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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Fachliteratur
- Sprache: Englisch
Discover all the ways you can use cloud-based accounting for your business with this top guide
QuickBooks Online For Dummies, 2025 Edition helps you understand one of the most widely-used cloud accounting platforms worldwide. Choose the best subscription for your business, create invoices and credit memos, record sales receipts, pay bills, set up inventory items, track business checkbook and credit cards, print checks, process payroll and prepare payroll tax returns, simplify tax preparation, build a budget, balance accounts, back up your data and access it on any device—the list goes on and this beginner-friendly book teaches you how to do it all.
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For business owners, managers, and employees, this essential Dummies resource helps you make the most of QuickBooks Online.
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Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Introduction
About QuickBooks Online
About This Book
Foolish Assumptions
Icons Used in This Book
Where to Go from Here
Beyond the Book
Part 1: Core Functionality
Chapter 1: Beginning Your Journey with QuickBooks
QuickBooks Online Overview
Considering QuickBooks Pricing
Comparing QuickBooks Features
Customizing Your Chart of Accounts
Tailoring Your QuickBooks Environment
Customizing Sales Forms
Getting Attached
Chapter 2: Tracking Sales and Accounts Receivable
Managing Customers
Setting Up Sales Tax
Working with Non-Inventory Products and Services
Creating Sales Transactions
Writing Off Bad Debt
Generating Estimates
Chapter 3: Logging Expenses, Checks, and Credit Card Charges
Working with Vendors
Understanding Accounts Payable
Recording Checks, Expenses, and Credit Card Charges
Recording Vendor Credits and Refunds
Chapter 4: Paying Employees and Contractors
Getting Started with QuickBooks Payroll
Preparing Payroll
Administering Payroll Taxes
Facilitating Contractor Compensation
Submitting 1099 Forms for Contractors
Chapter 5: Mastering Banking Tasks and Account Reconciliations
Establishing Bank and Credit Card Accounts
Synchronizing with Financial Institutions
Reviewing Your Bank and Credit Card Transactions
Reconciling Bank or Credit Card Accounts
Chapter 6: Leveraging QuickBooks Reports
Reviewing the Reports Screen
Interacting with Reports
Charting Your Business
Tagging Transactions
Chapter 7: Implementing Apps and Automation
Investigating QuickBooks Online Apps
Implementing Rules for Downloaded Activities
Converting Paper and Electronic Documents into Transactions
Transferring Data Between QuickBooks and External Sources
Part 2: QuickBooks Online EssentialsFeatures
Chapter 8: Managing Users, Multicurrency, and Custom Fields
Managing User Rights
Working with Multiple Currencies
Activating Custom Fields
Chapter 9: Working with Recurring Transactions, Bundles, and Time Tracking
Establishing Recurring Transactions
Bundling Products and Services
Enabling Time Tracking
Creating Billable Time Entries
Part 3: QuickBooks Online Plus Features
Chapter 10: Monitoring Inventory and Managing Purchase Orders
Working with Physical Inventory Items
Perfecting Price Rules
Recording Inventory Transactions
Procuring with Purchase Orders
Chapter 11: Employing Classes, Locations/Departments, and Projects
Tracking Transactions with Classes
Looking at Track Locations/Departments
Managing Projects
Chapter 12: Formulating Budgets and Planning Cash Flow
Creating a Budget
Populating a Budget
Importing a Budget
Maintaining and Reporting on Budgets
Estimating Future Cash Flow
Part 4: QuickBooks Online Advanced Features
Chapter 13: Administering the Desktop App, Backups, and Customizable Security
Installing the Desktop App
Utilizing QuickBooks Online Backup
Customizing User Security Privileges
Chapter 14: Generating Custom Reports and Charts
Introducing the Custom Report Builder
Pivoting a Report
Chapter 15: Tailoring Tasks, Workflows, and Other Advanced Features
Exploring the Tasks Feature
Utilizing the Workflow Automation Feature
Crafting Enhanced Custom Fields
Recording Expense Claims
Batching Transactions
Recognizing Revenue
Tracking Fixed Assets and Calculating Depreciation
Chapter 16: Synchronizing QuickBooks and Excel
Getting Started with Spreadsheet Sync
Creating Refreshable Reports in Excel
Managing List Records with Spreadsheet Sync
Reviewing, Editing, and Creating Transactions
Creating or Editing Consolidated Budgets
Part 5: QuickBooks Online Accountant Features
Chapter 17: Coordinating Client and Team Management
Getting Started with QuickBooks Online Accountant
Adding Companies to the Client List
Customizing the Client List
Removing Clients from the Client List
Leveraging QuickBooks Ledger
Accessing Clients’ Books
Transferring Admin Rights
Setting Up Your Team
Chapter 18: Utilizing Accountant Tools and Screens
Understanding the Dual Sidebar Menus
Accessing Your Clients’ Books
Accessing Accountant Tools
Graphing Your Clients’ Financial Data
Chapter 19: Orchestrating Practice Management
Introducing the Work Screen
Communicating with Team Members about Work
Optimizing Your Free QuickBooks Online Advanced Subscription
Part 6: Microsoft Excel Analysis
Chapter 20: Analyzing QuickBooks Data in Excel
Disabling Protected View in Microsoft Excel
Filtering Data
Preparing QuickBooks Reports for Analysis
Summarizing Data with PivotTables
Chapter 21: Automating QuickBooks Analysis with Power Query
Introducing Power Query
Automating QuickBooks Report Analysis
Analyzing and Adjusting Power Query Results
Keeping Power Query Results Current
Part 7: The Part of Tens
Chapter 22: Ten Common Journal Entries
Understanding Debits and Credits
Creating Journal Entries
Correcting a Bank Balance
Adjusting Asset or Liability Accounts
Recording a Recurring Fee
Entering Petty Cash Expenditures
Recording a Prepaid Expense
Amortizing a Prepaid Expense
Maintaining an Allowance for Doubtful Accounts
Writing Off Bad Debt
Posting Depreciation
Chapter 23: Ten Cool Chrome Shortcuts
Speeding Up Surfing
Accessing Downloads and History
Working with Tabs
Index
About the Author
Connect with Dummies
End User License Agreement
List of Tables
Chapter 1
TABLE 1-1 QuickBooks Online Subscription Pricing per Company
TABLE 1-2 QuickBooks Payroll Subscription Pricing for Five Employees
TABLE 1-3 QuickBooks Time Subscription Pricing for Five Employees
TABLE 1-4 QuickBooks Payments per Transaction Fees
TABLE 1-5 Usage Limits for Simple Start, Essentials, and Plus Subscriptions
Chapter 5
TABLE 5-1 An Acceptable Three-Column Format
TABLE 5-2 An Acceptable Four-Column Format
Chapter 8
TABLE 8-1 QuickBooks User Types Listed by Subscription Level
TABLE 8-2 QuickBooks Feature Areas
List of Illustrations
Chapter 1
FIGURE 1-1: The Chart of Accounts screen.
