Turn on class tracking in QuickBooks Online

Learn how to turn on class tracking in QuickBooks Online Plus and Advanced.

Classes represent meaningful parts of your company, like store departments or product lines. You can use them to get deeper insights into your sales, expenses, or profitability for each part of your business. Once you turn on the feature, you can assign classes to transactions.

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Here's how to turn on class tracking, so you can start organizing your transactions by class. If you need to assign classes to your employees, we'll also help you turn on class tracking for Online Payroll.

New to class tracking? Check out our class tracking overview to learn if it's the right tool for you and how to get started.

Step 1: Turn on class tracking

1. Go to Settings and select Account and settings.
2. Select Advanced, then select the Categories section to edit.
3. Turn on the Track classes switch.
4. Select Warn me when a transaction isn't assigned a class. This is optional, but it means that when you look at reports, you know everything's been classified.
5. Under Assign classes, select One to entire transaction or One to each row in transaction.*
6. Select Save, then Done.

*Tip: Select One to entire transaction if you don't need to enter a class for each product you sell to a customer. You can save time and assign one class to the entire invoice or sales receipt instead. This adds a class field or column to your forms so you can assign transactions a class.

Step 2: Set up your class list

Now you can set up your class list. Create classes that represent different parts of your business.

Remember, it's best to keep it simple. The more straightforward your classes are, the easier it is to understand your reports.

Turn on class tracking for Online Payroll

If you want to set up classes to track payroll, turn on class tracking for your payroll transactions. Then, you can assign a single class to all your employees, or assign different classes to different employees.

1. Go to Settings ⚙ and select Payroll settings.
2. In the Accounting section, select Edit ✎.
3. In the Class Tracking section, select Edit ✎ to turn it on. Then choose how you want to track classes.
4. Select Continue, then Done.
   Note: If the Class Tracking section isn't showing in the Accounting Preferences, ensure that the class tracking is turned on. If classes are off, turn them on and repeat the steps above. If the classes are on, turn it off, sign out, then sign back in, and turn the classes back on.
5. Add a class for each employee, or assign one for all of them.
6. To save your preferences, select Continue, then Done.