Mastering QuickBooks 2021

The ultimate guide to bookkeeping and QuickBooks Online, 2nd Edition

Crystalynn Shelton

• Publisher: Packt Publishing
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781800205277
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Bookkeeping & Budgets
• Index: Business

This second edition of the bestselling Mastering QuickBooks 2020 is updated and improved to focus on advanced QBO features, techniques for managing sales taxes, and budgeting and reporting best practices

Key Features

• Understand how to manage sales taxes and transactions
• Explore advanced bookkeeping techniques such as using the custom chart builder, importing budgets, and performing smart reporting with Fathom
• Become proficient in using QuickBooks Online and implement best practices to avoid costly errors

Book Description

Intuit QuickBooks is an accounting software package that helps small business owners to manage all their bookkeeping tasks independently.This latest edition of Mastering QuickBooks takes you through the range of new features and updates available in QuickBooks Online (QBO). Creating multilingual invoices, tracking mileage, working with a cash flow dashboard that helps you with cash forecasting and planning reports, and uploading a batch of bills and checks are just a few of the new features covered in this edition. As you progress, you'll learn how to manage sales tax, including how to set up, collect, track, pay, and report sales tax payments. Dedicated sections will also take you through new content focused on the latest features in the QBO line-up, while also showing you the different types of businesses that can benefit from QBO Advanced. In addition to this, you'll explore how to export reports to Google Sheets, use the custom chart builder, import budgets, perform smart reporting with Fathom, and much more.By the end of this QuickBooks book, you'll be well-versed with the features of QuickBooks and have the confidence to manage all your bookkeeping tasks with ease.

What you will learn

• Discover the new features of QBO and find out what the QBO line-up offers
• Get to grips with bookkeeping concepts and the typical bookkeeping and financial accounting cycle
• Set up QuickBooks for both product-based and service-based businesses
• Track everything from billable and non-billable time and expenses to profit
• Generate key financial reports for accounts, customers, jobs, and invoice items
• Understand the complete QuickBooks payroll process and track payments made to 1099 contractors
• Manage various bank and credit accounts linked to your business

Who this book is for

The book is for small business owners and bookkeepers or accounting students who want to learn QuickBooks Online and understand how to implement and use it effectively. Whether you're a bookkeeping beginner or have some experience already, this book will help you learn to use Intuit QuickBooks Online confidently.

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Section 1: Setting Up Your Company File

By completing Section 1, you will have completed the company file setup. Whether you are just starting your business and are brand new to accounting software or are converting from another accounting software to QuickBooks, by the end of this section, you will have a company file that is ready for you to start entering transactions.

This section comprises the following chapters:

• Chapter 1, Getting Started with QuickBooks Online
• Chapter 2, QuickBooks Online Advanced
  
• Chapter 3, Company File Setup
• Chapter 4, Migrating to QuickBooks Online
• Chapter 5, Customizing QuickBooks for Your Business
• Chapter 6, Managing Customers, Vendors, Products, and Services

Getting Started with QuickBooks Online

QuickBooks is the most popular accounting software for small businesses. The desktop version has been around for more than 25 years and the online more than 10 years. It is affordable, easily accessible, and ideal for non-accountants. Many competitors have great software but you need accounting or bookkeeping knowledge to use it, whereas someone without this knowledge can set up and use QuickBooks. Before diving into the nuts and bolts of setting up QuickBooks for your business, you should understand what QuickBooks is, and what your options are when it comes to using it. Once you know what your options are, you will be in a better position to choose the version of QuickBooks that will best suit your business needs.

If you don't have previous experience as a bookkeeper, then you will need to know a few bookkeeping basics before you get started. In the introduction to the bookkeeping section, we cover five key areas in terms of recording transactions in your business: money coming in, money going out, inventory purchases, fixed asset purchases, and liabilities. In this section, we will also cover the importance of the chart of accounts, accounting methods, and what double-entry bookkeeping is.

