How to Add/Edit Multiple List Entries in QuickBooks

The Add/Edit Multiple List Entries feature is a utility you can use to add entries to lists in to your QuickBooks company file. You can also use this utility to add data to existing entries, and to change existing data. This article, an edited excerpt from our Running QuickBooks 2012 Premier Editions book, presents a summary of some of the useful tools available in this utility. Other tools and processes are available.

The following QuickBooks lists are supported in the Add/Edit Multiple List Entries utility (we hope this utility will be expanded to include more lists and items in future editions of QuickBooks).

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QuickBooks Premier-Only Accounting Functions

The QuickBooks Premier editions include features that provide efficiency, power, and added value to your accounting tasks. These features, which are unique to the Premier editions, are the subject of this chapter.

Some of these features are only available in certain Premier editions, and I’ll note those restrictions when I discuss those features.

Journal Entries

Journal entries provide a quick and efficient way to create transactions directly into the general ledger (such as depreciation entries), and to fine tune existing account balances (for job costing, class assignments, or allocation across classes). The Premier editions offer some nifty features that add convenience and power when you're creating journal entries.

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QuickBooks Fundraising Tools

QuickBooks contains tools and features that can help you raise money, especially from donors and members. These constituents are the primary sources of income for many small nonprofit organizations. In addition, you need to track all your fundraising efforts in QuickBooks transactions.

It’s possible to track individual members and donors in QuickBooks, but you need to be careful about keeping the number of entries within the size limits imposed by the QuickBooks structure (see the next section to learn about file size limits).

The more information you keep about members and donors in QuickBooks, the easier it is to create targeted fundraising campaigns. Sending a fundraising letter, or creating a fundraising event and targeting people who have a known interest in some specific angle of the fundraising topic can sub- stantially increase the amount of money you raise.

In this chapter I’ll show you how to track information about members and donors in ways that are useful for fundraising, and for tracking participation in activities. I’ll also explain the QuickBooks  configuration settings you need for tracking the income and expenses involved with fundraising.
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Excel Tools for Accountants

I’m on the phone with Frank while I’m driving on the 405. (I’m not breaking the law, because the state legislature thinks it’s distracting to hold a cell phone but not to speak via Bluetooth.) Frank, who does all the accounting for my company, has some strong opinions about Excel. He uses it frequently at his clients’ sites, where he pulls data together from various sources to construct cost and income analyses. Sometimes he does this as part of an audit, sometimes simply as a matter of making a point he wants the client’s managers to appreciate.

What Tools do Accountants Need?

That, says Frank, is why he uses Excel. The formatting that he can get into the reports, and the charts that he can create, are so good that his clients aren’t distracted by lousy appearance. Instead, they concentrate on the message that Frank’s trying to get across.

Frank tells me that he’s faithfully taken courses in Excel every time a new version comes out. He feels duty bound to do that, but by now he’s really questioning how much benefit he’s gotten from those courses – even when all the Microsoft Office applications switched from the traditional menu structure to the Ribbon. The courses teach him how to format a working capital analysis, how to create a chart of budget variances, and where to go for a page-break preview of a worksheet.

But the courses never seem to get to tools that would really make his on-site time more effective. It’s ridiculous, Frank says, but he seems to have to type the names of the months and quarters into worksheets every time he visits a client. Same thing with a chart of accounts. Ditto repetitive formulas and statement footings.

I explain to Frank that he can get Excel to do those things automatically. I also ignore him muttering, “This is so cool,” as I walk him through automatically getting month names onto a worksheet. Frank wants more, but it occurs to me that I’m not absolutely certain he’s off the clock, so I say goodbye and concentrate on avoiding a swarm of SUVs as I merge onto the 5. I try not to dwell on a news story that California drivers carry more guns in their glove compartments than insurance policies.

And I resolve to start writing a chapter when I get home. The chapter will discuss some tools that those Excel courses never seem to get around to.
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Petty Cash Expenses

Accountants frequently receive questions about how to handle cash layouts for business expenses. Usually, the questions involve one of the following scenarios:

• Someone used cash or a personal credit card to buy something for the company and that person needs to be reimbursed.
• Someone used the debit card for the business account to withdraw cash and didn’t use all of that cash for a business expense; the remaining cash needs to be tracked.
• Someone is going to be traveling for the company and needs cash in advance (and will need to return unspent cash).

There are other scenarios similar to these, but the ultimate question is, “How do I manage cash transactions that fall outside of the usual data entry for vendor bills and payments”?

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