QBO Certification - Modules 1 - 8 - Website - Rev090121
QBO Certification - Modules 1 - 8 - Website - Rev090121
QBO Certification - Modules 1 - 8 - Website - Rev090121
Supplemental Guide
Modules 1 - 8
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Supplemental Guide to QuickBooks Online Certification Table of Contents
Table of Contents
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Supplemental Guide to QuickBooks Online Certification Table of Contents
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Supplemental Guide to QuickBooks Online Certification Table of Contents
Module 3: Lesson 3 How to Add Apps for Your Clients ................................................................ 118
Who can add apps? ....................................................................................................................... 118
Tracking Client Apps ...................................................................................................................... 119
Adding Apps to QuickBooks Online ................................................................................................ 122
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Supplemental Guide to QuickBooks Online Certification Table of Contents
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Supplemental Guide to QuickBooks Online Certification Table of Contents
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Supplemental Guide to QuickBooks Online Certification Table of Contents
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Supplemental Guide to QuickBooks Online Certification Table of Contents
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Supplemental Guide to QuickBooks Online Certification Table of Contents
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Supplemental Guide to QuickBooks Online Certification Table of Contents
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QUICKBOOKS ONLINE CERTIFICATION COURSE
Supplemental Guide
Module 1: QuickBooks Solutions for Clients
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Supplemental Guide to QuickBooks Online Certification Module 1: QuickBooks Solutions for Clients
QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Online Accountant are constantly being improved:
• When you log into qbo.intuit.com, it may look different from the screenshots originally taken for this
supplemental guide
GOOGLE CHROME
Screenshots and instructions included in this guide use Google Chrome as the browser.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
• Describe the features of the Overview tab and how it can be used by ProAdvisors (Accountants and
Bookkeepers)
• Open the Sample Company by logging into your QuickBooks Online Accountant → Gear icon → Your
Company section → Sample Company
• While you are working in the Sample Company, your work will be saved
• Upon closing the sample company file, QuickBooks Online automatically restores its settings and data. If
you log out and log in again, the Sample Company will reset (your work is not saved).
• By default, the Sample Company will sign out if inactive for one hour. You will lose any data and settings,
since this sample company resets each time you log in. Give yourself enough time to complete the
assignment.
• Toiconincrease the maximum hours of inactivity allowed before timing out, in the Sample Company → Gear
→ Your Company section → Account and Settings → Advanced → Other preferences → Sign me out
if inactive for and select two hours or three hours.
NOTE: The QuickBooks Online sample company contains some features that are not available in QuickBooks
Online EasyStart, Essentials, or Plus. You may wish to share the QuickBooks Online test drive file with your clients
for them to practice without seeing Accountant-only features: https://qbo.intuit.com/redir/testdrive_ca
In addition, some features may not be enabled in this test drive file. This is subject to change.
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Supplemental Guide to QuickBooks Online Certification Module 1: QuickBooks Solutions for Clients
QuickBooks Online Certification is not just an exam. It is a whole new level of training and expertise that sets you
up to thrive, year after year. In this course, you will learn what it takes to master QuickBooks Online workflows
and product features to support your small business clients in the end-to-end accounting lifecycle.
At the end of the course, you will be ready to take the Certification exam and earn your Certified ProAdvisor
status and rewards.
4. I can use simple money-in and money-out workflows to support QuickBooks Online
If you feel that you are not quite ready to begin your journey with QuickBooks Online Certification, you can start
by completing the Introduction to QuickBooks Online for Accountants course found in the Training Centre inside
QuickBooks Online Accountant. Just click on the ProAdvisor tab in the left navigation bar and then the Training
tab at the top to get there!
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Supplemental Guide to QuickBooks Online Certification Module 1: QuickBooks Solutions for Clients
Recognition
Recognition for demonstrating the ability to support clients with real-life tasks and problem-solving. Certification
badges add substance and help to make your marketing stand out.
For small business owners, a Certified ProAdvisor means a professional with unmatched acumen who will
increase their odds of thriving during their first five years.
Faster growth
QuickBooks Online Certification is just the beginning. We have a range of options and specialty courses that
mean you can continue your personal development journey with QuickBooks Online, including content to keep
you up to date with product innovations and support at every stage.
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Supplemental Guide to QuickBooks Online Certification Module 1: QuickBooks Solutions for Clients
Every small business has different needs. In order to offer the best possible solutions to your clients you will
need to get to know the needs of your potential clients. Clients will come to you with different business
structures and various levels of experience, some who have used QuickBooks for many years and some nervous
startups just taking their first steps. They all need your help and expertise to get moving with QuickBooks Online
(QBO).
You, with the support of QBO, are in the perfect position to inspire clients with the features and functionality it
can offer, so that their individual needs are met. No two businesses are the same but QBO is so flexible and
adaptable it can meet complicated and simple demands.
REQUIREMENTS GATHERING
Getting to know your clients and tailoring your advice is what being a QuickBooks Online ProAdvisor is all about.
It means you can make sure they are getting the most of what QBO can offer, as well as advising clients on what
the numbers mean to fuel their business success!
Discover and target the needs of your clients by learning the Client Needs Assessment Process. This is a great
model for gathering the right information, using Who, What, When and How methodology.
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Supplemental Guide to QuickBooks Online Certification Module 1: QuickBooks Solutions for Clients
*Click this link to find an Excel version of The Client Checklist to use with your clients!
The Client Profile tab is where you can record basic information about your client including the company name,
contact information, tax ID, accounting year end, and other details. You will use this information when setting
up your client’s new QuickBooks Online account and selecting certain settings in the Account and settings menu.
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Supplemental Guide to QuickBooks Online Certification Module 1: QuickBooks Solutions for Clients
The next step is the Needs Assessment. Talk to your client about their business processes to identify which ones
they use. To help you, use the Needs Assessment tab with the New Client Checklist. The links in Help Resources
column will point you in the right direction and help you ask the right questions to dig deeper into how your
client’s business operates. This will help you pinpoint the QuickBooks Online features they will benefit from the
most.
Select yes or no from the cell in column B to indicate whether your client uses each workflow process. Your
selections will automatically flow to the QuickBooks Features and Solutions tab to help you select the right
QuickBooks solution for your client’s specific needs.
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Supplemental Guide to QuickBooks Online Certification Module 1: QuickBooks Solutions for Clients
The Needs Assessment tab is organized into categories to make it simple to assess and identify the needs of your
client, they include:
A great place to start with your client is their Sales and Accounts Receivable, which relate to the transactions
relevant to their customers. In this section you’ll get a better idea of their requirements for estimating,
invoicing, and sales tax circumstances.
Does your client need to invoice for their product or service, or is their income generated solely based on
physical sales? Do they provide estimates for projects that come their way?
In this section you will get a better understanding of the client’s expenses. These questions often revolve around
your client’s supplier transactions. Do they offer products for which they need to buy components? For example,
a baker would have to place regular orders for flour, eggs, sugar and other ingredients.
This part of the checklist also covers their payment preferences, outstanding loans, petty cash limits and their
reimbursable expenses, amongst others.
One of the key areas you’ll need to discuss is whether the company is run solely by the owner or whether your
client has employees and therefore has payroll requirements.
How many employees does your client have? Do they offer a retirement plan or any other employee benefits?
How do they track their time?
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Supplemental Guide to QuickBooks Online Certification Module 1: QuickBooks Solutions for Clients
Your new client may also have to track other expenses, such as mileage on a vehicle. They may also want to
keep an eye on their income in order to estimate their future income tax bill.
Does your client hold stock as part of the day to day running of their business? How do they keep track of their
inventory?
If your client has inventory, they may want to include inventory tracking. If this is a requirement, you will be able
to discuss with them how QuickBooks Online and/or third-party apps can help with this.
Industry-specific needs
Every client and every business is different depending on their industry. For example, your client may need
QuickBooks Online with third party apps enabled to track their e-commerce or web-based sales, manage their
logistics, manufacturing, shipping, point of sale, or many other variables such as their personal billable time.
What is their business and what do they feel are their main concerns for the smooth running of that business?
• Reporting needs
This section of the Client Checklist helps you get a clearer picture on how your client prefers to run their reports.
Which reports work best for them? How often do they run and analyze their reports?
If the client has employees, they may wish to add users to their accounts who have Reports only access. We will
cover reports in more detail later in this course.
They may already have an accounting solution and wish to convert their existing account over to QuickBooks
Online.
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Supplemental Guide to QuickBooks Online Certification Module 1: QuickBooks Solutions for Clients
The Features and Solutions tab delves deeper into the subscription solutions that will best suit your client. The
workflows you highlight as needs or requirements in the Needs Assessment tab will be pulled through
automatically and displayed in column A. This enables you to quickly see which subscription level is likely to be
best for your client’s business.
At this stage you may still discover more about your client, use column B to mark down any additional
functionality they may require. It might be that once you start to discuss subscription packages with them that
they reveal more about how they prefer to work. There will likely be aspects they will want to include or discard
at this point.
Use the Onboarding Checklist to gather any final additional requirements from your client. This will enable you
to set up the appropriate QuickBooks Online subscription quickly and accurately.
Use the checklist in partnership with the Client Onboarding template in Work to utilize QuickBooks subtasks
functionality and assign new tasks to your team members.
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Supplemental Guide to QuickBooks Online Certification Module 1: QuickBooks Solutions for Clients
INDUSTRY-SPECIFIC NEEDS
While you need to take the time to understand each client’s specific requirements, there are some common
themes and pain points based on the type of business they run.
Let’s look at five common business types, their pain points and needs, and how QBO can help solve them!
Professional Services
Managing cash flow is essential for these types of businesses because they often incur expenses up front and
before they receive payment from their customers.
Time-tracking and job-costing are also essential to ensure the profitability of professional services companies
because they must spread limited resources, including time, across various jobs.
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Supplemental Guide to QuickBooks Online Certification Module 1: QuickBooks Solutions for Clients
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Supplemental Guide to QuickBooks Online Certification Module 1: QuickBooks Solutions for Clients
Contractor/Field Services
Contractor clients are largely mobile companies who benefit from features like the QuickBooks Mobile app,
receipt capture, and mileage tracking. They need the ability to conduct business out in the field.
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Supplemental Guide to QuickBooks Online Certification Module 1: QuickBooks Solutions for Clients
Managing cash flow is necessary to run any business but it is especially important to retailers and resellers who
must manage sales and inventory on top of being ready at tax time. Managing inventory and avoiding out of
stock situations is critical to the success of retail and e-commerce customers.
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Supplemental Guide to QuickBooks Online Certification Module 1: QuickBooks Solutions for Clients
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Supplemental Guide to QuickBooks Online Certification Module 1: QuickBooks Solutions for Clients
Nonprofit and charitable organizations are often tracking the expenses of various programs and funds.
Donations often have to be tracked in as well as when allocated to various branches of the organization.
QuickBooks Online provides features to make keeping track of donations, pledges, and other funds quick and
simple.
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Supplemental Guide to QuickBooks Online Certification Module 1: QuickBooks Solutions for Clients
MIGRATION
Often, you will have new clients who will want to sign up for QuickBooks Online but have been running their
business for a while.
They, more likely than not, will have accounts in the QuickBooks Desktop program, maybe files in Excel (or
maybe in another accounting package).
2. Import customers, suppliers, charts of accounts, and products and services lists from Excel
Alternatively, there are apps that can help import other lists and transactions.
Detailed steps on how to migrate businesses from QuickBooks Desktop are part of the advanced course that
follows this one, but it’s good to have an overview.
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Supplemental Guide to QuickBooks Online Certification Module 1: QuickBooks Solutions for Clients
It’s exciting getting to know new clients. As a ProAdvisor, you can help them choose the right subscription level
and make sure they are taking advantage of the best deals and offers. Part of the flexibility of QuickBooks Online
is that it offers three different subscription options to clients.
Most of your clients will be new to QBO, some may even be new to their own business. One of the most
common questions they will ask is "Which QuickBooks Online subscription is right for me?"
EASYSTART
EasyStart is great for new businesses just starting out and those with service-based businesses requiring
accounts receivable tracking, sales tax, payroll and basic financial reporting.
Features include:
ESSENTIALS
Essentials is a good choice for service-based businesses that invoice for their time and require both accounts
receivable and accounts payable tracking.
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Supplemental Guide to QuickBooks Online Certification Module 1: QuickBooks Solutions for Clients
PLUS
Plus is ideal for product-based businesses that must track inventory, businesses that have multiple profit centres
or locations, and those with advanced reporting and project tracking needs.
• Budgets
• Inventory tracking
• Project tracking
• Track revenue from multiple profit centres or locations
• 5 users and 2 accountants
Clients have the option to upgrade or downgrade their QBO subscription at any time. Keep in mind that
downgrading a client will cause them to lose features they may be using. It’s always a good idea to
highlight the pros and cons of changing a subscription with your client before they make a move.
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Supplemental Guide to QuickBooks Online Certification Module 1: QuickBooks Solutions for Clients
How do you choose the right subscription and billing options to suit the needs of both you and your clients?
QuickBooks Online is flexible enough to offer the right solution for you and your clients.
This lesson will help you support them in making the right choice. It’ll also help you to impress them when they
see great value in the perfect solution for their business – and how QuickBooks Online can deliver great value
for your practice at the same time.
There are two billing options available to the clients of ProAdvisors who create their client’s QuickBooks Online
account, wholesale billing and direct billing. Let’s look at both options.
WHOLESALE BILLING
With wholesale billing, you (as the client’s ProAdvisor) are billed monthly for the subscription and will have an
itemized view of all your wholesale subscriptions for easy tracking.
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Supplemental Guide to QuickBooks Online Certification Module 1: QuickBooks Solutions for Clients
ProAdvisors who purchase subscriptions on their wholesale billing account are eligible for a 50% wholesale
discount on QuickBooks Essentials or Plus subscriptions. With wholesale billing, you control how the cost is
passed along to your clients.
How you bill your client is up to you. Some ProAdvisors build the cost of their client’s QuickBooks subscription
into their monthly fee, while others separately charge a “software fee” or “subscription fee.”
• Bundling expenses: Add the cost into the services you provide to your clients
• Easy tracking: Receive a monthly itemized bill for your subscription for easy tracking
• Switch anytime: Remove clients from wholesale billing seamlessly or cancel anytime
DIRECT DISCOUNT
Direct discount is applied when you add a subscription through QuickBooks Online Accountant, but you want
your client to pay Intuit directly. The client will be required to enter their credit card information when they sign
into the newly created subscription for the first time. Clients typically get a discount on the pricing for a finite
period and will then pay full price for the life of the subscription.
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Supplemental Guide to QuickBooks Online Certification Module 1: QuickBooks Solutions for Clients
If you completed the Introduction to QuickBooks Online for Accountants course, then you learned that
QuickBooks Online Accountant (QBOA) is the one place where you can manage all of your clients and the work
you do for them, even if they are not using QuickBooks. You are able to organize and view contact information,
assign and track projects, and collaborate with clients and your team. In this lesson, we will look at the ways you
can add a new client to your Client List!
Because Chris is new to QuickBooks Online and has not signed up for it, adding him through QuickBooks Online
Accountant is the way to go for a variety of reasons.
o Ensure he is signed up for the subscription level that best fits his needs
o Take advantage of discounts
o Access his books right away, using your own login credentials, without waiting on an invitation
o Assign team members in your firm access to work on his books. Multiple users can be logged in at the
same time
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Supplemental Guide to QuickBooks Online Certification Module 1: QuickBooks Solutions for Clients
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Supplemental Guide to QuickBooks Online Certification Module 1: QuickBooks Solutions for Clients
7. For this example, let’s assume your firm participates in wholesale billing and includes the QuickBooks
Online subscription as part of their overall service charges to the client. More on the benefits of this
later. (IMPORTANT: Do not complete this step for this exercise or you will be billed for the subscription)
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Supplemental Guide to QuickBooks Online Certification Module 1: QuickBooks Solutions for Clients
13. If you return to your Client Dashboard in QuickBooks Online Accountant, you will see the new company
is ready and waiting!
14. Select the green QB icon next to the client’s name to complete the rest of the wizard.
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Supplemental Guide to QuickBooks Online Certification Module 1: QuickBooks Solutions for Clients
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Supplemental Guide to QuickBooks Online Certification Module 1: QuickBooks Solutions for Clients
The first step is to ask your client to invite you to their QuickBooks Online as an accountant user. They will find
this option by clicking on the My Accountant tab in the left navigation panel or by selecting the Gear icon, then
Manage users, then click on the Accounting firms tab at the top and Invite. They will need the email address you
use for QuickBooks Online Accountant.
