Before diving into the nuts and bolts of setting up QuickBooks for your business, you should understand what QuickBooks is, and what your options are when it comes to using it. Once you know what your options are, you will be in a better position to choose the version of QuickBooks that will best suit your business needs.
If you don't have previous experience as a bookkeeper, then you will need to know a few bookkeeping basics before you get started. In the introduction to the bookkeeping section, we cover five key areas in terms of recording transactions in your business: money coming in, money going out, inventory purchases, fixed asset purchases, and liabilities. In this section, we will also cover the importance of the chart of accounts, accounting methods, and what double-entry bookkeeping is.
We will cover the following key concepts in this chapter:
- What is QuickBooks?
- QuickBooks Online (QBO) editions
- Choosing the right QBO edition
- QuickBooks Desktop (QBD) product line
- Choosing the right QBD version
- New features in QBD 2019 and 2020
- Introduction to small business bookkeeping
Once you've got these key concepts under your belt, you will be ready to dive into setting up your business in QBO.