If you have outstanding checks from previous years that have never cleared, and feel confident that they never will clear, what’s the best way of getting rid of them?  You don’t want to void checks from previous years, as that will make your year-end balance different from your beginning year balance, and may cause your CPA to charge you extra to figure it out.

Here’s a simple work-around: 

1. Instead of voiding a transaction from the previous year, enter a deposit using the current date
2. Use the same payee, the same amount, and the same expense account as the check you wanted to void.
3. When you reconcile the bank account clear both the outstanding check and the deposit you created.  Since they “wash” each other, they don’t change the reconciled balance.

Ask anyone about their ‘password retention policy’ and you’ll hear many variations of how they use this or that software for this and that reason.  When it comes down to it, there are all sorts of reasons to use software to manage your multiple passwords.

Another method that can be very effective is using the same password on every account. While this could potentially provide unwanted access into many accounts, using the same password and changing it periodically also makes your password a moving target and difficult to be broken. However, if you have many passworded accounts, then changing them could become an afternoon project.

Either way, you should your passwords periodically and touch up on those random password creation skills!

Remember – when possible, use a combination of letters, numbers and charactors to improve your password protection.

Errors  made when receiving payments from customers often involve the Undeposited Funds account.  You have the option to use the Undeposited Funds account as the default account (see Receive Payments  under Edit/Preferences/Payments/Company Preferences).  Unchecking this function allows you to choose which account you want deposits to go into when you receive payments.  Checking this function automatically sends received payments into the Undeposited Funds account.

One common error is overlooking the Undeposited Funds account and then making a duplicate deposit in the Make Deposits window.  If there is a substantial balance in the Undeposited Funds account, this mistake may have made been continually over an extended period of time.   There are two ways to correct this.

1)      Correct each deposit individually

1. Find the original duplicate deposit
2. Delete the duplicate deposit
3. Use the Record Deposits window to add the correct deposits from Undeposited Funds.

2)      Make one large correction (when correcting each deposit individually is impractical)

1. In the Record Deposits window, add a line to the deposit
2. In the From Account column, enter the name of the income account that is overstated
3. Enter a negative number equal to the amount overstated in the income account

(Note: if Undeposited Funds reach back into previous years, use the Retained Earnings account in lieu of the income account)

If you prefer using the keyboard to perform actions rather than the mouse or touchpad, you will like the Key Tips features in Microsoft 2007 products such as Word and Excel.  Unlike other keyboard shortcuts which must be memorized to use (such as Ctrl + C to copy and Ctrl + V to paste), Key Tips do not require memorization.

Simply press and hold the Alt key on your keyboard to display the numerous shorcut options on the ribbon.

Next, press the appropriate key for the desired menu, quick access option or tab while still pressing the Alt key.