Note: Whichever team member accepts the client’s invitation will become the lead for that client. If the team
member’s access is revoked in the future, the lead can be reassigned to someone else.
When your client finishes inviting you, pull up the invitation in your email. The subject line will read: [Company
Name] has invited you to use QuickBooks Accountant.
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Supplemental Guide to QuickBooks Online Certification Module 1: QuickBooks Solutions for Clients
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Supplemental Guide to QuickBooks Online Certification Module 1: QuickBooks Solutions for Clients
Before you take on a new client, it is helpful to review their QuickBooks Online company to estimate the time it
will take to possibly clean up the books and/or complete the ongoing work they want you to do. The Client
Overview tab provides insight into the health of a client's QuickBooks Online company and can help determine
the scope of work and value of the engagement.
The Client Overview tab is found at the top of the left navigation bar just above the dashboard. The Bookkeeping
review screen has collapsible sections for Company Setup, Banking Activity, Common Issues, and Transaction
Volume. Additional tabs will be added in future releases.
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Supplemental Guide to QuickBooks Online Certification Module 1: QuickBooks Solutions for Clients
COMPANY SETUP
Company Setup shows you the subscription level to which the client is subscribed, if they are subscribed to a
Payroll product and whether Sales Tax has been enabled.
You can also see the number and name of apps that have been connected to QuickBooks Online. It is important
to know what apps a new client might be using to fully understand a client’s workflow. You will want to review
this information on a regular basis to determine if new apps have been connected since the last time you
reviewed the client's data.
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Supplemental Guide to QuickBooks Online Certification Module 1: QuickBooks Solutions for Clients
BANKING ACTIVITY
In the Banking Activity section, you can see the bank and register balance of each bank and credit card account
in QBO. You can also see the number of unaccepted and unreconciled transactions along with the date the
accounts have been reconciled using the Reconciliation tool in QuickBooks Online.
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Supplemental Guide to QuickBooks Online Certification Module 1: QuickBooks Solutions for Clients
The Bank Balance reflects the balance at the bank the last time QuickBooks connected to the account through
the bank feed
The In QuickBooks amount reflects the ending balance in the bank register (keep in mind this could include
future-dated transactions)
Select the number of transactions listed in the Unaccepted column to view the transactions in the For Review
tab in the Banking Centre for that account
Select the number of transactions listed in the Unreconciled column to view the register for that account
Tip: If you only want to view the unreconciled transactions in the bank register, use the Filter icon and select Not
reconciled from the reconciled status then select Apply. This will match the amount visible in the Overview.
Select the X icon to clear your filter.
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Supplemental Guide to QuickBooks Online Certification Module 1: QuickBooks Solutions for Clients
COMMON ISSUES
The Common Issues tab is where you will find diagnostic information about the condition of the data in the
QuickBooks Online company.
The Common Issues section has shortcuts to some accounts that QuickBooks has set up automatically, including
the Undeposited funds, Uncategorized asset, Uncategorized income, and Uncategorized expense accounts.
Generally, transactions post to these accounts because no other account is assigned in bank feeds.
If there are any transactions posted to these accounts, you can select the accounts in the Common Issues
section to view a report showing those transactions.
The balance in the Opening balance equity account is displayed on the right-hand side. The balance should
always be at zero. If it is not, click on the account name or balance to open the register and review the
transactions listed there. A balance in the Opening balance equity account is typically due to a user entering an
amount in the Opening balance field when creating an account, customer, supplier or inventory product, or by
incorrectly categorizing transactions to this account.
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Supplemental Guide to QuickBooks Online Certification Module 1: QuickBooks Solutions for Clients
As accounting and bookkeeping professionals, we know that asset accounts should have a debit balance and
liability accounts typically have a credit balance. This section of the Client Overview is looking for any asset or
liability accounts that have the wrong type of balance.
Tip: If you are the accountant user, you can use Reclassify Transactions from the Accountant Toolbox to reclass
the transactions to the appropriate accounts.
TRANSACTION VOLUME
The Transaction Volume tab is where you will find the number of transactions in the client’s QuickBooks
company for a specific period. Transactions are grouped into Bank account transactions, Sales receipts, Invoices,
Invoice payments, Bank deposits, Journal entries, Expenses, Bills, and Bill payments. This tab offers you a better
idea of the client’s workload.
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Supplemental Guide to QuickBooks Online Certification Module 1: QuickBooks Solutions for Clients
QuickBooks Online has many features, but some businesses need just that little bit of extra help to customize it
to suit their needs. That’s where QBO has the flexibility to be just what our clients need it to be with a range of
apps that can integrate with the QuickBooks Online solution.
QuickBooks Online is not just an accounting program—it is a platform with an ecosystem of apps that you and
your clients can assemble to build the perfect solution and functionality that is needed.
And as a business’s trusted advisor you will soon find (if you have not already) that clients will rely on your help
and support in choosing, setting up, and managing the right apps to solve their problems.
The good news: You are now equipped with all the tools you might need—all within the QuickBooks Online
ecosystem.
This can make things super-efficient. For instance, there are several apps that connect a webstore to QuickBooks
Online. The customer enters the sales information as they place their order on your client’s website and makes
their payment via credit card.
Apps read the data the customer entered and pushes the same data to QuickBooks Online, for example, as a
sales receipt. All the client need do is fulfill and ship the order. There is no data entry!
Reduce data entry: Some apps automatically collect and input data, reducing manual entry errors and
eliminating inefficiencies caused when entering data into multiple programs.
Solve industry-specific tasks: Specialized apps solve industry and client-specific pain points such as sales force
management, estimating, and job-costing.
Streamline workflow processes: Apps can offer robust features that optimize common business processes such
as inventory management, shipping, and e-commerce or field-service management.
Expand business insight: Customizable reporting apps offer user-friendly dashboards and graphics that improve
visibility into performance metrics and provide deeper business insights.
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Supplemental Guide to QuickBooks Online Certification Module 1: QuickBooks Solutions for Clients
Security and/or the separation of duties: Some apps will allow the ability to add information to QuickBooks
Online without giving access to sensitive company information.
Quality-assured apps
To be listed in the QuickBooks Online Accountant Apps tab and/or the QuickBooks App Centre at apps.com, the
app must undergo a vigorous vetting process and be approved by Intuit.
Once an app has been approved by Intuit, you can add it to your client’s account, or they can sign up for it
themselves.
APPS.COM
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Supplemental Guide to QuickBooks Online Certification Module 1: QuickBooks Solutions for Clients
You can search for apps by typing keywords into the search box or by browsing through the categories of apps.
When you find an app that interests you, click on its tile to view the app detail page.
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Supplemental Guide to QuickBooks Online Certification Module 1: QuickBooks Solutions for Clients
The app detail page is where you can find important information such as features, pricing, supplier contact
information, and read reviews left by users and other ProAdvisors.
When recommending apps or shopping for an app to use in your own firm, you should use these best practices
to help find the right solution.
Many of the apps have been reviewed by customers and other ProAdvisors, anyone can check these reviews
out. You can also visit the app’s website to read the privacy statement to find out what kind of information they
share with other parties.
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Supplemental Guide to QuickBooks Online Certification Module 1: QuickBooks Solutions for Clients
You may also want to test the app yourself before you recommend it to a client. You can create a trial company
to test the app (because it is not recommended to test an app by connecting it to a live QuickBooks Online
company). Most apps in the App Centre offer a free trial period without the need to give credit card information.
You can also request a demo of the app from the developer or sign up for a webinar to learn about it. Many
developers offer partner programs, incentives, or special discounts for referring your clients. These can be an
additional revenue stream for your firm.
Check if your client will be charged monthly or annually, or do you need to purchase the app on their behalf and
bill your client? Make sure you can answer any questions the client may have regarding billing policies.
Make sure you know what your role in the implementation will be up front. You should also be able to get help
directly from the supplier regarding setting up the app and troubleshooting client questions.
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Supplemental Guide to QuickBooks Online Certification Module 1: QuickBooks Solutions for Clients
Module 1: In Summary
Having completed this module, you have been informed on many tasks including:
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QUICKBOOKS ONLINE CERTIFICATION COURSE
Supplemental Guide
Module 2: Client Onboarding
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Supplemental Guide to QuickBooks Online Certification Training Module 2: Client Onboarding
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
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Supplemental Guide to QuickBooks Online Certification Training Module 2: Client Onboarding
TRAINING AT A GLANCE
Use this as a guide to select specific workflows you want to cover.
• View the Client • Identify the key stages in the client onboarding
1. Onboarding
Onboarding QuickStart workflow
Workflow Template
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Supplemental Guide to QuickBooks Online Certification Training Module 2: Client Onboarding
A key part of being a ProAdvisor is to onboard clients into QuickBooks Online in a way that’s right for them and
their business. Because QuickBooks Online (QBO) is so flexible, it’s a good idea to have a defined workflow for
onboarding clients, from the initial meeting all the way through to finalizing their sales form setup.
Onboarding tasks will be different based on the type of business and specific workflows of the client but there
are some common tasks that you’ll need to carry out for most clients.
The great news is that QuickBooks Online Accountant (QBOA) has built-in tools to help you organize and track
client onboarding tasks, adjust the steps to the needs of your client and even allocate different tasks in the
workflow to other team members.
In this lesson, we’ll look at the key stages of the onboarding process and how you and your firm can benefit from
a well-planned onboarding workflow. We’ll also look at how to add value all the way through the process with
some hints and tips.
ONBOARDING TASKS
There are five steps to a successful client onboarding experience. Following this methodology will help you
ensure you have the information you need to fully understand your client’s individual needs and start the
engagement off on the right track.
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Supplemental Guide to QuickBooks Online Certification Training Module 2: Client Onboarding
Once the contract is signed, providing a detailed onboarding plan, an introduction to the onboarding team, and
agreeing to payment arrangements are key ingredients for success. Getting this right gives the client the
reassurance they may need that they are getting expert advice.
A completed New Client Checklist will provide you with the information you need to recommend the best
QuickBooks Online solution for your client.
The completed Client Profile section will provide the information you need to complete the client’s account
settings for them. You can even request a copy of your client’s logo to surprise your client with a customized
homepage and sales template!
Customization
Whether you’re advising on a custom payroll setup, adding logos, or improving sales form templates, you can
demonstrate your value to clients by helping them to build the best workflows for their unique business.
When setting up lists for businesses new to QuickBooks Online, review their current customer/supplier lists to
determine if you can utilize the current data for import into QBO.
It’s a great idea to help clients help you as their ProAdvisor by training them in best-practice methods.
Training and mentoring also allows you as a ProAdvisor to highlight your value as a subject matter expert (SME),
not only in accounting best practice and requirements, but also in how they should work in QBO to get the best
results.
The sooner they’re confident in recording their day-to-day transactions, the sooner they’ll see the value and
time-saving benefits of QuickBooks Online and their trusted advisor—You!
ProAdvisor Tip: Use the predesigned Client Onboarding checklist in Work tab in your QBO account to
easily keep track of your client onboarding process!
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The steps in the QBOA QuickStart template for onboarding are not just a set of tasks to complete, but a list of
opportunities to add value and develop a great working relationship with your client.
4. Select Create Project to add the client onboarding tasks to your Work tab!
You can add or remove tasks from each client’s onboarding checklist based on their specific needs. You will learn
more about the Work feature in Module 4 of this training!
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The Chart of Accounts is at the heart of your end-to-end accounting lifecycle, the process in which you manage
accounting tasks, prepare financial reports and prepare your client’s books for taxes.
Once the Chart of Accounts and Products and Services have been set up for your client, QBO will do the heavy
lifting of assigning business transactions to the correct accounts. This prepares your client’s books and allows
you to create financial statements with ease.
These transactions are organized thru the Chart of Accounts, which forms the backbone of the accounting
system. QBO automatically creates the Chart of Accounts based on the industry and type of company selected
when creating a new company file. However, it’s important to note that when you create a new company using
your QBOA account, only the default accounts that QuickBooks requires for all companies are created.
Once transactions are coded and processed (posted) using the Chart of Accounts, the results will display in the
company reports.
There are five main account types: Assets, Liabilities, Owner’s Equity, Income and Expenses. Each account
appears on a specific report. Let’s take a look!
Balance Sheet accounts include all Assets, Liabilities, and Equity accounts. The balance of each account is
reported on the Balance Sheet as of a specific date. Think of it as a snapshot of a company’s financial position at
a single moment in time.
Asset accounts include transactions related to things your company owns, like cash, accounts receivable,
inventory, and equipment.
Liability accounts include transactions related to debts your company owes to others, like accounts payable,
credit cards, and loans to banks or others.
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Equity accounts include transactions related to ownership and accumulated profit or loss over the life of the
company, like common stock, owners’ contributions or draws, and retained earnings.
Income and expense accounts are reported on the Profit and Loss report. These accounts are used to categorize
transactions between sales, services, cost of goods sold and expenses incurred by the company. The Profit and
Loss report displays the aggregate total categorized to each account for a specific period, usually a month,
quarter, or year.
In addition to general Income and Expense accounts, the Profit and Loss report breaks the categories down
further in to five additional account types.
Income accounts are used to categorize transactions that record amounts earned by a company from sales of
products and services. This could also be broken in many accounts and sub-accounts like rental income, product
sales, services, or commissions.
Cost of Goods Sold is used to categorize the direct costs incurred to produce or sell a product. This is a special
type of expense account and is displayed separately on the Profit and Loss report.
Expense accounts are used to categorize transactions that record amounts spent by a company to run the
business such as administrative and operating expenses.
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Other Income and Other Expense accounts are used to categorize transactions that aren’t part of the standard
operating activities of the business, like investment income, taxes, and interest.
Proper classification of transactions is vital to producing accurate financial statements and other
reports.
When you set up a Product/Service item on a sales transaction like an invoice or sales receipt, you will map the
amounts to an income account.
When you set up a Product/Service item on a purchase transaction like a receipt or bill, you will map the
amounts to an expense account.
We create Product/Service items so that our clients don’t have to worry about the correct categorization of
transactions. When Product/Service items are properly mapped to the correct income and expense accounts,
QuickBooks automatically records the transaction correctly and reports will be accurate.
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This exercise can be completed in the sample company, Long for Success – Event Planning.
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This exercise can be completed in the sample company, Long for Success – Event Planning
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The Chart of Accounts is at the heart of any QuickBooks Online file and getting things right here when
onboarding a client can save a lot of time later.
It is very easy for a Chart of Accounts to get out of control as clients add unnecessary accounts that they don’t
need or get confused by a default account. Before this happens, it is a great idea to make sure their Chart of
Accounts is efficient and effective for their needs with some appropriate edits.
When you first sign up for a new QuickBooks Online account, your answers to the Startup Interview questions
will help QuickBooks choose a default Chart of Accounts.
You can add value to your client by customizing their Chart of Accounts to match their specific business needs.
Some clients will benefit from a simplified account list, while others will need a more complex list (perhaps with
sub-accounts). The important thing is to make sure each client’s chart of accounts reflects the proper reporting
for the business they are in.
There are several ways to edit a Chart of Accounts in QuickBooks Online. You can change account names, add
numbering, add and merge accounts, and make accounts inactive.
Different clients also have different accounting workflows; they may record financial activity in various ways
depending on the way they conduct business with their customers and suppliers. This should be reflected in the
way their Chart of Accounts is set up. The goal is to make sure that transactions and other data are categorized
to the appropriate accounts so that:
• Essential data is accurate and complete, providing insight into balances and cash flow
• Useful and informative reports can be run to inform important decision-making, such as which jobs are
most profitable and which products are the best sellers
You can modify the Chart of Accounts in QuickBooks the following ways:
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• Making unused or redundant accounts inactive (you cannot permanently delete an account)
ProAdvisor Tip: You can view examples and import sample Charts of Accounts using an industry-
specific Excel template. Find out how to do it here.
Chris Grier is a sole proprietor with no employees. His priority when it comes to data and reporting is customer
profitability.
Like most businesses, Chris needs many of the income and expense accounts automatically created by QBO
when a new company is added. These accounts tell Chris how much he is spending on different types of
products and services in his business. But Chris may not need or want accounts that are not applicable to his
business, or he may need to add new accounts that are specific to his industry or unique to his business.
Chris will be dealing with job-related expenses in his business and will need accounts set up to separate these
direct expenses from the expenses he incurs to simply run his business. For example, notice he has two materials
accounts on his Chart of Accounts: Job Materials Purchases (which is used to categorize reimbursable expenses
used on billable jobs), and Materials and Supplies - Overhead (which is used to categorize items purchased that
are used in the regular course of business and not for any specific client).
