2. Copy the Teamex2000.qbw or Teamex2001.qbw file onto your hard-drive

You can download the file from the Team Expansion web-site. Point your browser to Team Expansion's web page at http://www.teamexpansion.org. Then click on the "Resources" link. Then click on the "QuickBooks Resources" link under the "For Team Expansioners Only" heading. From there just point and click on the files you need!. We recommend that you create a new folder on your hard-drive called QBData (or something like that) and place the files there. 

3. Begin the QuickBooks program

Under the File menu, choose Open Company, then navigate to the folder you created in step 2 above. Select the appropriate Teamex.qbw file that you downloaded and click OK.

Note: When finished working with QuickBooks, just choose "Exit" on the "File." QuickBooks automatically saves the changes you have made. As long as you DON’T choose "Close Company" on the "File" menu, QuickBooks will automatically open your Team Expansion company file every time you start QuickBooks.

4. Insert the missionary/forwarding agent information in the appropriate fields

a) Under the Company menu, Company Information, insert the Missionary's name and forwarding address in the Address Field. For example:

c/o Joe Missionary

1234 Forwarding Agent Drive.

Somewhere, KY 40299.

Be sure the info is the same in the Legal fields below the Address field.

b) Click on "Other Memorized Reports" under the Reports section of the Navigation bar. Highlight the "Annual Expense Report" and click on the Generate Report button.  At the top of the report click on the Format button, then choose the Header/Footer button and then click in the Company Name field. Replace <Insert Missionary Name Here> with the name of the missionary. Click OK twice, then on the Memorize button, then choose Replace.  If you choose, you can place a shortcut to this report on the Navigation bar by clicking on "QuickAdd" at the bottom of the Navigation Bar.  Close the report.

Do the same for the Annual Receipts Recap, Monthly Expense & Monthly Receipts reports.

5. Input your donors names & addresses

Click on "Donor List" under the Customers section of the Navigation bar. This brings up the "Customer/Job" database. Your donors are called "Customers" by QuickBooks. Go "Control-N" or click on the Customer:Job button and select New.

In the Customer field type your first donor, last name first so that you can easily find them. For example:

Smith, Don & Bessie

Next, click in the "Addresses – Bill To" field. Here you should use all uppercase and no punctuation, in fitting with the Postal standards.

Type their name and address. For example:

DON & BESSIE SMITH

100 DONOR STREET

ANYWHERE KY 40200

This is the minimum amount data you need to input in order to function properly. You can fill in the other fields (Company, First name, Phone, etc. as you like).

Next click on the "Additional Info" tab of the Customer list, you should specify a Customer Type for every one of your donors. This will allow you to print labels for selected sets of people (Monthly Report, Quarterly Newsletter, etc).

To edit the Customer Type list and add new Types or delete the ones that we've already programmed, select Other Lists on the Lists menu, then click on Customer Types.

6. Input beginning balances. (Note: this step is only necessary for those with existing bank accounts who are converting to QuickBooks from another form of record keeping).

To enter beginning balances for your funds:

a. Click on "Chart of Accounts" in the Company section of the Navigation bar and select Checking. Click the Account button and select edit, then type in the opening balance of your Team Expansion checking account. Do the same for a Team Expansion Savings account, if you have one.

b. Calculate on paper the beginning balances for all your funds.

The total amount should equal the amount you have in your Team Expansion bank account(s).

c. From the Banking menu, choose Make Journal Entry.

d. In the Date field, type in a date from the previous month (that way the incoming balance won't show up as income for this month).

e. In the Account field, select the "fund transfer income" account, enter the total for your General fund under Credit, and select the General fund under Class.

Note: QuickBooks refers to funds as "classes." The teamex.qbw file comes with some funds already entered. If you are using other funds now, or want to add funds in the future, you can do so by clicking on the "Lists" menu, select "Classes," click on the Class button and select New.

f. Repeat Step e for each fund you have (if you have additional funds besides the General Fund).

g. After you've entered the last fund balance, press Tab. You'll see a balancing entry on the next line under Debit, equal to the total for all your funds (which you entered in the Credit column).

h. Choose the "fund transfer expense" account on the last line (where you see the balancing entry under Debit).

Do not select a class on this line.

a) Click on "Enter Donations" under the Customers section of the Navigation bar.

b) Begin writing the donors name in the "Customer:Job" field. The name will quickly fill in, unless they have not yet been entered in QuickBooks. If not, QuickBooks has you add them to the Donors List.

c) Tab (press the Tab key repeatedly) to the class field and type "G" (for General Fund), or use the appropriate letter if not General Fund.

d) Tab to the Check # field and enter.

e) Tab to the Item field and type "C" for contribution.

f) Tab to the amount field and enter.

g) Click OK (or Next if you have another check to enter.

