AI Slayer Sally vs. the QuickBooks Chaos

How Chrome’s New Split Screen Makes QuickBooks Online Way Less Annoying

If you live inside QuickBooks Online all day, you know the struggle:
You want to look at a report and enter a transaction… at the same time… without QBO throwing a fit or logging you out for juggling too many windows.

Chrome’s new split view (a side-by-side tab feature) finally fixes a lot of that pain. You can put two QBO tabs next to each other in one Chrome window and work like a real adult with a real workflow.

Let’s walk through what it is, how to turn it on, and exactly how to use it with QuickBooks Online.

What is Chrome Split View?

Chrome’s new Split View / Split Tabs feature lets you:

• Put two web pages side by side inside a single Chrome window
• Resize each side
• Swap which page is left or right
• Separate them back into normal tabs later (Tom’s Guide+1)

So instead of:

• One Chrome window for QBO

• A second Chrome window for QBO

• Constant tab flipping and “where did that report go”

You get one tidy window with QBO on the left, QBO on the right, same login session, happy brain.

Step 1: Make sure Split View is turned on in Chrome

Right now, Split View lives in Chrome’s “Experiments” area, but it is available in current Chrome versions on desktop. You just have to flip the switch.

1. Open Chrome.
2. In the address bar, type:
   chrome://flags and hit Enter. (Tom’s Guide+1)
3. At the top of the page, use the search box and type:
   side-by-side or split.
4. Look for a flag called something like:
• “Split View”
• “Split Tabs”
• “Side-by-side” (Tom’s Guide+1)
5. Change the dropdown from Default or Disabled to Enabled.
6. Click the Relaunch button that appears at the bottom to restart Chrome.

After Chrome restarts, your browser now knows how to do split view.

Step 2: Set up QuickBooks Online in two tabs

Now let’s get QBO ready to party.

1. Open Chrome like normal.
2. Log in to QuickBooks Online in a tab.
3. Once you’re on the main screen of your company, right-click the tab and choose Duplicate.
• This gives you a second QBO tab already logged in to the same company, same user.

You should now see two QBO tabs at the top of Chrome, both active.

Example setup:

• Tab 1: Banking feed or dashboard
• Tab 2: Vendor list, Chart of Accounts, or a report you want to reference

Step 3: Split the tabs into side-by-side view

Here comes the fun part.

1. Make sure both QBO tabs are in the same Chrome window.
2. Right-click one of the QBO tabs.
3. Look for an option like “Add tab to new split view” or “Split tab with…” and click it.
4. Chrome will snap both tabs into a side-by-side layout inside that one window.

Now you have QBO on the left and QBO on the right, sharing a single login session.

Adjusting the layout

• Hover your mouse over the divider between the two pages.
• Click and drag to make one side bigger and the other smaller. Chrome Unboxed+1
• Some builds also show a small menu icon near the split that lets you:
• Swap left/right
• Separate the two views back into tabs
• Close one side

Step 4: Example workflows that feel 10x better in split view

Here are some real-life QBO setups that work great with split view:

1. Banking + Vendor history

• Left side: Banking tab (Bank feed)
• Right side: Expenses → Vendors → specific vendor transactions

You can check how you coded that vendor last time while you approve new transactions. No bouncing between screens, no losing your place.

2. Entering checks + Report for reference

• Left side: Write Check or Expense form
• Right side: Profit & Loss or Transaction Detail by Account

You can watch the totals update as you save, which is clutch when you are hunting for a weird variance.

3. Cleanup work

• Left side: Chart of Accounts → Register
• Right side: Reconcile report or Audit Log

Perfect for cleanup/catchup where you need to see “what happened” and fix entries at the same time.

4. Multi-company (accountants)

If you are using QuickBooks Online Accountant, you can still use multiple tabs and windows to work on different clients. Split view just makes each client file easier to handle when you need reports and forms side by side. (Firm of the Future+1)

Why this feels better than two separate browsers

Old method:

• Chrome with QBO in one window
• Firefox/Edge/Incognito with another QBO or company
• Sometimes QBO gets fussy, asks you to sign in again, or refreshes pages when it thinks your session is “elsewhere.”

With Split View:

• Both sides are inside the same Chrome profile and window.
• QBO treats it like normal multitasking, not like two separate devices fighting for control.
• You can work across two live pages at once without constantly losing context.

Is it magic? No. Does it feel magical compared to tab-juggling chaos? Yes.

Final tip: Keep your layout “on brand” for you

Once you get the hang of this, you can basically design your own QBO cockpit:

• Left = “where I enter stuff”
• Right = “where I double-check myself”

Banking + Vendors, Invoices + Customer list, Bills + Vendor report, whatever fits your brain.

Use it during month-end, catch-up projects, or those marathon cleanup sessions, and your future self will be very grateful.

Hope you enjoyed this as much as I did. I feel like I can even beat the AI monster that QBO has unleashed. 

Now if ChatGPT could learn how to spell we would all look like geniuses.