 QuickBooks Online 2023. Free 30-day trial set up. Get ready to start moving on up with QuickBooks Online 2023. Here we are online in the Intuit website. Intuit being the owner of QuickBooks. You can find it at intuit.com. That's intuit.com. We're gonna be looking at the free 30-day trial within this website, but before we do I'm gonna open up another window so that we can search for the QuickBooks test drive which is the other free option so that we can see them side-by-side comparing the test drive to the free 30-day trial and also to demonstrate that it is possible to have the test drive open as well as your company file open. You can do so by opening up an incognito window in your current browser. I'm in Chrome by hitting the three dots up top and go to the new incognito window. If you're in another browser the process will be a little bit different or you can do a similar thing by having two different browsers open. For example we've got Google Chrome open. You also might open another browser like Firefox or something like that. So I'm gonna go to the three dots up here. I'm gonna go to the new company to the new incognito window and then in here I'm gonna search for that test drive. Support accounting instruction by clicking the link below giving you a free month membership to all of the content on our website broken out by category further broken out by course. Each course then organized in a logical reasonable fashion making it much more easy to find what you need than can be done on a YouTube page. We also include added resources such as Excel practice problems PDF files and more like QuickBooks backup files when applicable. So once again click the link below for a free month membership to our website and all the content on it. So I typed in QuickBooks online test drive and then I'm gonna search and I'm gonna look for the result that has the Intuit.com and the URL to indicate that it is indeed owned by Intuit the owner of QuickBooks. I'm gonna use the United States version of the software and verify that we're not a robot and then we can log into the test drive. Then typically I'll close the prior tab here and there we have it. Now note that if you're logged into the test drive and you're logged into the Intuit account your Intuit account for your QuickBooks file it can cause a problem but the idea here is that if I have this test drive separate I can have it on another screen or something like that and it shouldn't cause me a problem if I'm also logged into the Intuit website with my account that being the idea so I can have both windows open at the same time. Okay back to the Intuit website with a 30-day free trial. So I'm gonna go to the QuickBooks up top note that if I go to QuickBooks the software owned by Intuit and I scroll down they have multiple softwares by the way that's why there were multiple icons up top they usually default to a sales page that is for QuickBooks online but it's a little bit different than if you go to directly the QuickBooks online page and it doesn't have that free toggle option up top which is a little annoying so you might first get to this page and you're like they've eliminated the 30-day trial don't worry they've had it for some time so so you should be able to search for it if you don't find it here scroll all the way to the bottom of the page and they've had this kind of like the setup where they have the products at the bottom of their page for a long time even as they've changed their website and then if I go into the QuickBooks online that's the kind of software that we're looking at here then you go into a similar page basically selling a sales page for QuickBooks online but now you have that toggle feature now if you don't find the toggle feature here and they change that for whatever reason it's been this way for some time but they could always change it then they'll probably still have a 30-day trial because their competitors have it you know so it's usually a good sales technique and therefore you might just want to search into your browser window a search engine for QuickBooks online free 30-day trial and see if you can find it that way sometimes for whatever reason it's easier to find stuff outside of the Intuit website than within it by just doing a browse search for whatever it is that you're looking for but right now you can find it here and then you can toggle back and forth between this free 30-day trial now remember it's a little bit scary because they're gonna try to sell the software to you by giving you a discount as opposed to the free 30-day trial so let's just think about this first from the from the perspective of QuickBooks what does QuickBooks want they of course would first like you to pay upfront because that locks you in for sure once you start using the software with your own company data you're pretty much locked in because it's not nice it's not fun to change accounting software but if you're testing the software out then what they would like to do typically is give you a 30-day trial and hopefully you're gonna add your own company data into the system which means that after 30 days you're almost guaranteed to keep on working at that point in time because now you've got your data in the system and you've been doing accounting within it so you're gonna continue with it at that point in time so that's where they gave you this kind of little scare feature if you switch over to here then the prices go up so that basically means my interpretation hey look you get the 30-day free trial but we're gonna up the price after the 30 days is over from that from that time frame and therefore you might want to purchase it upfront but notice the idea here is that we're gonna be doing a test file and so if we apply the 30-day trial then after the 30 days is over if you want to be using it for your own company file then you might want to be looking for a discount at that point in time talking to a QuickBooks distributor or something like that or set up another company file where you should still hopefully have access to you know the cheaper price basically upfront by that point in time so that's the general idea every time you remember that also that QuickBooks online is different than the desktop version once you buy the software you only have access to that one company file whereas on the desktop version you could set up multiple company files with the software so that means that every even if you have an account with QuickBooks you might still be able to use the QuickBooks online software for another company file because QuickBooks would be thinking okay now you're gonna add another company file and if we can get you to put a month's worth of data into the system for that company file