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The way these accounts are set up on the Chart of Accounts affects the format of his Profit and Loss report, and
ensures transactions are recorded appropriately for his type of business.
In addition, some numbering systems or layouts are defined by industry, business associations, or government
accounting standards.
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This exercise can be completed in the sample company, Long for Success – Event Planning
Note: Enabling account numbers affects all users in your company. Showing account numbers
only affects the user who is logged in.
6. Select Save
7. Select Done
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Now we can check and assign the account numbers in the Chart of Accounts.
QBO may automatically assign account numbers when you first turn on the account number option. If so, these
default numbers can be changed as needed to align with each firm’s numbering convention.
EDIT AN ACCOUNT
Sometimes clients have trouble identifying which account category to use in transaction. As a ProAdvisor, you
can bring value to your client by editing certain account names to make them more meaningful and easily
identifiable. This helps them avoid errors and posting to the wrong accounts when recording transactions.
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This exercise can be completed in the sample company, Long for Success – Event Planning.
1. From the left navigation, select Accounting and choose Chart of Accounts
2. Find the Uncategorized Expense account in the list
3. From the Action column drop-down menu, select Edit
4. Update the Name field to Ask my ProAdvisor
5. Select Save and Close
Make the Chart of Accounts setup part of your best practices and it could save you a lot of work tidying up their
Chart of Accounts at year end.
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Merging Accounts
Merging accounts is a good idea if two accounts are being used for the same purpose. As mentioned, this is a
more common practice when a client has started using QBO and has added accounts that are duplications of
existing accounts.
Merging accounts in QuickBooks recategorizes transactions from the merged account to the account being
merged into and subsequently makes the merged account inactive. It is important to note that merging an
account is not reversible.
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When setting up a client file it is a good idea to make any accounts inactive (deleted) if they are not going to be
used. This keeps the Chart of Accounts tidy and efficient and prevents the client posting transactions to the
wrong or a redundant account in error.
To make an account inactive, select the down arrow in the Action column in the row for the account and then
select Make inactive.
Inactive (deleted) accounts are hidden from the Chart of Accounts list and other places where you or the client
can choose accounts. If the account contains transactions, they remain as part of the company data. You can
find them through reports (the accounts are listed as “Inactive”).
To reactivate an account that has been made inactive, select the grid gear icon at the top right of the Chart of
Accounts. Then select the box next to Include inactive. This will show the inactive accounts in the Chart of
Accounts.
An inactivated account will appear with the (deleted) next to its name. Click Make active to reactivate the
account.
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Because QBO requires some accounts to carry out essential functions, you cannot delete or merge the
following accounts (or even use them for any other purpose than those defined by QuickBooks Online):
Undeposited Funds: You cannot delete this account because it is required to properly record payments
before they are deposited.
Opening Balance Equity: This account is the default account for adjustments. You can only edit the
name of this account, if necessary.
Retained Earnings: This account is the default account for reporting retained earnings on the Balance
Sheet report. You can change the name of the Retained Earnings account if, for example, you are a non-
profit that prefers to use another name for retained earnings, but in all other cases, the name should
not be changed.
Inventory/Stock Assets and Cost of Goods Sold/Cost of Sales: If you try to edit or delete (make inactive)
these accounts, any edits to Products/Services will recreate them.
Reconcile/Reconciliation Discrepancies: This account is used to report when transactions in QBO don’t
match the transactions reported on your bank statement, and this account cannot be deleted.
Unapplied Cash Payment Income: This account is used to report cash basis income from customer
payments that were received but not applied to a sales form.
(Sales tax agency name, such as GST/HST) Payable: This account is created when you set up sales tax
and reports the sales tax for every transaction. You cannot delete this account.
There are also accounts that CAN be edited by changing the account name, but not deleted or merged:
Services: The Services income account is the default income account in QuickBooks Online. It works the
same as any other income account, but neither it nor the corresponding Product/Service item can be
deleted. However, you can edit the names of both to reflect a main income type.
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Uncategorized Expense and Uncategorized Income: These accounts are created automatically when
entering an opening balance for a supplier or customer and recording any expense or income
transactions that cannot be matched to an account. You cannot delete these accounts.
Uncategorized Asset: This account records any asset that cannot be matched to an account and cannot
be deleted.
Owner’s Equity: This account represents the cash or assets invested in the company and cannot be
deleted.
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The Products and Services List in QuickBooks Online is another excellent feature to help get things organized.
Setting up the Products and Services list, with details of prices, descriptions, taxable status, and purchasing
information may take a few minutes up front but will save loads of time when it comes to entering transactions,
and will provide useful sales data to help make business decisions.
If you can get your clients into good habits early on, it will be easier for everyone in the long run—including you!
Each time an item is used in a transaction, the appropriate entry is made behind the scenes.
In QuickBooks Online, you will have four item types to choose from:
These are products (such as a generator, electrical panel, or air filter) that you purchase and sell for which you
want to track quantities on hand. You must subscribe to QuickBooks Online Plus to use this feature.
Non-inventory
These are products bought and sold where it isn’t necessary to track quantities on hand, such as the wire or nuts
and bolts used in a generator installation.
Service
This includes services that you provide to customers, such as an emergency service call visit or other labour.
Bundle
This is a collection of products and services that you sell together, such as the installation of a generator that
includes both labour and materials.
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The Sales tab in the Account and settings menu, found in the Gear icon, will allow you to enable the fields and
columns on sales forms that make the most sense for your client. Let’s go through each of these settings.
1. Show Product/Service Column on sales forms must be selected to use Product/Service items on
sales forms. Deselecting this setting will limit users to adding only descriptions to each line item of a
sales form and will use the default Product/Service item created by QBO behind the scenes.
2. Show SKU column will add a column to track SKU numbers to sales and purchase forms. (SKU
numbers are most commonly used in retail and other product-based businesses).
3. Turn on price rules enables the Price Rule feature in QBO Plus subscription level. This feature allows
you to create special pricing for different types of customers and products/services.
4. Track quantity and price/rate adds the quantity and rate columns to sales and purchase forms.
5. Track inventory quantity on hand turns on the inventory-tracking feature in QBO Plus subscription
level.
ProAdvisor Tip: You can change the sales settings at any time by selecting the Gear icon at the top
right of any sales or purchase form in QBO. This is a quick way to make changes on the fly!
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This exercise can be completed in the sample company, Long for Success – Event Planning
When importing lists, it is important that the list is created in the right format in Excel. To ensure this, use the
template supplied by QuickBooks Online.
1. Select the Gear icon and then Import data in the Tools column
2. Then select Products and Services
3. Select Download a sample file to get a pre-formatted Excel template
4. Open to view the sample file and take note of the formatting. You can delete the sample data and
replace it with your client’s actual product and service data. For this exercise, do not delete the data.
5. Save the file to your desktop so you can easily find it
6. Select Sales in the left navigation bar, then select the Products and Services tab
7. Select the down arrow next to the New button and select Import
8. Select Browse and find the file on your desktop, click Open, then Next
9. Select Next
10. Review your data, then select Import
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Note that we can remap any product or service to another income account at any time by selecting Edit and
choosing another account. We can also make any other edits, such as changes to the product or service name
here too.
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This exercise can be completed in the sample company, Long for Success – Event Planning
1. Select the Gear icon, then Products and services in the List column
5. Select Celeste Hunter from the down arrow in the Preferred Supplier field
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QuickBooks Online gives you and your clients a great set of tools for managing their customer details. You can
start with the basics, by adding customers individually, or really speed up the process by importing them as a
list.
CUSTOMER DETAILS
When you set up a new customer profile, it’s a good idea to enter as much information as you can. This helps
you fully utilize the power of the QBO database when creating reports and working with your list data. It may
save time upfront to skip fields, but you may regret it later when you realize that your lists are not complete.
In the Customer Information screen, there are seven tabs that allow you to add details about the customer.
The Address tab allows you to have different billing and shipping addresses.
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You can leave notes about the customer in the Notes tab. Notes can be viewed by all users in the QBO account
with access to the customer list.
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The Tax info tab is where you indicated the taxable status of a customer. You can use the Tax Reg. No. to store
details such as a business number or resale permit number.
You can store payment details about a customer in the Payment and billing tab. Here you will find fields for
preferred payment and delivery methods, and default terms.
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If your client is trading internationally, they can select the language to be used on invoices for each customer in
the Language tab.
The Attachments tab is where you can store documents and other files pertaining to the customer. The
maximum file size per attachment is 20 MB.
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This exercise can be completed in the sample company, Long for Success – Event Planning
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If you use the import tool, it makes short work of adding customers. Let’s see how it works.
Just like we saw with the Products and Services list, simply download this sample file then copy and paste the
data you have received from your client (or from another system) into each of the columns. Once you’ve
correctly formatted your Excel data, you’re ready to import the data.
Once the customer list has been imported, you will be able to view and work with them in the Customer tab in
the Sales Centre.
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So, what is a supplier? Suppliers are businesses your client buys from. Payments to suppliers are money-out
transactions. Setting up Suppliers means clients can do two things. Firstly, they can quickly enter supplier bills
and include information such as the remit-to address and the due date. This will then pre-populate this
information on the purchase forms.
Secondly, adding Suppliers will enable clients to keep track of expenses by supplier and run reports that will
provide insight into which suppliers they are spending the most money with, and which items or services are
purchased.
SUPPLIER DETAILS
1. Company
The Company name is the information that will appear on all bills and purchase orders created in QuickBooks.
If the supplier is an individual, or you want the contact person to be listed, you should fill in the first and last
name at the top of the screen.
The Display Name field allows you to choose either the company name or the individual’s name.
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2. Print on Cheque
This field will be automatically populated based on what you selected in the Display name as field. If for some
reason the payee is different from the Display name field, you can remove the check mark and enter the Name
that cheques should be made payable to.
3. Address
Enter the address where payments will be mailed. This is also known as the remit-to address.
6. Opening balance
This field can be used when setting up a new Supplier to record the beginning balance for a new Supplier and
should, in almost all cases, be left blank. When an amount is entered here, QBO will automatically create a
journal entry to increase Accounts Payable and decrease the Opening Balance Equity account. Entering amounts
into this field is typically not recommended because it will not capture any details about the bills that make up
the balance (such as the category or product/service items).
7. Account number
Enter the Supplier’s account number. This is helpful for a utility payment, for example. The account number will
show up on the memo on the cheque.
9. Supplier Type
Using the drop down, select whether the Supplier is an individual, a business or unknown.
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This exercise can be completed in the sample company, Long for Success – Event Planning.
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The Bank Feeds functionality in QuickBooks Online is one of its most dynamic features. It links to online banking
and credit card accounts and feeds the data transactions directly into the Banking Centre, ready to review and
match up to transactions recorded in QBO.
In this lesson, we will look at how to establish a bank feed connection and how to manually upload historical
bank transactions into QuickBooks Online.
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6. Select Connect
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QuickBooks Online connects to the account and by default downloads all the transactions for the last 90 days.
Or you can select a different date to pull transactions from by clicking the drop-down menu.
• QuickBooks (.qbo)
• Quicken (.qfx)
• Microsoft Money (.ofx)
• Excel (.csv)
To begin, we need to have downloaded the banking transactions in one of the four supported file types from the
online banking account.
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Once your data has been imported, you’ll be returned to the Banking Centre where you can begin working with
the downloaded transactions. You’ll learn how to use the Banking Centre later in Module 7.
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Module 2: In Summary
Having completed this module, you have been informed on many tasks including:
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Supplemental Guide
Module 3: Special Client Onboarding Tasks
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LEARNING OBJECTIVES
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TRAINING AT A GLANCE
Use this as a guide to select specific workflows you want to cover.
• Set up simple sales tax • Recognize how to perform a basic sales tax
1. Basic Sales Tax setup
Setup • Review Products and
Services
• Review the customer list
• Set up QuickBooks • Recognize how to optimize a client’s
2. Setting Up
Payments payment settings
Payments
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With both federal and provincial sales tax agencies in Canada, it’s always been tough for clients to keep track of
how much sales tax to collect every time they make a sale. This problem is solved with the sales tax engine that
sits within QuickBooks Online: It makes tax calculations easy.
When onboarding clients who sell products and services, you’ll likely need to set up their sales tax information
for the provinces where they do business.
Once the setup is complete, the magic can happen. Each time they create an invoice or sales receipt, the sales
tax will be automatically calculated based on their setup.
As part of understanding your client’s needs, you should find out what their sales tax requirements are for their
business and province.
• Do they do business in more than one province and are they required to collect and remit in other
provinces?
• Do they have customers with specific tax code requirements?
• What is their filing frequency?
ProAdvisor tip: Sales tax laws and regulations are complex. Make sure you understand the laws in each
province and for each sales tax agency to ensure accuracy and compliance.
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3. QuickBooks Online will display the Province or Territory drop down. Make the appropriate selection.
4. Click Save
5. Choose the Start of the tax period, Filing Frequency and enter the GST/HST number.
6. Click Next
7. Click OK. QBO sets up the appropriate tax rates.
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1. Click Taxes
2. Click Manage Sales Tax
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Open the Product and Services screen by selecting the Gear icon, then Products and services under the list
column. Add sales tax rates to products and services to automate the tracking of sales tax on sales for clients.
NOTE: If you also purchase the product or service you can add the default purchase tax rate as needed.
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1. Open the Customer Centre by selecting the Sales > Customers from the left navigation bar.
2. Select the customer by clicking on its name to open the Client Detail screen
3. Select Edit
4. Select the Tax info tab
5. Check the box Assign default tax code
6. Choose the Default tax code
7. Click Save
NOTE: The customer tax code now overrides all other tax codes when creating transactions in QuickBooks
Online.
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If your Clients add sales tax rates to their products and services, the correct sales taxes will be added to sales
transactions automatically and you will not be required to add additional tax information.
NOTE: Choosing the service item called New Home Rough-in Electrical automatically added the correct sales tax
rate as it was previously linked to HST in the Products and Services list.
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Let’s take a quick tour around its key features in QuickBooks Online.
2. To file
This shows taxes that are currently due for the current period. It displays the current period and the
steps to filing a successful return.
3. Prepare return
When it’s time to file the return and for your clients to pay sales tax, you click Prepare return to give you
the information you need to file the tax return.
Click Reports to view sales tax reports including Taxable Sales Summary, Transactions without sales tax
and Profit and loss.
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QuickBooks Payments is the merchant service solution that powers QuickBooks Online. The payments feature is
built into QuickBooks Online and activating it allows clients to send emailed invoices that let customers pay
online with just a tap on the invoice’s payment button.
This encourages customers to pay when they get the invoice, so clients can be paid quicker. Another great
feature of QuickBooks Payments is that the payments and deposits are automatically recorded which means less
data entry for your client.
There are two ways to process electronic payments using QuickBooks Payments:
• Email invoices to customers that contain a link, allowing them to securely View and Pay Now, a feature
that allows customers to easily pay via credit card with the tap of a button.
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• Type in credit-card or bank account information directly in QuickBooks Online on the Receive Payment
screen or using a Sales Receipt transaction for payments received by phone.
QuickBooks Payments processes credit-card payments directly from the QuickBooks Online Sales Receipt and
Receive Payments upon saving the transaction.
When a customer pays by clicking on the view and pay now button from an emailed invoice, the Receive
Payments transaction, subsequent batched bank-deposit transaction, and even the merchant service-fee
transactions are all automatically recorded in QuickBooks Online by the QuickBooks Payments service.
QuickBooks Payments is unique in allowing the merchant to get paid and recording the accounting too!
Clients will pay a small fee per transaction processed. The merchant service plans include MasterCard, Visa,
Discover and Apple Pay. Once a client has applied for QuickBooks Payments, Intuit will verify their details and if
approved, a merchant account will be created and enabled in the QuickBooks Online account.
The QuickBooks Payments plan has no monthly fee and low rates per transaction.
Funds are generally deposited into the client’s bank account within 2 business days after the payment is
completed. Your first deposits take a bit longer while we set up your merchant account. We deposit funds within
5 business days after your first payment processing.
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This exercise is for illustrative purposes only, do not complete unless you want to set up a QuickBooks Payments
account for real!
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6. There are three sections to complete. Select the start in the Business section
7. Select the Business type from the down arrow
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12. The Personal info section is where you enter details about the owner of the company. Enter the Owner’s
details, including name, address, date of birth, mobile phone number and their Social Insurance Number
(optional).
13. Click Next
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14. Enter the bank transit, institution and account numbers for the account that the payments will be
deposited to and click Save.
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15. Select Activate Payments to submit the application and activate the account.
