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Published:
November 3, 2025

QuickBooks Online For Dummies, 2026 Edition

Overview

Step-by-step guidance on the latest version of the popular cloud accounting app

QuickBooks Online For Dummies, 2026 Edition helps you save time and money. This beginner-friendly guide walks you through the basic setup of the online accounting software. Plus, this resource provides detailed guidance on key features, so you know how to navigate your financial data with ease. With QuickBooks Online For Dummies, 2026 Edition, you'll discover how to use any device to: view and update records, create invoices, record sales, pay bills, manage inventory, print checks, process payroll, prepare tax returns, balance accounts, generate financial reports, and beyond. Best of all? Everything's backed up in the cloud, so you'll get the peace of mind that comes with secure data. Use this Dummies guide to get up and running with QuickBooks Online.

Inside:

  • Make the switch to QuickBooks Online, or set up your business finances from scratch
  • Get easy-to-follow instructions for accessing your data remotely and saving time with automated features
  • Understand the new interface and the latest features, including Project Center and AI integration
  • Stay on top of your budget, your taxes, and your reporting requirements

QuickBooks Online is easy to use for any type of business, and QuickBooks Online For Dummies makes it even easier.

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About The Author

David H. Ringstrom, CPA, is the president of Accounting Advisors, Inc., a spreadsheet and database consulting firm. He’s an expert in Microsoft Excel and QuickBooks, and is the author of Microsoft 365 Excel All-In-One For Dummies and previous editions of QuickBooks Online For Dummies.

Sample Chapters

quickbooks online for dummies 2025 edition

CHEAT SHEET

You can make the most of your work in QuickBooks Online by using handy and time-savings shortcuts and tool buttons.Using keyboard shortcuts means you can seamlessly access various windows and pages without touching a mouse. The various icons at the top of the QuickBooks Online page help you quickly search for items, create new items, or display transactions.

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Keyboard shortcuts can help you save time. By using keyboard shortcuts, you can keep your hands on the keyboard when you enter information in QBO or QBOA. Mac users, substitute Option for Alt in the following tables. To Press Open the Check window Ctrl+Alt+W Open the Expense window Ctrl+Alt+X Open the Estimat
In QuickBooks Online (QBO), at the top of the window, tools are available to help you find your way. You can view recent transactions or search for transactions, create transactions, or perform other actions not related to transactions. Be aware that, if you’re working in QBOA and you open a QBO company, the tools vary somewhat.
Accountants often need to reclassify transactions, examine voided and deleted transactions, write off invoices, and perform other activities. QuickBooks Online Accountant (QBOA) contains tools to make performing these activities easy.To view and use the tools QBOA makes available to accountants, open any client QBO company.
Before diving into using the QuickBooks Online Accountant (QBOA) tools available while you work in a client’s QBO company, take a look at the Work page in the Navigation pane, which functions as a practice management tool. Having such a tool in QBOA enables you to centralize practice management, because all team members in your firm have access to the Work page in QBOA.
You can use the Customers, Vendors, and Employees pages in QuickBooks Online (QBO) in a variety of ways. The Contractors page is more limited than the rest; from it, you can search for contractors and prepare 1099s. From the Customers, Vendors, or Employees pages that list all the people in those categories, you can sort the people in the list, export the list to Excel, and perform actions on a selected group of people on the list.
The Products and Services list is the QuickBooks Online (QBO) equivalent to the QuickBooks Desktop product’s Items list. You display the Products and Services list by choosing Gear→Products and Services. In the following figure, the compacted view of the list is shown so that you could see more products; you select the compacted view from the table gear on the right side of the page.
You can make the most of your work in QuickBooks Online by using handy and time-savings shortcuts and tool buttons.Using keyboard shortcuts means you can seamlessly access various windows and pages without touching a mouse. The various icons at the top of the QuickBooks Online page help you quickly search for items, create new items, or display transactions.
You can make the most of your work in QuickBooks Online (QBO) and QuickBooks Online Accountant (QBOL) using handy and time-savings shortcuts and tool buttons. Using QBO keyboard shortcuts means that you can seamlessly access various windows and pages without touching a mouse. The various icons at the top of the QBO page help you quickly search for items, create new items, or display transactions.
When you first see your company in QuickBooks Online, your Dashboard page contains boxes with links to options you can use to set up features in QBO that are important to you. You can use those links and set up those options during setup, or you can wait until later.To hide the options, click Hide in the upper right corner of the box.
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