Quickbooks Online for Dummies

Elaine Marmel is President of Marmel Enterprises, LLC, an organization that specializes in technical writing and software training. Elaine has an MBA from Cornell University and has trained more than 600 employees to use computer systems. Elaine 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: Introducing 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 10

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 29

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 45

Examining billing and subscription settings and usage limits 45

Setting sales preferences 46

Taking a look at expense preferences 52

Examining options to receive customer payments 53

Reviewing advanced preferences 54

Working with Multiple Currencies 56

How the Multicurrency feature changes QBO 58

Turning on the Multicurrency feature 58

Setting up currencies 59

Using multiple currencies 60

Updating the Chart of Accounts 63

Taking Advantage of QuickBooks Labs 69

Signing In to and Out of QBO 71

Chapter 4: Managing List Information 73

Importing People into a List 73

Adding New People to a List 79

Creating a new customer 79

Using customer types 81

Adding sub-customers 82

Searching Lists for People 83

Working with a particular person 83

Sorting a list 87

Exporting a list to Excel 87

Working with a batch of people 88

Changing Settings for People Lists 89

Working with Products and Services Items 91

Establishing categories 92

Setting up sales taxes 93

Adding service and non-inventory items 94

Creating an inventory item 97

Working with bundles 99

Changing item types 101

Using pricing rules 103

Adjusting inventory item information 104

A Look at Other Lists 109

Chapter 5: Dealing with the Outflow of Money 111

Writing a Check 113

Assigning a check to accounts or items 113

Writing a check for an outstanding bill 116

Creating an Expense 117

Entering a Purchase Order 119

Turning on the purchase order feature 120

Creating a purchase order 121

Working with partial purchase orders 122

Entering and Paying Bills 126

Entering a bill 126

About recurring transactions 127

Recording a vendor credit 131

When a vendor issues a refund check 132

Paying bills 134

Chapter 6: Managing the Inflow of Money 137

Managing Projects 137

Turning on projects in QBO 138

Enabling projects in Customer lists 139

Converting sub-customers to projects 139

Setting up a project 141

Adding transactions to a project 142

Projects and reporting 143

Getting Started with Sales Transactions 144

Customizing forms to handle subtotals 145

Preparing an invoice 147

Recording a customer payment 151

Managing invoice status 155

Working with estimates 157

Creating a progress invoice 164

Working with sales receipts 166

Giving Money Back to a Customer 168

Recording a credit memo 169

Issuing a refund to a customer 170

Creating Billable Time Entries 172

Entering a single time activity 173

Using a timesheet to record time 174

Adding a Billable Expense to an Invoice 175

Chapter 7: Working in Registers 177

Understanding Registers 177

Entering and Editing Transactions 182

Entering a transaction 183

Editing a transaction 186

Other Things You Can Do in a Register 186

Sorting transactions 186

Filtering transactions 187

Printing a register 189

Chapter 8: Handling Bank and Credit Card Transactions 191

Controlling the Appearance of Bank Accounts 191

Connecting QBO Accounts to Financial Institutions 192

Connecting  or not connecting 193

Connecting Bank or Credit Card accounts 193

When you can’t connect directly   199

Managing Downloaded Activity 204

Excluding transactions 206

Including transactions 207

When QBO guesses correctly   207

When QBO doesn’t know   207

Establishing rules to accept transactions 210

Fixing mistakes 215

Making a Bank Deposit 216

Reconciling a Bank Account 219

Chapter 9: Paying Employees and Contractors 225

Understanding the Employee Payroll Process 226

Getting Started with QBO Payroll (QBOP) 226

Turning on QBOP 228

Setting payroll preferences 232

Setting up payroll taxes 234

Preparing Payroll 236

Recording payroll information 237

Reviewing and generating payroll checks 237

Correcting payroll exemptions (without calling Tech Support) 240

Printing payroll reports 243

Managing Payroll Taxes 244

Paying payroll taxes 244