ProAdvisor Tip: Applying for a QuickBooks Payments account is a legal agreement and should be
completed by the owner of the company rather than the ProAdvisor. Consider helping your client to
complete the application but make sure they click the Activate Payments button to sign the contract!
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Many clients have industry-specific needs or require functionality that captures data specific to the unique way
their business works. Often the best option here is to find and add an app to the client account that will do the
job and save you and them time and money.
So, whether it’s automating data entry so you can spend more time advising your clients, or adding industry-
specific interfaces to allow clients to work with the app and give you the data you need to manage their books,
there’s an app out there that can help.
By configuring apps on your clients’ behalf, you can be sure data is mapped to the right place.
From the Apps tab, you can see and manage all apps connected to your clients to better understand
opportunities across your client base.
In this lesson, we’ll look at the Apps tab in QuickBooks Online Accountant (QBOA), and how to select and add
apps for your firm and for clients.
Let’s look at who can add apps to both the firm’s books and clients’ QuickBooks Online.
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ProAdvisor Tip: If you are unable to see the Client apps tab at all, make sure that you are signed in as
the Firm Master Admin or a Full Access Team user.
You can also select the tabs at the top to see any apps your firm or clients have.
Find Apps
The Find apps tab is where you can browse through different categories of apps that are available for clients,
and for your firm. You learned how to search for apps in Module 1 of this course.
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Client Apps
Select the Client Apps tab to see a list of all the apps that your clients are connected to. You can easily search
and filter the list.
Firm Apps
The Firm Apps tab lists of all the apps your firm is connected to. Select Actions to launch the app or to change
settings, rate the app itself or even disconnect it.
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Start by selecting Apps from the left navigation of your QuickBooks Online Accountant homepage. You will see a
list of highlighted apps displayed, but you can search for a specific app or browse through different categories to
find just the right one.
Let’s select one and see how we can check it out to see if it’s right for our client.
Overview
You will start here on the Overview tab of any app you select. The Overview gives you key information about the
app and its benefits. There are usually screenshots and videos to show how it works so you can get a feel for it.
The App information section contains information about the developer and how to contact them for help and
support.
Before buying an app it is important to check the terms and conditions. You also need to check the privacy
policy. This is important because it specifies how your information and data is handled or shared.
Pricing
Here, you will see the pricing offers available for the app. Often there can be discounts for multiple users or for
company-wide subscriptions. Some of our most trusted partners also offer ProAdvisor discounts when the firm
is billed for client apps.
Reviews
Here, you will see a ratings snapshot (just like you’ll see on many other retail sites) and reviews from people and
ProAdvisors who’ve used the app.
Checking out feedback from other QuickBooks Online users is a great way to see if an app really does live up to
the hype. Reviews will often identify any current bugs or tell you how much time can be saved by using the app
for real.
FAQs
You can check out FAQs for answers to the most common questions.
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You get options to install the app for your firm or a specific client (which you can select from the drop-down list).
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Many clients considering or new to QuickBooks Online will need options set up for them beyond what we have
looked at already, such as payroll or additional lists requirements.
In this lesson, you’ll learn about the different payroll options in QuickBooks Online and how to set up and
manage additional lists.
QUICKBOOKS PAYROLL
QuickBooks Payroll is the do-it-yourself option for you and your clients. It handles day-to-day payroll tasks such
as running payroll cheques, direct deposit, calculating payroll deductions, and preparing tax payments and
returns. Some clients will be confident enough to take this on themselves. Others may be happy to input
employee working hours but want some help processing regular payroll runs and may prefer a ProAdvisor to
take responsibility for employee setup, remitting taxes, and filing forms.
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There are several other lists that can be set up as required, depending on your client’s needs.
To view the other lists that are available, go to the Gear icon and All Lists. Here are some you might find useful.
Payment methods
The Payment methods list allows you to categorize payments you receive from customers and payments you
make to suppliers. When you select a payment method on a customer payment or sales receipt, the payment
method will print on the deposit. You can also filter some reports by payment method.
Some examples of payment methods are Cash, Cheque, Credit Card, and EFT. Also, you may want to have
payment methods for each type of credit card accepted.
Terms
Terms define the payment agreement you establish with your customers or suppliers. Terms can be set up to
automatically calculate the due dates for invoices and bills created in QuickBooks Online. They can also specify
discounts for early payment.
Attachments
The Attachments screen displays a list of all attachments uploaded to the QuickBooks Online account. From
here, you can add, edit, download, and export your attachments. You can also see all transactions linked to a
particular attachment.
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CUSTOMIZE AN INVOICE
Let’s learn how you can customize invoices for your clients.
4. If a logo has been added in the QBO company’s Account and settings menu, you can click Make
logo edits, otherwise select Add a logo.
Selecting the different size and placement options will allow you to change the size and
placement of the image.
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5. You can also use Splash on some colour and click Get choosy with your font to change the
highlighting and text to match the logo or brand color
6. Click the Content tab at the top of the screen. Click the Pencil icon to edit the content that
appears on an invoice if a customer requires a more detailed breakdown of pricing or costs or
taxes
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Tip: Uncheck the PDF Attached box if you are using QuickBooks Payments. This will force customers to
click the View and pay button in email and they will be able to save a PDF copy from their browser.
3. You can modify the Subject, Greeting, and Message to customer to customize the
emails that are sent to customers with the invoice. You can also customize reminder
emails.
• Optional: Click the Payments tab to choose the default QuickBooks payments
options so that credit card payments can be made directly from the invoice. You
can also edit these settings from the invoice screen.
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QuickBooks Online has the flexibility to tailor access to your clients’ QBO company to meet their specific needs.
A lot of valuable client time can be saved if employees enter their own time data or can run reports, but in most
cases, your clients will not want to give employees access to sensitive financial payroll information.
Fortunately, QBO allows you to customize users to limit their access to only the areas they need to do their job.
There are four types of users in QuickBooks Online, each with different levels of access.
Standard user
You can set the access levels for the selected areas of QBO the user has access to.
Company administrator
This gives access to all areas of QBO, including settings and full access rights to all other services the QuickBooks
Online company subscribes to (such as Payroll and QuickBooks Payments).
Reports only
Users sign into a special version of QBO that gives them access to almost all reports, except Payroll and list
reports that include contact information (Available in Plus subscription only).
Time-Tracking only
This enables users to sign into a special version of QBO that only has timesheets. This is where users fill out and
change their own timesheets but do not have access to other users’ timesheets. (Available in Essentials and Plus
subscriptions only)
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3. From the Users tab, select Add User. A pop-up window will appear with radio buttons to select.
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6. Select the Limited radio button and check the Customer box to give this user access to invoicing
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7. Select Next
8. This next screen asks questions about managing users, company info, and subscriptions. We don’t need
to change these, so just select Next.
10. Select Save and you’ll see the entry in the Manage Users screen.
The new user access access will show as pending. The user will get a notification email with a link and will need
to create an account and sign in to access QuickBooks Online.
You can also edit, delete, and view activity for existing users in the Manage users screen. Just select the down
arrow in the Action column to view your options and make changes.
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To create a user without payroll access, add a Standard user the same way you normally would but uncheck the
box Payroll access.
A user without access to payroll will see QBO slightly differently from those with full access. There will be
restrictions on what they can see but they will still have access to all the areas of QuickBooks that they need in
order to fulfill their role.
Let’s look at what a non-payroll user sees when they are signed in.
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Transaction reports may also include payroll entries. If an employee without payroll access needs to run a
transaction report that includes payroll entries, these will still appear, but the names of the employees will be
masked with the word Payroll.
Employee payroll information appears on information produced in the banking register too.
Some employees with non-payroll access require access to the Chart of Accounts, so here (as with the
transactional reports, where payroll entries appear) the banking register will also mask the employee’s name.
Names will be replaced by the word Payroll.
A reports-only user has access only to the Reports Centre in QBO. This feature is only available in QuickBooks
Online Plus.
What features are missing for a Reports-only user? There is no left navigation bar in the Reports only view, the
Search icon has been removed, and the collapsible left navigation icon is missing. All other functionality of the
Reports Centre is available, including reports categories and Favourites.
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Module 3: In Summary
Having completed this module, you have been informed on many tasks including:
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Supplemental Guide
Module 4: QuickBooks Solutions for Clients
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TRAINING AT A GLANCE
Use this as a guide to select specific workflows you want to cover.
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A ProAdvisor’s life is ruled by deadlines. Efficiency is lost when you must switch between different solutions and
packages to manage the tax, accounting and payroll needs of your clients. Intuit has listened to accountants and
bookkeepers and the one thing you told them that would make your lives easier was if you could do everything
in one place. The result is QuickBooks Online Accountant.
In this module, you’ll learn how to use QuickBooks Online Accountant (QBOA) to manage your clients, practice
and work with complete peace of mind.
1. Add Client
When your firm onboards a new client, it is easy to add them to QBOA.
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Banking
2. Workpapers
Select Review Data to open the workpapers tool. You'll be able to quickly review balances and make year-
end adjustments to your clients' books. You can also map the accounts in QBO to the tax form lines and
export balances to prepare for year-end taxes.
3. Lead
This column displays the Master Admin or “lead” on the client file.
4. Actions
The ACTIONS column allows you to edit the client’s details, start Workpapers or make clients inactive.
CLIENT DETAILS
Open the Client Details screen for any client by clicking on their name in the Client List.
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The Client Details page screen displays important information about your client in one convenient dashboard.
There are four tabs across the top of the screen; Notes, Bookkeeping, Shared documents, and Tax. Selecting
each one will display different information and resources about your client.
Notes
The new Notes tab lets you easily capture notes created by your Team. You can see who created it and when.
Here’s how it works:
The notes you’ll capture are automatically stamped with time and original author. The notes can be viewed and
edited by all team members who have access to that client. Your client will never see notes added here, it’s just
for you and your team.
Pinned notes
You can also pin a note that is important, so it isn’t missed by team members. The Pins will always be
listed on the right side of the Notes page.
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ProAdvisor Tip: Links with a URL can be captured and recognized in the notes. You and your team can
navigate to the URL address with a click of a button!
Bookkeeping
You can view the closing date and QBO subscription level in the Bookkeeping tab. You can also check the
Account Watchlist, which shows the current balances in the asset and liability accounts of the company,
including key accounts such as chequing and credit cards, and when these accounts were last reconciled.
Payroll
If your client has QuickBooks Online Payroll, the Payroll tab shows the next pay date, the last pay date and a
summary of recent tax payments and form filings.
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It even links right into Payroll, so you can start the next Payroll run directly from within QBOA.
Shared documents
Any documents you or your client upload to their QBO My Accountant tab are stored here. You can upload and
download documents securely and they can be viewed by any Team member with access permissions to the
client.
You will learn more about Client requests and sharing documents later in this module.
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Edit client
Here, you can view or edit your client’s contact information, see details of their subscription and check which
members of your firm have access to the client.
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Managing clients’ subscriptions and billing is a key part of running a successful practice. So, it shouldn’t be a
time-consuming task. To make the process quick and easy to navigate, the Your Account page allows you to view
your clients’ subscription fees and billing history in one place. You can also make quick changes to subscriptions
from a central dashboard.
The client’s Usage Dashboard also makes it easy to check if they are using the version of QuickBooks that has all
the tools they need to get deeper insights, save time, and be more productive.
The tabs at the top of the page allow you to easily access and update your subscription, billing and personal
information.
Over the next few years, Intuit will be moving all offerings in the QBO ecosystem to a single, global billing
platform. A unified billing system will enable a single bill for QuickBooks Online, Payroll, Payments and
QuickBooks Time.
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Your Subscriptions
You can see all your firms’ wholesale clients listed, along with their subscriptions, price, and status. The Actions
menu gives you the option to change their subscription level or transfer billing back to the client.
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Billing Details
The Billing Details page provides a high-level snapshot of your QBO and QBO Payroll subscription charges, and a
monthly breakdown of your QuickBooks Online charges.
You will see your total number of subscriptions and amount due for the month for both QBO and Payroll. You
can review your previous monthly charges in the history section, including payment method and amount.
Use View PDF or Export CSV to see an itemized invoice. This allows you to review your monthly charges in detail.
To update your payment information at any time, simply select Edit Billing Information.
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Itemized invoices allow you to easily understand your monthly subscription charges and how they flow into each
client relationship. You can get a snapshot of your total subscriptions for each QuickBooks Online product,
including those bought with a package.
Unit price, taxation, and total billed for your subscriptions is also visible, as are any subscriptions purchased on a
package discount.
To save you calculating bills by hand, charges are listed by client (including taxation) in the Billing by Client
section.
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The Chat option is available for customers with attached QBO Payroll or QuickBooks Payments subscriptions,
giving them the option to speak to someone before they make a final decision. An updated Customer Support
number gives customers with QBO Payroll or QuickBooks Payments direct access to a specialized help team, so
they no longer need to call the main helpline.
There are possible stoppers when you downgrade a subscription, they include:
Recurring transactions or templates – Check if you have recurring transactions or templates. If you are
downgrading from Plus to Essentials, you need to pause any recurring transactions first. Please note that
pausing these transactions will stop any future recurring transactions.
The number of users – You may need to delete some users (except Accountant users) depending on the plan
you will be downgrading to.
Inventory – Inventory items cannot be active if you are downgrading to a plan that doesn't support inventory
tracking. In addition, downgrading may also zero out your inventory quantity.
Third-party apps – Some third-party apps may no longer work with your new plan. This will happen if your new
plan doesn't support the feature your app relies on to work. You can still use your app directly on its website.
But you'll need to manually re-enter transactions from the app since it will no longer sync with QBO.
Downgrading also means leaving some features your current QBO plan supports. You will receive notification
during the process about which features will not be supported after you downgrade. Some clients may not be
eligible to use the self-service option. If you don't see the option to downgrade, you should reach out to
support.
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1. Select the Gear icon, then Subscriptions and Billing under Your Company
4. Click Continue.
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5. Click Continue.
6. Click Done.
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QBOA has functionality that allows you to invite, deactivate, and control permissions for team users. This gives
you peace of mind that team members can only access the accounts they need to do their jobs.
Depending on the way your practice works, you may need to give team members access to multiple client
accounts.
Team users in QBOA are staff members of the accounting/bookkeeping firm that oversees the client files and
the QuickBooks Online accounts. They could alternatively be bookkeepers or tax preparers not in the practice,
but still need access to the client account.
Team users will get access to client accounts but, in most cases, clients won’t see the individual staff names. All
the client is aware of is that they are working with team members of your practice.
Let’s have a look at the different levels of access that can be set.
Full access
Full access allows the user to edit your QBOA firm information, modify team users, update the firm’s wholesale
subscription billing account, and access the firm’s books.
Basic access
Basic access gives the user view-only access to QBOA firm information, but no access to manage your team, firm
subscription billing, or the firm’s books.
Custom access
This option allows you select a different mix of permissions for the team user.
If you add a member of your team to the client’s QuickBooks Online file, they will have the same permissions as a
company administrator. Team users cannot have custom access that limits what they see in the client file, including
payroll.
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4. Select Next
5. You can set custom access to your firm’s admin and own accounts here. Note the guide to the different
levels of access on the right.
6. Select Next
7. Select the checkboxes next to the clients that the team member needs access to and deselect others.
8. Select Save.
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The new permissions in QuickBooks Online accountant now allows you to give team members access to create
client invoices or manage bills for your firm, without having access to client data.
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FIRM FUNCTIONALITY
By setting up Team Users, the QuickBooks Online Audit Log will track the team’s activities. Internally, you will be
able to see the individual team member’s activities. From the client’s view, they will only see the firm’s name on
the Audit log.
The main point of client contact is called the Lead Accountant. The Lead Accountant is the email address used by
the client during the “Invite an Accountant User” process. It is recommended that firm email address is used for
all invitations and not an individual Team User’s email address.
The Lead Accountant can be assigned when creating a new QBO data file.
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The Lead Accountant can be changed from the Team User section. When you revoke the access of the Team
User that is the Lead and click on Save, you will be prompted to assign a new lead.
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Busy bookkeeping and accounting teams have many deadlines they must meet and missing a deadline can have
serious consequences, such as a fine or even losing a client. ProAdvisors need a way to keep track of each
engagement, so nothing falls through the cracks. That’s where the Work feature in QBOA can help.
o Create projects and tasks right from your Work dashboard for all clients, even if they don’t use QBO.
o Add projects and tasks to track work for your firm
o Assign projects or specific tasks to you or your team members
o Set up repeating projects for the same client that will occur on a regular basis
o Duplicate existing projects across multiple clients to save time on manual entry
o Create workflow templates from scratch or by using the pre-built Quickstart templates
QuickBooks Online Accountant lets you organize your team and your clients in one central location.
