A beta version of QuickBooks Online for Mac users in Safari 3.x is now available
Since the beginning of April, we’ve been opening up the Safari browser to our existing MAC customers in beta, and now at the end of April we have opened up the Safari browser for all our new MAC customers as well - Katalin Reimmon
Contact
PrintKatalin Reimonn, my friend at QuickBooks Online, contacted me yesterday to tell me they have a beta version of QuickBooks Online for Mac users in Safari 3.x. Here is the scoop from Katalin.
QuickBooks Online has never been that user friendly for our MAC customers. We have been proprietary to Microsoft IE since the beginning. If interested, we have asked our MAC customers to run parallels, 3rd party programs like Boot Camp, VM Ware or Fusion. This has been quite a hassle for our wonderful MAC community and it has been a strong push internally from our sales agents to get this browser independence moving.
Since the beginning of April, we’ve been opening up the Safari browser to our existing MAC customers in beta, and now at the end of April we have opened up the Safari browser for all our new MAC customers as well. For several months now we have been in beta with FireFox for PC which is also allowing our PC users a choice on which browser they prefer to use. We all know that there are better and more secure browsers to use and we are finally coming of age here at QuickBooks Online.
The only draw back to these new browsers is that we still have to install ActiveX when doing an upload of an existing desktop file. That means we have to revert back to IE and again this will give some customers a problem. So we are all working very hard to assist our new customers with uploads when this issue arrives. The best avenue to follow would be to have a trained sales agent assisting new customers with this process. If you have questions or need assistance please don’t hesitate to email me directly at katalin_reimonn@intuit.com.
The following is a summary from QuickBooks Online Customer help. Refer to QuickBooks Online with Safari--now in a limited beta! for complete information.
Limitations:
- No Payroll--Currently, there is limited Payroll visibility because this feature hasn't been thoroughly tested.
- New customers will not have the ability to add payroll to their Safari company.
- Existing customers who are already subscribed to payroll will have some viewing ability in Safari, but no ability to edit Payroll transactions. For the time being, you will have to use Firefox or Internet Explorer to add on or use Payroll.
- Import/Export--As with Firefox, Safari doesn’t have the ability to use ActiveX controls. For this reason, you will have no ability to import or export data in Safari. You would need to go to Internet Explorer to do either an import or an export because of the ActiveX control; however, this may not be an option for you if are exclusively using a Mac OS.
- No backup browser-- Currently, Safari is the only browser supported on a Mac. Therefore, if a certain feature or functionality doesn't work in Safari, you will have no alternative browser to use unless you have a windows simulation program.
Pop-up Blockers Pop up blockers in Safari need to be OFF. This is an overall preference instead of having to put a specific URL in the browser's preferences like in Firefox and Internet Explorer. QBO needs to have the pop up blockers off because of how we display some of our dialog boxes and help files. Printing The Mac OS uses Preview rather than Adobe Reader. You may have issues if Adobe Reader is set at the default instead. Therefore, if you are unable to print, it could be that you need to turn OFF one of the settings in Adobe Reader so that it doesn't disrupt the default printing application (Preview) from doing its job. Robert Guild is certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor in Austin, TX who conducts CPE courses for CPAs and individual training and group classes to QuickBooks users. His company Accounting Insight maintains a sixteen station QuickBooks lab, providing hands on training. You can contact him directly at rguild@accountinginsight.biz or follow him on twitter at QBPro.
Safari Compatibility
Safari 4 is still in beta and is not supported by QuickBooks Online at this time. QuickBooks Online typically does not support beta versions of browsers due to the likelihood of non-trivial changes prior to release.
