Once again, I spotted a cute feature in QuickBooks Online that I had not noticed before, and I have no idea how long it has been there.
Many of you are familiar with the stacked three-line “hamburger icon” at the top of the screen which, when clicked, collapses the left navigation bar. This gives you more horizontal screen room to view wide reports and registers with extra columns selected.
This is especially useful in multicurrency environments where the home currency amount, exchange rate and the foreign currency amount and balance take up a lot of screen room. And on small monitors…well, fuhgeddaboutit.
The hamburger has been there for years.
In the screenshot below, I have selected extra columns to display and I cannot even see all the way to the right—including the all-too-important Balance column:
This is resolved somewhat when the hamburger icon is clicked, and more horizontal screen room is available as the left navigation bar is collapsed:
Now the rest of the columns can be seen, including the Balance column. (And it is a good thing, too, as checks would start bouncing from this account.)
Before last week, I would click on the hamburger icon again to expand the left navigation bar for access to the + New icon and to launch new transactions. But that would take up valuable horizontal screen room and obliterate part of what I was viewing once again.
Here’s what I noticed only the other day: With the left navigation bar collapsed, a new + icon appears in the top right next to the Help icon. That launches the + New menu from there without expanding the left navigation bar:
And, of course, I don’t just click on my selection (let’s say it is an invoice). I click it and drag it up to an empty tab location in Chrome so that it (an invoice, in this example) opens in a new tab. That leaves my expanded view in the original tab alone.
To the QuickBooks Online developers: I apologize for not noticing this + icon before. And to other QuickBooks Online users: if you are like me and haven’t noticed this before, you should check this out.
Esther
Esther Friedberg Karp is an internationally-renowned trainer, writer and speaker from Toronto, where she runs her QuickBooks consulting practice, EFK CompuBooks Inc. Consistently in Insightful Accountant's Top 100 ProAdvisors, she has been named to the Top 10 twice.
With the unique distinction of holding ProAdvisor certifications in the US, Canadian, UK, and International versions of QuickBooks, she has traveled the world with Intuit. She has spoken at conferences such as "QuickBooks Connect," "Scaling New Heights," and "Future Forward," and has written countless articles for Intuit Global. In addition, she is author of "Multicurrency in QuickBooks Desktop: The Most In-Depth QuickBooks Multicurrency Training Available." The book, which is available on Amazon, is the only one of its kind that teaches how QuickBooks treats foreign currency transactions—all the tricks and the tips, and how to deal with foreign business as an expert.
Esther has been named one of the “Top 50 Women in Accounting,” a “Top 10 Influencer” in the Canadian Bookkeeping World, and is a repeat nominee for the “RBC Canadian Women’s Entrepreneur Awards.” She counts among her clients many international companies, as well as accounting professionals seeking her out on behalf of their own clients for her expertise in multi-currency and various countries’ editions of QuickBooks Desktop and Online.
She can be reached at esther@e-compubooks.com or 416-410-0750.
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