Work provides a bird’s-eye view of what’s coming up for your firm, organized by due date. Visualizing your work
in this way means you can quickly see what’s due today, next week or next month. This will help you focus your
attention, manage your time and better understand your firm’s capacity.
You can filter the dashboard to display work by client or firm, or filter to show work assigned to a single team
member.
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If you have standard processes for different types of engagements, you can create templates, set projects to
recur on a schedule, and duplicate existing projects across multiple clients. This can save you loads of time when
setting up new projects for your firm.
ProAdvisor Tip: You can choose how your Projects and Tasks are displayed in the Work tab by selecting
one of three icons at the top right of the screen. You can choose from Kanban (displayed), list view, or
calendar view. See illustration below.
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3. Type a meaningful name in the Project name field. This name will be displayed in the Work screen.
4. Select your Firm or client name from down arrow
5. Add a Due date
6. Select the Repeat button to turn it on
7. Select a period that the project Repeats from the down arrow. You can select weekly, bi-weekly,
monthly, quarterly, or yearly
8. Select the month and day the project should repeat from the down arrows
9. Select the date when the project Ends from the down arrow (notice the Upcoming dates will
automatically appear)
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10. Select the team member the project is Assigned to from the down arrow
11. Type any Details about the project in the box provided
12. Select Add a task, this will open the task section of the Project screen
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13. Type a meaningful name in the Task name box. (This name will be visible in the Work dashboard)
14. Select a Due date, keep in mind that the task due date can not be later than the project due date
15. Select the team member the task is Assigned to. This can be a different team member that the one used
above in the Project section.
16. Type the Details for the task in the box provided.
17. Select Add a task and complete each field until you have added all required tasks for the project.
18. Select Save. The new project and task will now appear in the Work tab.
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PROJECT TEMPLATES
As you saw in the last section, it’s straightforward to create projects and add tasks, but it can be time-
consuming, especially if it’s a process with lots of tasks. That’s why QBOA includes a series of QuickStart project
templates that include some of the common tasks a firm might need.
In addition, you can create custom templates to map out projects and tasks that are specific to your firm.
Quickstart Templates
Use QBOA’s standard templates if you’re mapping out a common series of tasks or use it as a starting point.
You can still adjust tasks, due dates, and assignees when you create a project from a QuickStart template or, if
you prefer, duplicate it and edit, add to it or remove tasks to create a more customized project without having
to start from scratch.
To access project templates, select Manage templates from the top of the Work dashboard.
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o Bookkeeping
o Year-end
o Client Onboarding
o Payroll
Custom Templates
Custom templates allow you to build workflows specific to your firm or clients’ needs. They can be created from
a QuickStart template or project, or from scratch. Once the template is created, your team then has a consistent
workflow to apply every time.
For example, a common workflow for an accounting firm is to manage their monthly client billing. You could
save time by creating a custom project template with tasks to:
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You can also create custom templates by duplicating Quickstart or other custom templates already in use by
your firm. To duplicate a template, select Duplicate from the down arrow in the ACTIONS column.
Once the project has been duplicated, you can edit the details to tailor it to your specific needs. When you’re
done, select Save template to save it.
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The new template will now be listed in the Custom templates section of the Templates screen.
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Start by selecting Work in the left navigation panel, then select Manage templates.
1. Select Create project in the ACTIONS column next to the template you want to use.
2. Select your Firm or client from the down arrow
3. Enter the First due date for the project (if it is set to repeat)
4. Select the team member the project is Assigned to.
5. Add, edit or delete task to customize the project.
6. Select Save
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The Client Requests feature allows you to message and share documents with clients securely, right from your
Work dashboard.
2. Type a Request name into the box. An example could be Bank Statement
3. Select the Client from the down arrow
4. Select a Due date
5. Leave the Status field as To do
6. Type the Details of the request into the box, be as specific as possible so your client knows exactly what
to do.
7. Attach Documents to the request if you need them to complete a form or want to provide a checklist or
other documents for them by selecting + Add document.
8. Check the Notify client box to automatically send an email with the request details
9. Select Publish to client’s QuickBooks (this will launch a new window where you can customize the
request email to the client if the Notify client box was checked).
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Selecting the Allow replies button will allow your client to respond to the email. If you leave this button off, your
client will be required to respond to the request using the My Accountant tab inside their QuickBooks Online
account.
Documents uploaded to the My Accountant tab can be found in the Client Detail page for that client under the
Shared documents tab.
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Module 4: In Summary
Having completed this module, you have been informed on many tasks including:
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Supplemental Guide
Module 5: Supporting Your Small Business Clients
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LEARNING OBJECTIVES
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TRAINING AT A GLANCE
Use this as a guide to select specific workflows you want to cover.
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QuickBooks Online (QBO) is designed around workflows that help manage transactions throughout the
accounting cycle. Coaching your clients in best practice workflows from day one sets them up for success, saving
your firm time and effort when it comes to reconciling the books, producing financial statements, and preparing
for taxes.
CUSTOMER WORKFLOWS
QuickBooks Online offers all the features your clients need to support their unique customer workflows, from
simple service-based businesses to retail sales companies to general contractors and construction.
Generally, there are two types of customer workflows, depending on when your client gets paid by their
customer. Payment at time of sale and payment on account. Let’s take a closer look.
The workflow for clients who receive payment from their customers at the time of sale involves recording two
transactions in QBO: A Sales Receipt and a Deposit.
A sales receipt transaction records both the revenue from the sale and the payment for the goods or services in
a single transaction. The accounts used in a payment at time of sale transaction are an income account and a
cash or Undeposited Funds account. You will learn more about Undeposited funds in the next lesson.
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The second transaction in the workflow is the deposit to move the money from the Undeposited Funds account
into the bank account.
Payment on Account
Many clients will transact sales on account, meaning that they sell the product or service to a customer now
with an agreement that the customer will pay within a certain amount of time or according to the terms of the
sale. In this case, a client will record three transactions to complete the sales cycle; an invoice, a customer
receive payment, and a deposit. The accounts used in a payment on account workflow include an income
account, Accounts Receivable (A/R), and cash or Undeposited Funds.
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Many clients choose QuickBooks Online for its ability to easily keep track of customer balances (Accounts
Receivable).
Let’s look at the three transactions needed to complete a payment on account workflow.
When you record an invoice, the income account and Accounts Receivable are both increased, recording the
sale and the amount now owed by the customer.
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When the payment is received by the customer, a Receive Payment transaction is recorded to reduce the
customer’s balance in Accounts Receivable and mark the invoice as paid.
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The final step in the workflow is to record the Deposit transaction to group payments from multiple customers
into a single deposit.
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SUPPLIER WORKFLOWS
Remember by coaching clients in best practice workflows from day one, you are setting them up for success.
You are also saving yourself time and effort when it comes to reconciling the books, producing financial
statements, and preparing for taxes. You also bring value to your clients by recommending the correct and most
efficient workflow for their business.
There are three options to record a supplier payment at time of purchase in QuickBooks Online and it is
important to understand the differences between them so that you can recommend the best workflow for your
client.
In all three options, the general ledger entry behind the transaction increases an expense (or other type
account). However, the offsetting credit used for each transaction depends on the method of payment.
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Expense
An Expense transaction is used when the purchase is made using cash or a debit or credit card account. If an
Expense is paid using cash or a debit card, the offsetting credit for the transaction will be to a cash or bank
account. You select the bank or credit card account used to pay for the purchase using the down arrow at the
top of the screen.
If an Expense is paid using a credit card, the offsetting credit for the transaction will be to a credit card liability
account.
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Cheque
A Cheque transaction is only used to record handwritten or printed cheques drawn from a bank chequing
account. Therefore, the offsetting credit for all Cheque transactions must be to a bank account and you are only
able to select a bank account from the down arrow at the top of the screen.
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Bank Feed
The third option to record payment at time of purchase transactions is to use the Bank Feed in QuickBooks
Online.
When you record a new purchase transaction from the Bank Feed, it is an Expense transaction by default. The
offsetting credit is automatically selected depending on which account has imported the transaction from the
bank.
For example, if you add a new Expense transaction imported from your credit card account, that account will
automatically be selected when you add the transaction. You will learn all about the Banking Centre and using
bank feeds to record transactions in Module 6 of this course.
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Just as the payment on account customer workflow uses Accounts Receivable, the payment on account
workflow for suppliers uses the Accounts Payable account. This feature allows clients to keep track of the money
they owe to others and create reports. The principle is the same, a purchase is made using negotiated terms
with the supplier and the payment is made later. There are two transactions recorded using this workflow, a Bill
and a Bill Payment.
The first step is to record the Bill, this increases the expense (or other type of account) and increases the
Accounts Payable account for the Supplier.
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The next step is to record the Bill Payment to pay the bill. This will reduce the supplier balance in Accounts
Payable and either reduce the bank balance or increase the credit card balance, just like an Expense transaction!
One benefit of the pay bills later workflow is that you can pay bills individually, or many bills at once, and then
print all cheques at a later date.
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The Undeposited Funds account is a special account created automatically by QuickBooks Online. It is used as a
clearing account to group multiple payments received from customers into a single deposit transaction in the
bank register. This important account ensures that the deposit activity in the bank account in QuickBooks Online
matches the activity reported on the bank statement issued by your financial institution.
Teaching your clients to use Undeposited Funds as the default Deposit to account on customer Receive Payment
and Sales Receipt transactions is an important part of instilling proper workflow habits and preventing errors.
Think of Undeposited Funds as an envelope where you store all the cash and cheque payments you receive
throughout the day in your business. At the end of the day, you remove the cheques and cash from the
envelope and prepare a bank deposit slip to deposit them into your bank account.
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This exercise can be completed in the sample company, Long for Success – Event Planning.
NOTE: Keep the Sample Company open while completing the exercises in this module. Once you close it, all data
will reset.
1. Navigate to the Sales Centre by Selecting Sales, then All Sales from the Left Navigation bar
2. Select the Invoices section, and then select Receive payment from the ACTION column next to Invoice
No. 1008 for Benjamin Yeung
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Let’s review the general ledger entries behind these two transactions to see the effect on the Undeposited
Funds account. Notice that the Payment transaction debits the Undeposited Funds account, whereas the
Deposit transaction credits it.
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QuickBooks Online has many features that can help you, and your clients, complete everyday business tasks.
Combining the features in QuickBooks Online with good workflow habits can save time and make things efficient
for small businesses and their accountants!
You have already learned how to use many of the basic transactions during Introduction to QuickBooks Online
for Accountants, but it’s important to encourage clients to use these same workflows, or, to put it more simply,
to do things in the right order and in the right place in QuickBooks Online.
When you coach clients to get into good habits from the start, it will save time, avoid confusion, and help keep
the books nice and clean.
In this lesson we will look at some common issues that can arise when clients do not practice proper workflow
habits - and the QuickBooks Online tools you can use to detect them.
Clients sometimes see the same information from a different angle than an accountant. They may use different
terminology, such as referring to a supplier bill as an invoice, or not fully understanding how different
transactions relate to each other as we saw with Undeposited Funds in the last lesson.
When clients do not follow the appropriate accounting workflows, then things get out of sync. This in turn
reflects incorrect key financial data on reports, and many times numbers do not add up when you try to
reconcile accounts.
The way data is recorded in QuickBooks Online affects the usefulness of reports
You may need to unravel a problem and show them the best way to get something done. Let’s look at a few
examples of how workflows can go wrong and see if we can find a solution.
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A client is still getting used to their new workflows in QuickBooks Online and so far, they are loving it.
They have been struggling, however, to understand the Accounts Payable workflow.
Upon reviewing their last Profit and Loss statement, they noticed that their materials expenses seemed rather
high.
After doing a bit of digging, you find that your client has been entering Bills into QuickBooks Online just as you
showed them. But instead of using the Pay Bills window, They have been using the Cheque window to record
the cheques written to pay the bills; this could be ok, provided you "add" the bill to the cheque from the right-
hand drawer to apply it to the cheque, which creates the bill payment.
The problem
The result of using the Cheque screen rather than Pay Bills has the following effect on their QuickBooks Online
data:
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• Expenses are overstated (duplicated with both Bill and Cheque Expense posted)
Reinforce the importance of using proper workflow steps consistently. Following up and coaching your client
until they get used to the new workflow is important to keeping things smooth and reports accurate in
QuickBooks Online.
It’s sometimes easier for clients to understand how things are recorded in QuickBooks Online by coaching them
on how to view and work in the different Centres in the left navigation.
The Sales Centre is their hub for viewing and recording their invoices and income from their Customers.
Remember, the Sales Centre may also be termed the Invoicing Centre, depending on the company file set up, so
be sure to use the same terms as in their QBO file. The Expenses Centre is for recording incoming bills for
products and services and their payments to Suppliers. For many small businesses this will be all they need to
know when they start out.
Keep it simple
Help clients to understand just what they need to do and design workflows to match the complexity of their
business, no more and no less! It can be easy to over complicate things and overload clients with information
that they might never need.
You can add value to your client relationships by touching base with them regularly and identifying new
QuickBooks Online workflows that they might need to be taught. How they want to view information in reports,
will help you help them set up and use QBO properly.
Understanding their business and encouraging them to use best practice workflows but remember to remind
them that, as their ProAdvisor, you’re their go-to expert in QuickBooks Online and there to help their business
thrive via the benefits that QuickBooks Online can deliver.
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A single training session is rarely enough to teach a client new to QuickBooks Online everything they need to
know about proper workflow and instilling good habits. Make sure you check back frequently with your client to
see if they need additional support or have questions.
The Transaction Journal can be on each transaction in QuickBooks Online. Just select More at the bottom of the
screen, then Transaction journal.
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The Audit Log is a tool that captures all the activity that occurs in the QuickBooks Online company file. Whether
it’s a client logging in or out, adding or editing a customer, or deleting a transaction, the Audit Log captures it all,
including who made the change, what data was added or changed and the entire history of the transaction.
You access the Audit Log from the Gear icon or individually from the More menu in each transaction form.
The Voided/Deleted Transaction Tool is a filtered view of the Audit Log that only shows transactions that have
been voided or deleted. It is only available to Accountant users via the Accountant Toolbox.
Use the Audit Log and Voided/Deleted Transaction Tool to monitor changes to your clients’ data to detect
errors, inconsistencies, or even fraud.
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In this lesson, we will explore Estimates and Purchase Orders in QuickBooks Online and how they can be used to
build out more extensive customer and supplier workflows. Many businesses use Estimates and Purchase orders
to keep track of bids they send to their customers and purchase requests sent to their suppliers.
Estimates and Purchase Orders are both non-posting transactions, meaning that they are not recorded to the
general ledger nor are they included on the financial reports of a company.
In the sales workflow, Estimates are used as an offer to a customer, indicating how much a defined set of
products and/or services will cost. The details from an Estimate can be copied to an Invoice or to a Purchase
Order.
In a purchase workflow, a Purchase Order acts as a formal request to purchase products or services from a
supplier. The details from a Purchase Order can be copied to an Expense, Cheque, or Bill transaction.
The image below shows the relationship between Estimates and Purchase Orders and other transactions in
QuickBooks Online.
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ProAdvisor Tip: QuickBooks Online allows you to create multiple invoices from a single Estimate and
multiple purchase transactions from a single Purchase Order. You can learn more about progress
invoicing in the QuickBooks Online Advanced Certification training.
CREATE AN ESTIMATE
This exercise can be completed in the sample company, Long for Success – Event Planning.
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Good news, the customer has accepted our estimate! Change the status of the Estimate to Accepted.
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You can assign three custom fields and type a message to be displayed on all Purchase Orders, such as shipping
or billing instructions, in the Default message on purchase orders field.
This exercise can be completed in the sample company, Long for Success – Event Planning.
Make sure Purchase Orders have been enabled in the Account and Settings.
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This exercise can be completed in the sample company, Long for Success – Event Planning.
1. Select + New from the Left Navigation, then Expense in the Supplier column.
2. Select Catering Unlimited from the Payee down arrow. (If QBO auto fills amounts in the category
details, select the trash can on the right to delete it)
3. Select Mastercard from the Payment account and Payment method down arrows.
4. Notice a drawer has opened on the right-hand side of the Expense screen that displays the Purchase
Order you created in the last exercise. Select Add to move it onto the form.
5. Select Save and close.
ProAdvisor Tip: You can add a Purchase Order to a Bill, Cheque, or Expense transaction. The Purchase
Order status is automatically changed to closed when all items have been added to a purchase form.
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This exercise can be completed in the sample company, Long for Success – Event Planning.
