QuickBooks Online 2024 ProAdvisor Certification Reviewer

QUICKBOOKS ONLINE SOLUTIONS
Understanding client needs

Different clients, different needs
Clients will come to you with different business structures and various levels of experience. Some
may have used QuickBooks Online for many years while others may only just be starting out.
How can you and QuickBooks Online help?

As a ProAdvisor, you need to understand the unique needs of your prospective clients to offer the
best possible solutions for them. QuickBooks Online has many resources and checklists to help
you dive deep into their pain points and suit their requirements.
The QuickBooks Online ecosystem is constantly evolving to meet your needs.

Your current experience may differ from what you see here.
Getting to know the clients and tailoring advice is essential for a Certified ProAdvisor. By knowing
the client’s business and their needs, you can make sure they get the most out of QuickBooks
Online.
Discover and target the needs of your clients by using the Client Needs Assessment tool. This
model gathers the right information focusing on the Who, What, When, and How.
Effective and efficient client onboarding
The New Client Checklist is a handy resource for getting to know new clients, gathering the
New Client Checklist
required information to set up their subscription, and discovering their business needs to best match
them to a subscription level.
Download a copy of the [New Client Checklist] here to use each tab to discover your client’s
needs.
1. Client Profile
The client profile tab of the new client checklist covers the basic you need in order to set up
your client’s QuickBooks online subscription.
2. Needs Assessment
The Needs Assessment tab lists all the functionality your client may need from QuickBooks Online,
and helps you to understand their business better. If needed, you can use the links on the right to
explain certain QuickBooks Online workflows.
3. Features and Solutions

The Features and Solutions tab is designed to help you and your client identify the right subscription
that will best suit them.
The workflows you highlight in the Needs Assessment tab automatically appear in column
A and you can use column B to mark down any additional functionality they may require.
There will also likely be features they will want to include or discard at this point.
4. Mileage
If your client needs to track mileage, use this tab to collect their vehicles’ profile
information and help with the QuickBooks Online setup process.
5. QuickBooks Online Bookkeeping Onboarding Checklist

Use the checklist in this tab to gather any final additional requirements from your client.
Use the checklist in combination with the Client Onboarding project template that’s inside
the QuickBooks Online Accountant Work Center. Here, you can set up Projects with
subtasks and assign the tasks to your team members.
6. QuickBooks Self-Employed Profile

If your client requires the QuickBooks Self-Employed subscription, use the QBSE tab to
gather the additional information you need to set up the subscription.
To ensure that you have all the information to identify the right QuickBooks Online solution for
your client, dig deeper by asking them questions about how their business operates.
Asking the right questions—part 1
Use the questions below along with the Needs Assessment tab within the New Client Checklist.
1. Sales and Accounts Receivables

The Sales and accounts receivable section within the Needs Assessment tab relates to the
transactions relevant to your client’s customers. In this section, you’ll get a better idea of
client requirements for estimating, invoicing, price levels, and sales-tax circumstances.
Does your client need to invoice for their product or service, or is their income generated
solely based on payment at point of sale? Do they provide estimates for projects that come
their way?
2. Expenses and Accounts Payables

In this section, you’ll get a better understanding of the client’s expenses.
The questions to ask often revolve around your client’s vendor transactions. Do they offer
products for which they need to buy components? Did your client acquire a loan to set up
their company? If so, how are they making the repayments on the outstanding amount?
This part of the checklist covers their payment preferences, outstanding loans, petty cash
limits, and reimbursable expenses, among others.
3. Employees and Payroll

This section focuses on expenses related to the client’s workforce.
Is the business run solely by the owner or are there employees (and therefore payroll
requirements)? How many employees does your client have? Do they offer a retirement
plan or any other employee benefits? How do they track their time?
4. Other Expense-Tracking Needs

Your new client may also have to track other expenses, such as mileage. Or they may want
to keep an eye on their income to anticipate income tax.
Ask your client what their current method for keeping track of their taxes is. If they’re self-
employed, they may not know that estimating their taxes is a handy feature of QuickBooks
Online Self-Employed.
5. Other Daily Operation Needs

Does your client hold stock? How do they keep track of their inventory?
If your client has inventory, they may want to include inventory tracking. If this is a
requirement, you can discuss with them how QuickBooks Online and/or third-party apps
can help.
6. Industry-Specific Needs
Asking the right questions—part 2
Businesses in different sectors will have different needs. Clients may need QuickBooks
Online with third-party apps enabled to track e-commerce sales, or manage their logistics,
manufacturing, shipping, point of sale, or many other variables such as their personal
billable time.
7. Specialized Application Needs

As a ProAdvisor, use your knowledge of the QuickBooks Online ecosystem to identify
when a client might benefit from an additional app to fully cater to their needs. From cloud
storage to time-tracking, there’s an app for just about everything.
8. Reporting Needs
This section of the New Client Checklist probes how your client runs their reports. Which
reports work best for them? How often do they run and analyze their reports?
As an additional feature, if the client has employees, they may wish to add users to their
accounts who have reports-only access.
9. Any Other Requirements

Don’t forget to ask your client whether there’s anything else they may need that you
haven’t yet covered or asked. They may already have an accounting solution they wish to
convert to QuickBooks Online.
10. Transaction Volume

This section assesses the transactional volume and scope of the client’s business. It may,
for example, indicate that a client with a high volume of data would require QuickBooks
Online Advanced.
Industry trends
While you need to ensure you understand each client’s specific requirements, you can anticipate
their industry-specific requirements and pain points.
1. Professional Services
Managing cash flow is essential for these types of businesses because they incur expenses
before they receive payment, therefore time tracking and job costing are essential to ensure
profitability.
Minimum subscription
Pain points/needs How they can be solved
level
 Time-tracking features
Keeping track of time worked on  Unlimited time-tracking
Plus
each client/project only users
Keeping track of expenses related

Projects, Billable Expenses Plus
to each client/project
Billable rates by product/service Price Rules Plus
Billable rates by clients Price Rules Plus
Bill by appointment Google Calendar plug-in Simple Start
Automatically create invoices

Billing takes a long time Essentials
from unbilled activity
 Projects
 Uninvoiced Time report
Determining work in progress Plus
 Uninvoiced Charges report
Flexible customer statements Three types of statement Simple Start

 Projects
 Profit and Loss by
Determining client profitability Plus
Customer report
Scheduling QuickBooks Time apps.com
2. Contractor / Field Services

These clients are always out and about in the field, so don’t have a lot of time for
bookkeeping. They need solutions that let them stay on top of their books, wherever they
are.
level
 Time tracking features

Keeping track of time worked on  Unlimited time tracking
Plus
each project only users
Keeping track of labor costs per

Projects Plus
project
Keeping track of expenses related

Projects, Billable Expenses Plus
to each project
Billable rates by product/service Price Rules Plus
Billable rates by customer Price Rules Plus
Calculating labor costs for each

Projects Plus
project
Automatically create invoices

Billing takes a long time Essentials
from unbilled activity
 Projects
 Uninvoiced Time report
Determining work in process Plus
 Uninvoiced Charges report
Flexible customer statements Three types of statements Simple Start

Progress invoicing Convert estimates into invoices Simple Start
Work orders Purchase Orders Plus
Scheduling QuickBooks Time apps.com
Keeping track or payments subject
Contractors tab/1099 wizard Simple Start
to Form 1099-MISC reporting
3. Retail and E-Commerce

Understanding cash flow and balance sheets is especially important for retailers and
resellers, who must manage sales and inventory on top of being ready for the tax cycle.
Managing inventory and avoiding out-of-stock situations is critical for retail and e-
commerce customers.
level
Keeping track of inventory
Inventory feature Plus
quantities on hand
Keeping track of sales tax Automated sales tax Simple Start
Customizable sales forms Custom form styles Simple Start
Import of sales from  Import invoices
Simple Start
ebsite/point-of-sale system
 Batch-enter transactions
Advanced
Import PayPal sales transactions Connect to PayPal Simple Start

 Purchase orders
 Preferred vendors
 Show items table on
Purchasing Plus
expense and purchase
forms
Know best-/worst-selling products Sales by Product/Services report Simple Start

Multiple store locations Locations feature Plus
4. B2B Wholesale Business

Wholesale businesses rely on knowing their inventory at all times. They also need to keep
track of all the logistics that go with shipping orders of all sizes, from sales forms and
invoices to store locations and agreements with shipping companies.
level
Keeping track of inventory
Inventory feature Plus
quantities on hand
Customizable sales forms Custom form styles Simple Start
Import sales from third-party apps Import invoices Simple Start
 Purchase orders
 Preferred vendors
 Show items table on
Purchasing Plus
expense and purchase
forms
Know best-/worst-selling products Sales by Product/Services report Simple Start

Plus (up to 40) Advanced
Multiple store locations Locations feature
(unlimited)
Plus (up to 40) Advanced
Track sales by rep Classes or custom fields
(unlimited)
Flexible customer statements Three types of statements Simple Start
Sales orders Estimates Simple Start
Keeping track of different types of
Customer types Plus
customers
Assign different price levels to
Price Rules Plus
different groups of customers
Integration with shipping
Third-party apps apps.com
companies
5. Non Profits
Nonprofit and charitable organizations need to track the expenses of various programs and
funds. Donations have to be tracked both in and out when allocated to various branches of
the charity.
QuickBooks Online seeks to help make keeping track of donations, pledges, and other
funds quick and simple.
level
Keep track of different types of
Customer types Plus
donors
Track various program revenues
Projects Plus
and expenses
Change Customer label to
Nonprofit-specific nomenclature Simple Start
Donors in Advanced Settings
Keep track of pledges Invoicing Simple Start
Keep track of donations Sales receipts Simple Start
 Classes/Locations
Keep track of different  Chart of Accounts Plus (up to 40) Advanced
services/funds structure (unlimited)
Import invoices (Simple Start) or

Import donations from third-party
a third-party app like Connect to Varies
apps
PayPal
Professional-looking reports for
Management reports Simple Start
board presentation
Profit and Loss and Balance
Sheet titles changed to Statement
of Activities and Statement of
Nonprofit-specific reporting Simple Start
Financial Position when Form
990 is selected as Company type
in Advanced Settings
You’ve just completed a meeting with a new client and have established that they need the
Knowledge check
following capabilities:
- Keeping track of time worked on each client/project
- Keeping track of expenses related to each client/project
Which 2 subscription levels would provide these capabilities through QuickBooks Online?
 Simple Start
 Essentials
 Plus
 Advanced
Check Answer
That’s right.
Plus would be the minimum subscription, and Advanced has all the capabilities
of Plus, and more.
In some cases, new clients likely have accounts in the QuickBooks Desktop program, in files in
Migration
Excel, or maybe in another accounting software. They need help migrating their data into
QuickBooks Online.
There are three ways to get information into QuickBooks Online:
 Convert data in existing QuickBooks Desktop software

 Import customers, vendors, charts of accounts, and products and services lists from Excel
 Enter all data manually
Alternatively, there are apps that can help import other lists and transactions.
Detailed steps on how to migrate learners from QuickBooks Desktop are part of the Advanced
level QuickBooks Online training, but it’s good to have an overview. Select the links below to find
out more about migration.
Accountant’s Guide to Convert QuickBooks Desktop to QuickBooks Online

Setting up new clients and converting clients to QuickBooks Online
ProAdvisor tip
Remind clients that a key benefit is that QuickBooks Online is cloud-based, so (unlike standalone
bookkeeping software) it can be accessed on any device. One migration means effortless access
from anywhere, anytime.
Getting it right
QuickBooks Online subscriptions
As a ProAdvisor, one of the first things you’ll do for your new clients is help them choose the right
QuickBooks Online solution for their business. With the many different levels of subscriptions
available to them, they might find selecting an option confusing.

QuickBooks Online offers a range of subscription levels to meet the needs of all clients. As a
ProAdvisor, you can help to ensure that they get maximum value from their QuickBooks Online
solution.
he QuickBooks Online ecosystem is constantly evolving to meet your needs.

The different subscription options
QuickBooks Online offers five different subscription plans:
 Self-Employed
 Simple Start
 Essentials
 Plus
 Advanced
For you to be able to advise your clients on the right subscription, you need to understand all the
features available. We’ve therefore set up all QuickBooks Online Accountant “Your books”
subscriptions as QuickBooks Online Advanced.
Having access to QuickBooks Online Advanced allows you to use and understand the value of
all the features available in any subscription level. It’ll also help you advise clients on best
practices using these features or consult those considering adopting QuickBooks Online
Advanced.
QuickBooks Online Plans and Pricing
ProAdvisor tip
Clients also have the option to upgrade or downgrade their QuickBooks Online subscription.
Before doing so, it’s important to highlight to them the features that they will lose by downgrading,
to make sure this is the right option for them.
Each subscription level in QuickBooks Online is designed for a wide range of users, whether they
Usage limits
are busy e-retailers, architects, or contractors. However, each subscription level also has limits.
What are the usage limits?
As the table shows, the usage limits vary according to the level of subscription.
How do I see a client’s usage?
It's recommended that you keep track of your clients' usage to help them keep their accounts
optimized. To do that:
1. Open your client’s QuickBooks Online

2. Select the Gear icon
3. Select Account and Settings
4. Select the Usage tab
Billable users
Billable users are admin, standard, and custom users. You can see that this client has
three out of a possible five users in their QuickBooks Online Plus account.
Chart of accounts
The chart of accounts is the backbone of accounting software. All assets, liabilities,
income, and expenses are recorded here in an account or subaccount. This client has got
plenty of scope to increase their chart of accounts entries if they need to.
Classes and locations

Location tracking and Class tracking let you track your income and expenses in
QuickBooks Online Plus or Advanced. Class tracking specifies a different class for each
detail line of a transaction. Location tracking allows you to assign a location to an entire
transaction.
Tags and tag groups

Tags are customizable labels that let you track transactions however you'd like. You can
tag invoices, expenses, and bills. Group tags together and run reports to see how specific
areas of your business are doing. They don't impact your books. Instead, they're a way for
your team to track the info that matters most to you.
You’ll learn more about setting up clients with classes and locations in our Advanced
Certification training.
ProAdvisor tip
Remember you can use the New Client Checklist as a tool to help analyze clients’ needs and
recommend the appropriate QuickBooks Online subscription.
Billing options
Additional wins
Whichever QuickBooks Online solution your client chooses, they want value for money and
flexibility in how they pay for their subscriptions.

QuickBooks Online offers flexible billing options, and with our ProAdvisor Preferred Pricing
program, both you and your clients can gain discounts.

With our ProAdvisor Preferred Pricing program, you can offer your clients exclusive discounts on
ProAdvisor Preferred Pricing
subscriptions to QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Online Payroll, and QuickBooks Time.
And it’s not just your clients who can benefit. Because you’re a valued partner, we want to make
sure you continue to receive the best pricing on QuickBooks Online. That’s why our ongoing
QuickBooks Online discounts are only available through ProAdvisor Preferred Pricing for
accounting professionals like you.
Regardless of whether your clients pay for their subscription directly or through you, with
ProAdvisor Preferred Pricing, you can pass along any pricing discounts to your clients.
ProAdvisor tip
How you charge your client is up to you. Some firms build the cost into their monthly fee, while
others separately charge a software fee or subscription fee.
Discounts with ProAdvisor Preferred Pricing

When you subscribe to our ProAdvisor Preferred Pricing program, you can offer your clients
exclusive pricing discounts.
What discounts can you offer your clients?

With the ProAdvisor Preferred Pricing program, you can give your clients the following discounts
off their QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Payroll, and QuickBooks Time subscriptions:
These discounts are available whichever way you or your clients pay for their QuickBooks Online
subscription—the only difference is the duration of the discount period.
If you pay for your client’s QuickBooks Online subscriptions:

Youthis
Will can affect
offer your
clientclients our ProAdvisor
currently on wholesalediscount.
discount?With this option, your client will benefit
from the pricing discounts for the duration of their subscription,
We know how important an existing agreement is in business. with
That’s thewe’ll
why option to cancel
continue to at any
time. You’ll be billed monthly—and you’ll get an itemized view of
honor the 50% off wholesale discount for subscriptions enrolled before the launch of the all your billed
subscriptions for easy tracking.
ProAdvisor Preferred Pricing program.You can decide how to pass the cost on to your clients—it’s up to
If your client
ProAdvisor tippays their QuickBooks Online subscription fees directly:
You can offer them ProAdvisor
Find out more here: a Direct discount on theirPricing
Preferred subscriptions for a limited time. The discount rates
are exactly the same as with our ProAdvisor discount—the only difference is that each discount is
valid for 12 months from the date of enrollment. The subscription fee then reverts to the listed
monthly charge for the service.
Knowledge check
With our ProAdvisor Preferred Pricing, what percentage discount off the list price of a
QuickBooks Online subscription can you offer your clients?
 up to 20%
 20%
 30%
 Up to 50%
Check Answer
That’s right.
Our ProAdvisor Preferred Pricing program lets you offer your clients 30% off
the list price of QuickBooks Online Simple Start, Essentials, Plus, or
Advanced.
The right value of your services

The Client Overview screen
Before taking on a new client, you should review their books to estimate how long it might take
to complete the clean-up and the ongoing work for them.
However, this might take several hours, and overlooking mistakes during the initial review could
lead you to underestimate the amount of work and underprice your services.

You can easily gain an overview of a client’s books in the Client Overview tab. This gives you a
snapshot of a client’s books and helps you price your services with confidence and
win the client’s business.

Exploring the Client Overview screen

The Client Overview screen offers collapsible sections for:
 Company Setup
 Banking Activity
 Common Issues
 Transaction Volume
The Company Setup section indicates the complexity of the client’s QuickBooks Online company. It shows
the client’s subscription level, whether they subscribe to a Payroll product, and whether they have Sales tax
enabled.
It also shows the number of apps that the client has connected to their QuickBooks Online.
It’s important to know which apps a new client might be using to fully understand their workflow. You’ll
want to review this on a regular basis.
The Banking Activity section shows the register balance of each bank and credit card account in
QuickBooks. The register balance is the balance from the end date of the register, which could
include transactions dated in the future.
In the Banking Activity tab, we see the checking account, merchant account, and payroll checking
account displayed.
The bank balance comes from the Banking Center and shows the balance reported the last time the bank
connected to QuickBooks. By selecting the name of the checking account, you can view the transactions in
the bank register.
You can see the number of unreconciled transactions and the date the books have been reconciled through
using the Reconcile tool in QuickBooks Online.
The Common Issues tab is where you’ll see some diagnostic information about the condition of
the data in QuickBooks Online.
Here, you can check:
 The number of uncleared transactions in the Undeposited funds account register

 The balance in the Opening Balance Equity account, which should always be zero
 Any transactions that QuickBooks Online has automatically categorized to the Uncategorized asset accounts
If there’s a balance in Undeposited funds, you can view the activity associated with that balance
by selecting the balance amount. This opens the register.
Select the Uncategorized asset account to view transactions that have been categorized to this
account.
In this case, it looks like there are two sales receipts deposited to the Uncategorized asset account
instead of to Undeposited funds!
Adding deposits without assigning an income account is a common issue among new users of
QuickBooks Online. Such transactions will appear in the Uncategorized asset account.
Just like the Uncategorized income account, most often transactions coded to the Uncategorized
expense account are added from the Banking Center without being assigned an expense account.
The Opening balance equity account should always be zero in QuickBooks Online. If you see a
balance here, it’s most likely because an amount was entered in the opening balance field during
the creation of a new customer, vendor, Balance Sheet account, or inventory product.
The Negative asset and liability accounts section displays the number of accounts that have a
balance contrary to their normal account balance (for example, a negative bank balance).
The Transaction Volume tab shows a grouped overview of the number of transactions for the
client for the last 30 days. However, you can change the date range to view the volume of
transactions for periods longer than 30 days.
This tab offers you a clear view of the client’s workload.
ProAdvisor tip
The Client Overview is a great feature for accountants, but clients with a QuickBooks Online
Advanced subscription can also access it.
Knowledge check
What are the key benefits of the Client Overview tab? Select all that apply.
 Concise subscription information

 Recent banking activity stats

Early indications of banking errors
 Outstanding task reminders
Check Answer
That’s right.
The Client Overview offers at-a-glance information that you can use to see the
client’s subscription level and recent banking activity. It also helps you
spot potential errors.
The QuickBooks Online ecosystem

More help at hand
QuickBooks Online makes it easy to manage all the core accounting needs of clients. However,
there are situations where you might want to use additional tools to address client needs.

QuickBooks Online is more than an accounting application. It’s a platform with an ecosystem of
apps that you and your clients can use to create a fully customized solution.

QuickBooks Online is an open platform, so developers can create apps that integrate with it. This
The benefits of apps
allows data to flow easily from the apps into QuickBooks Online—making it even more useful.
For instance, clients can use an app to connect their webstore to QuickBooks Online so that
customer data from the webstore feeds into QuickBooks Online.
Only apps approved by Intuit are listed in the QuickBooks Online Accountant Apps tab and/or
the QuickBooks App Center at apps.com. To be approved, apps must meet strict requirements
and undergo a rigorous testing process.
The benefits of using apps:
1. Reduce data entry: Some apps automatically collect and input data, reducing manual
entry errors and eliminating inefficiencies caused when entering data into multiple
programs
2. Solve industry-specific tasks: Specialized apps solve industry- and client-specific pain
points such as sales force management, estimation, and job costing
3. Streamline workflow processes: Apps can offer robust features that optimize common
business processes such as inventory management, shipping, and e-commerce or field-
service management
4. Expand business insight: Customizable reporting apps offer user-friendly dashboards
and graphics that improve visibility into performance metrics and provide deeper
business insights
5. Security and/or the separation of duties: Some apps will allow the ability to add
information to QuickBooks Online without giving access to sensitive company
information
Selecting the right app

With so many apps available, it can be hard to know which one best meets your clients’ needs.
Fortunately, there's plenty of information available to help you find the best app for any given
situation.
1. Browse App Listing

Start your app research by browsing the tailored app carousels on the QuickBooks Online
Accountant Apps tab or apps.com. In the QuickBooks Online Accountant Apps tab, you
can search for apps recommended for clients or for accountants. On apps.com, see which
apps are trending, new, top-rated, featured, or specific to business types.
2. Browse App Categories

Apps are categorized by the problem they address. Select Browse category to filter apps
by these categories.
3. Read The App Overview
Click on any app to access the app overview screen. This explains the key benefits of the
app and provides examples of how it works with QuickBooks Online.
4. Read Reviews of the App

Check an app’s reviews to see how clients and other ProAdvisors rated it and what
comments they had.
5. Try it Out
You may also want to test the app yourself before you recommend it to a client. Most
apps in the App Center offer a free trial period without the need to give credit card
information. You can also request a demo of the app from the developer or sign up for a
webinar to learn about it.
Many developers offer partner programs, incentives, or special discounts for referring
your clients. These can be an additional revenue stream for your firm.
Note: Because it’s not recommended to test an app with a live QuickBooks Online
company, it’s best practice to create a trial company for testing purposes.
6. Check the Vendor’s Policies

Check if the vendor charges monthly or annually. Make sure you can answer any
questions your client may have about billing policies.
You can also read the privacy statement on the app’s website to find out how it shares
data with other parties.
7. Support from Vendor

Make sure you know what you need to do when setting up the app and troubleshooting
client questions, and what support the vendor can give you. Review your options for
getting direct support from the vendor.
What can you do to make sure the app is suitable before recommending it to your client?
Knowledge check
Select all that apply.

Read the reviews of the app from customers and other ProAdvisors
 Test the app yourself beforehand

 Download a demo file of the app through QuickBooks Online

Request a demo of the app from the developer
Check Answer
That’s right.
These are some of the many ways to learn more about an app. You can even test
apps out using a trial company or requesting a demo from the developer.
Client Onboarding
Onboarding workflow
Help clients get started
Before clients can fully enjoy the benefits of QuickBooks Online, they need help setting up their
company so that it works for them. A key responsibility of a ProAdvisor is onboarding clients
into QuickBooks Online in a way that’s right for their business.
QuickBooks Online Accountant has built-in tools to help you organize and track client
onboarding tasks, adjust the steps to the needs of your client, and allocate different tasks in the
onboarding workflow to other team members.
In this lesson, we’ll look at the key stages of the onboarding process.
Onboarding tasks
To get started with onboarding, head to the Work section in QuickBooks Online Accountant and
you’ll find a QuickStart template with a default list of tasks to help you through the onboarding
process.
The template includes a set of editable tasks and sub-tasks, and even builds in time to train and
coach clients.
Use it along with the data you gathered in the New Client Checklist to tailor your client’s
onboarding to their needs.
Onboarding steps
The steps in the QuickBooks Online Accountant QuickStart template for onboarding aren’t just a set of
tasks to check off, but a list of opportunities to add value and develop a great working relationship with
your clients.
1. Meeting the client and gathering information

By using the New Client Checklist and asking the right questions, you can more accurately scope
the client engagement, set expectations, and build a stronger collaborative relationship for the
upcoming onboarding process.
Once the contract is signed with the client, providing a detailed onboarding plan and
introduction to the onboarding team and agreeing on payment arrangements are key
ingredients for success.
Getting this right gives the client the reassurance they may need that they’re getting
expert advice.
2. Recommending the best QuickBooks Online Solution

A completed New Client Checklist will give you the information you need to recommend
the best QuickBooks Online solution for your client.
The completed Client Profile section will provide the information you need to complete
the client’s account settings for them. You can even request a copy of your client’s logo
to surprise your client with a customized homepage and sales template!
3. Customization
Whether you’re advising on a custom payroll setup, adding logos, or improving sales
form templates, you can demonstrate your value to clients by helping them to build the
best workflows for their unique business.
When setting up lists for businesses new to QuickBooks Online, review their current
customer/vendor lists to determine if you can utilize the current data to import into
QuickBooks Online or if you can tailor it to their needs with some adjustments to their
lists and categorization options.
4. Training and mentoring

As a skilled accountant bookkeeper, it’s a great idea to help clients help you by training
them in best-practice methods.
Training and mentoring also allow you as a ProAdvisor to highlight your value as a
subject-matter expert, not just in accounting best practice and requirements, but also in
how they should work in QuickBooks Online to get the best results.
It’s a great time to remind them to download the QuickBooks Online app so that they can
keep track of their finances on the go.
The sooner they’re confident in recording their day-to-day transactions, the sooner they’ll
see the value and time-saving benefits of QuickBooks Online and their trusted advisor—
you!
ProAdvisor tip
You can find resources to help train your clients in the Benefits tab in the ProAdvisor area inside
QuickBooks Online Accountant.
QuickBooks Online status updates
Since QuickBooks Online is an online product, it’s a good idea to make your clients aware of
potential issues related to outages as part of your client onboarding process.
How do I know if there’s an outage?

