QuickBooks Online: How to Customize Your Expense Settings

I’ve been using QuickBooks Online since it first came out, and it still remains one of the best tools I’ve used to keep my small business in line with budget and expenses. However, one thing that took some getting used to was the limited options I had when it came to expense categories. Fortunately, there’s an easy way to add more expense categories if you need them! Here’s how you can customize your expense settings in QuickBooks Online so you can track your business expenses however you like!

Intuit offers expense templates to get you started

When you start a business and you’re ready to log your expenses, you can choose from the pre-loaded expense templates in QuickBooks Online. Just make sure that the setting is selected under Business Expenses and then click on one of the expense templates for guidance.

Creating your own expenses

To create your own expense items, head over to the settings menu. There you’ll find a list of all the different types of expenses you can classify as. Click edit next to any expense type you want to add your own items for and then click on new expense. You’ll get a pop-up window asking for information about the category and its details.

Making sure you track all of your business expenses

It can be challenging to keep track of all your business expenses, but it’s essential to do so. Keeping tabs on your expenses is a powerful way to ensure profitability and maximize profit margins by knowing how much you’re spending before each paycheck. To find the expense settings in QuickBooks Online, log into your account and click Company from the top navigation bar.

Setting up customer-defined fields

Adding a customer-defined field can be done in four simple steps. You’ll first want to open your QuickBooks Home screen and click on the name of the company you need customer-defined fields for. Next, you’ll go into Company Preferences by clicking on the wrench icon at the top right and then choosing Company Preferences from the drop-down menu.

Syncing these settings with payroll

One great feature of QuickBooks is its ability to sync your account settings with payroll so that any edits you make in your bank accounts are reflected in payroll, or vice versa. This sync means you can be more confident about the accuracy and validity of payroll reports. All it takes is a few clicks for this process to work. You’ll want to click on Company Preferences under the gear icon on the home screen. Then click on Accounting Preferences and scroll down until you see Sync Accounts With Payroll. Check off the box next to Automatically generate wages from expense details like payments, deductions, and reimbursements, then save changes by clicking on Save & Exit Preferences.