Quickbooks Online Certification

QBO Plan Limits: Plus

- 40 classes and locations - 250 chart of accounts - 5 billable users - 2 accountants - No limit reports-only - No limit time tracking

How do I know which apps to recommend?

- App listing - Browsing - Overview - Reviews

Wholesale billing has three key benefits. What are they?

- Bundling all client subscriptions into one invoice - Easy tracking - Switch anytime

OW: Recommending the best QBO solution

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!

QBO Plan Limits: Simple Start

- 0 classes and locations - 250 chart of accounts - 1 billable user - 2 accountants - 0 reports-only - 0 time tracking

QBO Sub: Plus

- Budgets & advanced reports - Track multiple revenue streams and/or departments or locations (classes and locations) - Track inventory - Track project profitability - 5 users & 2 accountants

The Client Overview is a great way to see your client's account at a glance. What are the key benefits of this?

- Concise subscription information - Recent banking activity stats - Early indications of banking errors

QBO Sub: Essentials

- Growing business - Manage accounts payable & accounts receivables - Recurring transactions - Time-tracking - Multicurrency - 3 users & 2 accountants

How might you get lists and transactions into a new Quickbooks Online company?

- Import Excel files - Convert QBD files

QBO Plan Limits: Advanced

- No limit classes and locations - No limit chart of accounts - 25 billable users - 3 accountants - No limit reports-only - No limit time-tracking

QBO Sub: Self-Employed

- Scheduled C; Cash basis - 1099 Income & W2 - Separate Business/Personal Accounts - 1 user & 1 accountant

QBO Sub: Advanced

- Small reporting (Fathom) - Unlimited accounts and classes - Advanced import and batch entry - Custom user roles - Dedicated manager and online training - 25 users & 3 accountants & premium care

SU: How do I know if there's an outage?

In the U.S., we continuously monitor QuickBooks Online for outages and slowdowns. We provide status updates on any service outages or interruptions here. If you or your client have any problems accessing products in the QuickBooks ecosystem, visit this site to see if there's a service interruption.

Employees and Payroll

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 payroll requirements).

When?

How often do they run reports? What are their internal and external deadlines? All of your clients will have compliance requirements for their business even if they don't run payroll or collect sales tax.

SU: How can I get notified when it's fixed?

If any of the products experience an outage or interruption, the banner will let you know what's happening. By selecting the Subscribe button, you'll be automatically notified when the service issue is addressed and resolved.

COS: Banking Activity

In the Banking Activity section, you can see the register balance of each bank and credit card account in QuickBooks. The register balance is the balance from the end date of the register, which could include future-dated transactions. In the Banking Activity tab, we see the checking account, merchant account, and payroll checking account displayed.

Adding new clients: Getting started

As a minimum, you will need to enter: The business name and contact details The type of subscription How your client will be billed Which team members in your firm need access to the client's QuickBooks Online

OW: Meeting the client and gathering information

As we've seen, by using the New Client Checklist and asking the right questions, you can more accurately scope the client engagement, set expectations, and build a stronger collaborative relationship for the upcoming onboarding process. Once the contract is signed, providing a detailed onboarding plan and introduction to the onboarding team, and agreeing on payment arrangements are key ingredients for success. Getting this right gives the client the reassurance they may need that they're getting expert advice.

Understand the vendor's billing policy

Check if your client will be charged monthly or annually. Make sure you can answer any questions the client may have regarding billing policies.

Recommending apps for clients

Cindy has been manually entering her sales from her website into QuickBooks Online, and this has been taking up lots of time that should be spent on other areas of her business. She has heard about the benefits of apps and wonders if there could be apps that can help save her time and streamline her processes. You know all about apps.com and offer to jump in and help her find a solution. The first step is to understand the existing process she uses and what technology is involved in the process. She tells you that her website platform keeps track of her customer, sales, and inventory data. She has been entering each sales receipt captured by the website into QuickBooks Online. Let's see if we can find an app on apps.com that can sync her data and enter her website sales into QuickBooks Online automatically! We'd certainly be heroes if we could save her time and make her job easier! If we know what type of website platform Cindy uses, we can enter the name into the search box because it will only show apps that include the keywords that we enter. Notice that there are apps to sync data between lots of different types of website platforms like Magento, Shopify, and WooCommerce.