Preparing payroll tax forms 246

Paying Contractors 247

Setting up 1099 contractors 248

Paying contractors 250

Reporting on 1099 vendor payments 250

Preparing 1099s 252

Chapter 10: How’s the Business Doing? 253

Quickly Review Income and Expenses 253

Finding the Report You Want 254

Examining standard reports 255

Finding reports you customize 256

Taking a look at management reports 256

Searching for a report 258

Printing a Report 258

Customizing a report 259

Saving a customized report 263

Part 3: Managing the Books for the Accountant 267

Chapter 11: Setting Up Shop in QBOA 269

Signing Up for and into QBOA 270

Examining the QBOA Interface 272

Working with the Your Practice view 273

Working with the Your Books view 275

Setting Up Your Team 277

Controlling the Appearance of the Client List 281

Understanding and Using the Free QBOA Company 282

Working with the Sample Company 283

Closing Companies and QBOA 284

Working with Wholesale Billing 285

Signing up for Wholesale Billing 285

Adding existing clients to your Wholesale Billing subscription 286

Removing clients from your Wholesale Billing subscription 290

Working with your Wholesale Billing history 291

Stop using Wholesale Billing 292

Chapter 12: Adding Companies to the QBOA Client List 293

Adding a Client’s Company to the Client List 293

Having a client invite you to be the accountant user 294

Inviting a client to your practice 297

Transferring master administrator rights back to your client 299

Importing QuickBooks Desktop Information into QBO 302

General conversion considerations 303

An overview of what won’t import 305

Updating your edition of QuickBooks Desktop 308

Transferring data from a desktop company into QBO 309

After converting 312

Switching between Client QBO Companies 314

Chapter 13: Exploring a Client’s Company from QBOA 315

Opening a Client’s Company 315

Reviewing a Client QBO Company 316

Taking a look at the Client Overview page 316

Examining company setup information 319

Taking a look at the Chart of Accounts 322

Reviewing list information 326

Exporting and importing bank feed rules 327

Chapter 14: Working in a Client’s Company 329

Making Navigation Easy 329

Using keyboard shortcuts 329

Opening multiple windows 330

Working in two companies simultaneously 333

Examining Available Transaction Types 334

Searching for Transactions 334

Making Client Notes 336

Communicating with a Client 337

Chapter 15: Using Accountant Tools 341

Reporting and Paying Sales Taxes 342

Managing Your Practice 343

Understanding the Grid view 344

Creating projects and tasks 345

Updating task status 349

Editing and deleting project information 349

Working in the List view 350

Working in the Calendar view 351

Communicating with team members about work 352

Facilitating Accountant Activities 353

Understanding the Prep for Taxes page 353

Reclassifying transactions 356

Examining voided and deleted transactions 358

Writing off invoices 358

Closing the books 359

Reviewing reports 360

A brief look at other accountant tools 362

Part 4: The Part of Tens 363

Chapter 16: Almost Ten Things about the Chrome Browser Interface 365

Understanding Users 366

Windows and Tabs 367

Using the Omnibox to Visit a Web Page 368

Using the Omnibox to Search the Web 368

What’s the Star? 368

Examining the Chrome Menu 369

About Signing In to (and Out of) Chrome 370

Creating a Google account 370

Signing In to Chrome 372

Signing Out of Chrome 372

Using the Chrome Web Store 375

Selecting a Theme 377

Chapter 17: Ten or so Ways to Use Chrome Effectively 379

Setting a Home Page 379

Chrome and Security 381

Chrome and Privacy 382

Handling cookies 382

Chrome and JavaScript 383

Flash 383

Working in Incognito mode 383

Deleting browsing history 384

Reviewing miscellaneous privacy settings 386

Using Google tools to manage privacy 387

Using Bookmarks in Chrome 387

Creating a bookmark 387

Displaying the Bookmarks bar 388

Importing bookmarks 389

Managing bookmarks 390

Duplicating and Pinning Tabs 392

Using Chrome on Multiple Monitors 393

Working with Chrome Users 394

Adding a Chrome user 394

Opening a different user 395

Switching to a different user 396

Removing a user you no longer need 396

Zooming In and Out 397

Downloading Files 398

Appendix A: QBO, Quickbooks Desktop, and Data Conversion 399

Index 417