Now You Know: September 2025 QuickBooks Updates

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Alicia Katz Pollock: In this week's episode of the unofficial QuickBooks accountants podcast, we are going to do our monthly now You Know episode, which stems from Intuit's monthly In the Know webinar, which is when ProAdvisor Academy brings us all together to highlight new features and new developments in the software. So let's go ahead and talk about all [00:00:30] of the news and the all the new features that are being released. The slide deck for the webinar is in our show notes, so if you missed it, you can still see the slide deck with all of the outline of everything that they talked about in the know started out with ProAdvisor news. The first announcement that they made is that applications are now being accepted for Insightful Accountants top 100 Pro Advisors. Now, if you're a ProAdvisor, don't wait for your name to be submitted by [00:01:00] somebody else. You are absolutely welcome to nominate yourself. So head over to Insightful Accountant com and you can put in your application. The next announcement that they made was a reminder about the new QuickBooks on the Intuit platform experience that we've all been seeing and talking about, and they did extend the deadline that October 1st is the new date by which it will become permanent. So you are still able to opt in and opt out. But at this point, [00:01:30] I really highly encourage everybody to just go ahead and opt in. This is the time to try it out, see what you like, see what needs improvements, and put in all kinds of feedback so that they know what what we want to see.

Alicia Katz Pollock: One little piece of minutia that I want to point out is the gear in the upper right hand corner. They've now started calling it the settings cog instead of the accountant settings gear. And so just something to note as you're doing your work. The next announcement that they made [00:02:00] is that there is an Intuit Enterprise Suite Features Lab happening on September 23rd and October 7th. And if you go to our show notes and download the deck, you can actually click the links in the deck to go to all of these places to check them out and to register for these webinars. So definitely take the time to do that. Or you can go to firm of the future. Com and the Intuit Enterprise suite is of features [00:02:30] lab on September as I said September 23rd and the and October 7th where they're going to help you understand what it is and why it's helpful to you so that you can figure out which of your clients it's a good fit for. The next announcement was a QuickBooks payments self-paced course that's going to be new in ProAdvisor Academy. It's a 1.5 hour course with 1.5 CPE, where you're going to learn to identify customers who [00:03:00] would benefit from QuickBooks payments.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Recognize all the different forms of payment, when to use them, and understand the rates associated with them. You'll see how to issue refunds, deal with declined payments and manage disputed payments and identify which QuickBooks online reporting features include the payments transactions. And I actually am kind of excited about this because I want to kind of let you know that I was the subject matter expert on this course. I helped them edit it [00:03:30] and make sure that all the content was completely accurate and well stated. So I'm pretty proud of the course myself. So everybody should go take it. And again, where you find it is when you are logged into your QuickBooks online for accountants and go to the Proadvisors tab and then go to training, you will soon find this new QuickBooks payment self-paced course. The next announcement was a new series that they're doing called the ProAdvisor Solutions Spotlight. And instead [00:04:00] of being a what's new feature, they are actually doing trainings from the Intuit care experts basically support about how to solve complex challenges, optimize your workflows, and unlock tools that you didn't even know existed. The very first kickoff session is on September 25th at 11 a.m. Pacific Time, and they are going to help us learn how to do deep dives into the platform. So I'm really curious about it and I will definitely be there. I want to see what they're up to [00:04:30] with that.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Now let's get into the product innovations. The first one was an announcement about the business network and that QBO firms, QuickBooks online for accountant firms are now finally eligible to be part of the business network. We heard from Zimmer, who's the project manager of the QuickBooks Business Network. And if you're not familiar with the business network, we're actually going to do an episode about it sometime in the next few months. And the business [00:05:00] network is a connectivity between different QBO users. And up until now, it's just been available for the business owners and the business network is turned on and off inside your account and settings under the settings cog. And what it is is permission for your business to be seen by other businesses. So for example, if you create a new customer or a new vendor and they are in the business network, it will automatically autofill all of their contact information for [00:05:30] you, and you have the option of securely putting in your bank information for your account number and your routing number for QuickBooks payments. And then that way, if you send any invoices and bills back and forth between these entities, you can they're actually already there, ready to be paid, including if one company creates an invoice, it will show up as a bill in the other company. And if that or if you create a bill, it will show up as an invoice between the two firms.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Now I've heard [00:06:00] about that. I haven't actually seen it yet, but I think that's because I've been in QBO A and so it was not available to me. So I'm really looking forward to seeing how this plays out. I have noticed that occasionally I've gone into online bill pay to pay a vendor, and their payment information was already there. So I can only assume that that was because of the business network. So this is rolling out. It will be available to all of you accountant users by mid [00:06:30] October. And the place where you can go to set up your profile is in accountant settings. And then go to the advanced tab and then look for the QuickBooks Business Network. And then there's a profile that you can go fill in. And that's where you set up the information that you want them to see when you are connecting. Like I said, when you create a new customer or vendor and they're in the business network, they you start typing their name and they will autofill. And [00:07:00] then if you want, you can have your payment information in to make it available to other people. So I think the technology, I think it's a neat idea to be able to move that information back and forth and save us the the extra time that it takes to create those vendors. The benefits. The QuickBooks Business Network has over 4.5 million members inside the US who have already provided their business information.

