 QuickBooks Online 2024. Help and support options. Get ready and clear your mind because we don't overanalyze. We Intuit. With Intuits. QuickBooks Online. Here we are in our browser searching for QuickBooks Online Test Drive looking for the result that has Intuit.com in the URL, Intuit being the owner of QuickBooks selecting the United States version of the software and verifying that we're not a robot. Opening up our major financial statement reports like we do every time. The reports on the left hand side were in the favorite reports. We're going to be right clicking on the balance sheet to open link in new tab. Right click the profit and loss to open the link in a new tab. Going up to that middle tab up top to close the hamburger. There's our balance sheet. I'll do a range change up top. Bringing it back to 2023010123 tab. 123123 tab. Run it to refresh it. Tab into the right. There's our profit and loss. Closing the hamburger. We're going to range change it from 010123 tab. 123123 tab. Running to refresh it. First a word from our sponsor. Yeah, actually, we're sponsoring ourselves on this one because apparently the merchandisers, they don't want to be seen with us. But but that's okay. Whatever. Because our merchandise is is better than their stupid stuff. Anyways, like this CPA thinking cap, for example, CPA thinking C A P. You see what we did with like with the letters and this CPA thinking cap is not just for CPAs either. Anyone can and should have at least one possibly multiple CPA thinking caps. Why? Because based on our scientific survey of five people, all of whom directly profit from the sale of these CPA thinking caps wearing this CPA thinking cap without a doubt, according to the survey, increases accounting productivity 10 fold. Yeah, at least apparently the hat actually channels like accounting energy from the quantum field ether directly into your head, allowing you to navigate spreadsheets faster. It's kind of like how in like the matrix when Neo learns kung fu or at least that's what the scientific survey saying. So get one because the scientific survey participants could really use some extra cash. If you would like a commercial free experience, consider subscribing to our website at accounting instruction dot com or accounting instruction dot think of it dot com income statement or profit and loss back to the first tab. That's the setup process we do every time data input on the first tab looking at the results to the tabs to the rights in the financial statements. We now want to look at the help options available to us with the QuickBooks online. So there's a few different resources that we could have one. We could go to the website, of course, we'll take a look at that in more detail shortly. But the owner of QuickBooks is into it.com. I find that to be the easy place to start. If you want to go to the website, we have the help option within the QuickBooks software here, which gives us a search field, which is nice. And then of course, we have other resources that we can find out there, such as on like a YouTube search or Google search or any other kind of browser search. Because QuickBooks is one of the most popular softwares for small to mid sized businesses. There's probably way more material that are provided even outside of the owner of QuickBooks outside of into it than any other type of software. So that's quite useful because it allows us to look up those resources. The question then, because we have all these resources will often become, well, where should I go first, given the fact that I have all these options? And I believe that will depend upon the type of question that you have. So for example, if you're talking about a technical type of question, something's loading up slowly or you have a billing question, or you're trying to level up from one version of the software to maybe a higher level of the version of the software. Well, those are technical issues where you might not need so much an accountant or bookkeeper, although they might know some of that stuff as well. But you might want to go to into it directly to ask them about those questions that are account related or technical issues with the software that doesn't seem to be running properly or something like that. So you might go to into it supports directly. If you have a bookkeeping type of question, then you one area you might go the first thing you might think about going to is going to be if you have a tax preparer or bookkeeper that you are working with possibly a CPA firm. So if you're small to midsize business, possibly you're doing your own bookkeeping, but maybe you're at least giving your information to the CPA firm or your tax preparer at the end of the year so they can prepare your taxes. If they are knowledgeable in accounting, then they probably have some experience in bookkeeping as well. And I mean, the bookkeeping software that's most prevalent is once again, the QuickBooks software. So you want to possibly keep them in the loop, even if they're not the first person you go to. In other words, even if you use some of these other resources, if you talk to the QuickBooks support online, or if you go to the YouTube's out there and you look something up or just do a Google search, or if you look for a bookkeeping professional, if your primary goal is for tax preparation, say it would be in the United States and or external reporting that you get the help from a CPA firm or tax preparer at the end of the year to do, then you want to keep them in the loop on any kind of accounting relating to issues that might come up. So that's the general idea. Is it a technical issue? In which case, it might be easier to go to QuickBooks directly. Is it a bookkeeping issue? In which case, the QuickBooks support might not be as useful. It might be easier to go to like your accountant or a bookkeeping professional. And if you go to a bookkeeper, you want to make sure that you keep your tax preparer or financial statement preparer that you're