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What Are Sources and Targets?

Chief Mechanic · September 11, 2010 ·

Sources and targets are important concepts to understand reporting in QuickBooks and use of the Advanced Find function.

Sources and targets are terms assigned by Intuit to describe transactions.

In most instances, the source of a transaction is the summary or total of the transaction. For example, the source of a check includes the amount of the check, the payee, and the bank account from which the check was written. The target of a transaction is the distribution of the source into 1 or more other accounts. For example, a check might be used to pay expenses in 2 different General Ledger accounts, which appear on the Expenses tab below the check payee information. The targets of this check include the information on these 2 lines.

A transaction can have 1 source and 1 or more targets. In most instances, the source is equal to the sum of the targets. Forms or windows in QuickBooks determine what information will be the source and what will be the target. Your only control over what is the source or target is what you enter (subject to validation) in the appropriate area of the form. In the check example below, the top part of the check form is always the source, and the bottom part always contains the target information. However, don’t extend too far the thought that the “sources are on top of the form and targets on the bottom.” That only applies to A/R & A/P transactions.

General Journal Entries are one important exception to the discussion of sources and targets. The first line of a general Journal Entry is the source, and all other lines are targets. Depending on how one enters a general journal entry, the source may not be equal to the sum of the targets. Since you have direct control over the order of lines in a general journal entry, you do control what the source and targets are for general journal entries.

Payments, statement charges, and transfers don’t follow the model that the source is on the top of the form and targets on the bottom.

Here are the source and targets for QuickBooks transaction types:

Invoice: A/R is the source; income accounts associated with the line items are the targets
Bill: A/P is the source; expense accounts on the line items are the targets
Deposit: The Deposit To account is the source; the accounts on the line items are the targets
Payment: The Deposit To account is the source; A/R is the target

To learn the source and targets for any transaction, click the Journal button or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Y. The source is the first line listed. The targets are the lines listed after the source.

QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions 10 Check

QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions 10 Check Transaction Journal

In this example, the source is the first line of the report that shows the payee and check amount. There is 1 target, the second line that contains the distribution information. We’ve added Source Name as an additional column to the standard Transaction Journal report to better illustrate sources and targets. Note that the Name field for the target is the Customer:Job name, but the Source Name is the check payee. Reports that show target information won’t show the check payee in the Name field.

That leads to confusion among QuickBooks users that aren’t familiar with sources, targets, and the type of information that appears on a report. A report that shows check information in an expense account is reporting target information. The report is not indicating that a check was written to the information shown in the Name field.

According to Intuit:

sources and targets are database concepts and have nothing to do with debits or credits
a source can be a debit or credit, just as a target can be a debit or credit
most reports display a mixture of source and target data
the Inventory Valuation Summary and Inventory Valuation Detail reports are examples of exceptions in that they display only target data

This Intuit knowledge base article offers additional information on sources and targets. When reading it, don’t forget the general journal entry exception to statements about sources and targets. Some of the statements in Intuit’s own materials don’t repeat that exception, and they’re only true with that exception noted.

Issues involving confusion about sources and targets are fairly common. To address these issues, Intuit also offers explanations of the source and target data sets, the report set, where reports get their data, and how conflicting report filters produce unexpected results.

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How Do I Resort Lists?

Chief Mechanic · September 11, 2010 ·

Lists are one of the foundations of QuickBooks, and from time to time they can become out of order. That’s when they need to be resorted. Some common indicators that it’s time to resort your lists include:

the list itself is out of order
an element is missing
new entries in a list appear at the top of the list instead of in their sorted order
you can’t turn on the account number preference
selecting a Customer:Job, Vendor, or Employee in a Center fails to display existing transactions for that name
Names don’t properly auto-fill when entering a Name filter on the Advanced tab of the Edit->Find… function

Resorting any list will undo any special order you’ve applied to the list, and this activity can’t be done in multi-user mode. It’s always a good idea to backup your company file before undertaking an action that can’t be undone.

There are 8 lists that can be resorted. They are:

Customers:Jobs
Vendors
Employees
Other Names
Accounts
Items
Memorized Reports
Memorized Transactions

Since this technique is often used to address possible data corruption, we’ll outline the most efficient technique to resort multiple lists, but you can also choose to resort an individual list by opening up a Center and right clicking on a list element.

The first 4 lists are collectively referred to as Names or Entities, and there’s an easy way to resort these 4 lists:

Open the Write Checks window by clicking on Banking->Write Checks or using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + W
In the Pay to the Order of field, click Ctrl + L
Opt to include inactive list entries by clicking the Include Inactive checkbox
Click the Name button and choose Re-sort List from the menu
Click Ok to resort the lists
Uncheck the Include Inactive checkbox

The screenshot below shows the combined Name list in Step 4:

QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions 10 Resort Name List

Our related article explains how to provide easy access to this combined list of all Names.

Resorting the Chart of Accounts and Items lists follow similar procedures, except each of these lists will have to be resorted individually. To access the Chart of Accounts, click the Lists->Chart of Accounts menu selection or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + A. To access the Items list, click Lists->Items. Opt to include inactive list entries, resort the list from the button in the lower left of the window, and uncheck the Include Inactive checkbox before proceeding to the next list.

