You should enter past sales and Accounts Receivable (A/R) transactions, as well as past supplier transactions, first before entering any past cheque or bank transactions. QuickBooks Online updates your bank balance as you enter payments received from customers and payments to suppliers.
Ways to enter past sales and A/R transactions
There are two ways to enter past sales and A/R transactions. Both methods ensure accurate reporting.
Chronologically: Enter transactions (charges, invoices, credits, payments) in the same order they were created or received. This method creates a record of all the invoices you sent.
In Batches: If you don't have time to record your charges in order, you can record them in batches:
- Enter all charges and credits that customers already know about, followed by payments received.
- Print a single invoice for each customer to clear their invoice record of the past activity.
- Enter remaining charges and credits you haven't informed customers of and then start sending real invoices. This method doesn't leave a record of invoices you sent.
Record historical supplier transactions
Enter your past supplier transactions in the following order so that you can properly apply the credit and the payment to the bill, just as you do in normal recording:
| Note: The "Simple Start" edition of QuickBooks Online does not have Accounts Payable (A/P) tracking capabilities, and the following steps are not possible in Simple Start. You can set up supplier profiles in Simple Start for tracking expenses, but not for Payables (AP) like bills. |
Bills
- Select + New.
- Select Bill.
- Enter each bill received between your start date and today. Be sure to assign amounts to the correct expense accounts.
- If you don't see any Bills, select Show More.
Credits from Suppliers
- Select + New.
- Select Supplier Credit to enter credits received between your start date and today.
- If you don't see any Supplier Credits, select Show More.
Payments
- Select + New.
- Select Cheque or Pay Bills.
- Record each bill payment made between your start date and today.
Note:
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Record historical bank transactions
- If you're entering historical transactions for more than a one-month timeframe, enter the transactions one month at a time and then reconcile all bank accounts before going to the next month.
- If you're using online banking to download some of these transactions, you need to be aware that we can't provide more than 90 days of downloads from online banking. Anything before the 90 day period will need to be manually entered. However, you might be able to get information older than 90 days by using Web-Connect.
Now you know how to enter historical information into QuickBooks Online.