Wrapping Up – Lots of Little Tidbits in QuickBooks 2013

September 26, 2012 | By Charlie Russell | 22 Replies

Here’s a mish-mash list of little things that I’ve noticed about QuickBooks 2013, to wrap up my long series of “what’s new” articles. I’m sure that I’ve missed some things!

PLEASE NOTE that much of this is based on information from an early release candidate of QuickBooks 2013 – it is possible that some features may vary from what is described here. Also, this applies strictly to the U.S. editions of QuickBooks in the Windows environment. The UK and Canadian versions may include some of these features.

Billable Checkbox Default Preference

This is a nice preference setting that was added, I’m sure it is based on user feedback.

You now have the option to control whether the Billable check box is checked by default on expense and time transactions. I know that there are people who have been asking for better control over this.

Loan Manager and Internet Explorer Fixed, At Last?

I’m a little gun shy on this one – I said that it was fixed once, but it didn’t stay fixed. Loan Manager has been havingproblems with Internet Explorer 9 for some time now. Loan Manager is an old, old add-on feature and it is creaky. It has been hard to get it to work with IE9 without having to do some system changes that I really don’t like to do. Some people see a problem on their system, some don’t. From what I see this time, it looks like it might be fixed for good? Time will tell.

When I select Loan Manager I get this message:

When I reboot the computer and select it again, it worked! Hope that is the last we have to talk about this.

Customize Columns Improvements

When you are looking at a “List” in QuickBooks, such as the Item List, you can right click on it to select Customize Columns, which lets you add (or delete) columns in the list. Very useful. We’ve had that for ages.

The nice improvement with this user interface change is that the available columns list is sorted now, rather than being in random order. Thank goodness! I like this change.

Another minor change – for years we have been telling people that the “Location” field in the item list column chooser had nothing to do with the item list – this was the “location” of the Fixed Asset Item – which don’t show in this list. Confusing, particularly when Intuit added “locations” or sites with the Advanced Inventory feature. At last, they changed the name here to be more obvious, “Location of Fixed Asset”, so that will be less confusing. Nice!

Of course, it seems to me, that since this list doesn’t let you show fixed asset items, wouldn’t it be better to just not list this field at all? Along with the other fields for fixed asset items? They don’t do any good in this list…

Changes in QuickBooks Plus

I’m always surprised at how many people don’t know about the QuickBooks Plus program. In short, it is a way that you can get QuickBooks for a low monthly fee rather than purchasing it. This is the Windows desktop version, either Pro or Premier. You also get several App Center apps as well as free technical support. I’m told that this is proving to be very popular, with a high level of customer satisfaction.

One of the things that you get as a part of the Plus program is the occasional new feature in a mid-year update. Plus users get features that regular purchasers of the product don’t get, as a part of an update. Often these new features are rolled into the NEXT year of the standard product. I’ll be commenting later on about the Plus features that got rolled into QuickBooks 2013.

One odd thing to note – if you are a ProAdvisor with a current account, your ProAdvisor version of QuickBooks Accountant also gets the Plus features as they come out – so you can support any clients who subscribe. This can be confusing – you’ll see features that your regular desktop clients don’t get.

Another thing to note is that Plus users cannot turn off automatic updates.

With the release of QuickBooks 2013 there are some changes for Plus subscribers.

First, multiuser licenses are available for the first time. Up until now there was only a single user license for the Plus program.

Second, Plus subscribers will have what is called a seamless upgrade experience. This means that:

As soon as QuickBooks 2013 is released to the general public the new version will be automatically and “silently” downloaded to your computer. You won’t notice this happening.
Once the download is complete, the next time you run QuickBooks a message will pop up telling you that you are entitled to get QuickBooks 2013. You have the option to install it or not – I’m guessing you’ll continue to get nagged about it until you do (just guessing).
When you decide to install it this will be a “side by side” installation. It doesn’t replace QuickBooks 2012, you will have both on your system.
When you first run the new QuickBooks 2013 you won’t be asked to enter a new license license key – the existing key will carry over.
The new version of QuickBooks 2013 will find your company file automatically and ask you if you want to upgrade the file. A copy of the existing file will be made, so that you have a backup in the prior version.

I haven’t seen this in action myself, but it sounds like they are covering the bases. If you are subscribing, one of the reasons is to keep up to date. You won’t have to buy a new product like other users, you just keep paying that monthly fee and you always have the latest, greatest available. Upgrading is simple because you don’t have to download anything or get a CD, you don’t have to find registration keys. It seems safe, because you still have a copy of the older program AND your older file in case the conversion doesn’t work properly.

Print Bills

This feature was actually released in the Plus subscription version (and ProAdvisor version) of Premier 2012 R8last year, and I believe that it will now be available in all editions. You will find a Print icon in the Enter Bills window, which is a feature that many people have asked for. There’s been a big debate in LinkedIn about who would ever WANT to do this – some people don’t see why, some people say “I really need it”. I won’t get into that debate other than to say that there are people who have really, really wanted to do this for a long time.

We still don’t have a template that we can edit, which is a complaint that I had last year. Here’s what it look like, take it or leave it.

