How to Use QuickBooks Online: Step-By-Step Guide

Once you’ve selected the relevant transactions, QuickBooks will download them automatically. Then, after your transactions have been downloaded, you’ll just need to approve how they’ve been categorized. Don’t worry – accounting for startup costs we’ve got all the help a new QuickBooks user needs in this simple-to-understand guide. The main user should be the “primary admin,” but you can add other admins or standard users (with customized levels of access).

Step 2: Enter General Information About Paying Your Employees

QuickBooks Online is one of the most feature-rich, but easy-to-use accounting solutions on the market, and can help to make the process infinitely smoother. Your “Account and Settings” menu includes the “Sales” and “Expenses” tabs, and beginners will need to add data to both these pages in order to allow the QuickBooks software to correctly generate reports. QuickBooks Online isn’t the only software out there for handling accounting and taxes, but our research does recommend it for most business needs, even above other top picks like FreshBooks or Zoho Books. See our overall favorites, or choose a specific type of software to find the best options for you.

How to set up and use the bank connection feature

Note that the system will require you to input year-to-date (YTD) payroll details and tax payments made for each employee later in the setup. Providing information about prior paychecks issued to employees before the beginning of your QuickBooks Payroll subscription is an essential step to ensure that your W-2 forms are accurate come year-end. QuickBooks Online will save you time and effort – but it works best when you keep it up to date. You should reconcile your accounts regularly (QuickBooks recommends doing so every month) so that your accounts reflect what’s on your bank and credit card statements. As Float pulls through real-time information from QuickBooks Online, regular reconciliation also ensures that your cash flow forecast is always accurate.

How do I set up a QuickBooks Online account?

If you want to print your purchase order, that option is at the bottom center of the screen (U). You’ll also notice an option to make the purchase order a recurring entry (V), which is helpful if you place the same order on an ongoing basis. If you need more than the two lines provided, you can add lines (F). You can also clear all the lines on this section of the purchase order (G) — but be sure you want to clear everything in this section before you click this button because there is no “undo” option.

If you click + Add New in the drop-down, you can create custom payment terms. For most businesses, January is the first month of the fiscal year, just like the start of the income tax year. A Live Bookkeeper cannot begin cleaning up your past books until they receive the required supporting documentation, which your bookkeeper will request from you after your first meeting.

Customize your Chart of Accounts

Learn about how manage inventory products and how to create an inventory product in QuickBooks Online. Robie Ann Ferrer is an HR expert writer at Fit Small Business, focusing on small business HR and payroll software content. She has over eight years of content writing experience, handling different topics. Robie also worked as an HR specialist for 10 years where she managed various facets of HR—from payroll and benefits to employee services and HR systems. Once you have completed all of the necessary information for each employee, you will see a list of employees on your payroll for the year. Review it carefully and make sure all of the pay details are correct.

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3. If you need to undo an entire reconciliation period, this can only be done in QuickBooks Online Accountant.
4. If you do get stuck, QuickBooks Online help is easily accessible from within the application, or you can check out the various QuickBooks Online training options offered by Intuit.
5. Purchase orders play a critical role in your bill reconciliation process.

With QuickBooks, it is very simple to track time as well as billable expenses incurred by employees or subcontractors. They can either enter it themselves using the QuickBooks mobile app https://www.personal-accounting.org/how-to-calculate-the-dividend-payout-ratio/ or submit it manually and a bookkeeper on your end can enter the details in the app. If you decide to start tracking it’s best to start using the Inventory feature from the beginning.

For salaried employees, you won’t see the hours worked, just the total amount due to be paid for that period. After you have completed setting up payroll in QuickBooks, you can now process your first pay run. After entering your employee’s name, you can provide their email address, which will allow them to enter their tax information (W-4) and bank account details directly into QuickBooks.

If you sell products, you need to collect sales tax (in most states). The first time you set up your account and click the Tax Tab, you’ll be guided through a setup module asking about where you sell your products. Before going any further, make sure you have your accounting method set (cash or accrual).

This lesson will teach you how to use these advanced features to automate complex accounting workflows and gain deeper insights into your business’s financial performance. QuickBooks will generate important reports that will provide you, your accountant, and your banker important insights into the financial health https://www.simple-accounting.org/ of your business. This QuickBooks tutorial will teach you the importance of and how to print the profit and loss report, balance sheet report, statement of cash flows, and A/R and accounts payable (A/P) aging reports. Most online payroll services offer an intuitive interface that makes payroll setup easy.

Spend some time looking at the different menus in the dashboard, getting to understand where you can find everything. Once you’ve set everything up and learned how the process works, it’s just a matter of checking in on a daily or weekly basis to make sure it’s all running smoothly. Once you have a handle on day-to-day use of the QuickBooks Online accounting software, try adding a few more tips and tricks to help you get the most out of the experience.