QuickBooks Online is a cloud-based, simple to use software suitable for small business owner’s bookkeeping. It helps you monitor the ins and outs of your business and aside from that, it will also help you in computing basic taxes (if your recording throughout the year is done right) and salaries. Most of all, it is done online, so it can be managed by anyone, anywhere.
Setting-up QuickBooks Online
Probably, you may have already run your business and manually done your bookkeeping but it seems that nothing is going right. It may be frustrating to see all the loose papers that are also important to your business and a lot of transactions that you need to departmentalize.
One day, you start searching for a tool to help you minimize your storage issues for your files as well as problems in coming up with a decent financial report, and even tax preparation. After having searched online, you came up with the most popular cloud-based accounting software, the QuickBooks Online.
QuickBooks online offers a free trial. If you are overwhelmed about how to set up your account, you don’t have to be, you only need to remember that you’ll be needing to answer easy questions regarding your company profile, set-up the settings based on what you will need, set-up a chart of accounts, and import your data.
It doesn’t sound easy, but trust me, read on and you’ll love what you see!
Navigating QuickBooks Online
QuickBooks online will ask you to do your own company profiling. I have listed down what will welcome you after your sign up an account.
- Business Name
Do not fear, it will not require you to enter a lot of your business details and numbers right away (you may do so, later on). So if you are looking for a cloud-based software that keeps it simple, QB is just right for you. Go ahead and fill in that box.
- Industry
QuickBooks online will be asking you what is best to describe your business. Mostly, the software has everything in the dropdown list but it pays to be familiar with what you do and what you offer as a business owner.
- How does your business make money?
Not being intrusive, but it is just a basic question of whether you get money via selling items or providing services, you may also click both.
- What is your main role?
Whether you are the owner or the bookkeeper, identify yourself please.
- Do you need help with setting up?
QuickBooks Online also provides assistance in service if you will be upgrading your account. They can also connect you with their accredited accounting professionals for your consumption. If you already have one, great! If you don’t, you may consider our team to be there for you.
- Who else works with you?
This is for QuickBooks to scale your company size. You may need to declare your personal packer, or your virtual assistant, this may later on ease your payroll set-up, but optional if you want to skip to the next process.
Many small businesses opt for QuickBooks online because of its straight-forward function.
If in case you find this first step still hard to navigate and you may be having trouble finding your way around, you may hire a professional accountant to work things with you.
QuickBooks Online Dashboard
The summary of everything that you will need for your business is in the dashboard. QuickBooks Online made it simple by dividing it into three categories.
- Money In
- Money Out
- Accounting and Reports
You don’t need to worry how much time you need to spend on lengthy accounting courses, everything is in layman’s term. However, for the purpose of our discussion, and hey, an ounce of appreciation for this gift of technology, I’ll guide you through these categories.
Money In
‘Money in’ is simple, you have to think about what are your business resources that bring in money.
QuickBooks online has a step-by-step structure for you to follow and come up with a full report of your incoming monies.
- Add your products and services, also known as ‘Inventories’
- List down all your customers.
- Create an estimate of your future billings.
- Send invoices.
- Set-up your payment options information
- Get fundings from other sources.
Money Out
‘Money out’ is all about the payments you are doing for your business.
It has a ‘Pay bills’ function where you can enter all the payments that you are making. However, to get fully functional, you have to link your bank account that you use for your business under Accounting and Reports.
Accounting and Reports
There are a lot of accounting reports that you will see here but only three major reports that you will mainly use. See here.
QuickBooks Online Left-Hand Navigation Bar
Here are the other functions of QuickBooks Online that you can navigate through. It will probably help to take a tour on these tabs and open it to get comfortable with the software.
Banking
This function enables you to enter your bank account and automate your transactions. All the payments you make and the payments you collect will be easily tracked on this function.
Other Banking Tabs:
App transactions– You will be given an option to connect your eCommerce platform such as Amazon or Shopify.
Rules– You may set rules on recurring transactions so that it can be added on your record. Examples are Rental Income that goes in every 5th of the month may automatically recorded on QuickBooks Online
Receipts– Transitioning from manual to QuickBooks Online, this allows you to import those files.
Tags– You may also create a ‘tag’ or identify the expenditures / payments you made. Make sure that for each same expense, you will have one same tag.
Invoicing
You may set-up how you invoice your customers but first, like what I have mentioned on the dashboard, you need to key-in your customers’ data first, as well as linking your payment channels, too. It will be very easy once you set this all up. All you need is to send an invoice and your customers will just click and pay.
Cash Flow
You may have heard about Cash flows all the time but you don’t know how to put it in your business. Don’t fret, QuickBooks Online will help you get that report. Just don’t forget to input correctly all your money in’s and out’s!
Expenses
This is sweet! A function where you can list down everything that you pay for your business. That printer, office table, the utility bills, and even your business meals (and more).
You can list down your vendors, service providers, and suppliers once you go. This will make it easier for you to record transactions over time.
Payroll
This lets you enter the details about your employees or even temporary contractors. You will be able to put them in one place and make it easy for you to pay them quickly.
Time
Is an optional tool to record the time of your employees for payroll. This also keeps tracking of the time of the invoices from the time it is due.
Other items in the left-hand navigation are self explanatory. You may also choose to make a vitual tour to learn more about the QuickBooks Online interface.
Corrections, Editing, Management of Account
Uh-uh, so you think you need to make changes on your profile, don’t worry, it can easily be edited or updated. Your ‘Settings’ tab has all the tools you need that you can use for your corrections.
Feel free to browse each function and you will appreciate how it makes your life easy as you automate.
Why QuickBooks Online?
Automation in accounting is being practiced by many businesses all over the world because of its convenience. However, with just one look, it is very easy to see that QuickBooks Online has everything you need. From chat support, to accounting professional recommendations, indeed, this software is just right for you.
Aside from that, QB brings you a step closer in being a presentable business for the following reasons:
- Professional Invoice and quotations
QuickBooks will let you have a clean and formatted Invoice and quotations that you may email directly to your customers.
- Receipts can be digitized
You may take photos of your receipts and make it available online. You won’t be needing an accountant to be beside you as you do your business. If ever there’s a need to recall for a previous purchase you made from last year, you can get it from your computer or phone.
- Overdue Notices for Customers
Setting the ‘Time’ function allows you to be notified who you will be following up to next.
- Presentable Accounting Reports
With a little work on your side, you can provide reports as needed which may help your business presentations and your financial decision making.
- Easy Tax Preparation
Since you can also automate tax rates, QuickBooks Online may compute it for you automatically. Of course, handle this matter with care, find a trusted professional accountant that can check in with your taxes, and most of the time, these professionals can help you save a lot.
Choosing a Plan
After you are through with your three-month trial, you may consider getting a plan for a long-term use of QuickBooks Online, below are the rates that you may consider when you choose a plan.
eCommerce business owners may have a hard time doing their accounting books, and even harder to automate it and do things online. These online software subscriptions make your life easy when done right, but a mess when done otherwise. While QuickBooks online looks easy, you may want to consider hiring a tax professional to be your ally in dealing with the confusions.
Continue to learn, it is important to learn things on your own so you may be able to identify yourself with your business when it gets bigger and better.
If you want to check out our Tax Free eCommerce course, head over there to claim your 15% discount.
