 QuickBooks Online 2023 Location Tracking Get ready to earn the skills needed to boost your bank books on up with QuickBooks Online 2023 Here we are in our QuickBooks Online test company file using the Accounting View as opposed to the Business View You can toggle between the two views by going to the cog up top and switch the view down below Duplicating some tabs to put reports in like we do every time Right click in the tab up top to duplicate it Right click in the duplicated tab to duplicate it again Back to the tab to the middle reports on the left We want the balance sheet report And then we're going to tab to the right this time reports on the left And change it up to the income statement Otherwise known as the P&L, the profit and loss, close the hand boogie We're going to look for the month of March this time to get a clean report 0101, not 0103, 0123 to 033123 And nothing's in it, that's what we want, perfect Tab to the middle, closing up the boogie Ranging it from 030123 to 033123 And run it and nothing's in that one Let's tab to the left We're now going to look at the location tracking Now just a quick recap, we've been looking at these tools that are kind of over and above the normal kind Support a counting 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 A double entry accounting system adding another dimension typically A column to the income statement in chronological order Starting with the jobs or sub customers which are found in the customer area over here And then we went to the classes and then we went to the projects And now we're looking at location tracking Next time we'll look at the tags However, if you're going to group these together as more similar tools You would think of the jobs or sub customers similar to projects because they're linked to a customer And then the other three, classes, location tracking and then tags as being similar in nature So this will be similar to the classes So when you're thinking about projects, remember you're thinking about something that ties to a customer You're breaking out the income statement by customer which will include the projects as well as the sub customers And then when you're thinking about tags, location tracking and the classes You're thinking about assigning a separate class to break out your income statement by these separate things Classes, location tracking and the tags So we can turn this on as we saw in prior presentations by going to the cog up top and account and settings So then we go to the advanced Within the advanced settings, we're going to go into the categories where we have the class tracking and location tracking Opening it up, we talked about class tracking in a prior presentation That's the older tool Location tracking is copying a lot basically from the class tracking And adding a few things to it that are a little bit different than the class tracking When we think about these two tools in our normal like profit and loss reporting situation We're going to assign a class or location tracking We're looking at our profit and loss report And we would like to be able to break out another kind of component Breaking out columns of our profit and loss report as we saw with the class tracking Breaking it out by class Now if we've already broken stuff out by class Then we want to do something else to break out our profit and loss by something else other than class Then we might have to then move to location tracking Or the use of the tags is one reason why we might use location tracking just for our reporting components here So if I go to my class tracking now notice that location tracking from a reporting standpoint is actually a little less robust than the class tracking Because the class tracking allows you to have this option to break out a class per line item As opposed to each the whole transaction be assigned to one class So every transaction has at least two accounts affected You can assign at least one of those accounts to the income account usually If you have multiple income accounts to multiple line items or multiple different classes Which is useful when you're allocating expenses for example So you have more flexibility there with the class tracking Whereas the location tracking the entire transaction is going to be applied to a particular location The location tracking however has a few different options when you add the locations for some of the internal reports And the reports that you're going to be sending out to clients That might be a reason to use the location tracking that's a little bit outside possibly Then just trying to track your profit and loss report So we'll take a look at that Notice that if you hit this drop down you've got location, division, department, property So whatever you choose here doesn't mean that you necessarily have to use it for that function That primarily means that's what's going to show up when you search for like the classes here When you search for location it's going to show up by location if you use location as the name But if you wanted to use it for something other than that just for another tool to break out your columns According to something other than the classes And that's what you're using it for then you could use it for something other than whatever the name happens to be here So that's going to be the general idea of the location tracking We will turn it on so we're going to save it And so I'm going to close this out And then in order to list your locations you can go to the cog up top I would go to all lists and then look at your locations Locations And then I've added two here California and Nevada Let's add some sub locations just to get a feel for how this might work So if I said new item I can say this is let's say this is location one for California I'm going to make it a sub location here now so I have California to sub location of California And then you've got these other options that you don't have on the class tracking So this location has different titles for for the sales form So on the sales