COS: Company Setup

Company Setup shows you the subscription level that the client is subscribed to, whether they are subscribed to a Payroll product, and whether Sales tax has been enabled.These indicate the complexity of the client's QuickBooks Online Company.

Which subscription level in QBO could you recommend that would provide features such as tracking for sales and sales tax?

Simple Start, Essentials, Plus, or Advanced

Other daily operations needs

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.

Any other requirements

Don't forget to ask your client whether there is anything else they may need that you haven't yet covered or asked. They may already have an accounting solution and wish to convert their existing account to QuickBooks Online.

Usage Limits

Each subscription has limits.

App Listing

Easily start your app research by browsing our tailored app carousels on the QuickBooks Online Accountant Apps tab and apps.com. See which apps are trending, new, top-rated, featured, and specific to business types on apps.com, or search by apps we recommend for clients or for accountants when researching on the QuickBooks Online Accountant Apps tab.

What?

Every business, large or small, has a variety of parts. You need to find our what they are in order to best discuss QBO functionality and benefits with them,

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.

Adding new clients: By Invitation

If your client has already signed up to QuickBooks Online, they simply need to send you an invite. When you accept their invite, they'll be added to your QuickBooks Online Accountant, and appear in your client list.

Adding new clients: QBO Accountant

If your client is new to QuickBooks Online and hasn't signed up yet, you will want to add them via QuickBooks Online Accountant. If you, as their accountant and ProAdvisor, set this up for them, you'll be able to: - Ensure they're signed up to the subscription level that best fits their needs - Take advantage of discounts, like wholesale billing - Access their books right away, using your own sign-in credentials, without waiting on an invitation - Assign access to team members in your firm to work on their books. Multiple users can be signed in at the same time

NCC: Mileage

If your client needs to track mileage, then collect their vehicle profile information during the requirements gathering stage. You can do this for each vehicle they need to track mileage for.

NCC: Self-Employed Profile

If, after your consultation, it is clear the client requires QuickBooks Self-Employed, the QBSE Profile tab has been designed to ensure you acquire all the additional information you need from your client in order to set up their subscription, including whether they have a healthcare plan or a vehicle to take into consideration.

OW: Training and mentoring

It's a great idea to help clients help you as their accountant/bookkeeper 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, not just in accounting best practice and requirements, but also in how they should work in QuickBooks Online to get the best results. It's a great time to remind them to download the QuickBooks Online app so that they can keep track of their finances on the go. 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!

Understand the vendor's onboarding and support services

Make sure you know what your role will be up front and that you'll be able to get help directly from the vendor regarding setting up the app and troubleshooting client questions.

IT: Professional services

Managing cash flow is essential for these types of businesses, because they often incur expenses up front, before they receive payment. Time tracking and job costing are essential to ensure the profitability of any business. This holds especially true for these clients, who must spread limited resources—including their time—across various jobs.

Reviews

Many of the apps have been reviewed by customers and other ProAdvisors, and 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.

To be listed in the QB App Center, apps must ______________

Meet strict requirements and undergo a testing process

Adding new clients: Fine-tuning

QuickBooks Online can be fully customized to meet your specific client's needs. For example, here are just some of the additional features you may need to set up: Online payments Multicurrency Sales tax

Editing Account Names

Sometimes it's a good idea to make things a little easier for clients by making account names more appropriate and easily identifiable. This helps them avoid errors and posting to the wrong accounts when recording transactions. In Chris's COA, we're going to make his petty cash account more identifiable by changing its name from the default Cash on Hand account to Petty Cash. To edit the name of the account: 1. From the Left Navigation Bar, select Accounting and choose Chart of Accounts 2. Then find the Cash on Hand account in the list 3. From the Action column drop-down menu, select Edit 4. In the Account dialog, update the Name to Petty Cash 5. Select Save and Close

COS: Common Issues

The Common Issues tab is where you'll see some diagnostic information about the condition of the data in QuickBooks Online.Here, you can quickly check: - The number of uncleared transactions in the Undeposited Funds account register - The balance in the Opening Balance Equity account, which should always be at zero - Any transactions that QuickBooks Online has automatically categorized to the Uncategorized asset accounts

What is the Chart of Accounts?

