Microsoft Office Accounting Part Six - Creating a Credit Memo

MicroPodCast – Podcasts for Microsoft Office Accounting Users. Useful bookkeeping, software, and business tips for MS Office Accounting users, consultants, and business owners.

Today's topic in our series of tips for MS Office accounting users is CREATING A CREDIT MEMO.

A customer credit memo is a reverse invoice used either when a customer returns items or when a customer is given a credit on their balance, possibly if they are dissatisfied with their purchase (or to make them pay the remaining balance).

You should note the following:

The postings of a credit memo are reverse of an invoice. That also means that inventory items will be taken back and added to inventory if they appear on the customer credit memo.

A credit memo can also be created directly from an invoice (by clicking Create credit memo on the Actions menu of the invoice).

If you want to credit the customer, but not take items back in inventory, you should use a non-inventory item or a financial account.

Credit memos are listed on the invoice list.

A credit memo can be settled with (paid to) the customer in three ways:

1. By creating it from an invoice, thus reversing the invoice

2. By issuing a refund (a payment to the customer)

3. By applying it to one or more existing invoices on the customer payment form.

If you are using Microsoft's Office Accounting, you may want to download & print our series for future reference or as a guide to using the new MS Office Accounting software.





I hope these Microsoft Office Accounting tips are helpful. If you are using QuickBooks, check out our new QuickBooks series or visit The QuickBooks Gal podcasts.

Next time: Creating Checks

If you have questions, drop me a line at info@custmbiz.com. I look forward to your comments and questions. Custom Business Solutions supports many software accounting packages such as QuickBooks and Peachtree as well as a variety of Point of Sales programs.

Reno, Tahoe, Sacramento
916-216-4949
775-348-9225
775-348-9200

Microsoft Office Accounting Part Five - Creating Charts in Excel

MicroPodCast – Podcasts for Microsoft Office Accounting Users. Useful bookkeeping, software, and business tips for MS Office Accounting users, consultants, and business owners.

Today's topic in our series of tips for MS Office accounting users is CREATING A CHART IN EXCEL

Creating a chart in Microsoft Office Excel is quick and easy. Excel provides a variety of chart types that you can choose from when you create a chart. For more information about the chart types that you can use, see Available chart types.

For most charts, such as column and bar charts, you can plot the data that you arrange in rows or columns on a worksheet (worksheet: The primary document that you use in Excel to store and work with data. Also called a spreadsheet. A worksheet consists of cells that are organized into columns and rows; a worksheet is always stored in a workbook.) in a chart. Some chart types, however, such as pie and bubble charts, require a specific data arrangement.

TIP: If you select only one cell, Excel automatically
plots all cells containing data that directly
surround that cell into a chart.

If the cells that you want to plot in a chart are not in a continuous range, you can select nonadjacent cells or ranges as long as the selection forms a rectangle. You can also hide the rows or columns that you don't want to plot in the chart.


How to select cells, ranges, rows, or columns

TIP: To cancel a selection of cells, click any cell on the worksheet.

On the Insert tab, in the Charts group, do one of the following:

• Click the chart type, and then click a chart subtype that you want to use.
• To see all available chart types, click a chart type, and then click All Chart Types to display the Insert Chart dialog box, click the arrows to scroll through all available chart types and chart subtypes, and then click the the ones that you want to use.

On the Insert tab, in the Charts group, do one of the following:

• Click the chart type, and then click a chart subtype that you want to use.
• To see all available chart types, click a chart type, and then click All Chart Types to display the Insert Chart dialog box, click the arrows to scroll through all available chart types and chart subtypes, and then click the the ones that you want to use.

TIP: A Screen Tip displays the chart type name when
you rest the mouse pointer over any chart type or chart subtype.

NOTES

The chart is placed on the worksheet as an embedded chart (embedded chart: A chart that is placed on a worksheet rather than on a separate chart sheet.

Embedded charts are beneficial when you want to view or print a chart or a Pivot Chart report with its source data or other information in a worksheet).

If you want to place the chart in a separate chart sheet (chart sheet: A sheet in a workbook that contains only a chart.

A chart sheet is beneficial when you want to view a chart or a PivotChart report separately from worksheet data or a Pivot Table report.), you can change its location.


