QuickBooks Online: From Setup to Tax Time (2025)

Navigate QuickBooks Online in your browser using multiple tabs and a customizable toolbar, leveraging bookmarks and profiles to view bank transactions, vendors, customers, and reports efficiently.

Navigate the QuickBooks Online interface, focusing on the left navigation, top bar, bookmarks, search, plus new button, and dashboards, with a peek at the cash flow planner.

Boost efficiency in QuickBooks Online with keyboard shortcuts, date tricks, and in‑product calculators for quantity and rate, plus fast list filtering and save and new workflows.

Select the appropriate QuickBooks Online edition—Solopreneur, Ledger, Simple Start, Essentials, Plus, or Advanced—based on your business needs, users, A/R and A/P, and reporting. Explore discounts and pro advisor options.

Decide whether to import from desktop into QBO or start fresh; if numbers are wrong, start over, using last year’s ending balances for comparatives.

Navigate the account and settings in QuickBooks Online to set up your company profile, logo, legal name or DBA, EIN, and tax form, then configure addresses and contact details.

Configure your fiscal year start, choose cash-based accounting, and enable class tracking, location tracking, and automation in QuickBooks Online advanced settings.

Learn how QuickBooks Online manages multiple users with configurable seats and roles, from company administrator and primary user to accountant users, with granular permissions, payroll masking, and inviting sign-in.

The chart of accounts is the backbone of your QuickBooks Online file, shaping the balance sheet and profit and loss, and you should consult an accountant or pro advisor.

Analyze the chart of accounts to understand assets, liabilities, and equity on the balance sheet, and examine income, cost of goods sold, and expenses on the profit and loss.

Discover how automatically created accounts populate the chart of accounts, including accounts receivable, inventory asset, uncategorized asset and undeposited funds, for accurate tax reporting.

Modify the chart of accounts by creating up to 250 custom categories, adding owner draw and owner contributions, using subaccounts for utilities, and merging or inactivating accounts for clean reporting.

Explore using the QuickBooks register to view and filter the checking register, edit transactions, and manage your chart of accounts.

Learn to configure the QuickBooks online products and services list, including four item types—service, non inventory, inventory, bundles—categories, and fields for price, cost, tax, and inventory tracking.

Create a service in QuickBooks Online by choosing the installation category, adding classes, setting a price and description, and configuring the income account and installation taxes for accurate billing.

Create a non-inventory product that you buy and sell without tracking quantity, set as a two-sided item with $50 sale price and $25 cost, sourced from Tanya's nursery.

Learn to create an inventory item in QuickBooks Online, assign SKU, category, class, and zero quantity with an old date, bring it into inventory via purchase or adjustment, using FIFO.

Create bundles in QuickBooks to break an invoice into components like fountain, pump, concrete, and installation hours. Choose to display components on the invoice or subtract items from the bundle.

See how QuickBooks records purchases as cost of goods for non-inventory gnomes and records sales as sales of product income, contrasting with inventory items that flow through inventory assets.

Explore how classes and locations in QuickBooks Online label transactions to enable department and location reporting, with profit and loss and balance sheet insights.

Explore QuickBooks Online sales settings, including invoices, product and service tracking, payment terms, shipping, discounts, deposits, late fees, progress invoicing, and customizable email reminders.

Navigate the customer center to manage all customers and view invoices, payments, and deposits, using money bar metrics and filters to tailor the list.

Add a new customer in QuickBooks Online by entering names, contact details, and addresses, including sub customers, billing and shipping addresses, attachments, payment methods, and tax settings.

Explore using generic customer names in QuickBooks Online to classify sales by customer type (walk-in, online, Amazon) and use a custom field customer name to search without clutter.

Merge two customer records in QuickBooks Online by selecting which to keep, transferring all transactions, and confirming the merge, then inactivate, delete, or reactivate records as needed.

Explore three common customer payment workflows—sales receipts, invoices with payments, and estimates converted to invoices—and learn to reconcile deposits with undeposited funds and bank deposits.

Learn how to create a sales receipt in QuickBooks Online, including selecting a customer, adding items, applying discounts and tax, assigning a class, and recording undeposited funds and payment method.

Create estimates for bids, add line items such as gardening and rock fountain, apply tax status, and convert accepted estimates into invoices, using progress invoicing when enabled.

Explore progress invoicing in QuickBooks Online, including whole, 50%, or custom per-line amounts from an estimate, and how deposits can create a merged invoice with partial payments.

Create and customize invoices in QuickBooks Online, using service date, discounts, shipping, and taxes, send by email or pay online via QuickBooks payments, and view a modern template.

Understand how to receive payments on invoices or sales receipts, process partial payments with QuickBooks payments (credit card or ACH), and manage deposits and undeposited funds in the system.

