Murph's QuickBooks Desktop 2020 Summary

Intuit has just released QuickBooks 2020 Desktop, and over the next few days and weeks, QuickBooks ProAdvisors (for Desktop), Enterprise Users, and QuickBooks Pro/Premier 'Plus' subscribers will be notified about the availability of the initial release of the software. Soon thereafter, QuickBooks Desktop 2020 versions will start appearing on retailers' shelves. 

Insightful Accountant has been privy to various pre-release versions of these products for months, and has had multiple communications with Intuit personnel, including product managers and developers, so we can help you learn about the new products. This article is intended to provide a synopsis of the features to be found in the QuickBooks Desktop 2020 product line-up.

We will also be providing a series of individualized feature articles; many will be longer than our previously typical ‘minute read’ coverage of past years.  Of course, I will also pen this year’s version of ‘My Favorite Newbies’ to tell you more about the specific product changes I like best at the conclusion of our series. You will also want to be certain to tune in for our September QB Talks webinar scheduled for 2 PM Eastern on September 18, 2019 to hear about QuickBooks 2020 (more information about that webinar will be outlined in a future article). You can register HERE.

This year I decided to post a totally separate summary of the 2020 QuickBooks for Mac features, we know that most of our readers who ‘do Mac’ don’t have a care in the world about these windows versions, and vice versa. So, separate articles are an advantage to many readers.

Feature Summary

We are doing something different this year in our summary, we thought you would appreciate having access to a chart as a simple reference to new feature availability. The chart below, courtesy of Intuit, reflects which new features are available in which QuickBooks products, and also which countries. So, for all of you who have been waiting for today's product release here's what's new.

Improved for Everyone

There are a couple of features, Easy Upgrade and Smart Help, included in the above chart that are really more in the way of enhancements and they are not exclusive to QuickBooks Desktop 2020 users; in fact they are for all Desktop supported versions 2017 and above. (Both features only are available in the U.S. versions at this time.) I thought we should talk about them prior to reviewing the other features in the 2020 release.

Smart Help

The first feature I want to discuss is actually being incorporated into all supported QuickBooks Desktop versions (2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020). Smart Help is designed to provide an improved search experience with task relevant content along with access to live experts through messaging and call back options.

You can access Smart Help by using the F1 key from anywhere within QuickBooks, or from the QuickBooks menu bar choosing Help and then selecting QuickBooks Desktop Help.

Be aware that Smart Help support options involving messaging with live experts or call back features require an active QuickBooks Care Plan and internet connection. Care Plans are included with Standard, Plus and Enterprise subscriptions, they are also available for separate purchase from Intuit. Support hours and access may vary by Care Plan or subscription type. You should always read all disclosures associated with your specific Care Plan or subscription.

Easy QuickBooks Upgrade

The second feature I want to discuss is one you won’t even find in QuickBooks 2020, but you will find it making its way into QuickBooks Desktop 2017, 2018 and 2019.  While it was a feature available to ‘Plus’ users last year, it will now be available to upgrade all desktop users to QuickBooks 2020 within the U.S. (but this feature is not available in Canada or the U.K. at this time). 

Easy Upgrade streamlines the process of updating QuickBooks versions to just a few clicks of the mouse. For QuickBooks Pro and Premier users this feature is accessed from the QuickBooks menu bar by selecting Help, then choosing Upgrade QuickBooks to the license available for the new version if you have already purchased a license or have a license available.

QuickBooks Users with a ‘Plus’ version of their software, or using Enterprise have a slightly different interface, the feature is actually offered automatically upon startup with an option to proceed, unlike Pro and Premier the upgrade menu isn’t presently available.

In either case, when the user selects the option to upgrade QuickBooks takes them through the update process by downloading the product, installing and activating the new version, making copies of their recent company files, and activating the new product license.

When the upgrade is done, all the user has to do is Open QuickBooks, it’s just that simple.

QuickBooks 2020 Desktop Version Features

The following features or improvements apply to all 2020 QuickBooks Pro, Premier, Accountant and Enterprise (v20) versions (unless otherwise noted).  These features are also available for U.S., Canadian and U.K. QuickBooks users unless otherwise noted.

Find Company Files

This feature falls right in line with Easy Upgrade because it is another ‘application’ related functionality, but this one is totally new for 2020.

Believe it or not, many QuickBooks users report they can’t locate their Company File(s) after either installing or upgrading a new version of QuickBooks or relocating QuickBooks to a different computer. In other cases, they simply have a difficult time identifying which files are the correct files to open due to multiple copies or backups.

The new Company File Search feature released as part of QuickBooks 2020 Desktop adds a Find a company file button to the No Company Open dialog box (as shown below) that makes it easy for users to find and open their Company files even if they don’t remember the file’s location or name.

QuickBooks quickly searches for all your company files across the different file sources of your computer (hard drive, attached storage, connected media, etc.) and lists all identified QuickBooks company files found (as shown below) with key information to help you identify the correct Company File(s) for your situation.

