How to Use QuickBooks Online: Step-By-Step Guide

Another cumbersome feature that users don’t like is the requirement that clients must establish their own accounts to pay an invoice. Other popular merchant processors don’t require this, making collecting payments more difficult. QuickBooks Online Advanced supports the upload of 1000 transaction double entry system of accounting lines for invoices at one time. 37% faster based off of internal tests comparing QuickBooks Online regular invoice workflow with QuickBooks Online Advanced multiple invoice workflow.

The right fit for all kinds of businesses

Support is limited, so users are left reading help articles rather than getting a live person to help. Nearly 70% of business owners who have been there, done that, recommend writing a business plan before you start a business. The inventory management and job costing features are more robust in QuickBooks compared to QuickBooks Online. Even for payroll, which has a huge tax liability, taxes are calculated automatically every cycle. As you accept payment for any item in the inventory, the right expense account is updated and reflected automatically in taxable income. Tracking inventory as you sell them, entering the details in the right expense account and calculating taxable income at the end of the financial year can be very cumbersome manually.

Three plans give your business the scalability to grow over time and add features as necessary. The Core plan offers everything a small to midsized business would need to get started, while Premium and Elite plans enable options such as same-day direct deposit and expert assistance with setup. A popular add-on is the payroll feature where you can run payroll and access benefits in one convenient place. It does cost more to access this, which is approximately $22.50 more per month plus $6 per employee, per month. When subscribing to this service, you’ll get a 1099 e-file of forms and a next-day direct deposit. QuickBooks is the most popular small business accounting software suite.

While we don’t recommend using Excel as your base bookkeeping program, we do have a guide on how to use Excel for accounting. Our comparison of QuickBooks Online vs Excel will help you better understand the differences between the two programs. Available in QuickBooks Online Plus and Advanced plans, the inventory management feature helps you track the quantity and cost of your inventory. As you sell inventory, QuickBooks will allocate a portion of your inventory to the cost of goods sold (COGS) automatically, which is an expense account that reduces your income. QuickBooks has its own payroll function that can automatically calculate and run payroll as often as you need.

1. There is no need to download QuickBooks Online because it is connected to the cloud, which means you can access online accounting from any device with an internet connection.
2. There are also available free online training resources that you can use to get up to speed quickly.
3. QuickBooks makes it easy to create invoices either from scratch or from an earlier estimate.
4. You can also sign up for a one-time expert setup with a Live Bookkeeper to get started on the right foot.

Managing Sales and Income

This allocation is a requirement for calculating taxable income and is very cumbersome to do by hand. QuickBooks can also remind you to order inventory automatically when quantities are low. Payroll is an area that you don’t want to skimp on and try to do manually. Mistakes made in calculating paychecks can result in steep penalties and unhappy employees.

Our free QuickBooks tutorials will teach you the basics you need to know to start keeping the books for your small company or employer. Don’t be intimidated by the size of the tutorial―take one lesson or tutorial at a time. This module covers how to manage your bills and record expenses in QuickBooks. As a small business owner or manager, you know that managing expenses is as important as generating sales.

How to Use the QuickBooks Mobile App

QuickBooks makes it easy to create invoices either from scratch or from an earlier estimate. We’d also highly recommend FreshBooks, a solution that has almost as many features and comes at a slightly lower price. QuickBooks Online stands as the best accounting software that our researchers have tested, due to a great feature catalog, reporting tools, a top-quality support team, and a customizable interface. Tax season arrives for everyone, and your business should be prepared ahead of time. Find out which tax deadlines are relevant, depending on the federal, state, and local regulations that may apply to your operation. If you’re using QuickBooks Payroll, it has the tax reporting functionality needed to walk you through this process, although you’ll still need your federal and state ID numbers.

QuickBooks Online is cloud-based software that can be accessed anytime and anywhere from any internet-enabled device and has monthly subscription options. Meanwhile, QuickBooks Desktop is an on-premise software that needs to be installed on the computer where you’ll use it and is available as an annual subscription. For more about the differences between the two programs, read our comparison of QuickBooks Online vs QuickBooks Desktop. Depending on your product and plan, you can use QuickBooks to create and send invoices, manage and track unpaid bills, handle inventory, keep track of project profitability, view financial reports, and more. QuickBooks allows you to enter new bills and expenses and keep track of them automatically by connecting your bank and credit card accounts to the platform.

The best thing about using it is that it’s integrated with QuickBooks, so your financial statements are always up to date as of the latest payroll run. You have to purchase a QuickBooks Payroll subscription to run payroll, but you have several levels of service to choose from to fit your needs. QuickBooks Online allows you to create invoices and either print them or email them to customers. You can create a new invoice from scratch or by converting an existing estimate into an invoice. The program is known for its customizable invoices—making it our overall best invoicing software.