A few years ago, just for fun, I taught myself Double Entry Accounting. I found the whole process very interesting and was intrigued by the fact that so many people would go through so much trouble to learn what amounts to nothing more than a hunk of theory and procedures developed over 500 years ago that have changed very little since then. I really enjoyed the simplicity of the system and the obvious nature of its rules.
I assumed that keeping track of my business' finances using accounting software would be a relatively straight-forward task, so I set out in search of this software. "Quickbooks" came highly recommended by almost everyone I asked so I purchased the "Pro" version. $150 later and 10 minutes into using the software and I found myself angry, confused, and sitting in a pile of my own hair.
While "Quickbooks" may indeed perform Double Entry Accounting in the background, using it is nothing like the simple system of checks and balances that I learned. "Quickbooks" breaks everything down into common business aspects and concepts and takes the accounting out of it as much as possible. This is great if you don't know accounting and your business doesn't deviate too far from the norm. However, if you intend to make even the slightest curve away from a "normal" usage pattern, you'll find that the software gets in your way more than anything. So I've found that my knowledge of Double Entry Accounting isn't nearly as useful as I thought it would be and, instead, I'm now giving myself a profanity-studded crash-course in manipulating "Quickbooks" into doing what I want.
Here are some of the things I've learned so far.
* If you want to "pay a bill" (an annoying feature of "Quickbooks" that you are all but required to use) you will be annoyed every time you do unless you have a "Credit Card" defined. I don't have a business credit card. I don't really need one. Despite this, I ended up making a fake "Credit Card" account just to get it to shut up.
* You can only pay bills by "Check" or "Credit Card". You cannot use "Cash", "Accounts Payable" or "Owner's Equity" to do so. Oftentimes, I "pay bills" with my personal funds which are not tracked along with my business accounts. So, in order to work around this, I had to create a "Credit Card" account for myself at the "Bank of Daniel". Any expenses that are paid with personal funds are treated as charges on the "Bank of Daniel" "Credit Card". Every now and then (once a month, probably) I'll submit a transaction to pay off the debt on this "Credit Card" with funds from "Owner's Equity".
* Every now and then "QuickBooks" crashes, and then starts itself back up. I haven't lost any data yet, thankfully, but it sure doesn't inspire confidence. At least it recovers on its own and, other than having to wait for "Quickbooks" to restart, I'm not out any trouble or effort.
* Don't *EVER* click on the "Customer Name" box of an imported transaction or you'll *really* regret it. If I import some transactions from my bank and some of those transactions include sales, "Quickbooks" associates them with my "Sales" account automatically and adds the Buyer to a list of "Other Names". This is all fine and dandy until I try to modify that transaction. Just clicking in the box with the Buyer's name causes "Quickbooks" to forget that the buyer is already on the "Other Names" list and insists that the Buyer be a "Customer". This, of course, wouldn't be a problem except that "Quickbooks" remembers that there is an "Other Name" (that it created) with the same name as this "Customer" which is a no-no, apparently. So, I have to convert the "Other Name" into a "Customer" which, of course, can't be done from the transaction editing screen. To make matters worst, "Quickbooks" won't let me leave the transaction editing screen until I supply the name of a "Customer" that doesn't already exist as an "Other Name". So, in order to work around this problem, I have to make up a new name for my "Customer" and save the transaction. Then, I have to go to the "Other Names" list and convert my Buyer's real name from an "Other Name" to a "Customer". Then I have to go back to the transaction editor and change the "Customer" from the fake name to the real name. Then I have to back go to my "Customer" list and delete the fake "Customer". All because I clicked in a stupid box.
