Did you know that a 'new' QuickBooks Online is soon to be released? I'm not talking about simply a few new features like those commonly released every month or so, I'm talking about a whole new QBO, as we know it.
This new release of QBO will see Intuit change the QuickBooks experience to meet the needs of customers, “not just words on a screen, or in a vision statement, but in action,” said Joe Preston, Vice President of Product and Design at Intuit during a recent Intuit On The Books podcast hosted by Ted Callahan and Jessica McCracken.
It may not seem like it, but 2014 was when the last ‘major’ update of the QuickBooks Online experience was released. Surprisingly, the new experience, scheduled for release in July 2025, will incorporate many of the best aspects of QuickBooks Desktop, including improved real estate utilization. Features that this design team incorporated from the Desktop into the new experience may actually streamline the migration experience to QBO for many Desktop users.
The new QuickBooks experience will involve bolstered agentic AI technology, a new business feed, and a customer hub. While Intuit has been building and using AI for the existing experience, the new kind of AI Intuit is introducing with this new platform puts AI at the ‘center’ of the functionality.
Intuit’s new slogan, “Automation where it counts. Human where it matters,” reflects the design and intent of this new QuickBooks experience.
The new Agentic AI provides a more powerful QuickBooks designed to help you get your work done. AI Agents will now be able to complete work for you. This will include handling day-to-day tasks like sending invoices, tracking payments, reconciling transactions, and streamlining various other areas of business growth. The new AI will also provide enhanced insights, anomaly detection, and operational suggestion-making.
Everything about this new QuickBooks is a ‘new experience.’ Let’s take a look.
1) New App Carousel gives you access to everything you need. Switch between Apps like Accounting, Customer Hub, Payroll, and more. Features that appeared in the prior QuickBooks version Menu, like Accounting and Expenses, are now in this new app carousel. In the future, even ‘deeply integrated’ 3rd-party Apps will be accessible from this carousel.
2) New Business Feed provides a summary of the work being performed by Agentic AI Agents, enabling you to review and approve their actions taken on your behalf.
3) Smart Search lets you search for ‘anything’, from a vendor to a report, a client to a transaction; just ask, and Smart Search offers it up.
4) Zen Mode maximizes your real estate and minimizes distractions by allowing you to transition to full-screen mode, enabling you to focus on the work at hand.
5) Bookmarks, your favorite places, and dashboards from your last QuickBooks experience are back in this new experience because Intuit knows that, as much as we like new things, we want our “old favorites,” too. While the prior version of QuickBooks had only one dashboard accessible from the Menu, the new central dashboard offers enhanced customization capabilities. You will also find that new 'overview pages' within some Apps seem similar to app-specific dashboards.
Now, let’s dive a little deeper into just a couple of things this new QuickBooks will bring to your experience.
The new Business feed allows you to easily see what the QuickBooks Agentic AI Agents have undertaken on your behalf. This new summary enables you to review and approve these actions quickly, allowing you to focus less on tedious aspects and more on your clients and the firm.
The new QuickBooks experience is full of these agentic AI Agents that are working behind the scenes to proactively take actions on your behalf (with your permission). These AI Agents are designed to analyze situations and determine when they need you, or your client, to authorize specific action.
There isn't just one AI Agent; instead, multiple AI Agents are working in different parts of the QuickBooks platform, each with specific functions and duties and focused on making your business more efficient and easier to manage. They are able to 'think,' 'plan,' and 'perform' complex workflows, such as matching bank transactions, verifying vendor bills against purchase orders, and more.
For example, the new 'AI Accounting Agent' has the ability to perform categorizations, reconciliations, and anomaly detection. The new 'AI Customer Agent' can identify and prioritize leads from the inbox of your Customer Hub, draft follow-up emails for your review and approval, and then track the status of that customer.
With the new Business feed, you will be able to see current AI Agent activities in addition to past activities, providing the entire history of actions taken using the various AI Agents. Wherever you see the icon (shown in the red circle below), you can quickly identify where an AI Agent is at work for you. Just click on the icon to interact with the AI agent.
Review any open task in the Business Feed to view a dialog box where you can ‘chat’ with the AI Agent. Using simple language, you can ask the AI Agent questions, review and approve the work, and provide instructions to the AI Agent regarding its next step(s).
Speaking of clients (who are our customers), a new Customer Hub is finally bringing actual CRM functionality to QuickBooks. Many of our clients spend hours of their QuickBooks time within the Customer Center focusing on open transactions, payment history, order history, and more. Yet, key information has always been challenging to obtain.
From this new Customer Hub, you will be able to view, organize, track, and follow your customers more closely. From leads to payment and everything in between. Examine the pathway to success by tracking your client from initial contact to the final project, with each estimate, quote, project task, invoice, and payment along the way.
The 'AI Customer Agent' will assist you along the way by automatically capturing referrals, feedback, and work requests, as well as keeping your customer information, notes, to-do lists, and more organized and accessible. It can also help you as a scheduling agent to ensure that your customer-related workflows are accomplished on time.
The tools you need to manage everything regarding every client are on hand within this new hub. You will find tools like contract storage, eSignatures, customer and lead management, and many more, all in this centralized Customer Hub.
Don’t worry; we’ve only just begun to explore the “New QuickBooks Experience” headed your way in July. Stay tuned; we will have a group of features covering the monumental changes Intuit has implemented in the QBO you know and love.
Footnotes and Disclosures:
* - Content is based on pre-release QuickBooks (Online) Advanced Beta version, pre-release notes, and other Intuit source materials. Your version(s) may appear different at the time of final release, including differences based on the QuickBooks SKU you are subscribed to. Not all QuickBooks SKUs contain all of the features outlined in this feature/series.
Feature content, including graphics, was adapted from Intuit media source content and other QuickBooks resources. Content adapted by Insightful Accountant from Intuit sources is furnished for educational purposes only.
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