AUTOMATE AND OPTIMIZE YOUR QUICKBOOKS ONLINE

AUTOMATE AND OPTIMIZE YOUR QUICKBOOKS ONLINE 

To all of you out there tackling QuickBooks on your own, Accounting Therapy’s team of accounting superheroes are here to support you!  

We’re all about saving you time and money. So, in addition to the vast array of powerful tools and modules in the QuickBooks Online library, wecumulated a robust list of our most valuable tips and tricks to help you automate your processes and become more efficient. 

Transaction Information & Options 

First, we’ll start with transaction journals. In each transaction, under the “More” button you will find the “Transaction Journal” option. This will allow you to see the audit history of transactions, including when it was created, when it was changed, who created it, and what fields have been edited. Here are some of our favorite transaction tips! 

• To copy, delete, or void a transaction, you can find the available options below the transaction by clicking more. Be aware that deleting it will cause you to lose the associated audit log.
• To retain the original audit trail, void the transaction instead. However, keep in mind that this may not always work since not all transactions can be voided.
• Need to see what transactions are making up the balance in your “Undeposited Funds” account? Easy! Just click the “+New” button in the top left and under “Other”, click “Bank Deposit”.
• Unsure of what accounts an invoice is affecting? Just look at the transaction journal to see what it would look like if it was an old school journal entry. 

When Creating Banking Rules... 

Need a quick refresher on banking rules? Below are what we consider to be the most essential tricks to remember. 

• Only create banking rules using the bank text field since this relates directly to bank text downloaded from your bank. Selecting the description field will read only what QuickBooks’ AI interprets.
• “Rule Suggestions” will always default to reading the description versus the bank text. Edit these to ensure they are correctly reading the bank text, pointing to the correct account and not on “Auto-Add”.
• “Auto-Add” could leave you with a zillion transactions incorrectly added to your financials!If you do this accidentally, use the “Categorized” tab to “Undo” the transactions.

Curate your QBO Settings to Work for You 

We always suggest that the first thing you do in QuickBooks is go to “Accounts and Settings” and ensure all setting tabs on the vertical menu of the page are reflective of how you do business. For reference, here are Accounting Therapy’s best practice settings for the “Sales” tab. 

• Turn off “Discounts”, “Deposits”, and “Shipping”. If you need these items, set them up as products and services for more accurate financial reporting. 
• Turn off “Tips” unless this directly applies to your business. 
• Turn off “Automatic Late Fees” unless this is a feature you are sure you want to use. 
• Turn off “Accept credit cards by default” on QuickBooks Payments if you don’t use it. You can always turn it back on in the invoice for a specific client.
• If you don’t want your client to see the product or service item, turn this option off through “Sales Forms”. 
• Setup your default message on “Sales Forms”. 
• Turn on or off “Automatic Invoice Reminders”.

Additionally, here are our best practice settings for the “Advanced” tab. 

• Use the “Close the books” period after you file your tax returns so that you don’t accidentally change a prior period.
• Turn on or off “Account Numbers”. 
• Under “Automation”, turn off “Pre-Fill forms with previously entered content”.
• Turn off “Auto Apply Credits” and “Apply Bill Payments”.
• In the “Other Preference Section”, extend the “Sign me out if inactive for” time limit to up to 3 hours.

Track Customer Profitability 

Need to track customer profitability? You can easily do this through the QuickBooks Project module. And here’s a stellar bonus: you can add QuickBooks Payroll to track your payroll expenses by customer project. 

QBO “Did you Knows” 

Okay, now it's time for the crash course. Here are the QBO “Did You Knows”, that well, you might not know! 

Did you know that... 

QuickBooks Online has built-in keyboard shortcuts 

• To quickly get to your Chart of Accounts, enter “CTRL + CMD/ALT + a”
• To quickly get to your Customer List, enter “CTRL + CMD/ALT + c”
• To quickly get to your Vendor List, enter “CTRL + CMD/ALT + v” 
• From the date field:
• Enter “t” to populate today’s date.
• Enter “m” to go to the first day of the month, enter “m” again to go to the first day of the previous month.
• Enter “h” to go to the last day of the month, enter “h” again to go to the last day of the next month.
• Enter “y” to go to the first day of the calendar year, enter “y” again to go to the first day of the prior calendar year.
• Enter “r” to go to the last day of the calendar year, enter “r” again to go to the last day of the next calendar year.

You can look at two instances of QuickBooks Online at the same time 
Right-click the “QuickBooks” tab in your web browser and click “Duplicate”. 

You can log into two different company files at the same time 
Just open a private or incognito window in your web browser and log into a different company file!   

You can attach documents to your QuickBooks transactions 
Attach all supporting documentation in one place so that it's all nicely organized and easily accessible for your accountant during tax preparation. 

You can invite up to two accountant users to your QuickBooks Online file without taking up your account user seats 
By doing so, you'll grant your trusted accountant partners continuous access to your file throughout the year and during tax season. This will save you the stress of having to manually pull and send reports via email and allow you to get faster support from your bookkeeper. 

Undoing bank reconciliations can often save you more time than trying to fix an incorrect one 
Undo your last reconciliation by going to the “Reconcile” page, selecting the account you want to undo, then clicking the “History by Account” blue hyperlink in the upper right corner. Under the “Action” column on the next page, select “Undo” in the drop-down and choose what you want to undo from the series of pop-up windows.  

One more just for fun... 

Did you know that QuickBooks mobile app allows you to take a photo of receipts and directly upload them to a transaction from your bank feeds? 

Ready to Boost Your Efficiency?  

To all you QuickBooks DIY’ers out there, we've got you covered.With these new tools in your toolbox, you're headed towards a successful and efficient journey with QuickBooks Online. And don’t forget… if you want to add Payroll or accept credit cards, we always have the best discounts. Best of luck to you all, fellow space explorers!  

To learn more about Accounting Therapy, check out our services on our website,https://accountingtherapy.com/pages/services, or give us a call at (833) 791 – 1230.