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You probably already know that you can export most lists, registers, and reports from QuickBooks to Excel. It’s come to my attention, however, that sometimes the option to export to excel is greyed out and un-clickable. The only option available is to export to a CSV, in this case.

According to Intuit’s help page about this error, it can occur for three reasons:

1. A supported version of Microsoft Excel is not installed,
2. Your installation of Microsoft Excel is damaged.
3. Your installation of QuickBooks is damaged.

The fix for #1 is easy – just install excel! The rest of the problems have quick fixes which aren’t too tough to figure out.

Excel is damaged.

To repair Excel, you can either un-install the program and re-install it, or you can simply repair it. To repair it, go to Control Panel, then Programs, then Programs and Features (Control Panel > Programs > Programs & Features). Find Microsoft Office, then click the Change button.

Once you repair the file, re-start your computer and try it again! This is the most common fix. However, you the problem might be that:

QuickBooks is damaged.

Un-installing and re-installing QuickBooks is an option in this case as well, but so is simply repairing your file. NOTE: Before you go uninstalling things all willy nilly, BACK UP YOUR QUICKBOOKS DATA.

To repair your QuickBooks file, follow the same steps above for repairing excel. Go to Control Panel > Programs > Programs & Features, find QuickBooks, click ‘Change,’ and elect to Repair the file.

Then you should be able to export reports to Excel. Check out our post about all the things you can export to Excel, as well as our work-around for exporting invoices to excel!

Are you over filling out expense reports? Let ProOnGo do it for you. We even can adopt your company’s custom format! Email support@ProOnGo.com for more info!

How do I export an invoice to Excel from QuickBooks?

Our latest how-to was about exporting information such as lists, registers, and reports from QuickBooks to Excel, so we thought we’d continue on that path and answer a pretty common question: How do I export an invoice to Excel?

The simple answer is: you can’t. At least, not directly. You can, however, export the information inside the invoice to excel. If you want the export to look like the invoice you see in QuickBooks, you need to use a third party app (check out our pals at Transaction Pro).

Here’s the work-around.

First, open the invoice.

Then, press ctrl+Y. This will open up a transaction journal for the invoice. This journal contains the same information as the invoice; it just looks different.

From there, export just like a regular report. Click the Excel button, and Create New Worksheet. Follow the prompt, and you will have just been able to export an invoice to Excel.

Want to print out an expense report but don’t want to fool around with all these IIF/CDV/WTF file types? Just use ProOnGo to create a report with the expenses you’ve already created! ProOnGo can even use your company’s established template.

Need to know how to export from QuickBooks to Excel? Keep readin’!

The data you have stored in QuickBooks is important, so it makes sense that you’d like to view it outside of QuickBooks. Maybe you need to send a Profit and Loss report to your investors. Maybe you’d like to review a list of your credit card transactions from your own home, where you don’t have access to QuickBooks. There are a million reasons to export data from QuickBooks to Excel, which is why QuickBooks has made the process relatively easy.

You can export three main types of lists from QuickBooks to Excel:

Lists
One thing you can export from QuickBooks to Excel is a list. Here are the lists you can export:

To export these lists, start at the File menu. Hover over Utilities, then Export, then Lists to IIF Files.

Now, at this point you might be saying, I want an excel file, not an IIF file! You should know: You can use Excel to open IIF Files. IIF stands for “Intuit Interchange Format.” IIF files are, according to QuickBooks Support, “text files that QuickBooks uses to import and export data.” (http://support.quickbooks.intuit.com/support/articles/HOW12778) You can open these files using Excel!

Back to exporting data: After you go to File > Utilities > Export > Lists to IIF Files, QuickBooks will ask you which lists you want to export. You can select one, or many. Click OK and save the file.

Now, let’s open this in Excel. Find the file you saved (it’ll probably be in your Downloads folder, unless you put it somewhere else on purpose), and right-click it. Select Open With and find Excel. Click OK.

Open the file, and check out your data!

Reports
You can also export reports from QuickBooks to Excel. Start by opening the report you want to export. In this example, we’re going to use the Profit and Loss Standard Report. You’ll see a button at the top of the report called ‘Excel.’ Click it and select ‘Create New Worksheet.’

A new Excel worksheet will open, and you’ll see your data!

Registers
You can import a list of the transactions in each register from QuickBooks to Excel. First, open the register by pressing ctrl+R and selecting the register from the list. For this example we’re going to export the transactions from the credit card register.

