Jaclyn Anku, ProAdvisor Training & Certification Leader: Hey, I'm Jaclyn. And welcome to In The Know!
This is our weekly video show designed to keep you up to date on the most exciting news across the QuickBooks ecosystem.
Today, we're here to talk about QuickBooks Ledger. In case you haven't heard about Ledger, it's a new, cost-effective QuickBooks Online plan that's designed for you— accounting professionals—to service year-end, tax-only, low transaction volume plans.
QuickBooks Ledger offers the powerful functionality you've come to expect, including automated bank feeds, bank reconciliation, financial statements, 1099 tracking, and a seamless transition to tax preparation.
Plus, Ledger supports third-party app connections so you can keep working the way that you're used to.
For the Fast Facts:
- QuickBooks Ledger is available to all accountants and bookkeepers through visiting QuickBooks Online Accountant.
- Ledger is now available to all regions, including: US, UK, CAN, and AU
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Let's take a look at Ledger in Action. I'll go ahead and give you a quick walkthrough.
In QuickBooks Online Accountant, select Add Client. On the Add Client screen, select Ledger from our product catalog.
Ledger is only available to accounting professionals through firm billing. If you want to purchase 10 or more Ledger accounts at one time, just call the QuickBooks Accounting sales team.
After your clients have been added, you can go ahead and get them set up. You'll have an option to import data from QuickBooks Desktop or set up the file from scratch. Next, you'll review the Chart of Accounts. To make this as easy as possible, there's a default Chart of Accounts that's recommended, and you'll be able to upload or select a custom template and apply it to this client.
Once done, head over to Bank Transactions, where you can choose to either upload transactions manually or set up automatic bank fees.
Heads up that QuickBooks Ledger supports one-client user access. You can also manually add journal entries or upload them with the help of third-party apps. When the bank transactions have been entered, you'll move on to the transaction categorization process.
If you prefer, you can use Books to Review, which is a built-in QuickBooks Online tool for accountants to help with the reconciliation of transactions.
Once your client's transactions are reconciled, you can go to the expenses tab to add or import any vendor information. If your client works with vendors or contractors and your firm is engaged to complete 1099 tracking, QuickBooks Online is able to file 1099s directly. But heads up that the cost associated with e-filings is not included in the cost of QuickBooks Ledger. And if you use a third-party tool for 1099 processing, you'll be able to export the necessary information from QuickBooks Ledger.
Now, head over to the reports tab to generate and download financial statements. You can even favorite reports like the balance sheet, trial balance, or profit and loss statements. And depending on how you like to work, clients can view their reports directly.
Once all of the reports are reviewed for accuracy, go over to tax preparation. Just select Prep for Taxes from the dropdown menu. Once you're in the prep for taxes process, you can access all the reconciled transactions and accounts plus grouping and statements. This is also where you can download the year-end financial statements from Ledger.
You can export different tax solutions, including the Lacerte and ProSeries and a seamless integration with Pro Connect Tax.
All right. Now that we've seen QuickBooks Ledger in action, let's turn to our guests.
Today we're talking to Carla Caldwell and Michael Ly. Carla is a firm leader and expert trainer on all things advisory. Michael is an accounting and fintech entrepreneur. Carla, Michael, thank you so much for joining.
Michael Ly: Thanks for having us.
Carla Caldwell: My pleasure.
Jaclyn: Carla, you recently wrote an article about QuickBooks Ledger. Tell me more.
Carla: I got so excited when Intuit was talking about this and sharing what was happening with this product. I just thought, what a great way for accounting professionals to really bring in all of the tools into one place for our teams.
So instead of having, you know, some of the accountants that I've worked with before that have QuickBooks Desktop for those onesie, twosie clients or those holding companies or tax-only clients, we can now have our teams focusing on one application, and that's QuickBooks Online.
This to me was super exciting. It also solves some problems for some clients. I got really excited and wanted to put all my thoughts on paper to share.
So I was really excited when this was launched a few months ago now.
Jaclyn: Michael, are there specific types of clients or verticals that are a good fit for Ledger?
Michael: At Reconciled, we already have clients on Ledger right now, and it's been great to have Ledger as a version of QuickBooks Online that we can put holding companies on, real estate holding companies, or holding companies on multiple businesses.
These are perfect for clients where you're not going to have the client engage in the product or have to see the financials in real-time in QuickBooks, and you're really doing only a few updates per year. So we have those types of clients on there.
