Chapter 3. Troubleshooting

In This Chapter

  • Using the QuickBooks Help file and this book

  • Visiting other vendor's product-support Web sites

  • Tapping into Intuit's product support system

  • Browsing the de facto QuickBooks newsgroup

  • When all else fails...

After writing about QuickBooks for more than fifteen years, I've had a revelation of sorts. People not only want specific, step-by-step information about how to use the program; they also want troubleshooting advice. They want techniques and tactics that they can use to solve the inevitable problems that they encounter while using QuickBooks in real-life settings. What follows is my list of the best troubleshooting techniques.

Using the QuickBooks Help File and This Book

I know what you may be thinking: You have some problem that you can't solve by using Help, and it's either a bug or some glaring error in the QuickBooks documentation. Of course, you've looked through this book, but it says nothing — absolutely nothing — about your question. In fact, upon further reflection, you may be thinking that you've encountered some problem that you can't possibly solve by consulting the QuickBooks Help file or this book.

Maybe you're right.

In my experience (gleaned from talking with people who have problems), however, about half the time, the problem is lack of knowledge about QuickBooks. These users may simply be experiencing a mechanical problem. They can't make the program work because they haven't used QuickBooks enough to figure it out. Therefore, ...

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