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Examples of Customized Charts of Accounts
Examples of Customized Charts of Accounts
Examples of Customized Charts of Accounts
Let’s look at two different business types, their chart of accounts, and how the setup reflects the
accounting profile of each business.
Sample client A
Sample client B
Client A is a sole proprietor with no employees and isn’t eligible for corporate tax. Their primary
focus when it comes to data and reporting is customer profitability.
So, how should you set up the chart of accounts for this client?
Because the client deals with job-related expenses in their business, they have two materials
accounts on their COA:
Merging accounts
Merging accounts is a common practice when there are duplicates or two accounts are being
used for the same thing.
Note that the merging process is permanent and can’t be reversed. Any transactions in merged
accounts are also merged and will appear under one category in reports.
Select the headings to see how to make accounts inactive—and how to reactivate them.
You can edit the following accounts’ names, but they can’t be made inactive or merged:
Accounts Receivable
Opening Balance Equity
Retained Earnings
Reconciliation Discrepancies
Unapplied Cash Payment Income
(Sales tax agency name, such as GST, VAT) Payable
Services
Sales of Product Income
Uncategorized Asset
Uncategorized Expense and Uncategorized Income
Owner’s Equity
The Inventory/Stock Assets and Cost of Goods Sold/Cost of Sales accounts can be renamed,
made inactive, and merged, with the following limitations:
They can only be made inactive if they’re not assigned to a Products/ Service item
They can be merged or renamed, but if any changes are made to a Product/Service item
that relates to these accounts, the merge will be undone, or the account will revert to its
original name
If you didn’t make it quite to the end, or you had a different outcome, try this:
1. Navigate to the Chart of Accounts screen either by selecting the Gear icon and choosing
Chart of accounts or by selecting Accounting from the left-hand navigation
and choosing Chart of accounts from there
2. Find the Bookkeeper account in the list, select the down arrow in the Action column and
choose Edit
3. In the Edit account panel, change the name of the account to Accounting
4. Next, select Save
5. To confirm that you want to merge the accounts, select Yes, merge accounts
6. Select Save again
QuickBooks Online includes a sample file for each list type so that you and your clients know
how to format each list before you import it. You or your clients can download the sample file by
choosing the relevant list type from the Import screen and selecting Download a sample file.
Each sample file is preformatted with the column headings that QuickBooks Online needs in
order to add the data to the company correctly. Using the sample file saves you or your clients
from having to create a new template from scratch.
What if the client already has products and services, customers, and/or vendors?
In either case, if QuickBooks Online identifies a name that already exists during the importing
process, it prompts you to change the name or clear the box and not import that item.
When clients open either center, the key feature they’ll see is the customer/vendor list. This
shows the name and contact details of each customer/vendor, plus their current open balance.
Selecting a name in the list allows clients to view information about the customer/vendor, such
as their contact details and a list of the transactions to/from them. We’ll cover how to edit the
customer/vendor details later in the lesson.
There are three different types of customer statements your clients can create in QuickBooks
Online.
The Balance Forward statement shows a list of invoices and payments with
the balance for the date range selected.
Balance Forward
It’s perfect for situations where a client wants to provide customers with a
summary of what’s still due on their account.
With the Open Item statement, your client can show a list of all open
and/or unpaid invoices.
Open Item
It’s great if a client wants to provide detail of all unpaid invoices, unapplied
payments, and credit memos to their customers.
Use the Transaction Statement to show all the transactions between the
customer and the client’s business between two set dates.
Transaction
Statement
Clients might use this when there’s a large volume of transactions for a
customer, so they can see how their payments have been applied.
Identifying the client’s sales tax requirements
Before setting up a client’s sales tax, you should find out what the sales tax requirements are for
their business and location. You may have done this as part of your initial requirements gathering
with the Client Needs Assessment tool.
By default, QuickBooks Online applies the regular state tax rate to a product/service item. This
appears as Taxable - standard rate in the product/service information panel, as you’ll see
below. However, many states have special tax rates for certain products and services—and other
items might not be taxable at all. Therefore, the client may want to either assign a special sales
tax rate to an item or mark it as nontaxable.
