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Karen Kingsley

Guide to Using Quicken for Business Finances

Manage your books with less frustration by using the right version

By Karen Kingsley, Boss, Kingsley Ink

Quicken is the gold standard of personal finance software. It includes everything you need to track your spending, build a financial plan, manage investments and control your finances. And if your needs are not overly complex, Quicken can help you manage your business finances as well.

The Quicken Home & Business version has everything you need to manage payables, receivables and cash flow right at your fingertips. In fact, millions of small business owners use Quicken – rather than its big brother QuickBooks – to track both personal and business expenses and to maximize tax deductions.

Quicken lets you:

  1. Quickly track how your business is doing. Quicken's "Business Center" provides an overview of unpaid invoices, upcoming bills and more.
  2. Separate business and personal expenses for proper reporting with tools and reports like the Schedule C tax form.
  3. Simplify tax preparation and find hidden deductions. Keep an ongoing record of business expenses, including mileage. Scan and store receipts, cancelled checks, and tax forms in Quicken so you know where they are at tax time.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done


Go to the source

Get details on Quicken Home & Business, including features and benefits, reviews, system requirements and frequently asked questions.
I recommend: The Quicken Home & Business Web site has all the information you need to see how it works and what other options are available. See what other small business owners are saying about Quicken. Take a tour of how Quicken works.

Get on-demand support for a fee

If you can't bear spending valuable time on hold and/or want help anytime, buy around-the-clock support for a nominal fee.
I recommend: Help Desk Now offers paid support, available 24 hours a day with one minute access to a live person who can talk you through whatever you need.

Tutor Yourself

Purchase video tutorials for you and your staff. Some people work better with visual aids when learning.
I recommend: VideoProfessor is a great source for tutorials.

Buy Quicken books

It's worth having a copy of "Quicken for Dummies" for quick reference to tips, tricks and shortcuts.
I recommend: Search for all of the Quicken guides at Dummies or Amazon.

Talk to others

Online support forums discuss common issues, the value of upgrades and tips for working with Quicken.
I recommend: Quicken forums provide emotional and technical support for Quicken users.

Tips & Tactics
Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

  • Stay focused and solve one problem at a time. Don't try to learn everything in a day and don't compound problems.
  • Choose your words carefully. Think like the program and use the key words it uses to find what you need.
  • Break down your problem into individual components.
  • Consider the obvious. Make sure everything is plugged in, you've opened the most recent file and your work is automatically saved frequently.

The official source of Using Quicken for Business Finances is
the Quicken Software page at Business.com

Recommended Solution Providers

Video Professor, Inc.
This popular TV vendor has a comprehensive course on Quicken.

Tutorials.com: Learn Quicken 2005
This training site has a two CD tutorial on learning all aspects of Quicken.

IBackup for Quicken
This is an add-on software package that adds backup and security features to Quicken.

Apex Web Media:Quicken Deluxe 2001 Tutorials & Training
A popular training software vendor that has an in-depth product on Quicken.

Best Sites to Learn More

Quicken User Guides
This page has a user guide for past and current versions of Quicken.

About.com: How to Use Quicken
About.com's page has dozens of links with tips, tricks and issue discussions.

Quicken.com: Quicken Learning Center
A Quicken site that targets educating small businesses on using Quicken for their accounting needs.

Using Quicken
This page is from a mid-western college, which posts instructional videos and PDF. files for all Quicken topics.

Intuit Canada: Intuit Support Center
This Canadian site offers a search engine to input problems and it will generate the answers if available.

Best Blogs and Forums

Quicken Support Forums
This site has links to support staff, and a list of links to active Quicken forums.

About.com: Financial Software Forum
A forum that discusses multiple brands of financial software including Quicken.

The Official Quicken Personal Finance Software Blog
A blog dedicated to news about Quicken along with advice for working with it efficiently.



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