Effective financial management is a critical factor for small businesses seeking growth. Tailored and automated tools, data insights, and guidance from accounting firms have become keys to scaling operations as businesses expand their footprint.
Intuit QuickBooks is at the foundation of small business growth. From accounting to payroll and payments, access to capital and acquiring customers, the QuickBooks platform helps owners better manage their business finances while also enabling accounting firms to deliver actionable advice that spurs client growth. To that end, the QuickBooks Connect conference, held this month in Las Vegas, presented several advancements to the QuickBooks platform that help accounting firms manage their client roster more efficiently.
A New QuickBooks Online Solution for Accountants
One significant announcement was the introduction of QuickBooks Ledger, a new low-cost, subscription product designed exclusively for accounting professionals to help them serve all their clients on one standardized platform, including those with basic accounting needs, such as year-end tax filing.
For clients who don’t need frequent, ongoing support from an accountant, QuickBooks Ledger offers automated bank feeds, bank reconciliation, financial statements, 1099 tracking, and a seamless transition to tax preparation.
The sweet spot for QuickBooks Ledger is small businesses looking for an accounting solution that will grow along with them. The product is fully integrated and accessible through QuickBooks Online Accountant, allowing accountants to manage end-to-end workflows for their clients from a single place.
The days of manual data entry and reconciliation are also long gone. QuickBooks Ledger allows for financial transactions to be seamlessly synced. With a connection to the client’s bank account, business bank transactions can be flowed into the solution automatically, saving time and greatly reducing the chance of entry errors. And because automation is leveraged, and the tedious act of manually inputting the data is no longer necessary, accountants can now work on higher-end value services.
QuickBooks is looking to ensure that businesses are equipped with the right tools, regardless of whether they’re just starting out or scaling up. In fact, if a business’s growth requires an upgrade in accounting software and services, an accounting firm can easily transition their QuickBooks Ledger client to a more robust QuickBooks Online solution to meet their more complex, ongoing needs.
Scaling Up
QuickBooks also announced several additional enhancements that support accounting firms who serve larger, more complex businesses.
As businesses scale their operations, they need features that address their more complex needs. QuickBooks is rolling out new advanced roles and permissions for small businesses and the accountants who serve them to provide more granular and customizable access to sensitive financial data. For accounting firms, they will be able to manage what their teams can see and do within their own firm’s books and on behalf of clients, choosing a role that limits access or views to banking, sales, or expense data.
As a business grows and hires more employees, they also need to have more control over who has permission to perform sensitive tasks and have access to confidential data and information. QuickBooks Online Advanced, designed to serve more complex, growing businesses, will include controls for who can view, create, edit, or delete transactions and access accounting features like reconciliation, registers, and journal entries. Soon access controls will also apply to reports, managing who can view or customize different financial reports, sales reports, receivable reports, payroll reports, helping to avoid unnecessary mistakes and exposure.
Accountants serve businesses at various stages of maturity, and the tools they leverage should meet the unique needs of each of their clients. Having a robust solution that addresses the evolving needs of day-to-day business tasks and operations helps save time and drive greater efficiency for accountants. QuickBooks works alongside accountants to ensure its ongoing innovations continue to provide a solution that scales with the needs of their clients.