FIGURE 1-2: The task pane you use to create an account.
Chapter 2
FIGURE 2-1: A typical customer record page.
FIGURE 2-2: Marking a customer as tax exempt.
FIGURE 2-3: A blank Add a New Product task pane.
FIGURE 2-4: Use this window to establish the amount of a progress invoice.
Chapter 3
FIGURE 3-1: A typical Vendors screen.
FIGURE 3-2: The Pay Bills screen.
FIGURE 3-3: A blank Pay Down Credit Card screen.
Chapter 5
FIGURE 5-1: The Select the Payments Included in This Deposit section appears wh...
FIGURE 5-2: The Bank Reconciliation screen.
Chapter 6
FIGURE 6-1: The Columns task pane.
FIGURE 6-2: The Custom Reports tab of the Reports screen.
FIGURE 6-3: The Management Reports tab.
FIGURE 6-4: Print Preview screen of a management report.
FIGURE 6-5: A Journal report collapsed down to a few rows.
FIGURE 6-6: The Create New Group task pane enables you to establish new tag gro...
Chapter 7
FIGURE 7-1: The Create Rule task pane.
Chapter 8
FIGURE 8-1: Assigning an alternative currency to a vendor.
FIGURE 8-2: The Bill screen in a company with Multicurrency enabled.
Chapter 10
FIGURE 10-1: Use this task pane to create an inventory item.
Chapter 12
FIGURE 12-1: The New Budget screen.
FIGURE 12-2: The Budget input screen with a single reference data column.
FIGURE 12-3: The Budget input screen with monthly reference data columns.
Chapter 13
FIGURE 13-1: Each tab in the QuickBooks Online desktop app can display a differ...
FIGURE 13-2: The Open Tabs/Windows task pane within the QuickBooks Online Advan...
FIGURE 13-3: The Restore Company Data task pane.
FIGURE 13-4: The New Local Backup screen.
FIGURE 13-5: You can only enable or disable certain features.
Chapter 14
FIGURE 14-1: General Options task pane.
FIGURE 14-2: Customize Chart task pane.
FIGURE 14-3: Pivot task pane.
FIGURE 14-4: A pivot table report in QuickBooks Online Advanced.
Chapter 15
FIGURE 15-1: The Task screen in Advanced companies.
FIGURE 15-2: The Add Task pane.
FIGURE 15-3: The Workflow Automation screen.
FIGURE 15-4: The first Create Custom Workflow screen.
FIGURE 15-5: The second Create Custom Workflow screen.
FIGURE 15-6: The Add Custom Field screen.
FIGURE 15-7: The Batch Transactions screen.
FIGURE 15-8: Revenue Recognition option for service items.
FIGURE 15-9: Revenue recognition schedule for a service item that has been invo...
Chapter 16
FIGURE 16-1: Spreadsheet Sync installation instructions.
FIGURE 16-2: Installing the Spreadsheet Sync add-in.
FIGURE 16-3: Spreadsheet Sync task pane.
FIGURE 16-4: This is the starting point for every new Spreadsheet Sync report o...
FIGURE 16-5: The Spreadsheet Sync ribbon tab in Microsoft Excel.
FIGURE 16-6: Set the parameters for your management report template by way of t...
FIGURE 16-7: You can choose which company to display on each Management Report ...
FIGURE 16-8: Choose Yes, No, or Archive in the Post column when adding or updat...
Chapter 17
FIGURE 17-1: A typical Accountant version home screen.
FIGURE 17-2: Control the appearance of the client list with the Settings menu.
FIGURE 17-3: View, edit, and add team members.
FIGURE 17-4: The Add a New User screen.
FIGURE 17-5: The Assign Access screen.
FIGURE 17-6: The Edit Leads command is hidden within the Filter dialog box.
Chapter 18
FIGURE 18-1: Click the QB logo to the left of the client’s name or use the Go t...
FIGURE 18-2: A black sidebar indicates that you’re working within a client’s bo...
FIGURE 18-3: The Client Overview screen that accountants can view.
FIGURE 18-4: The Setup tab for the Cleanup version of the Books Review screen.
FIGURE 18-5: The Opening Balance Adjustments section.
FIGURE 18-6: Click +Add to add new tasks to the Additional Items list.
FIGURE 18-7: Accountant Tools is designed to streamline repetitive tasks.
FIGURE 18-8: The Reclassify Transactions screen.
FIGURE 18-9: The Reclassify Transactions dialog box.
FIGURE 18-10: The Write Off Invoices screen.
FIGURE 18-11: Confirm that you want to write off the selected invoices.
FIGURE 18-12: Accountant version users can undo reconciliations in any QuickBoo...
FIGURE 18-13: An example of a revenue chart.
Chapter 19
FIGURE 19-1: A mostly unpopulated Work screen within the Accountant version.
FIGURE 19-2: The Templates screen.
FIGURE 19-3: The Create a Request task pane.
FIGURE 19-4: The Create Project task pane.
FIGURE 19-5: Establishing a recurring project.
FIGURE 19-6: Adding a task to a project.
FIGURE 19-7: The My Accountant screen within a client’s QuickBooks company.
FIGURE 19-8: The To Do task pane within a client’s QuickBooks company.
FIGURE 19-9: Use the arrow on a task or project card to display the list of ava...
FIGURE 19-10: The List View.
FIGURE 19-11: The Calendar View with one task due on June 13.
FIGURE 19-12: Set up email notifications for team members regarding work.
Chapter 20
FIGURE 20-1: You cannot edit a workbook in a report when Protected View is acti...
FIGURE 20-2: Protected View settings within Excel’s Trust Center.
FIGURE 20-3: A filtered Invoice List By Date Report.
FIGURE 20-4: Excel's Convert Text to Columns wizard.
FIGURE 20-5: Replacing two dashes with zeros.
FIGURE 20-6: Insert Slicers dialog box.
FIGURE 20-7: Slicers allow you to filter data formatted as a table or PivotTabl...
FIGURE 20-8: PivotTables allow you to create instant summaries of your data by ...
