Income List

Last year we introduced the Invoice List which was loved by many of our users. The page soon became a high traffic page within QuickBooks Online. Today we are introducing the Income List that incorporates much of the feedback users gave us on the Invoice List. The biggest difference between the two is that the Invoice List shows just invoices, while this new Income List shows invoices, estimates and sales receipts.

To get to this new Income List, go to the Invoice List under the Customers (or Members/Clients etc) menu tab. You will see a link to switch to the new Income List next to the page title as shown in the image below. Likewise, to switch back to the Invoice List, use a similar link found on the Income List page. Eventually when this new Income List page is finished, we will remove the old Invoice List and make this permanent for all users.

The image below shows the new income list page and various sections of it.

By default it will show all the transactions, but you can narrow down what you wish to see via the Narrow By button as shown. Once you choose certain filters, they should remain selected even when you navigate away from this page and come back later.

After choosing your specific filters, click apply to update the transaction grid. Above the grid you will also see the breadcrumbs for the currently chosen filters as shown in the image below. You can click the (X) to remove that part of the filter.

For our first release you can filter by transaction type, its status, a date range and a customer. We will be further improving the filtering of this list in our future releases, so this is definitely not the final version of how filtering is going to work.  We look forward to hearing your feedback on this new Income List.

Copy Estimates

You can now quickly copy information from one estimate to another. Just open an existing estimate and click the copy button at the bottom. This should copy the data to a fresh new estimate that you can save or modify before saving. Note: Estimates functionality is not available to QBO Simple Start subscribers.

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Important notice for Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox 3.x users

We are down to about 1-2% usage for these browsers and will soon block QuickBooks Online usage on them. Expect this to happen sometime in March. If you are still using IE7 or Firefox 3.x, please upgrade as soon as possible otherwise you will not be able to access QuickBooks Online once it gets blocked. We need to end full support for these old browsers to prevent any interoperability issues that can happen when we put out new features, as they are not being tested on these browsers at all. Below are a few upgrade paths that users can take to continue using QuickBooks Online without issues. Do realize that by switching to a modern browser you not only improving QuickBooks Online performance but also for any other websites you visit, thereby increasing your own productivity!

Window Vista, Windows 7
IE7       –> IE9 or Firefox 10 or Chrome (latter 2 preferred)
FF 3.x –> IE9 or Firefox 10 or Chrome (latter 2 preferred)

Windows XP or prior
IE7       –> IE8 or Firefox 10 or Chrome (latter 2 preferred)
FF 3.x –> Firefox 10 or Chrome

OSX Leopard, Snow Leopard or Lion
FF 3.x –> Safari 5 or Firefox 10 or Chrome (latter 2 preferred)

OSX Tiger
FF 3.x –> Safari 4.1.3

Linux
FF 3.x –> Firefox 10 or Chrome

Other users should always upgrade to the latest version of their browser. IE8 users should definitely look into switching to IE9, Safari 5 users should get on Safari 5.0.6 or higher. Firefox users should get upgraded to Firefox 10 soon if not already on it, while Chrome is soon going to be on version 17. Pay One Vendor issue with Firefox 9+ will also be fixed with this above release. Creating a new company from the My Account page should also not complain about Firefox. Safari 5 on windows still has the issue of character duplication in popups. Safari 5 on the mac still has the issue of Caps Lock logging you out + some printing issues (printing issues seem to be fixed with Safari 5.1.4, so you have to wait till whenever Apple decides to release it). These latter ones need to be fixed by Apple, till then you can use Chrome or Firefox. More browser info here.

Today, various online services are joining in protest to make internet users aware of SOPA & PIPA and their possible negative effects on innovation, the economy and the freedom of the internet. Developers of QuickBooks Online hope that you share the same feelings as us about these bills. Please take a moment to look at the infogaphic and links below and act upon it if you wish to do so. As netizens we feel it’s our responsibility to raise awareness about such bills. Please take action to help keep the internet open and free from censorships.

