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Business Management Article - Achieving Business Success

New QuickBooks 2004 Release 7
Release 7 for QuickBooks 2004 is now available. Release 7 fixes a problem introduced in Release 6, QuickBooks no longer changes Vendor Tax ID numbers that are entered or edited while using Release 6 to EIN format. Release 7 covers all editions of QuickBooks 2004 (Windows Operating System) including the Basic, Pro, and Premier Editions, and Enterprise Solutions. Release 7 includes all changes made to QuickBooks 2004 since it was first released. Release 7 is the third public update this year.

Installing Release 7 will not affect your data file. Data files created in Release 7 can be opened and used with any QuickBooks 2004 Release.

Enabling Version Detector

Intuit's new QuickBooks Version Detector lets you quickly identify which version of QuickBooks you are using without having to open the QuickBooks file. The new QuickBooks Version Detector works with QuickBooks 2004 and will detect versions dating back to 1999.

After installing Release 6, you may have experienced issues getting Version Detector to work. If you have had problems, please follow the instructions below. If you still continue to experience issues, call Intuit Technical Support at 1-888-320-7276.

1. Open your QuickBooks software program.
2. Make sure your computer is connected to the Internet.
3. Select Update QuickBooks from the file menu.
   
   
4. Click the Update Now button.
   
   
5. Click the Get Updates button.
6. QuickBooks will display Update Complete in the message box.
7. Close and open QuickBooks. Version Detector is now enabled.

New QuickBooks 2004 Release 7
QuickBooks 2004 Release 7 fixes a problem introduced in Release 6 - QuickBooks no longer changes Vendor Tax ID numbers that are entered or edited while using Release 6 to EIN format. What do you do if you believe some of your vendor tax identification numbers were incorrectly changed in QuickBooks 2004 R6? If some of your vendors have incorrectly formatted Tax IDs, you will need to edit these vendors and reenter the tax identification number.

To locate and correct incorrectly formatted Tax ID numbers:

1. From the Lists menu, choose Vendor List.
2. Click the Reports button at the bottom of the Vendor List and select Contact List.
3. Click the Modify Report button.
4. On the Display tab, select only the Vendor and Tax ID columns.
5. Click OK.
6. Compare the ID numbers from the onscreen report to your paper records.
7. If any of the numbers are incorrectly formatted, double-click the vendor name to open the Edit Vendor window.
8. Click on the Additional Info tab and reenter the Tax ID.
9. Click OK to save your changes.

Repeat steps 7 through 9 for each incorrectly formatted ID.

Release 7 also includes all changes made to QuickBooks 2004 since it was first released.

Installing Release 7
To update your QuickBooks program with the Release 7 changes, close QuickBooks and reopen QuickBooks. At the prompt to install the update now, answer, "Yes." The update process may take several minutes. (If you choose not to update when you open QuickBooks, the message will appear each time you open QuickBooks until the update is completed.) After completing the update, we recommend that you restart your computer.

Installing Release 7 in a Multi-User Environment
If you use QuickBooks in multi-user mode, this product release must be installed on each computer using QuickBooks. After downloading the product release to your specified shared file location, you will be prompted when you open QuickBooks to install on each computer that shares the data file. For more information on this environment, choose Update QuickBooks from the File menu, click Help in the Update QuickBooks window, and then select Sharing updates in a multi-user environment.

QuickBooks Forms
Each form you use in QuickBooks has its own layout - that is, its own arrangement of fields and columns for entering information. If the layout of a particular form doesn't meet your needs, you can create your own custom layout and use your version instead of the QuickBooks version.

For each form, you can decide which fields and columns to include, what they are called, and where to place them. Once you have created your forms, you can save the new layouts as templates - to use whenever you wish, and to modify whenever you want. The forms you can customize in QuickBooks are the invoice, sales receipt, credit memo, statement, purchase order, estimate (QuickBooks Pro and Premier only), and sales order (QuickBooks Premier editions only).

You can create custom forms in all QuickBooks products, but some of the customization and layout options described are available only in QuickBooks Pro and Premier products. For example, adding colored backgrounds, using rounded borders on fields, and using fields on forms multiple times are available only in QuickBooks Pro and Premier products.

Customizing Invoices
QuickBooks lets you customize an invoice form to suit the needs of your business, but there may be times when you want to design a completely different invoice form. QuickBooks lets you do that, too. You can use the Layout Designer to create a new form design for your business. In the Layout Designer, you can move, resize, or change the width of columns, turn on or off borders around fields, and control font type and size for each field.

