You asked, we delivered

By Amanda Thompson                      

Recently, Accounting Today surveyed readers on technology use. The results show what we all know to be true - technology advancements are increasingly foundational to the accounting industry and will continue to be. Take a minute to read the final report, but here are a few key findings:

• Intentionality — in the form of written tech strategies and IT policies — is an important foundation for managing technology in the firm.
• More than half (51%) of tech-forward firms focus on staying ahead of the majority of accountants, but avoid being on the bleeding edge. In other words, they lean toward an early majority approach over an early adopter approach.
• Leaders in embracing technology are focusing more of their IT investments on improving the client experience, driving business growth, and enabling innovation than their peer Firms.
• While larger firms have more resources to invest in tech, the ability to be nimble and leapfrog technologies means smaller firms are just as capable of being tech-forward, particularly in burgeoning areas like generative AI.
• Security is a priority for tech-savvy accountants, and they are more likely than their peers at other practices to employ a wider range of approaches to keep client and firm data safe.

Accountants trust technology stacks to provide tools to serve clients and run their firms. At Intuit, our commitment to the accounting industry remains strong as we continue to develop technology solutions to aid in the industry's growth.

Here at mid-year, let's take a look at recent technology updates in our product family specifically developed from accountant feedback. Each feature is designed to affirm our dedication to be a trusted advocate in the accounting industry, ensuring that our tools evolve to meet the changing needs of accounting professionals.

1. Role-based access controls for your firm's team

Making sure the right firm employees have access to the right data is critical when it comes to staying compliant and maintaining control over sensitive information. With role-based access in QuickBooks Online Accountant, you get more granular control over roles so that only designated members of your team can access specific data in your clients' books. You can delegate AP/AR, bill payment, payments, and payroll tasks and decide who has permission to view, create, edit, or delete transactions. You can also choose which data employees can access within specific areas of sales, expenses, inventory, payroll, and more. Plus, you and your client can set custom role-based access to manage creation, editing, and viewing permissions for financial, receivables, payroll, and other key reports.

See role-based access controls in action.

2. Batch import journal entries

Manually adding journal entries or counting on third-party solutions to add them can be time-consuming and prone to errors. When you import journal entries in QuickBooks Online, you can add multiple entries at once to save even more time. Getting started is easy—just upload your CSV file and QuickBooks does the rest.

3. Chart of accounts templates in QuickBooks Online Accountant

As the most-loved feature at QuickBooks Connect 2023, chart of accounts templates provide you with an added layer of efficiency. These templates save your firm time by streamlining the setup process for each client. Your team can create, import, and manage chart of accounts templates for different types of businesses and industries. You can also customize and save templates and quickly apply them to any clients in the future.

4. Revenue share available for QuickBooks Online Payments
QuickBooks Payments is part of the QuickBooks revenue share program,* and adding clients is easier than ever. You can start clients off directly through QuickBooks Online Accountant, just as you would add any other product like Payroll or Time—no need to share a link or conference call to get clients set up. When you enroll and are accepted in the ProAdvisor revenue share program, you'll receive a 20% share of the net revenue from the transactions your clients' process in Payments for up to 5 years across all eligible clients. Eligible clients are those who are approved and received Payments through QuickBooks Payments and maintain certain criteria.*

Ready to explore QuickBooks Payments revenue share? Take it for a test spin. Get early access here.

Money movement services are provided by Intuit Payments Inc., licensed as a Money Transmitter by the New York State Department of Financial Services. For more information about Intuit Payments' money transmission licenses, please visit https://www.intuit.com/legal/licenses/payment-licenses/.

5. Spreadsheet Sync

Last year, we rolled out Spreadsheet Sync in QuickBooks Online Advanced to enhance reporting and multi-company reporting using a two-way sync with Microsoft Excel. You can monitor business performance by using Excel to craft custom charts and graphs with your QuickBooks data. Plus, leverage pre-made templates, compile consolidated reports for multiple companies, and refresh your data in one simple step.** You can also manage and update large batches of data directly in your spreadsheet, and then sync it back to QuickBooks.

Now, with the latest update to Spreadsheet Sync, you and your clients can use their Advanced data in Google Sheets to expand their reporting capabilities. Clients can collaborate with you and their own teams in real time and use the Google Sheets functions they're used to, like comments and version control.

See how spreadsheet sync works.

6. Improved Payroll features

You asked for more advanced payroll features, so we added key improvements to provide more flexibility in how employees are paid, deeper insights for better decisions, and added control in running payroll overall.