FIGURE 20-9: Timelines allow you to control the contents of a PivotTable based ...
Chapter 21
FIGURE 21-1: The Power Query Navigator window.
FIGURE 21-2: The Power Query Editor shows the QuickBooks report you just import...
FIGURE 21-3: You must select a column before carrying out a transformation.
FIGURE 21-4: The Replace Values dialog box in Power Query.
FIGURE 21-5: Data type options in Power Query.
FIGURE 21-6: The Choose Columns dialog box.
FIGURE 21-7: You can revise any Power Query step that has a Settings button in ...
FIGURE 21-8: Power Query results are returned to a new worksheet by default.
FIGURE 21-9: Adjusting query properties enables you to have a self-updating rep...
FIGURE 21-10: Suppressing the Enable Content prompt for a specific workbook.
FIGURE 21-11: You must also click Refresh Data When Opening the File to enable ...
Chapter 22
FIGURE 22-1: The Journal Entry screen.
Guide
Cover
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Begin Reading
Index
About the Author
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QuickBooks® Online For Dummies®, 2025 Edition
Published by: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774, www.wiley.com
Copyright © 2025 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved, including rights for text and data mining and training of artificial technologies or similar technologies.
Media and software compilation copyright © 2025 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved, including rights for text and data mining and training of artificial technologies or similar technologies.
Published simultaneously in Canada
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without the prior written permission of the Publisher. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.
Trademarks: Wiley, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, Dummies.com, Making Everything Easier, and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and may not be used without written permission. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. QuickBooks is a registered trademark of Intuit, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.
LIMIT OF LIABILITY/DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY: THE PUBLISHER AND THE AUTHOR MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO THE ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF THE CONTENTS OF THIS WORK AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION WARRANTIES OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. NO WARRANTY MAY BE CREATED OR EXTENDED BY SALES OR PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS. THE ADVICE AND STRATEGIES CONTAINED HEREIN MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR EVERY SITUATION. THIS WORK IS SOLD WITH THE UNDERSTANDING THAT THE PUBLISHER IS NOT ENGAGED IN RENDERING LEGAL, ACCOUNTING, OR OTHER PROFESSIONAL SERVICES. IF PROFESSIONAL ASSISTANCE IS REQUIRED, THE SERVICES OF A COMPETENT PROFESSIONAL PERSON SHOULD BE SOUGHT. NEITHER THE PUBLISHER NOR THE AUTHOR SHALL BE LIABLE FOR DAMAGES ARISING HEREFROM. THE FACT THAT AN ORGANIZATION OR WEBSITE IS REFERRED TO IN THIS WORK AS A CITATION AND/OR A POTENTIAL SOURCE OF FURTHER INFORMATION DOES NOT MEAN THAT THE AUTHOR OR THE PUBLISHER ENDORSES THE INFORMATION THE ORGANIZATION OR WEBSITE MAY PROVIDE OR RECOMMENDATIONS IT MAY MAKE. FURTHER, READERS SHOULD BE AWARE THAT INTERNET WEBSITES LISTED IN THIS WORK MAY HAVE CHANGED OR DISAPPEARED BETWEEN WHEN THIS WORK WAS WRITTEN AND WHEN IT IS READ.
For general information on our other products and services, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 877-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax 317-572-4002. For technical support, please visit https://hub.wiley.com/community/support/dummies.
Wiley publishes in a variety of print and electronic formats and by print-on-demand. Some material included with standard print versions of this book may not be included in e-books or in print-on-demand. If this book refers to media that is not included in the version you purchased, you may download this material at http://booksupport.wiley.com. For more information about Wiley products, visit www.wiley.com.
Library of Congress Control Number is available from the publisher.
ISBN 978-1-394-28202-9 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-394-28204-3 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-394-28203-6 (ebk)
Introduction
Welcome to QuickBooks Online 2025 For Dummies! If you’re new to QuickBooks, my goal in this book is to help you get up and running quickly and then carry out tasks in the most efficient way possible. QuickBooks Online is known as cloud-based accounting software, whereas QuickBooks Desktop is typically installed locally on your computer. I only discuss QuickBooks Online in this book, so if you need help with QuickBooks Desktop, please refer to Stephen L. Nelson’s QuickBooks All-in-One For Dummies 2025 (John Wiley & Sons, Inc.).
QuickBooks Online has good intentions and is designed in a way that tries to take the pain out of accounting, but it sometimes falls short. I do my best to anticipate those areas for you and offer explanations, but if you have a question that this book doesn’t answer, please feel free to email me at [email protected].
Some of the tasks in QuickBooks are easy. For instance, you can jump-start entering transactions in QuickBooks by emailing receipts to a unique address for your company. You can automate other tasks after you complete an initial setup process, such as downloading activity from your bank accounts and credit cards into your accounting records. Other tasks, such as entering journal entries, may appear to be difficult, particularly if you don’t have much of an accounting background, but I guide you through just about everything you may want to do inside QuickBooks (and sometimes outside of QuickBooks with Microsoft Excel).
About QuickBooks Online
In the past, QuickBooks Online was a fairly static platform, with new features being rolled out incrementally. We are now in uncharted waters. As I wrote this book, I noticed that QuickBooks Online features would sometimes appear and then disappear, only to reappear again, all without notice. My editors and I have done our best to describe what has in some cases been a moving target.
Because updates occur so frequently in QuickBooks, by the time this book is published, some features and screens may have changed. (On second thought, make that will have changed.)
Then there’s the matter of the six subscription levels:
Solopreneur
($25/month, $300/year): Previously known as QuickBooks Online Self-Employed, this is best suited to users who are operating a side business. This book has some feature overlap, but I don’t cover QuickBooks Online Solopreneur specifically.
Simple Start
($35/month, $420/year): This most basic business version of QuickBooks has the lowest monthly cost, includes 59 reports, now offers the ability to enter bills to be paid later, and allows one full access and two accountant users.
Essentials
($65/month, $780/year): This version is a step up in price and functionality. The biggest differences are multiple currencies, time tracking, as well as three full access and two accountant users, and “track time only” users. QuickBooks' online help shows that Essentials users should be able to access up to 82 different reports; however, I only counted 63. Further, seven bill-related reports are inexplicably currently available to Simple Start users but not to Essentials users.
Plus
($99/month, $1,188/year): This version represents another step up in price but also a much greater depth of functionality, including inventory, budgeting, project tracking, customizable access for up to five business and two accountant users, unlimited “track time only” users, as well as unlimited “view company reports” users who can access up to 90 reports, versus the 120 reports listed in QuickBooks' online help documentation.
