How To Use QuickBooks Online
Introduction
QuickBooks Online is a cloud-based accounting software that allows you to manage your business finances. You can use it to pay bills, track invoices, record payments and deposits, and more. The ability to access data online means that you have real-time updates on your financial status without having to wait for paper documents or other forms of information.
Get comfortable with the QuickBooks Online dashboard
The QuickBooks Online dashboard helps business owners succeed by providing a single source of truth. Everything you need to measure KPIs and metrics lives in one easy-to-find place. You’ll also be able to easily forecast your business performance, using automated data and machine intelligence to help you meet your targets and benchmarks. In addition, QuickBooks’ financial dashboards help you determine pricing parameters, based on profitability objectives. The main metrics to find on the dashboard include cash flow, profit and loss, expenses, invoices, bank accounts, and sales. This is a quick resource for you to get an overview of the important parts of your business bookkeeping.
Add your company information
Add your company information
The first step is to add your company information. This includes:
Company Name (i.e., "Your Company Name")
Company Type (i.e., "Sole Proprietorship" or "Partnership")
Address (this can be the same as the address you used for bank account verification)
Type of service of products offered by your business
Tax ID Number if applicable; otherwise, leave this blank until you have a Tax ID#
Customize your Chart of Accounts
The Chart of Accounts is the first thing you'll see when you log into QuickBooks Online. It's a list of all the accounts that make up your company's financial statements, including Assets, Liabilities, Equity, and Income. These are also known as 'balance sheet' accounts because they reflect your business's balance at a given point in time.
QuickBooks Online makes it easy to customize your chart of accounts before importing data from another system or manually entering transactions for your business startup. You can create new accounts or delete existing ones if needed—just click on Edit List at the top right corner and choose which action you'd like to take from there!
Connect your bank and credit cards
Banks and credit cards are the easiest way to import your transactions into QuickBooks Online. Once you've connected your bank account, you'll be able to import all of the bank transactions that take place in it. Similarly, if you've got a credit card connected, all of its transactions will be imported as well.
To add either of these accounts:
Click on Bookkeeping (the toolbar on the left side)
Click "Bank Transactions" from the menu bar
Then choose “Link Account”
Enter your login information for both your bank and/or credit card provider (e.g., Citibank or Chase Bank).
Categorize your transactions
To categorize a transaction, you'll need to first choose the appropriate category in the drop-down menu. You can then add a description and an amount, which will be added to your bank account balance. If you'd like to leave the transaction uncategorized, click on the “Uncategorized Expese” or “Ask my Accountant” category. Just remember, you will need to categorize these transactions eventually, so don’t forget about them.
If you're using Rules, there's no need for this step, your transactions will already be assigned automatically by default as soon as they enter into your accounting system. But, always be careful, because sometimes the artificial intelligence of QuickBooks makes mistakes. So always double check to make sure things are being categorized correctly!
Set up payroll
To get started, you'll need to import your employees into QuickBooks Online. This includes gathering information about their names, dates of birth, and Social Security numbers. Once this is done, you can set up your payroll tax tables. You'll also want to set up your withholding tax tables so that each employee's paycheck is accurate and appropriate for the taxes they pay each year. If you're using a professional office manager or HR person to handle all of this for you, then they will be able to do all of these things on their end before handing over the information necessary for QuickBooks Online (QBO).
Once the employee details are entered into QBO's system and the employee paychecks have been created with all relevant deductions included (e.g., FICA), it’s time for you as an owner/manager/boss to review how much each person should be paid per hour and what percentage of their total earnings should be put aside as FICA withholding so that both federal income tax returns will be filed appropriately later on down the line when April 15 rolls around again next year! The good news about setting up QBO payroll is that it isn't too difficult - but there are some basic steps involved in getting everything setup properly before moving onto other tasks such as creating budgets & forecasts.
Reconcile regularly
Reconcile your bank statement regularly. The first step to reconciling your bank statement is to add all of the transactions that appear on it to a register in QuickBooks. This can be done all in QuickBooks by categorizing your transactions in the bank feed. Once you've added any new transactions from your bank statement, select Reconcile from the bookkeeping tab; if there are no variances in your bank balances, you should get a big green check mark which means everything is balanced and reconciled. If there is a discrepancy, you will need to find the mistake. This can be a difficult process, so you might need to contact a professional bookkeeper if you need help reconciling your accounts.
Don’t forget to reconcile your credit card accounts and your loans. You should be receiving and saving a monthly statement from your credit card company and the bank where you get your loans. Always make sure your ending balances match their statements so you know you don’t have any errors!
Generate your profit and loss statement
After setting up your business, you can create and run a profit and loss statement. A profit and loss statement is used to track the performance of your business and make decisions based on this data. The most common decision that you'll make with the help of a profit and loss statement is whether or not to take out a loan. When applying for loans, banks typically ask for one so that they can review how well your business is doing financially. To get funding from them, all you have to do is show them that your company has met certain criteria (such as having enough net income) by producing an accurate P&L report with QuickBooks Online.
The same goes for payments: if someone owes you money but won't pay up right away, generate a report showing exactly how much they owe so they know just how serious this issue really is!
Conclusion
We hope this article has helped you understand how to use QuickBooks Online. We know that it can be intimidating at first, but once you get started it’s quite straightforward. Once you have all your company information entered into the system and all your accounts connected, everything else is just a matter of plugging in numbers that show up on statements or receipts—no need for manual entry! Now go forth and manage your finances with ease!
