Alicia Katz Pollock

When Hackers Come Knocking: Protecting Your QuickBooks Practice from Modern Security Threats

Earmark Team · November 16, 2025 ·

Here’s something that might keep you up at night: A hacker breaks into a Comcast email account and immediately creates a new Outlook.com account with an almost identical username. When they send emails through the compromised account, they set the reply-to address to redirect responses to their fake Outlook account. Most people never notice the domain switch. They see a familiar name, hit reply, and hand over sensitive information directly to the fraudster.

This real-world example comes from security expert Jamie Pollock, who joined his wife and business partner, Alicia Katz Pollock, and co-host Dan DeLong for episode 104 of The Unofficial QuickBooks Accountants Podcast. The episode, titled “Insecurity about Security,” couldn’t be more timely. As Dan noted, accountants and ProAdvisors across various Facebook groups report compromised logins with increasing frequency, raising urgent questions about the security of the QuickBooks ecosystem.

“We as accountants are the gateway to security for our clients because we have our hands in our clients’ sensitive data,” Alicia explained. With real money movement now possible through QuickBooks Bill Pay, payments, and payroll, a single compromised accountant login can expose dozens or even hundreds of client accounts. That’s why Dan suggested bringing in Jamie, who teaches internet security courses. As Dan put it, “we need someone smarter than both of us combined.”

Passkeys: Your New Best Friend (Once You Understand Them)

Remember when accountants and clients just shared login credentials? Dan does. Back in 2013, when he worked at Intuit, this practice was so common that the company built the QuickBooks Online Accountant portal specifically to stop it. “People would get into their clients’ QuickBooks Online with their clients’ login,” Dan recalled. “And Intuit was like, that can’t be a best practice.”

Fast forward to today, and we’re on the verge of an even bigger change: replacing passwords entirely with something called passkeys.

Jamie explained this complex technology in simple terms. “A passkey is an encryption key. It’s a physical token,” he explained. “You go to the server—Intuit or Google or whoever—and say I’d like a passkey. It generates this passkey and downloads it onto your device.”

Think of it like those old war movies Dan referenced, where two people need to turn keys simultaneously to launch missiles. Your device has one key, the server has the other. When you log in, they work together to verify your identity without transmitting anything that could be stolen.

To help explain how this works, Jamie offered a comparison everyone already knows: secure websites. “If a website doesn’t have security, it’s HTTP, and if it has an SSL certificate, it’s HTTPS,” he said. When you visit a secure site, it downloads an encryption key to your browser. Any information you submit gets encrypted with that key, and only the server can unlock it. Passkeys work the same way, but for your identity instead of your data.

The technology depends on two things: password vaults that sync your passkeys across devices, and biometric authentication like fingerprints or facial recognition. “Nobody has my face or my finger,” Jamie pointed out, explaining why passkeys are so secure.

But here’s the catch: we’re in an awkward transition period. “Passkeys are meant to replace passwords,” Jamie explained. “But every company, every app, every website implements it differently.” Not everyone has biometric devices or password vaults yet, so companies like Intuit keep both systems running in parallel. Alicia estimates we’re “five or maybe ten years away” from passwords disappearing completely, since everyone needs biometric-capable devices first.

The Fraud Tactics Hitting QuickBooks Users Right Now

Integrating payment features into QuickBooks has transformed accountant credentials into what Dan calls “one point of access” for bad actors. With bill pay, QuickBooks payments, and payroll all accessible through a single login, fraudsters have shifted their focus from individual businesses to the accountants who hold the master keys.

Alicia shared a disturbing story that shows just how sophisticated these attacks have become. Someone contacted her through Facebook, asking for help with a locked QuickBooks account. She emailed the person to verify their identity, and they confirmed it was really them. But Alicia had a bad feeling, and her instincts were right. “I realized it was actually the hacker inside the email account.” The fraudster had compromised both the QuickBooks account and the email, turning normal verification into a trap.

Jamie explained how these email compromises typically work. Hackers break in and immediately create a new free account on Outlook or Gmail with a similar username. They set up forwarding rules and reply-to addresses that redirect responses to their controlled accounts. “Most people don’t notice and they answer the message,” Jamie said. “Next thing you know, they’re in the hands of the hacker.”