What About the Bounced Check Feature?

In the 2012 Plus subscription version, as well as the ProAdvisor version of QuickBooks Accountant 2012, Intuit added a bounced check feature. As I mentioned above, usually versions that are found in the Plus version one year are added to the general release in the following year. In the first release of QuickBooks 2013 the bounced check feature is missing!

QuickBooks recognizes checks that were marked as “bounced” with the prior version, when you convert your file, so there is SOME support for this in the background.

According to my source at Intuit (thank you VERY much!) last year customers either loved this feature or hated it. Very polarizing. Intuit paid attention to this and examined the reasons. One of the main issues, according to them, is that you can’t control the date of the journal entry, or the class of the journal entry, that this feature makes. The complaints were serious enough to make Intuit decide that they needed to work on this some more, so they have pulled it so that it can be reworked to address these issues.

This is a great example of Intuit paying attention to the feedback that they got on a feature.

Now, if you were one of those people with the Plus subscription who loved the feature, you just have to hold on until they can work this out and re-introduce it!

Collapse Reports

Here’s another feature that was introduced in the 2012 Plus subscription version – Collapse Reports.

In many reports you will see this small arrow next to values, such as main accounts in the Balance Sheet as shown below.

Click on that arrow to “collapse” a section, to hide details.

I’m not sure why they haven’t rolled this into QuickBooks Enterprise this year?

Create a New Company File or Starter Copy

Some minor changes here, aimed at making the Starter Copy feature easier to find. This is the feature that lets you start a new company file from an existing company file.

First of all, in QuickBooks Accountant (but not in the R1 release QuickBooks Enterprise Accountant for some reason) the File menu has a new option, New Company from Existing Company File. This is an feature that was added in QuickBooks Accountant 2012, but it wasn’t accessed through the File menu.

Another change along the same line (making Starter Copy easier to find) is how the New Company window has been updated (for both QuickBooks Accountant and QuickBooks Enterprise Accountant).

In QuickBooks 2012 you had three buttons on this screen, Express Start, Advanced Setup and Other Options. TheCreate from existing company file feature (what I’m calling Starter Copy here) was hidden in the Other Optionsdropdown.

In QuickBooks 2013 we now have four options:

Express Start is the same as before.
Detailed Start is the same as the old Advanced Setup, which is the same as the old “Interview” process.
Create is a new button, this is the Starter Copy feature.
Other Options has all the same options as before.

Minor changes, really. No functional differences, it is just that Intuit felt that Starter Copy was too hard to find, and they wanted to bring it out to the forefront.

One change that I noticed – if you use the express start option, when you are on the enter your business contact information window, the phone and zip fields are now required. They weren’t required in QuickBooks 2012 as far as I can see. These are the fields that are generally used in registration to connect your company file with your Intuit account.

QuickBooks required business information

So Long EasySaver, Welcome Loan Finder?

I haven’t gotten confirmation on this one yet. Last year we had EasySaver (I never cared for it), but it might be gone? I don’t see links for it so far. I think that the EasySaver service is probably being retired (but I’m not sure), and I certainly won’t miss it. I don’t know ANYONE who will miss it.

In its place in the Home Page we now have Loan Finder…

Annoying Menu Changes

Each year there are some changes in the menus that I find annoying (I’m a grumpy person, I guess). I finally figure out where something is, and write instructions, and then Intuit changes it around for reasons I can’t fathom.

I’m not going to give you a comprehensive list at this time, but here’s one that bothered me right away.

How do you restore a backup I made recently? Simple! Select File then Restore Previous Local Backup and select a file from the list. I really like this feature in QuickBooks 2012.

Well, find it in the new program! I want to Restore a backup. I can select Open or Restore Company, but then I have to go find that file. My Restore Previous Local Backup option isn’t in the File menu any more!

Well, I found it. I don’t think that it is obvious that a “restore” should be found in a “back up” menu, but maybe I’m just being grumpy. Why do they change these things?

I’ll guess that they are just trying to shorten some of the menus, to make them easier to understand?

Windows 8 Compatibility?

At the time I’m writing this I haven’t seen an official statement that QuickBooks 2013 is compatible (or not compatible) with Windows 8 (note, I might have missed that). I did a VERY simple test using Windows 8 RTM (the version available to me at this time) on both a 32 bit system and a 64 bit system. This was a clean install of Windows 8 (which I highly recommend that you do, rather than upgrading a system), and I have not yet installed any version of Microsoft Office.

I’ve tried this with QuickBooks 2012 before, and I’m getting very similar results with QuickBooks 2013.

On a 32 bit system I am able to create a PDF from an invoice (a simple test).
On a 64 bit system I get an error when trying to create a PDF.

However, the Accountant Center displays a bit incorrectly in both systems (this is, though, an improvement over what I see with QuickBooks 2012) with some headings not showing completely.

QuickBooks on Windows 8 Accountant Center

Well, they fixed THAT bug…

Boy, I’m glad they finally fixed this one.

For years now, when you start QuickBooks, as it is just about loading up, you would see the cryptic ExitExit menu option. You only see that for a short period of time.