Advanced ($235/month, $2,820/year): This high-end version of QuickBooks offers built-in business analytics with Microsoft Excel via Spreadsheet Sync, employee expense tracking, customizable user roles for up to 25 business users, unlimited “reports only” users, a custom report writer, workflow automation, and data restoration. Such users are supposed to have access to all 120 reports purported available to Plus users, but by my count only 91 reports are actually available.
Opting for an annual subscription, instead of a monthly one, reduces your subscription fees by 10 percent.
Accountant
(free for members of the QuickBooks Pro Advisor program, which is also free at
https://quickbooks.intuit.com/accountants/proadvisor/
): This version of QuickBooks offers one free Advanced subscription for accountants and bookkeepers to manage their own books. It also offers practice management features and allows seamless access to clients’ QuickBooks companies.
As you can see, much of QuickBooks’ best features are stratified into the higher price points. Accordingly, for this edition of the book I’ve gone with a “choose your adventure” approach for organizing the material. Every QuickBooks Online user will benefit from reading Part 1 of this book, which is where I cover all the core functionality that’s available in QuickBooks versions from Simple Start through Advanced. Whether you keep reading is predicated upon your current subscription level or curiosity of what you would gain by opting for a higher subscription level.
About This Book
Before diving in, I have to get a few technical conventions out of the way:
Text that you’re meant to type as it appears in the book is
bold
. The exception is when you’re working through a list of steps. Because each step is bold, the text to type is
not
bold.
Web addresses and programming code appear in
monofont
. If you're reading a digital version of this book on a device connected to the Internet, note that you can tap or click a web address to visit that website, like this:
www.dummies.com
.
Everyone can use QuickBooks Online in a web browser or a mobile app. Intuit recommends any of the following browsers for desktop use:
Google Chrome version 78 or higher
Mozilla Firefox version 76 or higher
Microsoft Edge version 79 or higher
Safari version 12 or higher on your desktop computer
Mobile devices need to be running iOS 11.1 or higher or Android Nougat 7.1.1 or higher. Advanced and Accountant subscribers can download and install a desktop app that offers functionality unavailable within a web browser.
When I discuss a command to choose, I separate the elements of the sequence with a command arrow that looks like this: ⇒. For example, when you see Sales ⇒ Invoices, that command means that you should click Sales in the left bar and then click Invoices in the drop-down menu that appears.
Foolish Assumptions
I had to assume some things about you to write this book, so here are the educated guesses I made:
You know that you need to manage a set of accounting records for one or more businesses, and you might even have some sort of setup in place already. I
did not
assume that you know how to do all those things on a computer.
You may want to analyze some of your accounting data outside QuickBooks, which is why I include chapters on using Microsoft Excel. Some of that information translates to Google Sheets as well.
You have a personal computer running Windows 10 or 11 (I wrote this book in Windows 10) or a Mac running macOS 10.11 or later.
You have a copy of Microsoft Excel on your computer, or you plan to use Google Sheets at
https://sheets.google.com
.
Icons Used in This Book
Throughout the book, I use icons to draw your attention to various concepts that I want to make sure that you don’t skip over in the main part of the text. Sometimes I share information to help you save time; in other cases, the goal is to keep your accounting records safe.
This icon points out time-saving tricks or quirks that you may encounter in QuickBooks.
This icon points out tricky aspects of QuickBooks that you should keep in mind.
This product can burn your eyes. Oh, sorry. Wrong type of warning! Your eyes are safe in this book. But do pay careful attention to warnings that you encounter so that you can avoid problems that could wreak havoc in your accounting records or more often simply cause you frustration.
At some points, I may include some geeky stuff about QuickBooks, your web browser, or your computer. You can safely skip over the technical stuff if that’s not your cup of tea.
Where to Go from Here
You can start where ever makes sense to you! Here’s how the book is broken down:
Part 1
, “Core Functionality,” describes the core functionality available to all QuickBooks users.
Part 2
, “QuickBooks Online Essentials Features,” covers additional features that upgrading to an Essentials subscription adds, such as multicurrency functionality, product bundles, time tracking, applying billable time to invoices, and billable expenses to expense entries.
Part 3
, “QuickBooks Online Plus Features,” describes capabilities that a Plus subscription adds, including inventory management, purchase orders, using classes and locations, tracking profitability by project, and creating budgets.
Part 4
, “QuickBooks Online Advanced Features,” covers the additional features that an Advanced subscription provides, such as a desktop app, backups, customizable security, and enhanced reporting and charting features, including pivotable reports, tasks, work flows, revenue recognition and depreciation. Advanced users can also use the Spreadsheet Sync feature to create self-updating reports, consolidated reports, adding and updating list records, initiating or editing transactions, and working with budgets, all within Excel.
Part 5
, “QuickBooks Online Accountant Features,” walks through accountant-specific features, such as client and team management, accountant tools and screens, and practice management screens.
Part 6
, “Microsoft Excel Analysis,” discusses ways that you can analyze your data in Microsoft Excel, including disabling the Protected View feature, filtering your data, and creating summary reports with PivotTables. You also see how automate repetitive analytical tasks with Power Query.
Part 7
, “The Part of Tens,” covers ten common journal entries and ten shortcuts for the Chrome browser to help you optimize your use of QuickBooks.
Beyond the Book
In addition to the book content, this product comes with a free, access-anywhere Cheat Sheet that lists keyboard shortcuts and toolbar buttons. The Cheat Sheet also covers how to use the multicurrency feature, convert a company from QuickBooks Desktop or Sage 50 to QuickBooks Online, and enter payroll history. To get this Cheat Sheet, go to www.dummies.com and search for QuickBooks Online For Dummies Cheat Sheet.
You can keep the learning going with the most up-to-date information and tutorials from School of Bookkeeping (https://schoolofbookkeeping.com/). The folks there (one of whom is the technical editor of this book) have broken down every version of QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks services (Payments and Payroll), and other tasks into bite-sized lessons that you can watch and get back to business. Use promo code QBO4DUMMIES to save 20 percent on any membership. If you’re looking for video-based Excel training, please visit my site at www.professionalsexcel.com. The same QBO4DUMMIES promo code enables you to save 20 percent on any individual videos or subscriptions here as well.
Part 1
Core Functionality
IN THIS PART …
Tailor the software to fit your company’s unique needs.
Record sales, handle estimates, and process customer payments.
Write checks, manage accounts payable, and record credit card transactions.
