In the "Scanning for Duplicate Accounts", we noted that transactions had been applied to both the "Telephone:Office" and "Phone". Only one of these accounts ("Telephone:Office") was valid so we deleted the other "Phone". If there are many trans- actions, rather than moving each transaction individually as described on page 21, it is more efficient to merge the accounts. In this way, the superfluous account is automatically deleted.

Because there are so many transactions which have been applied to the phone account in the report below, it would be easier to merge it with the Telephone:Office account instead of moving each transaction individually.

Procedure:

1) Open your Chart of Accounts and click on "Phone" to highlight it.

2) Click on "Account" at the bottom left of the window.

3) From the pop-up list, click on "Edit Account ".

4) In the "Name" box, delete the name "Phone" by dragging the cursor over the letters to highlight them, and backspace once.

5) Type in the word "Office".

6) Check the box to the left of "Subaccount of" .

7) Click on the downward-pointing arrow to the right of the "Subaccount of" box so that the pop-up list opens.

8) Scroll down the pop-up list until you see the account "Telephone".

9) Release the mouse and click on the account "Telephone" to select it.

10) Click "OK" to record the transaction.

11) You are asking QuickBooks to create "Office" as a subaccount of "Telephone". Since that subaccount already exists (it is the one into which you want to merge your transactions), QuickBooks will ask you if you want to merge these accounts.

12) Click "Yes".

By merging the account names together instead of moving each transaction individually, you are making the computer do the work for you.

Tip

Bills from The Yellow Pages are not "Telephone" expenses. They should be entered under "Advertising".