Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes: Navigating QuickBooks Online's New Interface

There may be errors in spelling, grammar, and accuracy in this machine-generated transcript.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Ch ch ch changes turn and face the stranger. Changes. Hey, welcome to the latest episode of the unofficial QuickBooks accountants podcast, which is all about changes. As we know, QuickBooks is changing the interface and everybody is just kind of in an [00:00:30] uproar about it. So, you know, no end of things to talk about about this particular situation. But in the last few episodes, you've been hearing us break down the AI agents and the changes to the interface and the befores and afters. And my party line has always been, well, you know, we just have to get used to it. The hardest part when something changes is that we have to stop in our tracks and literally rewire our brains. But I saw some comments [00:01:00] in the social forums that they felt like I was not necessarily me, but that we were minimizing their distraught experience by just saying, oh yeah, accountants hate change. It's just you and I want to reassure people that I am not minimizing your experience when I'm talking about this stuff. I am not discounting the the turmoil that you're in in any way. What I'm really trying to do is ease your [00:01:30] process and ease your frustration by couching it in the bigger picture of things. And so let me kind of break down some of the thoughts and challenges around all of this. So the first one is just the basic productivity that we as bookkeepers and accountants have a routine and a timeline and deadlines.

Alicia Katz Pollock: And when anything interferes with that, it has down the line consequences. And so the fact that we actually have to stop and [00:02:00] think and look and learn. Absolutely disrupts the process. But I think about when I bring on a new hire, I don't actually expect them to be productive out of the gate. They actually have to get training and they have to learn our way of doing things. And there's always an onboarding time. So what I'm going to encourage you to do is build that in in the next month or two, give yourself a little slack, communicate to your clients if you need to, that your timelines are [00:02:30] going to shift a little bit, but give yourself the grace period to actually take the time to learn that we're always head down and working on the things that we know how to do, and even not related to this interface change. That's been one of my party lines. If you've been following me for any length of time, you've. This is not the first time you've heard me say, well, you know, you need to like, put your head up and look around at all the new features that are there. Which is why I have my series, Look What I found, which is actually trademarked, [00:03:00] and why I've focused my content in all of my classes on the deep dives into like, what does this button do and what does this button do? And what does this button do to call your attention to things that you might not have noticed because they weren't part of your existing routine with your existing clients? So things get added and you don't even know that they're there.

Alicia Katz Pollock: That's also why I love the QuickBooks recertification tests every spring, because they specifically call our attention to new features that were released in the last year [00:03:30] that we might not have noticed. And so for all of those reasons, this in a way isn't much different from all of that. I mean, it's a big change because the whole visual changes and the routine changes, but part of being a QuickBooks user has always been having to adapt with the changes and look at what's new and adapt and absorb the new features. And there's a lot of things that are already just rolled out and coming [00:04:00] down the line that I'm pretty excited about. And so as much as I can share that enthusiasm with you, that is what I am going to do. For example, the banking feeds, that they now have a new AI behind them, but they've always had not just like the AI in terms of the artificial intelligence automations that we now have. But for the last ten years since we've had banking feeds, there was machine learning, which we used to call [00:04:30] AI, but that was the machine learning, where QuickBooks didn't know how to categorize anything for you.

Alicia Katz Pollock: You had to train it that when you started a new file, it all the suggestions were just wild guesses. And then every time you created a transaction, it would learn. So even the learning in different files would be different. It would repeat what you did before in the past, and we've been complaining that it didn't always get it right. That's not new. In [00:05:00] fact, in my banking Feed's class, the thing that I talk about is that you can't trust the banking feeds. You're in charge of the banking feeds. You need to look at the transaction and the payee and the category and make sure that it's all correct. And I've been literally saying that in every single class for the last ten years. So the fact that the new banking feeds has a new AI layer in it, which is real AI being [00:05:30] mad at it, that it's not getting it right is counterproductive because it's literally no different than it was six months ago. It's just a different process that we now again have to retrain for each client starting from scratch, which gets frustrating and takes more time. But it's not new. That process has always been our procedure. And so remembering that it's not like, oh, in the old days it was all [00:06:00] golden. It was some of these were not any different. Okay. Now, that being said, yes, there are bugs.