The receipts will be printed all at once at the end of the month (see "To Print Receipts" below).

2. To record Deposits

Click on "Make Deposits" on the Navigation bar and select the deposit group and press Enter.

If you so desire, you can print the deposit slip by clicking on the Print button.

When you enter checks, QuickBooks automatically places the check amounts in the "Undeposited Funds" category. Then, when you tell QuickBooks that the money has been deposited in the bank (see below), it automatically transfers the money from "Undeposited Funds" to your Checking Account balance.

Click on "Enter Expenses" on the navigation bar and fill in the check graphic. Be sure to fill in the Account field. The Team Expansion account numbers, names and categories are already programmed. Just begin typing the number (if you know it) or select from the drop-down menu in the Account field. Also, be sure to fill in the Class (fund) field. Most the time it will be "General", unless you are dealing with another fund.

Note: QuickBooks keeps a list of Vendors (those who you write checks to). You can update and edit this list by clicking on the "Vendor List" on the Navigation bar.

Splitting Out Expenses

One of the nicer features of QuickBooks is the way you can distribute one check over an unlimited number of expense account categories. For instance, if a missionary charges a number of ministry and personal expenses to a credit card, you can write one check to the credit card company - but in the Splits window you can designate the money over a variety of expense account categories. QuickBooks even does the math for you so that you will know when you have divided the money appropriately.

The steps for this process are:

Click on "Enter Expenses" on the Navigation bar. Type the check number, enter the vendor's name (Visa, MasterCard, etc....), enter the amount of the payment, tab to the account field on the Expenses tab below and choose the first category (100 Benefits, Salary, for example), then tab to the amount field and enter the amount that you want to allocate to salary, (you can use the memo field to help you remember what the expense was for if you wish) then tab to the class field and enter the appropriate class. When you press tab again, the cursor drops down to the next line and QuickBooks tells you how much money is yet to be allocated. You continue this process until the entire payment has been allocated completely.

Note: Instead filling out a check graphic, you can just fill the appropriate information in the check register (or savings or Field Cash registers). You can open these registers by going Control-R (or Use Registers on the Banking menu). If you use this method, make sure that you click on the Splits button, so that you can fill in the appropriate Class (Fund) information. Of course, if you actually use QuickBooks to print your checks, you’ll want to enter expeneses using the check graphic.

4. When all the income (donations) for the month has been recorded it is time to run the Receipts Recap report

Click on "Monthly Receipts Recap" on the Navigation bar under the Reports heading. You can then print the Receipts Recap or save it as an ASCII text file for importing into a word-processing document. To save it as a text file just click on the Print button on the header of the report and then choose to print to a printer or a file. If you choose to save the report as a file, click on the circle next to "File" then click on the "Print" button. This brings up a window where you can select the destination folder and name of the file.

5. When the expenses have been recorded for the month it is time to run the Expense Recap report Click on "Monthly Expense Recap"on the Navigation bar under the Reports heading. You can then print the Receipts Recap or save it as an ASCII file, for importing into a word-processing document (see instructions in paragraph above).

IMPORTANT NOTE: the default setting for this report is for reporting last month’s expenses. It will show 0.00 expense if you run the report for anytime but the previous month. But, you can easily fix this! Here are the steps for retrieving the expense data from any period besides last month:

1) Click on "Monthly Expense Recap" on the Navigation bar under the Reports section.

2) In the Dates box (upper left corner) choose the period you want to know about (or manually type in the From and To dates). If you type in dates in the From and To boxes, you have to press the Tab key to activate the new dates.

3) Now the report appears but with a zero total. Don't panic! Here is the clincher: you have to change the filter. Click on the "Filters" button and choose "Paid Through" (you can press "P" on the keyboard until it appears). In the Paid Through box choose the same period/dates as you did in step 3. Click OK.

6. To print receipts

On the File Menu, choose Print Forms, then choose Print Sales Receipts. Choose the Select All button and click OK. The receipts will then print. QuickBooks prints just one receipt per 8 1/2 by 11-inch page. It is then necessary to cut them with a paper cutter down to the proper size (8 1/2 inches wide by 3 1/2 inches tall). Once cut to size the receipts fit in a standard business envelope (size 10) without folding.

