Quickbooks Online for Dummies

Master the world’s most popular cloud software for bookkeeping and accounting

QuickBooks Online For Dummies, 6th Edition collects and provides the best and most current information available for those looking to get the most out of the leading QuickBooks Online software. Perfect for small business owners, managers, and employees, QuickBooks Online For Dummies delivers the newest and most up-to-date advice based on the latest versions of QuickBooks Online. The 6^th Edition is written by a seasoned author of more than seventy books.

Whether you’re a QuickBooks Online newbie or seasoned pro, you’ll find actionable and accessible advice in this new edition. Get tips on:

• Creating invoices and credit memos
• Recording sales receipts
• Recording and paying bills
• Setting up inventory items
• Tracking business checkbook and credit cards
• And more 

No longer will you have to struggle through your interactions with the most used bookkeeping and accounting software in the world. Master this technology with the straightforward and accessible approach made famous by the For Dummies series. 

David H. Ringstrom, CPA, is president of Accounting Advisors, Inc., an Atlanta-based spreadsheet and database consulting firm, and has served as the technical editor for over three dozen books in the For Dummies series. Elaine Marmel is president of Marmel Enterprises, LLC, an organization that specializes in technical writing and software training. She has authored and co-authored over ninety books.

Introduction 1

About This Book 1

Foolish Assumptions 3

Icons Used in This Book 3

Beyond the Book 4

Where to Go from Here 4

Part 1: Getting Started with QBO and QBOA 5

Chapter 1: Introduing QBO and QBOA 7

QBO for the Client and QBOA for the Accountant 7

Comparing interfaces 8

Taking a look at QBO Desktop and QBO Mobile 11

Understanding the Cloud 13

Should You Move to the Cloud? 14

System Requirements 15

Chapter 2: Embracing the QBO/QBOA Format 19

It’s All about Subscriptions 19

The Self-Employed version 20

The Simple Start version 23

The Essentials version 24

The Plus version 24

The Advanced version 25

Simple Start, Essentials, Plus, and Advanced with Payroll 26

What Does It Cost? 26

Addressing Payroll Needs 28

Switching from QuickBooks Desktop 30

Where Add-On Apps Fit In 30

Part 2: Managing the Books for the End User 33

Chapter 3: Creating a Client Company in QBO 35

Signing Up for QBO 36

Setting Up a New Company 38

Understanding the Dashboard Page 41

Establishing Company Settings 45

Examining company preferences 46

Examining billing and subscription

settings and usage limits 46

Setting sales preferences 48

Taking a look at expense preferences 54

Examining options to receive customer payments 55

Reviewing advanced preferences 56

Working with Multiple Currencies 58

How the Multicurrency feature changes QBO 60

Turning on the Multicurrency feature 60

Setting up currencies 61

Using multiple currencies 62

Updating the Chart of Accounts 66

Taking Advantage of QuickBooks Labs 73

Signing In to and Out of QBO 74

Chapter 4: Managing List Information 75

Importing People into a List 75

Adding New People to a List 82

Creating a new customer 82

Using customer types 84

Adding sub-customers 86

Searching Lists for People 86

Working with a particular person 87

Sorting a list 90

Exporting a list to Excel 91

Working with a batch of people 92

Changing Settings for People Lists 93

Working with Products and Services Items 95

Establishing categories 97

Setting up sales taxes 98

Adding service and non-inventory items 99

Creating an inventory item 102

Working with bundles 104

Changing item types 107

Using pricing rules 108

Adjusting inventory item information 110

A Look at Other Lists 115

Chapter 5: Dealing with the Outflow of Money 117

Writing a Check 119

Assigning a check to accounts or items 119

Writing a check for an outstanding bill 123

Creating an Expense 124

Entering a Purchase Order 126

Turning on the purchase order feature 127

Creating a purchase order 128

Working with partial purchase orders 130

Entering and Paying Bills 134

Entering a bill 134

About recurring transactions 135

Recording a vendor credit 139

When a vendor issues a refund check 141

Paying bills 143

Chapter 6: Managing the Inflow of Money 147

Managing Projects 147

Turning on projects in QBO 148

Enabling projects in Customer lists 148

Converting sub-customers to projects 149

Setting up a project 151

Adding transactions to a project 152

Projects and reporting 153

Getting Started with Sales Transactions 154

Customizing forms to handle subtotals 155

Preparing an invoice 157

Recording a customer payment 161

Managing invoice status 165

Working with estimates 167

Creating a progress invoice 176

Working with sales receipts 177

Giving Money Back to a Customer 180

Recording a credit memo 180

Issuing a refund to a customer 182

Creating Billable Time Entries 184

Entering a single time activity 185

Using a timesheet to record time 186

Adding a Billable Expense to an Invoice 187

Chapter 7: Working in Registers 191

Understanding Registers 191

Entering and Editing Transactions 197

Entering a transaction 197

Editing a transaction 201

Other Things You Can Do in a Register 201

Sorting transactions 201

Filtering transactions 202

Printing a register 204

Chapter 8: Handling Bank and Credit Card Transactions 207

Controlling the Appearance of Bank Accounts 207

Connecting QBO Accounts to Financial Institutions 209

