David H. Ringstrom

Cheat Sheet / Updated 11-01-2023

You can make the most of your work in QuickBooks Online by using handy and time-savings shortcuts and tool buttons. Using keyboard shortcuts means you can seamlessly access various windows and pages without touching a mouse. The various icons at the top of the QuickBooks Online page help you quickly search for items, create new items, or display transactions.

Article / Updated 03-29-2021

QuickBooks Online (QBO) and QuickBooks Online Accountant (QBOA) fall into the category of Software as a Service (SaaS). As such, you don’t buy the software. Instead, you rent it; that is, you buy a subscription to use the software for a time period specified by the seller. Traditionally, you buy a license to use software that you install on your computer, and typically, that license permits you to install the software on only one computer. And, of course, a QBO user can pay varying amounts for a subscription, depending on the subscription level purchased. QBO is available at five different subscription levels, and each subsequent subscription level costs more and contains more functionality. The QBO subscriptions available at this writing are: Self-Employed Simple Start Essentials Plus Advanced All versions of QBO share three attributes in common. First, you can use a tablet, Android or iOS smartphone, or desktop computer to access your data. Second, your data is automatically backed up online. And third, all versions of QBO use 128-bit Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), the same security and encryption used by banks to secure data sent over the internet. After you assess your needs, use the following information to identify the lowest subscription level that will meet your requirements. At this point in time, you can upgrade to a higher level, but you cannot downgrade to a lower level. Accounting professionals signing up clients for QBO and creating client companies originally couldn’t switch client companies from one version of QBO to another if the accounting professional created the client as part of the Intuit Wholesale Pricing program. However, except for the Self-Employed version, that’s no longer true. So, you no longer need to anticipate your client’s requirements for more advanced features like the ability to track inventory or employing class tracking. The QBO Self-Employed version This version of QBO is aimed at freelancers and self-employed individuals, basically, those who receive Federal Form 1099 to account for the money they’ve been paid and pay their taxes using Schedule C of IRS Form 1040. Be aware, though, that the QuickBooks Self-Employed version (QBSE) is not currently part of the QBO product line, and that means that you cannot upgrade from QBSE to any other QBO product directly—an important fact to keep in mind when deciding to start with QBSE. If your business has business bank accounts, you should not use the Self Employed version. QBSE enables you to separate personal and business expenses and mileage, so it’s really geared to the “side hustle” gig economy, like Uber and Lyft drivers. Using the Self-Employed version, you can: Download transactions from your bank and credit card accounts. Separate business from personal spending. Create and send invoices at any time, and personalize your invoices using your logo as well as customize the subject line and main message of the invoice email. Send a mobile reminder to customers before payment is due; and, QBSE lets you know when your invoice is viewed and paid. Send receipts for paid invoices. Duplicate prior invoices to send them again, eliminating busy work. Accept mobile payments and take advantage of free bank transfers. Track mileage using your phone’s GPS and delete trips, along with mileage, in bulk. Use your phone to take photos of receipts for your expenses; QBSE automatically extracts key data from the receipt and uses the information to match an existing transaction or to create a new expense. Use QBSE’s Expense Finder feature to identify more potential deductions by securely connecting your bank accounts to pull in business expenses from the entire past year and sort them into Schedule C categories. When you sign in to QBSE for the first time from March 20 to April 15, select “No, I am still working on 2020 taxes” to access the Expense Finder feature. You can then connect to your bank accounts to securely import all 2020 expenses in just minutes. The Expense Finder feature automatically finds work expenses and organizes them by Schedule C category. Calculate and pay estimated quarterly taxes. Use QBSE Labs to test drive new features. If you need more guidance or have loyalties to a tax preparer, you can invite your tax preparer to work with your QBSE data using QBOA. Like the other versions of QBO, you can use a tablet, an Android or iOS smartphone, or desktop computer to access your data. In addition, QBSE uses the same security and encryption as banks, and your data is automatically backed up online. As you might expect, this version has the fewest reports available, and only one person and an invited accountant can access QBSE. Use this link to purchase QuickBooks Self-Employed. If you opt to include TurboTax in your subscription, you also can pay your estimated quarterly taxes online and export Schedule C information from QBO to TurboTax so that you can prepare your tax return more easily. With TurboTax as part of your subscription, you receive one federal and one state electronic tax return filing at no extra cost. The Simple Start version The Simple Start version of QBO is great for a new business with basic bookkeeping needs. With Simple Start, you