1. Select Sales from the Left Navigation bar, then All Sales
2. Select the light blue Estimate panel from the Money Bar to filter the list below.
3. Select Create invoice in the ACTION column (This will open the Invoice screen which will already be
filled out with the details from the Estimate)
4. Select Save
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Credit memos in QuickBooks Online allow you to allocate a credit to a customer’s Accounts Receivable account
so that next time they are invoiced, a credit can be applied. These are also used to reduce the amount of a
customer's unpaid open Invoice.
You can also create a customer statement to show details of transactions for this customer.
It is not a best accounting practice to change transactions once they have been sent to a customer.
This is especially true when the original Invoice is in a prior period because making a change would cause the
books to become out of balance to the tax return and change previously reported amounts, for both your client
and their customer.
It is important to create a new transaction in QuickBooks Online for each exchange between the supplier and
the customer.
This provides clarity to the timing and sequence of events with a customer. It can also affect the timing and
balances of sales tax liabilities and movement of inventory in and out of the company.
It is important to capture all transactions, paid in cash or not, to ensure that the client’s records are complete.
If you pay the customer back in cash and do not record the transaction, you will pay sales and income taxes on
the sales transaction and receive no benefit of the return transaction deduction.
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IMPORTANT: Credit Memos reduce a customer’s Accounts Receivable balance. To refund a customer immediately,
use a Refund Receipt transaction
Yes! In the Advanced tab of Account and Settings you can select a checkbox which will tell QBO to automatically
apply credits to existing or new customer invoices.
However, it is a best practice to turn this feature off if you want to apply specific credits against outstanding
invoices.
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This exercise can be completed in the sample company, Long for Success – Event Planning.
1. Select Sales from the left navigation panel, then All Sales
2. Select the New transaction down arrow, then Credit Memo
3. Select Benjamin Yeung from the Customer down arrow menu
4. Select Catering from the PRODUCT/SERVICE down arrow on the first line in the grid
5. Type Credit for Catering in the DESCRIPTION FIELD and enter a RATE of $100
6. Select Save and close
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1. Click New.
2. Click Receive Payment.
3. Select the Invoice to apply the credit against.
4. Select the Credit to apply.
5. Enter the amount of the payment received (optional).
6. Choose the Payment method and Deposit to account.
7. Click Save and Close
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REFUND RECEIPTS
In other cases, a customer may simply want their money back for a return. In this case, since the customer has
paid, you would create a refund receipt. A Refund Receipt in QuickBooks Online reduces the client’s cash
balance rather than the customer’s accounts receivable balance.
This exercise can be completed in the sample company, Long for Success – Event Planning.
1. Select + New from the left navigation panel, then Refund receipt
2. Select Benjamin Yeung from the Customer down arrow menu
3. Select Cheque as the Payment method
4. Select Chequing from the Refund From down arrow
5. Check the Print later box
6. Type Catering in the PRODUCT/SERVICE.
7. Type $100 in the RATE field
8. Select Save and close (a pop up will display telling you the Refund successfully issued)
9. Click OK
ProAdvisor Tip: You can refund a customer using any payment method in QuickBooks Online. A refund
issued via credit card is typically refunded from the Undeposited Funds account so it can be grouped
together with the other credit card payments in the batch.
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CUSTOMER STATEMENTS
When it comes to credits and refunds, customers may want a clear statement of where their account with a
business stands to make sure that a credit has been applied. One easy way to do this is by creating a Customer
Statement.
Types of Statements
Balance Forward
The balance forward customer statement type shows a list of invoices and payments with the balance, for the
date range selected. It is perfect for situations where a client wants to provide customers with a summary of
what is still due on their account.
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Advise clients to use this when they want to provide a detail of all unpaid invoices, unapplied payments and
credit memos to their customers.
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Transaction Statement
If you want to show a customer all the transactions that have occurred between two set dates, then use the
Transaction statement.
Clients might use this when there is a large volume of transactions for a customer so they can see how their
payments have been applied.
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CREATE A STATEMENT
There are two ways to create statements in QuickBooks Online. You can select Create Statements from + New in
the left navigation panel, or you can create them from the Sales Centre. In this next exercise, we will create a
statement from the Sales Centre customer list.
This exercise can be completed in the sample company, Long for Success – Event Planning.
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Supplier credits are a way of recording a credit to supplier’s Accounts Payable account so that the credit can be
applied to an existing open bill or the next bill received from a supplier.
It is very similar to the credit memo we recorded in the last lesson to credit a customer’s Accounts Receivable
account but instead, it is for supplier transactions.
Let’s cover the key principles before seeing how it works in action.
For example, if a client receives damaged products, the supplier will normally issue a credit to reduce the
amount due.
Note that like Credit memos, Supplier credits can be automatically applied to existing open or future
bills by selecting Automatically apply credits in the Advanced tab in Account and Settings in the Gear
menu.
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In QuickBooks Online you can easily categorize deposits like refunds or proceeds from loans, so they are not
confused with sales income. This will ensure that taxable and nontaxable income are separate and in the right
place.
• When a company receives funds from loan proceeds or contributions of cash from owners.
• When companies receive a refund from a supplier and want to record it directly against the expense
account or to a Refunds Received income account.
• When a company does not record income using sales transactions (invoices or sales receipts) and wants
to record deposits directly to income accounts.
• When an employee reimburses the company, and the reimbursement needs to be recorded against the
Employee Loan receivable account.
• When a company receives an income or sales tax refund.
Put simply, these items are money received by the business that doesn’t need to be matched to a sales receipt
or customer payment in QuickBooks Online.
It does, however, need to be recorded and categorized to the appropriate account on the Chart of Accounts.
ProAdvisor Tip: You can add multiple types of funds to the same deposit. For example, a single deposit
might include both customer payments and other funds.
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This exercise can be completed in the sample company, Long for Success – Event Planning.
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You learned how to enable QuickBooks Payments in Module 3 of this course. You also learned about all the
great benefits of QuickBooks Payments and different ways clients can accept electronic payments.
In this lesson, you will learn the workflows to process electronic payments within QuickBooks Online including
using both the Online Invoicing feature and recurring Sales Receipt transactions.
The workflow begins when you send an invoice to a customer through QBO.
The customer receives an email (shown above) with the option to Review and pay the invoice. When they click
on the button from their computer, the invoice will open in their browser and give them the option to print,
save a copy, and most importantly pay the invoice with their credit card.
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Smart Invoicing
The Smart Invoicing feature is found by selecting Sales in the left navigation panel, then Invoices. This feature
tracks the progress of the invoice from the moment it is saved until the money is received in your bank account.
Online invoices are connected to your QuickBooks Online data and can tell you when the invoice has been sent,
viewed by the customers, paid, and deposited. If we click on an invoice in the list, we will see the Invoice status
drawer open up and if the invoice has been viewed.
When the client opened the invoice, they were given the option to pay it with their credit card. The process to
pay the invoice is easy and generates a receipt automatically which the client can download to their computer.
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If we head back to the Invoices tab, we can see that the invoice status has been updated to paid. Not only that,
but the Receive Payment transaction has automatically been recorded in QuickBooks Online, along with the
merchant service fees.
Later, after the money has been deposited into the bank account, the status will update to Deposited
automatically. This gives your client clear visibility into their cash flow and balances.
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This exercise can be completed in the sample company, Long for Success – Event Planning.
1. Select the Gear icon, then Recurring Transactions under the List column.
2. Select New.
3. Select Sales Receipt from the Transaction Type down arrow, click OK.
4. Give the Template a name, in this case we’ll call it Monthly Invoicing – Ecker Designs
5. Select Ecker Designs from the Customer down arrow
6. Select Automatically send emails – this will ensure Ecker Designs receives a receipt each month
7. For the Interval, select Monthly and use the 1st day of every 1 month(s)
8. Select a Start date and End option (either number of occurrences or a date may be used)
9. Select MasterCard as the Payment method
If this was a real Sales Receipt with an active QuickBooks Payments account, we could enter the customer credit
card details in this step or they would be pulled from the customer's profile. A check box would appear for "Process
credit card". This must be checked in order for the credit card to be charged upon saving.
10. Enter the Product/Service details for the sale, in this case Catering at $125.
11. Select Save template
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Journal entries are a way to post debits and credits directly to ledger accounts in the General Ledger.
It is recommended to use sales and purchase transaction forms to record transactions in QuickBooks Online, as
you have learned throughout this module, but sometimes the use of forms is not appropriate for the entry that
is required.
For example, you would use a journal entry to record annual depreciation on equipment to debit depreciation
expense and credit accumulated depreciation.
There are a few rules you need to keep in mind when using Journal Entry in QuickBooks Online:
• Total debits must equal total credits in order to save the journal entry
• You cannot use Products and Services items in a journal entry
• When posting to Accounts Receivable, you must specify a customer
• When posting to Accounts Payable you must specify a supplier
• When posting to GST/HST Payable you must select a sales tax code
• You may use multiple Accounts Receivable and/or Accounts Payable accounts on the same journal entry
• You cannot mark an amount as billable to a customer
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1. Select + New from the left navigation panel, then Journal entry in the OTHER column
2. Enter today’s date as the Journal date
3. Select Prepaid Expenses from the ACCOUNT down arrow on Line 1
4. Enter 241.43 in the DEBITS COLUMN
5. Type “to record prepaid insurance” in the DESCRIPTION field
6. On line 2, select Insurance Expense from the ACCOUNT down arrow
7. Enter 241.43 in the CREDITS column
8. Select Save
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There are a few scenarios where journal entries are usually marked as adjusting entries, and these are entries
most often done by the year-end or tax accountant so they can create an adjusted trial balance report.
Accrued expenses
These are expenses you have accrued but have not paid yet, like a loan interest or accrued payroll. Accrued
expenses appear on the balance sheet as liabilities.
Deferred expenses
This is where you have paid for something but not yet realized the benefit. An example of a deferred expense
would be if you pay for your insurance a year in advance. Deferred expenses appear on the balance sheet as
assets.
Accrued revenues
Accrued revenues are when you have earned the revenue, but the customer has not yet been invoiced, a
common practice in many industries that work on long term contracts. These appear on the balance sheet as
Accounts Receivable, an asset account.
Deferred revenues
These occur when you have been paid in advance by a customer, but you have not finished the work yet. This
appears on the balance sheet as unearned income, a liability.
Non-cash transactions
Not all expenses are cash expenses. Some things represent expenses that do not have a cash effect on your
business. Depreciation and allowance for doubtful accounts are two examples of common non-cash
transactions.
If regular adjustments are not recorded to reflect these activities, it is easy to get a skewed picture of a
company’s financial position. Here is a quick example:
If a client has an annual loan interest payment due in June and no liability has been accrued for it during the
year. The client could easily overestimate their available cash If they don’t keep track of this growing current
debt. The expenses and profit for each month will also be incorrect.
Additionally, when they make the annual business interest payment and it is not accrued, the monthly interest
expense will be reflected in the wrong accounting period.
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As a ProAdvisor using QBO Accountant, you can set these adjusting journal entries to post automatically using
the Recurring Transactions feature in QuickBooks Online. That way you know that most, if not all, of the
necessary adjusting entries are reflected when viewing monthly financial reports.
To mark a journal entry as adjusting, just enter the journal entry as normal and check the Is Adjusting Journal
Entry checkbox.
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Transfers between different balance sheet accounts are easy to record in QuickBooks Online.
In this lesson, you will see just how easy transfers are to set up and how they can be set up to recur.
WHAT IS A TRANSFER?
Companies often transfer funds between company-owned bank accounts. Perhaps the company is moving funds
from the general operating account to the chequing account used for payroll, or from a savings account to the
chequing account. Also, a transfer is used to move funds from the company chequing account to pay down the
company credit card.
• The transfer screen is used to move funds between two balance sheet accounts
• The transfer screen is not used to record income or expenses
• A transfer is a 1:1 transfer of funds, there are no splits allowed
• There are no customers, suppliers, employees, or Products and Services items involved. These fields are
not available on the transfer screen
• You do not use the Transfer feature to transfer from your bank account to your supplier’s bank account
• Set up recurring transfers to manage automatic transfers to move money from operating funds to
savings in order to plan for sales or income tax payments
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RECORD A TRANSFER
In this exercise, we will record a transfer from the Savings account to the Chequing account.
This exercise can be completed in the sample company, Long for Success – Event Planning.
ProAdvisor Tip: You can attach an image of the transfer receipt from the bank in the Attachments box
in the lower left of the Transfer screen.
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Module 5: In Summary
• Identify best practice customer and supplier workflows and assist clients in recognizing their importance
• Recognize how to utilize the features of Undeposited funds, and how to use Deposit transactions
• Identify common client errors caused by poor workflow
• List tools that help track activity in a client's QuickBooks Online Company
• Recognize how to utilize Estimates and converting an Estimate to a Purchase Order
• Recognize how, and when best, to utilize Credit memos and Supplier Credits
• Recognize how to utilize the features of QuickBooks Payments
• Recognize how, and when best, to utilize Journal Entries and Transfers
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Supplemental Guide
Module 6: Reporting
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LEARNING OBJECTIVES
• Recognize how to navigate the Reports Centre and run basic reports
• Recognize the difference between cash-basis and accrual-basis reporting
• Describe the value of the reports to clients
• State the impact of best practice workflows on reports
• List reports that answer client’s common business questions
• Describe the value of sales and expense reports and how to run them
• Recognize the benefits of the report customization capabilities In the Performance Centre
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TRAINING AT A GLANCE
Use this as a guide to select specific workflows you want to cover.
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QuickBooks Online (QBO) has powerful reporting functionality, designed to help you and your clients save time
and be more efficient.
Reports give your clients a full set of analytics on just how well they’re doing and, of course, help to identify
where they could make improvements to grow and be more profitable.
This lesson is an opportunity to refresh the skills and knowledge you gained if you took the introduction course.
We will also take a look at how you can build on your knowledge throughout the rest of the module.
But first we need a quick recap of a key concept that clients need to know: the difference between cash and
accrual reporting.
Cash-basis reporting
When Cash is selected as the Accounting method on a report in QuickBooks Online, it will display income as of
the date the payment was received and expenses at the time they were paid.
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Accrual-basis reporting
When Accrual is selected as the Accounting method on a report, it will display income as of the date it was
invoiced and expenses at the time they were purchased, regardless of when payment occurred.
For example, an Invoice dated 12/15/2019 that is paid by the customer on 1/15/2020 will be included in income
on a Profit and Loss report in:
NOTE: In Canada, the accounting method is dependent upon the business type, and the majority of businesses
must use the Accrual Method of accounting. However, the option to run reports in either method can be very
useful for cashflow work.
Reporting categories are listed by business purpose, and within each of these are the related report.
The Reports Centre is divided into three tabs, but most of what you need is in the Standard tab. This shows the
most common reports business owners will want to run.
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Favourites
This section contains reports that you or your client have selected to be included in this list. To add a report to
the Favourites section, click on the star to the right of the report name you want to add to the list. You can
remove a report from the Favourites section by deselecting the star.
Business Overview
The Business Overview section includes company financial statements, such as the Profit and Loss, Balance
Sheet and Statement of Cash Flows. You will also find variations of these reports that include period
comparisons and various levels of detail.
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You’ll also find report categories related to sales and customers, expenses and Suppliers, sales tax, and
employees.
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For My Accountant
The For my accountant tab includes reports that accounting professionals run most often. You’ll find the Trial
Balance and General Ledger reports here, along with the Transaction List by Date, Reconciliation Reports and list
reports.
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CUSTOMIZING REPORTS
Most reports in QuickBooks Online can be customized but customization options will vary by the type of report.
To customize an existing report in QuickBooks Online, select Customize at the top right of any report. You can
learn more about customizing reports in QuickBooks Online in the QuickBooks Online Advanced Certification
course in your ProAdvisor training portal.
There are three different subscription levels in QuickBooks Online. They offer various levels of reporting.
QuickBooks Online Easy Start is the most basic version, followed by Essentials and then Plus (which have access
to more reporting capabilities).
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Easy Start allows for basic data entry to track your money in and money out, as well as customer tracking and
invoicing. The reports follow these same features and include basic financial and customer reports.
Here are some of the reports you have access to with QuickBooks Online Easy Start:
QuickBooks Online Essentials gives you access to all the Easy Start reports as well as additional insight through
some of the following reports:
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QuickBooks Online Plus includes all features and reports in Easy Start and Essentials, as well as more comparison
and management reports that include:
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STANDARD REPORTS
Let’s review some standard reports in QuickBooks Online and the information they provide to businesses.