The following examples use both the customize forms and Layout Designer features in QuickBooks to create a custom invoice. These features affect only the printed forms; you cannot customize the onscreen version of QuickBooks forms.

Creating New Templates

To create a new invoice template:

1. From the Lists menu, choose Templates. QuickBooks displays the Templates list.
2. Click the Templates menu button, and then choose New. QuickBooks displays the Select Template Type window.
3. Click OK to select the invoice form.
   
   QuickBooks displays the Customize Invoice window, which uses multiple tabs to display several sets of formatting options. Each area of the form is represented by a tab. To display the available formatting options, click the tab for the area of the form you want to change.
   
4. In the Template Name field, type the name of your Template.
   Notice that the Header tab is currently selected. The Header tab displays the formatting options you have for the top part of the invoice form. For each field, you can specify the title you want and whether you want the field displayed onscreen, on paper, both, or neither. You can enter a new title by highlighting the current title text and typing your new one.
   
   If you want to track information about a particular invoice, but don't want your customer to see this information, select the Screen checkbox and clear the Print checkbox.
   
5. Click the Fields tab.
   
   The Fields tab is where you select which fields you want to appear on screen and on paper. You can specify your own title (label) for each field.
   
   Suppose you want to remind customers of payment due dates at the time you send the invoice. You can customize the invoice form to display the Due Date field.
   
6. To have the Due Date field display both on screen and on the printed form, click the Screen and Print columns for Due Date to select both checkboxes.
   
   Checkmarks appear in both checkboxes.
   
7. Clear the Screen and Print checkboxes for the P.O. field to remove the field from the form.

Changing Field Order on Forms
The lower half of the standard QuickBooks invoice form is where you enter details about the items or services purchased by the customer. You can change the order of these fields as they appear on your invoices.

The Order column shows you how fields display from left to right on the invoice form. Currently, Item is the first column and Amount is the last column. Suppose you want the Qty field to appear after the Item field, and before the Description field.

To change the order of fields on a form:

1. Click the Columns tab.
2. Double-click the Order column in the Quantity row to select the number.
3. Type 2.
4. Double-click the Order column in the Description row to select it.
5. Type 3.
   
   If you use progress invoices or sales orders, use the Prog Cols tab to customize the columns on those forms.
   
6. Click the Footer tab.
   
   The Footer tab contains information that you usually find at the bottom of the form. It also provides a place for you to enter free-form text, such as a disclaimer, on your form.
   
7. Click the Company tab.
   
   Use the Company tab to specify which pieces of company information to include on your sales and purchase forms.
   
8. Select the Print Phone Number checkbox.
   
   If you wanted to add your company logo to the form, you would select the Use Logo checkbox and tell QuickBooks which file to use. QuickBooks supports BMP, JPEG, TIFF, and GIF graphic formats.
   
9. Click the Format tab.
   
   Use the Format tab to change the fonts for various textual elements on the form. If your forms print on multiple pages, use the checkbox on this tab to indicate whether or not you want to print page numbers.
   
   If you don't want QuickBooks to print the status stamp (paid, pending, etc.) on forms, clear the Print Status Stamp checkbox on this tab.
   
10. Click the Printer tab.
    
    Use the Printer tab to associate print settings with individual form templates. For example, if you print most forms in Portrait mode, but have one form that you print in Landscape, you can associate the Landscape print setting with that form's template. When you send the form to the printer, QuickBooks knows to print it in Landscape.
    
11. Click OK to record the changes.
12. Close the Templates window.

Displaying Your Customized Form
Display the customized form to see the changes you made.

To display the custom form:

1. From the Customers menu, choose Create Invoices.
   
   QuickBooks displays the Create Invoices window with the Custom Invoice template displayed.
   
2. In the Form Template field, choose the name of your Template from the drop-down list.
   
   Notice how this form reflects the changes you made in the Customize Invoice window. The Due Date field now displays onscreen and the Qty column appears in its new order before the Description field.
   
   The phone number field that you added to the form only shows on the printed form, so you do not see it onscreen.

Designing Custom Layouts for Forms
With the QuickBooks Layout Designer, you can change the design or layout of a form. In the Layout Designer, you can move, resize, change the width of columns, turn on or off borders around fields, add colored backgrounds, and control the font type and size for each field.

Here are a few examples of what you can do with a custom layout:

• Give your company name, address, and logo special treatment on the form. For example, you could center your logo at the top of the form and put your company name and address in a special font immediately below the logo.
• Enlarge a custom field so that it can display more information.
• Position the customer's billing address so that it coincides with the address window in the envelopes you use.
• Change the borders on fields, add background colors, and add extra text fields.
• Add multiple graphics to a form.