The recovery process itself has become a vulnerability. Dan highlighted a concerning issue: if you can’t access your phone or email, Intuit offers a third option involving photo ID submission. “It doesn’t take a whole lot. It’s not that far of a stretch to say that these bad actors can forge your documents,” Dan warned. Unlike banks that require account numbers or debit card information, Intuit’s recovery relies primarily on information that’s often publicly available.

Not all fraud stories end badly, though. Alicia shared how Intuit called one of her clients after detecting multiple unauthorized login attempts from Georgia and Florida. The investigation revealed fake invoices for $900 and $24,000 in the client’s system. While Alicia joked that creating invoices instead of expenses showed “the hacker used the software wrong,” it demonstrated both the scale of potential fraud and Intuit’s active monitoring.

A newer concern involves QuickBooks’ invoice forwarding system. The system now uses a standardized email format (companyname+expenses@assist.intuit.com) that vendors can use to submit invoices directly. “If that email address gets out, people can send you bills,” Alicia warned. “If you’re not paying attention, you might pay somebody that isn’t actually a supplier.”

Your Security Toolkit: Practical Steps You Can Take Today

The good news? You don’t need a computer science degree to protect yourself and your clients. The hosts shared several strategies any accountant can implement immediately.

First up is what Dan and Alicia call the “backdoor login” strategy. “You add yourself as a team member in your QBO using a different email address,” Alicia explained. Create a completely separate Gmail account just for this purpose, add yourself with full access to QuickBooks and all clients, and store those credentials securely. If your primary login gets compromised, you can still access everything while resolving the breach.

Password management is crucial, and Alicia shared how her firm uses 1Password. “Every employee has their own personal private vault,” she explained. “But then we have group vaults that are only by permission.” Administrative passwords stay separate from general team access, bookkeeping credentials remain isolated from other systems, and everything requires biometric authentication. “I can sit down at any of my computers and have instant access to the things that I need,” she said. “But nobody else can get in because it’s either under my personal password or literally my fingerprint.”

Jamie shared his rules of internet security. Rule one: “Know your source.” Click on the sender’s name in any email to reveal the actual address. “They can fake the name, but they can’t fake the email address,” Jamie emphasized. If something claims to be from Intuit but shows @gmail.com, you’ve spotted a fake.

Another powerful rule: “Don’t do anything. Don’t react, don’t click the link, don’t call the number, don’t reply to the text.” Most scams create artificial urgency to provoke immediate action. “If there’s urgency on their part, you should just stop,” Jamie advised. His reassuring logic? “If you owe somebody $500 through PayPal, they’ll get back to you. I guarantee it.”

Additional quick tips from the episode:

Hover over links before clicking to see the actual destination
Forward suspicious emails to fraud@intuit.com
Check security.intuit.com for current security alerts
Watch for deceptive URLs using dashes (like intuit-quickbooks-dash-fake.com)
Enable two-factor authentication despite the inconvenience

Speaking of two-factor authentication, Jamie reframed the hassle as a feature. “It’s a little bit of a hassle for you. But getting hacked and having $24,000 move around that you didn’t see? That’s a little bit more of a hassle.” Plus, unexpected authentication requests alert you to breach attempts, letting you change passwords before damage occurs.

The Road Ahead: Staying Secure in an Evolving Landscape

The transition to better security won’t happen overnight. Alicia compares computer aging to “double dog years.” By the time a computer is five years old, it’s like a 70-year-old person, and at seven years, it’s 94. Until everyone upgrades to biometric-capable devices, we’ll be managing both old and new security methods.

Security in QuickBooks is only as strong as its weakest link, which is often the recovery process. “The passkey or the way to sign in can only be as secure as the recovery process,” Dan observed. Unlike banks that require separate credentials like account numbers, Intuit’s recovery relies primarily on email and phone verification—both potentially vulnerable to compromise.

This vulnerability matters because of scale. One compromised accountant login doesn’t just expose one business; it potentially unlocks financial data for tens or hundreds of client accounts. As Dan put it, accountants have become “one point of access that a bad actor could access.”

The profession must also stay informed about evolving threats. Many accountants don’t know about resources like security.intuit.com for current alerts or that forwarding suspicious emails to fraud@intuit.com helps track fraudulent campaigns. As Alicia noted near the episode’s end, “They’re always finding new backdoors. I’m sure a year from now we’re going to have this conversation again.”