On the top of the register screen, you’ll see the ‘Print’ button. I know, I know, you don’t want to actually print the report. QuickBooks will then ask you the dates for which you’d like to ‘print’ the register. Click OK.

The window which pops up will give you the option to ‘print to: file.’ That means, instead of printing the report, QuickBooks will be creating a file. From the drop down list, select ‘Comma Delimited File,’ and click ‘Print.’

Instead of actually printing something (told you), QuickBooks will ask you to save a file.

To open that file, find it and right-click. Go to ‘Open With’ and select ‘Excel.’

You’ll get a report with your data.

Want to print out an expense report but don’t want to fool around with all these IIF/CDV/WTF file types? Just use ProOnGo to create a report with the expenses you’ve already created! ProOnGo can even use your company’s established template.

What’s a group item in QuickBooks? You’re about to find out…

Group Items in QuickBooks are a nifty tool for those companies which have inventories, and therefore use many an item in QuickBooks. However, if you always sell a certain set of items, it can get tedious to list every single item on invoices. Also, it’s easy with so many items and details to leave something out. Using group items solves these problems; group items simplify your process. Instead of adding each item individually, just add one group item – it contains the individual items. You can even decide if, on invoices, you want each individual part to be shown or not.

For example, if your company installs doors for people, you’ll always use a door handle, hinges, and the door itself during the job, so those items will always appear on your invoices. Instead of listing each item separately on an invoice, just create a group item entitled “Door Parts.”

How to set up a group item:

1. Go to the Items and Services list
2. Click Item, then click ‘New.’
3. Under “Type,” select ‘Group.’
4. Name the group item in the “Group Name/Number” field.
5. Add a description if you like.
6. If you select ‘Print Items in This Group,’ each individual item within the group will show on invoices and other printed materials.
7. Add each item to the group – they can be items which are made already, or you can add them on the fly.

Your set up will look something like this:

When you create an invoice, just look for the name of your group item in the ‘Item Code’ drop down list. QuickBooks will show each individual item within the group, its price, and the total price of the group.

Group items are a great way to stay organized and simplify QuickBooks.

Did you know? ProOnGo supports items! Check out a list of QuickBooks fields ProOnGo supports.

Do your independent contractors use Time Sheets in QuickBooks? Now they can use ProOnGo!

The correct way to record credit card transactions in QuickBooks is to use the credit card register! If you’ve been entering your charges in QuickBooks Online through the Credit Card screen, reconciling your card at the end of each month is easy!

Start at the Banking tab, and select ‘More.’ From there, click ‘Reconcile.’

A window will then pop up asking which register you’d like to reconcile. Find the credit card you need to reconcile and click ‘OK.’ The next screen will prompt you to enter the balance from your statement, along with any credit card fees.

Click ‘OK,’ and you’ll be able to see how your credit card transactions in QuickBooks match up with your statement. If you’ve been using Online Banking, there won’t be any discrepancies.

Further down on the screen, you can see how everything adds up. Your ending balance should always be zero. If it isn’t, though, QuickBooks Online allows you to make an adjusting entry to correct the imbalance.

Once you’ve looked over everything and have decided to really reconcile your credit card, click ‘OK.’ QuickBooks will then ask how you want to pay the bill.

After you write the check to the credit card company, you’re done! You’ve just reconciled your credit cards in QuickBooks Online.

Did you know: ProOnGo syncs directly with your company cards, so you and your employees can edit, categorize, and add receipt images to your QB credit card transactions from any smart phone, any where, and at any time. Check out ProOnGo’s Credit Card Sync.

Dear Journal,
            Today I really messed up my QuickBooks company file…

Journal entries in QuickBooks are something  which are oftentimes used incorrectly, messing up your reports and sending your ProAdvisor running. The ‘old school’ method of accounting dictates each transaction should be an entry in a literal journal, so it’s not uncommon for people to intuitively use journal entries in QuickBooks to record various transactions. QuickBooks is a form-based accounting program, though, meaning that it has specific forms to enter each type of transaction. For example, if you use a credit card to make a purchase, you should use the ‘Enter Credit Card Charges’ form in QuickBooks. If you write a check, you should use the ‘Write Checks’ form. Get it?

Job costing is an important part of your business; but what is it!? Job costing in QuickBooks, simply put, is the process of tracking expenses and income on a job by job basis. It answers the following questions: How much have I spent on X Job? How much am I getting paid for X Job? How much of my employees time is going towards X Job? Is this job “worth it?” Is it making a lot of money?

Let’s take this in relation to QuickBooks: what are the elements of job costing? That is, what do you need to set up in order to job cost?

