Do you keep a notepad in your personal vehicle to track
business reimbursable miles? I'm not very good at making those entries and
that's resulted in a lot of missed mileage reimbursement in the past.
QuickBooks can help jog your memory about business trips so
you don't lose out. I'm not talking about the QuickBooks mileage feature. I'm
talking about using QuickBooks to remember trips you may have neglected to
record.
How many of your business trips involve a purchase? Did you
drive to Staples to buy that paper? Or to the bank to make that deposit? Did
you use your personal car to drive to that hotel for business or that auction
where you bought that piece of equipment?
You can probably think of many more transactions that might
relate to business mileage.
To create a Transaction Detail report that you can scan for
possible missed mileage:
click Reports at the top of QuickBooks
select Custom Transaction Detail Report at the bottom
change the dates of the report in the date boxes
click the Filters tab at the top of the Custom Transaction
Detail Report window
From the Filters box on the right, scroll down and select
Transaction Type
choose Multiple Transaction Types from the Transaction Type
drop-down box to the right
select the following from the list of transaction types in
the Select Transaction Types window that opens:
check: garages or repair shops--did you pick up or drop off
a vehicle or piece of equipment? accountant or attorney--did you have an
appointment or drop off or pick up papers?
deposit: did you make a trip to the bank?
journal: accountant adjustments--did you pick up a financial
statement?
credit card: garage or repair shops--did you drop off and
pick up a vehicle or piece of equipment? hotel rooms--did you take your
personal car?
credit card credit: did you drive somewhere to return an item?
estimate: did you drive somewhere to look at a job and give
an estimate?
close the Select Transaction Types window
from the Filters box, scroll down and select Detail Level
Select the radio button next to Summary Only on the right
close the window
Hint: Eliminate unwanted columns in the report by holding
the right-click button down on your mouse while hovering over the diamond to
the right of the column head and moving it left until the column disappears. I
find this quicker and easier than scrolling the Column List in the Modify
Report Window.
Sorting by name and then by transaction type works best for
me.
To sort by name, select Name from the Sort By drop-down box
at the top of the Report Menu on the right.
If you're a paper and pencil fan, you can print the report
and write in the miles to the left or right of each transaction that relates to
a business trip and use a calculator to total.
If you have Excel, totaling the mileage will be easier. If
you aren't familiar with Excel these detailed instructions will give you a
total in no time.
Click the Export button at the top of the Report Menu >
Export Report window opens
Select the radio button to the left of: a new Excel workbook
Click the Export button at the bottom of the Export Report
Window
Save the spreadsheet
Select one of the blank columns on the left margin of the
spreadsheet (or the right if you prefer) by clicking the column heading. The
column should now be highlighted.
While the column is highlighted, right click anywhere in the
column.
Choose Format Cells from the fly-out menu.
Choose Number from the Category box of the Format Cells
window.
Change the number of decimals if desired and click OK.
Scroll down the spreadsheet looking for mileage reimbursable
transactions, entering the number of miles for each in one of the blank columns
on the left of the spreadsheet
There are several ways to total the column. Choose one that
works best for you. Method #1:
Click on the last cell at the bottom of the spreadsheet,
under the last transaction
The cell might say something like "Total
unclassified". Ignore.
While the cell is selected, select Insert from the top menu
Select Function from the drop-down menu
Select sum from the Function List box.
The Function Arguments window will open and you'll see something
like B40:B80 in the Number1 Box.
Change the first number to 2 so that the box now reads
B2:B80 where the last number is the last transaction row.
Method #2:
Click View from the top menu. Make sure Formula Bar is
checked
The name of the selected cell (column and row) appears in
the left (short) box of the Formula Bar.
The right (long) box should be blank. Type: =sum(B1:B80)
Where:
B=column
1 = first row
80 = last row
Replace the formula above with your own numbers:
=sum([column & first row]: [column & last row]) Last row is the row
above the selected cell. If you enter the row of the selected cell as the last
row, a circular reference error message appears.
Hit enter and if you followed instructions correctly, the
column will be totaled.
Method #3:
Select View from the top menu
Highlight Toolbars and make sure Standard is checked.
Select the cell at the bottom of the column you want to
total.
Left click the AutoSum symbol on the Standard toolbar (at
the top Excel menu). Hint: the AutoSum symbol looks like the letter M resting
on its left side.
Left click the cell directly above the selected cell and
Excel will outline the cell in blue
Left click the top right corner of the blue border and drag
the blue border all the way to the top of the column to the first cell you want
to include in the total
Hit enter If you followed instructions, the cell will now
contain the sum of the column
These steps might seem complicated if you've never used
Excel but once you've used it, you'll probably find Method #3 the simplest and
quickest.
Summary: QuickBooks is more than a great bookkeeping tool.
You can use the Transaction Detail report to jog your memory about business
trips so you don't miss out on any mileage reimbursement. The Export feature
makes totaling the mileage a snap and you can save the spreadsheet as a record
of business trips.
Lisa Readington has been bookkeeping and recordkeeping in
the electric distribution construction industry since 1990. She uses a
combination of QuickBooks, Microsoft Access, QODBC and Visual Basic to
streamline the unique recordkeeping needs of this industry.
As a rule, when buying
QuickBooks, always buy the newest version available QuickBooks Technical Support Number. It can offer
more versatility than a old way of QuickBooks, and will before than less
current editions.
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