1. Why can't I sort my customers by state or zip code (except for statements in newer QB versions)?
   
2. Why can't I compute payroll taxes for multiple states (and ever other payroll question possible)?
   
3. I have to make the same journal entry every week, how can QB make this easier?
   
4. How can I get   printed QB Help documentation?
   
5. Why do you like QuickBooks so much?  Do your clients like it?
   
6. When I tried to restore my backup disk, I was asked for disk 1.   I only have one disk, is this an error in the program?
   
7. Why does QuickBooks takes so long to record my transactions and run queries?
   
8. How do I close out a previous year?
   
9. Why are there discrepancies in my reports (out of balance)?
   
10. Can I change more than one transaction at a time?
    
11. I have a large business and many programs to track all of it's aspects.  How can I integrate QB with my other programs to better fit my specific business needs?
    
12. I can't find the answer to my question on you F. A. Q. page, can you answer other questions?
    
13. Is there a fast way to differentiate similarly named accounts (like Sales and Sales Allowances) so I don't have to type so much?
    
14. Can you speed up opening many QuickBooks files, starting new companies, importing standard reports and using different QuickBooks versions?
 
15. When I imported my data from another application, many bogus invoices were created.  Why?  Read this to import/export data.
16. How to Can I Quickly Choose Similarly Named Accounts, Items, or Names?

Q: Why can't I sort my customers by state or zip code?

A: Previous versions of QuickBooks included state and zip code in the same field, making sorting by these  variables impossible.  QuickBooks '99 now separates these fields.  It makes sorting by zip code, or exporting to Excel to further manipulate the data, easy. You also can print statements by zip code in recent versions.

Q: Why can't I compute payroll taxes for multiple states?

A:  Because QuickBooks is designed to be easy for the user, complicated matters such as this are simply not included.  QuickBooks now has a very inexpensive payroll service, with online submission capabilities, that will handle this and all your payroll needs from now on.  This service includes a free copy of QuickBooks '99 and should be more than 60% less than ADP.  With a service like this any and all payroll questions are finally answered.  No one should ever have to compute payroll or payroll taxes again.  With QuickBooks when you start the payroll process, you begin with all the data you need.  No manual entry of employees and amounts, this information has already been entered when you input time sheet information.   You do not need to print checks, sign them, or distribute them.  For around $20 a month and a $1.50 per check charge, the service prints and mails checks to employees or electronically deposits them in employee accounts.  It also automatically pays all payroll taxes on time and automatically files all of your payroll tax returns.  It even includes a copy of the brand-new and exciting QB '99 program, which normally sells for about $200.

Q: I have to make the same journal entry every week, how can QuickBooks make this easier?

A: QuickBooks offers a memorize transactions option which will make this journal entry as easy as entering the information that has changed only.

Q: How can I get printed QuickBooks Help documentation?

A: With the Help function open, click "options" then "print topic" on the menu.

Q:  Why do you like QuickBooks so much?  Do your clients like it?

A: At Block Tax we have been using QuickBooks and training clients to use it for seven years.  It is the most user friendly and customizable program for organizing and completing bookkeeping tasks.  We feel that our initial training makes the difference between a QB lover for life, and someone who gives up and keeps their books manually or hires someone else to do them.  All of our clients continue to use QuickBooks and enjoy being able to save time and money.

Q: When I tried to restore my backup, I was asked for Disk 1.  I only have one disk, is this an error in the program?

A: QB normally asks for Disk 1 even if there is only one disk.   The program is allowing for the possibility that there are more disks.  This is not an error and will not cause any problems if you only have one disk in your backup set.  Fortunately, for larger companies, they now have the possibility of keeping their backup on more than one disk if the file is larger than disk capacity.

Q:  Why does QuickBooks take so long to record my transactions and run queries?

