QuickBooks ® Online QuickBooks ® Online by Elaine Marmel QuickBooks® Online For Dummies® Published by: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774, www.wiley.com Copyright © 2015 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey 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 permit- ted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without the prior written permis- sion 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. 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Library of Congress Control Number: 2014954654 ISBN: 978-1-119-01604-5 ISBN: 978-1-119-01624-3 (ebk) ISBN: 978-1-119-01611-3 (ebk) Manufactured in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Contents at a Glance Introduction ................................................................ 1 Part I: Getting Started with QBO and QBOA .................. 5 Chapter 1: Introducing QBO and QBOA ..........................................................................7 Chapter 2: Embracing the QBO/QBOA Format ............................................................15 Part II: Managing the Books for the End User .............. 25 Chapter 3: Creating a Client Company in QBO ............................................................27 Chapter 4: Managing List Information ...........................................................................49 Chapter 5: Dealing with the Outflow of Money ............................................................67 Chapter 6: Managing the Inflow of Money ....................................................................85 Chapter 7: Working in Registers ..................................................................................109 Chapter 8: Handling Bank and Credit Card Transactions.........................................117 Chapter 9: Paying Employees .......................................................................................135 Chapter 10: How’s the Business Doing? ......................................................................155 Part III: Managing the Books for the Accountant ....... 169 Chapter 11: Setting Up Shop in QBOA ........................................................................171 Chapter 12: Adding Companies to the QBOA Client List ..........................................189 Chapter 13: Exploring a Client’s Company from QBOA ............................................209 Chapter 14: Working in a Client’s Company ...............................................................219 Chapter 15: Using Accountant Tools ...........................................................................231 Part IV: The Part of Tens .......................................... 241 Chapter 16: Almost Ten Things about the Chrome Browser Interface ...................243 Chapter 17: Ten Ways to Use Chrome Effectively .....................................................255 Index ...................................................................... 273 Table of Contents Introduction ................................................................. 1 About This Book ..............................................................................................1 Foolish Assumptions .......................................................................................2 Icons Used in This Book .................................................................................3 Beyond the Book .............................................................................................3 Where to Go from Here ...................................................................................4 Part I: Getting Started with QBO and QBOA ................... 5 Chapter 1: Introducing QBO and QBOA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 QBO for the Client and QBOA for the Accountant ......................................7 Understanding the Cloud ................................................................................9 Should You Move into the Cloud? ...............................................................10 System Requirements ...................................................................................11 Chapter 2: Embracing the QBO/QBOA Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 It’s All about Subscriptions ..........................................................................15 The Simple Start version .....................................................................16 The Essentials version ........................................................................17 The Plus version ..................................................................................18 Essentials and Plus with Payroll ........................................................19 What’s It Cost? ...............................................................................................19 Addressing Payroll Needs ............................................................................20 Where Add-On Apps Fit In ............................................................................22 Part II: Managing the Books for the End User ............... 25 Chapter 3: Creating a Client Company in QBO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Signing Up for QBO ........................................................................................27 Setting Up a New Company ..........................................................................29 Understanding the Home Page ....................................................................31 Establishing Company Settings ...................................................................36 Examining company preferences .......................................................36 Setting sales preferences ....................................................................37 Taking a look at expense preferences ...............................................40 viii QuickBooks Online For Dummies Examining options to receive customer payments .........................41 Reviewing advanced preferences ......................................................41 Updating the Chart of Accounts ........................................................42 Signing In to and Out of QBO .......................................................................46 Chapter 4: Managing List Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Adding New People to a List ........................................................................49 Importing People into a List .........................................................................51 Searching Lists for People ............................................................................56 Sorting a list ..........................................................................................57 Exporting a list to Excel ......................................................................58 Working with a batch of people .........................................................59 Changing Settings for People Lists ..............................................................61 Displaying Information for Other Lists .......................................................62 Chapter 5: Dealing with the Outflow of Money . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 Writing a Check ..............................................................................................69 Assigning a check to accounts or items............................................69 Writing a check for an outstanding bill .............................................72 Creating an Expense ......................................................................................74 Entering a Purchase Order ...........................................................................75 Entering and Paying Bills ..............................................................................78 Entering a bill .......................................................................................78 Recording a vendor credit ..................................................................79 Paying bills ............................................................................................83 Chapter 6: Managing the Inflow of Money . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 Preparing an Invoice .....................................................................................87 Recording a Customer Payment ..................................................................89 Preparing an Estimate ...................................................................................92 Converting an estimate to an invoice ................................................95 Copying an existing estimate .............................................................97 Entering a Sales Receipt ...............................................................................99 Giving Money Back to a Customer ............................................................100 Recording a credit memo..................................................................100 Issuing a refund to a customer .........................................................102 Creating Billable Time Entries ...................................................................103 Entering a single time activity ..........................................................103 Using a timesheet to record time ....................................................105 Adding a billable expense to an invoice .........................................106 Chapter 7: Working in Registers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 Understanding Registers ............................................................................109 Working with Transactions in a Register .................................................111 Entering a transaction .......................................................................112 Editing a transaction .........................................................................114 Finding transactions ..........................................................................114