MY CARTThe New QuickBooks Online Interface: Video Lesson
This video lesson, titled “The New QuickBooks Online Interface,” shows you how to use the new QuickBooks Online interface.
Intuit Rolls Out a New Interface for QuickBooks Online
Intuit has officially rolled out the new version of its QuickBooks Online user interface, which it was testing with users, as mentioned in our earlier video on the user interface changes in QuickBooks Online. This final version combines elements of both its previous testing interfaces, as we’ll examine in this video.
How to Switch Back to the Classic QuickBooks Online Interface:
As before, you can still switch back to the classic version of the QuickBooks Online interface, if needed. This gives you more time to adapt to the changes, but it’s unclear for how long Intuit will support this. To switch back to the classic QuickBooks Online interface, click the “Settings” button in the QuickBooks Online toolbar. Then click the large “Switch” button at the bottom of the menu that appears.
A new window then opens, telling you an admin has switched you back to the classic interface. After closing this window, QuickBooks Online then returns to its classic interface. If desired, to switch to the new version of the QuickBooks Online interface if you switch back, repeat the same process again.
A picture showing how to switch back to the classic user interface from the new QuickBooks Online interface.
Overview of the New QuickBooks Online Interface:
Let’s examine where the tools and features you need to use QuickBooks Online have moved within the new QuickBooks Online interface. We’ll look at the changes and the new features in each part of the screen.
A picture showing the new QuickBooks Online interface.
The Navigation Bar:
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:
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.
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 flow 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.
A picture showing the “Reports & Analytics” bar in the new QuickBooks Online interface.
The My Apps Button:
To access the different pages in QuickBooks Online, hover over the “My Apps” button in the Navigation Bar to show different categories of “apps” in a side menu. The “apps” 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 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” or “Reports” page. 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.
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.
A picture showing the “My Apps” bar in the new QuickBooks Online interface.
Pinned Apps:
The bottom section of the Navigation Bar in QuickBooks Online shows any “Pinned” apps. These 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 apps that appear in the “Pinned” section, click the “Customize” button to open a new “Customize your app menu” window. If you want 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.
The QuickBooks Online Toolbar:
Most of the buttons in the QuickBooks Online toolbar remain the same but simply have a new location. At the left end of the toolbar is the company name. The search bar then appears in the center of the toolbar. At the right end of the QuickBooks Online toolbar, you now have the “Contact experts” button, the “Tasks” button, the “My integrations” button (which shows connected apps), the “Notifications” button, the “Settings” button, the “Help” button, and the User account button.
