QuickBooks is comprehensive accounting software widely used by small and medium-sized businesses and self-employed individuals. It allows users to track their expenses, send invoices, receive payments, manage payroll, and prepare taxes all from one software program. You might worry that QuickBooks will be too hard to learn. This guide will help you understand the best methods for learning QuickBooks and what you should study first to make the learning process easier. This way, you’ll be successful however you choose to apply your new skills.
What is QuickBooks?
QuickBooks is a widely used accounting and bookkeeping software package from Intuit. Primarily used by small and medium businesses, QuickBooks helps businesses to track and manage everything to do with their finances. Using QuickBooks, businesses can monitor their cash flow and profits and losses by tracking sales, expenses, customers, and payments. QuickBooks is also often used to create and send invoices, manage the business’s inventory, and manage employee payroll. It also has budgeting, time tracking, and daily task features to keep businesses running efficiently.
QuickBooks helps businesses ensure the accuracy of their records by directly connecting sales channels to QuickBooks and reconciling bank transactions with the information one inputs. The software also has features to help with tax preparation and can be used as a way to collaborate and share documents with an accountant. QuickBooks is a subscription-based service with varied payment tiers that provide access to different features. The different versions of QuickBooks cater to different storage and employment needs as Intuit offers basic to premium plans of its cloud-based QuickBooks Online, a computer-installed QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise version for larger companies, and a version for freelancers and independent contractors called QuickBooks Solopreneur.
What Can You Do with QuickBooks?
QuickBooks software has many different applications and uses across a wide variety of industries. Many small and medium-sized businesses use QuickBooks for its record-keeping features as it was originally designed for businesses without a dedicated accounting department. QuickBooks allows someone to track and categorize many things such as expenses, sales, transactions, and customer, vendor, and inventory lists. This makes QuickBooks a great option for those needing to keep all of their business records in one place.
Additionally, many people use QuickBooks to create and send invoices, manage employee payroll, help prepare their taxes, maintain a budget, and automate tasks. QuickBooks includes features to automate accounts payable and receivable. Many use QuickBooks to automate sending customer invoices or payment reminders or even keeping employees updated on crucial tasks and sending deadline reminders. These features of QuickBooks allow you to increase productivity and maintain efficient workflows so that you do not constantly need to task employees with work that can be done by the QuickBooks software itself.
Not only do businesses use QuickBooks, but QuickBooks is often used by self-employed people like freelancers and independent contractors. QuickBooks offers a specific version of the software called QuickBooks Solopreneur (formerly QuickBooks Self-Employed or SE). Many people find that once they link their accounts, it is easy to import their transactions and the QuickBooks software will automatically work to tag one’s income. Self-employed users will likely need to do a bit of extra work to categorize their transactions more effectively for their own needs, but QuickBooks can do much of the bookkeeping work automatically and make tracking finances easier for individuals.
Is QuickBooks Easy to Learn?
Yes, QuickBooks is relatively easy to learn. Intuit developed QuickBooks so that individuals and small business owners could track and manage their own business’s finances, even without an extensive background in accounting. Most people using QuickBooks find that they can easily get started familiarizing themselves with the software and using some of the basic functions on their own. Even without training, it can be easy to start setting up your company’s profile, linking accounts, and using some of the rudimentary features to track expenses.
While QuickBooks is seen as beginner-friendly software, first-time users with absolutely no knowledge of basic accounting terms or principles might struggle initially to understand how to use the software. Additionally, QuickBooks is known for being comprehensive and including many different features, some of which are industry-specific. Most QuickBooks users do not use every feature offered by the software and users need to determine which features they need for their own business. To get the most out of using QuickBooks, many people locate free resources online like video tutorials or guides or even enroll in a short class to get a handle on the basic software features they will need to use.
What to Know Before Learning QuickBooks
There are no prerequisites for learning QuickBooks. That being said, some basic computer and math skills are generally accepted as necessary for using QuickBooks. While knowing some accounting terms and principles will make getting started with QuickBooks easier, this is not required to learn QuickBooks. Even if you know nothing about accounting or are unsure which QuickBooks version to use, you can take a QuickBooks class to learn how to use this software.
Basic Computer Skills
The main requirement for learning QuickBooks is that you have basic computer literacy skills. This includes simple operations such as downloading and installing software, following links, and navigating interactive digital interfaces. It will also be necessary to know how to input data and information. This knowledge will help one set up their company’s account, link bank accounts and sales channels, and start the process of tracking and managing one’s expenses through QuickBooks.
