11.21.23 - QuickBooks Connect Recap

Dan and Michelle discuss the takeaways and announcements at this year's QuickBooks Connect.

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Transcript

Dan DeLong: 0:30

All right, let's get started. Today is a QuickBooks Connect recap of 2023. So last week in Las Vegas of all places Intuit held its 10th QuickBooks Connect and I went and Michelle didn't. So this is going to be an interesting dynamic of of almost like a blind reaction from Michelle, as we talked and unpack some of the announcements and the happenings at QuickBooks Connect. So we appreciate you joining us for another QB Power Hour today. Michelle, go ahead and introduce yourself. Welcome

Michelle Long: 1:04

everybody to another QB Power Hour. I am Michelle Long, CPA and owner of Long for Success. Been a trainer for Intuit for a long time, since 2007. I'm author of five different books. You can check those out on Amazon and there's the link to the Facebook group with over 15, 000 members is a great place to continue the conversation. And there is a lot of conversation out there all the time. So go ahead and. Go out there and check it out.

Dan DeLong: 1:28

Go ahead, Dan. Yeah, my name is Dan DeLong, owner at Danwith. I worked at Intuit for nearly 18 years. Co hosting today, also at the workshop Wednesdays over at schoolbookkeeping. com and doing some tech editing. For the QBO for Dummies series. So enough about me. It's a little bit about the QB Power Hour. It's every other Tuesday at noon Eastern. We appreciate you joining us this close to the holiday. We typically take this take this week off. But we thought we, because of QB Connect being last week, we wanted to have a live event. Typically this It's important, a lot of announcements to unpack today so we wanted to have that discussion but you can always check our website. I did put in the chat, the links for the handouts and the links that we'll be sharing here today so you can go check those out, or if you want to go and see the PDFs of the slides, recordings, and podcasts, and other resources, we have qppowerhour. com slash resource. All right. A little bit of housekeeping. If you have specific questions about things that we're talking about today, please put them in the Q& A section. There'll be a little button down there at the bottom of the Zoom panel. That way we can address them either live or if we need to follow up. If you have general comments about Go Eagles or Boo Chiefs or whatever it is that you want to say in there, I see a lot of divided rootings for the, as far as the football is concerned. Please put those in the comments. We appreciate you engaging in the conversation in the chat. But if you have specific questions about topics that we're talking about today, please put them in the Q& A. All right, so our agenda today we'll talk a little bit about the main stage sessions. They did have three main speakers. I wanted to talk a little bit about some takeaways that I took away from those conversations, but mostly we want to talk about the announcements that were that were there. The QuickBooks ledger. We had a little bit of a, what is QuickBooks ledger two weeks ago, and now we have some of the answers to what QuickBooks ledger is there's a batch migration in desktop update coming some of the QBO accountant enhancements, like QBO advanced announcements, QBO payroll, The bill pay roles update. And of course we're going to save the best for last, which is the new pro advisor program announcements that were in there. So our first poll is, did you attend? If you did attend QB connect go ahead and say yay or nay on the on the QuickBooks connect, or if you're just wondering what the heck is QuickBooks connect, just go ahead and say applicable. yEah, we didn't miss you there, Michelle.

Michelle Long: 4:04

I was really sorry to miss it. It was the first one that I had missed, and it was really hard watching it all on Facebook. And so the first day or so, when everybody was traveling in and all this, I was like, oh, I can't look. I can't look. And so I didn't pay attention to it, but then after a while, I did start watching, and I was just posting in the chat there. I did Linda posted the Ryan Reynolds. Thing from the main stage. And so I was able to watch that video while it was still up and I did watch that and he was hilarious. He really got Cassie going up on that main stage and got her laughing and everything and that was hilarious. So it was fun to see, the videos and see the comments and things from that. But the FOMO was so real. They did remind me of people saying, Oh, I missed that party. I didn't get to go to that. It did remind me of how hard it was to do everything and see everything or go to all the sessions because it's only, like three days of actual that you're there, it's so hard to see everything. And I saw where people were saying, Oh, I didn't ever see you, you were there, but I didn't see you. It's hard to actually see and do everything. So what do you think, Dan, when you were there?

