Learn how to enable automatic custom transaction numbers in QuickBooks Online.
QuickBooks Online users may find an often overlooked option in QuickBooks Online called Custom transaction numbers.
When this option is turned on, QuickBooks Online will allow users to specifically label invoices with their own labels or numbers. However, users can also automate custom invoice numbers by giving QuickBooks Online a starting point and turning off the custom transaction numbers option. Afterward, every new invoice will continue from the initial custom number.
To access this option, go to the Gear icon > Account and settings > Sales. Find custom transaction numbers, and turn it on or off. Make sure to save your changes.
By default, this option may be on for new subscribers, but those who have been using QuickBooks Online for some time may find this option off.
Below are sample invoices. The first image is with Custom transaction numbers turned on. Notice the presence of an Invoice no. field.
Notice by default that QuickBooks Online, for new users, will just start with 1001. The numbering is sequential. With the option turned on, users can specify a unique invoice no. for each document, or if left alone, QuickBooks will automatically populate the field.
This next image is with the custom transaction numbers turned off in QuickBooks Online. Notice the Invoice no. field is now gone. Note that location setting is turned on, which is what the “Store” field is.
What users can do is have QuickBooks Online automatically populate invoices with a naming scheme. To set this up, first turn on Custom transaction numbers in QuickBooks Online. Look at the beginning of the article for where this setting is.
Then create a new invoice. In the Invoice no. field, type in the naming scheme that you want QuickBooks Online to use for future invoices. For our example, we’ll use AMZ-1001 for the first invoice. Save the invoice.
Then go back to the Custom transaction numbers setting in QuickBooks Online and turn it off. Make sure that you save the setting.
After you’ve created the first invoice with the custom name and then turned off the setting, QuickBooks Online will automatically use your custom label for every subsequent invoice.
Notice in the image above that the Invoice no. field is now missing. QuickBooks Online has automatically continued using the custom labels for the invoice.
Make sure you’ve deleted the initial invoice if you made up sales or you may get incorrect numbers in your reports.
Having QuickBooks Online automatically use custom transaction numbers that you’ve specified can give you more detail in understanding your reports.
Learn how to import your inventory into QuickBooks Online using a sample inventory sheet that you can download from your company.
Learn what each column means and how to set up your inventory properly the first time. Also learn what some mistakes some users make when they first set up the sheet, along with some helpful tips for Amazon sellers!
Where to download the sample inventory sheet from QuickBooks Online
Before you can import inventory into QuickBooks Online, you’ll need to make sure that you have inventory tracking enabled. That means that subscribers must have at least the QuickBooks Online Plus or Advanced subscriptions.
If you have a lower subscription, you’ll have to upgrade to be able to take advantage of inventory tracking.
To turn on the option, go to the Gear icon > Company Settings. Then click on Sales, and under Products and Services, turn on “Track quantity and price/rate” and “Track inventory quantity on hand.”
Once you’ve enabled these options, you can now download a sheet from QuickBooks Online to fill out so that you can import inventory.
To download the sample inventory sheet, click on Sales. Under New, click on the dropdown arrow, and then click on Import. On the next screen, you can download the form to edit and upload.
Once you download the form, open it up using Microsoft Excel, Google Docs, or any other spreadsheet application you use (LibreOffice or OpenOffice, for example).
Understand QuickBooks Online PnS (Products and Services) Sample Inventory Sheet
We’ll go through each column and discuss what to put in each one. Where relevant, we’ll offer some advice to keep your books more organized. Below is the sheet—close-ups are provided below.
The fields in the sample sheet correspond to the fields on the inventory or service items when you first create them. The form is below for reference.
Here’s a closeup of the first half of the sheet:
Product/Service Name – This field is required and unique—meaning only one Product or Service can ever have this name.
If you’re integrating your inventory with any other app, then changing the name may cause errors with that app.
If you’re an Amazon seller, we highly recommend that you set the QBO Name field to the same as whatever your Amazon SKU is. That’s because the Amazon SKU, like the QuickBooks Name, does not change.
Below is a reference. To keep things the same, we’d recommend that sellers use “SS_Spoon” in QBO for the Name field. That way, unique identifiers from Amazon and QuickBooks Online match.