can: Track your income and expenses. Download transactions from your bank and credit card accounts. Create an unlimited number of customers. Send unlimited estimates and invoices. Print checks and record transactions to track expenses. Track and pay sales taxes. Track, create, and send 1099-Misc forms. Import data from Microsoft Excel or QuickBooks Desktop. Invite up to two accountants to access your data. Integrate with available apps in QBO’s App Center. Although the Simple Start version supports Accounts Receivable functions, you can’t set up invoices to bill customers on a recurring basis. You also can’t track bills due in the future in the Simple Start version because it doesn’t include any Accounts Payable functions. However, the Simple Start version does include a trial balance and a general ledger. Although the Simple Start version allows two accountants to work in the client’s company, Simple Start is still designed for a single user. Therefore, the accountant cannot create the client’s company for the client. At the time the company is created in QBO, whoever creates the company becomes, in QBO parlance, the Master Administrator. In addition to the single-user restriction, the Simple Start version offers more than 50 reports. And Simple Start users can memorize report settings and produce memorized reports. Use this link to purchase QuickBooks Simple Start. For subscription levels that support multiple users, the accountant can create the company for the client and then assign the master administrator role to the client. And, if the accountant doesn’t make the client the master administrator when creating the company, the accountant can, later on, transfer the master administrator role to the client. The Essentials version The Essentials version of QBO includes all the features found in Simple Start. In addition, with the Essentials version, you can: Set up invoices to automatically bill on a recurring schedule. Take advantage of Accounts Payable functions, including entering vendor bills and scheduling their payment for later. Create and post recurring transactions. Track time. Control what your users can access. The Essentials version permits three simultaneous users and two accountant users as well as an unlimited number of users who log in only to use time-tracking tools. In addition, the Essentials version contains the 57 reports found in Simple Start and 30 additional reports. The Plus version The Plus version of QBO is the most full-featured version of QBO. It contains all the features found in the Essentials version. In addition, you can: Create, send, and track purchase orders. Track inventory using the first in, first out (FIFO) inventory valuation method. QBO supports light inventory needs: If you sell finished goods, QBO should be able to manage your needs. But if you need to assemble finished goods to sell, QBO won’t meet your needs on its own. You can look for an add-on app to supplement your inventory needs. Categorize income and expenses using class tracking. Track sales and profitability by business location. You can assign only one location to a transaction, but you can assign multiple classes to a transaction. Give employees and subcontractors limited access to the QBO company to enter time worked. Track billable hours by customer. QBO supports light job-costing needs, but it does not allow you to automatically cost labor. Track projects. Create budgets to estimate future income and expenses, and you can create multiple budgets per year, location, class, or customer. The Plus version supports five simultaneous billed users and two accountant users as well as an unlimited number of users who log in only to use reports or time-tracking tools. The Plus version also contains more than 120 reports: all of the reports found in both the Simple Start and the Essentials versions, and some additional reports. The Advanced version Intuit has recently started offering QBO Advanced, a version aimed at users who have outgrown QBO Plus. In addition to all of the features you find in QBO Plus, using QBO Advanced, you can: Have up to 25 simultaneous users with full access. Connect with a dedicated Customer Success Manager to handle support questions; support calls go to the front of the line instead of waiting in queue. Customer Success Managers also provide information on online training and QuickBooks products; subscribers to QBO Advanced are entitled to five free online training courses annually. Establish custom permissions for your users. Efficiently import hundreds of invoice transactions created outside of QuickBooks through a CSV file at one time. Enable workflows to trigger reminders for customers and internal team members. Utilize up to 48 custom fields. Implement the included online backup service, which allows you to back-up and restore your accounting data. Batch create transactions, including invoices, bills, checks, and expenses. Visualize your data in the Performance Center with customizable chart widgets. Take advantage of enhanced reporting capabilities called Smart Reporting, powered by Fathom. Users of QBO Advanced face only two real limitations: They can have up to 25 billed users and 3 unbilled accountant users. Get more information on QBO Advanced. Simple Start, Essentials, Plus, and Advanced with Payroll End users who sign up for QBO Simple Start, Essentials, Plus, or Advanced on their own and create their own companies, can create the companies using the Self Service Payroll option or the Full Service Payroll option. Or, later, they can sign up for payroll from within QBO. An accountant also can create the company that uses Self Service Payroll for a client.

