Customer Reviews

QuickBooks 2007 The Official Guide

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Intuit products, such as Quickbooks, have excellent pull-down Help, among the best written in the software industry. Information is well indexed and clearly written with step-by-step instructions. Quickbooks also has an excellent set of video tutorials, which take about 90 minutes if you view all of them (which I recommend).

But what the Help and the video tutorials can't really do is give you advice on how to use the accounting system works in practice. How do the individual parts fit into the big picture and what are your choices, depending upon your business, for handling things like Vendor Bills, Customer Sales Receipts, petty cash, etc.? Why would you want to choose one method over another?

This is where this book comes in. Ivens answers the very practical questions that everyone has starting out. For example, should I log deposits against customer sales, or should I treat deposits as a lump sum? Why would I want choose one method over the other? This book answers this, and many other practical questions, clearly, with step-by-step instructions for each method and the rationale behind it.

I would highly recommend this book to supplement the pull-down Help and the video tutorials to answer the many practical decision that you will have to make about how to set up your system so that it will work best for you.

Although I haven't gone very far with the Guide, it is generally a disappointment, at least for this Mac user of Quickbooks Pro. (It is possible that the Guide is intended for Windows users, but it was sold by Amazon as a package with Quickbooks Pro for the Mac. While this difference might explain problems with suggested keyboard shortcuts and depicted windows that aren't the same as those in the application, it does not excuse the shoddy index.)

The procedural sections (e.g., Do This First in the appendix) are passible. However even here, the instructions are often incorrect. For example, in Creating Accounts, the Guide instructs the user to press CNTL-A to open the accounts window, whereas the actual keyboard shortcut is Shift-Apple-A. Moreover, the two windows shown in the book to create an account are really just one (different) window in the application.

My major problem with the Guide is my inability to use it as a reference manual for answering specific questions. For example, finding specific pieces of information (e.g., how do I enter To Do Notes as Reminders?) is impossible. Even more frustrating, entries listed in the Index are incorrect. For example, if one looks up "Accrual-based accounting, About", one is directed to p.153; unfortunately, there is no reference to accrual-based accounting on page 153.

All-in-all, for those wanting more information on how to use Quickbooks Pro, I'd recommend using the Help feature in the application or the material on Intuit's web page.

I bought this book to brush up on my QuickBooks skills in the hope to enhance my resume. The book is easy to understand and begins you with starting your business on QuickBooks and walks you through every step you need to get everything on the books and squared away. I can see where there might be some problems if you begin a job that has QuickBooks and you are required to learn it, but I think with some patience and this book anyone with a brain would be able to pick up on it quick.

This book is very user friendly and does an excellent job getting to the point and easily explaining functionality. I highly recommend it for the QB user AND boss that wants to understand QB functionality.

I'm an experienced bookkeeper but I still found this book extremely useful. Read this book BEFORE you set up your company - she has good suggestions on entering historical information and other topics. Well written and clear. I would have liked to have more examples, however.

This has proven to be a very useful guide and a nice reference to have handy when dealing with QuickBooks. Easy to navigate and to understand.

An extremely helpful book if you are like me and do your own accounting for your small business. I would have liked to see a more extensive coverage of tracking inventory with consignment sales. I run a small publishing company and sell some of my books through Amazon.com. I receive payment for my shipments to Amazon approximately 2 months after the books are sold. In the meantime, the books are not actually in my inventory. I had an accountant help me deal with it but still haven't completely understood the process. In spite of that, I think this is definitely worth reading. I highly recommend it.

I am in the retail food business, and this book pretty much ignores this aspect, but a very comprehensive and straightforward book nonetheless. Easy reading in easy to understand language, not as dumbed down as Dummies books, which was nice. If you are starting a company from scratch, and you will be invoicing, this book is PERFECT for you.

I purchased this book as a gift for my brother. He said it was quite helpful with questions he had about using QuickBooks.

This book is a must have resource if you use QuickBooks or have clients using QuickBooks. It is comprehensive and includes setting up the data file and getting started, to entering transactions, and using the reports to help you manage your business. It also includes chapters on managing your QuickBooks files and customizing QuickBooks for your business.

Michelle L. Long, CPA, MBA
Author of: Successful QuickBooks Consulting: The Comprehensive Guide to Starting and Growing a QuickBooks Consulting Business
Advanced Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor
Member of Intuit's Certified Trainer Network