We will cover the following key concepts in this chapter:

• What is QuickBooks?
• Exploring QuickBooks Online (QBO) editions
• Choosing the right QuickBooks Online edition
• Introducing the QuickBooks Desktop (QBD) product line
• Choosing the right QuickBooks Desktop version
• Introducing new features in QuickBooks Desktop 2021
• Small business bookkeeping 101

Once you've got these key concepts under your belt, you will be ready to dive into setting up your business in QBO.

The U.S. edition of QBO was used to create this book. If you are using a version that is outside of the United States, results may differ.

What is QuickBooks?

QuickBooks is an accounting software program that allows you to track your business' income and expenses. One of the benefits of using QuickBooks is having access to key financial reports (such as profit and loss) so that you can see the overall health of your business at any time. Having access to these reports makes filing your taxes a lot easier. QuickBooks has been around for almost three decades, and it is the accounting software used by millions of small businesses around the globe.

QuickBooks comes in two formats: software that you can install or download on a desktop computer, and a cloud-based program that you can access from any mobile device or desktop computer with an internet connection.

The cloud-based version, QuickBooks Online (QBO), is available in four editions: Simple Start, Essentials, Plus, and Advanced. The desktop version, QuickBooks Desktop (QBD), also comes in four editions: QuickBooks Mac, Pro, Premier, and Enterprise. We will discuss each of these in detail next.

Exploring QuickBooks Online editions

QuickBooks Online (QBO) comes in four editions:

• Simple Start
• Essentials
• Plus
• Advanced

Each edition varies in terms of the price, the number of users to which you can give access, and the features included.

The following table gives a summary of QBO pricing and features for each edition of QBO:

	QBO Simple Start	QBO Essentials	QBO Plus	QBO Advanced
Monthly cost	$20	$25	$70	$150
Maximum number of users	1	5	7	25
Accountant users	2	2	2	3
Track income and expenses	✓	✓	✓	✓
Connect bank and credit card accounts	✓	✓	✓	✓
Manage accounts receivable	✓	✓	✓	✓
Accept online payments	✓	✓	✓	✓
Send estimates	✓	✓	✓	✓
Track sales tax	✓	✓	✓	✓
Capture and organize receipts	✓	✓	✓	✓
Mileage tracking	✓	✓	✓	✓
Handle multiple currencies	✓	✓	✓	✓
Track time using TSheets	✓	✓	✓	✓
Manage accounts payable		✓	✓	✓
Track payments to 1099 contractors	✓	✓	✓	✓
Inventory tracking			✓	✓
Categorize income and expenses using class tracking			✓	✓
Track sales and profitability by location			✓	✓
Dedicated account team				✓
On-demand online training for staff				✓
Smart Reporting with Fathom				✓
Batch upload invoices and expenses				✓
Custom user permissions				✓

As you can see from the preceding table, all four editions of QBO include the following features:

• Track income and expenses: Keep track of all sales to customers and expenses paid to vendors.
• Connect bank and credit card accounts: Connect all business bank an...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright and Credits
• Dedication
• About Packt
• Contributors
• Preface
• Section 1: Setting Up Your Company File
• Getting Started with QuickBooks Online
• QuickBooks Online Advanced
• Company File Setup
• Migrating to QuickBooks Online
• Customizing QuickBooks for Your Business
• Managing Customers, Vendors, Products, and Services
• Section 2: Recording Transactions in QuickBooks Online
• Managing Sales Tax
• Recording Sales Transactions in QuickBooks Online
• Recording Expenses in QuickBooks Online
• Reconciling Downloaded Bank and Credit Card Transactions
• Section 3: Generating Reports in QuickBooks Online
• Report Center Overview
• Business Overview Reports
• Customer Sales Reports in QuickBooks Online
• Vendor and Expenses Reports
• Section 4: Managing Employees and Contractors
• Managing Payroll in QuickBooks Online
• Managing 1099 Contractors in QuickBooks Online
• Section 5: Closing the Books and Handling Special Transactions
• Closing the Books in QuickBooks Online
• Handling Special Transactions in QuickBooks Online
• Shortcuts and Test Drive
• Other Books You May Enjoy