working with in the loop. So the first place we would probably go then if we had any kind of question would be like the help item up top. So if I select the help item, then on the left hand side, we have the assistant. So it might be more and more the case where you could possibly get some help directly speaking with someone that would be dependent upon the plan that you have, what type of QuickBooks support that you have within it. But remember, even if you have support from someone within into it within QuickBooks, they might not be as good in terms of your bookkeeping support. If you have a question about a transaction as like a bookkeeper, someone who is a bookkeeper first and a QuickBooks, you know, specialist second, possibly. And again, you'd also want to talk to your accountant that is in the loop so that you're doing something in accordance with your tax preparation and what not. And then you have your search field. So clearly the search field, whatever your topic would be if it was like payroll, you can type it in. And you've got your search field in here, which will give you the resources and possibly some video resources here as well. So that's the general process similar to search fields that you're probably familiar with to search it internally. So I'm going to close that out. Now you also have the My Expert up here that might be dependent on the level of plan in terms of how much internal support you might have. Now let's go to the Intuit website. So if I go into Intuit.com, if you want to look at the source, the people that made the software into Intuit is the owner of QuickBooks, they have different softwares up top, I would then go into the QuickBooks here. I usually like going all the way to the bottom of the page now even, and then going making sure I'm in the QuickBooks site directly under the products, which is this bottom of the page has been the same for a long time. And then I'm going to go into the QuickBooks online. So I know that I'm in the online here. If I scroll down to the plans that we talked about before, you've got the simple start, the essentials, the plus, and the advanced, you could take a look at the differences between the bookkeeping support that you might have. If you had the assisted bookkeeper turned on, then you know, that's going to be an add on feature $50 per month. Get assistance during doing your books. Our QuickBooks certified bookkeepers are here to help you with automating QuickBooks based on your business deed, categorizing transactions and recognizing accounts correctly, reviewing key business reports, ensuring you stay on track for tax time. So they're going to be more of a bookkeeping professional that is good at, you would think, QuickBooks possibly have some kind of QuickBooks certification as well and training. That would be great. But once again, if you're talking to another bookkeeper that is separate from your tax preparer and your financial accountant for year in preparation, you just want to make sure that they're lined up and in the loop with your tax preparer and whatnot so that everything's, you know, on board. Everyone's on board and on the same page is what I'm trying to say. Now you could have some different kind of plans with the payroll as well. Payroll is its own kind of system. So you might have some different levels of support if you purchase the payroll and you want to think about that in some detail as well because payroll, even with a few employees, can get quite complicated. And then up top, you've got the learn and support features up top which are broken out to Y QuickBooks, blog, support, and the free tools. So you've got the Y QuickBooks, explore new features. So if you go into here, you've got the new features, one place to streamline, bill pay, and so on. If I go back in here again and we say compare to others, add apps and integrations. So you can look into those. Try a demo. That's the demo. You got the blog, start your own business, run your own business, grow your business. And then we've got the support for getting started. Hold on a second here. What happened? Support for getting started, support topics, training, community resources, and see more. Let's check that out. If we go into here, so you've got the QuickBooks support, find bookkeepers helps articles, community discussions with other QuickBooks users, video tutorials, and more. And so you can search for those items here, select a product below, helps us to customize your experience, recommended help for QuickBooks, recommend for your business because you own QuickBooks online. And then you can browse the common topics, account management, advanced accounting, banking, and so on. So some of these browse tools will probably be similar to the help menu search area. But sometimes it's easier to search in a website than that little search field within the search page. So this is another area that we could go. I'm going to go back. And then you've got the free tools, invoice generator, sales tax calculator, paycheck calculator, timesheet calculator, balance sheet template, income statement template, and invoice templates. So there's, you know, the other, another resource you can go if you want to go to the source. And so we have that. And then if you're going to to other things outside of into it for help, again, QuickBooks very popular. So if you're looking on on a YouTube search or on just a Google search or browser search, you'll find a lot of results and you might find kind of what you're looking for for general support, more likely to at least with QuickBooks than many other softwares. And so that can be a useful that could be a useful tool as well. You just got to be careful that you're one, you're using the QuickBooks online version, as opposed to the desktop version, they're very different and look and feel. And two, that the QuickBooks software actually changes a lot from period to period, not in terms of the underlying double entry accounting system, of course, because that's going