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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 Are Payment Methods?

Chief Mechanic · August 23, 2010 ·

As the name suggests, Payment Methods are a list of the ways by which a customer can make a payment. They’re maintained on the Lists->Customer & Vendor Profile Lists->Payment Methods menu selection as 1 of 9 profile lists for Customers & Vendors. This particular profile list is only used for Customers.

QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions 10 Payment Methods

A Payment Method can be one of 11 pre-defined Payment Types:

Cash
Check
American Express
Discover
MasterCard
Visa
Other credit card
Other
Debit Card
Gift Card
E-Check

These Payment Types are part of the QuickBooks program itself and can’t be maintained by a user.

The Customer’s Payment Method is specified on the Receive Payments and the Enter Sales Receipts windows, and payments are grouped by Payment Method on the Payments to Deposit window if you’ve opted to use the Undeposited Funds account.

If you have a lot of payments to deposit, you can opt to the filter the items on the Payments to Deposit window to only include 1 particular Payment Method. Therefore, you should create Payment Methods that match the way your customer payments are grouped into deposits.

QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions 10 Make Deposit Payment Methods

You can also specify a customer’s Preferred Payment Method on the Payment Info tab of the Edit Customer window.

QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions 10 Customer Preferred Payment Method

Payment Methods primarily serve the function of grouping related items on a deposit, so your firm’s approach to bank deposits should drive the methods you create and maintain on this list.

(+1 rating, 1 votes)

What Is a Payment Item and How Should I Use One?

Chief Mechanic · August 23, 2010 ·

A Payment Item is a type of Item maintained on the Item list, which is accessed on the Lists->Item List menu selection.

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

A Payment Item is used to record a partial payment on an Invoice or Statement made before the original sale. Payment Items shouldn’t be used on other sale documents, such as Sales Receipts or Credit Memos.

Payment Items are typically used by firms seeking the ability to create a single customer document (the Invoice) that reflects the net balance due on the grounds that a single document showing payments deducted reduces customer confusion and improves collections.

QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions 10 Payment Item

Typically, recording a customer payment via the Customers->Receive Payments window is used to record a full or partial payment received at or after the time of sale. Recording a Payment Item on an invoice is an alternate to this approach to reduce an invoice balance. One common use of a Payment Item is to record a deposit or retainer.

A Payment Item is designed to give you the flexibility to control the account to which it is deposited and to specify the associated Payment Method to enable the payment to be grouped with other similar items into a bank deposit. To specify the deposit account, either select Group with other undeposited funds or select Deposit To and pick an account from the pull-down list of accounts.

The screenshot below shows a Payment Item being recorded in the Create Invoices window. The Payment Item is recorded as a negative number and reduces the Balance Due on the invoice.

QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions 10 Payment Item on Create Invoice

One downside to using a Payment Item is that any reference number information, such as a customer’s check number, is not recorded in the typical field for such information, the No. field. Instead, the No. field is populated with the Invoice number.

For those who favor using a Payment Item, the advantage of being able to produce a single document (the Invoice) that reflects a customer’s net balance outweighs these shortcomings.

(+1 rating, 3 votes)

Can I Add or Edit Multiple List Entries In QuickBooks?

Chief Mechanic · March 25, 2010 ·

Starting with QuickBooks 2010 and Enterprise Solutions 10.0, you can add or edit multiple list entries by clicking on the Add/Edit Multiple List Entries menu selection on the Lists menu.

QuickBooks Premier 2010 Add Edit Multiple List Entries

However, only certain lists can be manipulated with this feature and not all fields on these lists can be modified. These 5 lists can be edited:

Customers
Vendors
Service Items
Inventory Parts
Non-inventory Parts

For Customers, 6 fields can’t be manipulated with this tool: Sales Rep, Ship To address, Cc (Email), Preferred Send Method, Price Level, and Preferred Payment Method. In addition, 6 fields can be added for new customers, but can’t be edited for existing customers: Currency, Customer Balance, Opening Balance as of Date, Terms, Tax Code, and Tax Item.

For Vendors, 3 fields can’t be manipulated: Cc (Email), Billing Rate Level, and Accounts to pre-fill transactions. In addition, 3 fields can be added for new vendors, but can’t be edited for existing vendors: Currency, Vendor Balance, and Opening Balance as of Date.