Otherwise, whatever you decide to use for your Inventory Name, you’ll want to maintain a naming standard or consistency. Too often, sellers will just type anything into this field, and then as the business grows and others add to their product list, their entire inventory database can become very messy.
Then it becomes a mess to rename and redo everything; in some cases, renaming won’t be feasible. So think carefully about how you want to name your inventory.
Sales Description – This field is optional. This is where sellers would normally put the Product Name, or title, from Amazon. This field will automatically populate on the invoices whenever you select the product or service for documents. While it’s not necessary, it may be helpful if you don’t have descriptive item Names/SKUs.
If you’re optimizing your product title, then you may want to consider populating this field later if you want to maintain more precise and consistent records.
SKU – The SKU field is optional in QuickBooks Online. This part usually confuses many sellers since SKUs remain static or unique for most retailers. That means you can have multiple products in QBO that all share the same SKU.
If you sell on Amazon, we highly recommend you use your product’s ASIN here. That way, you can easily search by Amazon SKU or ASIN in QBO.
Type – This field is required. You can put either Inventory, Service, or Noninventory in this field. Most sellers would put Inventory here. If you’re uploading services and non-inventory, you may want separate sheets for those to keep them organized, or have a different section for services and noninventory so that they’re all grouped together.
Sales Price / Rate – This field is optional. You may want to leave this field blank so that users entering in transactions are forced to enter the correct price here.
Any value you put here will automatically populate when creating transactions. Since prices change often when it comes to ecommerce, you may want to leave it blank.
If you’re using SellerZen to automate your Amazon to QuickBooks Online integration, then we’ll automatically enter the price the item sold for on the transaction.
Taxable – By default, QuickBooks Online will mark Products as Taxable. If they’re not taxable, then you should enter “No” in this field.
Income Account – By default, QuickBooks Online will use the Sales of Product Income account for all sales proceeds from this item.
If you have a different account, then it’s important that you select that here.
For instance, if you have two Amazon seller accounts, and you’re tracking both accounts on the same QuickBooks Online company, then you may want to consider having two separate sales of product income account—one for each seller account.
This allows for better reporting so that you can see sales from each account rather than having both lumped into one sales account.
Some sellers may use separate sales of product income accounts to track different brands, product lines, etc.
You can have SellerZen use different accounts if you’re using our platform to automatically synchronize your Amazon seller accounts with QuickBooks Online.
Here’s a closeup of the second half of the PnS sheet:
Purchase Description – This field is optional. Some sellers may want to put the manufacturer’s description here or just notes regarding the item.
Purchase Cost – This field is optional. QuickBooks Online doesn’t really use this field to calculate your COGS or purchase cost. In the absence of any number, QuickBooks will refer to this field.
Your actual purchase cost will be determined through your POs, Bills, or other documents you use to purchase the item.
Expense Account – This field is required. The default account is the Cost of Goods Sold account. If you’re using a different Income Account, then consider using a different Expense Account as well.
Quantity on Hand – This field is required. Many sellers are tempted to put their actual quantity on hand here. But if you’re setting up your company for the first time, you’ll want to put zero.
Then use vendor documents like POs, Bills, or Expenses to record inventory purchases. This way, QuickBooks Online will accurately track costs. Make sure your dates are correct, as QuickBooks Online uses FIFO.
Reorder Point – This field is optional. This will let you know when you should reorder a particular product.
Inventory Asset Account – This field is required. You may want to change this if you’re changing the Income and Expense accounts.
Quantity as-of Date – This field is required. This date is important because QuickBooks Online uses this date as a limit; you won’t be able to backdate a transaction to a date before the as-of date of the product.
If you’re setting up your company for the first time, then you’ll want to use a date that precedes your first sale. Some sellers make the mistake of using a current date, and that will just result in errors when employees try to enter earlier transactions.
Even if you make a mistake, you can re-upload the form to update your list of inventory. Just select the fields you want to change. We’ll go over this in the next section.
Importing your inventory sheet into QuickBooks Online
Once you’re ready with the sheet, it’s time to upload it to your QuickBooks Online. Warning: make sure that everything on the sheet is correctly formatted. The dates should be in MM/DD/YYYY format.
