Summer is the ideal time to unwind and enjoy the beautiful weather, but accounting duties might consume your valuable free time. The last thing you want is to waste extra time on recurring financial tasks for your small business. If you've already established a record or transaction, you don't want to have to enter the same information again.
QuickBooks Online, with its sophisticated recurring transactions feature, may help you optimize your accounting operations and free up time for what's most important.
QuickBooks Online outperforms manual accounting because it "remembers" everything, allowing you to reuse data as needed. However, like with any technology, QBO occasionally requires some coaching, particularly for repeated transactions. If you have forms that you generate frequently with little modifications, such as utility bills, you can instruct the program to "memorize" these transactions. When the bill arrives the next month, you may immediately update any missing information and resend it.
Here's how it works.
Three Options for Recurring Transactions
To begin, enter the transaction you wish to preserve and reuse (with revisions). For example, suppose you submit a monthly invoice to a customer for a service contract. After completing the form, go to the bottom of the screen and select "Make recurring." The screen will now say "Recurring Invoice," with new options.
You may mark transactions as recurring and include information such as frequency and start/end dates. You may simply alter the template's name to something more informative. Select "Daily", "Weekly", "Monthly", or "Yearly" in the "Interval" area, and specify the day of the month the transaction should take place on. Enter a "Start" and "End" date, or choose "None" if the service is open-ended.
Next to the template name is a field labeled "Type". QuickBooks Online gives you three options for handling the recurring transaction:
- Scheduled: This automated option sends the transaction as scheduled without any intervention from you. Only the date will change. Use this option with caution to ensure all details remain accurate.
- Reminder: QuickBooks Online sends you a reminder ahead of the scheduled date. You can specify how many days in advance you want to be notified. This allows you to make any necessary changes before sending out the transaction.
- Unscheduled: QuickBooks Online saves your template but takes no further action until you manually process it.
When you've completed all the required fields, click "Save template" in the lower left.
Using Recurring Transactions
If you've selected the "Scheduled" option for any transactions, you won't need to do anything further unless you want to update the content or status.
Click the gear icon in the top right corner of the QuickBooks Online page to view your list of recurring transactions designated as "Reminder" or "Unscheduled". Under Lists, choose "Recurring transactions."
The screen that appears shows a table containing all of your recurring transactions. You can find practically everything you need to know about these transactions here: "Template Name", "Type", "Transaction Type", "Interval", "Previous Date", "Next Date", "Customer/Vendor", and "Amount".
The final column in the table, called "Action," displays a menu with several options based on the kind of transaction.
For the "Reminder" example, you can:
- Edit (edit the template, not the transaction)
- Use (open the original transaction that you can edit, save, and send)
- Duplicate (duplicate the template)
- Pause (temporarily stop sending reminders)
- Skip next date
- Delete
Looking Ahead
As you go through 2024, assess whether QuickBooks Online meets all of your demands. If you're outgrowing your current version, we'd be pleased to discuss the advantages of upgrading to a higher service level, such as Essentials, Plus, or Advanced.
Alternatively, if your current version includes functionality that you require but are unable to identify, please let us know. Our objective is to make the second half of 2024 productive and stress-free for you, while also ensuring that your accounting operations are as effective and easy as possible.
