My RightTool Journey: Part Two
RightTool Part Two - wondering how I ever managed without it!
I have been using RightTool since last Fall, and I am smitten with how it has taken so much of the “ughness” out of QuickBooks Online. It’s no secret that I love QBO. It’s also no secret that QBO has some irritations, particularly with efficiency and user experience. This is a large part of peeps hesitation to move from QuickBooks Desktop; the smooth experience that desktop has. RightTool, by and large, solves this.
“RightTool creates the QuickBooks Desktop efficiency we crave in the QuickBooks Online we love.”
It is a Chrome extension tool that works inside your QBO files that:
Creates efficiency in navigation*
In QBO, if you open a transaction, you lose the ability to navigate to other QBO actions
RightTool has always-available navigation from its right-side toolbar and/or via a keyboard shortcut
Creates a myriad of shortcuts
Navigating online programs using your mouse can be time-consuming and cause hand fatigue
RightTool has a large library of baked-in keyboard shortcuts you can deploy
Customizes display options
As with many apps, how we can view QBO is largely dictated by Intuit
RightTool allows us to open and hide views in QBO
Streamlines reporting across client files**
Natively in QBO, we can create and save custom reports, but not across all our client files - it’s a client-by-client process
RightTool allows us to customize reports and then open them, from the right-side toolbar, in any client file
There is also a “Preset” button that RightTool has embedded in QBO that lets you create report settings (such as date range)
A single click of the preset button resets open reports to your preferred settings
Reduces time-sucking clicks
I have coined RightTool the “QBO un-ugh-er”.
No amount of bookmarks would fix some irritations; the QBO ughs.
So many things in QBO that make me sigh “ugh” have been fixed using RightTool!
I want to highlight opening and closing tabs automagically - as mentioned in part one - as still my absolute favourite feature of RightTool.
Auto-open/close tabs uses I love:
Busts the Hotel California of audit trail
Closes unnecessary tabs when you move to a new company file
Opens fresh tabs when drilling down in reports
On to Part Two.
RT is broken down into easy-to-understand areas to manage what you want to turn on/off.
You have a ton of control over what you want RT to do in your QBO files using turn/off toggle buttons. It also has help links and videos right next to the features. This makes it very simple to understand the benefit or pitfalls of turning on features.
Top six features that have been added since Part One of my RightTool Journey.
One - Auto update bank feeds
Automatically updates bank feeds the first time you go to the bank feed screen after switching companies
Two - Copy Down Values In Transactions
Allows you to click on a value inside of transactions and copy them down to the end of the transaction
Three - Copy deposits
Creates a button that allows you to copy a deposit to a new transaction
This is really helpful for merchant fee line reductions (especially in Canada, where the GST defaults to Exempt Sales) and for deposits from the bank to merchant clearing accounts
Four - Chart of accounts filtered by account type
Adds a box to filter the current page of the Chart Of Accounts by type and a button to show all items on a single page in the COA
Five - Jump to locations
Adds a button to allow the user to get back to the spot they were working in when QuickBooks resets on you.
Currently works in the Chart of Accounts, Vendor/Customer Area, Reconcile Page, and Receipts
Six - JE Clear Zero Lines Button
Delete Lines With No DR/CR in Journal Entries
Creates a button that will automatically go through and delete lines in a Journal where there is no Debit or Credit value
I asked my RT power user friendies, Paul Burns, Sherri-Lee Mathers and Tiffany Stewart and members of my Facebook Group, The Workflow Wateringhole, what their fav features were.
They don’t line up much with my top six, which is awesome because it means RightTool is diverse in how people use it; it is adding joy to our QBO experience in different ways.
Paul Burns:
“My fav fav of them is that they listen and act... fast. I appreciate apps that listen to users.”
Sherri-Lee:
“1) The preset debit/credit, 2) Launching preset group of reports, 3) Copying the note on my journal entry from top to bottom, 4) CTL shift down to close all QBO tabs at once (my lazy thingy), 5) Adding txs in bank rec 6) The payee history in the bank feed is my most recent love”
Tiffany:
“There are so many great nuggets in RightTool For QuickBooks Online (Users Group). I love that the RT features are in red, so we know what they have done to enhance the experience. With the exception of that Save button that Mark Corum uncovered on the Bill screen (I think that was the screen). Why QBO developers would ever hide a Save button is beyond me!
Free: The ability to resize the sidebar, auto-close the left nav (let's be honest, the native left nav in QBO is super frustrating), register/reconcile useful links - like adding an expense or deposit on the fly, RT shortcuts open new tabs and names them like a normal person would think - it's a little yell-y with all the CAPS, but we'll survive (first world probs).
Paid: Reconciled transaction indicator - this on a J/E has saved my bacon, payee history link- ever wonder what the correct account is for a supplier? Yay, this takes you to the supplier screen lickity split, auto-update the bank feeds, rule page enhancements - forces you to have a payee in the rule, automatic extended matching date range - need I say more, batch deleting, batch editing in register, copy down.
This tool (chrome extension) makes QBO fun. If only Mark Corum could figure out how to gamify this.
Deb Pelton Hall, a Wateringhole member:
“OMG... the tabs! THE TABS! I'm grateful for the opening of new tabs that say the things that are opened. Not only does it save time, but the level of calm I feel is priceless. I used to spend much time and emotional energy swearing at the user interface of QBO. I love the open windows list in Desktop, and this is a good solution for that experience in QBO. Thank you, Mark Corum!”
And Laura Chapman, also a Wateringhole member:
I had hand surgery in Feb 2023. The dictation capabilities were outstanding. I had an issue with it not working. The support team worked with me to fix it. It works perfectly with the Edge browser. It allowed me to recover my hand and work at the same time. Genius!
People are still adding their RT loves in The Wateringhole, check them out here.
I want every accounting professional to love cloud accounting as much as I do. And I think RightTool may be an app to engage that love!
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*I have honed my Chrome folders and bookmarks to manage the QBO navigation quirks, so I don’t need those features from RightTool. I have been using RT for 8 months, and I still use and love my folders & bookmarks.*
**I don’t need the report capabilities of RightTool, except for the Preset button. I have a Chrome setup for client report groups - I hacked out the reports I need by customizing the URLs and creating a bookmark folder system. I can open a series of them up at once in specific groups I have created (AR, AP, P&L and BS, for example) by right-clicking a folder, “open in new window”. It’s super slick if I do say so myself.
But the RT system is great if you don’t have my reports set-up.
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