Dan DeLong: 5:14

Yeah, it's a, it's definitely a large. But small tight knit community, right? I didn't even know who was there. And, every once in a while, somebody would just say, Hey, thanks for doing what you do. And I was be like, Oh, I'm sorry. I don't recognize you, but they recognize me, which is neat from my perspective, I have a really deep connection with connect because that was the event where everything fell together for me and as I talk a little bit about, Ryan Reynolds chat that, that he had, it really resonated with kind of what he, the way he has lived his life and how it I don't want to say I'm Ryan Reynolds, but I saw some parallel, uh, because I remember walking around in 2018, right after I had lost my position and into it wondering, what was I going to do? And that's where everything fell together for me was at connect and it was all about the relationships. And that's why. I felt a strong need to go is to have those connections and those relationships and reconnect with people that I had built relationships with before, which is why I sadly missed you there, because that was that, that story of, I was wandering around the with. The convention center wondering what I was going to do. I didn't even have a business name. And I was at a session and somebody had an epileptic seizure in the session. And there was this loud booming voice that said, give him air!! And I turned around and it was you. We cleared the room, we were just milling about, and we bumped into each other, we had known each other before. And that's when you asked me to co host the QB Power Hour. And I was like, oh my gosh, it's like manna from heaven. This is, I couldn't imagine it, right? And it

Michelle Long: 7:12

was the same thing because, Hector and I had been talking about he wanted to start doing some things a little differently and he wanted to start charging for some webinars and stuff. And that's not what I wanted to do. And so I was starting to think about a new partner and I wasn't sure who might be a good. I needed somebody that was techie and smarter than I am. And, there you were, so it's, it was one of those things where, like you said, it's about connecting and then networking and things, and that's the whole thing about QuickBooks Connect. And that's the thing. It's not necessarily because I did see some people posting about maybe they didn't like the session quite so much, or maybe they didn't like this or that or whatever. It's not even that. The sessions can be wonderful and they can be great, but honestly, you can get a lot of great sessions and networking online nowadays with webinars and things like this and everything. But the thing of it is, it's that networking and it's those discussions that happen in the hallways or over drinks somewhere or over lunch, that's the networking and the connecting. That really is the benefit of these live events when you're getting together with people and stuff. And yeah, that's where you and I connected and, I think it's worked out well until this game last night, I think things are

Dan DeLong: 8:29

green. I have to rethink, you have to rethink that decision now, I think. No, I'm just

Michelle Long: 8:33

kidding, honestly. But, that's what it's all about. I'm really glad that you all got to go and I'm sorry I missed it.

Dan DeLong: 8:40

Yeah, so they had three main speakers Jade Simmons Adam Grant, and of course, Ryan Reynolds. I don't think there was a... A seat in the house when he was on but one of the things that that Jade Simmons, she had been to QuickBooks Connect before but one of the big takeaways for with Jade, she's a concert pianist, but she has a new Style. She has a style completely all of her own, right? And one of the big takeaways from what she talked about purpose, and I went and I bought her book Purpose the Remix, and I've been listening to that since since QB Connect. It's really, And it really speaks to us as accounting professionals because, we all do the same thing, just like a pianist pianists do the same thing. It's just how you do things a little bit differently and how you inject your personality into what it is that you do. And she had this one quote I think when she said it, there was an audible, Oh, I get it's your purpose is not the thing you do. It's the thing that happens in others when you do what you do, right? You think of that in, in, in accounting speak, right? Everybody does what they do, in the books or what have you, but when you do that what happens and the value that you bring to, to, to those small businesses allows them to do what they need to do, and that really, elevates the drudgery of, what it, whatever it is that you happen to be doing, Michelle, do you have any thoughts about that? I

Michelle Long: 10:14

remember her being there at a previous one, and she was really impactful, and that's the thing of it is that's why a lot of us really are accounting professionals, is making a difference in other people's lives. It's not because we enjoy doing numbers and balancing the books and stuff. It's about helping other people and making an impact for them. And, she was a very powerful speaker. I do remember that. And sometimes we just need to remember that. Why, the why about what we're doing. She, I loved her.

Dan DeLong: 10:46

I do remember that. ADam Grant, he was the last speaker. But I wanted to save, Ryan for the end. But Adam Grant, he's a he talked a little bit about, he's a occupational psychologist or therapist or something like he's a professor. Dr. Grant is, that's the only thing I could think of was Dr. Grant from Jurassic Park. Every time they said his name, but he had something that really spoke to me about. Imposter syndrome, which I have, unfortunately, I have a little bit of in the coming into this this community myself, right? Am I good enough? Am I, it's that sort of thing. And what he said was if multiple people believe in you, you should probably believe them. And that was like, okay, all right, I get it. I get it. All right, I'll put that stuff aside. I think that this really was the takeaway for me when it came to, his discussion. And then, of course, Carla, the host, she was so high energy throughout the whole three days. And then, of course, Ryan Reynolds, when he did his speak, and I mentioned it a little bit earlier about his chat, which Was cut really short because what I was hoping for, listening to Ryan Reynolds was, is he as witty in person as he is on film, right? His, when he has written dialogue he delivers it so snarky and and he did not disappoint, right? Like he is that is his authentic self and that's what I took away from him. But the way he approaches. His career, his life things had just presented themselves to him and he made the best of what those are. And that's what really resonated to me, because we all get hit with challenges. We all get the road of life weaves in turns. It has its ups and downs. It's just what we do with what we're presented. And that's really what what the takeaway was from that, other than the fact that, we, he probably could have spent a lot more time talking, but. Cassie, the the person that was doing the interviewing, she was laughing so hard with some of the things that he was saying that it did cut, cut his time short, but it was all for a good cause. Any thoughts from you, Michelle?