In the U.S., we continuously monitor QuickBooks Online for outages and slowdowns. If you or
your client experience issues, visit our status updates and incident reports page to see if there's a
service interruption. This site also provides details of scheduled maintenance on products and
services.
How can I get notified when it’s fixed?

If any of the products experience an outage or interruption, the banner will let you know what’s
happening.
By selecting the Subscribe button, you’ll be automatically sent an email when the service issue
is addressed and resolved.
Knowledge check
Where in QuickBooks Online Accountant can you find the QuickStart Onboarding
template?
 In the Apps area

 In the Work area
 In the Team area
 In the ProAdvisor area
Check Answer
That’s right.
The Work tab is where you can find the QuickStart Onboarding template. Use it to build an
onboarding process that’s customized to your client’s needs.
Your business, your needs

Chart of accounts
The chart of accounts is at the heart of any QuickBooks Online file. While QuickBooks Online
helps new clients choose a default chart of accounts when they sign up, not all charts of accounts
work for every business.
As a ProAdvisor, you can add value to your client by ensuring that their chart of accounts
reflects the reporting for their business.
There are several ways to edit a chart of accounts in QuickBooks Online to make it work for
your client. In this lesson, we’ll look at the different customization options.
Setting up a client’s chart of accounts correctly in QuickBooks Online means paying attention to
the business’s needs and business profiles.
The benefits of having a customized chart of accounts
For instance, the accounts for real-estate development, construction, retail, or property
developers have different accounting and reporting needs, and they might follow different
workflows. Some clients may not want accounts that do not apply to their business. Still, they
may need new accounts that are specific to their industry or unique to their business.
As a ProAdvisor, you can help them reflect this in the way you set up their COA. The aim is to
make sure that transactions and other data post to the appropriate accounts so that:
 Essential data is accurate and complete, providing insight into balances such as taxes and
cash flow
 Valuable and informative reports can be run for important decision-making (such as
which jobs are most profitable and which employees are most productive)
As well as adding accounts, edits to a default COA can include:
 Editing the names of default accounts

 Adding account numbers
 Merging duplicate accounts
 Making unused or redundant accounts inactive (you can’t actually delete an account)
ProAdvisor tip
You can also view examples and import sample charts of accounts using an industry-specific
Excel template. Find out more in this article about importing chart of accounts.
You might want to customize a client’s account numbering and hierarchies to create consistency
across all clients or to comply with the industry or the government’s accounting standards.
Adding account numbers
Before you can add numbers to a client’s account, you need to enable numbering.
Let’s see how to do that and add some numbers.
Watch the video to see how it’s done. The individual steps are below for you to follow.
To enable account numbers:
1. Select the Gear icon, then Account and Settings

2. Select the Advanced tab from the left
3. Select anywhere in the Chart of Accounts section to enable editing
4. Move the slider next to the Enable account numbers option. This affects all users in
your company
5. Next, check the Show account numbers option
6. Select Save
7. Then select Done
QuickBooks Online now allows account numbers in the chart of accounts.

It may automatically assign account numbers, but these can be changed if needed. To do this:
1. Select the Gear icon, then Chart of accounts

2. Select the Pencil icon above the Action column
3. In theNumbercolumn, enter the desired account numbers. These can be up to seven
digits long
4. When done, select Save
Editing account names
Sometimes it’s a good idea to make account names more appropriate or easily identifiable for
clients. This helps them avoid errors and posting to the wrong accounts when recording
transactions.
1. From the left-hand navigation, select Accounting and choose Chart of Accounts
2. Find the account to rename and in the Action column dropdown, select Edit
3. In the Account pop-up window, enter the new account name in the Name field
4. When done, select Save and Close
Merging accounts is a common practice when there are duplicates or two accounts used for the
Merging
same thing. accounts
Note that the merging process is permanent and can’t be reversed. Any transactions in merged
accounts are also merged and will appear under one entry in reports.
1. From the left-hand navigation, select Accounting, then choose Chart of Accounts
2. Find the account to be merged in the list, and in the Action column dropdown,
select Edit
3. In the Account pop-up window, copy the exact Name of the account by highlighting,
right-clicking, and then selecting Copy
4. Close the pop-up window
5. Next, back in the Chart of Accounts list, find the other account to be merged. In
the Action column dropdown, select Edit
6. In the Account pop-up window, paste the Name of the previous account by highlighting,
right-clicking, then selecting Paste
7. Next, select Save and Close
8. To confirm that you want to merge the accounts, select Yes
These accounts are now merged in the Chart of Accounts.
When setting up a client file, you may want to make default accounts inactive. This helps keep
the chart of accounts tidy and prevents clients from posting transactions to the wrong or a
Makingaccount
redundant accounts inactive
by mistake.
QuickBooks Online lists inactive accounts as deleted on reports. However, transactions in
inactive accounts remain part of the company data. They would appear on reports if the
transactions were posted to the account when it was active.
1. From the left-hand navigation, select Accounting, then choose Chart of Accounts
2. Find the account to be made inactive and in the Action column dropdown, select Make
Inactive
3. Select Yes to confirm
By default, inactive accounts are not visible from the Chart of Accounts. To make an account
active again:
1. In the Chart of Accounts screen, select the small Grid Gear icon above the Action
column
2. Check the Include inactive option
3. Find the account you want to make active again, and select Make active from the Action
column
Account-editing limitations
Because QuickBooks Online requires some default accounts to carry out essential functions,
customization has certain limitations.
Knowledge check
Which of the following options are true regarding editing a chart of accounts? Select
all that apply.
 You can’t make an account active once it has been made inactive
 All transactions are deleted from an account if you make it inactive
 Merging accounts isn’t possible for all account types

Transactions posted to merged accounts are also merged
 Account numbering can’t be undone
Check Answer
That's right.
Not all accounts can be merged because some are essential to QuickBooks Online functionality.
For accounts that are merged, the transactions are also merged under a single entry in any related
reports.
You know that a chart of accounts is made up of lists of data detailing a client’s business. Many
Products
clients and
are likely services
to have really long lists, and this all needs populating and then managing in
QuickBooks Online. This can be a challenge for clients, especially in larger businesses.
Setting up the Products and Services list with prices, descriptions, and purchasing information
for the range of offerings for a business saves significant time when it comes to entering
transactions. It also provides precise sales data to help make business decisions.
If you can get your clients into good habits managing their Products and Services list early on,
it’ll be easier for everyone in the long run—including you!
The Products and Services list contains the items that will appear on your client’s purchase and
Types
sales of products
transactions. Each itemand
mustservices
be mapped to an account in the chart of accounts.
Each time an item is used in a transaction, the appropriate entry is added to the list behind the
scenes.
In QuickBooks Online, you’ll have four item types to choose from:
Inventory (in QuickBooks Online Plus and Advanced only)

These are products that are bought and sold, and where it’s necessary to track quantities on hand.
You must subscribe to QuickBooks Online Plus or Advanced to use this feature.
Non-inventory
These are products bought and sold where it isn’t necessary to track quantities on hand, such as
small parts used in the installation or delivery of a product.
Service
This includes services that are provided to customers, such as an emergency service call or other
labor.
Bundle
This is a collection of products and services that are sold together, such as the installation of a
product that includes both labor and materials.
Products and services settings

When issuing estimates and invoices to customers, it’s important to see the breakdown of
different types of labor and materials.
To customize the fields and columns on sales forms, select the Gear icon and then Account and
•Settings. In the Sales column
Show Product/Service tab, youoncan turnforms:
sales someThis
options onmust
option and off.
be selected to use Product/Service
items on sales forms. Deselecting this setting will limit clients to adding only descriptions to each line
item of a sales form and will use the default product or service item defined by QuickBooks Online.
• Show SKU column: Select this option to add a column to track SKU numbers to sales and purchase
forms.
• Turn on price rules: Select this option to enable the Price Rule feature in QuickBooks Online Plus and
Advanced subscription levels. This feature allows clients to create special pricing for different types of
customers and products/services.
• Track quantity and price/rate: This option adds the quantity and rate columns to sales and purchase
forms.
• Track inventory quantity on hand: Select this option to turn on the inventory-tracking feature in the
QuickBooks Online Plus and Advanced subscription levels.
ProAdvisor tip
You can change the sales settings at any time by selecting the Grid Gear icon at the top right of
any sales or purchase form in QuickBooks Online.
Importing products and services

As with customer and vendor lists, you can import products and services lists from a spreadsheet
into QuickBooks Online.
To ensure that you have the Products and Services list in the correct format before you import it,
first download the template supplied by QuickBooks Online.
1. Select the Gear icon and then Import data

2. Then select Products and Services
3. Select Download a sample file to get a preformatted Excel template to create the
Products and Services list
Note that you can also import data from Google Sheets.
You can give this list to your client and ask them to delete the sample data and populate
the columns with their data. Alternatively, you can ask them to change their existing
spreadsheet to correspond with the sample spreadsheet. Pay attention to the naming
conventions, how the columns are ordered, and the fields that can be imported.
Note that you don’t have to have all of the data in the spreadsheet because you can add it
later (this includes income accounts).
When the spreadsheet is ready, it’s time to import it:
1. Go to the Products and services tab in the Sales Center

2. Select the arrow next to New, and select Import
3. Next, select Browse
4. Find the spreadsheet to be imported and select Open to upload it
5. Select Next
6. Check the data-mapping fields and confirm you mapped correctly. Then select Next
7. On the next page, select the correct income accounts from the chart of accounts in
the Income Account column dropdowns
8. Once this is done, select Import
You can remap products and services or any other field at any time by selecting Edit from
the Products and Services screen.
Adding a preferred vendor

Your clients can assign purchase items to a preferred vendor when creating purchase orders and
bills.
1. Select Sales in the left-hand navigation, then select Products and services
2. Select Edit in the row of the product that is to be assigned a preferred vendor
3. Scroll down in the Product/Service information drawer and in the Preferred
vendors dropdown, either select the vendor or select Add new and add the vendor and
select Save
Let's not worry about the company details; we can add these later.
4. Select Save and close
Knowledge check
If your client was selling a combination of products and services, such as a computer
service, IT support for a year, and a pack of USB sticks, which option would you
select when setting up their product and service items?
 Non-inventory
 Bundle
 Inventory
 Service
Check Answer
That’s right.
A bundle is a collection of products and services that you sell together.
Adding extra lists

Depending on your client’s needs, you can set up other lists for them. To see the available lists, go to
the Gear icon and select All Lists.
1. Payment Methods
This displays cash, check, and any other ways you categorize payments you receive from
customers. This way, you can print deposit slips when you deposit the payments received. Some
examples of other payment methods are ACH and EFT. Also, you may want to have payment
methods for each type of credit card accepted.
2. Terms
This displays the list of terms that determine the due dates for payments from customers, or
payments to vendors. Terms can also specify discounts for early payment.
3. Attachments
This displays the list of all attachments uploaded. From here, you can add, edit, download, and
export your attachments. You can also see all transactions linked to a particular attachment.
Adding customers
Getting the ball rolling
To help your clients track sales and start invoicing, you or they need to add their existing
customers to QuickBooks Online.
How can QuickBooks Online help?
QuickBooks Online gives you and your clients a great set of tools for managing their customer
details. You can start with the basics by adding customers individually, or speed up the process
by importing them as a list.
Customer details
When you set up a new customer, you can decide how much information you want to record
about them.
You can start by entering the basic customer information (such as name and contact details), but
it’s a good idea to enter as much information as possible. This helps you fully utilize the power
of the QuickBooks Online database when creating reports and working with your list data.
In the Customer Information screen, seven tabs allow you to add additional details.
1. Address
The Address tab allows you to have different billing and shipping addresses.
2. Notes
The Notes tab is where you can enter notes about your customer, such as products, specifications,
or shipping account info.
3. Tax Info
This is where you indicate whether the customer should be charged sales tax, and select a default
tax code. If the customer is tax exempt, you could also store the customer’s resale number in the
Exemption details field.
4. Payment and Billing

The Payment and billing tab is where you set preferences for payment method, preferred invoice
delivery method, and terms.
5. Attachments
The Attachments tab is where you can associate a document with the customer. This could be a
contract or a customer resale certificate.
6. Additional Info
The Additional Info tab allows you or your clients to select a customer type.
7. Language
This is where you capture the language preference for the customer.
Adding a new customer
Let’s see how to add a new nonprofit customer to a QuickBooks Online company.
1. Select Sales from the left-hand navigation

2. Select the Customers tab
3. Select New customer
4. Enter the customer details
As a nonprofit, this customer is not taxable, but the reseller number needs to be added.
5. Select Tax info
6. In the Exemption details filed, enter the customer’s reseller number
7. Then select Payment and billing
Importing a customer list

Using the import tool makes adding customer lists a breeze. QuickBooks Online uses the same
import process for external client lists such as products and services, customers, and vendors.
First, make sure you have the customer list saved on a local computer. We recommend
downloading the Customer List sample file as a template, then copying and pasting your client’s
customer data into each of the columns. Once you’ve correctly formatted the Excel data, you’re
ready to go.
1. Go to the Sales Center

2. Select the Customers tab
3. From the dropdown next to New customer, select Import customers
4. Select Browse to find and upload the customer list
5. Select Next
6. Check that each QuickBooks Online field is mapped correctly to the fields on the
spreadsheet
There may not be customer information for every field. You can tell when a field is
mapped because the line will have a green checkmark next to it.
Don’t enter anything in the Opening Balance field because this will make adjustments to
the General Ledger for each customer on import.
7. When done, select Next
The Import screen displays the data before importing it into QuickBooks Online. You can
make changes here if necessary.
8. Then select Import
The imported customers appear in the Customers tab of the Sales screen.
Knowledge check
Once you’ve imported a customer list, where will you find the newly added customers
in the client file?
 Under the Customers tab in the Sales Center

 By running an Accountant report
 Under the Customers tab in the Expenses Center
Check Answer
That’s right.
If your import was successful, you’ll see all of customers listed under the Customers tab in the
Sales Center.
More setting up
Adding vendors
To process bills and record purchases, your clients first need to set up their vendors in
QuickBooks Online.
QuickBooks Online gives you and your clients a great set of tools for managing their vendor
details. You can add vendors individually, or speed up the process by importing them as a list.
Vendor information
Payments to vendors are money-out transactions. By setting up vendors, clients can quickly enter
vendor bills and include information such as the remit-to address and the due date. This will then
pre-populate this information on the purchase forms.
Having vendors set up also allows clients to keep track of expenses by vendor and run reports to
see where and on which items or services they are spending the most money.
When adding a new vendor, add as much information as you can about them in the Vendor
Information screen. Let’s look at what information you would need about them.
1. Company and individual name: The Display name as field is populated with the First, Middle, or
Last name, or the Company name, depending on which is entered first. You can change the
Display name as field by selecting the down arrow and choosing the preferred option.
2. Print on check as: This field automatically populates, based on the Display name as field. If the
payee is different, remove the check and enter the correct name.
3. Address (also known as the remit-to address): this is where payments will be mailed.
4. Email, phone, mobile, fax, website: Enter these contact and website details.
5. Cost rate, Billing rate, Terms: The default payment terms are entered here. The cost rate only
appears if the client is using Projects and the vendor is not being paid via expenses, or if the
vendor bills as a contractor on a daily rate billable to the client.
6. Opening balance: This field records the beginning balance for a new vendor. In almost all cases,
it should be empty. When an amount is entered here, QuickBooks automatically creates a journal entry to increas
Entering amounts into this field is typically not recommended because you won’t capture any
details about the bills that make up the balance (such as the category or product/service items).
7. Account number: Enter the vendor’s account number. This will show up on the memo on the
check.
8. Business ID/Social Security Number: Here you store the tax ID number (Employer Identification
Number or Social Security number) of a vendor. This number is used when creating Forms 1099-
MISC.
9. Track payments for 1099: This selects the vendor to be used in the 1099 wizard when creating
Forms 1099-MISC.
Adding a vendor manually
Let’s see how to add a vendor manually to QuickBooks Online.
1. Go to the Vendors tab in the Expenses Center

2. Select New vendor
If this is the first vendor you add, you are taken straight to an easy entry screen.
3. Enter the name of the vendor in the Company field and add the other details, including
their address, email, and phone
4. In the Terms dropdown, select the terms agreed with the vendor. In this case, it’s Net 30
5. Make the Opening balance zero
6. Enter the as of date
7. Finally, select Save
Importing vendor lists

A quicker way of bringing your clients’ vendors into QuickBook Online is by importing them in
bulk from a spreadsheet. The option to import data is available both from the Vendors tab
in Expenses or from the Import data option from the Gear icon, in much the same way as it is
with customers and products and services.
You can import vendors from Excel, CSV, or Google Sheets files.
Knowledge check
Which options are true about the journal entry QuickBooks Online creates if you add
a new vendor with a non-zero opening balance? Select all that apply.
 The journal entry will increase accounts payable

 The journal entry will decrease the Opening Balance Equity account
 Details about the bills will be recorded automatically
 The journal entry will increase the Opening Balance Equity account
Check Answer
That’s right.
The journal entry will increase Accounts Payable and decrease the Opening Balance Equity
account.
Entering amounts into this field is not best practice because they are not recorded when the
journal entry makes the adjustment, so you won’t capture any details about the bills that make up
the balance (such as the category or product/service items).
Syncing with the bank

Setting up bank feeds
Being business accounts, all bank transactions (be they money-in transactions like invoices or
money-out transactions such as expenses) need to be reconciled. Reconciling the transactions in
QuickBooks Online to the company bank account is a vital part of keeping a company’s books
accurate and tidy. But how can your clients achieve this?
By having bank data fed into QuickBooks Online, clients can benefit from time-saving
workflows that will keep everything up to date and aligned.
The bank feed technology in QuickBooks Online imports bank data from your bank, allowing
you to add and match transactions to ones recorded in your QuickBooks registers.
This lesson looks at how to get connected.
Connecting bank accounts
To connect an account, clients need to:
1. Go to the Banking Center from the left-hand navigation

2. If it’s the first time there, select Connect, otherwise select Link account
3. Select the bank
4. Use the regular username and password to sign in (as for banking online)
You’ll want to do this with your client, so they sign in to their bank and preserve the
confidentiality of their banking password.
It might take a couple of minutes for the bank’s database to connect to QuickBooks
Online.
5. Select the bank account from the chart of accounts for the business that corresponds to
the account listed by the bank. If there isn’t a QuickBooks Online account in the list that
matches the bank account, just select Add New
6. Choose the account type, either bank or credit card, and choose a detail type
7. Give the account a name
8. Then select Save
It’s that simple!
QuickBooks Online connects to the account and (by default) downloads all the transactions for
the last 90 days.
New connection options

Certain banks can connect to QuickBooks Online using OAuth, allowing easier access to financial
accounts.
1. What is OAuth?
OAuth stands for open authorization. It means that your client no longer has to provide their bank
username and password after initial setup.
Instead, your client gives permission at their financial institution (FI) for QuickBooks
Online to access their account. Their bank sends QuickBooks Online a token that is used
to access their account. After that, QuickBooks Online can still securely access the
account even if your client changes their password, giving them a more reliable
connection.
2. Which banks are moving to this connection?

QuickBooks Online is working with individual banks to change the way it connects to
them.
The list of banks connecting to QuickBooks Online using OAuth is ever-growing. Here’s
the list of banks, with more exact dates and timelines for each bank.
3. Can anybody who has access to the bank website set up the new OAuth connection?
Some banks or financial institutions have restrictions on who can establish this new
OAuth connection.
The primary user for the bank’s website can always set up the connection, but delegate or
secondary users can’t always establish the connection.
This is not something you can do on your client’s behalf because it requires the sign-in
credentials for their bank or financial institution.
Find more information on setting up banking here.
4. How much historical data does the new connection bring in?
Conventional bank feed connections import 90 days of historical transactions by default.
With OAuth, it will vary by financial institution. The range will be between 30 days and
two years.
If your client needs more than what’s available for their financial institution, you can
download the transactions manually from their bank and import them. We cover how to
do that next.
If for some reason your client’s transactions aren’t feeding into QuickBooks Online
automatically, your client needs to import them manually.
Manually importing bank transactions
Before importing transactions into QuickBooks Online, you or your client first need to export the
data from their financial institution in CSV format and have it ready on a local drive.
1. Select Banking from the left-hand navigation

2. Select the down arrow next to Link account and select Upload from file
3. Select Browse
4. Drag and drop the file, or select the select files option
5. Upload the file containing the banking transaction. When done, select Continue
6. From the dropdown under QuickBooks Account, select the corresponding account from
the chart of accounts, then select Continue
7. Check the mapping of the different areas of the imported file, and make sure they’re
allocated to the right areas in the banking section of the QuickBooks Online file. When
done, select Continue
8. Check the boxes next to the transactions to import, then select Continue
9. To confirm the imports, select Yes, then finally select Done
The Banking Center is now populated with the transactions from the bank file.
If you need to import a bank file next month or into an established QuickBooks Online
company, repeat this process.
Knowledge check
How many days of historical data are carried over from a bank account that is
connected using OAuth?
 30 days
 60 days
 90 days
 Depending on the financial institution, between 30 days and 2 years
 Depending on the financial institution, between 90 days and 5 years
Check Answer
That’s right.
It used to be 90 days, but is now between 30 days and 2 years.
Bank feeds into QuickBooks Online perform an essential role in how your clients manage their
Managing existing connections
books. But what if something goes wrong with the connection? In these instances, you and your
clients need to understand how to get things flowing once more.
Run through the dropdowns, in order, to understand the steps to follow to recover a
disconnected bank feed.
1. Start the manual download

Once you, or your clients, spot that there seems to be a problem with the bank feed
transferring data into QuickBooks Online, the first thing to do is to attempt a manual
download to test the connection.
2. Check the bank or the credit card’s website
Assuming the manual download fails, the next thing to do is to see if the bank’s IT systems are
functioning by visiting the bank’s webpages and seeing if you can sign in.
If downloads seem slow or stuck, the issue may be at the bank’s end. Sign in to the bank’s
website to check. First, get the URL QuickBooks Online uses to connect:
a. Go to the Banking Center
b. Select Link account
Note: You won’t add an account, you just need the listed URL.
c. Search for your client’s bank and select it
d. Copy the URL listed for your client’s bank
e. Sign in to the bank or credit card’s website using the copied URL
If you can sign in, it’s a good sign that there isn’t a major issue. Do this next:
 Check the account for messages, notifications, or alerts

 Look for any display issues as you navigate the website. These can block QuickBooks
Online from downloading new transactions
 Check the bank’s website for any announcements about new security requirements
If everything looks good, go back to QuickBooks Online:
a. Go to the Banking Center

b. Go to the Banking tab
c. Select Update
3. Update the bank info in QBO

Did you or your client recently update anything on their bank’s website, like the account number,
4.username, or password?
Fix specific bank errorsIf so, update that info in QuickBooks Online as well:
Bank errors often block QuickBooks Online from downloading new transactions. Follow the
a.links
Go to
to the Banking
fix specific tab in the
download Banking Center
errors:
b. Select the tile for the bank account. Then select the Pencil icon
 c.Fix
Select Edit error
banking sign-in101info
 d.Fix
Update the info
banking errorsas102
needed
and 105
 Fix banking error 103

App transactions
QuickBooks Online now offers even greater flexibility by allowing clients to connect to and import
transactions from apps such as Amazon Business or Square.
By connecting a client’s business app accounts to their QuickBooks Online company and downloading
transactions, clients can see each transaction’s details imported from the connected e-commerce app
account. The imported detail includes the transaction date, customer name, product description, quantity,
purchase price, and any fee breakdowns. This makes integrating app transactions all the more valuable to
your clients.
ProAdvisor tip
Remember that you only need to import transactions for periods you haven’t yet reconciled in
QuickBooks Online. If you import more transactions than you need, don’t worry—you’ll learn
how to exclude them in a later lesson.
Special client onboarding tasks
Basic sales tax setup

Making sales tax less complicated
Clients who sell products and services need to ensure that they follow the tax regulations of their
states. However, with more than 40,000 different tax laws across the U.S., it can be a challenge
for clients to keep track of how much sales tax to collect every time they make a sale.
As a ProAdvisor, you can set up your clients’ sales tax information for the cities and states where
they do business. Then you can review their products, select a sales tax category, and identify the
type of product they sell.
Once the setup is complete, QuickBooks Online will automatically calculate the sales tax each
time the client creates an invoice or sales receipt. The sales tax is based on the location of the
sale and the type of product or service.
The Sales Tax Center is a one-stop shop where you manage all your sales tax tasks. You can:
About the Sales Tax Center
 See when tax payments are coming up
 View sales tax liability reports that you can customize by date, tax agency, and more
 Change sales tax settings, such as adding new tax-collection agencies if you start
expanding into new states
Before setting up a client’s sales tax, you should find out what their sales tax requirements are
for their business and locality. Some key questions are:
 Do they do business in more than one state?

 To what agencies do they need to pay their sales tax?
 What is their filing frequency?
Setting up a basic sales tax in QuickBooks Online
Let’s see how to set up sales tax.
1. From the left-hand navigation, select Taxes

2. Select the Get started button
3. QuickBooks Online already knows the client’s address because it was entered when we
created the QuickBooks Online company file, so select Next
4. Select the relevant agency for any tax rates shown, then select Next
5. Review your rates, changing them if needed, then select Save
6. QuickBooks Online tells us it’s set up sales tax for us
7. Select Continue to get an introductory tour
8. Either select View sales tax center or close the window
9. Select the reporting interval for each agency
Note that the reporting period adjusts.