Alicia Katz Pollock: There are things that are not ideal right now. Uh, speed is one of the big ones. Um, it has slowed down demonstrably. And it two weeks ago, it was way worse than it was this week. And I actually started making a joke. I right now, my, my nutritionist [00:06:30] has me drinking a gallon of water every day. Everybody's on video. You can see this thing. It's got a timeline on it. So it starts at 7 a.m. at the top, and I have to drink all the way down to 9 p.m. to drink this entire gallon of water. So what I would start doing is every time I clicked and I had to wait, I would start chugging water. And two weeks ago I would make it through the whole bottle in one day because I was chugging while I was waiting. I mean, I would literally like click to open a sales receipt and the framework would come up and literally nothing [00:07:00] would load. And so I started chugging water and I'd get 6 or 8 sips in and, okay, my transaction would open up. And it was a hugely frustrating experience, but I got my water intake, which was great. This week I'm still finding some of those slowdowns, but it is. I'm not. I haven't made it through my bottle one one day this week, so it's definitely, definitely getting better. Now, I haven't actually asked the engineers what's causing the slowdown.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Um, my theories range from conspiracy theory, [00:07:30] like it's slowest on the old one to make us force us to stay on the new one, to just my idealistic, um, idea of, well, there's since they're in the process of migrating people right now, there's extra server load while everything is getting loaded. And so, you know, I don't know if that's accurate. I think it's a reasonable assumption because, you know, I know that the first time I install new software on my computer, I have to sit and I have to wait for it to load. [00:08:00] So it wouldn't surprise me if there was some similar technology happening behind the scenes when they're putting in this new interface that it has to load up. And every time we do a new thing, it has to load that experience for you. Now, not a programmer have not actually asked that question. Don't know if it's accurate, but I kind of like the explanation. So let's kind of keep a keep tabs on that. Let's see if it does start speeding up and if it's an issue. But I do recommend that if you are having slowdowns, [00:08:30] do go up to the feedback under the gear and let them know, because if they do need to bump up bandwidth, if they need to get more servers, or if they need to increase their pipe, they need to know that we're having trouble so that they can take care of that for us and we can get back to normal.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Okay. The next thing is, I actually had my first experience where I was so in depth, deep diving into the new interface that I had to go into one [00:09:00] with the old interface, and I was like, wait, where's this? And I had my first experience of of having rewired my brain into the new one, and the old one was looking a little weird to me. So I'd be curious to know, like how long it takes people to experience that as well. Some of the things that I have heard, um, people have asked me about the new interface is where are the accountant tools? There's no more accountant tools. Briefcase up at the top, and instead there's [00:09:30] a new button that says my menu in the upper left into it. Please make it my tools instead of my menu. I would, I would I kind of liked having an accountant toolbox. So if you can make it toolbox or my tools, that would make Alicia really happy. And if any of you think that's also a good idea, please, of course, go into your QBO and put in that feedback also. So yes, your tools are still there. Uh, one of the complaints that I did hear is people were kind of frustrated that the option for New Window was [00:10:00] no longer on the menu.

Alicia Katz Pollock: And honestly, that one kind of puzzled me because they were like, oh, well, it's my fastest way of opening up a new window. But when you used it, it took you to the dashboard and then you still had to navigate where you're going. So all I can assume is that they never took my Tips and Tricks and Hacks class, because I literally have never hit that button, and I did not notice it was on the menu because I have never used it. I never start at the I mean, I start at the dashboard [00:10:30] when I come into my QBO, but I never go back to the dashboard as a navigation place when I want to go to open up a new tab. What I do is either right click on the link that I want to go to, go to, and when I right click on it in Chrome, it gives me an option to open in new tab. So it's literally right click open a new tab, two clicks to get me where I wanted to go. So for me, I don't know. That seems faster. And as far as [00:11:00] faster access goes, in addition to the tools that are in QuickBooks and the ways that you can kind of trick out the interface using Chrome, I also really, really highly recommend right tool. Um, it's Hector Garcia and Mark Corum's app, and if you haven't checked it out for me, it's essential equipment.

Alicia Katz Pollock: It's at right Tools. And there's a free version and a paid version. But what it does is it adds all kinds of shortcuts and efficiencies for the tasks that we need to do. It builds [00:11:30] in automations that will do it for you. Now some of them are just navigation links, but some of them are like when I'm in a journal entry and I need to add classes to it, I can put the class in the top line, and then there's a little down arrow that I can click on, and it copies that class down across the whole journal entry column. So it's full of tons of efficiencies like I can in the register. I can click a bunch of transactions and move them to a different register. So I absolutely love [00:12:00] Right Tool. And that's something else that you should consider as well as you're getting used to the new interface in the old QBO classic, you could also just pick up a link and drag it up to your tabs and open it up in a new tab. Now, honestly, I haven't tried that in the new version, so I don't know if that still works, but I would imagine that it still does. And actually I just tried it while I'm talking. And yes, you can. So you [00:12:30] can drag a menu item or a link up to the tab bar and add a new tab that way.