You can read more and take action via the links below

https://www.google.com/landing/takeaction/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:SOPA_initiative/Learn_more

Intuit’s press release on SOPA

YOU SPOKE AND WE LISTENED

“We NEED the ability for a customer to pay online with a credit card. . . seems like it should be a very basic part of Quickbooks online. . . People are scared of giving out routing numbers and bank info. Let them pay by credit cards!”

“Add a credit card option and you will have a winner”

“Intuit – when can we expect something like this to come out?? There are requests all over the forums and we have yet to hear any response (at least as far as I can see)…What’s the deal??”

“Excuse me for shouting, but… WE REALLY NEED OUR CUSTOMERS TO BE ABLE TO PAY ONLINE, USING A CREDIT CARD, BY CLICKING A LINK IN OUR EMAILED INVOICES.”

The above is just a small sample of the many comments we’ve received about credit card functionality.

Thank you for all the feedback. We are happy to announce the ability to accept credit card payment on invoices! Find out more about this new feature below.

What’s the new feature?

QuickBooks online customers can now get invoices paid by credit card, in addition to bank payments.

This is an optional feature and can be managed (turned on/off) at any time by the small business by signing into IPN and clicking on ‘Profile’ in the left navigation bar.

What does it cost?

This feature, like bank payments will not have monthly, set up or termination fees. You will also not be charged any fixed authorization fees per transaction. The only fee you pay is 3.25% per transaction when a customer pays by credit card.

How do I turn it on?

Sign into IPN and click ‘Profile’ in the left navigation bar. Navigate to ‘Receiving Preferences’ and click the ‘Turn On’ button. That’s it – easy! All invoices you create and send after turning this option ON can be paid by either credit card or bank account. You can turn OFF this option at any time.

What will my customers see?

Your customers will see an additional option to pay by credit card when they pay online.

What’s not available in this update?

• Currently, only Visa and MasterCard are supported.
• The option to turn on/turn off credit card payment method is a global setting in IPN, and cannot be changed for every invoice.

A big thanks to our IPN customers for the feedback, which helps us build great products for you!Try it out and let us know what you think.

We have received reports from some of our customers that they are receiving phishing emails.  These emails request that users download an “Intuit Security Tool” in order to continue using QuickBooks.

Intuit did NOT send this email and will never contact you by email to request personal information or to update the security of our service. Please be on the lookout for any emails like this and report them immediately to spoof@intuit.com

Click here for more information.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
Sincerely,

Intuit Corporate Information Security
http://security.intuit.com/

UPDATE: Above also applies to the similar emails being sent out on 10/31/2011

GoPayment integration – accept credit cards on your mobile device

In case you haven’t heard about or used Intuit GoPayment, check it out here http://gopayment.com/. We have now integrated QBO with GoPayment so that you can accept credit card payments on your mobile devices.  This is an exciting new way to accept payments and many of our customers have been asking for this.

New Sales Tax

We will be soon introducing our new sales tax feature that will allow you to record multiple sales tax rates. This will be a major departure from the current sales tax implementation that only allowed one default tax rate.

What you see today

The image below shows the Sales Tax preference on the Company > Preferences page.

Once we roll out this new sales tax, the above old preference will be removed from the Preferences page. For those users that have sales tax checked, you will notice that as soon as you uncheck this checkbox and save the preferences, this whole section will now point you to the new Sales Tax center where you will manage any sales tax related features.

Sales Tax Center

The new Sales Tax Center helps you manage and track sales taxes. With it, you can

• Set up sales tax (both single and combined rates) so you can charge sales tax on invoices and other sales forms
• See current and upcoming sales tax due by agency
• Record your tax payments in one spot, instead of using a paid bill or check
• See recent sales tax payments

The 1st time you come to this page, you will see

You will then be required to setup sales tax rates as shown below. If you had previously set up a default sales tax rate we will automatically create a new one for you with that percentage.

After adding a sales tax rate, the Sales Tax center will show you sales tax owed and recent payments.  If you don’t have any sales transactions with sales tax for an agency, it will show as zero.

What will you see on transaction pages with this new sales tax

Below is a screenshot of an invoice page showing you the new sales tax select drop down, where you can choose a particular rate.

What happens to existing transactions using old sales tax?