The first row will be ignored, but everything after that will be imported. Delete the yellow warning on the first column that starts with “Do not import this file as is…”
You’ll want to avoid re-importing to update items, as that can sometimes cause confusion and errors.
Here’s a completed row for the inventory sheet. Note that the first row, containing the labels, will not be imported.
Let’s go ahead and upload this sheet into QuickBooks Online and get the product created.
Go back to Sales > Products and Services > Import (under the New dropdown menu). Click on Browse and select the sheet you’ve just created.
Click on Next on the bottom right of the screen.
Verify that all of the fields that have data in them are selected so that QuickBooks Online will import those settings.
If you changed the labels, you’ll have to select them again on the next screen to map your labels to the correct QuickBooks Online labels. For instance, if you renamed the Product/Service Name label to “Inventory Name,” then you’ll need to select “Inventory Name” so that QuickBooks Online knows the two labels are the same.
Click next once you’ve verified all the labels are correctly mapped. If you’ve used the same sheet you downloaded without editing the column labels, then you should be fine.
On this screen, you can verify and make any final changes to your products or services before you start the import. If you notice a lot of mistakes, it’s better to cancel the import, fix the mistakes on the sheet, and then go through the process again.
Otherwise, if you have just a few mistakes, fix them on this screen and start the import by clicking on Import on the bottom right of the screen.
And here we have the new product in QuickBooks Online that we’ve imported.
If you missed a column, then you can re-import and overwrite some of the values you previously entered, but this process can be tricky.
Sometimes, QuickBooks Online will overwrite the values with the updated ones on the sheet, while other times the process will complete with no updates even if you’ve checked the “Overwrite all values” option.
You’ll want to do your best to make sure that all the values are correct to save yourself the headache here. If the “Overwrite” option doesn’t work, you’ll have to manually edit all of your products to the correct value.
Conclusion
That’s it! The sample product and services sheet from QuickBooks Online may seem intimidating at first, but it’s a fairly quick process since many of the fields will stay the same. For instance, you’re likely to use the same information for the Taxable, Accounts, and Type.
As for the Name, Sales Description, and SKU fields, you’re likely to copy and paste the information from wherever you currently keep your inventory information. Most marketplaces, like Amazon or eBay, will allow you to download a spreadsheet of your inventory, making this process a bit less frustrating.
Learn how to reset or erase your QuickBooks Online company (started fewer than 60 days ago) so that you can start over from scratch setting up your company.
Many users who are new to QuickBooks Online or bookkeeping for their small business may find that one month in, they’ve set up their QuickBooks Online company incorrectly.
Rather than go back and manually reverse every transaction, it may be easier to just purge, or erase, everything and start over. Keep the following two warnings in mind:
Your QuickBooks Online company must be fewer than 60 days old.
You’ll lose everything that you’ve entered into your company, including customers, transactions, and accounts.
If it has been more than 60 days, you’ll need to start a new QuickBooks Online company instead. Contact QuickBooks Online about your subscription (if you have one) or cancel and resubscribe to the new company.
Setting up your QuickBooks Online company for Amazon? Check out our article for a list of tips and advice. You’ll also find a link to our comprehensive guide for accounting for the most common Amazon transactions on that page.
How to Reset or Erase your QuickBooks Online Company
To reset your company, log into the QuickBooks Online company that you want to erase. Remember, your QuickBooks Online company must be fewer than 60 days old in order to be able to reset or purge.
Make sure you’re on the homepage or dashboard for your QuickBooks Online company
It may look like this: https://c13.qbo.intuit.com/app/homepage
Add /purgecompany to the end of the URL above
Read the warning and type “YES” in the box and click on OK
Follow the prompts to complete the purge
If you’re connecting any apps, you may want to wait 24 hours for the purge to complete on the backend
Simply click on Dashboard on the left navigation menu to go back to your homepage for QuickBooks Online.
Then add “/purgecompany” to the end of the URL and follow the prompts to completely erase your QuickBooks Online company. Remember: you will lose all data, so make sure you have everything you need exported and saved.
You should receive a verification prompt after. Type in YES and then click on OK. Your company will be reset and everything erased.