A: QuickBooks does not require you to close the previous years' books, which is great for accessing last year's data, but consider finalizing and compressing your previous years books as soon as possible.  This saves memory and makes running time faster.  Other considerations are:
    1.  How much main memory do you have?  You should not run QB5 or higher with less than a 32m computer.  Regardless of what Intuit says about minimum system requirements, the program runs faster on a better computer.
    2.  How much disk memory do you have left?  Hard disks should never be more than 90% full.  Consider compressing large and older files and programs onto floppies to clear out memory.
    3.  How fast is your CPU?  You can use less than a P200, but you will not be happy with less if you want speed.  Besides, computers still double in speed every 18 months, so new systems are 4 times as fast as 3 year old ones.  Make sure you replace all computer systems and programs older than three years before the year 2000.  For more information what YK2 means to you, see our News page.
    4.  Have you run rebuild?  On the Windows menu choose Close all - Files - Utilities - Rebuild data to re-index the data file and recovers wasted space.
    5. You should also use scan disk if you haven't lately.

Q: How do I close out a previous year?

A: Go through Activities - Reconcile for bank accounts.  You may get extra compression if you do this for all balance sheet accounts.  Turn off the audit trail at File - Preferences - Accounting.  Finally, Windows - Close all - File - Utilities - Condense data.  Select the last day of the year to be condensed, NOT the first day of the new year.  You can still get prior year comparisons.   Then check the All Items box and click OK.

When you condense company files QuickBooks does two things:
    1.  Deletes transactions you no longer need to keep you records current.  Examples of these transactions would be: if an invoice has been paid in full, the detail is deleted, and the amount included in a summary transaction showing income accounts.  Neither the customer name nor the items sold are retained.   If you wish to keep records of these individual transactions, backup these files to floppies first.
    2.  Adds new transactions that provide monthly summaries of the transactions it deleted.  However, is an invoice is unprinted, unpaid, partially paid, or marked as pending, QuickBooks leaves the invoice in your file.

Q: Why are there discrepancies in my reports (out of balance)?

A:  1. If the difference is between the total on a detail report and a summary report, or if you cannot find out why there is a difference, did you use the Make Inactive option in the Chart of Accounts?  If you did, you should probably make all these accounts active.  We no longer use this or allow clients to do so because of such related problems.
    2.  Do a rebuild (Windows - Close all, File, Utilities, Rebuild) to find and fix possible file corruption.  Unless this occurs daily, you do not have a serious problem.
    3.  Before running any reports, set the cash or accrual preferences in File, Preferences, Reports.  Make sure the format of the reports is the same for all reports.  QB often looks at accounts like they are out of balance when the balance sheet and P & L do not have the same cash or accrual preferences.  Now run your reports again.  This is the problem if your NEW reports balance, but memorized ones do not.
    4. If you still have problems, you probably did not have Require Accounts on all entries marked in the preferences.  Customize a balance sheet and a P & L for a year, with Totaling by Month.  Then Memorize and print.   See where the reports go out of balance.  Then repeat this process for the weeks and then the days.  Finally, look at each transaction on the first unbalanced date, in the Reports, Other Reports, Journal report to find those transactions causing the discrepancies.

Q:  Can I change more than one transaction at a time?

A: Unfortunately, at this time QB does not offer this option. Block Tax and Intuit are committed to constant QB improvements, and hope to have this feature. For now, however, the best we can do is generate a report that has all transactions to change and set a Preference so Reports do not Update after drilling down to make a change. 

Q: I have a large business and many programs to track all of it's aspects.  How can I integrate QB with my other programs to better fit my specific business needs?

A:  We also can integrate your books for you and train you to keep them yourself.  See our Services page for more information.

Q: I can't find the answer to my question on you F. A. Q. page, can you answer other questions?

A: Block Tax can provide you with quick answers to your questions.  See our Help by Block Tax page for more details.

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Q:  Is there a fast way to differentiate similarly named accounts (like Sales and Sales Allowances), so I don't have to type so much?

A: Put a unique single digit in front of the name (for example, 1 Sales, 2 Sales Allowances, etc.). This way you only have to type a single digit for QB to automatically recall the rest of the name.  You can always edit the numbers out temporarily for clean financial reports.