Notice that the receipts print with the donor's address on the lower left corner (after cutting to size). You can purchase standard business size envelopes (size 10) with the clear window. The donor's name and address will show perfectly thru the window.

It is possible to save paper and print 3 receipts per page (but you have to be resourceful). By printing the next batch of receipts on the same paper after you have cut off the top 3 ½ inches, then turning the paper over and printing on the bottom 1/3 you can get 3 receipts per page.

7. To print mailing labels

Select Print Forms from the File menu, then select Print Mailing Labels. You can print all the names in your database, or specify certain groups. For example, you can specify Customer Type and print labels for Monthly Supporters, Quarterly Newsletter recipients, etc. QuickBooks lets you specify the type of mailing label you are using.

If you want to print envelopes or send a merge letter, you can do so by selecting Mail Merge under the File menu and then specifying which names you want to use. QuickBooks will create a data *.txt file.

8. Making sure your fund balances agree with your bank account(s) balance(s)

First determine your Fund Balances by clicking on Fund Balances report on the Navigation bar. Next determine the total amount in your bank account(s) (Checking, Savings and or Field Cash account(s). To do so, simply open the appropriate registers. You’ll find the "Ending balance" on the lower right corner of the register(s).

The total on your Fund Balances report should equal the total of your bank accounts. If the figures don’t agree – well, you messed something up (grin). It happens to the best of us! There’s a good chance your mistake was forgetting to classify an expense or income amount with a specific fund. (See the section below entitled "With Every Donation And Every Expense, You Must Tell QuickBooks Which Fund (Class) To Credit Or Debit").

It is also possible that the two figures don't agree because you have entered some donations but you have yet to deposit them. If that is the case, those donations will show up on the Fund Balances Report, but not in your account(s).

When you receive the bank statement from your bank, you can quickly & easily reconcile QuickBooks with the statement by choosing Reconcile on the Banking sectioon of the Navigatioon bar. Check off those expenses and deposits that have cleared, enter the ending balance of your bank statement in the Ending Balance field and the "Difference" should be 0.00. If not, do a little detective work to determine where you are long or short.

Believe it or not, there are still people who don't reconcile QuickBooks with their bank statement each month. They need our prayers. Afterall, reconciliation is a major theme of the Christian life. Only heathens fail to reconcile!

If you have earned any interest or incurred any service charges on an account, DO NOT add those amounts in the Reconcile Window because there are no Funds/Classes options. Instead, go to the checking account register enter the earned interest by filling out the Date field, tab to the Account Field and choose Miscellaneous Income (scroll to on the drop down menu or begin typing it), go ahead and put a check on the Cleared box since the interest appears on your bank statement, tab to the Deposit field and enter the interest amount, then click on the Splits button and tab to the Customer:Job field and choose Interest Income, then finally select the correct Class (Fund). Finally, click on the Record button.

Service charges are treated in a similar fashion, but are payments instead of deposits. The Account is 920 - Misc. - Banking Fees. The Payee field can be left blank as well as the Customer:Job Field. Again, be sure to mark it as cleared.

10. To Transfer Money between funds

Choose Make Journal Entry on the Navigation bar. Click on the Account field and then click on the drop down arrow and choose which account (lines 100 through 990) the money will be debited. Tab to the Debit field and enter the amount of money you want to transfer. Tab to the Class Field and choose the fund you want the money to come from. Next, hit the tab key and the cursor drops down to the next line. On this line, you need to enter a balancing transaction. In the Account Field choose Fund Transfer Income. Tab to the credit field and enter the balancing amount, then tab to the Class field and enter the fund that the money will be going to.

11. To Transfer Money between Checking & Saving Accounts (or Field Cash Account – see below)

Under the Banking Menu, choose Transfer Funds. Then simply fill in the appropriate From and To accounts and the amount of the transfer. The transaction is automatically entered on the appropriate account Registers.

12. To keep track of a Field Cash account.

Sometimes missionaries take or send a large cash advance to the field. This is especially true in countries where the banking system is under-developed. QuickBooks can help you keep track of the cash advance and report it’s use as the missionary spends the money. The Field Cash account register can be viewed by clicking on "Use Registers" on the Banking menu. Here are the steps for tracking and reporting a large cash advance.

a) On the Banking menu choose "Transfer Funds." Choose the appropriate "Transfer Funds From" account (either Checking or Savings). Then choose the Field Cash Bank account in the "Transfer Funds To" field. In the Amount field, type in the amount that the missionary is taking to the field. The appropriate data will appear automatically in the corresponding register.