That’s it! Now set up your QuickBooks Online company the way you want!
Cancel Subscription if You Can’t Purge Your Company
If you no longer want to use QuickBooks Online or your company is older than 60 days, make sure you cancel your subscription before you start a new one.
Click on Gear Icon > Accounts and Settings
Go to Billing & Subscription
Click on Cancel Subscription
To cancel your subscription, go to your settings through the Gear icon and then Account and Settings.
Click on Billing & Subscription and then Cancel subscription. Follow the prompts to confirm and complete your cancellation.
If you’re starting a new company, you can simply sign up for a new company using the same email address. Your old companies will remain attached to your email address for a year before it drops off, so you’ll have plenty of time to access any data you may need from them.
Like this article and want to read more helpful articles about QuickBooks Online? Check out the following articles below:
Understanding invoices and payments can be a little tricky if you’re new to QuickBooks Online.
In this article, we’ll quickly review the terms you’ll see in QuickBooks Online when you’re in the Sales > All Sales section of your business.
Take a look at the screenshot above.
In that image, we have 3 invoices with all three states: Paid, Overdue, and Open.
Associated with those invoices are payments (one full and one partial).
Invoice 2587 on 9/17/2019 is marked as Paid. Its associated Payment in full is on 9/18/2019, and that payment is marked as Closed. Once you receive payments, they’re generally marked as Closed.
On 9/20/2019, Invoice 2590 shows as Overdue. Whether or not an Invoice is overdue will be based on the Due date when you create the invoice.
For our purposes, Invoice 2590 is Overdue, but it also has a partial payment of 58.75 applied to it on 9/23/2019. If you take a look at the Balance for Invoice 2590, you’ll see that there’s 50.00 remaining.
Until that 50.00 balance is paid, this invoice will remain Overdue. You can click on the invoice to open it and view all associated payments and balances. While here, you can also receive payment for the remaining balance or even for a partial payment.
Finally, Open invoices are invoices that haven’t been paid and are not Overdue. Until the invoice is paid or the date passes the Due date, the status of Invoice 2589 won’t change.
How do these invoice and payment statuses affect your business? If you’re an Amazon seller, keeping track of whether or not your invoices have been paid is critical not only to maintaining accurate books, but to ensure that you’ve been paid for items you’ve sold.
You can view a quick summary of Open, Overdue, and Paid Invoices on the Sales Transactions page. Of course, the information in the bar is only as good as the data that you enter.
Amazon sales transactions can be very tricky, as most sellers well know. Customer orders may be pending for up to a week, if not longer.
Sellers who sell through Amazon Handmade may have longer fulfillment times so as to manufacture or create the item.
Finally, sellers who sell through Amazon Business to Business may have to deal with generous 90-day terms that Amazon gives to businesses.
Understanding these labels can help you track the money you’ve received and the money that you’re owed so that you can better manage your cash flow.
Read more articles about QuickBooks Online on SellerZen:
When it comes to foreign currencies or multicurrency in QuickBooks Online, bookkeeping can quickly get messy if you’re not careful about entering your expenses.
Let’s take a look at an example of a common transaction regarding a foreign Amazon marketplace and multicurrency in QuickBooks Online US.
You’ll need to have multicurrency enabled on QuickBooks Online US in order to be able to access these settings.
Exchange rates change day to day or from one second to the next. When Amazon charges you, your credit card or bank account may have a different amount in USD.
We’ll use CAD and USD in this article, but the concept is the same regardless of what currency you’re using.
Let’s say you start selling on Amazon Canada (CA). For your first settlement, you have a balance of -$50 CAD because of various fees. We’re using Amazon CA as the Payee here (the exchange rate field will only appear if your Vendor has a non-USD currency associated with it).
Amazon charges your credit card for $50 CAD, but the charge shows up on your card as $37.93 USD (using exchange rates for August 1, 2019). But you’re going to enter the transaction on August 20, 2019. That $50 CAD is now $37.54 if you’re not adjusting values on the document.
Note that even though we selected August 1, the Total (USD) charge still doesn’t match because of the fluctuations in rates throughout the day.