Michelle Long: 13:08

I, and I love that format of the fireside chat because it, it makes them. So much more personable, and it's, you get to see them, like you said just being their authentic self, and just the discussion and stuff, and I would love to see that go on longer, like you said, because the laughing, it was great. I watched it on Facebook. Linda had posted a video, but then she took it down because she Intuit. You

Dan DeLong: 13:34

know that

Michelle Long: 13:37

I'm glad I saw it while I did but yeah, he was great It was great and I agree with you on that imposter syndrome and somebody said I can't believe dan had it has imposter syndrome I do too, you know a lot of us do you know, so great

Dan DeLong: 13:49

comments dan. Love it All right. And we wanted to make an announcement. Murph is Murph is joining us. I did get to spend some time with talking with him and his Stetson and he was there, but he wants to make sure that everybody is aware that the nominations for Top 100 ProAdvisor are open. So if you go over to Insightful Accountant, you can start start the nomination process for your your Top 100.

Michelle Long: 14:16

And along with that, I'll add, so along with the nominations for top 100, earning those certifications can help you, and there is a VCon December 5th through the 6th, where you can do like the the, it's not called core certification anymore, but you can do the get QuickBooks certified, the advanced certification, and the payroll certification, all the new content, the certification, December 5th through the 6th, Sign up at qbtrainingevents. com and the certifications will be opening soon. Thank you, Murph, for that reminder. Or I'm sorry, the pro, the top 100 will be

Dan DeLong: 14:51

open soon. Alright. Alright, so let's talk about some of the announcements that were made because we're all wondering about QuickBooks Ledger and what that was all about. We talked about it a couple weeks ago on the Power Hour. So we got some answers. And I apologize for the photos that I had taken and I got the AASL signer at the bottom of most of them, but. I couldn't write, I didn't want to block people in front of me or behind me, rather. But QuickBooks Ledger is a new QuickBooks Online offering. The easiest way to describe it is it's simple start without invoice. So there's nothing customer facing when it comes to what you can do inside of QuickBooks Ledger. But everything else is pretty much a simple start. To begin with but the whole idea and the target of this offering is those QuickBooks desktop accountants who are holding out. Right, who are they're keeping their low transaction desktop write up clients local inside of their QuickBooks desktop. I was standing at at the booth and somebody else was having some questions talking with the, with the Intuit representative there. And they were not the target right. Of QuickBooks Ledger. They were already a firm that was already in, in the cloud. So they were like, why would we do this? What is this for? And then, as they unpacked, the what the whole idea of QuickBooks Ledger is we already do that. We have, people on Essential and Simple Start that we would like to downgrade to, to QuickBooks Ledger, because that's the stuff that they've already adopted. A QuickBooks online accountant and QuickBooks online subscription for those clients. Now, sadly you can't downgrade an up an already subscription based client. Who's in simple start essentials plus or advanced that you would like to, just do these right up. with. That is what it is today, right? The whole goal of this offering was to speak to the desktop accountants who are managing their files for their clients without their access, right? They're using the bank feeds or downloading it into QuickBooks desktop. This is a low cost option to be able to put them in the cloud. Now it's only firm billed. So there's really no client facing option for this. You can make them the primary admin and you be the accountant but there's really no, no need for that for a lot of people. And you can upgrade them, right? So as they grow into, maybe there's a larger business or a larger transaction, or maybe they want to add some of these. QuickBooks online function. You can upgrade them from ledger to another offering but you cannot downgrade them. Any thoughts from you, Michelle, on, on now that you know what. What's ledger is all about.

Michelle Long: 17:50

Yeah, we had a couple of questions and somebody wanted to know about connecting the bankfeed and importing transaction. I assume you're going to be able to import transactions. Anytime you connect. You're probably going to be able to import transactions. You probably will be able to, have multiple accountant users and ledgers. That's one of the questions if you set it up You're probably going to be able to invite your team members to have access to that. So they're asking about That was the question there and then somebody wants to know about the end user license agreement different from qbo. Is something that we're setting up on our firm's billing on the firm Is setting this up on the firm's billing. So does the client get access at all?