form maybe you have a different title so I'm going to say location title title one This location has a different company name when communicated with customers So this is going to be California name right it has a different name And that gives you that flexibility for those external this location has a different address So now we're going to say California address This location has a different email address and then this location has a different phone So which is of course 5555 5555 5555 So that's some some more of the documentation that you might be providing to The client has some more of that detail so I add a new one Just so it can have location to L2 California and I won't add all the other sub stuff here And save that now if I look at my forums then If I open this back up and I say plus and an invoice, which is typically a form that would go out to a client in a files to make the invoice. Let's just say customer number one, and I don't add a location here. Then let's take a look at the preview of it. So we wanna say print preview of this invoice. And you can see up top, you got the test company, that's my file name and the address and so on, on the invoice. If I close this back up, and now I've got my location, if I assign it to that location one, and I'm gonna say okay, and now let's take a look at the preview, print preview, then it's got those changes that I made for the address and so on up top in the name. So that is something that's for kind of internal use that the location tracking does a little bit differently than using location tracking just to break out basically your profit and loss report. So that's another kind of use of the location tracking. Also just realize the location tracking on the downside doesn't have as nice an integration with payroll. You would think with location tracking, you would be able to assign particular employees to that location. You don't have as much option to do that. You do have the option with class tracking. So if your primary purpose is over here on the profit and loss report, then sometimes you might be, might think that the class tracking would be better even if you're trying to break out by location. If one of your attempts is to break out payroll by employee assigned to a particular location because the class tracking allows you to do that. If your location tracking is partially in order for you to have different names and whatnot that are gonna be given to external reports to clients, then that would be another reason why you might use the location tracking over the class tracking. And of course you might use the two in conjunction with each other as well. Let's go ahead and just record this. I put a customer, I'm gonna put it on three one. So labor, I just put it into labor and let's save and close it. And I'm gonna also change this second one to be a sub account. I'm gonna edit this. It needs to be a sub of California one or California. All right, so then if I go over to my profit and loss report and run it, and let's bring this out just to March now, 033123 and run it there. So and now I'm gonna break this out, not by class, but by the location. I had to refresh the page because I turned on location tracking, but there it is, location tracking, run it. So there it is. So now I've got California and then I've got the sub category because I put it in a sub category. So note the difference of using a sub location. It's gonna kind of try to house it under California. It's gonna make the number of columns a lot longer because you're gonna have California the sub and then the total as opposed to using class tracking and location tracking, in which case you'll have a whole another set of columns up top for class tracking and then the location tracking. So other than that, it works in a similar way as some of the other tools we took a look at. So if I say let's make an expense item up top and say we're gonna make an expense item and we're gonna say this is gonna be for vendor two and then I'll just say it, let's just change, I'll use these items down below and do the same kind of thing, but let's say this for 1,400 and let's say this is for 600. And so notice we could make it billable and pull it over to a customer but the location tracking isn't tied to a particular customer. So I'll just record that and say save it and close it. Did I assign it to a location? I didn't even assign it to a location, did I? Let's go back on over here and run it. Notice I did that on purpose because then if you don't assign it to a location it goes like the class tracking into not specified. And like with the class tracking you would like to have everything specified to a location usually and then the not specified area will tell you if you messed up, you didn't assign something to a location then I can drill back down on it and assign it to a location I can go back into it. And then when I assign to a location I have to assign the entire transaction up top. Let's this time go to the second location here and I'll say save and close. And then if I go back on up top and say back to my report and run it just to make sure it's running. So now we've got this amount was assigned to the first location. These are assigned to the second location total for the sub locations and then the total on the right hand side. And let's go back on over and then do another one. I'm gonna say this time I'm gonna say it's an expense. And let's say this is gonna be for vendor one we'll say categories of utilities. I'm not gonna put any classes in it. It's just gonna be for let's say this time location Nevada. So it's on three one. Okay, so there's gonna be our expenses decrease in the checking account the other side going to utilities. Let's save it and close it. And then if I go to my balance sheet by the way and break that out by locations I gotta refresh the screen. Let me refresh it. And so there we have it. So now I can hit the locations and run it. So now we've got our locations broken out here. Now notice that QuickBooks might be a little bit