to be the same for any software that uses the double entry accounting system. But with regards to the look and the feel. So if you look at a QuickBooks software presentation, from like five years ago, it's possible that the look and feel is different. And of course, QuickBooks online is changing and adding features more possibly than you might be used to if you're using other software, like if you're used to the QuickBooks desktop QuickBooks online has has more changes, although again, the underlying fundamentals are going to be basically be the same. So when you're using outside resources, you want to think how old is this resource that I'm looking at? And am I sure that I'm looking at the proper software being QuickBooks online, rather than QuickBooks desktop. And then also, you probably want to make sure that you're double checking anything that you get from someone outside of into it to see if it's correct, because there are stuff out there. I've seen a lot of YouTube videos and stuff that make claims that aren't actually true, right? They have some nugget of truth, but then they kind of go in a wrong direction or something. So you want to trust the people that you're looking up or triangulate and check a few different sources to see if they're saying the same thing. And then again, run it by your accountant if you have the capacity to do that, to verify that the system you're thinking of makes sense for whatever question you have. Now also remember that when you do discuss things with your accountant, or if you have a bookkeeper and professional, right, you would like them to actually see your accounting. It used to be that at the end of the year, we'd have to do our taxes and stuff by actually printing out financial statements, balance sheet and an income statement, typically giving it to the tax preparer, they enter it and ask questions. But now you can usually give them access to the software itself. So that's going to be another source of support. So if you go into the my accountant on the left hand side, you have this here and accountant can be your best business partner, make it easy to work together, invite yours to your QuickBooks. So you can invite your accountant here. And if you wanted to hire a QuickBooks professional, you can find a pro to help you with here, you got your location, service provided industry and so on. So this is a neat tool because QuickBooks provides some kind of training and verification that the people that you're contacting here have some background in specifically QuickBooks. Whereas if you just hire a bookkeeper outside of their system, then you might find some good ones, but they might not be QuickBooks, you know, certified or whatever. So so there you can have a debate in terms of how valuable that QuickBooks certification is. But at least you have some, you generally have some idea that that they're affiliated, they're being recommended by into it, the owner of QuickBooks. So that's, that's nice. And if you are a bookkeeper, then this might be a way to generate, obviously, more clients once you get good with your accounting to see if you, if you can get, be an advisor that can be recommended through basically into it. But remember also that this advisor, even if you want to hire a bookkeeper and not do it yourself, might not be the same person that you're doing your taxes with. So if you're hiring someone to do your bookkeeping, the question is, do I want to hire one person that's going to help me out with my bookkeeping and my taxes, which means I might be working with a CPA firm of some kind. So this because the CPA firm might have different departments, one doing taxes, one doing the bookkeeping, or do I want to hire my own bookkeeper, which could possibly help and work with my CPA firm, my tax preparer, or something like that. If you hire someone, your own bookkeeper, you want to keep the CPA firm or the tax preparer in the loop. Now when you, when you add the the accountant here as well, if I go to my cog up top, the other way you can go into your users is under the company settings. And you've got manage users, which we looked to bet we looked at a little bit in a prior presentation, noting that the your personal users are how many people that you can have logged into the software and working on it. And I don't believe the accountant actually counts as one of those users. That's one of the things that possibly would require you to level up your software to pay more. So you got more users using it. But I think you can add your accountant here. And it's going to show up on this side. It's not here because we're in the sample. And you'll be able to give this information to your accountant. So hopefully if they have any questions about your books, they don't have to ask you to drill down on it, they can actually look into the and drill down on the financial statements themselves to hopefully find what it is they need to do whatever they need to do such as tax preparation and possible external financial statement report reporting of some kind. So bottom line help options to two categories, is this something that's technical or something related to your billing and whatnot? Or is it going to be a bookkeeping related question? If it's technical, then you're probably good to go to the QuickBooks support of some kind to see if you could solve any kind of technical issue or billing issue and whatnot. Although again, you might still want to go to your accountant. If you have one that you can go to even in those situations, if it's a bookkeeping issue, you have a whole lot of resources that you can go to, like YouTube, Intuit support, the search field here, Intuit advisors if you want to look into that. But any of those methods that you use, you want to keep your accountant in the loop. And you're probably going to start with the good old help button up top to get to get your search, you know, on the way. That's probably the first place to go internally and then expand your search from there.