Enable Price Levels.
4. Click OK.
Creating a Price Level
To create a price level, open the Price Level list from the Lists menu and press CTRL-N to open the New Price Level dialog, shown next. Each price level has two components: a name and a formula. The name can be anything you wish, and the formula is a percentage of the price you entered for the items in your Item List (the formula increases or reduces the price by the percentage you specify).
For example, you may want to give your favorite customers a deep discount. Name the price level something like “PreferredCustomer.” Then enter a healthy percentage by which to reduce the price of items purchased by this customer. Or you may want to create a discount price level for customers that are nonprofit organizations.
On the other hand, you may want to keep your regular prices steady and increase them for certain customers (perhaps customers who don’t pay in a timely manner). You can use price levels to set a price above the standard price, too.
Assigning Price Levels to Customers
After you create price levels, you can apply a price level to customers. Open the Customers & Jobs List in the Customer Center and double-click the customer’s listing. Select or create a new price level from the Price Level drop-down list on the Payment Settings tab (see Figure 6-2).
FIGURE 6-2 |
Assign a price level to a customer. |
Once a price level is linked to a customer, sales transactions for that customer reflect the price level automatically. See Chapter 9, “Invoicing Your Customers,” to learn how to create sales transactions with price levels.
Currency List
Available only if you’ve enabled the QuickBooks multiple currencies feature, the Currency List specifies the currencies you want to work with (see Figure 6-3). Multiple currencies can be turned on in the Company Preferences area. From the Edit menu, select Preferences | Multiple Currencies. By default, the majority of currencies are marked Inactive; open this list to activate the currencies you need so they appear in drop-down lists. Refer to Appendix B for more information on how to set up and use the QuickBooks multiple currencies feature.
FIGURE 6-3 |
Activate the currency you need for your customers and vendors. |
Caution: Be sure to make a backup copy of your company file before turning on the multiple currencies feature in your company file. Once it is enabled, it cannot be turned off.
Class List
Classes provide a method of organizing your company’s income and expense transactions by division or department, allowing you to filter many of the standard QuickBooks reports by class. Some of the common reasons to use classes include these:
• Tracking expenses and profitability by location if you have more than one office
• The need for financial reporting by business type—perhaps you manage both a retail and wholesale division
The Class list appears in the Lists menu only if you’ve enabled the Use Class Tracking feature. From the Edit menu, select Preferences | Accounting | Company Preferences | Use Class Tracking For Transactions.
You should use classes for a single purpose; otherwise, the feature won’t work properly. For example, you can use classes to separate your business into locations or by type of business, but don’t try to do both. If you need to further define a class or narrow its definition, you can use subclasses.
When you enable classes, QuickBooks adds a Class field to transaction forms so that you can associate a class with a particular transaction (you can assign a class only to a specific transaction and not a customer or vendor). Optionally, you can require that QuickBooks prompt you to assign a class when you enter transactions. For each transaction or each line of any transaction, you can assign one of the classes you created.
ProAdvisor Tip: When you use class tracking in the Pro version of QuickBooks, you’re report choices by class are limited to income and expense accounts. If you find that you need to run a balance sheet report by class, for example, or other reports that show totals by class for an asset or liability account (such as a bank or loan account), consider upgrading to the Premier or Enterprise version of QuickBooks.
Create a Class
To create a class, choose Lists | Class List from the QuickBooks menu bar to display the Class List window. Press CTRL-N to open the New Class dialog, shown next:
Fill in the name of the class, and then click Next to add another class, or click OK if you are finished.
ProAdvisor Tip: If you decide to use classes, it’s a good idea to create a class for general overhead expenses. You can then allocate the amounts accumulated in this overhead class to other classes with a journal entry at a later time if you wish. Using journal entries in QuickBooks is covered in Chapter 17.
Creating a Subclass
Subclasses let you post transactions to specific subcategories of classes, and they work similarly to subaccounts in your chart of accounts. If you set up a subclass, you must post transactions only to the subclass, never to the parent class. However, unlike the chart of accounts, classes have no option to force the display of only the subclass when you’re working in a transaction window. As a result, if you’re using subclasses you should keep the name of the parent class short, to lessen the need to scroll through the field to see the entire class name.
You create a subclass using the same steps required to create a class. After you enter a name for the subclass in the Class Name field, click the check box next to the option Subclass Of to insert a check mark. Then select the appropriate parent class from the drop-down list.
Other Names List
QuickBooks provides a list called Other Names, which is the list of people whose names are used when you write checks, but who don’t fit the definition of vendor because you don’t need to track payables and transactions the way you do for a vendor.