How to change the location of a chart

1. Click the embedded chart or the chart sheet to select it and to display the chart tools.
2. On the Design tab, in the Location group, click Move Chart.
3. Under Choose where you want the chart to be placed, do one of the following:

• To display the chart in a chart sheet, click New sheet.

TIP: If you want to replace the suggested name for the chart,
you can type a new name in the New sheet box.

• To display the chart as an embedded chart in a worksheet, click Object in, and then click a worksheet in the Object in box.
• To quickly create a chart that is based on the default chart type, select the data that you want to use for the chart, and then press ALT+F1 or F11. When you press ALT+F1, the chart is displayed as an embedded chart; when you press F11, the chart is displayed on a separate chart sheet.

If you are using Microsoft's Office Accounting, you may want to download & print our series for future reference or as a guide to using the new MS Office Accounting software.





I hope these Microsoft Office Accounting tips are helpful. If you are using QuickBooks, check out our new QuickBooks series or visit The QuickBooks Gal podcasts.

Next time: Creating A Credit Memo

If you have questions, drop me a line at info@custmbiz.com. I look forward to your comments and questions. Custom Business Solutions supports many software accounting packages such as QuickBooks and Peachtree as well as a variety of Point of Sales programs.

Reno, Tahoe, Sacramento
916-216-4949
775-348-9225
775-348-9200

Microsoft Office Accounting Part Four - Printing Reports

MicroPodCast – Podcasts for Microsoft Office Accounting Users. Useful bookkeeping, software, and business tips for MS Office Accounting users, consultants, and business owners.

Today's topic in our series of tips for MS Office accounting users is Printing Reports.

Running a report

To run a report from the reports area, select the appropriate sub-area and report, pick a date range and click the Display button.
You can also run reports from the Reports menu, however this won’t allow you to pick a date range until after the report has been displayed.
Finally you can run reports from the customers, vendors, employees, banking and online sales home pages.

Selecting a Date Range

You can change the date range for a report either by picking another range in the Date Range drop-down box on the report toolbar or by specifying specific From and To dates. When you change the date range the report recalculated based on the new date range. Depending on the amount of data in the database, the recalculation may take a few seconds.
Some reports a balance sheet reports and are based on a single date, rather than a range. You can change the reporting date either by picking another date in the As of drop-down or by specifying a specific date in the Date field.

If you are using Microsoft's Office Accounting, you may want to download & print our series for future reference or as a guide to using the new MS Office Accounting software.





I hope these Microsoft Office Accounting tips are helpful. If you are using QuickBooks, check out our new QuickBooks series or visit The QuickBooks Gal podcasts.

Next time: Creating A Chart In Excel

If you have questions, drop us a line at info@custmbiz.com. We look forward to your comments and questions. Custom Business Solutions supports many software accounting packages such as QuickBooks and Peachtree as well as a variety of Point of Sales programs.

Reno, Tahoe, Sacramento
916-216-4949
775-348-9225
775-348-9200

Microsoft Office Accounting Part Three - Creating Your First Invoice

MicroPodCast – Podcasts for Microsoft Office Accounting Users. Useful bookkeeping, software, and business tips for MS Office Accounting users, consultants, and business owners.

Today's topic in our series of tips for MS Office accounting users is Creating Invoices In MS Office Accounting.

1. To create a new invoice, click on the New Invoice button in the Start a task section of the customer area.

2. This is the invoice form. The top section has information about the customer, date of the sale and terms, the product and services grid contains the products and services you are invoicing for and at the bottom of the form you can see taxes and totals.


3. Start by typing the customer name and use the tab key or mouse to move to another field. This will open up a dialog that asks you if you want to add the new customer. You can add the new customer by selecting Fast Add, or you can set up the customer completely by clicking Set Up. For your first customer, just select Fast Add.


4. After you have completed the top of the invoice form, continue by adding a line. Notice you can add either an item, a comment, sales tax or an account. Just chose item and type the name of what you are selling in the name field.


5. After you tab out of the name field, Office Accounting will ask you if you want to set up a new item. Click Yes.


6. Now you have to select which item type you want to set up (Office Accounting Express only has service and non-inventory items). In this example we are selling a service. Click OK.


