QuickBooks Online Plus Made Easy Training Tutorial 2015

QuickBooks Online Plus displays the “Home Page” when you open a company file. The Home Page is shown by default whenever you open a new company file. The Home Page provides a starting point that allows you to access all the features of the program. Learn this and more during this lecture.

The Navigation Bar is your access to the different pages available to you in QuickBooks Online. The Navigation Bar is located down the left side of the screen and contains links for “Home,” “Customers,” “Vendors,” “Employees,” “Transactions,” “Reports,” “Taxes” and “Apps." Learn this and more during this lecture.

The Gear is located in the upper right side of the screen, and is your access to information that does not change on a regular basis. There are four sections under the Gear. They are “Settings,” “Lists,” “Tools” and “Your Company." These allow easy access to adjust any information you would like. There is also a “Sign Out” link found here. Note that restricted access users may not have all the links listed in the Gear. Learn this and more during this lecture.

The Income section displays the status of your sales transactions in the Money Bar. The transactions are broken down into the categories: "Open Invoices," "Overdue" and "Paid Last 30 Days.“ When you click on any section of the Money Bar, you will be taken to the "Sales Transactions" page. Depending on which section you click, the list of those transactions will be displayed. For example, if you click "Open Invoices," the "Sales Transactions" page will display the list of all open invoices. Learn this and more during this lecture.

The "Expenses" section of the Home Page shows the expenses you have incurred. This section displays, from left to right, the amount of money you owe in expenses. First, as a numerical value; then as a color-coded key, for the different accounts and the amounts owed for each account; and then, finally, as a pie chart, displaying the breakdown. Clicking the dollar amount shown will take you to a "Transaction Report" page that will display the information for the date range selected. Learn this and more during this lecture.

The "Profit and Loss" section of the Home Page is where the Income and Expenses are combined to give you a "Net Income" number. On the left is the numerical representation of the Income and Expenses, followed by a graph on the right displaying the information broken down by the date range you chose. Learn this and more during this lecture.

The "Bank accounts" section of the Home Page lists the bank and credit card accounts you have set up in QuickBooks Online Plus. You can access the page for each account by clicking the name in the list under "Bank accounts." When clicked, you will be taken to a “Bank and Credit Cards” transaction page. If you click the name of a credit card account, you will be taken directly to that accounts “Credit Card Register” page. Learn this and more during this lecture.

The “Activities” section is there to remind you of upcoming events that need your attention- for example, bills that are due. This section also lists any recent changes you may have made- for example, a new credit memo or expense entry. Learn this and more during this lecture.

The first step in utilizing QuickBooks Online, is signing up for an Intuit user account. Learn this and more during this lecture.

If you already have data you would like to import into QuickBooks Online, you can easily do so with the “Import Data” and “Import Desktop Data” links. These links are found in the Gear at the top right of the Home Page. Learn this and more during this lecture.

After you've signed up for QuickBooks Online, if you aren't importing a company file, then you will need to set up your company. After the initial process, you will be taken to the “Set Up Company” page. You will enter your “Company name,” “Company address,” “City,” “State,” “ZIP code,” “Phone number” and “Company logo” information. If your company is an existing entity, your company information may come up when you are entering your company name. Learn this and more during this lecture.

When using QuickBooks Online Plus there is no need to physically backup your data. Anytime you make a change in your company data, QuickBooks Online Plus automatically creates a backup. QuickBooks Online Plus stores its data on mirrored disks. This means that your data is written to two hard drives simultaneously. That way if one of the disk drives fails, you will never notice, as there is already an exact copy. Learn this and more during this lecture.

With QuickBooks Online Plus, you can have up to five users. You can set different access levels for users, from full administrative access to only entering time sheet information. To get started setting up a new user, click the Gear and select “Manage Users.” This will take you to the “Manage Users” page. This page contains the “Contact Name,” “Email Address,” Access Rights,” “Billable User?” and “Status” of your users. You will see the “Master Administrator” as the only user set up at this time. Learn this and more during this lecture.

