“Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens. Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens. Brown paper packages tied up with strings. These are a few of my favorite things…”1
I begin my favorite newbie’s article each year with the above excerpt from “My Favorite Things,” composed for “The Sound of Music.” The song emphasizes the simple things in life.
Some years, my favorite things have been features found only in QuickBooks Enterprise. Sometimes, my favorites are some of the simplistic things found in every version of QuickBooks.
Still, in other years, my favorites have been accountant-version features intended for bookkeepers. Other than giving you some specifics of the features, I didn’t always feel the need to justify why a specific feature was among my favorites.
‘My Favorite Newbies’ for 2024
Prepayments (Customer Deposits) Feature
In my way of thinking, Prepayments (Customer Deposits) is not just the only actual new feature, but the most impressive. It also is a feature that has been needed for a long time.
This new feature allows users to receive prepayments (customer deposits) on Sales Orders and track them. Unfortunately, it is available only to Enterprise and Enterprise Accountant users (US and Canadian versions).
Source: Adapted by Insightful Accountant from a pre-prelease version of Intuit QuickBooks Desktop 2024.
In my opinion, Intuit should have made this feature available to QuickBooks Premier Desktop Plus customers since they also have Sales Order functionality.
Because, until now, you have had only two choices to handle such prepayments. Either accept a payment without an associated invoice, resulting in a negative accounts receivable, a no-no under GAAP or use an elaborate workaround with a two-sided item requiring numerous transactions to offset a prepayment against a subsequent invoice.
But with the new Enterprise feature, prepayments get credited to an other current liabilities account you designate and get posted (on the debit side) to undeposited funds.
Then, when the Sales Order is converted to an Invoice, the prepayment can be applied and reflected on the Invoice.
Source: Adapted by Insightful Accountant from a pre-prelease version of Intuit QuickBooks Desktop 2024.
It shouldn’t go without saying I’m very appreciative this new feature came with supporting reporting, making it easy to identify Open Prepayments by Customer.
Enhanced Security
For every user of the new QuickBooks Desktop 20242 line-up, we have something that most users will never see. It’s a functionality hidden deep within the back-end of the application.
This new functionality is the all-important security needed to help maintain the integrity of your accounting data and information of the company, customers, vendors and employees. QuickBooks 2024 went from AES 128 to AES 256 data encryption and decryption protocols to accomplish this.
Now, your most sensitive financial information is better protected from increasing cyber threats by a new layer of security.
The added security safeguards critical data like bank accounts, tax identification numbers, credit card details and social security numbers. It also extends the safety and protection of your business data when used with cloud resources such as online backup, hosting and third-party applications.
Unfortunately, it also means external accountants using QuickBooks Desktop 2024 will not be able to upgrade their client’s QuickBooks Desktop 2023 (or earlier) Company files with only accountant credentials.
Master Inventory Stock Status Report
Several new or enhanced reports are available within the US and Canadian versions of QuickBooks 2024, but some reports may require specific product versions.
The most significant of these enhanced reports is designed for QuickBooks Enterprise users with Advanced Inventory functionality, including Serial/Lot Number and Expiration Date tracking.
It is an expanded version of the Inventory Stock Status by Lot Numbers report that Intuit coined as the Master Inventory Stock Status Report because it includes so much information (shown below).
Source: Intuit QuickBooks Media release content.
But even though the new Master report is the only one officially released, there are lots of other reports associated with features that can be produced with a little bit of customization. It is nice to have the ability to perform these customizations for the first time in the 2024 products making those fields and sorts available for the first time.
A great example of this is associated with the enhancements made to the Item Categorization feature for 2024. You now can produce reports that include Item Categories and list and sort by those categories with the related items for each.
Source: Adapted by Insightful Accountant from pre-release version of Intuit QuickBooks Desktop 2024
Seamless Updates
All QuickBooks Desktop 2024 (US only) customers should have streamlined product updates via seamless background installation to help avoid disruptions. This new process means:
- Ability to learn about “what’s included” before updating
- Updating QuickBooks without work interruptions
- Scheduling product updates (in a future version release)
If all of these capabilities come to fruition, and updating does work seamlessly without introducing bugs, it will be a very significant and welcome addition to the product.
And with that, you have my four favorite newbies within the QuickBooks Desktop 2024 product line-up.
Acknowledgments
I want to thank the product managers, team leaders, developers, and Alpha/Beta test team members working behind the scenes, striving to deliver a new and better QuickBooks Desktop every year. It is far too easy to forget to thank these folks who “make QuickBooks a reality.”
I especially appreciate Nipun Bhatia, Ninad Marathe, and Shobhit Sharma of the QuickBooks Desktop and Enterprise teams in India for assistance in affirming features and feature-related issues presented in this article.
