9 Quickbook Tips, Hacks, and Keyboard Shortcuts
Intuit QuickBooks is one of the most widely used accounting software programs. This is largely due to its simplicity and ease of use.
But like any other software, QuickBooks takes some time to learn.
After getting a handle on the basics, there are some tips and tricks to save you time and effort while using QuickBooks online or QuickBooks desktop.
Keep reading to learn some of the best tips, hacks, and shortcuts to use with QuickBooks.
1. Customize and Organize Your Chart of Accounts
The chart of accounts is a list of all the accounts that a small business deals with on a regular basis.
There are four basic types of accounts that need to be included in your chart of accounts:
Liability Accounts
These are accounts that you owe. These include any loans, credit card balances, payroll taxes, etc.
Income Accounts
Also known as revenue accounts, these accounts consist of the various streams of income your business has. Income accounts can include different services, product lines, or investments.
Asset Accounts
Assets accounts are any valuables that your business owns. These include property, machinery, vehicles, and inventory, but they also include liquid assets like checking accounts or accounts receivable.
Expense Accounts
These accounts help you to track the cost of expenses that you pay to keep your business running.
These can include electric bills, payroll, rent, company meals, or travel.
How to Use a Chart of Accounts
Within each of the columns listed above, a business may have twenty or more accounts. Without some organization, this chart can become very difficult to read.
That’s why you should use QuickBooks to organize a chart of accounts that reflects your business.
What types of accounts are your priority?
For example, if you run a retail business, your inventory should be front and center.
Or, You Can Group Accounts by Department
This system makes it easy for you to see the expenses and revenue of each segment of operation.
Be sure to use account numbers so that you can adjust according to departments. Otherwise, QuickBooks will automatically organize it in alphabetical order.
Instead of adding a new line item for every account, use subheadings to keep like accounts together. Speaking of line items, make sure that their titles are easy to understand.
A simple COA is a fast and at-a-glance financial report. Learn the steps you need to take to create one here.
2. Use the Bank Feeds Feature
Instead of manually entering data into each statement, use the Bank Feeds feature to connect your bank and credit card accounts to QuickBooks.
This way, QuickBooks automatically uploads the bank and credit card statements into your accounts. It will even categorize and input expenses from your transaction history.
There is no limit to how many bank accounts you can connect to QuickBooks, so you can use this for every account you have.
To connect your accounts, follow these steps:
- Click on the Banking tab.
- Under this heading, choose the tab Connect accounts.
- Add your account information.
- Follow the prompt to log into your bank online.
- QuickBooks will sync to your bank and do all the work for you.
Important: Do not use the same account for personal and business expenses. Also, reconciling your accounts monthly helps catch any missed or incorrect data. Follow this tutorial on how to do this.
3. Work With Multiple Windows
When working with QuickBooks Online, it is helpful to work with multiple windows.
This habit allows you to quickly switch between two tabs or reports for easy comparison of different aspects of your accounts.
Learning how to do this saves you the time of having to leave one tab for another to see more information.
You can use this process to see different information for the same company file. Right-click your browser tab and select “Duplicate.” Now, you can have two separate tabs open and can even change the size to see them side by side.
How to Use Two QuickBooks Accounts at the Same Time
To log into two different accounts, use Incognito Mode or Private Browsing. This allows you to open separate accounts on the same computer.
Without Incognito Mode, your browser will automatically log you into the same account.
4. Add Attachments to Invoices
When you’re sending and receiving high numbers of invoices, some of the data can get lost in translation. To ensure that your invoices are correctly documented, having the source material attached for easy reference will make it more official.
What type of attachments or documents would you add to invoices?
Any receipts, copies, bank statements, or corroborating documents.
Here’s how to do this:
- Find the invoice number and open the invoice in QuickBooks.
- Click the attachment icon bar in the bottom left-hand corner of the invoice.
- Scroll through your documents and select the document you want to attach.
- Click Save.
Now, your invoice will have backup files to substantiate the corresponding expense or revenue.
You can also use this feature for any journal entries you have for a saved transaction.
5. Set Up Products and Services List
Setting up a products and service list takes some extra time and effort, but the payoff is so worth it.
This process helps you keep track of your sales by product or service.
This list saves you time in two key ways:
First, a product and services list makes a tremendous impact on your inventory management. You can easily track the quantity of each product, calculate the cost of goods sold, and use the FIFO (First In, First Out) method.
Second, this list speeds up your invoicing process, with prices and descriptions for each product or service automatically added to your invoice.
