Intuit 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 takes a closer look at one or more of the features released as part of the QuickBooks Desktop 2020 (and associated) product updates.
If case you haven't read my article summarizing the Desktop Products then the chart below, courtesy of Intuit, reflects which new features are available in which QuickBooks releases. Of course, I would encourage you to read 'My QuickBooks Desktop 2020 Summary article'.
Source: Intuit
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Be certain to tune in for the September edition of QB Talks scheduled for 2 PM Eastern on September 18, 2019 to hear about QuickBooks 2020, there will be more information about that webinar outlined in a future article. You can register HERE.
Automated Payment Reminders
The new Automated Payment Reminder feature is designed to save users time from the manual tasks of following up on overdue invoices by automating the process of sending payment due reminder emails for you. This new feature is available in all Desktop versions of QuickBooks within the US, Canada and the United Kingdom.
The Automated Payment Reminder preference (Edit > Preferences > Payments > Company Preferences > Automated Reminders) is on by default. If you prefer not to see them, you will need to turn the preference off by select No. If you deactivate payment reminders under preferences, you can re-enable them simply by selecting Yes.
Setting-up Automated Payment Reminders
Before using Automated Payment Reminders, you must first configure them, to configure them. QuickBooks will walk you through the process of creating a new schedule, creating a mailing list, determining the frequency of reminders and customizing the reminder notice.
You can have up to 5 reminder schedules at any time and each of those schedules can have up to 5 different reminders.
1) Select Send Payment Reminders from the Customers menu inside QuickBooks Desktop, and then click Get Started
Click the 'Get Started' button when you first Schedule payment reminders to effortlessly send reminders to your Customers about the status of their payments.
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2) Choose Schedule Payment Reminders
Automate the task of reminding customers of open A/R balances and delinquent invoices.
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3) Now you will choose to create a New Payment reminders schedule
Easily set-up a schedule for specific overdue invoice situations to which customers will be assigned.
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4) Assign a Name to this new reminder schedule (some users will refer to the combined schedule and customers as a 'mailing list', in fact Intuit uses this same reference at times). In this example I am calling my schedule 'Late Payers'
You have to call your Auto Payment Reminder Schedule (aka: Mailing List) something, so give it a catchy name... like "Late Payers."
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5) Designate which Customers you want to include in the schedule (mailing list). [Some users may exclude some customers from routine ‘late notices’, for example they never send late notices to their high dollar clients.]
Now you pick-n-choose your customers to include in your schedule/mailing list, this one 'in', this one 'out' all depending on who you want to send notices to automatically... only you know the answer, it's all in the set-up. (But remember you can always make edits to the set-up.)
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6) Configure how you want you reminder email to read. You might want it to be a 'nice' reminder, or maybe you want it to be a 'not so nice' reminder, or just maybe you want it to be a 'down right mean' reminder... it's all up to you.
Compose your reminder email template to read just the way you want, remember you are following-up with delinquent payers but still trying to be courteous enough to maintain them as recurring business customers.
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When you have completed setting-up your reminder, QuickBooks tell you that's it's, "All set, and that it will prompt you to review and send reminders when they are due."
Using Automated Payment Reminders
With Automated Payment Reminders set-up QuickBooks is always watching the open invoice clock for you and letting you know when you should be sending notices so you that never forget to remind your clients it’s time to pay (or way past due to pay). Automated Payment Reminders will notify you when you log-in, then you can choose to either ‘Send now’ (just as they are set-up without reviewing them), or you can ‘Review & Send’ (the default setting and blue button shown below).
Automated Payment Reminders notifies you upon logging-into QuickBooks that you have scheduled reminders ready, you can either 'Send Now', or 'Review & Send'.
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When you choose to ‘Review & Send’ QuickBooks Displays the reminders that match the criteria you configured within the automatic payment mailing list. Each customer is displayed in a list on the left side of the screen, and the payment reminder email is displayed on the right side of the screen (as shown below).
Select the reminders you want to send, the template you composed appears on the right and will be used when sending these reminders. Choose to include or exclude any Customers you wish from the list of reminders to send.
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Select or deselect, using the check-boxes to the left of the customer's name, to send the reminder to your customer. When you click the ‘Send now’ button QuickBooks will transmit the emails to each customer. By the way, because the reminder attaches the related Invoice, if you were using QuickBooks Payments, the pay link originally included in the Invoice will still be attached in the Invoice sent with the payment reminder.
QuickBooks displays a message indicating that your reminder emails have been successfully sent to each customer.
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As soon as they are sent the invoice reminders are visible in the Invoice tracking feature along with their subsequent status progress as the customer receives and views them (as shown below)...
Track Payment Reminders using the QuickBooks Invoice tracking feature
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Your automated payment reminders also appear in the Customer’s ‘Sent Email’ tab too (shown below) and are reported with both a new type Invoice (Reminder) and a new Template (Reminder).
Reminders are displayed in the Customer's Sent Email tab with a new 'reminder' type designation.
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The time may come when you need to manage your mailing list associated with a schedule. To this simply go to Customers, then select Payment Reminders, then choose Manage Mailing List. Under the Action column, select Edit or Delete. If you delete a mailing list, it cannot be recovered, you will need to recreate it.
Accessing Manage Mailing List from Payment Reminders under the Customers menu of the QuickBooks menu bar allows you to Edit or Delete any mailing list(s) associated with a reminder schedule.
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Because QuickBooks is always watching the open invoice clock for you to let you know when you should remind your clients it’s time to pay, it saves you time by automatically creating reminder emails of outstanding invoices to your clients and even allows you to send different reminders to different customers based upon the particular circumstances of your business. Plus, you always have the option to review the reminders prior to them being sent out and to remove any customer from notification. It's really a great new feature for all users of QuickBooks Desktop 2020.
That pretty much wraps it up when it comes to the new Automated Payment Reminder feature, but for an overview of all the QuickBooks 2020 features be sure to turn over my QuickBooks Desktop (for Windows) 2020 Summary here, as well as the companion QuickBooks for Mac 2020 Summary which can be found here. I will also be continuing this series on the individual QuickBooks 2020 features each day over the next couple of weeks check back in each day's headlines.
Editor's Acknowledgements
My very special thanks go out to Laura Madeira who helped cross-check my work with her own to make certain that we were consistent in providing accurate information regarding this 2020 release. For the official Intuit version of “QuickBooks Desktop 2020 – What’s New and Improved” you will find Laura Madeira's article posted at this Firm of the Future blog website.
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"!