A Guide to the Chart of Accounts in QuickBooks Online

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The Chart of Accounts in QuickBooks Online serves as a comprehensive list of all the accounts used to record your income, expenses, assets, liabilities, equity, and other financial activities.

Each account within the Chart of Accounts represents a specific category or type of transaction. Such as cash, accounts receivable, sales revenue, rent expense, and more.

In this blog post, we will explore how to find and navigate the Chart of Accounts in QuickBooks Online. Understand the different columns and information it provides. And learn about various actions you can perform to optimize your accounting processes.

Let’s dive in and uncover the power of the Chart of Accounts in QuickBooks Online.

How to Find the Chart of Accounts

There are two ways to navigate to the Chart of Accounts in QuickBooks Online.

The first is to use the settings menu. 

Click the gear icon in the upper right corner of the screen to open the settings menu. 

You’ll find Chart of accounts in the first column under YOUR COMPANY.

The Chart of Accounts in the QBO settings menu.

The other way is to click Accounting in the left-side menu then select Chart of accounts.

Navigate to the Chart of accounts from the left-side menu in QBO

What You’ll Find In the Chart of Accounts

When you open the Chart of Accounts you’ll see several columns across the top.

What you'll find in the QBO chart of accounts

1 – NAME

This column shows the names of your various accounts within QuickBooks. These names are used to identify accounts throughout QBO.

For example, in the Bank Deposit screenshot below, the account names are used in the Account drop-down as well as in the ACCOUNT section when adding funds to the deposit.

Where you'll find account names in a Bank Deposit in QBO

You’ll also see the account names on the Banking screen. When you categorize your transactions Category = Name.

When categorizing Banking in QBO the Category = NAME in the Chart of Accounts.

2 – TYPE

This tells QuickBooks what type of account this is. Which in turn tells it where to put the account on the Balance Sheet or the Profit and Loss report.

3 – DETAIL TYPE

This column doesn’t really matter. You can pick whatever you prefer for the Detail Type for your accounts. You’ll often see in my blog posts or videos when I’m creating a new account I’ll just pick the first selection in the list.

4 – QUICKBOOKS BALANCE

This is the balance in the QuickBooks register for that account.

Only accounts that appear on the Balance Sheet have a QuickBooks Balance.

5 – BANK BALANCE

An amount will appear in this column only for accounts you’ve connected to QuickBooks.

6 – ACTION

These are the actions you can perform on your accounts. 

Any Balance Sheet accounts will show “View register”.  Profit and Loss accounts don’t have a register so they show “Run report”.

You can click the drop-down arrow on the right and see additional actions.

  • Connect Bank
  • Edit
  • Make inactive
  • Run report

Edit Your Chart of Accounts

There are various actions and things you can do within your Chart of Accounts to make it easier to work with.

Sorting

In the screenshot of the columns above you may have noticed a little triangle next to TYPE. This lets me know that my Chart of Accounts is sorted by Type. 

This is standard sorting. The Balance Sheet accounts will be first followed by Profit and Loss accounts.

The order is

  1. Assets
  2. Liabilities
  3. Equity
  4. Income
  5. Cost of Goods Sold
  6. Expenses

Change Sort Order

You can change the sort order of your accounts by clicking the column header. 

For example, if you click NAME it will sort by the account name in alphabetical order.

Filter by name

If you’re looking for a specific account you can search for it by typing in the “Filter by name” box above the column headings.

Using the Filter by name box in the QBO Chart of accounts to search for an account.

Batch Actions

The Batch actions only has one action available to you “Make inactive.” 

Batch Actions in the QBO CoA.

This allows you to check off several accounts and make them inactive all at once.

Edit Account Names

If you’d like to edit the name of an account you can click the arrow under Actions for the account. Select Edit and edit the name from the Edit Account screen.

Editing accounts in the Chart of accounts in QBO

You can also click the pencil icon in the upper right. This will allow you to edit ALL your account names at one time.

Editing account names within the Chart of Accounts in QBO

Export

You can export your Chart of Accounts by clicking the Run Report button in the upper right.

Run Report button in the CoA in QBO

Then click the export icon (paper with an arrow) and select from the various export options.

Exporting the Account List in QBO.

Adding an Account

You can add a new account from within the Chart of Accounts by clicking the green New button in the upper right.

New button to add a new account to the Chart of Accounts in QBO

 

This will open the New account creation screen. I have another blog post explaining this in detail: How To Add an Account to the Chart of Accounts in QuickBooks Online

Now that you’ve got a good grasp of the Chart of Accounts, you’re ready to unlock its full potential in your QuickBooks Online journey.

☕ If you found this helpful you can say “thanks” by buying me a coffee… https://www.buymeacoffee.com/gentlefrog

Below is a video if you prefer to watch a walkthrough.

If you have questions about anything in the QuickBooks settings menu click the green button below to schedule a free consultation.

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This content is for information purposes only and should not be considered legal, accounting, or tax advice, or a substitute for obtaining such advice specific to your business. Additional information and exceptions may apply. Applicable laws may vary by state or locality. No assurance is given that the information is comprehensive in its coverage or that it is suitable in dealing with a customer’s particular situation. Gentle Frog, LLC does not have any responsibility for updating or revising any information presented herein. Accordingly, the information provided should not be relied upon as a substitute for independent research. Gentle Frog, LLC does not warrant that the material contained herein will continue to be accurate, nor that it is completely free of errors when published. Readers and viewers should verify statements before relying on them.

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Are you a small business owner struggling to make sense of your QuickBooks data?

  • Discover how to spot costly mistakes in your bookkeeping and fix them quickly and easily.

  • Save time and money by streamlining your bookkeeping process and reducing errors.

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Sign up now and enjoy the peace of mind that comes with knowing your bookkeeping is accurate, up-to-date, and free from costly errors.

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