Reviewing the other Vendor Menu Commands

I talk about the most important commands on the Vendor menu. Nevertheless, before I wrap up this little dog and pony show, I will quickly review for you the other commands and what they do.

Vendor Center

The Vendor Center window, shown in Figure 1, displays a list of vendors and detailed vendor information for the selected vendor. To use it, select from the Vendors drop-down list the vendor for which you want to see detailed information. The Vendor Center shows a bunch of information for a vendor. This information all comes from the Vendor List, by the way.

Figure 1: The Vendor Center

Tip

If you keep records of your vendors, including information such as their telephone numbers, about the best place to store that information, in my humble opinion, is in the Vendor List. You have to maintain the Vendor List in order for QuickBooks to work. So why not also go to a little bit of extra effort and keep all your vendor information there? If you adopt this approach, the Vendor Detail Center window is the window that you can use to quickly look up things such as the vendor's phone or fax number.

Sales Tax Menu Commands

The Sales Tax command displays a submenu of commands that pay sales tax amounts you've collected to the appropriate tax agency; adjust the sales tax liability due; and produce reports on the sales tax liability you owe, the sales tax revenue you've generated, and the sales tax codes you've set up.

To pay the sales taxes you owe, simply choose the Vendors ð Sales Tax ð Pay Sales Tax command. When QuickBooks displays the Pay Sales Tax dialog box (which lists the amounts you owe various sales tax collection agencies), you select the agencies you want to pay or click the Pay All Tax button. QuickBooks then records checks into the bank account register, and you print the checks in the usual way.

To adjust the amount that QuickBooks thinks you owe a sales tax collection agency, you can choose the Vendors ð Sales Tax ð Adjust Sales Tax Due command. When QuickBooks displays the Sales Tax Adjustment dialog box, select a sales tax agency from the Sales Tax Vendor box and an appropriate expense or income account from the Adjustment Account box. Next, you select the appropriate button (either Increase Sales Tax By or Decrease Sales Tax By) and enter the adjustment amount into the Amount box.

To print one of the sales tax reports, simply select the command that corresponds with the report. For example, to print the Sales Tax Liability report, choose the Vendors ð Sales Tax ð Sales Tax Liability command.

The Manage Sales Tax command displays a window with buttons and clickable hyperlinks that you can use to get sales tax information and perform some of the tasks described in the preceding paragraphs.

Inventory Activities

The Inventory Activities menu displays a submenu of commands you use to work with QuickBooks inventory features and with the related Item list. I am not going to discuss this stuff here.

Print 1099s/1096

The Print 1099s command displays the Printing 1099-MISC and 1096 Forms dialog box, which lets you print 1099-MISC forms for a selected calendar year. You can select the year for which you need to print 1099 forms by selecting a date range description from the drop-down list. Initially, for example, the drop-down list shows Last Calendar Year. Alternatively, you can use the From and To boxes to specify the starting and ending point for the year. After you identify the year for which you want to print 1099 forms, click OK. QuickBooks then creates 1099 forms for any vendors who need them, provided that your 1099 preferences are set up correctly and the vendor is marked as a 1099 recipient in the Vendor List.

You typically send 1099 forms to vendors to whom you pay more than $600 in a year. You can control the actual threshold amount — it varies from year to year because of inflation and type of payment — by choosing the Edit ð Preferences command, clicking the Tax: 1099 icon, and then clicking the Company Preferences tab. For more information about how to set tax 1099 preferences.

Item List

The Vendors ð Item command displays the Item List window.