What’s The One Feature You Wish QuickBooks Had But Doesn’t?
Whew…
I recently asked this very question to my newsletter subscribers – “what’s the one feature you wish QuickBooks had but doesn’t?”
And with that, the replies began pouring in…a big shoutout to everyone that responded!
A number of responses included something similar to “thanks for letting me vent!” I may have hit a pocket of frustration (by accident!) here – not sure.
Anyway…
Check out the list of reader replies and suggestions below (some replies were edited for space).
I’ve added my comments/observations where possible and tossed in a few of my own at the end.
Please DO jump into the conversation by posting your suggestions and comments in the box below.
WHAT ONE FEATURE DO YOU WISH QUICKBOOKS HAD?
- “We have a large customer data base and I wish QB would put a big letter along the slider so it would be easier to see where you are in the list when sliding along it. I’m thinking along the lines of your phone when you slide along your Contact list. I don’t use the search bar very much as I hate having to re-set my view to Hierarchal every time” – Kelli
- Thoughts: Indeed, the need to reset a search out of hierarchical view every time should have been fixed YEARS ago
- “When doing individual part number price changes (within the price level lists) it would be nice if QB put in a search area to avoid scrolling through an entire list to find that one part number” – Ralph
- Thoughts: Couldn’t agree more. This is a really big problem when your item list is lengthy
- “I just wish it had a smooth upgrade process. Every time I upgrade to the next version there is a hassle and calls to customer support. If it wasn’t so much work to convert the data I would switch to something else in a heartbeat.” – Bob
- Thoughts: Intuit did try to simplify this process in recent versions. Apparently those aren’t working for you so well. Considering outsourcing the upgrade to an IT firm by chance?
AND SOME MORE…
- “The ability to size columns, memorize reports and have customized column width retained.” – Steve
- Thoughts: Amen to that.
- “Better cheaper download feeds. The good iif file all our little banks say they can’t afford so the webconnect feeds are crap when they come in. Just easier to enter manually than have to go fix all the frustrations. We only use QBDT – despise QBO” – Tabitha
- Thoughts: Believe it or not, QBO kicks butt when it comes to bank feeds and simplification of the entire process!
- “I use a stand alone payroll software for all my clients. I would like to classify workers as Employees when not using QB payroll. Currently it is possible to classify them as employees but requires the entry of “Wages”, or some other notation.” – Dave
- Thoughts: Not sure I see any type of fix on the horizon here. Intuit wants you to use their payroll services
AND MORE…
- “I wish you could run a P&L comparison YOY for three or more years. Right now, you can only compare to the prior year. and in so many cases, I need to compare it to three or four years prior.” – Kate
- Thoughts: You can already do this in QuickBooks. Just change the date range to the desired years and then select “Year” from the Columns drop down option at the top of the report
- “I wish the process of Receiving Payments began with a search by invoice number (without extra key strokes) . Instead, QB assumes all accounts have a unique name and invoice number is checked after all other information is input. Also – I use weekly timesheets to enter employee work time. When I have to revise a previously entered time entry, I wish that when I revise the Service Item, that the payroll item would retain the original input. Instead it changes and defaults to the last payroll item used with the new Service Item. If I don’t catch it, it results in serious payroll errors.” – Karen
- Thoughts: The best you’ll be able to do here is to use the Find button on the Receive Payment screen to search by invoice #. As for the time sheets, remember that this is 20 year old technology in play. Maybe consider a solution such as QuickBooks Time as a more robust alternative.
- “Copying timesheets!” – Cindy
- Thoughts: QuickBooks already has the “Copy Last Sheet” button at the bottom of the window. Does that solve this issue?
AND THE COMMENTS KEPT COMING...