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Q:  Can you speed up opening many QuickBooks files, starting new companies, importing standard reports and using different QuickBooks versions?

A:  Keep all company folders in a 1QB folder, so it is first on your drive. With a network, create an extra logical drive from the folder. Create a 1Template folder in this folder, so it is first. Keep standard company template files there so Restore starts new companies (one file for each QuickBooks version used). These files should have a basic chart of accounts, tax line codes and common reports, payees and journal entries. Also use 1Templates for importing common report templates and groups into existing Pro 2002 and later company files. Create an empty folder, named for the QuickBooks version used (03, 02, etc), in each live company folder.

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Q: When I imported my data from another application, many bogus invoices were created.  Why?  However, this answer relates to IIF. Go instead to the new Intuit Developer website  for full QBXML support. Much of this is FREE!

A:  Because this is an interface certain rules of interaction require the user be aware of their responsibility when it comes to extracting data for external usage. QuickBooks allows a lot of leeway when it comes to importing invoice data.
However, this feature is based on a knowledgeable user wanting to save time by importing data and bypassing the user data entry stage, where some errors might occur, but where at least QuickBooks rules on accepting new invoices (using the Create method) would prevent bogus invoices (incomplete or with incorrect values) from being entered into the system.

The import feature requires a valid account name, like Accounts Receivable, which is the default hard coded value used in this invoice interface since no other standard exists.

Because taxes are not automatically calculated on imported records, the user must disable the Sale Tax from the File Preferences. Otherwise, the user may have difficulty with importing invoices as it may try to calculate a sales tax from the
transactions per customer and notice some imbalances and not add import invoices. If this should happen, you must disable the Sales Tax preference and re-import the file.

Please note that QuickBooks does not check for duplicate invoices. Therefore, if the user imports the same data more than once, the A/R will have multiple invoices with duplicate invoices, even though the invoice number might be different. This is
a known deficiency with QuickBooks and the user takes full responsibility for use of this interface.

After the file has been successfully imported, you should go to the Reports Section and select the A/R to locate the newly Imported Invoices by accessing the Open Invoices and verifying each of the Search Invoices was successfully imported.

Q:   How to Can I Quickly Choose Similarly Named Accounts, Items, or Names?
When the chart of accounts, or list of items or names, contains similarly named elements, you or your clients type in many characters before the auto-recall feature of QuickBooks® Financial Software recognizes the desired description. For example, if the Chart of Accounts includes Sales and Sales Allowances, users must complete the word "sales," and add a space, before an account is chosen. Many of us are eager to shorten the process if possible, since the cumulative effects of minor time and efficiency savings could be impressive for frequently used accounts or other elements.

A:  If you want to make QuickBooks require fewer keystrokes to recognize accounts, items, or names, here is an easy approach. It is especially good if you have ten or fewer such instances of each of these. You would just need to modify the account, item, or name of similarly named elements by putting a unique single digit in front of the name.

For example, you could take Sales and rename it 1 Sales, or take Sales Allowances and rename it 2 Sales Allowances .

To rename an account, start at the Company Navigator and click on Chart of Accounts. Then right-click on the account you wish to rename. From the displayed options, click on Edit and QuickBooks will open an Edit Account dialogue box. In the Name field, modify the name, and then click the OK button in the upper right.

Once you modify the accounts, you only have to type a single digit and QuickBooks will auto-recall the rest. You can always edit these numbers out temporarily for clean financial reports. Any time to temporarily edit elements for financial statements is minimal compared to the time saved.

(Note: Some users may find it easier to use alpha identifiers, such as S Sales and SA Sales Allowances.)

Intuit added this Mike Block answer to Product Tips instructions for Professional Advisors. Here is how Intuit referred to Mike:

Thanks to Mike for this great tip. Mike is a member of the Intuit® Customer Advisory Councils for Certified
QuickBooks ProAdvisors. He posts many QuickBooks tips and shortcuts on his Web site www.blocktax.com.