While no advanced computer skills are necessary, it can be helpful to have some knowledge of data entry, data organization, and how to analyze data. Much of what one sees in QuickBooks will be visualizations of sales transitions, cash flow, or profits and losses as well as information that users enter like client, vendor, or inventory lists. Knowing how to use a spreadsheet program, like Excel, will help one understand the kind of financial data one sees in QuickBooks. A basic understanding of financial data is useful for using QuickBooks, though one can also learn how to read the information that QuickBooks generates by taking a class or finding an online lecture or tutorial.
Common Accounting Terms
Knowing about account terms and principles is not a requirement for learning QuickBooks, but it will help someone learn how to use the software more easily. QuickBooks users suggest that knowing some accounting basics allows them to utilize the software fully and avoid any confusion about how the software operates. This can include knowing something about income, expenses, cash flow, assets, and liability as well as having knowledge about accounts payable and accounts receivable and what the difference is between cash and accrual accounting. Common accounting knowledge can also include how to read and understand statements and reports like income statements and balance sheets.
What you need to know to use QuickBooks is also essential knowledge for a small business owner. It will be harder to operate a functioning business with no financial literacy and there are online resources and classes one can take to gain this literacy. For those interested in learning more about the field of accounting, Noble Desktop’s comprehensive guide to accounting is useful to check out. This guide can point you in a specific direction for learning the terms that will be most helpful to maximizing your use of QuickBooks.
The Right Version of QuickBooks
One of the first things to do before learning QuickBooks is to consider why you want to use QuickBooks and which version will work best for you. Prospective users should consider how they plan to use QuickBooks and what features will be specific to their own business’s needs. While this is something one can also decide after downloading QuickBooks, it will make getting set up on QuickBooks easier if one does some basic research into the most commonly used features for their industry. Those in legal services, for instance, will be interested in the features that allow one to track cases, clients, and pro bono work, whereas those in manufacturing may need to use more of the inventory and vendor management features.
Prospective QuickBooks users will also need to download the correct version for their business. For self-employed people, you will likely be using QuickBooks Solopreneur, which is both lower cost in comparison to other versions and allows freelancers and independent contractors to track expenses, receive payments, send invoices, categorize transactions, manage client lists, and prepare taxes. Most other users, including most small business owners, will use a version of QuickBooks Online. QuickBooks Online has different features and benefits offered at different price points, so users will want to compare the tiers and determine which one will best meet their needs.
Learn QuickBooks with Hands-on Training at Noble Desktop
Noble Desktop offers expert in-person and live online training for those interested in learning QuickBooks. Noble Desktop’s classes all include expert, hands-on guidance, small class sizes, and free retake options and many classes offer both part-time and full-time options so that one can find the QuickBooks or finance class that works best for their schedule. For fast and comprehensive training in QuickBooks, consider enrolling in Noble Deskop’s QuickBooks Bootcamp which teaches students everything they need to know about how to use QuickBooks to track and manage a business’s finances. This bootcamp uses hands-on training to teach students the basics of QuickBooks like configuring a company profile, working with customer, vendor, and inventory lists, and invoicing and processing payments as well as the more advanced management and customization features. Noble Desktop offers this bootcamp live online from any location and it can be taken in person at Noble Desktop’s training facility in New York City.
Noble Desktop also has accounting classes and bootcamps which are a great option for anyone interested in developing their skills or learning more about finance and accounting. The Intro to Financial Accounting & Financial Statements class uses hands-on exercises to teach students the fundamentals of analyzing financial statements and reports. After completing this introductory class, students can progress to the Intermediate Financial Accounting class which teaches more complex topics like earnings per share and deferred taxes. For those who want a comprehensive, accelerated class that tackles both beginner and intermediate topics of accounting, consider the Financial Accounting Bootcamp which teaches everything students need to know in two class sessions.
Noble’s finance and accounting classes are great for those who want to grow their financial literacy beyond learning about QuickBooks. These classes are also useful for those interested in turning their knowledge of QuickBooks into the first step to becoming a Bookkeeper or Accountant. If this is something that interests you, you can learn more about the career path of an Accountant by reading Noble Desktop’s comprehensive guide to accounting, a free resource that covers essential information about accounting and how to learn the skills necessary to make this one’s career. For those who want to work in finance in some capacity but are not entirely sure which direction they want to go in yet, Noble Desktop’s guide to finance is a useful way to read about different career options.