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Why Does Pay Scheduled Liabilities Show No Liabilities When Liabilities Do Exist?

Chief Mechanic · August 23, 2010 ·

We’ve seen cases where payroll liabilities are missing from the Pay Scheduled Liabilities block on the Payroll tab of Employee Center but the company has actual payroll tax liabilities. The screenshot below shows where all payroll tax liabilities should appear, but sometimes liabilities are missing.

QuickBooks Premier 2009 Employee Center Pay Scheduled Liabilities

Typically, payroll tax liabilities can be confirmed by the Payroll Liability Balances report (on the Reports->Employees & Payroll menu selection) or by an examination of general ledger account balances. The Payroll Liability Balances report can be configured to report totals by quarter, which matches the reporting format for the Pay Scheduled Liabilities information.

According to Intuit, this situation is caused by:

another Liability Check exists that covers the amount of the missing liability
the liability isn’t being recorded in an account whose type is Other Current Liability
the liability account is marked inactive
the starting or ending Period dates on the Liability Check used to pay a payroll tax liability are wrong
no payment schedule has been set up for the payroll tax liability
the company file was upgraded from a prior version of QuickBooks to a newer one

Intuit describes a series of troubleshooting techniques in this knowledge base article. However, in our experience, these steps work to resolve some, but not all, situations where payroll tax liabilities are missing from the Pay Scheduled Liabilities block.

We recommend regularly reviewing the Payroll Liability Balances report as well as the general ledger accounts accumulating payroll tax liabilities to be sure all liabilities are currently recognized and paid.

(-4 rating, 6 votes)

How Do I Print a Report of Invoices In Number Order To Identify Missing Invoice Numbers?

Chief Mechanic · August 23, 2010 ·

It’s relatively straightforward to prepare a report of invoices in number order and have QuickBooks automatically identify missing invoice numbers, such as where there are gaps in the sequence of numbers.

The key to preparing this report is to use another report as a building block. Identifying sequential transactions and those items missing from the list are common requirements for Banking reports. That causes the Missing Checks report to come to mind. This report is found on the Reports->Banking->Missing Checks menu selection.

Let’s start with this report. By default, this report asks you to specify a Bank account. Instead, simply choose an Accounts Receivable account.

QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions 10 Missing Checks

With the account selected, set a Filter for the Transaction Type. In the pulldown list on the left side of the Filters window, choose to include transactions having a Transaction Type of Invoice. If you have multiple Accounts Receivable accounts that you’d like to include, you can modify the Filter for Account on this screen as well. Although the Missing Checks report only allows you to select 1 account when first creating the report, you can select multiple accounts at this stage.

QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions 10 Transaction Type Filter

To complete the report, change the Report Title on the Header/Footer tab to reflect the actual contents of the report, which is a list of Missing Invoices.

QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions 10 Missing Invoices Header

The result is a list of invoices in invoice number order with each break in the sequence marked.

QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions 10 Missing Invoices Report

When the report is complete, click the Memorize… button to save these steps that created the report.

(+1 rating, 1 votes)

What Are Special Account Types?

Chief Mechanic · August 23, 2010 ·

QuickBooks maintains approximately 13 different Special Account Types. These types are assigned to individual accounts in a company’s chart of accounts. The assignment of a Special Account Type to an account permits that account to carry out a special function.

AccountsReceivable
UndepositedFunds
InventoryAssets
AccountsPayable
PayrollLiabilities
OpeningBalanceEquity
RetainedEarnings
UncategorizedIncome
CostOfGoodsSold
PayrollExpenses
UncategorizedExpenses
Estimates
PurchaseOrders

Special Account Types and the assignment of those types to accounts are not visible to a typical QuickBooks user.

However, a typical user can determine which account is assigned a Special Account Type by recording a transaction that should impact the balance of an account functioning as an account with a Special Account Type and tracking which account balance was affected. For example, an expense transaction of $100 in the prior year should impact the account functioning as RetainedEarnings. Be sure to delete these test transactions once you’ve completed your testing.

It’s important to understand that an account’s Special Account Type is independent of its name. That is, an account can be named Undeposited Funds but not have a Special Account Type of UndepositedFunds. This situation typically occurs if accounts were renamed and preferences changed over time. If QuickBooks creates a new account that’s a Special Account Type and the default QuickBooks name is already in use, it will place an asterix at the start of the account name, as in *Undeposited Funds. If you observe accounts that start with an asterix, it’s likely that these accounts are the actual accounts assigned Special Account Types.