- “I would like to switch between companies without closing out of the one I’m in. Also, I would like if when I close a report it took me to the same spot where I produced that report.” – Luann
- Thoughts: QuickBooks Accountant edition offers you the ability to keep two company files open at the same time. QuickBooks Enterprise offers that as well. Not sure I have any suggestions about returning to the same spot in the report
- “While in the deposit screen – being able to sort the recorded payments by dollar amount or customer name. Incredible that you can’t. So if you have 100 deposits you have to scroll through each one to find the one you want?” – Joslyn
- Thoughts: I now understand you have some custom requirements for this particular area of QB in relation to your business. Don’t see a fix coming here.
- “A command line option so you could automate entry using windows Powershell or other languages” – Steve
- Thoughts: I doubt we’ll ever see this within QuickBooks itself.
LOTS MORE…
- “When prices are changed for a part on the item list there needs to be a way to track changes. (Date changes took place and the previous prices)” – Ruth
- Thoughts: A workaround for this would be using the “Notes” feature for an item and recording this information in that area. Not the most efficient, but a solution.
- “I wish the Invoices that I create in batches would stay in batches so that emailing later would be simpler.” – Karen
- Thoughts: I now understand that your particular workflow with batched invoices runs counter to how QB is expecting it to happen. Don’t see a solution on the horizon for that.
- “We currently use QB Enterprise – we are a HVAC sales & service company and a Certified Mechanical Contractor. One of the things I miss the most is and wish QB would add to it’s software is a tab on Customers/Jobs for Purchase Orders & Equipment. I used Total Office Manager – and would still be using it if I had my way – and every PO used for a job or customer was listed under that customer. All equipment, whether we installed it or not, could be entered under a customer’s account. That included warranty information, install dates and model & serial numbers, location, just everything you need to service equipment. Need to know where you bought it or how much you paid for it? Just pull up the PO and look at it’s history for the bill. It was wonderful.” – Constance
- Thoughts: I see that Total Office Manager is a complete field service suite of tools. QuickBooks is accounting software with some other bells and whistles tossed in. Why not look for another field service solution that integrates with Enterprise?
AND MORE…
- “I wish QB had a streamlined way to send remittance advice to Vendors. Wouldn’t it be simpler to email our vendors like we send invoices to customers? If this was set up well, there would be an option under each vendor’s payment settings to choose preferred payment method, and a preferred delivery method, where we could choose email and then the bill payment stub would show up under “You have forms to send” just like it does with Customers. With so many companies paying with EFT or online bill payments through banking, why is this not done yet? Obviously, the programming already exists (under Customers) and we rarely write cheques. (Our banking software doesn’t support sending remittance advice either.)” – Maxine
- “Ability to handle blanket PO’s – from customers, and to vendors.” – Edith
- Thoughts: Safe to say your are looking for the availability of multiple ship dates within a PO rather than the one shipment date in the header?
- “I am interested in a way to pay our vendors electronically and store a copy of the invoice inside Quickbooks. Yes, I am looking to work completely remote. As it is currently, I input the bills, cut the paper checks, have my director sign the paper checks, and store a paper copy of the invoice + check stub–the old fashioned method.” – Patty
- Thoughts: Bill.com takes care of all this (other than storing a copy of the invoice inside QB – it stores a copy within it) and so much more. Have you looked at it by chance?
LOTS MORE GREAT SUGGESTIONS…
- “Wish the payroll had a more inclusive detailed earnings register for each employee.” – Eileen
- Thoughts: Curious about why the “Employee Earnings Summary” report isn’t cutting it?
- “Recurring billing like R360. Technical support. A conscience.” – Pat
- Thoughts: While this is 3 things….QuickBooks does offer some recurring billing, but depending on business needs, it may be too basic. Recur360 was created to solve for these very shortcomings. As of the other two on your wish list, I’ll let others weigh in on them.
- “When address is changed, provide option to retain previous address on past transaction(s) [i.e., don’t change address on previous transactions]. Spellcheck on Timesheet. For payroll limit type, add more options, such as semi-monthly, bi-weekly and weekly, and add custom” – Emanuela
- Thoughts: While this is 3 things…Can’t offer much here. All good ideas, but I don’t see these ever changing in QB desktop.
