Do you and your clients frequently recreate complex transactions from scratch, or open past transactions and copy them to create new ones? Do they invoice customers individually every month, and run their credit cards? Show
Recurring Transactions is a feature of QuickBooks® Online Essentials, Plus and Advanced that allows you to design transaction templates and reuse them. By automating routine transactions, you will save hours of repetitive data entry, and even speed up your Accounts Receivable. Recurring Transactions is so flexible that you can get creative with it! What can it do? Where do I find it? How do I use it? Tips and tricks Additional resources What can it do?Recurring Transactions can be scheduled to run automatically, remind you when it’s time to use them, or simply be stored as templates future use. Suggested uses include:
Because there are so many options to set for a Recurring Transaction, it is extremely versatile. Get creative! Where do I find it?Create new Recurring Transactions under Gear > Recurring Transactions. Save existing transactions as Recurring by clicking the “Make recurring” button in the black bar at the bottom of the screen. How do I use it?Recurring Transactions can be created for any first-stage transaction including Estimates, Sales Receipts, Invoices, or Expenses. Note that you can’t use Recurring Transactions for Invoice Payments or Bill Payments, because they are second stage. QuickBooks Online wouldn’t know which transactions to apply the payments against. There are three types of recurring transactions:
I’ll demonstrate two sample uses: a Scheduled Sales Receipt and an Unscheduled Estimate. Scheduled Sales ReceiptsMy own favorite use for Recurring Transactions is for my monthly client charges. My clients pay automatically at the beginning of the month, so that I never have to chase down delinquent accounts. Every client fills in an authorization form with their credit card info or ACH bank information. I create Sales Receipts that occur automatically on the 1st of the month, run my clients’ payment, and email their receipt. Because I use QuickBooks Payments, the sales even batch deposit themselves. My monthly billing cycle for 75 clients takes me exactly 0 minutes, every month. Here’s how it works: Create a new Sales Receipt for the first charge. Set it up, then Save and run it for the first time so that you know the payment method is valid. After you have confidence in its performance, turn it into a Recurring Transaction by opening it again and clicking “Make recurring” at the bottom.
Unscheduled templatesAnother suggested use of Recurring Transactions is to create standardized transactions to save you from repetitious data entry or recreating the wheel every time. Design any type of transaction with Account categories or Products and Services and default descriptions. I like to include amount placeholders, especially when debits/credits and positive/negative numbers are involved. Sometimes I’ll even include instructions in the Description field! Call up the form as needed it by clicking the drop-down arrow and selecting “Use.” Add additional rows, delete unnecessary line items, customize the descriptions, and replace the amounts. Every time you use a Recurring Transaction and edit it, QuickBooks Online asks if you would like to make the change this “One time only,” or “Update for all.” Be sure to choose “One time only,” unless you want to permanently change the template for the future as well. ActionsUnder the drop-down arrow on the far right of each list item are several helpful tools.
Reminders listBe sure to keep an eye on your Dashboard for the active Reminders alert. Click through to Recurring Transaction reminders that have come due. Click “Edit and Create” to use each transaction, or drop down the arrow to “Skip” them. If you don’t pay attention, Reminders will pile up and you’ll have to dismiss them all. This same list of Reminders is also available inside the Recurring Transactions window. Click the Reminders List button on the upper right to filter the list to just show Reminder-type Recurring Transactions that are waiting for your action. Recurring template list reportRun a report showing all your Recurring Transactions. Click the drop-down arrow next to the Reminders List button, and select “Run Report.” This Report is also found in the Report Center under the For My Accountant section. Your Recurring Template List Report is grouped by Scheduled, Reminders, and Unscheduled Template Types. You may also want to try grouping them by Transaction Type, and Sorting the list by Name. Tips and tricksRecurring transactions vs. banking rules. In the “old days,” you may have used Recurring Transactions (“Memorized Transactions” in QuickBooks Desktop) to enter routine expenses like Rent or Insurance. Now that we have bank feed automation, you’re usually better off making Banking Rules instead, since they take into account variations in dollar amount and date. It’s easier than editing Reminder transactions, or fixing duplicates if the amount happened to be different. Save backups of your complex templates. When making changes to a Recurring Transaction, it’s not hard to get used to clicking “One time only,” but mistakes happen and templates get changed. For that reason, I duplicate every complex Recurring Transaction, save it as Unscheduled, and give it a name that starts with “Backup – [Transaction Name].” That way, if you accidentally overwrite the content, you have a second copy! QuickBooks Payments. Scheduled Sales Receipts requires using QuickBooks Online’s built-in merchant services. If you haven’t already signed up for QuickBooks Payments, what are you waiting for? Head into your QB Payments settings (Gear > Account and Settings > Payments) and turn it on. The merchant service fees are cheaper for ProAdvisors® than they are when business owners sign up themselves. If you’re a ProAdvisor setting up a client with QuickBooks Payments, sign in to their file through your QuickBooks Online Accountant portal and click their “Learn More” button yourself. That will give your clients wholesale rates, lower than if they click the button while logged in as themselves. Some QuickBooks Service Providers, including Carrie Kahn’s Complete Business Group, offer referral fees or even affiliate cuts if you pass on your client to them for the registration process. Ask your favorite QSP if they offer this benefit. Authorization forms. When you save a Scheduled Sales Receipt that has credit card or ACH payments, QuickBooks Online pops up an authorization form to gather information about the payment method, and ensure that the business owner is aware you’re going to charge them automatically. Be sure to pass these on to your clients so they understand your terms. I have found that these forms don’t actually contain all the fields required in the Payment Method dialog box. I saved the forms to my computer, revised them to gather the correct information…and incorporated my branding! Now, I simply include both forms in my onboarding packet and instruct the client to send back their preferred payment method. Additional resourcesFor more information about Recurring Transactions, please visit these help articles:
The ability to store routine transactions for automatic entry, and create templates for complex transactions, is an essential function to streamlining your workflow. Give it a try to free up your time to grow your firm – and help your clients grow their businesses! What are the benefits of using the recurring transactions feature in QuickBooks Online?Recurring transactions is a feature in QuickBooks Online that allows you to save time and reduce mistakes. By using recurring transactions, you can automate repetitive journal entries, set invoices to generate automatically for subscription-type customers, or automate writing of a check or entering a bill.
What are 2 ways to begin setting up a recurring transaction in QuickBooks Online?Open an existing transaction. In the footer of the form, select Make recurring to create a template (or Enable Recurring Payments). If you opened an invoice, instead select Automation, then Recurring invoice.
Which 2 of these benefits do tags offer over other methods of transaction tracking?Tags have several benefits over Classes, Locations, and Custom Fields: You only use Tags when needed, instead of on every transaction. Tags are intended to be reused, to group transactions together for reports. You can assign many Tags to transactions instead of just one.
What 2 options are benefits of using the close books feature?This locks your books so no one can edit your accounting data before the closing date. This is an important step when you review the previous year's financial data. Closing your books ensures everything stays the way you want it to. It also prevents any accidental changes that could affect your financial reports.
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