QuickBooks 2021 Desktop - Automated Statements

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Intuit recently released QuickBooks 2021 Desktop. Insightful Accountant has been evaluating various pre-release versions of these products for months and has spent hours communicating with Intuit personnel, including product managers and developers, so we can help you learn about the new products. This article is one in a series of individual product features intended to provide additional content over that provided within our synopsis of the QuickBooks Desktop 2021 product line-up.

About Automated Statements

There are at least two different kinds of QuickBooks Users that utilize the Statements feature. The first use Statements to remind customers of their overdue Invoices rather than send those customers a Past Due invoice. The second send Statements to customers with open balances for recurring or statement charges, perhaps things like rent or monthly service fees, rather than sending any Invoices.

In either case, QuickBooks Users frequently forget to send out Statements, or they forget to send them out promptly to notify their customers of payments due. Users frequently use a different Statement template for each of the two different Statement purposes, one as a reminder for overdue invoices, and a different template for recurring statement charges. As such, Statements need to be sent out in two different batches so the templates can be segregated.

With the new Automated Statements feature:

  • QuickBooks will automatically create statement emails to review and send to your customers.
  • You can schedule statements to be sent out to groups of customers based on when they need to receive them, and
  • You can do one-time customization for different email and statement layouts based on various customer requirements.  

Relationship of Automated Statements to Customer Groups

Automated Statements goes hand-in-hand with Customer Groups and even though Automated Statements were outlined before Customer Groups in our 2021 Summary of Desktop features we chose to take the opposite approach in our expanded series of articles. So, we have previously covered the process of configuring Customer Groups in our article of September 11, 2020, and we will therefore cover that aspect of ‘using Automated Statements’ on a cursory basis in this article.

Just know, one might use the old ‘Chicken or the Egg’ argument when it comes to the importance of these features. They are so closely aligned that I for one can not imagine one without the other.

Using Automated Statements

You can access Automated Statements from the ‘Statements’ icon in the Customers section of the Home Page, or at the bottom of the ‘Create Statements’ window when you select that option from Customers on the top or left-hand QuickBooks menu bars.

You can set up multiple automated statement schedules to send to your customers by clicking on the Blue Button that says ‘Go to payment reminders’ at the bottom of the Create Statements window.

Payment reminders now has a new Statement toggle (shown above) so you can set up schedules for Statements.

To add a new Statement schedule, select New schedule, and give your new Statement schedule a Name.

Choose the Select mailing list drop-down, then Add New to continue adding your Statement schedule.

Enter the details of your Customer Group, including the Name you want to call this group.

Choose one or more fields to define which customers will be included in your Customer Group.  In this case, I have chosen to use the ‘customer status’ field and I want all customers whose status is Active. Make certain to select Next after you have made any all field selection you need to define/refine your customer selection.

The Customers in your new Group will be displayed for you to review. Note that there is a new field that allows you to check if you wish all customers added (or changed) in the future that meets your defined requirements to automatically be added to your customer group.  This prevents you from having to manually add new customers or customers who have a status change. 

When you are satisfied with your list, select Finish.  If you selected the ‘Automatic Add’ option, QuickBooks asks you to confirm the option via a pop-up box, click OK.  Just remember, if you have questions about setting up your Customer Group, then review our article on Create Customer Groups.

Now we are back at the Payment Reminder window and our Statement Customer Group is ready for the actual reminder details. Select Add Reminder.

From this Add Reminder window, you will tell QuickBooks, ‘When you want to send this reminder” by choosing how many days before or after the statement date to send the reminder.  You will also select the ‘statement period’, the level of detail you want included on your statements, and the statement template and Email template you want to use for this specific Customer group of Statements.

When you are done, make certain to select OK.

Remember, you can set up as many different Statement schedules and statement related customer groups as you need.

While working in QuickBooks you will be prompted to review and send your Statements according to the scheduled reminders you set up. You can choose to close the prompt and do nothing, send the day’s scheduled Statements, or Review and send the scheduled Statements. If you choose to Review and send the scheduled Statements, you will see a Send Reminders window like the one below.

You can select all the Statements scheduled for the day, or you can select the specific Statements you want to send simply by checking the checkbox to the left of each Statement listed on the left side of the window. Once you have reviewed the statements and selected those you want to send, select Send Now.

Tracking statements sent in this manner is easy since they will appear on the Sent Email tab of the Customer's record in the Customer Center.

With this great new feature in QuickBooks Desktop 2021, you will easily meet both types of Statement use requirements in a time-saving way that boosts productivity.

Why Didn’t They: Would have been nice if QuickBooks Users subscribed to QuickBooks Payments could have included a ‘payment link’ embedded in these automated statements so that they could collect payment for the entire statement balance from their Customer(s)? 

Since Intuit did this for QuickBooks Mac 2021 Desktop Users, it is likely something the rest of us will see before long. (Murph)

Feature Availability: At the time of the initial release of QuickBooks Desktop 2021, Automated Statements will be available in QuickBooks Pro and Premier, QuickBooks Accountant, QuickBooks ProPlus, QuickBooks PremierPlus, and QuickBooks Enterprise (all subscription levels).  The Automated Statements feature is scheduled for release within the United States, Canadian, and United Kingdom country versions of QuickBooks Desktop.

You will find our summary of QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks Enterprise for 2021 along with other related features in the 'Related Links' at the bottom of this feature.

Editor's Acknowledgements

Special thanks go out to my good friend Laura Madeira who allowed me to cross-check my articles with advance copies of her features to make certain that we were consistent in providing accurate information regarding the 2021 release. Laura, and her co-author Karen Siewert, have written three separate articles this year covering different aspects of the QuickBooks 2021 release, please be certain to check them out at Intuit's Firm of the Future blog:

I also want to thank the following Intuit personnel for their dedication in providing information, numerous briefings, and responding to my questions, as well as in guiding the actual product developments within QuickBooks Desktop and this release: Rachna Arya, Nipun Bhatia, Aditya Dixit, Sowmya Murthy, Madhumita Tayade, Muthuraj Thangavel, Tulasi Vijay Kumar Thulluru, and Raman Verma. I also want to say thanks to Michelle Berg, Mindy King, and Shawn Sturgeon from Intuit for additional product briefings and information along with the various members of Intuit's Alpha & Beta Product Testing Teams for QuickBooks 2021.

Of course, there are entire teams, composed of hundreds of Intuit personnel behind all of these people that make the magic happen and we so often forget to say, thank you, to them, so to all involved, “Thank You for Another Great Product"!

Note: Some images used in this feature are displayed directly as provided by Intuit, others may have been modified from the source material Intuit provided.