From time to time it will be necessary to find a past transaction in QuickBooks Online. There are several ways to do this, depending on what we are looking for.
There is a panel in the lower right corner of the Home page that shows the recent activities in the file, including transactions.
Right next to the Activities title is a field with a drop down menu. That field now reads “All”.
Other selections are available in this field causing QBO to list only expenses or invoices for instance.
A very recent transaction entered into the software should be easily found here, in this list.
Sometimes we search for a specific check written to a vendor, or an invoice to a certain customer. These are often easily found by clicking the link to take us to the customer list or vendor list.
Select one customer or vendor, and transactions associated with that name are listed.
Sometimes the search begins from an account balance. We review a profit and loss report for instance and wonder why is the amount in that account so high.
In a case like this, we can click right on the amount in questions and get a detail report.
What about that $755 in equipment repairs? How did that get so high?
A click on the number pulls up a detail report showing the transactions that total the $755.
In this case it’s only one transaction. Repairs to the company truck. We could click on the amount on the transaction report to open the actual bill for even more detail.
When we are really in the dark, and have minimal information for the transaction in question, there is a powerful Search tool.
Clicking in the Search field of the Home page opens a list. At the bottom of the list is a link labeled “Advanced Search”. Making that selection opens the following screen.
From here, many types of searches can be initiated. Note that currently, QBO will search all transactions for a reference number that contains whatever we specify in the right-most field.
We could search for any transaction of a certain amount, or with a certain phrase or word in the description.
We could search for transactions more than or less than a specified amount.
It’s a powerful tool. One that will find many things that you could not quickly locate otherwise.
Hector Garcia, CPA
Certified Advanced QuickBooks ProAdvisor
954-414-1524
hector@garciacpa.com
