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Slick-n-speedy
The all NEW QUICKBOOKS ON-LINE is like a sleek race car added to the Intuit line-up.
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Slide 1 - QBO Homepage
This isn't the same old QuickBooks On-line, it is sleek, colorful, and downright artistic in design; something you might expect to see from Apple.
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Slide 2 - The Slick New QBO Menu
At the top of the Home Page are three icons, the center icon opens a menu bar of the most common transactions (Invoice, Estimate, Expense and Check). To access additional functions or tasks, simply click on Show More. With the click of your mouse the appropriate windows slides down into place.
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Slide 3 - QBO Invoice
With a click of the Task Menu the Invoice slides down into place, it is slick how smoothly and quickly this transition occurs. Easily turn the on-line payment option on or off as you proceed through completion of the invoice information. The moment you save (and close or send) the Invoice slides back out of view and you find yourself right back where you were before you began the invoice.
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Slide 4 - QBO Expanded Menu
If you click the Show More from the tack menu, it expands before your eyes into a comprehensive list of all of the feature functions QuickBooks Online offers.
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Slide 5 - QBO Banking
Open up the Banking window from the right side of the Home Page and any of your downloaded banking or credit card transactions that have not been self-posting using the built-in rules are waiting for your attention are easily categorized and posted. You can accept them one at a time or all at the same time, it is just that simple with the New QBO.
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Slide 6 - QBO Customers
Convenience and simplicity are the twin middle names of this new QuickBooks Online. From the left hand navigator of the Home Page, just click on Customers and there is an entirely new way to view customer related transactions. Everything from estimates and pending charges, as well as your open invoices and those that are overdue in a simplistic layout. You can see history and obtain details on any customer with ease. For example, action buttons at the right end of each listed overdue invoices enables you to send a reminder with just one click. The same visual interface is used for your each of the other major areas of this new QuickBooks Online. Both QBO Users and Intuit can be proud of this new design.
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Slide 7 - QBO Employees & Payroll
Intuit made sure that the new QuickBooks Online has streamlined integration with their Online Payroll product. You can access your Employee and Payroll information and functionality from this one window.
No, it's not a Maserati, a Ferrari, or a Lamborghini; it’s the all new QuickBooks Online.
If you are like me, you have always thought that QuickBooks Online was just not in the same league as the QuickBooks (desktop) products. QBO was clunky and slow, to name just two deficiencies. Of course we all know that QBO didn't have the complete QB feature-set, but in some cases, and for some clients, those features didn’t matter when you ranked them against the convenient access from anywhere that QuickBooks Online provided..
But now there is a new QuickBooks Online and I can best describe it as “slick-n-speedy”, like a sleek race car added to the Intuit line-up. Let’s talk about the speedy part first. Intuit redesigned the new QBO from the core up to not only improve the functionality and user friendliness, but to reach speeds approximating the desktop QB products. I was recently privileged to see a demonstration of this new QuickBooks Online, via a Go-to-meeting with Intuit's Kevin Kirn who led the team that re-developed QBO. Even being displayed through the Go-to-meeting interface rather than directly over the internet, the performance was outstanding; I could hardly believe my eyes. Pages responded immediately with new windows simply sliding down into place; no pause and wait for a page to load while the windows wheel spins, it was instantaneous during the demonstration. I can only imagine how much ‘faster than instantaneous’ this new QBO would be if I had been logged-in directly.
So with the speedy aspect behind us, let’s look at the slick part. This is a whole new look, and I don’t say that with the same disrespect that I said it when it came to the QuickBooks 2013 desktop interface. (See Slide 1 of the attached Slide-show) The new QuickBooks Online is almost ‘artistic’ in appearance. High quality resolution and sophisticated coloration make this new QBO a viewing comfort. Yes with the new left hand navigation bar, you might think that this new QuickBooks Online looks a lot like QB-desktop but that is where the similarity ends.
The right hand side of the home page shows you important information including your bank download activity as well as other activities needing your attention such as overdue invoices or Undeposited receipts.
Need to do some work, just click on the center icon at the top of the page, and the most common tasks appear in a uncluttered menu. (See Slide 2) Just a click on Invoice and the transaction slides into place. (See Slide 3)
But let’s say that your work is a little more complex, well click on the ‘Show more’ at the bottom of the transaction list and the menu expands to cover the entire scope of QuickBooks functions. (See Slide 4) And remember all of these changes take place at near ‘light-speed’, just a smooth transition from what was to what is.
Do I sound a little excited; this QuickBooks Online is the most visionary change I have seen out of Intuit in ages; heck it is almost ‘Apple-like’. But the home page and tasks menu are not the only ‘slick’ things about the new QBO, this is an entirely new product in not only appearance but simplicity.
Back on the right side of the Home page I mentioned your ‘downloaded’ banking (or credit card) transactions. Any transactions that have not been self-posting using the built-in rules are waiting for you; with one click the bank display slides into place and the banking transactions needing your attention are easily completed. (See Slide 5) Correct and accept them one at a time or all at the same time, it is just that simple.
But we should take a few moments to look past the Home page and its links. As we move on down the left hand navigation panel, we notice that almost everything is just a click away. No more clicking on a menu to open another menu to open yet another menu. Past versions of QBO had more than 70 layers of navigation, but the new QuickBooks Online has fewer than 15.
Click on Customers and you will find an entirely new view of your customer related transactions and information. (See Slide 6) Everything from estimates pending to unbilled charges, view your open invoices and those that are overdue with ease. You can see history and obtain details on any customer with a click. Looking at your overdue invoices, you can send a reminder with just another click; in my way of thinking convenience and simplicity are the twin middle names of this new QuickBooks Online.
The same visual approach as seen in Customers is used for every area of the product, and this includes payroll. (See Slide 7) Intuit insisted that both the QuickBooks Online re-design team and the Online Payroll team work together to bring you an unprecedented level of integration within this new QBO.
So even though I am a QB-desktop lover, I could go on and on about this new QuickBoks Online, but why reveal everything in a single article. Since the new QBO is on a ‘slow roll-out schedule’ with the initial availability being today August 26, 2013 to a small set of new users, and the next release in the form of a sample company being delivered to QBO-Accountant users in the coming days; we will have plenty of opportunity to look in greater detail at this exciting product before its’ general release to existing QBO customers later this fall.
Stay tuned to Intuitive Accountant for more on the new QBO; after all, as you can see from just what we have showed you, this isn’t the same old QuickBooks Online.
Acknowledgement: Intuitive Accountant wants to thank Kevin Kirn, Intuit's QBO Group Project Manager and Kim Amsbaugh, Sr. Communications Manager at Intuit, for providing the background and source information essential to this article.