Accounts Receivable
Accounts Receivable (or A/R) reports in QuickBooks Online allow you or your clients to see who owes the
business money and how much they owe.
The reports include Customer Balance Summary and Detail, A/R Aging Summary and Detail, Collections Report,
Invoice List, Open Invoices and Statement List.
Managing the amount of money owed to a business can be hard. Using A/R reports helps clients manage their
cash flow more efficiently by making the details of open customer balances visible.
This report will assist your client in staying on top of collecting payments from customers and avoiding potential
incoming cash flow issues.
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Accounts Payable
Accounts Payable (or A/P) reports in QuickBooks Online allow you and your clients to see what the business
owes and when the payments are due.
The reports include A/P Aging Summary and Detail, Supplier Balance Summary and Detail, Bill Payment List and
Unpaid Bills. For your clients, managing cash going out of the business is crucial. They can gain insight into which
Suppliers to pay, and when, by using these reports and better manage cash flow.
As your client’s trusted advisor, you can use the A/P Aging Summary to help them understand how to pay
Suppliers strategically, instead of just paying them arbitrarily.
For example, if your client has a Supplier who is charging finance charges on overdue balances, you can
encourage your client to pay them first and not pay a bill that is still within payment terms. That way, they can
conserve available cash and reduce expenses.
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The Profit and Loss and Balance Sheet are two other essential reports for clients to assess their business'
financial performance and position, respectively. The Profit and Loss statement may also be referred to as the
Income Statement.
The Profit and Loss summarizes the amount of financial activity associated with each income or expense account
for a specific period of time, so the business can assess whether it is operating at a profit or a loss.
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Balance Sheet
A Balance Sheet summarizes the financial position of a business at a single moment in time; that is why it is
commonly referred to as a snapshot of the business. This report reflects whether the assets that the business
owns are enough to offset its liabilities, or debt the company owes, and leave a net equity balance after all
liabilities have been paid off.
ProAdvisor Tip: There are many variations of the Profit and Loss and Balance Sheet reports available in
QuickBooks Online, including summary, detail, and YTD and prior year comparisons. These various
reports can be customized even further by using the Customize panel on each report.
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In the last lesson, you learned the benefits of reporting and how to run and customize basic reports in
QuickBooks Online. It is important that you work together with your client to create reports that provide the
most value to them so they can maximize their operations and profitability.
We began this certification course by learning how to evaluate your clients’ needs and set up QuickBooks Online
to create the best workflows by providing the information they need to run their business efficiently and
effectively.
In this lesson, we will focus on how to analyze reports in QBO to help you provide guidance and advice to your
clients and to help find inconsistencies and anomalies.
Helping your client interpret the figures in their Profit and Loss and Balance Sheet will help them gain business
insights in order to make sound business decisions.
The Profit and Loss summarizes the amount of financial activity associated with each income or expense account
for a specific period. This will tell you whether they’re operating at a profit or a loss.
By running a prior period Profit and Loss comparison report, you can reveal cash flow trends in spending and
earnings from the business.
Dan is concerned that his year-to-date hasn’t been as lucrative as the previous year. To check this for the client,
you can run the Profit and Loss report and take a glance at his accounts.
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You can run a comparative Profit and Loss report from within the same report, there is no need to run two
separate reports. Simply select the Profit and Loss Comparison report from the Business Overview section of
the report Centre.
ProAdvisor Tip: You can add a comparative column to many reports in QuickBooks Online. Select the
down arrow underneath Compare another period in the header section. This will add a column with
the prior period data on the same report. You can even add columns for $ or % change.
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As part of your analysis of the Profit and Loss report you will want to run through some top-level questions with
your client. You are looking for discrepancies or things that look out of place, such as:
Income:
Expenses:
Point out expenses that were different than prior periods and ask why
Review key areas like revenue, gross profit, and net profit
The key metrics to consider when analyzing the Profit and Loss report are:
Compare current year income and expenses to prior periods
Comparing current year income and expenses can help uncover miscategorized transactions and help clients to
understand which activities are bringing in the most revenue and where they are spending their money. Other
areas to focus on include:
• Compare revenue streams to identify the ones that are generating the most income.
• Review transaction activity in “Miscellaneous”, “Suspense”, "Uncategorized", or “Ask my Accountant”
accounts
The Gross profit percentage shows income less costs directly associated with generating that income, such as
cost of goods/services sold. This is important because it shows how much money from the sale can be used to
cover operating expenses. To see the gross profit percentage on the Profit and Loss, you can add a column called
“% of income” to the report.
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Percentage of income
The % of income column can also highlight the largest expenditure categories relative to income which can help
a client identify waste and/or areas to reduce costs and boost profitability.
A Balance Sheet summarizes the financial position of a business at a single moment in time. Which is why it’s
commonly referred to as a snapshot of the business. This report reflects whether the assets that the business
owns are enough to offset its liabilities and leave a net equity balance after all liabilities have been paid off.
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You can also run comparison reports for the Balance Sheet, to compare it with a previous period, or add a
column to show $ or % change to provide the opportunity for further analysis. To run the Balance Sheet
Comparison report just select it from the Business Overview section in the Report Centre.
When analyzing the Balance Sheet, the key areas to focus on are:
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Here is a list of subsidiary reports to help you ‘prove’ the balance sheet.
Accounts Receivable A/R Aging Report or Open Invoices (using Report Date
method)
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QuickBooks Online gives you and your clients the tools to keep track of their financial data so that it’s accurate,
reliable, complete and available in real time. Using reports to their full potential will help you be ready to help
your clients make decisions and support their business goals.
Let’s take a look at how best practice workflows and accurate bookkeeping are crucial to the reporting process.
In Module 5, you learned about the different workflow options in QuickBooks Online. The way you record
transactions in QuickBooks Online directly impacts the types of reports that you can create.
For example, a client who records all revenue and expenses as Cheques and deposits coded directly to an
account will not be able to run reports that show what type of products and services they are buying or selling,
only the type of revenue and expenses they have incurred.
Data from sales forms (invoice, sales receipt, credit memo, and refund receipt) appear on sales reports.
Remember, estimates and delayed credits/charges are non-posting entries, so they will not appear on sales
reports.
Data from purchase order forms that include items will appear on purchase reports.
Data from sales forms AND deposit transactions that are coded to income accounts will appear on income
reports, and data from expense and purchase forms that are coded to expense accounts will appear on expense
reports.
Just remember that income and expense reports may show amounts from sales and purchase transactions, but
sales and purchase reports will only show amounts from sales and expense transactions that use
product/service items.
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Who owes me money? A/R Aging Summary Lists all customers who currently owe balances and
how old the balances are.
Who are my top customers? Sales by Customer A business can look at the characteristics of their top
Summary customers to help identify potential new customers
who have the same characteristics.
What are my top selling Sales by A business can decide which products they should
products (or my worst selling Product/Service buy more of (high volume) or which products to put
products)? Summary on sale (low volume or slow-moving products).
How much do I owe my A/P Aging Summary Lists all Suppliers with open balances and how old
suppliers? the balances are.
How much money did I make Profit & Loss Show profitability and how much money was earned
this year? and spent on each category for a period.
Can I afford that new Balance Sheet Balance Sheet shows cash balances, money owed to
equipment? the company, money owed by the company, and net
income for the period.
How much is my inventory Inventory Valuation Shows the book (purchase or cost) value of
worth? Summary (or detail) inventory items with quantity on hand.
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How much revenue (less cost Profit & Loss This is an important profitability metric, and it is
of goods sold) is available to called Gross Profit. It will tell a business owner
cover operating costs? whether they need to raise prices or reduce
spending or both.
How much have I spent on Profit & Loss This can help a business understand where they are
________? (insert ledger spending their money.
account)
How much have I paid _____? Expenses by Supplier This can help a business to negotiate better pricing
(insert Supplier) Summary from their Suppliers if they are buying a lot.
There are several quick add charts for key financial metrics that any business owner would find useful. The
function allows for the creation of up to 25 charts and ProAdvisors can create their own customized charts to
track and compare business performance details for their clients.
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Module 6: In Summary
• Recognize
clients
how to navigate the Reports Centre, run basic reports, and convey the value of those reports to
• Recognize the difference between cash-basis and accrual-basis reporting and when it is best to use an
alternate method for a report
• Use reports to answer client’s common business questions and create customized financial charts to
represent and compare specific business performance values
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Supplemental Guide
Module 7: Banking and Tools
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LEARNING OBJECTIVES
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TRAINING AT A GLANCE
Use this as a guide to select specific workflows you want to cover.
•
1. Using Bank Feeds • Match a Downloaded
Recognize the benefits for clients of using bank
Bank Feed Transaction feeds
• Describe what the For Review and Categorized
lists show in the Banking Centre
• Describe how to match transactions
• Add a New Bank Feed • Recognize best practice workflows for bank feed
2. Best Practice
Transaction transactions
Bank Feed
Workflows
• Setup Receipt • Describe how to register for receipt forwarding
3. Managing
Receipts
Forwarding • Describe how to review, add, and match receipts
• Upload a Receipt to
QuickBooks Online
• Snapping Receipts Via
the Mobile App
• Review and Add a
Receipt to QuickBooks
Online
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The Bank Feeds in QuickBooks Online is one of its most valuable features. In this lesson, we will review the
functionality of Bank Feeds and learn basic workflows.
Imported transactions are held in a For Review area, where your clients can:
• Match and accept transaction details with what is already recorded in QuickBooks Online.
• Add and accept transaction details to enter a transaction into QuickBooks Online that has not previously
been recorded.
QuickBooks Online has a smart learning system that learns from bank feed activity. This can minimize and
automate over time as you categorize and match transactions. The more you work with it, the more
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independent the functionality will become. These are the items that will appear under the transaction filter,
Recognized, in the Banking Centre.
For example, repeated transactions with similar bank details will be recognized in the bank feed, and a category
will be suggested. You are still in control and will get to approve recognized transactions. You can see that a lot
of the work will be done for you.
This exercise can be completed in the sample company, Long for Success – Event Planning.
1. Select Banking in the left navigation panel. Dismiss any pop-ups that appear offering to give you a tour.
2. Select the Visa Credit Card tile at the top of the Banking screen
3. Select For review
4. Select Recognized, in the filter drop down under All Transactions
5. Select Match in the ACTION column next to the Expense transaction for $245.80
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6. Select the Categorized tab. Notice that the deposit is now listed as Matched.
Multiple Matches
In some cases, QuickBooks Online will find more than one possible match for a downloaded transaction. In this
case, you will need to click on the transaction to display the multiple options. You then review and select the
correct match.
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The more you use QuickBooks Online banking, the better it gets at identifying matches for bank transactions to
QuickBooks Online transactions.
If a client follows the best practice sales and expense workflows you learned about in Module 5, most
transactions that are imported into the Banking Centre will automatically be matched to the previously recorded
ones. However, there may be a few that were not previously recorded and that do not have a match to an
existing transaction. Common examples of such transactions are bank service charges, interest deposits, and
automatic electronic payments such as a loan payment.
In these cases, you can add a new transaction to QuickBooks Online right from the Banking Centre.
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If no match can be found, QuickBooks Online will recommend a Payee and Category based on similar previous
transactions and how other users have categorized similar transactions.
This exercise can be completed in the sample company, Long for Success – Event Planning.
1. Select Banking in the left navigation panel. Dismiss any pop-ups that appear offering to give you a tour.
2. In the Visa Credit Card feed, scroll down the page until you see a transaction for Supplies Depot for
$18.60, click on it to open the edit panel.
3. QuickBooks Online recognized the name Supplies Depot, so it will already be selected in the
Supplier/Customer field.
4. Select Office Supplies in the Category down arrow and select the correct sales tax for the purchase.
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5. Notice that the Memo field is blank. You can turn on a setting that will automatically copy the BANK
DETAIL information to the Memo field. This is a good idea in case a client forgets to assign a payee or
category to the transaction.
6. To turn this setting on, select the Gear icon at the top right of the Banking grid
7. Check the box Copy bank detail to memo, then select the Gear to close the menu
8. Notice the BANK DETAIL text has now been added to the Memo field.
9. Select Add
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Let’s take a look at some common mistakes that can happen in the Banking Centre so you can help guide them
back onto the road to success.
Instead of “matching” to an existing transaction, they “added” one and this created two of the same
transactions for the same amount.
ProAdvisor Tip: Remind them to always Match transactions first and check all bank and credit card
transactions to make sure the transaction was not posted to another account or dated outside the 60-
day window QuickBooks Online uses to look for matches.
Instead of receiving a payment against the appropriate customer's open invoice, they “added” a new deposit
from the bank feed.
ProAdvisor Tip: Reinforce the correct sales workflow. First, receive the payment against the open
invoice and save the deposited amount to Undeposited Funds. Next, record the Deposit transaction to
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group multiple payments together based on what was deposited into the bank. Finally, match the
bank feed deposit to the actual QuickBooks Online Deposit transaction.
Why do I still have transactions in the bank feed that are not matching with my transactions
in QuickBooks Online?
Most likely, the transaction date is incorrect on the original QuickBooks Online transaction and the transactions
are not getting automatically recognized in the Bank Feed.
ProAdvisor Tip: Click on the transaction and select Find Match, then expand the date range in the
Match transactions screen to find the correct transaction to match.
Do I need to manually enter prior period expenses and deposits if I have not used
QuickBooks Online before?
It is time consuming to enter a year’s worth of historical expenses and deposits using the transaction forms.
Correctly categorizing income and expense transactions in the bank feed is key to making certain the prior
period data is accurate and ready for the client’s review. This is especially important when it comes to sales tax
amounts. Keep In mind, if the sales tax amount on the transaction is not the exact percent calculation, these
need to be edited manually in the expense or sales forms directly.
ProAdvisor Tip: A simple way to recreate prior period accounting data for your client’s QuickBooks
Online file is to link your client’s QuickBooks Online to their bank account and select the appropriate
date ranges OR by performing a manual bank import for the exact period you are recreating in
QuickBooks Online. Then select Add for each of the transactions, after proper categorization, from the
Bank Feed to create the transactions in their QuickBooks Online.
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Keeping track of receipts is a common problem among businesses of all sizes. Too often, tax season or an audit
will come around and clients will turn to their shoebox full of receipts.
Instead of keeping physical copies in drawers or car glove boxes, receipts can also be uploaded and stored in
QuickBooks Online as an attachment to a transaction, or an upload into the receipts area of the Banking centre.
Receipts can be uploaded as pdf, jpeg, gif, or png file types and can then be added or matched to existing
transactions within the Banking Centre.
There are three ways to import receipts into QuickBooks Online Receipt Capture:
• Email forwarding
• Upload a file
• The QuickBooks Accounting Mobile App
RECEIPT FORWARDING
In order to set up receipt forwarding, your client must enable their email address within QuickBooks Online.
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4. A pop-up displays asking you to enter a custom email for receipt submission. The email address will be
customized to you and will include the @qbodocs.com domain. Enter a custom email.
5. Click Customize email.
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Note: Email receipts to the address you just created to import them directly to QuickBooks Online.
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Only users with access to the QuickBooks Online company are able to use the receipt forward feature. Users
that are enabled will be listed and you can turn their access on or off. To add a new sender, you will need to add
another user to the QuickBooks Online company. Keep in mind the list limits we covered in Module 1 when
adding new users.
ProAdvisor Tip: When emailing receipts, you can include multiple receipts in the same email, so long as
they are separate attachments. QuickBooks Online can only recognize one receipt at a time If they are
sent in the body of the email rather than as an attachment.
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UPLOAD A RECEIPT
You can also upload receipts from your computer or by snapping a picture of them on your smartphone using
the free QuickBooks Accounting mobile app.
Make sure you have the file location open on your desktop so you can easily access the receipt file you want to
upload.
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First, install the QuickBooks Accounting mobile app from the Google Play or Apple App Store and log into your
account.
QuickBooks Online uses optical character recognition (OCR) technology to read and transform the data to
QuickBooks Online. The app also uploads the image of the receipt directly into QuickBooks Online.
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You can only process one receipt at a time in this way. The OCR function cannot identify more than one receipt
on an image at a time.
4. The receipt and existing details will load for you to amend as appropriate. You will be able to assign a Payee,
Bank/Credit account, Payment date, Account/Category, Description, Amount, and Memo to the
transaction. QuickBooks Online will fill in the fields it can using OCR technology.
5. Select Next
If QuickBooks Online finds an expense already entered in QuickBooks Online, it will suggest that you Match
the receipt to the existing transaction. Where QuickBooks Online is unable to find a match, you can manually
add a transaction.
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QuickBooks Online automatically includes the image of the receipt with the transaction.