Changing the Position of Fields on Forms
Use the Layout Designer to move the Phone ## and Bill To fields, and to decrease the width of the Quantity column.

To move fields on forms:

1. In the Create Invoices window, click Customize. QuickBooks displays the Customize Template window.
2. Make sure that My Invoice is selected and click Edit.
   
   QuickBooks displays the Customize Invoice window that you used to customize the form.
   
   Now, you'll use the Layout Designer to change the design of the form.
   
3. Click Layout Designer.
   
   QuickBooks displays the Layout Designer window.
   
   By clicking the Zoom buttons, you can zoom out to see an overall view of the form or zoom in for a closer look at a small section of the form.
   
4. Click the Bill To field.
5. Press and hold the Shift key.
   
   Holding down the Shift key when clicking on an object allows you to select multiple fields at the same time. Having multiple fields selected lets you move the fields together.
   
6. Click the field directly below the Bill To field (the field containing the words "This is sample text").
   
   Notice the four-directional arrow that appears when you move the cursor over the selected fields.
   
7. Release the Shift key.
8. With the cursor over the selected fields, press and hold the left mouse button.
9. Drag the selected fields down about one inch.
10. Release the mouse button.
11. Select the field containing the address.
12. Move the mouse over one of the dark squares on the bottom of the field and then hold the mouse button while you drag the bottom of the field up to a point just below the address.
13. Scroll to the bottom of the screen and select the Phone ## field.
14. Click Remove.
15. Select the field containing the phone number.
16. Holding down the mouse button, drag the field so that it sits just below the address.

Changing Field Widths
In the next example, you change the font size for the phone number to make it match the address, but first you want to make the field wider so that the phone number isn't cut off.

To change the width of a field:

1. Select the field containing the telephone number and drag the right border further to the right while holding down the mouse button.
2. In the Layout Designer window, scroll until the Qty column is visible.
3. Click the Qty column to select it.
   
   Notice that when the cursor is positioned between the QTY and DESCRIPTION columns, it turns into a two-directional arrow.
   
4. Click and hold the left mouse button on the line separating the Qty and Description columns.
5. While holding down the mouse button, drag the column line to the left (to the one-inch mark on the ruler).
6. Release the mouse button.

Changing Fonts, Borders, and Colors
Using the Properties window in the Layout Designer, you can change font size and style, text justification. You can also add, remove, or change the borders around fields.

1. With the phone number field selected, click Properties. QuickBooks displays the Properties window.
2. On the Text tab, select Left for horizontal justification.
   
   Click the Font button.
   
3. In the Size drop-down list, select 12, and then click OK.
4. Click the Border tab.
5. Click to remove the Top, Bottom, Right, and Left checkboxes.
6. Click OK to save your changes in the Properties window.
7. Click OK to save the changes in the Layout Designer.
8. Click OK to close the Customize Invoice window.

This example covers only a portion of the changes you can make with the customization and layout tools. For example, if you wanted to add a background color to the field, you could do so using the Background tab. You could use the Add button to add empty fields into which you can enter your own text&##8212;or to add data fields that you forgot to select in the Customize window. If you want a field to appear on a form more than once, select the field and click Copy.

Previewing New Forms
Notice that the invoice form displayed by QuickBooks doesn't show the changes you just made in the Layout Designer. This is because changes made in the Layout Designer only affect the printed invoice and not the invoice QuickBooks displays onscreen for data entry.

To preview the invoice:

1. To see how the printed invoice form will look, click the Print drop-down list on the Create Invoices window toolbar, and then choose Preview. QuickBooks displays the Print Preview window.
   
   The invoice displayed in the Print Preview window shows exactly how the printed invoice will look. Notice that the changes you made in the Layout Designer are reflected in this preview.
   
2. When you are finished looking at the preview, click Close.
3. Press Esc to close the Create Invoices window without saving.

Using QuickBooks Letters
From time to time, you may need to send a letter to a customer or vendor (or someone on your employee list or other names list), or to another list of people. With QuickBooks Pro and Premier, you can easily add the pertinent QuickBooks data (such as name, address, and balance information) to a letter without having to re-type it.

QuickBooks provides a number of business letters focusing on collections, news, and announcements. You can edit these letters as needed to suit your business and style of communication.

You must be using QuickBooks Pro or Premier and Microsoft Word 97, 2000, or 2002. The QuickBooks Letters feature is not available in QuickBooks Basic.