Jamie also mentioned his own services, including email cleanup and password management training. “My favorite is unread messages that are more than two years old,” he said. “You never read them two years ago, you’re not going to read them now.”

The episode ended with exciting news about Intuit actively seeking feedback. They’ve launched a new board specifically for ProAdvisors to provide actionable suggestions about banking feeds. “The developers are reading it,” Alicia emphasized. “You can have conversations with other people, we can upvote suggestions, and the developers actually join the conversation.”

Take Action: Your Security Starts Now

Security in the QuickBooks ecosystem isn’t just about protecting passwords; it’s about protecting livelihoods. Every compromised login is a potential breach of trust with clients who depend on you to safeguard their financial data.

The tools and threats will continue evolving, but your responsibility to protect client data remains constant. As Jamie’s simple rules demonstrate, effective security requires consistency and awareness. Know your source. Don’t react to urgency. Use the backdoor login strategy. Enable two-factor authentication even though it’s annoying.

Listen to the full episode for additional examples, detailed technical explanations, and Jamie’s complete security framework. The conversation includes specific guidance that could save your practice from becoming the next cautionary tale. Because in today’s digital accounting landscape, vigilance isn’t paranoia; it’s professionalism.

Alicia Katz Pollock’s Royalwise OWLS (On-Demand Web-based Learning Solutions) is the industry’s premier portal for top-notch QuickBooks Online training with CPE for accounting firms, bookkeepers, and small business owners. Visit Royalwise OWLS, where learning QBO is a HOOT!

Why Accountants Are Both Thrilled and Terrified by QuickBooks’ Latest AI Push

Earmark Team · October 20, 2025 ·

How much should we trust AI with our critical financial processes?

In a recent episode of The Unofficial QuickBooks Accountants Podcast, hosts Alicia Katz Pollock and Matthew “Spot” Fulton break down the August 2025 “In the Know” webinar from Intuit, where AI agents take center stage alongside major Enterprise Suite enhancements and ProAdvisor Academy improvements.

From payment collection to payroll processing, QuickBooks is pushing automation further than ever before. But as Fulton and Katz Pollock discuss, the technology that saves you hours today needs careful oversight to avoid compliance nightmares tomorrow.

ProAdvisor Academy Gets Smarter

Before diving into the AI updates, the hosts highlighted some welcome improvements to ProAdvisor Academy. You can now filter courses by length and CPE credit amount—perfect for those moments when you think, “I have an hour, what can I learn right now?”

Even better, the system finally saves your CPE certificates in the “My History” section. As Katz Pollock notes, “They used to email them to you and you had to save them, and that was it. So the fact that you can actually now track your CPE is pretty darn awesome.”

Intuit is also launching a new quarterly series called Solution Spotlight, where support experts will tackle complex challenges and deep-dive into underutilized tools. The first topic? Bank transactions and reconciliation—the community’s most requested subject.

Enterprise Suite: The Multi-Entity Game Changer

Fulton and Katz Pollock spent considerable time discussing Enterprise Suite’s powerful consolidation features, and for good reason. These updates address long-standing issues that have plagued multi-entity businesses for years.

The Shared Chart of Accounts feature uses AI to standardize accounting across all your entities. As Fulton explains it, “You choose which chart of accounts you want to be your primary one, and then you can use the AI to say, okay, we think these accounts are going to match up with those accounts. You still have the ability to review and say, yep, you got this right.”

The time savings are massive. Fulton speaks from experience, “As an accountant, the time and energy it takes to try to normalize a chart of accounts is extensive. There’s a lot of thought and knowledge and wisdom that goes into it.”

Multi-entity transactions are even more impressive. When you invoice another entity in your organization, the system automatically creates the corresponding bill in that entity, complete with a PDF attachment. Fulton recalls the old way: “You would pull up two browsers, you’d have both companies up, and you look at the intercompany exchanges between one company and the other, and you go line by line to make sure both sides are there.”

But Katz Pollock raises an important point about accessibility. She has clients with multiple small entities—”literally QuickBooks Ledger or Simple Start”—who desperately need these consolidation features but can’t justify Enterprise Suite’s price tag. Her suggestion? “I think they should make an Enterprise Lite version focused solely on multi-company functions.

