QuickBooks Online Essentials

Create professional invoices and sales receipts

Choose what information you want to show on invoices and sales receipts, and customise their design by picking a theme and adding your logo.

When you're happy, just click save. Every future invoice and sales receipt will follow your saved design.

You can create and send an unlimited number of invoices and sales receipts each month.

Track sales, expenses and profit

QuickBooks Online maintains an up-to-date view of all your sales, full details of any expenses and a clear view of your profit.

This means it's easy to monitor the day-to-day running of your business.

Track your cash flow with reports

Automatically generate reports showing important information about your business. Key reports available in all editions of QuickBooks Online include:

• Profit and loss
• Balance sheet
• Cash flow statement
• Account listing
• Sales by customer

Create professional quotes and estimates

Create quotes and estimates in just a few clicks, using details drawn from your customer list. There's no need to retype a customer's address every time.

Once you've done the job, you can convert a quote into

an invoice in moments - then send it out immediately by email.

Track and manage your VAT

Spend less time keeping track of your VAT. QuickBooks Online manages your VAT, monitoring what you pay and receive. It can show your VAT liability, and gives you all the information you need to fill in your VAT return.

QuickBooks Online also includes a VAT exception report, to help you manage VAT amounts that change after you’ve submitted your VAT return.

Please note that QuickBooks doesn't support the flat rate VAT scheme.

Company Snapshot: see the state of your business on one screen

Get a clear view of the overall state of your business with the Company Snapshot.

It's a graphical dashboard showing your income and expenses, all compared to the previous year's performance. You can also see what you're owed - and what you owe.

Manage supplier bills and payments

Keeps track of your outgoings. You can see exactly what you owe, who you owe it to and when payment is due.

If you're thinking of paying a bill early, QuickBooks Online can show you the impact on your cashflow - making sure you can afford it before you hand over the money.

Handle multiple currencies and track currency gains and losses

Trade in over 145 currencies just as easily as you do in pounds sterling. Work with customers in their home currencies, then convert back so you know exactly where you stand.

QuickBooks downloads the latest exchange rates from Wall Street On Demand to switch accurately between different currencies. You can quickly see whether you've lost or gained as a result of exchange rate fluctuations.

Create purchase orders

Purchase orders help you track of what you've ordered and what you've received.

Some suppliers will require you to send them a purchase order before they'll accept your order. Here are a few things you can do with purchase orders:

• Email purchase orders direct to suppliers
• Copy a purchase order to a bill, cheque, cash or credit card transaction
• Set up one a template purchase order for repeat purchases
• Track open orders by supplier or product and service

Purchase orders make it easier to monitor what your business is buying.

Create budgets and compare to actual performance

Set monthly, quarterly or annual budgets to predict your income and expenses. Then track your actual performance and compare to budget. It helps your business stay on target.

Automatically pass expenses on to customers

Assign billable expenses to a specific customer, so those expenses automatically flow through to that customer's next invoice.

This feature is useful when you need to pass particular expenses on to a customer. For instance, maybe you buy an item from a supplier and then re-charge a customer for it.

Step 1: Enter the bill from your supplier in the system and assign it to the applicable customer

Step 2: Generate an invoice for the customer and the expense will automatically appear on the invoice

Classify transactions by business area

Classify income and expenses for separate areas of your business. This powerful feature allows you to keep track of how different parts of your business are performing and can be useful in many situations. For instance:

• Monitoring the performance of different branches of your company
• Keeping track of the performance of individual departments
• Managing the accounts of subsidiary companies

You can categorise income and expenses by department, type of business, or into any other areas you choose. You can then view reports - like profit and loss - for each individual area.