As I mentioned in my last post, I was thrilled to be invited to attend the Intuit ProLine Productivity Expo and Accountant 2020 Think Tank. Intuit shared with us some products and services that are in the concept stage, beta testing or commercially available already for QuickBooks Accounting, Payroll, Payments, Tax, Practice Management and Practice Growth.
Michelle Long and Intuit Product Managers Jacint Tumacder and Howard Shen
Intuit continues to work on products and services to help improve the productivity of accounting professionals, QuickBooks ProAdvisors, tax professionals, bookkeepers and consultants. I’ll share some of the things Ilearned about with you in several blog posts so make sure to read the other posts too. In particular, read about these concepts in another blog post too:
- QuickBooks Online for Accountants – “unique time saving tools just for accounting professionals supporting their QuickBooks Online clients.” (blog post coming soon)
- Accountant Client Matching “would aim to provide Certified ProAdvisors with a greater number of qualified leads through the Find a ProAdvisor website. It also aims to ensure that small business owners are highly satisfied with their ProAdvisors and with the website experience.” Read the post for details.
QuickBooks SharedBooks is a “way for accounting professionals to instantly access the client’s most updated, “master” QuickBooks files at any time without the client’s involvement.” I’m working with the Product Manager Howard Shen and the development team as part of the ‘Accountant Posse’ on QuickBooks SharedBooks. I would love to share your comments and suggestions with the team but understand I cannot provide many details (I’m under NDA). I’m REALLY excited about it and I think it will be awesome!
Think about how time consuming and challenging it is for accountants, bookkeepers or tax professionals to work with client’s QuickBooks files now. This chart shows how we are currently working with QuickBooks files:
There are disadvantages to each of these methods depending upon the client, work to be performed and other factors. Wouldn’t it be great if the accountant or bookkeeper could share the QuickBooks file with the client without the need to send/upload anything or login/teleport anywhere? Think about how much time and effort would be saved!
Remember this is still in the concept stage —
QuickBooks SharedBooks would allow accountants and bookkeepers access to the clients’ most updated QuickBooks file anytime. You and your clients continue to maintain QuickBooks files on your local hard drives; Intuit servers ensure that all files are synchronized automatically.
For example, if there is only one user working in the QuickBooks file, they will have full QuickBooks functionality. When both the accountant and the client want to work in the QuickBooks file, QuickBooks SharedBooks would give you options.
For example, lets assume the client (small business) is working in QuickBooks when the accountant tries to access the file. The accountant can use the file in read-only mode so they could look at reports or anything else but they could not enter anything. If the accountant needs to enter data or transactions (not read-only mode), then they could request access to the file from the client. When either the client or accountant updates the file, both would get the updates to the QuickBooks file automatically.
Best of all — both the accountant and the client would have full access to all QuickBooks features and data tables. No more restrictions like with the Accountant’s Copy ( for example payroll changes will not go back). No more telling the client they can’t work in the file while you have it (when you get a back up or portable file). No more logging in remotely nights and weekends. No high cost of hosting QuickBooks (although the pricing of QuickBooks SharedBooks is not available at this time, I suspect it will be more affordable than hosting services).
QuickBooks SharedBooks is a great concept to allow accountants and clients to work more efficiently and effectively. It should save time, reduce frustrations and improve productivity too.
I’m thrilled to be working with the Product Manager and development team as part of the ‘Accountant Posse’. I get to help provide input and feedback as they work on QuickBooks SharedBooks. I cannot share more details with you or answer questions since I’m under NDA. However, you can provide input into QuickBooks SharedBooks too — in the comments let us know your thoughts, concerns and suggestions. What do you want to be able to do with QuickBooks SharedBooks? How would you use it? What concerns or questions do you have? Provide your feedback and I will share it with the product development team — we meet every week!