I got an early look at the product because of my time on the Accounts Council, and everyone on the council was super excited that this version of QuickBooks [Ledger] was being released.
So Ledger definitely is going to be, I think, a very large SKU in the QuickBooks family. And I think a lot of accountants are going to be signing up their clients on it.
Carla: Well, I love that we have tools that go from a really small holding company, all the way through to a mid-sized product.
That means that when we start working with our clients as a startup or a small entity that doesn't have a lot going on, when the entrepreneur is ready to step on the gas and grow that business, if it's going to be that kind of company, then they get to stay in this product for a really long time and they get to grow with this.
So for me, that is a big advantage.
Jaclyn: It sounds like this is good for your advisory work with clients, and that they can grow with you and with the software. And it also creates efficiencies for your team.
Michael: One of the efficiencies is that if, with a low volume client, you still want to be able to take advantage of the bank feed process and allowing the downloads of bank fees and connecting your credit cards and other transactions to the financials. And that's not, you know, that's not possible, not easy to do when you're keeping the financials in [Microsoft] Excel or Google Sheets.
So being able to do that with a low-volume client in QuickBooks Ledger makes it really easy and allows you to take advantage of that process.
The other is for App Sync. If you want to be able to connect the QuickBooks Ledger to some simple apps that you're using with other clients—might be reporting apps or other things—then being able to be on a QuickBooks Ledger and do that for those simple clients, those low volume clients, is a game changer.
Carla: Well, even using 1099s, right? That makes it much easier as well.
If you're doing cash basis and you're still paying contractors, you can do that through Ledger and just be able to do 1099s. So again, I like to integrate and automate as much as possible. And so having your client in Ledger, now this also facilitates that end of year process.
For the clients that I've worked with…the accounting firms that I've worked with that are doing tax only, January is one of those months that's just massive amounts of data entry or catch up work. Now we can do this throughout the year, and we can just focus on 1099s if we need to, for that particular kind of client. I really think this helps to smooth out that whole process as well.
Michael: Yeah, I think that helps a number of accounting firms who have kept a version of QuickBooks Desktop aside in order to have these low-volume and low-transaction clients.
And so, this moves more and more clients and more accounting firms, off of the [QuickBooks] Desktop product and onto the online product, which then allows us to introduce and provide more value to our clients.
The other thing, a unique feature right now is that you have to be an accountant to actually open up a new client on QuickBooks Ledger right now. So that gives us a lot more value as an accounting firm to drive clients, to want to work with us directly, to be able to be on this product and allow us to introduce them to the QuickBooks Online family.
Jaclyn: Well, Carla, Michael, thank you so much for sharing your thoughts on QuickBooks Ledger and how this is going to help you better deliver those advisory services to your clients to help them grow while also saving your team time, giving you back the gift of time.
We are going to move into a lightning round! Carla, let's start with you. Would you rather go on a vacation or a staycation?
Carla: Oh, vacation all day! And well, a week or two or three would be great.
Michael: Yeah, I would love vacation for sure.
Jaclyn: Where would you go and why?
Michael: I would go to my summer place in Vermont. It's our favorite place to go to escape the heat of Arizona. We have a lot of fun there. It's beautiful. So that's where we would go.
Carla: Oh, I'm going south. I want the heat and the humidity and the sand between my toes. So yeah, I'll take a beach.
Jaclyn: Final question. Michael, would you rather go on a cruise and travel by sea or travel by land in a train?
Michael: I would rather go by train. I get seasick on boats often, so I would rather go by land. And there's still quite a number of places in the U.S. and in South America and in Mexico, Central America that I'd love to go to.
Carla: Oh, I'm going on a cruise. I need the sand. I need the air. Yeah. I'll take the boat. Michael can do the train.
Jaclyn: Well, it sounds like while we agree on the benefits of QuickBooks Ledger, you may not agree on land, train, sand, or mountains, but I'd go on vacation with either of you. Thank you both so much for being on this program and for helping our ProAdvisors stay In The Know. Carla, Michael. Thank you.
Carla: Thank you.
Michael: Thank you, thank you.
Jaclyn: And thank you for watching. To stay In The Know, like, comment, and subscribe to the QuickBooks YouTube channel so that you don't miss a single episode. We'll catch you next time.
Meet the ProAdvisors
ProAdvisor Carla Caldwell: Founder, Caldwell Consulting & Training
ProAdvisor Michael Ly: CEO, Reconciled
