Introduction 1 About This Book 1 Foolish Assumptions 3 Icons Used in This Book 3 Beyond the Book 4 Where to Go from Here 4 Part 1: Getting Started with QBO and QBOA 5 Chapter 1: Introducing QBO and QBOA 7 QBO for the Client and QBOA for the Accountant 7 Comparing interfaces 8 Taking a look at QBO Desktop and QBO Mobile 10 Understanding the Cloud 13 Should You Move to the Cloud? 14 System Requirements 15 Chapter 2: Embracing the QBO/QBOA Format 19 It's All about Subscriptions 19 The Self-Employed version 20 The Simple Start version 23 The Essentials version 24 The Plus version 24 The Advanced version 25 Simple Start, Essentials, Plus, and Advanced with Payroll 26 What Does It Cost? 26 Addressing Payroll Needs 28 Switching from QuickBooks Desktop 29 Where Add-On Apps Fit In 30 Part 2: Managing the Books for the End User 33 Chapter 3: Creating a Client Company in QBO 35 Signing Up for QBO 36 Setting Up a New Company 38 Understanding the Dashboard Page 41 Establishing Company Settings 45 Examining company preferences 45 Examining billing and subscription settings and usage limits 45 Setting sales preferences 46 Taking a look at expense preferences 52 Examining options to receive customer payments 53 Reviewing advanced preferences 54 Working with Multiple Currencies 56 How the Multicurrency feature changes QBO 58 Turning on the Multicurrency feature 58 Setting up currencies 59 Using multiple currencies 60 Updating the Chart of Accounts 63 Taking Advantage of QuickBooks Labs 69 Signing In to and Out of QBO 71 Chapter 4: Managing List Information 73 Importing People into a List 73 Adding New People to a List 79 Creating a new customer 79 Using customer types 81 Adding sub-customers 82 Searching Lists for People 83 Working with a particular person 83 Sorting a list 87 Exporting a list to Excel 87 Working with a batch of people 88 Changing Settings for People Lists 89 Working with Products and Services Items 91 Establishing categories 92 Setting up sales taxes 93 Adding service and non-inventory items 94 Creating an inventory item 97 Working with bundles 99 Changing item types 101 Using pricing rules 103 Adjusting inventory item information 104 A Look at Other Lists 109 Chapter 5: Dealing with the Outflow of Money 111 Writing a Check 113 Assigning a check to accounts or items 113 Writing a check for an outstanding bill 116 Creating an Expense 117 Entering a Purchase Order 119 Turning on the purchase order feature 120 Creating a purchase order 121 Working with partial purchase orders 122 Entering and Paying Bills 126 Entering a bill 126 About recurring transactions 127 Recording a vendor credit 131 When a vendor issues a refund check 132 Paying bills 134 Chapter 6: Managing the Inflow of Money 137 Managing Projects 137 Turning on projects in QBO 138 Enabling projects in Customer lists 139 Converting sub-customers to projects 139 Setting up a project 141 Adding transactions to a project 142 Projects and reporting 143 Getting Started with Sales Transactions 144 Customizing forms to handle subtotals 145 Preparing an invoice 147 Recording a customer payment 151 Managing invoice status 155 Working with estimates 157 Creating a progress invoice 164 Working with sales receipts 166 Giving Money Back to a Customer 168 Recording a credit memo 169 Issuing a refund to a customer 170 Creating Billable Time Entries 172 Entering a single time activity 173 Using a timesheet to record time 174 Adding a Billable Expense to an Invoice 175 Chapter 7: Working in Registers 177 Understanding Registers 177 Entering and Editing Transactions 182 Entering a transaction 183 Editing a transaction 186 Other Things You Can Do in a Register 186 Sorting transactions 186 Filtering transactions 187 Printing a register 189 Chapter 8: Handling Bank and Credit Card Transactions 191 Controlling the Appearance of Bank Accounts 191 Connecting QBO Accounts to Financial Institutions 192 Connecting or not connecting 193 Connecting Bank or Credit Card accounts 193 When you can't connect directly 199 Managing Downloaded Activity 204 Excluding transactions 206 Including transactions 207 When QBO guesses correctly 207 When QBO doesn't know 207 Establishing rules to accept transactions 210 Fixing mistakes 215 Making a Bank Deposit 216 Reconciling a Bank Account 219 Chapter 9: Paying Employees and Contractors 225 Understanding the Employee Payroll Process 226 Getting Started with QBO Payroll (QBOP) 226 Turning on QBOP 228 Setting payroll preferences 232 Setting up payroll taxes 234 Preparing Payroll 236 Recording payroll information 237 Reviewing and generating payroll checks 237 Correcting payroll exemptions (without calling Tech Support) 240 Printing payroll reports 243 Managing Payroll Taxes 244 Paying payroll taxes 244 Preparing payroll tax forms 246 Paying Contractors 247 Setting up 1099 contractors 248 Paying contractors 250 Reporting on 1099 vendor payments 250 Preparing 1099s 252 Chapter 10: How's the Business Doing? 