The Navigation Bar in QuickBooks Online – Instructions

How to Use the Navigation Bar in QuickBooks Online: Video

This video lesson, titled “How to Use the Navigation Bar in QuickBooks Online,” shows you how to use the Navigation Bar in QuickBooks Online. This video lesson is from our complete QuickBooks Online tutorial, titled “Mastering QuickBooks Online Made Easy.”

Instructions on How to Use the Navigation Bar in QuickBooks Online: Instructions

You use the Navigation Bar in QuickBooks Online to access the pages within the program. The Navigation Bar in the new QuickBooks Online interface appears at the far-left side of the application, as usual. However, it is now streamlined to reduce the amount of space it takes onscreen. Let’s examine the new buttons in the Navigation Bar.

The + Create Button:

The “+ Create” button in the new QuickBooks Online interface lets you create new transactions. This is the same as the “+ New” button in the classic QuickBooks Online interface. To show the menu of transactions you can create in QuickBooks Online, hover over the “+ Create” button in the Navigation Bar.  Then click to select the transaction to create from the menu that appears. Additionally, you can now also create new customers, vendors, contractors, employees, and products and services by selecting choices in this menu.

The Bookmarks Button:

The Bookmarks button in the Navigation Bar lets you bookmark your most frequently accessed pages in the program so you can select them more quickly. To add a bookmark, open the page to bookmark in QuickBooks Online. Then hover over the Bookmarks button in the Navigation Bar, click the “+ Bookmark current page” command, and then click “Save” to add the page to the menu that appears when you hover over the Bookmarks button. You can then select the page from this menu in the future to quickly open that page again.

The Dashboard Button:

The Dashboard page appears when you first sign into your QuickBooks Online company file. It still shows an overview of your company’s performance in its various widgets on the page. In the new QuickBooks Online interface, the Dashboard also shows buttons for apps at the top of the Dashboard, and common actions you may want to perform. To access the Dashboard, click the “Dashboard” button in the Navigation Bar.

The Feed Button:

The Feed button in the new QuickBooks Online interface shows the business feed, which are tasks you may want to do. It also gives you access to the new AI agents in QuickBooks Online, which help you perform common tasks. To access the business feed, click the “Feed” button in the Navigation Bar.

The Reports Button:

To access reports in the new QuickBooks Online interface, either click the “Reports” button in the Navigation Bar or hover over the “Reports” button and then click to select a specific report category from the side menu that appears. Either way, a new “Reports & Analytics” bar appears to the right of the Navigation Bar, showing the different report categories, like “Standard reports,” “Custom reports,” and so on.

The Reports & Analytics Bar:

To select a different report category, click the desired report category in the “Reports & Analytics” bar. The reports within that report category then appear in the content window to the right, where you can run them, as usual. Note that cash flows and budgets in QuickBooks Online now appear under the “Financial planning” section in the “Reports & Analytics” bar.

Like the classic Navigation Bar, to hide or show the “Reports & Analytics” bar in the new QuickBooks Online interface, click the “Show/Hide” button in its upper-right corner. When hidden, this button appears to the right of the “+ Create” button.

The My Apps Button:

To access the different pages in QuickBooks Online, hover over the “My apps” button in the Navigation Bar to show all the different categories of apps in a side menu. The “apps” in QuickBooks Online roughly correspond to the old command groupings in the classic Navigation Bar.  Then either click an app or hover over an app to see its links in another side menu and then click the desired link. At that point, a new “My apps” bar appears to the right of the Navigation Bar, and the selected category or link’s page appears in the page content window.

The My Apps Bar:

The new “My apps” bar replaces the functionality of the classic Navigation Bar. After you open the “My apps” bar for the first time in a session, it then appears to the right of the Navigation Bar unless you return to the “Dashboard” or “Feed” pages or open the “Reports & Analytics” bar. Like the classic Navigation Bar, to hide or show the “My apps” bar in the new QuickBooks Online interface, click the “Show/Hide” button in its upper-right corner. When hidden, this button appears to the right of the “+ Create” button.

How to Navigate QuickBooks Online Using the My Apps Bar:

To access the pages in QuickBooks Online, click an app category in the “My apps” bar to expand it and show its links. Then click the desired link to show its content in the page content area to the right.

The Pinned Section of the Navigation Bar:

The bottom section of the Navigation Bar in QuickBooks Online shows any “Pinned” apps. The apps in this section are the apps you access the most frequently and want to make easily available. It shows up to 3 apps in this section, although you may need to click the “More” button here to see them, depending on your screen resolution.

To customize the three apps that appear in the “Pinned” section, click the “Customize” button to open a new “Customize your app menus” window. To reorder the list of apps, click and drag the apps up or down by the 6-dot handles to their lefts and release them into the desired order. To pin or unpin an app, click its “Pin” button to its left. You can only pin up to 3 apps. Finally, click “Save” to save your changes.