The purpose of bookkeeping is to create a record of financial transactions that are organized in a way that allows you and your client to analyze the business financial data, run financial reports, and prepare for taxes. These transactions are organized in the Chart of Accounts, which forms the backbone of the accounting system.

Onboarding Workflow: Tasks

The steps in the QuickBooks Online Accountant QuickStart template for onboarding aren't just a set of tasks to check off, but a list of opportunities to add value and develop a great working relationship.

QBO Status Updates

There are lots of benefits of having your client's financial information in the cloud. But what happens if there's a problem? As part of your client onboarding process, it's a good idea to make them aware of how to deal with outages.

Migration

There are three ways to get information into QuickBooks Online: - Convert data in existing QuickBooks Desktop software - Import customers, vendors, charts of accounts, and products and services lists from Excel - Enter all data manually

Wholesale Billing

Under this option, you (as the client's accountant) are billed monthly for the subscription and will have an itemized view of all your wholesale subscriptions for easy tracking. As our most trusted partners, we want to ensure that you receive the best pricing on QuickBooks Online, with up to 50% wholesale discount. With wholesale billing, you control how the cost is passed along to your clients. The benefits include: - 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

Overview

Understand the key benefits offered by an app as well as how the app works with QuickBooks Online.

NCC: Onboarding Checklist

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.

OW: 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/vendor lists to determine if you can utilize the current data to import into QuickBooks Online or if you can tailor it to their needs with some adjustments to their lists and categorization options.

Sales and Accounts Receivable

relates to the transactions relevant to their customers. In this section, you'll get a better idea of their requirements for estimating, invoicing, price levels, and sales-tax circumstances.

Industry trends

While you need to take the time to understand each client's specific requirements, there are some common themes and pain points based on which industry they're in. These are five common business industry types, and each comes with its own pain points: - Professional services - Contractor/field services - Retail and e-commerce - B2B wholesale business - Nonprofits

Client Needs Assessment Process

Who, What, When, and How

IT: B2B Wholesale business

Wholesale businesses rely on knowing their inventory at all times. They also need to be able to keep track of all the logistics that go with shipping orders of all sizes, from sales forms and invoices to store locations and agreements with shipping companies.

COS: Reconcile

You can see the number of unreconciled transactions and the date the books have been reconciled through using the Reconcile tool in QuickBooks Online.

Testing

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's not recommended to test an app by connecting it to a live QuickBooks Online company). Most apps in the App Center 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.

NCC: Client Profile

the basic contact information fro your client and their business.

QBO Eco: App Benefits

1. Reduce data entry: Some apps automatically collect and input data, reducing manual entry errors and eliminating inefficiencies caused when entering data into multiple programs. 2. Solve industry-specific tasks: Specialized apps solve industry- and client-specific pain points such as sales force management, estimation, and job-costing. 3. 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. 4. Expand business insight: Customizable reporting apps offer user-friendly dashboards and graphics that improve visibility into performance metrics and provide deeper business insights. 5. 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 appsIn order for an app to be listed in the QuickBooks Online Accountant Apps tab and/or the QuickBooks App Center at apps.com, the app must 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.

COS: Uncategorized Income/Uncategorized Expenses

Adding deposits without assigning an income account is a common issue among new users of QuickBooks Online. Such transactions will appear in the Uncategorized asset account. Just like the Uncategorized income account, most often transactions coded to the Uncategorized expense account are added from the Banking Center without being assigned an expense account.

Browsing

All apps are pre-categorized into the tasks they help resolve. By selecting Browse Category, you can filter apps by the problem you are trying to solve.

He adds a new account called Power Tools, setting the Account Type to Fixed Assets: Other Tools Equipment to keep track of how much he's spending. Now that Craig's Power Tools account is set up, which financial statement will it appear on?

