David H. Ringstrom - QuickBooks Online For Dummies

FIGURE 3-8:The Search tab of the Help pane.

FIGURE 3-9:Click the Search button to search for previously entered transactions.

Although I couldn’t fit it into Figure 3-10, the bottom right-hand corner of the Settings menu contains a link that will either display Accountant View or Business View that controls how the navigation bar in QuickBooks is displayed. Business View groups things into fewer categories, whereas Accountant View is more detailed. You can toggle between these modes to find what feels most comfortable for you. For the record, I used Accountant View for most of the images in this book, because as an accountant myself, that view resonates with me more than the Business View.

FIGURE 3-10:Use the Settings menu to work with settings, lists, tools, and your QBO account.

As I mention earlier in this chapter, QuickBooks automatically sets up the chart of accounts it thinks you’ll need when you create a new company. If you’re not happy with this list, you can replace it with one you set up in Excel, in a CSV file, or in a Google Sheet. See Chapter 13for details on importing a chart of accounts.

You’ll probably want to modify the chart of accounts that QuickBooks establishes for your company. To do so, choose Settings ⇒ Chart of Accounts or Accounting ⇒ Chart of Accounts. On the page that appears, click the See Your Chart of Accounts button to display a page similar to the one shown in Figure 3-11. This page lets you perform a variety of functions. You can print a list of your accounts, for example, if you click the Run Report button at the top of the page.

If you’ve enabled the Multicurrency feature, you’ll see a Currency column. (Read more about multicurrencies later in this chapter in the “ Working with Multiple Currencies” section.)

FIGURE 3-11:The Chart of Accounts page.

For individual accounts, you can perform a few actions. Balance Sheet accounts have registers; you can view the transactions in the account by clicking View Register in the Action column. You can identify balance sheet accounts by looking in the Type column. Balance Sheet accounts display one of the following account types:

Bank

Accounts Receivable

Other Current Assets

Fixed Assets

Other Assets

Credit Card

Other Current Liabilities

Long Term Liabilities

Accounts Payable

Equity

For other accounts — the ones without registers — you can run reports for the account by choosing Run Report in the Action column.

You also can edit any account and delete an account you haven’t used. Click the down arrow in the Action column (at the right edge of the account’s row) to display a short menu of the actions you can take for the account.

If you edit an account, don’t change its type unless you’re sure that you know what you’re doing. Consider consulting your accountant before you make a change in an account’s category or detail type. You also can identify whether the account is a subaccount of another account.

To turn on account numbers, choose Settings ⇒ Advanced ⇒ Chart of Accounts, and turn on the slider for Enable Account Numbers. Then click the Batch Edit icon (which looks like a pencil and appears just above the Action column). The Chart of Accounts page changes to enable you to assign account numbers (see Figure 3-12).

FIGURE 3-12:The Chart of Accounts page in Batch Edit mode.

If you’ve enabled the Multicurrency feature, the Chart of Accounts page in Batch Edit mode contains a Currency column.

Type a number for each account, and when you finish entering all the numbers, click the Save button at the top of the page. QBO displays the account number as part of the account name on the Chart of Accounts page.

Follow these steps to add a new account to your chart of accounts (jump to Chapter 8if you’re adding a bank account):

1 Click the New button on the Chart of Accounts page to open the New Category dialog box (see Figure 3-13).

2 Confusingly, at this point QuickBooks refers to new accounts as categories, so enter your account name in the Category Name field.

3 Click Select Category, choose an option, and then click Next.Your options are Income, Expenses, Expensive Items (Assets), Loans & Money Owed (Liabilities), Owner Investment or Expenses (Equity), Bank & Credit Cards, and Other Accounts.

4 Click the entry in the Detail Type list that most closely matches the type of account you want to add; then click Select.

5 (Optional) Assign a description.

6 If you’re using account numbers, supply a number for the new account.If you’ve enabled the Multicurrency feature, the dialog box you use to create a bank account — or any type of asset or liability account except an A/R or A/P account — also contains a list box in which you select the currency for the account. QBO automatically creates currency-related A/R and A/P accounts when you create transactions for foreign customers and vendors.

7 Click Save.QBO redisplays the Chart of Accounts page, and your new account appears in the list.

FIGURE 3-13:The dialog box you use to create an account.

Many small-business owners wonder about the accounts they should use to pay themselves. Owners and partners typically aren’t considered to be employees and therefore are not paid through payroll. To pay an owner or partner, use the Chart of Accounts page to set up a Draw account (Owner’s Draw, Partner’s Draw, or whatever is appropriate; if you have multiple partners, set up Draw accounts for each partner) and use it to pay owners. The Draw account is an equity account. Similarly, owners and partners sometimes put their own money into the business. To account for these contributions, set up equity accounts (again, one for each owner or partner) called Owner’s Contribution, Partner’s Contribution, or whatever is appropriate.

Note that you use the Draw account not only to pay the owner, but also to account for personal items an owner might buy with the business’s money. You record the withdrawals by using the appropriate bank account and the appropriate Draw account. Note that these transactions don’t show up on your profit-and-loss report because they’re not business expenses. To find out the total amount paid to an owner, run a report for the Draw account.