Upcoming updates for Feb 10th.
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In our latest release we have introduced a new Sales Receipt page that is built on modern web technology. Users have the option of trying out this new page and giving us feedback.
Is the old Sales Receipt page being removed?
No, the old page will remain. We have no plans right now for removing the old page for any of our users. You will be able to switch back and forth from the new and old page whenever you want.
Who can access the new Sales Receipt page?
At the moment, the new page is only available to users who access QuickBooks Online via Google Chrome or Firefox (version 4+), Safari (version 5.0.6+) or Internet Explorer 9. This page is currently best viewed in Google Chrome. Due to the technical limitations of older versions of Internet Explorer or Firefox or Safari, we will not be adding support for them. You will need to upgrade to one of the browsers mentioned above to try out this page. Currently credit card payment processing (Merchant Account Services) is not implemented either, so users who have signed up for MAS will also not be able to access this new page. This page is only accessible to US companies.
Is this page finished?
Nope, this page is still in beta and is still being actively worked upon. We wanted to get a working version out to users to get feedback. We are aware of certain features missing – like MAS payment processing, recurring transactions etc. Over time these will be implemented and added to this new page.
How do I access the new page?
You will see a Try new Sales Receipt button on the old sales receipt page. As mentioned above, you will only see this button if you are using Google Chrome, Firefox or Safari and don’t have Merchant Account Services enabled. Click the button to switch to the new page. On the new page, there is a button on the top-right bottom-right to switch back to the old page.
Why are we doing this?
Our old pages were written a long time ago and needed a technology uplift. In order to add more features and make the page more user friendly we had to have a fresh start rather than trying to modify the old page. Having a clean start allows us to incorporate more feedback now and in the future.
What’s new in this page?
Better perceivable performance
Unlike the old page, this page doesn’t reload or refresh when you save a transaction or load a prior transaction. Try saving a transaction and opening it again from the recent drop down. You should see it do so pretty fast. In the future when we replace more transaction pages, you can imagine not having to load different pages. Going from one transaction page to another will be seamless and not like today where you have to wait for the other page to fully load. This new Sales Receipt page lays the foundations of that design.
Better drop down selection boxes
The drop down selection boxes for names, product / services, accounts, classes etc on this page will search as you type. They will do a full text search for whatever you type in the box, so you will be able to search for a customer even if you know the name partially. Parent / Child searching is also possible. For example if you have a customer named Darth and sub-customer named Luke and Leia, then you can search for any of those 3 names. Searching for Darth will also show Luke and Leia. Besides the usability, we have also improved search performance of these drop downs just in case you have thousands of items in the list.
The drop down boxes for dates have also been improved. Unlike the old pages, the calendar popup is more interactive. You can also use keyboard shortcuts to access common dates like on the old pages. Depending upon if you are focused into the date text box (like when tabbing into it) or when you are focused on the calendar (like when you click on the drop down) you can use the keyboard keys below to get to a date quickly. While focused into the text box (like when tabbing into it), pressing the down arrow key will now open up the calendar.
| Navigate between dates |
Left, Right, Up, and Down arrows (while focused on the calendar) OR +, - (while focused in the text box) |
| Navigate to same day in next month |
Page-down (while focused on the calendar) |
| Navigate to same day in previous month |
Page-up (while focused on the calendar) |
| Navigate to same day in next year |
Control+Page-down (while focused on the calendar) |
| Navigate to same day in previous year |
Control+Page-up (while focused on the calendar) |
| Navigate to first day in month |
m (while focused in the text box or on the calendar) |
| Navigate to last day in month |
h (while focused in the text box or on the calendar) |
| Navigate to first day in week |
w (while focused in the text box or on the calendar) |
| Navigate to last day in week |
k (while focused in the text box or on the calendar) |
| Navigate to first day in year |
y (while focused in the text box or on the calendar) |
| Navigate to first day in year |
r (while focused in the text box or on the calendar) |
| Select the date |
Enter (while focused on the calendar) |
New transaction detail line grid
Unlike the old page, this one features a new grid that will have resizable columns. Not only are the columns are resizable, some of them can be toggled on or off. For example, if you want to turn off Quantity and Rate, just right click on the grid’s blue header and unselect that option. Doing so will also save your preference. In the old page if you had to do the same, you would have to stop working on your transaction, go to the company preferences page, enable / disable that feature and then come back. With this new page we are trying to get all the preferences related to it right in-place so that users can change them on the fly. Currently the Customize button on the top still opens the old startup interview. We plan to remove that and bring preferences in there.
