Your company’s name and address.

       The industry in which your company operates.

       Whether you want to import company information from a QuickBooks Desktop product.

       The way you want to handle payroll. (You can always opt into one of the QuickBooks Payroll (QB Payroll) offerings later.)

      1 Visit quickbooks.intuit.com/pricing.This page has the current pricing as well as any sale prices.

      2 Look for four boxes describing the Simple Start, Essentials, Plus, and Advanced subscriptions.If you’re looking for QuickBooks Self-Employed, scroll down past the boxes to the Freelancer section. Typically, you can choose between a free 30-day trial and three months of reduced prices for Simple Start, Essentials, and Plus. The Advanced subscription doesn’t offer a free trial, but you can access the test drive at qbo.intuit.com/redir/testdrive_us_advanced. For more information, see Chapter 2 and quickbooks.intuit.com/accounting/advanced.

      3 To sign up for a free trial, click the slider button above the QuickBooks versions to activate Free Trial for 30 Days (see Figure 3-1). Be aware that the price you ultimately pay for QuickBooks depends on whether you choose the Buy Now option or the Free Trial for 30 Days option. If you opt to buy now, you’ll pay less for your subscription because discounts don’t apply to the free trials. Be aware that promotional pricing usually ends after three months. However, ask your accountant if they’re able to extend a ProAdvisor Preferred Pricing discount to you, which I discuss in Chapter 12.FIGURE 3-1: Use the slider button to toggle between a short-term discount and a free trial.

      4 Click the Try It Free button for the version you want to try.If you see a Select button instead of Try It Free, click the Free Trial for 30 Days button. The optional Add Payroll page appears; this page allows you to add a free payroll service test drive to your QuickBooks trial if you want.

      5 Click Add to Trial or Continue without Payroll to move to the Checkout screen.You can always add payroll later, so don’t feel that you need to make a heat-of-the-moment decision here. But your payroll trial will be free for 30 days as well.

      6 Review your choices and then click Checkout to establish your QuickBooks Online account.The amounts shown are what you’ll be charged each month for your subscription.

      7 Fill in your email address, mobile number, and a password (see Figure 3-2).Your password must be between 8 and 32 characters and consist of a mix of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and one or more special characters (such as an exclamation point or pound sign). The email address and password will serve as your credentials for accessing QuickBooks. Your mobile number will be used to recover your account if you mislay your credentials. If you already have an Intuit account, look for the tiny — and I mean tiny — Sign In link.

      8 Click the Sign Up with Email button.Intuit will text you a confirmation number to enter. When I wrote this chapter, a window appeared, offering an option to skip the free trial and buy the product at a discounted rate. You can buy, but I opted to click the Continue with Trial button.