Preparing Collection Letters
In this example, you'll learn how to prepare a collection letter to send to customers with overdue payments.

To prepare a collection letter:

1. From the Company menu, choose Write Letters.
2. If QuickBooks prompts you to find letters, click Copy. QuickBooks will copy the QuickBooks letters from your installation directory to your folder.
   
   QuickBooks opens the Write Letters wizard.
   
3. Make sure that "Prepare a Collection Letter" is selected and click Next.
4. When QuickBooks prompts you to choose who you want to write to, make the following selections:
   
   For number 1, choose Active.
   For number 2, choose Customer.
   For number 3, choose 31 days or more.
   
5. Click Next.
   
   QuickBooks displays a list of all active customers with payments 31 days or more past due.
   
6. Leave the names selected and click Next.
7. When QuickBooks prompts you to choose the letter you want to use, click "Friendly collection" and click Next.
8. In the Name field of the next screen, type your name. In the Title field, type your title.
9. Click Create Letters.
10. If QuickBooks displays a message about missing information, click OK. QuickBooks starts Microsoft Word (if it's not running already) and displays collection letters for the two customers that you selected.
    
    You can scroll through the Microsoft Word document to see both letters. Notice that QuickBooks entered Tom Ferguson's name and title at the end of each letter.
    
11. Close the Microsoft Word file without saving the letters.
    
    When you do save letters you've created using QuickBooks Letters, don't save them to the QuickBooks Letters folder. The QuickBooks Letters folder should only be used to store the original QuickBooks Letters installed with the QuickBooks software program.
    
    To print the letters, you would choose Print from the Microsoft Word File menu.
    
12. Return to QuickBooks.

Editing QuickBooks Letters
You can make changes to individual letters using Microsoft Word, or you can make global changes by editing the QuickBooks Letter used to generate a specific letter.

In this example, you'll edit the collection letter you prepared in the last example (Friendly collection). However, instead of working with completed letters with customer information already filled in, you'll work with the underlying QuickBooks Letter used to create the letters.

To edit a QuickBooks Letter:

1. From the Company menu, choose Write Letters.
2. Click Design QuickBooks Letters, and then click Next.
3. In the screen that appears, make sure "View or edit existing letters" is selected and click Next.
4. When QuickBooks prompts you to choose the QuickBooks Letter you want to view or edit, click Overdue customers (collection letters), and then select "Friendly collection" from the list of available letters.
5. Click Edit Letter.
   
   QuickBooks opens Microsoft Word (if it's not running already) and displays the QuickBooks Letter (Friendly collection) and a toolbar (QuickBooks Collection Letter Fields) that you'll use to add information from QuickBooks to the letter in Word.
   
   Note that you can move the toolbar by clicking it with your mouse pointer and dragging it to a new location.
   
   Now, you'll enter more text and use the toolbar to insert data from QuickBooks into the "Friendly collection" letter.
   
6. Click your mouse pointer after the period at the end of the first sentence and the press the Space bar once. (You'll insert a sentence into the paragraph.)
7. Type Our records show that your balance is past due.
8. Click your mouse pointer after the word is in the sentence you just typed, and press the Space bar again.
9. From the Insert Collection Info. Fields drop-down list on the QuickBooks Collection Letter Fields toolbar, select Range(days) of Overdue Invoices.
   
   QuickBooks adds the <<OverdueRange>> field to the sentence you just typed.
   
   When you create letters using this modified QuickBooks letter, QuickBooks will replace the <<OverdueRange>> field with the number of days each customer you create a letter for is past due.
   
10. From the Word File menu, choose Save As.
11. Click Save. If you save the file to your QuickBooks directory without changing the filename, you will overwrite the original QuickBooks Letter.
12. To see how this change affects the final letter output, close the letter file in Microsoft Word and go through the "Preparing collection letters" example again.
13. Close Microsoft Word.

Achieving Business Success
Although business management fads come and go, the fundamental business organization remains the same. A business as an organization is actually a system. A system is a group of interacting, interrelated, and interdependent elements forming a complex whole. A business is a system of interacting, interrelated, and interdependent processes that form the business.

The business system's core processes are as follows:

• Research - Research is the process of determining the demand and supply of a market.
• Development - Development is the process of developing products and services that supply the demand and compete with the supply of a market.
• Marketing - Marketing is the process of communicating research and development results.
• Sales (Selling) - Selling is the process of converting prospective customers into sales and a "sale" is a converted prospect.
• Production - Production is the process of producing products or performing services.
• Finance - Finance is the process of funding a business.

