Each year we give you our favorite QuickBooks Desktop newbies; those new features we like best or found most appealing. Some are things we should have had for a long time.
Customize & Email Bill Payment Stubs
This two-fold feature lets users customize Bill Payment stubs to look as professional as other QuickBooks forms. Of course, we should have had this feature for a long time, but who knew that people really did print or transmit Vendor Bill Payment stubs? But many users must do this when they pay so many invoices at one time that they won't all show up on the check stub.
Customizing Bill Payment stubs isn't much different than customizing any other template (Invoices, Purchase Orders, etc.) in QuickBooks. It still doesn't have all the customization of other forms, but we suspect it will get there in another year or so.
The new functionality also lets you email Bill Payment stubs directly to Vendors from QuickBooks without printing, scanning, and attaching them to an email. A lot of QuickBooks Desktop customers will love this.
Select Multiple Email Contacts
Select Multiple Email Contacts allows users to select multiple email addresses of Customers, Vendors, or Employees. Users can select these emails from a drop-down of all the emails associated with the recipients every time they email them. They can also add, edit or delete email addresses easily.
This is another feature that we should have had all along. The email addresses have been in the file, but we haven't been able to use them. It does go to show the power of 'feedback' because people have been requesting this forever.
Bill Pay powered by Melio
Using this new feature, businesses can schedule and pay their Vendor Bills directly from QuickBooks Desktop using their Debit card, a Credit card, or EFT from their bank. Because users choose how their Vendor receives payment, either as a deposit into their bank account or via a check, they can pay their vendors according to their preferences.
I didn't think I would like this feature, but when I got to thinking about it, why not let Melio pay the cost of sending my checks. Just let them draw the funds from my bank account, write the check, and send it to my Vendor. QuickBooks can still track it, and it all reconciles in the bank account. A lot fewer checks to buy from 'you know who' to print out of QuickBooks. It just takes a little extra scheduling time, but what doesn't with 'snail mail' these days.
Accounts Payable Approvals in QuickBooks Enterprise
The Accounts Payable Approvals feature allows businesses to define custom approval workflows for their Accounts Payable using QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions. For example, users can configure a custom approval process for Vendor Bills, send these transactions to a designated employee for approval, and track the status of each transaction needing approval using a new dashboard.
We know what you are about to ask, "why did they go with approvals on the Vendor Bills and not the Purchase Orders?" They have built an Accounts Payable 'Approval Process'; there will undoubtedly be more to come.
But this feature shows that Intuit has a commitment to QuickBooks Enterprise to expand it to meet the needs of larger businesses that would otherwise be looking at systems that already provide this type of functionality.
Send Payment Links
The new Send Payment Links feature lets QuickBooks users, with an active QuickBooks Payments account, create and send a payment link (trackable within QuickBooks). They can also accept payments or deposits even before they invoice their customer and record payments as a customer credit.
This would almost make me go back to opening a merchants' (QuickBooks Payments) account if I had any need at all. Some accountants, bookkeepers, and ProAdvisors will hate this workflow from a cash accounting standpoint. Still, I'm most pleased this feature lets Desktop compete with Online from a 'simple payments' functionality. Staying simple and easy for Desktop and doing things more like QBO will keep it competitive with QBO in my way of thinking, especially since it now has pricing parity on a subscription to subscription basis.
Concluding Remarks
Those are my favorites. Some of you were expecting me to say 64-bit, eCommerce, or the mobile app features. But, honestly, the Desktop platform has a long way to go; the 64-bit enhancement by itself is just the start.
The eCommerce integration with Webgility is more of a joint-marketing arrangement than an actual feature; Webgility has worked with Desktop for years. So there really is just a launch point from within the platform for 2022; not much else has changed in my way of thinking.
The QuickBooks Desktop Mobile App features will continue to improve as the AI-based Machine Learning engine Intuit is using improves for Bill and Expense recognition. In addition, we can anticipate that the App feature set will continue to expand for the Plus products and Enterprise versions because the mobile capabilities give the Desktop versions more Online-like capabilities that everyone with a Smart Device wants.