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Chapter 1

Presenting QuickBooks Online

IN THIS CHAPTER

Taking a first look at QuickBooks and QuickBooks Online Accountant

Considering the cloud

Understanding operating requirements

QuickBooks Online is a web-based platform you can use to manage accounting records for a business. Business owners and employees will use QuickBooks Online, whereas accounting professionals will use QuickBooks Online Accountant. In this book, I often refer to QuickBooks Online as simply QuickBooks, and QuickBooks Online Accountant as QB Accountant. In this chapter, I introduce these products and discuss whether you should move your accounting tasks to the cloud.

When I mention the cloud, I mean that you’ll access your accounting records remotely from an internet server instead of from your local hard drive. I also explain the system requirements for cloud-based products.

Comparing QuickBooks and QB Accountant

If you own or work for a business that is looking to maintain accounting records more effectively, QuickBooks Online may be just the ticket; you can use it to manage customers, vendors, employees, and contractors, as well as the panoply of related accounting transactions. Any experience you have in QuickBooks Desktop will help you understand accounting software as a whole, but keep in mind that QuickBooks Online is a separate, distinct product written specifically for the internet. This version of QuickBooks was written from scratch, so you’re not going to see any screens that mirror QuickBooks Desktop. Also, QuickBooks Desktop certainly does some things better than its online counterpart, such as inventory tracking. But QuickBooks Desktop allows you to access your books only from certain computers, whereas you can access QuickBooks Online from any device that’s connected to the internet.

QuickBooks Online Accountant (QB Accountant) is a free cloud-based portal that accounting professionals use to access clients’ QuickBooks Online companies and communicate with clients. QB Accountant includes a QuickBooks Online company that accountants can use to account for their own businesses, but the standard subscription fees apply for any additional QuickBooks Online companies that accountants establish for themselves or their clients.

Comparing interfaces

QuickBooks Online was initially written and optimized to be used only in web browsers such as Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple’s Safari, and Microsoft Edge. Now you can use QuickBooks apps on iOS and Android mobile devices as well. A short-lived QuickBooks Online app for Mac and Windows computers has been discontinued. If you previously installed the desktop app, you can continue to use it, but it’s no longer available to install due to low use and the product will no longer be updated.

QuickBooks ONLINE ADVANCED APP

QB Accountant users can download the QuickBooks Online Advanced App for Windows by using the following steps:

1 Log into QuickBooks Online Accountant.

2 Click the Settings button.

3 Click Get the Desktop App.

4 Click Download for Windows.

5 Follow the onscreen instructions once you launch the installation file.

In a browser, an open QuickBooks company looks similar to the one shown in Figure 1-1. I cover the interface in more detail in Chapter 3, but for the time being, the most important thing to notice is the navigation bar that runs down the left side of the screen. QuickBooks Desktop offers a similar navigation aid, so this bar may feel familiar. Click any link to navigate to that portion of the program.

FIGURE 1-1: The setup window for a newly created QuickBooks company.

Clicking the collapse/expand (three stripes) button next to the QuickBooks logo at the top of the screen enables you to collapse the navigation bar to view just the icons. Click the button again to expand the navigation bar. Collapsing the navigation bar gives you more screen space to view the main area of the QuickBooks interface. Additional commands at the top of the screen allow you to create transactions, search for existing transactions, and view settings for the QuickBooks company.

Figure 1-2 shows what an accountant sees immediately upon logging into QB Accountant.

As you can see in Figure 1-3, when an accountant opens a client’s company, the QB Accountant interface resembles what a client sees in QuickBooks Online, apart from some minor differences that are mostly additional tools for accountants. In short, the functionality is the same; QB Accountant users simply have more options than QuickBooks users do. In Chapter 12, I tell you more about how the navigation bar changes to support an accountant’s needs.

FIGURE 1-2: The first view an accountant has when opening QB Accountant.

FIGURE 1-3: An open company in QuickBooks Online Accountant (QB Accountant).

Because QB Accountant contains functionality that QuickBooks doesn’t have, I’ve organized this book so that QuickBooks users can focus on Part 2 when using the product, whereas QB Accountant users can use the information in both Parts 3 and 4.