253 Quickly Review Income and Expenses 253 Finding the Report You Want 254 Examining standard reports 255 Finding reports you customize 256 Taking a look at management reports 256 Searching for a report 258 Printing a Report 258 Customizing a report 259 Saving a customized report 263 Part 3: Managing the Books for the Accountant 267 Chapter 11: Setting Up Shop in QBOA 269 Signing Up for and into QBOA 270 Examining the QBOA Interface 272 Working with the Your Practice view 273 Working with the Your Books view 275 Setting Up Your Team 277 Controlling the Appearance of the Client List 281 Understanding and Using the Free QBOA Company 282 Working with the Sample Company 283 Closing Companies and QBOA 284 Working with Wholesale Billing 285 Signing up for Wholesale Billing 285 Adding existing clients to your Wholesale Billing subscription 286 Removing clients from your Wholesale Billing subscription 290 Working with your Wholesale Billing history 291 Stop using Wholesale Billing 292 Chapter 12: Adding Companies to the QBOA Client List 293 Adding a Client's Company to the Client List 293 Having a client invite you to be the accountant user 294 Inviting a client to your practice 297 Transferring master administrator rights back to your client 299 Importing QuickBooks Desktop Information into QBO 302 General conversion considerations 303 An overview of what won't import 305 Updating your edition of QuickBooks Desktop 308 Transferring data from a desktop company into QBO 309 After converting 312 Switching between Client QBO Companies 314 Chapter 13: Exploring a Client's Company from QBOA 315 Opening a Client's Company 315 Reviewing a Client QBO Company 316 Taking a look at the Client Overview page 316 Examining company setup information 319 Taking a look at the Chart of Accounts 322 Reviewing list information 326 Exporting and importing bank feed rules 327 Chapter 14: Working in a Client's Company 329 Making Navigation Easy 329 Using keyboard shortcuts 329 Opening multiple windows 330 Working in two companies simultaneously 333 Examining Available Transaction Types 334 Searching for Transactions 334 Making Client Notes 336 Communicating with a Client 337 Chapter 15: Using Accountant Tools 341 Reporting and Paying Sales Taxes 342 Managing Your Practice 343 Understanding the Grid view 344 Creating projects and tasks 345 Updating task status 349 Editing and deleting project information 349 Working in the List view 350 Working in the Calendar view 351 Communicating with team members about work 352 Facilitating Accountant Activities 353 Understanding the Prep for Taxes page 353 Reclassifying transactions 356 Examining voided and deleted transactions 358 Writing off invoices 358 Closing the books 359 Reviewing reports 360 A brief look at other accountant tools 362 Part 4: The Part of Tens 363 Chapter 16: Almost Ten Things about the Chrome Browser Interface 365 Understanding Users 366 Windows and Tabs 367 Using the Omnibox to Visit a Web Page 368 Using the Omnibox to Search the Web 368 What's the Star? 368 Examining the Chrome Menu 369 About Signing In to (and Out of) Chrome 370 Creating a Google account 370 Signing In to Chrome 372 Signing Out of Chrome 372 Using the Chrome Web Store 375 Selecting a Theme 377 Chapter 17: Ten or so Ways to Use Chrome Effectively 379 Setting a Home Page 379 Chrome and Security 381 Chrome and Privacy 382 Handling cookies 382 Chrome and JavaScript 383 Flash 383 Working in Incognito mode 383 Deleting browsing history 384 Reviewing miscellaneous privacy settings 386 Using Google tools to manage privacy 387 Using Bookmarks in Chrome 387 Creating a bookmark 387 Displaying the Bookmarks bar 388 Importing bookmarks 389 Managing bookmarks 390 Duplicating and Pinning Tabs 392 Using Chrome on Multiple Monitors 393 Working with Chrome Users 394 Adding a Chrome user 394 Opening a different user 395 Switching to a different user 396 Removing a user you no longer need 396 Zooming In and Out 397 Downloading Files 398 Appendix A: QBO, Quickbooks Desktop, and Data Conversion 399 Index 417