Once the missionary starts reporting how the cash advance is being used you will report it by entering the Field Cash Register and filling in the information. Make sure you click on the Splits button and choose the appropriate Class (Fund). When you run a Monthly Expense Recap report, the money will be reported as being spent as the missionary uses the money. Note: the money is not reported as being spent when it is transferred to the Field Cash fund. It is only reported as being spent after the missionary begins using it and reporting its use to his/her Forwarding Agent and the Forwarding Agent enters the expenses in the Field Cash Register.

a) Click on "Enter Donations" under the Customers section of the Navigation bar.

b) Begin writing the donors name in the "Customer:Job" field. The name will quickly fill in, unless they have not yet been entered in QuickBooks. If not, QuickBooks has you add them to the Donors List.

c) Tab (press the Tab key repeatedly) to the class field and type "G" (for General Fund), or use the appropriate letter if not General Fund.

d) Tab to the Check # field and enter.

e) Tab to the Item field and type "C" for contribution.

f) Tab to the amount field and enter.

g) Click OK (or Next if you have another check to enter.

The receipts will be printed all at once at the end of the month (see "To Print Receipts" below).

If you forget to specify a fund at any time, QuickBooks automatically credits/debits a fund called "Unclassified Fund." This is a temporary measure until you discover your error, find the transaction, and specify a fund for that transaction. At any time, you can double-check yourself by generating the "Unclassified Fund" report (click on "Other Memorized Reports" on the Navigation bar, choose Unclassified Fund, and click on Generate Report). There might be an amount in the Total Expense and Net Income rows of this fund (because of the way QuickBooks sets up the different Funds), but there should not be any individual income or expense items in the Unclassified Fund column. If so, this income or expense transaction needs to be edited and a Fund specified. Just double click on the offending transaction and you will be allowed to edit and add the appropraite Class (Fund).

2. Too Many Columns on Monthly Reports?

Expense and income reports normally show the different funds (classes) in columns with a Total Column on the right. But, if you are only using the General Fund, then it seems a little redundant to have a General Fund column and a Total Column – afterall both columns will have exactly the same numbers. If you are only using the General Fund - here are the steps for removing the Total column from the reports. Note: you should only do this if you are only reporting General Fund income/expenses.

1) Run the Monthly Expense and Receipts reports. Once the reports are run click on the Columns field in the upper right corner of the report. "Class" will be specified by default in this field. Choose "Total only." You now only have one column of numbers! If you want to make this the default setting, click on the Memorize button and replace the report with the new one.

3. You can teach QuickBooks to automatically enter transactions for bills you pay every month

To memorize a check you've already entered find it in the check register, then select Edit, then Memorize (or Control-M).

To edit the list of memorized transactions, choose Memorized Transaction List from the Banking menu (or go Control-T).

Also, you can choose to have QuickBooks remember the last transaction with that name (vendor) and fill in the same info again. This might or might not be handy for you. To set this preference, choose Preferences on the Edit menu. In the General area, put a check in the box next to "Automatically recall last transaction for this name." Then click OK to save the change.

4. Inactive Data

You won't need to worry about archiving the previous year data because QuickBooks just keeps building on previous year’s data each new year. You can easily go back in and look at data from previous years in QuickBooks. However, as things change and data becomes obsolete, you can make certain data "inactive." For example, if you try to delete a person from your Customers:Jobs list who gave you a donation in a previous year Quick-Books won't let you delete them because they were used in a transaction (they were a previous donor). You can select them from the Donors list on the Customers section of the Navigation bar and then click on the Customer:Job button and select Make Inactive. To see them again just select "Show All Customers").

5. QuickBooks will offer you Reminders

For instance, if you haven't printed the Receipts for those donating to your ministry, it will tell you. To see these reminders, click on "Reminders" on the Navigation bar. The "Reminders" window will automatically appear when you first open QuickBooks. To change that preference click on Edit, Preferences, scroll down to the "Reminders" area and unclick the box.

6. Reporting "Exchange Gain/Loss"

One of the facts of life abroad is some fluctuation once money has been exchanged into another currency, and then converted back to US dollars for reporting purposes. This is known as "Exchange Gain/Loss." Please don’t lose any sleep over this – it’s expected! For instance, a missionary takes $1000 to the field. Once there he exchanges it to the local currency, spends it, then converts the figures back to dollars so that he can report his expenses to his forwarding agent. However, once he does his math it appears that he can only account for $994. How does he account for this $6 loss? It is probably a victim of Exchange Gain/Loss. All he needs to do is report the missing $6 as an expense in his General Fund, using line Account number 920, Misc., Banking Fees.

