{"id":187,"date":"2015-02-03T15:00:16","date_gmt":"2015-02-03T23:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.acctbusol.com\/blog\/?p=187"},"modified":"2015-02-03T15:00:36","modified_gmt":"2015-02-03T23:00:36","slug":"qa-understanding-your-quickbooks-accounts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.acctbusol.com\/blog\/qa-understanding-your-quickbooks-accounts\/","title":{"rendered":"Q&#038;A: Understanding Your QuickBooks Accounts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><strong>The word \u201caccount\u201d can mean more than one thing in QuickBooks <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Before you started doing accounting tasks for your small business, the word \u201caccount\u201d simply referred to your accounts at a financial institution \u2013 checking, savings, credit cards, etc. QuickBooks lets you access these same kinds of accounts via the internet and download their transactions.<\/p>\n<p>But \u201caccount\u201d has an additional meaning in accounting. Your Chart of Accounts is a list of accounts that will be used in transactions to categorize them and create accurate reports. It is a critical element of your bookkeeping and needs to reflect your company\u2019s business structure correctly.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Where does the Chart of Accounts come from?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>QuickBooks has a basic sample Chart of Accounts.\u00a0 If configured by a professional at a start of your system, it can very well save cost that might otherwise be avoided from happening.\u00a0 For most part if chart of accounts are set correctly at the start of a business using and maintaining them will be an easier task for you.\u00a0 \u00a0This is an important step in your company file.\u00a0 Let us know and we will be glad to configure it for you.<\/p>\n<p><strong>How is the Chart of Accounts organized?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Chart of Accounts is typically divided into several account types (each of which contains an individual account), including:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Assets. What you own<\/li>\n<li>Liabilities. What you owe<\/li>\n<li>Income. What you earn<\/li>\n<li>Cost of Goods Sold. What it costs to create products<\/li>\n<li>Expenses. Additional costs required to operate your business<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Do I need to assign transactions to accounts manually?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The answer is: <strong>No<\/strong>, to some and <strong>Yes<\/strong> to others.\u00a0 QuickBooks knows, for example, that an invoice will go to the Accounts Receivable account, so there\u2019s no field for Account on invoice forms. The same goes for purchase orders; they\u2019re assigned to Accounts Payable. On the other hand, you must select an account or item when entering expenses or writing checks.\u00a0 As this an important step in the process, let us know and we can help you in set up and training as well.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Do I need to number my accounts in the Chart of Accounts?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>No. QuickBooks allows this, but you shouldn\u2019t try it on your own. Let us assist you.<\/p>\n<p><strong>How do I set up QuickBooks Online to download transactions from my bank?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Click Transactions in the left vertical pane and then click Banking. You may want to follow the menu at the Banking and add accounts desired.\u00a0 If you\u2019ve never done that, we can walk you through it.<\/p>\n<p>Thank you and we look forward to hearing from you,<\/p>\n<p>Ben Derebie, MBA, CMA<\/p>\n<p><em>Certified Management Accountant<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Advanced Certified QuickBooks &amp;<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Enterprise Solutions ProAdvisor<\/em><\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_pop\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/button100x23.png\" style=\"border:0px; width:100; height: 23; \" alt=\"Share Button\" \/><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Linkedin\",\"StumbleUpon\",\"Reddit\",\"Print\");var hupso_icon_type = \"labels\";var hupso_background=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url=\"\";var hupso_title=\"Q%26A%3A%20Understanding%20Your%20QuickBooks%20Accounts\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The word \u201caccount\u201d can mean more than one thing in QuickBooks Before you started doing accounting tasks for your small business, the word \u201caccount\u201d simply referred to your accounts at a financial institution \u2013 checking, savings, credit cards, etc. QuickBooks &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.acctbusol.com\/blog\/qa-understanding-your-quickbooks-accounts\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_pop\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/button100x23.png\" style=\"border:0px; width:100; height: 23; \" alt=\"Share Button\" \/><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Linkedin\",\"StumbleUpon\",\"Reddit\",\"Print\");var hupso_icon_type = \"labels\";var hupso_background=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url=\"\";var hupso_title=\"Q%26A%3A%20Understanding%20Your%20QuickBooks%20Accounts\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7,5,4,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-accounting","category-our-services","category-quickbooks-desktop","category-quickbooks-online","category-training-in-qbks-accounting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acctbusol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acctbusol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acctbusol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acctbusol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acctbusol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.acctbusol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":188,"href":"https:\/\/www.acctbusol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187\/revisions\/188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acctbusol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acctbusol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acctbusol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}