Dan DeLong: 18:31

So there really isn't a need for the clients to have access to this. The whole idea is that it, it's, it's essentially everything that you know about QuickBooks Online Simple Start is available in QuickBooks Ledger with the exception of anything customer facing. And when I say customer it's the end client's customer, right? So there's no estimate. There's no customer list. There's no there's no invoices. There's no sales tax. There's anything that would be regarding money coming in is not there, right? You're managing the client's books from the bank feed, right? So you can do, expenses and transaction, those types of transactions from the bank feed. That is the whole idea, right? So you're ideal. Fit client fit is, real estate real estate investment or entities that have to do, to, to, from, right? So they, they have an LLC for for the building and the business is in another subscription and the business is renting from another entity that the, the people actually own the building, right? So that's a very small. A small transaction base between what it is that you're doing inside of that, but you still need to, maybe do a tax write up for that particular entity. QuickBooks Ledger would be good for that, right? Because that's what people would be doing in QuickBooks Desktop is having these multiple companies because you can have as many companies as you see fit in a QuickBooks Desktop environment so you can create multiple companies like that. And then manage those types of things through the bank. So that is the the initial target of, who these who these clients would be a good fit for QuickBooks Ledger.

Michelle Long: 20:16

Okay. And Sharon wants to. Share that question about connecting the bank account and that's going to be the same in QuickBooks Ledger versus QBO, but you can connect the bank account with a client using Zoom so that the client can actually type in the password or a lot of these banks will have a user that where they can set you up to have readily access. So connecting the bank account is going to be the same. Same in QuickBooks Ledger as it is any other subscription and Cindy says Mint has a similar function. So I don't know if Mint though is going to have the same reporting capabilities that we have or it's definitely Mint is not going to have the integration. With the tax products, with pto, ProConnect Tax

Dan DeLong: 20:58

online, because it, because this actually is a, a QuickBooks offering, right? Mint is more for personal finance, and as a matter of fact I'm seeing rumblings of away Mint going away, right? Yeah. I thought it was. But they're rolling their personal finance things into Credit Karma. What was a 5 billion acquisition for credit karma. So I think they're going to be putting all of their personal finance offerings inside of that shell of a product, but this, QuickBooks ledger is a QuickBooks online offering and an off in a product, right? So it's a great gateway into the larger versions of more feature rich versions of QuickBooks online, unlike self employed, which was more of. The gig the Uber driver, right? The person that mixes personal and business finances doesn't necessarily have a a true business entity. They're sole proprietors, but they need to use TurboTax, right? So that's where TurboTax would fall in there. This will not integrate with TurboTax. This will integrate with proConnect Tax Online. And then the Lacerte and Pro series and those types of Intuit tax preparation softwares, but not necessarily the TurboTax side of things. So it is more of the business aspect of of QuickBooks on online platform. Any other questions that I that I missed? We've got all the questions

Michelle Long: 22:26

that were in the question box. There's a whole bunch of discussion in the chat. Every time the bank connection stops working, we must hold a screen share to have the client reconnect. These connections don't break like they used to. With this new OAuth connection and things like that. Bank connections don't generally break like they used to, so that's not a problem like it used to be. A lot of banks now have the ability for the client to set access user so that you can set the bank connection up yourself so that's not a problem as well. Dan, anything that you want to add on that?