Article / Updated 03-29-2021

When you convert a QuickBooks Desktop company to QBO, some data fully converts, some partially converts, and some doesn’t convert at all. In addition, QBO contains comparable alternatives for some desktop QuickBooks features and doesn’t contain alternatives for others. You can import any QuickBooks Desktop for Windows company or any QuickBooks for Mac company using QuickBooks U.S., including companies with the multicurrency feature turned on, as long as the company falls within the limitation of 350,000 targets. You also can import QuickBooks Desktop companies using UK and Canadian versions, again including companies that have multicurrency turned on. In general, the following types of files won’t convert and therefore can’t be imported: You cannot import QuickBooks Desktop data into any QBO company that was created more than 60 days ago, except for accountant company files. You can import QuickBooks Desktop companies into a QBOA company within 1,060 days of creating the QBOA account. When we say “accountant company files,” we’re talking about importing a QuickBooks Desktop company file into the Your Books company available in QBOA. You cannot import a QuickBooks Desktop company into QBO subscriptions using international versions of QBO other than UK and Canadian. You cannot import non-Intuit accounting software company files. If you need to import company data from a non-Intuit product, you’ll need to work with Intuit’s full-service team. You cannot directly import accounting data stored in spreadsheet files. You can import these via a third-party app called Transaction Pro Importer. It’s important to understand that, even if your company data meets the preceding criteria, some data still won’t convert when you import; the list below identifies some of the more visible things that don’t convert: Reconciliation reports: Save your reconciliation reports in QuickBooks Desktop or as PDF files to access them later. In QBO, continue reconciling where you left off. Recurring credit card charges: At your Merchant Center, cancel each existing automatic credit card recurring charge and re-create it in QBO as a recurring sales receipt. All other recurring transactions convert and import. On the good news side, QBO imports sub-accounts it finds in your QuickBooks Desktop Chart of Accounts. Previous versions of QBO didn’t support this capability. Reports: Find a similar report in QBO and customize it to your preference. Check out QBO’s App Center for a list of reporting apps that can help your business. Audit trail: Your desktop audit trail won’t come over, but all changes going forward will be captured in the Audit Log within QBO. Non-posting transactions or accounts won’t convert except for estimates and purchase orders. QuickBooks Desktop Data That Won’t Import What Doesn’t Import Recommendation QuickBooks Desktop usernames and passwords QBO requires each user who has access to a company to log in using a password. Existing QuickBooks Desktop users do not automatically have access to QBO. Instead, the company master administrator will need to re-invite users from QBO to gain access. Be aware that, in QBO, you can limit the user’s ability to see and use different parts of QBO, but you can’t control access at the level of transactions as you can in QuickBooks Desktop. Shortcut list and icon bar settings QBO has its own distinct keyboard shortcuts. While working in QBO, press Ctrl+Alt+? to see the shortcut menu. Price levels QBO currently doesn’t support price levels or any automatic way to adjust prices. If you have price levels defined in your QuickBooks Desktop data file, the conversion process won’t convert them to QBO. Reminders Reminders don’t convert to QBO. Use an external calendar such as Google Calendar or try using recurring transactions set to remind you instead of scheduling themselves. QBOA users do have the ability to create reminders by establishing projects and tasks. Vehicle list You’ll need to set up vehicles as fixed assets and, if you don’t buy vehicles outright, you’ll need to set up corresponding loans for each vehicle. Reconciliation reports Save your reconciliation reports in QuickBooks Desktop to access them later. In QBO, just continue reconciling where you left off. And, although reconciliation reports don’t convert, all reconciled transactions in registers convert as reconciled transactions in QBO. Subtotal items You can add subtotals to transaction documents. Recurring credit card charges Cancel each existing Automatic Credit Card recurring charge from your Merchant Center, and re-create it in QBO as a recurring sales receipt. Note: All other recurring transactions will import. Memorized reports Find a similar report in QBO and customize it to your preference. Audit trail Your desktop audit trail won’t import, but all new changes you make in QBO going forward will be captured in the QBO audit log. Inventory from QuickBooks for Mac QuickBooks for Mac isn’t capable of exporting inventory to QBO. Instead, you can save your QuickBooks for Mac company as a QuickBooks for Windows file and export it from a Windows machine running QuickBooks Desktop. There. Now, that wasn’t too painful, was it?