Alicia Katz Pollock: So that's one click and a drag. And so there's another option for you. There is bookmarks. Definitely make use of the bookmarks especially if it's a window that is harder to get to. Like my reminders list. I use my reminders list to give me the list of transactions that I need to do every month [00:13:00] routinely, and I set them all to reminders so I can just go pick it and edit it and go. And so the reminders list, there's no direct link to get there. You have to go to the gear and recurring transactions and then click reminders list. So it's buried deep. So what I did is I added that to my bookmarks. So now I have it as a super fast click. I also bookmark my clients list and my vendors list. I even ran a custom report, and I was able to bookmark a custom report [00:13:30] that I needed in one of my files, so it was just there for me to call on all the time. Now, someone did say I read in. I think it was in the cannie that they wanted that bookmarks list to always be open the way it was in classic. And I also think that's a great idea, because then you can make your own custom menu and just have everything that you need right where you need it. Now that being said, there is also a menu customization in the new one.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Down in the bottom [00:14:00] left hand side, you can customize and put shortcuts up to the centers that you use all the time. It comes with a little pinned section down on the bottom left. And so those are also fast ways to get to the centers, like A defaults with accounting and expenses and sales. And so you can get to those centers super, super fast. And then it opens up that second tier menu. And one of the things I like about the second tier menu is it is [00:14:30] sticky and opens and collapses. So if I'm doing customer work, I have access to all the different customer links and they're all right there. A little bit of before and after for you if you are having trouble finding some things. The transactions menu is now called accounting. And everything that you had on there is there now, plus some new features to make it even easier to get to like. You can get to the recurring transactions from this menu now, which is really [00:15:00] nice. And my accountant has also been moved in there, which a lot of people haven't even been using. So make sure you look at my account, you've got file sharing and a communication center with your clients right inside your QBO, and you might not have even known it was there. Another change that I also like is the sales center is now called Sales and Get Paid.

Alicia Katz Pollock: What I like about it is they've highlighted the payment links, which I think is another underused feature, and I have [00:15:30] a whole episode just about the payment links that you should go check out. It surfaces the new recurring payments feature. Sales orders and sales channels are there. If you have need integrations with Shopify, Etsy, eBay and those as well as the channel payouts. So that section is got some new layouts in it that are really helpful. They broke out the customers and moved it to a customer hub. And I actually in one of the next episodes that's coming out, I talk just about [00:16:00] the customer hub, so I'll break that down and give you some some cool news and features about that. I also want to call your attention up to the upper right hand corner, where some of the features were always there, but you know, whenever there's something new, you see it with new eyes. And I finally, finally started paying attention to the tasks. The little clipboard that's up there, and the tasks allow you to call your attention to something that you need to come back to later on. Like, you have a transaction that you want to review, and [00:16:30] when you do an add task, one of the things that's cool is there's a section at the bottom that says Records and Documents. And when you click link a record, you can actually pick an invoice or a bill or almost any kind of transaction that you need to get back to.

Alicia Katz Pollock: So you can actually link directly to a particular invoice, and then it will be in the task that you can just click on it to go straight to it, which I think is really innovative I love that. And then if [00:17:00] you have backup documents, you can also add the document right to the task so that you have it at your fingertips. It allows you to assign it to yourself or a team, or a team member or a user on the account. You also have the ability to set a priority low, medium, high and urgent. And this way you can actually make a list of tasks that you want to assign people, and then you just really add it to your routine to go check that clipboard to see what you need going on. [00:17:30] If you're in QBO advanced, you also get the ability to make recurring tasks, which means you can actually outline your entire punch list of daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual tasks. And just make a set of recurring tasks, and then you can just pop in for the day and work your way down your task list, and you're totally good to go. Now, a lot of you are using other task managers like, you know, Karbon or Keeper or Canopy or Financial Sense. But [00:18:00] if you are not using any kind of task management, even asana or Clickup or notion whatever, if you're not using any of those or you just want to like have one place to keep, like, I have to go check these three transactions, you've got it right in the tasks and you can access it either through that tasks opening up pane on the right hand side, or their whole is a whole tasks center.

Alicia Katz Pollock: And that was originally just in QBO advanced, but they have moved the tasks into the regular version. So [00:18:30] pretty awesome. All right. Also, in that upper right hand corner, if you've been wondering where the apps went, it used to be at the bottom of the black navigation bar and it's now integrations and it's up in the upper right hand side for a couple of weeks. It was actually a little picture of a plug, which I loved. Now it actually, you know, it looks like you can see that it's an integration with a square with other things leading into it. But to me it looks like robot arms, which I guess is appropriate. But I kind of liked the [00:19:00] plug. I thought thinking of them as plug ins was useful for my brain. So hey Intuit, go put the original icon back for me. But that is where you will find all of your integrations with external apps, whether you're using a reporting app or SaaS, Ant or Milio or Bill.com or whatever external apps you have, you'll find them all under the integrations in the upper right hand corner with the little robot arm flowchart icon thing.