The names in the Other Names list appear in the drop-down list when you write checks but are unavailable when you’re entering vendor bills, vendor credits, bill payments, purchase orders, or sales transactions.
One of the most common reasons to add a name to the Other Names list is to write checks to owners and partners. Strictly speaking, these people aren’t vendors of your company, and they aren’t employees. You can also use the Other Names list for cash and use that name when you write checks for cash to fill your petty cash box (covered in Chapter 12).
ProAdvisor Tip: If you reimburse employees for expenses they incur, and you don’t want to manage the reimbursement through their paychecks, create Other Name listings for those employees and use those names for reimbursements. QuickBooks does not allow duplicate names, so you’ll have to change the name you use in the Employee list slightly to create the Other Name listing (for instance, add an “RE” for “reimbursable expenses” to the end of their names).
To open the Other Names list, choose Lists | Other Names List. To create a new name for the list, press CTRL-N to open a New Name window, as shown next:
The New Name window provides fields for the address (handy for printing checks you’re going to place into window envelopes), telephone numbers, and other contact information.
Caution: Use the Other Names list only for check payees you don’t have to track as vendors. Otherwise, you could end up having to move these names to the Vendors list if you find you need to track their activities as a vendor or issue them a Form 1099.
Customer & Vendor Profile Lists
The Profile lists are those lists that appear in the submenu you see when you choose Customer & Vendor Profile Lists. Most of the lists in the submenu are designed to help you categorize and refine the information you keep about your customers and vendors. Other lists can contain data that is available when you create transactions.
Sales Rep List
By definition, a sales rep is a sales person who is connected to a customer, usually because he or she receives a commission on sales to that customer. However, it’s quite common to track sales reps who are not necessarily paid commissions as a way to determine who is the primary contact for a customer (some people call this a service rep).
To create a sales rep, the rep’s name has to exist in your QuickBooks system as a vendor, employee, or a member of the Other Names list.
To create a new sales rep from an existing name, open the Sales Rep list and press CTRL-N to open a New Sales Rep dialog, shown next. Select the person’s name from the drop-down list. QuickBooks automatically fills in the Sales Rep Initials field (which is the data used in reports and transaction windows that have a Sales Rep field) and the Sales Rep Type (the list that contains this sales rep). You can modify the Sales Rep Initials field if you wish.
Customer Type List
When you create your Customers list, you may decide to use the Customer Type field as a way to categorize your customers. This gives you the opportunity to sort and select customers in reports, so you can view the total income from specific types of customers.
For example, you may want to use the Customer Type List to track the source of new customer referrals or to separate sales reporting by wholesale and retail customers.
Vendor Type List
When you create your Vendors list, you may decide to use the Vendor Type field as a way to categorize your vendors and suppliers. This will allow you to sort and select vendors in reports so you can then view the total expenses by a category. Examples of useful Vendor Types are reimbursable employee expenses, training and development expenditures, as well as entertainment expenses.
Job Type List
Use the Job Type list to set up categories for jobs. For example, if you’re a plumber, you may want to separate new construction from repair work.
Terms List
QuickBooks keeps both customer and vendor payment terms in one list, so the terms you need are all available whether you’re creating an invoice, entering a vendor bill, or creating a purchase order. To create a terms listing, open the Terms List window and press CTRL-N to open the New Terms window seen in Figure 6-4.
FIGURE 6-4 |
Set up the terms you need for both customers and vendors. |
Use the Standard section to create terms that are due at some elapsed time after the invoice date:
• Net Due In is the number of days allowed for payment after the invoice date.
• To create a discount for early payment, enter the discount percentage and the number of days after the invoice date that the discount is in effect. For example, if 30 days are allowed for payment, enter a discount percentage that is in effect for 10 days after the invoice date (such terms are usually referred to as “X percent 10, net 30,” substituting the amount of the discount for X).
ProAdvisor Tip: Discounts for early payment are commonly found only in the manufacturing and wholesale distribution industries and are applied to product sales. It would be unusual to receive (or give) such discounts for ordinary business expenses, such as utilities, rent, services rendered, and so on.
Use the Date Driven section to describe terms that are due on a particular date, regardless of the invoice date:
• Enter the day of the month the invoice payment is due.
• Enter the number of days before the due date that invoices are considered payable on the following month.
• To create a discount for early payment, enter the discount percentage and the day of the month at which the discount period ends. For example, if the standard due date is the 15th of the month, you may want to extend a discount to any customer who pays by the 8th of the month.