Run payroll and make payments to contractors.
Record bank deposits and reconcile bank accounts.
Review and utilize various reporting features.
Implement apps and automation to increase efficiency.
Chapter 1
Beginning Your Journey with QuickBooks
IN THIS CHAPTER
Getting to know QuickBooks Online
Pricing for subscriptions, payroll, and other add-ons
Exploring features by subscription level and reviewing usage limits
Customizing QuickBooks menu and account listing
Attaching external documents to list records and transactions
Welcome to QuickBooks Online! In this book, you’ll discover all the ins and outs of your accounting platform so that you can handle your clients’ or your own accounting records (colloquially referred to as books) more effectively. I’ve organized this book by subscription level so you can easily determine the capabilities of each version — from Simple Start, Essentials, and Plus to Advanced and Accountant.
I first explain QuickBooks Online and give you a sense of the annual costs to expect. After that I discuss reviewing your chart of accounts to ensure that you can categorize your assets, liabilities, equity, revenue, and expenses correctly.
QuickBooks Online Overview
QuickBooks Online is a cloud-based accounting software for computers and mobile devices. The software and your data are housed securely in remote data centers and accessed via the Internet. Conversely, QuickBooks Desktop is a traditional accounting software installed locally, alongside your data, on your office computer or network. Intuit has been implementing a low motion discontinuation of their desktop platform, and as of this writing, QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise is the only remaining version.
Some folks see the “anywhere, anytime” aspect of the cloud as a potential disadvantage because it makes information too readily available — and therefore a target for hackers. Rest assured that Intuit, the maker of QuickBooks, stores your data on servers using bank-level security that creates encrypted backups of your data automatically.
With QuickBooks Online, your accountant or bookkeeper also has access from anywhere. The Accountant version empowers accounting professionals to quickly toggle between multiple clients’ accounting records and keep up with deadlines and tasks using a centralized communication hub. Conversely, QuickBooks Desktop requires you to send an electronic Accountant’s Copy to your accountant and specify a dividing date, before which you can’t make changes until your accountant returns the Accountant’s Copy to you. QuickBooks Desktop also requires you to install periodic software updates, which are a thing of the past with QuickBooks Online.
It can be confusing any time a software platform uses the same term, such as accountant, in multiple contexts. For example, you may run across the term Accountant View, which previously reconfigured the sidebar menu. This is separate from inviting your accountant or bookkeeper to oversee your books. This is also separate from the QuickBooks Online Accountant subscription that your accountant or bookkeeper probably uses to manage your books and their own.
Most modern computers should easily exceed the minimum requirements for QuickBooks Online, but you can get the nitty-gritty computer specification details here: https://intuit.me/3yEaSJL.
My technical editor extraordinaire, Dan DeLong, has created a free QuickBooks Chooser chatbot that can help you choose the right version of QuickBooks Online based on your specific business needs. Check it out at https://chat.schoolofbookkeeping.com/QBChooser.
Considering QuickBooks Pricing
You can cancel QuickBooks subscriptions at any time, although the service is billed in monthly or annual increments with no refunds or prorations. You can no longer create new transactions once your subscription expires, but you can view your accounting records and run reports for up to one year. As you will see in the next three sections, your “drive-out” price for using QuickBooks may mushroom far beyond the base subscription price. You’ve likely experienced how the base price of a car is far from what the bottom-line price ends up being. Similarly, depending upon your needs, you may end up paying more than you expected for QuickBooks Online. In Chapter 7, I discuss apps that you can install, which often come with additional subscription fees.
QuickBooks Online subscriptions and the various add-ons are priced on a per-company basis. If you maintain the books for two or more entities, you have to pay for two or more subscriptions plus fees for ancillary add-ons.
QuickBooks Online base pricing
As shown in Table 1-1, QuickBooks Online is available in six different versions and price points. The Solopreneur and Simple Start versions are best suited to fledging businesses, whereas QuickBooks Online Accountant is a free portal that accountants and bookkeepers can use to support their clients. You can get more details and start a QuickBooks Online subscription at https://quickbooks.intuit.com/pricing/ or start using QuickBooks Online Accountant at https://quickbooks.intuit.com/accountants/products-solutions/accounting/online.
TABLE 1-1 QuickBooks Online Subscription Pricing per Company
Version
Monthly
Annually
Users
Solopreneur
$25
$270
1 billable user
Simple Start
$35
$378
1 billable user + 2 accountant users
Essentials
$65
$702
3 billable users + 2 accountant users + unlimited time tracking users
Plus
$99
$1,069
5 billable users + 2 accountant users + unlimited time tracking users + unlimited reports only users
Advanced
$235
$2,538
Up to 25 billable users + 3 accountant users + unlimited time tracking users + unlimited reports-only users
Accountant
$0
$0
No limit
QuickBooks allows you to choose between a 50 percent discount for the first three months of your subscription or a free 30-day trial. You may also be offered a 70 percent discount for the first three months during the 30-day trial. Take the deal immediately if you plan to move forward with QuickBooks because it’s unlikely to be offered again during your trial period. The annual prices shown reflect a 10 percent prepayment discount.
PROADVISOR DISCOUNT
Accounting professionals can arrange an ongoing 30 percent discount on QuickBooks Online (excluding QuickBooks Solopreneur), QuickBooks Payroll, and QuickBooks Time in exchange for being billed directly by Intuit. Accountants can pass all or part of the savings on to their clients if they want. Alternatively, accountants who prefer that their clients pay for QuickBooks directly can arrange a 30 percent discount for 12 months for charges billed directly to their clients. I discuss the ProAdvisor Discount in more detail in Chapter 17.
You must cancel your subscription if you opt for the discount and decide QuickBooks isn’t right for you. Conversely, the 30-day trial simply expires, and no further action is required on your part.
A QuickBooks company is a set of accounting records for a single business entity. Each QuickBooks company entails separate subscription fees, and you need to establish a QuickBooks company for each company you own or maintain accounting records for.
Payroll and time tracking pricing
You will incur additional subscription costs if you need to process payroll or enable employees to track their time. As shown in Table 1-2, QuickBooks offers three different payroll options. I’ve calculated the associated costs for a hypothetical team of five employees to give you a frame of reference. The Premium and Elite plans offer time tracking, which you can also purchase on an à la carte basis.
