QuickBooks Online new features and improvements—May 2023

Although our goal is to honor accounting professionals year-round, May 19 just happens to be Accounting Career Day and National Accounting Day. Thank you for working tirelessly to help business owners achieve their financial goals. #PartnersInProsperity

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

In the Know Webinar

Register today for the next In The Know Webinar on Thursday, May 25 at 11:00 AM PT, a monthly webinar for accountants to learn more about the latest and greatest product feature updates. This month, join us to learn about the QuickBooks Online Desktop app, and stay current with all the recently added ProAdvisor training. Reserve your spot

Your Feedback in Action

A series of quick reads where we share product improvements specifically driven by feedback from the accountant community. Check out the May edition to see the most recent updates.

What’s new in May

QuickBooks Online annual recertification

Visual workflows builder and multi-conditional approvals in QuickBooks Online Advanced

Export PDFs from Custom Report Builder in QuickBooks Online Advanced

Accountant view-only access to clients’ Get Paid Upfront transactions

Add Time or Contractor Payments as standalone services for clients in QuickBooks Online Accountant

943 filing for all existing QuickBooks Online Payroll customers

Seamless reactivation in QuickBooks Online Payments

Manage employee documents, right in QuickBooks

Track contractor W-9 info

QuickBooks Online annual recertification

In a nutshell: Do you know all the QuickBooks Online updates that have happened over the last year? The best way to stay up to date is to get your annual QuickBooks Online ProAdvisor recertification.

If your last certification or recertification was before Nov. 1, 2022, you can retain your ProAdvisor certification status by passing the exam on or before June 30, 2023. If your last certification occurred after Nov. 1, 2022, your next certification can occur in 2024.

You can access this year’s training materials and recertification exam from now until June 30, 2023 at 11:59 PM PST. Get started

Visual workflows builder and multi-conditional approvals in QuickBooks Online Advanced

In a nutshell: Workflows in QuickBooks Online Advanced are now more flexible and customizable than ever.

Previously, you could only use one condition when creating an invoice approval workflow. Now, you and your clients can more easily reflect different real-life scenarios by including multiple conditions in an invoice approval workflow. For example, a workflow can send invoices of more than $5,000 to person A for approval, and invoices of less than $5,000 to person B for approval. This new level of customization lets your clients operate within their company procedures, while reducing repetitive tasks and the chance for error. 

In addition, you and your clients will have a better view of workflows in QuickBooks Online Advanced with a visual workflow builder. You or your client will see a visual representation of the workflow as you create it, which is especially helpful when including more conditions.

NOTE: Once a QuickBooks Online Advanced subscriber begins using the visual workflow builder, they won’t be able to revert to the old interface.

Export PDFs from Custom Report Builder in QuickBooks Online Advanced

In a nutshell: Accountant feedback is a key factor in the improvement of QuickBooks' products and features. Exporting PDFs from Custom Report Builder was a top-requested feature, and we’re proud to say it’s now available. 

Not only can you and your clients create and customize reports the way you want in QuickBooks Online Advanced; you now have the option to export a report as a PDF in one click. This can save you and your clients time and provide a neatly formatted document that’s easy to share with collaborators.

Rather than create a PDF from another exported file, you can now choose to export a report:

• As a PDF.
• As a CSV file.
• Directly to Excel.

Learn more

Accountant view-only access to clients’ Get Paid Upfront transactions

In a nutshell: To provide more visibility on your clients’ books, you now have view-only access to their Get Paid Upfront transaction data.

If your clients use Get Paid Upfront** to finance any unpaid invoices, you’ll be able to see:

• A list of invoices that have been advanced.
• Date and amount of each advance.
• Any initial fees they paid.
• Applicable interest rate(s).
• Repayment history, including principal vs. interest split.
• Due date of their next payment.

Previously, accountants couldn’t see any data about their clients’ Get Paid Upfront loan transactions. With this new level of data access, you’ll be in a better position to take care of their accounting needs.

