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into the proper drive.

      After downloading the program (or inserting the disc containing the software), you don’t need to do anything special to install QuickBooks. Simply follow the onscreen instructions. Typically, you’re prompted to enter the installation key or installation code. This code and key are available within the QuickBooks packaging — usually, on the back of the envelope that the disc comes in — if you purchase the software in a local store. Otherwise, Intuit provides these items during the online purchase process.

      The QuickBooks installation process may ask you to answer questions about how you want QuickBooks to be installed. Almost always, you want to accept the default suggestions. In other words, QuickBooks may ask you whether it can create a new folder in which to install the program files. In this case, choose yes.

      

QuickBooks can work as a multiuser accounting system, which means that several people can use QuickBooks. The QuickBooks data file — the repository of all the QuickBooks information — typically resides on a centrally available computer or server. People who want to work with the QuickBooks data file simply install the QuickBooks program on their computers and then use the program to access centrally located QuickBooks data files. This multiuser system isn’t complicated to run; in fact, I talk about it quite a bit in Book 7, Chapter 1.

      TROUBLESHOOTING CD/DVD INSTALLATION

      If your version of Microsoft Windows doesn’t recognize that you’ve stuffed the QuickBooks CD into the machine’s CD or DVD drive, you have a couple of choices:

       You can wait. If you wait, Windows probably will recognize that you’ve placed the QuickBooks CD in the CD or DVD drive, and after a short wait (even though it may seem like an eternity), Windows starts the process of installing the QuickBooks program.

       You can manually force the installation of the QuickBooks program. Windows includes a tool that you can use to add or remove new programs (unsurprisingly named the Add/Remove Programs tool). I don’t describe how this Control Panel tool works here, but you can refer to a book such as Windows 10 For Dummies, by Andy Rathbone (John Wiley & Sons, Inc.), or Windows online Help to get this information. In a nutshell, you simply open the Control Panel window, click the Add/Remove Programs tool, and follow the onscreen instructions to tell Windows to install a program stored on the CD or DVD in the computer’s CD or DVD drive.

You need to own a separate copy of QuickBooks for each computer on which you install QuickBooks. You can also buy multiuser copies of QuickBooks that let you install the QuickBooks program on up to 5 computers (or on up to 40 computers if you’re running QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions). I mention this because you don’t want to get involved in software piracy — which is a felony — as part of inadvertently setting up QuickBooks the wrong way. The bottom line: You need a legal copy of QuickBooks for every machine on which you install QuickBooks.

Dealing with the Presetup Jitters

      After you install QuickBooks, you run an onscreen wizard to set up QuickBooks for your firm’s accounting. Cleverly, this onscreen wizard is called QuickBooks Setup. In the following sections, I explain what you need to do before you use QuickBooks Setup so that you work in an efficient manner. I also give you an overview of what you’ll do as you go through QuickBooks Setup.

      Preparing for setup

      In running QuickBooks Setup, you provide quite a bit of information to QuickBooks. As a practical matter, setup and postsetup cleanup (which I describe in this chapter and the next one) require that you have the following:

       Accurate financial statements as of the conversion-to-QuickBooks date

       Detailed records of your accounts payable, accounts receivable, inventory, and fixed assets

       A complete or nearly complete list of employees, customers, vendors, and inventory items (if you buy and sell inventory)

      You want to get all this stuff together before you start QuickBooks Setup, because (depending on how you go about setting up QuickBooks) you may be asked about this stuff as part of the process. Don’t try to scurry around looking for a particular piece of data while you’re running the Setup Wizard; collect this data up front. Then stack all the necessary paperwork on your desk next to your computer.

      Let me also note that you’re going to make several accounting decisions as you go through QuickBooks Setup. You may be asked to decide whether you want to use an accounts payable system, for example. You may choose to use the Setup Wizard to tell QuickBooks whether you want to send customers monthly statements. You may also be asked whether you want to prepare estimates for customers or whether you want to use classes to further track your income and spending.

      

In general, when you’re asked any of the accounting questions, you can simply accept the default answer. You’re required by law to be consistent in your accounting for tax purposes, however. If you want to change your accounting — technically called a change of accounting method by the Internal Revenue Service — you must request permission from the IRS to make that change. How to do this and the ramifications of doing it are beyond the scope of this book, but be forewarned: The IRS insists that you be consistent in your accounting. If you’ve been treating particular items of income or expense in a certain way, the IRS says, “Hey, taxpayer, you must continue to treat them that way unless you get permission from us to change.”

      

I should make a clarification: You can use one accounting method for your tax return and then, within QuickBooks, use a different accounting method. You may be locked into using accrual-basis accounting on your tax return, for example, but that doesn’t mean you can’t use cash-basis accounting within QuickBooks and in managing your business. Accordingly, what I say in the preceding paragraphs is a little bit inaccurate. Technically. But you probably don’t want to use one accounting approach on your tax return and a different approach in QuickBooks. Too complicated.

One final note: You should have your tax return from last year handy because it supplies information that you need for running QuickBooks Setup. Last year’s tax return, for example, supplies your taxpayer ID number, your legal business name, and your method of accounting.

      Seeing what happens during setup

      As you walk through the setup process, you work with QuickBooks to set preferences (which determine how QuickBooks works and which features are initially available) and to set up a chart of accounts and your bank accounts.

      The chart of accounts, just so you know, identifies those income, expense, asset, liability, and owner’s equity accounts that appear in your financial statements.

      When you complete QuickBooks Setup, you’re almost ready to begin using QuickBooks. In fact, in a pinch, you could (after QuickBooks Setup) limp along with QuickBooks.

      

An important point of clarification: You may think that you should be ready to rock and roll after installing QuickBooks and running through the setup process. But you have two other tasks to complete: identifying your starting trial balance (which I describe at the end of this chapter) and loading your key master files (which I describe mostly in the next chapter). The trial balance identifies your year-to-date income and expense numbers, as well as your asset, liability, and owner’s equity numbers as of the conversion date. The master files store information

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