TABLE 1-2 QuickBooks Payroll Subscription Pricing for Five Employees
Version
Monthly
Annually
Core
$75 ($50/month + $6/employee × 5 employees)
$900
Premium
$120 ($85/month + $9/employee × 5 employees)
$1,458
Elite
$175 ($130/month + $11/employee × 5 employees)
$2,064
You can test-drive the QuickBooks payroll service for free for up to 30 days. This annual pricing reflects a 10 percent prepayment discount on the monthly fees. Intuit does not offer a discount on the per-employee charges.
All QuickBooks Payroll plans include the following features:
Paying employees with printed checks or by direct deposit.
Calculating tax payments automatically and paying them electronically.
Processing federal and state quarterly and annual reports and preparing W-2 and 1099 forms.
Processing payroll for employees and filing for one state. Core and Premium subscribers incur a $12/month charge for any additional state filings.
Keeping payroll tax tables up to date without having to install updates (as you do with the QuickBooks Enterprise Desktop product).
Using the QuickBooks Workforce mobile app to enable employees to view paychecks, see time off, and log their time.
The Core tier offers next-day direct deposit, and the Premium tier enables same-day direct deposit and adds time tracking. The Elite tier adds project tracking, tax penalty protection, a personal human resources advisor, mileage tracking estimated vs. actual hours worked, and geosensing GPS logging through the Workforce app. You can get more details and start a payroll subscription at https://quickbooks.intuit.com/payroll/pricing/, or you can choose Payroll from the sidebar menu.
Make sure that you’re ready to start processing payroll immediately before you embark on a QuickBooks Payroll subscription because you must connect your bank account and provide your tax identification numbers. If you want to try before you buy, use the online test drives I mention later in this chapter in the “QuickBooks Online Plus” and “QuickBooks Online Advanced” sections.
Table 1-3 shows the additional annual cost of adding a standalone QuickBooks Time subscription if you want time and attendance tracking but not necessarily payroll processing. It’s worth running the numbers for the various offerings because QuickBooks Core Payroll for five employees at $80 per month plus QuickBooks Premium Time at $60 per month is $140 per month versus paying $130 per month for QuickBooks Payroll Premium, which also offers time tracking. With that said, an Elite time subscription does include project tracking.
Although you can add time tracking on an á la carte basis, it typically makes more financial sense to use the time tracking bundled into the upgraded payroll service tiers. This also ensures that you avoid the complications that can arise if you start out with QuickBooks Time and then switch to a QuickBooks Payroll tier that offers time tracking.
TABLE 1-3 QuickBooks Time Subscription Pricing for Five Employees
Version
Monthly
Annually
Premium
$60 ($20/month + $8/employee × 5 employees)
$720
Elite
$90 ($40/month + $10/employee × 5 employees)
$1,080
ProAdvisor
Free for accounting professionals
$0
QuickBooks Payments
QuickBooks Payments enables you to accept electronic payments from customers and entails per-transaction fees instead of a monthly subscription. Table 1-4 shows the current rates as of this writing.
TABLE 1-4 QuickBooks Payments per Transaction Fees
Payment Type
Rate per Transaction
ACH Bank payments
1% (customer enters bank information online). Note: The maximum fee is $20 for customers who created accounts prior to September 5, 2023; otherwise, there is no maximum.
Swiped credit card
2.5%; you swipe the card via the available mobile reader.
Invoiced credit card
2.99%; your customer enters credit card online.
Keyed credit card
3.5%; you enter your customer’s credit card information online.
QuickBooks Payments deposits money from qualifying credit or debit card transactions into your bank account the next business day. Your payments and deposit transactions are recorded in your books automatically, based on the funding date.
Comparing QuickBooks Features
As you can see, the ongoing expenses for QuickBooks can add up fast. You can upgrade or downgrade your subscription at any time, although downgrading can entail disabling inventory or removing users. Use the search term downgrade at https://quickbooks.intuit.com/learn-support/en-us for more details. Read on for information on the various tiers so that you can find the right fit for your needs.
QuickBooks Online Solopreneur
This version of QuickBooks is aimed at freelancers and self-employed people who file Schedule C of IRS Form 1040 (www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-schedule-c-form-1040). Unlike the higher-level offerings, QuickBooks Solopreneur allows you to mix business with pleasure, meaning that you can track personal and business expenses, as well as mileage. It’s best suited to someone with a side hustle who wants to keep track of their business and simplify income tax filing. As of this writing, Solopreneur users cannot invite accountants to access their books. Intuit has indicated that this capability is in the works.
I don’t discuss QuickBooks Online Solopreneur any further in this book, although some of the features may mirror what you see in the higher subscription levels.
QuickBooks Simple Start
A QuickBooks Simple Start subscription is ideal for a new business with basic bookkeeping needs. With Simple Start, you accomplish the following tasks, broken down by chapter in Part 1:
Chapter 2
covers all things customer related, including:
Creating an unlimited number of customers.
Sending estimates and invoices.
Tracking and paying sales taxes.
Chapter 3
discusses money going out the door to vendors, including:
Printing checks and recording transactions to track expenses.
Using accounts payable functions, including scheduling payment of vendor bills and online bill payment.
Chapter 4
is all about making sure that your team gets paid:
Processing payroll.
Paying contractors and sending 1099 forms.
Chapter 5
helps you keep tabs on your financial activity:
Recording bank deposits.
Reconciling bank statements.
Downloading transactions from your bank and credit card accounts.
Chapter 6
helps you view your business activity multiple ways. You can by view and customize more than 50 reports.
Chapter 7
is all about app and automation:
Connecting one online sales channel, such as Amazon, eBay, or Shopify.
Tracking mileage manually or from the QuickBooks Online mobile app.
Categorizing expenses by taking pictures of receipts.
Importing bank data, customers, products and services, and invoices from comma-separated value (CSV) files.
Adding functionality with free and paid apps.
Although the Simple Start version supports accounts-receivable functions, you can’t invoice customers on a recurring basis, and you’ll have to dig to find the details of your unpaid invoices — the Reports screen makes it appear as if only a summary report is available. If you’re on the fence between Solopreneur and Simple Start, you’ll have more options in the future with Simple Start.
QuickBooks Online Essentials
Established businesses that don’t have inventory may be able to use QuickBooks Essentials, which includes all the Simple Start functionality, plus a total of three sales channels, a total of 85 reports, and the following, broken down by chapter in Part 2:
Chapter 8
is all about apps and automation:
Controlling the areas of QuickBooks your users can access.
Utilizing multiple currencies.
Adding up to three custom fields.
Chapter 9
streamlines repetitive tasks:
Creating and using recurring transactions.
Establishing bundles of products and services.
Tracking time for unlimited users.