If he encounters a gain (for instance his math tells him he spent $1006, when he only had $1000 to begin with) – he would show the gain as income. We programmed the QuickBooks file with a "donor" called "Rebates/Reimbursements" for such instances. This "donor" could also be used when receiving rebates or refunds on merchandise and reimbursements from co-workers on joint projects.

7. Using the QuickBooks calculator to enter foreign currency.

If you are entering a foreign currency into QuickBooks you can use a dropdown calculator to quickly divide back into US dollars. Let’s say, for example, you live in Taiwan and you received 32.8 NT for one U.S. dollar the last time you exchanged money. In the amount field of the check (or payment field if you are using the check register) type in the amount in foreign currency that you paid then hit the / key (to divide) and a popup calculator appears. You can type in the exchange rate (in this case 32.8) and the amount in U.S. dollars appears in the amount field.

8. QuickBooks should be backed up often to avoid losing valuable data

When you click on "Backup" on the File menu QuickBooks makes a back-up file. Notice the extension is .qbb for a backup file and .qbw for a regular QuickBooks file. Backup files are compressed so that they are much smaller. You should backup your Team Expansion company file on a diskette in case your hard-drive crashes. To do so: Place a blank diskette in your diskette drive.

If you want to restore a back up file, place the diskette in your diskette drive and then choose "Restore" on the File menu.

Please, get into the habit of backing up your Teamex.qbw file onto a diskette at least once a month - and storing that diskette off-site. That way, if your computer is destroyed in a fire, is stolen, or just simply dies, you will not lose more than a month of data. To ignore this advice is asking for problems.

9. Customizing the Navigation Bar

You can customize the Navigation bar by clicking on the Customize button on the bottom of the bar. You can add and remove buttons.

If you are using a form, report or activity often and it is not already on the Navigation bar - often you can add it to the Navigation bar by clicking on the QuickAdd button on the bottom of the bar.

Credit Card Purchases

Credit card charges may be entered on a daily basis or, alternatively, all at once, when the bill arrives. Either way, on the top line menu, click on "Banking|Enter Credit Card Charges." If you've never entered credit card charges before, you can "Add New" by clicking the arrow beside the drop box in the "Credit Card" field. After setting up your credit card, you can proceed. If you have more than one credit card already set up, choose the relevant card (the one you're charging against) in the drop box.

Tab to the "Purchased From" field and begin typing in the name of the vendor from which you purchased the item or service. The vendor database used to supply names here is the same one used when writing checks, so if you've ever written a check to the vendor previously, the name will auto-complete. If this is the first time to purchase something from this particular vendor, you can choose to set up or "Quick Add" the vendor. If you for some reason need to put in the address and other details for the vendor, choose "Set up." Otherwise, "Quick Add" would be fine. Just hit "enter" to confirm that the person or store is really a vendor.

You can assign a reference number in the next field, but it's not really necessary. Then tab to the "charge/credit" radio buttons. If you're buying something, leave it marked as "Charge." If you returned something and they wrote you a credit slip, you'll want to tab to "Credit" and hit the space bar to change the radio button to the "Credit" choice.

If you keep track of charges on a day-by-day basis ("real-time" throughout the month, as you charge the items), you'll probably want to set the date for the current day -- i.e., the day you actually charged the item. Your monthly report will reflect the expense, even though your checking account might not have dished out the actual cash to pay for it yet. This is actually not a bad scenario, however, since for all practical purposes, the money has, in a sense, left your hands. And your report will still be accurate.

If you decide to wait each month and enter all your credit card expenses at once, when you actually pay your bill, there's a chance for a slight problem. Some (maybe MOST) of the expenses will have occurred in the previous month. If you produce your monthly report before you enter the credit card charges, then enter them later, your next month's report won't cover them, since Quickbooks "sees" them as having taken place in the prior month.

There are 3 possible solutions. a) Either follow the day-by-day model (above), or b) wait until you get your bill each month, enter the charges, then produce your report, or c) date each charge as having been charged on the day you wrote the check to pay for the credit card bill. This might make it a bit harder to compare your QuickBooks charge slips with the real credit card bill, but maybe you can enter the actual charge date in the "Ref. No." field.

Tab to the "Amount" field and enter the amount of the purchase.