it's likely that you're gonna pay for another subscription another company file after that point in time that's the general idea again what we're trying to do is use the 30-day trial just for the 30 days not enter our personal company data into it but rather work through the practice problem along with the instructional video to get an idea and then purchase the software separately for our own company file once we once we have a good understanding of how the QuickBooks works that would be the general process we're thinking through okay so we're gonna toggle on the 30 day trial you got your different options here you got the simple start the essentials the plus the major differences are down are down below between these options so the the essentials might be good enough for for most people you want to make sure that obviously you pick the the item that's right for you but it has it has the connect three channels it includes three users that users is often one of the problems but if you're a sole proprietor it may not be an issue to you you've got a bill management so the bill management isn't on the simple start and then you've got the entering of the time which may or may not be something that you definitely need but that's different than over here we're gonna be using the plus which is the most popular or the recommended and the big item they add here is the inventory so if you're tracking inventory then you want to go here if you're not tracking inventory then you might be able to get away with with one of the first two options but we want to show the inventory option so we'll do this also projects is a specialty kind of area which could be useful depending on like the industry that you're in so that's a neat tool but it's kind of industry specific so we're gonna choose their most popular item here for the plus for the example problem so we can track inventory remember when you're picking your own company file the differences are these items in bold and you want to determine whether or not those are gonna be deal breakers for you when you're choosing which plan for your actual company file so I'm gonna choose this plan and then once again we're gonna say it says continue with payroll so now the payroll is an add-on type of feature which it always is basically for any kind of software in practice you've got to be thinking whenever you're thinking payroll you want to think do I want to do payroll within my QuickBooks software or whatever accounting software you're using or do I want to hire a third-party payroll professional to help with the payroll and so with the practice problem we'll try to see if we can get a free 30-day trial for the payroll and see if we can basically practice with the payroll so I'm gonna try to add the plan here and then it gives us another kind of scary page because it has the total here at 160 a month but on the left hand side we have the free trial for 30 days and I believe you can go through this process without even entering like a payment information like a credit card information in order to access that free 30-day trial but remember that QuickBooks is always gonna try to be pushing you to be picking up the discount and purchasing it at the point in time instead of using the free 30-day trial so I think we're still good on the free 30-day trial I just want to point out with the payroll one more time that when you're thinking about payroll for your own practice then you have those two options do you want to be doing the payroll through QuickBooks or having an external payroll provider and when you think about those options you probably don't want to talk to QuickBooks directly first or to a payroll provider first but to a neutral third party just for advice like a tax preparer your CPA firm or something like that because then you're talking to them and asking them just for advice as opposed to talking to someone who's trying to sell you the payroll that they provide right and then go to buy the payroll we'll talk more about payroll within the practice problem though so I'm gonna say check out now if you don't have an account set up then you're gonna have to then set up an account if you do have an account set up you should hopefully still be able to take advantage of the 30-day free trial because Intuit is trying to sell you another company file so you have a free 30-day trial for a different company file not the company file that your current company is working in note that it is asking for billing information now so we want to make sure then that we cancel it within the 30-day time frame as you're entering you know the billing information for it so then it's gonna give me one more kind of scare screen here saying hey look you can pay right now and you've got the discount but we're gonna try to take advantage of the 30-day free trial so instead of hitting the big green button I'm gonna say I want to continue with the free trial here so I'm gonna continue with that and then we've got the intro screen to set up our company file so this is some data some of which is useful for QuickBooks to set up the company file but much of which is kind of internal data for QuickBooks for Intuit so let's just go through this process quickly welcome we're glad you're here here's what we'll do together right now so tell us what you need help with we'll ask a few questions to get to know your business we'll bring in your transactions and organize your money so okay great next so now we're gonna say what do you call your business so I'm gonna say our our practice problem will be called get great guitars I'm gonna call it get great guitars this is my legal business name so if we have it as your legal business then you can check that off as well I'm gonna say next then it says how have you been managing your finances no matter where you're coming from we're here to help so we're gonna be pick nothing I'm just starting here so you might be moving from another software for example such as QuickBooks desktop QuickBooks desktop is really different than QuickBooks online it's like a completely different software but if you're moving from desktop to online then you can go through the setup process on that Sage is another accounting software other bookkeeping software spreadsheets or pen and paper and other note that if you're coming from a nut there's there's kind of two scenarios when you're starting a new QuickBooks file one is that you're starting a new company a new business and therefore you don't really have any data from a prior software to you already have data from a prior software or some other accounting system and you're just switching to get that data within the QuickBooks online if you're moving from another accounting software to