Nothing will happen to your existing transactions.  You probably have prior transactions that were saved using the old sales tax. When you open them, they will show as before, with the old styled sales tax box.  If you edit them, they will still use the old sales tax.  Going forward, if you had a default tax rate of 10%, we will create a new rate in the drop down using that percentage.

When can I start using the new Sales Tax?

In order to make the transition a smooth one you will only be able to start using the new sales tax rates starting on Nov 1st.  This way all sales transactions prior to Nov 1st will have the old sales tax rate and all sales transactions starting Nov 1st can use the new sales tax rates.  This makes it easier when you go to pay and record your sales tax for the months of October and November.  You’ll pay your sales tax for October in the same way you’ve always done.  You’ll pay (record) sales tax for November from the Sales Tax Center.

UPDATE: The roll out of the new Sales Tax has been delayed.

Guest Payments using Intuit PaymentNetwork

If you were using IPN thus far, you would have noticed that we required all of your payees to sign up for this service.  This was a barrier to use and so lots of people just didn’t pay using IPN.   You’ll be happy to know that we are removing this requirement and letting anyone send payments without the need to sign up for IPN. Look at Company > Preferences > Accept Online Payments for more information. In case you didn’t know how IPN worked, see the image below for the typical workflow.

Track your business on-the-go with QB Mobile

We have free native apps connecting to QuickBooks Online on the iOS and Android. Follow the links below to download QB Mobile.  We know many customers have been asking for the ability to do tasks on their mobile devices.   Right now you’ll be able to create invoices and estimates and manage your customers.  We are updating these apps frequently so stay tuned!

QB Mobile for iOS
QB Mobile for Android 

Emailing invoices in HTML

Right now you can e-mail invoices  as plain text with a PDF attachment. We are now expanding this further to allow HTML emails instead of plain text.  They look much nicer!   To email in HTML, enable the preference under Company > Preferences > Form Delivery. There is an HTML version for both the summary and full version. Please note this a Beta feature and we will be looking for feedback through the feedback widget to make changes and adjustments in the coming months. See the image below for an example.

*There is a known issue with the logos for Outlook 2007. Logos are properly sized for all other email clients, but Outlook 2007 does not respect the size contraints of the logo. We will have a fix with the next update.*

New Customer Add Dialog

We are introducing a newly designed dialog for adding customers. For the moment you will only see this when adding a new customer from the Customer Center. Other pages will still show the old dialog. We will be using this new dialog hence forth for any newly designed pages requiring the functionality of adding customers.

You should find this one cleaner and less cluttered. We have logically grouped similar sections together and made it more aesthetically pleasing than it was before. You will also notice that this dialog is no longer a window based popup so it will definitely not lock out your browser tab. This allows you to switch to other tabs if you are copy / pasting customer information from another tab like from an email.

Tip: When adding a new customer, our system only requires that you enter a name or a company name. Even though the dialog has a lot of other fields to fill out, you can choose to ignore them till later if you don’t have the information on hand right away.

Tip: Many of our users have low resolution screens. If you are one of those users and don’t plan on upgrading to a newer monitor anytime soon, try using a browser like Google Chrome, Firefox or Internet Explorer 9. And remove any / every toolbar you have (if any, not including your bookmarks or favorites bar). 3rd party toolbars in modern browsers are absolutely redundant and unnecessary these days as most functionality is already built into the browsers. 

New drops downs and simpler add dialog

With this dialog you will also notice our new drop down select boxes. We talked about them in this blog post. You should be able to search as you type. Since we are now allowing a full text search, you should be able to find a customer by searching for it’s parent or find a customer by searching some part of the customer name. You will also notice the new quick adding dialogs for payment methods and terms. Previously both of these were window based popups and now they are not.

Customer Center Improvements

There were some formatting changes made to the transactions area of the customer center as well as an enhancement. You will notice the new transaction button is now on the left and much more prevalent. From this button you can add a new statement, charge, invoice, payment, sales receipt, or recurring template. You will also notice the filters have been moved to the right of the grid, with a new print button on the left. This print button mirrors the print from the invoice list, allowing you to now print everything in the grid. Select a customer, then select any transaction or date filters from the drop downs to filter what you wish to see in the grid below, and then just click print.

