QuickBooks Online For Dummies, 7e

David H. Ringstrom, CPA, is president of Accounting Advisors, Inc., a spreadsheet and database consulting firm. He is a sought-after speaker on the subject of Microsoft Excel, QuickBooks, and QuickBooks Online. He is also the co-author of the previous edition of QuickBooks Online For Dummies and two previous accounting reference books.

Introduction 1

About This Book 1

Foolish Assumptions 3

Icons Used in This Book 4

Beyond the Book 4

Where to Go from Here 5

Part 1: Getting Started with QBO and QBOA 7

Chapter 1: Presenting QuickBooks Online 9

Comparing QuickBooks and QB Accountant 9

Comparing interfaces 10

Taking a look at QuickBooks Online Mobile 13

Understanding the Cloud 13

Chapter 2: Embracing QuickBooks Online 17

I’ll Subscribe to That 17

QuickBooks Online Self-Employed 18

QuickBooks Simple Start 19

QuickBooks Online Essentials 19

QuickBooks Online Plus 20

QuickBooks Online Advanced 21

Usage limits for QuickBooks Simple Start, Essentials, and Plus 22

The Dollars and Cents of QuickBooks Subscriptions 23

Payroll Options 24

Migration from QuickBooks Desktop 25

An App for That 26

Part 2: Managing Your Books 29

Chapter 3: Creating a QuickBooks Online Company 31

Signing Up for QuickBooks Online 32

Setting Up a New Company 34

Understanding the Dashboard 36

Updating the Chart of Accounts 40

Establishing Company Settings 44

Examining company preferences 44

Examining billing and subscription settings and use limits 45

Setting sales preferences 46

Taking a look at expense preferences 46

Examining options to receive customer payments 47

Reviewing advanced preferences 48

Customizing Sales Forms 50

Taking Advantage of QuickBooks Labs 54

Working with Multiple Currencies 55

Seeing how the Multicurrency feature changes QBO 56

Changing your home currency 57

Setting up currencies 58

Using multiple currencies 58

Chapter 4: Managing List Information 63

Importing Customers and Vendors 63

Adding New Records to a List 69

Creating a new customer 69

Using customer types 71

Adding subcustomers 72

Working with Records 72

Searching lists 73

Attaching files to a record 74

Adding attachments to specific transactions 74

Switching from record to record 75

Sorting a list on the Customers or Vendors page 76

Exporting a list to Excel or Google Sheets 77

Working with a batch of records 78

Changing Settings for Lists 78

Setting Up Sales Taxes 80

Working with Products and Services Items 82

Establishing categories 83

Adding service and noninventory items 85

Creating an inventory item 88

Working with bundles 90

Changing item types 92

Using pricing rules 94

Adjusting inventory item information 96

Accessing Other Lists 101

Chapter 5: Dealing with the Outflow of Money 103

Getting Up and Running 103

Writing a Check 105

Assigning a check to accounts or items 105

Writing a check for an outstanding bill 109

Creating an Expense 111

Entering a Purchase Order 112

Turning on the purchase-order feature 113

Creating a purchase order 114

Receiving items against purchase orders 116

Entering and Paying Bills 120

Entering a bill 120

Managing recurring transactions 122

Recording a vendor credit 125

Handling a refund check from a vendor 127

Paying bills 130

Chapter 6: Managing the Inflow of Money 133

Getting Started with Sales Transactions 133

Preparing an invoice 134

Printing invoices and packing slips 139

Configuring automatic subtotals 141

Keeping tabs on invoice status 144

Recording a customer payment 145

Using the Payments to Deposit account 147

Recording bank deposits 148

Recording electronic transaction fees 149

Entering a sales receipt 151

Giving Money Back to a Customer 153

Recording a credit memo 153

Issuing a refund to a customer 155

Working with Estimates 157

Preparing an estimate 158

Managing estimate statuses 161

Copying an estimate to a purchase order 161

Converting an estimate to an invoice 162

Copying an existing estimate 165

Creating a progress invoice for an estimate 165

Creating Billable Time Entries 167

Entering a single time activity 168

Adding a billable expense to an invoice 170

Managing Projects 171

Turning on the Projects feature 172

Enabling projects in Customer lists 173

Converting subcustomers to projects 173

Setting up a project 175

Adding transactions to a project 176

Reporting on projects 177

Chapter 7: Working in Registers 179

Understanding Registers 179

Customizing the Register View 181

Entering and Editing Transactions 184

Entering a transaction 184

Editing a transaction 187

Other Things You Can Do in a Register 188

Sorting transactions 189

Filtering transactions 190

Printing a register 191

Exporting a register 192

Chapter 8: Handling Bank and Credit Card Transactions 193

Setting Up a Bank or Credit Card Account 193

Making a Bank Deposit 195

Reconciling a Bank Account 198

Connecting QuickBooks Accounts to Financial Institutions 202

Connecting or not connecting 202

Directly connecting a Bank or Credit Card account 204

Troubleshooting connections to financial institutions 207

Managing Downloaded Activity 213

Excluding transactions 216

Including transactions 217

Confirming correct guesses 217

Changing incorrect guesses 217

Examining transactions QuickBooks thinks it can match 218

Establishing rules to accept transactions 219

Fixing mistakes 224

Converting Paper Receipts to Electronic Transactions 225

Controlling the Appearance of Bank Accounts 228

Tagging Transactions 229

Chapter 9: Paying Employees and Contractors 233