better on the balance sheet to break out location by location because we're assigning the location to the entire transaction. But still you can't really count on the balance sheet to be perfectly lined up because these tools are generally focused more on the income statements. So you'll start to think, well things aren't in balance per location kind of thing but if you assign one location to the entire transaction it's more likely to be able to work on the balance sheet than when you start assigning line by line different classes for example. If I go back on over here so there we have it. Now we've got our Nevada one. Now notice the problem with location tracking is that if I put like an expense form and I'm gonna go vendor one if I wanted to assign these two utilities to two different locations California and Nevada for whatever reason which oftentimes you do because you might be assigning certain expenses that you're paying for both locations to each one using some percentage method or something. You can't do that with the locations because the locations are up here assigned to the full transaction as opposed to the classes where you can do that. So that's gonna be one of the limitations on the location tracking that makes it a little bit easier but if you don't have to assign per line item but if you need to assign per line item then of course that becomes a problem because you can't do that. So that's one of the things you wanna keep in mind when you're thinking what are you using location tracking for? I'm gonna leave it without saving that. Then there's a question of do you want to use like if I had multiple locations and then I had departments how do I wanna do that? Do I, I could use either location tracking or classes and then use these sub categories in order to account for the department. So I might have California and then a sub category of admin, a sub category of sales which gives me this nice breakout of the full amount for the California location, sub category, sub category and then the total but you also come up with a long kind of report and you're not easily able to categorize by like admin over the entire company. I can't get a column as easily for admin for California and Nevada. And your other option would be to run these two things together. Say I'm gonna use the location tracking for the two states and then maybe I use class tracking for locations within those states or for departments within the location so that I can run a whole another set of columns up top and then I can filter. So for example, if I enter my transactions here and I also use class tracking which we turned on and say we want expenses and I'm gonna allocate the expenses to vendor one and this time let's say it's supplies, supplies, expense, boom. And let's say that is one, one, two, four class. This time I'll say class. I have business and professional. I'll keep that B and then supplies. That's not supplies, supplies here. And let's say that's for 600 and that's for P and this is happening. Okay, so now I'm breaking it out by class and it's assigned to the Nevada location. Now those classes you might say it's within Nevada and it's basically for admin maybe in Nevada and then sales in Nevada. Let's save and save and new. And let's do one more and let's say this is on vendor two. And I'll say this is supplies again. Supplies, not for the items. Close that, close that category. Supplies and let's say this is for 2,000. I'm using that number a lot, two, one, four, oh. And let's say this is for business but this is for California now, location. And then supplies and this is gonna be three, one, two, seven, six. It's a lot higher in California because California waste a lot of money. We'd like to spend like crazy. So we're gonna say, okay, so let's do that and then we'll save it. And then on the income statement, I can see it broken out by location, California and Nevada and if I want it then I can filter that location by the departments. So for example, now I can go back up top and I can say using these two things together, I can customize and filter and say that I'm gonna filter by class. So I'm looking at it by location but then I wanna filter by class just looking at the business for example and then run it. So now I've got California filtered and Nevada but that are filtered by the business items. And if I wanted to, I can also then go to customize and run it by classes which now gives me my whole income statement by class now. So now I get a whole nother set of columns which still totals up to the total income statement. And if this was representing my admin and my sales, I can see the total admin and sales here kind of together for both locations, California and Nevada in this case and then I can filter by location if I wanted to. So I can look at it this way and then customize up top and filter now by location. And so I can say I wanna filter it by just the California or whatever. So that's what you kinda gotta think about and visualize when you're trying to say, okay, if I have sub categories, do I want to make them parent classes and sub classes where I'm gonna get this long kind of horizontal report with these sub categories within it? So I've got California sales department within California and then or else you could have a California and then three stores that are located within California and then Nevada, three stores located within that which are gonna have a very all across the headers up top or do I want a situation where I wanna be able to break out a whole separate line of columns that will sum up to the total and then be able to filter by those different areas like we have here where you've got California, Nevada as locations and then the admin and the sales for example as classes and then you can run a report just showing admin and sales together and then the locations together. So there's different and then the filtering options. So when you start putting them together, it gets a little bit how you're gonna visualize how this whole thing should be