Alicia Katz Pollock: There [00:19:30] is also a notifications bell. The notifications bell. I don't think they use as much as they want to, but this is actually notifications from Intuit. For example, they put up a reminder of the September 1st bank holiday and how it might affect your direct deposits, so that you're aware that you might have to take that date into consideration. And then there's also in mine right now, a notification about the AI agents so that you can explore what's new. Okay. So that's my little wheel of [00:20:00] rants about the the changes in general. I did make a short list of some of the look what I found, which are the things that I found in the interface or that changes that are happening under the hood. These are not related to the interface. These are feature features in development. And the first one is when I was teaching my hands on class a couple of weeks ago. And we all, all the students get their own QBO plus file so that they can build [00:20:30] company files. And when we started it up, I got a lot of questions that I didn't expect because there's a new inventory option in the settings that when you are starting up a brand new file or you're converting from desktop, there's the option of an inventory valuation method, choice of Fifo first in, first out, or moving cost average, which they now call Mac.

Alicia Katz Pollock: That's what desktop used. And there is [00:21:00] a choice right here. Now you're not going to see it in all files, but if you're looking for it you can check in accountant settings and then sales, and then in the Products and Services section to see if it's in yours. You'll see it under track inventory quantity on hand and then inventory valuation method. Some of the files also did ask about commerce integrations as well. So I actually got an opportunity to meet with the development team. And they are definitely putting [00:21:30] into plans the next steps with making inventory more robust so that it works like enterprise in desktop. And we. So some of the things that they are putting on the roadmap are probably going to be units of measure and assemblies, for example. I know that for me that was the biggest deal breaker, is that if my clients are doing any kind of assemblies in desktop, which is when you take, you know, five different inventory parts [00:22:00] and combine them into one product to sell, or you buy a case of something and you sell the bottles individually. Those are inventory clients that I can't bring on to QuickBooks online without using a third party app. So I have been bringing them online with a third party app like SOS Inventory or Katana, but now it looks like they are starting the process to bring that into QuickBooks online.

Alicia Katz Pollock: I'm kind of guessing that it's really going [00:22:30] to be an enterprise, an Intuit Enterprise Suite option, because that's the enterprise level. So that's probably where that's going to go. But it was really nice seeing that you did at least have the moving cost average in QuickBooks Online Plus and Advanced. Next change the sales tax center sales tax now has its own section on the new menu instead of being grouped together under taxes. And it has a new window where you can apply your sales [00:23:00] tax settings to the individual products, which is crucial for using the sales tax module correctly, and something that was not intuitive at all. In my sales tax class, I teach that I show you that when you're setting up sales tax, it's not just turning it on, but you need to assign your clients some. Some clients need a sales tax or some clients need to be excluded. If you are a home or I'm sorry, if you're a destination based tax [00:23:30] location, you have to have shipping turned on, otherwise it will calculate it all at the home level. You also need to then use the shipping addresses so that it calculates to the destination instead of your home or your office. And the missing piece is that you actually have to edit some of your products that have special tax considerations to pick the right tax category, and then it will update.

