welcome to the fit small business
quickbooks online training course in
this lesson we're going to cover how to
set up advanced settings and quickbooks
online to follow along with me
login to your quickbooks online account
now or click the link below this video
for a free 30-day trial of quickbooks
online you can also find a link below
this video to our full quickbooks online
course and other helpful resources let's
get started setting up advanced settings
is important because most of what's here
will be used as default settings for
your financial reports like your profit
and loss statement balance sheet and
cash flow statement for the purposes of
this video we will use a fictitious
company called paul's plumbing as you
view this video think about how the
information might differ for your
business to begin after you sign into
your quickbooks online account click on
the gear icon and select account and
settings go ahead and click on the
Advanced tab on the far left in the
first section that we want to edit is
accounting click the pencil icon in the
far right hand corner to edit this
information the accounting feature
allows you to enter the fiscal year for
your business in general most businesses
use the calendar year January 1st
through December 31st however if your
business uses a different fiscal year
then you would note that here the first
month of the income tax year would
typically be the same as the first month
of your fiscal year the accounting
method that you use also needs to be
indicated here there are two methods
cash and accrual most small businesses
use the cash method if you are not sure
which method you use refer to your tax
return or contact your tax professional
let's save our changes company type is
the next area that we need to edit you
will need to select how your company is
organized in this section if you are not
sure how your company is organized click
this link to our article on company
organization the options that you have
to choose from here are sole proprietor
partnership small business corporation
which is typically an S corp a
corporation nonprofit organization or
limited liability corporation Paul files
a Schedule C with his tax return so he
is a sole proprietor let's save our
changes here the next section is the
chart of accounts the chart of accounts
allows you to enable account numbers
this feature will allow you to assign an
account number to all of your accounts
most accountants tend to use this
feature but it is not commonly used by
non accountants unless you have been
given a chart of accounts that your
accountant wants you to use I recommend
that you leave this feature off discount
account and the how to set up QuickBooks
Online invoices sales receipt and
estimates lesson we walk through how to
turn on the discount feature if you
activated this feature then you want to
be sure to assign a discount account
here if you did not set up a discount
account you can do so from this screen
just click the drop down and scroll up
to select add new be sure to watch our
video tutorial on how to set up the
chart of accounts to learn how to create
a new account let's save our changes
here categories allows you to track
classes and location class tracking
allows you to categorize income and
expenses by department or product line
once you turn this feature on it will
add a class feel to all sales and
expense forms be sure to mark the check
box that says warn me when a transaction
isn't assigned a class QuickBooks will
let you know if you forget to assign a
class to a transaction you also have the
option to select one class per
transaction or select one class per line
item in a transaction like
an invoice tracking locations allows you
to categorize income expenses by
location like stores or sales region
once you turn this feature on it will
add a location field to all sales and
expense forms let's go ahead and save
our changes here automation is the next
section this feature allows you to
activate several areas the first one is
prefilled forms with previously entered
content this feature will automatically
complete the fields on any form in
QuickBooks based on the last saved
transaction for that customer vendor or
employee a word of caution here while
this feature might save you a few
keystrokes be sure that the information
is copied over correctly for example if
the invoice date or amount is different
from the last transaction you will need
to update those fields with the correct
information and paul's business time is
money if he can save even a few minutes
here and there it's worth it he's gonna
go ahead and allow QuickBooks to
pre-fill his forms so that all he has to
do is make changes to just the fields
that are different automatically applied
credits is the next feature below that
this feature will automatically apply
credits to the next invoice you create
for the same customer for example if you
over charged a customer for something
then you need to create a credit memo in
QuickBooks for that customer by turning
this feature on QuickBooks will
automatically apply the credit to the
next invoice that you create for that
customer so that the amount that they
owe is reduced by the credit that is
applied if you don't turn this feature
on you will have to manually apply any
outstanding credits to customer invoices
automatically invoiced unbilled
activity this feature will automatically
create an invoice for your customer for
unbuild items Paul would like to leave
this feature off and he will determine
when to bill his customers for unbilled
items
copy estimates two invoices with the
click of a button this feature will
allow you to quickly create an invoice
by copying the items from an estimate
that your customer has approved turning
on this feature is definitely worth the
keystrokes it will save you
automatically apply bill payments this
feature automatically applies your
payments to the oldest existing bill
that you have entered into QuickBooks
for a vendor for example when you create
a payment for a vendor you typically
want to pay the oldest bill first by
turning this feature on QuickBooks will
automatically apply your payment to
bills in the order they become due this
will ensure that your bills are paid by
their due date let's go ahead and save
our changes here the time tracking
feature will allow you to easily manage
hours that your contractors work and it
makes it easy to bill your customers
back for that work if you need to pause
bills customers by the hour so this
feature will help him to easily deal his
customer for the right hours once the
job is complete currency this feature
lets you track transactions in foreign
currencies you would only use this
feature if you have bank accounts
customers or vendors that don't use your
home currency let's go ahead and save
our changes other preferences allows you
to set up several general features here
it allows you to set up the date format
it allows you to format your numbers in
QuickBooks it will warn you if a
duplicate check number is used when
paying a vendor you can set up a
customer label so if you like to refer
to your customers as something other
than customers so donors or clients you
are able to make that selection here you
can also set it up so that QuickBooks
will warn you if a duplicate check
number is used and QuickBooks will warn
you if a duplicate bill number has been
used by your supplier the last but not
least you are able to tell QuickBooks to
sign you out after a certain period of
time has passed for inactivity the
default is set to one
our but you can increase set up to three
hours go ahead and save our changes that
wraps up the section on setting up
advanced settings to access this course
or any of the others in the series or
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