Understanding the Three Kinds of Quickbooks Data Problems

1. Lurking data problems. In these situations, everything looks OK to the user in their daily use of QuickBooks. They can enter bills, run reports, do payroll, and backup their company without incident.

But there is a hidden data corruption problem lurking in their database. It won’t be uncovered until a process is attempted that systematically accesses their whole file; in particular, when they try to upgrade to a newer version. That’s when it fails — when QuickBooks basically touches every piece of data in the file.

Running verify and rebuild can detect many of these kinds of problems in the file. When rebuild cannot fix the corruption, most of the time the file can still be repaired.

2. Function-specific data problems. In this scenario, there is one part of QuickBooks that fails, and it fails every time you try it. For example, there was some data we repaired recently where if you accessed one particular invoice, QuickBooks would crash. (It turned out to be a problem with an “inventory loop” in the data and there would have been other ways to crash the file, but the user hadn’t encountered them).

Some people think that they can limp by in this scenario and they basically try not to provoke QuickBooks into crashing; they avoid the problem area. That is living a bit dangerously, I think. Better to either restore a backup made prior to the problem occurring (sometimes difficult to do) or else get the data repaired.

3. In-your-face data problems. These are obvious. You cannot open your file. Or you open it and as soon as you try to enter any kind of new transaction, it errors out and closes the program. Or your customer or vendor list simply vanishes.

This situation usually results in a crisis if there are no good current backups available. And this often (it seems) happens at the worst possible time — when payroll is supposed to be run, for example. Nothing like a bunch of employees coming by your desk to pick up non-existent paychecks to get your adrenaline going!

If you have a good current backup in that situation, you can restore it and go on with your business.

For more information on how our Certified QuickBooks Advisors can help - call (416) 803-5638

What to Do When QuickBooks is (Not Responding)

Has this happened to you? I’m guessing you’ve seen it before: You’re trying to update your company, or make a backup, or verify your company, or run a big report.

QuickBooks gets off to a good start, but then seems to stall. You make a couple of clicks and Windows pipes up: “(Not Responding)”. Oh, great.

What do you do then?

Sometimes users panic, and Ctrl-Alt-Delete / Task Manager / End Task their way out of QuickBooks. That’s not a very good choice, because if you force the application closed, there’s a good chance that your data file won’t get closed down like it’s supposed to.

I guess an even worse choice, for those who maybe don’t know about Task Manager, is to turn off the computer. “Reach for the big red handle”, as we used to say in the old days. That’s not good either.

Either of these actions has a high likelihood of causing data corruption, meaning that your next step after that would be to restore a backup and rekey to get caught back up, or get your data repaired.

So what to do? Most of the time, the best approach is both the hardest and easiest: just wait.

A lot of times, QuickBooks isn’t really “frozen” or “locked up”; it’s just “thinking”. Give it some time, particularly if you are trying to do something in QuickBooks that is systematic: backing up, restoring, verifying, rebuilding, resorting, etc. Those functions in QuickBooks have to touch a lot of your data, which might amount to millions of pieces of information.

That can take some time. I don’t know why QuickBooks doesn’t have a more elegant, less stress-inducing way of communicating that to users. I never like to see Windows intervene in an application. I want my QuickBooks to respond, not to not respond!

So if you see QuickBooks do that, maybe that’s your cue to take a break. Go outside and get some sunshine, or go to your nearest coffee bar and get caffeinated. Hopefully QuickBooks will be ready to go again by the time you get back to your workstation.

Then, for the future, here are some things that might help it from having to take so many naps:

• Close some of your open windows, in QuickBooks and in Windows itself
• Reduce your file's size
• Configure your internet security software settings so that it ignores your QuickBooks folder
• Rebuild your file to make sure that there is no data corruption in it
• Defragment your hard drive so that QuickBooks will be able to access everything as quickly as possible
• If you are using Enterprise 11, turn off the Search feature (Edit / Preferences / Search / Company Preferences / Uncheck “Update automatically”.) Then backup your data with full verify turned on. This will blank out the TLG file (which might be huge), and relieve QuickBooks of having to constantly update its search index on the fly
• Create and then restore a portable copy backup of your file. This will reindex your file and probably enhance performance — at least temporarily — of a large file

For any QuickBooks related problems or issues call us at (416) 803-5638. We have Certified QuickBooks Advisors on stand-by just when you need them.