The Payments Agent: Getting You Paid Faster (and Smarter)

The Payments agent analyzes customer behavior to optimize your collection strategy. When you create an invoice, it shows you how long they’ve been a customer, their payment history, open invoices, and average payment time.

But here’s where it gets interesting. The agent suggests payment methods based on what will get you paid fastest. It even calculates total time to receive funds, including your customer’s typical delay. When Katz Pollock saw “ACH 14 days” in the demo, she clarified, “It wasn’t that ACH takes 14 days to clear. It’s that the customer takes on average nine days to pay, and then you have the three to five days it takes to clear.”

Fulton cuts to why this matters, “As business owners, all too often we rely on small margins to where we are super sensitive to cash flow. If it’s going to take somebody longer to pay, we need to know that.”

The system can also parse invoices from text, images, or PDFs, though Katz Pollock admits it “doesn’t do the line items yet. But you know, it’s just the infancy of the technology.”

One limitation bothers Katz Pollock: Reminder settings apply to all customers universally. “I have placeholder invoices or agreements with customers where it’s okay that they’re not going to pay for another 90 days,” she explains. Her workaround? Adjust due dates to match actual payment expectations.

The Payroll Agent: Convenience Meets Controversy

The Payroll agent’s text-message time collection generated the most heated discussion. Employees receive texts asking for hours, overtime, and tips. They respond with simple messages, and the system compiles everything for manager approval.

Sounds great, right? Not so fast.

“If they’re not keeping a time card, you know they’re going to overestimate how much they actually worked,” Katz Pollock warns. Fulton agrees, “How many employees are always completely honest with their hours and their overtime and their tips?”

The system is heavily restricted during beta. It’s only for US customers who don’t use auto payroll or QuickBooks Time, have one pay schedule, and use basic pay types. Fulton sees wisdom here, “Let’s make sure this is working before we give it to all the crazies out there.”

Still, there are safeguards. The system flags anomalies, requires manager approval, creates audit logs, and needs employee consent for each payroll period. Fulton even sees potential for construction companies where daily time certification is required. “They’re having to certify by responding back to this the amount of time they worked.”

Katz Pollock’s verdict? “The technology is going to be great. It’s the humans that you can’t trust in this particular issue.”

Customer Leads: Your Email Becomes Your CRM

Currently in Gmail-only beta (Outlook coming soon), the Customer Leads agent scans your email for customer interactions and organizes them into a sales pipeline: inquiry, negotiation, finalization, contracted, or lost.

Fulton’s excited about consolidation. “I’ve been using 17 Hats, but the challenge I’ve always had is the integration piece. I can handle all this stuff up to the estimate and invoice somebody, but it’s always been external.”

Katz Pollock uses Method CRM currently and sees the appeal, “This will be really nice to be able to just keep it right inside QBO and not have to go to another app.”

The hosts admit they’re still learning this feature, and Katz Pollock has a future episode planned to dive deeper.

More Updates Worth Your Attention

A few other updates the hosts are looking forward to include:

Scheduled Compensation Changes

This might be the sleeper hit of the updates. You can now pre-program raises and bonuses with effective dates. As Fulton exclaims, “This is sunlight shining down onto us so we can take a vacation at the end of the year, too!”

Katz Pollock shares a perfect use case: “I had a client whose employee broke their field service iPad and was reimbursing them out of their payroll, $150 per month for six months.” With scheduling, that deduction would automatically end on the right date.

Sales Tax Automation Expands

QuickBooks now handles sales tax filing for Iowa, Minnesota, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Vermont, and West Virginia at $40 per filing. While the hosts debated the price, Fulton notes it’s actually market rate compared to services like Avalara.

Looking Ahead

The hosts emphasized community feedback throughout the episode. As Fulton puts it: “Are you using Enterprise yet? If you are, what features are you loving? If you aren’t, what features are most enticing?”

They’ve even started a LinkedIn group for the podcast where listeners can discuss episodes and share experiences.

Katz Pollock is launching her “Great QBO Refresh” training series in September, completely rebuilding her curriculum to address all the interface changes.

Don’t miss Intuit Connect (October 27-29 in Las Vegas) or Reframe Conference (November in Florida), which Fulton calls “by far, hands down, the best conference I’ve been to in years.”

