It took me a minute to get excited about the new “Share Invoice Link” feature since I didn’t feel a pain with the way myself and our clients were emailing invoices out of QuickBooks Online. In fact I was so happy with the improvements from QuickBooks Desktop to QuickBooks Online I didn’t see room for improvement but… I was impressed when I came around and tried “Share Invoice Link” after I saw the feature during Valerie’s 2nd Quarterly QBO Update during Insightful Accountant's QB Talks Webinar a couple weeks ago.
The big difference is how the email is viewed by the customer in their own email server. The reason for the change is users had complained the email was getting overlooked because the email was coming from Intuit instead of the familiar company email address which caused some confusion. Okay, so this is where I got on-board. This change permits the user to create a traditional email, and posts the copied link inside it, which is recognized and placed in the recipient's inbox, instead of dumping it into spam.
So how does it look? Below I have the two versions one on top of the other for comparison of how it looks in the customer’s inbox. The top is the email generated inside the company email server and below is generated from inside QBO and has an Intuit email address.
Share Invoice Link - figure 1
When the invoice link is opened it appears exactly the same in both the emails.
Share Invoice Link - fig 2
I adore emailing an invoice from QuickBooks Online with merchant services turned on. The “Pay Now” button gets GOLD stars for its ease of use and quick turnaround for payment. Getting paid never gets old.
Are you ready to see how to Share an Invoice Link? There are 3 ways to activate this feature.
1) While viewing the Invoice: Click the down arrow next to the Save and Close or Save and send and choose Save and Share Link > Click Copy and Close > Paste link inside of your email.
Share Invoice Link - fig 3
2) While viewing the Sales Transaction list: Click the down arrow for more actions next to an invoice you want to share > Select Share Invoice Link from the menu > Click Copy and Close > Paste link inside of your email.
Share Invoice Link - fig 4
3) While viewing an Invoice: click Print or Preview > At the bottom of print preview pop-up click Get link to this invoice > Copy link > Paste link inside of your email.
Share Invoice Link - fig 5
I’ve tried it, now what? The funny thing is, now I am hopeful that the ability to share links to QuickBooks Online will be added to other areas (or transactions) since I see the usefulness of sharing information in this way. Wouldn’t it be nice to share a link to a report? Or link to a Bill or Expense? Maybe even a list for review? I think this tool has a real future.