(+1 rating, 1 votes)

What Is a Group Item?

Chief Mechanic · August 23, 2010 ·

In QuickBooks a group item is a specific type of Item that is used to quickly enter a bundle of individual items that are typically bought or sold together where tracking the detail on individual items is desired.

See our article on all of the Item types supported by QuickBooks for more information.

It is similar to – but different from – an inventory assembly item, another approach to managing a bundle of individual items. An inventory assembly item is a new item created out of a bundle of individual items, reducing the quantity on hand of the individual items used to create the assembly. Where an inventory assembly item functions like a pre-assembled kit, a group item functions like an “on the fly” kit.

A group item enables a company to track the detail of each individual item in the group while optionally providing a way to simplify information presented to customers and vendors. Data entry is faster because a single group item automatically fills in the information for all of the items in the group.

QuickBooks Premier 2009 Edit Item Group Item

If the Print items in group box is not checked, QuickBooks will print only the group item itself. A customer or vendor will not see the detail on the individual items included in the group. However, company reports will track the detail of each item in the group.

Here’s an example of invoicing for the group item A1 Custom Storage Shed shown above. Entering the single group item automatically added the 2 individual items that make up the group.

QuickBooks Premier 2009 Create Invoices Customize

The price of a group item is the sum of the items in the group; the price of the group cannot be changed directly, but the price of each individual item can be changed.

Sales tax for group items is calculated based on the taxable status of each individual item in the group. In the example above, both taxable and non-taxable items are included in the group.

A group item can include any other item except other groups; it cannot be included in an inventory assembly item. There are no reports for group items. Instead, the detail of each individual item in the group is reported.

(+2 rating, 4 votes)

What Is an Inventory Assembly Item?

Chief Mechanic · August 23, 2010 ·

In QuickBooks an inventory assembly item is a specific type of Item that is the result of putting together a new inventory part out of a bundle of individual items to enable tracking finished goods separately from individual components. Normally, an inventory assembly item is used when separate raw materials are assembled, packaged, and sold as an inventory item that is separate from the component parts.

See our article on all of the Item types supported by QuickBooks for more information.

The inventory assembly item type is only available in QuickBooks Premier and Enterprise Solutions. It’s not available in QuickBooks Pro.

It is similar to – but different from – a group item, another approach to managing a bundle of individual items. A group item is a way to quickly add a bundle of items to a form while preserving the ability to track those items individually. Where an inventory assembly item functions like a pre-assembled kit, a group item functions like an “on the fly” kit.

An inventory assembly item is made up of a Bill of Materials (visible by clicking the Full View… button) which can contain a range of item types: service, inventory part, another inventory assembly, non-inventory part, and other charge. Note that a subassembly can be nested within an inventory assembly. However, the Bill of Materials cannot contain these item types: subtotal, group, discount, payment, sales tax item, or sales tax group. Further, there’s a limit of 100 items in the Bill of Materials for an inventory assembly in QuickBooks Premier; for Enterprise Solutions, that limit is 500 items.

QuickBooks Premier 2009 Bill of Materials Full View

The Cost shown for an inventory assembly item should normally not be entered. When a Cost is not entered, QuickBooks will use the Bill of Materials Cost that appears at the bottom of the table.

An inventory assembly is built from its components parts by clicking on the Vendors->Inventory Activities->Build Assemblies menu selection. During the build process, the Quantity on Hand of the inventory assembly item is increased by the Quantity to Build, and the Quantity on Hand of each component is reduced by the product of that item’s Qty in the Bill of Materials and the Quantity to Build.

Builds in QuickBooks can be either pending or final. If there are insufficient quantities of the component parts, a build will automatically be marked as Pending. You can also manually mark a build as pending by clicking on the Edit->Mark Build As Pending menu selection while the Build Assemblies window is displayed. The Pending Builds report (Reports->Inventory->Pending Builds) supports managing future build requirements.

Here’s an example of invoicing for the inventory assembly item Interior Door kit shown above. Unlike a group item, which automatically adds other items to a form and controls whether these other items are printed, the inventory assembly item appears as a single line item on a form.

QuickBooks Premier 2009 Create Invoices Inventory Assembly Item

The price of an inventory assembly item is specified, just like the price of an inventory item, and can be changed directly on a form.

Sales tax for an inventory assembly item is calculated based on the single Tax Code assigned to the inventory assembly.

(0 rating, 2 votes)

Accounting

Developer

Intuit