Alicia Katz Pollock: The information [00:07:30] is completely secure. It comes in as asterisks, but you can use the email even though you can't see the email, and you can use the phone number even though you can't see the phone number just by clicking on it. I don't know if you noticed this, but when you're working with your vendors and your customers, there's little icons next to the phone numbers and the email addresses. And if you click the icons, you can dial their phone number through your computer connection or send an email automatically. [00:08:00] So all of that is still live. One of the things that's really nice is that if their information changes, you get their up to date contact information automatically, so you aren't ever sitting on stale email addresses or contact information. Now there is no extra cost for this. And in fact, as a reminder, if you're an accountant user, you actually get Bill Pay Elite for free, so it makes it really easy to pay other QuickBooks users. One [00:08:30] of the questions that came in in the Q&A is that if you have multiple realms as an accountant user, which one do you use? And so the recommendation is to use the one where you are actually making the payments and taking the income itself. So whichever one you're doing, your financials is the one that you should connect.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Now I am looking forward to doing a very thorough treatment of the business network in an upcoming episode, so stay tuned for that. The [00:09:00] second feature that they highlighted is bill payment release approvals. And the PM is Anjali Roy. So she's the product marketing manager for QuickBooks, Bill Pay and Business Network. And what they heard is that we as users needed more control and visibility before bill payments were released, that for bookkeeping firms who were doing the accounts payable for [00:09:30] their clients. We've already had the approvals workflow for creating bills and approving the bills, but there was no workflow specifically for pushing the payments. So they added a new workflow specifically for the payments. So now if you are a bookkeeper who is doing the AP, now, you can have your client provide the final sign off before the money moves, which allows them to make sure that cash is available before paying the vendors, and it [00:10:00] also meets compliance and audit requirements because of the audit trail. What this does is it reduces your firm's risk and liability when you manage accounts payable for your clients, because only authorized client users will be able to release the funds. So there's complete transparency in the process. You can customize the feature. You do have to have Bill pay Elite or QBO advanced. The client has to have primary or company admin access in order [00:10:30] to set it up in QuickBooks online.

Alicia Katz Pollock: And you use the Workflow Automations tool. And again, that's built into QuickBooks Online Advanced. And it comes with Bill Pay Elite and you as a ProAdvisor, your QBO has Bill Pay Elite automatically. You don't have to pay the monthly fees for testing it out, so it's a good opportunity for you to get to know it by trying it yourself before you actually implement these workflows for [00:11:00] your customer. So basically what happens is that you set up the workflow automation for the bill payments approval. And when you're looking for the workflows in the new interface, they're now under the lightning bolt in the upper right hand icon bar. And when you schedule the bill payment, it is sent for approval before the funds are released. The approver can approve just one payment, or they can batch approve the entire [00:11:30] run. They can reject a payment and they can leave comments. So if you need to have a conversation about a particular bill payment, you can. Right now bill payments are still ACH or sending a paper check through the system. You still can't fund it by credit card, but it's on their radar for the future. This is live this week. This started rolling out on September 15th, so you should be seeing it in a QuickBooks near you In the episode, they walked through how [00:12:00] to set up a new workflow specifically for the bill payments.

