In our previous article, QuickBooks Online Tutorial: First 3 Steps, we walked you through setting up your new QuickBooks Online account and even created and sent an invoice. If you haven’t checked out that post yet, we recommend you read it before reading this one.
Now that you have the basics down, it’s time to make your QuickBooks Online account work for you. To get the most out of it and truly streamline your accounting processes, you need to know how to:
Sync bank and credit card accounts
Categorize transactions
Track expenses
Pay bills
Let’s review these last four steps to getting your account up and running.
And if you’re still contemplating investing in QuickBooks Online, contact us to find out how you can save up to 50% off your subscription!
Step 1: Sync Bank & Credit Card Accounts
QuickBooks has an easy bank connection feature. Syncing your bank accounts allows you to easily track both income and expenses automatically, which:
Reduces your manual data entry, and
Ensures your account balances are current and reports are accurate.
You can choose to connect all of your bank accounts (as well as credit card and PayPal accounts!) or only your business accounts.
To connect your bank accounts:
Choose your financial institution to connect from one of the banks shown or search for your bank.
Log into your bank account with your username and password.
Choose the account(s) you would like to connect via the prompt.
Repeat for each account you’d like to connect.
After connecting your account, QuickBooks will automatically download transactions from the last 90 days. It will continue downloading transactions regularly.
Are you nervous about the security of syncing your bank accounts to QuickBooks? Don’t stress it—you can always opt-out for now and connect them at a later time.
Step 2: Categorize Transactions
Now that you’ve synced your bank and credit card accounts, you can start categorizing your imported transactions. Since much of the transaction posting is completed automatically, your month-end reconciliation will be quick and easy.
While QuickBooks Online displays all imported transactions, you can review them by account. Simply:
Go to the Banking menu and choose the bank or credit card account you want to review.
Click on the For Review tab, which displays all recent uncategorized transactions.
Confirm each transaction is accurate.
If QuickBooks has found a correct match, click “Match.”
If a transaction has not been matched, enter or approve the category QuickBooks suggests, then click “Add” to add the transaction.
Click on the Reviewed tab to double-check transactions for accuracy.
Pro tips:
Stay ahead by reviewing your bank transactions daily. This ensures both your income and expenses are always accurate and current.
If you’re importing your transactions manually but have limited transactions (i.e., one or two a week), you can import them monthly. If you start having more, you can start importing and reviewing transactions daily.
Step 3: Track Expenses
Sure, tracking income is the more enjoyable part of your accounting, but it’s also crucial to stay on top of your expenses. Whether you simply need to do a better job tracking your expenses, pull an expense report, or create a budget, QuickBooks makes it easy.
Once you connect your bank accounts and categorize your transactions, QuickBooks Online does much of the process for you. If you do need to enter expenses manually, just follow these steps:
Go to Expenses, then click “Add an Expense.”
Select a vendor from your existing list, or add a new vendor.
Enter the payment account. Add a new account if necessary.
Enter the appropriate expense category.
Pro tips:
Enter your expenses as they occur to ensure you don’t miss any. Plus, this reduces the amount of data you need to enter to categorize expenses properly.
Attach a receipt to your expense entry; that way, you have a backup if ever necessary.
Step 4: Pay Bills
QuickBooks Online also helps you pay bills on time, thanks to the platform’s accounts payable feature. Easily schedule payments to vendors exactly when they’re due. All you have to do is:
Go to the Bill feature.
Select the appropriate vendor, or add a new vendor.
Enter bill payment terms (i.e., Net 10, Net 30, etc.) based on the vendor’s terms.
Select the bill date and due date.
Select the appropriate expense category.
Click the “Save and Close” button on the bottom right.
When your bill is due, you can select the payment method, including an electronic payment directly from QuickBooks Online.
Pro tips:
Check the bill’s due date to ensure it’s entered and paid on time and to avoid late payments or, even worse, late fees!
Choose fast and easy electronic payments rather than writing and mailing checks (and save on that postage!).
Hopefully, this QuickBooks Online tutorial will help you start improving your accounting processes and efficiencies. If you’d prefer to have an experienced accounting professional manage your books and financials, message us or call 603-505-2368 today to find out how we can help you grow your business!
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