Balance Sheet

Direct Discount

Direct discount is when you add a subscription through QuickBooks Online Accountant, but you want your client to pay. The client will be required to enter their credit card information when they sign in to the newly created subscription, but they typically get a discount on the pricing for a finite period of time. If clients sign up for Direct Discount, they get a limited-time discount on their subscription which then reverts to the listed monthly charge. Your client is billed directly for the subscription.

How to add a service

One of the services Craig's Landscaping offers is annual irrigation. This needs to be added to his list of services so that he can invoice his customers for this with ease in the future and see it appear in his accounting. He does purchase additional products that he uses as part of his business, such as fertilizer. You can add these as products. 1. Select Sales from the Left Navigation Bar and enter the Products and Services tab 2. Select the green New button 3. Choose Service from the list 4. Name the service Annual Irrigation System Maintenance 5. Select Landscaping from the Category drop-down 6. Enter Annual Irrigation System Maintenance under Description 7. The Sales price/rate is $500 8. Select Services from the Income account drop-down 9. Select Save and close 10. To add the product Craig purchases for company use, select New 11. From the list, choose Non-inventory 12. In the Name box, type FertilizerBecause this is something Craig buys, rather than sells, we need to: - Uncheck I sell this product/service to my customers - Check I purchase this product/service from a vendor - Add a description of Fertilizer - The price will vary, so we'll leave that empty 13. From the Expense account drop-down, select Job Materials 14. Select Save and close

IT: Retail and e-commerce

Retail and e-commerce businesses are optimized to sell products and deliver exceptional customer experiences. Sales, payment, and staff management systems must work closely together to better manage profit and loss. Understanding cash flow and balance sheets is necessary to run any business. It's especially important to retailers and resellers, who must manage sales and inventory on top of being ready to do taxes when the time comes. Managing inventory and avoiding out-of-stock situations are critical to the success of retail and e-commerce customers.

Quickbooks Online Subscriptions

Self-Employed; Simple Start; Essentials; Plus; Advanced

Client Overview Screen

The Overview screen offers collapsible sections for Company Setup, Banking Activity, and Common Issues. When you initially view the screen, these will be in their collapsed state.

Other expense tracking needs

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. Ask your client what their current method for keeping track of their taxes is. If they are self-employed, they may not know that estimating their taxes is a handy feature of QuickBooks Online Self-Employed.

New Client Checklist

a handy resource for getting to know your new clients, gathering the required info to get their account set up, and discovering what their business needs are in order to best match them to a subscription level.

Quickbooks Online Ecosystem

a platform with an ecosystem of apps that you and your clients can assemble to build the perfect solution and the functionality that's needed.

NCC: Needs Assessment

lists all the functionality your client may need from QuickBooks Online, and encourages a better understanding of their business so that you can best advise on the subscription level they will need.

QBO Plan Limits: Essentials

- 0 classes and locations - 250 charts of accounts - 3 billable users - 2 accountants - 0 reports-only - No limit time tracking

Where can you find the QuickStart of client onboarding tasks?

- In the Work tab of your QBO Accountant firm

Which two categories would you find (POS)-based apps under?

- Manage customers - Sync data

Account Editing Limitations: You cannot delete or merge the following accounts:

- 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 nonprofit 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 these accounts, any edits to Products/Services will recreate them - Reconcile/Reconciliation Discrepancies: This account is used to report when transactions in QuickBooks Online 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/VAT) Payable: This account is created when you set up sales tax and reports the sales tax for every transaction. You cannot delete this account.

Adding Account Numbers

Garcia Consulting follows accounting best practices in using standardized systems of account numbering for their clients. Let's enable numbering for Chris's file and then add some numbers. To enable account numbers 1. Select the Gear icon on the Toolbar 2. Under Your Company, select Account and Settings 3. Select Advanced from the menu 4. In the Chart of Accounts section, select the edit (Pencil) icon 5. Check Enable account numbers and Show account numbers Note: Enabling account numbers affects all users in your company. Showing account numbers only affects the user who is signed in. 6. Select Save and then Done. Now we can check and assign the account numbers in the Chart of Accounts. QuickBooks Online may automatically assign account numbers when you first turn on the account number option. These default numbers can be changed as needed to align with each firm's numbering convention. 1. Select the Gear icon on the Toolbar 2. Under Your Company, select Chart of Accounts 3. Select the Pencil icon above the Action column 4. In the Number column, enter the account numbers, these can be up to seven digits long. We can then go on and add appropriate numbering for all of Chris's accounts. 1. Select Save and we're done

Who?