Put any appropriate comments in the memo field. Most likely, you'll never print out a report showing those comments -- so they're just for your own information.

Tab to the "Account" field and either a) begin entering the Team Expansion expense account number, such as "800" for transportation expense (like gasoline), or b) click on the arrow beside the box and choose the account number from the list. The "Amount" will automatically be filled in. If you bought more than one item from this vendor and would like to reflect that by splitting the purchase, you can begin listing the items by entering the amount of the first item in the "Amount" field. "Memo" is for any comment referring specifically to that line item. Most of the time, you can just tab past the Amount, Memo, and Customer:Job fields. But don't forget to enter a "Class"! If you neglect to enter a fund name in the "Class" field, QuickBooks won't know which fund you wanted to use for this purchase. In most cases, unless you track restricted access funds (like "Bibles for Ukraine" or whatever), you'll simply be able to enter "General" for General Fund in the Class field.

If you wanted to enter individual items, just repeat the line-by-line list of purchases, then when you're all done, hit "Next" or "OK." Repeat the process for each credit card purchase.

When you click on "Chart of Accounts" on the Company menu, then double-click on the name of the credit card in the accounts list, you'll see a line-by-line listing of your charges, much like a checkbook register or credit card bill. You can see more detail on each item by double-clicking it. If you made a mistake, you can even record a correction for an individual purchase.

If you wish, you can add your Credit Card accounts to Navigation bar. To do so, with the Credit Card register open, click on the QuickAdd button on the bottom of the Navigation Bar.

One important concept here. Notice that this is a credit card ledger. QuickBooks tracks a credit card ledger differently than a checkbook ledger. If you write a check that causes your checking account to overdraw, Quickbooks' checkbook register for that account shows your balance going into the red, with a negative balance. Every time you make a deposit, the balance goes up because you're increasing the money in your account. By contrast, on QuickBooks' credit card ledger, the money shown is the amount you owe. So it might take you some time to become accustomed to the fact that, when you charge something, the balance goes up -- i.e., you owe the card more money -- just the opposite of checking account registers. But it'll work out okay when you pay off the balance... because then the amount will go back down to zero. It looks really funny if you ever accidentally send too much money to your credit card company. Quickbooks will then show a negative amount in your credit card account. Clear as mud, right? Just remember that the balance shown will reflect how much you owe, not how much money you have on hand. If you think of it like that, it'll begin making sense.

In this way, you'll also be able to see how much you've charged on your card throughout a particular month, so you'll know what kind of total you're amassing -- and that's critical to managing credit card debt effectively. It goes without saying that, under normal circumstances, you should never charge more than your capacity to repay at the end of the month, since credit card interest is so steep. In this way, QuickBooks can help you be a more effective manager of the funds God has given you.

Paying off Credit Card Bills

You'll probably pay your credit card bill with money from a the Team Expansion checking account. To do so, you must follow the directions very closely.

If you forget to specify a fund at any time, QuickBooks automatically credits/debits a fund called "Unclassified Fund." This is a temporary measure until you discover your error, find the transaction, and specify a fund for that transaction. At any time, you can double-check yourself by generating the "Unclassified Fund" report (click on "Other Memorized Reports" on the Navigation bar, choose Unclassified Fund, and click on Generate Report). There might be an amount in the Total Expense and Net Income rows of this fund (because of the way QuickBooks sets up the different Funds), but there should not be any individual income or expense items in the Unclassified Fund column. If so, this income or expense transaction needs to be edited and a Fund specified. Just double click on the offending transaction and you will be allowed to edit and add the appropraite Class (Fund).

2. Too Many Columns on Monthly Reports?

Expense and income reports normally show the different funds (classes) in columns with a Total Column on the right. But, if you are only using the General Fund, then it seems a little redundant to have a General Fund column and a Total Column – afterall both columns will have exactly the same numbers. If you are only using the General Fund - here are the steps for removing the Total column from the reports. Note: you should only do this if you are only reporting General Fund income/expenses.

1) Run the Monthly Expense and Receipts reports. Once the reports are run click on the Columns field in the upper right corner of the report. "Class" will be specified by default in this field. Choose "Total only." You now only have one column of numbers! If you want to make this the default setting, click on the Memorize button and replace the report with the new one.

3. You can teach QuickBooks to automatically enter transactions for bills you pay every month

To memorize a check you've already entered find it in the check register, then select Edit, then Memorize (or Control-M).

To edit the list of memorized transactions, choose Memorized Transaction List from the Banking menu (or go Control-T).