7. Fill in the information on the item form: Item name, description, price, income account and whether the item is taxable. You can also enter a standard cost of the service to be able to calculate your profitability with the customer.


8. Click Save and Close after you have entered the information.


9. Fill in the rest of the information on the invoice, such a quantity, discount and other details. When you are done, you can save the invoice by pressing CTRL-S or by selecting Save on the File menu.


10. When you save the invoice Office Accounting will ask you if you want to save the customer address and payment information. Click Yes to save the information.


11. The invoice is now saved. Notice that a lot of fields are now grayed out and cannot be edited.


12. The final step is to print the invoice. Press CTRL-P or select Print on the File menu. This will bring up the print dialog.


To print a standard invoice, select the printer, leave Basic form as the print option and press OK.

If you are using Microsoft's Office Accounting, you may want to download & print our series for future reference or as a guide to using the new MS Office Accounting software.





I hope these Microsoft Office Accounting tips are helpful. If you are using QuickBooks, check out our new QuickBooks series or visit The QuickBooks Gal podcasts.

Next time: Printing Reports

If you have questions, drop us a line at info@custmbiz.com. We look forward to your comments and questions. Custom Business Solutions supports many software accounting packages such as QuickBooks and Peachtree as well as a variety of Point of Sales programs.

Reno, Tahoe, Sacramento
916-216-4949
775-348-9225
775-348-9200

Microsoft Office Accounting Part Two - Sales Orders

MicroPodCast – Podcasts for Microsoft Office Accounting Users. Useful bookkeeping, software, and business tips for MS Office Accounting users, consultants, and business owners.

Today's topic in our series of tips for MS Office accounting users is Creating Sales Orders.

Sales orders as similar to quotes, but rather than being a suggested sale, sales orders represent a confirmed sale. Sales orders are often sent to customers as sales order confirmations.

The sales order appears similar to the quote except that it contains shipping information and more information about the products and services. The totals also contain information about what has still to be invoiced.

Like quotes, sales orders are not posted as financial transactions. Rather they represent a future confirmed sale with agreed-upon terms.

The sales order form is divided into several parts:

• The toolbar contains the most common tasks you can perform with a sales order. These can also be found in the respective menus (File, Edit, View Actions and Help).
• The top of the sales order contains the date, the customer information as well as the sales and shipping terms for the sales order.
• The products and services section contains the details of the sales order – what you are offering the customer and at which price. A sales order must contain at least one line. Each line can contain a specific item and a quantity, an amount that will be posted directly to a financial account, a comment or a tax line.
• The bottom of the sales order allows you to add an internal memo or document links, a reference to the customer, tax and price level information as well as totals.

There are several noticeable things about a sales order:

• Like other customer documents, the customer information is automatically copied to the sales order when the customer is selected, but the information may be changed on the sales order itself. This will not update the customer form.
• When the sales order is saved, it will appear in the customer financial history and the sales order list.
• A sales order must contain a customer and one or more lines with products or services.
• You change the line type by clicking on the icon in the beginning of the line. This will show a dropdown that allows you to select Item, Comment, Sales Tax or Account.
• The amounts on each line can be changed. This will not change the underlying item.
• Discounts are given per line and can be given either as a percentage (default) or a dollar amount (by typing $ before the amount).
• A sales order may be created from a blank sales order template or from a quote, either by accepting the quote (using the Convert to button on the quote) or by clicking the Create From button on the sales order toolbar.
• A sales order can be modified until it is fully invoiced.
• Sales orders can be invoiced (by clicking the Create Invoice button). This will create a new invoice identical to the sales order (the sales order itself is not deleted). A fully invoiced sales order cannot be edited.
• If you do not wish to (or are not able to) invoice the full quantity of any item of the sales order, you can reduce the quantity on the invoice before saving it. This will create a partial invoice and the sales order will become partially invoiced. The sales order will keep track of the quantity invoiced for each item in the Invoiced column.
• You can create as many partial invoices from one sales order as you like up until the point where the sales order is fully invoiced.
• If an item is not available in inventory when the sales order is created, the item is on back order and the missing quantity will appear on the Back Order column of the sales order.
• There is a reminder on the Company Dashboard listing all sales orders with back ordered items.
• Back ordered items may still be invoiced (e.g. if they have arrived but just haven't been entered into inventory), however Office Accounting will display a warning when trying to invoice a higher quantity than available.
• From both sales orders and invoices you can print Packaging Slips for your products.
• A sales order that has not been invoiced may be deleted. If the deleted sales order was created from a quote, the quote is now again open, and may once again be accepted by converting it to a sales order or an invoice.
• Sales Orders show up in the Forecast Cash Flow tool as part of the sales forecast.
• A sales order can also be sent directly to the customer via email. This feature also uses the customizable Word template.

