Distribution Dates?

What basis of accounting are you on? Cash or accrual?

Using the date of the invoice is correct. These are for expenses incurred in December (or before) but not due until January.

There are 2 scenerios:

If you are an accural based company then QB will use the invoice date on your financials. You incurred the expense in 2008 so they belong on the 2008 financials.

If you are a cash based company then QB will use the payment date of the check on your financials. You paid for the expense in 2009 so they belong on the 2009 financials.

While the report is on the screen, click the modify report tab. Select cash basis and click okay.

According to our accountant: accrual. But I don't know what that means. Off to Wikipedia I go! Thanks for your help.

According to our accountant, we are on an accrual basis, whatever that means. However, in regards to your explanation, in the case of something like our Health Insurance costs, we pay a month in advance of the covered month. So, for instance, a check we write today (in December) pays for January's coverage. We want the ledger to show the payment as a January expense.

Ninety percent of the bills we pay will do just fine as things are going, but there are a handful where we need to shoot the distribution into the next month. And, in fact, my A/P person likes to "pre-load" some payables for the full year for things repeat every month, so they come up automatically on the aged open payables reports. Can't see a way to do that just yet.

We've been using Real World up to now, by the way, which allows for all this kind of stuff. But it's a DOS-based dinosaur that no longer runs on one of our machines, thanks to a recent Windows Update that tweaked some driver/memory setting that we can't fix. So it's got to go.

Which report would you be referring to? Thanks for your help.

Oh, I forgot: thanks for your help, Laura.

Speak to your accountant about setting up prepaid expense accounts (Prepaid Insurance etc...) and how to amortize them on a montly basis using a journal entry.

I am assuming she is refering to the Profit and Loss statement which can be run in either Cash or accrual basis.

That means that you recognize an expense when you incur it and revenues when you earn them.

For those "pay in advance" services, you could use the date of service month and enter them in advance. That is, assuming that is how you have always been doing it. You will end up with 1 bill per month. Don't change date methodologies mid year or you will end up with 13 bills one year and 11 the next. Your goal is to have 12 bills each year.

As for "pre-loading'" payables, just enter each one with the appropriate date on the bill.

You can also "memorize" transactions and have them prompt you for posting at pre-set intervals. Look in the help file under memorized transactions.

I also use Peachtree which also allows for these types of transactions. You can do most of them in QB but you have to hunt for the option. Play with the sample file that comes with the program. Use that and the help file. You might also look for a Pro Advisor in your area to come and make sure your transition to QB goes easier. Sometimes a quick one on one session can go farther than messages in e-mail or newsgroups.

And you can't uninstall that windows update? It is a shame that windows updates mess with older programs.