Are you trying to catch up your books by entering some prior information?
No problem!
Enter historical information the same way you would today's transactions, including Accounts Receivable (A/R), Accounts Payable (A/P) and Banking, by using some of the options under the Plus (+) menu.
Enter past sales and A/R, as well as past vendor/supplier and A/P transactions, before entering any past checking/Cheque or bank transactions. QuickBooks Online updates your bank balance as you enter payments received from customers and payments to vendors/suppliers.
Customer Transactions (A/R)
There are two ways to enter sales and A/R transactions. Both methods ensure accurate reporting.
- Chronologically: Enter transactions (charges, invoices, credits, payments) in the same order they were created or received. This method creates a record of all the invoices you sent.
- In Batches: Enter all charges and credits that customers already know about, followed by payments received. Print a single invoice for each customer to clear their invoice record of the past activity. Then enter remaining charges and credits you haven't informed customers of, and start sending real invoices. This method doesn't leave a record of invoices you sent.
Vendor/Supplier Transactions (A/P) (Doesn't apply to Simple Start)
As you enter your A/P transactions, enter the dates of the original transactions. Enter your historical bill transactions in the following order:
- Bills: Choose Plus (+) > Bill and enter each bill received between your start date and today. Be sure to assign amounts to the correct expense accounts. If you don't see Bill, click the "Show More" at the bottom.
- Credits from vendors/suppliers: Choose Plus (+) > Vendor/Supplier Credit to enter credits received between your start date and today. Again, if you don't see Vendor/Supplier Credit, click "Show More"
- Payments: Choose Plus (+) > Check/Cheque or > Pay Bills, record each bill payment made between your start date and today.
- Be sure the Payment Date field shows the payment date.
- Using Check/Cheque is a better option to control the check/cheque number of the bill payment.
- When using Pay Bills, open your checking/cheque account register when you're finished to change the number of each payment to match the actual check/cheque you used.
Entering Banking Transactions
- If you're entering historical transactions for more than a one-month time frame, enter the transactions one month at a time and reconcile all bank accounts before going to the next month.
- If you're using online banking to download some of these transactions, you need to be aware that we can't provide more than 90 days of downloads from online banking. Anything before the 90 day period will need to be manually entered. However, you might be able to get information older than 90 days by using Web-Connect.
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