10. Select Save, and we’re on the sales tax screen
Great work! That’s the first part completed.

You can support your clients by adding or editing sales tax agencies as the company grows.
Once the settings for the sales tax are done, the next step is to review the products and services
and select the appropriate sales tax category.
Selecting the right sales tax category
Let’s take a look at how it works.
Step 1
In the Product and Services screen, select Edit next to the item to open the pop-up window.
Select an option from the Sales tax category dropdown. If you know the item is either
nontaxable or always taxed at the standard rate, you can select one of those options.
If you know your item can sometimes be taxed differently, or you are unsure, select Choose a
special category.
Step 2
You can drill down into the different categories to select one that is most like what is sold.
Once you find a category that describes what is sold, select it.
Step 3
Selecting a heading opens up more options so you can get to the detail you need.
Step 4
You’ll see the category reflected on the item create screen, and QuickBooks Online will automatically
apply the correct sales tax rate based on where the item is being sold.
Applying the sales tax

Now that the sales tax is set up, clients can easily create their sales transactions. QuickBooks
Online will do the sales tax calculations for them, regardless of whether they’re selling to
customers in Alaska or Arkansas.
QuickBooks Online will do the sales tax calculations for them based on:
 The state where they’re registered to collect sales tax

 The physical address of the client’s business
 The customer’s physical address
 The customer’s sales tax status
 The tax category for the product/service
When sales tax is set up in QuickBooks Online, the heavy lifting is done for you! You can view
the calculated tax and adjust the sales tax settings right from the sales entry screen. You can
update the customer exemption status, view and update the sale location, and update the Tax
Categories and Totals applied to the sale. Watch the video to see how the calculation on each
sales transaction is worked out.
Note that by selecting the See the Math link on the invoice, a pop-up window opens up that
shows you how sales tax was calculated.
The Sales Tax Center

As clients collect sales tax from their customers, the Sales Tax Center will keep track of how
much sales tax they owe to each tax agency.
Let’s take a quick tour around its key features in another client’s QuickBooks Online.
Select each of the highlighted areas to find out more.
• Sales Tax Due
This is the total amount your client currently owes to one or more tax agencies.
• Tax breakdown area
Due this month: This shows taxes that are currently due, in other words, require more immediate
action.
Upcoming: This shows tax amounts being accrued for the following period.
Overdue: This shows taxes for which the due date has passed and no tax payment has been recorded
within the QuickBooks Online account.
• View return
When it’s time to file the return and for your clients to pay sales tax, this gives you the information you
need to file the tax return outside of QuickBooks Online.
Typically, you need to go to the state’s website to pay the tax and file the forms.
You then record the payment in QuickBooks Online so that it can be marked as filed and moved to your
client’s history area.
Record the payment in QuickBooks Online by selecting View return and then Record Payment.
• History
Here, you can review any returns that were previously marked as paid/filed within QuickBooks Online.
• Sales tax settings
Here, you can view and edit any tax agencies you have set up within your client’s QuickBooks Online
account, and add new agencies. A tax agency can be made inactive at any time by selecting the Edit
button next to it.
• Reports
There are shortcuts here to the Sales Tax Liability report and the Taxable Customer report. All other
reports can still be found using the Reports tab in the left-hand navigation.
• Shortcuts
Access anything that feeds into sales tax calculations, like customer addresses, product and services
lists, and more.
Knowledge check
Your client wants to review how much sales tax they paid last quarter.
Where will they find this information in the Sales Tax Center?
 History
 Sales Tax Liability report

Tax breakdown/Previously paid area
Check Answer
That’s right.
The History link is where you review any returns that were previously marked as paid/filed
within QuickBooks Online.
Setting up payments
Get paid faster
Trips to the bank to deposit customer payments take time and keep people from doing other
important tasks. And clients need invoices to be paid faster, and money transferred to their
accounts as swiftly as possible for improved cash flow.
QuickBooks Payments is the unique ACH debit and merchant service solution that is built into
QuickBooks Online. Once activated, clients can use it to send emailed invoices that enable
customers to pay online in an instant using the invoice’s payment button.
QuickBooks Payments overview

No matter how many payments per month your clients expect to receive, QuickBooks Payments help
make this a seamless process.
Key features
What are the Key Features Involved?
Clients pay a small fee per transaction processed. The merchant service plans include Amex,
MasterCard, Visa, and Discover. Once the client has applied for QuickBooks Payments, Intuit
will verify their details. If they’re approved, their merchant account will be created.
Once approved, your client’s customers can pay via an online invoice, just by selecting a Pay
Now button, or in person via a card reader.
Your clients can also accept payments from their customers over the phone if they have a signed
authorization form on file. Your clients also have the option to enter credit card or bank account
information directly in QuickBooks Online on the Receive Payment screen. Your clients can:
 Email invoices that contain a link, allowing customers to view and use Pay Now securely
 Have customers pay via credit card or ACH debit (electronic bank transfer) with the tap
of a button
 Accept payments in person or over the phone. QuickBooks Payments processes credit
card payments directly from the QuickBooks Online Sales receipt and Receive payment
 Use a card reader to receive payments in person via the mobile app
The Receive payment transaction, subsequent batched bank-deposit transaction, and even the
merchant service-fee transaction are all automatically recorded in QuickBooks Online by the
QuickBooks Payments service.
How long do payments take to reach client accounts?
Clients can sign up for next-day deposits to speed up payments so that all payments hit their
account the next day.
Select the link for more about the payments and processing schedules and the different options.
ProAdvisor tip
QuickBooks Payments means businesses can accept payments by credit card, Apple Pay, or bank
transfer directly from the invoice. QuickBooks Online automatically matches payments with
invoices to save time.
Setting up QuickBooks Payments

Clients need to sign up for QuickBooks Payments themselves. That is because the process forms
a contract. If you were to sign them up, you’d be signing the contract, not your client.
Let’s see how they can set up a new QuickBooks Payments account.
Note that there might be some variation in the steps if, for example, the bank account is already
set up in QuickBooks Online.
1. Select the Gear

QuickBooks icon,already
Online then Account and
populated settings
some fields. Check if the details are correct, and
2. Select
edit orthe
addPayments tab
more information.
6.3. In the QuickBooks
When Payments
done, selectNext section,
to move on select Learn more
4. Scroll down and select Get set up
7. Make changes or add details in the Personal info section too
8.5.When
Theredone,
are three sections
select Next to complete. Select Start in the Business info section
9. The last section is for connecting to the client’s bank. Select an account to link and sign
in to the account. Alternatively, select the Enter account info manually link and then add
the account and routing numbers
11. Finally, select Activate Payments
Connecting to an existing QuickBooks Payments account
QuickBooks Payments is also known as QuickBooks Merchant Services, Intuit Merchant
Services, or Intuit Check Solution. Clients that already have one of these accounts can easily
connect their QuickBooks Payments account to their QuickBooks Online.
If a client is on a Direct billed plan, they can connect their existing merchant account in
the Billing and Subscriptions tab in Account and Settings.
If a client is on a Firm billed plan, they need to contact Support to connect their existing
merchant account.
If a client needs help syncing or migrating their existing merchant account, in QuickBooks
Online Accountant select Help from the top right, then Contact Us and follow the instructions to
receive a callback from Support.
Note that the QuickBooks Payments account can be used with either QuickBooks Desktop or
QuickBooks Online. However, it won’t work with both simultaneously.
ProAdvisor tip
It’s recommended that the Primary admin of the QuickBooks Online company and the merchant
account connects QuickBooks Online to QuickBooks Payments.
If you have trouble with this step, contact the QuickBooks Payments support staff to map the
services together on the back end. If the applicant expects to process more than $7,500 per month
using QuickBooks Payments, call 866-827-9500 for special pricing.
QuickBooks GoPayment
For clients who are out on the road, a mobile point-of-sale app like QuickBooks GoPayment is
an ideal way to get paid fast.
With this add-on app, clients can accept payments on the go using their mobile devices.
Find out more about QuickBooks GoPayment: Processing payments in the GoPayment app
ProAdvisor tip
QuickBooks Online ProAdvisors get special rates on QuickBooks Payments, plus the same
discounts for clients. You can choose between pay-as-you-go or monthly pricing.
Find out more about rates here.
Knowledge check
When a client sets up QuickBooks Payments the first time, what sections do they need
to fill in? Select all that apply.
 Personal information
 Tax information
 Business information
 Company bank details
 User permissions
Check Answer
That’s right.
New clients need to fill in three sections: personal info, business info, and bank details.
Payment links: What and why?

Once your client has a QuickBooks Payments merchant account, they can create payment links
to make it quick and easy for their customers to pay for a product or service.
Payment links are single-use links that clients can send to their customers in emails or messages.
These links automatically expire once a customer has paid.
Payment links are great if your client expects their customer to pay straight away. If they have
payment terms with your client, or your client doesn’t need them to pay immediately, then an
online payment option added to their invoice would be better.
Clients should use the Payment links tab in the Sales menu to send payment links. When creating
a new link, clients can detail what the payment is for, its value, customer details, and payment
options.
Once they’ve created a link, they can copy it to a different email from the one detailed in the
link, or even paste it into a text message. It really is that flexible. They can also generate a QR
code on their phone that the customer can scan to pay immediately.
Once your clients have been using payment links for a while they can view a list of their issued
links to see their status. This view also allows for reminders to be sent, and a link can be edited
from the page, so long as the customer hasn’t viewed it.
Payment links are another great example of how QuickBooks Online can make your clients’
lives that much easier.
Taking the strain out of paying bills

The Melio Bill Pay experience
Your clients are busy people and will want to minimize the logistical overhead that comes with
their businesses. But the office needs to be run, vendors need to be managed, and bills need to be
paid.
Bill Pay, powered by Melio, is a free, integrated payment solution that allows QuickBooks
Online users to pay business bills in the office or when out and about. It makes managing cash
flow and paying bills easier.
The Bill Pay experience is available in QuickBooks Online Essentials, Plus, and Advanced. It’s
also available in QuickBooks Online Accountant (great for paying your practice’s bills).
The benefits of Bill Pay
Time is a valuable commodity for anyone running a small business. Bill Pay helps free up
precious time by taking on the logistics of sending payment to vendors.
Here’s just a taste of how it can help you and your clients.
Quick and easy

Clients can import and pay all bills from inside QuickBooks Online. This streamlines the
accounts payable process and helps the environment by saving paper.
Anytime, anywhere
They can also access the service via the QuickBooks mobile app, so can stay in control and pay
their bills even when they’re away from the office.
Flexibility
Clients can enjoy multiple payment options on the go, with the ability to send checks and ACH
payments to vendors quickly and easily. They can also control which account the payment is
made from by choosing between bank transfer, debit, and credit card.
Easy for recipients

Bill Pay also makes it simple for recipients, as there’s nothing to set up at their end. All they
need to do is enter the bank account information to pay bills online and balance books.
Never miss a payment

Clients can even schedule future bill payments automatically, so they’re sent right on time, every
time.
Putting it all together

Your clients can say goodbye to setting up payment reminders, juggling due dates, and incurring
late fees. Now they can enjoy greater control when paying bills and always know when and how
recipients will receive the money.
Let’s look at how to set up Bill Pay in QuickBooks Online and use it to pay a bill.
Setting up and using Bill Pay
1. Navigate to the Expenses Center

2. From the New transaction dropdown, select Bill
3. Complete the information for the bill payment, including the vendor, category,
description, and amount
4. Then select Save and schedule payment at the bottom of the screen
The Bill Pay setup wizard will load.

5. Select an option from the Choose how you want to pay screen
The options available are Bank account, Credit card, and Debit card. Note that credit card
payments are subject to a fee of 2.9%.
6. Select how you want to connect to your bank account. In this case, we select Connect
instantly and sign in to the online banking
There is an option to manually enter the account and routing number and verify with two
micro-deposits. Note that this may delay your client’s ability to use Bill Pay by a few
days.
7. Select Continue
8. Select the bank from the options and select Continue to proceed and enter
the login credentials
The bill is now ready to be paid.

9. Select the right payment account in QuickBooks Online
10. Select Link my bank account to establish the link for the payment
11. Now select the chosen method to use to pay the vendor
Choose either to send a paper check or set up a bank transfer if you have the vendor’s
bank account routing and account number.
Alternatively, select Ask vendor for payment details to allow the vendor to choose how
they would like to receive the payment and enter their email address, then select Next.
12. Set the date when the payment should be deducted. Notice that the estimated payment
delivery date will be displayed. Then select Continue
13. To leave an optional memo for the vendor, enter the note and select Continue
This will appear on checks and payment notifications.

14. Finally, review the payment and select Confirm and schedule payment
Once the payment is made, its payment status is visible in QuickBooks Online.
Tracking the status of bill payments
1. How to view its status?
To view the status of a bill payment, follow the steps below:
a. Navigate to the Bill Payment screen from the + New button

b. Select View online payment
2. Things the status will tell you?
The Payment details screen displays the following information:
 Which account paid the bill (1)

 The date QuickBooks Payments processed the payment (2)
 How the vendor will receive the payment (3)
 The estimated delivery date of the funds to the vendor (4)
Bill Pay FAQ
Let’s take a closer look at some of the most common questions about Bill Pay.
1. How is Bill Pay accessed?

Bill Pay is accessed from the Expenses page or from any bill in the Pay Bills list.
2. Does it cost anything to use Bill Pay?

Scheduling and paying bills right from QuickBooks Online via bank transfer or debit card is free.
Credit card payments carry a 2.9% fee.
3. How are bill payments made?

The payment method can be specified for each vendor, which can be either a direct deposit (in 1–
3 business days) or a paper check sent in the mail (in 5–7 days).
4. What if I don’t want to use Bill Pay?

The new Bill Pay experience is the default in QuickBooks Online. However, if you or
your client would rather continue to access the print check option or mark a bill as paid,
follow the steps below:
a. From the Expenses page, select Mark as paid from the Action dropdown
b. Select a bill
c. Then select Save and close from the dropdown next to Save and schedule
payment
ProAdvisor tip
Bill Pay powered by Melio is a great way to streamline the accounts payable process, even more
so when using the Receipt Capture feature.
Additional features of the Melio app

Although the new Bill Pay powered by Melio is integrated with QuickBooks Online, Melio also
has its own app. As a ProAdvisor, it’s worth knowing about the additional features in the Melio
app that aren’t currently available in QuickBooks Online. These include:
 Accountant Portal: You can access all your clients from one dashboard
 Approvals workflows: You can schedule payments, and then the client needs to approve
the payment before it is sent to the vendor
 Multiple Users: You can add other users that do not have access to QuickBooks Online
 Invoices: Vendors that use Melio can send their invoices directly into the Melio app
 Syncing: The Melio app syncs with QuickBooks Online, which means that bills entered
in QuickBooks Online will show in Melio, and bills entered in Melio will show in
QuickBooks Online
To find out more, visit apps.com or go to meliopayments.com.

ProAdvisor tip
The Approvals workflow is great for accountants as it shifts the final responsibility for making
the payment back to the client.
Which of the following charges apply when using the debit card option to pay bills?
Knowledge check
 0%
 1.8%
 2.2%
 2.9%
Check Answer
Paying bills via bank transfer or debit card is free.
That’s right.
Boost your QuickBooks Online

Adding apps for your clients
Many clients may have industry-specific needs, or require additional functionality on top of their
QuickBooks Online. They could benefit from integrating apps to capture data in a way that suits
their business and saves them (and you) time and money.
The App Center in QuickBooks Online Accountant allows you to choose from a range of apps
and add them to your clients’ QuickBooks Online. You can see and manage all apps connected
to your clients to better understand opportunities across your client base.
Who can add apps?
Apps can only be added through QuickBooks Online Accountant. However, not everyone with
access to a client account can add apps.
Whether someone can add or manage apps depends on their permissions.
As you can see below, both the Primary Admin and Full Access Team User can add apps to both
the firm’s books and a client’s QuickBooks Online but Basic users can’t.
You can access all app-related information from the Apps menu in the left-hand navigation of
QuickBooks Online Accountant.
The Apps menu
1. Finding apps
The Find apps tab is where you can browse through different categories of apps
available to clients and your firm.
You can search for apps in two ways: using the search box or the Browse category
dropdown.
2. Tracking client apps
The Client apps tab in your firm’s Apps menu shows the apps your clients are subscribed to. The
listing also details the status of the apps.
Assessing apps for your clients

Before you connect an app, make sure it’s right for your client. Selecting an app reveals more information
about it.
1. The Overview offers key information about the app and its benefits. There are usually
screenshots and videos to show how it works so you can get a feel for it.
2. The Pricing tab shows the pricing options of the app. Often there can be discounts for
multiple users or for company-wide subscriptions. Some of our most trusted partners also
offer accountant discounts when the firm is billed for client apps.
3. The Reviews tab gives a ratings snapshot and reviews from people who’ve used the app.
Assessing feedback from other QuickBooks Online users is a good way to see if an app
really does what it says. Reviews will often identify any current bugs or tell you how
much time can be saved by using the app for real.
4. By selecting Similar, you can find shortcuts to other apps that are similar, helping you
choose the one that best meets your client’s needs.
5. You can check out FAQs for answers to the most common questions.
6. The App information reveals more information about the app.
Here, you can find out who the developer is and how to contact them for help and
support. Before buying an app, it’s important to read the terms and conditions. You also
need to check the privacy policy. This is important because it specifies how your
information and data are handled or shared.
7. If, once you’ve reviewed the app, you feel it would suit your client, then select the Get
app now button to progress to the next stage of purchase.
Adding apps
Once you select the Get app now button, you’ll be taken to the next step.
1. If the app purchase is for your firm then you check this box.
2. If the app purchase is for a client, then simply select the business from the dropdown.
3. Once you’re ready, select Install.
Remember that, once the app is installed, you’ll need to take care to accurately map the
fields to QuickBooks Online, in much the same way you would when uploading lists.
Knowledge check
Who can add and manage app subscriptions for clients? Select all that apply.
 Firm Primary Admin

 Full Access Team User
 Basic team user
Check Answer
That’s right.
Primary Admins of the firm, lead accountants and Full Access team members can add and
manage apps on behalf of their clients.
QuickBooks Time and QuickBooks Online Payroll
The age-old challenge
For many of your clients, employing people is an inevitable reality of running a successful
business. For these clients, keeping track of their people’s time and running payroll are
significant and often stressful parts of the job.
QuickBooks Online integrates seamlessly with two other QuickBooks products: QuickBooks
Time and QuickBooks Online Payroll. Adopting these time-tracking and payroll subscriptions
can save clients time and money, allowing them to focus on their commercial priorities.
In this lesson, you can get an overview of their functions, benefits, and subscription options. For
more in-depth information, visit our separate training for QuickBooks Time and QuickBooks
Online Payroll.
Subscription benefits
Let’s look at some of the benefits of integrating QuickBooks Time and QuickBooks Online
Payroll.
1. Benefits of QuickBooks Time

a. Commercial benefits: Accurate timekeeping is a win–win for clients and customers
alike.
Clients can bill more accurately, and often more hours, because the application
captures all the time people work on a project. Clients can also use the app and its
data to gain insight into the true headcount costs of projects for improved job costing
and profitability.
Customers know that any headcount-related costs are not just estimated values and
are fair.
b. Operational benefits: Being cloud-based, QuickBooks Time offers easy access to
timesheets anywhere, and on any device. GPS tracking allows managers see who’s
clocking in and out, and where their people are, and the Geofencing feature
automates location-based reminders to people to clock in and out.
c. Management benefits: Timesheets integrate seamlessly with payroll, so all the
hassle of manually collecting, verifying, and submitting timesheets to payroll
vanishes, making running payroll and invoicing a breeze.
2. Benefits of QuickBooks Online Payroll
Different businesses have different payroll needs, and QuickBooks Online Payroll is
efficient and flexible to meet the needs of every type of business.
The solution supports the requirements of employees and contractors alike, calculating
deductions, filing and paying taxes, and managing 1099 e-filing for vendors. What’s
more, if your client subscribes to the Premium or Elite subscriptions of QuickBooks
Online Payroll, they get the equivalent QuickBooks Time subscription rolled into the
price!
QuickBooks Time provides a range of capabilities to subscribing businesses by splitting the

time-management processes into three logical steps.
Key features of QuickBooks Time
1. Capture
QuickBooks Time offers the flexibility to allow people to clock in and out in all common
types of workspace.
a. Manual Time Card is a traditional PC-based timesheet application suited to those
working at a
b. Time Clock is a feature of our QuickBooks Time mobile app. It performs in a
similar way to the Manual Time Card, but in a mobile-optimized manner.
c. Time Clock Kiosk is designed for workplaces such as restaurants, cafes,
warehouses, and factories, where people work shifts. It works off a mobile device at
the point of entry to the workspace.
d. Crew tracking is a mobile-based feature on the app that allows managers or team
leaders to clock their crews in and off on-site.
2. Manage
QuickBooks Time supports managers responsible for scheduling, monitoring, and
authorizing time with a range of useful tools.
a. Scheduling allows administrators (admins) to plan the work of the business and
assign tasks, appointments, and shifts to individuals.
b. Who’s Working allows admins and managers to monitor who’s clocked in and
where people are, using the GPS signature of their phone to plot their location and
location history on a map. It’s particularly useful when managing a mobile
workforce.
c. Reviewing, editing, and approving time is all performed on the app, either on a
mobile device or a PC.
d. Submitting to payroll allows approved timesheets to be exported and submitted to
third-party payroll applications or, if integrated with QuickBooks Online Payroll,
automatically transferred into the client’s larger QuickBooks Online ecosystem.
3. Analyze
Once your clients have QuickBooks Time up and running, and populated with data, the
app and its data become a powerful tool for identifying issues with the performance of
the business. Multiple reports, available to managers in both QuickBooks Time and
QuickBooks Online, offer a better understanding of the true headcount costs of running
projects, and of running the business.
Managers and admins can identify where people are forgetting to set their time as billable
on projects, and project costs can be analyzed in real time for more accurate future
pricing, or to renegotiate active projects that are running over.
All standalone and integrated subscriptions have a broad range of analytical tools, but
QuickBooks Time Elite, being optimized for running and managing projects, offers even
greater insight.
For more detail on the reporting and analysis options, review our dedicated courseware
on QuickBooks Time.
1. Standalone or integrated?
QuickBooks Time is offered either as a standalone or an integrated subscription.
QuickBooks Time subscriptions
Standalone versions of QuickBooks Time allow clients to export their timesheet data to
third-party payroll applications such as ADP and Paycor.
Integrated versions of QuickBooks Time are included with the equivalent QuickBooks
Online Payroll subscription and automatically transfer approved timesheet data to it.
2. Premium or Elite?
There are two levels of subscription available for both the standalone and the integrated
users.
a. QuickBooks Time Premium gives your clients all the functionality they need to
plan for, record, manage, and approve the hours their employees and contractors
work.
b. QuickBooks Time Elite includes all the benefits of QuickBooks Time Premium
as well as additional capabilities to improve project efficiency and profitability.
These include mileage tracking, Geofencing, timesheet signatures,
enhanced reporting, and (importantly) project estimates versus actuals
ProAdvisor tip
Accounting professionals who sign up for QuickBooks Online Accountant get a free
QuickBooks Payroll Elite subscription for their firm, which includes QuickBooks Time!
QuickBooks Online Payroll subscriptions are designed to be flexible to meet the needs of all of
your clients. The subscriptions have the option to include full-service features, which means that
QuickBooks Online Payroll subscriptions
the QuickBooks Payroll team fills in forms for your clients and manages the submission of taxes.
1. QuickBooks Online Payroll Core

QuickBooks Online Payroll Core offers all the features needed to prepare for and run
payroll. The subscription allows unlimited payroll runs, fulfills tax and other deductions,
and automatically pays state and federal taxes.
2. QuickBooks Online Payroll Premium
QuickBooks Online Payroll Premium offers all the functions of QuickBooks Online
Payroll Core but adds access to an HR support center and QuickBooks Time Premium
free of charge. It also offers other valuable enhancements such as automated tax
payments at a federal, state, and local level.
3. QuickBooks Online Payroll Elite
QuickBooks Online Payroll Elite has the features of the other subscriptions plus a free
subscription to QuickBooks Time Elite, protection from tax penalties, multi-state filing, a
personal HR advisor, and a number of other useful options.
ProAdvisor tip
Intuit rolled out a major improvement to QuickBooks Online Payroll by including auto pay and
auto file to all of its payroll subscription plans! Clients who previously subscribed to
QuickBooks Online Enhanced Payroll have been switched to the QuickBooks Online Payroll
Core plan. This eliminates the hassle of remembering tax payment and filing deadlines because
Intuit makes them automatically!
For QuickBooks Time, which subscription options can you choose from? Select all
Knowledge check
that apply.
 Standalone vs integrated
 Monthly billing vs annual subscription
 Premium vs Elite
 Desktop vs Online
Check Answer
That’s right.
You can choose between the standalone and the integrated versions, and the Premium and Elite
subscription levels.
The choice of subscription levels for your clients will depend on the nature of their varied
Signing your clients up to QuickBooks Time and QuickBooks
operations.
Online Payroll
Before signing your clients up to any of the QuickBooks Time or QuickBooks Online Payroll
subscription options, we recommend browsing through our training dedicated to each product.
You can gain greater insight into the inner workings of the applications and how to select the
right subscription for your clients.
Customizing sales forms
Stand out from the crowd
For your clients, getting their business brand out there among current and prospective customers
is important. Invoices are essential to any business as they are a part of the business process, but
they are also potential marketing tools to communicate a brand.
QuickBooks Online contains tools to customize sales forms, such as invoices to match your
clients’ branding, and they can be configured to offer your clients’ customers quick and easy
ways to pay.
Let’s take a look at how to customize invoices.

Customizing invoices
The default invoice template uses the standard monochrome template. Here, we’ll demonstrate
how to apply a new logo to the template, adjust the invoice to match the logo, and offer the
customer accelerated payment options.
1. In the client’s account, select the Gear icon, then Custom form styles
2. Select the dropdown next to New style and select Invoice
3. Select Make logo edits, then select Add a logo and upload the client’s logo
The logo now appears on the invoice.

