QuickBooks® 2015 For Dummies®

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Appendix A

Installing QuickBooks in a Dozen Easy Steps

If you haven’t already installed QuickBooks, get it over with right now:

  1. Turn on the PC.

    Find and flip on the computer’s power switch. Depending on which version of Windows you are using (XP, Vista, or Windows 7 or 8), your screen may look a little different from the figures here. I’m using Windows 8, by the way. (Not that you care or that it matters.)

    tip.eps If you’re installing QuickBooks on a computer running a professional or business edition of Windows, you may need to log on as either the administrator or a user with administrator rights. With the business flavors of the Windows operating systems, Windows security features require an administrator to install the QuickBooks program.

  2. Get the QuickBooks CD.

    Rip open the QuickBooks package and get out the CD (which looks exactly like the ones that play music).

    tip.eps You can also purchase QuickBooks directly from Intuit by using the www.quickbooks.intuit.com website and then downloading the software at the time of purchase. You need a fast Internet connection to download the QuickBooks software — the download requires close to an hour with a cable modem and even more time with a slower connection. If you do download, skip ahead to Step 4.

  3. Insert the CD into your CD-ROM drive.

    Windows recognizes that you inserted the QuickBooks CD and displays a little message box that tells you Welcome to QuickBooks. Click Next to really get things started. (You may need to click Next again.)

  4. Indicate that you accept the QuickBooks licensing agreement and then click Next.

    QuickBooks next asks whether you agree to play by its rules, as outlined in tedious detail in the licensing agreement displayed onscreen. Assuming you do — and you have to agree in order to install the software — select the I Accept the Terms of the License Agreement (But Only Because I Have No Other Choice) button and click Next.

  5. Either accept the default installation option or go all free-form.

    After you accept the licensing agreement, QuickBooks asks whether you want to go with the recommended Express Installation or you want instead to customize the installation for factors like a network and a compulsive need on your part to have things exactly as you like them. To accept the recommended install option, leave the Express (Recommended) button selected, click Next and skip to Step 7. If you want to customize the installation, select the Custom and Network Options button, click Next, and move ahead to Step 6.

  6. Describe any network sharing you plan.

    When the Custom and Network Options window appears (see Figure A-1), describe whether you’ll share the QuickBooks data file over a network. Most small businesses don’t do this; and if this is your situation, when asked, you simply indicate that you’ll use QuickBooks only on the computer onto which you’re installing the software. You may also have a couple of other options, however, depending on the version of QuickBooks you install. You can install QuickBooks on the computer and make the QuickBooks data available to other computers on the network. And you can actually skip installing the QuickBooks software but can store just the QuickBooks data file on the computer.

  7. Provide the License and Product Numbers and then click Next.

    When the License and Product Numbers window appears (see Figure A-2), enter these two bits of licensing information (they should be printed on a yellow sticker on the back of the CD sleeve) and then click Next.

  8. Select the installation location and then click Next.

    When the Choose Installation Location appears, click the Next button to use the Intuit default installation location. (The default installation location is fine for 999 of 1,000 users.)

    You don’t have to choose the suggested installation location. You can, instead, choose to have the QuickBooks program and data files stored in some other location. I don’t talk about this option here because most people won’t want to (and shouldn’t) make this customization. What’s more, if you’re someone who can safely customize the QuickBooks installation location settings, you don’t need my help with figuring out how this change works.

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    Figure A-1: The Custom and Network Options window.

    9781118920152-ap0102.tif

    Figure A-2: The License and Product Numbers window.

  9. Begin the installation.

    The installation program tells you, at long last, that it’s ready to begin as soon as you click Install. Click Install. The program begins extracting files from the CD.

    While the installation program runs, you can see a little bar that shows your progress.

    If you need to cancel the installation at any time, just click Cancel. QuickBooks warns you that the setup is incomplete. That’s okay; just start the setup from scratch next time around.

  10. (Optional) Register your copy of QuickBooks.

    During the installation process, QuickBooks prompts you to register. You do this by first entering any Intuit ID you’ve already used and then providing the QuickBooks program with a bit of information about how you plan to use the program.

  11. Take 15 to 20 minutes or so to contemplate the meaning of life or get a drink of water.
  12. When the Install program finishes, click Open QuickBooks.

    Congratulations. You’re finished with the installation. You have a new item on the Programs menu and probably new shortcuts on your desktop.

As soon as you’re done celebrating, you may want to flip to Chapter 2 and find out how to register the program. You’ll probably want to register QuickBooks before you begin using it.

remember.eps If you work on a network and want to share a QuickBooks file stored on one computer with another computer on the network, you need to install QuickBooks on all the other computers that you want to use to work with the file. Note: You need a separate copy of QuickBooks — such as from the five-pack version — for each computer on which you want to install QuickBooks.

By the way — and I mention this just because I had a couple of clients ask about this — running QuickBooks on a network with multiple QuickBooks users isn’t super-tricky or terribly complicated. QuickBooks takes care of the hard stuff. If you have more than one person using QuickBooks, you owe it to yourself (and your business) to set up a network and then purchase and install multiple copies of QuickBooks. Read Appendix C for more information.