do you lose time managing paper receipts and source documents well in that case you will love
this feature from QuickBooks Online attaching files to transactions if you have any questions
about this topic you can leave them in the comment section below and I'll do my best to help you and
of course if you feel the video helped you I hope you will click like and don't forget to
subscribe to get updates on new videos that come out all the time attaching files to transactions
is a wonderful feature in QuickBooks Online every transaction and document can have a file attached
to it attaching a file to a transaction means doing a one click upload to QuickBooks Online
at the moment you record the transaction you can always view the file by simply opening
the transaction and clicking on the icon for the attachment usually the file you attach is
the source document of the transaction like a receipt or a an invoice or some kind of check
that you can scan in take a picture of and then click to attach as you record the transaction
for example let's imagine on April 3rd of 2017 we paid $80 from petty cash for a delivery from UPS
and let's imagine they gave us a receipt that we scanned into the desktop or took a picture with
our phone and put it on the desktop as a picture file like a JPEG a bitmap or any of the common
picture file types how would you record this into quickbooks online well just like before you would
click expenses you would put the day eight of the expense in our little story which is April 3rd of
2017 and don't forget to change it to 2017 and we know that the vendor is UPS and we're
recording this expense just like we did before please disregard the bills that are due for UPS
because they're not relevant to this transaction make sure that it comes from petty cash because
the transaction specifically said that it came from petty cash and the expense is delivery
expense and the amount was $80.00 so far we've done everything the same that we've done when
we originally learned how to record the expense the only extra step is scrolling all the way down
until you get this button the attachments button we click on it and then we look for the receipt
or the name of the receipt that we scanned in I happen to know that the UPS receipt begins with
the letter U so it'll be towards the end of the alphabet let's see what we have actually we could
just put U and it will filter UPS receipt here it is so click open and now you can see this
JPEG this picture file is uploaded and attached to this transaction all we have to do is click
Save and close now if we want to reopen it all we have to do is click reports because reports
are the best way of finding previous transactions we learned that the journal is the quickest way to
go back to the most recently entered transaction but you could open the transaction from any report
and look here's the transaction we just entered so if we need to see the attachment or download
it all we have to do is reopen the transaction that we just recorded scroll to the bottom and
here it is we can click to view it or click to download it we can right-click save image as or
whatever you'd like to do now you may well ask is there replace and QuickBooks Online where
I can view every attachment I ever uploaded and even download them and the answer is yes it's in
the attachments window in order to get there you click the COG wheel you go across to the column
that says lists and you go down to the last choice and click attachments now in our example we only
have one we just uploaded this one but notice it's giving you a little thumbnail it's telling
you the name of the vendor the size of the file the date it was uploaded and it even has a little
link directly back to the transaction that it's actually attached to so that is a very convenient
feature and if there were several files attached you would see them going down the rows in a list
where you could select all of them and download all of them at once now the great thing about
this is that you can upload first and attach to a transaction later you can upload a file
like a picture of a receipt to this window before you attach it to a transaction you can record the
transaction after uploading and attach the file from the attachments window for example let's
imagine on April 4th we gave rex repair $120 with direct deposit to his bank account from our main
operating account he gave us a receipt on April 4th of 2017 that we scanned into our desktop as
a picture file in one of the common picture file formats now let's imagine we uploaded the receipt
immediately but did not record the expense until the next day April 5th let's take a look at how
this would play out in our procedures so this time we open the attachments window first by
clicking the COG wheel and going over to where it says attachments now click the paperclip and
I happen to remember the first two letters of all receipt name that we scanned in as the file
name here it is the recs receipt click open and notice it uploads it but it is not yet linked or
not yet attached to any particular transaction or at least not yet and the thumbnail preview takes
a moment to come in but if we look back at the actual transaction we can see that April 5th is
the day we're recording it but the date that we put for the transaction is on April 4th because
that's the day the transaction really happened so again we go over to expense and of course the
date is April 4th not the day we're recording it the day the transaction happened and we paid Rex
repair and this transaction actually comes from cash and bank because it was a direct transfer
now we have to put in the information we paid with you know you could say a check if it's a transfer
or whatever method you want to put we know that the expense is repair expense and we know that the
amount is a hundred and twenty dollars ok but how do we now get to the file attachment well
when we click we scroll down to the bottom but instead of clicking the paperclip to upload if
it's already uploaded in the attachments window we click here show existing and that will show
a list of any unlinked file or receipt or picture that we have not used or attached to a transaction
in our example there's only one but when you show existing it'll be every file you upload it to the
attachments window that is not yet linked now all we have to do is click Add on the one we want to
connect and we're done save and close now when we go back to the attachments window you can see that
this attachment is now linked to this expense that was uploaded on this date remember this is
the date that it's uploaded not the date of the transaction and if you want to see or download
or save the attachment you do exactly what we did before click on the link to the transaction
that the file is connected to then scroll all the way down and click right on the file name
now in closing I would like to remind you that the most convenient way to do
this would be to take a picture with your phone and upload it to quickbooks online
using the quickbooks online phone app and you can take the entire course and learn
how to be an expert with your quickbooks online phone app available right here on this website