If you’re in business for yourself you know that in small companies you get to wear a number of different hats. One of the hats that I wear for My Docs Online is a QuickBooks hat, meaning that I do the majority of the accounting work.
During the course of a given week I may need to access the QuickBooks file from my home, from the office, or when traveling. There may also be others who need access to QuickBooks so I can’t just keep the file on my computer and hope I have the computer with me all the time.
My solution? Well, it’s My Docs Online of course, right?
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I store the QB data file on My Docs Online and I can access it from wherever I happen to be. The problem with that has always been that if I’ve downloaded the file myself how do I let others know not to use it until I’m through? In the past we’d cobbled together a “check-in” and “check-out” method for accessing the file but it was not a great solution. What we really needed was file locking for QuickBooks so that anyone trying to access the file would know when it was in use.
Well, since we needed functionality we figured you might need it as well so we build it into the new My Docs Online desktop app.
Now when I’m ready to access the QuickBooks file I just launch the desktop app, highlight the QuickBooks file and click the “Lock and Open” button which locks the file and launches QuickBooks so that I can work.
Then when I’m done I reverse the process. I just close QuickBooks, then click the “Unlock and Save” button, which uploads the new file into our account and removes the lock so that someone else can use it. It also moves the file to the top of the date ordered list so that anyone can see that it’s been recently updated.
Being able to apply file locking to QuickBooks has been a real benefit to me while I’ve been testing the My Docs Online Desktop App. If you have the same need for file locking please check it out.
The My Docs Online website is a great way for you and I to store files in the cloud. Using the website is easy – it’s accessible from anywhere and using it is simple. However, there are a few things that we’d like to do that we just can’t do through the website.
The My Docs development team has heard our requests and they’re in the beta test phase of introducing a new desktop based application. This application will do a number of things that, because of the nature of web browsers, can’t be done through Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome or other browsers.
I’ve been working with a number of you who are beta testing this new product and you’re telling me both what you like about it and the features that you’d like to see added.
Here are the top five things you say will help you with the new app:
File compression on all uploads and downloads – This is mentioned often as a big time saver, especially for users who upload and download lots of files and folders each day.
The “Open Last Folder” at login option – Those of you using this option (it’s in the preferences section) really like the way the app takes you directly to the last folder used as soon as you log in.
Drag-and-drop or file select for file uploads – I’ve always been a big fan of using file select for uploads but many of you report a preference for drag-and-drop file uploading. This new app allows us to upload files either way.
Easily login into and out of multiple accounts – Some of you maintain multiple My Docs Online accounts and mentioned this as a much easier way of accessing them.
Being able to lock the files you’re working on – (It was the power users among you that mentioned file locking.) The desktop app allows you to apply file locks to any file type. This means that you can “Lock and Open” any file in your account without fear of any of your other team members trying to update the file while you have it open. When you’re done with your changes you simply “Save and Unlock” the file and it’s available for use by any other team member.
Not surprisingly there were also features that are not yet in the beta version of the Desktop App that you’ve requested as well. The most requested feature available through the website that is not yet available in the Desktop App is the “give” feature that you use to share files with people who may not be My Docs Online users.
The Dev team hopes that you see the Desktop App as a useful addition to the My Docs Online website. If you’d like more information on the beta test program, or if you’re interested in helping us test the new product (we’d love to hear your feedback) please send me an email using the [email protected] email address.
If you’re in business for yourself you know that in small companies you get to wear a number of different hats. One of the hats that I wear for My Docs Online is a QuickBooks hat, meaning that I do the majority of the accounting work.