Get to know who your client is, what they stand for, what they're aiming for and where they're coming from

How?

How can you help? You can dive deeper using the client checklist, follow the onboarding process, and begin to plan deliverables and tasks with your client.

Merging Accounts and Making Accounts Inactive

Merging and deactivating accounts may be more appropriate or more necessary when onboarding clients who have already started using QuickBooks Online. QuickBooks Online users that haven't had ProAdvisor guidance, tend to add lots of additional accounts when recording transactions.

COS: Opening Balance Equity

The Opening balance equity account should always be zero in QuickBooks. If you see a balance here, it's most likely because an amount was entered in the opening balance field during the creation of a new customer, vendor, Balance Sheet account, or inventory product. The last part of the Common Issues tab is negative asset and liability accounts. This section will display the number of accounts that have a balance contrary to their normal account balance (for example, a negative bank balance).

COS: Transaction Volume

The Transaction Volume tab is where, at a glance, you'll find the number of transactions for the client for the last 30 days. Transactions are grouped into Bank transactions, Invoices, Bills and Bill payments. This tab offers you a clear view of the client's workload.

COS: Bank Balance

The bank balance is coming in from the Banking Center and shows the balance reported the last time the bank connected to QuickBooks. If you select the name of the checking account, you can view the transactions in the bank register.

Adding new clients: Basic setup

The first time you open your client's QuickBooks Online, you will be asked to provide more information about them in the new client setup wizard. When you answer these questions, QuickBooks Online will begin to customize the setup to meet your client's needs. You can still fine-tune these settings at a later date. For basic setup, you need to know: - Your client's industry How they make money: e.g. retail, by project, or as a service provider - Their business type: e.g. sole proprietor, corporation, partnership, or nonprofit What they need to do in QuickBooks Online: - Send and track invoices- Organize expenses - Manage inventory - Track retail sales - Track bills - Track sales tax - Pay employees

Making Accounts Inactive

When setting up a client file, it's a good idea to make any default accounts inactive if they aren't going to be used. This keeps the COA tidy and efficient and prevents the client from posting transactions to the wrong or a redundant account in error. One of Chris's accounts isn't appropriate for his needs. Let's make it inactive, so it no longer appears in his Chart of Accounts and in other places where accounts can be selected (such as account lists on invoice screens). 1. Select Accounting in the Left Navigation Bar, then choose Chart of Accounts 2. Find Corporate Taxes in the Chart of Accounts list 3. Select the drop-down in the Action column, then choose Make Inactive 4. Select Yes to confirm If we need to make an account active again, the steps are: 5. Above the Action column, select the small Gear icon, then check Include inactive 6. Find the account you want to make active again 7. Select Make active By default, inactive accounts are not visible from the Chart of Accounts. If the account contains transactions, they remain as part of the company data. Inactive accounts are still visible on reports if transactions were posted to the account when it was active. The accounts are listed as deleted on reports.

NCC: Features and Solutions

dives 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 see at a glance which subscription level is likely to be best for your client's business.

Accounts that can be edited, but not deleted or merged:

- Services: The Services income account is the default income account in QuickBooks Online. It operates 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. - Uncategorized Expense and Uncategorized Income: These accounts are created automatically when entering an opening balance for a vendor or customer, and recording any expense or income transactions that can't 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.

