VCon
This article is written in support of the course titled "What's New for your Client" at the Intuit 2014 Accounting Professionals Virtual Conference.This is the first of three articles on QuickBooks 2014 written as supporting curriculum for courses offered at Intuit's 2014 Accounting Professional's Virtual Conference, September 24 through 26, 2013. Other articles in this series will support Conference Courses titled What's New in QuickBooks 2014 for You, and What's New in QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions V-14. Conference participants will be able to obtain these materials from the Intuitive Accountant booth within the Exhibit Hall during the conference, as well as within the Conference Resource Center. If you have not previously registered for the Conference you can do so at:
http://learn.intuit.com/learncenter.asp?id=178421&page=23#sthash.wgz96zzp.dpbs
This article details those new and improved features that make working with QuickBooks 2014 the right choice for your clients. New features help you and your client work more efficiently and stay connected.
The release of QuickBooks 2014 adds value with features that help you and your client:
- Be More Efficient – Reduce Manual Data Entry
- Gain Better Insights – Visualization of Data to Enable Relevant Actions
- Stay Connected – Improve Collaboration Between Accountant’s and Clients
New! Bounced Checks
(Pro, Premier, Accountant and Enterprise)
What this feature does: Efficiently records the credit of funds to the bank account when a deposited payment is returned due to Insufficient Funds (NSF). Optionally creates a credit to the bank for the NSF fee, and a new invoice to the customer for any NSF fee charged. (Slide 1)
How to access it: Find the originally recorded customer payment transaction. This can be done many ways. Perhaps one of the easiest methods is from the Customer Center, select the Customer on the left; filter the details displayed on the right for Received Payments. With your mouse cursor, double click to open the selected customer payment. (Slide 2)
How does this improve your clients’ efficiency? One-click ease when recording a bounced check requiring multiple transactions. (Slide 3)
What pain does this feature solve? Takes the accounting “guess work” out of how to properly record that the customer still owes on the receivable, and that the bank has withdrawn the availability of funds.
New! Including Credits on Bill Payment Stubs
(Pro, Premier, Accountant and Enterprise)
What this feature does: When paying a vendor bill in full with a vendor credit, these paid bills and their associated credit will be included on Bill Payment Stubs. (Slide 4)
How to access it: From the menu bar, select Vendors > Pay Bills. Assign the credit to the vendor’s bill. To print the Bill Payment stub to send to the vendor: from the menu bar, select File > Print Forms > Bill Payment Stubs. (Slide 5)
How does this improve your clients’ efficiency? Providing accurate bill payment details to the vendor improves customer to vendor communications.
What pain does this feature solve? Previous versions of QuickBooks did not provide a way to print the Bill Payment stub when a credit was paying 100% of the vendor’s open bill balance.
New! Income Tracker
(Pro, Premier, Accountant and Enterprise)
What this feature does: View customer transactions all on one screen. Get a summary of unbilled, unpaid and recently paid transactions on the Money Bar. Use the Money Bar to filter which transactions you see. Use the drop-down lists to filter transactions for ease in working activities in batch. Take immediate action on customer transactions in order to get paid timely. You can efficiently work in batch when working with transactions: create new, print or email. All data in the tracker is real time so the information is right at your fingertips. Not necessary to prepare reports to see what actions need to be taken.
How to access it: From the menu bar, select Customers > Income Tracker. (Slide 6)
How does this improve your clients’ efficiency? Income Tracker provides a useful bar, showing the financial value of unbilled and unpaid customer transactions. One window provides users with the ability to manage all customer related transaction activities individually or in batch.
What pain does this feature solve? Previous workflow required users to preview multiple reports about the customer’s open transactions. After viewing the reports, users would need to access different menu options to complete common customer transaction activities.
New! Alerts and Reminders List On Menu Bar
(Pro, Premier, Accountant, and Enterprise)
What this feature does: Provides easy access to data performance alerts and company file reminders. (Slide 7)
How to access it: On the right side of the menu bar. (Slide 8)
How does this improve your clients’ efficiency? Users will not have to wait for computer performance issues to interrupt their work day. Users can see, at a glance, reminders for their data file, helping them properly process and follow up on selected reminders.