QuickBooks Online Banking Can't Delete the QuickStatement?

Are you obtaining difficulty deleting the QuickBooks Online Banking QuickStatement? This is an situation for some consumers that Intuit is not actively resolving as of this composing. Here are a few guidelines and suggestions that will hopefully resolve the issue for you.

Firstly, in the QuickStatement make sure that all matchable transactions have been matched. Then, at the major Online Banking Middle web page, make certain the QuickStatement is highlighted yellow, then click on the Delete button in the decrease right corner of the screen. If this does not delete the QuickStatement, right here are a handful of options to think about:

1. Press Control--Delete. As an alternative of just pressing the Delete button, press Control--Delete. This may possibly do the trick.
2. Newest Release? Make specific you are working the most current release of your software program. For 2004 and 2005 versions of QuickBooks, from the File menu, select Update QuickBooks andadhere to the recommendations. For the 2006 model of QuickBooks, from the Help menu, decide on Update QuickBooks and adhere to the instructions.
3. Operate the Confirm Info utility. From the File menu, pick Utilities, then choose Confirm Information. This might find a glitch in the data file causing your QuickStatement to stay undeleted. If a single is found, operate the Rebuild Info utility. Please refer to QuickBooks' inner help ahead of working the Rebuild Information utility, particularly if you are employing QuickBooks on a network.
4. Restore a backup. If you produced a backup right away prior to your online banking session, AND the backup did not include any of the unmatchable transactions, you might restore it. Nevertheless, any operate you did throughout your on the internet banking session will be misplaced. You require to weigh whether or not this will be a excellent strategy to solving the difficulty. And of program, it does not resolve the problem if the unmatchable transactions had been downloaded just before you produced the backup.

If none of these strategies function, you might either get in touch with Intuit right, get in touch with your QuickBooks professional who can then get in touch with Intuit on your behalf, or you could attempt this work-close to. Be advised that this work-around somewhat complicated. Please examine by means of these guidelines cautiously and make selected you comprehend all of them before you begin.

Create, disable, reverse, verify, reconcile, re-permit. Using this technique, you will include the transactions to the sign-up, disable the account for on-line access, reverse the entries you additional, examine your function, reconcile the account, and re-permit the account for online accessibility. The following is how to do it:

• Include each and every transaction.Click on the Increase to Register button to enter them into the register. Open the Account subject, and scroll up to generate an Other Existing Liability account referred to as, "QuickStatement Use Only." Enter all unmatchable transactions utilizing this Other Present Liability account. The QuickStatement should be empty prior to you continue nonetheless, do not close the QuickStatement when you are completed entering transactions.
• Disable On the web Entry.Go to the Chart of Accounts and track down the account you were just working in. Highlight it, appropriate click on it, and pick Edit. In the Edit Account screen, decide on the tab that states On the internet Data. Uncheck the box that says On-line Account Entry. Considering that the QuickStatement is still open, QuickBooks may or could not allow you to disable the account for on the internet access. If it does not: a. Go back again and close the QuickStatement. Then try out once again to disable the account for on the internet entry. Ideally it will let you. b. If it does, great! Commence as follows.
• Reverse the entries you just entered. There are at minimum a few techniques to do this. Only 1 is shown the following: Go to the Chart of Accounts and find the Other Present Liability account you just produced ("QuickStatement Use Only"). Highlight it, appropriate-click it, then select Use Register. Go through the sign-up, and making use of today's date, report a new and reverse entry for every entry right here. In other phrases, if an entry appears in the Improve column, file an entry in the Lessen column of the identical sum. Or if an entry seems in the Decrease column, document an entry Enhance column of the very same volume. You are not altering, in any way, the formerly entered transactions--you are adding new ones that cancel out the entered transactions. In equally instances make certain you use either the financial institution account or credit score card account you utilised for the duration of your on the internet banking session, and that the dollar sum is exactly the identical as the entry you are reversing. Go via the register and do this for all entries that seem there.
• Check out your function.When you are completed, the harmony at the bottom appropriate corner of the "QuickStatement Use Only" sign-up need to be zero. Also, go by means of the bank or credit score card sign-up and make confident that the corresponding entries you just created show up there but in the opposite column of the downloaded transaction. If needed, comb via your operate and make specific you recorded every entry correctly.
• Reconcile.Subsequent time you reconcile the account for which you could not delete the QuickStatement, in the reconciliation display screen you will see all of these entries you just created, equally the entries from the QuickStatement, and the reversal entries. Be sure to examine these off, as you do not want them to seem in any subsequent reconciliations.
• Re-enable OnlineAccess. Go back again to the On the web Banking Center and re-enable the account for on the web banking.  