Dan DeLong: 23:00

No, I think that's a good point. The OAuth that The financial institutions are adopting with regards to Intuit, those connections have, I've seen them be a lot more stable. There are other things like Relay and other online banks that actually connect through an API that never break the connection, or at least I haven't seen them break just yet. But those types of things, and then you can use other things, like I was checking out Bot Keeper. That was there, and they have a password vault in one of their offerings that they have where you can request the password, and they don't necessarily Give it to you, right? So it's a way that you can get your passwords from your clients. If you need to work in those types of things without them, securely, right? So there's other ways to get those to get those passwords in, but yes, it would be just like if you were setting this up in, in simple start, because it is. A lesser version of simple start, right? So the reporting is on simple start. The, the expense functionality is on, is the feature set of simple start. That, that's where, that's the baseline, right? Is simple start minus the things that you can do with regards to customers all right. And we did talk about some of the things last time about, things that, that you can do. So you've got your bank feeds, you've got your bank reconciliations. One of the other things that are announcements that they made that did get a. A, a whoop from the crowd is finally they got on chase about statement fetching with and they got some opt in it. So sometime in the near future, Chase will actually have its statement fetching within QuickBooks. So a lot of businesses that are using Chase will actually be able to get those statements into QuickBooks. And then we have a link there on the slides there for more information about ledger. So along that mindset there is a desktop update coming called a batch migration tool. So into it's making a very bold assumption that. The desktop accountants who are just waiting for something inside of QuickBooks Online to bring all of their clients into QuickBooks Online. They'll just be chomping at the bit waiting for wanting to do that in one. Fell swoop. Oh, Katie Katie asked can payroll be LinkedIn? Yes, you can actually set up QBO payroll or, any other app that you have that, that can synchronize into QuickBooks Online, can be used with QuickBooks Ledger. Obviously if you're using like an invoicing app that will not synchronize very well, but if you have, any of those features that is inside of QuickBooks that would be able to be synchronized with with a third party app. Yeah, good question there. So back to the batch migration. Of course, they're just assuming that accountants are waiting for this QuickBooks ledger to be announced and they want to batch upgrade or update all of their desktop clients to QuickBooks Online so in QuickBooks Desktop Accountant. There will be an eventual update. They didn't give a date or an announcement of a date. When that's actually going to happen, but there will be a batch migration tool. So if you do have multiple clients or multiple QuickBooks desktop files that you want to bring into QuickBooks ledger you can do that in one fell swoop. So it'll give you a list of Clients that you can bring into QuickBooks Online into the ecosystem. In one fell swoop. That's coming soon. Dan.

Michelle Long: 26:50

Yeah. I got a question. I got a question for you. Reading the tea leaves. We had QuickBooks Desktop that went away in, in other countries. It went away in India. It went away in the UK. And QuickBooks Desktop, it just seems to me... If we read the tea leaves, the price keeps going up and up, it went to subscription only, and now we see this, migration tool here, it seems, and now we have ledger for us, do you think for, especially when we're looking at pro and premier, not enterprise, do you think the end is coming nearer and nearer? iF I were accountant with a lot of desktop clients, I would not be dragging my feet. I think the end for pro and premier desktop is coming nearer and nearer. I don't think we're talking 5 to 10 years anymore. I think we're talking, and I don't even know we're talking 3 to 5 years. I think we're talking 1 to 3 years. I think people need to start looking at the signs and getting ready for the demise of QuickBooks Desktop Pro and Premier.

Dan DeLong: 27:56

What do you think? Yeah, I agree with Martha who just said, I'm guessing three. It's gonna, it's gonna take some time right now that everybody is on 2021 is the last year for a non subscription version of QuickBooks. May 30, May 31st, 2021 is going to be service discontinued. So now. Everybody on Pro and Premiere is ultimately on a subscription, which now, gives Intuit a lot more leverage, with regards to pricing. If you want to use, QuickBooks Desktop you're in a subscription. I think that is the play the direction that they're heading is they're making the cost. Or the removing the cost obstacle, which was always the case when it came from I'm not going to go to QuickBooks online. Why, when I can have a desktop version every two, three years there's no way that's going to, relate, but there is now they're charting their own course when it comes to pro and premier. But yeah, it's I'm interested to see what happens. This next year because that is going to be the first year that a new version of desktop will be coming out that is not on a subscription. We'll, we will see. So I think if anything's going to happen, it's going to happen, this next year with pro and premier, I have no insight and knowledge and nor could I tell you if I did but. That's one of the reasons that I personally did not want to be involved in the Trainer/Writer network because I wanted to be able to, to speak independently based off of the actions that are being taken based on the intentions, right? And speaking of that, Ted said Ted Callahan and the Intuit leaders had said a few things that, you know it, like his Goal right. Of the of the QB Connect was for QuickBooks to be the number one partner for accountants and vice versa. And I don't doubt that Ted Callahan is authentic in that mindset or in, in that sentiment. But then again, there's an action and then we'll get to, the ProAdvisor program. That is like the actions that they're taking are not. Mirroring the sentiment that they're saying. I think that is they have to do what they have to do. And then we have to deal with that. Based off of, what happens, right? So I don't know, did that answer your question Michelle or was I just talking in circles?

Michelle Long: 30:33

No, it did. And I'm sorry, but when you talk about the ledger and then you talk about batch migration and all that, I'm sorry to bring that up, I just think people need to be preparing and preparing their clients, that's all. So sorry to sidetrack that.