What pain does this feature solve? Previously, users accessed reminders from a menu or used valuable space on the icon bars. With this new placement, very little space is used. The new Alerts will notify a business owner if the computer’s performance is jeopardized and provide suggested solutions.
New! Option On Install to Login to Intuit Account
(Pro, Premier, Accountant, and Enterprise)
What this feature does: When users buy through the web channel or a sales agent, the business owner can use the Intuit Account ID to install the software without the need to type in the license number. Additionally, this will simplify the process when needing to reinstall the software. (Slide 9)
How to access it: The login window will display during the software installation. (Slide 10)
How does this improve your clients’ efficiency? Easier to install the software, fewer steps required by the user.
What pain does this feature solve? Not necessary to type in the license and product code when installing the software purchased through the web channel, Intuit sales agent or when reinstalling.
New! Email Tracking
(Pro, Premier, Accountant, and Enterprise)
What this feature does: Keeps a list of forms sent by email in the Customer Center, Vendor Center or Employee Center for each list name.
How to access it: Open the Customer Center, Vendor Center or Employee Center. Highlight the name that you want to review the email history for. Click on the Sent Email tab to the right. (Slide 11)
How does this improve your clients’ efficiency? When communicating with customers, vendors or employees, a detailed list of emails sent is accessible in QuickBooks.
What pain does this feature solve? Previously to keep track of emails sent, a user had to cc or bc themselves on the sent emails. QuickBooks did not track emails sent.
New! Job Sales Rep Report Filtering
(Pro, Premier, Accountant, and Enterprise)
What this feature does: Permits users to filter Job Profitability Reports (and others) by Job Rep (new Sales Rep field for job record). In Enterprise Solutions only, the Job Rep field can now be assigned to the Expense tab on expense transactions.
How to access it: From selected job reports, on the Filter’s Tab of the Modify Report dialog, choose to filter by Rep. Make sure you have assigned a Rep on the Additional Info tab of a Job record and added it to the transaction. (Slide 12)
How does this improve your clients’ efficiency? Users can now filter many of the job profitability reports by Job Rep, permitting users to focus on specific jobs when reporting.
What pain does this feature solve? Previous versions of QuickBooks did not include a field to assign a Sales Rep to a job record, only the Customer record could have a Sales Rep assigned. Now users can assign unique Sales Rep’s to individual job records and filter reports on this field.
Improved! Job Status Report Filtering
(Pro, Premier, Accountant, Enterprise)
What this feature does: Permits users to filter Job Profitability Reports (and others) by Job Status.
How to access it: From selected job reports, on the Filter’s Tab choose to filter by Job Status. Make sure you have assigned a Job Status on the Job Info tab. (Slide 13)
How does this improve your clients’ efficiency? Users can now filter many of the job profitability reports by Job Status, permitting users to focus on specific jobs when reporting..
What pain does this feature solve? For many years users have had the ability to assign Job Status to a Job record, however, most job profitability reports did not allow users to filter on the Job Status field.
Improved! Left Icon Bar Customization
(Pro, Premier, Accountant and Enterprise)
What this feature does: When using the Left Icon Bar, permits the individual user to customize which accounts display in the View Balances window.
How to access it: To enable the Left Icon Bar, from the menu bar, select View > Left Icon Bar. With the Left Icon Bar displayed, click on the View Balances bar and scroll to the link at the bottom “Customize View Balances”. (Slide 14)
How does this improve your clients’ efficiency? Users can conveniently check critical balances for selected bank accounts and other account types.
What pain does this feature solve? Previous versions of QuickBooks using the Left Icon Bar were not able to choose which accounts would display.
Improved! Color Customization Options
(Pro, Premier, Accountant, and Enterprise, was also available in QuickBooks 2013, Maintenance Release 6 or newer)
What this feature does: Permits the individual user to switch to colored icons/light background on the Top Icon Bar. Also permits individual user to choose a color scheme for the data file.
How to access it: From the menu bar, select Edit > Preferences > Desktop View > My Preferences tab. Place a checkmark next to Switch To Colored Icons/Light Background on the Top Icon Bar. You can also change the color scheme of the file by choosing a color from the drop-down list found in the same preference, Company File Color Scheme. (Slide 15)
How does this improve your clients’ efficiency? Provides individual users the option to customize the color schemes used for their data and choose to use a Top Icon Bar with colored icons and light background.