You’ll need to create Customer:Jobs, Items, and turn on time tracking. To turn on time tracking, go to Edit > Preferences > Time and Expenses. Under “Do You Track Time?” select ‘Yes.’

Next, create some Customer:Jobs. To do so, open the Customer Center. That’s where you’ll see an overview of all of your customers and the jobs you’re completing for them. To add a new customer:job, right-click the list and select ‘New Customer.’ When you right click the screen, you’ll see a lot of options, all of which will be useful to you.

Next, you’ll set up your items. Items are a more finite way to track costs associated with jobs. Items can range from service fees, fees incurred by you from other contractors, time costs, payroll costs, and physical things you must buy in order to complete the job. If you’re confused by items, check out our blog post, What is an item?

Now you’re ready to go!

Let’s enter in some time, but with job costing! Click ‘Enter Time,’ and enter in hours, but make sure you assign a Customer:Job and an Item. Don’t forget to check ‘Billable’ if you’re passing on the cost to the customer later.

Now, say you buy something for the job. No sweat! Just enter the expense via Write Check (or Enter Credit Card Charges) as you normally would. Just like the time, you’re going to assign the correct Customer:Job to the expense, and the correct Item (if applicable).

Then, create an invoice for your customer!  Under the “Customer:Job” field, type in the customer:job  for which you’d like to create the invoice. QuickBooks will immediately prompt you to enter all of the unbilled time and expenses which you’ve assigned to that job.

Go ahead and do that. Select from the time tab…

.. and the Items tab!

Your invoice will then reflect all of the charges and time you’ve made in order to complete the job. Plus any other items you add, such as delivery fees.

If you find that you have a lot of expenses related to jobs, why not equip yourself and your employees with an expense tracking app? With ProOnGo, your employees can track their own customer:jobs, items, and more – plus, you don’t have to spend time keying in their expense information in QuickBooks. Shoot us an email at support@ProOnGo.com for more info.

We announced earlier this week that ProOnGo offers a new web app for Google Chrome! Exciting! There’s another part of our web app, though: the ProOnGo Expense Extension!

With this nifty little extension, your receipts follow you through the expense reimbursal process. We mentioned in an earlier blog post that there’s no place within QuickBooks to store your receipt images; that’s still true. However, this extension allows you to see the receipt image from ProOnGo in QuickBooks! You can now view receipts in QuickBooks Online

Here’s how it works: And employee will take a picture of a receipt and let our receipt reader fill out the data! That employee will then categorize the expense, and send it to you! You’ll go into the web portal, approve the expense, and send it off to QuickBooks as a check made out to the employee.  So far, so good!

With the ProOnGo Expense Extension, you can see the original receipt image from the expense right in that check! Just hover your mouse over the date icon, and a popup will show you the image of the original receipt!

The only thing as simple as using the extension is downloading it! Just one click and you’ll be able to see your receipt images in the corresponding expense in QuickBooks!

Recently I’ve noticed a lot of people asking the same question about expenses in QuickBooks: where do I store receipts in QuickBooks? The real answer is that there’s no place within QuickBooks itself to store images of your receipts. However, the IRS requires you keep these receipts from business expenses for seven years. If you incur a lot of expenses, you know what a task saving seven years of receipts would be. You could just find a giant shoebox to store the receipts in, or you could use technology to save yourself from clutter.

Now, there are document management services available for QuickBooks through Intuit’s App Center which specialize in this very scenario. However, none are really free – some even range from $200 to $995! Of course, the more expensive solutions offer more features and functions, but if all you want is to store receipt images in a secure space, those features and functions aren’t necessary.

ProOnGo is a great solution!

ProOnGo already allows users to file expenses, allows their managers to approve them and send them to QuickBooks (from a mobile app!), syncs with credit cards, offers audit reports, has a nifty receipt reader, allows users to record mileage, and supports QuickBooks Timesheets! With all that in mind, it’s easy to forget about one of ProOnGo’s most basic features: receipt storage.

When you use our mobile app to snap a picture of a receipt, or when you email a receipt in, we save that receipt forever! So, if you’re audited, you’re in luck: just run a report and all of your receipt images are right there!

Pro Tip: How to Download Just One Receipt Image From ProOnGo

If you only want to download one image – instead of running a report and getting them all! – you can do so with just one click! Open an expense, and click the ‘Get Receipt’ button.

An image file will then download: that’s your expense receipt!

Did you know: ProOnGo has a web app which allows you to view your receipt images in QuickBooks Online. Check it out!