There is a natural sequence to these six core processes. For example, before you can develop a service, you must know the demand and supply of your market. Before you can market a product or service, you have to develop the service. Before you can sell a service, you have to market the service. Before you perform the service, you have to sell the service. Before you can finance the research, development, marketing, selling, and production of the service, you have to generate cash. Each process is a prerequisite to the next process, and the system as a whole is a continuous cycle.

That's not to say that you perform these processes one at a time. In other words, you can't focus on research, then on development, then on marketing, then on sales, then on production, then on finance, and then start over. You take this approach when you first plan your business, not when you build your business. These interdependent processes must occur simultaneously and continuously.

Many businesses fail because these core processes don't occur simultaneously and continuously or at all. The owner either tries to perform all of these processes and neglects to provide each process what it needs to be effective, or neglects certain processes entirely. Either way, the result is the same. As hard as the owner may try, the owner can't do it all or do it all effectively. Even if the owner is an expert in each process, and nobody is, the owner can't perform these processes at the same time. Each process is and should be a full-time job. Each process should have a department or at least one individual dedicated to continuous research, development, marketing, sales, production, or finance.

Think of the most successful businesses of today. Rest assured, they understand and practice this model. A successful business is like a high performance six-cylinder engine. The engine achieves maximum performance when it runs on all cylinders. Like the engine, a business achieves maximum performance when it runs on all six core processes. Each process is essential for business performance, and when working simultaneously and continuously, they produce an exponential effect. Many small business owners lack the business system necessary to achieve high performance.

Whatever title you use to refer to yourself as the person responsible for running your business, i.e., proprietor, owner, partner or CEO, your responsibility is similar to the responsibility of a symphony conductor. A conductor's responsibility is to select a composition (objective) and orchestrate the symphony's four sections: woods, strings, brass, and percussion, and perform the composition. The key to the symphony's performance is harmony or integration. Like a symphony conductor, your responsibility is to orchestrate your core processes and perform your services. Like the conductor, the key to the success of your business is harmony or seamless integration.

In his book, The E-Myth, Michael Gerber introduces an important principle, "Work on your business, not in your business." No experienced business owner argues with this principle. They know it's true; a business owner should commit his time to managing the business just as the individual responsible for marketing should commit her time to marketing and the individual responsible for sales should commit his time to selling. However, the fact is most small business owners do work in their businesses and not on their businesses.

Another important principle Michael introduces is "Build your business as if you're going to sell it." In other words, what you're building is an asset. Wall Street uses the term "shareholder value". Think about it, how many small business owners focus on today and not tomorrow? They believe business success is achieved when the business provides them a certain standard of living. But, what about the day when they no longer want or are able to make a living? What will they live on then, Social Security? Even if it's available, they won't be able to maintain the standard of living they've grown accustomed to. The focus is not just building a business for today, but also for tomorrow. The objective is to build a highly profitable and valuable business asset as if you're going to sell it, because some day you will.

You begin to build a highly profitable and valuable business asset by transitioning yourself from Chief Technician to Chief Executive Officer. The first thing you do is take your technician hat off and put your CEO hat on. Even though you continue to perform technical services, you need to start thinking and acting like a CEO.

To build a highly profitable business, start with the big picture. Step back and take a look at where you are and think about where you want to be. What do you want to achieve?

You can achieve any objective or goal when you follow three critical steps:

1. Know what you want (the more specific you are the more likely you are to succeed)
2. Learn how you get it (learn from those who have done it)
3. Apply what you learn (do it)

The reason individuals don't achieve an objective or goal is because they fail to follow all three of these steps. They don't know what they want, learn how to get it, or apply what they learn. You can't follow one or two of these steps and expect to achieve your objective, you have to do all three. Ever been on a diet? You know what you want to look like, you know what you need to do, but you don't do it or do it long enough. You have to pay the price and every objective or goal has a price. If you want to lose a few pounds, the price isn't that high. If you want to lose a lot of weight, you have to pay a much higher price. If you want more, you have to pay more.

There's a story about a man who was at a party and heard a pianist playing a beautiful rendition. He walked over to the pianist and listened intently. When the pianist finished her rendition, he told her how much he loved her performance and admired her talent. He further stated that he wished he could play so beautifully. She told him of the thousands of hours of practice and sacrifices she made to develop her talent. When he considered the price he would have to pay, he told her he wasn't willing to pay that price. We all want things, but unless we pay the price, it's only a wish.

It's often said that knowledge is power; don't believe it. Power is achieved when you apply what you know.