Alicia Katz Pollock: And then you can just have every tax be automatically calculate and it will do all the right things. So this is what I teach in my [00:24:00] sales tax class. But my point is right here is that the improvement that they made is that within the sales tax center you can now have a product, there's a product grid, and you can go in and assign all of your products to their correct sales tax in one grid, instead of having to open everyone individually. And if you had thousands of products, that was daunting, if not impossible. So there's improvements to that interface. And last but not least, with the sales tax, [00:24:30] you can actually now turn it off that I don't know how long it's been there, But in the beginning, when they switched to the new QuickBooks Online sales automated sales tax, you couldn't turn it off. Once you were on, it was on. And now you do have the ability to turn it off. So that's nice. All right. Next in my look what I found, I was playing around with one of the Intuit assist features, and it actually asked me if I wanted to turn on and try [00:25:00] out a feature. It actually asked if I wanted it to have the agent panel open automatically or not, and it also gave me an option for experimental features.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Did I want to turn on an autosave option, which would store a draft of my ongoing work in case of an error and suggest line items? And this one was interesting. It says this feature isn't available yet, but we'll note your interest. [00:25:30] And this pain was in either a bill or an invoice when the new side panel opened up. That's when it asked me. So look for little links in there for some settings and some opportunities to beta test hey into it. I like it when you ask me if I want to beta test something or not, because that allows me to choose my experience and give you actionable feedback. Speaking of actionable feedback, as [00:26:00] you are going through your QBO and getting used to the new interfaces, they have feedback links now on practically every screen and every module. It used to be feedback was just up under the gear. But now because every feature is under independent development, that they want to know how it's working for you. So whenever you see feedback on a screen, it's specific to what you're doing. Feedback in the when you're looking at a report, sends it to the reports team, and feedback, when you're looking at an invoice, sends it to [00:26:30] the invoice team. Put in feedback but make it actionable and specific. Don't just say, I don't like that the pain on the left opens up all the time.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Say, I would like an option to turn to have this pain open up or not. Right now I don't need it. And when you give them concrete, specific feedback, then they understand the context. Your use case, what you want to see happen. And then the [00:27:00] more people who communicate something similar, they can turn it off. So do keep putting in the feedback. They are listening now more than ever with all of the new features that they're rolling out. Because remember that Intuit does what they call MVP Minimum viable product, and they put something out there to see if people are interested and if they are interested, they'll develop it. And if they're not interested, it will just silently disappear. And that's [00:27:30] why we do need to be active participants in the process. The next thing that I found was a deposit on estimates in the settings that when you are in the sales settings and you have, I think it's when you have projects turned on, but it may be available just when you're when you do have estimates that there is a preference that will specifically allow you to auto convert estimates to invoices. [00:28:00] And so you can turn that on. And you can also specify the liability account for your deposit payments. And mine defaulted to customer deposits. And what happens when you turn an estimate into an invoice with this new feature is it will automatically deduct the deposit from the invoice, which then zeros out your liability natively.

Alicia Katz Pollock: And naturally, I'm really happy about that. Another thing I noticed in QuickBooks Online Advanced Company that I was setting up is [00:28:30] that backups are now in the settings, and it did default to on turn on backups was on, and you can turn it off to stop your backup of data. When you go into the gear and down to backups, you can manually initiate a backup and it can be a full backup. It can be an incremental backup, but what it doesn't do is give you the control of how often it is backing up. And I asked, I was on a call with support and I asked [00:29:00] them that question, and she had to go research it. And her answer that she came back with is that the backup was only done once a month. And that kind of stopped me in my tracks. A monthly backup is not a useful backup that if you have a problem, you need to get back to like at at longest yesterday going, you can't recreate an entire month of accounting. So intuit if you are. Since backups are part of advanced, [00:29:30] which we are paying over $200 a month for. You better believe your backups need to be daily. That's just not okay. I mean, at least weekly, not monthly, but for all of you. Rewind is my go to backup app. Um, and I'll put a link in the show notes to it.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Um, and what rewind does is not only back up a lot more often than monthly, but it actually backs up every transaction you make. So if you change [00:30:00] a transaction, you actually have a version history on every transaction. So you can go back to any version of the transaction. And let's say you delete that 2000 line journal. Payroll journal entry import. And now you have to go and create it again. You can actually go log into rewind and just undo your deletion which is super fabulous. So I'm a huge proponent of using rewind as a secondary backup, especially if you don't have QuickBooks Online Advanced and you don't [00:30:30] have backups at all. All right. Next look, what I found is there's an option to when you are invited to QuickBooks online by by a user, by one of your clients, they now have the option to invite you using your firm ID instead of your email. And so it gives you a copy of your firm ID, and you can copy that and send it to the client. And they can do the invite by firm ID instead. So that helps [00:31:00] keep your email address private. That also means that you don't need to give your firm's QBO email address out to your clients. You know, some people would like to keep that private so that I think that's a really great alternative.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Something else that was pointed out to me, this was actually pointed out to me by by one of my royal wives, owls community members, Merrill, that in the billing, if you are a bookkeeper and you need to turn over the billing to another account [00:31:30] and user like, let's say you have somebody on your ProAdvisor preferred rates or a sharp rate and they're not paying retail. They're paying one of the wholesale discounted rates. It used to be that you had to release it to the client and then call the accountant, use the new accountant. User had to call into it to have it brought on and get their discount reapplied, which was a big waste. So so now in your users list [00:32:00] you can now take over billing and that discounted rate can be applied to you under your new wholesale billing. So thank you into it. That is freaking awesome. Another feature that I saw in the wild, but honestly I have not tried out yet, is a new AI powered reconciliation where you can upload a bank statement and it will hypothetically redo your reconciliations for you. And I have not seen it in action [00:32:30] yet, but I saw it yesterday, so I thought I would throw it into the podcast right now. So I will let you know what I find when I get to try that out. So that wraps up the look what I found portion of the episode.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Now, the next thing that I want to address as we're talking about changes is that a lot of people have started wondering, like, what are the alternatives to the big hairy monster QuickBooks, which has been the industry standard for [00:33:00] 30 years? But, you know, competition is good. Even. You know, this is my bread and butter, but I still say, hey, competition is good. And people are asking, well, what other general ledger software is out there on the market? And you know, we know that there's zero and there's Zoho and they're wave and FreshBooks and there's other ones out there, and none of them are robust as what QuickBooks has and can do. And so that's one of the reasons why we stay, and we kind of put up with being [00:33:30] beta tested on, because it really is world class software that does a lot of really cool stuff. Now, the irony in this conversation is one of the complaints that people are having is about this unknown AI and all the AI pop ups and the new features and the new, in some ways, interruptions to our routine to call attention to new things. And that's where the the AI right now is being developed is. Hey, did you see that? You have an anomaly. [00:34:00] Hey, do you see that? You have this customer who is 92 days overdue? Hey, you have this customer who's always slow on paying you. Do you want to give them late fees? You know, suggestions like that.