7. Select Create expense to add the transaction into the QuickBooks Online account.
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Managing transactions from an online bank feed takes patience and knowledge, and QuickBooks Online makes it
easy and straightforward.
A good example of when you might do this is if the bank feed imported a duplicate transaction that had already
been added to QuickBooks Online. Another reason you may want to exclude transactions is if you import
transactions but are current on your account reconciliations. The banking feature does not match imported
transactions against transactions that have already been reconciled.
Excluding is about avoiding errors, such as duplication. The goal of reconciliation is to prove that the
transactions in the register match the transactions that have cleared on the bank statement. If a duplicate
transaction is imported into the register, the register will not reconcile with the bank statement. This will result
in incorrect financial reports.
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This exercise can be completed in the sample company, Long for Success – Event Planning.
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But what if you accidentally exclude a transaction and you would like to include it again?
You can then add, categorize, or match and accept the transactions.
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In this lesson, we will look at how setting up a simple bank rule can allow QuickBooks Online to do the heavy
lifting and help manage transactions automatically.
They can also be used to automatically split transactions. Rules can be prioritized over other rules, copied,
edited, and exported. You can even create bank rules to automatically add transactions to the register once they
are received.
This exercise can be completed in the sample company, Long for Success – Event Planning.
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ProAdvisor Tip: You have the option to mark a Bank Rule to post automatically to the bank account
without the need to select Add. Just select auto-add before you save the rule, but make sure your rule
is set up correctly first.
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It is a best practice to reconcile bank and credit accounts monthly to the bank and credit card statements using
the Reconcile feature.
The reconciliation process is necessary to find errors and omissions between QuickBooks Online registers and
the bank and credit accounts. With QuickBooks Online this is made easier, especially when you use bank feeds.
In this exercise, we will go through the steps to reconcile an account in QuickBooks Online to the bank
statement issued by the bank.
NOTE: If the account has a bank feed attached to it, you will not see these extra fields in the Reconcile screen,
but you may see a button to view the downloaded statements
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With QuickBooks Online, the features to help you find reconciliation issues are right there at your fingertips.
Let’s take a look at another client’s bank reconciliation and take a tour around the screen to explore some of the
features.
In the upper left, there’s a shortcut to jump to the bank registers with a single click. Select Reconcile to
return to the reconciliation screen for the chosen account.
1. Overview area
This gives you more visibility of how you are reaching the zero difference. It Includes the beginning and
ending balances, as well as the total for payments and deposits to help balance to the statement.
2. Customize view
By default, the table shows all transactions, but you can also choose to show just deposits or payments
3. Filter
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The filter gives you a number of ways to search for transactions. Examples include search by memo,
reference number, and amount, or cleared status, transaction type, payee, or date range. By default,
QuickBooks Online sets a filter to show transactions on or before the statement date.
4. Difference
The all-important reconciliation number; this number needs to be zero for a complete and proper
reconciliation. When you add or remove a checkmark to include or exclude a transaction, the difference
fluctuates. Your client’s bank register in QBO and the bank agree when the difference is $0.00.
5. Edit info
If you need to edit the statement ending balance or date, select the Edit button to make the change.
7. Select transactions
Any transactions added or matched through bank feeds will automatically have a checkmark in this column.
Compare the transactions to the bank statement and if they show up on the bank statement, check them
off. Once everything that is on the bank statement is selected here, the difference should be zero. By
clicking on a transaction in the reconciliation, it will open for the ability to view and edit.
ProAdvisor Tip: You also have the option to add reference numbers and memos to transactions right
from the reconciliation screen. For example, if the cheque transactions did not come through with a
cheque number, you can edit them here to pop the information in.
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Beginning balance discrepancies (where the beginning balance you see on your client’s bank statement does not
match the beginning balance when starting a bank reconciliation) should be fixed before you begin the next
month’s reconciliation.
QuickBooks Online alerts you to these beginning balance discrepancies and gives you a link to run a discrepancy
report straight from the reconcile screen.
• Changed after they were reconciled if the change affected the beginning balance of the account
• Deleted after it was reconciled
• Manually reconciled in the register by changing the reconciliation status to reconciled (R)
• Unreconciled in the register by changing the reconciliation status from reconciled (R) to cleared (C) or no
status
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Select We can help you fix it to you open the reconciliation discrepancy report. QuickBooks Online will also give
you some guidance on how we think you can resolve the transactions. You can click on the transaction to open it
and make a change right from the report. Once you have resolved the problem transactions and the Total
Discrepancy Difference is zero, you’re ready to reconcile.
ProAdvisor Tip: You can learn a lot more about how to troubleshoot bank reconciliations by taking
QuickBooks Online Advanced Certification training in your ProAdvisor training centre.
UNDO A RECONCILIATION
If things get messy, it’s useful to know how to undo a reconciliation. It is usually best to use the discrepancy
report to fix reconciliation errors but you may need to undo a reconciliation if the reconciliation was forced,
meaning it was saved even though the difference was not zero.
When a reconciliation is forced, QuickBooks Online automatically records a journal entry to adjust the ending
register balance and posts the offsetting debit or credit to the Reconciliation Discrepancies account.
Undoing the reconciliation allows you to start over so that you can find the discrepancies. Keep in mind that only
an Accountant User has the ability to undo a reconciliation.
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QuickBooks Online does not want you to do this by accident so you’ll get two warning pop-ups checking that
you’re sure you want to undo the reconciliations.
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Recurring transactions can be set up for a variety of different reasons in QuickBooks Online. The beauty of this
feature is that it’s flexible enough to meet lots of business needs for different types of businesses.
It is a great way to automate money-out transactions, like rental or insurance payments, that are paid at regular
intervals and are for a fixed amount.
On the sales side, when a client is selling a service where customers pay a fixed fee, recurring service charges
can be set up to automatically create an invoice for those customers.
With advance customer authorization, clients can set up a recurring charge to a customer’s credit card using a
recurring sales receipt after setting up QuickBooks Online Payments.
When setting up an invoice for a recurring transaction, you have the option to include unbilled charges and
automatically send emails. If this option is enabled, clients won’t have to remember to generate invoices every
month.
More advanced recurring transactions can be set up for non-posting transactions, such as purchase orders,
estimates, or delayed charges or credits.
You can use the recurring transaction function to create templates that are not recurring, but rather a
transaction that you want to remember how to post.
For example, if a client’s estimates typically contain many of the same items sold (like a contractor) but the
details vary from customer to customer, you can set up an unscheduled recurring transaction as a template and
use it each time a new estimate is created. Then simply delete the product/service items you don’t want to use
for that customer.
ProAdvisor Tip: Automating processes with recurring transactions can save time and headaches when
you have regular predictable activities, whether they’re expenses or sales activities like invoices.
However, the automation requires some involvement to make sure invoices for cancelled or held work
don’t go out automatically!
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You paid the first month of Rent by cheque and have set up a monthly budget plan with the landlord. You would
like to have the bill automatically added to his QuickBooks Online each month, so the client doesn’t forget to
pay the bill.
1. Select the Gear icon, then Recurring Transactions in the Lists column
2. Select New
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Module 7: In Summary
• Recognize the benefits for clients of using bank feeds for bank and credit accounts and how to properly use
the For Review lists to match and add transactions
• Recognize best practice workflows for bank feed transactions and when it makes sense to create bank rules
for specific transactions and when auto-adding those transactions is appropriate
• Recognize how to use the Receipts feature and how to send or upload receipts to QBO for OCR review
• Recognize how to utilize bank reconciliation tools, the importance of reconciling the bank and credit
accounts at set dates, and how using the bank feeds help complete those reconciliations at the time of
review
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QUICKBOOKS ONLINE CERTIFICATION COURSE
Supplemental Guide
Module 8: Preparing Clients’ Books
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LEARNING OBJECTIVES
• Identify the appropriate key tasks' reports and tools for preparing a client’s books for period or year end
• Recognize how to reclassify transactions and why you might need to do this
• Utilize the Workpapers function to prepare for tax filing
• Utilize the Close Books function and access the Closing Date Exception Log
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TRAINING AT A GLANCE
Use this as a guide to select specific workflows you want to cover.
• Closing the Books in • Utilize the Close Books function and access the
4. Closing the
QuickBooks Online Closing Date Exception Log
Books Accountant
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Year-end is a busy time for every business and your clients will need extra support, especially their first year in
business.
Your support, along with the features of QuickBooks Online, make a winning team that will guide business
owners through this annual process. In this lesson, we will look at the key activities for clients and accountants
at year-end, and at how QuickBooks Online can keep everything neat and tidy throughout the year in
preparation for this important time.
The year-end process will differ from client to client, depending on their business type and how busy their year
has been, but some tasks will apply to most of your clients.
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Your client’s bank and credit-card accounts should be reconciled to their statements.
You may need to help clients with this to make sure it is done properly. Make sure each reconciliation was not
automatically adjusted and that there are no changes to reconciliations that affect the ending balances.
QuickBooks Online has a number of forensic tools that can help you troubleshoot accounts that don’t add up,
like the Reconciliation Discrepancy Report function that you learned about in Module 7.
Reconciliation history reports in QuickBooks Online are great tools to help you determine that all balance sheet
accounts are reconciled.
Other balance sheet accounts, such as property, plant and equipment assets and liabilities, such as bank loans or
unearned income, need to have supporting detail reports that show what makes up the ending account balance.
Payroll liability accounts should match payroll taxes calculated for the period and paid in the next period.
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Once the balance sheet accounts are reconciled, this is a good indication that all the financial activity has been
recorded. Next, review the income and expense account activity using the Reclassify Transactions Tool to make
sure transactions have been categorized to the proper account and clean up any miscategorized transactions.
You will want to make sure there are no entries in Uncategorized Income and Uncategorized Expense accounts
on the Profit and Loss statement in QuickBooks Online. Also be sure to review anything in Miscellaneous
accounts. All income and expense items must be categorized for tax filing.
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Confirm that all invoices for work performed or paid during the year have been recorded. Review the Customer
Balance Detail report in QuickBooks Online with your client to make sure that payments are applied to invoices,
uncollectible balances are written off, and the report total matches the Accounts Receivable balance on the
accrual-basis Balance Sheet.
Likewise, confirm that all bills for purchases and services received or paid for during the year have been
recorded. Review the Unpaid Bills report in QuickBooks Online with your client to make sure that bill payments
are applied to bills, paid bills have bill payments recorded instead of cheques duplicating expenses, and that the
report total matches the Accounts Payable balance on the accrual-basis Balance Sheet.
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Step 4: Analyze Property, Plant and Equipment Assets and Depreciation Expense
If clients made any property, plant and equipment asset purchases this past fiscal year, they should be recorded
on the balance sheet.
Property, plant and equipment assets should be identified for the purposes of calculating depreciation.
Depreciation may not be recorded yet if the business is submitting the year-end information to their tax
accountant to perform the calculation and record it as an adjusting entry once the tax return is generated.
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Help your clients carefully review their year-end financial reports. This information is what will be used to file
their taxes and make projections for the new year. Use the Management Reports feature in QuickBooks Online
Accountant to produce professional reports for a wide range of needs.
Additional year-end activities could include, especially if you are the tax return preparer:
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The Reclassify Transactions tool is used to recategorize transactions in batch from one ledger account to
another, to change the tax code, or from one class, or location, to another (if you have class and location
tracking turned on, QuickBooks Online Plus features). This tool is only available to Accountant users through the
Accountant Tools.
Miscategorized transactions can be a disaster when you are trying to close the books at year-end because they
make the financial information in reports and statements inaccurate.
Whether you are tidying up a couple of transactions or cleaning up large amounts of transactions in the
uncategorized expense accounts, the Reclassify Transactions tool makes the process quick and easy. You can
reclassify accounts on non-item-based transactions, and you can reclassify the assigned class on both item-
based and non-item-based transactions.
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This exercise can be completed in the sample company, Long for Success – Event Planning.
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The power of this tool is the ability to batch reclassify, so if there were a whole bunch of miscategorized
transactions, using batch functionality to reclassify them would save a lot of work.
ProAdvisor Tip: The Audit Log in QuickBooks Online captures each change to a transaction so you can
easily keep track of modifications you are making to your client’s data.
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Workpapers gives you a head start on your client’s tax return and is found in the Books to Tax centre in the left-
hand navigation bar or in the Accountant Tools. Workpapers is made up of the Profit and Loss and Balance
Sheet accounts that make up the company’s Trial Balance.
Workpapers allows you to validate and verify that all the amounts are ready to hand off to the tax preparer. The
Workpapers tool can save you loads of time if you are the one preparing the tax return or make you really
popular with the tax specialist who you are handing the information over to!
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3. The Workpapers screen shows Balance Sheet and Profit and Loss summaries by account and by year in
one view.
4. Select the Tax year from the drop-down arrow
5. You can check the accounting method in use and even change it if you need to by selecting the pencil
icon.
6. You can also see any existing ADJUSTING ENTRIES for the company.
You can record Adjusting Entries right from the Workpapers dashboard. Let’s make an entry to record
depreciation for some furniture and office equipment he bought earlier in the year.
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7. In the Balance Sheet area, select the drop-down arrow for Non-Current Assets and select the drop-down
arrow for Property, plant and equipment to locate the Accumulated Depreciation account line item.
8. Select Make adjustment next to the Accumulated Depreciation account in the ACTION column. This will
open the Journal entry screen.
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15. Back on the Workpapers screen we can see that the change has been noted at the top.
16. Select View changes.
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17. Here we can see the change that we made, edit it if needed or view the Audit log.
18. Select Back to Workpapers.
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22. Add a note to describe the adjustment to the account: Adjustment made for $900 based on revised
depreciation schedule
23. Select Save
24. Back on the Workpapers screen, for the same account select the Add attachment option.
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25. Here we can select Upload and add an attachment; in this case, we would add the depreciation
schedule.
26. Back on the Workpapers screen, we can see the note and the attachment we added.
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Once the Workpapers screen reflects the correct balances and mapping, you can select Choose tax option at top
right and either Start new return or Export CSV file. This will send the mapped balances directly to the tax return
in ProConnect Tax Online.
ProAdvisor Tip: Did you know that you can get up to 10 free tax returns when you first sign up for Pro
Tax Online if you are a ProAdvisor? That’s right! Learn more in the Benefits section of the ProAdvisor
tab in QuickBooks Online Accountant.
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Along with the normal accounting process, QuickBooks Online has a great feature called Close the Books.
It is a best practice to close the books to protect transactions in previous periods from being changed.
In this lesson, you will see how to set up a password to protect prior period balances, and how to edit
transactions in a closed period if you need to, and how to tell if changes have been made to a closed period.
Closing the books is not just a year-end process of course. Books can be closed at any frequency that works for
you and your client, sometimes each month after reconciliations are complete.
But the books should be closed at least each year end (after the tax return has been filed to finalize all of the
accounts), so we will use this as our example.
Closing the books is the final step in your year-end process. Let’s see how it’s done.
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6. Select the down arrow next to Allow changes after viewing a warning and select Allow changes after
viewing a warning and entering a password.
7. Type a Password in the boxes.
8. Select Save.
Let’s see how a transaction can be changed after the books have been closed and how this can be identified by
checking out the Closing Date Exception report.
If any user tries to record or change an entry prior to the closing date will receive a warning. If you selected the
Allow changes after viewing a warning and entering a password, the user will only be allowed to make the
change if they enter the correct password.
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If they continue to make the change, the activity is captured in the Exceptions to Closing Date report, which is
found in the For my accountant section of the Report Centre.
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The Exceptions to Closing Date report is a filtered version of the Audit History log and shows all changes made to
transactions prior to the closing date after the time the closing date has been set.
The report highlights the changes made so you can easily identify them and make corrections if necessary.
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Module 8: In Summary
• Use the appropriate key task reports and tools for reviewing your client’s books for period or year end
• Recognize where to find the tool to reclassify transactions and when and why you might need to do this
when reviewing clients' bookkeeping
• Recognize how to navigate the Workpapers function to prepare your client's QBO file to tax time
• Don't forget to us the Close Books function at period end and access the Closing Date Exception Log if the
function is overridden or not used
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Supplemental Guide to QuickBooks Online Certification Training Conclusion and Finding the Exam
Thank you for taking the time to read this supplemental guide to the QuickBooks Online Training Course! This
guide was created as a reference to those who have attended an Intuit-sponsored training event. We hope you
find it helpful and wish you luck on completing the QuickBooks Online Certification exam!
To access the exam, log into your QuickBooks Online Accountant account and then:
2. Click Training
3. Scroll down the page until you see QuickBooks Online Certification, then click Take Exam
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