A short tutorial (part 3 of a series) by Ronika Khanna demonstrating how to import a Chart of Accounts into QuickBooks Online from an Excel/CSV file. She shows: where to find the import option (Gears → Import Data → Chart of Accounts), using the sample file format (Name and Account Type are essential), mapping detail types via QBO drop-downs, choosing whether to import opening balances (she prefers journal entries), handling import errors (e.g., duplicate Retained Earnings), and confirming the imported accounts in the Chart of Accounts.
Chapters
Hello. This is part three of our series on Chart of Accounts in QuickBooks Online. You can see parts one and two by going to the playlist at Montreal Financial and there will be links to the videos at the end of this video. So let's begin. Rather than enter accounts individually, QuickBooks Online has an option where you can import a chart of accounts. And to do that you go to the Gears section, click on Import Data and select Chart of Accounts. Here they actually give you a sample file that you can use to format your chart of accounts. And really what you need is the name and the account type. So I have actually already created a chart of accounts to import and we will go through that process together.
Okay, so I have selected the file, this is an Excel format and I will click on Next and you'll see here that I have really only completed the full name and the account type sections. A bit lazy. The detail type isn't really that important.
So we'll go from here. I have other options. I can enter an opening balance. I don't really like to do that from here. I would rather enter those as a journal entry because it gives me more control over the balances and the opening balance date. I have also left blank. It isn't really necessary as an accountant, but you may want to enter it. Click on Next.
And here it has a full list of accounts, but it is asking me for some other information. So for inventory asset it didn't like other current assets. So from here I'm going to select current assets. Similarly for computer it should be fixed assets are property, plant and equipment and investments are long term assets.
The detail type.
QuickBooks handily gives you a drop down from here. So you would go in and add the detail type for each account. So checking is checking and let's go in and enter the rest.
So I've gone in and entered all of the detail types for from the drop down.
And you can see that I have chosen the detail type that is closest to the type of account that I have set up. Again, the detail type does not matter that much. If there's a detail type that you can find within the drop down, that's close. That's great. If not in terms of access expenses, you can always use office general administrative expenses as the detail type.
So these are the groupings.
The sales tax code I am going to leave blank for now and I will enter it as necessary and as it comes up in my transactions. So let's click on import.
It doesn't like the retained earnings account because there is already a retained earnings account in there. So we can just leave this out, close it, leave without saving. And if we go to the chart of accounts, we will see that all of these accounts have now been added.
So that really simplifies the process.
That concludes part three in our series on QuickBooks chart of accounts. Be sure to check out part four where we talk about how to add numbers and a couple of other tips that might be useful. Have a great day.