Article / Updated 03-29-2021

You’ll probably want to review the company setup information for client QuickBooks Online (QBO) companies to make sure that things are set up properly for your client. You can take advantage of the Client Overview, which provides, well, an overview of the state of the client’s QBO company. And, you’ll want to review the settings, the Chart of Accounts, and the lists within each client’s QBO companies. The Client Overview page This page can help you get a sense of where things stand in your client’s QBO company. To display the Client Overview, open the client QBO company using the Go to Client’s QuickBooks list box on the QuickBooks Online Accountant (QBOA) toolbar. Then, click the Overview tab in the Navigation bar. At the top of the Client Overview page (see figure), you see information on the client’s subscriptions and connected apps. In the second section of the Client Overview page, shown in the following figure, you see information on the client’s banking activity; the accounts in the list are set up either as bank accounts or as credit card accounts. The third section of the Client Overview page shows the status of the client QBO company related to issues you commonly find as problems in client QBO companies (see the following figure), giving you leads on information you may need to examine in the client QBO company. The final section of the Client Overview page shows the transaction volume for a given date range. As you can see in the following figure, it’s designed to help you determine how much time you’ll need to spend on a given client’s books. Be aware that there are no links on the Client Overview page except at the bottom of the Client Issues section, where you can click View Chart of Accounts. However, before clicking on that link, you may first want to review the company setup information. Company setup information You review company setup information to make sure that the client QBO company uses the correct accounting method, employer EIN, and legal business organization. You also can turn on (or off, but we’ve never met an accountant who wanted to turn off this option) the option to use account numbers in the Chart of Accounts. To review company settings, follow these steps: Open the client QBO company you want to review. You can click the QuickBooks logo to the left of the client’s name on the Clients page of QBOA, or you can use the list of clients in the QBOA toolbar under Go to QuickBooks Click the Gear button on the right side of the QBOA toolbar to display the Gear menu. From the Your Company group on the left side of the Gear menu, click Account and Settings. The Company tab (selected on the left side of the Account and Settings dialog box) appears. If you set up the company for your client, QBO displays the Company Profile dialog box, requesting the company email, company address, city, state, and zip be filled in. All the fields are required, but you can bypass the dialog box by clicking the X in the upper-right corner. Review the settings. In particular, set or correct the Company Name, Legal Name, and Employer ID (EIN). To make changes, click any setting or click the pencil that appears in the upper-right corner of the section of settings. QBO makes the setting options available; make your changes and click Save. Click Usage on the left side of the Account and Settings dialog box. QBO displays the Usage Limits tab shown, where you can review how the client QBO subscription fits within the usage limits Intuit applies to the chosen subscription. Click Advanced on the left side of the Account and Settings dialog box. The settings on the Advanced page of the Account and Settings dialog box appear. Review the settings. In particular, set or correct the following: The settings in the Accounting section, which include fiscal and tax year information as well as the QBO company’s accounting method In the Company Type section, the tax form setting The settings in the Chart of Accounts section; this is where you control the use of numbers in the Chart of Accounts The settings in the Other Preferences section, which isn’t shown but includes displaying warnings when duplicate check numbers and bill numbers are used Review any other settings on any of the pages in the Account and Settings dialog box that you feel might need your attention. Click Done to save your changes. QBO displays a message at the top of the screen indicating that your changes were saved. The Chart of Accounts In addition to checking company settings, you’ll probably want to review your client’s Chart of Accounts to make sure it looks the way you want. You can click the link at the bottom of the Client Overview page to display your client’s Chart of Accounts. Or, you can use the Navigation bar: In the client QBO company Navigation bar, click Accounting →Chart of Accounts. The Chart of Accounts page appears. You also can open the Chart of Accounts from the Accountant Tools button. All roads lead to Rome. If you chose to enable the option to use account numbers while you were reviewing company settings, the Chart of Accounts page displays a column for account numbers at the left edge of the page and the Batch Edit button in the upper-right corner—it looks like a pencil. You can use the Batch Edit button to add account numbers. Importing a Chart of Accounts When you create a new company, QBO automatically sets up the Chart of Accounts it thinks you’ll need. But you don’t need to use it. Instead, you can replace it by importing a Chart of Accounts