Dan DeLong: 30:48

That's quite all right. Now

Michelle Long: 30:50

Murph said you hit the nail on the head,

Dan DeLong: 30:52

Dan. Hooray! That's quite a, that's quite an endorsement coming from Murph. So one of the things that that they were announcing this year was QBO accountant roles. So that was one of the things where with QuickBooks Online Accountants, what really was lacking is that the advanced roles when you invite a team member were like a light switch. It's either on or off. They get to see everything or they get to see nothing. When it comes to inside of your books so now they are adopting QuickBooks Online advanced roles, and permissions, and those roles can then be added to team members, right? So that that's coming out. Now I did blow this up, but you can create your own role called bookkeeper, and then you'll be able to apply that to team members. In addition to the QuickBooks Online accounts that they'll be able to have access to. All right one of the other huge rounds of applause the Chart of Accounts templates so you'll be able to create your own Chart of Accounts, and this is actually live right now. You can go in there under Accounting Tools inside of your QBOA. And you'll be able to create your your chart of account template. The odd part that I saw of this particular feature getting so much applause is that this was an option like eight, nine years ago, right? You used to be able to create a company template and apply those to, new QBO subscriptions. So it was like, I didn't quite understand why a lot of people were cheering for something that was already a function. It's just, they brought it back. So being able to, as it's really nice you can create your own chart of accounts, you can, for your own clientele, and then you can apply them to your clients, even if they're already, using QuickBooks, and if it does have a match, it doesn't overwrite or it doesn't duplicate the chart of account uh, QBO payroll to be able to Enhance that offering. They've had a partnership now with with Allstate which allows you allows a small business owner to leverage almost like a, it's like a PEO where, more people into the pool, so to speak lowers the price. So that's the whole concept of the partnership with Allstate is being able to offer health benefits and everything else that, that Allstate allows you to, participate in but from a larger pool, so it's not the individual small business trying to get these health benefits for their clients, for their payroll so that, that's that's what that was all about. Now another woo hoo was the QBO payroll cost allocation. This was this was addressing because it's always. There's two things that QuickBooks Online doesn't do really well, job costing and and inventory, right? So they're trying to address that. And this is addressing the QBO doesn't do job costing complaint with regards to payroll. Because now earnings items can be split, classified, and the project can be added by hour, right? So that was one of the nice parts about when you did payroll inside of QuickBooks. Desktop, you'll be able to allocate those times and classes and job across the the entire paycheck and then it would proportionately split the other payroll expenses and liabilities. Towards those job costing and expenses. So this was a, this is a huge win. I don't know when this is available or if it's a, already available now, um, that is huge for those that use QuickBooks payroll and and especially for the those that are, that were cost job costing is a big concern. Now, we had talked about QuickBooks Bill Pay last time I did go over to the to the booth and talked a little bit about the QuickBooks Bill Pay and one of the things that I really didn't understand was in Elite that there is an option there for roles and users. When you're using QuickBooks Online Advanced, you have 25 users. And you can create, custom roles, but if you're in plus, for example, and you sign up for the elite bill pay service how does that work with regards to those custom roles that, that they were offering? So that was my main takeaway from that is that when you use or when you sign up for elite bill pay service, there's three new roles. Unfortunately, they're not customizable like they are in QuickBooks online advanced, but you'll get a bill clerk, a bill approver, and a bill payer as roles that you can assign to the people. All of the versions with elite are able to use these roles. So in online plus or online. Essentials, you would get these roles. Now, I have no idea why you would use elite bill pay with essentials. Because now you're out of users because these are billable users inside of QuickBooks Online, the ecosystem. So bill, clerk, bill approve, and bill payer, those are billable users, right? So not time tracking or reports only. Those are non-billable accountant users or non-billable. They don't count against the user count. So if you're using Elite Bill Pay Best is to use. QuickBooks Online Advanced, because you have 25 users to work with there. With QuickBooks Online Plus, you get five, right? If you do have these multiple approvers then you're pretty much running out of user, people people to use that. Okay. So with the elite payroll and the QuickBooks online, uh, there's now custom workflows, so you can basically create your your workflows, your additional workflows to add like multiple approvals, which is not what was available prior to that. In Advanced and Accountant, you will have these workflow custom templates that you can create and like a flow chart like in this example they're talking about a, an invoice is between, or zero and a thousand dollars, if yes, then it gets approved by and then there's multiple people that it could be approved by, how does that work it sends a notification to either of them. And then, that workflow works from there. If it's higher than it goes to someone else, right? So this allows you to get a little bit more granular in your workflows and approval process. Alright, saving the worst for last. The changes to the ProAdvisor program. One of the things that was really interesting, I guess is the nicest way to say it, is that this was announced on the last day the last session about the main stage session was with Adam Grant, and then they came out at the very end and talked a little bit about there's changes to the ProAdvisor program, and we're going to share those details with you in an email. We had no idea, we had no one to ask, we had no one to to go to to really understand what was changing, so it was just announced. With regards to, everybody got the same information whether you attended QB Connect or not, right? But some of the announcements that, that are happening that we're unpacking is that there's a new tiers point system which is causing some people some hardship, right? So Elite, the ProAdvisor Elite status. Went from 1, 600 points to 7, 000. So a lot of people are feeling the sting of that, right? Like they were elite. I myself is, I am unelited, right? I think I have 2, 450 points. So I went from being elite to platinum, which I think is the next thing. And I'm going to give you a grace period, which allows you to. To keep the elite benefits that you have until 90 days or something like that. But what are those benefits, right? So there's a new badge. Okay, there's a new badge. There's a, there is a firm growth strategy call and events and discounts. iN addition to that, but there's no details about what those events are what those discounts are, they're just it's a blanket events and discounts option of the in the elite uh, pro advisor support is for gold and above. I shudder to think what the what the silver folks get. And then the Mailchimp discount was increased to 75 percent"hooray". But it's only for one year. That token 15% which of course was, it's way better than that, but it's still only for a year. aNd then also there is, accountant app recommendation. I know there's a lot more questions about the ProAdvisor program the reimagined, as they call it. I'm using air quotes there, but I'm not on video but there is the links to that in the slides. So the reimagined ProAdvisor program, the FAQs, and then a comprehensive guide with tiers, points and the changes to the benefits there. But tO me, it was like, okay there's changes. That's what pro advisors go to QuickBooks Connect for is to understand what those changes are, and there was nobody to ask there because it was on the last day that they talked about it. So it was quite quite interesting based off of. The the intention or the sentiment that was delivered and then the action of this big change to the pro advisor program. Now, what I'm seeing on Facebook and in the social media is a lot of people are saying I wasn't using the elite benefits that, that are there. And I don't see using the elite benefits moving forward. Michelle, is any thoughts on what you've seen? As far as the,