QuickBooks Online Plus
A Plus subscription offers all of the functionality of an Essentials subscription, plus unlimited sales channels, 124 reports, and the following, by chapter in Part 3:
Chapter 10
is all about tracking and procuring physical goods:
Tracking inventory using the first in, first out (FIFO) inventory valuation method.
Creating, sending, and tracking purchase orders.
If you need to assemble finished goods for sale, QuickBooks Online alone won’t meet your needs. However, you can explore apps to supplement your inventory and work-in-progress tracking needs. I discuss apps that integrate with QuickBooks Online in Chapter 7.
Chapter 11
gives you new levels of transaction tracking:
Categorizing income and expenses by using class tracking.
Tracking sales and profitability by department or location.
Creating and monitoring projects.
Chapter 12
lets you plan ahead:
Creating budgets to estimate future income and expenses.
Planning out your cash flow.
You can test-drive the QuickBooks Online Plus sample company at https://qbo.intuit.com/redir/testdrive.
Usage limits for QuickBooks Simple Start, Essentials, and Plus
Simple Start, Essentials, and Plus subscriptions are subject to the limits shown in Table 1-5. Long-term users may be allowed higher limits but can’t add any element that exceeds the use limit without upgrading to a higher-level plan or deactivating current elements. As detailed in the next section, you can work without limits in QuickBooks with an Advanced subscription.
TABLE 1-5 Usage Limits for Simple Start, Essentials, and Plus Subscriptions
QuickBooks Element
Usage Limit
Annual transactions
350,000
Chart of accounts
250
Classes and locations
40 combined; further, you can’t track your balance sheet by class.
Billed users
1 for Simple Start, 3 for Essentials, 5 for Plus
Unbilled users
2 Accountant users; unlimited time tracking for Essentials and Plus; unlimited reports-only users for Plus
QuickBooks Online Advanced
QuickBooks Online Advanced incorporates all of the features of a Plus subscription and eliminates many of the use restrictions imposed on Simple Start, Essentials, and Plus subscribers. It is the flagship subscription for companies that have outgrown QuickBooks Online Plus. Advanced companies are allowed unlimited accounts, transactions, and classes, plus additional user types, plus Access to Intuit’s Priority Circle, which provides elevated customer support and self-paced online training courses. Some of the additional functionality, broken down by chapter in Part 4, includes:
Chapter 13
is about user empowerment and disaster recovery:
Installing a desktop app for more efficient company access.
Establishing custom permissions for users.
Backing up and restoring your QuickBooks Online data.
Exporting certain lists and transactions to comma-separated value (CSV) files by way of the Local Backup feature.
Chapter 14
discusses custom reporting and charting:
Using the Custom Report Builder.
Building charts within QuickBooks Online.
Summarizing reports by using the Pivot feature.
Chapter 15
covers tasks workflows and other functionality:
Assigning and tracking user tasks.
Enabling workflows to trigger reminders for customers and team members.
Defining and tailoring up to 48 custom fields.
Automating employee expense management.
Entering, editing, or deleting multiple transactions by way of the Batch Transactions feature.
Complying with the Accounting Standards Codification (ASC) 606 revenue recognition regulation issued by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB).
Tracking fixed assets and compute depreciation.
Chapter 16
documents how to synchronize QuickBooks Online with Microsoft Excel:
Creating refreshable reports in Microsoft Excel.
Importing and editing lists and transactions directly from Excel.
Synchronizing Excel-based budgets with QuickBooks Online.
You can test-drive the QuickBooks Online Advanced sample company at https://qbo.intuit.com/redir/testdrive_us_advanced.
QuickBooks Online Accountant
The Accountant version enables accounting professionals to manage their practice and their clients’ books. This free subscription includes a single QuickBooks Online Advanced subscription so that accountants can manage their own books as well.
Subscribe to QuickBooks Online Accountant at https://quickbooks.intuit.com/accountants/products-solutions/accounting/online.
Accountants are limited to subscription-based feature sets when accessing a client’s books, but Part 5 breaks down the additional functionality by chapter:
Chapter 17 introduces the Accountant version:
Adding companies to the client list.
Accessing a client’s books.
Managing team members access.
Leveraging QuickBooks Online Ledger.
QuickBooks Online Ledger is a low-cost, streamlined version of QuickBooks Online designed specifically for accounting professionals. It offers essential bookkeeping features, such as bank reconciliation and journal entry management.
Chapter 18
discusses accountant-specific tools:
Establishing chart of account templates.
Reviewing a client’s books.
Employing a suite of accountant tools, including undoing bank reconciliations.
Charting clients’ financial performance.
Chapter 19
covers the nitty-gritty of practice management:
Assigning and tracking work assigned to team members.
Utilizing the free QuickBooks Online Advanced subscription.
If you’re curious about the rest of the book, here’s a quick overview:
Chapter 20
empowers you to analyze your data in Excel.
Chapter 21
helps you automate repetitive analytical tasks.
Chapter 22
deconstructs several common journal entries.
Chapter 23
offers ways to use the Chrome browser more effectively.
Now that you have a sense of what the various subscription levels and this book offer, let’s explore how to tailor QuickBooks to suit your preferences.
Customizing Your Chart of Accounts
When you create a new company, QuickBooks creates a chart of accounts tailored to your industry. You can keep this list intact, edit it manually as I describe, or replace it with what you import from Excel, a CSV file, or Google Sheets, which I discuss in the later section titled “Importing accounts.”
Your chart of accounts is limited to 250 active accounts unless you have an Advanced subscription.
I encourage you to review the chart of accounts that QuickBooks establishes for your company. To do so, choose the Gear icon ⇒ Chart of Accounts or Transactions ⇒ Chart of Accounts. The screen shown in Figure 1-1 displays your chart of accounts and lets you carry out a variety of actions:
Click Run Report to generate a report that lists your chart of accounts.
Click New to create a new account.
Choose New ⇒ Import to import a new chart of accounts, which I discuss later in more detail in the “
Importing accounts
” section.
Click Edit below New to turn on the Batch Edit feature, which enables you to edit multiple account names at once.
Click the Print to generate a printout of the Chart of Accounts screen.
You’re better off clicking Run Report versus clicking Print because the Print command generates a rather unaesthetic-looking report.
Click the Gear icon to control which columns appear on the screen and whether inactive accounts are displayed.
Click the checkbox for one or more accounts, and then choose Batch Actions ⇒ Make Inactive to deactivate unnecessary accounts.
