Jaclyn Anku, ProAdvisor Training & Certification Leader: On today's episode of In the Know, we'll explore books to tax enhancements in Intuit ProConnect Tax. Here's what to expect. You'll see the update in action, then hear from ProAdvisors Nayo Carter-Gray and Matt Skinner.
Hey, ProAdvisors, I'm Jaclyn and you're watching In the Know. It's the show designed to keep you in the know on the most exciting updates to QuickBooks Online. So here's the scoop. We heard that tax accountants spent lots of their time requesting, collecting, and entering data. Prep for taxes gives you time back by inputting data directly from the books to the tax return. We've released books to tax adjustments, which offers you the ability to reclassify, make tax adjustments, and apply and review.
And now for the Fast Facts:
- These enhancements are available to any accountant with QuickBooks Online to access it from within QuickBooks Online Accountant.
- Go to the accountant tools, then prep for taxes, then tax mapping.
- This update has been live in the United States as of August 2024.
If you find this update interesting or helpful, go ahead and like, comment, and subscribe.
Let me introduce you to Tracy so you can see the product in action.
Tracy Griggsby Leonard: Thanks, Jaclyn, for having me on the show; I’m excited to walk you through our new features in ProConnect.
So for Prep for Taxes, what we just implemented was called books to tax adjustments. We're hearing that accountants spend two-thirds of their time requesting, collecting, and entering data, so we wanted to invest time in making sure that you don't have to invest as much time. We've leaned into our connections with Quickbooks Online Accountant and an already-existing feature called Prep for Taxes, which already reduced the time it takes to get those books out of Quickbooks Online Accountant and into ProConnect Tax.
What we've added to that experience is a way for you to adjust any book items that might need to be reclassified for the sake of tax purposes, or any true adjustments that might need to be made in the tax return compared to what's in your books. You'll be able to review this experience, and then apply it directly into the tax return with a few clicks.
Prep for Taxes is where we start directly in Quickbooks Online Accountant. Here, you'll be able to align anything that came out of the books to the specific account or assets they are tied to, then you'll be able to make these adjustments from a tax- mapping perspective and state what form you'd like them to be connected to on the tax return itself. From Prep for Taxes, you drop into our books to tax adjustment. Here, you're able to see line by line exactly where these adjustments and lines from your original prep experience go into the tax return itself, so you can go by form and select which line item each should be against.
The last portion of this flow is where you get to see all of the magic. You can review all of that adjustment that you just made against the actual tax return, and where we're going to put the information in for you. If you have any additional adjustments you need to make, you can go back and make those adjustments as you see fit.
So with the points that I just shared, we'll walk through the whole overview so you can see how this all flows together. Select Prep for Taxes, then select where you want this information to go and what form you want it to go into. You can also select create a new return. And then it will drop you into that adjustment experience I shared, so once you're ready to make any adjustments from the information you pulled over from for taxes, you can make those line adjustments and save them to the specific line you'd like them to show up on.
Once you've made the adjustment, you can add new adjustments as needed, whether it's to add a new account type or if you just need to adjust the amounts themselves. Click save. You can download the entire adjustment experience so you’ll have it on hand if you ever need it. This information isn't going to go back into the book; it's going to go straight into the return once you select import. Here, you'll be able to see all of the data directly in the tax return filled out for you, and here, you can review the end return and file it.
That's our walkthrough of ProConnect. Thanks for having me; hope to see you again.
Jaclyn Anku: Thank you for that demo, Tracy. We'll turn now to ProAdvisers Nayo and Matt for them to weigh in. Nayo, Matt, welcome!
Matt Skinner: Hey.
Nayo Carter-Gray: Hey, thanks for having us.
Jaclyn Anku: Well, Nayo, let me kick off with you. Can you tell us why is this such a big deal?
Nayo Carter-Gray: It's a very, very, very big deal. I know I get excited about all of these updates, but this is probably one of my absolute favorite ones because I am a Prep for Taxes user. We work with our clients all year getting their books in order, and we spend all of this time making them pretty, and then we get over to the tax return and it takes a long time to enter this information correctly. But now, we can auto import this data and will slash the time it takes for us to prepare a tax return in half.
We can also make adjustments that we may not necessarily want permanently in the books, but do impact the tax returns. So I love it because it's such a timesaver. And when I'm working with my team, we can make those adjustments and everyone can see what's going on all at the same time. So there is lots and lots of transparency, too, between the accounting and tax teams.
Jaclyn Anku: How about for yourself, Matt? Was this well received at your firm? Was this a big deal or just a not-so-big deal?
Matt Skinner: Who isn't excited about tax journal entries? We are exceptionally excited about them. You know, clients want their books how they want their books. Tax entries mean we don't have to export that data. We're not making it in Excel and we're not handkeying it back into ProConnect. We can make those tax entries, even if somebody goofs around in the books, and changes something or alters something. Our journal entries are safe. Our import is safe. Otherwise, we used to talk about doing all that work a second time every time the trial balance changes. So yeah, I’m very tax-journal-entry excited.
Nayo Carter-Gray: You mentioned something really good, Matt, about being able to see those changes. We've had our clients go in the books, make a random change, and then we come in the next year. The thing doesn't tie, and we can see when they've made those adjustments on our end, too. So it is also really great when we're preparing that tax return to kind of audit what has happened since the last time we looked at it.
Jaclyn Anku: So now it sounds like this is a huge timesaver. Is that right?
Nayo Carter-Gray: Absolutely. Literally, I will tell my team to spend more time making sure the books and the tax mapping are correct. And when we go to import, the beauty of this product is that it works across all of Intuit's tax software, so we can import a tax return in our tax software in like five minutes, when it probably would have taken a data entry person 20 to 30 minutes or an hour to enter in this data, depending on how experienced they are. So I am loving this new feature because we're making sure that the books tie before that and information ends up in the tax return. It's really cutting down on that admin data entry time, and leaving lots more room for review and actually having conversations with clients about what's happening in your tax situation. So it leaves room for those advisory moments where we can upsell and make a little bit more money.
Jaclyn Anku: Well, I'm so glad to hear that this new feature helps save you and your team time, and ultimately allows you to provide better advisory services because you can focus on what matters. So Nayo and Matt, thank you so much for being on this episode of In the Know.
Matt Skinner: Thank you.
Nayo Carter-Gray: Thanks for having us.
Jaclyn Anku: And thank you for watching this episode. I'm Jaclyn, host of In the Know and leader of ProAdvisor Training and Certification. Be sure to like, comment, and subscribe so that you don't miss a single episode. We'll catch you next time.
Meet the ProAdvisors
ProAdvisor Matt Skinner: Advisory Services Partner, Beaird Harris
ProAdvisor Nayo Carter-Gray: CEO, 1st Step Accounting