5. Select the preferred option under the Size and Placement options to move and resize the
logo
6. To change the default template, select Change up the template
7. Select Splash on some colors to customize the highlighting on the invoice
Note that there is also an option to change the font of the invoice.
8. To customize what details of pricing, costs, or taxes appear on the invoice, select
the Content tab, and select the Pencil icon next to the section to edit. Check and uncheck
the relevant boxes
9. Select the Emails tab to choose which invoices appear in emails. Here, there’s an option
to select whether the customer sees Full details or Summarized details, and whether they
see the full invoice from within the email itself, or with the PDF attached
10. Select Done to save the changes
11. Next, from the arrow in the Action column next to the customized invoice, select Make
default
Now that the invoice is customized, clients can send it to their customers:
1. Select the Invoices tab in the Sales Center

2. Select Create invoice
3. Populate the invoice with the customer, terms, and the chargeable product/service
4. Add any comment necessary in the Message on invoice box
To see the invoice before you send it, select Print or Preview at the bottom of the screen.
5. When ready, select Save and send
6. Finally, select Send and close
That’s it. The client’s customer will now receive the customized invoice in their email account.
Let’s see howemailed

Viewing the invoiceinvoices
looks to the customer when they receive it in an email with the payment link.
Being able to pay directly from their email will help them manage their payments more efficiently.
The invoice within the email displays everything
the customer needs to understand. The customer
can see:
 Who the invoice is from

 The amount owed
 The payment due date
 What the invoice is for
 A Review and Pay button that takes the
customer directly to QuickBooks Online
Invoicing where they’ll be able to make the
payment electronically if they have signed
up for this facility
 The full invoice attached as a PDF
ProAdvisor tip
Clients can boost their payment speed to the next level by turning on QuickBooks Payments.
This gives their customers the freedom to pay their way because it accepts all credit cards and
free bank transfers—and they can pay directly in the Online Invoicing portal at the tap of a
button.
This unique Pay Now link ensures that payments are encrypted. It’s powered by technology from
the makers of TurboTax and Mint, so it’s secure and reliable.
As well as adding the logo to the invoices, how else can you customize an invoice?
Knowledge check
 Set a background watermark

 Add color to certain areas
 Set the size and position of the logo
 Change the font style and size
Check Answer
That’s right.
To bring the client’s invoices on brand you can add color, change the font, and change the size
and position of the logo.
Keeping everything safe and tidy

Managing client access
Your client may need to give their employees access to their QuickBooks Online to do their job.
However, their QuickBooks Online company contains a lot of information, and some of it should
be kept confidential.
QuickBooks Online has the flexibility to display company data in different ways to different
types of users, ensuring that some data remains inaccessible. You can help your clients set up
permission levels to allow the right level of access to different employees.

User permission settings

Some clients require employees in their company to manage or oversee parts of their business.
Perhaps they want them to just enter time, or review reports, or maybe enter expenses. Therefore,
clients will want permissions set up for the employees that will allow them to fulfill their role
without seeing things they shouldn’t.
There are four types of user permissions that you can set up.
Company administrator
This permission level gives access to all areas of QuickBooks Online, including settings and full
access rights to all other services the QuickBooks Online company subscribes to (such as Payroll
and Intuit Payments).
Standard user
You can control which areas of QuickBooks Online the user has access to.
Time-tracking only
This enables users to sign in to a special version of QuickBooks Online that only has timesheets.
This is where users fill out and change their own timesheets but don’t have access to other users’
timesheets.
Reports only
This enables users to sign in to a special version of QuickBooks Online that gives them access to
almost all reports, except Payroll and list reports that include contact information. (This is only
available in QuickBooks Online Plus and Advanced.)
ProAdvisor tip
QuickBooks Online Advanced subscribers have access to more robust user permissions and
roles. These are suited to the needs of more complex businesses, ensuring each team member
only has access to what they need to do their job. You can learn more about these user roles in
our specialized training on the QuickBooks Online Advanced subscription.
Let’s see how to change or add access rights.

Adding and managing user types
Let’s start with changing the user access for an employee to allow them to create and send
invoices.
1. Select the Gear icon, then select Manage users

2. From the Users tab, select Add user
3. In the new screen, select Standard user
4. Select Next
On the next screen, by selecting the different options on the left, more information
appears on the right about the access rights.
5. Check the Limited option and check the Customer box to give the employee access to
invoicing
6. SelectNext
7. On the new screen, answer some further questions about user settings
9. Add the Name and Email of the employee to give access to
10. Select Save
There’s a new entry in the Manage users screen. Note that the status is Invited. The
employee will get a notification email with a link. They need to follow the link to sign in
and get access.
Now let’s allow a new subcontractor to make entries to track their time.
1. On the Manage users screen, select Add user

2. This time, check the Time tracking only option, then select Next
3. In the Select employee or vendor dropdown, select +Add New
4. Enter the name of the subcontractor, and in the Type dropdown, select Vendor
5. Select Save and Next
6. Fill in the Name and Email fields for the subcontractor, then select Save
There’s another entry in the Manage users screen, and they both appear as Invited.
ProAdvisor tip
If your client has Payroll enabled, they can use the Payroll access checkbox when selecting
access rights to allow or restrict access to their employees’ salaries. This is useful if, for
example, an employee is responsible for creating invoices, but won’t need access to payroll.
Reports only user

The Reports only user has a very different view of QuickBooks Online from a full access user.
Select each hotspot to find out more.
Even if they are accessing the Reports Center from QuickBooks Online Accountant, a Reports only user
won’t see the Accountant Toolbox.
Reports only users can still add reports to Favorites.
There’s no left-hand navigation, and no + New function in the Reports only view. Everything they need is
in this view.
In order to focus on areas of the reports needed for each task, Reports only users can collapse report
sections to hide data until it’s needed.
ProAdvisor tip
Reports only users are perfect for nonprofit entities that need to provide reporting access to their
board members.
Please note that this feature is only available in QuickBooks Online Plus or Advanced.
Knowledge check
Where would you go in QuickBooks Online to manage user access?
 + New > New user

 Gear icon > Manage users
 Account and Settings > Allow access
Check Answer
That’s right.
This is where you can manage user permissions.
Switch between Accountant and Business view

In QuickBooks Online, there are two user views: Business view and Accountant view. You can
switch between them anytime.
The main difference is their appearance. Feature, menu, and button names are different, but the
actions in each view are identical in most cases. Some features are only available in one view or
the other.
1. Accountant View
As an accountant or bookkeeper, you’ll mostly use this view. It uses standard accounting
language and gives control over features like your client’s chart of accounts and other
features that are aimed at financial professionals.
You may choose to recommend your client also uses this view so that when discussing
their accounts you both see the same product navigation.
In all ProAdvisor training, we use the Accountant view.
2. Business View
Small business owners who use QuickBooks Online without the support of an accountant
or bookkeeper might prefer the Business view. This option simplifies the workspace so
that day-to-day tasks like sales and billing are easier. It also uses non-accountant terms
and allows them to do their accounting without learning complicated steps or processes.
3. How to Switch Views

Based on the information entered when QuickBooks Online is first set up, you’ll start in
either Business or Accountant view. Changing views doesn’t affect your clients’ accounts
or data.
To switch between the two views, select the Gear icon, then select Switch to
Business view or Switch to Accountant view.
Managing your Clients at Work
Managing the Client List

Keeping on top of the day-to day
As a financial professional, you may work with multiple clients. Switching between lots of
different client accounts and keeping track of their to-do lists and unique needs can be
challenging.

The Client dashboard in QuickBooks Online Accountant allows you to have a quick overview of
all clients and the progress of the end-of-period workflows. You can even add notes that all team
members with the right permission levels can

Client List
The Client List gives you a one-stop shop for all your client information—even clients who don’t
use QuickBooks Online.
Keep your client contact info, notes, and documents close at hand with a consolidated Client
List, and access client QuickBooks Online accounts and ProConnect Tax Online from one
location.
Select each of the highlighted areas to find out more about the Client List.
1. Banking
Check the status of the client’s online banking transactions.
2. Payroll alerts
If your client has an active QuickBooks Payroll subscription, you will be able to view
alerts regarding payroll runs and tax payments and filings.
3. Prep for taxes
Select Review Data from this column to open the Prep for taxes tool. You’ll be able to
quickly review balances and make year-end adjustments to your clients’ books. You can
also map the accounts in QuickBooks Online to the tax form lines and export balances to
ProConnect Tax Online.
4. Tax returns
Here, you can see any tax return information relevant to the client, including the status
of any return that has been started.
5. Lead
See which lead is assigned to each client.
6. Actions
Here, you can edit the client’s details, start Prep for taxes, create a tax return, or make
clients inactive.
Client details
Let’s take a look at the client details for a client.
1. Select Edit client to view or edit your client’s contact information, see details of their
subscription, and check which members of your firm have access to them.
2. The Notes tab allows you to capture notes created by your team. You can see who
created a note and when. Here’s how it works:
 When you add a note to the client file, it’s automatically stamped with the time and
original author
 Notes can be viewed and edited by all team members who have access to that
client
 Your client will never see notes added here
 You can include hyperlinks in notes to give your team fast access to relevant files
and websites
3. Any documents you or your client upload to their QuickBooks Online My Accountant tab
are stored in the Shared Documents tab. With documents saved in a safe and secure
location, there’s no more worrying about sharing confidential information over email or
wondering whether you’re looking at the right version of a file.
4. For important notes, add a star icon and filter them through here.
Adding notes while in a client file
The Notes tab in the Client List allows you to capture notes created by your team. However, you
can also add and view notes while you’re in your client’s books. To do this:
1. From the client’s file, select Accountant Tools, then Notes
You can see previous notes added via the client screen in date order, plus any pinned notes.
2. Enter your note in the Add a note field
The Who can see this? link shows which team members have access to this file and can see notes
created here.

By selecting the client’s name back in the Client List, you’ll see that the note you created within
the client file is here.
Your notes will automatically sync to this client details section in QuickBooks Online Accountant and are
only visible to you and your team.
Bookkeeping and month-end review
The Bookkeeping tab in the Client List gives busy practice owners an easy way to see the month-end
review status of each client on their Client List.
1. Progress tracking
Progress tracking in the Client List makes it easier to identify roadblocks before the end of the
month and provides additional support to bookkeepers who need it.
There are three stages to the month-end review:
 Transaction review
 Account reconciliation
 Final review
You can see the status of each stage as either:

To do
Waiting
Done
2. Month-end review drawer

Month-end review is designed to help firms create a consistent and best-in-class monthly process
for closing clients’ books.
You can drill down into the detail of a client’s month-end review status by selecting one
of the Month-end review status icons. A drawer slides out to reveal the detailed task list.
In this example, perhaps the bookkeeper needs to schedule a call with the client to review
their personal transactions to unblock the transaction review stage.
You can find out more about the Month-end review functionality in the Month-end
review lesson.
Can clients see the notes in the client details screen?

Knowledge check
 Yes
 No
 Only if you give them permission
Check Answer
That’s right.
The notes sit inside QuickBooks Online Accountant, so only team members who have access to
client files will be able to see them. This means it’s a great way for team members to keep the
client details up to date.
Managing subscriptions
Keeping an eye on your client requirements
Managing client subscriptions and billing is a key part of your role as a ProAdvisor. As
companies grow, so do their requirements in their QuickBooks Online company, so there may
come a time when you need to reconsider their subscription levels.

The Subscriptions and billing page in QuickBooks Online Accountant allows you to view a
client’s subscription fees and billing history at a glance. You can also make quick changes to
subscriptions from a central dashboard.
The client’s Usage dashboard makes it easy to check they’re using the subscription level of
QuickBooks Online best suited to offer them the tools they need to manage and grow their
business.

Subscriptions and billing dashboard

The Subscriptions and billing dashboard in QuickBooks Online Accountant is accessed from
the Gear icon.
The tabs at the top of the dashboard page show you clients’ subscription information according
to how they are billed, and you can view your billing details.
1. Accountant-billed subscriptions
In this tab, you can see the subscription status and QuickBooks Online subscription level
for the clients whose subscription costs you pay. You can see the current estimated
monthly total, and details of previous bills and payments.
2. Client-billed subscriptions
This tab shows you the subscription status and QuickBooks Online subscription level of
clients who pay their subscription costs directly.
3. Billing details\
The Billing details page provides a snapshot of your QuickBooks Online and Payroll
subscription charges, and a monthly breakdown of your QuickBooks Online charges.
 You can see the estimated monthly total for all your active client QuickBooks Online
and Payroll subscriptions
 Below this, you can review your previous monthly charges in the history section,
including payment method and amount
 You can review your monthly charges in detail using the View PDF or Download
CSV options
 To update your payment information at any time, simply select Edit billing
information
ProAdvisor tip
The dashboard currently displays the details of your client’s QuickBooks Online and Payroll
subscriptions, with QuickBooks Time subscriptions added soon.
Knowledge check
Which of these can you select in the Billing details tab to view an itemized invoice? Select
 Print apply.
all that
 View
 Download
 Send to email address
Check Answer
That’s right.
If you need to see an invoice you are creating in an itemized format, you can either Download
CSV or View PDF.
Each subscription level in QuickBooks Online is designed for a wide range of users, whether
Usage limits
they are busy retailers, architects, dentists, dieticians, or demolition teams. But each subscription
level also has limits.
By monitoring your client’s usage limits, you can help make sure that, as their business grows,
they’re using the right version of QuickBooks Online for their needs.
1. What are the usage limits?

The table summarizes the usage limits for QuickBooks Online.
QuickBooks Online plan limits
Simple Start Essentials Plus Advanced
Classes and locations
N/A N/A 40 Unlimited
(combined)
Chart of accounts 250 Unlimited
Billable users 1 3 5 25
Other user types (unbilled)
Accountant 2 3
Reports-only N/A Unlimited Unlimited
Time tracking-only N/A Unlimited
Tag groups 40 40 40 Unlimited
2. How do I see a client’s usage?
It’s recommended that you keep track of your clients’ usage to help them keep their
accounts optimized. To do this:
a. Open your client’s QuickBooks Online

b. Select the Gear icon
c. Select Account and Settings
d. Select the Usage tab
The Usage tab shows how much the client has used up of the following limits:
 Billable users
 Chart of accounts
 Classes and locations
 Tag groups
ProAdvisor tip
Learn what usage limits are, how they affect your account, and what to do if you exceed your
limit.
Learn about the different options for user roles and access permissions.
Upgrading and downgrading
Does your client need more from QuickBooks Online? Or is their current subscription more than
they need? A subscription level that was a good fit for your client a few years ago might be
insufficient now. They may need more room to maneuver, and improved features and space to
continue to grow into.
You can upgrade or downgrade the subscription level for your ProAdvisor Preferred Pricing
clients and for those who pay for their QuickBooks subscription themselves.
1. How do I upgrade or downgrade clients on the ProAdvisor Preferred Pricing program?

To upgrade or downgrade a client on the ProAdvisor Preferred Pricing program, follow these
steps:
a. In QuickBooks Online Accountant, select the Gear icon and then select Subscriptions and
billing under Your Company
b. Select the Accountant-billed subscriptions tab
c. Find the client you want
d. Use the Subscription actions dropdown and select Upgrade or Downgrade
Note: If your client downgrades from QuickBooks Online Advanced, they (or more likely
you) may need to remove users to stay within their usage limits.
2. How do I upgrade or downgrade clients on client-billed subscriptions?

To upgrade or downgrade a client-billed subscription, follow these steps:
a. Open the client’s QuickBooks company

b. Navigate to Gear > Account and settings
c. Select Billing and subscriptions
d. Select Upgrade your plan or Downgrade your plan
3. What do I need to consider when downgrading clients?

Not every business keeps growing, or grows as expected. In such cases, clients might benefit
from downgrading their subscription. Before you recommend this, here are a few considerations:
a. Features: Downgrading means losing some features in your client’s current QuickBooks
Online plan. Make sure the new QuickBooks Online plan meets their needs. Check out
this comparison chart to review what will be lost when they switch
b. Third-party apps: Changing a plan might affect some third-party apps connected to
QuickBooks Online. This happens when the new plan doesn’t support the feature the client
app works with. Review each affected client’s apps by selecting Apps in the left-hand
navigation in QuickBooks Online Accountant, then selecting the Client apps tab
c. Plan discounts: Downgrading will remove all discounts on the current plan
ProAdvisor tip
As a ProAdvisor, you’re in a great position to assess your clients’ evolving business needs.
Remember: You can use the New Client Checklist as a tool to help analyze a client’s needs and
recommend the appropriate QuickBooks Online subscription.
Knowledge check
Which usage limits can you see in the Usage tab under Account and Settings? Select all that
apply.
 Billable users
 Classes and locations
 Chart of accounts
 Apps
 Tag groups
 Product/Services list
Check Answer
That's right!
Classes and locations are only available with QuickBooks Online Plus and QuickBooks Online
Advanced subscriptions. QuickBooks Online plan limits depend upon the subscription level.
Managing your team

Divide and conquer
Both clients and staff can benefit from your practice dividing work up between team members
and only giving them access to the clients they need to work on. How can you make this happen
without having to offer people access to all clients’ files?

QuickBooks Online Accountant has functionality that allows you to invite, deactivate, and
control permissions for users within your team, known as firm users. This gives you peace of
mind that team members can only access the areas they need to do their jobs.

Your team
Firm users in QuickBooks Online Accountant are employees of the accounting firm that oversee
client files and their QuickBooks Online account. They could also be bookkeepers or tax
preparers who are not in your team, but who still need access to the client data.
Firm users can get access to certain client files, but clients don’t see the names of the users or
individual staff names. All the client is aware of is that they are working with an accountant
specialist or ProAdvisor. They could, in fact, be working with two or three.
Managing firm users and their access
Firm users can be granted three levels of access to the firm’s QuickBooks Online Accountant company
file. Not everyone will need to have full access to everything, so a bookkeeper might need full access to
the client’s books, but other team members might not.
 Full access: This allows the user to edit QuickBooks Online Accountant firm
information, modify team users, update the firm’s ProAdvisor Preferred
Pricing subscription billing account, and access the firm’s books
 Basic access: This gives the user view-only access to QuickBooks Online Accountant
firm information, but no access to team and subscription billing, and no access to the
firm’s books
 Custom access: This option allows you to customize the permissions for the team user
Use the Team menu in the left-hand navigation to access team user details. You’ll see a grid
with the name of each of the firm’s staff, their title, email address, type of access, and status.
ProAdvisor tip
If you add a member of your team to a client’s QuickBooks Online file as an accountant user,
they’ll have the same permissions as a company administrator.
It’s worth considering that while access to the firm’s QuickBooks Online Accountant company
can be customized, team users can’t have custom access to client files. This means that they see
everything, including the client’s payroll.
Let’s look at how to set up access for a new team member.

Adding a firm user
1. In QuickBooks Online Accountant, select Team from the left-hand navigation

2. Select Add user
3. Enter the user’s name and email
4. Select Next
You can set custom access to your firm’s own accounts here.
5. From the Access dropdown, select the right level of access
Note the guide to the different levels of access on the right.

6. From the different dropdowns, select the required access for the user
For more information, hover over each category.

8. In the client access section, use the checkboxes to select the clients you want to give the
user access to
That’s it! The new user is now added as a firm user and has access to the defined areas of the
selected clients.
Team access rights
When setting up a new firm user, you can manage their degree of access to the firm’s books in a number
of ways.
1. Your firm’s administration
There are three levels at which you can set firm user access that allow employees to manage the
firm’s administration. You can use these to support the safe and efficient management of the
business.
2. Your firm’s books

Depending on how you want to run your business, you can control what firm users can access
from your firm’s books.
3. Assigning clients to your team

You have the ability to assign specific clients to each firm user, or select all clients if the
employee’s role requires it.
Clients appreciate the trust that comes with an ongoing relationship with a financial professional.
Assigning a client lead
Let’s look at how to assign a firm user as the Lead accountant to a client.
1. In Quick Books Online Accountant, select Client from the left-hand navigation
2. Select the Filter icon and select the Edit leads link
3. Select the dropdown next to the client and choose the user to be assigned as the client
lead
4. Select Save
5. Finally, select Got it
The client lead’s initials now appear as the lead for the client file. They can now easily
filter the list to show just the clients they’re responsible for.
Knowledge check
Which team permissions should you set to Yes for a firm user assigned to invoicing for the
firm?
 1
 2
 3
 4
 5
Check Answer
Great job.
By giving the team user access to customers and accounts receivable, they’ll be able to create
invoices for any of the firm’s clients, but without being able to access their QuickBooks Online
data.
Managing your work
You don’t need to juggle
As a financial professional, you want to make sure that you meet deadlines for all clients and
accounting periods. However, keeping track of everybody’s tasks, including your team’s and
clients’, can be challenging.

With the Work feature in QuickBooks Online Accountant, you can organize your team and
clients in one central location. You can easily create, assign, and track tasks, making sure that
nothing gets overlooked.

Overview of the Work dashboard

The Work feature in QuickBooks Online Accountant allows you to:
 Create projects and tasks right from your Work dashboard for all your clients. If they
don’t use QuickBooks Online, you can add them as a client at the same time you create a
project
 Assign projects or specific tasks to yourself or your team members
 Manage requests and messages for your clients, along with all the work you do for them
 See a bird’s-eye view of the deadlines of your firm and what’s due today, next week, or
next month, or what’s overdue
 Set up repeating projects that will occur on a regular basis for the same client
 Duplicate existing projects across multiple clients to save time on manual entry
With this level of organization, you no longer need separate to-do lists for different clients, and
you can better manage your time and focus your attention. You can also better understand your
team’s capacity and never miss a deadline.
1. Create a new project with unlimited number of tasks.
2. Use one of the QuickStart templates or create a project template from scratch.
3. Filter tasks by client, team member, or project type.
4. Switch between the card, list, and calendar view.
5. Use the dropdown to change the status of the task. The options are:
 To do
 In progress
 Blocked
 Done
6. Click here to edit the notification emails that you receive regarding projects and tasks assigned to
you. Notification settings can also be accessed from the Company settings, in the Notifications
tab. These settings are unique to each team member.
7. Request information and documents from your clients from right inside QuickBooks Online
Accountant. You'll learn more about Client request in the next lesson.
8. QuickBooks automatically adds tasks to your Work dashboard for unreviewed Bank feed
transactions and outstanding payroll tasks. If you don't want these automated tasks included, just
select the toggle button here to turn it off.
Let’s see how to set up a project for a team member to manage a client’s weekly payroll.
Creating a project in the Work Center
1. From the QuickBooks Online Accountant homepage, select Work

2. Select Create project
3. Enter the Project name. In our case, it’s Weekly Payroll
4. In the Firm or client dropdown, select who the project is for. You can select My Firm or
a specific client
5. In the Assigned to box, select a team member to allocate the work to. You can select Me
to assign the work to yourself or specify a team member
6. Then set the Due date for the project
7. To make this a recurring project, select the Repeat slider
Note that the Due date changes to First due date.

8. In the dropdowns in the Repeats row, set when and how often you want this task to
repeat. In our case, we set it to every Friday
9. In the Ends row, select whether you want this project to repeat indefinitely or end on a
specific date. In our case, we leave it on Never
10. To add a task to the project, select Add a task
11. In the Task name box, add the name of the task
12. Set the Due date of the task
13. In the Assigned to field, assign a team member
To add more tasks, select Add a task again. You can add as many tasks as needed to
manage the process. In our case, we only need one task, so we’re done.
14. Next, select Save
That’s it. This project and task are saved in the Work Center.
Knowledge check
Which of these does the Work feature in QuickBooks Online Accountant allow you to do?
 Set up repeating projects for the same client that will occur on a regular basis
 Receive messages from clients in real time
 Filter tasks by client, team member, or project type
 Share your practice dashboard with your clients, so they can see what you’re working on
Check Answer
That’s correct.
The Work menu allows you to set up repeated projects and you can filter all tasks by client, team
member, or project type.
Project templates
To make the process of assigning projects with multiple tasks easier, you can access a range of QuickStart
project templates or can create your own custom templates to reuse.
1. QuickStart Templates
You can use QuickBooks Online Accountant’s standard templates if you’re mapping out
a common series of tasks. You can adjust tasks, due dates, and assignees to tailor it to
your needs.
Alternatively, you can duplicate these and use them as a starting point to create a fully
customized project without having to start from scratch.
Currently, QuickBooks Online Accountant features the following QuickStart templates:
 Bi-weekly payroll
 Client onboarding
 Monthly bookkeeping
 Yearly taxes
2. Custom Templates
You can create and save fully customized templates from a QuickStart template or from scratch.
These custom templates allow you to build workflows specific to your firm or clients’ needs and
ensure that every team member applies a consistent workflow every time.
3. Creating a project using a template
To use a template, start creating the project as you'd normally do.
Then from the Project template dropdown, select the desired template.
Once the template is selected, the settings and the tasks associated with the template by
default appear in the drawer.
For example, selecting the Monthly bookkeeping template automatically turns the Repeat
option on and adds some predefined tasks that you can edit or add to.
You only need one platform

Client requests
For busy accounting professionals, keeping track of the client files and communications of all
clients can be challenging. If your client data is scattered across different, potentially insecure
platforms like email systems or task trackers, we have good news.

The Client request function in QuickBooks Online Accountant allows you to keep everything in
one place. You can request documents and message clients directly straight from your Work
dashboard—and it’s all secure.

Client requests allow you and your client to share documents and messages with ease. All
Managing client requests

requests are received and organized in the Work menu for accountants, and the
My Accountant tab for clients.
1. Accountant View
You can track and edit all your requests in the Work menu in QuickBooks Online
Accountant. Here, you can:
 See all your requests by filtering for Requests

 Filter requests further by client or the assignee in your team
 Select any request to edit it or respond to it
 Change the status of the request by selecting the dropdown icon. (You can set the
status as To do, In progress, Blocked, or Done)
2. Client View
Clients can see your requests in the My Accountant tab in their QuickBooks Online. To ensure
they don’t miss anything, they can sort requests by due date. They can respond to requests and
share documents, and all documents shared this way appear in the Shared documents tab.
ProAdvisor tip
While you can add clients without QuickBooks Online to your client list, you can only send client requests to clie
Let’s see how to send a client request to upload their bank statement to QuickBooks Online.
Creating a client request
1. Starting in QuickBooks Online Accountant, select Work from the left-hand navigation
2. Select Create client request
3. Enter a name in the Request name. In our case, we want to task the client to send their
bank statement, so we call it Upload bank statement
4. Choose the client from the Client dropdown
5. Set a due date
6. Set the Status of the request. In our case, it’s To do
7. In the Details box, enter any details the client might need to know
8. To send an email notification to the client, check the Notify client box
9. Next, select Publish to client’s QuickBooks
Let’s now see how it looks to the client.
1. Your clients can access all your requests via My Accountant

2. Select the request
3. Then select Add Document
4. Upload the requested file
5. Add comments and select Post, if needed
6. When done, select Close
Knowledge check
You asked a client to send you their bank statement, but they sent it for the wrong date range.
How can you ask the client to send the correct bank statement, as part of a tracked
conversation?
 Create a new client request

 Edit the project and add a new task
 Send them an email from your company account
 Edit the client request and add a comment
Check Answer
That’s right.
Using the comments feature on the client request makes it easy to keep track of the whole
conversation with the client.
Supporting your Small Business Clients
Recording undeposited funds

Payments that have not yet reached a bank account
Clients often receive payments from customers that are not deposited in their bank account right
away. They will then have to record these as Undeposited Funds.

