Quickbooks best practices: 9 hacks to get it right

With 35 years of experience to its name QuickBooks is still dominating the game when it comes to providing accounting solutions to small and medium sized businesses across the globe.

In the US alone, Quickbooks accounts for over 80% market share. Globally, Quickbooks has well over 2.5 million subscribers, driving to its goal of providing “power and prosperity” to the businesses it serves. 

QuickBooks Online (QBO) is a cloud-based accounting software developed by QuickBooks. QBO allows users to access and manage their books on multiple devices such as laptops and smartphones from anywhere, at any time. The app also allows users to create access privileges so that a business’s accountant or team member can login and work with specific data online. 

We’ve put together a list of basic user tips as well as advanced tips for QBO users at various stages of their journey with the software. These tips are designed to help you and your team use QBO more efficiently.

Basic user tips

Keep track of accounts receivable

• Click the Sales tab on the left hand side of the screen
• Click on the Customers tab within Sales
• Here you have an easy way to view all of your overdue customers
• Click Overdue to send reminders to any of your overdue customers

Keep track of accounts payable

• Click on the Expenses tab on the left hand side of the screen
• Click on the Vendors tab within Expenses
• Here you have an easy way to view all of the bills you need to pay
• Click Open Bills to make payments on any of your outstanding bills. 

Reconcile an account

• Click on the Gear button, then on “Tools” and then “Reconcile.”
• Click on the drop-down menu under “Accounts” and select the account you want to reconcile.
• Enter the “Ending balance” and “Ending date” based on your bank statement information.
• Match transactions to your bank statement and check them off one by one.
• Apply filters so transactions are easier to find.
• Keep going until the “Difference” field is zero and you see the Success! page.

Run a monthly Profit & Loss report

• Click on the Reports tab on the left hand side of the page. By default, the Profit & Loss report will be displayed. Select points in the graph to see the income and expense details for the month.
• Select the default date range to choose a different date range or enter a custom range.
• Click on the drop-down arrow next to the title to choose between the different reports: Profit & Loss, Balance Sheet, Invoices by Status, or Invoices by Month.
• Select the bulleted list icon to see your income, expense, and gross profit breakdowns.

Create an Ask My Accountant account

Set up an account on your chart of accounts called ‘Ask my accountant’ to help you easily compile items and transactions that need to be discussed with your accountant.

• Click on the Accounting tab on the left hand side of the page and create an account called “Ask my accountant”.
• Anytime you encounter a business expense and you don’t know how to categorize it, create a brief description of the expense under the “Ask my accountant” account, along with the amount you need to expense. 
• Your accountant can then run a report to view all the items listed under “Ask my accountant” and allocate them to the right accounts. 

Use the cheat sheet 

The QuickBooks Online for Dummies Cheat Sheet teaches you keyboard shortcuts access various windows and pages without touching a mouse. The various icons at the top of the QBO page help you quickly search for items, create new items, or display transactions. 

Advanced user tips

Create a Cash Receipt Journal

Cash receipt journals help you quickly review the money you have received for a set period of time.

• Click on Sales Transactions on the left hand side of the page.
• Under Sales Transactions, Filter drop-down list, select the Type “Money Received,” and change the date.

Set up automated emails 

With QuickBooks Online you can set up recurring invoices to be automatically emailed on a schedule. Additionally, if you’re using QuickBooks Payments, customers can pay online and the payment and associated fees will be automatically recorded in QuickBooks.

Attach documents to a transaction on QBO

QBO allows you to attach documents to a range of transactions, from credit memos, bills, and credit card charges to inventory adjustments, vendor profiles and more.

• Upload your document to the QuickBooks Documents Center.
• Click on the paperclip, select the desired file from the list of saved documents, and double click it to attach it.
• You may attach multiple documents to the same transaction. 

Once you have mastered your QuickBooks Online account the next step is to make sure the rest of your eCommerce, logistics and other B2B solutions are integrated with QBO.

The TradeGecko-QuickBooks integration saves you time and manual effort by sending invoices, stock levels and customer data automatically between both platforms, in real-time. Learn more about the QuickBooks-TradeGecko integration and how you can today!