It’s that time again! Here’s my year-end checklist for “closing the books”: 1. Preferably the last day of the year – conduct a physical inventory and make any adjustments into your accounting system.
There is a letter writing function within the QuickBooks program. I can think of all sorts of reasons: to summarize their giving for the year and say thank. Step 13: Now your letters should be created in Word and ready to be printed, with all the. Run your Year-end Profit and Loss and Balance Sheet and review carefully. When you are ready to file your taxes, it’s a good idea to set a closing date password in QuickBooks to ensure that you don’t accidentally make any prior year entries into QuickBooks – you can still go back and make necessary entries with the password.
Review your 1099 vendor information to make sure it is complete. In QuickBooks, run the report called 1099 summary under Reports – Vendors and Payables. If you want to make sure you haven’t forgotten to assign a vendor as a 1099 vendor, try this: At the top of the 1099 summary report you will see 1099 Options, from the drop down menu choose all vendors and review the report. If you forgot to mark a vendor as a 1099 vendor upon set up, now you can go back and make the correction in the vendor record.
Review your Receivables to be sure there are no payments that are not applied to invoices by running the report under Customers and Receivables called: Open Invoices. Post any unapplied payments through the Received payments feature in QuickBooks. (For more information see my QuickBooks Corner article “Resolving Unapplied payments and the significance” at www.nevadacountybiz.com. Clean up your Accounts Payable as well.
Run the report under Vendors and Payables called Unpaid bills detail and resolve any incorrect credits or outstanding bills. After the end of the year: 5.
If you file your taxes on an accrual basis, be sure to accrue any expenses that belong in 2012 by entering bills for them and any accrued payroll expenses by making a Journal Entry. Tip – Use the Reverse button on a Journal Entry to easily create reversing entries. Also be sure to invoice your customers for income Earned in 2009. Check with your accountant, but it may be appropriate to accrue Work In Progress Income or Expenses at the end of the year by creating a Journal Entry. Carefully review your Balance Sheet report for things like Customer Deposits and be sure they are correct. Reconcile all of your bank and credit card accounts. Reconcile your loan accounts and make sure all accrued interest has been recorded appropriately and that your accounting Loan Balance matches your actual Loan Balance.
Update your Unemployment rate if it has changed. Sometime in December you will have received a letter from them with your new rate for 2013. Run your Year-end Profit and Loss and Balance Sheet and review carefully. When you are ready to file your taxes, it’s a good idea to set a closing date password in QuickBooks to ensure that you don’t accidentally make any prior year entries into QuickBooks – you can still go back and make necessary entries with the password.
If you do payroll, be sure to run your DE6-DE7, 940, 941, W-2 and W-3’s by the end of January. The end of the year is also a good time to review your Budget and Business Plan. Every business should have both, no matter how long they have been established.
In most cases, use sentence case, even in headings and titles. Sentence case is casual and friendly. It helps support our conversational style and brand personality.
Sentence case also makes translation a bit easier. Examples:. Sentence style: Invoices to print (preferred). Title style: Invoices to Print. All caps style: INVOICES TO PRINT. Lowercase style: invoices to print Capitalize proper names: QuickBooks Online Self-Employed If a title or heading includes proper names, use title case for those names. Example: How you succeed with QuickBooks Online Self-Employed.
Arrows: Previous/Next Use sentence case. Examples:. Click the Previous (back) arrow. Click the Next (forward) arrow to move to the next transaction.
Although the arrows are no longer labeled, continue to refer to them in copy as the Previous and Next arrows. For added clarification, you can add “back” and “forward” as shown in the example. These arrows are used primarily in QuickBooks for Windows and Mac. Button names Use sentence case.
Examples:. Save and close.
Save and send. Create new. Run payroll In copy, to make sure you’re guiding users clearly, you can add the word button after the button name. But you don’t need to do that for these standard buttons. Apply. Back.
Cancel. Continue.
Finish. Next. OK. Open.
Print. Save Checkbox label Use sentence case. Example:.
This customer is a sub-customer. Use clear instead of deselect. The term deselect causes a problem for localization. Drop-down list names and items Use sentence case. Examples:. Expense account. Select an option.