Clients often struggle to grasp the function of Undeposited Funds. As a ProAdvisor, you can help
them understand that Undeposited Funds acts as an envelope where they keep their checks until
they take them to the bank. By holding payments received in Undeposited Funds, they are
creating a single bank deposit for multiple payments, making it easy for them or you to match the
bank register with their bank statement.

Let’s see how your clients would record received but not yet deposited checks in QuickBooks
Recording payments as Undeposited Funds
Online.
Let’s start with recording the first payment from a customer.
1. Select the + New button and then Receive payment

2. From the Customer dropdown, select the customer the first payment is from. In this case,
it’s for a check from Bill Gallinger. Notice how a list with any outstanding invoices for
that customer appears
3. Set the Payment date
4. Then select the Payment method. In our case, we select Check
5. Fill in the Reference number box
6. In the Deposit to box, make sure to select Undeposited Funds
7. To apply the payment to an invoice, check the box next to the invoice
By selecting the invoice, QuickBooks Online will calculate an amount in the Amount
received field. Make sure this amount matches the actual amount of the check.
8. Select Save and new
Now let’s add another payment from a different customer:
1. From the Customer dropdown, select the customer the second payment is from
Once again, the active invoice automatically appears.

2. Follow the same steps as before
3. When done, select Save and close
Now let’s see how your client would record a bank deposit for the two checks we added in the
Recording a bank deposit in QuickBooks
previous video.
Online
1. Select + New and then Bank Deposit
2. In the Account dropdown, select the Checking account
3. Set the Date
Notice how the two payments we added earlier show up in the Select the payments
included in this deposit section.
4. Check the boxes for the payments to include
The total amount of the deposit reflects the sum of the selected payments, and this will be
the deposit shown in the check register.
5. Select Save and close
To check whether a payment is deposited or not:
1. Go to the Sales Center from the left-hand navigation

2. Select the Invoices tab
3. On the money bar, select Deposited to see a list of the deposited transactions
Knowledge check
Your client records payments from customers in QuickBooks Online as they receive them
throughout the day. They have just been to the bank and deposited 4 checks.
What’s the next step they have to do to deposit those payments in QuickBooks Online?
 + New > Receive payment

 + New > Bank deposit
 Sales > Invoices tab
Check Answer
That’s right.
From the Bank deposit screen, they can now select the undeposited payments and make them
deposited.
Issues with workflows

When things go wrong
Sometimes, clients don’t follow the appropriate accounting workflows or understand the right
terminology used in QuickBooks Online, and end up making mistakes. This results in incorrect
financial data, and numbers often don’t add up when you try to reconcile them.

As a ProAdvisor, you can help train clients to apply the correct terminology in QuickBooks
Online and use the right workflows to avoid making mistakes.
If you coach clients to get into good habits from the start, it’ll save them and you time, avoid
confusion, and help everyone get on with business.

If clients don’t follow the appropriate accounting workflows, then things get out of sync. This
When workflows go bad
may result in incorrect financial data, and many times numbers don’t add up when you’re trying
to reconcile them.
You may sometimes have to unravel a problem and show them the best way to get something
done.
Select the headings to find out more about some of the most common workflow errors.
1. Misposted Checks
a. The client’s workflow
Take an example client, Charlotte. She has received a check from her customer as
a prepayment deposit on a job that she will complete in the future. To record the
deposits, she taps the + New button and selects Check to record the payment.
b. The problem
By doing this, Charlotte inadvertently creates a vendor instead of a customer and
assigns Professional Fees as the category. This decreases the balance in the bank
account (credit) and increases the amount of Professional Fees expense reflected
on the Profit and Loss report.
c. Solution
You can point out to Charlotte that all the transactions in the + New menu are
sorted by entity type. Instead of selecting Check from the Vendors column, she
should have looked at the Customers column and selected Receive payment. Once
she creates the invoice for the completed job, she can apply the payment to the
invoice to reduce the amount owed.
2. Transaction via the Bank Register

Another client, Stacy, used different financial software before, where she entered
checks and deposits from the Bank Register. She’s pleased to see that she can
open a Bank Register and enter transactions the same way in QuickBooks Online.
She navigates to the Bank Register by selecting Accounting, then View register.
She then records a check she wrote to pay her sales tax to the New Jersey
Department of Revenue from the prior month.
b. The problem
Even though Stacy recorded the payment, QuickBooks Online doesn’t recognize
the liability as being paid.
c. Solution
Clients who use the Sales Tax Center must record all payments from it in order
for them to be applied appropriately to the sales tax liability balances.
3. Accounts Payable Workflow

Another client, Karl, has been struggling to understand the accounts payable
workflow. He’s been entering bills to record expenses, but he’s been using the
Check screen to create payments to vendors.
On reviewing his last profit and loss statement, he noticed that his materials
expenses seemed rather high.
b. The problem
By recording the bills as bills and creating checks for payments, Karl has
essentially been recording the expenses twice in QuickBooks Online. This
will lead to inflated expenses on his profit and loss statement.
c. Solution
The proper workflow would be to create a bill and then use Pay Bills to record the
payments against the bill and close out the accounts payable balance.
Knowledge check
Which of the following is not an improper workflow?
 When recording a check paid by a customer, going to the + New button and selecting Check to
record the payment
 When recording a check paid by a customer, going to the Customers column and selecting Receive
payment
 When recording a check paid by a customer, going to the Banking center and recording the check
there
Check Answer
That’s right, well done.

This is the correct workflow to use when receiving a check.
You can use specific tools in QuickBooks Online to unravel the cause of the problem.
Tools in QuickBooks
1. The Transaction Journal Report Online to identify issues
The Transaction Journal report shows debits and credits for each transaction and provides
a more focused view of amounts and accounts not visible from the transaction itself.
You can view everything the client has recorded and even sort it by individual users to
see if a bookkeeper is creating an error.
The Transaction Journal report can:
 Provide clarity about the accounts affected by a transaction

 Assist in identifying suspicious or odd entries for accounts on other reports
While the Transaction Journal report is mainly for accountants, anyone familiar with
double-entry accounting can use it for calculations, advanced insight, or auditing
purposes.
2. Voided / Deleted Transaction Tool
The Voided/deleted transactions tool helps you spot any transactions that a client may
have deleted or voided, whether accidentally or on purpose.
The tool is a filtered version of the Audit Log where you can see when changes happened
and who made them.
This tool is available to QuickBooks Online Accountant users.
ProAdvisor tip
There are a few limitations to be aware of when printing the Audit Log. On screen, it highlights
in yellow the changes made to a specific transaction. However, when printing the log, the
highlighting does not show. Also, only 300 lines will print from the Audit Log for a particular
search criterion. To print additional lines, you could screenshot the other lines and print your
screenshots.
Follow the link for further tips on how to use the Audit Log:
QuickBooks Online Audit Log Does and Doesn’t
Get into the habit of coaching your clients in the correct workflows. Here are some hints and tips to start
you off.
Tips on coaching best-practice workflows
1. Sales and Expense Centers
Your clients might find navigating QuickBooks Online easier if they understand what the
different terms mean and what the different menus are for. Help them get into the habit of
using the right words: bills come from vendors, and invoices go out to customers. There’s
even a useful glossary you can send out to them.
The Sales Center is their hub for viewing and recording their invoices and payments from
their customers.
The Expense Center is for recording incoming bills for products and services and their
payments to vendors.
For many small businesses, this will be all they need to know when they start out.
2. Keep it Simple
Help clients understand just what they need to do for the current complexity of their
business—no more and no less!
Understand their business and encourage them to use best-practice workflows, but remind
them that, as their ProAdvisor, you’re their go-to expert in QuickBooks Online.
3. Keep Checking Back In

You can add value to your client relationships by touching base with clients regularly and
identifying new QuickBooks Online workflows that might benefit them.
This way, you can catch potential errors in time and coach your client on best practices.
From estimate to invoice

Working with estimates
Sometimes clients may need to provide an estimate (also known as a proposal or quote) of a job
to submit to the company for approval. When accepted, they need to ensure that they use the
correct data on purchase orders and invoices.

QuickBooks Online allows clients to track the status of estimates, and QuickBooks Online Plus
and Advanced subscribers can easily convert estimates into purchase orders and invoices, saving
time and headaches.

Estimates are non-posting transactions that your clients can send to their customers to indicate
how much their product or service would cost.
The estimate workflow
As estimates move from the proposal stage to sale, clients can update the status and mark them
as Pending, Accepted, Rejected, or Closed. When estimates have been invoiced in full,
QuickBooks Online automatically marks them as closed.
Let’s see how to create an estimate.

Creating an estimate
3. From the Customer dropdown, select the customer the estimate is for
4.1.Set
From
the the left-hand
Estimate navigation,
date select Sales,
and the Expiration thenInAll
date. ourSales
case, we set the Expiration date
2. Next, select New Transaction
two weeks from the Estimate date and then Estimate
5. In the Product/Service column, enter the details of the job
6. Adjust the Quantity and Rate if needed
7. Next, select Save and send
8. Review the estimate and the content of the email in the Send email screen. When ready,
select Send and close
That’s it. QuickBooks Online will send the email with the estimate to the customer.
Before clients can create a purchase order using an estimate, they need to activate the Use
purchase orders option in Account and Settings.
Using an estimate to create a purchase order
Let’s see how to do that and use an estimate to create a purchase order.
Let’s start with turning the Use purchase orders option on. To do this:
1. Select the Gear icon, then Account and Settings

2. Next, select the Expenses tab
3. Select anywhere in the Purchase orders section to enable editing
4. Make sure that the Use purchase orders option is switched on
5. Select Save
6. Then select Done
Now let’s turn an estimate into a purchase order.
1. From the left-hand navigation, select Sales, then Customers

2. On the money bar, select the Estimate box
Notice how the estimate we created in the last video appears there.
3. Select the 1 Open Estimate option in the Open Estimates column
4. Next, select the line of the estimate to be turned into a purchase order
5. On the Estimate screen, select the down arrow next to Pending and change the status to
Accepted.
Note how there are four different status types for estimates in QuickBooks Online:
Pending, Accepted, Closed, and Rejected.
6. Next, select the down arrow next to Create invoice and select Copy to purchase order
7. Select OK when the pop-up appears. If another pop-up appears, select Yes
8. On the Purchase Order screen, select the Vendor your client wants to order the item
from
9. In the Ship to dropdown, select the customer whose project the item is for and who the
estimate was created for
10. Fill in any other details as necessary
11. When done, select Save and send. This will send the purchase order to the vendor
Once the vendor delivers the item, your client can add the purchase order to a bill, check, or
expense, depending on how they’d like to pay for it. Let’s see how to add it to an expense
transaction.
1. From the left-hand navigation, select Expenses, then Vendors

2. On the money bar, select the Purchase Order box
3. Find the purchase order and select the down arrow next to Create bill, then select Create
Expense
4. On the pre-filled Expense screen, enter the Payment date
5. From the drawer on the right, select Add to add the details of the purchase order to the
expense
6. When done, select Save and Close
Finally, let’s see how to bill the customer when the job is complete.
Converting an estimate to an invoice
1. From the left-hand navigation, select Sales, then Customers
2. Select the Estimate box in the money bar
3. Find the right customer and select Start invoice in the Action column
4. Set the Invoice date and the Due date for the payment
5. From the drawer on the right, select add to add the details of the estimate to the invoice
6. Review the invoice and the content of the email in the Send email screen. When ready,
select Send and close
Knowledge check
Which of these statements about estimates in QuickBooks Online are true? Select all that
apply.
 Estimates are posting transactions

 Estimate data can be used to create a purchase order in QuickBooks Online
 Estimate data can be used to create a vendor credit in QuickBooks Online
 Estimate data can be used to create an invoice in QuickBooks Online
Check Answer
That’s right.
Estimates are non-posting transactions and they can be used to create purchase orders and
invoices.
Credit memos and Customer statements

When the customer complains
It’s likely that at some point, a client’s customer will have a complaint about a product or
service. Regardless of whether it is a replacement item or a partial refund, your client needs to
record these so that the customer can get a credit on their accounts payable.

Credit memos in QuickBooks Online allow your clients to allocate credits to customers so that
next time they issue an invoice to the customer, they will see the credit applied.
Your clients can also create a customer statement to show they have done this.

More about Credit memos

A credit memo is a posting transaction that can be applied to a customer’s invoice as a payment
or reduction. It reduces accounts receivable rather than refunding cash to a customer. (For that,
your client would issue a refund receipt.)
Your client may have some questions about credit memos. Let’s see some of the most common
ones.
Why use a credit memo instead of just editing the transaction?

It’s not best practice to change transactions once your client has sent them to the customer—it
can cause confusion and isn’t great recordkeeping.
This is especially true when the original invoice is in a prior period because making a change
would cause the books to become out of balance with the tax return and change previously
reported amounts.
Why not just bill for less on the next invoice?

Creating a new transaction in QuickBooks Online for each exchange between the supplier and
the customer is important.
It gives clarity to the timing and sequence of events with a customer. It can also affect the timing
and balances of sales tax liabilities and inventory movement in and out of the company.
Why not just refund in cash and not record?

It’s important to capture all transactions, paid in cash or not, to ensure that the client’s records
are complete. If your clients pay the customer back in cash and don’t record the transaction, they
will pay sales and income taxes on the sales transaction and receive no benefit from the return
transaction deduction.
Can I apply credits automatically?

Yes. In Account and Settings, Advanced tab, your clients can choose to apply credits to
existing or new customer invoices automatically.
Auto-apply is great for clients with simple accounts receivable (for instance, just a few invoices
per customer). However, use it with caution with clients who have higher-volume or more
complex accounts receivable workflows.
Let’s record a credit memo for a faulty item and apply it to a customer invoice for another
Create and apply a Credit memo
purchase.
1. Select + New, your

Alternatively, then Credit memo
client can create a credit memo through the Sales Center by selecting
All Sales, then New transaction and Credit Memo
2. Fill in the sections, including the Customer, the Product/Service, the Quantity, and
the Amount
3. Then select Save and close
Now, let’s create an invoice and apply the Credit memo to it.
1. From the + New button, select Invoice

2. Select the same customer from theCustomer dropdown
3. In our case, we replaced the faulty item with a new product, so in
the Product/Service column, we add the new item
4. For the Sales price/rate, enter the value of the new item. In our case, it’s the same as the
replaced item
If your client has the Automatically apply credits option switched on in Account and
Settings, QuickBooks Online will prompt them to apply the existing credit memo to the
new invoice. Otherwise, they would have to do it manually.
Let’s apply the credit to a new invoice manually.
1. Select the + New button, then Receive payment

2. From the Customer dropdown, select the same customer
3. In the Outstanding Transactions section, check the box next to the Invoice
4. In the Credits section, check the box next to the Credit Memo
5. Finally, select Save and close
Knowledge check
Which of these options is true about Credit memos in QuickBooks Online?
 Credit memos are for refunding cash directly to the customer

 Credit memos are not essential when customers paid in cash
 Credit memos reduce accounts receivable
 Credit memos need to be created and applied manually
Check Answer
That’s right.
A credit memo is a credit applied to the customer’s accounts receivable and it reduces the
client’s accounts receivable.
Customer statements
Your client’s customer may want a clear statement to see where their account with the client’s
business stands and ensure that they have applied the credit. Your client can do that by creating a
customer statement.
Creating a customer statement
1. Go to the Sales menu and select the Customers tab

2. Check the customer(s) to make statements for
3. In the Batch actions dropdown, select Create statements
4. In the Statement Type dropdown, select the type of statement you’d like to make.
There are three statement options. They are:

o Balance forward
o Open item
o Transaction statement
5. Next, set the Date fields for the statement. For instance, you could show all historic transactions
involving the customer, or just the current month’s transactions
The different customer statements
There are three different types of customer statements your clients can create in QuickBooks
Online. They are:
The Balance Forward statement shows a list of invoices and payments with
the balance for the date range selected.
Balance Forward
It’s perfect for situations where a client wants to provide customers with a
summary of what is still due on their account.
With the Open Item statement, your client can show a list of all open and/or
unpaid invoices.
Open Item
Advise clients to use this when they want to provide detail of all unpaid
invoices, unapplied payments, and credit memos to their customers.
Use the Transaction Statement to show all the transactions between the
Transaction customer and the client’s business between two set dates.
Statement Clients might use this when there is a large volume of transactions for a
customer so they can see how their payments have been applied.
View existing Customer statements
Your clients can easily view existing statements. They need to:
1. Go to Sales and select the All Sales tab

2. Check the customer(s) to see the statements for
3. Select the Filter dropdown
4. Then, in the Type dropdown, select Statements
Vendor Credits
Returning items
Sometimes, clients might have to return items to the vendor, who, instead of refunding the cost,
may decide to credit your client’s account. Your client can then use this credit against future
purchases, but needs to record the credit and adjust the original expense.

As a ProAdvisor, you can help your client follow the right workflow and record a credit to
vendors’ accounts payable. This way, your client can apply it to an existing open bill or the next
bill received from a particular vendor.
Vendor Credits are for returns of products or services, or discounts received on account after the
About Vendor Credits
vendor has issued the bill and the client has recorded it in QuickBooks Online. They post as a
debit to decrease accounts payable.
A Vendor Credit can then be:
 Applied to an existing bill

 Held as open and applied to a future bill
ProAdvisor tip
In the Advanced tab in Account and Settings, clients can select Automatically apply credit
to automatically apply Vendor Credits to existing open or future bills.
Let’s see how to record a Vendor Credit.

Creating a Vendor Credit
1. To access the Vendor Credit screen, select + New, and then Vendor
Credit. Alternatively, select New transaction from the Expenses Center and then select
Vendor Credit
2. In the Vendor Credit screen, from the Vendor dropdown, select the vendor the credit is
from
3. Next, set the Payment date of the credit
4. In the Item details grid Product/Service column, select the item the vendor credit is for
5. In the Description column box, add a note explaining the credit
6. Set the Rate and the Quantity of the credited item
7. In the Customer column, add the customer the item was ordered for
8. In the Memo field, your client can add additional notes
Now let’s go and see the Vendor Credit and apply it to a bill.
1. From the left-hand navigation, select Expenses.

Here, your client can see the vendor credit and the original bill
2. Find the original bill of the returned item. Select the dropdown icon in the Action column
and select Mark as paid
In the Bill Payment screen, we can see that QuickBooks Online has already applied the
Vendor Credit, reducing the amount payable.
Knowledge check
Which of the following statements is true about Vendor Credits in QuickBooks Online?
 Vendor Credits can’t be applied to a bill that has already been received
 Vendor Credits post as a debit to decrease accounts payable
 A Vendor Credit can be linked to a cash refund, when the cash is deposited
 Vendor Credits post as a debit to increase accounts payable
Check Answer
That's right.
Vendor Credits post as a debit to decrease accounts payable.
Deposit transactions
The need for categorizing deposits
Sometimes clients may receive deposits that are not related to customer transactions. Adding
these along with the rest of their income deposits would lead to confusion and inaccuracies with
future tax payments.

Clients can easily categorize deposits in QuickBooks Online. This way, they can separate
deposits like refunds or proceeds from loans so that they’re not confused with sales income, and
taxable and nontaxable income are kept separate.

Simply put, deposit transactions are for any money coming into the business that is not subject to
Understanding deposit transactions
sales tax or income tax, and that doesn’t have to be matched to a sales receipt or invoice in
QuickBooks Online.
However, clients need to record and categorize these transactions to the appropriate account on
the chart of accounts.
Have a look at some cases when clients would use deposit transactions:
 When the client receives funds from loan proceeds or contributions of cash from owners
 When the client receives a refund from a vendor and wants to record it directly against
the expense account or to a Refunds Received income account
 When the client doesn’t record income using sales transactions (invoices or sales
receipts) and wants to record deposits directly to income accounts
 When an employee reimburses the client’s company, and the client needs to record the
reimbursement against the Employee Loan receivable account
 When the client receives a tax refund. This screen is where you record it in the Tax
Refunds account
ProAdvisor tip
Your client can add multiple funds to the same deposit. For example, they might include both
customer payments and other funds in a single deposit.
Let’s see how to record a deposit transaction for a bank loan.

Recording a deposit transaction
1. Select + New, then select Bank deposit

2. Specify the Account, and set the Date
3. Select the Add funds to deposit grid
4. In the Received From column, enter where the payment is from. In our case, it’s from a
bank
5. Next, select the right account in the Account column. In our case, it’s SBA Loan
Payable. This is a liability account, so QuickBooks Online won’t classify it as income
6. Add the description if necessary
7. Then enter the Payment Method, the payment’s Reference Number, and the Amount
Knowledge check
Which of these situations would call for a deposit transaction? Select all that apply.
 Your client receives a payment from a customer, but it’s not a check
 Your client receives a tax refund from the IRS
 Your client receives a cash back payment from a vendor for ordering in bulk
Check Answer
AThat's
tax refund
right. or a cash back payment are perfect examples of money coming in that isn’t matched
to an existing payment. They need to be be recorded as deposit transactions.
QuickBooks Payments
Faster payment
Your clients are busy people, focused on delivering a service to their customers. If they get paid
in cash or check, receiving the payment can take time, not to mention the time it takes for clients
to deposit these payments in the bank.

Electronic payment options make it easier for clients as well as their customers to pay for
services. QuickBooks Payments allows clients to send emailed invoices that enable customers to
pay online in an instant using the invoice’s payment button.
In this lesson, we cover how to set up and use payment links and record electronic payments. To
see how to enable QuickBooks Payments and how it works, go to our training on setting up
payments.

QuickBooks Payments overview

Invoicing with QuickBooks Payments
When clients create an invoice with QuickBooks Payments, they can select the way they’d like
to get paid (credit card or ACH or both) and then send the invoice via email to their customer.
When the customer selects the View and Pay button to view the online invoice, they then see the
option to select the Pay button. Any payment made here is recorded automatically in
QuickBooks Online.
Sales receipts and QuickBooks Payments
If clients are paid by customers at the time of sale, they won’t want to create and send an invoice.
In these cases, they just need to create a sales receipt to record both the sale and payment on the
same screen in QuickBooks Online. Customers can then be mailed the receipt so they have a
record of the sale.
The sales receipt workflow starts by selecting the + New button and then Sales Receipt in the Customer
column. After completing the customer and sales details, select Credit Card as the payment
method, then use the Enter credit card details button to take payment. Finally, clients save the sales
receipt and send it to the customer.
How does QuickBooks Payments work for customers who don’t pay at the point of sale?
How QuickBooks Payments works

STEP 1: INVOICING
Clients create an invoice and email it to the customer for payment.
STEP 2: THE CUSTOMER RECEIVES THE INVOICE
When clients send the invoice to the customer, the status is updated to Sent in the Invoices tab in
the Sales Center.
The customer receives the email and is able to tap Review and pay to view the invoice in a
browser and make a payment.
STEP 3: THE PAYMENT PROCESS
The customer enters the payment information (debit card, bank transfer, or credit card) and selects
the Pay button.
STEP 4: PAYMENT CONFIRMATION
The customer receives a payment confirmation and can print or download the receipt directly
from the browser.
STEP 5: PAYMENT NOTIFICATION AND UPDATES

Clients receive a notification of the payment, too. If they use the QuickBooks Online mobile app,
a notification pops up on their mobile device, and they also receive an email notification of the
payment.
The payment status is automatically updated in QuickBooks Online. There’s no need for clients
to record the payment or the deposit—QuickBooks Online does it all!
ProAdvisor tip
The QuickBooks Payments Instant Deposits option is a great way for clients to manage their
cash flow by getting paid faster. For an additional 1% per transaction, available funds can be
instantly deposited into their bank account, allowing them to pay their bills, pay employees, and
keep the business moving.
Clients can deposit a minimum of $1 or a maximum of $2,000. They can use Instant Deposits up
to three times daily as long as they don’t exceed the $2,000 limit. For more information about
our Instant Deposits options, please visit our Instant Deposits help page.
If your client has authorization from their customer to charge a recurring amount, they’ll be able
Recurring payments
to create sales receipts that automatically record the sale in QuickBooks Online and deposit
funds into their bank account. This is a great way of automatically billing and getting paid for
services such as monthly maintenance plans or service agreements.
Note: Before a client sets up a recurring monthly charge for a credit card or ACH, Visa, or
Mastercard, they must have written authorization from their customer. The authorization form
appears automatically when saving a new recurring sales receipt.
1. Select the Gear icon, then Recurring transactions

2. Select New
3. Select Sales Receipt from the dropdown, then select OK
4. In the Template name field, enter a name that describes what the recurring charge is for
5. Set how many days in advance to create a sales receipt
6. Then complete the rest of the details as with any other sales receipt
7. In the Intervalsection, set the details of the recurrence
8. When done, select Save template
Knowledge check
Before a client sets up a recurring monthly charge for a customer’s credit card or ACH,
Visa, and Mastercard, what does your client need to do?
 Get the customer to sign an authorization form

 Take a photo of the customer’s payment card
 Get authorization from the customer’s bank
Check Answer
That’s right.
Before a client sets up a recurring monthly charge for a credit card or ACH, Visa, and
Mastercard, guidelines require them to have written authorization from their customer. The
authorization form appears automatically when saving a new recurring sales receipt.
Setting up and using payment links

Payment links in QuickBooks Online provide a quick and straightforward way for clients to get
paid faster. They are single-use and make it easy for customers to pay your clients right from
their smartphone.
Journal entries
When one size doesn’t fit all
Clients normally use sales and purchase forms to record income and expenses in QuickBooks
Online. However, sometimes these forms just aren’t appropriate for the client’s purpose.

Your clients can use journal entries as another way to adjust account balances.
Journal entries in QuickBooks Online is a way to post debits and credits directly to accounts in
the General Ledger. Let’s see how it works.