Michelle Long: 40:55

jUst chatter? Yeah. A lot of upset people. And the thing of, it's a lot of people weren't necessarily using all of the benefits. It's more of, hey. You're demoting us. Hey, we put this on our website. And now how do we explain to our clients that like a gut punch to people that you're demoting us, that you're taking something away from us, it feels like a demotion. And a lot of us, the longtime members, we feel like you're demoting us. And it also feels like we can never get to 7, 000 points on your own. You have to have team members to get to the elite level now. There's a lot of hurt feelings. People are upset that this wasn't brought up, exactly what was going on at QuickBooks Connect, that, hey, we're going to make some changes and it's going to demote you. So people are upset about that. So there's a lot of hurt feelings in the way that it was communicated. So I did post in the chat, there is a webinar on November 29th. Unfortunately, I'm helping with the Q& A. WE need to be sending our feedback to Intuit, but go to qbtrainingevents. com. I put the link in the chat. Please attend that webinar. Send your feedback to Intuit. We will get some more people to help with the questions. We can only help with the questions about what are the changes and what's new. People are saying you you have to now be gold to get on the Find a Pro Advisor website. But let's think about that. That's a good thing, right? But the thing of it is now just passing the exam doesn't get you on the website You have to pass the exam and have a couple of clients We don't want people like that necessarily getting on the Find a ProAdvisor website when they don't know anything anyway, right? So maybe just getting listed on the Finder ProAdvisor website just by being able to take and pass a test isn't a good thing anyway. If it's free to get in the program and then any Tom, Vic, and Harry can pass the test and get on the website, maybe that's not a good thing after all anyway. So having one or two clients... And pass in a test to get on the website. I don't think that's such a bad thing after all, but go to that webinar on November 29th, go send your feedback to Intuit from QBO on that big gear, send feedback, because when you're logged into QBO A, they know you are a pro advisor when you send feedback. They can see that Dan? You were a member of the care team for a long time. They know that you're a pro advisor, so send in to it your feedback. They need to hear that. They've been making a lot of changes over the years, and this is just another one, I went into rant mode on the one that Dan and I did on Intuit Assist on the changes that they've been making to the, the QSP and their residuals on things and to the changes that we have on our ProAdvisor pricing and, this is just another change among many that they've been making over the years that affect us, you. Send in your feedback. a Lot of people, it is hurt feelings and a lot of us that have been providers for a long time. This is just 1 more thing among many over the years that have caused some problems and it might just be a communication thing again. But put this, put it into Intuit to send your feedback because we can't do anything about it, damn it, so you've gotta let Intuit know, so go to gear, send your feedback. There, so somebody says, what event on November 29th? I think it's November 29th, go to qbtrainingevents.com, Intuit is having a webinar from the, I can't remember his name, Jim, what's his name? He's in charge of the ProAdvisor program. He is doing a webinar on the reimagined ProAdvisor program. And let me look at my calendar because I am actually doing the Q& A. Unfortunately, yes, and it's, I am on that one. It is November 29th at noon. Noon my time, 11 Eastern. The reimagined ProAdvisor program, November 29th. events. com. You can sign up for that one. Send your feedback. He's going over all the changes. So you got an email about all the changes, but you can go and he's going to be talking about all the changes and why they made them and what the feedback was and everything. There's links that Dan giving you if you can't attend a webinar, but if you registered. You'll get the recording so you can watch it later. It is eligible for CPE. You'll get an hour of CPE if you attend it. But we can get some more people on there. And the more people that register, the more people that will sign up and stuff. And then, yeah, they went through it on the Intuit monthly webinar as well. He was on the In The Know webinar talking about it. He'll have a whole hour though. instead of just like 15 minutes that he did on the In The Know webinar. That's