Alicia Katz Pollock: And so you can see that by downloading the slide deck. If you have something that's time sensitive, if an approval is needed urgently, you can actually copy a link for the approver and text it to them or slack it to them or whatever your communication channel is so that you can call their attention to it quickly. I'm really happy to see this new workflow. I think with all the security issues happening all [00:12:30] across the whole industry, this is a really great way of making sure that the right people are authorizing the right transactions. The next innovation is check remittance and faster payment options. It was presented by Idan Cohen, the senior project manager for QuickBooks Bill pay. So you can see this whole episode is about bill pay options and the the new innovation. This is really super cool is that [00:13:00] when you're using QuickBooks online Bill pay and you have it send a paper check, which is, by the way, a really cool feature. The fact that you can still pay by check, but you don't have to actually print it out, sign it, stick it in an envelope and mail it. You can send the check through QBO, and it does cost a $1.50 at retail or the take the 15% off. I think it's $1.27 for us as ProAdvisor users. Or if you connect your client by inviting them through the [00:13:30] preferred pricing modules.

Alicia Katz Pollock: So anyway, when you do the online bill payment and send a check, it's usually a good idea for you as either the accountant or the client to make sure that the payment actually cleared, that they got the check. And up until now there wasn't that transparency. And so, you know, you always had to follow up and see if they got the check. So now you can view and download your cleared check images directly in [00:14:00] QuickBooks Billpay so that you have concrete proof of the payment and that you have that information when you are working with your vendors. This is available to all bill pay users in the United States, and you can find the bill payments when you go to your Expenses and Bills app in your left navigation bar and you go to bill payments. You will be able to view the details. You can click on the [00:14:30] details. You can click on View Check and you can download it if you want to as well. So if you want to have it in your backup files, you can. When the bill payment is marked as complete and the check is cleared, you'll actually have a link under the clearance date so that you can even see the dates that it cleared. The second online bill pay innovation, was that there are now more speed choices. So depending on your cash flow situation [00:15:00] or the vendor's preferences, even if you're scheduling in advance, you can now choose instant payments and so you can now pay your bills within minutes on business days until 5 p.m.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Pacific time. So now that gives you three payment speed options standard ACH, faster ACH, and instant payment. So it's available in all eligible bill pay accounts. So [00:15:30] the way that you use it is when you're in your QBO, you go to the Expenses and Bills tab and then go to your bills, and then you can select the bills that you want to pay. And then there's a new box up at the top that has the payment speed. And so you can choose whether it's standard faster or instant. And it does even give it gives you the time frame and the prices right there in the window, so you know exactly [00:16:00] what's going on. Now, ideally, you know you want to have enough cash flow and enough time that you don't have to spend extra money in order to get your payments done. But there are times when same day payment is exactly what you want to see. Um, so the the it's rolling out to us customers next month, so you'll start seeing it next month. Let's actually break down those fees for you. Depending on your online bill pay plan, your first number of [00:16:30] payments are free. And then after that they have a fee. So if you're in your first few payments for the month, like if you're on the core plan or the basic plan, there's no fee for your first five transactions.

Alicia Katz Pollock: But if you go to a transaction number six at the standard rate, it's $0.50. If you would like it to be faster, quote unquote. So instead of three days, it's one business day. You can pay $10 and they'll get the payment the next day. But what they're adding [00:17:00] is now an instant payment, and the fee for that is 1% of the payment. There's a minimum of $10 and a maximum of $100. So, you know, it may cost you 100 bucks to get that payment out there. But if it's a big payment and your fees and your fines and your your late payments are more than that, it's definitely going to be worth it. And of course, proadvisors get their 15% discount. And as a reminder, [00:17:30] they did recently introduce the ability that if you have one vendor who has multiple bills, you can now pay up to 20 of them with one payment so you don't have to send individual payments to your vendors anymore. So all in all, I'm really happy with these new features that are rolling out in online bill pay and the business network, and we will continue to alert you to developments as they come out. Jacqueline Oncu [00:18:00] ended the broadcast by talking about some of the other resources available to ProAdvisor, and I want to remind everybody that Intuit has their own podcast called On the Books, which is hosted by Ted Callahan and Jessica McCracken.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Some of the upcoming episodes that we can look forward to are. If you company is doing a merger, what do you do with your tech stack? And they're also going to have an interview with Dan Hood, who's the editor in chief of accounting today. So definitely check out on the books. You can also see their show [00:18:30] Notes on Firm of the future, and you can listen to the podcast wherever you go to listen to your podcasts. They also updated the QuickBooks toolkit for accountants, and this is a file that you can download that talks about all the AI accounting agents and the new QuickBooks on the Intuit platform. So I'll make sure that we have the link in the show notes to that as well. In October's In the Know webinar they're there going to be talking about modern reports, updates to the paycheck, corrections [00:19:00] and more information about the new custom client ID that they released a few weeks ago. So thank you Intuit for your in the no webinars. These are one of my favorite places to go to get the information, so that I keep tabs on what is coming in the industry. And I'll again have all the links in the show notes so that you can watch the recording, download the the slide show and get the toolkit.