Alicia Katz Pollock: So here's here's the grand irony is the new ledgers that are being developed. First of all, everybody is going AI forward. And Intuit as a corporation needs to be in front of the vanguard on this. So [00:34:30] you just you're not going to not get AI options now. But the important part of this is here's the irony is when you go on to any of the conference show floors, the new general ledgers that are generating all the buzz are like digits. Who's one of our show sponsors and puzzle, and they are all AI forward. Their entire general ledger is built on AI first [00:35:00] and everything else. The manual work is the secondary thought. So as all of you are exploring alternatives and trying to decide, is it worth converting your practice or not and converting all your clients? Right now we're on the verge of a whole big newness and in a way, our QuickBooks that it is. I'm not going to say in the dinosaur range, but with the new technology that's being developed that's making QuickBooks online look old school. So meanwhile, [00:35:30] while we're complaining that it's got all this newfangled stuff, the entire tech industry is all AI with no manual work, and that shift choice that you have in front of you may be more AI, not less AI. So, you know, there's a kind of a trend that I'm seeing that I'm obviously going to keep my eye on and see how it all plays out.

Alicia Katz Pollock: But a lot of the reason why a lot of us are here, [00:36:00] the two biggest reasons why we stay are because it really still, even with all its its warts and bugs, is still world class software that allows us to do many, many things automatically. And the other, the other apps just don't have a lot of those features. And honestly, you know, I think back to 1990 when I was having to type in all my transactions, and the register didn't balance by like $0.35, [00:36:30] and I would have to figure out what transaction was missing and then do the reconciliation. And it was off by $0.09, and there was a transposition, and it would take me hours and hours and hours to do the basic data entry work. And now with the bank feeds. Yeah, sure. We still have to click on every transaction and decide if it's right and train the AI, but that is still better than manually typing in every single transaction. We can make rules that automate it. The AI is going to get better and learn, and that's a [00:37:00] tasks that you don't have to spend your time on. You know, that has value, that actually has a lot of value. I was talking with one of my coaching clients yesterday, and she has one client who is completely old school.

Alicia Katz Pollock: They're still on desktop, but their bank does not connect to the banking feeds at all. And for some reason they're not doing any imports. And he literally sends and he won't do anything electronically. So, you know, the guy is, I think, in his late 70s. So he doesn't trust [00:37:30] any of this technology stuff. And so he sends her his bank statements and she types in the transactions. And she's also like, you know, I thought she's like somewhere around 60 ish. And she's like, you know, I thought I would be close to retiring right now and I'm busier than ever. And I'm like, well, yeah, but look what you're spending your time on. He could be on QBO with a bank feed that actually works, and you don't have to do any of this typing in credit card statements. [00:38:00] So it's you who is taking all your time, and you could automate this. And actually, while we consider data entry, low end drudge work, if he's making you do that work, you should be charging a premium to type in transactions. You should be charging a lot of money to type in transactions because you have better things to do with your time and it should not be necessary. So for those of you who are still in that situation and are slow to uptake [00:38:30] the technology, that's my $0.02 about that. So now that we have broken down the the trends and the changes, I want to share with you what I am up to to solve this for all of you and for all of your clients.