Also, you can choose to have QuickBooks remember the last transaction with that name (vendor) and fill in the same info again. This might or might not be handy for you. To set this preference, choose Preferences on the Edit menu. In the General area, put a check in the box next to "Automatically recall last transaction for this name." Then click OK to save the change.

4. Inactive Data

You won't need to worry about archiving the previous year data because QuickBooks just keeps building on previous year’s data each new year. You can easily go back in and look at data from previous years in QuickBooks. However, as things change and data becomes obsolete, you can make certain data "inactive." For example, if you try to delete a person from your Customers:Jobs list who gave you a donation in a previous year Quick-Books won't let you delete them because they were used in a transaction (they were a previous donor). You can select them from the Donors list on the Customers section of the Navigation bar and then click on the Customer:Job button and select Make Inactive. To see them again just select "Show All Customers").

5. QuickBooks will offer you Reminders

For instance, if you haven't printed the Receipts for those donating to your ministry, it will tell you. To see these reminders, click on "Reminders" on the Navigation bar. The "Reminders" window will automatically appear when you first open QuickBooks. To change that preference click on Edit, Preferences, scroll down to the "Reminders" area and unclick the box.

6. Reporting "Exchange Gain/Loss"

One of the facts of life abroad is some fluctuation once money has been exchanged into another currency, and then converted back to US dollars for reporting purposes. This is known as "Exchange Gain/Loss." Please don’t lose any sleep over this – it’s expected! For instance, a missionary takes $1000 to the field. Once there he exchanges it to the local currency, spends it, then converts the figures back to dollars so that he can report his expenses to his forwarding agent. However, once he does his math it appears that he can only account for $994. How does he account for this $6 loss? It is probably a victim of Exchange Gain/Loss. All he needs to do is report the missing $6 as an expense in his General Fund, using line Account number 920, Misc., Banking Fees.

If he encounters a gain (for instance his math tells him he spent $1006, when he only had $1000 to begin with) – he would show the gain as income. We programmed the QuickBooks file with a "donor" called "Rebates/Reimbursements" for such instances. This "donor" could also be used when receiving rebates or refunds on merchandise and reimbursements from co-workers on joint projects.

7. Using the QuickBooks calculator to enter foreign currency.

If you are entering a foreign currency into QuickBooks you can use a dropdown calculator to quickly divide back into US dollars. Let’s say, for example, you live in Taiwan and you received 32.8 NT for one U.S. dollar the last time you exchanged money. In the amount field of the check (or payment field if you are using the check register) type in the amount in foreign currency that you paid then hit the / key (to divide) and a popup calculator appears. You can type in the exchange rate (in this case 32.8) and the amount in U.S. dollars appears in the amount field.

8. QuickBooks should be backed up often to avoid losing valuable data

When you click on "Backup" on the File menu QuickBooks makes a back-up file. Notice the extension is .qbb for a backup file and .qbw for a regular QuickBooks file. Backup files are compressed so that they are much smaller. You should backup your Team Expansion company file on a diskette in case your hard-drive crashes. To do so: Place a blank diskette in your diskette drive.

If you want to restore a back up file, place the diskette in your diskette drive and then choose "Restore" on the File menu.

Please, get into the habit of backing up your Teamex.qbw file onto a diskette at least once a month - and storing that diskette off-site. That way, if your computer is destroyed in a fire, is stolen, or just simply dies, you will not lose more than a month of data. To ignore this advice is asking for problems.

9. Customizing the Navigation Bar

You can customize the Navigation bar by clicking on the Customize button on the bottom of the bar. You can add and remove buttons.

If you are using a form, report or activity often and it is not already on the Navigation bar - often you can add it to the Navigation bar by clicking on the QuickAdd button on the bottom of the bar.

Credit Card Purchases

Credit card charges may be entered on a daily basis or, alternatively, all at once, when the bill arrives. Either way, on the top line menu, click on "Banking|Enter Credit Card Charges." If you've never entered credit card charges before, you can "Add New" by clicking the arrow beside the drop box in the "Credit Card" field. After setting up your credit card, you can proceed. If you have more than one credit card already set up, choose the relevant card (the one you're charging against) in the drop box.

Tab to the "Purchased From" field and begin typing in the name of the vendor from which you purchased the item or service. The vendor database used to supply names here is the same one used when writing checks, so if you've ever written a check to the vendor previously, the name will auto-complete. If this is the first time to purchase something from this particular vendor, you can choose to set up or "Quick Add" the vendor. If you for some reason need to put in the address and other details for the vendor, choose "Set up." Otherwise, "Quick Add" would be fine. Just hit "enter" to confirm that the person or store is really a vendor.

