alt="check"/> Meeting requirements to use QBO and QBOA
QuickBooks Online (QBO) and QuickBooks Online Accountant (QBOA) are web-based products you can use to manage your business’s accounting. This chapter introduces these products and discusses whether you should move into the cloud to manage your accounting. It also examines the system requirements for these products.
QBO for the Client and QBOA for the Accountant
QuickBooks Online offers you the ability to manage your business’s accounting in the cloud. The software is divided into two products: one for end users and the other for accountants. Interfaces for both products are available on multiple platforms.
QuickBooks Online (QBO) is the cloud-based product for end users who need to perform typical accounting tasks. QBO is based on the same principles as the QuickBooks Desktop product — that is, it uses lists to, for example, manage customers and vendors, and it includes transactions similar to the ones found in the QuickBooks Desktop product. But, QBO is not simply a “rewrite” of the QuickBooks Desktop product for the web. It was designed and developed as a new product, optimized for web-based usage.
QuickBooks Online Accountant (QBOA) is the cloud-based portal that accountants use to access client QBO companies, work in them, and communicate with clients. QBOA also includes a QBO company in its Your Books section that accountants can use to track the accounting of their own businesses.
Comparing interfaces
QBO and QBOA were initially written and optimized to be used in the major web browsers — Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Microsoft Edge, and Internet Explorer. Later, Intuit added QBO apps that you can use to work in QBO on iOS and Android mobile devices. Intuit also offers a desktop version of QBO referred to in this book as, cleverly, QBO Desktop; this version is not a mobile app (it won’t work on phones and isn’t available in the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store) but it will work on any Mac or Windows computer, including “portable” computers like laptops and tablets running Windows or MacOS, making it somewhat mobile. It also is not the QuickBooks Desktop product, which is not a cloud-based product.
In this section of the book, you explore what QBO and QBOA look like in a browser; the next section explores what the QBO Desktop edition looks like as well as detailing some of the things you can do in the iOS and Android mobile app versions of QBO.
In a browser, an open company in QBO looks similar to the one shown in Figure 1-1. We cover the interface in more detail in Chapter 3, but for the time being, the most important thing to notice is the Navigation bar that runs down the left side of the screen. If you’ve been a QuickBooks Desktop user and you’ve used the Left Icon Bar in that product, you might find the Navigation bar a familiar tool. The Left Icon Bar and the Navigation bar work the same way; you click a link in either of them to navigate to a portion of the program.
Clicking the three-striped button beside the QuickBooks logo above the Navigation bar enables you to collapse the Navigation bar to view just the icons (and clicking it again expands the Navigation bar back to the view in Figure 1-1). When you collapse the Navigation bar (you see an example of it collapsed in Chapter 3), you have more screen real estate to view the right side of the QBO interface.
At the top of the screen, you see tools that help QBO users create transactions, search for existing transactions, and view settings for the QBO company.
FIGURE 1-1: An open company in QBO.
Figure 1-2 shows what an accountant sees immediately upon logging into QBOA. The Navigation bar changes to support an accountant’s needs; you can read more about the QBOA interface in Chapter 11.
When an accountant opens a client’s company from within QBOA (see Figure 1-3), the interface resembles what a client sees, with some minor differences. Compare Figure 1-1 with Figure 1-3. First, you know you’re using QBOA because the top of the Navigation pane shows QB Accountant. Second, the Accountant Tools menu (the briefcase icon) displays tools not found in QBO that help accountants manage client companies.
Even though an open company looks a bit different depending on whether you open it using QBO or QBOA, the basic functionality doesn’t really change, other than accountants have more options than end users have.
FIGURE 1-2: The first view an accountant has when he opens QBOA.
FIGURE 1-3: An open company in QBOA.
Taking a look at QBO Desktop and QBO Mobile
You can work with QBO and QBOA without using a browser; you can use QBO Desktop or you can use the iOS or Android apps.
Introducing QBO Desktop
If you prefer, you can work with QBO using QBO Desktop; it’s purported to run faster than QBO in your browser, but we’ll let you judge for yourself. To download QBO Desktop, use your browser to navigate to the QBO sign-in page: https://quickbooks.intuit.com/online/apps/. On the page that appears, you’ll see a Free Download button; click it and follow the onscreen instructions to download and install QBO Desktop.
