QuickBooks

Day 2....
I went to work today and had the same day I've had for 18 years. No, I really do love my job; I just hate the meetings, trainings, and processes that must be gone through to get things done. I work with wonderful people on my team though so I am lucky.
Today I am going to teach you how to create a business in QuickBooks. If you own your own business or are thinking about starting one, I recommend that you use QuickBooks for your accounting/bookkeeping needs.
First, you need to decide when you want to start tracking your financial information. If it's a new business then that's easy. If you have already been in business then you will need all the information for your accounts. For example, you need the value of any assets that you own, any outstanding accounts receivable balances from customers, any debts you owe, etc. But, let's start from scratch for now.

1. Start QuickBooks and click on Create New Company button. It will ask you if you want to do and Express Start or a Detailed Start. Choose Detailed Start. This will guide you through many questions that can customize your business needs.
2. Fill in all the company information ie. Company Name, Address, Phone, EIN if you have employees, website address if you have one.
3. Continue clicking Next on each screen as you go through the Set up. You will be asked how your company is organized, this means how is it owned...Sole Proprietorship or Partnership or LLC? You will choose when to start tracking finances and this relates to the information above; you can just choose the beginning of this current month if you wish. 
4. You will be asked several questions about whether or not you want to use Invoices, Billing Statements, Progress Invoicing, and many others. You will need to choose the right choice for your business. 
5. At some point a box will pop up so that you can save your company file. Choose a safe location on your computer and name your company file. The file will be stored on the hard drive but you must remember to do frequent back-ups just in case you have any incidents. 
6. You will choose an Industry to use and this will give you a starter chart of accounts, you can uncheck and check accounts that you do or do not need. 
7. Once all the questions are over with you will have an options to add bank accounts, customers, and vendors or you can click on Start Working. You can add all of those things after the company is created.
8. The first account you need to create is your bank account. You will click on Lists-Chart of Accounts. Click the Account button in the lower left corner and choose New Account. Name your checking account and you do need to enter a beginning bank account balance as of a certain date. So choose the amount and the date for that amount to appear in your account. When you add bank account balances or other assets it will automatically go into an account called Opening Balance Equity. This is your equity in your business. While in the Chart of Accounts add or delete any other accounts that are needed or not needed by clicking on the account and clicking the Account button in the lower left corner.

So, that is how you create a company in QuickBooks, briefly.

http://quickbooks.intuit.com/

I Want To Be Free!

I want to live free!

http://www.rvguide.com/blog/uploads/2012/09/GoRVinig-Away-Campaign-0927.jpg

Recently, I have been going through a phase. I have a real urge to sell off everything I own, buy an RV, and live on the road. So I did some research. I research everything before I do it…having a baby, best way to clean the bathtub, whatever. Google IS the best, right? Anyways, I first look at RVs online…ooh la la. These beautiful, lovely, mobile homes, yes this is what I want! I can park at the Grand Canyon and sip hot coffee in the morning while taking in the view.  No more stress, no more desk job with meetings, ugh I could talk about meetings, or rubrics…ugh curse that word, I am a teacher. So, doesn’t that sound wonderful? To leave all the comforts and restraints of your mortgaged house and 9-5 job and hit the road and visit all the state in the United States! It does sound wonderful.

14 kids?!!

I haven’t done it yet but I am definitely looking into it (still googling). I am going to be a traveling writer, not a travel writer…a writer who travels. I have read some good and some not so good advice. Some sites are scams and I have to be able to decipher what are scams and what are not; some sites say to use Craigslist and others say to stay away; some sites say to blog and others say not to blog. What is the question? One really great site that I have read is wandrlymagazine.com. They actually wrote and gave real life examples of people that live on the road and the many different things that they do to survive or “live from abundance”. Did you know that there is a family with 14 children that live on the road?? That just seemed absolutely crazy to me. I mean how do they do their laundry? I guess or imagine with that many kids you would have to put them all to work. Hey, I bet you could live pretty good with that many little workers in your family! Well, I have three small children and I just don’t know how that will work. I do think it would be an amazing learning experience for them. I could teach them how to read by sounding out the letters of road signs, they could add up miles traveled for math exercises, yeah! Well, I’m joking but it could be a really awesome way to live and learn for little ones and the adults. Okay so I have settled on the way to earn gas money while on the road. Writing. I still have not found the outlet yet for that.

This is the Beginning

This is my start. This is the start of my pre-journey of living on the road. One of the best pieces of advice came from How I Make a Living as a Writer (and You Can, Too) written by James Altucher. He said, no matter what, write something every single day. It does not need to be for money but it’s because you are a writer and that’s what you do; writing is a muscle that will get stronger with exercise. That is the single most important piece of advice that I have found. This is my first one, Mr. Altucher, and my beginning to living on the road! Here are my first 500 or so words. I did not proofread though...don't judge me! Now I am on to Google the best sites for blogging.