There has been concern over the disappearance of the ProAdvisor Portal using the New Navigation Bar available for the QuickBooks Online Accountant version, now we have the answer.
Intuit created an alternative Navigation Bar with Centers (it’s actual name, but I call it the New Navigation Bar) in the QuickBooks Labs environment designed for the user to be the client; but many of us have used the new navigation bar as accountant users with some unanticipated results. The first of which is the fact that the ProAdvisor portal vanishes; and the second being that “your books” vanishes as well. These variances are due to the fact that the new navigation bar was actually designed for QuickBooks Online uses, or when Accountants are logged directly into a QuickBooks Online user’s file directly, not through QuickBooks Online Accountant.
Original and New Navigation Bars
This week I was excited to get a chance to speak with Intuit’s own ‘Woody’ (Clayton Adams) who told Insightful Accountant, “The new navigation bar was designed with the Client user in mind.” With Woody’s advice, I went back and looked at the QuickBooks Online Accountant dashboard and reversed the Navigation Bar with Centers back to the original Navigation Bar and was happy to confirm that the original view once again had all the original functionality we are already familiar with.
As loyal Intuit users, I think many of us are always eager to try the latest recommended updates, and in this case I was guilty of over-using this latest feature. In doing so, I recognized that my Accountant Tools were amiss. Now, armed with the understanding, from Intuit’s own expert, that the new Navigation Bar with Centers was really intended for our clients, I was able to go to back my original Navigation Bar and find all my familiar accountant links.
In case you, or your clients, have missed out on this new option, you can enable the New QuickBooks Online 'Navigation Bar with Centers' by:
To enable the QuickBooks Labs Alternate Navigation Bar:.
1) Company Gear > QuickBooks Labs >
qb labs
2) Select Alternate Navigation with Centers
Alternate Navigation Bar option
3) QuickBooks Online will confirm that you have turned on the new Navigation Bar option, when you click yes (as shown on the screen below),
Confirm New Navigation Bar setting
4) When you refresh your screen in QuickBooks Online, you will see the new QuickBooks Navigation Bar with Centers has replaced your standard Navigation Bar.
The fact that intuit has created a lab environment for the user to test and evaluate new features and functionality is of great benefit to us. It is exactly that kind of environment to identify issues and give valuable feedback in order for QuickBooks to continue to provide a robust product with the usability desired in the high end product we have come to expect from Intuit.
This is a valuable tool and as always, the QuickBooks developers’ welcome feedback regarding their continued creation of these kinds of updates. As Intuit labs continues to accept feedback on this functionality, they will also continue to refine and enhance the feature. It just goes to illustrate the very reason that QuickBooks Labs actually exists.