QBO TOP 40 COUNTDOWN to #QBConnect 2017
Woody Adams and Stacy Kildal have teamed up to bring you the QBO TOP 40 COUNTDOWN (to #QBConnect)
We’ve compiled a list of 40 features, tips and tricks that will help you work better, faster
smarter. Keep in mind, there’s no particular order here we both just added to the list until
we hit 40!
Here they are all in one place, in no particular order:
- QuickBooks Online Accountant—Team Visibility
In the Audit Log of client file, QuickBooks Online Accountant team members can now
see actual staff name, while your client only sees firm name…Better visibility for firm! As
well, you can save report customizations to Firm Only!
- Bookmarks
You can favorite your oft-used QuickBooks Online Forms and lists in top icon bar to be
ONE click away from most common QuickBooks Online Features…
- Tabbed browsing for reports
While QuickBooks Online doesn’t have an Open Windows List like QBDT, you can have
as many tabs open as you need.
Below, you can see how I’m moving from tab to tab to view reports.
- Report Customizations
Can’t find the report you want? Open a similar report, customize it to give you the data
the way you want it, then save the customizations.
You can find all of these reports under the My Custom Reports header of the Report
Center
- Search for Reports
When in a client file, left click in the Search box at top right. A great way to see the last
transactions entered and reports recently run. As well, you can search for a report you
might not remember where it is…
- Hamburger Button
The 3 lines at top left of client file, we call it the “Hamburger” button, and it collapses the
Left Nav Bar, in case you need more real estate…
- Drag & Drop Links to New Tab
Not a function of QuickBooks Online , it’s a chrome trick - you can drag and drop
navigation links to a new tab.
- Recent Transaction Button
Are you about to create an invoice that you’re pretty sure you’ve already created?
Before you start a new one, you can use the little clock icon in the top left corner to look
for recent invoices.
FYI: this button can be found in the top left of any transaction screen, so you can look
for recent Sales Receipts, Journal Entries, Bill Payments, etc.
- Reclassify transactions to birds-eye accounts
We all love this tool, it has been in QBA for years, also in QuickBooks Online When
accessed via QuickBooks Online Accountant , accessed from Accountant toolbox.
Allows me to reclassify miscoded transactions in batch, but also to make sure the right
transaction types are in the right account. I call it “birds-eyeing” and is faster than
duplicating report tabs as i can just highlight an account and sort by Transaction type
etc...also helpful to see why a transaction would even be in a certain account:
- Bank Feed Rules
Bank rules are processes you can create to conduct particular actions (such as
categorize) bank transactions that meet certain conditions. In theory, they are are similar
to rules in Outlook or Mint.
Rules enable users to control, customize and further automate their banking experience
within QuickBooks Online
I generally recommend Bank Rules for transactions that happen often or on a schedule,
are the same vendor, same expense account but a different amount. A good example
would be how we use them at Kildal Services LLC, for travel expenses.
- Import/Export Bank Rules
Got clients that leverage the same vendors for purchases? Do you have some killer
bank rules set up in one of their QBO files? You can Export those rules and then Import
into the other QBO client file’s bank and credit card window.
- Recurring transactions
Recurring transactions are used to create templates frequently used in your workflow –
i.e. monthly JE for depreciation or auto bank draft. They can be used for first step in a
workflow, so you can do a bill or an invoice, but can’t make bill payments or receive
payments recurring.
You can set recurring transactions to be scheduled (like a monthly Sales Receipts for
membership ), unscheduled (maybe an estimate with many line items that you use a
few times per year) or set QBO to remind you about them (maybe you write a blog and
the due date varies each month).
- Keyboard Shortcuts: Dates
Interesting, just typing some letters on your keyboard...there are 7 letters that will impact
the transaction date field. Give the below a whirl...
h-end of current month
k-pushes out week at time
m-beg of current month
r-end of current year
t--today
w--pushes back a week at time
y--beg of current year
- Keyboard Shortcuts - Calculations
Don’t feel like mathing? QuickBooks Online will do it for you!