Users simply select their file from the list and click Open, then they are “back in business” so to speak.

Finally, we get to some of the 2020 features that typical users will really consider as ‘new, enhanced or improved.’

Automated Payment Reminders

The new Automated Payment Reminder feature is designed to save you time by automatically creating reminder emails for outstanding invoices to your clients with the content you choose, even allowing you to send different reminders to different customers, plus you always have the option to review the reminders prior to sending them out.

You access this feature from the QuickBooks menu bar, then select Customers, and then choose Payment Reminders. The key is in the set-up of this new feature, so make certain to check back for our feature specific article on Automated Customer Payment Reminders to go step-by-step through the process.

With Automated Payment Reminders in place QuickBooks is always watching the open invoice clock for you and letting you know when you should be sending notices so you never forget to remind your clients it’s time to pay.

Invoice reminders are visible in the Invoice tracking feature along with their received and viewed progress (as shown on the left above), and all your automated payment reminders appear in the Customer’s ‘Sent Email’ tab too (shown on the right above). You can potentially save countless hours with this new automated payment reminder and invoicing feature.

Automatically Add Customer PO# to Invoice Emails

A lot of customers use Purchase Order Numbers when they give you an order for products and services, but what good does it do for you to write that number down if it doesn’t display where your customer can easily find it? With this new feature you can edit any Invoice Email Template (QuickBooks menu bar > Edit > Preferences > Send Forms > Company Preferences* > Appropriate Template > Edit > Insert Field > Customer-PO Number) to include the ‘Customer PO Number’ field (as shown below).

You and your customer will both experience the convenience of the Customer PO# automatically populating on Emails generated from QuickBooks with this new feature for 2020.

_{*- Company Preference modification requires Administrator level permissions.}

Combine Multiple Emails

You heard me right, with this new QuickBooks Desktop 2020 feature you can combine multiple Emails to the same Customer from within QuickBooks into a single Email. To accomplish this magic simply check the ‘Combine all forms to a customer in a single email’ option checkbox (as shown in the illustration below) at the bottom of the Select the email(s) you want to send window and click Send Now on the Send Forms transmittal window.

Just think of the convenience this will afford both you and your customers. They will no longer get Email after Email after Email, and you will no longer waste time trying to manually link multiple PDFs to a single Email outside of QuickBooks to keep your customer happy with only one Email.

Now for the ‘bad news’, at present this feature doesn’t work if you are using Intuit Payments with payment links embedded in your emails. The development team is working frantically on this aspect of the feature, but it simply wasn’t a functionality at the time of release, sorry folks.

Horizontally Collapse Report Columns

Here is another feature that you have probably been asking for ‘forever’. If you needed to run a report that displayed data by columns, like jobs or classes, you had to scroll to find the displayed total columns, or export the report to Excel so that you could hide the columns and just display the appropriate total columns. Well now, QuickBooks 2020 gives you the ability to view the totals of data displayed by columns like job and class without having to scroll through large reports, or spend time exporting the data to Excel.

To accomplish these most needed of reporting capabilities either select the Collapse Columns button on the top right of any displayed multi-column report, or optionally, click the ( -- ) or ( + ) symbol next to a specific column to collapse or expand that specific set of columns.

QuickBooks 2020 makes it easy to quickly collapse a report to view data displayed by columns like customer:job and class. You can easily hide or unhide columns enabling you to see only totals when you want or see all the information when you need it. And best of all, you can do all of this without having to export the report to Excel.

New for QuickBooks Payroll Users

There are two new features for users of QuickBooks 2020 Desktop Pro, Premier, Accountant and Enterprise v20 with a current Intuit Payroll Subscription. (Both features only are available in the U.S. versions at this time, they are not available in either Canada or the U.K.).

Easy Payroll Set-up with Employee Self Set-up

This new feature is designed to provide a simplified guided set-up experience for both the QuickBooks user and the employee. Please note however that this feature is actually being rolled out in phases with new payroll subscribers using QuickBooks Desktop 2020 receiving the feature first, followed by existing payroll subscribers using QuickBooks Desktop 2020, and then new or existing payroll subscribers still using QuickBooks Desktop 2018 and 2019.

Another aspect of this new feature is that QuickBooks users can invite their employees to fill in their own personal payroll related information using a secure cloud-based portal via an Intuit log-in which the employee creates in response to the invitation. In future releases employees will be able to provide additional information supporting the payroll process (personal tax withholding details, banking information for direct deposit, etc.).

With this new feature QuickBooks users will be able to reduce payroll set-up time by having their employees self-complete much of their own personal information needed to run payroll from any location so long as they have internet access. This means that employees will be able to complete forms from a convenient location from which they have information readily available to use in completing the forms.

Payroll Status for Direct Deposited Payroll

This feature not only requires QuickBooks Desktop Pro, Premier, Accountant 2020 and Enterprise 20.0 with a current payroll subscription but it also requires a Direct Deposit authorization. The feature is designed to allow QuickBooks users who pay their employees via Direct Deposit to confirm the status of their direct deposited payroll.

