Bookkeeping Basics #3: QuickBooks™ Desktop Fundamentals (Udemy.com)
Understand the Fundamentals
Created by: Ron Trucks
Last updated February 2025
What you will learn
- The fundamentals of setting up, creating and operating QuickBooks™ Bookkeeping software.
Course Description
COURSE INCLUDES FREE ACCESS TO QUICKBOOKS SOFTWARE™
Along with examining how to navigate and understand how QuickBooks™ works, learn to use the program for all aspects of small business bookkeeping to complete everything from writing checks, to entering and paying bills, through reconciling accounts and more. Successful students will master the QB program where they can competently manage the day-to-day bookkeeping for their own company or those of others.
Throughout the entire course, quizzes and actual working "homework assignments" are used to reinforce the lessons as well as aid the student in understanding what they are grasping or needing to restudy.
Starting off, students will first learn what QuickBooks actually is and how it works to record and store information. This helps the user realize how to set up or restore data files with information. From there, an entire section explains how to navigate to the different functions and tools within the program and what they are all used to accomplish.
Banking is a vital aspect of QuickBooks so the course then rolls into teaching how to create and/or record checks to document money that has been spent. Along with creating the checks in QuickBooks, students learn how to print checks and what happens when a mistake is made.
Moving on, the next section of the course is devoted to the several options on how to record sales into the books. Whether it's recording a cash sale and issuing a Sales Receipt, or it's creating and invoice and follow up account statements for customers purchasing on credit, each step in the individual processes are explained with examples shown.
Of course, there can't be sales and income, without there also being expenses so an entire section of the course is devoted to that process. Learn what the Vendor List is and how it works, along with learning how to enter and pay Bills, both using your checking accounts, as well as paying with debit or credit cards.
Another vital part of bookkeeping is reconciling bank, credit card, and other types of accounts. Ron leads several lessons in how the process works, what each step along the way does, and how your figure out what happens if there is a mistake somewhere along the process. Following the Reconciling section of the course, an entire set of lessons explains the Reporting activities in QB that breaks everything down to "content" versus "format."
And then there's the "Additional Stuff" section of the course. A collection of smaller, independent lessons that cover a variety of topics designed to answer student questions and tie everything together. Items such as:
The differences between the Online and Desktop versions and do you need to upgrade every year
How do you set up additional users and passwords?
How do QuickBooks backups work?
Can you still use a Journal Entry to record data?
And, most importantly, how do you actually get started using QB for your company.
CPE (Continuing Professional Education)
Learning Objectives
Understand what QuickBooks™ actually is and how it records transactions
Demonstrate the different methods of navigating the QuickBooks™ Desktop (QBD) program
Operate the QBD program to record and print checks and other payment forms
Describe the methods of recording different types of sales activities in the QBD program
Use the QBD program to record deposits of customer payments and other funds received
Operate the QBD program to record and process bills and vendor payments
Examine differences and similarities in reconciling various account types in the QBD program
Examine the differences in customizing content and formatting on QBD reports
Examine the advantages and disadvantages of QB Desktop versus QB Online
Demonstrate the process of creating a new company file in the QBD program
Instructor Details
- 4.8 Rating
998 Reviews
Ron Trucks
For over 30 years, I’ve worked with businesses of every size—from mom-and-pop shops to billion-dollar financial firms—helping them build stronger operations, better teams, and smarter strategies.
Along the way, I’ve spent more than 20 years teaching business management at the college level, working with students who wanted not just theory, but real-world skills they could use.
My approach is simple:
Make the complicated understandable - and the intimidating activities doable.
Here on Udemy, I've helped over 50,000 students strengthen their business knowledge, earning over 8,000 five-star reviews by keeping the focus on practical, clear, and real-world learning.
Whether you’re starting a business, managing a team, or just wanting to understand how businesses work, I’m excited to help you build skills that make a difference.
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Reviews
By Ruxandra Lita on 10/16/2025
With my background in Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable, I found these courses Bookkeeping Basics # 1, 2, & 3, extremely easy to follow and packed with valuable information. Many of the questions I had were finally answered, and I now feel much more confident and at ease about starting my bookkeeping business. I highly recommend these courses to anyone who wants to strengthen their bookkeeping skills or take the first step towards their own business!
By Dana Brown on 1/30/2024
This course was really helpful for getting me acquainted with QuickBooks and ready to start using it for our company (we're switching from a different accounting software). I will definitely refer back to lessons in this course as I navigate through the transition and beyond. The information was straightforward and easy to follow, and the examples were great.
By Naomi Brown on 11/18/2021
I finally finished the Bookkeeping Part 3, The Quickbooks Course. Ron, made it really easy to understand and the steps are clear and actionable. I still have more to learn, but I'm so glad that I started here. Now I feel more confident to get started with the Practice Set Course. I highly recommend anyone who is a complete beginner like me to take all three of these courses.
By Lucas Van Balen on 6/17/2021
Great! Very specific and to the point with examples and tips, including details that seem obvious but aren't what you think should be. This is a great way to know a software without buying or subscribing it, this course sure gives a lot of details and tips way much better than a "tutorial" that sometimes software includes (this software tutorials most of the time are just a list of actions with no explanation). The QB lessons are great, since it helps you get the feeling how it works before having to use it for the first time, that sure helps first time users. Also, the quizzes are great because you need to read and analyze the question, like in the #1 course (analyze the transaction), to answer it correctly, if you don't analyze it you have a chance answering wrong the question. I did not use the software since I was quite busy and wasn't sure if I could finish the course before the 30 days free trial of QB, maybe another time I will do the course using the actual software.
By Brenda Richards on 9/4/2020
This course was awesome. Ron Trucks is clear, and easy to understand. I enjoyed this course immensley and learned so much. I could have spent lots of money and not learned as much as I did in such a short time. Thank you Ron. I will definetely be taking more of your classes. I am so happy my friend suggest I take classes through Udemy.
By Donna Garman on 5/23/2020
Thank you so much for making it so easy to understand bookkeeping and using Quickbooks. I would love to be able to use the desktop version but I am in Australia and they only seem to have the online version. Looking forward to doing more of your courses.
By N. Copley on 4/14/2020
This is a really good series. The only drawback is that the lessons are based on an older version of Quickbooks. I double check on the "new way" to do things, but other than that, it is a really good course with an excellent instructor.
By Jason Micklewright on 3/16/2020
Very good overview of QuickBooks, covering the essentials of banking, customers, vendors and items. I came away feeling confident that I now go off and use QB. Ron responded promptly (through the Facebook group) to my questions. Some of the earlier homework assignments could have been more challenging, as they were brief and didn't cover all aspects of their respective course section. I would recommend this course.
By Marissa Nicole Johansen on 3/13/2020
I have never used Quickbooks which is why I decided to sign up for this course. Ron Trucks is very thorough and explains it in simple terms. I now feel that I understand the basics and have confidence in putting this course into practice. There were some terms I was not familiar with but I looked them up myself easily and was able to stay on track. Thank you Ron!
By Joey Denton on 2/16/2020
The course was good and a lot of info was learned. I would of given it 5.0 if it dealt with inventory and the online version but he advises you of this in his course. Once again I learned a lot. I have taken 3 out of his 4 classes and have learned a wealth of information from them. He is a source of knowledge and he answers questions quickly. Thanks again for offering theses classes!
Quality Score
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Overall Score : 96 / 100












