Build a clean, audit-ready QuickBooks Online file from scratch — from selecting the right access method to entering opening balances, service items, and inventory before any transactions are posted.
This course walks accountants, bookkeepers, and small-business owners through the critical first phase of working with QuickBooks Online 2026: laying the foundation of a company file before any day-to-day transactions are entered. Most QuickBooks problems can be traced back to a setup decision made (or skipped) at the very beginning, so this course is dedicated to getting that foundation right.
Using a hands-on practice company called Get Great Guitars, the instructor demonstrates the full setup workflow inside an empty QuickBooks Online 2026 file. You'll start by exploring the different ways to gain access to a practice environment — the 30-day free trial, the free student version, the sample company test drive, and discounted purchase options — and learn which option best fits your situation, whether you're a practitioner, a student, or evaluating the software for a real business.
From there, you'll get a guided tour of the QuickBooks Online interface, including the left-hand navigation, the gear icon (where the "permanent" company-level settings live), and the new desktop application that lets you run QuickBooks Online in a dedicated window outside the browser. You'll then go tab by tab through every section of Account and Settings — Company, Usage, QuickBooks Checking, Sales, Expenses, Payments, Time, and Advanced — so that the file is configured correctly before any forms, invoices, or bank feeds are touched.
The second half of the course tackles one of the most underestimated parts of any QuickBooks implementation: migrating from a prior system. You'll learn how to think about cutoff dates, how to handle historical data from QuickBooks Desktop or other software, and the cleanest way to bring in opening balances for customers, vendors, and inventory without bloating the new file. The course closes with a practical breakdown of inventory tracking methods (periodic vs. perpetual, FIFO vs. weighted average, and when to track inventory inside QuickBooks vs. in a separate system), followed by a step-by-step walkthrough of setting up service items and inventory items along with their beginning balances.
By the end of this course, you'll be able to open a brand-new QuickBooks Online file and confidently configure it end-to-end — with the right settings, the right item list, and the right opening balances — so that the books you build on top of it are clean from day one.
Who this course is for: bookkeepers, public accountants, CPA / CPD candidates, small-business owners, and accounting students who want a structured, no-shortcuts approach to setting up QuickBooks Online 2026.
CPA, CGMA, M.S. Tax, CPI
Through working with students from many different schools, Mr. Steele has learned best practices for helping people understand accounting fast. Learning new skills and finding the best way to share knowledge with people who can benefit from it is a passion of his. Mr. Steele has experience working as a practicing Certified Public Accountant (CPA), an accounting and business instructor, and curriculum developer. He has enjoyed putting together quality tools to improve learning and has been teaching, making instructional resources, and building curriculum since 2009. He has been a practicing CPA since 2005. Mr. Steele is a practicing CPA, has a Certified Post-Secondary Instructor (CPI) credential, a Master of Science in taxation from Golden Gate University, a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Economics with an emphasis in accounting from The University of California Santa Barbara, and a Global Management Accounting Designation (CGMA) from The American Institute of CPA (AICPA). Mr. Steele has also authored five books that can be found on Amazon or in audiobook format on Audible. He has developed bestselling courses in accounting topics including financial accounting and QuickBooks accounting software. In addition to working as an accountant, teaching, and developing courses Mr. Steele has helped create an accounting website at accountinginstruction, a YouTube channel called Accounting Instruction, Help, and How Too, and has developed supplemental resources including a Facebook Page, Twitter Page, and Podcasts that can be found on I-tunes, Stitcher, or Soundcloud. Mr. Steele's teaching philosophy is to make content applicable, understandable, and accessible. Adult learners are looking for application when they learn new skills. In other words, learners want to be able to apply skills in the real world to help their lives. Mr. Steele’s formal accounting education, practical work experience, and substantial teaching experience allow him to create a curriculum that combines traditional accounting education with practical knowledge and application. He accomplishes the goals of making accounting useful and applicable by combining theory with real-world software like Excel and QuickBooks. Many courses teach QuickBooks data entry or Excel functions but are not providing the real value learners want. Real value is a result of learning technical skills like applications, in conjunction with specific goals, like accounting goals, including being able to interpret the performance of a business. Mr. Steele makes knowledge understandable by breaking down complex concepts into smaller units with specific objectives and using step by step learning processes to understand each unit. Many accounting textbooks cram way too much information into a course, making it impossible to understand any unit fully. By breaking the content down into digestible chunks, we can move forward much faster. Mr. Steele also makes use of color association in both presentations and Excel worksheets, a learning tool often overlooked in the accounting field, but one that can vastly improve the speed and comprehension of learning accounting concepts. The material is also made understandable through the application of concepts learned. Courses will typically demonstrate the accounting concepts and then provide an Excel worksheet or practice problems to work through the concepts covered. The practice problems will be accompanied by an instructional video to work through the problem in step by step format. Excel worksheets will be preformatted, usually including an answer tab that shows the completed problem, and a practice tab where learners can complete the problem along with a step by step presentation video. Mr. Steele makes learning accounting accessible by making use of technology and partnering with teaching platforms that have a vision of spreading knowledge like CPDformula.