To set up your products and services list, you first need to gather all your information. Here’s the information it should include:
- SKU number
- Product name
- Purchasing price
- Selling price
- Sales tax amount
- Best vendor from which to buy the product
- Amount you have of each product (if you are using this list to track inventory)
Keep in mind that this information will be printed on some sales and purchasing forms, so make it look professional (use spell check!).
Now that you know the information to include in your products and services list, learn how to set this up here.
6. Save Money with Online Payments
As a small business owner, you know that little expenses can add up very fast. QuickBooks helps you save money by allowing you to accept payments with the QBO payment portal.
The cost to use this service is only 25 cents per transaction, plus a small percentage-based fee for most payment types, such as invoice payments and ACH payments.
This cost is much more economical than other platforms, which may charge a larger one-time fee.
Not only will you save money, but you will see an increase in the speed of the receipt of payment. This is due to the convenience of online payment for your customers.
Visit QuickBooks’ website to learn more about the benefits of this service.
7. Integrate With Other Business Apps
To truly squeeze out every good drop from your QuickBooks subscription, it is a smart practice to integrate as many of the other business apps that you use.
The list of apps that can seamlessly integrate with Quickbook Pro is impressive. This is one area in which QB truly shines as the top business accounting software platform.
Here are some of the different types of apps you can integrate with this software:
- CRMs: HubSpot, Salesforce, and others
- Payroll apps: Gusto, Xero, and more
- Bill pay apps: Bill.com and others
(Check out a more extensive list here.)
Integrating these apps with your QuickBooks account can boost your productivity and save you hours on manual data entry. Within one easy-to-use platform, you’ll get a full picture of your company’s financial health.
Watch this short video to get a better understanding of how this integration makes your life as a business owner much easier.
8. Automate as Much as Possible
Time is money, and the more time you can save, the more time you can spend making money elsewhere. That’s why it’s so important to find a system for automating tasks you do on a regular basis.
QuickBooks helps you save time by making it easy to automate certain processes.
Viewing Reports
One task that’s easy to automate with QuickBooks is tracking down reports. Instead of logging in and going through the motions to find a report, you can have QuickBooks do the work and schedule reports to be emailed to you.
This works well for a custom report that you regularly view. All you have to do is this:
- Click on the Reports tab.
- Select Custom Report.
- Choose how often you would like to see the report and which email address to send it to.
Send Unpaid Invoice Reminders
As you have probably found, there are many customers that need to be gently reminded that their bill is due.
For one reason or another, they have not paid their invoice. To get paid, you may need to send them a quick email reminder with the amount due and the due date.
QuickBooks can see which invoices have been paid and which have not, as well as how much is owed and the due date of said invoice. This makes it much easier to keep track of your payments received.
You can choose to have emails automatically sent to customers who have an overdue invoice after a set amount of time has passed. This is just one more task that you can cross off your list thanks to QuickBooks.
Recurring Transactions
As you run your business, you may have some transactions that come like clockwork. A few examples may include paying rent, monthly purchase orders, and utility bills.
Instead of paying these manually or risking forgetting to pay them at all, you can set up an automated transaction list that will pay these bills for you.
You have the choice of either scheduling reminders to be sent to you or setting up a payment schedule for automatic payment.
9. QuickBooks Keyboard Shortcuts
Once again, QuickBooks has found a way to be as handy as possible. Below, you’ll find a list of keyboard shortcuts that make using this software easy and pleasant.
Note: To use these shortcuts, two keys are constant: CTRL and ALT. You need to press these keys and the corresponding shortcut keys to access the shortcut (ex. CTRL+ALT+A, CTRL+ALT+C, etc.).
Shortcuts for Regular Pages
| A | Chart of accounts |
| C | Customers |
| E | Estimate |
| F | Search transaction |
| H | Help |
| I | Invoice |
| L | List |
| R | Receive payment |
| V | Suppliers |
| W | Check |
| X | Expense |
| ? or / | This dialog |
Shortcuts for Transaction Pages
| C | Cancel out |
| D | Save and close |
| M | Save and send |
| P | |
| S | Save and new |
| X | Exit transaction view |
There are also date shortcuts on transaction pages. To enter these, you simply click on a date field and type in the shortcut. These are as follows:
| T | Today’s date |
| W | The first day of the week |
| K | The last day of the week |
| M | The first day of the month |
| H | The last day of the month |
| Y | The first day of the year |
| R | The last day of the year |
The Quickbooks desktop view also has an extensive list of shortcuts. These are different depending on the type of computer you own.
To learn the shortcuts for both Windows PC users and Mac users click here.
Armed with these time-saving QuickBooks tips, you’ll see even more value in using this accounting software while doing your bookkeeping.
As a small business owner, any action that can reduce stress and improve efficiency is well worth your time.
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