It’s November, and what we’re most thankful for is you. We’re grateful for your commitment to always being accountable to your clients, and we take pride in showing the same accountability to you. That’s why we’re excited to share this new list of QuickBooks® features and improvements, all designed to help you do your job better than ever.
What’s new in November
Discover key business insights with custom tags in QuickBooks Online
New AI models help predict cash flow in QuickBooks Cash
Reminder: It’s time to prepare 1099 documents for contractors
AI-driven smart invoicing now available for QuickBooks Advanced
Increase your expertise with new QuickBooks Online Advanced Specialty training
New for QuickBooks Commerce: ShopKeep point of sale integrated with QuickBooks Online
Coming soon: Enhanced integration in HubSpot for QuickBooks
Add new hires with one click with Employee Self-Setup
Instant deposit in Payments now available for QuickBooks Desktop
Announcing QuickBooks Assisted Payroll next-day direct deposit
Discover key business insights with custom tags in QuickBooks® Online
In a nutshell: Your clients can start tracking the most important information about their business with help from custom tags, now available for all new QuickBooks® Online accounts.
Tags are customizable labels that let clients track their money however they want to gain deeper insights into the business. You can add tags to money in and money out transactions, such as invoices, expenses, bills, and more to understand where you make and spend money. Tags don’t impact the books. They’re simply labels that track different types of data, without having to touch the chart of accounts.
To get started using tags, go to “Banking” in the left navigation, then click on “Tags.” If your clients do not see a tab for “Tags,” they may need to turn the feature on in QB Labs, which can be done by clicking on the gear icon. Check out the video below or learn more here.
New AI models help predict cash flow in QuickBooks Cash
In a nutshell: Maintaining a healthy cash flow is essential for business success. To help forecast cash flow more accurately, the Cash Flow Forecasting team has used artificial intelligence to develop three new predictive models:
- The Payroll model projects QuickBooks Payroll customers’ wage expenses according to the user’s payroll schedule (weekly, monthly, and other frequencies).
- The Sales model projects weekly sales that don’t come from invoices, such as retail sales.
- The Weekly Expense model projects sporadic business costs, such as office supplies, on a weekly aggregate basis.
These models are all currently available to QuickBooks Cash users. In addition, a Recurring Events feature is scheduled for release in mid-November. The Recurring Events feature in the Planner lets users schedule custom transactions that are repeated at set intervals, just like recurring calendar meetings. Learn more
Reminder: It’s time to prepare 1099 documents for contractors
In a nutshell: Sign into QuickBooks Online or QuickBooks Online Accountant today to prepare your 1099-NEC and 1099-MISC forms for all contractors employed in 2020.
How it works:
- Sign in and select the Contractor tab in the Payroll menu.
- Select “Prepare 1099s.”
- Review the information, and if everything looks good, select “Let’s get started.”
- Once you complete the easy five-step wizard, you’ll be ready to start the e-filing process with QuickBooks Online after Jan. 1, 2021.
AI-driven smart invoicing now available for QuickBooks Advanced
In a nutshell: Preparing invoices just got a whole lot faster. That’s because QuickBooks Online Advanced now features smart invoicing, which uses artificial intelligence to identify and highlight invoice irregularities, so you can spot potential problems at a glance.
With smart invoicing, invoices are flagged whenever a quantity or price detail falls outside the expected range for a given customer. These irregular values are highlighted and explained, so the invoice creator or approver can give them a closer look.
Don’t want invoices flagged? No problem. A global option allows you to turn off smart invoicing, or you can turn off suggestions at the individual user level. When you turn off the suggestions, it applies to all previous invoices.
Increase your expertise with new QuickBooks Online Advanced specialty training
In a nutshell: We’re excited to announce the launch of a new specialty training course for QuickBooks Online Advanced within ProAdvisor® Training in QuickBooks Online Accountant.
The QuickBooks Online Advanced Specialty course is designed to help you support clients with heavy transaction volume, complex reporting needs, and unique user access requirements. You’ll learn how smart reporting, workflow automation, robust data imports, and batch transactions can help your clients work more efficiently and free you up to offer valuable advice and support.
The QuickBooks Online Advanced Specialty training includes:
- New self-paced training broken into four modules that qualify for 2 CPE credits.
- Product demos that illustrate real client scenarios.
- ProAdvisor challenges to provide hands-on practice with a QuickBooks Online test drive.
The course will help you build your skills and strengthen your ability to solve complex business challenges for your clients. Log in to start learning
New for QuickBooks Commerce: ShopKeep point of sale integrated with QuickBooks Online
In a nutshell: We’ve integrated ShopKeep and QuickBooks Online, creating a sales-to-books solution that offers a customizable point-of-sale system, faster payment options, and streamlined accounting.