My special “thank you” goes to Intuit’s Kim Amsbaugh, who always keeps me “in the loop.”
Finally, to everyone involved at Intuit and the various QuickBooks teams, “Thank you.”
Nomenclature used herein:
QuickBooks 2024 refers to all versions of QuickBooks Desktop 2024 and QuickBooks Enterprise (v24). [This designation may also appear as QB24.]
QuickBooks Desktop 2024 refers to all versions of QuickBooks Desktop Plus and QuickBooks Desktop Accountant for 2024. [This designation may also appear as QBD24.]
QuickBooks Enterprise 2024 refers to all versions of QuickBooks Enterprise v24 and QuickBooks Enterprise Accountant for 2024. [This designation may also appear as QBES24.]
Otherwise, products are referenced explicitly by individual product names.
Footnotes:
1-“My Favorite Things”; Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The Sound of Music (1959), Composer Richard Rodgers and lyricist Oscar Hammerstein.
2 - All QuickBooks Desktop 2024 versions require computers that are 64-bit compatible and running on Windows 10 or newer operating systems. The quicker, more reliable operating system should help you accomplish tasks faster.
Figit Friends Newbies (as shown in this article’s headline graphic) is the registered trademark of Mattel Corporation.
Disclosures:
Materials within this feature, including graphic illustrations, were developed from various pre-release versions of QuickBooks 2024. As such, the final product version you acquire may appear, act, or be somewhat different from that described or illustrated herein.
Portions of this feature have been adapted from Intuit QuickBooks Desktop 2024-related content, including in-product help resources. All such source materials were adapted by Insightful Accountant solely for educational purposes.
As used herein, QuickBooks, QuickBooks ProAdvisor, QuickBooks Desktop Plus, QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise (all versions), and QuickBooks Desktop Accountant refer to one or more registered trademarks of Intuit Inc., a NASDAQ “INTU” publicly traded corporation headquartered in Mountain View, California (USA).
Other trade names used herein, including any other vendor (app/software) products discussed, may be registered, trademarked, or otherwise held by their respective owners and are now acknowledged accordingly. They have been referenced for informational and educational purposes only.
This is an editorial feature, not sponsored content. No vendors within this article have paid Insightful Accountant or the Author any remuneration to be included within this feature. This article is provided solely for informational and educational purposes.
The publication of this article does not represent any form of endorsement by either the author or Insightful Accountant.
Note: Registered Trademark ® and Copyright © symbols have been eliminated from the articles within this publication for brevity due to the frequency or abundance with which they might otherwise appear or be repeated. We attempt to credit such trademarked products or copyrighted materials within our respective article footnotes and disclosures.
How does the song go, "...another one bites the dust?"
For those who have been long-term members of what started out as the TSheets PRO Program—an educational, partner and certification offering of TSheets which became the QuickBooks Time PRO Program after Intuit acquired TSheets—the program officially will conclude Nov. 15, 2023.
The QuickBooks Time PRO Program, formerly the TSheets PRO Program, has offered benefits for accountants who referred their clients to QuickBooks Time, Intuit's time tracking solution.
But Intuit has decided to end the QuickBooks Time PRO Program, and is doing so on Nov. 15, 2023. The PRO website also will be discontinued as of that same date.
Current QuickBooks Time PROs who are not part of the QuickBooks ProAdvisor program will be able to join the QuickBooks ProAdvisor program soon.
In addition, the QuickBooks ProAdvisor program plans to broaden the benefits, advantages and resources available to ProAdvisors who support Multiple QuickBooks offerings, including QuickBooks Time.
Existing ProAdvisors, and QuickBooks Time PROs can log into QuickBooks Online Accountant to learn more about these QuickBooks ProAdvisor Program offerings.
Disclosures:
Materials within this feature Intuit media source content. All such source materials were adapted by Insightful Accountant solely for educational purposes.
As used herein, QuickBooks, QuickBooks ProAdvisor, QuickBooks Time and QuickBooks Time PRO refer to one or more registered trademarks of Intuit Inc., a NASDAQ "INTU" publicly traded corporation headquartered in Mountain View, California (USA).
Other trade names used herein, including any other vendor (app/software) products discussed, may be registered, trademarked, or otherwise held by their respective owners and are now acknowledged accordingly. They have been referenced for informational and educational purposes only.
This is an editorial feature, not sponsored content. No vendors within this article have paid Insightful Accountant or the author any remuneration to be included within this feature. This article is provided solely for informational and educational purposes.
The publication of this article does not represent any form of endorsement by either the author or Insightful Accountant.
Note: Registered Trademark ® and Copyright © symbols have been eliminated from the articles within this publication for brevity due to the frequency or abundance with which they might otherwise appear or be repeated. We attempt to credit such trademarked products or copyrighted materials within our respective article footnotes and disclosures.
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