Connecting or not connecting 209

Connecting Bank or Credit Card accounts 210

When you can’t connect directly 215

Converting Receipts to Transactions 221

Managing Downloaded Activity 223

Excluding transactions 226

Including transactions 227

When QBO guesses correctly 227

When QBO doesn’t know 227

Establishing rules to accept transactions 230

Fixing mistakes 235

Making a Bank Deposit 237

Reconciling a Bank Account 240

Tagging Transactions 244

Chapter 9: Paying Employees and Contractors 247

Understanding the Employee Payroll Process 248

Getting Started with QBO Payroll (QBOP) 248

Turning on QBOP 250

Setting payroll preferences 254

Setting up payroll taxes 257

Preparing Payroll 260

Recording payroll information 260

Reviewing and generating payroll checks 261

Establishing or Correcting Payroll Exemptions 264

Printing payroll reports 266

Managing Payroll Taxes 267

Paying payroll taxes 267

Viewing payroll tax forms 269

Paying Contractors 270

Setting up 1099 contractors 271

Paying contractors 272

Reporting on 1099 vendor payments 272

Preparing 1099s 275

Chapter 10: How’s the Business Doing? 277

Quickly Review Income and Expenses 277

Finding the Report You Want 278

Examining standard reports 279

Finding reports you customize 280

Taking a look at management reports 280

Searching for a report 282

Printing a Report 283

Customizing a report 284

Exporting to Excel 287

Saving a customized report 289

Part 3: Managing the Books for the Accountant 293

Chapter 11: Setting Up Shop in QBOA 295

Signing Up for and into QBOA 296

Examining the QBOA Interface 298

Working with the Your Practice view 299

Working with Your Books 302

Setting Up Your Team 303

Controlling the Appearance of the Client List 307

Understanding and Using the Free QBOA Company 309

Working with the Sample Company 310

Closing Companies and QBOA 311

Working with Wholesale Billing 312

Signing up for Wholesale Billing 312

Adding existing clients to your Wholesale Billing subscription 314

Removing clients from your Wholesale Billing subscription 316

Working with your Wholesale Billing history 318

Stop using Wholesale Billing 319

Chapter 12: Adding Companies to the QBOA Client List 321

Adding a Client’s Company to the Client List 321

Having a client invite you to be the accountant user 322

Inviting a client to your practice 325

Transferring master administrator rights back to your client 328

Importing QuickBooks Desktop Information into QBO 331

General conversion considerations 332

An overview of what won’t import 334

Updating your edition of QuickBooks Desktop 336

Transferring data from a desktop company into QBO 338

After converting 341

Switching between Client QBO Companies 343

Chapter 13: Exploring a Client’s Company from QBOA 345

Opening a Client’s Company 345

Reviewing a Client QBO Company 346

Taking a look at the Client Overview page 346

Examining company setup information 350

Taking a look at the Chart of Accounts 353

Reviewing list information 358

Exporting and importing bank feed rules 359

Chapter 14: Working in a Client’s Company 363

Making Navigation Easy 363

Using keyboard shortcuts 363

Opening multiple windows 364

Working in two companies simultaneously 367

Examining Available Transaction Types 368

Searching for Transactions 368

Making Client Notes 370

Communicating with a Client 371

Chapter 15: Using Accountant Tools 375

Reporting and Paying Sales Taxes 376

Managing Your Practice 377

Understanding the Grid view 378

Creating projects and tasks 379

Updating task status 382

Editing and deleting project information 383

Working in the List view 384

Working in the Calendar view 385

Communicating with team members about work 386

Facilitating Accountant Activities 387

Reviewing reports 388

Examining voided and deleted transactions 390

Closing the books 390

Month-End Review 391

Transaction Review 391

Account Reconciliation 392

Final Review 392

Reclassifying transactions 392

Writing off invoices 395

Understanding the Prep for Taxes page 396

A brief look at other accountant tools 400

Part 4: The Part of Tens 403

Chapter 16: Ten Things about the Chrome Browser Interface 405

Understanding Users 406

Windows and Tabs 407

Using the Omnibox to Visit a Web Page 408

Using the Omnibox to Search the Web 408

What’s the Star? 409

Full-Screen Mode 409

Accessing Your Browsing History 409

Examining the Chrome Menu 410

About Signing In to (and Out of) Chrome 411

Creating a Google account 411

Signing In to Chrome 412

Signing Out of Chrome 414

Using the Chrome Web Store 415

Chapter 17: Ten Ways to Use Chrome Effectively 419

Setting a Home Page 420

Automatically Opening Excel Reports Exported from QBO 421

Using Keyboard Shortcuts 422

Chrome and Security 423

Chrome and Privacy 424

Handling cookies 425

Chrome and JavaScript 425

Flash 425

Working in Incognito mode 425

Deleting browsing history 426

Reviewing miscellaneous privacy settings 428

Using Google tools to manage privacy 429

Using Bookmarks in Chrome 430

Creating a bookmark 430

Displaying the Bookmarks bar 431

Importing bookmarks 432

Managing bookmarks 433

Duplicating and Pinning Tabs 435

Using Chrome on Multiple Monitors 436

Working with Chrome Users 436

Adding a Chrome user 437

Opening a different user 438

Switching to a different user 439

Removing a user you no longer need 439

Zooming In and Out 440

Downloading Files 440

Appendix A: QBO, QuickBooks Desktop, and Data Conversion 443

Index 461

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