Alicia Katz Pollock: And [00:19:30] now for our end segment of what's going on in your world. I just this week rerecorded my QBO Boot Camp, which is a seven hour class, talking about all the basic workflows in Qbo that any business owner needs to know. And it was really fun for me to teach this time, because I pretty much had to rewrite it so that it took advantage of all of the new tools. And at first going into it, I really thought it was just going to be some menu innovations, like instead of hitting plus [00:20:00] new, we hit Plus Create. But then I discovered that there are a lot of really interesting workflows that speed up our process. This class is great for beginning bookkeepers just for the concepts of it. It's great for your business owners because that is a great way for them to learn the basics of it. And for all of you experts, it's a really good way of seeing all the new ways of doing things that if you're just head down and working, you might not have noticed. I also have my upcoming [00:20:30] classes in October. I'm doing a whole class just on the brand new bank feeds with all of the new features, followed by my reconciling class where I don't just teach how to reconcile, but I also teach how to troubleshoot a reconciliation.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Like not just how to check off what is on the bank statement. It's also, well, what are all these other transactions that are unchecked? Why are they here? What do I do with them? So it's a really good intermediate level troubleshooting and clean up class as well. And [00:21:00] you might have noticed that Intuit is rolling out a new reconciliation tool where you upload your statement and it actually does comparisons between all the transactions line by line, so that you can just at a glance, figure out where the discrepancies are. I've tried it myself. I actually did find that it was helpful. And so I will be highlighting that in the reconciling class and then immediately following those in my life, I'm going to start [00:21:30] the conference trifecta, where I'm going to be at the Women Who Count conference, um, in at the end of October. And I was just talking to one of the, uh, one of the people who runs it, and she said that they have totally transformed the conference. So if you've never been to it, you're in for a treat. And if you had been to it in previous years, it's they've absolutely bumped up their There, their quality level of speakers, level of sponsors. So I'm really looking forward [00:22:00] to being surrounded by a whole bunch of really bright, smart, fun women. So that's women who count in Mesa, Arizona, October 22nd to 24th.

Alicia Katz Pollock: Then I'm literally flying from Mesa, Arizona to Las Vegas for Intuit Connect. Tickets are still available for Intuit Connect at Intuit Connect. Com and then I go home for one day and for Halloween. So I get to dress up in a costume and then hop back on a plane [00:22:30] for the Reframe conference. That's Hector Garcia's conference in Miami from November 3rd to fifth. And, uh, this year's theme is pricing with confidence, which is both about pricing your services and about your confidence. So I'm looking forward to being a table captain there. And I think there may be still some tickets available. I also want to remind people that Intuit Connect does fall on a Tuesday, [00:23:00] which means we are going to celebrate two to Tuesday. So if you are going to Intuit connect, please do bring your tutu. You will be in good company. And so there will be I passed out I passed out 100 tutus at scaling new heights. Now, I know that not everybody at Scaling New Heights is going to intuit connect, but if you got a tutu from me at scaling new heights, or if you have a tutu or your daughter has a tutu or your son has a tutu, please bring your tutu and wear [00:23:30] it on Tuesday, October 28th and we will celebrate two to Tuesday together. All right. So that wraps up our now you Know episode. And we will see you in the next one.