It's been almost eleven years since Intuit first introduced 'the New QBO', the product they refer to now as "QuickBooks." Back then, when you said "QuickBooks" everyone thought you were talking about the Desktop products, because everyone called the Online version, "QBO."
Over the last 10 years, the nomenclature started to change and then took an abrupt 180-degree change. Yes, QBO became "QuickBooks" and what had been "QuickBooks" (aka: Desktop) became "Desktop". Even though the Online Products still carry the 'Online' moniker when it comes to segregating the subscription types (SKUs), it seems using Online is almost frowned upon.
Of course, the big migration started during this same time frame... after all "the cloud was somehow safer, somehow more convenient, and somehow 'just better."
Software-as-a-service became the way to go even though there were countless issues with the safety of cloud products, hackers access cloud systems all the time. One aspect of safety is redundancy, yet many cloud system providers still experience 'downtime.'
When it comes to convenience, that same 'downtime' coupled with internet problems means that you are "up a creek without a paddle." And 'just better', well, most users feel "they will be the judge of that."
And users have judged for themselves! For years, one of the biggest complaints about moving from the Desktop to Online version of QuickBooks has been that QBO doesn't look like, or work like Desktop. In other words, those Desktop users didn't believe QBO was 'just better.'
In response, Intuit came out with the QuickBooks Online App for Desktop a few years ago. The last time I wrote about this App (even though I had written about it twice previously) was last April after it had undergone further enhancements.
Intuit developed the app and made changes to help Desktop users 'transition' to the cloud version of QuickBooks. One of the big advantages to using the App is that it gave users the option of a navigation view similar to the home page workflows found in their QuickBooks desktop products.
But simply having an Online version that looks like Desktop was only half the original complaint... users wanted QBO to 'work like' Desktop.
Once again, in order to help motivate or placate Desktop users migrating to Online, Intuit set up a QBO project team to work with the QuickBooks Desktop project team to identify features that 'didn't work the same' or that 'weren't available' in Online versions. While a multitude of features exist, many of the most commonly used by a majority of Desktop users were the first priorities of this team.
Over the last year, this team has slowly introduced new features and functionality into QuickBooks Online, primarily within the QBO Plus and Advanced subscription types (but some are found in Simple-start and Essentials)* , to mimic or mirror the missing features from Desktop.
Let's examine a few of these new features in Online and compare/contrast them with their Desktop versions.
Enhanced Navigation between Similar Transactions
QuickBooks Desktop has provided a simple way for users to move from a current invoice to either the next or a previous invoice, with small forward/backward arrows as shown in the illustration below.
But QuickBooks Online didn't have this capability until recently. Now, forward/backward arrows are conveniently located at the top of the QBO transaction as shown below.
For the most part, the two features work identically from a functional standpoint. Click backward, click forward, click, click, click. So this should be one functionality that will make a lot of QuickBooks Desktop users who have already transitioned to Online very happy.
Still the same, I'm not certain that this one feature will result in significantly more Desktop users migrating.
Accessing Reports Directly from Transactions
A lot of QuickBooks Desktop users reported to Intuit that they frequently go straight from a transaction they are working on to one of the related reports. For example, when looking at a specific Invoice, the user might want to see all open invoices for the same customer.
This is a simple matter in Desktop, just click on the Reports ribbon at the top of the transaction, then select View Open Invoices, as shown here.
Immediately, QuickBooks Desktop displays the Open Invoices Report for the same customer, as shown below.
Until recently, QuickBooks Online required you to close the Invoice, then go to the Reports Center and open the Report. But now, QuickBooks Online has much the same functionality as QuickBooks Desktop.
Just open the right-hand sidebar for your QBO transaction, select Open invoices and QBO displays the Open Invoices Report for the same customer, as shown below.
Can you say, "Oh Happy Day?" This new functionality is certainly making some 'switchers' happy, but will it be enough to make other Desktop users switch?
I personally can't remember the last time that I jumped directly from an Invoice to a Customer's Open Invoice Report. I was always far more likely to jump to the Transaction Journal or Transaction History reports from the Report ribbon at the top of the transaction. But perhaps I am just an 'outlier.'
What about those Desktop 'customer credit limits'?
QuickBooks Desktop has allowed users to enter credit limits for their customers and then receive a warning if a transaction exceeds the established credit limit (as shown below).
This very useful feature in Desktop has only recently found its way into QuickBooks Online (shown below).
It essentially works in the exact same manner as the feature in Desktop. I really have a hard time believing that it has taken so long for this functionality to reach QBO, especially Plus, and Advanced which focus toward larger businesses where 'customer credit' is a big part of business. Nevertheless, those users are getting a windfall from Desktop even if they don't realize it.
It certainly appears Intuit is trying to accommodate a lot of nay-sayers. Will it satisfy the majority of the Desktop holdouts... who really knows? But, I'm sure they are laying odds one way or the other in Vegas.
These three changes are not the only desktop-like features that are emerging within QuickBooks Online. The ability to batch edit and create customers, etc. is coming along nicely (shown below). Added functionality along these parameters is almost certain to follow.
When QBO is used with QBO-Payroll, there is a similar new batch edit/change that allows users to manage employee payroll items. Easily add a new payroll item (like a new deduction or employer contribution) to every employee's paycheck, or update the amount of an existing item for every employee in just seconds. We will learn more about that in another article, but I use it to illustrate that once you build the 'fundamentals' of a new feature, it becomes very common to use those same fundamentals to build a different feature that can work in essentially the same manner.
Getting back to the changes being made in QBO from Desktop functionality, it seems with more of the things users liked in Desktop on the way, QBO might just grow to be like QuickBooks Desktop by the time it turns 18.
Footnotes and Disclosures:
* - You may or may not have access to some of the features listed above depending on your QBO subscription type (SKU).
Feature content was adapted from Intuit media source content and other QuickBooks resources. Content adapted by Insightful Accountant from Intuit sources is furnished for educational purposes only.
As used herein, QuickBooks®, QuickBooks Online (and related subscription/SKU versions), QuickBooks Desktop, and QuickBooks Payroll refer to one or more registered trademarks of Intuit® Inc., a publicly traded corporation headquartered in Mountain View, California.
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