QuickBooks Online For Dummies. Marmel Elaine

to write this book. Here are the assumptions I made:

      ❯❯ You know that you need to manage the accounts for your business, and you might even have some sort of setup in place to record this information. I don’t assume that you know how to do all that on a computer.

      ❯❯ You have some interest in managing the accounts for your business using a web-based product.

      ❯❯ You are probably but not necessarily a QuickBooks desktop edition user.

      ❯❯ You have a personal computer (that you know how to turn on) running Microsoft Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8.1 or Windows 10. I wrote this book using Windows 10.

      ❯❯ You might have purchased an edition of QuickBooks Online, but not necessarily.

      Icons Used in This Book

      

Think of these icons as the fodder of advice columns. They offer (hopefully) wise advice or a bit more information about a topic under discussion.

      

This icon points out juicy tidbits that are likely to be repeatedly useful to you – so please don’t forget them.

      

Danger, Will Robinson, danger! Well, okay, it’s really not life-threatening. In this book, you see this icon when I’m trying to help you avoid mistakes that can cost money.

      Beyond the Book

      In addition to the content in this book, this product also comes with a free access-anywhere cheat sheet that gives you keyboard shortcuts for QBOL and QBOL Accountant and some handy tool buttons in QBOL. To get this cheat sheet, simply go to www.dummies.com and search for “QuickBooks Online For Dummies Cheat Sheet” in the Search box.

      Where to Go from Here

      Simply turn the page. Seriously. You can dive in anywhere you want and come back as often as you like. You don’t have to read through this book cover to cover, because each section stands alone and provides step-by-step instructions for common tasks. You should consider this book a reference that you use when you need it.

      That said, if you’re just getting started with QBO or QBOA, you might want to turn the page and follow, in order, the chapters in Part 1. Then feel free to explore any topic you like, using the table of contents or the index to help you find a topic.

      Part 1

      Getting Started with QBO and QBOA

      IN THIS PART …

      Examine what QBO is and what it isn’t.

      Learn the requirements to use QBO.

      Meet the QBO interface.

Chapter 1

      Introducing QBO and QBOA

      IN THIS CHAPTER

      ❯❯ Taking a first look at QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Online Accountant

      ❯❯ Considering the cloud

      ❯❯ Meeting requirements to use QBO and QBOA

      QuickBooks Online (QBO) and QuickBooks Online Accountant (QBOA) are web-based products you can use to manage your business’s accounting. This chapter introduces these products and discusses whether you should move into the cloud to manage your accounting. It also examines the system requirements for these products.

      QBO for the Client and QBOA for the Accountant

      QuickBooks Online offers you the ability to manage your business’s accounting in the cloud. The software is divided into two products: one for end users and the other for accountants. Interfaces for both products are available on multiple platforms.

      QuickBooks Online (QBO) is the cloud-based product for end users who need to perform typical accounting tasks. QBO is based on the same principles as the QuickBooks desktop product – that is, it uses lists to, for example, manage customers and vendors, and it includes transactions similar to the ones found in the QuickBooks desktop product. But, QBO is not simply a “rewrite” of the QuickBooks desktop product for the web.

      QuickBooks Online Accountant (QBOA) is the cloud-based portal that accountants use to access client QBO companies, work in them, and communicate with clients. QBOA also comes with one free company that accountants can use to track their own businesses.

      Comparing interfaces

      QBO and QBOA were initially written and optimized to be used in the major web browsers – Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Internet Explorer. Later, Intuit added QBO apps that you can use for Windows, Mac, and Android mobile devices. In this section, you explore what QBO and QBOA look like in a browser and in the Windows app.

      

In addition to using the QBO mobile apps for iOS and Android, you also can access QBO from your mobile device’s browser at https://qbo.intuit.com.

In a browser, an open company in QBO 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. If you've been a QuickBooks desktop user and you’ve used the Left Icon bar in that product, you might find the Navigation bar a familiar tool. The Left Icon bar and the Navigation bar work the same way; you click a link in either of them to navigate to a portion of the program.

       FIGURE 1-1: An open company in QBO.

      Clicking the arrow in the Navigation bar enables you to collapse the Navigation bar to view just the icons (and clicking it again expands the Navigation bar back to the view in Figure 1-1). When you collapse the Navigation bar (you see an example of it collapsed in Chapter 3), you have more screen real estate to view the right side of the QBO interface.

      

At the time I wrote this, the arrow feature was being tested in QuickBooks Labs. I include this feature in some of the figures because I want to give you an idea of things that might make their way into the software. You, too, can turn on features being tested in the lab; see Chapter 3 for details. And, in Chapter 3, I’ll show you the new navigation centers being tested for QBO – another feature currently available via QuickBooks Labs.

      At the top of the screen, you see tools that help QBO users create transactions, search for existing transactions, and view recent transactions.

Figure 1-2 shows what an accountant sees immediately upon logging in to QBOA. The Navigation bar changes to support an accountant’s needs; you can read more about the QBOA interface in Chapter 11.

       FIGURE 1-2: The first view an accountant sees when he opens QBOA.

When an accountant opens a client’s company from within QBOA (see Figure 1-3), the interface resembles what a client sees, with some minor differences. Compare Figure 1-1 with Figure 1-3.