Select a vendor. Select a customer User-generated names such as vendors and customers will appear the way users entered them. In copy, to make sure you’re writing clearly you can add the word list after the drop-down list name. Example: Select Mountain View from the Location list.
If the drop-down list doesn’t have a label, or uses ghost text to describe itself, use the main word in the ghost text and tell the customer what to select. For example, if the drop-down list is “Choose a customer” you might say, “Select the customer you want to refund.” Or, “In the Customer field, select the customer you want to refund.” Make sure the items in the list are in logical order (alphabetical, order of importance, and so on). If no item is preselected, use text like “Select a vendor” in ghost or hint text format. If you can’t gray out the text, you can use some kind of indicator, like parentheses.
For example: “(Select one).” You might want to show None as one of the options. It should have the same text formatting as the other options in the list.
Ghost text Use sentence case. Use ghost or hint text to take the place of field labels or to give more information about filling out a field, such as required formatting and restrictions.
Usually, you just need a noun or noun phrase that describes what to enter in the text box. Avoid obvious verbs like enter, unless needed for clarity or to be conversational, like in first-time use. Examples:. Enter your bank name. Find an employee Headings and titles Includes:. Section headings. Page headings and titles.
Help topic titles. Run-in headings. Subheadings. First-time use. Browser page titles. Tab titles. Buttons.
Window titles Use sentence case. In tables, row and column headings occasionally appear in all capital letters. This is an exception to the preferred style. Don’t use punctuation, unless you’re asking a question or need it for emphasis.
Examples:. A connection you can bank on. Ready to get started?. Free support. Menu names and menu items Use sentence case.
Example:. Chart of accounts Navigation elements Use sentence case. Examples:. QuickBooks help.
QuickBooks tutorials Radio buttons/option labels Use sentence case. Examples:.
Expense account. Customer account If needed for clarity in copy, you can add the word option after the option name. Report titles Use sentence case. (Depending on the interface, these titles may appear in all capital letters.) Examples:. Sales by customer summary. Sales by class summary. Sales by product/service summary Tooltips Use sentence case.
Example:. Your bank routing number is usually 9 digits long. Use tooltips to give more info about filling out a field, such as a description, required formatting, and restrictions. Use a period at the end of a tooltip only if it’s a complete sentence. Don’t add a space between the currency symbol and the amount ($10.00, not $ 10.00). For negative amounts, place the minus symbol in front of the currency symbol.
If you’re displaying currency in dollars and the amount is less than one dollar, use the cents symbol. Example: 25¢. It helps with accessibility and clarity.
But if you’re presenting this in product (as in entry fields), it should be 0.25 with no cents symbol. And don’t forget that other languages use commas instead of periods. Work with the local content designer for accurate symbols and placement for specific locales. You can specify which country by adding the currency code after the amount if needed.
For the US, use: MM/DD/YYYY (without a leading zero) or Month DD, YYYY. Don’t use ordinal numbers (1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.) in dates. For month and year only, use Month YYYY. Spell out days of the week when you’re referencing specific dates. Only abbreviate months in 3 letters (like Mar, Aug, Oct) for UI elements like tables, links, footers.
In extreme space-constrained cases, 1-letter abbreviations are OK. Mobile uses 3-letter month abbreviations (for example, Mar 9). Work with localization experts to accommodate different formats for different locales. Capitalize AM and PM with no periods. Do Be mindful of the way different emojis look across iOS and Android. Use emojis in 1:1 communication when the message feels more personal, not in one-to-many communication (exception: social media). Be human and friendly.
Use emojis in a mobile environment, notifications, chat, or text to humanize the content and to tap into the moment. Don’t Don’t use variations in skin tone—stick with the original yellow. Don’t use any of the religious symbols. Don’t use any of the emojis that could represent violence, drug use, or an innuendo. Don’t use emoticons. No: ); ) =) or: – ) You don’t have to punctuate after an emoji. The emoji serves as the punctuation.
