This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Entering Sales
QuickBooks supports two main types of sales:
- Invoices are for sales on account. When you create an invoice, you identify the customer account so the amount of the invoice can be added to the customer's account balance.
- Cash Sales are for sales for which you receive immediate payment, either by cash, check, or credit card. When you enter a cash sale, no accounts receivable balances are affected.
You enter each type of sale with a form that includes all of the fields you'll need for that kind of sale. These forms are virtually identical, so if you know how to enter one type of sale, you can easily enter the other.
To get the most out of QuickBooks, it's a good idea to take advantage of all of the fields that appear in sales forms. Most form fields correspond to QuickBooks lists. Before you begin to enter sales, the following lists should be up to date; you can find instructions in Chapter 2 for adding, modifying, and removing list items.
- For both invoices and cash sales:
- Customer:Job
- Class
- Employee (for Rep field)
- Ship Via
- Item
- Customer Message
- For invoices only:
- Terms
- For cash sales only:
- Payment Method
TIP
- If you attempt to fill in a form field with an item that does not exist in the corresponding list, a dialog like the one in
Figure 1
appears. You have three options:
- Cancel returns to the sale form so you can change the entry in the field.
- Set Up displays the appropriate dialog so you can enter all details for the new list entry.
- Quick Add adds the entry name to the appropriate list without giving you an opportunity to enter entry details.
)
Figure 1 A dialog like this appears when you attempt to enter information that has not already been entered in its corresponding list.
To create an invoice or enter a sales receipt
- Choose Customers > Create Invoices (Figure 2) or press
. The Create Invoices window appears (Figure 3).
Figure 2 The Customers menu.
Or Choose Customers > Enter Sales Receipts (Figure 2). The Enter Sales Receipt window appears (Figure 4).
Figures 3 & 4 Blank invoice (top) and sales receipt (bottom) forms for product sales.
- Choose a customer from the Customer:Job drop-down list. The Bill To, Ship To, Terms, and Rep fields should fill in automatically with information for that customer (Figure 5).
Figure 5 When you choose a customer, other fields are filled in automatically based on customer information.
- If desired, choose a class from the Class drop-down list.
- Enter information or change the entries in the following fields if necessary:
- Date is the invoice or sale date. By default, the current date is automatically entered, but you can change the date if you need to.
- Invoice No. or Sale No. is the invoice or sale number. This field is automatically incremented by one from the previous form, so you should not need to change the number.
- Bill To or Sold To is the customer name and address for billing or payment purposes.
- Ship To is the customer name and address for shipping purposes.
- PO No. is the customer's purchase order number, if one was provided. This field appears on invoice forms only.
- Terms refers to the payment terms for the customer. This field appears on invoice forms only.
- Check No. is the customer's check number, if payment was made by check. This field appears on sales receipt forms only.
- Pay Method is the payment method. This field appears on sales receipt forms only.
- Rep is the sales representative. This drop-down list displays initials for your employees.
- Ship Date is the date the items that were purchased were or will be shipped.
- Ship Via is the shipping method to be used to ship the items.
- FOB is the FOB (free on board) location for shipping.
- Choose the name of an item sold from the Item drop-down list (Figure 6). The Description, Rate, and Amount fields fill in automatically (Figure 7), but you can change them if desired. Enter a quantity in the Qty field for the line to update the amount (Figure 8).
Figure 6 The Item drop-down list includes all items in the Item List.
Figure 7 When you choose an item, its information appears on its invoice line.
Figure 8 Enter a quantity to calculate the amount.
- Repeat step 5 for each item you want to include on the invoice or sales receipt. (Figure 9). shows an example with three line items.
Figure 9 Here's an example with several line items entered.
- If the customer is required to pay sales tax, turn on the Customer is taxable check box and choose the correct tax item or tax group from the Tax dropdown list. QuickBooks calculates the sales tax and total (Figure 10).
Figure 10 If the customer is taxable, QuickBooks calculates the tax due based on the tax item or tax group you choose from the Tax drop-down list.
- If desired, choose a message from the Customer Message drop-down list.
- For a sales receipt, choose one of the radio buttons at the bottom of the window:
- Group with other undeposited funds records the amount of the sale in the Undeposited Funds account for depositing into another account later.
- Deposit To enables you to choose an appropriate account from a dropdown list.
- To create an iCal reminder for the invoice or sales receipt, turn on the Add to iCal check box.
- To print the invoice or sales receipt with other invoices or sales receipts, turn on the To be printed check box.
- To save the invoice or sales receipt and create another new one, click Next. Or To save the invoice or cash sale without creating another new one, click OK. QuickBooks makes an entry sound and saves the transaction.
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
TIPs
- The exact appearance of the Create Invoices or Enter Sales Receipt window depends on options you set when you used the New Company Setup Assistant, as discussed in Chapter 1, as well as whether you have customized the invoice or cash sale format.
Figures 3
and
Figures 4
show a Product invoice form and a Product sales receipt form. The other built-in invoice formats are Professional (Figure 11) and Service (Figure 12). Similarly, the other built-in sales receipt formats are Professional (Figure 13) and Service (Figure 14). If a field mentioned in these instructions does not appear on the form you see, don't worry about it. I explain how to create custom invoices and sales receipts in Chapter 11.
Figures 11 & 12 QuickBooks has two other built-in invoice formats: Professional (top) and Service (bottom). The only difference between these two forms is that the Service Invoice includes a field for P.O.
Figures 13 & 14 QuickBooks also has two other built-in sales receipt formats: Professional (top) and Service (bottom). The only difference between these two forms is that the Service Sales Receipt includes a field for P.O.