For Inventory Parts, the screen shot below shows the available columns which can be modified. Columns in both the Available Columns and Chosen Columns list can be included. In this example, Shelf and Warehouse represent custom fields, so custom fields can be edited using this technique. At least 1 column can’t be edited for either Inventory or Non-inventory Parts: Unit of Measure.

QuickBooks Premier 2010 Add Edit Multiple List Entries Inventory Parts

Similarly, here are the available columns for Non-inventory Parts:

Using this tool, you can choose the columns in the window by clicking the Customize columns… button and use either the Copy/Paste features of Windows or the context menu (discussed below) to quickly duplicate values in a column. You can also create a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet that exactly matches the column layout you’ve selected for the Add/Edit Multiple List Entries window and paste that spreadsheet into the window to quickly add new list entries.

QuickBooks Premier 2010 Example of Add Edit Multiple List Entries

For editing existing entries, you can access the context menu by right-clicking in a cell to gain access to menu choices to insert a new row, copy the value in existing cell down to all of the rows below it (which will overwrite data), and to duplicate an existing row (to prepare it for further editing).

QuickBooks Premier 2010 Add Edit Multiple List Entries Context Menu

The Add/Edit Multiple List Entries tool includes data validation to insure that your pasted data is in the format expected by QuickBooks for that data element and that you haven’t attempted to save a duplicate list entry. Data validation is extremely important in a tool that can easily add or modify large amounts of data.

For the first time starting with QuickBooks 2010, QuickBooks users have a tool to easily and safely add or edit multiple list entries from within QuickBooks itself.

(+2 rating, 2 votes)

How Many Custom Fields Does QuickBooks Support?

Chief Mechanic · March 20, 2010 ·

For the 2010 version (QuickBooks 2010 and Enterprise Solutions 10.0), Intuit has increased the number of custom fields and provided for data validation in Enterprise Solutions. Compared to 2009, the number of custom fields for Names increased from 7 (out of 15) to 12 (out of 30), and for Items it increased from 5 to 15.

QuickBooks 2010 and Enterprise Solutions 10.0 support up to 30 total custom fields for Names which can be applied to a combination of Customers:Jobs, Vendors, or Employees, provided that no more than 12 custom fields apply to any 1 type of list.

In addition, QuickBooks 2010 and Enterprise Solutions 10.0 support up to 15 custom fields for Items.

Enterprise Solutions 10.0 extends data validation to custom fields by allowing you to specify the type of data a custom field should contain and whether the fields are required on Transactions and Lists. Data types include 1 generic text format, 3 number formats, 5 date formats, 2 phone number formats, and a multi-choice list, which allows you to create a pull-down list of entries.

In Enterprise Solutions 10.0, the Multi-choice List contains list elements you specify, and you can select whether the list can only contain these elements or user-entered text. In all cases, custom fields are subject to a 30 character limit.

QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions 10 Custom Fields Multi-choice List

QuickBooks 2009 and Enterprise Solutions 9.0 support up to 15 total custom fields for Names, which can be applied to a combination of Customers:Jobs, Vendors, or Employees, provided that no more than 7 custom fields apply to any 1 type of list (i. e., Customers:Jobs, Vendors, and Employees). For example, you could create 7 custom fields unique to Customers:Jobs and a different set of 7 unique custom fields for Vendors. Then, you’d have the ability to create 1 additional custom field which could be used only for Employees.

Custom fields are limited to 30 characters. You can’t control the amount of text entered in a screen form, but you can limit the amount that is printed on a printed form. Except in Enterprise Solutions 10.0, custom fields are text entry boxes that accept any character. You can’t control the data entered with pull-down lists or other data type restrictions. Because data entered into custom fields is essentially unrestricted, care must be taken during data entry if these fields are to be used for filtering data; an apparently small change in data recorded for a custom field could result in many records not being found when applying a filter.

Custom fields for Customers:Jobs can be used for data in the header or footer of forms such as invoices and receipts.

In addition, in the 2009 version, QuickBooks supports up to 5 custom fields for Items.

QuickBooks Premier 2009 Custom Fields for Items

Custom fields for Items can be used for data in the section for line items (i. e., the columnar section below the header) on forms such as invoices and receipts.

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Accounting

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Intuit