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Important product information

** Get Paid Upfront loans are issued by WebBank.

Add Time or Contractor Payments as standalone services for clients in QuickBooks Online Accountant

In a nutshell: It’s now possible to add two new standalone subscriptions on behalf of your clients, right from the QuickBooks Online Accountant dashboard. This feature is currently available to 50% of accountants who use QuickBooks Online Accountant, and will be available to all accountants in the coming months.

If you have this new feature in your account, you’ll now see QuickBooks Time and Contractor Payments in the Add client workflow. This means you can now add these subscriptions for both your QuickBooks Online and non-QuickBooks Online clients in just a few clicks, rather than having to call support. This is similar to the process for adding Payroll as a standalone service for your clients—right in QuickBooks Online Accountant.

Learn more about QuickBooks Time

Learn more about Contractor Payments

Learn more about the QuickBooks Workforce app

943 filing for all existing QuickBooks Online Payroll customers

In a nutshell: We’ve put your feedback in action. Now, your clients who have agricultural businesses can depend on QuickBooks Online Payroll to file Form 943, Employer’s Annual Federal Tax Return for Agricultural Employees.

With our continued investment in QuickBooks Online Payroll, we’ve made it possible to file Form 943 right in QuickBooks. That means agricultural businesses no longer need to manually file their federal taxes or depend on an outside product. If you have clients that need to file Form 943, you can serve your client list from one common solution, and they can enjoy the full benefit of QuickBooks Online and Online Payroll.

For your clients who use QuickBooks Online Payroll, you or your clients can switch their filing status to 943. Select Payroll Settings, and it will appear in the Federal Taxes section. Learn more

Seamless reactivation in QuickBooks Online Payments

In a nutshell: Starting this month, your clients who migrate from QuickBooks Desktop Payments will automatically have QuickBooks Payments activated and ready to use in their new QuickBooks Online account.

That means you’ll no longer need to call customer care, or take manual steps to activate or relink clients’ data to Online Payments. Your clients will have the same payments account settings, preferences, and pricing in QuickBooks Online that they had in QuickBooks Desktop, but their QuickBooks Online account will have a new merchant ID. They’ll be able to process payments in QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop after migrating, until they opt to close their Desktop merchant account.

Please note:

• When your client is ready to close their QuickBooks Desktop Payments account, be sure they use QuickBooks Online Payments to recreate any invoices awaiting payment in QuickBooks Desktop. Once their QuickBooks Desktop merchant account is closed, their open QuickBooks Desktop invoices will no longer be payable.
• If your client is using both QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks Online after migration, they need to be sure to record payments in both places. Payments received in QuickBooks Online are not automatically recorded in QuickBooks Desktop (and vice versa).

Manage employee documents, right in QuickBooks

In a nutshell: Storing and accessing important employee and HR-related documents can often feel like a juggling act. As part of a greater effort to help you and your clients manage employee data in one place, you can now use the new document management feature in QuickBooks Online Payroll. It helps you and your clients securely store and manage these documents with a few clicks, right within employee profiles.

To get started:

1. Log in to QuickBooks Online Payroll.
2. Select the employee for whom you want to upload documents.
3. Select Documents.
4. Select Add documents.

Then, upload documents from the device you’re using, or scan a QR code with your mobile device to upload a document from that device.

Once you or your client add employee documents to QuickBooks, there’s no need to dig through filing cabinets or search hard drives. Plus, you can stay organized the way you want by using folders and categorizing your documents.

Track contractor W-9 info

In a nutshell: It’s now easier for your clients to keep contractors’ W-9 info on hand—and see whose info they still need.

Collecting W-9 information in a timely fashion has historically been a time-consuming and frustrating process for clients who employ contractors. However, it’s a crucial step in staying compliant with the IRS. 

In the Contractors List, under Expenses or Payroll, they can see at a glance which W-9 information is ready, missing, or requested.

If a W-9 is missing or requested, they can also select Finish setup and pay to send an invitation or reminder to their contractor to provide this information online.