that you’ve set up in Excel or as a CSV file that can include sub-accounts along with their parent accounts, if your client’s company needs sub-accounts. To import subaccounts, use the convention of Account: Subaccount, meaning you’ll list the parent account first, followed by a colon, and then list the subaccount. The file you import needs to follow a particular format, and you can download a sample file to get the hang of the layout before you set up your file. On the Chart of Accounts page, click the arrow beside the New button and then click Import. QBO displays the Import Accounts page shown here. Click the Download a Sample File link and open the file in Excel to see the format your file should follow. Once you set up your Chart of Accounts file, you return to the Import Accounts page; click the Browse button to select your file and click Next in the lower-right corner of the Import Accounts page. On the page that appears, shown in the following figure, you map the headings in your file to the fields in QBO by selecting your field names from the list boxes in the Your Field column of the table; then, click Next. QBO displays the accounts it expects to import; if all looks well, click Import and QBO imports your Chart of Accounts. Editing or adding accounts You might need to edit an account to change an account’s Category Type or its name, and you use the Account window to make the change. If you decide to add account numbers to the Chart of Accounts, you can add an account number in the Account window, but there’s a much easier way, which we show you in the next section, “Adding account numbers.” To display the Account window, click the down arrow in the Action column at the right side of the account and, from the menu that appears, click Edit. Or, if you need to create a new account, click the New button above the list. The window you see when creating a new account looks just like the one you see when you edit an existing account. You can click View Register beside any Asset, Liability, or Equity account to display the account’s register. Retained Earnings is the exception; it functions like Income and Expense accounts. You can click Run Report to the right of Income or Expense account, to display a QuickReport for the account. Adding account numbers We promised we’d show you an easy way to add account numbers to a QBO company Chart of Accounts. First, make sure you enable the setting on the Advanced tab of the Settings dialog box (in the Chart of Accounts section) shown previously. Then, on the Chart of Accounts page, click the Batch Edit button (the one that looks like a pencil on the right side of the table above the table headings) to display the page shown. Type account numbers in the Number column. Save buttons appear at the top- and bottom-right corners of the page (you can’t see the bottom of the page); click either button after you finish entering the account numbers. Because a QBOA session times out by default after 60 minutes of inactivity, you might want to save periodically as you enter account numbers in case something unexpected pulls you away from your work. After you add account numbers you can sort the Chart of Accounts in account-number order by clicking Number in the column headings on the Chart of Accounts page. List information You also can review list information. Using the links in the Navigation bar, you can view overview information about customers, vendors, and employees. To view customers, as shown, you click Sales in the Navigation bar (it might say Invoicing, depending on the choices made when creating the company) and then click Customers. To view vendor information, click Expenses in the Navigation bar and then click Vendors. To review employee information, click Workers in the Navigation bar and then click Employees. When you click Workers→ Contractors, QBO displays the 1099 vendors set up by the client. On any of these pages except the Contractors page (and payroll needs to be set up before you can use its status bar), you can use the status bar at the top of the page to identify activity over the last year and, if you click one of the elements on the status bar, QBO filters the list to view that particular subset of the list. For example, you can filter the list of customers on the Customers page to view only those customers with overdue invoices or only those customers with unbilled activity. And you can use the Batch Actions button (just above the table) to perform, well, batch actions, such as emailing a batch of customers. If your list is long, use the text box beside the Batch Actions button to search for a particular list entry. You also can sort the list by name or by open balance; just click the appropriate heading below the Batch Actions button. Note that you can import names into a people list. To review other lists, click the Gear button in the QBOA toolbar. In the Lists section of the Gear menu that appears, you can opt to view any of three common lists (the Products and Services list, the Recurring Transactions list, or the Attachments list). Or, you can click All Lists at the top of the Lists section to display the Lists page shown, which you can use to navigate to any list other than a people-oriented list. Export and import bank feed rules When your client takes advantage of bank feeds and downloads transactions from the bank to his QBO company, you can help ensure that the transactions post properly. In many cases, the rules used by one client can apply to another, so, rather than re-creating rules, export