If you are a QuickBooks Online user, you may have already had your file upgraded to the Harmony version. If not, you may be seeing it soon.
So what is new? First of all, the tabs are no longer across the top, they run down the left side of the screen. There are still tabs for customers, vendors and employees, but banking now appears under “Transactions”. To create a new item (invoice, check, deposit, etc) click the + at the top of the screen. To find the chart of accounts, lists, reconcile, or a few other options, click the gear icon on the top right side.
One new thing I like that I’ve missed in the online version in the past is recognizing the name of a customer or vendor as I type. This should save a little bit of time as you don’t have to type the full name (or scroll) to choose the right one for your transactions. Items appear on the right side of the screen that need attention (invoices needing to be sent, transactions that need to be posted, and more.) There are also graphs that appear on the home pages showing categories of expenses, as well as your profit and loss shown as a bar graph.
In the long run I think the changes will be helpful, but know that there is a learning curve with the new version. If you are on online user, work in your file when you have time to spend finding out how to do it correctly. If you only have a couple of minutes, it may not be the best time to go in as you may end up a bit frustrated.
Of course if you decide you no longer want to do the work yourself, find a bookkeeper to work with and allow them to help you with this aspect of your business.