From the home page, select File > Create New Company as you normally would, and select “Detailed Start”. This page is called an “EasyStep Interview”. You can enter your company name, legal name, Tax ID, street address, phone number, email address, and website. All that is required, however, is the company name. The next step of the interview is to enter the industry the company is in. If by accident or choice you select the “Leave…” button seen at the bottom left of the screen, it will not save your progress. So avoid that button if you wish to continue with the entry.
The next step is the question “How is your company organized?” which basically asks what type of company is being entered. Is it a partnership or LLP? An LLC? A Non-Profit? Select which here. Which you select will affect your charts later, so make sure you select the correct one. It will then ask the first month of your fiscal year. (Normally it would be January). You can set up an admin password, if you wish, and then will create your company file.
Now that you’ve set up the file, you’ll see what you need to set up to use QuickBooks. This is the “detailed” part of the set up.
First, the interview will ask, “What do you sell?” This distinction is between services only, products only, or both services and products. Choose your distinction and press next. If you select either option including “products”, it will turn on inventory for you. It will ask if you charge sales tax (saying yes will turn sales tax on), if you want to create estimates in QuickBooks, if you want to track customer orders, if you want to use statements, if you want to use progress invoicing, if you want to track your bills, if you want to track your inventory, if you want to track time, and if you have employees. After this, it will ask when you want to track your finances, selecting a date similarly to how you did earlier. You can review income and expense accounts after this, you can select which you are actually going to use, you can eliminate the ones you won’t use, and after this you are finished.
