how to customize expense settings in qbo

HOW TO CUSTOMIZE
EXPENSE SETTINGS IN
QUICKBOOKS ONLINEwww.5MinuteBookkeeping.com

Question: Why is it
important to customize
settings in QBO?
www.5MinuteBookkeeping.com

Because you can tailor
QBO specifically for your
company, you can get
more functionality out
of QBO,

and you can save time.

ACCESS COMPANY
SETTINGS

First, click on the Gear
Icon on the upper right
hand side and
select Company
Settings.

Please note that some of
these options are only
available on QuickBooks
Online Plus. See my post
on Choosing the Right
Version of QuickBooks
Online.

HOW TO CUSTOMIZE
BILLS AND EXPENSES
SETTINGS IN
QUICKBOOKS ONLINE

Click on Expenses on the left
to customize expense
settings.

Click on Bills and Expenses
or the pencil icon to edit.

1. Show Items table on
expense and purchase
forms –

This option adds a
Product/Service table on
forms so you can itemize
products and services.

You will need this if you
track inventory because
you will be able to enter
items on purchase order
forms and vendor bills.

2. Track expenses and items
by customer –

This option adds a Customer
column on expense and
purchase forms so you can
track expenses and items
by customer.

want to use job costing.

You will be able to assign a
customer name or
job/project to specific
expenses on purchase order
forms and vendor bills.

3. Make expenses and items
billable -

Adds a Billable column on
forms so you can add
billable expenses and items
on sales forms.

want to track expenses
billable to customers and
invoice them to customers
later.

You need to make sure that
option #2 (track expenses
and items by customer) is
turned on also.

4. Track billable expenses
and items as income –

According to the
description, QBO says to
“use one or more income
accounts to track billable
expenses.

Related setting: Advanced >
Chart of accounts > Billable
expenses income account”.

I tested this and found it to
be confusing.

It appears that it is designed
to track billable expenses
and to mark them as
income once you invoice
them to them client.

There are other ways to do
this in a less confusing
way.

I recommend that you turn this
feature on if you want to be
able to show expenses
invoiced to customers as
“billable expense income”.

5. Charge sales tax –

The Sales
tax checkbox applies only
to expenses you mark
as Billable.

It determines whether to
add sales tax to the billable
expense that you include
on the invoice to your
customer.

You must turn on Sales Tax
first (see the left navigation
bar from the home
screen, click Sales Tax, and
click Edit sales tax settings).

6. Default bill payment
terms –

Here you can set up the
default payment terms you
will use to pay your
vendors.

For example, you can select
net 30 – that means that
QBO will flag vendor bills to
be paid 30 days from the
date of the vendor invoice.

You can always override the
default payment terms when
you enter the vendor’s
payment terms when you
enter vendor Bills.

Click Save when you are
done with this section.

HOW TO CUSTOMIZE
PURCHASE ORDER
SETTINGS IN QUICKBOOKS
ONLINE

Next, click Purchase Orders
or on the pencil icon on
the right to edit. (Just as a
reminder, Purchase Orders
are only available with
QuickBooks Online Plus).

1. Use purchase orders -

turn on the Purchase
Orders feature to use
purchase orders.

You will most likely want
to use purchase orders if
you have a construction
type of business or if
you sell inventory.

If you are not sure
whether you need
purchase orders then
you probably don’t need
to use them.

2. Custom fields -

you can add up to 3
custom fields on the
purchase order.

QBO pre-filled 2 of them
for you. You can change
them.

You may want to use
these fields for project
numbers, sales reps, and
any other custom field.

3. Custom transaction
numbers –

this lets you assign your
own numbering
sequence to purchase
orders.

I recommend that you
let QBO number them
for you. It keeps things
simple that way.

Leave the box
unchecked to let QBO
number purchase orders
for you.

4. Default message on
purchase orders -

You can add a custom
message on your
purchase orders up to
1000 characters long.

Click Done at the
bottom right when you
are finished.

That didn’t take too long!

I’ve shown you how to
customize expense
settings in QuickBooks
Online so that you can get
the most functionality out
of QBO.

To get more QuickBooks
Online tutorials visit my
blog at
http://www.5MinuteBookkeeping.com

how to customize expense settings in qbo

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