A journal entry is an accounting transaction that posts directly to the General Ledger.
When to use journal entries
Here are some rules regarding Journal Entries:
 Total debits must equal total credits in order to save the journal entry
 You can’t use Products and Services items in a journal entry
 When posting to accounts receivable, you must specify a customer
 When posting to accounts payable, you must specify a vendor
 Your client may use multiple accounts receivable and/or accounts payable accounts in the
same journal entry
 Your client can’t mark an amount as billable to a customer
Creating a journal entry
Let’s see how to create a journal entry for the depreciation of equipment that was donated to the
business by the owner.
1. Select + New, then select Journal entry

2. Set the Journal date
3. Enter or accept the Journal number
4. In the Account column, select Add new
5. In the pop-up Account window, add the Account Type. In our case, it’s Fixed Assets
6. Next, select the right Detail Type. Because we’re creating a Journal Entry for equipment
depreciation, we select Machinery & Equipment
7. If the client wants to track depreciation, check the Track depreciation of this asset box
and leave the Original cost and Depreciation fields blank
8. Then select Save and Close
9. Back in the Journal Entry window, in the Debits box, enter a debit amount
10. Add a description in the Description column. In our case, it’s the contribution of the
equipment
11. In the next row, under the Account column, we select Owners Equity from the
dropdown. Notice that QuickBooks Online automatically populates the credit matching
the debit and the description in the line above
12. Next, select Save and close
An adjusting journal entry is an entry in a company’s General Ledger that occurs at the end of an
About adjusting journal entries
accounting period before the company produces its financial statements.
Only
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a journal to adjusting,
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as normal journal
and check the Is
adjusting journal entry? checkbox.
There are a few scenarios where QuickBooks Online would mark journal entries as adjusting
journal entries.
1. ACCRUED EXPENSES
These are expenses your client has accrued but hasn’t paid yet, like loan interest or
accrued payroll. Accrued expenses appear on the Balance Sheet as liabilities.
2. DEFERRED EXPENSES
This is where your client has paid for something but not yet realized the benefit. An
example of a deferred expense would be if they pay for their insurance a year in advance.
Deferred expenses appear on the Balance Sheet as assets.
3. ACCRUED REVENUES
This is where a client has earned the revenue, but they haven’t invoiced the customer yet.
This is a common practice in many industries that work on long-term contracts. These
appear on the Balance Sheet as accounts receivable, which is an asset account.
4. DEFERRED REVENUES
These occur when your client has been paid in advance by a customer but they haven’t
finished the work yet. This appears on the Balance Sheet as unearned income, a liability.
5. NON-CASH TRANSACTIONS\
Not all expenses are cash expenses. Some things represent expenses that don’t have a
cash effect on your client’s business. Depreciation and allowance for doubtful accounts
are two examples of common non-cash transactions.
If regular adjustments aren’t recorded to reflect these activities, it’s easy to get a skewed
picture of a company’s financial position.
For example, a client that has no liability accruing for their annual loan interest might
overestimate how much cash they have. Without ensuring that they keep track of their
growing current debt, they will have incorrect information about the profit they make
each month. Also, when they make the annual business insurance payment and it’s not
accrued, they will have the monthly insurance expense reflected in the wrong accounting
period.
ProAdvisor tip
As an accountant, you can set adjusting journal entries to post automatically using the Recurring
transactions feature in QuickBooks Online. That way, you know that most (if not all) of the
necessary adjusting entries are reflected when viewing monthly financial reports.
Which of these are true about journal entries in QuickBooks Online? Select all that apply.
Knowledge check
 You can’t use Products and Services items in a journal entry
 Total debits must equal total credits in order to save the journal entry
 You can’t use multiple accounts receivable and/or accounts payable accounts in the same journal
entry
Check Answer
That’s right.
You can use multiple accounts receivable and/or accounts payable accounts in the same journal
entry, but you can’t use Products and Services items in a journal entry. Total debits must equal
total credits in order to save the journal entry.
The Pay down credit card feature

Keeping things tidy
As a finance professional, you know that categorizing transactions in the correct accounts is vital for keeping the
However, clients aren’t always so careful. A common problem is when clients miscategorize credit card payment

With the Pay down credit card feature in QuickBooks Online, clients can easily categorize credit
card payments in the correct account, keeping their balances and reports tidy and accurate.

In the past, clients could record their credit card payments in a few ways:
Why use the Pay down credit card feature?
 By creating a transfer transaction and matching it from the bank feed
 By writing a check
However, they aren’t always sure how to categorize the payment correctly. A common mistake is
categorizing payments from a credit card to an expense account rather than to the credit card
liability account. This leads to incorrect balances in the Banking Center, the Profit and Loss, and
the Balance Sheet.
The Pay down credit card feature uses client-friendly language to help them make the right
choices and it’s a simple workflow to follow. Coaching your clients in this workflow can help
avoid duplicate or miscategorized transactions that you need to tidy up for them at month-end.
Clients still have the choice to pay by check if that’s what they prefer.
Let’s see how to use the Pay down credit card feature.
Paying down a credit card
1. Select + New, then select Pay down credit card

2. Select the credit card account to pay down. In our case, we select Mastercard
3. In the Payee field, select the right option. In our case, we select Mastercard again
4. Next, in the How much did you pay box, enter the amount
5. Enter the date of payment
6. Then, select the account that the payment was made from.
Notice that there is an option to record making the payment by check. Clients can
also add memos and attachments
7. Select Save to record the transaction
8. Once it’s saved, you or your client can select the More button at the bottom of the
transaction and choose the Transaction journal to see if the right accounts have been
debited and credited
Transfers
Moving your money
Your clients may have multiple company-owned bank accounts for different purposes. They
need to make sure that their books reflect any changes when they’re transferring funds between
them.

Whether moving money between a savings and a checking account or paying down a credit card,
clients can easily set up transfers between balance sheets in QuickBooks Online.
Here’s a summary of the Transfer functionality in QuickBooks Online:

About the Transfer functionality
 The Transfer screen is for moving funds between two balance sheet accounts
 The Transfer screen isn’t for recording income or expense
 The Transfer feature is not for making transfers between a client bank account and their
vendor’s bank account
 A transfer is a 1:1 transfer of funds—there are no splits allowed
 There are no customers, vendors, employees, or Products and Services items involved.
These fields are not available on the Transfer screen
Let’s see how to transfer money between company-owned accounts.

Recording a transfer
1. Select + New, then select Transfer

2. In the Transfer funds from box, select the account to transfer from
3. In the Transfer funds to box, select the destination account
4. Next, enter the Transfer amount
5. Then set the date
Knowledge check
Which is a correct example of using the Transfer functionality in QuickBooks Online?
 Moving money from a checking account to a vendor

 Moving money from an income account to a bank account
 Moving money from a savings account to a checking account
Check Answer
That’s right.
The Transfer function is to move money from one balance sheet account to another balance sheet
account.
Banking and Tools
Managing receipts and bills
The age-old problem
Keeping track of receipts and bills is a challenge for business owners of all sizes. As a financial
professional, you may have come across clients who collect receipts in shoeboxes or clients who
don’t know how to automate their bills.

QuickBooks Online makes keeping track of receipts and bills much easier for you and your
clients. Users can scan, upload, or even email receipts and bills to QuickBooks Online. Receipts
can then be matched to existing expense transactions or used to create new ones. Clients can
even do this on the move via the mobile app.

Many clients find managing bills and receipts challenging because:

The benefits of managing receipts and bills in
 These are physical items that can fade with time or that clients can easily misplace or
QuickBooks
damage Online
 Organizing and storing these can take up time and space
 They’d rather focus on more pressing business-related tasks
 By the time period end approaches, it takes a lot of effort to make sense of the different
items
The Receipt Capture feature means receipts and bills can be scanned, snapped, then added and
managed in QuickBooks Online. This can be done in all subscription levels.
The Receipts tab in the Banking Center is the home of adding and tracking receipts and
Once a receipt
Logging or receipts
bills and bill is inand
the matching
Receipts them
tab, you can review, isedit,
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Adding bills and receipts to QuickBooks Online
and can be viewed within the Banking Center.
There are three ways to capture bills and receipts so that they can be matched to transactions and
added to the bank feed.
1. FORWARDING BY EMAIL
If bills and receipts have been generated or sent to you or your client via email, you or
they can forward these directly to your client’s QuickBooks Online account.
As a ProAdvisor, if you’re working with multiple companies, you can create one unique
customizable email address per company to make sure every receipt and bill gets
forwarded to the right place. Note that you can only register one unique customized email
address for each QuickBooks Online company.
Once you or your client has set up this email, they can forward bills and receipts as
attachments (if they want to forward several at once) or within the body of an email (if
they’re only forwarding one receipt per email).
If a client accidentally sends a receipt to an email address that isn’t registered with
QuickBooks Online, they’ll get a notification email.
2. FILE UPLOAD
If your client has receipts stored on their computer already, they can drag and drop them
directly into QuickBooks Online. To do this, use the Upload from computer area in the
Receipts tab of the Banking Center.
Here, they can also upload bills and receipts directly from their Google Drive.
Be aware that it may take up to 15 minutes for QuickBooks Online to process the file and
for it to show as ready in the account.
Clients can upload PDF, JPEG, JPG, GIF, or PNG files.

3. VIA MOBILE APP
The QuickBooks Online mobile app is especially handy for small receipts like café
receipts or card transactions in stores.
Clients need to simply open the app, take a snapshot of the receipt, and the file will be
uploaded to their account.
Clients can only process one receipt at a time this way. To capture new bills or receipts, they have
to start the scanning process again.
ProAdvisor tip
No matter which method you use, once the receipt files are uploaded, QuickBooks Online uses
OCR (optical character recognition) to scan the information on the receipt and extract the
necessary data to build a transaction record.
You’ll be able to check this information and amend it where necessary before accepting and
adding the transaction.
Setting up receipt forwarding
With emailed bills and receipts, your clients can forward the email to a customized QuickBooks
Online email address. The details are then picked up by the OCR technology and added to the
QuickBooks Online Receipts tab.
Let’s see how to set up a client with receipt forwarding.
To make receipt forwarding active, you’ll need to enable a unique email address within the
client’s QuickBooks Online.
1. Navigate to the Receipts tab in the Banking Center

2. Select Forward from email
3. Enter the email address to use for the client
4. Select Next, then Looks good to confirm it
5. Finally, select Done
Note that QuickBooks Online can only recognize one receipt at a time when they are sent in the
body of the email rather than as an attachment. However, clients can include multiple receipts in
the same email as long as they are separate attachments.
Let’s see how clients can use the QuickBooks Online app to snap a photo of receipts and add
them to QuickBooks Online.
Capturing bills and receipts in the mobile app
1. From the QuickBooks Online mobile app, select Snap receipt
The app opens the camera on the mobile device.
Note that QuickBooks Online frames the receipt so that you can make sure you capture
all of the information needed, including the date, merchant name, and amount.
2. Once satisfied, tap the capture button on the device
Select crop and drag the corner markers to fit the receipt if necessary.
3. If everything looks good, select Use this photo
The app uploads the image of the receipt and the OCR technology reads and transfers the
data to QuickBooks Online.
If necessary, clients can update any missing or incorrectly mapped fields directly in
the For Review section in QuickBooks Online.
Reviewing, matching, and adding bills and
receipts
Once bills and receipts are added, they appear in the Banking Center under For Review in
the Receipts tab.
From here, your client can select the row to have a side-by-side view of the receipt and the data
that has been extracted. Clients can also:
 Select Review to edit the extracted information for the receipt. If there are multiple
matches, selecting Review will allow them to choose the match they want
 Select Add if they want to create a new expense in QuickBooks Online with the receipt
attached
 Select Match if they’re ready to match the receipt with an existing record in QuickBooks
Online
Note: If an imported banking transaction and a receipt are both in For Review, QuickBooks
Online won’t suggest a match until you select Add for one of them.
Let’s see how clients can review bills and receipts in the Banking Center.
Reviewing bills and receipts
1. Go to the Banking Center
2. Select the Receipts tab
If QuickBooks Online finds an expense or bill already entered, it’ll suggest that
you Match the bill or receipt to the existing transaction. Where QuickBooks Online is
unable to find a match, clients can add a transaction manually.
3. In the For review tab, select Review from the action column
4. Set the Document Type
5. QuickBooks Online fills in the fields it can using OCR technology. Add any missing
fields if necessary
6. When done, select Save and next
7. If this is a bill or receipt for a new expense, select Create bill to add it to QuickBooks
Online
QuickBooks Online automatically includes the image of the receipt with the transaction.
To check this, select the Reviewed tab.
Managing users and addresses
Once you’ve registered a unique email for the client, you can specify which users can email
receipts by selecting Manage Senders.
For users to send receipts, they need to be at least standard users with vendor permissions.
As a ProAdvisor, you can forward email receipts to all your clients who have receipt forwarding
enabled. Just remember to use the unique forwarding address for each client that was created
when this feature was enabled in their QuickBooks Online account.
What is the next step in the receipt addition process once your client has captured a receipt
Knowledge check
for a new expense and uploaded it from their computer?
 Go to the For Review tab in Receipts

 Go to the Expenses Center to see the receipt
 Manually enter the corresponding transaction in the bank feed
Check Answer
That’s right.
All uploaded receipts that enter QuickBooks Online first appear in the For Review section of the
Receipts tab in the Banking Center.
Excluding bank transactions

Keeping things clean
QuickBooks Online makes managing transactions from an online bank feed easier. But what
happens when your client finds transactions that aren’t a match?

When reviewing transactions in QuickBooks Online, clients can decide to exclude certain
transactions if they’re certain that they shouldn’t be in their books. If there’s a mistake,
reinstating excluded transactions is equally simple.

Excluding a transaction involves removing it from the bank feed and not recording it in your
When to exclude transactions
client’s QuickBooks Online register.
Why might such an action be required? Your client, for example, might inadvertently import a
transaction that has already been reconciled. However, the Banking Center doesn’t match
imported transactions against reconciled transactions, so this creates a duplicate of the
transaction.
Excluding and reconciliation

Excluding is about avoiding errors. The goal of reconciliation is to prove that the transactions in
the register match the transactions that have cleared on the bank statement. If a duplicate
transaction were imported into the register, the register wouldn’t reconcile with the bank
statement. This would result in incorrect financial reports.
Excluding a transaction
Let’s look at how to exclude a transaction.
1. Select Banking from the left-hand navigation

2. Check the box next to the transaction to exclude
3. Select Exclude in the dark banner
The transaction has now been removed from the For Review tab in the bank feed.
4. Select the Excluded tab to see these transactions. From here, you can manage them
further if necessary
If your clients exclude a transaction that they later require in the bank feed, you or they can
Reinstating an excluded transaction
easily reinstate it.
1. Back in the Banking Center, select the Excluded tab

2. Check the boxes next to the transaction to reinstate
3. Select Undo in the dark banner
The banking transactions will now be back in the bank feed in the For Review tab for your
clients to add, categorize, or match and accept.
Knowledge check
Which is the best example of when you might need to exclude some transactions from a
bank feed?
 Your bank mistakenly imports transactions more than once when first set up
 You have transactions that are personal expenses which you don’t want to include in your accounts
 You see transactions in the bank feed that match those in your expense transactions
Check Answer
That’s right.
The best example is if your bank mistakenly imports transactions more than once. If this
happens, your statement won’t match the already reconciled transactions, so you’d need to
identify and exclude any duplicates.
Creating simple bank rules

One more step in the process
Importing bank feeds into QuickBooks Online is really easy. However, these transactions then
need to be matched with transactions in the client’s QuickBooks Online lists to reconcile their
books.

QuickBooks Online allows clients to set bank rules to speed up this process. The rule can
identify repetitive bank feeds and automatically suggest a match.

About bank rules
Bank rules automate the categorization of transactions in the bank feed, including assigning the
transaction type, category, payee, class, and location.
Rules can be prioritized, copied, edited, deleted, and exported. Clients can even create bank rules
to add transactions to the register automatically.
They can also be used to automatically split transactions, which means assigning different
categories to multiple lines of a transaction.
Let’s see how to set up a simple bank rule to automatically categorize a client’s equipment rental
expenses.
Creating a rule
1. Go to the Rules tab in the Banking Center

2. Select New Rule
3. Give the rule a name
4. In the Apply this to transactions that are dropdowns, select either Money in or Money
out and the bank account. In this case, it’s Money out from the Checking account
5. Next, use the dropdowns to set the conditions for the rule. In this case, we want to
automatically categorize a client’s equipment rental expenses. We select Bank text from
the first dropdown, and Contains in the second. Finally, we enter A Rental in the last box.
This means that anything with A Rental in the text of the transactions will qualify for this
rule
6. Set the Transaction type from the dropdown. In this case, it’s Expense and the rule will
create an expense transaction
7. Then select the category
8. Select the payee. In this example, we select Add New and enter A Rental, then save the
payee
Note that the Auto-add feature automatically applies the rule to the imported bank feed
transaction without review. If you would like to review the transaction before it’s added,
use the slider to turn it off.
Back in the Banking tab under the For review section, there are already transactions that
have been categorized according to the rule and there’s a Rule icon attached to them.
Knowledge check
Which bank feed elements can be automatically configured via a bank rule? Select all that
apply.
 Type
 Category
 Payee
 Class
 Location
Check Answer
That’s right.
Bank rules can categorize transactions based on all of these.
Reconciling to the bank
Keeping things synced
Reconciling accounts is important to ensure that a client’s bank balances match with their
financial data. However, going through each account statement and manually finding the right
match can take time and attention.

By connecting your clients’ bank accounts to QuickBooks Online and using the Reconcile tool in
QuickBooks Online Accountant, you can easily match transactions to reconcile their books.
Identifying potential issues is much easier with QuickBooks Online’s smart learning capability
and the Reconciliation Discrepancy report.

It’s best practice to reconcile accounts monthly to ensure that what clients have in QuickBooks
Online reflects the actual income, expenses, and other movements and adjustments of cash.
Overview of the reconciliation process
The process is necessary to find errors and omissions between QuickBooks Online registers and
the bank.
To reconcile accounts for your clients, you need the beginning and ending balances and the total
Reconciling accounts
amount of withdrawals and deposits on their account.
Let’s see how to reconcile their account with that information.
1. Select Accountant Tools, then Reconcile

2. From the Account dropdown, select the account to reconcile. In our case, we leave it as
Checking
3. From the client’s bank statement, enter the ending balance and the ending date
4. Select Start reconciling
Notice that QuickBooks Online has already marked all the transactions for that month
cleared in the register and that the difference is zero.
Because all transactions were previously matched and added in the Banking Center
(marking transactions as tentatively cleared), the reconciliation process is seamless.
5. Select Finish now, then Done
ProAdvisor tip
Once the reconciliation is complete, view, print, or download the Reconciliation Discrepancy
report by selecting Last statement ending date xx/xx/xxxx. Or view the reconciliation reports
for all periods by selecting History by account at the top right of the screen, then
selecting View in the Action column next to the right period.
It’s best practice to connect your client’s bank account to the QuickBooks Online Banking
Center. This way, you get account statements automatically on the reconcile page without having
Viewing account statements
to work with paper statements or sign in to the many bank accounts of the different clients.
1. FINDING THE STATEMENT
a. In QuickBooks Online Accountant, select Accountant Tools, then Reconcile

b. From the Account dropdown, select the account to reconcile
c. Select View statement to see available statements
2. SELECTING THE STATEMENT
a. Select the statement you want to use for the reconciliation from the list
You can also see a list of statements that have already been reconciled.
b. Select Done to return to the Reconcile page to begin or resume the reconciliation.
3. VIEWING THE STATEMENT
a. Select Accountant Tools, then Reconcile

b. Select History by account
c. Find the statement to view
d. Select Attachments in the Statements column to open the statement
ProAdvisor tip
If your client’s QuickBooks Online doesn’t have the option to view statements, you can attach
them manually from their account through QuickBooks Online Accountant.
The Reconciliation dashboard
1. The shortcuts here allow you to jump between different screens.

2. The overview area gives you more visibility of how you are reaching the zero difference.
3. This is the all-important difference number that you need to try and get to zero. When
you make adjustments to include or exclude a transaction, the difference will
automatically update. Your client’s books and bank agree when the difference is $0.00.
4. Select the Edit info button if you need to edit the statement ending balance or date.
5. Select the Save for later button if you want to continue the reconciliation later. When the
difference reaches the target zero amount, this button changes to Finish now and allows
you to complete the reconciliation. If you select Close without saving, you'll need to start
the process over from scratch.
6. You can filter transactions in many ways, including by memo, reference number, and
amount, or cleared status, transaction type, payee, or date range.
By default, QuickBooks Online sets a filter to show transactions on or before

7. By default, the table shows all transactions, but you can customize it to show just
the statement
deposits date.
or payments.
8. Any transactions added or matched through bank feeds will automatically have a
checkmark in this column. Check the boxes next to the transactions that appear on the
account statement. Once everything from the account statement is checked, the difference
should be zero.
ProAdvisor tip
You also have the option to change the payee and the posting account. If a check transaction
didn’t come through with the check number, you can also add it here, along with any memos.
Knowledge check
Where do you select to only see cleared transactions?
 1
 2
 3
 4
 5
Check Answer
That’s right.
You can use the filter to search for cleared transactions. You can also use the filter to search by
memo, reference number, amount, transaction type, payee, or date range.
QuickBooks Online alerts you if there’s a discrepancy between the beginning balance on the
Discrepancies with beginning balances
client’s account statement and QuickBooks Online. Before you can start the reconciliation
process, this needs to be resolved.
QuickBooks Online offers a link to run a Reconciliation Discrepancy report, which provides
some guidance on how you can resolve the transactions.
The Reconciliation Discrepancy report finds any transactions that were:
 Changed after they were reconciled, if the change affected the beginning balance of the
account
 Deleted after they were reconciled
 Manually reconciled in the register by changing the reconciliation status to reconciled (R)
 Unreconciled in the register by changing the reconciliation status from reconciled (R) to
cleared (C) or no status
Once you’ve resolved the issues with the transactions and the Total Discrepancy Difference is
zero, you’re ready to reconcile.
Rogue transactions
QuickBooks Online’s smart learning capability helps you identify any rogue transactions that
may be preventing you from reconciling.
For example, it can help you identify if a transaction date is incorrect because the posting date
was manually entered and has a clearing date that differs from the bank data. QuickBooks Online
will identify these hidden transactions and give you a link to display them.
This smart learning is available to QuickBooks Online accounts that have been connected to
online banking because it relies on the cleared bank feeds’ transactions.
ProAdvisor tip
We’ll cover more about troubleshooting bank reconciliations in the Advanced product training
on QuickBooks Online.
In most cases, there’s no need to change reconciled transactions. However, if an error is made,
Changing a reconciled transaction
it’s easy to change even a reconciled transaction.
Let’s see how to do this if a client manually changes the amount on a transaction that has been
reconciled.
When you’re next trying to reconcile the accounts, you’ll see an alert warning you that this
account isn’t ready to reconcile.
1. Select the We can help you fix it link
The Reconciliation Discrepancy Report screen shows the transaction that is causing the
problem. In this case, the issue is with the amount.
2. Select the transaction and edit the amount
3. Then select Save
That’s it. You’re now ready to start the reconciliation.
While the best method to fix errors with a reconciliation is to use the Reconciliation Discrepancy
report, Accountant users can undo reconciliations if necessary.
Undoing a reconciliation
You may undo a reconciliation if the reconciliation was forced, meaning it was saved even
though the difference was not zero.
Undoing the reconciliation allows you to start over so that you can find the discrepancies.
To undo a reconciliation:
1. In the Reconcile screen, select History by account

2. In the Action column, select the down arrow next to View report, and select Undo
Note that this is only available to Accountant users. Client users won’t see this option.
Overview of recurring transactions
Saving valuable time
For many businesses, most of the expense transactions are one-offs. However, your client may
need to set up and manage transactions that recur on a regular basis.

QuickBooks Online allows you to set up recurring transactions to record automatically or as a
template under the recurring transactions feature and use them when needed.
Recurring transactions can be set up for a variety of different reasons in QuickBooks Online. The
beauty of this feature is that it’s flexible enough to meet lots of business needs for different types
of businesses.
Let’s take a look.

Recurring transactions in QuickBooks Online can be set up to manage pretty much any
transaction in any workflow, like sales receipts, invoices, bills, journal entries, checks, deposits,
Overview of recurring transactions
or expenses. There’s even an option to include unbilled charges and automatically send emails.
They’re a great way to automate money-out transactions (like rental or insurance payments) that
your client needs to pay at regular intervals and in fixed amounts.
On the money-in side, your client can use recurring transactions to automatically invoice
customers for regular, fixed-price services (such as weekly lawn mowing or monthly
membership subscriptions).
Your client can even set a recurring charge to a customer’s credit card or bank account (ACH)
using a sales receipt, with advance customer authorization.
More advanced recurring transactions can be set up for non-posting transactions, such as
purchase orders or estimates. Notice that the transaction does not have to be scheduled. So, for
example, if your client’s purchase order typically contains the same items purchased but they
don’t order on a scheduled basis, select Reminder or Unscheduled from the Type dropdown.
As an accountant, you can even set up recurring journal entries to reclassify deferred revenue or
prepaid expenses.
You’ll learn more about advanced uses of recurring transactions in the certification training.
ProAdvisor tip
Keep an eye on the recurring transactions to avoid sending out automated invoices for canceled
or delayed work.
Note that a customer, vendor, employee, product/service, or account can’t be deleted if they are
on a recurring transaction.
Which of these recurring transactions could be used if a client needs to set up a monthly
Knowledge check
recurring customer charge including payment?
 A recurring sales receipt

 A recurring purchase order for a vendor with no quantities
 A recurring journal entry for depreciation
 A recurring expense
Check Answer
That’s right.
The great thing about QuickBooks Online’s recurring transaction functionality is that it allows
your client to create them to match their circumstances and needs.
In this case, the client can set up a regular, recurring sales receipt for landscaping services carried
out each month. Remember: A sales receipt means you get paid at the time of sale, so provided
the client is signed up for QuickBooks Payments and has prior authorization to charge the
customer, you can set up the payment as part of the recurring sales receipt transaction. The other
examples are great illustrations of other uses of recurring transactions—they’re just not suitable
for the client’s needs here.
Let’s see how to set up a recurring transaction.