Refreshed look of the Accountant Center

We recently introduced the Accountant Center for QuickBooks Online Accountant (QBOA). The accountant center has been refreshed a bit to better suit the needs of accounting professionals. Some modules has been re-arranged and certain tasks highlighted. For more check out the link above or http://qboa.intuit.com

Text messaging and alerts

This feature should now be available to all. You can look up company information on your mobile phone with simple text messages. Subscribe to receive customized push alerts and keep updated on upcoming invoices and bills. Look at the Text Messaging menu option under the Company tab.

QuickBooks Online Accountant is being designed specifically with the accounting professional’s workflow in mind, here are some of the key features:

Cross-Workflow Tools

• With the Client List, accounting professionals can manage all their online clients from one place
• The Accountant Center provides features and reports accounting professionals need at their fingertips

Step-by-Step Workflow Tools

QuickBooks Online for Accounting Professionals Demonstration

Sign up for the pilot

The Pilot program is free. To learn more about QuickBooks Online Accountant and sign up for the free Pilot program, please visit http://accountant.intuit.com/qboa

EDIT: Some reconcile features will only be seen if you switch to the new reconcile. On the reconcile page, if you see a link in the top right corner saying “New Reconcile” then please click to switch to the new one.

Print 3 checks per page

Besides printing one check per page with voucher checks, you can now print three checks per page using standard checks.  We know that many of you have been asking for this feature.  (Note: This will not work for payroll checks.)

Chrome users: Unfortunately there is a PDF printing bug in Chrome when using its inbuilt PDF viewer (please star it to remain updated). This makes the PDF page shrink a bit when printing, causing check alignment issues. A simple workaround from your end would be to just save the check PDF to your desktop and open / print it from Adobe Acrobat or Preview or any other PDF reader you have installed on your system. Unfortunately for now the other option would be to use another browser like Firefox when printing checks. http://support.qbo.intuit.com/support/answers.cfm?faq_id=4706

List Printing

You can now print your chart of accounts and other lists. Just go to a list page and click the Print List button at the bottom.

Timesheet defaulting to the current week

Both the weekly timesheet and the single activity timesheet should now default to the current week. This will hopefully prevent unnecessary additional clicks for many, thus saving time.

Invoice Duplication

Clicking the Copy button on the bottom of an existing invoice will now save a duplicate of it.
You should use the Make Recurring unscheduled option if you don’t want to duplicate and save automatically but rather just have a template for future invoices.

Add your website to your invoices

We added a field under Preferences for your company website.  You can include it as part of the header on your invoices or other sales transactions.

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Known Issues in Safari 5.1

For people upgrading to Safari 5.1 there are a couple of known issues, both being Safari related and not QBO:

• Caps Lock key causing a logout after you see a dialog in QBO. This is not a QBO issue and can be reproduced outside. Bug has been filed with Apple against Safari. Unsure when it will be fixed, so till then just watch out if you see your fingers nearing the caps lock!
• You will notice that your PDF is now downloading rather than opening within the browser like before. This is again a known issue and again unsure when it will be fixed by Apple. In the meantime you can continue using it as-is since it doesn’t really effect functionality (except perhaps check alignment). You still can print or save the PDF. However if you prefer for the PDF to show within the browser, you can use this 3rd party plugin - http://www.schubert-it.com/pluginpdf/

About ten months ago the QuickBooks Online team launched an open beta of a platform we call “Intuit Data Services for QuickBooks Online” (IDS for QBO).  IDS for QBO is a set of tools that allow third-party developers to create independent applications that will work seamlessly and securely with your QuickBooks Online data. This means that you can utilize enhanced functionality – such as paperless bill-pay, easy expense reporting, and integrated appointment scheduling – via 3^rd party applications. This lets you eliminate redundant data-entry and keeps the tools you use to run your business in sync with one another. You own your data – why shouldn’t you be able to easily use it with other applications on the web?

In March, we announced that IDS for QBO had met stability, quality, and performance goals and that it was officially ‘out of beta’.  We released with support for a wide range of money-in and some money-out workflows, and with the Intuit App Center Toolbar integrated in the core product so that you can access your apps from within QuickBooks Online.

