Almost three weeks ago I wrote a follow-up of our April 1 QBTalks-Apps show during which the QuickBooks Payroll team shared how the product has evolved far beyond payroll. This article supplements that article, as promised.
Just as the QuickBooks mobile app was renamed ‘QuickBooks Workforce,’ I suspect that soon we will all come to know QuickBooks Payroll as Intuit Workforce Solutions. Exactly when that change in moniker will happen, I cannot say (or won’t), but it really is a workforce platform already as the illustration below amplifies.
Now I am aware that many QuickBooks Payroll users are unhappy with some recent changes surrounding the announcement that “Intuit would be mandating ‘automated taxes’ for all NEW QBO Payroll customers.” I can say this because most comments to my article about that announcement have been 90+ percent negative.
But the reality is that many payroll services that offer 'full service' where they pay and report payroll taxes withdraw those taxes on the same date as the paychecks are dated for which the payroll taxes are deducted, matched, or recorded as a liability. Yet it is also true that some other companies offer the option of self-managed payroll taxes.
Still the same, if you option for QuickBooks Payroll it typically was out of convenience, the degree of integration, and the simplicity of payroll. I know that is what clients have told me as to why they selected Intuit’s payroll option. I cannot recall ever having a client tell me they chose Intuit’s payroll because of the ‘talent management’ capabilities, or the ‘benefits options,’ or ‘HR advisory’ it afforded.
In fact, I venture to say that, unless you have told them, they may not even be aware that Intuit’s ‘workforce solutions offer such functions. But you can enhance your value as a ‘Pro’ ‘Advisor’ by evaluating your clients’ needs for other than ‘just payroll’ and collaborating with them to determine if other solutions are appropriate.
To ensure we are on the same page, I am going to just list and briefly describe these solutions:
As part of the transition to the ‘new’ QuickBooks last summer, Intuit migrated the old menu to a more ‘activity’ workflow approach in the user interface. Currently, Payroll is one of those activity workflows. We talked about Payroll last time, and will in the future, but this feature is going to explore the ‘new’ Team App.
The ‘new’ Team App streamlines your HR tasks, enabling you to manage your team from hire to retire. It serves as the central hub for the HR tools introduced through Intuit’s acquisition of GoCo. This new App makes it easy to onboard personnel and review their performance as well as track ‘applicants’ during the recruitment and pre-employment processes.
The Team App offers Smart HR workflows designed to save your hours by automating repetitive HR tasks. You customize the workflows to fit your business, rather than having to adapt your business to a predefined workflow.
As I mentioned above, the Team App even lets you track “not yet, but hopefully, team members.” You can post jobs and manage the hiring process easily with the App and that means growing your business with less complexity.
The Team App is also the place where you can manage all your documents about team members, and get eSignatures on employment offers, acceptance of personnel rules, payroll compliance forms, and non-disclosure agreements, just to name a few.
And when it comes time for performance review, the Team App is the place to track and review each team member’s performance.
Let us look a little deeper at some of the features from the Team App starting with recruiting.
QuickBooks give you the ability to hire the best talent for your business with an automated hiring and pipeline recruiting functionality. The new applicant tracking system (ATS) will automate hiring basics including job descriptions, posting to job boards, and managing applicants while remaining compliant with labor laws.
A key aspect of this new functionality rests in the integrated candidate tracking capabilities. Admin users can view candidate lists and profiles and add collaborators such as hiring managers. Companies can integrate with’ Checkr’ to conduct background checks.
Combining the best of GoCo and QuickBooks Online Payroll, the GoCo-powered onboarding wizard simplifies employee and admin tasks. For example, when a candidate becomes a new hire, all their information is automatically stored within the QuickBooks Team App.
A new onboarding workflow simplifies the process and reduces the effort of both Admins and employees. Your new team members are guided through a simple and clear journey for the start of their employment with your business.
QuickBooks AI now automatically recommends Standard Occupational Classification codes based on the job title and description for each of your team members. That will help when it comes to occupational reporting requirements and even workers’ compensation premium computations.
Another new feature we will talk about more when we get back to discussing additional payroll features, is ‘flexible compensation.’ This feature combines salary and hourly pay to allow customization of additional pay types which can be mapped to the businesses’ chart of accounts. Payroll managers and Admin users can manage tax settings by pay type and schedule future-dated changes for promotions with ease.
And, as I have mentioned a couple of times already, the Team App serves as that ‘one place’ for all your HR documents. You can easily create, manage, and store HR documents for every employee. Admin users can send documents, like offer letters, notices, and contracts, for eSignature with a few clicks of the mouse. Employees receive a notification via email to review and sign their documentation.
Managers can act on behalf of their team to approve documents, approve time off, approve performance reviews, and much more. All actions are recorded in the employee profile and update the appropriate documentation where applicable.
As I mentioned a moment ago, when it comes time for performance review, the Teams App has you covered. Businesses can streamline the process with customizable performance reviews on cycles you configure.
This is by no means the end of Intuit Workforce Solutions, what you are still calling QuickBooks Online Payroll. So next time (in a few weeks) we will look at other areas of the application we have yet to discuss in depth.
During the review process, managers and employees can exchange information via the Workforce web portal.
When a review is complete it is automatically stored to the employee’s profile.
There always comes a time when team members must be ‘offboarded’ for one reason or another and the Teams App is again your command center for the activities related to that. The Teams App includes new HR workflows that allow you to design, replicate and automate a range of employee-related workflows.
The offboarding workflow collects exit details and ensures employees receive their final paycheck in accordance with labor laws, or contractual commitments.
Well, that's about it for this article, but certainly not Intuit Workforce Solutions, that you are probably still calling QBO Payroll. In a future article (in about 3 weeks) I will be looking at some additional features and functions you may not have realized exist within your current payroll subscription.
Till then, "happy paychecks to you... until we meet again."
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