Elaine Marmel - QuickBooks Online For Dummies

258 262

259 263

260 264

261 265

262 266

263 267

264 268

265 269

266 270

267 271

268 272

269 273

270 274

271 275

272 277

273 278

274 279

275 280

276 281

277 282

278 283

279 284

280 285

281 286

282 287

283 288

284 289

285 290

286 291

287 292

288 293

289 294

290 295

291 296

292 297

293 298

294 299

295 300

296 301

297 302

298 303

299 304

300 305

301 306

302 307

303 308

304 309

305 310

306 311

307 312

308 313

309 314

310 315

311 316

312 317

313 318

314 319

315 321

316 322

317 323

318 324

319 325

320 326

321 327

322 328

323 329

324 330

325 331

326 332

327 333

328 334

329 335

330 336

331 337

332 338

333 339

334 340

335 341

336 342

337 343

338 345

339 346

340 347

341 348

342 349

343 350

344 351

345 352

346 353

347 354

348 355

349 356

350 357

351 358

352 359

353 360

354 361

355 363

356 364

357 365

358 366

359 367

360 368

361 369

362 370

363 371

364 372

365 373

366 375

367 376

368 377

369 378

370 379

371 380

372 381

373 382

374 383

375 384

376 385

377 386

378 387

379 388

380 389

381 390

382 391

383 392

384 393

385 394

386 395

387 396

388 397

389 398

390 399

391 400

392 401

393 403

394 404

395 405

396 406

397 407

398 408

399 409

400 410

401 411

402 412

403 413

404 414

405 415

406 416

407 417

408 419

409 420

410 421

411 422

412 423

413 424

414 425

415 426

416 427

417 428

418 429

419 430

420 431

421 432

422 433

423 434

424 435

425 436

426 437

427 438

428 439

429 440

430 441

431 442

432 443

433 444

434 445

435 446

436 447

437 448

438 449

439 450

440 451

441 452

442 453

443 454

444 455

445 456

446 457

447 458

448 459

449 460

450 461

451 462

452 463

453 464

454 465

455 466

456 467

457 468

458 469

459 470

460 471

461 472

462 473

463 474

464 475

465 476

466 477

467 478

468 479

469 481

470 482

471 484

472 485

Most small business owners do something besides accounting; they sell products or services. Many small business owners address accounting only because they have to address it — to meet legal requirements, such as reporting earnings and paying employees.

QuickBooks helps take the pain out of the process; in fact, accounting can become downright tolerable. And QuickBooks Online (QBO) makes accounting almost easy. Because QBO is a web-based product with mobile versions, you can securely do what you need to do from anywhere at any time of day. And, because QBO is web-based, you can easily share your data with your accountant — again, anywhere and at any time.

In most cases, QuickBooks Desktop users who want to stick with something they know but now yearn for the flexibility of a web-based product won’t be disappointed. QBO’s functionality will feel very familiar to them, and they can migrate their QuickBooks Desktop company to QBO.

Accountants can easily support QuickBooks clients via QuickBooks Online Accountant (QBOA), the sister product of QBO that enables seamless collaboration between accountants and their clients.

Use this book to help you learn how to use QBO and QBOA.

Intuit’s web-based accounting product is really two products: End users who want to do their accounting on the web or on mobile devices use QBO, whereas accountants use QBOA, which enables the accountant to log in to a client’s books and make changes and queries as needed. Although much of QBO and QBOA look and behave alike, QBOA incorporates tools that an accountant needs while working on a client’s books. And accountants need to manage multiple client companies, whereas end user clients typically do not.

QBO and QBOA are not for everyone. Before you commit to Intuit’s web-based solution, you need to explore the available editions and examine the requirements for the products.

Because these products are both similar and different, we’ve divided this book into three parts. In the first part of the book, we examine what QBO and QBOA are — and what they aren’t — and we describe what you need to be able to use QBO and QBOA. We explain the various editions available and the product costs at the time we wrote this book, and we describe the available features.

The second part of the book focuses on using QBO and is aimed at the end user; but, the accountant who opens a client’s company via QBOA will be able to use the same tools that the end user uses to manage lists, enter transactions, and print reports.

The third part of the book is aimed at the accountant and covers using QBOA.

We don’t pretend to cover every detail of every feature in QBO or QBOA. Instead, we’ve focused on covering the tools we think most users will need as they navigate QBO and QBOA.

As we discuss in Chapter 2, there are different versions of QBO; we used QBO Plus as we wrote this book because that’s the version available in the sample company. As you’ll see in subsequent chapters, QBO Advanced adds even more features for those that need even more functionality. Users of other versions might find references in this book to features they don’t have because they aren’t using the Plus or Advanced versions.

Before diving in, we have to get a few technical convention details out of the way:

Text that you’re meant to type as it appears in the book is bold. The exception is when you’re working through a list of steps: Because each step is bold, the text to type is not bold.

Web addresses and programming code appear in monofont. If you’re reading a digital version of this book on a device connected to the Internet, note that you can tap or click a web address to visit that website, like this: www.dummies.com .

You can use QBO and QBOA from their Android and iOS apps, from the Windows desktop app (which works on Windows desktop computers, tablets, and laptops, but not on Windows phones), or from Chrome, Firefox, Safari, or Internet Explorer. At the time we wrote this book, a variety of issues existed if you tried to use QBO and QBOA with Microsoft Edge. In my experience, QBO and QBOA function best in Chrome. For that reason, we used Chrome throughout this book and we’ve devoted The Part of Tens chapters in this book to Chrome so that, if you aren’t familiar with Chrome, you can get up and running more quickly.

When we discuss a command to choose, we’ll separate the elements of the sequence with a command arrow that looks like this: ⇒ . For example, when you see Chrome Menu ⇒ Settings, that means you should click the Chrome Menu button (on the right side of the Chrome screen — see Chapter 16for a description of Chrome’s screen elements) and, from the drop-down menu that appears, click Settings.