What pain does this feature solve? Previous years releases of QuickBooks changed the color scheme of the icon bar and data files. Now, users can select to use the default color scheme with left placed icon bar, or can change the color scheme on both the top placed icon bar and data files.
Improved! Bank Feeds (formerly Online Banking)
(Pro, Premier, Accountant and Enterprise)
What this feature does: Permits users to download bank and credit card transactions directly into their QuickBooks file.* (Slide 16)
How to access it: From the menu bar, select Banking > Bank Feeds > Bank Feeds Center. Additionally from the menu bar, select Edit > Preferences > Checking > Company Preferences to choose to use the new Express Mode or the Classic Mode (Register Mode) (Slide 17)
How does this improve your clients’ efficiency? The new Bank Feeds interface provides a single window to view critical information about the connected financial institutions balance as compared with the QuickBooks balance. Bank Feeds more accurately learn common transaction categories so future downloads become less and less work. Helps users have timely reporting on their expenses in the business. (Slide 18)
What pain does this feature solve? Previous versions of Online Banking required users to access multiple windows to view and download information into QuickBooks. (Slide 19)
*For participating financial institutions.
Improved! Sort / Resize Billable Time and Costs Window
(Pro, Premier, Accountant, and Enterprise (was available with a maintenance release in Enterprise 2013)
What this feature does: The Choose Billable Time and Costs window can be resized and each column of data can now be sorted.
How to access it: When creating a sales invoice for a customer with billable time and costs, sort on a column by clicking the header with your cursor. Drag the dotted rows between columns of data to expand or collapse the column of data being viewed. (Slide 20)
How does this improve your clients’ efficiency? Users can choose to sort the billable entries before placing them on a customer’s invoice. The order of the lines on the invoice will match the new sort in the Choose Billable Time and Costs window.
What pain does this feature solve? There are occasions when users might want to reorder the lines of detail that print on a customer time and expense invoice. Now users can sort the Choose Billable Time and Costs window data and the new sort will hold to the details as they are placed on the customer’s invoice.
Improved! Create Multiple Email Templates with Merged Data
(Pro, Premier, Accountant and Enterprise)
What this feature does: Customizable email templates let you auto-populate QuickBooks data such as invoice number and amount due in the body of the email, helping to ensure accurate communication.
How to access it: From the menu bar, select Edit > Preferences > Send Forms, Company Preferences tab. (Slide 21)
How does this improve your clients’ efficiency? Communication with customers, vendors or employees is improved with content specific email templates that include ability to auto-populate with QuickBooks data. (Slide 22)
What pain does this feature solve? Previously, email templates did not include the ability to add auto-populated QuickBooks database fields or choose different templates for different names.
Improved! Include Attachments With Emailed QuickBooks Forms*
(Pro, Premier, Accountant and Enterprise)
What this feature does: Include documents that are attached to transactions when emailing the transaction from within QuickBooks. (Slide 23)
How to access it: For transactions with attachments (attach file icon will show blue piece of paper with paperclip), from the transaction ribbon toolbar at the top of a displayed transaction, select the Email drop-down. Choose the option for Invoice and Attached Files. Another method is found on the menu bar by selecting File > Send Forms. Click on the paperclip and browse to the location of the document you want to attach. (Slide 24)
How does this improve your clients’ efficiency? For users that wish to provide their customers additional details via email attachments, they no longer have to browse their computer files to find and send the additional documents in a separate email outside of QuickBooks. (Slide 25)
What pain does this feature solve? Many industries need to provide details to their customers in addition to the invoice. (Slide 26)
* Email Estimates, Invoices and other forms with Windows® Outlook, Outlook Express and Mozilla Thunderbird, as well as web mail services such as Gmail™, Yahoo! Mail®, and Hotmail®
Improved! More Reports on Transaction Report Ribbons
(Pro, Premier, Accountant and Enterprise)
What this feature does: Provides transaction specific reports accessible from the ribbon toolbar on displayed transactions.
How to access it: Select the Reports tab on the ribbon toolbar at the top of a displayed transaction. (Slide 27)
How does this improve your clients’ efficiency? Users can access purposeful, transaction specific reports from the currently displayed transaction.
What pain does this feature solve? Effortlessly create transaction specific reports without having to leave the currently displayed transaction window.