We’ve developed the platform with performance and security in the forefront of our minds. Rest assured that we’re protecting your data and making sure that when you want to access your data, you don’t have to wait a long time for it. IDS for QBO will only give data access to apps that you sign up for – if you haven’t given an application permission to connect to your QuickBooks Online account, it won’t be able to access your data.

The Apps

QuickBooks Online provides an app center and a platform for connecting to your data, but the ecosystem is nothing without developers building solutions for your businesses. We have been privileged to work with a group of excellent early-adoption partners who have already built out ten applications that you can use to extend the functionality of QuickBooks Online.  We owe these developers a big thank you for getting on board early, and we think you’ll find their apps compelling and useful! The following ten applications are currently available on the Intuit App Center:

AuditMyBooks Analyzer analyzes your QuickBooks Online data to catch common bookkeeping errors, indicators of accounting fraud, and other issues with your QuickBooks Online data. AuditMyBooks Analyzer has fast scans that detect most common problems in minutes, and reporting to help you understand the problems with your data.

Bill.com for QuickBooks Online is a paperless bill pay service that works with QuickBooks Online to eliminate error-prone data entry. It imports your chart of accounts and vendors from QuickBooks Online and enables users to view and pay bills electronically.  Bill.com is a great way to reduce paper and increase your efficiency with one of the most common tasks in running a business – paying your bills.

Expensify aims to make expense reporting painless. Syncing with your QuickBooks Online company data, Expensify helps you automate the expense reporting process and provides capabilities like receiving expense reports via email and reimbursing them through direct deposit to a checking account. Once an expense report is complete, you can sync it with QuickBooks Online to eliminate painful data re-entry.

Full Slate is designed for businesses scheduling clients for one-on-one appointments, Full Slate offers an online scheduler that lets prospective and existing clients schedule appointments directly from your website 24×7. By importing customer information from QuickBooks Online and synchronizing their contact information as it’s updated, Full Slate helps you manage busy appointment schedules and maintain accurate customer information.

Intuit Small Business Scheduler is an Intuit app that gives your business the ability to manage everyone’s scheduling in one calendar that is available anywhere, anytime, from any computer. From tracking expenses and appointments to remembering internal meeting details, this app is an excellent resource. Synchronizing your customer, employee, and item data with QuickBooks Online keeps Intuit Small Business Scheduler up to date, and lets you charge customers for billable appointments through QuickBooks Online.

OneWay Commerce is an e-commerce application that lets your business use your Facebook Fan page as an e-store. Integrating a shopping cart with your fan page gives you an instant storefront tied into a social media strategy, and integration with QuickBooks Online means no data re-entry is required to keep your financials up-to-date.

Profit for Staffing is an employee management and time tracking application that works with your QuickBooks Online accounts, as well as many payroll services. Providing invoicing, payroll, reporting, and document sharing, Profit for Staffing can help improve communication and workflow across a variety of business needs.

QuickBooks Dashboard for Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online provides you with new insights into your sales, payment status, and other transactions you’ve had with customers. You get a deep view of your customers and vendors, as well as total data synchronization with QuickBooks Online. Make a data change in either Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online or in QuickBooks Online, and you can quickly and easily update the other application with your changes.

Quotes is a new application for QuickBooks Online that helps you streamline the Request for Quotation (RFQ) process. Integrating with item and vendor data from QuickBooks Online, you can quickly gather multiple quotes for goods or services from different vendors.

Transaction Pro Importer makes it easy for you to import many list and transaction types into QuickBooks Online from text and Excel files. With a UI that gives you control over the data import and field mappings, this could be a great way to import transactions into QuickBooks Online.

What’s Next

We just highlighted the great apps that are currently available to help you run your business better, but there are even more coming. The QuickBooks Online product team is hard at work improving platform functionality to allow developers to build new and better applications that let you leverage your QuickBooks Online data in new ways.  We believe that you own your data – we are just here to help you protect and use it.