If you need to make a calculation, you can do it in fields that require a number.
Enter the calculation (seen here is 15*2) then hit tab and QBO maths it, check it out!
- View Transaction Journal
When you create a posting transaction in QBO (one that hit’s the General Ledger) you
can view the corresponding transaction journal by opening the transaction, scrolling to
the bottom, and clicking the “More” button, then “Transaction Journal”
Here’s what the Transaction Journal looks like; it gives you the debit/credit information
relating to that transaction:
- Reconcile - Discrepancies
The recently updated bank reconcile feature gives way better discrepancy visibility, and
access to solve...
- Reconcile - In-line edits
I can add a Payee, change the amount and change the cleared status to reconcile all
without having to go to the register...
- Reconcile - Filtering
As well, one can now sort the reconcile columns by amount, Ref no, Payee, et...And we
can filter by way more information to further find transactions within the Reconcile
window.
- Reconcile - Sorting
Nice to be able to sort by more info now too!
- Filter configure tables in transactions lists
In the sales center and vendor center, users can customize how the transaction lists
look by clicking the “baby gear” icon, choosing to add/remove columns, as well dragging
the column lines:
Users can also filter and sort these lists:
- QuickBooks Payments
Woody and I did a video in 2015 about how QB Payments works - showing the process
end to end process. The basics haven’t changed, just the QBO Interface:
https://stacyk.site/QBO_Payments
- Bill.com Online Billpay
Now there is a way to do Vendor ACH leveraging bill.com, but built inside of QBO. If you
do not see the below access point to sign up for the Online Billpay feature (powered by
bill.com) in your QBO file, support can give you a URL to force the signup process...It is
just paying vendors online, $9.99/mo and $.49/electronic payment, $1.49/mailed check.
- App ecosystem
Really need functionality that QBO does not yet support yet need to be mobile? This is
where apps.com come into play. Firms can even connect apps for their clients now, or
the client can do it themselves. Hundreds of apps have been vetted by Intuit to work
well with QBO, which expands the feature set of the online product.
- QuickBooks Online Accountant apps tab
As I mentioned in this article from the Firm of the Future blog:
“Historically, I've used the Intuit® App Center to search for an app that will fill the need a
client might have, and that won't change because it's just a personal preference in how I
search,” said ProAdvisor Stacy Kildal, owner of Kildal Services. “What will change is the
way I manage these apps. In the past, we had to have the clients sign up and then add
my firm as a user. With the new QBOA Apps tab, it's MUCH easier for us to add apps to
a client’s QuickBooks Online (QBO) account, view the connected apps and launch.”
Woody and I also talked about this on QBOShow.com, you can listen here.
- QuickBooks Labs - Projects
Turn Project tracking on in QB Labs, will find that under Gear icon. While it is not yet full
on job costing, it does provide a central place to track all your projects, auto-fills the
customer:project in Name field on cost forms, and pre-filters the P&L for the particular
project to track project profitability. I can also keep up on unbilled time & expense as
well as non-billable time. Plus only beta feature (at this time)...
- QuickBooks Labs - Smart Scan
Cool QB lab beta feature you can turn on in QB labs under Gear icon. Does a QBO file
health check across a few different common mistakes, and Intuit is currently seekIng
feedback on what other data accountants wouLd like surfaced up as potential issues…
- Progress Invoicing work around
This is an excerpt from my Job Costing workaround, you can find the entire PDF here:
https://stacyk.site/JobCosting201708
I would change the reference number of Estimate #2120 to #2120.01 to indicate that it
was the first of the estimates used for the project (alternatively, you could just add
another Estimate #2120, duplicating the reference numbers, and use the internal memo
field to indicate 1, 2, 3, etc). Add the description of the total project in the description of
the Estimate so the customer can see the details. Now, duplicate the estimate by
clicking the COPY button at the bottom of the screen. Now, edit the line items of the
new Estimate to show the remainder of the project, with the details in the description
area of a line that has no item in it, just as you did in the original one. Now number this
one 2120.02. Should you need more than 2 invoices, keep repeating the process and
numbering accordingly. (Keep in mind, you’ll need to adjust the next new Estimate to the
next actual number in the sequence - in this case, it should be 2121, but QBO will
default to 2120.03).