Customer Message List
If you like to write messages to your customers when you’re creating a sales transaction (an invoice or a cash sales receipt), you can enter a bunch of appropriate messages ahead of time and then just select the one you want to use. For example, you may want to insert the message “Thanks for doing business with us” or “Happy Holidays!”
Press CTRL-N to enter a new message to add to the list. You just have to type out the text (which can’t be longer than 101 characters, counting spaces)—this is one of the easier lists to create. Keep in mind, however, that once a message is used in a transaction, you can’t delete it. However, if it becomes obsolete, you can make it inactive to remove it from your message choices.
Payment Method List
You can accept and track payments from customers in multiple ways. QuickBooks prepopulates the Payment Method list with the most common payment types (such as credit card, check, and cash). If you have a payment method that isn’t listed, you can add that method to the list. To do so, select Lists | Customer & Vendor Profile Lists | Payment Method List, and then press CTRL-N to open the New Payment Method window. Name the payment method and select the appropriate payment type.
Maintaining this list not only provides some detail about the payments you receive (in case you’re having a conversation with a customer about invoices and payments), but also allows you to print reports on payments that are subtotaled by the method of payment, such as credit card, check, cash, and so on. In addition, your bank may use the same subtotaling method on your monthly statement, which makes it easier to reconcile the bank account.
Ship Via List
Use the Ship Via list to add a description of your shipping method to your invoices (in the field named Via), which many customers appreciate. QuickBooks prepopulates the list with a variety of shipment methods, but you may need to add a shipping method.
To do so, select Lists | Customer & Vendor Profile Lists | Ship Via List, and then press CTRL-N to add a new Shipping Method entry to the list. All you need to do is enter the name—for example, Our Truck or Sam’s Delivery Service.
If you use one shipping method more than any other, you can select a default Ship Via entry, which appears automatically on your invoices (you can change it on any invoice if the shipping method is different). The default entry is in the Sales & Customers category of the Preferences dialog, where you can select the Usual Shipping Method entry you want to appear by default on your sales transactions. You can also enter the FOB site you want to appear on invoices, if you want to display this information.
FOB (Free or Freight On Board) is the site from which an order is shipped and is also the point at which transportation and other costs are the buyer’s responsibility.
Vehicle List
The Vehicle list lets you create vehicle records in which you track mileage for vehicles used in your business. You can use the mileage information for tax deductions for your vehicles and to bill customers for mileage expenses. However, even if you don’t bill customers for mileage or your accountant uses a formula for tax deductions, the Vehicle list is a handy way to track information about the vehicles you use for business purposes. (You can learn how to track mileage and bill customers for mileage in Chapter 19.)
To add a vehicle to the list, select Lists | Customer & Vendor Profile Lists | Vehicle List, and then press CTRL-N to open a New Vehicle dialog. The record has two fields:
• Vehicle, in which you enter a name or code for a specific vehicle. For example, you could enter BlueTruck, 2012 Toyota, Ford Mustang Convertible, or any other recognizable name.
• Description, in which you enter descriptive information about the vehicle. While the Description field is handy for standard description terms (such as black or blue/white truck), take advantage of the field by entering information you really need. For example, the VIN, the license plate number, the expiration date for the plate, the insurance policy number, or other “official” pieces of information are good candidates for inclusion. You can enter up to 256 characters in the Description field.
Templates List
This is a list where QuickBooks stores the many forms (QuickBooks calls them templates) you’ll use when creating transactions. More about this list and how to customize templates can be found in Chapter 24.
Memorized Transaction List
The Memorize Transaction feature in QuickBooks saves you from having to enter the same transaction multiple times. With few exceptions, the transactions that you enter in QuickBooks can be memorized and set to post automatically on the day and with the frequency you need. “Memorizing” your monthly rent check, for example, can help ensure that this important obligation gets posted and sent out in a timely manner each month. And because the memorized transaction already includes the name of your landlord, the rent amount, and the rent expense account assignment, you have to enter this information only once for it to appear on each monthly check.
The transactions that you memorize (such as invoices, checks, bills, general journal entries, and so on) are all stored in the Memorized Transaction List (see Figure 6-5).
FIGURE 6-5 |
Use the Memorized Transaction List to edit or post a memorized transaction. |
To view or edit a memorized transaction, choose Lists | Memorized Transaction List to open the list. Highlight a transaction name, click the Memorized Transaction button at the bottom of the window, and then choose Edit Memorized Transaction.
Chapter 9 provides a step-by-step example of how to memorize an invoice; follow these same steps to memorize all other transactions.
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