How to use classes in QuickBooks

Classes come with QuickBooks Online Plus and Advanced. Intuit describes them as a flexible way to group income and expenses into the segments that matter to you, such as the departments of a store or a set of product lines, and then see each segment's results in reports.

Decide whether classes are the right fit before you set them up, because Intuit points to three other tools that may suit a particular need more closely. Location tracking follows sales, purchases and profitability for each place you trade from. The Projects feature tracks the income and job costs of individual pieces of work on one dashboard. And grouping the things you sell into categories gives a clearer picture of your sales.

It's worth asking your accountant what they think of using classes for your business, too. And keep the list short. Intuit's advice is that a long class list takes more time to work with, while plain, simple classes make your reports easier to follow.

Settle one more choice in advance: how classes go on customer transactions such as invoices and receipts. One to entire transaction puts a single class on the whole form, which saves time if you don't need each product you sell tracked by class. One to each row in transaction asks for a class on every line.

1. Go to Settings and select Account and settings.
2. Select Advanced, then select the Categories section to edit it.
3. Select Track classes.
4. From the Assign classes dropdown, choose One to entire transaction or One to each row in transaction.
5. Select Save, then Done.
6. To record a transaction with a class, select + New or + Create and choose the transaction type.
7. Fill in the transaction's details as usual.
8. Add the class. With One to entire transaction, pick it from the class dropdown at the top of the form; with One to each row in transaction, enter it in the Class column on each row.
9. Save the transaction.

Each customer and supplier transaction you tag carries its class, which is what lets reports run by class show sales, expenses or profitability for each segment of the business.

Downloaded bank transactions don't need the work doing twice. When you match a download to a transaction already in your books, you won't have to add the class again.

The Assign classes choice isn't fixed. Go back to the Categories section on the Advanced tab of Account and settings to switch between one class per transaction and one per row, then select Save and Done.

Once classes are in use, Intuit's overview suggests setting a budget goal for each one, so every segment has a target to plan towards. The steps are on the page about making a budget in QuickBooks.

No class field on a form? Check that Track classes is selected in the Categories section, since classes can't be used until tracking is on. Then check the Assign classes setting: the class dropdown at the top of the form goes with One to entire transaction, and the Class column with One to each row in transaction.