Setting up a recurring transaction
1. Select the Gear icon, then Recurring transactions
2. Select New
3. Select the transaction type from the dropdown, then select OK
4. In the Template name box, enter an easily identifiable name for the recurring
transaction. It’s best practice to include the name of the vendor, customer, or employee
that the recurring transaction concerns
5. From the Type dropdown, select Scheduled, Reminder, or Unscheduled. In this case, it’s
Scheduled
6. In the next box, add how many days in advance to create the transaction
7. Then complete the rest of the details as with any other transaction
8. In the Intervalsection, use the dropdowns to adjust the required frequency. In this case,
we’re creating a monthly recurring transaction with the payment due on the fourth day of
the month
9. Add the start date
10. In the End date dropdown, either specify when the recurring transaction should end, or
select None
There’s no need to enter a payment method or reference number.

11. Add the details of the item the transaction is for in the Category detailssection
12. Finally, select Save template
ProAdvisor tip
Clients can also create recurring transactions by selecting Make recurring at the bottom of
eligible transaction screens.
Introducing tags in QuickBooks Online
The easy way to track money
It has always been possible to use accounting tools to track money in and out of a business, but
using classes, locations, and jobs is cumbersome and carries limitations.

QuickBooks Online supports the use of tags: customizable labels that let clients categorize and
group transactions the way it suits their business needs. These customizable labels make it easy
to track money without getting bogged down with classes, locations, and jobs.
This lesson looks at the basics of tags and tagging.

Let’s learn more about tags and how they work in QuickBooks Online.
Tagging
1. WHAT ARE basics
TAGS AND TAG GROUPS
Tags are customizable labels that clients can assign to transactions of their choice. Clients
can then group tags and run reports to see how specific areas of the business are
performing.
For example, a charity might want to see donations received and expenses surrounding
each of its fundraising events. In this case, tags and tag groups would look like those
shown below.
2. WHAT CAN BE TAGGED
Tags can be added to:
 Estimates  Delayed charges  Purchase orders
 Invoices  Delayed credits  Vendor credits
 Sales receipts  Expenses  Credit card credits
 Credit memos  Checks  Bank deposits
 Refund receipts  Bills
At the moment, tags can’t be added to:
General journal entries Vendors

Transfers Products
Time entries Services
Pay down credit card transactions Employees
Customers Payroll items
3. HOW MANY TAGS AND TAG GROUPS CAN BE CREATED?
There is no limit on the number of ungrouped tags clients can create in any of the
QuickBooks Online subscription levels.
The limit on grouped tags is 300, distributed among up to 40 tag groups for QuickBooks
Online Simple Start, Essentials, and Plus subscribers, while QuickBooks Online
Advanced users can create unlimited grouped tags.
4. CAN MORE THAN ONE TAG BE USED FROM THE SAME GROUP?
As many tags can be added to a transaction as are needed, but only one can be added
from each group.
5. CAN I DELETE TAGS AND TAG GROUPS?

Because they’re not having any effect on the accounts, you can delete tags and tag groups
when they’re no longer needed.
If your clients choose to delete a tag group then the tags contained in that group aren’t
deleted, but they’re no longer associated with the deleted group. If clients elect to do this
then they’ll receive a warning message explaining the impact.
Tags provide a quick and easy way to compare data—perfect for when other categorization
methods may be more complex.
The benefits of tags and tag groups
For example, a professional services firm may tag sales and expenses for various clients based on
the referral source. Using tags in this way can help clients see which advertising channels yield
the most business.
Another example could be a sales manager who uses tags to track sales made by individual team
members to see who’s selling more. Additionally, he could use tags to see who’s billing the most
expenses. This combined data can show who’s contributing the most to the bottom line.
Unlike other methods that must be used consistently on every transaction to generate accurate
reports, clients can assign tags as needed. They work best for items selected from a list such as
invoices, sales receipts, and credit memos. By contrast, custom fields are best for unique data,
such as purchase order numbers.
Even if you or your clients already use classes, locations, jobs, and custom fields, tags can
provide another dimension of data labeling.
Tags are available in all subscription levels of QuickBooks Online, offering a cost-effective
solution for many businesses.
Which of the options are true of tags and tag groups in QuickBooks Online? Select all that
Knowledge check
apply.
Up to 40 tag groups can be created with a QuickBooks Online Simple Start, Essentials, or Plus
subscription
 Unlimited groups can be created with a QuickBooks Online Advanced subscription
 Up to 300 grouped tags and unlimited ungrouped tags can be created with any QuickBook Online
subscription
 Tags cannot be deleted
 Tag groups can be deleted
 Tags cannot be added to invoices
Check Answer
That’s right.
There’s a limit of 40 tag groups and 300 grouped tags for each QuickBooks Online company,
with the exception of QuickBooks Online Advanced, which offers unlimited groups. Ungrouped
tags are unlimited.
Tag groups and tags don’t affect the books themselves so they can be deleted and reconfigured as
many times as necessary.
If a tag group is deleted, a warning will appear indicating that the individual tags in the group
will still be available, but they’ll be ungrouped if you proceed with the deletion. These newly
ungrouped tags will still be associated with their transactions.
Understanding the tag tiles

Before your clients start adding tags to their transactions, in the Tags tab in the Banking Center
they are offered a brief overview of how tags might be used in a sample company. Once they
start using tags, they’ll see a view on the Tags tab made up of tiles. Let’s see an overview of the
Tags tab.
1. Here, the tag group is for money-in transactions such as sales, invoices, or deposits.
2. Here, the tag group is for money-out transactions such as bills, expenses, or credit notes.
3. This shows the aggregate amount of money-in transactions assigned to each tag.
4. This shows the aggregate amount of money-out transactions assigned to each tag.
5. This shows the number of tags created and remaining, and the number of tag groups
created to date.
Let’s tag some transactions to see how to track expenses and sales.
Tagging transactions
1. Navigate to the Expenses Center
2. Select any expense from the list and open it
3. Notice that by selecting the Tags field, a list of existing tags is displayed. You can select
any of these, or add a new tag or tag group by entering the name of the tag and selecting
+Add
4. Select Manage tags
5. Select Create group
6. Enter the Group name and assign a color for the new group
7. Then select Save
8. Now you or your client can create tags within the tag group. Enter the tag name and
select Add
You can add tags to a transaction from different groups, but not more than one tag from
the same group.
9. Once the tag group and the tags are ready, select Done, and close the drawer. This will
return you to the transaction edit screen
10. To tag the transaction form, select the tag from theTagsfield or start entering the name
of the tag and select it when it appears
11. Next, select Save and close
Now, let’s do the same with an existing invoice.
1. Go to the Sales Center and select the Invoices tab

2. Select an invoice and in the drawer, then select Edit invoice
3. In the Tags field, use the same tags used for the expense
4. When done, select Save and close
Now let’s see how that looks in the Banking Center.
1. Navigate to the Banking Center

2. Select the Tags tab
Here, you can view transactions with tags assigned to them.
The Money In and Money Out cards indicate the total dollar value summary of relevant
transactions by tag within a tag group.
3. Use the dropdowns to choose a date range and a different tag group or ungrouped tag
Selecting the colored bars (green for Money In, turquoise for Money Out) allows you or
your client to zoom in and see the list of Transactions by Tag making up that total.
Disabling tags in QuickBooks Online
By default all QuickBooks Online company files have tags turned on, but they can be turned off
via the Tags setting if required.
To access the Tags setting:
1. Select the Gear icon, then Account and settings

2. Select the Sales tab
3. Select anywhere in the Sales form content section to allow editing
4. In the Tags row, use the slider to turn tags on or off
Reporting and analytics
Creating insight
Basic reporting options
As your clients work in QuickBooks Online, they develop a complex financial dataset about their
business, and this resource becomes a valuable source of insight. But to benefit from it, reports
need to be clear and easy to read because your clients have little time to spend on the admin.
QuickBooks Online offers a range of reports to help you and your client analyze the state of their
business.
There are a few key reports (such as the Profit and Loss and Balance Sheet reports) that help
clients gain business insights and make sound decisions.
However, you need to be able to analyze them to get the most out of them. For that, QuickBooks
Online also offers various chart options to visualize your clients’ financial data.
The Profit and Loss report is the one that most clients are familiar with. It summarizes the
amount of financial activity associated with each income or expense account for a specific period
ofThe
time.Profit
This willand Loss
indicate report
whether your client is operating at a profit or a loss.
By running a prior period comparative Profit and Loss report, you can reveal cash flow trends in
spending and earnings from the business.
Running a comparative Profit and Loss report
A comparative Profit and Loss report allows your client to compare the current or past
performance of their business with that of a different period.
1. Navigate to the Report Center

2. Select the Profit and Loss report
3. Set the Report period
4. From the Compare another period dropdown, select the other period to compare the
financial data with
5. To see the variances between periods, either dollar or percentage change,
check $ Change and % Change boxes
6. Set the Accounting method, either Cash or Accrual
7. Finally, select Run report
Analyzing the Profit and Loss report
As part of your analysis of the Profit and Loss report, you’ll want to run through some top-level
questions with your client. You’re looking for discrepancies or things that look out of place, such
as:
Income:
 Does their total income look about right?

 Which income streams brought in more revenue?
 Is all their income categorized?
Expenses:
 Are there any expense items in Ask My Accountant?

 Are there any expenses that are different from prior periods? Ask why
 Review key areas like revenue, gross profit, and net profit
Review the video to see how the conversation between you and a client might go.
The key metrics to consider when analyzing the Profit and Loss report are:
 Gross Profit: This shows how much of your client’s revenue is available to pay for
operating expenses after paying for cost of goods or services sold
 Gross Profit Margin: This shows the amount of gross profit made for each dollar of sales
 Net Profit (loss): This shows the amount the company made or lost from operations
 Net Profit Margin: This shows the amount of net profit or loss for each dollar of sales
You’ll see that some transactions will need reclassifying. We’ll cover that inThe Reclassify
transactions tool lesson.
Knowledge check
Which accounts on this Profit and Loss report need more investigation? Select all that
apply.
 1
 2
 3
 4
 5
Check Answer
That’s right.
Rent and Lease have seen a significant decrease in value. You’ll want to ask your client why this
is.
Ask My Accountant is automatically registered as an uncategorized expense by QuickBooks
Online. You’ll want to take a deeper dive into the transaction report with the client to agree on
how each of these should be correctly categorized in the future.
The Balance Sheet

Another key report in the end-to-end accounting life cycle is the Balance Sheet.
A balance sheet summarizes the financial position of a business at a single moment in time.
That’s why it’s commonly referred to as a snapshot of the business. This report reflects whether
the assets that the business owns are enough to offset its liabilities and leave a net equity balance
after all liabilities have been paid off.
1. HOW TO RUN A BALANCE SHEET
a. Go to the Report Center

b. From the Business overview section, select Balance Sheet
c. Set the Report period or enter custom dates
d. Then select Run report
2. ANALYZING THE BALANCE SHEET

When analyzing the Balance Sheet, the key areas to focus on are:
 Reviewing each checking/credit card for an accurate balance

 Reviewing accounts receivable
 Reviewing any new asset purchases
 Reviewing any prepaids and confirming they were accurately categorized
 Reviewing loan accounts and making sure they’ve been reconciled against current
ending balances
 Reviewing owner transactions in the Equity section
 Checking that the net income in the Balance Sheet report matches the net income on
the Profit and Loss report for the same period (for example, year end or quarter end)
and the same accounting method (such as accrual)
3. VALIDATING THE BALANCE SHEET

In order to validate and prove the balance on the Balance Sheet or Trial Balance reports,
you can either drill down into the detailed transaction reports or run subsidiary reports.
Below, you can find a list of subsidiary reports to help you prove the Balance Sheet.
TOOLS:
 Proving the Balance Sheet
ProAdvisor tip
You can also run comparison reports for the Balance Sheet to compare it with a previous period.
Add the % options to give you the opportunity for further analysis.
Take a look at a client’s balance sheet for 2021 to date.
Knowledge check
What would you investigate on this balance sheet?
 Uncategorized Asset
 Furniture and Equipment
 Good SMB Loan
 Owner’s Pay
Check Answer
That’s right.
You’d want to investigate the uncategorized asset and ensure that it gets correctly categorized.
Charts in the Performance Center make it easier for managers and decision-makers to visualize company
financial data. This feature, available to all accountant users in any QuickBooks Online subscription,
Performance
enables more effectiveCenter charts monitoring and informs commercial strategies. The feature
business performance
is also available to client users in QuickBooks Online Advanced subscriptions.
1. CHART DISPLAY OPTIONS

You can customize the way charts are displayed in the Performance Center in QuickBooks
Online. Some charts are displayed on the dashboard by default, but you can add, remove, or edit
charts to suit the needs of you and your clients. You can add up to 25 unique charts to the
Performance center dashboard.
2. CUSTOM CHART BUILDER
You can also use the Performance Center to create custom charts for your clients. This is
great for those who want to make their financial data visually digestible. You can detail
out multiple different datasets on the custom charts:
 Expenses  Net profit  COGS
 Revenue  Accounts receivable  Current ratio
 Gross profit  Accounts payable  Quick ratio
3. FATHOM SMART REPORTING

Clients who subscribe to QuickBooks Online Advanced also benefit from access to the
Fathom Smart reporting app. This syncs data from QuickBooks Online Advanced to
enable advanced analysis and visualization. The app allows you to truly dazzle your
clients with compelling graphics of financial data. Fathom syncs data once a day, but
clients can also instruct it to update immediately for the most current view of their
finances.
QuickBooks Online Advanced users access Fathom within the Reports menu
under Smart reporting.
Going
Reportthe options
extra mileto
foranswer
your clients
common business questions
Effective reporting can give your clients the business intelligence they need to make those all-
important business decisions—but where do you go to provide them with it?
QuickBooks Online gives you and your clients the tools to keep track of their financial data so
that it’s accurate, reliable, complete, and available in real time.
Using reports to their full potential will prepare you to help your clients make decisions and
support their business goals.
Exploring the dashboard
Apart from the Reports Center, clients can gain immediate insight from the dashboard in QuickBooks
Online. The two tabs offer an easy-to-digest financial summary for the business.
GETTING THINGS DONE

The Get things done tab in the dashboard offers quick links within the client’s QuickBooks company to
key workspaces, arranged in a neat interactive visual for easy digestion.
BUSINESS OVERVIEW
The Business overview tab offers a useful overview of the business’s point-in-time financial position. The
way the sections are laid out allows clients to easily spot issues as they emerge.
Start with the end in mind
In order to make good decisions about their business, clients need data that is accurate, reliable, and
complete.
Let’s take a look at how best-practice workflows and accurate bookkeeping are crucial to the reporting
process.
There are a number of common business questions clients will ask. You can add real value by providing
them with key reports that clearly answer their questions.
Answering common client questions: Part 1
1. Who owes me money?
Report to use: A/R Aging
Why: It lists all customers who currently owe balances and how old the balances are.
2. Who are my top customers?

Report to use: Sales by Customer Summary
Why: A business can look at the characteristics of their top customers to help identify
potential new customers who have the same characteristics.
3. What are my top-selling and/or worst-selling products?

Report to use: Sales by Product/Service Summary
Why: A business can decide which products they should buy more of (high volume) or which
products to put on sale (low-volume or slow-moving products).
4. How much do I owe my vendors?

Report to use: A/P Aging
Why: It lists all vendors with open balances and shows how old the balances are.
5. How much money did I make?

Report to use: Profit and Loss
Why: It shows profitability and how much money was earned and spent on each
category.
6. Can I afford that new equipment?

Report to use: Balance Sheet
Why: The Balance Sheet shows cash balances, money owed to the company, money
owed by the company, and net income for the period.
Answering common client questions: Part 2
7. How much is my inventory worth?
Report to use: Inventory Valuation Summary (or Detail)
Why: It shows the book (purchase or cost) value of inventory items with quantity on
hand.
8. How much revenue (less cost of goods sold) is available to cover operating costs?
Why: This is an important profitability metric. You can tell a business owner whether
they need to raise prices or reduce spending, or both.
9. How much have I spent on (insert category)?

Why: This can help a business understand where they are spending their money.
10. How much have I paid (insert vendor)?

Report to use: Expenses by Vendor Summary (or Detail)
Why: This can help a business to negotiate better pricing from their vendors if they are
buying a lot from one particular vendor.
11. Which vendors may also be classed as 1099 contractors?

Report to use: 1099 Contractor
Why: 1099 Contractor reports are critical to verifying and validating 1099 contractor
payments and compliance requirements.
12. If I show a profit, why isn’t there any cash in the bank?
Report to use: Statement of Cash Flows
Why:The Statement of Cash Flows shows the cash flowing in and out of a business for a
specific period of time. It breaks down the source of cash received and spent into
operating, investing, or financing activities. This can help a business identify whether it’s
generating more cash than it’s using.
ProAdvisor tip
Download a pdf copy of these questions and reports here: Common questions you can answer
with reports
Knowledge check
Your client is considering new computers for their business. They would love to be able to see
real-time accurate financials so that they can decide whether they have enough profit and cash
flow to take out a small business loan to cover the cost of the equipment.
Which reports should you compare to help them make this decision? Select all that
apply.
 Balance Sheet
 Profit and Loss report
 Statement of Cash Flows report
 Expenses by Vendor Summary report
 A/R Aging report
Check Answer
That’s right.
Before applying for a loan, your client should ensure they have clean books and have reviewed
the Profit and Loss report against the Cash Flow Statement so they can be sure they’ll be able to
make the repayments.
One of your e-commerce clients ordered far too many products in the build-up to the holiday
Knowledge
season last winter.check
This left them with too much stock in January and they had to offer discounts
in order to shift the stock.
Which report could help prevent them from making the same mistake next year?
 Profit and Loss

 Expenses by Vendor Summary report
 Sales by Product/Service Summary report
 Sales by Customer Summary report
Check Answer
That’s right.
The Sales by Product/Service Summary report will help your client track the sales of each
product over time to best evaluate past growth and figure out the sweet spot.
If a client is not set up properly (using Product/Service items) and following proper workflow
(using sales receipts or invoices), they could end up ordering the wrong amount. This would
result in either too much of the product (tying cash up in the product as an asset) or too little
(resulting in lost sales opportunities).
Customizing reports
Give your clients exactly what they need
To make the right decisions about their business, clients need the right access to their financial data.
However, standard reports might not present the information they’re after in the most meaningful way.
QuickBooks Online allows your clients to customize reports in different ways, depending on the
type of report they’re running.
Available customization options vary depending on the type of report you’re running. The
customization options are divided into five main categories:
 General
 Rows/Columns
 Aging
 Filter
 Header/Footer
Customization using the report header options

There are several customization options available within the header section of the report. In this
example, we use a summary report, such as a Profit and Loss report. Options for detail reports
are different. We’ll cover these later.
1. Here, select the time range needed. This can be preset time ranges such as Year to date,
or can be set to a custom range.
2. For summary reports like this Profit and Loss report, use this option to display data
grouped in columns by period, customer, vendor, classes, locations, or products and
services.
3. Some reports allow columns and rows with no activity to be hidden.
 Choose “Active” to hide empty rows or columns

 Choose “Non-zero” to also hide rows or columns where the total is zero
 “All” shows everything
This option isn’t available in all reports, including payroll reports.
4. Some reports allow report comparisons from multiple time periods, including a custom
period, and see changes over time. Comparison columns can also be reordered.
5. Choose Cash to include only money paid or received.
Choose Accrual to include invoices and bills dated during the reporting period, regardless
of whether or not they’ve been paid.
6. You can expand or collapse sub-list items by selecting this option. Alternatively, to
collapse some sub-list items, select the down arrow to the left of the name to be
collapsed. Selecting the right-facing arrow next to a name expands the list.
It’s also possible to sort reports in ascending or descending order and add notes to the
bottom of a report. Tap on the header to include the logo (if there’s a default one
connected with the company), or edit the company name, or report title.
7. Select this option to sort by total in ascending or descending order.
8. Add a note to be displayed, printed, or exported with the report. Notes added here will appear
in the bottom left corner of the report.
9. You can view a visual chart containing the data from many reports. You’ll learn more about
charts later in this training.
10. Select Edit titles to replace the default section titles used in all Profit and Loss and Balance Sheet
reports for this company.
11. Select the Envelope icon to email your report to any recipient. Emails can be customized and are
sent from quickbooks@notification.intuit.com
12. Select the Printer icon to print a report. The options you see in the print dialog box will vary
depending your printer, but you will always be able to choose the orientation and which pages
will be included in the printed document.
13. Select the Export icon to export the report to Excel, PDF, or Google Sheets. Note: Google Sheets
export is only available in QuickBooks Online Advanced subscriptions.
14. The options available from the Grid Gear icon depends on the report. For a Balance Sheet
report, it will compact the report, but for detail reports (for instance), it allows the displayed
columns in the report to be defined. There’s even a quick link to reorder the columns.
15. Selecting the Customize button opens up a suite of options divided into sections.
Section names and the options available within them may depend on the type of report, so
you’ll see different options for summary and detail reports, for example.
ProAdvisor tip
The filters applied to the report are displayed at the top. To remove a filter, select the X next to
the filter name.
The Customize menu: General

This is the view you or your client see when you select the Customize button in a report.
The General section, shown here, offers some of the options also available from the report screen header.
However, it also allows additional editing options to modify the number format or define how negative
numbers are to be displayed.
Customization options: Rows and columns
The rows/columns customization options are different for summary and detail reports.
Let’s explore the different customization options that are available for each.
The Customize report tray displays an additional Aging section for aging reports. Your client can
choose from the following two aging method options:
Customization options: Aging
Current aging method: If the invoice was open at the end of last month but has since been paid,
it won’t appear in this report because it isn’t currently due. But if the invoice was open at the end
of last month and it is still open, it would appear in this report.
Report Date aging method: If the invoice was due on that date, regardless of whether or not it
has been paid in the meantime, it would appear in this report.
This section also allows you to set the number of days in the aging period and the number of
aging periods to show on the report.
Filters in the Customize tray allow you to select what you want to display.
Customization
What options:
can I specify in filter Filter
dropdowns?
There are some generic options at the top of most report lists. You can choose:
 All: Includes all transactions in the report that fall within the other customize options
 Not specified: This returns only transactions or names in which that field was left blank.
Examples of this would be if your client was filtering by class and just wanted to see transactions
that had no class assigned, or if they wanted a list of customers that hadn’t been assigned terms
 Specified: This returns only transactions or names that have data in the specified field. It
excludes transactions where the field is blank
What are the common filters for summary reports?

While filtering options vary depending on the report, some of the most common filters are:
 Distribution Account  Employee  Product/Service
 Customer  Location  Payment Method
 Vendor  Class
If you save a customized filtered report where you have used multiple selections, you’ll need to
update the saved custom report if you add any new names to QuickBooks Online.
What are the common filters for detail reports?
Detail reports offer different filter options. The list is larger, depending on the type of report, and
includes all the options for summary reports, along with status tags.
The common options are:

 Transaction Type  Last Modified  Check Printed  Product/Service
(including posting Date  Sales Printed Taxable
and non-posting)  Cleared Status  Billable  Memo
 Account  A/R Paid  Customer  Num (Number)
 Due Date  A/P Paid Taxable  Custom fiel
 Created Date
What about custom fields?

