Navigating QuickBooks Online

Getting started with QBO can be overwhelming, especially if you're new to the platform. In this tutorial, we'll show you how to navigate QBO and make the most of its features so you can manage your business' finances with ease. Whether you're a business owner or accountant, understanding how to navigate QBO is essential to efficiently and accurately manage your financial transactions, invoices, expenses, and reports.

Dashboard

• Get Things Done

  • The Workspace provides quick access to different parts of QBO.

  • Pro Tip: The Workspace isn't used very often as it is very limited. You can access most of QuickBooks using the New+ Button, left hand menu, and the gear icon.

• Business Overview

  • The dashboard provides an overview of your business's financial health, including income, expenses, and profit and loss. You can customize your dashboard by adding or removing widgets to track the metrics that matter most to your business.

  • You can also quickly access your bank feeds and see all your bank balances.

Banking

• Banking

  • This is where where you can connect your bank and credit card accounts to import and manage your financial transactions.

  • Here you can view all of your connected accounts and their balances, as well as import and categorize your transactions. QBO automatically downloads your transactions from your bank and credit card accounts, which you can then review and categorize.

• App Transactions

  • From the App transactions page, users can quickly review, categorize, and reconcile transactions from their different sales channels, saving time and ensuring accuracy in their financial records.

  • Current sales channels include:

    • Amazon and Amazon Business

    • Ebay

    • Shopify

    • Square

• Rules

  • The Rules page in QBO allows users to automate the categorization of transactions based on certain criteria, such as the payee, description, or amount.

  • Use this page to create, edit, and manage the Rules.

  • Pro Tip: Use rules very carefully! While rules can be a helpful tool for automating transaction categorization in QBO, they should be used with caution. Creating rules without careful consideration of the criteria and outcomes can lead to mis-categorization and additional work to correct errors.

• Tags

  • The Tags page in QBO allows users to create custom tags to apply to transactions, providing additional context and organization beyond standard categories.

  • Tags can be used to track expenses for specific projects, clients, or departments, and can be filtered and searched to easily generate reports and insights.

• Receipts

  • The Receipts page in QBO allows users to easily capture, upload, and store receipts electronically, eliminating the need for paper receipts and reducing the risk of lost or misplaced documentation.

  • Use the receipt snap on the QBO Mobile App to make record keeping a breeze.

Sales

• Overview

  • The Sales Overview screen provides a quick line graph of your sales over time, as well as a visual of the inoivces that have been paid and unpaid.

  • You can also sign up for QuickBooks Payments on this page so your customers can pay you online.

• All Sales

  • All Sales page in QBO displays a detailed list of all sales transactions, including invoices, sales receipts, and refunds, providing a complete picture of sales activity.

• Invoices

  • Users can create, customize, and send invoices directly from the Invoices page, and track when invoices are viewed and paid by customers, streamlining the invoicing process and improving cash flow management.

• Estimates

  • The Estimates page in QBO allows users to create and send estimates to potential customers, providing an accurate forecast of potential revenue and a way to track leads and opportunities.

• Payment Links

  • QBO allows users to create custom payment links and QR Codes to share with customers, making it easy for customers to pay invoices online and improving cash flow management.

• Customers

  • This page provides a a comprehensive view of all customer information, including contact details, payment history, and open invoices.

• Products and Services

  • The products and services page is used to set up the products and services the business sells to add to invoices, estimates, and sales receipts.

  • Here you can track inventory stock, sales prices, mark items as taxable, map items to income accounts and more.

Cash Flow

• Overview

  • Provides a snapshot of the company's overall cash flow position.

  • Helps identify areas where cash flow can be improved by providing a detailed breakdown of cash inflows and outflows by category.

• QuickBooks Checking

  • Use this page to apply for a QuickBooks Checking account. The banking services are provided by Green Dot Bank.

  • If you open a QuickBooks Checking account you will use this page to:

    • View and manage all transactions related to their QuickBooks Checking account in one place.

    • Make transfers, pay bills, set up envelopes, and all other online banking functions.

• Planner

  • Allows users to create a cash flow forecast for the future based off the next 3 months of transactions.

  • Provides insights into future cash flow by allowing users to adjust expected inflows and outflows based on anticipated changes to their business.

  • Here you can adjust and play with the numbers without affecting your books. This can help you with budgeting.

Expenses

• Expenses

  • A list of all expense items including Purchase Orders, Bills, Expenses, Checks, Vendor Credits, and Credit Card Payments.

• Bills

  • Allows users to enter and pay bills, and track the status of bills.

  • Helps to ensure that all bills are paid on time and to avoid late fees.

• Vendors

  • Used to manage vendor information, including contact details, payment terms, and whether they need to be tracked for 1099s.

  • See all expense transactions by Vendor.

• Contractors

  • Allows users to manage contractor information, including contact details and payment terms.

  • Helps to ensure that contractor payments are made accurately and on time, and makes it easy to generate 1099 forms for tax purposes.

Projects (Only on Plus and Advanced)

• Provides job costing for individual projects.

• Can track labor costs, income, and expenses.

• Makes it easy to see project status and identify areas for improvement.

Payroll

• Overview

  • You will set up your payroll here.

  • Quick actions for payroll

  • Access to full paycheck list

  • Notification for overdue taxes

• Employees

  • Setup new employees

  • Update employee personal information, W-4, pay schedules, and pay types

  • Set up employee direct deposit information

  • Terminate employees and make inactive

• Contractors

  • Setup contractors to pay by direct deposits

  • Enter contractor information

  • Enter W-9 information

• Worker's Comp

  • Links to NEXT Insurance to set up and manage pay-as-you-go worker's comp

• Benefits

  • Link to SimplyInsured to offer health insurance plans to employees

  • Link to Guideline to set up 401(k) retirment plans

• HR Advisor (Premium and Elite)

  • HR Support Center with HR information and templates.

  • HR Support is provided by Mammoth

• Compliance

  • Payroll compliance information

  • You can find new compliance tax news and alerts here

Time

• Overview

  • Launch QuickBooks Time

• Time Entries

  • Quick view of employee hours worked without having to open QuickBooks Time

  • Mark Time billable for invoicing

Reports

• Reports

  • Access to all the financial reports

  • Favorite reports show at the top

  • Customize reports that are used regularly

  • Management report packages presented in a professional template

• Performance Center

  • Visual financial reports in graph form

  • Create custom graphs

Taxes

• Sales Taxes

  • Have QuickBooks calculate the sales tax based off of either the retail location or shipping location

  • Sales Tax setup and settings can be found here

  • Have QuickBooks automate sales tax rates or create custom rates

• Payroll Taxes

  • Pay and e-file payroll taxes

  • Payments tab to view and submit payroll tax payments to both Federal and State

  • Filings tab to view and file payroll taxes such as 941, 940, W-2s, and state tax filings

• 1099 Filings

  • Access to the 1099 tax wizard to create and e-file 1099-NECs and 1099-MISCs

  • View and print historical 1099s

Mileage

• Access to the QuickBooks mobile app to automatically record trips

• Record trips manually

Accounting

• Chart of Accounts

  • Access to your chart of accounts

  • Set up and manage new accounts

  • Create sub-accounts

  • Quick view reports

• Reconcile

  • Access to the reconciliation screen

  • Reconciliation reports and summarries

  • Some bank feeds will also provide access through bank statements. They can be found on this page