If you’re a QuickBooks Online user — be it accountant or business-owner or bookkeeper — then you know that when you download a QBO report to Excel using Chrome or Firefox, the resulting file name appears at the bottom of the browser window. Usually the next step is to click the file name to open the report in Excel.

However, today I learned a great new trick from David Ringstrom, contributor to the AccountEx Report and Excel guru.

Going forward, Chrome and Firefox can open Excel files automatically for you. The next time you download a QBO report to Excel, once it’s sitting at the bottom of your browser window, just click the arrow adjacent to the file name and select “Always Open Files of this Type”. Magic.

As he notes, however:

Unfortunately, this ability to open files automatically after download is not available in the Edge or Safari browsers. You’ll also have to open reports manually if you use the QuickBooks Online desktop app. The app will prompt you to choose a name for your report, but you’ll then need to manually open the report in Excel by navigating to the folder where you saved the workbook.

He also has some nice tips for unraveling automatic downloads (which I don’t personally allow — I have my system set up to prompt me each time a report is downloaded so that I can rename it and save it where I need it). For those who defer to most browsers’ default “downloads” folder, this later section of the article is particularly handy.

Give it a try! Read the entire article here:

Speeding Up Access to QuickBooks Online Reports – Accountex Report