- It is not necessary to create a Customer:Job List entry for every customer. Instead, consider creating a single Customer:Job List entry called "Cash Sale" or "Counter Sale" and using that for sales receipts when you do not need to store customerspecific information.
- To change the title that appears at the top of the printed invoice or sales receipt, click the Change Title button. Then enter a new title in the Set Title dialog that appears (Figure 15) and click OK. Your change affects only the currently displayed invoice or sales receipt.
Figure 15 Use the Set Title dialog to change the title of the currently displayed invoice or sales receipt.
- A T appears in the Tax column beside each taxable item (Figure 10). You can change the taxability of an item for that invoice by clicking in the Tax column beside the item to toggle the T on or off.
- To insert a line item above the currently selected line item, choose Edit > Insert Line (Figure 16) or press
. Then enter information on the new line that appears.
Figure 16 Use the Edit menu to insert or delete line items.
- To delete a line item, position the insertion point anywhere in the line and choose Edit > Delete Line (Figure 16) or press
. The line is removed. - To include a subtotal beneath line items, insert a subtotal item. QuickBooks automatically calculates a subtotal of all items above the subtotal item (Figure 17). To use a subtotal item, it must exist in the Item List; I explain how to work with the Item List in Chapter 2.
Figure 17 A subtotal adds all the items above it.
- You can mark an invoice or sales receipt as Pending if you want to create it but not post it. Choose Edit > Mark Invoice As Pending (Figure 16) or Edit > Mark Sales Receipt As Pending. The word Pending appears on the invoice (Figure 18) or sales receipt. To finalize and post a pending invoice or sales receipt, choose Edit > Mark Invoice As Final or Edit > Mark Sales Receipt As Final.
Figure 18 The word Pending appears between the Bill To and Ship To areas on an invoice you mark as pending.
- If entering an invoice causes a customer to exceed its credit limit, a dialog like the one in
Figure 19
appears. You have two choices:
- No returns you to the invoice so you can modify it.
- Yes accepts the invoice, thus putting the customer over its credit limit.
Figure 19 This dialog appears if an invoice would cause a customer to exceed its credit limit.
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
You could also open the Customer:Job List and modify the customer's record to increase its credit limit before accepting the invoice.
To include billable items, expenses, and time in an invoice or sales receipt
- Follow steps 1 through 10 in the previous section to create an invoice or enter a sales receipt.
- Click the Time/Costs button. The Choose Billable Time and Costs dialog appears. This window has three panes that display billable time and costs for the customer.
- To include billable items in the invoice or sales receipt, click the Items button (Figure 20). Click in the Use column to place a check mark beside each item you want to include.
Figure 20 The Items pane of the Choose Billable Time and Costs dialog lists all items you have purchased for a specific customer.
- To include billable expenses in the invoice or sales receipt, click the Expenses button (Figure 21). Click in the Use column to place a check mark beside each expense you want to include. To apply a markup amount or percentage to the expense, enter a value or percentage in the Markup Amount or % box and choose an account from the Markup Account drop-down list. If the expenses are taxable, be sure to turn on the Selected expenses are taxable check box.
Figure 21 The Expenses pane of the Choose Billable Time and Costs dialog lists all expenses you have incurred for a specific customer.
- To include billable time in the invoice or sales receipt, click the Time button (Figure 22). Click in the Use column to place a check mark beside each activity you want to include.
Figure 22 The Time pane of the Choose Billable Time and Costs dialog lists all time spent on service items for a specific customer.
- To set options for how billable time will appear on the invoice or sales receipt, click the Change button in the Time tab to display the Options for Transferring Billable Time dialog (Figure 23). Select one of the Combine Activities? radio buttons and click OK:
Figure 23 The Options for Transferring Billable Time dialog.
- Do not combine activities enters a separate line item for each activity. If you choose this option, you can then select one of the Transfer Notes or Descriptions? options: Transfer notes for each activity includes an activity's notes in the line item and Transfer service item descriptions includes an activity's service item description in the line item.
-
Combine activities with the same service item creates a single line item for all checked activities with the same service item. (Figure 24) shows an example of an invoice with this option set.
Figure 24 The billable items, expenses, and time in Figures 20, 21, and 22 added to an invoice.
- To include all selected time and costs as one line item on the invoice or sales receipt, turn on the Print selected time and costs as one invoice item check box.
- Click OK. The item(s) you selected are added to the invoice or sales receipt (Figure 24).
- Follow steps 11 and 12 in the previous section to complete the entry of the invoice or sales receipt.
)
)
)
)
)
TIPs
- When you begin creating an invoice or sales receipt for a customer for which there are outstanding transactions for billable time or costs, a dialog like the one in Figure 25 appears, making it difficult to forget to bill for these items.
Figure 25 It's hard to forget to bill a customer when a dialog like this reminds you.
- The Billable Time and Costs window displays only those items, expenses, or times that have already been entered and associated with a customer but have not yet been billed to the customer.
- I explain how to enter items in Chapter 7, expenses in Chapter 4, and time in Chapter 6
- In steps 3, 4, and 5, you can click the Select All button to select all items in a list quickly.
- As you select items, expenses, or time in steps 3, 4, and 5, the amount to be billed for each type appears on the button. You can see this in Figures 21 and Figures 22.
- To remove a billable item, expense, or time from the Choose Billable Time and Costs dialog, click in the Hide column beside the item. This does not delete the item from QuickBooks or remove the association between the item and the customer.
)