In order to transfer the role of Master Administrator to another user, you must be the current Master Administrator. The user to whom you want to transfer the Master Administrator role must be an active Company Administrator with a valid email account. Learn this and more during this lecture.

After creating your company file, you will need to customize its basic settings. To access these settings, click the Gear. Under the “Settings” heading, click “Company Settings” to open a “Settings” window. There are five different sections, listed on the left side of the screen. They are “Company,” “Sales,” “Expenses, “Payments,” and “Advanced.” The “Company” section will be open when the window opens. Learn this and more during this lecture.

To sign out of QuickBooks Online Plus, click the Gear icon. When this menu has opened, select “Sign Out.” The “Sign Out” link is found under the “Your Company” heading, at the bottom of the list. Click “Sign Out” to be signed out of QuickBooks Online Plus. After you have signed out you will be returned to the login page. Learn this and more during this lecture.

If you have multiple company files within QuickBooks Online Plus, you can easily switch between them. Click the Gear icon and select “Switch Company” under the “Your Company” heading. Clicking this link will take you to the “Please select the company you want to open” page. Learn this and more during this lecture.

To cancel a company file, click the Gear icon and select “Your Account” under the “Your Company” heading. Clicking “Your Account” will take you to the “Your Account” page. The first section is “Billing Info.” In this section, for paid subscriptions, you will see an “Edit Billing Info” button. Click this button to open the billing information menu. This is where your “Subscription Status,” “Billing Frequency” and “Credit Card Info” is contained. Learn this and more during this lecture.

To add employees to your company file, select “Employees” from the Navigation Bar. This will take you to the “Employees” list page. The top of the page displays information and a graph that will show your annual payroll cost as a numerical value, followed by a color-coded list. This list contains “Net Pay,” “Employee” and “Employer.” The list will display the amounts, and a visual representation of those amounts will be displayed in a graph. You can expand or collapse this section with the small arrow on the right-hand side of the screen. Learn this and more during this lecture.

You can access the Vendors page by clicking the “Vendors” link in the Navigation Bar. On this page, you will be able to view all of the vendors that service your company. At the top of the page, on the right-hand side, you will see two buttons. The first is a “Prepare 1099s” button that, when clicked, will open a new page where you can create 1099's for your vendors. The second is a dropdown button labeled “New Vendor,” the second option in the dropdown button is “Import Vendors.” Learn this and more during this lecture.

There are two ways lists can be sorted in QuickBooks Online Plus, either with a “Sort” button or by clicking on the heading of the split-line list. Learn this and more during this lecture.

Inactivating items is helpful when you have a customer or vendor you are no longer working with. At this time, the only items you can make inactive, and then restore, are your customers and vendors. Accounts and inventory items can only be deleted. Learn this and more during this lecture.

QuickBooks Online Plus makes printing your various lists quick and easy. At the top of each list, there is a print icon in the shape of a printer. Clicking this icon will open a new page or tab with your list shown in a printable format. Clicking this icon will also automatically open your computer's “Print” dialog box. Learn this and more during this lecture.

You can import data for your “Customers,” “Vendors,” “Chart of Accounts” and “Products and Services” lists. Any data you wish to import must be in .CSV or .XLS file formats. The .CSV format is a Comma-Separated Value format that stores numbers and text in a plain-text format. .XLS is a Microsoft Excel document. Learn this and more during this lecture.

Collecting and paying sales tax can be complicated for some companies. For example, a company may have to collect and pay more than one sales tax. Many companies have a mix of taxable and non-taxable products and services to sell, and many also have some customers that are taxable while other customers are not. Learn this and more during this lecture.

Now you will want to setup the sales tax for your company. This is found in the Navigation Bar, under “Taxes.” The first time you visit the “Sales Tax” page, you will be greeted with a welcome message and a list of things you can do. Learn this and more during this lecture.

