If you are new to QBO then you might wish to sign up for the free 30 day trial Plus edition. There are other editions, aside from the Plus edition, but the Plus version has a lot of features that are great for learning. You might consider the Accountants edition instead. Note that the website address you go to sign up for your trial version changes all the time, but stick with it and do your best. You will need an email address you’ve never used before at the Intuit QuickBooks sign-up. Also, no NOT use the email address that’s associated with a real company that already has a QuickBooks online account. You need a mobile phone numbers as well. You will also need a payment method to get your free trial. Just remember you’ll need to cancel before 30 days to avoid being charged.

Let’s get going. To the question “What’s your business name?” enter your business name (make one up if you are just learning QuickBooks). Next, answer “Nothing, I’m just getting started” to the question “How have you been managing your finances?”. To the question what industry, type whatever you want. Choose Sole Proprietor (to keep it simple – we’re just learning the basics) to the next question. To the question “How does your business make money?” we’ll say “Provides services”. To the question of what your main role is, say Owner or partner to get access to all of the features. To the question “Who works at this business?” say “I fly solo” because for now we are not going to look at payroll. For all of the next questions, we’ll say “skip for now”. The screen will say “…almost ready…”. Just click the Let’s go button.

Learning with Udemy

You might want to take the course that I signed up for at Udemy. You’ll save money if you wait for it to go on sale. The course is called Mastering QuickBooks Online.

Here’s a look at the interface.

Notice the cog wheel, the left panel menu and the center part where the reports are listed, and the + New button on the left. The cog is used for the setup and maintenance of your QBO account. The + New button is used for day-to-day transactions and the left panel menu which has many menu choices that are mostly repeats of the choices you can make with the cog wheel or the + New button. However, there are some things you can only get from the left panel. For example, the rReports menu is the only place you can get to all of the reports. The Sales menu of the left panel is where you manage all of your customer information. The Expenses menu is where you manage your Vendor (Supplier) information. The left panel will be changing all the time, but do not be concerned because what you need will always be there.

It appears that QBO has changed from “Vendors” to “Suppliers”. I like “suppliers” better. Below is a screenshot of the + New choices in the QBO Plus version of the software. You’ll see categories of Customers, Suppliers, Team and Other.

QBO Account Settings

Adjusting these “options”, “preferences” or “settings” or “defaults” will give you control of your QBO experience. Click the Cog Wheel to switch back and forth from Accountant’s View to Business View. It may be easier and more clear to be in Accountant’s View rather than Business View. Below is a screenshot of the Cog Wheel menu in the Plus version of QBO.

Account and Settings

Click the Cog Wheel. You have several categories of settings: YOUR COMPANY, LISTS, TOOLS, and PROFILE. Under YOUR COMPANY you have Account and settings, Manage users, Custom form styles, Chart of accounts, payroll settings, and Additional info. If you click Account and settings you have a large window open up that has several categories of items on the left. They are: Company, Usage, Payments, Sales, Expenses, Time and Advanced.

If you click Expenses you can track expenses by customer if you change the following setting. You will need to click the Save button to save these settings. Exit the window by clicking the Done button at the bottom right.