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QuickBooks online attachments

By Lauretta Finis

September 14, 20154 min read

Keeping track of receipts, invoices and paperwork related to your business can be a drag. The QuickBooks Online feature that allows you to add attachments makes your life a little bit easier, especially as the paperless-office trend continues to grow.

Having all your paperwork attached in QuickBooks Online can help your accountant at the end of the financial year, it makes it easy to follow up on supplier invoices and it gives you the freedom to access documents quickly while you’re on the go. It’s a faster and more streamlined process that will put your filing cabinet out of a job.

Why Would You Use Attachments?

Here are just a few ways the attachments feature can help:

Attach your receipts on the go when at Officeworks, Bunnings or any supplier store
Attach quotes to your invoices if you are quoting outside of QuickBooks Online
Attach bills to the bills transaction or expense/cheque expense transaction
Attach your terms and conditions document to your invoice
Access the attachment anytime, anywhere
Attach supplier receipts directly when processing an expense or cheque

This feature gives you the flexibility to add an image or document to any transaction.

How Do We Add/Upload Attachments?

There are a few formats that you can upload into QuickBooks Online:

A PDF downloaded from a supplier email
An image
A photo from your iPhone or Android device (see notes below on the QuickBooks Online app and how easy it is to upload images)

There are two places in QuickBooks Online that you can upload attachments from your desktop version of QuickBooks Online or from any of your mobile devices on the mobile app.

1. The Attachments Page

If you need to upload a batch of attachments and link them to other transactions later, for example the terms and conditions document, then follow these steps:

Cog wheel (1) > under Lists > Attachments (2)

Drag/Drop files in the Attachments field (3), or you can click on the Attachments paper pin icon, find the location of the document you want to upload and then click Save to upload
Maximum size 25MB

Once uploaded, it will appear automatically in the uploaded area for your review (4)

The Attachments window also has the following features:

Batch Actions – Export and process transactions directly from this window
Export the image or document > Tick the box required and click Export
Create Invoice or Create Expense > Tick the document you want added to the transaction and choose either Create Invoice or Create Expense
Print the list of attachments in your file from the printer icon
From the Cog Wheel, choose which columns are shown in this window
Edit, Delete, Create Invoice and Create Expense from the dropdown box under Action

2. Creating a Transaction

You can create a transaction in any of these windows: Quote, Invoice, Bill, Expense or Cheque.

In the transaction window, scroll down to the bottom left-hand side
In the Attachments field (1) you can drag and drop the attachment, or click on Attachments, find the location of the document you want to upload and then click Save to add to the transaction
Click on Show Existing (2) to open the right-hand side drawer (3) if already saved previously in the Attachments window. Choose which attachment you need to add from the box and click Add to add as many attachments as you like

Once you have added the attachment to your transaction, you have the option of sending it to your client:

Using the quote above as an example, add the first attachment by clicking The saved attachment “Terms&Conditions.docx” (4) moves to the Attachment field. Tick the box Attach to email (5) to email this attachment with your quote to your client. Click on Save and Send in the bottom right corner to send the email

You can see the quote (6) and the attachment (7) in the email below

3. iPhone, iPad or Android QuickBooks Online App

To add attachments on your device and on the QuickBooks Online app:

On the left-hand-side navigation bar, click Click the blue + icon found at the bottom middle. This will bring up a page for a New Expense
Click on the camera icon (1). Click Take Photo or Choose Existing (2). Choose a photo from your library or take a shot of your receipt/attachment. This will load to your app.
Once you complete the expense information required for this transaction, click This will automatically save to your QuickBooks Online file.
We will dive deeper into this in the next blog

The QuickBooks Online Attachments feature makes processing your invoices, receipts and paperwork on your desktop much easier. For those of you out and about doing business, the QuickBooks Online app allows you to sync attachments to the cloud with the click of a button. It’s never been easier to take control of your documents and house them all in the one place, so you can access them anytime and anywhere.

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