QuickBooks Online subscription levels up to and including Plus support three custom fields for
sales forms. You can have 48 active custom fields in QuickBooks Online Advanced: 12 for sales
forms, 12 for purchase orders and expense forms, 12 for customer profiles, and 12 for vendor
profiles. Some reports offer the option to match exact criteria for these fields.
For instance, a client may have a custom field named Crew to track which team of workers
performed a job, and be able to filter a Sales by Customer Detail report to see transactions where
a specific crew was used. When using regular custom fields (not those available in QuickBooks
Online Advanced), the custom fields must include the string of characters contained in the
custom field.
ProAdvisor tip
The following filters do not have dropdown fields from which to select:
 Amount
 Ship Via (if shipping is enabled in Account and settings)
 Memo
 Custom fields (unless a dropdown custom field was created in QuickBooks Online Advanced)
 Num (number)
In these custom fields, the text entered in the filter must be contained in the field entry. For
example, if the crew number is 1234, entering 123 brings up any transactions with crew numbers
that contain 123, including 1234 or 5123.
Customization options: Headers and footers

The Header/Footer section in the Customize reports tray allows you or your clients to:
 Show the logo

 Change the company name
 Change the report title
 Show or hide the report period
 Add the date and time the report was prepared
 Show or hide the report basis
 Change the header or footer alignment
ProAdvisor tip
Note that you can’t add extra footer text to a report in QuickBooks Online in the customize
window. If you need to add footer text, add a note to the report (it will be left-justified at the
bottom), export the report to Excel, or use the Management reports option.
Knowledge check
Which of the following report customization options are available in QuickBooks
Online? Select all that apply.
 Aging
 Header/Footer
 Rows/Columns
 Filter
 General
Check Answer
That's right.
All of these customization options are available.
Supporting your clients' reporting requirements

Management reports
What do you do if a client comes to you saying they have to prepare a special report detailing the
company’s financial performance to present to their stakeholders?
QuickBooks Online’s management reports are editable templates that allow you to create a
packaged set of reports from the client's file in a PDF format.
This means the information already in QuickBooks Online can be packaged into a professionally
designed management report.
Both ProAdvisors and clients can access the management reports features in a QuickBooks
Management
Online company, butreports
the access fundamentals
differs. Clients see three predefined management reports
templates in their company:
 Company overview
 Sales performance
 Expenses performance
As a ProAdvisor accessing their file via QuickBooks Online Accountant, you will see two
templates:
 Basic company financials

 Expanded company financials
Let’s create the management reports to see how it all works.
To start creating a management report, select the Management reports tab in the Reports
Creating management reports
Center.
Creating a template
Because you can’t create a management report from scratch, you need to start with an existing
template and customize it.
1. It’s best practice to copy an existing template rather than editing it. To do that, select the
down arrow next to the template to use and select Copy
2. Once the template has been duplicated, select Edit from the options
Note that QuickBooks Online logs who created the new report and when it was modified. Note
that you can also define the report period.
Customizing the cover page

The first page is the cover page, but you can scroll through all the other pages on the left.
1. Start with changing the template name at the top of the screen
2. Use the dropdowns to change the cover style and logo
3. QuickBooks Online automatically fills in some fields using data from Account and Settings or
where they’ve been defined in the report setup, but you can edit these
Notice that the Prepared by name by default is the name of the firm in the QuickBooks Online
Accountant settings. If your client is creating management reports, the Prepared by field is blank.
Customizing the preliminary pages
The Preliminary pages are commonly used for accountant reports when issuing prepared
financial statements.
1. You may want to change the name in the Page title field before adding notes
2. You can enter and format a letter in the Page content box or copy and paste it from another
source (like Word or Google Docs)
3. Use the options in the brackets dropdown to insert predefined company content that QuickBooks
Online populates automatically, for example: {Company name}
The actual text QuickBooks Online adds in here can be changed and updated globally wherever a
preset option has been used.
Customizing the reports included in the management report
In the Reports page, you can define which reports to include in the management report template.
 To add a report in addition to the ones QuickBooks Online included in the template,
select the Add new report link
To add a customized report, you need to customize and save the custom report in the
Reports Center first. Note that you can't customize a report from the Management Report
screen.
 To change the title of the reports that appear in your Table of contents or the report
period, use the Pencil icon on the right to enable editing. You can also choose to compare
to the previous year or period
 To remove a report from the template, select the Trash icon on the report edit section
Note that there's no option to rearrange the order of the reports. The only way to do that is
by adding and deleting reports until you reach the desired order.
Customizing the end notes

The final section is the End notes that appear at the end of the management report.
 You can choose whether or not to include end notes by checking the Include this page option
If you do, you can give the page a title to appear in the Table of contents, add additional content.
 Select Include breakdown of sub-accounts to include detail of subaccount totals in the End
notes section
Additional customization options
At the bottom of the page, there are more Advanced options to customize fields, the header or
the footer.
 Fields are placeholders that are replaced with actual data when the report is created - same as in
the Preliminary pages. Fields are an easy way to add the same text to multiple places
 The Header/Footer functionality allows you to enter text that will appear on every page of the
management report (except the cover page and the table of contents). You can also add fields here
To preview the management report, select Print or Preview at the bottom of the page.
Saving or exporting the management report
Once you’re happy with the editing of the report, select Save or Save and close.
Back in the Management reports tab of the Reports Center, you have the option to Export as
PDF or Export as DOCX from the Action column.
Knowledge check
Which of the following statements are correct regarding management reports in
QuickBooks Online? Select all that apply.
 You can export management reports in Word, PDF, and Excel format
 You can customize reports via the Management reports screens
 You can add as many reports as needed to the package
 You can’t reorder the reports included in the package
Check Answer
That’s right.
You can add as many reports as you need to a Management reports package, but you can’t
reorder the reports except by deleting and re-adding them.
However, you can only select from two templates by default when accessing from QuickBooks
Online Accountant. To customize reports, leave the Management reports editing functionality
and then add the reports to the Management Reports package afterward.
Closing the accounting cycle
Month-end review
No need to dread the end of the month
Clients rely on their books being accurate to be able to make business decisions. That’s why
checking transactions and reconciling the accounts are an essential part of your month-end
workflow. However, closing all your clients’ books on a monthly basis can be time-consuming.
The Month-end review feature in QuickBooks Online automatically finds errors, incomplete
expenses, and duplicate entries. This makes your typical month-end workflow faster and smarter.
You can easily track your progress for individual clients, or even see it across the whole practice
via the Client List.
The end-to-end accounting lifecycle

For busy accountants and bookkeepers, creating and following consistent processes throughout the
accounting lifecycle is key to a successful practice.
Review the graphic for a recap of what the key tasks are at each stage of the workflow.
Benefits of the month-end review
The Month-end review feature is designed to support your typical month-end workflow by
pulling all your tasks together into a single place so that nothing gets missed.
For those of you managing a team of bookkeepers, you have the added challenge of creating an
easy-to-replicate process that maintains a consistent quality of work without feeling like you’re
constantly chasing your bookkeepers!
Resources
What can the QuickBooks Online month-end review do?

The stages of the month-end review
Month-end review works as a to-do list of tasks. These tasks are grouped into three main areas.
Which of the options below does the Month-end review process help with? Select all
that apply.
 Finding transactions with outstanding issues

 Reviewing business key metrics and trends
 Dealing with unreconciled accounts
 Running payroll
Check Answer
That's right.
Fixing transactions and reconciling accounts are key processes in the month-end review.
Stage 1: Transaction review

To start a month-end review, select Accountant Tools from the client’s books in QuickBooks
Online Accountant and select Month-end review. It’s important to remember that the Month-
end review needs to be accessed from your client’s books, and not those of your firm.
The first stage in the month-end process is to take care of any transactions with issues. The
transaction review, powered by SmartScan, automatically finds errors such as incomplete
expenses and allows you to categorize transactions highlighted by the review as need be.
Transaction review is all about setting your clients’ books up for success. To get started,
QuickBooks Online automatically identifies unaccepted bank transactions for you to review. By
selecting the Review now link, you’ll be taken directly to those transactions and you can accept
or remove them. Once complete, you can then begin resolving open issues.
1. Categorize
Open Issues: QuickBooks Online automatically reveals common bookkeeping issues such as uncategoriz
The application anticipates your needs as you work through the list. If you select an
uncategorized transaction, you’re prompted to reclassify it.
2. Transactions without payees
For transactions identified as being without payees, you’re offered three options: to add
the payee, to void the transaction, or to delete it.
3. Undeposited funds
Any undeposited funds the month-end review identifies are listed, and the action offered is to
record the deposit.
4. Unapplied payments
Unapplied payments can be voided or deleted.
5. Additional items
In the Additional Items section, you’ll find a list of recommended tasks to help you look
for other potential issues. The bookkeeper undertaking the month-end review can also use
the Add option to add their own items to the list.
Stage 2: Account reconciliation

Once you’ve dealt with all the transactions that had issues, the next step is to ensure that all the
accounts are reconciled. The Account reconciliation tab shows the current status of accounts and
the number of unreconciled transactions.
1. Select the link to open and view the account.
2. The Unreconciled column shows how many unreconciled transactions the account has.
Select the link to go to a list where you can review and resolve them.
3. The Reconciled through column shows when the account was last reconciled.
4. Transactions are marked as To do. Once you’ve cleared the open issues for each group of
transactions, mark the status as Done. If you have a problem with resolving the issue, you
can mark it as Waiting.
5. The Additional items list includes a link to the Reconciliation report to view uncleared
transactions.
6. Here, you can add your own additional items to the list.
ProAdvisor tip
If you follow any of the links from the Account reconciliation tab, use the browser’s back button
to return to the Month-end review.
Stage 3: Final review
The final step in the month-end review is to investigate unusual and unexpected balances and
review the financial statements for accuracy.
1. Placing a checkmark here displays the Action bar above, where you can select Void or
Delete.
2. Select the link in the Type column to open and view the transaction.
3. Select the three dots in the Action column next to each transaction to edit, void, or delete
them.
4. View transactions that are over 90 days old to determine whether you should take any
action.
5. Follow the links to open each of the reports and investigate unusual and unexpected
balances.
6. Transactions are marked as To do. Once you’ve cleared the open issues for each group of
transactions, mark the status as Done. If you have a problem with resolving the issue, you
can mark it as Waiting.
7. Here, you can add your own additional items to the list. You can even include links to
different screens in QuickBooks Online or to external sources when adding items here.
Tracking progress
You can mark the status of the tasks in each of the three tabs of the Month-end review screen.
When you update the progress, it will also update the status in your QuickBooks Online
Accountant Client List.
1. Client List Bookkeeping view
To see a bird’s-eye view of the month-end review status for all your clients, open
the Client Listin QuickBooks Online Accountant and select theBookkeeping tab. Here,
you can see the overall status of the three steps of the month-end review.
2. Identifying blockers
To take a closer look at which specific tasks have been completed at each stage, select
one of the Month-end review icons.
Knowledge check
Which of these are stages of the month-end review? Select all that apply.
 Transaction review
 Account reconciliation
 Closing the books
 Final review
 Preparing for taxes
 Running payroll
Check Answer
That’s right.
The month-end review is designed to support your month-end workflow by reviewing
transactions, highlighting any unreconciled accounts, and a final review prompting you to review
the financial statements for accuracy.
Easy fixing
The Reclassify transactions tool
Clients inevitably realize at year-end that they have miscategorized some transactions, resulting
in inaccurate financial data in reports and statements. Identifying and modifying these
transactions individually would take a long time.
The Reclassify transactions tool in QuickBooks Online Accountant allows you to review
transaction activity for a given period and recategorize transactions from one account to the other
in batch. QuickBooks Online Plus and Advanced subscribers who have the Class and/or Location
tracking turned on can also reclassify transactions between classes and locations.
Let’s see how to use the Reclassify transactions tool to fix a miscategorized transaction.
Usingthethe
Watch Reclassify
video transactions
to see how it’s tool steps are below for you to follow.
done. The individual
1. From the client dashboard, select Accountant Tools, then Reclassify transactions
2. In the Account types field, select either Balance sheet or Profit and loss
3. Check the Basis of the transaction, either Accrual or Cash
4. In the From and To fields, set the range of the transactions
If needed, you can set further parameters, such as selecting the account or transaction
type, or even searching for a specific class or location, if they’re in use.
5. Select Find transactions
The left pane shows all of the available accounts, along with any subaccounts for the
selected criteria. Selecting an account would show all the transactions for that account in
the right pane.
6. From the left pane, select the account where the miscategorized transaction is
7. Check the box next to the miscategorized item in the right pane
8. Next, select Reclassify
9. In the Change account to dropdown, select the correct account
10. Select Apply
The transaction has been reclassified.
You can also use this function to reclassify in batch and save time.
Resources
Reclassifying product and service items
Limitations of the Reclassify transactions tool

There are some limitations on what you can change using the Reclassify transactions tool:
 You can change the class and/or location for invoices, sales
receipts, checks, or bills with items (products or services) on them. However, you can’t
change the accounts
 You can’t change the payment account (bank or credit card) for expenses
 You can’t change the account or class for inventory adjustments because they’re
connected to your inventory shrinkage and asset accounts
 You can change the expense account for billable expenses, but not the income
account for the related income transactions
 You can only manage your payroll transactions in the Payroll menu.
Knowledge check
When can you use the Reclassify transactions tool? Select all that apply.
 To correct an insurance payment that has been miscategorized as an interest payment


To reclassify a non-item transaction incorrectly posting to uncategorized income
 To change a payroll transaction showing a payment to the wrong employee
Check Answer
That’s right.
The Reclassify transactions tool allows you to find transactions that have been assigned to
incorrect accounts or classes and reclassify them in batches. However, not all transactions can be
reclassified—in payroll transactions, for example, Payroll settings control this.
The Write off

Uncollectable, notinvoices
unsolvabletool
Every now and then, clients might have customers that don’t settle their invoices. When these
invoices become uncollectible, you need to write them off.
The Write off invoices tool in QuickBooks Online Accountant allows you to zero out the balance
of the invoice and write off uncollectable invoices in a batch for your clients. You can also use it
to balance out unpaid small dollar amounts.
The Write off invoices tool zeroes out the invoice's balance by adding the invoice's open amount
toHow the Write
the discount field onoff invoices
the original toolItworks
invoice. writes off balances to the original invoice date and
removes accounts receivable balances. It does not adjust sales tax.
The Write off invoices tool should not be used for clients who report on an accrual basis or use
the sales tax feature. In this case, it is recommended to create a Credit memo for the customer in
the current period.
Writing off invoices

Let’s see how to write off some invoices for a customer that has gone out of business.
1. In QuickBooks Online Accountant, select Accountant Tools and then Write off
invoices
2. Use the Invoice Age dropdown to narrow down invoices for a certain period and set
the To date date
3. Use the Balance less than field to see invoices with an amount lower than specified
4. Select Find invoices
5. Check the boxes next to the invoices to write off, then select Write off
6. Select the account where you want the write-off to be posted. In this case, it’s the Bad
debts expense account
7. Finally, select Apply
And that’s it! The invoices are written off and no longer appear in the list.
Key tasks for year end
A busy time
Year end is always an important and busy time for clients and their accounting professionals.
Clients often need support with the many tasks involved in the year-end workflow, especially in
their first year of business.
You can guide clients through the processes involved in year end and help them understand
which features of QuickBooks Online can support them.
In this lesson, we’ll look at the key activities for clients and accountants at year end, and at how
QuickBooks Online can keep everything neat and tidy throughout the year in preparation for this
important time.
Year-end accounting checklist: Part 1

Here’s an overview of some of the key tasks that you need to consider at year end. However, not
all clients will need all tasks to be done for them.
1. Verify that Balance Sheet accounts are reconciled

You may need to help your clients to make sure that their bank and credit card accounts
are reconciled to their statements.
Ensure that the reconciliation wasn’t automatically adjusted and that there are no changes
to reconciliations that affect the ending balance. QuickBooks Online has a number of
forensic tools, such as the Reconciliation Discrepancy report, that can help you
troubleshoot accounts that don’t add up.
The Reconciliation reports in QuickBooks Online are great tools to help you determine if
all balance sheet accounts are reconciled.
Other balance sheet accounts (such as fixed assets) and other receivables like employee
loans or liabilities (such as bank loans or unearned income) need to have supporting
detail reports showing what makes up the ending account balance. Payroll liability
accounts should match payroll taxes calculated for the period and paid in the next period.
Key actions
 Check all accounts are reconciled
 Verify amounts from reconciliation match the balance sheet
Key reports
 Balance Sheet
 Reconciliation Summary
 Reconciliation History by Account
 Reconciliation Discrepancy
 Payroll Tax Liability
2. Review Profit and Loss account activity

Having the balance sheet accounts reconciled is a good indication that most of the
financial activity has been recorded. Next, review the Profit and Loss account activity
using the Reclassify transactions tool to make sure transactions are categorized in the
proper account, and clean up any miscategorized transactions.
Ensure there are no entries in Uncategorized Income and Uncategorized Expenses in the
Profit and Loss account in QuickBooks Online.
Make sure that payroll wage and tax expenses match payroll reports, and file payroll
forms (such as annual IRS Form 940 and quarterly IRS Forms 941) for the year.
Key actions
 Check for uncategorized/miscategorized transactions
 Check tax filing for payroll
 Make sure all contractors have been tracked for Form 1099 payments
Key reports
 Balance Sheet
 Payroll Summary by Employee
 Profit and Loss
 1099 Contractor Balance Detail
3. Evaluate accounts receivable and accounts payable

Confirm that all invoices for work performed or paid during the year have been recorded.
Review the Customer Balance Detail report in QuickBooks Online to make sure that
payments are applied to invoices, uncollectible balances are written off, and the report
total matches the accounts receivable balance on the accrual-basis balance sheet.
Likewise, confirm that all bills for purchases and services received or paid for during the
year have been recorded. Review the Unpaid Bills report in QuickBooks Online to make
sure that bill payments are applied to bills, paid bills have bill payments recorded instead
of checks duplicating expense, and that the report total matches the accounts payable
balance on the accrual-basis balance sheet.
Key actions
 Check all purchases bills have been recorded
 Check all payments received bills have been recorded
Key reports
 Accounts payable including A/P Aging
 Accounts receivable including A/R Aging
 Open Invoices
 Unpaid Bills
4. Analyze fixed assets and depreciation expenses

If clients made any large fixed-asset purchases in the current year, they should be
recorded on the balance sheet.
Fixed assets should be identified to calculate depreciation. If the business is submitting

the year-end information to their tax accountant to perform the calculation and record it
as an adjusting entry once the tax return is generated, then this may not be recorded yet.
Key actions
 Review major expenses
 Record depreciation
 Review equity accounts
Key reports
 Balance Sheet
 Profit and Loss
5. Run the Taxable Sales report

Clients who collect sales tax should consult QuickBooks Online’s Sales Tax Center to
view the tax liability, and run a Taxable Sales report to review and pay the balance due
based on their schedule.
Key actions
 Run the Taxable Sales report
Key reports
 Taxable Sales
Year-end accounting checklist: Part 2
6. Review year-end financial reports with your client
You need to help clients carefully review their year-end financial reports. This is what
will be used to file their taxes and make projections for the new year. QuickBooks Online
management reports mean you and your clients can produce professional reports for a
wide range of needs.
Key actions
 Produce any management reports
Key reports
 Balance Sheet
 Profit and Loss
7. Submit W-2s and 1099s

If clients had employees or subcontractors in the last year, there are forms that business
owners must report to reflect what they paid their workers. W-2s are submitted for
employees and 1099s for subcontractors. The business owner should send these forms to
individuals by the end of January.
Key actions
 Submit W-2s for employees
 Submit 1099s for contractors
8. Review past-due receivables

Check your client’s significant past-due receivables and decide:
 Whether you think customers will eventually pay

 Whether to send past-due bills to a collection agency
 Whether certain past-due invoices should be written off
9. Record mileage for year end

IRS guidelines require specific information to substantiate deductible automobile
expenses, such as vehicle type, the date placed in service, and the mileage (total,
business, commuting, and other personal mileage).
If your client uses the QuickBooks Mileage Tracker throughout the year, it’s easy to
prepare the log for auto expense deduction.
Key actions:
 Check calculated mileage
 Look for vehicle changes (bought or sold)
 Ensure no trips are left unreviewed
 View Manage Vehicles
 View All trips
10. Perform additional year-end activities
 Provide the correct tax-basis reports to the tax professional

 Prepare asset list for depreciation calculation
 Provide required permanent docs for tax preparation
 Provide current ownership information
 Perform line-by-line matching of draft tax returns
 Make post-tax adjustments
ProAdvisor tip
You can find out more about year-end activities and also routine weekly, monthly, and quarterly
accounting activities using the link below. There’s also a heads-up about important tax
deadlines!
Small Business Accounting Checklist
If you are a tax preparer, try the built-in tool, Prep for taxes. To learn more about Prep for
taxes and how to prepare a tax return with this tool, take the QuickBooks Online Advanced
Certification training.
Reports and tools to support your year end

Let’s look at some of the key areas in QuickBooks Online where you’ll find the reports and tools for year-
end activities.
 The Reports Center
You can access a range of reports, such as the Balance Sheet and Profit and Loss, from
the Reports Center.
Select Reports from the left-hand navigation and scroll down to the For My
Accountant section.
In both the Balance Sheet and the Profit and Loss report, you can set the dates to cover a full
financial year for year-end purposes.
 Accountant Tools
You can find a variety of tools in Accountant Tools to support your year-end activities.
These include:
 Voided/deleted transactions
 Close books
 Reclassify transactions
 Write off invoices
 Prep for taxes
Knowledge check
Which of the following year-end tools would you find in Accountant Tools in
QuickBooks Online Accountant? Select all that apply.
 The Write off invoices tool

 The Delete a QuickBooks Online file tool
 The Reclassify transactions tool
 The Prep for taxes tool
Check Answer
That’s right.
Accountant Tools contains links to tools and reports, including tools to prep for taxes, write off
invoices, and reclassify transactions.
Best practice when working with mileage
The IRS requires specific information to substantiate deductible automobile expenses, including
vehicle type, date placed in service, and total mileage (business, commuting, and other personal
mileage).
To automatically record this information, your clients should use QuickBooks Online’s Mileage
Tracker throughout the year. It makes it much easier to prepare the auto expense deduction log.
When it’s time to review your clients’ mileage record, you should do the following:
1. Check calculated mileage

2. Look for vehicle changes (bought or sold)
3. Ensure no trips are left unreviewed
4. Review the Vehicles report and All trips report
Resources
 Overview of mileage tracking in QuickBooks Online

 Article - How to track mileage in QuickBooks Online
Recording mileage at tax time
QuickBooks Online keeps track of the mileage and deductible amount, but it doesn’t record the mileage
expense in the general ledger. So when the time comes to file taxes, you could create a journal entry to
record it on the books and download a CSV file as a backup for your book entries and tax return.
 Adding a journal entry
1. Select + New, then select Journal entry

2. Select the Mileage Expense account
3. In the Debits field, enter the mileage deduction amount
4. Add a description such as To record mileage for tax year 2020
5. Choose the client’s name from the Name dropdown
6. Select the appropriate liability or equity account. For example: Due to Owner
7. In the Credits field, enter the mileage deduction amount
8. Save the entry
 Downloading Trips
To download a CSV file of your client’s trips:
1. Go to Mileage
2. Choose Download Trips
QuickBooks Online will download a CSV file that you can filter and sort to suit your needs, and save as a
backup document to substantiate the mileage deduction.
ProAdvisor tip
To record mileage expenses, you can either record a bill to reimburse your client or create a
journal entry. You need to set up a mileage expense account to categorize these entries.
Closing the books
Keep your work protected
When you or your client finish reviewing a financial period, you’ll want to lock it to ensure no
changes are made.
Otherwise, problems can arise if transactions are added, deleted, or changed after the books are
closed.
QuickBooks Online allows you to close your clients’ books at any frequency you or they prefer.
To help prevent changes once you close the books, you can set a closing date or even a
password.
Any changes made to the company file after you close the books will be logged. You can run an
Exceptions to Closing Date report to see the changes.
About closing the books

Closing the books isn’t just a year-end process. You can close the books at any frequency,
sometimes even each month after reconciliations are complete.
However, the books should be closed at least each year-end after the tax return has been filed to
finalize all of the accounts.
Before you can close the books, you need to:
 Reconcile all bank and credit card accounts

 Substantiate all balance sheet accounts
 Review Profit and Loss accounts
Closing the books in QuickBooks Online

Let’s see how to close the books at year-end.
1. In QuickBooks Online Accountant, select Accountant Tools and then Close books
Because this takes you to the Advanced tab in Account and Settings, clients would access
it through the Gear icon, Account and Settings, and then the Advanced tab.
2. Select anywhere in the Accounting section to enable editing
3. Use the Close the books slider to start the process
4. Set a Closing date. It can be the current date, although typically it’s at a period end
5. To protect the books with a password, select the Allow changes after viewing a
warning and entering password option from the dropdown
This prevents unauthorized users from making changes. Note that users with admin
access or access to the company file via QuickBooks Online Accountant can change the
closing date and password.
6. Enter and confirm the Password

7. Next, select Save
That’s it. The books are now closed.

Which of these tasks would you need to complete before closing the books? Select all
that apply.
 Reconcile all bank and credit card accounts

 Close the Audit Log
 Update QuickBooks Online
 Substantiate all balance sheet accounts
 Review Profit and Loss accounts
Check Answer
That’s right.
These all should be completed before closing the books.
About the Exceptions to Closing Date Exception report

The Exceptions to Closing Date report is an audit history of all changes to transactions dated
before and including the closing date and made after the books were closed.
The report allows you to track any changes made regardless of whether the books are password
protected.
Once you set the closing date, you can access the report through the Reports Center in
the For my accountant section. If no closing date is set, the Exceptions to Closing Date report
won’t be available.
You’ll only see details in the report when there’s a transaction edited that dates on or before your
closing date. If the report shows nothing, no transactions were changed by any users in the
company.
Running the Exceptions to Closing Date report
Let’s see how you can change a transaction after closing the books and how the Closing Date
Exception report can identify this.
1. Let’s go to the Expenses Center and change the amount of a transaction
Because this transaction date is prior to the company’s closing date, a warning pops up.
2. Enter the password set to protect the account, then select Yes
3. Now go to the Reports Center
4. In the For my accountant section, select the Exceptions to Closing Date report
The report shows the Audit History window and the details of the edit we just made.
Knowledge check
What would be the reason for not seeing the Exceptions to Closing Date report in the
Reports Center?
 You have not set a closing date

 Your version of QuickBooks Online does not have that report
 There are no changes to be viewed in the Exceptions to Closing Date report
Check Answer
That’s right.
You need a closing date set to see the Exceptions to Closing Date report in the Reports Center

QuickBooks Online 2024 ProAdvisor Certification Reviewer

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QuickBooks Online 2024 ProAdvisor Certification Reviewer

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QUICKBOOKS ONLINE SOLUTIONS

Understanding client needs

How can you and QuickBooks Online help?

The QuickBooks Online ecosystem is constantly evolving to meet your needs.

3. Features and Solutions

5. QuickBooks Online Bookkeeping Onboarding Checklist

6. QuickBooks Self-Employed Profile

1. Sales and Accounts Receivables

2. Expenses and Accounts Payables

3. Employees and Payroll

4. Other Expense-Tracking Needs

5. Other Daily Operation Needs

7. Specialized Application Needs

9. Any Other Requirements

10. Transaction Volume

Keeping track of expenses related

Billable rates by product/service Price Rules Plus

Billable rates by clients Price Rules Plus

Bill by appointment Google Calendar plug-in Simple Start

Automatically create invoices

Flexible customer statements Three types of statement Simple Start

Scheduling QuickBooks Time apps.com

2. Contractor / Field Services

 Time tracking features

Keeping track of labor costs per

Keeping track of expenses related

Billable rates by product/service Price Rules Plus

Billable rates by customer Price Rules Plus

Calculating labor costs for each

Automatically create invoices

Flexible customer statements Three types of statements Simple Start

3. Retail and E-Commerce

Import PayPal sales transactions Connect to PayPal Simple Start

Know best-/worst-selling products Sales by Product/Services report Simple Start

4. B2B Wholesale Business

Know best-/worst-selling products Sales by Product/Services report Simple Start

Import invoices (Simple Start) or

- Keeping track of time worked on each client/project

- Keeping track of expenses related to each client/project

 Convert data in existing QuickBooks Desktop software

Accountant’s Guide to Convert QuickBooks Desktop to QuickBooks Online

How can you and QuickBooks Online help?

he QuickBooks Online ecosystem is constantly evolving to meet your needs.

QuickBooks Online Plans and Pricing

How do I see a client’s usage?

1. Open your client’s QuickBooks Online

Classes and locations

Tags and tag groups

How can you and QuickBooks Online help?

The QuickBooks Online ecosystem is constantly evolving to meet your needs.

Discounts with ProAdvisor Preferred Pricing

What discounts can you offer your clients?

If you pay for your client’s QuickBooks Online subscriptions:

The right value of your services

How can you and QuickBooks Online help?

The QuickBooks Online ecosystem is constantly evolving to meet your needs.

Exploring the Client Overview screen

 The number of uncleared transactions in the Undeposited funds account register