I first met Kathy Ivens when she was writing for MacMillan Publishing and I was her editor. From the first words we exchanged it was an adversarial relationship, which of course is not unusual between editor and author. However, since we both shared a similar sense of humor and love of good sarcasm, we eventually became close personal friends. In reality she was an editor's dream – a great writer, always on time, and flexible (well, sort of). Being a good editor, I was demanding, persistent, and inflexible – in other words a pain in the ass. Of course this meant we butted heads frequently, and had some fabulous exchanges, both verbal and via e-mail. After we became friends I found out that she regularly referred to me to friends and family as ET (Editor Tom, or so she said). 

I'm not going to get sloppy about her passing (I know she'll keep her word and come back to haunt me – she, too, could be a pain in the ass), but I am going to miss her terribly. 

Tom Barich

Please Note: Although the e-mail field in the comment section is highlighted, it is NOT necessary to include an e-mail address to leave a comment.

How to Modify QuickBooks Account Numbers

Readers frequently write to ask us how to increase the number of digits in their account numbers. Usually, they want more digits so they can fine-tune their chart of accounts and they’re running out of numbers. Many of these readers have figured out that the way to increase the number of digits is to open each account and type in a new number (you can use up to seven digits, and many readers have company files that have been in use since early versions of QuickBooks, when the default number of digits was four).

Changing QuickBooks account numbers one at a time is onerous, time consuming, and exceedingly annoying. Here’s a better way.

From the QuickBooks menu bar, choose Files | Utilities | Export | Lists To IIF Files, and select the Chart of Accounts as the list to be exported. Open that file in Excel and change the account numbers in the ACCNUM column. You can use Excel’s shortcut functions to automate this process.

For example, let’s say your Insurance Expenses are currently numbered 6100 for Insurance (the parent account) and you have subaccounts numbered 6110-Automobile, 6120-Building, 6130-Liability, 6140-Workers Comp, and so on. You want to move to a six-digit account number in QuickBooks. In Excel, change 6100 to 610000, and change 6110 to 610100. Select both cells and drag down to see that Excel will follow this pattern, numbering the next account 610200, and continuing the pattern.

Even if you’re going to enter the new account numbers manually, it’s faster in Excel than in QuickBooks, where you have to select each account, press Ctrl-E to edit the account, enter the new number, and click OK.

Save the Excel file as an IIF file (which is really a delimited text file) and import it back into your QuickBooks company file (Files | Utilities | Import | IIF Files).

How to Record QuickBooks Cash Sales Correctly

Several times each week we receive a query that reads something like this: "Many of my customers have credit balances, and I've never used the QuickBooks Credit Memo function. What is going on?" When we write back and ask if they ever collect payment at the time of the sale (a cash sale), they respond in the affirmative.

What's the problem?

Here's the answer:

When this happens, it's almost always due to the fact that the user is selecting Receive Payments from the QuickBooks Customers menu or the Home Page. The Receive Payments transaction is for receiving payment on an existing invoice, and automatically posts a credit to Accounts Receivable. When you have a cash sale, you must use the Sales Receipt transaction. (There are other ways to create an unwanted credit accidentally, but 90% of the time, the problem is caused by using Receive Payments when no invoice exists.)

How to Record a Returned Security Deposit in QuickBooks

A reader wrote to find help with a problem. She takes security deposits from tenants, and posts them to an Other Current Liability account in QuickBooks. When she has to return the security deposit she issues a credit memo, and chooses the option to create a refund check. She says that each customer record shows multiple entries for these transactions.

A credit memo is a credit against currently owed balances (or is held, awaiting future invoices). That description doesn't fit the return of a security deposit, so it's an inappropriate transaction type. To return a security deposit, use the QuickBooks Write Checks window to write the check and post it to the Other Current Liability account.

How to Fix QuickBooks Printing Problems

We receive frequent queries from users who are having trouble printing in QuickBooks, even though they can print from all their other software. Either nothing happens when they select the printer and click the Print button, or the QuickBooks document prints incorrectly.

In QuickBooks, printing and printer settings are kept in a file named QBPRINT.QBP. Sometimes this file becomes corrupted. (In fact, if there's ever a contest for "the most easily and frequently corrupted file", many users tell us they think this file would be a good bet.)

To fix these problems, rename the QBPRINT.QBP file to something like QBPRINT.OLD. Then go to Print, Printer Settings and re-configure your printer (or multiple printers, if you use different printers for different types of transaction forms). QuickBooks automatically re-creates the file.

Note: The reason for renaming the file rather than simply deleting it is to ensure that any custom printer settings are retained in the event the file is NOT corrupt. If renaming the file doesn't solve the problem, delete the newly created file and rename qbprint.old to qbprint.qbp.

Here's where to find the QBPRINT.QBP file:

Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Intuit\QuickBooks 20xx\QBPRINT.QBP

Windows 7, Vista, or 2003 Server: C:\Program Data\Intuit\Qb20xx\QBPRINT.QBP

How to Backup Customized QuickBooks Templates

We receive frequent laments from users who tell us that a customized QuickBooks template (transaction form) has stopped working properly. Often, these users tell us they no longer remember all the steps they took to add fields, move fields, and so on; they don't want to face starting all over. Sometimes, the problem is that QuickBooks clobbered the template, rendering it corrupt. Most of the time, however, the problem is that another user decided to change the customization and totally messed everything up.

When you've created a customized form you can save a copy so you have a replacement if something happens to the template in your QuickBooks company file. To do this, use the Export command at the bottom of the Templates list window to export the template to a folder on your computer (make sure it's a folder that's backed up, such as My Documents – you ARE backing up your My Documents folders every day, right?). The file is saved with a .DES extension. To replace a messed-up template, use the Import command at the bottom of the Templates list window to import the safety backup copy.