QBO Sub: Simple Start

- Sole proprietor or single-owner corporations - Full general ledger & accounts receiveable - Multiple sources of income - 1 user & 2 accountants

Inviting an accountant and accepting an invitation

1. Ask your client to invite you to their QuickBooks Online as an accountant user. They'll find this option by selecting the My Accountant tab in the Left Navigation Bar. 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 assigned to someone else 2. Once your client has invited you, go to your firm's QuickBooks Online Accountant email inbox. In there you'll see a mail. The subject line will read: [Company Name] has invited you to use QuickBooks Accountant]Select the Accept Invite buttonNote: if you have more than one Intuit ID under your email address, choose the ID you wish to associate with that client. If you already have QuickBooks Online Accountant, make sure to choose the user ID that you use to sign in to your firm. 3. Enter the user ID and password you use for QuickBooks Online Accountant and select Accept Invitation. If you have more than one QuickBooks Online Accountant firm under your user ID, you will be asked to choose the firm you wish to connect this client to 4. Select Continue and your Client List will appear 5. You're ready to get to work for this client!

Adding new clients to QBO Accountant

1. Go to your Client Dashboard in QuickBooks Online Accountant 2. Select Add Client 3. Decide if the account is for a business or an individual. In this example let's assume it's a business 4. Enter the Business name 5. Add the client's email address 6. You can also add a Display name. This is how it will show in your QuickBooks Online Accountant Client Dashboard 7. Add their mobile number 8. You could also Add more info at this stage to capture their contact details, but we're going to come to this a little later 9. At this point in the setup process, you need to select whether the client is being set up with a QuickBooks Online subscription or not. If you choose Subscription, then the process will continue with the steps below. If you choose No Subscription, there is just one item left to do. Select which team member will have access to this client and then select Save to complete the process 10. Choose whether this client will be charged via Wholesale discount (bill your firm) or Direct discount (bill your client) 11. Select the subscription level suitable for their needs and select Save 12. If this is the first client you have added, you'll need to enter your firm's billing information to charge your account for clients on wholesale billing. You also have the option to include payroll at this stage and you can assign further team access to the new client subscription 13. Then select Save 14. When the subscription is created, the new client will get an email inviting them to set up a user account. But we don't need to wait for them to do this to get going on the rest of the setup 15. If you return to your Client Dashboard in QuickBooks Online Accountant, you'll see the new client is ready and waiting. Simply select the green QB icon to complete the rest of the new client setup wizard. 16. We're going to walk you through the feature options later, so for now you can select All Set and the job is done!

Dan Cheng is another new client. Dan offers a virtual assistant/professional service, Cheng's Master VA. He started his business a year ago and grossed $60,000 in that year. Dan doesn't yet use an accounting solution and has a shoebox full of handwritten notes and receipts. However, he's excited to set up a solution that will provide detailed customer breakdown of his sales and customer history. Based on what you already know of Dan, which of the following Sales and Accounts Receivable items would you mark with Yes in the Needs Assessment tab of the checklist?

Dan would benefit from custom invoices, sales receipts, and statements. Custom invoices might help when he needs to track customers and run more detailed reports to make sure he's working in the most efficient way with the customers who generate the most income. Statements are a great tool for service-based businesses that can generate information on what services they're providing to customers. Clients can even use them to tailor their offering so the client gets great value based on what they can afford.Dan doesn't need Multicurrency, nor sales tax, which would be an essential requirement for a retailer selling physical products.

COS: Undeposited Funds/Uncategorized Assets

If a balance is displayed in Undeposited Funds, you can view the activity associated with that balance by selecting the balance amount. This opens the register. Select the Uncategorized asset account to view transactions that have been categorized to this account. It looks as if there are two sales receipts that deposited to the Uncategorized asset account instead of Undeposited Funds!

Merging Accounts

Merging accounts is a good idea if two accounts are being used for the same thing. This is a more common practice when a client has started using a file and has added accounts that they did not need for their recording and reporting purposes. However, a default COA setup can still be optimized by merging accounts. In Chris's case, the accounts haven't been used yet, so they have no transactions linked to them. If they did, the transactions for the merged accounts would also be merged to appear under one entry in any reports we run. Note that the merging process is permanent and cannot be reversed. 1. Select Accounting in the Left Navigation Bar, then choose Chart of Accounts 2. Locate the account to be merged in the list. In this case, we're looking for his Bank Fees account which we're going to merge with his Bank Service Charges account (because he doesn't need both) 3. In the Bank Service Charges row, select the downward arrow under the action column and select Edit 4. Highlight, right-click and copy the name of the account Bank Service Charges 5. Select X to close the Account editing window 6. In the Bank Fees row, select the downward arrow under the action column and select Edit 7. In the editable Account name text box, change the name of the Bank Fees account to Bank Service Charges 8. Select Save and Close 9. When prompted whether you want to merge the accounts, select Yes