Alicia Katz Pollock: I have been teaching QuickBooks since 2017 and I started by making classes for my clients. And so originally I was doing business [00:39:00] owners and that was my QBO boot camp, which turned into a book that's on Amazon called QuickBooks online From Setup to Tax Time. But hold that thought. I have this, um, opportunity in front of me because now all of my content is now obsolete all at once. And we, um, have to update my content. And it's not like I have an option right now, because literally my whole company [00:39:30] is built on my entire QuickBooks training program. We have an Apple training program, too, but this is our you know, this is the bulk of the company, and I have to do it because I'm Nasba certified. So I can't let my my content can't be old. It has to be updated and current. So that leaves me, um, in this interesting position that I realize is actually a really cool opportunity to reteach my entire curriculum in order [00:40:00] by level that my entire curriculum was kind of cobbled together by need, like, oh, I need to make a class on QuickBooks payments. Oh, I need to make a class on the new sales tax. Oh, I need to update the class on payroll because they just improved it.

Alicia Katz Pollock: And so it was either based on changes or new features. And it got to the point where I have 35 different QBO classes. And so this actually now I'm kind of excited because starting in on September 9th with my [00:40:30] beginner's guide to QBO, which is designed for desktop switchers or spreadsheet users that don't know what QuickBooks online is. And my Intro to Bookkeeping and Accounting class for Small business. I'm starting with those basic classes on September 9th, and then teaching my all day QBO bootcamp on September 16th. That's like the Big Kahuna class, the foundation for my entire program, and it's all going to be in the new interface. And so we're going to be able to start from [00:41:00] scratch and literally do all my courses in order from beginning to fundamentals to, um, setting up a setting up QBO to the chart of accounts to the banking feeds, reconciling reports, and then how to manage credit cards and how to manage, um, Uh, and how to use QuickBooks payments and the go payment app and all of it basically. And so we're starting that in September. And in order to get it done for Nasba, [00:41:30] I have to double my cadence from every other week to every week. So I'm teaching a new Qbo class every single week from September 9th all the way through June. You know, a couple weeks off here and there where I'm speaking at a conference or holidays, but I'm pretty much every week new class.

Alicia Katz Pollock: And so this is a huge opportunity for all of my listeners and all of the pro advisors and all of your clients that [00:42:00] right now change is hard changes. And so I'm giving you an opportunity to get a guided visual tour with screen demos and recordings that you can come back to that will get you instantly familiar with the interface. You see it, you understand it, you grok it, you're good to go. And then if you can't remember something, you can go back later and watch. But investing a little bit of time in direct training and just sitting down for one of my two [00:42:30] hour classes or my six hour boot camp, will mean that you don't have to spend all that time spinning your wheels down the road. So this is a huge opportunity for you and for your clients to get on board and check out Royal Wise. And, you know, I'm sorry if this sounds like a shameless self promo, but, you know, if I don't talk about it, nobody knows about it. And why am I going to bother doing it if I don't have people actually learning from the classes? Because all of this is about you. Every [00:43:00] single podcast episode, every single training I do is to make your life easier and to save you time. And every you know, it costs 63% less or no, I'm sorry I got the statistic wrong.

Alicia Katz Pollock: It costs 71% less to sit down and pay. Take a paid class than it does to go searching on YouTube to go find the answer to your question, especially when the content is so new that I think maybe Hector might be the only person who has, um, [00:43:30] who has it up and running and and is ahead of the curve. Um, Kathy, uh, has a class. Veronica. Like, we're all starting to get geared up for it. Um, but it's still kind of slow to start. So what we are doing at Royal Wise is we are having a membership drive, and, uh, our what we used to call our silver membership is now a community membership. And, uh, you can sign up as an annual member and you get automatic [00:44:00] entry into every single one of my classes, which is every single Tuesday or almost every single Tuesday starting on September 9th. And we'll just send you the zoom link and you pop in. Most of the classes are start at Tuesday at nine. Some are one hours, ours most or two ours. A couple or three hours. And if you can't make it, the recording is there. But you also get member Q&A sessions where you can. The first Tuesday of every month and the third Thursday of every month, where you can [00:44:30] just pop on and ask me questions.

Alicia Katz Pollock: And I will answer your questions about your qbo files. And this is a great opportunity for your clients to if you don't want to do the whole year, you can also just do you can do it monthly. I also created a new business membership. That's just my classes between now and the end of December, which is all the basics. I already listed out the classes, so I'm not going to list them out again, but basically everything from the beginner's guide through [00:45:00] reports, which is everything that a business owner needs to get up and running, customer transactions, vendor transactions, bank feeds, reconciling all of those things. So I've got some huge opportunities for you and I'm going to consider myself sponsoring this podcast episode today. So if you go to Royal Comm or actually there's a specific link, um r o y w QBO refresh [00:45:30] and I'll put that link in the podcast. But again it's ROI dot I'm sorry, ROI l dot w, which is the short link for royal wise slash QBO and that's in all caps. Dash refresh with a capital R that will take you to the page that outlines all of my new exciting The Great. We're calling it the great QuickBooks refresh. Now, the thing that's exciting about the great QuickBooks [00:46:00] refresh is not just the content. I'm also using it as an opportunity to expand our membership that we have the Royal Wise Owls community.

