Strangely, the Customer Center receives no mention, but Ivens covers practically everything else, making it easy for you to flip right to a discussion of whatever is confusing you at the moment. You'll usually find the discussion organized around standard business procedures rather than the software's design and terminology.

Ivens is at her best when she explains how to reconcile the inflexibilities of QuickBooks with the realities of business: for example, how to deal with a customer who pays after 20 days but takes the three percent discount that was supposed to be good for only 10 days. (QuickBooks wants to stick the customer with the remaining three percent, but Ivens shows how to account for your own generosity.) She also explains such mysteries as how to create a template that yields warehouse pick lists along with invoices, and how to properly collect sales tax from customers in multiple states. Overall, this is a highly practical guide to using QuickBooks 2000 as a management tool for small and medium-size businesses. --David Wall

Topics covered: Intuit QuickBooks 2000 and QuickBooks Pro 2000 as accounting and management tools. This book documents these features of the programs completely, touching on initial setup before explaining payables, receivables, payroll, taxes, inventory, time tracking, and paper forms.