Taking a look at QuickBooks Online Mobile

Your QuickBooks subscription includes mobile apps that are also available for iOS/iPadOS and Android devices. These apps are optimized for touch interaction and on-the-go workflows such as customer management, invoicing, estimates, and signatures. You can also use the mobile apps to track the status of invoices, take payments, reconcile bank accounts, capture expenses, and check reports. Pinch and zoom functionality works in both the apps and browsers on mobile devices.

You can get the mobile apps from the app store for your device or request a link at https://quickbooks.intuit.com/accounting/mobile. Alternatively, you can use your mobile device to log into your books at https://qbo.intuit.com without installing anything. Keep in mind that the mobile apps offer a subset of the functionality, so you may still need to use a web browser to carry out certain tasks, such as customizing templates.

Understanding the Cloud

Just to make sure we’re on the same page here, I’m defining the cloud as software and data housed securely in remote data centers (not on your office premises) and accessed securely over the internet. Working in the cloud can increase your efficiency by offering you the opportunity to work anywhere, communicate easily with others, and collaborate in real time. Further, your data is backed up automatically, which can help you avoid disasters such as fire or flood, which can take out not only your workspace, but also your accounting records.

Regardless of whether you use QuickBooks in a browser or in an app, both the software and the data are housed on servers controlled by Intuit and accessible via the internet.

Historically, we bought software and installed it on our computers, or we bought the software and installed it on a vendor’s server. However, QuickBooks Online and QB Accountant fall into the category of Software as a Service (SaaS). You don’t buy SaaS software; instead, you rent it by purchasing a subscription.

You typically access SaaS software such as QuickBooks over the internet by using a browser. A browser is software installed on your local computer or the mobile device that you use to … well, browse the internet, looking up cool stuff like what the stock market is doing today, what kind of weather you can expect on Friday (when your vacation starts), how to get to your boss’s house for the party they’re having, and — yes — how to work with web-based software such as QuickBooks Online.

SHOULD YOU MOVE TO THE CLOUD?

Before you decide to move your accounting records to the cloud, you should consider the needs of your business in the following areas:

 Invoicing, point of sale, electronic payment, and customer relationship management

 Financial and tax reporting

 Budgeting

 Time tracking and payroll

 Inventory, job costing, and job scheduling

 Management of company expenses and vendor bills

Beyond the advantages described in this section, the needs of your business may dictate whether you can use QuickBooks Online. The platform won’t work for you if your business has industry-specific needs or is midsize, for example. In addition, QuickBooks Online won’t work for you if you need to do any of the following things:

 Track your balance sheet by class.

 Track labor costs.

 Manage a robust inventory that supports making and selling finished goods.

In any of these cases, you’d probably be better off with Intuit’s desktop-based QuickBooks Enterprise or perhaps QuickBooks Premier.

Using web-based software can be attractive for several reasons. For one thing, when you use web-based software, you have access to that software’s information anywhere, at any time, from any device — stationary or mobile.

Some folks see the “anywhere, anytime” feature as a potential disadvantage because it makes information too readily available — and therefore a target for hackers. Rest assured that Intuit stores your data on servers that use bank-level security and encryption, and it backs up your data for you automatically.

In addition, web-based software like QuickBooks promotes collaboration and can help you save time. Accountants, bookkeepers, and clients can communicate about issues that arise, as described in Chapter 16.

Web-based software also eliminates the issue of keeping software up to date. The desktop version of QuickBooks typically receives a major update once each year, along with periodic software patches that must be installed manually. Conversely, QuickBooks is updated automatically every two to four weeks, so there’s never a new version to install or a patch to deal with. Most modern computers should exceed the minimum requirements, but you can get the nitty-gritty computer specification details here: https://intuit.me/3yEaSJL.

Because updates occur so frequently in QuickBooks, by the time this book is published, some features (and screens) may have changed. Make that will have changed.

My technical editor extraordinaire Dan DeLong has created a free QuickBooks Chooser chatbot that will help you choose the right version of QuickBooks Online based upon your specific business needs. Check it out at https://sob.drift.click/QBChooser.