As humans, we are very resistant to change. It’s taught to us in sociology and psychology classes and we realize the truth in it when we are forced to face change in our daily lives. Over the past few years, as I have made the transition from the desktop version of QuickBooks to the online version, I have had to face change many times. I have occasionally been resistant, but usually the changes were simply out of my control. So, instead of continuing to resist, I have found ways to embrace the changes and use them as well as I can.
The biggest change for me in QuickBooks Online came in navigating between open windows. In the desktop version, I would normally have three or four open windows and could easily switch between them using the “Open Window” view. I grew accustomed to the ease of navigation and found myself growing more efficient. When I started using the online version, every time I had to switch to another task or research a different transaction, I had to leave the screen I was on and the system would load a new page (not always at light speed, either).
I grew frustrated with the drop in my efficiency. I did learn that you could hold the back arrow down to be able to find your screen history and click back to a report or transaction that you had previously viewed; however, the pages still had to reload and the description in the back arrow list was vague, so it was quite the guessing game if I’d get back to the page that I really wanted.
After some time, I was thrilled to discover a very simple tool in making navigation much easier and efficient - using the "Duplicate" option in your browser:
This trick works best in the Chrome browser, but similar options are available in other browsers. To use the "Duplicate" option in Chrome, open a tab in QuickBooks Online. Right-click on the QB icon on the left side of the tab and select “Duplicate” from the drop-down menu. This will duplicate the screen you are currently on, letting you move about to the next transaction or report that you need without losing your place on the other tab. You are able to duplicate the tabs as many times as you need and even move individual tabs to another screen when using multiple screens.
I hope you find this feature helpful in getting around QuickBooks Online!