This difference between the currency can easily cause a discrepancy between your accounts in QuickBooks Online if you’re just entering in transactions monthly and using the default exchange rate.
QuickBooks Online doesn’t allow you to edit the Total (USD) amount. Instead, you’ll need to figure out the correct exchange rate.
To properly calculate the values, you’ll need to take how much your credit card was charged in USD. Then take the amount in CAD that you owe.
Divide the USD by the CAD amount to get the correct exchange rate so that you can enter this in the right field in QuickBooks Online.
Enter the exchange rate to as many decimal places as you need for the Total (USD) to match what you were charged on your credit card.
You may need to enter in a few more decimal places to get the correct value. Once you click OK, QuickBooks Online will recalculate the Total (USD). It should now match what your credit card charge shows for that transaction.
If it doesn’t, recalculate the rate and check that you’ve entered the correct values to the necessary decimal place, whether that’s 4 places or 7.
Notice in the corrected exchange rate above, the Total (CAD) value is correct and the Total (USD) value is now correct.
This document shows that you’re paying a vendor, Amazon Canada, $50 CAD. Your credit card account will show a charge of $37.93.
Whether it’s an expense or a settlement payment, you’ll need to go through the same process of calculating the correct exchange rate and verifying that the values are correct.
For instance, when you receive a disbursement or payment from Amazon for your sales, your Amazon Canada seller account will show a deposit in CAD. But the bank account may show a deposit in USD.
The process is the same here: edit the deposit document with the correct exchange rates to reconcile the amounts.
Read our other articles on QuickBooks Online below.
It’s easy to set up inventory in QuickBooks Online to track your Amazon sales, but there’s a lot more you can do to optimize your inventory for better tracking.
Learn more about these related topics on SellerZen:
Let’s take a look at the different options when you add new inventory in QuickBooks Online. You’ll need a QuickBooks Online plan that supports inventory tracking, so that means you’ll have to get Plus or Advanced.
To add a new product or service, go to Sales > Products and Services > New > Inventory.
QuickBooks Online only requires a few fields to quickly set up inventory, but you’ll want to think about how you’re going to organize inventory in QuickBooks Online.
Consistency will help with your workflow, and it’ll lead to better reporting and more efficient reconciliation if you always follow the same procedure.
Let’s take a look at the new inventory setup below.
Here’s an example from your Manage Inventory on Amazon.
Below is the recommendation for how you should populate the fields for your inventory item in QuickBooks Online.
Notice that the Name, Initial quantity on hand, and As of date are the only fields required. QuickBooks uses the default accounts for the other accounts.
For the Name field, many sellers are tempted just to use their Product Name on Amazon. That might be something like “Super Shiny Stainless Steel Spoon 4-Pack,” but this isn’t ideal because Product Name on Amazon can be changed. Some sellers will go through multiple Product Name changes before settling on one they like.
When you change a product title on Amazon, you’ll have to change it through QuickBooks, and this can cause a lot of confusion.
We use the Amazon SKU to QuickBooks Name field so that there’s no confusion when the Product Name changes.
For the QuickBooks SKU field, we recommend using the Amazon ASIN just so sellers can search for convenience should anyone change the QuickBooks Name field for whatever reason. Using the Amazon ASIN in the QuickBooks SKU field also gives you another level of fine detail should you need it.
For the Initial quantity on hand, we recommend that you put 0 when you create a new inventory item. Why? If you enter a number here, QuickBooks Online will put the Cost of Goods Sold at $0, giving you 100% profit when the item sells. Of course, that’s not likely to be true.
Use Vendor Bills or Expenses to receive and increase your inventory accordingly.
The “As of date” field is also important. For this field, you’ll want to enter a date that precedes the date of the first sale. This is because putting the current date on the inventory item will mean you can’t create a sales transaction with a date before the one you selected.
So if you’re setting up your QuickBooks Online for the first time, have those inventory purchase dates ready, or at least have an estimate of it ready so that you can post transactions to QuickBooks Online without errors.
FBA sellers may want to use the inventory shipment date here, or simply use the date of the Purchase Order, Bill, or Expense when you purchased the inventory.
These settings can be changed later, but any changes will also affect your reporting.