- Receive Partial Purchase Orders
After many of waiting, users finally can receive a partial purchase order in QBO. I wrote
an article about it right after the feature was released, you can find it here:
http://stacyk.net/receive-partial-purchase-orders-in-quickbooks-online/
- Using the QBO Windows app
There are apps that you can download for your Mac or Window computer, and this
video gives you some insight to how they work. Think of them as special browsers that
only allow you to access one website: qbo.intuit.com
https://stacyk.site/QBO_Windows_App
- Custom Reports - Email Scheduling
If you have reports that you want to have automatically sent to yourself or, if you’re an
accounting professional, your client, you can set them up as custom reports, then set an
email schedule. You can do this for individual reports and/or report groups.
- QuickBooks Labs - Import Style
A QB labs feature, turn it on under Gear icon/QB labs...I can import a word doc as an
invoice or estimate template. Cool if you or your client already has a template they want
QBO to inherit, not that it gives QBO any more fields to choose, still locked into the form
customization limits of QBO itself...
Side Note: Every time I see this in QBO, my brain starts playing this “…And on the cool
check in, center stage on the mic…”
- Expense vs Check
Use the Check form when it is actually a check that is handwritten or printed. Use Bill
form when it needs to be paid later. But for all other purchase transactions that are not a
check or a bill, use the Expense form. Works great for cash, credit and debit card
expenses.
- Budget vs actual = estimate vs actual
Because QBO doesn’t have an estimates vs actual report, we use budgets within QBO.
QBO allows for more than one budget per fiscal year, so each customer and/or sub
customer in QBO can have a separate budget. Or even more than one! We use the
budget feature in QBO to enter the estimated costs and revenue.
For more info: https://stacyk.site/JobCosting201708
- Zero dollar transactions for attaching statements, sales tax payments, payroll tax payments
Since we can’t attached statements to accounts, or documents to Sales Tax or Payroll
Tax payments in QBO, I had to come up with other ways to do it.
Here’s the article about the statements: http://stacyk.net/attach-bank-and-credit-card-statements-in-quickbooks-online/
Here’s the article about the tax payments:
http://stacyk.net/use-0-transactions-to-upload-salespayroll-tax-confirmations-in-quickbooks-online/
- Converting from QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions to QuickBooks Online
Woody has a video that details how to convert from QuickBooks Enterprise solutions to
QuickBooks Online.
Open the QBES file, then click the F2 button to bring up the Product Information page,
then click CTRL B + CTRL Q. Then just close the Product Information page and follow
the conversion wizard.
Here’s a video about it: http://www.screencast.com/t/rwKHG4EK
- Multi-currency
Woody did a great video on Multi-currency:
https://stacyk.site/QBOMulticurrency
- Converting from QuickBooks for Mac to QuickBooks Online
No audio in this video; it’s just a short tutorial on how to convert your QuickBooks for
Mac 2016 file to QuickBooks Online:
- Using QuickBooks Online Drawers
When you have estimates, billable time, expenses or delayed charges assigned to a
customer in QuickBooks Online, you’ll be prompted to add those to an invoice when you
choose that customer name:
On the vendor side, if you have purchase orders or open bills, vendor credits, the
drawer will open as well, so that you may add them:
- Adding an expense with QBO Mobile App
Short video on adding an expense with a receipt picture, using the QuickBooks Online
mobile app:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgN1HeV7qrU
- QuickBooks Online Accountant Work
I was recently asked to write an article about QBOA Work; you can read the article here:
https://www.firmofthefuture.com/content/all-your-work-all-in-one-place-work-tab-in-quick
We hope you enjoy the list and we’ll see you at #QBConnect 2017!