• Paycheck corrections after payroll gives your clients more control, flexibility, and confidence in running payroll.**
• Pay by the piece allows your clients to calculate an employee's compensation using a piecework rate of pay rather than assigning an hourly wage or salary.
• Payroll cost allocation lets you and your clients add multiple classes for a single pay type to provide deeper insights into profit and loss for various business areas.** Split each employee's hourly and non-hourly payroll costs into multiple classes, then QuickBooks Online Payroll seamlessly calculates payroll using data from QuickBooks Time—no journal entries needed.
• Your clients can digitize more of the I-9 employment verification process by having employees complete their I-9 forms during onboarding in the QuickBooks Workforce web portal. After verifying an employee's ID-confirming documents and completing and submitting the form, your client can find an employee's I-9 in the Documents tab of their profile.

Watch a video on making bulk edits to pay items with QuickBooks Online Payroll.

Money movement services are provided by Intuit Payments Inc., licensed as a Money Transmitter by the New York State Department of Financial Services. For more information about Intuit Payments' money transmission licenses, please visit https://www.intuit.com/legal/licenses/payment-licenses/.

7. Mix and match client or firm billing for each of your client's products

You now have more flexibility and control over who pays for your clients' QuickBooks subscriptions. Through QuickBooks Online Accountant, you can mix and match the billing options for each QuickBooks product based on what best suits your client and your firm. You no longer have to commit to a single billing structure for all your clients' QuickBooks products—instead, you can choose who covers the costs while still offering the added tools and features that help your clients thrive. Your firm might even find it easier to recommend Online Payroll to your clients, since you can choose not to manage its monthly billing and operations.

8. Revenue recognition enhancements in QuickBooks Online Advanced

With QuickBooks Online Advanced, your clients with accrual accounting businesses can automatically recognize revenue when it's earned, without third-party apps or manual processes to track recurring revenue. And now, they can get more of the revenue recognition functionality they need with new customizations, edits, and adjustments.

• More flexibility suits different scenarios. Your client can edit a revenue recognition schedule after saving an invoice. While this functionality can help many kinds of clients, project-based customers will benefit the most.
• Simplified editing and deleting lets your clients add products or delete product line items on an invoice or sales receipt, or void an invoice or sales receipt for any reason after the fact.
• Adjustable pricing and dates allows clients to adjust the price of a revenue recognition item. Before the schedule begins to post, they can also revise the service date of a line item.

9. Fixed-asset accounting in QuickBooks Online Advanced

The IRS requires businesses to depreciate each asset valued over $2,500. Manual workarounds to calculate depreciation are tedious and unreliable, but visibility is crucial to your client. With QuickBooks Online Advanced, you can now add your clients' fixed assets and schedule their depreciation rather than spend hours posting and reconciling journal entries to record transactions linked to their acquisition, depreciation, and disposal.

10. Add a second admin in QuickBooks Ledger

You may already know that QuickBooks Ledger helps you manage accounting and end-to-end workflows for your low-complexity clients. Ledger integrates seamlessly with QuickBooks Online Accountant so you can maintain your current workflows without any interruption to your daily operations. With its latest update, Ledger now allows for a second user, which means you can update the Primary admin without a change request. And, assigning your client as the Primary admin allows them to log into Ledger and connect their own bank feeds.

Here's a quick demo.

More features and updates to explore:

• Accountant Batch Migration Tool: Get the peace of mind that your clients' data is in good hands when you move their QuickBooks Desktop company files to QuickBooks Online using the Accountant Batch Migration tool. Watch a quick video on the Accountant-Batch Migration Tool.
• Bulk reclassify in QuickBooks Online Accountant and Advanced: Easily edit multiple transactions at once or move them to a different account with the reclassify transactions tool in QuickBooks Online Accountant.
• 1099 corrections in QuickBooks Online Payroll: Use QuickBooks Online Payroll to correct 1099-NEC or 1099-MISC forms after filing. (Note: 1099 corrections can't be used to correct 1099 forms that were rejected by the IRS). Watch a video on making 1099 corrections in QuickBooks Online Payroll.
• Payroll automatic matching: QuickBooks Online can help increase the accuracy of your books by automatically matching paychecks that are paid via direct deposit from QuickBooks Payroll.
• Deprecation of auto-detection of transfers in the bank feed: We'll be turning off the feature that auto-detects transfers in bank feeds.
• Navigation based on user permissions: You'll soon be able to show or hide areas of QuickBooks Online navigation based on a user's permissions. That way, each user doesn't have to view items that don't apply to them.

We're here for you

As your clients' trusted advisor, you help them stay compliant, efficient, and on top of their game. And we're here to help every step of the way. Whether it's ways to streamline your firm's operations or better tools for more flexibility, we heard your feedback and delivered features that help you run your firm with confidence and support your clients. Stay tuned for more exciting products and tools designed specifically for our accountant community.

