One of the first questions that you will be asked when you are setting up a Quickbooks company file is what type of business you are.  A list of different business types is presented and you are required to make a choice.  In the case that none of the options seem to match what you do, there is a Service Based General Business, and a Product Based General Business option.  You would find either of these at the end of the list. You are moved through the remaining steps of setting up your Quickbooks company file after you have identified your general business type.  Sounds simple, doesn’t it?  Well, it is actually really simple.  But there is another option that is almost overlooked.  In many cases it is really the best option.  I would suggest that it is better to chose None, then to identify your business as something that it is not.  You will still have some accounts created in your Chart of Accounts at setup, but there will be very few.  You can leave those there, but it is really easiest to either delete these accounts or make the inactive.  Quickbooks has certain accounts that the program sets up to match common features (sales tax payable or payroll liabilities), but not everyone will use these.  Starting from the ground up is a great way to go.  No editing existing accounts, you can just make them inactive. After the chart of accounts is blank example chart of accounts, or template chart of accounts, can be imported.  This is very easy to do.  It is a good idea to know where your data file is located before you start to work in Quickbooks.  You will be using an IIF file, which is a file that Quickbooks supports for importing.  In order to import a Quickbooks chart of accounts you would chose the following options in order: File – Utilities – Import – IIF File – then locate the file to be imported.  That’s all! When thinking about a Quickbooks chart of accounts, it is a very convenient feature to be able to import an example chart.  This allows you to have the same accounts in multiple files, and this will make your life much easier.  There are Quickbooks remote support services available with professionals to assist you if you need help importing a new chart of accounts.