Alicia Katz Pollock: And because community members get all of these classes. We are having a membership drive and a membership campaign. So when you go to that page that I told you about for the great QuickBooks refresh, you'll see all of these options on it, but you can sign up as an annual community member. We're actually [00:46:30] dropping the price during this promotional period. Um, it actually, we're dropping the price in general. It was 1750. We're permanently dropping the price to 1500. And if you join the owls between now and September 16th, so you have just a couple of days left, it's actually going to be $1,200. So it's a $550 price drop. So you can get in at $1,200 for a whole year. Of all of these classes with CPE, it's actually 35 [00:47:00] classes, like 81 hours. It's a lot. If you don't want to do it for a full year, you can do it just for a month and check it out. You can take the boot camp class. We also have the business membership that's four years. That's perfect for your clients. It's all the fundamental classes between now and the end of the year. So you have lots of different options. So everybody who signs up for any one of those options will be entered into a sweepstakes. And the prize is [00:47:30] an hour of time with me so we can meet and you can ask me anything about your QuickBooks experience.

Alicia Katz Pollock: The first five people who sign up as a community membership for the full year for the annual at the special $1,200 price, also gets a free 30 minute consultation with me. And if you are already a member, we're having a contest for you. You can refer people and whoever signs up the most people wins. Not just [00:48:00] a coaching session, but copies of my new books that are coming out in the fall as well. So we're trying to raise some enthusiasm and some excitement. And please do consider becoming a member of the Royal Wise Owls. So definitely come check out the The Great QuickBooks refresh on the Royal Wise page and participate with us and share it with your clients. We also have a partner program you can join as an affiliate and get 10% referral credit for literally sending people to that page with your affiliate link tacked on [00:48:30] to the end. Um, you know, there there is no us without you. If you can help me get people into this program, please think about your clients. Who needs QuickBooks training? Send them to the bootcamp. Um, do you have a team member who gets it but needs extra help? Or for all of you, the new interface? It's a mystery. I want to defray that mystery for you and just get you up and running as fast as possible. So that puts an end to my self-indulgent [00:49:00] self-promotion. But again, I am.

Alicia Katz Pollock: The whole reason I do any of this is to make our lives easy with our bookkeeping tasks. And so, you know, hopefully what I'm doing is making a difference for you. To wrap it all up, my what's going on in my world section, I'm also now gearing up for the trifecta of conferences. I'm actually going to four conferences in the in the fall. In September I'm going to the Complete Business [00:49:30] Group ten year anniversary celebration. Congratulations to CBG. They're a QuickBooks solutions provider, a qsp that I've been associated with for years, and it helps me get discounts on QuickBooks subscriptions and modules, as well as getting first class backend support. And then I'm going to women who count in Mesa, Arizona. So I'll have a booth there, and I'm speaking and doing my hacks. And I'm also going to be doing a QuickBooks online before and after [00:50:00] section during my session. So come join me for that. I'm going immediately from women who count straight to Intuit connect. I'm getting on a plane from Mesa to go to Las Vegas and, uh, go to Intuit Connect, where I will be spending my time in the Intuit Innovations Circle. What I what I affectionately call the pit for most of my time. Um, and I'll have reports then in November about what all the developers are working on for future possible features. [00:50:30] And then I come home literally for Halloween for one day, and then I'm off to reframe, which is Hector Garcia's conference in Miami in early November.

Alicia Katz Pollock: And his topic this year is pricing with confidence. And so it's all about how you are pricing and valuing your services. And, you know, we know that the the buzz has been raise your prices, raise your prices, raise your prices. But it's not about that. It's [00:51:00] really about right, fitting your prices for your service and for what you want out of your life. And I'm going to be one of the table facilitators, helping you with your own discovery process so that you come out of the conference feeling really good about either the pricing that you have, or know exactly what you need to do when you get back so that you can have the lifestyle practice that you want to have. So I'm very much looking forward to that conference, and [00:51:30] I will put the links to all of these conferences in my show notes, in case you want to come to any of these conferences and join me there. All right. Well, thanks everybody for listening to me both do a look what I found episode and a wheel of rants about changes. Hopefully you got some good nuggets out of this and you're coming out feeling good about your QuickBooks online and your prospects moving forward. This is Alicia Pollock from Royal Wise Solutions, [00:52:00] and I will see you in the next one.