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You Move to the Cloud?

      Before you make the move 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

      ❯❯ Managing company expenses and vendor bills

      Beyond the advantages described in the preceding section, the particular needs of a business might dictate whether you can use QBO. For example, QBO won’t work for you if your business has industry-specific needs or is mid-sized and needs to use ODBC-compliant applications. In addition, QBO won’t work for you if you need to

      ❯❯ Track your balance sheet by class

      ❯❯ Process more than 350,000 transactions annually

      ❯❯ Track labor costs

      ❯❯ Manage a robust inventory

      ❯❯ Prepare and track progress invoices

      

Robust inventory means that you make and sell goods instead of selling finished goods. If you sell finished goods, QBO will work for you.

      In any of these cases, you would probably be better off with one of Intuit’s desktop products.

      

When QBO and QBOA were first released, the US version didn’t support multiple currencies. That feature has been added to both products. And, you can set a “home currency” without enabling multicurrency support. See Chapter 3 for more information.

      System Requirements

      Using a web-based software product typically doesn’t require a lot of hardware and software; in fact, the demands of QBO and QBOA aren’t extensive. In particular, you need

      ❯❯ An Internet connection – Intuit recommends a high-speed connection

      ❯❯ One of the four supported Internet browsers:

      ● Chrome

      ● Firefox

      ● Internet Explorer 10 or higher

      ● Safari 6.1 if your operating system is iOS 7 or higher

      

At the time I wrote this, you could use Microsoft Edge but not to export to the QuickBooks desktop.

      Although QBO and QBOA work in all the major browsers, they work best, in my experience, in Chrome, with Firefox coming in a close second. Therefore, I use Chrome throughout this book, and the Part of Tens chapters cover using Chrome so that you can get comfortable with that browser. If you’re a Firefox user, give QBO and QBOA a try in Firefox.

      You also can use the QuickBooks Online mobile app, which works with Windows phones and tablets, the iPhone and the iPad, and Android phones and tablets. The requirements for the QuickBooks Online mobile app are the same as those outlined for the non-mobile versions: You need a browser on your device and an Internet connection. Be aware that mobile devices do not support all features of QBO and QBOA.

      

In this book, I use a Windows 10 desktop computer and the Chrome browser.

      Whether you work on a desktop computer or on a mobile device, the computer or device should meet the basic requirements of the operating system you use on that computer or device. For example, if you’re using a Windows desktop computer, you need the amount of RAM (random access memory) specified by Microsoft to load Windows on the computer before you ever launch your browser. If you don’t have sufficient RAM to run the operating system, you certainly won’t be happy with the behavior of QBO and QBOA. You won’t be happy with the behavior of the computer, either.

      Basic requirements (and I stress the word basic) for a Windows 7, 8.1, and 10 computer, as specified by Microsoft, are

      ❯❯ 1-gigahertz (GHz) or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor

      ❯❯ 1 gigabyte (GB) of RAM (32 bit) or 2GB of RAM (64 bit)

      ❯❯ 16GB of available hard disk space (32 bit) or 20GB (64 bit)

      ❯❯ A display that supports at least 800 x 600 dpi

      ❯❯ DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver

      These versions of Windows work with multi-core processors, and all 32-bit versions of Windows can support up to 32 processor cores, whereas 64-bit versions can support up to 256 processor cores.

      And a word on the word basic. You’ll be a whole lot happier if your desktop computer components have higher numbers than the ones listed above. If you have a computer that’s fairly new – say, three to four years old – you might need only to add some RAM or possibly hard disk space. If your computer is older than three or four years, you should consider purchasing new equipment, simply because you’ll be unbelievably happier with the computer’s performance. Technology continues to improve dramatically in short spurts of time.

      If you buy a new computer, you don’t need to worry about much to meet more than the basic requirements. I’m pretty sure you can’t buy a new computer containing a 1-gigahertz processor; most computers today come with at least 2.5-gigahertz processors and they support better graphics than the DirectX 9 graphics listed in the basic requirements. And most monitors available for purchase today don’t support low resolutions such as 800 x 600; you most likely own a monitor that supports higher resolution. In my opinion, 1GB of RAM is insufficient; your desktop computer should have at least 4GB of RAM, and you’ll be much happier if it has 8GB of RAM. On the hard drive requirement, if you don’t have the 16GB or 20GB of available space specified, you probably should be considering a hard drive replacement for your computer.

      

The amount of RAM your computer can successfully use depends on the computer’s architecture – in particular, if your computer uses a 32-bit processor, as older computers often do, your computer might not be able to “see” more than 4GB of RAM. So, you could put 16GB of RAM in the computer and only be able to use 4GB. And part of that 4GB goes to other stuff, like your video card; so, with most 32-bit processors (there are a few exceptions), your computer can use only 3GB of RAM. Bottom line here: Newer computers use 64-bit processors and can take advantage of much more RAM, which makes them much faster.

Chapter 2

      Embracing the QBO/QBOA Format

      IN THIS CHAPTER

      ❯❯ Understanding available QBO subscriptions and their costs

      ❯❯ Examining ways to meet payroll needs

      ❯❯ Taking a tour of the App Center

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