Select each heading to explore when and how clients may need to change the sales tax rate
for a product/service item.
Certain organizations and businesses that meet specific criteria may be exempt from sales tax.
These criteria are determined by each state, so you’ll need to check the relevant rules.
Accountant Portal: You can access all your clients from one dashboard
Approvals workflows: You can schedule payments, then the client approves the
payment before it goes to the vendor. (It’s great for accountants because it shifts the final
responsibility for making the payment back to the client)
Multiple Users: You can add other users who don’t have access to QuickBooks Online
Invoices: Vendors that use Melio can send their invoices directly into the Melio app
Syncing: The Melio app syncs with QuickBooks Online, which means that bills entered
in QuickBooks Online will show in Melio, and bills entered in Melio will show in
QuickBooks Online
How can users with email forwarding access add multiple bills or receipts to 1 email message?
They can either add them to the body of the email or as attachments
They need to send them to an Admin user because only those users can send multiple bills
or receipts in 1 email message
That’s right.
What is the next step in the receipt addition process once your client has captured a receipt for a
new expense and uploaded it from their computer?
That’s right.
Recording deposit transactions
The need for categorizing deposits
Clients sometimes receive deposits that aren’t related to customer transactions. Some examples
are refunds, cash contributions from owners, or proceeds from loans. Adding these as income
deposits would lead to confusion and inaccuracies with future tax payments.
Her are some cases when clients would use deposit transactions:
The client receives funds from loan proceeds or contributions of cash from owners
The client receives a refund from a vendor and wants to record it directly against the
expense account or to a Refunds Received income account
The client doesn’t record income using sales transactions (invoices or sales receipts) and
wants to record deposits directly to income accounts
The client receives a refund from a tax agency and needs to record it to reduce the Tax
Liability or Expense account
An employee reimburses the client’s company, and the client needs to record the
reimbursement against the Employee Loan receivable account
Clients can also use the deposit transaction workflow with negative deposits. This could be for a
bounced check or when a customer’s refund amount exceeds the amount they’re depositing.
Knowledge check
Which of these situations would call for a deposit transaction? Select all that apply.
Your client receives a payment from a customer, but it’s not a check
That’s right.
A tax refund and cashback payment are perfect examples of money coming in that isn’t matched
to an existing payment. These need to be recorded as deposit transactions.
A journal entry is an accounting transaction that posts directly to the general ledger. You or your
client can use journal entries as another way to adjust account balances. They’re useful, for
example, to correct errors or summarize the depreciation of assets, but you or your client
may also use journal entries to enter debits and credits manually, transfer money between income
and expense accounts, or from an asset, liability, or equity account to an income or expense
account.
Before we dive into how to create them, let’s look at some rules regarding journal entries:
Note that while clients can also create journal entries, only users with access to QuickBooks
Online Accountant can create adjusting journal entries.
Accountants usually use adjusting journal entries to fix minor errors or record uncategorized
transactions.
Accrued expenses
These are expenses your client has accrued but hasn’t paid yet, like loan interest or accrued
payroll.
This is where your client has paid for something but has not yet realized the benefit. An example
of a deferred expense would be if they pay for their insurance a year in advance.
Accrued revenues
This is when a client has earned the revenue but they haven’t invoiced the customer yet. This is a
common practice in many industries that work on long-term contracts.
These appear on the balance sheet as accounts receivable, which is an asset account.
Deferred revenues
These occur when your client has been paid in advance by a customer but they haven’t finished
the work yet.
Non-cash transactions
Not all expenses are cash expenses. Some things represent expenses that don’t have a cash
effect on your client’s business. Depreciation and allowance for doubtful accounts are two
examples of common non-cash transactions.
If regular adjustments aren’t recorded to reflect these activities, it’s easy to get a skewed picture
of a company’s financial position.