Unlike the old grid, this new one will also not force a page reload when you try to add more than 20 detail lines. The new grid will also automatically insert a new line once it notices you are already working on the last line. Once focused into one of the grid cells, you can use keyboard tab navigation too.
Less window-based popups
We have removed almost all the window-based popups from this new page. You will see the new Customer add dialog as well as the new Item add dialog. You will see the new tooltip bubble styled quick add dialogs. We plan to remove the few remaining ones in the near future. While not ready yet, you will also see a new, simpler and cleaner account add dialog in the future.
New help and information pane
This page also features a new information pane that we are trying out. When you 1st open the page, you will see this pane overlaying and giving you an overview of the page. This pane can be closed or opened whenever you want by clicking on side bar. We plan to use this pane to help users identify new features that get added on the page and / or provide any other instructional content to help newer users started.
What feedback can you provide?
Since we are redoing the whole page, please let us know what worked and what didn’t work. You can also provide feedback for improvements to the layout and design if needed. Since this page will be a starting template for all other transaction pages like Invoices, Estimates etc, all feedback are welcome. Please report any bugs or issues, including performance related ones. If latter, please do mention what browser you are using and what operating system. You can provide feedback on this blog as comments or send it via the Beta button that you see on the page.
What more can be expected from this page?
As we iron out issues on this new page, we plan to keep adding features to it. Besides implementing the missing features that users see on the old page – Recurring templates, MAS processing, we also plan to put in some experimental features sometime in the future. For example implementing a way to quickly duplicate an existing transaction. Or having an offline draft storage – allowing you to navigate away from the page without having to loose data that you already entered. Another experiment could be to allow users to change the color of the page just in case you aren’t happy with its current blue-grey coloring scheme.
Updates
UPDATES for Dec 15th.
- Void button should now work.
- Basic math is now possible in fields that take a mathematical value such as Quantity, Rate, Amount, Discount, Shipping etc.
- Example, typing in 1.25 + 2.25 and tabbing out should result in 3.50 in fields dealing with a money type value and to 3.5 in fields that are not money specific.
- Right now only basic math will work with numbers such as ABC.XYZ with no commas and the decimal point being a dot.
- A more solid solution that will allow commas and international numbers will be available sometime in the future.
- Choosing an item in the detail line transaction grid should now populate the fields of that line such as Description, Quantity, Rate, Amount much faster.
- This should improve performance for people who tab fast and didn’t see the rate / amount fields populate fast enough.
- For prior updates please check the bottom of this blog post.
UPDATES for Dec 1st.
- Tabbing into and out of the detail line grid has changed a bit as mentioned below
- If you are tabbing from an empty line (a line is considered empty when both description and amount fields are empty) and the other lines below are empty, then you will tab into the customer message field and skip the remaining detail lines. This will help people not to waste time in tabbing through an empty grid to just get out of it.
- If you are on the last line, and its not empty, then tabbing will add a new line.
- If you are on the last line, and select an item from the drop down, it will add a new line below.
- Some date box change as below.
- Entering MM in the date boxes and tabbing out will auto-complete it to MM/01/Current Year now
- Entering MMDD in the date boxes and tabbing out will auto-complete it to MM/DD/Current Year
- For sales tax, before and after discount radio buttons should work properly now and not revert after a save.
- Pressing Enter or Space Bar will work on buttons when they are focused.
UPDATES for Nov 22nd.
- Tabbing into and out of the detail line grid should now work.
- Some date box fixes. There are shortcuts mentioned in the blog post below.
- Entering X/Y in the date boxes and tabbing out will auto-complete it to X/Y/Current Year
- Entering X in the date boxes and tabbing out will auto-complete it to Current Month/X/Current Year
- The page should now fit in QBO’s minimum browser width requirement of 1024 px
- Alt-S (windows) and Option-S (mac) should now save the transaction
- Customer select box will be focused after a save
- Customer is taxable checkbox will be checked off automatically if you select a taxable customer
- Sale# and Ref# fields will be a bit wider now
- Ship To / Sold To box should now correctly show the full address including name, when viewing an existing sales receipt
- The delivery email address field should now allow multiple emails
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