The Bottom Line

These AI agents aren’t replacing accounting professionals; they’re redefining the role. The firms that thrive will leverage AI for efficiency while maintaining the human judgment that ensures accuracy, compliance, and client trust.

As Katz Pollock wisely advises about the payroll agent’s rollout, “Intuit, go slow on this one. We want to actually see use cases before it becomes universal.”

The future of accounting isn’t human versus machine. It’s human with machine, each doing what they do best. Ready to dive deeper? Listen to the full episode above and join the conversation in the Unofficial QuickBooks Accountants Podcast LinkedIn group.

Inside QuickBooks Online’s Biggest Transformation Since Going Cloud-Based

Earmark Team · September 10, 2025 ·

You’re reviewing a client’s profit and loss report when you notice little sparkle icons next to several expense categories. Curious, you hover over one and get an instant explanation: “Office supplies increased 127% compared to last month due to these three transactions.” What used to require detective work across multiple screens now happens automatically, with AI explaining not just what happened, but why.

This isn’t a future vision—it’s happening right now in QuickBooks Online’s July 2025 updates. On the latest episode of The Unofficial QuickBooks Accountants Podcast, hosts Alicia Katz Pollock from Royalwise and Dan DeLong from School of Bookkeeping break down Intuit’s massive “In the Know” session, where the company unveiled what they’re calling “QuickBooks on the Intuit platform.”

The transformation goes far beyond typical software updates. AI agents now work like digital detectives, scouring your data for patterns and anomalies. Banking feeds can automatically process PDF statements. Client communication occurs directly within QuickBooks, eliminating the spreadsheet shuffle. And those sparkle icons on reports? They’re AI-powered insights flagging unusual trends before your clients notice them.

But here’s what every accounting professional needs to understand: this isn’t an optional upgrade. By September 2025, everyone will be permanently on the new platform, with no opt-out option. The window to influence the final product closes soon.

AI Agents Become Your Digital Workforce

The heart of QuickBooks’ transformation lies in what Intuit calls “Agentic AI”—intelligent agents that actively hunt through your data for insights. Alicia explains her mental image: “I always imagine an AI bot in a detective hat, because that’s how I think about the AI is looking through the data and scouring it.”

The accounting agent, available for Essentials plans and higher, represents the biggest shift in how bookkeepers handle transactions. Instead of facing a wall of uncategorized entries, the system now identifies transactions that are “data-backed and likely to be accurate” and pre-checks them for posting. When three transactions meet this criterion, a banner appears announcing “three transactions ready to post.”

The game-changer is anomaly detection. Those sparkle icons appearing next to categories on profit and loss reports identify unusual trends automatically. Dan shares his experience: “I’ve seen it on some reports where the prior month there was a specific project that was done, and it said it right there on the screen like it went down this amount of percent because these two invoices were in the prior month.”

The categorization intelligence has evolved beyond simple pattern matching. The AI now recognizes that Shell and Arco are both gas stations, suggesting similar categories across different vendors. It scrapes bank descriptions for contextual clues and provides multiple suggestions for ambiguous transactions—offering both “meals and entertainment” and “travel meals” for restaurant charges, depending on your patterns.

Perhaps most significantly, categorization history has expanded from 12 to 24 months—a change Alicia specifically requested. This ensures annual charges can reference the previous year’s categorization, eliminating frustration with recurring yearly expenses.

Platform Integration Changes Everything

What Intuit calls “QuickBooks on the Intuit platform” represents more than rebranding—it’s the breakdown of decades-old product silos. As Dan explains, “their core offerings of TurboTax, MailChimp, and QuickBooks are getting homogenized here. And they can essentially talk to each other.”

The logic makes sense when you consider user patterns. As Alicia notes, “a lot of people use MailChimp who have never used QuickBooks. There’s a lot of people who file their taxes with TurboTax who have never used QuickBooks. So merging them all together is a natural evolution.”

The new interface features an app carousel with customer hubs, sales hubs, accounting hubs, marketing hubs, and business tax hubs. The customer hub will integrate MailChimp directly within QuickBooks, while business tax functionality brings TurboTax capabilities to the accounting workflow.

The enhanced bank feeds represent the most visible daily change. Alicia, who has been beta testing and providing daily feedback to developers, describes the evolution: “Everything that we knew and loved about the banking feeds is still there, but they kind of changed it.” The new system allows inline transaction editing, customizable column displays, and comprehensive transaction details.