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If you are using Microsoft's Office Accounting, you may want to download & print our series for future reference or as a guide to using the new MS Office Accounting software.





I hope these Microsoft Office Accounting tips are helpful. If you are using QuickBooks, check out our new QuickBooks series or visit The QuickBooks Gal podcasts.

Next time: Creating Your First Invoice

If you have questions, drop us a line at info@custmbiz.com. We look forward to your comments and questions. Custom Business Solutions supports many software accounting packages such as QuickBooks and Peachtree as well as a variety of Point of Sales programs.

Reno, Tahoe, Sacramento
916-216-4949
775-348-9200

MS Office Accounting Part One - Purchase Orders

MicroPodCast – Podcasts for Microsoft Office Accounting Users. Useful bookkeeping, software, and business tips for MS Office Accounting users, consultants, and business owners.

Today is the first day of our new series of tips for MS Office accounting users. Our Topic today is Creating Purchase Orders

Purchase orders are often the first step in the purchase flow in Office Accounting Professional by providing the vendor with a written order for products or services.

The purchase order is in many ways similar to a sales order, except that it does not contain tax information. It tells the vendor what you want to order and the prices and terms you expect to get.

Like quotes and sales orders, purchase orders are not posted as financial transactions. Rather they represent a request for a purchase at desired prices and terms.

There are several noticeable things about a purchase order:

• Purchase documents do not contain sales tax information.
• A purchase order can be modified until it is fully received.
• Only service- and non-inventory items that have the “I sell this item” box checked can be selected on purchase documents. Inventory items (Office Accounting Professional only) are always available as they are defined as items purchased for resale.
• When you receive the items on the purchase order, you can create an item receipt (or more item receipts if the order arrives in batches) directly from the purchase order (using the Receive Items button).
• Just like sales documents, the purchase order can be printed and sent or emailed to the vendor.

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Tip: If you want to create a drop-ship purchase order where the items ordered are shipped directly to your customer (or a construction site), simply type the customer name and address into the shipping address and the order will be sent directly to your customer.

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If you are using Microsoft's Office Accounting, you may want to download & print our series for future reference or as a guide to using the new MS Office Accounting software.



I hope these Microsoft Office Accounting tips are helpful. If you are using QuickBooks, check out our new QuickBooks series or visit The QuickBooks Gal podcasts.

Next time: Sales Orders

If you have questions, drop us a line at info@custmbiz.com. We look forward to your comments and questions. Custom Business Solutions supports many software accounting packages such as QuickBooks and Peachtree as well as a variety of Point of Sales programs.


Custom Business Solutions
The QuickBooks Gal
Reno, Tahoe, Sacramento

Microsoft Office Accounting Tips - New Series

MicroPodCast – Podcasts for Microsoft Office Accounting Users. Useful bookkeeping, software, and business tips for MS Office Accounting users, consultants, and business owners.

Today I want to tell you about our new series of Microsoft Office Accounting Tips. Our company, Custom Business Solutions supports many software accounting packages such as QuickBooks and Peachtree.

Now we are supporting Microsoft's Office Accounting. Since many of our clients are new to this program, we'd like to offer some tips to make the process a little easier. In addition, we're changing our format to eliminate the audio portion of the blog. You can download & print our series for future reference or as a guide to using the new MS Office Accounting software.

I hope you like these format changes and hope the new Microsoft Office Accounting tips are helpful. If you are using QuickBooks, check out our new QuickBooks series or visit The QuickBooks Gal podcasts.

If you have questions, drop us a line at info@custmbiz.com. We look forward to your comments and questions.


Custom Business Solutions
The QuickBooks Gal
Reno, Tahoe, Sacramento