Arti Patel Martinez, ProAdvisor Training & Certification Leader: On today's episode of In the Know, we'll be showcasing new updates to Intuit Accountant Suite Core.
Hey ProAdvisors, it's Arti, and you're watching In the Know, where you get exclusive access to demos of Intuit product enhancements by the leaders who built them.
Let's jump right in with Hailey Garcia, who is going to be showing you all these new updates to Intuit Accountant Suite Core.
Hey Hailey, welcome to the show.
Hailey Garcia: I'm so excited to be here again to talk about Intuit Accountant Suite. My name is Haley Garcia. I am one of the product managers working on the Accountant team, and yes, I am very excited to be here. I'm going to talk a little bit more today about some improvements we've made to the Accountant Suite. These are things that will be coming a little bit later. The first thing we'll talk about is multiple tabs that are coming in a few months; Inbox is coming in August.
Backing up a little bit, what we heard is that firms struggle a lot with context switching, which takes a lot of time for them. So, we have built out the ability for you to keep your client context open and your accountant context open at the same time. Also, we've heard that there's a lot of fragmented conversations, and trying to get information from your client is really difficult. It's in a bunch of distant, disconnected places, so we've created the inbox as a new centralized place to connect with your clients. I have a demo for you all today. We will go through both of those new improvements to Intuit Accountant Suite Core, and I want to stress that these will be available soon and are part of the free Intuit Accountant Suite. If you're on QuickBooks Online Accountant, you can still use Intuit Accountant Suite for free. You get these functionalities for free and to try them out. I'm going to switch to the demo now.
Let's say you're in the QuickBooks Online Accountant console or Accountant Suite and trying to run a monthly close for your client. In the past, if you saw that there are five transactions in the bank feed that need to be coded when you're running books close, you might want to go into the client file, update those transactions, and then switch back into your account in context. We've heard that that's really frustrating for you all, so multi-tab will make it so that you can open your client context in a new tab, and still keep your accounting context open.
Let me show you how it'll work. Let's say you're running your pre-close section and you want to go into a specific client's bank feed. You just click on this link. It'll open in a new tab, and as you can see, your client context is open and your accountant context remains open. Not only that, when multi-tab releases, you will have the ability to have up to five clients open at a time. When I'm in my client list, I can go in and open up as many clients as I might need to, while keeping them all open at the same time. We are really trying to make it so you don't have to switch as much. I’m super excited about multi-tab!
I want to share some updates that are coming around how you interact with your client. Let's go to the transactions page. Some of you may be familiar with the old collaboration column and might be used to seeing a request button on this page. There definitely are some changes, so we'll walk through them right now. When you're requesting more info on a transaction, you can go in and select a specific person to be assigned to a question. Automatically, we will add everybody who has a seat on your client's QuickBooks Online. If you have a contact who doesn't have a QuickBooks Online seat, you can still message them by clicking on this Add button, and then you can add a new contact. Once they've accepted the invite, you will see them here. Then you'll be able to add messages, and they will be able to see anything in their client portal.
Let's go through adding a specific question on a transaction. Let's say I need a receipt on this Best Buy transaction. I can go in, pick my specific person to assign the question to, and ask for the receipt. I can either add in a post, or I can just add the message to the list. Once I add this message, Kumar, because he has a QuickBooks Online seat, will see it automatically in his inbox. If I had a collaborator who is in the client portal, they would also see it automatically, given they have accepted the invite. Let's just add this message.
You may see this new Inbox button. Like I mentioned, that request button is no longer there, but we do have a brand new inbox button. This is what your client will see when they're in QuickBooks Online, and this is what you'll see here in the client's QuickBooks Online or within Intuit Accountant Suite. If you want to check messages with the specific client, you can definitely go in and go into that client's inbox. Maybe you want to go review a bunch of questions in bulk and want to see across all of your clients. Let's go back to Accountant Suite and open the inbox.
Here you can see the question we just added and the transaction details. Also, you are able to filter by a specific client, so if we just want to see messages with that specific client, you can do that, or you can have visibility across all of your clients.
Inbox isn't just for transaction-specific messages. Maybe I need some other information from Kumar. I can go in. I can select my client, and then I have the names of those specific contacts. Again, I can add more if I need to by adding a contact, and then I can ask a question. Maybe Kumar owes me $100. I can send that question to Kumar, and it will show up directly in his inbox.
It may look like the messages Kumar needs to respond to are piling up. What should I do? Well, if you click on these three dots, you can send a notification to one of your clients. So, if I'm really not getting a response, I can automatically send them an email, and I can optionally send them a text message to remind them to respond to my messages. I can select the contact. It's Kumar, and again, if I need to add a contact, I can do so here. We have generic content, but you can customize the subject line or the message. Then I can go and send it, and that notification will be sent directly to Kumar, and hopefully I'll get a response.
Let's say I'm your client. I've gotten an email saying that I have pending questions I need to respond to. If I'm a QuickBooks Online user, I'll go directly to the inbox in QuickBooks Online, but if I am a contact and don't have a QuickBooks Online seat, I'll go to the client portal. Let's try this out. When I click on Access Portal, it will bring me to the client portal. As you can see, all of these questions have shown up here. Let's say I'm your client, responding to this question, and adding the receipt as requested. I have this Best Buy transaction for $54.75, but let's say I'm a little clumsy, and I actually end up submitting a receipt for $13. It's Best Buy, but it's not the right one. I sent the question; Intuit Intelligence will analyze the response, and it will recognize that I uploaded the wrong receipt. When I do correctly upload the right receipt, Intuit intelligence will recognize that I have uploaded the correct receipt, and will indicate that it has all of the information it needs. One other callout is that your client can also send a question to you. They have the same new button and the same way to message anyone in your firm, so I hope you all try it out sometime in August.
Arti Patel Martinez: Thanks so much for that walkthrough, Hailey. If you find this update interesting or helpful, go ahead and like, comment and subscribe. That's all we have for now.
For more product updates and demos, check out our In the Know hub. We'll catch you next time.*
*This information is intended to outline our general product direction, but represents no obligation and should not be relied on in making a purchasing decision. Additional terms, conditions and fees may apply with certain features and functionality. Eligibility criteria may apply. Product offers, features, functionality are subject to change without notice. Product screen images simulated. Video sequences shortened.