The revolutionary statement import feature can process PDF bank statements and extract transactions automatically. While currently requiring human oversight—hence the two-hour processing time, at least for now—this capability could eliminate entire businesses built around transaction import services. As Alicia explains, “there’s a human being looking at it to see if it did a good job or not, and if it didn’t do it right, it’s actually going to a human being who is fixing the programming.”

Interface changes aren’t just cosmetic. The new left navigation is “brighter, it’s lighter, it’s prettier” with collapsible sections and bookmark functionality for one-click access to frequently used screens. The transformation from “Add” to “Post” in banking feeds reflects more technically accurate accounting language.

Client Communication Gets Built-In

The context gathering system eliminates the bookkeeper’s perpetual question: “What was this transaction for?” Built directly into QuickBooks, this feature threatens third-party apps by providing client communication tools within the core platform.

Alicia explains the problem this solves: “When you don’t know what something’s for, you have to go ask. And in the old days, we used to use spreadsheets for that. More recently, we’ve been using apps like Uncat, Keeper, or Financial Cents, where you can communicate with your clients right inside the app, but now you can do it right inside QBO.”

The system creates a to-do list maintained within QuickBooks, allowing bookkeepers to ask clients questions without requiring client QBO access. Clients receive emails with magic links to respond, and “it’s always the same link. And so you can just have your clients save it and bookmark it as the place to go.”

The expense forwarding feature allows anyone to send not just expenses but also income transaction directly into the system. However, this convenience introduces new risks. Alicia warns, “If you don’t have a bill approval process, you may have somebody who just goes in and pays everything without questioning anything. You actually could wind up paying bad actors who just sent random bills into your account to see if they could.” She reminds everyone to make sure they only give these email addresses to people they can trust.

The integration of Bill Pay Basic across all plans, including Simple Start, amplifies these concerns. Firms handling bill payments may want to consider upgrading clients to QBO Advanced, which includes mandatory bill approval workflows.

The September Deadline and What It Means

The timeline carries strategic implications beyond software preference. This isn’t a typical update where holdouts can postpone adoption—it’s a mandatory migration with a hard September deadline.

July offered opt-in/opt-out flexibility. August brought automatic transitions for new brand files. Crucially, all ProAdvisors’ clients were switched simultaneously. As Dan notes, “They threw accountants a bone” by ensuring firms wouldn’t juggle clients across different interfaces. September completes the mandatory transition, and by the month’s end, the new platform becomes permanent with no opt-out option.

The current period is critical for shaping the final product. As Alicia emphasizes from her beta testing: “This is the time to make sure that the platform works for us. They need your feedback.” Her daily communication with development teams resulted in interface improvements that serve real accounting workflows.

For firms considering the timeline, the choice is clear: engage now to influence the outcome, or adapt in September to whatever system emerges. The difference between being a beta participant and a forced adopter could determine whether your practice thrives or struggles.

Training and Resources Coming

Recognizing the scope of change, Intuit announced new training opportunities. Two courses are coming in October: one about understanding Agentic AI in general, and another specifically about AI agents in QuickBooks. There’s also ongoing research about what accounting professionals want to see in ProAdvisor Academy.

Alicia is completely rebuilding her training library at Royalwise. “I’ve got over 50 different courses of over 100 hours of QuickBooks Online content. So in September we are going to start over again from scratch,” she explains. Her Community and Coaching memberships will provide free entry into all webinars as she recreates content for the new platform.

Shape the Future or Be Shaped by It

The July 2025 QuickBooks updates represent the most significant transformation since moving to the cloud. AI agents are becoming the invisible workforce handling pattern recognition and routine categorization. New communication tools eliminate constant client back-and-forth. Interface changes reflect a fundamental shift toward integrated business management.

For accounting professionals, these changes represent both opportunity and risk. Those who engage now can influence the final product through feedback. As Alicia’s daily communication with developers shows, active participants can achieve solutions that serve the profession’s real needs.

But come September’s mandatory transition, the window for input closes. Firms will adapt to whatever system emerges from this beta period. The most successful professionals will view this transition as evolution—an opportunity to eliminate tedious data entry and focus on high-value advisory work.