For example, a client that has no liability accruing for their annual loan interest might
overestimate how much cash they have. Without ensuring that they keep track of their growing
current debt, they will have incorrect information about the profit they make each month. Also,
when they make the annual business insurance payment, and it’s not accrued, they will have the
monthly insurance expense reflected in the wrong accounting period.
For which of the following should you use the Transfer function in QuickBooks Online?
That’s right.
The Transfer function is for moving money from one balance sheet account to another balance
sheet account.
QuickBooks Online calculates the beginning balance from the sum of all the transactions posted
to the account that are marked as reconciled.
So if the balance isn’t correct, the cause is likely one or more of the following:
Other potential changes to reconciled transactions include changing the bank or credit card
(source) account, or voiding the transaction.
One or more transactions have been manually marked as reconciled by changing their cleared
status to [R] in the register
QuickBooks Online is including transactions in its calculations that it shouldn’t do
Which of the following statements are true about how you can resolve these discrepancies?
Select all that apply.
You can correct the amount of the check paid to Chin’s Gas to match the value of the
reconciled transaction
Selecting View on the Expense transaction line allows you to remove it from the
Reconciliation Discrepancy report
If you re-enter and re-match the Expense transaction, you’ll need to mark it as reconciled
Selecting View in both lines will allow you to correct both transactions
That’s correct.
You can correct transactions from the Reconciliation Discrepancy report, provided they haven’t
been deleted.
Deleted transactions can be fixed by re-entering and rematching them, then marking them as
reconciled.
Which reports could help them make this decision? Select all that apply.
Balance Sheet
Before applying for a loan, your client should review the Profit and Loss report against the Cash
Flow Statement to ensure they can make the loan repayments.
Which of the following statements are correct regarding management reports in QuickBooks
Online? Select all that apply.
You can export management reports in Word, PDF, and Excel format
How would you complete the sentence below about the number of tags
available in QuickBooks Online Plus?
Which of the options below does the Books review center help with?
Select all that apply.
Finding transactions with outstanding issues
Running payroll
Finding and fixing transactions and reconciling accounts are key processes in the books
review process. Clients can now also create management reports from within that
workflow.
We’ll start by looking at fundamental tasks that apply to most QuickBooks Online companies.
These are as follows:
Which of the following changes can you carry out using the Reclassify transactions tool?
Select all that apply.
Good answer!
There are limitations on what transactions—and what data on a transaction—you can change
using the Reclassify transactions tool.
As a Certified ProAdvisor, your clients will depend on your expertise to configure their
QuickBooks Online to maximize efficiency and ensure they get the most value.
To get a feel for if you're ready for the exam, try answering the following question.
Well done!
To revisit this topic before taking the exam, try our Closing the accounting cycle training.
Where in QuickBooks Online Accountant would you find the link to do this?
In the Clients menu from the left-hand navigation, under the Actions column
Well done!
To revisit this topic before taking the exam, try our Managing your clients and work training.
How would QuickBooks Online alert you of a discrepancy in the beginning balance when
reconciling your clients’ accounts?
An error message will be displayed once the reconciliation has been completed
An alert will be displayed in the reconcile tab, stating that the account isn’t ready to be
reconciled yet, as the beginning balance is off
Well done!
1
3
5
25
Well done!
To revisit this topic before taking the exam, try our QuickBooks Online solutions training.
What is the minimum subscription level in QuickBooks Online you would recommend?
Self-Employed
Simple Start
Plus
Advanced
Well done!
To revisit this topic before taking the exam, try our QuickBooks Online solutions training.
Company Admin
Primary Admin
Standard user
Custom team user
Well done!
To revisit this topic before taking the exam, try our Setting up QuickBooks Online features
training.
Your client has been using the QuickBooks Online Mileage Tracker throughout the year. It’s
nearing year-end and you are preparing the log for auto expense deduction.
Which 3 of the tasks below should be completed to prepare the log for auto expense deductions
at year end?
Well done!
To revisit this topic before taking the exam, try our Closing the accounting cycle training.
Which 2 of the following are ways to create a new tag?