Understanding the Employee Payroll Process 234

Getting Started with QuickBooks Payroll 234

Turning on QuickBooks Payroll 234

Setting payroll preferences 240

Setting up payroll taxes 242

Preparing Payroll 244

Recording payroll information 245

Letting employees use time sheets 245

Reviewing and generating payroll checks 247

Establishing or correcting payroll exemptions 249

Printing payroll reports 252

Managing Payroll Taxes 252

Paying payroll taxes 252

Viewing payroll tax forms 253

Paying Contractors 254

Setting up 1099-eligible contractors 255

Paying contractors 256

Reporting on 1099 vendor payments 256

Preparing 1099s 258

Part 3: Reporting and Analysis 259

Chapter 10: Evaluating How the Business Is Doing 261

Reviewing Income and Expenses 261

Finding the Report You Want 263

Examining standard reports 263

Finding customized reports 264

Reviewing management reports 264

Contemplating Multi-Co Reporting 266

Searching for a report 266

Printing a Report 267

Customizing a report 268

Saving a customized report 271

Exporting to Excel 274

Exporting to PDF 276

Exporting to Google Sheets 276

Chapter 11: Analyzing QuickBooks Data in Excel 277

Automatically Opening Excel Reports Exported from QuickBooks 278

Sifting through Excel Reports 280

Filtering data 281

Guarding against a tricky trap 283

Slicing your data 284

Sorting data 286

Custom Reporting with Pivot Tables 287

Understanding pivot table requirements 287

Adding fields 288

Removing fields 289

Part 4: Working in QuickBooks Online Accountant 291

Chapter 12: Setting Up Shop in QuickBooks Online Accountant 293

Registering for and Signing in to QuickBooks Online Accountant 294

Examining the QB Accountant Interface 296

Working with Your Practice view 296

Working with Your Books 300

Setting Up Your Team 300

Controlling the Appearance of the Client List 304

Understanding and Using the Free QB Accountant Company 306

Working with the Sample Company 307

Closing Companies in QB Accountant 308

Working with ProAdvisor Preferred Pricing 309

Signing up for ProAdvisor Preferred Pricing 309

Adding existing clients to your ProAdvisor Preferred Pricing subscription 310

Removing clients from your ProAdvisor Preferred Pricing subscription 312

Stopping consolidated billing 314

Chapter 13: Adding Companies to the QB Accountant Client List 315

Adding a Client’s Company to the Client List 316

When a client invites you to be the accountant user 316

When you invite a client to your practice 319

Transferring primary rights to your client 321

Importing QuickBooks Desktop Data into QuickBooks Online 325

Preparing for conversion 326

Understanding what won’t import 328

Updating your edition of QuickBooks Desktop 329

Transferring data from desktop to online 331

Double-checking things after conversion 334

Switching between Client QuickBooks Companies 336

Chapter 14: Exploring a Client’s Company from QB Accountant 337

Opening a Client’s Company 337

Reviewing a Client’s QuickBooks Company 338

Taking a look at the Client Overview page 338

Examining company setup information 341

Taking a look at the chart of accounts 344

Reviewing list information 347

Exporting and importing bank feed rules 348

Chapter 15: Working in a Client’s Company 351

Making Navigation Easy 351

Using keyboard shortcuts 351

Opening multiple windows 352

Working in two companies simultaneously 354

Examining Available Transaction Types 355

Searching for Transactions 356

Making Client Notes 357

Communicating with a Client 359

Chapter 16: Using Accountant Tools 363

Reporting and Paying Sales Taxes 363

Managing Your Practice 365

Understanding Grid view 366

Creating projects and tasks 367

Updating task status 370

Editing and deleting project information 371

Working in List view 372

Working in Calendar view 373

Communicating with team members about work 374

Facilitating Accountant Activities 375

Reviewing reports 375

Examining voided and deleted transactions 377

Closing the books 378

Month-End Review 378

Account Reconciliation 379

Final Review 380

Reclassifying transactions 380

Writing off invoices 382

Understanding the Prep for Taxes page 383

Taking a brief look at other accountant tools 387

Chapter 17: Automating QuickBooks Analysis with Power Query 389

Introducing Power Query 389

Connecting to QuickBooks Reports 390

Removing header rows 392

Promoting headers 393

Removing unwanted columns 394

Filtering unnecessary rows 396

Returning the data to Excel 396

Creating Self-Updating Reports 398

Setting Power Query to refresh automatically 399

Adding a total row 402

Transforming QuickBooks Data 403

Unpivoting columns 404

Refreshing reports 405

Part 5: The Part of Tens 407

Chapter 18: Ten Ways to Use Chrome Effectively 409

Setting a Home Page 409

Duplicating and Pinning Tabs 411

Using Chrome on Multiple Monitors 411

Zooming In and Out 412

Using Bookmarks in Chrome 412

Creating a bookmark 413

Displaying the Bookmarks bar 414

Importing bookmarks 415

Managing bookmarks 415

Downloading Files 416

Using Keyboard Shortcuts 418

Working with Chrome Profiles 419

Adding a Chrome profile 419

Opening a different profile 420

Editing and removing profiles 421

Managing Privacy in Chrome 421

Handling cookies 421

Enabling JavaScript 422

Working in Incognito mode 422

Deleting browsing history 422

Reviewing miscellaneous privacy settings 424

Using Google tools to manage privacy 425

Managing Security in Chrome 426

Appendix: Quickbooks Online, Quickbooks Desktop, and Data Conversion 427

Index 443