QuickBooks Is Changing Fast. Here are a few of our favorite new features.

If you’ve seen updates about the new Intuit platform  or Intuit’s new “AI agents,” here’s our firm’s experience. 

I’ve been beta testing the new Intuit Platform + the new AI agent. And yeah, it’s different. But this time I’m finding that it’s actually pretty useful. 

Here’s what’s changing, and how it’s already making a difference for us and our clients.

The New UI:

QuickBooks is trying to feel more like one unified platform instead of a patchwork of features. The new interface is part of that shift. 

Here’s what stands out:

• It’s cleaner and quicker: The new look is solid. The first day I tested it, I figured it might slow me down with client work, but I was wrong. After a short learning curve, it was faster. Bookmarks, reports, and the create button are easier to find and use.
• Everything is an App: Reports and the dashboard are exceptions, but nearly everything else in QuickBooks is grouped into app modules. This feels like a setup for future features. I wouldn’t be surprised to see more plug-and-play apps rolling out in the near future too. 
• The Accounting App: This section I want to bring some special attention to because it’s “our section”. That’s right, we have a spot to find bank feeds, reconcile, add fixed assets, and all of the other accountant-specific things. It’s in one section, vs. the three we used to have to go to. 
• Updated Dashboard: It’s customizable, clean, and way more functional now. You edit the modules, see what invoices are overdue, and fix broken bank connections. Honestly, I’ve never really paid much attention to the dashboard. Now it actually feels like a homepage. I hope they keep adding more customizations!
• New Banking Screen: It’s now a grid view, which I didn’t think I needed until I used it. AI suggestions appear when you open up the transactions, with explanations on why it’s categorizing a transaction a certain way. You also can now change the account it’s coded to without actually opening up the transaction, which saves a ton of time on the manually categorized transactions. Small change, but likely big impact over the long-term. 
• Business Feed: You can upload receipts, invoices, bills, and expenses into it, and it uses OCR and AI to process them. It’s early, but even now it saves time and feels like the beginning of something powerful.

Overall, This new UI actually feels like it was built for the accountants to use. Between fixing broken bank connections, adding third party apps, and getting our own “app” on the left-hand side, this feels like a pretty useful change so far for us. 

AI Agents: The Accounting Agent

Let’s talk about the new Accounting Agent. I’ve been using it, and no, it’s not perfect yet, but it’s already been helpful for us in a few client scenarios! Think of this as your newest intern who’s helping you with a few of the smaller tasks. 

Here’s what I’ve noticed so far:

• Built-in Client Communication: You know those vague checks or weird transactions you have to ask about? Now, instead of manually tracking those in excel, you can flag them in QBO with a question like “What was this for?” or “Who was this check to?” QuickBooks tracks these for us in the system, lets you decide who to send it to, and emails it out. You can also pull a static link if you’d rather send to your clients via other methods or your own email.
• New, Modern Bank Reconciliation Screen: You can upload a bank statement PDF and QBO will compare it against your G/L, point out the differences, and even suggest how to fix them. For those clients that don’t utilize or can’t utilize the bank feeds fully, I think this could be super helpful. This feels like a brand-new reconciliation experience that I haven’t seen elsewhere. The new reconciliation UI focuses on the transactions that need your focus versus showing you everything too, which I’m a big fan of!
• Anomaly detection for Financials: The AI scans the Profit and Loss and Balance Sheet to find items that look off and explains why. For simple clients, this shaves real time off our reviews. For more complex ones, it’s a second set of eyes to help point out the more obvious stuff. All in all, It’s pretty awesome and saves a few minutes per month on our QuickBooks Clients. 
• Uploading Documents via Business Feed: This one’s more subtle so far, but It’s encouraging. You can upload PDFs/images as invoices, bills, expenses, or receipts and the AI agent will create the transaction in QuickBooks for you. It’s fairly accurate if you provide it with decent context to go off of. I use this all the time with clients who use third party invoicing apps that don’t connect with QBO or who send invoicing data via email. Big time saver for the companies that need it. 

Interested in more details? Check out Intuit’s article here. 

What This Means for Our Firm:

I’ve tested these features across a couple of our actual clients. The time savings aren’t huge but a few minutes per client turns into hours per month, which gives us more time to focus on the important things.

Right now, it’s like having an eager intern that’s actually helpful. Give it a year or two, and it might be at a staff accountant level on logic and judgment. 

Looking Ahead:

The tech isn’t perfect. But it’s moving in the right direction. I’m excited because these aren’t pointless (shiny object) features, they seem like building blocks for something bigger in the future. 

If you’re already using QuickBooks, the new platform doesn’t ask you to change much. But it does quietly improve a lot. And if you’re still on the fence about AI in accounting, this is a low-risk way to get your feet wet. 

I’m envisioning a world where:

• The AI flags & notifies us of issues before we even notice them.
• It reminds us of when something needs to go to a client.
• It catches weird transactions without us having to dig.

Less of the boring transactional stuff and more of providing great advisory value to our clients. That’s what I’m most excited about!

This is a paid partnership with Intuit.

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