and now we will learn how to check results and find mistakes we have already learned that in
any report you can adjust the date range to see how you did during a specific time period
we also learned you can double click any number that represents a balance or a summary to see
every transaction that adds up to that balance and the list of transactions you get when you
double click is called the detail and we saw that in previous videos but what you did not yet learn
is that there's a report called the journal and it is one of the best things you can use to find
and fix mistakes the journal is the only report that shows every transaction since the beginning
of the file it's also the only report that shows the transactions in the order in which they were
entered into the computer regardless of date let's take a look at the journal from the main
menu click reports accountant and taxes journal notice when the journal opens up the date choice
is month to date I happen to be recording this video on June 14th of 2016 that's why my journal
open from June 1 to June 14 to really benefit from what the journal has to offer you must click the
date pull down arrow scroll all the way to the top and click the choice all this way the journal is
showing the results of all transactions regardless of date notice it has the June 1 deposit from
Molly saloon the June 2nd from the beer and go and this is every transaction we did in every previous
video in the order in which it was entered into the computer which by the way is not always the
same as date order notice there's an extra column here for transaction number this way no matter
what document number you put or no matter what date you put you will always know what transaction
that was in the order in which it was put into the computer with all the other transactions so if you
were putting in multiple types of transactions in one session and you put in many different checks
deposits and credit card charges then you suddenly got distracted and you did not know where you left
off you could open this journal and you would know exactly where you left off and you would
know exactly what was entered and what was not yet entered there is something important that
you should do to the journal before you save the journal to the icon bar you should add a
column for the date entered or modified this way you can see the date that you actually recorded
the transaction into QuickBooks regardless of the date that you actually told QuickBooks was
associated with the transaction for example this particular transaction has the date of
June 9th but it might not have been entered into QuickBooks on June 9th we can add a column so we
can find out the date the transaction was entered and that column will be next to the date that the
transaction actually happened from the top left of the journal click customize report in the modify
report window there are four tabs make sure the display tab is the one that's selected when you
go down to the bottom left you have a choice of adding or removing columns in our case we will
click this one entered last modified make sure the computer places the check mark in the margin when
you click after you click OK you will notice on the journal we now have a new column four
entered slash last modified now we know that even though the date of this particular transaction is
June 6th and we actually pay dr. Kirk on June 6th we actually recorded this into QuickBooks on June
11th that will be very helpful to you when you're recording large amounts of transactions and trying
to find something that you entered now that the journal looks the way it should we're going to
save it to the icon bar go to the top left then click view add journal to the icon bar and click
OK now if you close it out if you can remember to open it only from the icon bar it will look
exactly the way it looked at the moment that we saved it to the icon bar putting the wrong
date when you enter a transaction is the hardest mistake to find that's because most QuickBooks
reports show transactions in date order a date mistake is the hardest to find because things
are usually displayed in date order if you can display the transactions in the order in which
they were entered into the computer then you will find your date mistake you can resort any register
to become order entered for example if I open the M&T register and I change the date for this
June 11 transaction to June 2nd as soon as I save it it'll jump up into this position between June
1st and June 3rd let's take a look I'm going to click here change it to June 2nd then when I click
record I get the normal warning message that we usually get when we make a change then when
I click yes notice the Citibank card transaction dated June 2nd now has jumped up into its position
and date order between June 1st and June 3rd it's the same transaction all we did was change the
date and because the register is sorted in date order it moved it up to the top however if we
leave the incorrect date but we go down here and change the sort to order entered notice that the
transaction comes back down here so we can see June 1 June 3 June 4 and then June 2nd because
even though it's dated June 2nd it was entered after the others and if you change the sort to
order entered that will reveal the fact that it was entered after the others regardless of date
before I leave the window I'm going to change it back to its correct date and click record
I again get the warning message and then I click yes before you do your exercise in the next video
I need to make one last point about using the registers you cannot change the column of the
money amount after you save the transaction if you made the mistake of putting the money amount
in the wrong column the only thing you can do is delete the transaction and re-enter it the
reason for this is because when you put money in a particular column in the register QuickBooks
sees this as a certain type of transaction but if you put the money amount in the different column
QuickBooks actually believes it's a completely different type of transaction and would go in
a different window when you record something in the register and you put the money in the payment
column QuickBooks has determined once you save the transaction with the money in the payment column
that this is a check which is a specific type of transaction this very same check could have been
recorded the exact same way in a different window in QuickBooks and the result would be the same but
would have to be the checks window however if you record a transaction and save the money amount in
this other column QuickBooks believes that this is a completely different type of transaction called
a deposit and the result would be the same as if you recorded it in this other window in QuickBooks
you are not able to change a check into a deposit or a deposit into a check so when you look at the
register you see transactions in the same window with the money amounts of the different column
but when QuickBooks looks at the register it sees any transaction with the money amount
saved here as this type of transaction which is a completely different type of transaction than the
transactions that are saved with the money amount in this deposit column that you could have also
recorded in this make deposit window and you would get the same result so what do you do if you make
that mistake well again you would have to delete that transaction and re-enter it properly don't
worry there will always be a permanent record of whatever was deleted in this report the voided
deleted transaction detail from the main menu click reports accountant and taxes voided deleted
transaction detail of course you need to adjust the pull down date option and choose the very top
choice all then you would get the results of every deleted transaction that you have deleted since
you created this file since this report is so important you should then add it to the icon bar
from the main menu click view add voided deleted transaction to the icon bar and then click OK
please remember if a transaction is not listed in the journal then it will definitely be listed on
the voided and deleted transaction report please remember if a transaction number is missing in
the journal that means it's deleted and you would find it on the voided deleted transaction detail