Open the Products and services list and select Edit for the required product or service. Then
select + New from the Tags dropdown
On the invoice, start entering the tag name in the Tags field, then select
+ Add from the pop-up
Select the Manage tags link on the invoice, followed by Create tag. Then enter the tag
name
Select the Manage tags link in the Gear menu, followed by Create tag. Then enter the tag
name
You need your client to send you a copy of a paper receipt so that you can match it to a gas
expense in their QuickBooks Online. You create a client request and add a screenshot of the
expense entry in QuickBooks Online to help your client identify which receipt they’re looking
for.
How do you ensure the client receives an email notification to alert them about the
new request for information?
Once the request has been created, a pop-up will ask if you want to send an email to the
client with the reference number of the request
When the request is created, a task will be assigned to remind you to email the client
While preparing your client’s books for year end, you find some transactions that may not have
been appropriately recorded.
In which 2 of these cases could you use the Reclassify transactions tool?
To change the expense account for billable expenses, but not the income account for the
related income transactions
To change the class and/or location for invoices, sales receipts, checks, or bills with items
(products or services) on them
Well done!
To revisit this topic before taking the exam, try our Closing the accounting cycle training.
Which 2 of these statements about setting up and editing a chart of accounts are correct?
Well done!
To revisit this topic before taking the exam, try our Configuring a QuickBooks Online
company training.
Well done!
To revisit this topic before taking the exam, try our Closing the accounting cycle training.
Which tab in QuickBooks Online Banking shows the bank data that has
not yet been accepted into QuickBooks Online?
Matching
Categorized
For Review
Bank Feed
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To revisit this topic before taking the exam, try our Banking and tools training.
Your client has noticed a duplicate transaction in the bank feed. What advice would you give
them?
You need to exclude the transaction if it’s a duplicate because it’ll cause the bank
balance and reports to be incorrect
It’s OK to have duplicate transactions in the bank feed because QuickBooks Online will
ignore them during reconciliation
You can add an adjusting journal entry to offset the duplicated transaction
QuickBooks Online will automatically detect and delete the duplicate transaction
Well done!
To revisit this topic before taking the exam, try our Banking and tools training.
You need to add a gift basket with a collection of beauty products to your client’s
list of Products and Services. Which item type would you assign this to in
QuickBooks Online?
Service
Non-inventory
Bundle
Inventory
Well done!
To revisit this topic before taking the exam, try our Configuring a QuickBooks Online
company training.
When the client receives funds from loan proceeds or contributions of cash from
owners
When the client receives a refund from a vendor and wants to record it directly
against the expense account or to a Refunds Received Income account
When the client doesn’t record income using sales transactions (invoices or sales
receipts) and wants to record deposits directly to income accounts
When the client receives money from an employee to pay down a loan owed to
the company
When the client receives a partial payment from a customer against an open invoice
When the client receives a deposit from a customer for future purchases
Well done!
To revisit this topic before taking the exam, try our Using transaction types and features in
QuickBooks Online training.
Your client wants to make it quick and easy for customers to make a one-off
payment straight from their smartphone.
Create an invoice, enable Online Payments, then set the invoice link to expire after it’s been
used
Generate a QR code and save it as a PDF or JPEG file. Then create an invoice in QuickBooks
Online and attach the file to the invoice
Use the Payment links tab in the Sales Center to send a payment link to the
customer
Well done!
Vendor credits cannot be applied to a bill that has already been received
A Vendor credit can be linked to a cash refund, when the cash is deposited
Which 2 of these common issues does the Pay down credit card feature help to resolve?
Duplicate entries
Well done!
One of your e-commerce clients ordered far too many products in the build-up to
the holiday season last winter. This left her with too much stock in January and she
had to offer discounts in order to reduce the stock.
Which report could help your client avoid ordering too much stock?
In which section of the Customize report drawer can you add the date and
time the report was prepared?
General
Filter
Aging
Header/Footer
Well done!
Where would you go in QuickBooks Online to make a sales tax agency inactive?
Which 3 questions should you ask your client to help you set up their sales tax
correctly?