Resorting Memorized Reports and Memorized Transactions are similar to the above steps, except there’s no need to include inactive list entries since they’re not allowed on these lists. To access Memorized Reports, click the Reports->Memorized Reports->Memorized Report List menu selection; to access Memorized Transactions, click Lists->Memorized Transactions or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + T.

After resorting lists, close and reopen your company file (.qbw) to insure that all changes are successfully written to disk.

Resorting lists is discussed in this Intuit knowledge base article.

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How Do I Produce a Report of Vendor Purchases?

Chief Mechanic · September 10, 2010 ·

Let’s assume that vendor purchases include both purchases of inventory and expenses paid. With that assumption, there no simple report to address all situations. Finding the right report depends on the information you want to include on the report.

QuickBooks provides 2 reports that include vendor purchases: the Purchases by Vendor Detail Report and the Purchases by Vendor Summary Report. Both of these reports can be found on the Reports->Purchases menu.

These reports are a simple way to identify vendor purchases, but they contain an important limitation: the reports only include purchases recorded on the Items tab of bills, checks, and credit card charges. They do not include transactions recorded on the Expenses tab or payroll-related expenses.

Another approach is to use the Expenses by Vendor Detail Report or the Expenses by Vendor Summary Report, found on the Reports->Company & Financial menu. However, this approach also contains a limitation: it only includes transactions sent to a general ledger expense account (whether or not the transaction was entered on the Items or the Expenses tab), not vendor purchases of inventory, which are additions to assets.

Vendor purchases (both purchases of inventory and expenses paid) are not the combination of the Purchases by Vendor and the Expenses by Vendor reports. That’s because it’s possible to enter a transaction on the Items tab where the amount is sent to a general ledger expense account based on the account for that Item. As a result, such a transaction would appear on both reports, and combining the values on these reports would result in double-counting.

Yet another approach is to start with a Custom Transaction Detail Report (or the Summary report if only summary totals are required) and to filter the report for certain transaction types. At the simplest level, filter the report by Transaction Type and choose Multiple Transaction Types from the pull down. When the Select Transaction Types window appears, select Check, Credit Card, Bill, CCard Credit, and Bill Credit. Those selections will capture vendor purchases by check, bill, or credit card, net of all credits.

QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions 10 Vendor Purchases

With that 1 filter applied, this report is a comprehensive list of purchases by vendor. However, the report includes the payment side of each transaction, and there is no easy filter setting to restrict which accounts appear on the report and avoid the risk that a vendor purchase in that account would be missed.

Which approach is best suited to identify vendor purchases ultimately depends on the how transactions are entered in QuickBooks and the information sought after on the report.

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What Is the Closing Date Exception Report and How Do I Create It?

Chief Mechanic · September 6, 2010 ·

The Closing Date Exception Report in QuickBooks shows all transactions sorted by transaction type (e. g., Bill, Check, Invoice) dated on or before the Closing Date that were first recorded or modified after that date was established. To add to its utility as an audit tool, it also includes the User Name of the user that recorded the transaction in the Last modified by column.

To produce this report, click on the Reports->Accountant & Taxes->Closing Date Exception Report menu selection. Here’s a sample of the report:

QuickBooks Premier 2009 Closing Date Exception Report

The report begins with the changes to the Closing Date itself, followed by a list of transactions sorted by transaction type. To change the settings for the Closing Date Exception Report, click the Modify Report… button:

QuickBooks Premier 2009 Closing Date Exception Report Display Tab

The Report Date Range refers to the transaction date itself. As shown above, the report will include all applicable transactions dated up to and on the Closing Date. The From field is blank because this setting looks backward to include all transactions.

The Days Entered / Last Modified refers to the actual date on which you performed this accounting task. The To field is blank because this setting looks forward to include all transactions added or modified after the Closing Date.

By default, Show Deleted Transactions is checked, but you can uncheck this setting to exclude deleted transactions from the report.

Because changes to prior periods after they’ve been closed must be done with extreme care, this report is primarily an audit trail to quickly identify what transactions were recorded and by whom.

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How Can I Display a List of All Names?

Chief Mechanic · September 5, 2010 ·

In QuickBooks, Customers, Customer:Jobs, Vendors, and Employees are called Names. In transaction entry screens, the selection of a Name is filtered to include only the type of Names normally associated with that transaction type. For example, when entering a Vendor Bill, the selection of a Name is filtered to only include Vendors.

Sometimes, it’s helpful to be able to review a list of all Names in one place, especially when trying to follow a consistent pattern if an entity appears on more than 1 list.

To display a list of all Names, follow these simple steps:

Open the Write Checks window by clicking on the Banking->Write Checks menu selection or using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + W
In the Pay to the Order of field (ie, the check payee), use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + L to display a list of all Names
Add the Name List window to the Icon Bar by clicking on the View->Add “Name List” to Icon Bar… menu selection
Assign a Label and Description to the new window
Optionally, change the default icon selection that will appear in the Icon Bar to represent the Name List
Click Ok

You now have a list of all Names in an easy-to-access window. The list provides a consolidated window of 4 pieces of information: Active Status, Name, Name Type, and Balance Total.

QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions 10 Name List

Note that the Write Checks window was used to access all Names because a check can be written to all of the different Name types and by-passes the filtering set by QuickBooks on different transaction types.

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Accounting

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Intuit