Don’t use more than three emojis in the same message—treat them like exclamation points. If you use more than one, each should be different. Don’t write emoji sentences. The emoji should serve as an enhancement of the text, not as a replacement for the actual word. Don’t use emojis to try to be clever or funny.
It shouldn’t feel forced. When it doubt, don’t use them. Don’t use emojis for anything that will be a permanent feature in product or part of a consistent product experience (like a headline). Don’t use emojis in email. Using a link in web writing—especially in a headline—disrupts visual hierarchy and competes with the other goals of the page.
Unless your main objective is to persuade the reader to click the link, don’t use it. Use descriptive text for the link, not specific actions (Click here) or location (here). And try to set contextual expectations about what’s behind the link.
Fight the pile-on. Don’t add links to every possible resource, and don’t have multiple links to the same place on the same page. For “Learn more” links in mobile and for Help topics, use sentence case, limit word count, and don’t underline. If you need to provide legalese around a claim, link to it in the footer with language like “Check out Terms of Use for full details.”. Use numbers instead of bullets if the list items indicate the order in which actions should occur, the sequence in which events will or should take place, or order of importance. Otherwise, use bullets.
Initial cap each line (unless you’re using the list items to complete the sentence) and keep your punctuation, sentence structure, and general line length consistent (visual designers will thank you). Introduce the list with a lead-in sentence, fragment, heading, or question (use a question mark if it’s a question). Don’t use a period at the end of the list item unless it’s a complete sentence. If one item is a complete sentence and the rest aren’t, try rewriting the sentence for consistency. Don’t use commas or semicolons at the end of the list items.
Don’t use “and”, “or”, or “and/or” at the beginning of any list item. When you can, use parallel construction for your list items. That means if one item starts with a verb, every item should start with a verb.
It also means they all need to be written in the same voice (active) and in the same tense (present, most likely). Fragments are fine, but if one item is a complete sentence, try to write them all that way.
Do. Go to quickbooks.intuit.com/online. Click Buy Now or Free 30-Day Trial for the version you want.
Follow the steps to sign up for QuickBooks. Do. Search for transactions. Configure company settings. See a snapshot of your finances Do I use QuickBooks to: – run my business – help me budget – pay my employees Don’t. Sample content: For tasks and procedures, make sure each step performs an action and isn’t just an explanation.
Phrase each step in a task or procedure as a complete sentence and end it with a period. Add a supplier to the Supplier Center:.
Click New Supplier. Complete the required fields. Click Save.
Mobile-first is exactly as it sounds: writing for the smallest screen and working your way up. Writing for mobile has a unique set of challenges. However, all writing—not just mobile—should be simple and concise, focus on the task at hand, progressively disclose steps, be contextual, and hold your attention. Prioritize by surfacing main info, progressively disclosing, and offering access to details. Write around interfaces, and strive for your writing to be void of location and method of interaction. Content that goes anywhere and adapts to any context. Keep in mind:.
You’re limited by the amount of real estate available on the device. A tiny screen means fewer words and possible need for abbreviations. Reveal info as the user needs it. Mobile customers are often distracted (think “multi-tasking” and “on the go”). They’re usually not sitting at a desk. Some of our mobile apps are standalone, but many more are companion apps to our web or desktop products.
We strive for consistency. While Apple and Google devices work differently, be device-agnostic in your writing. Phone numbers are formatted differently depending on the country.
For all locales, include the area code, leave off the country code, and don’t bold anything. Australia Use spaces in phone numbers. Leave off the +61 before the STD code and use “ext.” for extension if needed. Brazil Use dashes in mot phone numbers and use a space to separate the area code.
For 0800 numbers, use spaces. Use ramal for extension if needed.
Canada Use dashes in phone numbers. Leave out the 1 before the area code except for toll free numbers, and use “ext.” for extension if needed. France Use spaces between sets of 2 numbers and leave out the +33 before the number. For toll-free numbers, don’t use a space between the 4 digits.
South Africa Use spaces in phone numbers. UK Use spaces in phone numbers. Leave out the +44 before the area code. US Use dashes in phone numbers. Leave out the 1 before the area code and use “ext.” for extension if needed.