Don’t let this transformation happen to you—be part of shaping it. The September deadline isn’t just about software—it’s about the future of the accounting profession itself.

QuickBooks Online’s Latest AI Update Could Save You Hours of Detective Work

Earmark Team · September 1, 2025 ·

Picture this: You’re reviewing a client’s profit and loss statement when travel expenses catch your eye. They’ve jumped 624% from last month. Is this legitimate business growth, a categorization error, or duplicate entries? Traditionally, this would mean hours of detective work, drilling into transaction details and cross-referencing receipts.

But what if an AI agent had already investigated this anomaly, traced it back to two identical $10,834 hotel charges, and presented you with a detailed report, complete with visual charts and actionable recommendations?

This feature is rolling out to QuickBooks Online users this summer.

In this episode of The Unofficial QuickBooks Accountants Podcast, Jim Dzundza, Staff Product Manager for the QuickBooks Accounting Automation team, explains how AI-powered error detection agents are transforming accounting workflows. But this isn’t about robots replacing bookkeepers. It’s about intelligent collaboration where AI handles time-consuming pattern recognition while accountants focus on analysis and client relationships.

From Program Manager to Product Developer

Dzundza’s journey at Intuit offers unique insight into how accountant feedback shapes product development. He started on the business development team working on desktop product partnerships, then moved to manage the ProAdvisor program for several years.

“Accountants have had a special spot in my heart,” Dzundza explains. “They are the key to us developing amazing products and amazing functionality.” His transition from the front-facing ProAdvisor program to backend product development wasn’t accidental; it was driven by impact.

“I felt like I could make a bigger impact by bringing this accountant perspective and finding a team within Intuit that really thinks about how accountants use and love the product,” he says. “And then focusing on where a lot of the pain is, to be honest. How can we help accountants reduce the pain of the work that they have to do?”

This accountant-first approach shows in every feature Dzundza shared on the podcast.

The AI Agent Revolution Begins

QuickBooks Online’s new platform introduces six specialized AI agents, each designed for specific accounting functions. The accounting, payments, and finance agents are currently available. Project management is in beta, while payroll and customer agents are coming soon.

The rollout timeline is aggressive but manageable. All new files created now automatically use the new platform. Starting in July, existing users can opt into the new experience. By September, everyone will see it, with the ability to opt out until the transition becomes mandatory at the end of September.

“We are daily reviewing feedback that is streaming in around all of the new UI, the new agents, everything coming out,” Dzundza emphasizes. “We’re implementing fixes and changes based on user feedback.”

This feedback period allows accountants to shape these tools rather than simply accepting what’s provided.

Eliminating Data Entry Frustrations

The accounting agent tackles three major workflow areas: getting transactions into the books, categorizing them, and reconciling accounts. Each advancement addresses real pain points accountants face daily.

PDF Statement Upload

For years, working with small banks meant manually keying transactions or using third-party tools like MoneyThumb. The new PDF statement upload feature completely changes this.

“You have the PDF and you go in to add that statement or upload those transactions in the same way you would upload a CSV today,” Dzundza explains. “And now you’re able to upload a PDF.” The AI extracts transactions directly from bank statement PDFs, eliminating the need for external conversion tools.

Enhanced Collaboration

Perhaps more revolutionary is the new collaboration feature available on Essentials and above. When you encounter a transaction needing clarification, you can ask questions directly within the bank feed and send clients a magic link via email or text.

“They can go on their phone and answer the question,” Dzundza notes. “They can answer it from wherever without having to log into QuickBooks.” Once clients respond, the AI automatically updates its categorization recommendations based on that context, creating a feedback loop that improves accuracy for future similar transactions.

This addresses a major frustration: forcing business owners to log into QuickBooks just to answer simple questions about transactions. It also gives accountants control over their books while still gathering necessary context.

Reconciliation Gets Smarter

The reconciliation process receives similar AI enhancements, with tools launching in mid-July. Like bank feeds, reconciliation now supports PDF extraction with a crucial enhancement: when the AI can’t extract everything accurately, it flags questionable areas for human review.

“Our goal for this one is 100% accuracy,” Dzundza explains. This hybrid approach, combining AI speed with human verification, ensures accuracy while eliminating manual data entry.