The remaining fields in the inventory item deal with the associated accounts.
Notice for the Description field, we entered the Product Name here. While this isn’t necessarily required, having it will make reviewing your transactions much easier. But you’ll have to update this field whenever you make a change on Amazon.
This can be very tedious if you’re optimizing your Amazon listings daily. Otherwise, leave it blank if you have a fairly descriptive Amazon SKU and QuickBooks Name.
One common mistake sellers make here is to add their Cost to the field. QuickBooks Online will generally ignore the value in the Cost field if you’ve used Bills, Expenses, or Checks to receive inventory. But in their absence, it’ll use the value in the Cost field.
The reason you should leave the Cost field at 0.00 is that any update to the Cost field will mean that you’re using averages instead of the actual cost per unit. And averages will give you some misleading information about your inventory status.
One thing sellers can do with the inventory accounts (Inventory Asset, Income, and Expense account) is to set up the inventory so that inventory transactions are tracked across multiple warehouses or brands.
Alternatively, you can use class tracking or location tracking in QuickBooks Online, but if you’re already using those features for other reasons, then having different Inventory Accounts can be helpful.
For instance, you can have all of your kitchen utensils use a Kitchen Utensils Sales of Product Income Account. And you can just use the default Inventory Asset and Cost of Goods Sold account.
When you run reporting later, you’ll be able to see your sales income from Kitchen Utensils, Home Goods, and Furniture income accounts.
Or, if you’re like many sellers, you can use different accounts to track various warehouses. For instance, you’d have a Warehouse A Inventory Asset, Warehouse A Sales of Product Income, and Warehouse A Cost of Goods Sold.
When you run reporting later, you can more details about sales and inventory at both of your warehouses.
The remaining fields aren’t necessary. Leave the Sale price, Purchasing information, and Preferred Vendor fields blank. If you’re using a repricer on Amazon, then it’s pointless to enter a Sale price on the actual item—you’ll enter it on the document that you create.
The Preferred Vendor field is a convenience that may help your workers if you have multiple vendors for the same item. This will let your employees know which one you prefer.
If you set up inventory in QuickBooks Online correctly and consistently, then your accounting for your Amazon transactions will be far more detailed. Better financial reporting in QuickBooks Online will give you an advantage over other Amazon sellers who are just guestimating what their finances are.
Or use a service like SellerZen to automate the hassle of manually entering all of your Amazon transactions.
If you’re using QuickBooks Online primarily on a desktop, then you should seriously consider using the Desktop app. It’s a free app that can make your workflow more efficient.
We’ll go over the benefits of using the desktop app in this article instead of having to log into the website each time.
Unlike logging into QuickBooks Online through a browser, the desktop application allows you to log into your company simply by clicking on the icon. Not only is the login easier, but you’ll also stay permanently logged in.
Why is this better than logging into QuickBooks Online through a browser?
For security purposes, QuickBooks Online logs you out after a certain period of inactivity, requiring you to log back in
May require a refresh or two for passwords to load if you’re using a password manager
Having to log back in and reload screen interrupts the workflow
Employees don’t have to constantly request access if you have to type login credentials
Convenient, time-saving features like multiple windows and automatic refresh of open windows
Better performance
Certain features of the desktop app will load faster than accessing QuickBooks Online through your browser.
For instance, if you’re switching between companies, the load times will be faster.
That means less interruption to your workflow and processes. And faster load times means you can complete your work sooner!
Familiar features
If you’re a QuickBooks Desktop user, then the QuickBooks Online Desktop app will have a familiar feel to it. Keyboard shortcuts remain the same if you’re familiar with using shortcuts to navigate through QuickBooks.
More importantly, you can easily open up multiple windows through the Desktop app just by dragging and dropping. And better yet, these windows will automatically refresh with any changes you make.
Toolbar that will be familiar to QuickBooks Desktop users that allows quick and easy access to commonly used features like reports, accounts, and creating documents
Open multiple windows
System requirements
Works with Windows 7, 8.x, and 10 with a high-speed internet connection.
Works with Mac OS X 10.9 (Mavericks), 10.10 (Yosemite), and 10.11 (El Capitan) with a high-speed internet connection.
