In our last post we took a high-level view of the new Windows App for QuickBooks Online (QBO). This app allows the user to work with QBO accounting files in a window on their desktop computer in a manner more closely resembling a Windows program.
Today, let’s examine a few more details about how this application works.
As explained in the last post, the app downloads to your desktop computer. It creates an icon on your desktop. When this icon is selected, just like any other Windows program, it opens a window for the QBO software to run.
The sign-in screen that first appears when selecting this app looks like this:
Note the ‘Stay Signed In’ checkbox. This, if selected, keeps you signed in to QBO for the duration of your session. When running QBO in a browser, the default is an automatic sign out at one hour of inactivity. In Company Settings, that can be set to two of even three hours. The Windows App though will keep you signed in until you are ready to close the app.
Pages load faster in the app. This can’t be shown in a graphic here, but try it. Click on some of the selections in the left navigation bar in QBO. You should notice a quicker response time.
Another feature included in the earlier post was the ability to open multiple windows.
Multiple windows can actually be opened in a browser as well. You can right-click on a browser tab that has QBO open and choose Duplicate from the popup menu. You can then access different parts of QBO in the two different tabs.
You can even continue to duplicate tabs and open several more instances of QBO.
What’s nice about the Windows App is how the windows tile, allowing easy access to alternate between them. Plus, they refresh automatically.
When using QBO in a browser, and duplicating tabs, the additional instances do not automatically refresh. If we make a change to a transaction in tab 1, and in tab 2 we have open a report affected by that change, we need to manually refresh the report tab before it will reflect the change we made to the transaction.
Not so in the Windows App. It will automatically refresh the windows that are open as you work.
Last, when working with the dropdown menus in the app, you will find many of the selections there have corresponding keyboard shortcuts. Keyboard shortcuts are a faster way to input data and to move between various functions of the program. For many, it is a great advantage not to have to remove their hands from the keyboard and grab the mouse to select the next command they need.
In the app, you can find all these keyboard shortcuts by navigating to Help->Keyboard Shortcuts.
Hector Garcia, CPA
Certified Advanced QuickBooks ProAdvisor
12401 Orange Drive #136
Davie, FL 33330
954-414-1524
hector@garciacpa.com
