Introduction1
About This Book 1
Foolish Assumptions 3
Icons Used in This Book 3
Beyond the Book 4
Where to Go from Here 4
Part 1: Getting Started with QBO and QBOA 5
Chapter 1: Introduing QBO and QBOA7
QBO for the Client and QBOA for the Accountant 7
Comparing interfaces 8
Taking a look at QBO Desktop and QBO Mobile 11
Understanding the Cloud 13
Should You Move to the Cloud? 14
System Requirements 15
Chapter 2: Embracing the QBO/QBOA Format 19
Its All about Subscriptions 19
The Self-Employed version 20
The Simple Start version 23
The Essentials version 24
The Plus version 24
The Advanced version 25
Simple Start, Essentials, Plus, and Advanced with Payroll 26
What Does It Cost? 26
Addressing Payroll Needs 28
Switching from QuickBooks Desktop 30
Where Add-On Apps Fit In 30
Part 2: Managing the Books for the End User 33
Chapter 3: Creating a Client Company in QBO 35
Signing Up for QBO 36
Setting Up a New Company 38
Understanding the Dashboard Page 41
Establishing Company Settings 45
Examining company preferences 46
Examining billing and subscription
settings and usage limits 46
Setting sales preferences 48
Taking a look at expense preferences 54
Examining options to receive customer payments 55
Reviewing advanced preferences 56
Working with Multiple Currencies 58
How the Multicurrency feature changes QBO 60
Turning on the Multicurrency feature 60
Setting up currencies 61
Using multiple currencies 62
Updating the Chart of Accounts 66
Taking Advantage of QuickBooks Labs 73
Signing In to and Out of QBO 74
Chapter 4: Managing List Information 75
Importing People into a List 75
Adding New People to a List 82
Creating a new customer 82
Using customer types 84
Adding sub-customers 86
Searching Lists for People 86
Working with a particular person 87
Sorting a list 90
Exporting a list to Excel 91
Working with a batch of people 92
Changing Settings for People Lists 93
Working with Products and Services Items 95
Establishing categories 97
Setting up sales taxes 98
Adding service and non-inventory items 99
Creating an inventory item 102
Working with bundles 104
Changing item types 107
Using pricing rules 108
Adjusting inventory item information 110
A Look at Other Lists 115
Chapter 5: Dealing with the Outflow of Money 117
Writing a Check 119
Assigning a check to accounts or items 119
Writing a check for an outstanding bill 123
Creating an Expense 124
Entering a Purchase Order 126
Turning on the purchase order feature 127
Creating a purchase order 128
Working with partial purchase orders 130
Entering and Paying Bills 134
Entering a bill 134
About recurring transactions 135
Recording a vendor credit 139
When a vendor issues a refund check 141
Paying bills 143
Chapter 6: Managing the Inflow of Money 147
Managing Projects 147
Turning on projects in QBO 148
Enabling projects in Customer lists 148
Converting sub-customers to projects 149
Setting up a project 151
Adding transactions to a project 152
Projects and reporting 153
Getting Started with Sales Transactions 154
Customizing forms to handle subtotals 155
Preparing an invoice 157
Recording a customer payment 161
Managing invoice status 165
Working with estimates 167
Creating a progress invoice 176
Working with sales receipts 177
Giving Money Back to a Customer 180
Recording a credit memo 180
Issuing a refund to a customer 182
Creating Billable Time Entries 184
Entering a single time activity 185
Using a timesheet to record time 186
Adding a Billable Expense to an Invoice 187
Chapter 7: Working in Registers 191
Understanding Registers 191
Entering and Editing Transactions 197
Entering a transaction 197
Editing a transaction 201
Other Things You Can Do in a Register 201
Sorting transactions 201
Filtering transactions 202
Printing a register 204
Chapter 8: Handling Bank and Credit Card Transactions 207
Controlling the Appearance of Bank Accounts 207
Connecting QBO Accounts to Financial Institutions 209
Connecting or not connecting 209
Connecting Bank or Credit Card accounts 210
When you cant connect directly 215
Converting Receipts to Transactions 221
Managing Downloaded Activity 223
Excluding transactions 226
Including transactions 227
When QBO guesses correctly 227
When QBO doesnt know 227
Establishing rules to accept transactions 230
Fixing mistakes 235
Making a Bank Deposit 237
Reconciling a Bank Account 240
Tagging Transactions 244
Chapter 9: Paying Employees and Contractors 247
Understanding the Employee Payroll Process 248
Getting Started with QBO Payroll (QBOP) 248
Turning on QBOP 250
Setting payroll preferences 254
Setting up payroll taxes 257
Preparing Payroll 260
Recording payroll information 260