If you’re accessing your QuickBooks Online company through a smartphone or a tablet, you’ll still need to do so through a browser.
Conclusion
You’ll still need to have an internet connection to log into QuickBooks Online when you launch the desktop application, and your speeds may depend on how fast your internet connection is.
But the desktop app definitely improves upon the user experience for QuickBooks Online. The increased performance and ease of opening multiple windows makes the app well worth a try.
Indeed, the Desktop application will help users who are transitioning to Online by providing a familiar interface while retaining the cloud benefits of QuickBooks Online.
The worse that can happen is that you’ll waste a few minutes trying out the desktop app and deciding it’s not for you. But if you’re like many business owners who sit down to work on QuickBooks in front of a computer, then you’ll find that the free desktop application is worth the download.
Learn how to add another company to your QuickBooks Online email address so that you can switch between the two. Or merge another QuickBooks Online company to another email address.
Some users may want to add a second (or more) company to the same email address that they’re using for ease of management.
QuickBooks Online allows you to add as many companies as you want to your email address, but you’ll have to pay the subscription fees for each one.
Learn how to add another QuickBooks Online company to the same email address using this guide. We’ll also go over how you can merge a company using an email address with a different email address.
The process may have changed since the writing of this article. Visit QuickBooks Online help for the latest instructions.
Create a Second QuickBooks Online Company Using the Same Email Address
To start a new QuickBooks Online company using the same email address, simply visit the QuickBooks Online pricing page. Select a Trial account or pay for the company.
Toggle the button for a free trial if you’re testing out the idea of having a second company on the same email address. Otherwise, purchase the subscription outright with a discount for the first three months.
When you click on the Buy now or Try now button, you’ll have to make sure to select the “Sign in” using existing account link. It’s easy to miss.
Once you’ve set up your new company, you can easily switch between companies using the Gear icon. You can switch companies any time you’re logged in.
If you have multiple companies associated with your email address, you’ll be prompted to select the company you want to open.
If you’re logging into QuickBooks Online, you’ll also be presented with the option to select a company to open if your account has more than one company associated with it.
Some Considerations
You may want to consider the issues below before you open a new company.
Can you use location tracking with your current company instead of starting a new company?
If both businesses are run at the same location, you’ll need a process in place so employees don’t confuse the two QuickBooks Online companies
Consider setting up Users to limit access to QuickBooks Online
Use a separate email account and maybe password manager or browser profile to prevent mixing up the companies
Merging or Consolidating Companies Under One Email Address in QuickBooks Online
Let’s say you have two or more separate QuickBooks Online companies that you manage using different email addresses. But you want to make it more convenient for yourself by managing both under a new email address.
You can also use this guide to move access from one email to another existing email address so that both companies can be managed under one login.
The procedure is the same regardless of how you want to merge companies. For this example, we’re going to have a new email address, Email Alpha. We want to combine two separate companies, Email Beta and Email Delta under Email Alpha.
Sign into QuickBooks using Email Beta and Email Delta and send invites to Email Alpha
You’ll need to have Administrator access on both accounts
Click on Gear Icon > Manage Users
Add User with Company Admin privileges
Accept the invite from Email Alpha’s account
Email Alpha now has Admin access to Email Beta and Delta’s companies
Email Alpha will now receive the invites from Intuit. Click on the “Let’s go!” link that Intuit sends to verify the email and invite. Log in using Email Alpha’s credentials.
That’s it! Now you have admin access to Email Beta and Email Delta’s companies under a different email account.
You can also make Email Alpha the Master Admin by logging into Email Beta and Delta to Manage Users.
Once you’ve accepted the invite from Intuit from your Email Alpha account, log out and log back in using Email Beta’s credentials.
Go to Gear Icon > Manage Users. Find Email Alpha on the user list and click on the dropdown menu. Select “Make master admin” to give complete control over to Email Alpha.
Email Alpha will receive another email to accept the change in user role. Once the email is accepted, the Email Beta account will receive an email with the change in status.
Go through the same steps with Email Delta.
What you choose to do with the old emails is up to you.
For security purposes, you may want to consider removing the old email address once the role change has been verified and you’re certain the old email is no longer needed.