QuickBooks online then the question is do I want to get all the past data from prior years in the in the prior accounting software into QuickBooks online or do I just want to draw the line at some point and then say my prior software is what I used before and I'm just gonna be putting the current data into QuickBooks online in that latter case you're gonna be using hopefully a whole year's worth of data in other words I don't want to start entering data into QuickBooks online starting in the middle of the year and then I have to process two accounting softwares to do my taxes say for the end of the year instead if I'm starting in the middle of the year I want to add the whole year's worth of data into both accounting softwares if I've already entered it into the prior accounting software I would like to enter it again if possible or pull that data from the prior accounting software into the current accounting software so that we can have everything in one spot so that would so no problem we'll we'll walk you through this so I'm gonna say next so what's your industry so start typing and select the option that fits best you can always change it later so we're gonna you could pick in you know an industry so we might say construction or something like that and it'll start to populate the industry down below so notice that you would think that if I put the industry in you'd say well QuickBooks is gonna use that in some way how is QuickBooks gonna use that to help me and you would think maybe they would adjust the chart of accounts based on the industry but I believe they still have basically one chart of accounts that they kind of apply to every every industry that you put into the system and so we'll see that when we enter all the data so you want to be you want to give them the proper industry here but it might not have as big an impact you would think on the final product such as the chart of accounts that they provide you with that you otherwise would so it might not be as important as you as you would think but I'm gonna choose an industry that is gonna be indicating that we have inventory as well as service items because because I want to be I want to be using a Geo account that has service items and inventory items so I'm gonna pick this option all other general merchandising stores we're gonna be imagining that we sell guitars but we'll also enter service items so we can get a feel of service items and selling merchandise within our practice problem so I'm gonna say that one will be our generic industry I'm gonna say next and so then what kind of business is this tell us about your business structure we use this to help categorize your transactions so you got this would be the the structure of your business in terms of is it a sole proprietorship partnership corporation s corp not for profit now again you would kind of think that picking these would have a big impact on say the chart of accounts but I believe QuickBooks is still gonna give you pretty much a general chart of accounts that's trying to trying to encompass all of these different all of these different types meaning for example you would think the sole proprietor account in the equity section on the chart of accounts would change from retained earnings calculation to a sole proprietor owner's equity you would think on the partnership the capital accounts wouldn't be retained earnings but it would be capital accounts for the partners you would think in a corporation then then you would have the retained earnings and so on and you'd have different terminology for not for profit that wouldn't indicate profit although it's still the double entry accounting system but no matter which so you want to pick the one that applies to you but it's probably not as big a deal as you would otherwise think because I don't think it's gonna have a big impact on say the creation of the general ledger so so what we'll say okay the chart of accounts I should say the chart of accounts that they're gonna create so how does your business make money we tailor your accounting categories based on your answer select all that apply so provide services and we have we sell products so we tailor your accounting categories meaning the chart of accounts so that would indicate if you sell products they should be given you an inventory account right and a cost of goods sold to count which you wouldn't need if you just sold services I still kind of think that they're giving you basically a general chart of accounts no matter what you pick here but but and I keep thinking they're gonna change that but it seems to me they're still giving pretty much an overall general chart of accounts hopefully and possibly at this point they're changing their chart of accounts as they do in the desktop version which has very different chart of accounts depending on the industry that you're choosing and whether you sell products or services for example so we'll check that out shortly I'm gonna say next and then it says what's your main role so we can say that we're the we're the owner partner we can say we're an employee a bookkeeper or accountant this is most likely more for internal use for for QuickBooks informational purposes I'm gonna say we're the owner here so it's probably not again gonna have a big impact on the actual data input that you're gonna be putting into the software who works at this business help us understand who is part of your team so this also is something that I think might be more for internal use for QuickBooks to understand for their data then something that's gonna change your actual QuickBooks file sole proprietor employees contractors so so we could I'll say contractors other partners and so on I plan to hire in the future so if you check that off what would you expect to happen they're gonna try to sell your payroll right they're gonna try to give you more payroll information and whatnot which we we added in our practice anyways but so what apps do you use for your business will help you connect them later on to bring in your data so if you if you're using the apps if you're setting up QuickBooks specifically to link to Shopify or eBay for example then we can set up some of these apps that help us to pull in some of the data PayPal has an as a system to pull in the data but we also can think of bank feeds with regards to PayPal now apps is a whole another kind of world in and of itself we might get a section to talk about how to how to get the data from from some of the most popular apps and pull that information in but right now and right now we're just gonna move forward without them note that this information is something that you don't have to worry about like well what if I pass it up right now I can't do