Until now QuickBooks users have been unable to know the current status of a direct deposited payroll run without contacting support or waiting on confirmation emails from Intuit. Users access this feature from the QuickBooks menu bar, then select Employees and choose View Payroll Run Status.  Note this service, as with direct deposit itself, requires an Internet connection.

With this new feature you will easily view the details status of your direct deposited payrolls without having to check for emails from Intuit or contact support.

QuickBooks Enterprise v20 ‘Advanced Inventory’ Features

The following features or improvements apply only to QuickBooks Enterprise v20 with ‘Advanced Inventory’ (Platinum Subscription).  These features are available for both U.S. and Canadian QuickBooks Enterprise users unless otherwise noted (but are not available to U.K. users).

Alternate Vendors

While QuickBooks has offered the convenience of allowing Users to associate a ‘Preferred Vendor’ with Items and Services, it has previously not offered the ability to track ‘Alternate Vendors’ or compare prices offered from multiple vendors while creating purchase orders to allow users to get the best deal. 

New in QuickBooks Enterprise v20 is a centralized information center containing vendor contact and pricing data allowing you to be more accurate and productive during purchasing as well as improving profitability.  From the QuickBooks menu bar select Vendor Center and then click the Items tab to access this feature. Vendor details can be managed directly from the Alternate Vendor access within the Item dialog box (as shown above) or be easily accessed directly from within a Purchase Order using the View Vendor Price button on the Main Ribbon of the PO (as shown below).

With this new feature you will have increased visibility into vendor pricing options, save time importing vendor price lists, and easily create purchase orders with vendor information and pricing that saves you money by using the most cost effective options.

Landed Cost

Years ago, Joe Woodard wrote a lengthy article teaching QuickBooks users how they could apply the cost of freight to their actual item costs using a complex set of steps that few users ever followed. Now, QuickBooks Enterprise v20 Advanced Inventory users have the option of factoring freight, duties, insurance and other miscellaneous costs into their actual item costs to provide them with greater visibility into their true product costs.

This is another feature that has a required set-up process that needs to be performed prior to use. Be certain to watch for our upcoming feature specific article on Landed Cost to take your step-by-step through the set-up and use process.

This new feature makes it easy to identify true product costs without the time, errors and hassle of manual landed cost workarounds. From any Vendor Bill you can enter the related landed costs by clicking the Calculate Landed Cost button on the Main ribbon of the Bill (as shown above).

You will not only post landed costs to your vendor bills, but update your product costs in one simple process (as shown above) making it easy to identify true product costs leading to better profits, pricing and sales decisions and asset valuations.

Express Pick and Pack

This year saw another expansion of the mobile features for QuickBooks Enterprise Advanced Inventory aimed at saving time by consolidating the picker/packer roles, actions and approvals associated with the prior individualized ‘pick’ and ‘pack’ processes.  Express Pick and Pack is only available to U.S. users of QuickBooks Enterprise v20 Advanced Inventory, it is presently not available in Canada.

As with the other ‘mobile features’ for QuickBooks Enterprise Advanced Inventory there are specific set-up requirements that are outside the scope of this summary. Be on the look-out for our feature specific article on Express Pick-Pack to take you step-by-step through the set-up and use of this new feature for both mobile users and manual (printed) user options.

Express Pick & Pack streamlines the process of order fulfillment with the option of combining the picking and packing process into one job function assigned to a single warehouse worker. As with other warehouse features you have the option to assign functions to be performed via mobile devices or simply print the appropriate forms for manual processing (as shown below).

Mobile fulfillment follows steps similar to other mobile operations (as shown below).

The new Express pick-pack tab of the Sales Order Fulfillment Worksheet permits QuickBooks users supervising the warehouse operation to not only see progress in near real-time when mobile devices are used, but to manually update the status from printed fulfillment pick-pack lists and then Update the Sales Order (as shown below).

Remember, we will be continuing our series on QuickBooks 2020 tomorrow with individual articles on the various features summarized in this article. Our companion article on QuickBooks for Mac 2020 can be found also in the headlines of today’s Insightful Accountant here.

For the official Intuit version of “QuickBooks Desktop 2020 – What’s New and Improved” by my good friend Laura Madeira be certain to check out this Firm of the Future blog website. 

Editor's Acknowledgements

Special thanks go out to Laura Madeira who helped me by cross-checking my work with her own to make certain that we were consistent in providing accurate information regarding the release.

I also want to thank the following Intuit personnel for their dedication not only in providing information, briefings and responding to questions, but in guiding the actual product developments within QuickBooks Desktop and this release: Chetana Arakanakere, Rachna Arya, Nipun Bhatia, Aditya Dixit, Varshitha Gokari, Sumit Poddar, Raman Verma. Of course there are entire teams, composed of hundreds of Intuit personnel, behind these people that make the magic happen and too often we forget to say, thank you, to them as well; so to all involved,"THANK YOU"!