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).
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.
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.
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.