Discover QuickBooks payments and merchant services, with pay now on invoices, pay by bank account or credit card, and automated recurring charges for seamless deposits.

Record bank deposits in QuickBooks Online, batch payments to match bank statements, allocate checks and cash, handle refunds, and reconcile using undeposited funds.

Learn the two-step process: issue a credit memo and apply it to an invoice in QuickBooks Online; distinguish credit memos from refunds.

Learn how to issue a refund receipt in QuickBooks Online, including refunds by credit card through QuickBooks Payments, handling sales tax, undeposited funds, and ACH limitations.

Demonstrate refunding customer credits using a credit memo, applying it to the refund against accounts receivable, and completing an extra customer payment as needed.

Set up vendor expenses in accounts and settings for itemized expenses on forms. Track by customer and enable billable expenses with a default markup and use purchase orders.

Navigate the vendor center, like the customer center, to manage vendors, expenses, and bills; filter, print or export, and attach contracts or photos, while tracking 1099s and contractor payments.

Add and edit vendors in QuickBooks Online, setting display names to distinguish vendors from customers and entering contact, payment, and tax details. Learn 1099 tracking and ACH payments.

Learn how to use generic vendor names in QuickBooks Online for categories like restaurants, gas stations, and parking lots to reduce clutter while preserving vendor details from the bank feed.

Learn to inactivate vendors in QuickBooks Online, consolidate duplicates via display names, view inactive items in lists and reports, and note that vendors cannot be fully deleted.

Explore vendor workflows in QuickBooks Online, including checks and expenses, bills and payments, purchase orders turning into bills, and using the item details grid for inventory and job costing.

Explore how QuickBooks Online purchase orders track order status without posting, using item and category details, copy to bills, and manage full or partial receipts and open vs closed POs.

Learn to manage vendor bills in QuickBooks by creating accounts payable, choosing bill pay or mark as paid, and paying via ACH or checks to support cash flow planning.

Set up and print checks in QuickBooks Online by configuring compatible printer stock (voucher vs 3-up standard checks), aligning print previews, and printing from the starting check number.

Enter credit card expenses with plus new, select payment method, and detail the item. Pay down Mastercard from checking to update registers and avoid co-mingling of business and personal cards.

Learn how to enter and apply vendor credits to bills and process vendor refunds in QuickBooks Online, including credits, refunds, and bank deposits.

Learn the basics of job costing and item profitability, linking purchases to sold products for accurate profitability reports, and using billable expenses to bill customers and invoice with markup.

Navigate the banking transactions feed in QuickBooks Online, connect your bank accounts, update data, and reconcile cleared but unconfirmed transactions for daily accuracy.

Learn how QuickBooks Online's AI in the bank feed matches transactions by amount and date, applies automation rules, and suggests categories, while you train it to stay accurate.

Learn the basics of the banking feed in QuickBooks Online: how to find matches, enter expenses and deposits, manage payees, batch actions, and avoid duplicate income.

Create and automate bank rules to classify routine transactions by payee, category, and class, with splits and all or any match logic for precise bank feeds.

Explore the app transactions tab in the banking center, with Amazon for business, eBay, Shopify, Square, and Stripe integrations. View and import transactions, and categorize expenses directly in QuickBooks Online.

Import receipts by uploading photos or dragging and dropping files, attach them to transactions as attachments, and categorize by account and memo to ensure audit backup and banking feed matching.

Reconcile your QuickBooks accounts monthly by comparing them to your bank statement and your register to confirm transactions, catch duplicates, and fix mismatches to zero the difference.

Explore QuickBooks reports to reveal tax implications and company reality, using balance sheets and the P&L to review income, costs, and profit, and compare by class and revenue streams.

Explore the reports center to see how your QuickBooks Online version changes available reports, from start with few reports to advanced with custom reports, pivot tables, inventory reports, and synchronizations.

Customize reports in QuickBooks Online to display exactly what you need, choosing between classic and modern views, and adjusting date ranges, cash or accrual, formats, columns, filters, and headers.

Navigate the modern reports interface to customize date ranges, grouping, filtering, columns, and buttons. Use the Pareto principle to identify what you sold the most, best customers, and margins.

Learn how to record transfers in QuickBooks Online by moving funds between checking and savings, add amount and date, and leverage banking matches to auto-pair both sides.

Learn how to set up recurring transactions in QuickBooks, including scheduled, reminders, and unscheduled types; convert transactions to recurring, and understand why bill payments and invoice payments cannot be recurring.

Explore how journal entries move money within QuickBooks online, and learn to use the reclassify tool to correct miscategorized transactions across labor, overhead, customers, and classes.

Explore how QuickBooks Online automates payroll and tax submissions, tracks time and mileage, and manages HR and contractors. Leverage envelopes, audit logs, mobile apps, and ecommerce integrations to streamline finances across channels.