Dan DeLong: 45:56

enough. To be continued, right? This is how Intuit kind of rolls, right? They, they do something, they get feedback, and they respond to the feedback. The question is what they do with the feedback that they are now going to have. An over an overland, an avalanche of of feedback of those that that, that are impacted by this and Murph didn't put in the chat that there is a special feedback link just for the ProAdvisor changes which I imagine if you go into the, any of these links, you will find it there too, I'll put that on the. oN the landing page that we have for the replay so that we make sure that, we can gather that as well. I did want to mention now that we're all pissed at Intuit that there actually is a, there isn't actually a really nice Black Friday promotion for early migrators. That is QuickBooks Online, 75 percent for 12 months. And this is only I think it's only available either when you talk to them directly or if you work with a QuickBooks solution provider. Which there's probably several on, on this in the chat there. So if you're working with a qsp, please do. But if you like my help, uh, with with moving a client, you the QuickBooks Online advance. 75 percent for 12 months is pretty awesome. For advanced to be 50 for a month or for 12 months pretty substantial. That puts it below UBL plus even in, under your pro advisor preferred pricing. That's 30 percent of 90, which is 60. To actually get that's pretty cool. But it started yesterday and it's going through. December 4th. If you decided if you want to do that, you can go to the QB power hour dot com slash Black Friday link here and enter your interest. You're not acknowledging anything or signing up for anything. Somebody will call you or contact you to get more details about, your project, but it's only for desktop 20, 2021 people, non plus that are opting into early migration. And QBO advanced only. So you can check that out on our website if you don't, if you're not already moving away from QuickBooks as we speak. So our last poll we'll go back here. And what announcement like I need to ask this question, but what announcement interests you most? You can check off, as many as you like in there. But anything that we unpacked here today what what appealed to you the most or you're most interested in any other questions, thoughts or concerns, Michelle um, or answering that poll.

Michelle Long: 48:29

No, I can somebody said that the pro advisor webinar was closed. I would imagine we could add another one in there or we could talk about that. I don't think that link works anymore. So I posted if you search accountant training, but anyway, I posted that link. Murph, thank you for your link. For that and don't forget that the top 100, nominate yourself. Don't wait for somebody else to nominate you. Nominate yourself for the top 100. Your training and certifications help you for the top 100. So that upcoming VCon, December 5th through the 6th, will have the training for your initial QuickBooks certification, the advanced certification. The payroll certification that coming up. If you're a CPA or a certified bookkeeper and you need CPE before the end of the year, you can get lots of CPE for that. It's a three day VCON, December 5th through the sixth, all free. If you can't attend it live, but you wanna watch the training. Sign up register if you want the supplemental guides from the advanced certification. Those are very good resources Sign up for the vcon. You can download all those handouts save them later. That's the only place you can get the handouts I don't know why the handouts aren't available in your training portal in the self paced training the handouts are available when you sign up for the vcon Or you sign up for the webinars. So sign up for all of those things. And I don't know why I'm choppy today. So I'm sorry. It must be because I'm wearing this green eagle's it's the incongruence of a chief's fan wearing eagle's green. It messed up my internet today and interfered with the internet signal. So I apologize in advance.

Dan DeLong: 50:10

Oh yeah. Hopefully next time we're all good. I'm actually in a really good spot wherever I am in Florida now. It's super super fast here where I'm at the last time it was in North Carolina and I was the choppy one we'll see if we can't get our act together next time on the power hour. Join us again, and we appreciate your Lively discussion as we were talking about the recap of QuickBooks Connect and we appreciate you joining us. We'll see you next time on the QB Power Hour.

Michelle Long: 50:41

Thanks, Dan. Thanks, everyone.