IT: Nonprofit

Nonprofit and charitable organizations often track the expenses of various programs and funds. Donations often have to be tracked in as well as out when allocated to various branches of the charity. QuickBooks Online seeks to help make keeping track of donations, pledges, and other funds quick and simple.

How to add a Chart of Accounts

Now that you understand the importance of the Chart of Accounts, let's see what it looks like in QuickBooks Online. Craig needs to create a subaccount to capture the professional fees his business incurs. Once set up, this will help him track money he pays to professionals to help you run his business. When you create a new account, you can assign it a name which will appear in the Type column. The type is broken down into Assets, Liabilities, Equity, Income, and Expenses. 1. To begin, select Accounting to see a list of Craig's existing accounts 2. Select the green New button 3. Using the drop-down list, set Account Type as Expenses. When you select the account type, you are given a description of what this type is used for. It's important to choose the right one so that it flows through to the correct financial statement 4. Set the Detail Type as Bank Charges 5. Name the account Merchant processing fees. Custom names will help you and your client to quickly identify the account 6. When you are happy with your account details, select Save and Close You can now see your new account in the Chart of Accounts. It's worth noting that we could also add subaccounts of Merchant processing fees, for example PayPal processing fees, the expense will be associated with that account.

Product and Services

Once Craig's Chart of Accounts is correctly set up, you can also set up the list of Products and Services he provides. This list contains the products and services that appear on his purchase and sales transactions and they map to an account in the Chart of Accounts. Each time a product or service is used in a transaction, QuickBooks Online makes the appropriate entry behind the scenes.

Specialized application needs

There is a range of apps compatible with QuickBooks Online. Your client may benefit from a specialized app to handle an area of their business. They may even already use one. You will be able to use your knowledge of QuickBooks Online features to spot when a client has a requirement QuickBooks Online can't cater for on its own. That's where integrated apps come into the picture. From cloud storage to time-tracking, there's an app for just about everything.

IT: Contractor/Field Services

These clients are always out and about in the field, which means they don't have a lot of time for bookkeeping. They need solutions that let them stay on top of their books, wherever their projects take them.

Why clients might need a customized Chart of Accounts?

This needs to be reflected in the way their COA is set up. The aim is to make sure that transactions and other data are posted to the appropriate accounts so that: Essential data is accurate and complete, providing insight into balances such as taxes and cash flow Useful and informative reports can be run for important decision-making (such as which jobs are most profitable and which employees are most productive) As well as adding accounts, edits to a default COA can include: Editing the names of default accounts Adding account numbers Merging duplicate accounts Making unused or redundant accounts inactive (you can't actually delete an account)

Expenses and Accounts Payable

This part of the checklist covers their payment preferences, outstanding loans, petty cash limits, and reimbursable expenses, among others.

Transaction volume

This section is important because it will reveal to ProAdvisors the transactional volume and scope of the client's business. It may, for example, indicate that the client might benefit from a QuickBooks Online Advanced subscription, if transactions exceed a threshold of 43,000. This is because QuickBooks Online Advanced offers accelerated data-entry features.

Reporting needs

This section of the New Client Checklist helps you get a clearer picture of how your client prefers to run their reports. Which reports work best for them? How often do they run and analyze their reports? As an additional feature, if the client has employees, they may wish to add users to their accounts who have reports-only access. We'll look into that in more detail later in the course.

COS: Apps

You can also see the number of apps that have been connected to QuickBooks Online. There's a list of the first two rows and you can select the link to view all of the apps.It's really important to know which apps a new client might be using to fully understand their workflow. You'll want to review this on a regular basis because new apps are being connected all the time.