THE SUGGESTIONS KEEP COMING…
- “My one wish for QuickBooks would be that you could set up multiple currencies for inventory parts. Currently items can only be set up in USD. If you set up a piece price in EUR and purchase or sell the part, QuickBooks converts the price into EUR from whatever you have price you have set-the item up.” – Nancy
- Thoughts: I don’t do much in the world of foreign currency. Would the currency actually need to be at the vendor or customer level, not the item level? Not sure I’m understanding why it would need to be at the item level.
- “The one thing I wish QBO had the capability to do is to use a copy function for repetitive bank deposits. QBO is able to do it for invoices and journal entries but not for bank deposits.” – Sean
- Thoughts: Suggest using the Recurring Transaction feature to fill in for this gap
- “The ability to collapse a report without having the extra blank lines added under the parent acct whenever there is a sub-acct not showing. Screen view looks fine-Printed has the hiccup. The ability to run a Current Month PL next to YTD PL that reflects % Income for each Column” – Bruce
- Thoughts: That’s two, but ok anyway. I was not aware of this issue with the extra blank lines on the printed version. As for having the % of Income in both the current and YTD columns, I think thousands of businesses would desire that too.
- “Search for an item in sales order, estimate or invoicing like you can on the “Item List”.” – Debbi
- Thoughts: Enterprise has the “Find and Select” option in the drop down list for all of these forms. Bummer that Pro/Premier don’t include this feature.
AND A FEW OF MY OWN SUGGESTIONS TO CLOSE OUT THE DISCUSSION
- Fix the problem with corrupted memorized reports that has been ongoing for years
- Perform a massive overhaul on the database QuickBooks desktop uses and eliminate file corruption and out of balance reports. Who allows accounting reports to be out of balance?
- Provide an exit path to convert QuickBooks Enterprise company files into QBO files – nothing exists today without the help of a paid third party service
- Add the feature to stop inventory on-hand from going negative into ALL versions of QuickBooks
Feel free to drop your own suggestions for improving QuickBooks into the comment box below…
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The e-mail invoice screen needs to be much bigger, full-screen, or adjustable window!
Hi Kathy:
Guess I’m not sure what screen you are referring to? If I click E-Mail Invoice, I am taken to a full screen within Outlook, just like I am sending a normal e-mail out. Curious as to what you are seeing when you click the button?
Need the ability to have different sales tax rates for customer jobs. We have auto dealerships that have multiple locations in different taxing districts. We setup jobs for each location and there is no sales tax setting tab under jobs. There is no sales rep setting for each job either. Same for customers that are contractors who have job locations in different taxing districts.
Hi Doreen:
Have you looked at a third-party solution such as Avalara to handle this for you? I don’t anticipate we’ll ever see this within QB…
Scott
On QB Enterprise 20.0, payroll screen larger or adjustable while inputting hours etc. Updating vendor name and/or account numbers… QB requires you to set up a new vendor, I’d prefer to keep history invoices and bill payments all under one vendor. Change dull colors to bring vibrant colors.
When printing an employee contact list allow the ability to view ALL adjustment items. If you can have 15 in the employee template, you should be able to report more than 10 !!! We have 240 employees, and I use that report to proof that employees are set up correctly
Hi Diane:
Thank you for your comments.
I am trying to replicate the situation you’ve outlined. To clarify – if you go to the Customize Report option once you run the Employee Contact List and then add all the desired adjustment categories to this report as new columns, you’re saying you cannot see all of them on the screen? Or is this some type of issue that you can see them on the screen, but the printed copy of the report gets messed up?
Look forward to any further insights you can share on this.
Scott
When you enter a vendor name and go to pay bills, have the vendor information come up automatically instead of entering the vendor name again.
Why don’t they create a date filter on reports FOR TOMORROW! They have yesterday, today, BUT NO TOMORROW?Every other date you could possibly think of is on that list. So if you want to memorize a report for tomorrow, you can’t. You still have to go in and change the date in filters. So aggravating because it’s such a simple and obvious fix.