You can assign a reference number in the next field, but it's not really necessary. Then tab to the "charge/credit" radio buttons. If you're buying something, leave it marked as "Charge." If you returned something and they wrote you a credit slip, you'll want to tab to "Credit" and hit the space bar to change the radio button to the "Credit" choice.

If you keep track of charges on a day-by-day basis ("real-time" throughout the month, as you charge the items), you'll probably want to set the date for the current day -- i.e., the day you actually charged the item. Your monthly report will reflect the expense, even though your checking account might not have dished out the actual cash to pay for it yet. This is actually not a bad scenario, however, since for all practical purposes, the money has, in a sense, left your hands. And your report will still be accurate.

If you decide to wait each month and enter all your credit card expenses at once, when you actually pay your bill, there's a chance for a slight problem. Some (maybe MOST) of the expenses will have occurred in the previous month. If you produce your monthly report before you enter the credit card charges, then enter them later, your next month's report won't cover them, since Quickbooks "sees" them as having taken place in the prior month.

There are 3 possible solutions. a) Either follow the day-by-day model (above), or b) wait until you get your bill each month, enter the charges, then produce your report, or c) date each charge as having been charged on the day you wrote the check to pay for the credit card bill. This might make it a bit harder to compare your QuickBooks charge slips with the real credit card bill, but maybe you can enter the actual charge date in the "Ref. No." field.

Tab to the "Amount" field and enter the amount of the purchase.

Put any appropriate comments in the memo field. Most likely, you'll never print out a report showing those comments -- so they're just for your own information.

Tab to the "Account" field and either a) begin entering the Team Expansion expense account number, such as "800" for transportation expense (like gasoline), or b) click on the arrow beside the box and choose the account number from the list. The "Amount" will automatically be filled in. If you bought more than one item from this vendor and would like to reflect that by splitting the purchase, you can begin listing the items by entering the amount of the first item in the "Amount" field. "Memo" is for any comment referring specifically to that line item. Most of the time, you can just tab past the Amount, Memo, and Customer:Job fields. But don't forget to enter a "Class"! If you neglect to enter a fund name in the "Class" field, QuickBooks won't know which fund you wanted to use for this purchase. In most cases, unless you track restricted access funds (like "Bibles for Ukraine" or whatever), you'll simply be able to enter "General" for General Fund in the Class field.

If you wanted to enter individual items, just repeat the line-by-line list of purchases, then when you're all done, hit "Next" or "OK." Repeat the process for each credit card purchase.

When you click on "Chart of Accounts" on the Company menu, then double-click on the name of the credit card in the accounts list, you'll see a line-by-line listing of your charges, much like a checkbook register or credit card bill. You can see more detail on each item by double-clicking it. If you made a mistake, you can even record a correction for an individual purchase.

If you wish, you can add your Credit Card accounts to Navigation bar. To do so, with the Credit Card register open, click on the QuickAdd button on the bottom of the Navigation Bar.

One important concept here. Notice that this is a credit card ledger. QuickBooks tracks a credit card ledger differently than a checkbook ledger. If you write a check that causes your checking account to overdraw, Quickbooks' checkbook register for that account shows your balance going into the red, with a negative balance. Every time you make a deposit, the balance goes up because you're increasing the money in your account. By contrast, on QuickBooks' credit card ledger, the money shown is the amount you owe. So it might take you some time to become accustomed to the fact that, when you charge something, the balance goes up -- i.e., you owe the card more money -- just the opposite of checking account registers. But it'll work out okay when you pay off the balance... because then the amount will go back down to zero. It looks really funny if you ever accidentally send too much money to your credit card company. Quickbooks will then show a negative amount in your credit card account. Clear as mud, right? Just remember that the balance shown will reflect how much you owe, not how much money you have on hand. If you think of it like that, it'll begin making sense.

In this way, you'll also be able to see how much you've charged on your card throughout a particular month, so you'll know what kind of total you're amassing -- and that's critical to managing credit card debt effectively. It goes without saying that, under normal circumstances, you should never charge more than your capacity to repay at the end of the month, since credit card interest is so steep. In this way, QuickBooks can help you be a more effective manager of the funds God has given you.

Paying off Credit Card Bills

You'll probably pay your credit card bill with money from a the Team Expansion checking account. To do so, you must follow the directions very closely.