Click View Register adjacent to balance sheet accounts or Run Report adjacent to income and expense accounts to view a register or report showing all activity.
Click the arrow next to an account to reveal the following choices, depending on the account type:
Connect Bank:
Starts the process of syncing checking and credit card accounts with a financial institution.
Edit:
Allows you to change the account type, detail type, name, description, or subaccount status of an account.
Make Inactive: Deactivates an account so that it can no longer be used for new transactions.
QuickBooks zeroes out accounts that you make inactive, so make sure that you move the account balances by way of a journal entry or other transaction. I discuss journal entries in Chapter 22. You can mark multiple accounts inactive by clicking the checkbox for one or more accounts and then choosing Batch Actions ⇒ Make Inactive.
Run Report:
Enables you to run a report showing the activity for a given account.
FIGURE 1-1: The Chart of Accounts screen.
Adding new accounts
Here’s how to add an account to your chart of accounts:
Click New on the Chart of Accounts screen to open the New Account task pane, shown in
Figure
1-2
.
Fill in the Account Name field.
Only enter words in this field. Later in the chapter, I show you how to enable account numbers for your chart of accounts. Don’t be fooled by the relatively small size of the field; it accepts up to 100 characters.
Make a selection from the Account Type field.
This list contains the major categories that typically appear on the balance sheet and profit-and-loss reports for a business.
Make a selection from the Detail Type field.
Depending upon the Account Type you chose, you may only have one choice here, or you may have many.
Optional: Click the Make This a subaccount checkbox under the Account Type field if you want to have this account roll up into a higher-level account on your reports.
You must specify a parent account for each subaccount that you create.
Optional: Specify an Opening Balance and an As Of date if you are creating an account that will appear on your balance sheet.
Balance sheet accounts include assets, liabilities, and equities. Always defer to your accountant or bookkeeper if you’re unclear as to if and when to start tracking an account.
Optional: Enter a description for your account.
Enter up to 100 characters, providing additional documentation as to the purpose of the account.
Click Save to record the new addition to your chart of accounts.
FIGURE 1-2: The task pane you use to create an account.
A FEW NOTES ON PAYING OWNERS
Many small-business owners wonder about the accounts they should use to pay themselves. Owners and partners typically aren’t considered to be employees and therefore aren’t paid through payroll. To pay an owner or partner, use the Chart of Accounts screen to set up a Draw account (Owner’s Draw, Partner’s Draw, or whatever is appropriate; if you have multiple partners, set up Draw accounts for each partner) and use it to pay owners. The Draw account is an equity account. Similarly, owners and partners sometimes put their own money into the business. To account for these contributions, set up equity accounts (again, one for each owner or partner) called Owner’s Contribution, Partner’s Contribution, or whatever is appropriate.
Note that you use the Draw account not only to pay the owner, but also to account for personal items an owner might buy with the business’s money. You record the withdrawals by using the appropriate bank account and the appropriate Draw account. Note that these transactions don’t show up on your profit-and-loss report because they’re not business expenses. To find out the total amount paid to an owner, run a report for the Draw account.
At the end of your fiscal year, you need to enter a journal entry, dated the last day of your fiscal year that moves the dollar amounts from the appropriate Draw or Contribution account to Retained Earnings, which is another equity account. If I’ve just lost you, talk to your accountant about how to handle closing the year.
Removing accounts
A common theme that you’ll encounter across this book is that QuickBooks generally does not allow you to delete list items, such as accounts. You must instead mark accounts as inactive, subject to the following caveats:
The only way to permanently delete an account is to merge it into another account.
You cannot mark parent accounts that contain subaccounts as inactive until you edit the subaccounts and assign them to a new parent account.
Transactions remain intact within inactive accounts — which means that inactive accounts that contain activity will be included on your financial reports. You must, however, reactivate an account before you can edit any transactions within it.
Balance sheet accounts that you mark as inactive are automatically adjusted to zero with an offset to the Opening Balance Equity account.
Deactivating a balance sheet account that has a non-zero balance increases the risk that your income tax return may be filed incorrectly.
Here’s how to mark an account as inactive:
Choose the Gear icon ⇒ Chart of Accounts or Transactions ⇒ Chart of Accounts.
The Chart of Accounts screen opens.
Choose Mark Inactive (Reduces Usage) from the drop-down menu in the Active column.
In Advanced companies, this command is labeled Mark Inactive because there is no limit on the number of accounts.
Choose Yes, Make Inactive.
Conversely, here’s how to merge two accounts:
Choose the Gear icon ⇒ Chart of Accounts or Transactions ⇒ Chart of Accounts.
The Chart of Accounts screen opens.
Choose Edit from the drop-down menu in the Active column for the account that you want to keep.
Make note of the account name and detail type, and then click Cancel.
Choose Edit from the drop-down menu in the Active column for the account that you want to remove from your chart of accounts.
Edit the Account Name and Detail Type accounts to exactly match the account that you want to keep.
Ensure that any parent accounts you are merging do not contain any subaccounts, and that any subaccounts that you are merging share the same parent account.
Click Save and then Yes, Merge Accounts.
Any transactions in the account that you have chosen to remove are automatically recategorized into the account that you kept.
Implementing account numbers
By default, QuickBooks doesn’t use or display account numbers; however, you can enable this feature by following these steps:
Choose the Gear icon ⇒ Account & Settings ⇒ Advanced.
Click Edit in the Chart of Accounts section.
Toggle on the Enable Account Numbers option.
Click Show Account Numbers checkbox if you want to display the account numbers in QuickBooks.
Click Save and then click Done.
You can enable or disable these settings as needed at any time. Use the Batch Edit method I discuss in the “Customizing Your Chart of Accounts” section earlier in this chapter. After you add account numbers, you can sort the chart of accounts in account-number order by clicking the Number heading of the Chart of Accounts screen.
Click Save periodically as you enter account numbers in case you get pulled away unexpectedly. This prevents QuickBooks from signing you out and causing you to lose your work.
Importing accounts
You can replace the default chart of accounts provided by QuickBooks with one you’ve set up in Microsoft Excel, as a CSV file, or as a Google Sheet spreadsheet. The import file can include subaccounts and parent accounts.
Use the convention Account: Subaccount when establishing subaccounts, with Account representing the parent account.
Here’s how to import a chart of accounts:
Choose the Gear icon ⇒ Chart of Accounts or Transactions ⇒ Chart of Accounts.
Choose New ⇒ Import to display the Import Accounts screen.
Use the links to download a sample CSV or Excel file or to preview a sample Google Sheet.
