Insightful Accountant will be covering the new QBO Cash Flow changes in a mini-series of Special Edition QBO Monday Minute segments starting with this first segment discussing the new 'QuickBooks Cash' Bank offering that Intuit is launching. QuickBooks Cash is a joint venture between Intuit and 'Green Dot Bank', an FDIC insured banking institution. Intuit is starting to roll-out these Cash Flow changes progressively, as they do with most QBO updates. The first of these rollouts were believed to have been released to new QBO users on April 3rd (2020). We told you about the first rendition of the 'Cash Flow Planner' which is part of this overall package last November.
QuickBooks Cash is an FDIC-insured Business Bank Account for which QuickBooks Online users can apply that will be resident within their QuickBooks Online 'subscription'. This first time QBO is opened after this new feature 'goes live' within your QuickBooks you will have the opportunity to apply for an account. The QuickBooks 'Administrative User' (QBO Subscriber) is the only individual authorized to apply for such an account.
At present this account does not pay interest, it does not provide any overdraft protection, and it has/offers no associated line-of-credit. The deposit agreement related to these accounts can be found here.
The primary purpose of this new account (highlighted in the 'green box' in the illustration below) is to serve as QuickBooks Users 'primary' revenue account, especially for QuickBooks Users who are also using QuickBooks Payments because it will ensure that the user gets access to their funds as soon as the money hits the account. With QuickBooks Cash as the default location where funds arrive when receiving sales revenues through QuickBooks Payments, and users will have insights are delivered in the same place funds are accessible. Users can elect to move funds to an external bank account if they so choose.
New Cash Flow Tab inside QuickBooks Online showing 'New' QuickBooks Cash (Bank Account) with 'Envelopes'.
QBO_Cash_(Account)
One unique feature of the QuickBooks Cash account is something called 'Envelopes' (highlighted in the 'gold box' in the above illustration). Envelopes represent a way for your clients to partition funds and separate money to save towards different goals. Money stays within the QuickBooks Cash account; however, when funds are moved into an Envelope, they are no longer spendable via the QuickBooks Debit Card (more on the card below) to protect against an accidental spend. When I first heard this I thought to myself, "QuickBooks is using the 'Dave Ramsey' System electronically" because he (Ramsey) teaches his followers to segregate their cash into 'envelopes' for critical purposes (food, housing, utilities, and contingency/savings). QuickBooks Cash Envelopes are tied to the QuickBooks Cash account and are a partitioning of funds. The funds are moved out of the QuickBooks Cash account and into an Envelope for the desired purpose (just as you would take some out of your 'contingency envelope' and put some in your 'food envelope'). Insightful Accountant will have more about 'Envelopes' in a future segment of this mini-series.
While QuickBooks Users will not initially be able to deposit checks into these new QuickBooks Cash accounts, although that is on Intuit's future roadmap, they will be able to make ACH fund transfers from an external account into their account.
QuickBooks Users will be able to make ATM withdrawals via an ATM Card. They will only be issued one debit card per account. QuickBooks Visa® Debit Cards will be issued by Green Dot Bank, Member FDIC, under a license from Visa U.S.A. Inc. More information is available here.
There are no monthly fees for the actual account; however, ATM withdrawals and foreign transactions may include a fee. Preliminary information provided to us indicates that there will be four (4) free in-network ATM withdrawals per each monthly billing cycle, after 4th free withdrawal of the month a $3 ATM fee will apply, a $3 ATM fee will also apply for all out-of-network ATM withdrawals.
Look for our next installment in this mini-series next Monday. In the meantime you can read more about these Cash Flow changes can be found at Intuit's Firm of the Future Blog: Help your clients understand their current and future cash position with the new QuickBooks Cash Flow by Scott H. Cytron.
Disclosures and Trademarks:
QuickBooks and related products and services refer to registered/trademarked products of Intuit, Inc.
Green Dot, including Green Dot Bank, are registered trademarks of Green Dot Corporation.
Dave Ramsey System (Envelope System) and related-products, and 'Dave Ramsey', are subject to terms of use by The Lampo Group, LLC, dba 'Ramsey Solutions'.
Visa, and Visa U.S.A. Inc, are registered trademarks of Visa International Service Association.