QuickBooks Online new features and improvements—December 2023

As we look back on 2023, we’re happy to have shared it with all of the accounting and bookkeeping professionals in the QuickBooks community. Thank you for the insightful feedback that led to all of this year’s updates.

Share QuickBooks updates with your associates and clients: Send them this link for QuickBooks innovations relevant to business owners and admins.

Your Feedback in Action

This is a regular series where we share relevant product improvements specifically driven by feedback from accountants. See the summary article for the latest updates.

What’s new in December

Top QuickBooks Online product innovations of 2023

The reimagined ProAdvisor Program

An easier, smarter 1099 experience

New project-based reports provide more insights to clients

A simplified and more flexible view of expense reports

Import subdivided budgets in QuickBooks Online Plus and Advanced

Faster ACH payments and optional next-day delivery for QuickBooks Bill Pay

Create and e-file unlimited W-2s and 1099s quickly with Quick Employer Forms Accountant

Coming soon: Expert support for claiming tax credits

Top QuickBooks Online product innovations of 2023

In a nutshell: The QuickBooks team strives to provide a family of products to help you get your clients ready for the future so they can work from anywhere, save time, and keep information protected.

In case you missed them, learn more about the top enhancements in QuickBooks Online and connected services in 2023.

The reimagined ProAdvisor Program

In a nutshell: As you know, the QuickBooks ProAdvisor Program gives you access to exclusive discounts, tools, training, and events to help you retain talent and expand your business.

As of Nov. 20, our refreshed ProAdvisor Program will provide even more benefits for you and your firm.

Among 20+ updates, you’ll find:

• New benefits:
• Exclusive discounts
• Access to events
• Consultations about your firm’s growth
• A larger discount for the Mailchimp Standard Plan
• New training and discounts for Intuit® ProConnect™ Tax and Intuit Tax Advisor 
• Premium customer care for Gold Tier ProAdvisors and above
• New accountant-approved app recommendations 
• New tier thresholds 
• More opportunities to earn points
• Newly designed certification, tier, and knowledge badges

Learn more

An easier, smarter 1099 experience

In a nutshell: Preparing, filing, and correcting 1099s is now easier than ever in QuickBooks Online. Starting this month, you’ll notice four improvements when managing 1099s for your firm or your clients:

1. New workflow: Save time with the new experience to prepare 1099s in just three short steps.

2. New reports: Get insight on which transactions should be included in your 1099 forms (and which shouldn’t) with two new reports.

3. More flexibility on paying for e-filing: While preparing a 1099, a business owner or accountant can add their own payment method for their 1099 e-filing without impacting payments for their other QuickBooks Online products.

4. Free corrections e-filing: Get peace of mind knowing you can e-file corrections directly from QuickBooks Online for $0 added cost. This is especially important in light of the new IRS regulation about filing 1099 corrections in the same way as the original.

New project-based reports provide more insights to clients

In a nutshell: You can now put more reports at your clients’ fingertips with QuickBooks Online Advanced.

With three new reports—Work in Progress, Invoices vs. Estimates, and Estimates vs. Actuals—you and your project-based clients can get deeper performance insights, helping them pivot as needed to keep project profitability on track.

Rather than spend hours extracting and manipulating data in a spreadsheet or outside solution, you can create detailed reports from real-time project information in a few clicks, right inside QuickBooks.

A simplified and more flexible view of expense reports

In a nutshell: Work with your clients’ QuickBooks Online expense reports in the way you prefer, with new options and a simpler view.

Visit your expense reports to see:

• Options for filtering within the report header
• One place to choose customization options
• A clearer display of your report options

Import subdivided budgets in QuickBooks Online Plus and Advanced

In a nutshell: You and your clients using QuickBooks Online Plus and QuickBooks Online Advanced can now save time managing complex budgets.

To create budgets for multiple subdivisions of a business, you no longer need to spend time managing separate budgets for each subdivision using spreadsheets or other tools. Now you can simply import budgets for your client’s subdivisions, such as classes, locations, or customers. 

Here are the steps to import a subdivided budget:

1. In QuickBooks Online, choose your budgeting period and subdivision.
2. Download the custom template based on your choices.
3. Add your existing budget data to this template.
4. Re-upload the completed template into QuickBooks to import and work with your subdivided budgets.

Faster ACH payments and optional next-day delivery for QuickBooks Bill Pay

In a nutshell: Now your clients who use QuickBooks Bill Pay can streamline their accounts payable process by making payments via ACH faster than ever.

Speeds for standard ACH payments through QuickBooks Bill Pay have improved to 3-5 business days for most transactions (previously 5-7 business days).

Your clients can also take advantage of Faster ACH, which provides next-business-day payment delivery for a $10 fee. Note: Purchases of Faster ACH do not count toward the allotted monthly free ACH transactions within your client’s selected Bill Pay plan.

Create and e-file unlimited W-2s and 1099s quickly with Quick Employer Forms Accountant

In a nutshell: Tax professionals and business owners can streamline the process of creating and e-filing employer forms with Quick Employer Forms Accountant. Supported forms include W-2, 1099-MISC, 1099-NEC, 1099-INT, and 1099-DIV. Plus, you can automatically receive W-3 and 1096 forms. With an unlimited license, you can create as many companies and forms as you like during the tax year.

And now Quick Employer Forms Accountant is better than ever, with a redesigned user interface, reduced page load times, and better navigation. Plus, get bulk e-file support within a business and across multiple businesses. Please note that Quick Employer Forms Accountant is a standalone application and does not import data from QuickBooks.

Did you know? The IRS updated its e-file requirements for tax year 2023. Under the new rules, filers of many types of returns, like W-2 and 1099s, will need to file electronically with the IRS when filing 10 or more returns for a calendar year.

Note: Payroll forms including 940, 941 and 944 are not supported in Quick Employer Forms Accountant.

Learn more

Coming soon: Expert support for claiming tax credits

In a nutshell: Every year, billions of dollars in tax credits go unclaimed by business owners, due to a lack of awareness and lack of confidence in navigating the process. To help our customers claim tax credits averaging about $12,000 per business, QuickBooks is excited to announce a new partnership with MainStreet, expected to be available through QuickBooks Online Payroll in January 2024. See the image below for a mock-up of what the service might look like for an average small business customer.

Our partners at MainStreet will help shave weeks off the process of claiming tax credits by helping businesses gather the data required and completing the claims forms for easy filing. They’ll also partner with accountants and bookkeepers through the entire process to ensure everyone involved is well-informed and confident with the outcome. For added peace of mind, their service comes with a $1 million audit-protection guarantee.

To help businesses get a head start on the claims process, QuickBooks will begin notifying customers of their tax credit eligibility in January 2024, with the reminder that they should discuss tax credits with their accountants, if applicable, before beginning a claim. Rest assured, the tax credit experts at MainStreet are here to partner with customers and accountants to ensure clients are able to easily claim the money they deserve.

Keep an eye out for updates in QuickBooks as we integrate this new service. Learn more at mainstreet.com.