QuickBooks releases more power tools to simplify tax season and year-end for accountants and their clients

As is true in any industry, a great deal of frustration can be avoided by utilising the right tools. Fortunately, QuickBooks Online (QBO) by Intuit provides these tools. Obviously, the month-end process leads up to financial year-end, which is why ‘Month-End Review’ was added to QuickBooks Online Accountant (QBOA). Users found it so helpful that they wanted a similar system to become available for the whole financial period.

In answer to this, Intuit has added ‘Books Review’. Books Review is essentially an expanded version of Month-End Review but includes Set-Up and Wrap-Up phases as well, and another feature … Transaction Collaboration.

The new Setup phase of the Books Review tool allows users to:

1. Begin with a review of the existing balance sheet as well as profit and loss reports to identify irregularities.
2. Review and adjust or enter opening balances to accounts identified as needing adjustments.
3. Identify and resolve issues with various irregularities to accounts within the chart of accounts, including:

• • Bank accounts that haven’t been connected to bank feeds.
  • Account redundancies.
  • Inappropriately classified account types.
  • Missing standard accounts.
  • Other issues that later complicate financial review.

Before outlining the process of Wrap-Up, the feature Transaction Collaboration is important to mention. Transaction Collaboration is designed to deal with missing client information. If there is missing critical data or a query about an existing transaction, this can be requested directly from the client within the QBO workflow.

When clients open their QuickBooks Online Accountant, they will receive a notification and see the Transaction Collaboration request in the ‘My Accountant’ tab. They can then open the request and provide the information without leaving QuickBooks. After the client responds to the questions via Transaction Collaboration, the accountant can see their response when opening the client’s book in QBO. With all the information needed, the accountant can start closing off the books in the Wrap-Up phase.

Wrap-Up allows users to:

1. Prepare a report package of monthly financial data and business performance details for their client.
2. Send (email) the report package to their client.
3. Close the books for the accounting period.
4. Keep track of other tasks they may want to complete every month and add those to their Wrap-Up workflow by including a link to each item in their own checklist.

Users can also generate and deliver valuable customised reports that provide clients with insights into their business. In addition, the tool makes it easy to edit, customise and package a variety of reports into comprehensive financial presentations, allowing the accountant to easily transition into the role of trusted advisor and assist their clients with strategic information upon which they can make critical business decisions.
There are still other features which form part of Wrap-Up. ‘Open Issues’ saves time by flagging anomalies – any unusual transactions are highlighted for exploration.

Financial year-end and tax season are an essential part of every business, but they need not be as labour-intensive as they’ve been known to be. With super-helpful tools like Books Review, which includes Setup and Wrap-Up phases, accountants can not only simplify the process and reduce their workload, but provide a better service to their clients. Watch this space for more exciting features to come.

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