Improved! Print To One Page
(Pro, Premier, Accountant and Enterprise)
What this feature does: Permits fitting a printed report to a specified number of pages(s) wide and a specified number of pages(s) high
How to access it: From the Print Report dialog box on any displayed report. (Slide 28)
How does this improve your clients’ efficiency? Users can now easily print a report to one page by specifying number of pages wide and high.
What pain does this feature solve? Previous versions of QuickBooks only provided the option for reports to be printed one page wide.
Improved! Copy / Paste Line Items on Forms
(Pro, Premier, Accountant and Enterprise)
What this feature does: Copy and paste transaction line data to another line in customer forms and purchase forms with the formatting tab on the transaction ribbon toolbar. (Slide 29)
How to access it: For a displayed transaction, select the Formatting tab on the transaction ribbon toolbar. (Note: not all transactions types offer the Formatting tab on the ribbon toolbar).
How does this improve your clients’ efficiency? Saves time creating transactions when needing to duplicate line details.
What pain does this feature solve? Previous versions of QuickBooks permitted the user to duplicate an entire transaction form, not just a single line.
Improved! Payroll Center
(Pro, Premier, Accountant and Enterprise)
What this feature does: The new user interface available in the Payroll Center separates the details for payroll into three important groupings: Pay Employees; Pay Liabilities and File Forms. (Slide 30)
How to access it: From the menu bar, select Employees > Payroll Center. The Payroll Center can also be included as an access point from the Top or Left icon bars. (Slide 30)
How does this improve your clients’ efficiency? In each task grouping, users will now find it easier to complete the task, review previously completed tasks and access other useful information and reports related to that task. (Slide 31)
What pain does this feature solve? Users previously had to click through multiple windows to complete, review and report on payroll activity. (Slide 32)
Improved! My Company Information
(Pro, Premier, Accountant and Enterprise)
What this feature does: Replaces Company Information tab. Now lists your apps, services and subscriptions.
How to access it: From the menu bar, select Company > My Company (Slide 33)
How does this improve your clients’ efficiency? One window now provides details on the Company Information for the file, connected apps, services and subscriptions and suggests apps and services.
What pain does this feature solve? Previously to log into your Intuit Account, you would have to access it from the Left Icon Bar and if you wanted to review/change your company information, click on a different menu.
Improved! Enable / Disable Collection Center
(Pro, Premier, Accountant and Enterprise)
What this feature does: Preference to re-enable the Collection Center which was replaced with the Income Tracker (see previous topic). (Slide 34)
How to access it: From the menu bar, select Edit > Preferences > Sales & Customers > Company Preferences Tab. Place a checkmark in front of Enable Collections Center. Once enabled, the Collection Center is accessible from the top of the Customer Center. (Slide 35)
How does this improve your clients’ efficiency? Users can select to use either the Income Tracker or the older Collections Center when working with communicating with customers on open balances.
What pain does this feature solve? Often when a new feature replaces an existing feature users are adverse to the change. Here Intuit has provided the user with a choice to use the previous Collections Center interface or the new Income Tracker interface.
Improved! QuickBooks Plus Offerings*
(Pro, Premier, Accountant and Enterprise)
What this feature does: A subscription based offering (additional fee) that includes auto upgrades to new software when available, 24/7 phone support, Intuit Data Protection, Data Recovery and QuickBooks Mobile. New for QuickBooks 2014, multiple user licenses available.
How does this improve your clients’ efficiency? Seamless offering of new features; many provided a year earlier than non-subscribers have access to.
What pain does this feature solve? Ensures that the business owner has the latest improvements; many only available to Plus Subscribers until the next year’s release. Also includes access to additional valuable products and services from Intuit.
* New features, improvements, and upgrades are provided with an active subscription, when and if they become available. Subscription plans require internet access, product registration, and an Intuit account. Terms, conditions, features, availability, pricing, fees, service and support options subject to change without notice.
Acknowledgement: The Publisher gratefully acknowledges the use of this material from Intuit's What's New in QuickBooks 2014 by this article's author; which publication was written for Intuit's 2014 Accounting Professional's Virtual Conference. This article was written and published for the express purpose of promotion., and in support, of Intuit's 2014 Accounting Professional's Virtual Conference.