With ShopKeep and QuickBooks Online, you can:
- Take contactless payments with ease, either in-person or via pickup and delivery.
- Manage employees and inventory, and see business performance at a glance.
- Get 24/7 support from ShopKeep Care by text, phone, or chat.
If your clients currently have QuickBooks Payments, they can attach ShopKeep to their account for automatic sales reconciliation. If they don’t have QuickBooks Payments yet, they can choose ShopKeep point of sale and QuickBooks Payments as an integrated payment solution for in-store sales. Learn more
Coming soon: Enhanced integration in HubSpot for QuickBooks
In a nutshell: HubSpot for QuickBooks is a free app that automatically consolidates data from HubSpot with QuickBooks Online Advanced. This integration eliminates the need to manually transfer data from sales to accounting using email or spreadsheets.
HubSpot for QuickBooks is currently live, but an enhanced integration specific to QuickBooks Online Advanced is scheduled to launch by the end of November. With this, clients can speed up their sales cycle by using the workflow and drafting capabilities in QuickBooks Online Advanced. Invoices are pushed to QuickBooks Online Advanced in a draft state, and workflow functionality can be used to create an invoice approval flow. Learn more
Add new hires with one click with Employee Self-Setup
In a nutshell: One click—that’s all it takes to add a new hire with the new Employee Self-Setup feature in QuickBooks Payroll. Employee Self-Setup lets new hires fill out their own employee profiles directly, on their own time. Clients will save time collecting and adding sensitive employee information with every new hire, especially if they are in a business with high turnover. Employee Self-Setup is scheduled to launch late November 2020.
How it works:
- In the Add Employee Wizard, click “Ask this employee to enter their personal, tax, and banking info with QuickBooks Workforce.”
- When the box is checked, and a valid employee email is added, the employee will receive an email inviting them to input their information directly.
Instant Deposit in Payments now available for QuickBooks Desktop1
In a nutshell: With the new instant deposit feature, QuickBooks Desktop Payment users can get their money just minutes after their customers pay them, no matter if it’s a weekday, weekend, late night, or holiday. Instant access to funds is also available for an additional 1% fee.
Clients can speed up credit card payment deposits, reducing them from one day to fewer than 30 minutes. Deposit times for ACH payments can also be reduced, from two days to under 30 minutes. Merchant Service Deposits have been enhanced to help them continue to automatically reconcile these instant deposits inside QuickBooks.
Eligible customers will begin to see this feature in late 2020. Learn more
Announcing QuickBooks Assisted Payroll next-day direct deposit2
In a nutshell: When it comes to processing payroll, time is now on your side. That’s because we’ve introduced next-day direct deposit in Assisted Payroll. With next-day direct deposit, clients will be able to submit payroll up to 5:00 p.m., PT, on the banking day before payday. They’ll get to keep their money in their bank account until payday, and also get more time to enter or adjust payroll information to ensure everything is accurate.
How it works:
- Payroll direct deposit funds are withdrawn from the bank account the same day as payday.
- They can submit payroll up to 5:00 p.m., PT, the banking day before payday.
- There’s no additional fee to use next-day direct deposit, and they don’t have to make any changes to their payroll schedule to use it.
Next-day direct deposit became available to current users of Assisted Payroll in September, October, and November 2020. New Assisted Payroll customers will gain access in December 2020. Learn more
1Instant Deposit is an additional service offered by QuickBooks Payments subject to eligibility criteria and daily maximum limit. A debit card is required to set up. Payments are sent to the bank account linked to an eligible debit card in minutes (usually up to 30 minutes). You can request available funds 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. For payments received before 3PM PT on a banking day, make instant deposit requests before 3 PM PT to get your money on the same day. If payment is received and requested after 3 PM PT, funds will be available for instant deposit until 3pm the following banking day. Otherwise, payments will be processed at the normal speed. Deposits may vary for third party delays. 1% transaction is applied to the dollar amount of the instant deposit, in addition to the regular ACH or credit card rates. To see your current ACH and credit card rates, sign into the Customer Account Management Portal and select “See your product orders, transactions, and charges.” A QuickBooks Payments account is required which is subject to eligibility criteria, credit and application approval.
2Available on Assisted Payroll for QuickBooks Desktop. Payroll processed before 5:00 PM PT the day before shall arrive the next business day (excluding weekends and holidays). Requires setup of direct deposit and bank verification. Next-day direct deposit may be subject to eligibility criteria. Deposit delays may vary because of third party delays, risk reviews, or issues beyond Intuit’s control. Next-day direct deposit available for contractors and employees.
Originally published in Firm of the Future Blog
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