SmartScan Your QBO with QuickBooks Labs

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Intuit is asking people like us to tell them what does and doesn't work when it comes to QBO, so now is time to explore a test feature and offer up suggestions. One glimpse of SmartScan and you might think that 'artificial intelligence' has taken hold of your QuickBooks Online.

SmartScan is a new test feature from QuickBooks Labs that scans your QBO file for potential mistakes and missing information, like missing check numbers. It also examines large expenses with an inquiring 'computer mind' asking if they should be remapped to an asset account. Another example would be the identification of old uncleared transactions.

As part of the ever-growing needs of QBO users, the Intuit Product Team is asking for our help and suggestions, as well as our opinions, on new features like SmartScan that can insure accurate financial data. You really should get involved by 'checking-out' this new functionality, and giving Intuit feedback on what you think.

Turning On SmartScan:

  • To turn on SmartScan start at the Gear icon, then select QuickBooks Labs. This opens the QuickBooks Labs 'high-tech playground'.
  • When the playground opens, look for the feature called 'SmartScan your books', then
  • Slide the button to 'ON' to activate this test feature.

Using SmartScan:

  • When you click on the Gear icon you will see that SmartScan has been added to your list of Tools.
  • Select SmartScan - this immediately begins a review of your QBO file looking for issues that may need to be addressed.
  • Upon the scan conclusion, a Summary will be generated with any issues found. The tool is designed to look at many of things that an Accountant or ProAdvisor might look for if they were reviewing the file manually.
  • Currently there are 5 SmartScan review areas including Vendors without a physical address, Duplicate check numbers in the same bank account, Checks without a Payee Name, Large expenses that might be capital purchases, and very old checks not voided or cleared within the bank account.
  • The Summary displays not only the number of issues found, but provide links to look at the error and to take action.

Intuit is actively seeking our feedback concerning both the concept and process. You can not only use the feedback function when you start using this, but you can also let us know here at Insightful Accountant by posting a comment to this article.

Here is an example of Duplicate Checks found by SmartScan.

As you can see a list is created with all your bank transactions missing check numbers. In this case they happened to be ACH transactions. This frequently happens with bank feeds since there is no check number, so in this case no action was required.

SmartScan is obviously still in a very basic state, it could be that some additional 'machine learning' algorithms need to be included to learn why certain things that initially appear to be a problem are not really an error.

Now let's look at an example of Big Expenses found by SmartScan.

This scan could really be very helpful for instances when clients purchase unexpected fixed assets using an expense account but forget to inform the bookkeeper or accountant.

I am not sure what the dollar threshold is used by SmartScan in identification of these expenses but in my situation the scan found transactions which should have been added to Fixed Assets. 

Perhaps some 'preferences' would allow the Accountant, Bookkeeper or ProAdvisor to configure the setting for the 'big expense' dollar threshold. Hey Intuit, there is a 'feedback suggestion.'

I have one last SmartScan example for you, Old Uncleared Checks.

In the case of the report generated by SmartScan I found that I needed to customize it by filtering to only view 'uncleared transactions'. Once I made that adjustment I was able to easily determine what I needed to do with the transactions identified.

My Initial Thoughts about SmartScan

SmartScan is designed to identify issues in QuickBooks Online files that need the attention of the Accountant, Bookkeeper or ProAdvisor and in that respect it is a great idea.  At this point it still needs work perhaps in the form of additional machine logic and maybe in the form of preference settings that we can control.

I'm not convinced that SmartScan is about to take over my job of reviewing my client's files, but with some tweaking and additional features I can see it blossom into a another good client-data-review type tool that we can use to assist us in our work.

I for one would like it to run a verification of qualifying 1099 vendors to check for their EINs. I would also like to see the ability to 'check-mark' transactions already identified by SmartScan and manually checked by us as OK, so that the same items do not re-appear on the very next SmartScan.

As you can see from the list below there are a whole lot of other scan possibilities that Intuit is considering.  You can actually vote on your top 5 from this list simply by clicking the 'Want more?' tab within SmartScan.

Hopefully, you will have some great ideas about this potentially beneficial tool; so turn-on this labs feature, and give it a workout. Then send Intuit the feedback they are looking for.  This is how we can help the Intuit Development Team turn a bumpy road into a grand destination.