Reviewing and generating payroll checks 261
Establishing or Correcting Payroll Exemptions 264
Printing payroll reports 266
Managing Payroll Taxes 267
Paying payroll taxes 267
Viewing payroll tax forms 269
Paying Contractors 270
Setting up 1099 contractors 271
Paying contractors 272
Reporting on 1099 vendor payments 272
Preparing 1099s 275
Chapter 10: Hows the Business Doing? 277
Quickly Review Income and Expenses 277
Finding the Report You Want 278
Examining standard reports 279
Finding reports you customize 280
Taking a look at management reports 280
Searching for a report 282
Printing a Report 283
Customizing a report 284
Exporting to Excel 287
Saving a customized report 289
Part 3: Managing the Books for the Accountant 293
Chapter 11: Setting Up Shop in QBOA 295
Signing Up for and into QBOA 296
Examining the QBOA Interface 298
Working with the Your Practice view 299
Working with Your Books 302
Setting Up Your Team 303
Controlling the Appearance of the Client List 307
Understanding and Using the Free QBOA Company 309
Working with the Sample Company 310
Closing Companies and QBOA 311
Working with Wholesale Billing 312
Signing up for Wholesale Billing 312
Adding existing clients to your Wholesale Billing subscription 314
Removing clients from your Wholesale Billing subscription 316
Working with your Wholesale Billing history 318
Stop using Wholesale Billing 319
Chapter 12: Adding Companies to the QBOA Client List 321
Adding a Clients Company to the Client List 321
Having a client invite you to be the accountant user 322
Inviting a client to your practice 325
Transferring master administrator rights back to your client 328
Importing QuickBooks Desktop Information into QBO 331
General conversion considerations 332
An overview of what wont import 334
Updating your edition of QuickBooks Desktop 336
Transferring data from a desktop company into QBO 338
After converting 341
Switching between Client QBO Companies 343
Chapter 13: Exploring a Clients Company from QBOA 345
Opening a Clients Company 345
Reviewing a Client QBO Company 346
Taking a look at the Client Overview page 346
Examining company setup information 350
Taking a look at the Chart of Accounts 353
Reviewing list information 358
Exporting and importing bank feed rules 359
Chapter 14: Working in a Clients Company 363
Making Navigation Easy 363
Using keyboard shortcuts 363
Opening multiple windows 364
Working in two companies simultaneously 367
Examining Available Transaction Types 368
Searching for Transactions 368
Making Client Notes 370
Communicating with a Client 371
Chapter 15: Using Accountant Tools 375
Reporting and Paying Sales Taxes 376
Managing Your Practice 377
Understanding the Grid view 378
Creating projects and tasks 379
Updating task status 382
Editing and deleting project information 383
Working in the List view 384
Working in the Calendar view 385
Communicating with team members about work 386
Facilitating Accountant Activities 387
Reviewing reports 388
Examining voided and deleted transactions 390
Closing the books 390
Month-End Review 391
Transaction Review 391
Account Reconciliation 392
Final Review 392
Reclassifying transactions 392
Writing off invoices 395
Understanding the Prep for Taxes page 396
A brief look at other accountant tools 400
Part 4: The Part of Tens 403
Chapter 16: Ten Things about the Chrome Browser Interface 405
Understanding Users 406
Windows and Tabs 407
Using the Omnibox to Visit a Web Page 408
Using the Omnibox to Search the Web 408
Whats the Star? 409
Full-Screen Mode 409
Accessing Your Browsing History 409
Examining the Chrome Menu 410
About Signing In to (and Out of) Chrome 411
Creating a Google account 411
Signing In to Chrome 412
Signing Out of Chrome 414
Using the Chrome Web Store 415
Chapter 17: Ten Ways to Use Chrome Effectively 419
Setting a Home Page 420
Automatically Opening Excel Reports Exported from QBO 421
Using Keyboard Shortcuts 422
Chrome and Security 423
Chrome and Privacy 424
Handling cookies 425
Chrome and JavaScript 425
Flash 425
Working in Incognito mode 425
Deleting browsing history 426
Reviewing miscellaneous privacy settings 428
Using Google tools to manage privacy 429
Using Bookmarks in Chrome 430
Creating a bookmark 430
Displaying the Bookmarks bar 431
Importing bookmarks 432
Managing bookmarks 433
Duplicating and Pinning Tabs 435
Using Chrome on Multiple Monitors 436
Working with Chrome Users 436
Adding a Chrome user 437
Opening a different user 438
Switching to a different user 439
Removing a user you no longer need 439
Zooming In and Out 440
Downloading Files 440
Appendix A: QBO, QuickBooks Desktop, and Data Conversion 443
Index 461