constructed and which tools should you be putting together in combination with each other. Okay, then there's also the last thing to touch on is the payroll thing here. Remember that with classes you've got more flexibility with the payroll. So if you're running payroll within QuickBooks if I hit the dropdown up top and I wanted to look at my payroll settings which I turned on just to look at you might be able to look at it with a free 30 day trial and I go down to the bottom here, then notice I've got this capacity to turn on class tracking but not location tracking at this point in time. So that's why the class tracking is a little bit easier possibly to break out even if you're using locations for California and Nevada if you can assign each individual employee to the class that they, to the place they're gonna go to by class then if that's what you're using it for classes might be a little bit easier than locations in that sense. But even if you're using locations you can use maybe your journal entry method that we talked about in some of the prior formats. So let's just, for example if you process payroll with the location tracking let's just see if I can process payroll if they let me do it again I've been processing payroll to test it out here. And I'm just gonna say she worked 10 hours, boom and preview, well hold on a sec, I wanna go back and I wanna put this in March if it's possible. Let's do it here. I don't think they're gonna allow me to put the pay date back there though. That's the problem. Let's try it though. Let's say it's gotta be after the, right there. You cannot enter a check date that is earlier than four one. All right, whatever. So then we'll say payroll submit. Okay, they're giving me issues with the date. So I'm gonna put the date up in the current day just to run this thing and then I'll put 1040 and it's 182, let's finish it. Okay, so then if I go back on over here and run it I had to increase the date range to 531 and then I've got location tracking and run it. And the basic idea here would be that if I was to see this by location I can't break out the payroll by location so they have it over here in the non-specified area and we could do the same technique we saw in prior presentations. I might just run the payroll reports and look at each employee by location and then just make a journal entry allocating the wages from here to the proper column which I could do with a journal entry just to wages but just allocating a different location to them but I normally wouldn't touch any of the payroll lines so I would rather just make another account like we did with the classes and the projects and just make another line item down here to be equal and opposite to let's say that 800 so I can break this thing out to whatever I want by location then and not mess with the actual payroll line. So you can actually do that with the journal entries because the journal entry allows you to if I go to the first tab I'm gonna say plus and then we're gonna enter a journal entry you might say well the journal entry is gonna just allow you to assign one location for the whole thing but they actually do have a separate location line line by line similar to what they have with the class tracking with this form because it's not like a default like check or invoice type of form. So for example I could just make another account called like wages for by location this time similar technique that we saw in prior presentations and I'm just gonna say well this is gonna be an expense type form and other expense other business just for an example and I'm gonna say that we want to reduce the 800 that's not classified so I'm not gonna put a location for that 800 and then I'm gonna put it into the proper classes let's say it's same account wages what did I call it wages, location, wages, location right there, wages by location and then let's say that we had 600 that are gonna go into location for Nevada and then 200 wages by location 200 is gonna go into California. So notice it's letting me break out line by line on the journal entry notice the accounts are all the same but I'm trying to break out column by column with a journal entry and reallocate this way which isn't too difficult to do it's not too tedious so if I save and close that let's check it out see if it does what we would expect save it or run it so now I didn't mess with this payroll line item because I don't wanna have stuff in the general ledger that's gonna mess up any kind of payroll reporting instead I'm gonna put something equal and opposite to it you might even make it like this line item be a sub account of the wages so they're kind of connected so you can see they're right next to each other but it's gonna be equal and opposite typically and then I can reallocate to Nevada and California to my classes to the classes that I wanted to allocate to so that's a technique that you can use the location tracking that's usually one of the some of the complaints I've seen with the location tracking and so you could do that so then to recap the whole thing class tracking location tracking are kind of similar the class tracking has a little bit more functionality to break out line item by line item so it could be useful and more flexible for your reporting needs but the location tracking has that added thing where you can basically give your invoices a different name or something like that by the different locations which is kind of neat and then when you put these two things together class tracking and location tracking the question is do you want to use sub classes or sub locations which will end up with a longer a wider report that has the classes and the subclasses in it that gives you that kind of housing of the subclasses or sublocations in the classes or do you want to be able to run a whole nother income statement with a whole nother set of columns that still totals up to the total and then use the classes and the locations as filtering options and be able to filter and generate reports that way.