To create a Single Tax Rate, click the “Taxes” link in the Navigation Bar and select “Sales Tax.” This will take you to the “Sales Tax Center” page. On the right-hand side of the page, click the “Add/edit tax rates and agencies” link. Then click the “New” button to open the “New Sales Tax Rate” popup menu. Learn this and more during this lecture.

To set the default sales tax for your company, select “Sales Tax” from the “Taxes” section of the Navigation Bar. This will take you to the “Sales Tax Center.” From the list of “Related Tasks” on the right-hand side of the screen, select “Edit Sales Tax Settings.” This will open the “Edit Sales Tax Settings” menu. Learn this and more during this lecture.

When selling products, you are more than likely going to want to keep track of what you have on hand. Inventory tracking is the easiest way to keep track of the goods you have on hand for sale. Learn this and more during this lecture.

To create inventory items in QuickBooks Online Plus, click the Gear icon and select “Products and Services” from the “List” heading. This will take you to the “Products and Services” page. Click the “New” button on the right-hand side of the page. Clicking this button will open the “Product or Service Information” menu. Here you will be able to create new inventory items. Learn this and more during this lecture.

A purchase order is a helpful way to ensure you purchase the correct items from your vendor(s). To create a purchase order, click the “Create” icon and select “Purchase Order” under the “Vendors” heading. This will open the “Purchase Order” menu. Learn this and more during this lecture.

If you are tracking your inventory, you can adjust the quantity on hand manually. This is helpful if there is spoilage, damage or any event that would change the inventory amount, other than a sale. Learn this and more during this lecture.

In the Gear, under the heading “Lists,” you will find a link for “Products and Services.” Click this link to be taken to the “Products and Services” page. Here you will be able to create and edit the products and/or services your company offers. Learn this and more during this lecture.

Sometimes you will want to offer discounts to your customers. An easy way to do this is to setup a discount item that can easily be added to your sales forms. Learn this and more during this lecture.

While QuickBooks Online Plus does not allow you to record multiple payment types for a single sales form, you can create a payment item or payment items to get around this. Learn this and more during this lecture.

There are times when you will need to change the price for one of your products or services. QuickBooks Online Plus makes this an easy process. Learn this and more during this lecture.

You can create batch invoices only for customers that have unbilled activity. To do this, click the “Transactions” link in the Navigation Bar and then click the “Sales” link to open the “Sales Transactions” page. In the Money Bar, click the “Unbilled Activity” section to display the list of unbilled activities. Alternatively, you can select “Unbilled income” from the “Filter” dropdown button, under the “Type” section. Learn this and more during this lecture.

To create a sales receipt you have two options. Your first is to click the “Create” icon and select “Sales Receipt” under the “Customers” heading. You can also click the “Customers” link in the Navigation Bar and select “Sales receipt” from the “Action” column. Learn this and more during this lecture.

To quickly find a recent, saved transaction form in QuickBooks Online Plus, click the “Recent Transactions” button at the top of the screen, next to the Create button. When you click this button, a short list is displayed. If you see the transaction you are looking for in the list, simply click the link to open that transaction. Click the “More…” link at the bottom of the list to open the “Search” page. Learn this and more during this lecture.

QuickBooks Online Plus allows you to preview your sales forms before sending or printing them. This allows you to ensure they are formatted properly and you have entered the correct information. Learn this and more during this lecture.

You can print any sales form directly from the page after you have created it by clicking the “Print or Preview” button at the bottom of the page. When you click this button, the options “Print later” and “Print or Preview” will appear. If printing an invoice, the option “Print packing slip” will also be displayed. Click the “Print or Preview” link to open a window that will display your form in a PDF viewer. From this page, click the print icon to open your computer's print dialog box to print the form. When you have printed your form, click the “Close” button to close the preview window. Learn this and more during this lecture.