Or change the old email address so that it has a limited role. You can always transfer access back at a later date if you want.
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Learn how to recreate a deleted transaction or document in QuickBooks Online using the Audit Log to view details.
QuickBooks Online keeps a log of every action that you or a user takes in the software. That includes logins and the actions each user takes. Even deleted inventory and accounts aren’t truly deleted. They’re just hidden from view.
When you delete a transaction, there’s also a log of the details of the transaction. While it may be missing from your books, you’ll still be able to find it in the Audit Log.
Continue reading to see how to recreate a document using the Audit Log.
First, you’ll want to click on the Gear icon > Audit Log to view the log.
Once you’re in the Audit Log, you want to set the filter options to limit and easily find the document. If you know the date, transaction type, or user, then select those to limit your search results.
Once you find the document, you can expand the document details by clicking on View. Click on the arrow to expand details.
You can use CTRL + F to search for “Deleted” to quickly jump to deleted transactions.
You’ll want to open a new transaction type in QuickBooks Online in a new tab so that you can easily switch between the two to enter the details.
In the example above, we have an Invoice that was deleted. You don’t have to enter the Accounts Receivable (A/R) line item because QuickBooks Online will automatically handle the A/R account when you create the invoice.
Make sure that the accounts, values, and other information match the document exactly so that your totals are correct.
If you also deleted the payment, you’ll want to receive payment as well. Otherwise, you’ll want to link the payment to the recreated invoice.
Consider voiding transactions instead of deleting them. When you void a transaction, it won’t affect your bookkeeping, but you can easily restore it by searching for it in the Audit Log and then copying the details to a new document.
To restore a voided transaction, search for “Voided” in the Audit Log instead of “Deleted”. Set filters to streamline the search if possible.
Look for the voided transaction that you want to restore and click on it.
Then click on More > Copy to move the details onto a new document.
Values on the document will all be 0, so you’ll need to re-enter the values and make sure that all the information is correct.
QuickBooks Online Audit Log allows you to see all the changes to your company finances. The added benefit is that the Audit Log will also allow you to recreate any transaction that was accidentally deleted or voided so that you don’t have to spend hours reconciling your finances.
Learn more about other QuickBooks Online topics from our articles below.
Learn how to create a new parent account in QuickBooks Online and how to create or make a sub-account.
There are numerous reasons why you’d want to make a new account in QuickBooks Online. Too often, the default accounts that exist don’t quite fit the purpose of an account that you need.
For instance, Amazon sellers may want a parent account for all of their Amazon expenses. Or they may want to track Amazon expenses separately from their other accounts.
Creating a new income, expense, or bank account to track your Amazon income and expenses is a great way to see the impact of Amazon on your business. You might also track other marketplaces in separate accounts in QuickBooks Online.
Having separate accounts for Amazon, eBay, and Shopify will give you better insight into your business.
To create a new parent account, go to your Chart of Accounts.
Click on New.
Select the Account Type and Detail Type that best describes the account. Give it a Name that is descriptive so that you’ll recognize it on reports.
In our example below, we’ve created a parent account called Amazon Expenses.
Save your account.
If you want to create another sub-account linked to Amazon Expenses, then click on the New button again.
Choose the Account Type, Detail Type, and give it a descriptive name. The sub-accounts must be the same Account Type as the parent account.
Click on “Is sub-account” and select the parent account you want.
You won’t be able to create a sub-account that is an Income with a parent account that is an Expense.
If you use SellerZen to sync and automatically import your Amazon transactions to QuickBooks Online, then you can map non-order transactions under the Settlement page.
Once you map those individual accounts, they’ll show up on your Profit and Loss Reports. You’ll know exactly how much you spent on certain Amazon expenses instead of seeing them all summarized into one account.
In the image above, we see a parent account called “Amazon US Other Expenses.”
The accounts underneath are all sub-accounts. Setting up the accounts in this way gives users the ability to minimize and expand reporting to see the details that they need.
But you can also separate your accounts by different marketplaces so that you can see how much you’ve earned through each platform.
Separating accounts by marketplace or organizing them in a clear way can give you a better picture of your business and where to focus your efforts.
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