If you are certain you did not make mistakes, but a stability nevertheless stays in the "QuickStatement Use Only" account, get in touch with a QuickBooks expert. At this point, obtaining the error really should be comparatively straightforward for someone seasoned in this type of perform.

How to Use QuickBooks' Built-In Help

If you want help while using QuickBooks, you’ve got some pretty good built-in resources:

• Context-sensitive help. Wherever you are in QuickBooks, you can press the F1 key to bring up a side panel of help for the QuickBooks function you are in. On entry screens, there is usually a Help button you can click that brings up the same side panel help.
• If you don’t know how to do something in QuickBooks (or how to get to the right screen), click Help on the top menu, and then click QuickBooks Help. Then click the Search tab. Enter the topic you need help on and click the right-arrow that serves as Enter. It will bring up a list of topics related to your search word(s). Click the topic that looks closest, and QuickBooks will display help content in the sidebar.

If you need “big picture” type help, you can click Help / Learning Center Tutorials. This pulls up a window with built-in video tutorials on various sections of QuickBooks (e.g. Payroll, Inventory, etc.)

Each tutorial video is several minutes long and has standard video controls for pausing, fast forwarding, and volume.

If you need help beyond what is built into QuickBooks’ internal help system or tutorials, you can access free online help at the Intuit Live Community or the independent QuickBooks forums. For live help (fee based), call 1-800-999-9209.

Sales Tax Items and Sales Tax Codes in QuickBooks

Are you puzzled about how Sales Tax and Sales Tax Codes work in QuickBooks? Once you understand the basic setup it is pretty straight forward. We're going to take a look at the proper setup of sales tax items and sales tax codes.

Although very small businesses may be exempt from charging GST or HST the Canada Revenue Agency requires that all corporations and businesses register and collect GST or HST. These businesses remit the sales tax on a monthly, quarterly, semi-annual, or annual basis. The amount of GST or HST spent on purchases is deducted from the taxes charged to customers.

In broad terms collecting sales taxes in QuickBooks means creating Sales Tax Vendor, Sales Tax Items, Sales Tax Group, and a Sales Tax Code.

Sales Tax Vendor

Properly setting up a tax code in QuickBooks all begins with establishing a tax vendor. On the vendor information tab there is a box marked "Vendor is a Sales Tax Agency". When you tick this box a new tab is added for Tax Agency information. You will need to identify what type of sales tax (i.e. GST, QST, or other provincial tax). You will also identify the reporting frequency and the account to track taxes charged on purchases and sales (only one account is required for both the taxes charged and the taxes spent).

Sales Tax Item

The next step is to create a Sales Tax Item in the Item List. You will need a separate Sales Tax Item for sales taxes charged to customers and another Sales Tax Item for purchases. When setting up the items you will identify the percentage rate of tax to be charged, the Vendor Tax Agency, and the reporting line on the tax remittance form. A Sales Tax Group is needed if you have separate sales tax items to be included in one Tax Code. For example, where there is a Provincial tax and GST you will need a Sales Tax Item for each plus a Sales Tax Group to join them together.

Tax Code

Once all the above steps are completed then you can create a Sales Tax Code. These codes are used when creating customer invoices, entering vendor bills, or creating cheques. These can be set up from the Sales Tax Code List.  Is is best to use a simply code to identify the tax rates. For example, use H13 for HST at 13% or H15 for HST at 15%.

These guidelines presume that you have no Sales Tax Items or Sales Tax Codes set up yet in QuickBooks. Nevertheless, many of you reading through this already do. If this is the case, just go to your lists and see if your Sales Tax Items and Sales Tax Codes are set up correctly. If you need any assistance give Galloway Consulting Group a call at (416) 803-5638 to arrange a consultation.