them from one client and import them to another. When you export rules, QBO exports all the rules in the client’s company. You can then selectively import rules using the Import Rules wizard. To export rules from a client company, open that company and follow these steps: Choose Banking→Rules from the Navigation bar. QBO displays the Rules page (see the following figure). Click the down arrow beside the New Rule button. Click the down arrow beside the New Rule button and choose Export Rules. QBO creates an Excel file containing the rules and stores it in your Downloads folder. The name of the file includes the name of the client whose rules you exported and the words “Bank_Feed_Rules.” Click Close in the QBO message. Switch to the company to which you want to import these rules. Repeat the preceding Steps 1 to 3; in Step 3, choose Import Rules. QBO starts a wizard that helps you import the rules. On the first Import Rules wizard screen, select the file you created in Step 3 and click Next. On the second wizard screen, select the rules you want to import and click Next. On the third wizard screen, you have the option to select categories for the rules that match the Chart of Accounts of the client to which you are importing the rules; make any changes and, when you finish, click Import. QBO tells you how many rules imported successfully. Click Finish. QBO redisplays the Rules page for the client you opened in Step 4, where you can verify that the rules you wanted to import appear.

Article / Updated 03-29-2021

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. How QBO and QBOA interfaces compare 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. This includes “portable” computers, like laptops and tablets running Windows or Mac OS, making it somewhat mobile. It also is not the QuickBooks Desktop product, which is not a cloud-based product. Explore what QBO and QBOA look like in a browser. The next section gives an overview of 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 below. The Navigation bar 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 shown). When you collapse the Navigation bar, 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. The following figure shows what an accountant sees immediately upon logging into QBOA. The Navigation bar changes to support an accountant’s needs. When an accountant opens a client’s company from within QBOA (see the following figure), the interface resembles what a client sees, with some minor differences. Compare the two interfaces. 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. 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. 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. 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. Both Windows and Mac users can use the same QBO Desktop app; what you download from the QBO sign-in page works on both platforms. Ingenious, don’t you think? The word “app” has become a buzzword and is often used when it probably shouldn’t be. In this article, we’re using the word “app” only when we refer to the mobile versions of QBO and QBOA that are available for download from the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store. In many places online, you’ll find references to a QBO Windows app — and, at the time we wrote this, there was no Windows app per se. There is QBO Desktop, which allows Windows users (except Windows Phone users) to use QBO while being mobile — on, for example, laptops and tablets. But QBO Desktop is not available from any of the “mobile device” stores (Google Play or Apple App) and, therefore, we’re not calling it an app. This figure shows QBO Desktop with a QBO company open. This figure shows QBOA just after opening it in QBO Desktop (but before opening any client company). QBOA users have the same additional options in QBO Desktop that they have in a browser. The menus at the top of the screen are the biggest visual difference between QBO and QBOA in QBO Desktop and QBO and QBOA in a browser. If you’ve been a QuickBooks Desktop product user, you know that you can use the menus to navigate. Under the hood, QBO Desktop offers some options that you won’t find readily available in a browser, such as the ability to work in multiple windows. QBO mobile apps At no additional cost to you, mobile apps are also available for iPhones, iPads, and Android devices. The iOS and Android apps are optimized for touch interaction and on-the-go workflows like customer management, invoicing, estimates, and signatures. You also can use the mobile apps to track the status of invoices, take payments, reconcile bank accounts, capture expenses, and check reports. And, you’ll find Pinch and Zoom functionality in the mobile apps and in browsers on mobile devices. You can get the mobile apps here. In addition to using the QBO mobile apps for iOS and Android, you also can access the QBO sign-in page and your QBO account from your mobile device’s browser at Intuit. New features are added often to the mobile apps. For example, you can customize invoice templates from the browser-based QBO and from QBO Desktop. You can customize templates from mobile devices but not using mobile apps; instead, use the browser-based QBO on your mobile device. Be aware that the browser-based version of QBO and QBOA has additional functionality and keyboard shortcuts geared towards more in-depth business accounting tasks. So, take your choice; you’re not limited: Work in a browser, work in QBO Desktop, or work in a mobile app, depending on your needs at the moment.