We’re also partnering with developers and organizations to give you access to even more best-in-class web applications that will work seamlessly with your QuickBooks Online data. These third-party web applications will work with QuickBooks Online, providing your business with new functionality not available in our core product. From data analysis to niche solutions for particular industries, expanded reporting to specialized workflows,  we expect to see many more applications launching on the Intuit App Center in the coming year. Our focus is on saving you time and money while running your business, and we think the existing and upcoming apps in the Intuit App Center will help you do just that.

If you are a developer, or a technically minded small business owner, check out our recent post on the IPP blog for the technical low-down and information on how to get started developing your own apps with Intuit Data Services for QuickBooks Online.

Recommended Browsers for QuickBooks Online (what we developers would really want you to use)

• Google Chrome
• Firefox 10 or higher

QuickBooks Online is supported on the following browsers (what we officially support)

•  Windows
  • Google Chrome
  • Firefox 10 or higher
  • Internet Explorer 8 or higher (recommended version 9 or higher)
  • Safari 5 or higher (recommended version 5.1 or higher)
• Mac
  • Google Chrome
  • Firefox 10 or higher
  • Safari 4 or higher (recommended version 5.0.6 or higher)

PDF Plugins for Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari Users

Google Chrome doesn’t require a 3rd party PDF plugin since it has one inbuilt. However there are some issues with it and check printing http://support.qbo.intuit.com/support/answers.cfm?faq_id=4706.

• Windows - http://get.adobe.com/reader/
•  Mac - http://www.schubert-it.com/pluginpdf/

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Here is roughly what we mean when we say a browser is not supported

• Users will still be able to use QBO on the browser unless it is completely blocked out (eg: IE6 or below is blocked out, Firefox 3.5 or below is blocked out)
• We will not block the browser completely till its % usage is relatively low (eg: IE7 or Firefox 3.6 will be blocked off soon once their usage % is low enough)
• If the browser is not blocked then:
  • We are not actively testing QBO on that browser or developing for that browser
  • People will be ignoring or not filing new bugs against that browser unless they are deemed necessary for QBO to function
  • Any existing bugs specific to that browser will be de-prioritized and probably never fixed unless they are deemed necessary for QBO to function
  • Users can still call support if their issues happen irrespective of the kind of browser they use (eg: generic QBO/ accounting issues)
  • Newer features may not be available in an unsupported browser
    • This does not apply to people using modern browsers (Chrome / Firefox) on unsupported platforms like Linux or Chrome OS. Assuming you guys are keeping the browsers updated via the linux update manager or another way, you should get exact same QBO features as Chrome / Firefox on windows or mac.

For all browsers

If you are using Firefox 3.x OR Internet Explorer 7 (please read)

If you are using Internet Explorer 8

Firefox Mac users:

Intuit PaymentNetwork (code name IPN) now seamlessly integrates with QuickBooks Online. A small business can now send an invoice through QuickBooks Online and get paid fast using IPN. QuickBooks online invoices enabled for online payments will now have a link for the end customer to directly pay the small business. The plot thickens with the added benefits of low cost (only 50 cent/payment), faster funding (next day funding for most payments less than $5000) and automatic reconciliation.

Release Date: Released Midnight May 19th
Genres: Payments ¦ Invoicing ¦ QuickBooks Online
Rating: G for customer delight, seamless integration and fast payments
Starring: IPN, 50c Payment, Next Day Funding (aka NDF) and Reconciliation
Produced By: Intuit Inc.
What people are saying about it: “I run a small housecleaning company and have been looking for a reasonably priced debit/credit processing option. Many companies want to charge trasaction fees and a percent of your total. I love this option. A $0.50 transaction fee is very reasonable, and makes it so that I can offer the option to all my customers.”

World Premier of the Trailer:

Stills/screen shots from the release:

1. IPN on ‘Create Invoice’ form in QuickBooks Online

2. Payment link in invoice that your customers will see

3. Two easy steps for customers to pay (Sign in and pay the invoice)

4. Payment reconciled in QuickBooks Online

Note from the IPN team: We hope that all of you enjoy this new release. Please provide feedback by posting on this blog or emailing us at paymentnetwork@intuit.com