Finally, they fixed it! Glad that they found the time to fix this one (now, is there time for the other bugs on my list?).

(Sorry, Alex, I had to say it…)

QuickBooks Statement Writer

Two improvements here: A new “Ribbon” interface and 64 bit Excel compatibility.

When you open a spreadsheet created by QuickBooks Statement Writer in Excel you will see a nicer, easier to use Ribbon at the top.

Here is the OLD interface, which you would see in the “add-ins” tab in Excel:

Here is the NEW interface, which is found in the “statement writer” tab. This is MUCH easier to work with.

In addition (but I haven’t tested this), QuickBooks Statement Writer will now be compatible with 64 bit Microsoft Excel. Quite frankly, I don’t recommend that you use 64 bit versions of Microsoft Office in any case, but if you do then this will help.

Online Banking

I have a dirty little secret – I don’t use the Online Banking feature in my own copy of QuickBooks. No big reason why – I don’t have a problem with it – I just haven’t gotten around to setting it up. My bad!

Because of that, I can’t give an analysis of the changes to the changes here. This is the list of changes, my apologies if it isn’t entirely clear:

Flag for not renaming checks: This is a string based rule based on the word “check”. Renaming rules will not be automatically created when renaming any payee containing the name check. It is not possible to use the OFX listing of check as debit transactions are typically listed as type Check. This prevents two issues:
- When banks send a transaction with the payee as Check #1234 a rule will not be automatically created if renamed to Home Depot.
- If the bank follows the OFX spec and uses only the word check and puts the check number in the actual number field, a rule will no longer be created that renames all future downloaded checks.
Multiple renaming criteria per QuickBooks name: Banks use different formatting for payee names. A common example is that Wal-Mart can show up as WalMart, Wal Mart or Wal-Mart depending on which account you download from. This new feature allows the creation of multiple criteria per name.
Renaming rules can now be created manually before the first download occurs.

More On Contacts

I pointed out the changes in the Contact fields in my article on the improved Centers in QuickBooks 2013, but as I play with this some more I’m learning about a few of the quirks. Some of these may be addressed in maintenance releases (I hope!):

As I mentioned earlier, when you convert an existing file, your “contact” and “alt contact” fields are converted to “contacts” on the contact list. You can still use these two fields on your Invoice (and other) forms – I know people who do that. However, the values that show in the invoice form comes from the OLD “contact” and “alt contact” field, not from the Contact list. Why is this important? If you have a “contact” name, such as “Doug Sleeter”, in your old file, you will now have a Contact record for “Doug Sleeter”. If you edit that name in the contact list to “Douglas Sleeter”, the OLD spelling of “Doug Sleeter” is still in that “Contact” field in the customer record. You have TWO places this “contact” is stored at. In some reports you only see the OLD one, which you can no longer edit, and in other places you see the new one. Very distressing!

Also, a “Contact” record has a place for a first and last name. That older “Doug Sleeter” contact is moved into just the first name field in the “Contact” record, leaving the last name field blank. Inconvenient.

Another problem – the Customer Contact List report lists the old contact field that you can no longer edit, it won’t list the “contacts”. This report is now useless.

Backup Status?

If you use the TOP icon bar, the Home page displays the info on the right that we are used to from prior years. These “widgets” have been included in the LEFT icon bar if you select that, EXCEPT that I can’t find that “Backup Status” information. I’m not sure if anyone uses that, but it was a nice reminder of when you did your last backup. Sorry to lose it if you go Left.

Paste in Search Box

A little change, but worth noting. The “Search” box (which shows at the top of the Left icon bar, or the right of the Topicon bar) now allows you to paste your text from the clipboard. Before you could ONLY type the info in.

Advanced Inventory Price Updates

A recent announcement by Intuit shows that the cost of working with the Advanced Inventory option to QuickBooks Enterprise is getting more expensive.

To use the Advanced Inventory feature you must pay an annual fee. Stop paying the fee, your Advanced Inventory feature goes away. In addition, you must have your product covered by a Full Service Plan. each year. The price increases that were announced make it much harder to justify using this feature (I really wish that barcode support wasn’t put in Advanced Inventory!).

The fee for Advanced Inventory will increase by $100 a year to $799 for existing users. It will increase by $300 a year to $999 for new customers.
The Full Service Plan increases by $100 a year for a 5 user plan, $150 a year for a 10 user plan, and $400 a year for a 30 user plan.

My Conclusion

Wow – lots of changes. I probably haven’t found them all, but Intuit isn’t always the greatest about giving us a list of everything.

I see a lot of good changes this year, useful new features and great fixes. I’m sure that there will be a lot of people saying “but they missed this important thing”. We all have our list of things that should be changed.

I am looking forward to using this release but I am going to wait for a while. I never, ever recommend that you use the R1 release, it is almost by definition guaranteed to have problems. I have uncovered quite a few in my testing – nothing that is a total disaster, but some new features need some work. I’m certain that I haven’t found ALL of the problems. So, don’t be a guinea pig, wait for awhile to see how things develop. The first update to QuickBooks 2013 should be coming soon, we’ll see what they fix there!