When creating invoices, you will sometimes have different categories of charges. It is helpful to be able to group and subtotal each section on your invoices. To do this, you need to create a new form style. The first step is to click the Gear icon and select “Custom Form Styles” from the “Setting” heading. This link will take you to the “Custom Form Styles” page. Learn this and more during this lecture.

If your company is a purely serviced based organization and you do not handle any sales that would involve inventory tracking, you can create a group of services that will hide the display of any sub-items in a group. This will allow your invoices to display just the total and description for any groups displayed on a printed invoice. Learn this and more during this lecture.

Creating a delayed charge is helpful when you have a product that may need to be created and then shipped. A delayed charge allows you to create the charge and then convert it to an invoice when the product is shipped or picked up. Learn this and more during this lecture.

There are two options available when entering customer charges. The first, and most likely to be used, is creating a journal entry. To create a journal entry, click the Create icon and select “Journal entry” from the “Other” heading. This will take you to the “Journal Entry # “ menu, where you will be able to create your journal entry. Learn this and more during this lecture.

At this time QuickBooks Online Plus cannot automatically calculate finance charges, service charges or late fees on open invoices. To add finance charges to an open invoice you will need to add a new line to an existing invoice, or create a new invoice for the charges. Learn this and more during this lecture.

Now that you have created your finance charge items, you will want to apply the finance charge item to either a new invoice or an existing invoice. To create a new invoice with a finance charge, click the Create icon and select “Invoice” from the “Customers” heading. This will open the “Invoice” menu. Learn this and more during this lecture.

To start the process of creating customer statements, click the Create icon and select “Statement” from the “Other“ heading. When you click the “Statement” link, a popup box will appear. Learn this and more during this lecture.

QuickBooks Online Plus makes it easy to receive payments. Click the Create icon and select “Receive Payment.” In the “Receive Payments” window that opens, you can then select the name of the customer from whom you are receiving payment by using the “Customer Name” drop-down at the top of the form to display the selected customer's open invoices in the list below. Learn this and more during this lecture.

If you need to enter a partial payment on an invoice, you follow the same initial steps as when receiving a full payment to open the “Receive Payment” window. Click the Create icon and select “Receive Payment.” Learn this and more during this lecture.

If your customer has several open invoices, you can easily apply a single payment to multiple invoices. Click the “Customers” link in the Navigation Bar to open the “Customers” page. Click the “Open Invoices” section of the Money Bar to display the list of customers that have an open invoice. This list will display the customer and the total amount of their open balances. Learn this and more during this lecture.

When you receive payment on an invoice and it is for more than the original amount, you will end up with a customer credit. To enter an overpayment, simply enter the payment as covered in lesson 9.1. When entering the payment, apply the full amount of the payment to the invoice. Learn this and more during this lecture.

When a customer makes an overpayment, down payment, or prepayment, a credit is created for the customer. The credit will still need to be applied to an invoice later. While the overpayment will be displayed in your customer list on the “Customers” page, it has yet to be “applied” to anything. To apply this credit to an invoice, you must create a new “Receive Payment” transaction for that invoice. Learn this and more during this lecture.

To make deposits of funds that you have collected and placed into the “Undeposited Funds” asset account, click the Create icon and select the “Bank Deposits” link from the “Other” heading. This will open up the “Deposit” menu, where you will create your deposits. Learn this and more during this lecture.

Sometimes a customer's check may be returned for non-sufficient funds (NSF). If this happens, you will want to record the transaction into QuickBooks Online Plus. You have three options when entering a bounced check into QuickBooks Online Plus; you can use an invoice, create a check or create a journal entry. Learn this and more during this lecture.

There might come a time when you will be unable to collect money owed from a customer. You will want to track this money so your income reports will show you do not expect to collect this money. To do this, you will want to estimate and record the bad debt into QuickBooks Online Plus. Learn this and more during this lecture.