How to Use the Chart of Accounts in QuickBooks Online

How to Use the Chart of Accounts in QuickBooks Online: Video

          This video lesson, titled “How to Use the Chart of Accounts in QuickBooks Online,” shows you how to use the Chart of Accounts in QuickBooks Online. This video lesson is from our complete QuickBooks Online tutorial, titled “Mastering QuickBooks Online Made Easy.”

Overview:

            The chart of accounts lists all accounts in your company file. To open the chart of accounts page in QuickBooks Online, click the “Settings” button in the QuickBooks Online toolbar. Then click the “Chart of accounts” link under the “Your Company” heading. The accounts in the chart of accounts are ordered by account type, as follows: assets, liabilities, equity, income, expenses, other income and expenses, and non-posting accounts.

            The “Chart of accounts” page in QuickBooks Online contains the chart of accounts list. The chart of accounts list is a table in which each account appears as a separate row. Information about the account appears in the columns. There are columns for the account’s “Name,” “Account Type” “Detail Type,” “QuickBooks Balance,” “Bank Balance,” and an “Action” column. If you enable account numbering, then a “Number” column also appears. At the far-left side of the chart of accounts list is a checkbox column that lets you check accounts to select them, if needed, to perform batch actions.

How to Perform Actions on Accounts:

            To perform actions on an account in the chart of accounts, click or select an action from its “Action” column. Possible actions include the “View register” or “Run report” command, the “Connect bank” command, and the “Edit” and “Make inactive” commands. The “View Register” command only appears for Balance Sheet accounts, like asset, liability, and equity accounts. All other accounts show the “Run report” command, instead. The “Connect bank” command only appears for “Bank” account types.

            To perform batch actions on selected accounts, check the checkboxes to the left of the accounts on which to perform the same action in the chart of accounts list. Then click the “Batch actions” button towards the upper-left corner of the page and select the desired action to perform from the drop-down menu.

How to Filter Accounts:

            To filter which accounts to show in the chart of accounts by either account name or number, use the “Filter by name or number” field towards the upper-left corner of the page. Alternatively, to filter the accounts by who created them or by balance sheet or profit and loss accounts, select a choice from the drop-down to the right of the “Filter by name or number” field.

How to Show the Number Column in the Chart of Accounts:

            To view the “Number” column, if needed, click the “Settings” gear button in the upper-right corner above the account list and check the “Number” checkbox under the “Columns” heading in the drop-down menu that appears.

How to Show Account Registers, Account Reports, or Make Accounts Inactive:

            To open the associated account register or account report for an account, click or select the “View Register” or “Run Report” command from its “Action” column. To inactivate an account, click the drop-down arrow in its “Action” column and select the “Make inactive” link to open a popup window where you must then confirm you want to inactivate the account.

How to Edit an Account:

            To edit an account, click the drop-down arrow under its “Action” column and select the “Edit” command to open an “Edit account” pane at the right side of the window. Edit the account information in this pane and then click the “Save” button to save the changes and close the pane.

How to Show All Accounts in a Report:

            To open a report on the accounts in the chart of accounts, which you can customize, click the “Run Report” button at the top of the “Chart of accounts” page. To create new accounts or import accounts, use the “New account” drop-down button to the right of the “Run Report” button.

How to Batch Edit, Print, and Change the Display Settings of the Chart of Accounts:

            In the upper-right corner, above the list, there are three buttons. From left to right, these are the “Batch edit,” “Print,” and “Settings” buttons.

How to Batch Edit Accounts:

            To open a page where you can edit multiple accounts at once to add account numbers or change account names, click the “Batch edit” button. You can then edit the account names or numbers in the page that opens. To save the batch changes in this page, click the “Save” button in its upper-right corner.

How to Print the Chart of Accounts:

            To open a web page that contains a printer-friendly list of the chart of accounts and also open your web browser’s “Print” dialog box, click the “Print” button. You can close this page after printing or viewing it.

How to Change the Display Settings of the Chart of Accounts:

            To show a drop-down menu that lets you change settings that control the display of the account list in the chart of accounts page, click the “Settings” button. To show or hide columns in the chart of accounts, check or uncheck the names of the columns under the “Columns” heading in the button’s drop-down menu.

            To show inactive accounts, check the “Include inactive” checkbox under the “Other” heading in the drop-down menu. To show account type badges for balance sheet and profit and loss accounts in the chart of accounts list, check the “Show account type badges” checkbox in this same section.

            To change the number of accounts shown per page within the chart of accounts, select a choice from the “Page size” section of the drop-down menu. To set the table row density, which determines how much space to give each row in the table, select the desired option button in the “Table Density” section of the drop-down menu.