it later no you can you can add the app typically later so and that's what we'll basically do so I'm gonna say skip for now and then it says what do you want to do today help us understand your goals set up QuickBooks start using right away explore QuickBooks before I set it up so in our practice problem I'm just gonna say set it up right now and you might want to do the Explorer it might be a give you a little map thing there but I'm gonna say set it up for five or link your accounts and see every everything in one place so QuickBooks will automatically bring in transactions and save hours of manual entry one securely link your bank and credit card to select and accounts you'd like to bring in free see what your cash flow looks like so this is linking to the bank feeds this is one of the major draw points of QuickBooks online is they have a really sophisticated more sophisticated link to the bank feeds and credit card feeds financial institution feeds then some other softwares so we'll talk about that in its own section or course in and of itself I just want to point out now one you don't need to set up the bank feeds here you can always set up the bank feeds later so if you if you feel like well I'm gonna pass this up and it's gonna it's gonna mess things up I won't be able to do it don't worry you could set it up later and two we're not gonna focus on bank feeds at the start because what you really want to do first is understand the accounting system so that you know where the bank feeds fit in to your accounting system we'll talk more about that later but if you just turn on bank feeds and you just start adding in the bank feeds and you have no idea what the accounting system is doing you'll end up with a pile of bank feeds a pile of data that's not being used in order to generate the financial statements and you may be overwhelmed at that point in time so we'll talk more about that later but I'm gonna skip it for now and then what do you want to set up next you got the invoice customers track receive and bills so these are kind of some advanced features on the invoicing system when you're doing the invoicing process then of course you're gonna want to make the collection as easy as possible and QuickBooks has some some capacity to have an account with QuickBooks for example and so that you can go through that process these are things again that you could set up later so I'm not gonna go through them right now we might touch on them more at a later point and don't worry about it if you if you skip them at this point because you can typically turn them on they're kind of possibly kind of like up sales for added items so what is everything you want to set up your choices help personalize your setup you can still use every part of QuickBooks so this also seems to be to be more and information for QuickBooks internally than something that's gonna change your your setup when you set up your file organize money in and out yeah I'm gonna invoice customers track receive expenses pay employees track sales manage sales tax accept online payments now notice if you don't check some of these off like if I didn't check off manage sales tax it doesn't mean that I'm not gonna have the capacity to manage sales tax this seems to me more in internal information for QuickBooks rather than something that's gonna change your company file for the most part enter time and bills time track manage inventory protect my business with insurance that's a sneaky one because that looks like an up sale like QuickBooks wants to sell you insurance right there so no track mileage maybe but I'm not gonna take that off it has a nice little mileage tracking thing so I'm gonna say next and then now it's gonna go through the setup it could take a little bit of time depending on your online your online speed and then I'm gonna say let's go let's go and there's our QuickBooks file has been set up we got the get great guitars up top on the QuickBooks file so I'm gonna close this up it says welcome let's show you a round you might want to use that and take a look at it I won't do it here I'm gonna close this up and there's our file now notice I still have the QuickBooks because I had the incognito mode I can pull in the QuickBooks in terms of the sample company file Craig's design and landscaping in a different window because I used the incognito mode I couldn't just do that I couldn't just go over here and type in you know QuickBooks online test drive because it would mess up the login if I go into it it'll mess up the login because I'm logged into another company file but if you open it in another browser or incognito mode you can have them side by side that's useful because it allows you then to test things out possibly in the in this sample company while you have your company file open now we'll go into this company file in more detail but notice what we don't have in this company file is that if I go into the business overview and the reports there's nothing in the reports so far right there's no balance sheet data so we're actually gonna build the balance sheet in income statement and you'll see it from the ground up being constructed as we do the data input now in terms of the chart of accounts if I go into the bookkeeping on the left hand side and look at the chart of accounts then I'm gonna say see the chart of accounts it gives us this chart of accounts now this is still it gave us an inventory account that's great because we told it that we're gonna be dealing with inventory although again I think they're just giving us a default long chart of account pretty much no matter what we picked so notice all the equity accounts that they're putting in here this is quite a long list of equity accounts because they're trying to take care of you know every type of circumstance and so so like I say it doesn't look to me like they're really customizing their chart of accounts depending on the picks that we made but that's what it is so we'll have to go in here and we'll we'll do some customization on their chart of accounts which is one of the primary things we need to do to set up and get things rolling from here that's different than then this file which has data in the reports the thing that's great when it has data in the reports is that when I open up the balance sheet then I can drill down on the balance sheet and find how the data was input in order to create the financial statements deconstructing taking the engine apart then we're gonna go over here and now we're gonna put the engine together from scratch by building it up and the first thing we'll do is set up the chart of accounts and then we'll do our data input up top and so we'll take a look at that stuff in future presentations