For more information on any of these updates, reach out to us or call 1.800.388.1954

_{Amanda Thompson is a part of the Intuit Accountant team, developing content relevant to the accounting industry. Before joining Intuit, Amanda worked in marketing at a Top-40 accounting firm.}

_{Important offers, pricing details, and disclaimers}

_{Money movement services are provided by Intuit Payments Inc., licensed as a Money Transmitter by the New York State Department of Financial Services. For more information about Intuit Payments' money transmission licenses, please visit https://www.intuit.com/legal/licenses/payment-licenses/}

_{*QuickBooks Online Accountant Revenue Share Program Offer Terms}

_{Eligibility: QuickBooks Online Accountant ("QBOA") firms in the United States only are eligible to apply to enroll in the "Revenue Share Program" and manage only new U.S.-based users for certain subscriptions ("Revenue Share Subscriptions"), services ("Revenue Share Products") and add-ons ("Revenue Share Add-Ons").}

_{Revenue Share Subscriptions means the following QuickBooks products: QuickBooks Online Simple Start, Essentials, Plus, and Advanced, QuickBooks Online Payroll Core, Premium, and Elite,* QuickBooks Time, and QuickBooks Payments ("Revenue Share Products").}

_{*The Revenue Share Add-Ons means the per employee fee and multi-state charge for QuickBooks Online Payroll. The Revenue Share Subscriptions and Add-Ons do not include other optional add-on services for which Intuit charges a fee and is not already included in the base fee for the subscription.}

_{Only one (1) QBOA user may enroll the QBOA firm in the Revenue Share Program per product. Intuit reserves the right to accept or decline any QBOA firm.}

_{Offer Terms:}

• _{QuickBooks Payroll, QuickBooks Time and QuickBooks: Each Revenue Share Program participant ("Participant") is eligible to receive a 30% revenue share on the Revenue Share Subscriptions and 15% revenue share on the Revenue Share Add-Ons for the first 12 months of the paid subscription ("Revenue Share Payment(s)"), starting from the date the client starts paying for the subscription. The first month of the Revenue Share Subscriptions and Revenue Share Add-Ons, starting from the date of enrollment in the subscription, is free. After the first month of the Revenue Share Subscription, a 50% discount is applied to the then-current monthly list price for three (3) months, followed by the then-current list price. After the first month of the subscription, if the client enters their payment details and pays for the subscription, the firm is eligible to receive Revenue Share Payments for the subsequent 12 months only. Each Revenue Share Subscription must be client-billed, and cannot be paid for by the QBOA firm.}
• _{QuickBooks Payments: Each Revenue Share Program participant ("Participant") is eligible to receive 20% net revenue share from the transactions the accountant's clients process in QuickBooks Payments for the first 5 years ("Revenue Share Payment(s)"), starting from the date you add your client to the Revenue Share program for QuickBooks Payments. The firm is eligible to receive Revenue Share Payments for the 5 years only. Eligible clients must meet the following requirements: 1) QuickBooks Online user for more than 2 years; 2) Not previously used QuickBooks Payments; 3) US based company, and 4) Remain in good standing with Intuit along with other criteria.}

_{Revenue Share Program cannot be combined with any other Intuit offer. Offer valid for a limited time only, only in the U.S., and is non-transferable.}

_{Termination. Intuit may terminate these terms or the Revenue Share Program or modify the terms of the Revenue Share Program for any reason and at any time, at Intuit's sole discretion, without notice. Terms, conditions, pricing, special features, and service and support options are subject to change without notice.}

_**Features

_{QuickBooks Payments: QuickBooks Payments: QuickBooks Payments account subject to eligibility criteria, credit, and application approval. Subscription to QuickBooks Online required. Money movement services are provided by Intuit Payments Inc., licensed as a Money Transmitter by the New York State Department of Financial Services. For more information about Intuit Payments' money transmission licenses, please visit https://www.intuit.com/legal/licenses/payment-licenses/.}

_{Payroll cost allocation: QuickBooks Online Plus or Advanced subscription required. Time tracking available in QuickBooks Online Payroll Premium and Elite only.}

_{Spreadsheet Sync: Automatic refresh requires setup and will update workbooks or individual sheets every time you open the workbook or login to Spreadsheet Sync. See more details here.}

_{Paycheck corrections after payroll: Currently available for open quarters before taxes have been filed, may not be available for certain situations. If using direct deposit, and money hasn't moved, you can delete or edit paychecks to ensure the correct amount that should be withdrawn from your bank and deposited to the employees. If using direct deposit, and money has moved, corrections can only be used to void transactions but do not correct any money movement. Corrections can't be made on adjustment checks. Note: Corrections could result in tax over or underpayment, in which case the subscriber is responsible to take care of that separately.}

_{Terms, conditions, pricing, special features, and service and support options subject to change without notice.}