The new reconciliation interface organizes information into logical sections: cleared transactions that matched one-to-one, flagged one-to-many matches requiring review, and AI recommendations for transactions that should potentially be excluded or unposted.

This addresses common reconciliation headaches like duplicate detection. As Dzundza discussed with host Alicia Katz Pollock, it’s easy to upload a receipt and then also accept the same transaction from the bank feed without noticing the duplication. The AI now surfaces these duplicates automatically, eliminating manual scanning for errors.

The Anomaly Detection Game-Changer

The most sophisticated feature is the accounting agent’s anomaly detection, which transforms financial statement review from manual line-by-line scanning to intelligent pattern analysis.

How It Works

The system analyzes 13 months of historical data, comparing the most recent complete month against established patterns to identify accounts that deviate significantly from normal behavior. But it’s smarter than simple variance detection. It considers each account’s historical volatility. Accounts with consistent monthly variation won’t trigger alerts for normal fluctuations, while stable accounts get flagged for even modest deviations.

“It looks over the past 13 months, and then it looks at the most recent complete month,” Dzundza explains. “And it will tell you if this month’s total seems off on either the balance sheet or P&L.”

Professional-Quality Investigation

When the system detects anomalies, the AI conducts detailed investigations using what Dzundza describes as “customized prompts we designed in partnership with accountants.” These prompts guide the AI to analyze transaction patterns, identify common characteristics, and surface potential root causes.

Travel expenses are a perfect example of this capability. When the AI flagged a 624% increase in travel expenses, it didn’t just note the variance; it traced the increase to two identical $10,834 hotel charges from the same vendor, immediately raising the question of whether these were duplicates or legitimate separate transactions.

Seamless Integration

The feature integrates directly into standard financial statements through subtle blue sparkles next to affected line items. Clicking a sparkle opens a detailed analysis directly in context, allowing investigation without leaving the familiar report format. The sparkles don’t print when you export reports, maintaining clean client deliverables while providing powerful review capabilities.

Actionable Reporting

The AI generates professional-quality PDF reports that serve as both investigation summaries and work papers. These reports include visual charts showing the anomaly, detailed root cause analysis, supporting data points with reference numbers for easy transaction lookup, and comprehensive narrative explanations of findings.

As Katz Pollock notes, “this is something I would be very happy to just send to my client.”

The Partnership Model That Works

These AI updates aren’t about replacing accountants, but about elevating their work.

“It’s not about replacing jobs or anything like that,” Dzundza emphasizes. “It’s really focused on creating tools that make people more efficient in getting their work done.”

As Katz Pollock summarizes, “this is in no way taking your job. All this is doing is calling your attention to things that it’s noticed in a way that you would not have access to just by looking.” The technology provides pattern recognition and initial investigation, but professional judgment about significance, cause, and appropriate action remains firmly in human hands.

Your Voice in the Development Process

Dzundza stresses that development teams are reviewing user feedback daily and implementing changes based on that input.

This gives accounting professionals a unique opportunity to actively shape these tools. The key is providing constructive, actionable feedback with specific details rather than general complaints.

The Future of Accounting Practice

Technical proficiency with AI tools is becoming as important as traditional accounting skills. Accountants who embrace this partnership will find themselves elevated from data processors to strategic advisors, spending less time hunting for errors and more time interpreting their significance for clients.

The collaboration model redefines what it means to be an accounting professional in an AI-enhanced world. The accountants who thrive will be those who view AI as a powerful research assistant rather than a threat, focusing their expertise on the strategic analysis and client relationships that technology cannot replace.

As these AI agents roll out over the coming months, you have the opportunity to be part of shaping the future of accounting practice. Listen to the full episode to hear Dzundza’s complete demonstration of these features, understand the implementation timeline, and learn how to provide constructive feedback that will help refine these tools for maximum benefit to accounting professionals.

The future of accounting is being written now. Make sure your voice is part of that conversation.

Protect Your Bookkeeping Practice: Essential Boundaries That Preserve Your Value

Earmark Team · August 27, 2025 ·

When hosts Alicia Katz Pollock and Veronica Wasek spun their “Wheel of Rants” on a recent episode of The Unofficial QuickBooks Accountants Podcast, they landed on a topic that sparked an energetic discussion: “The 20 things that accountants should never do.”

What followed was a candid conversation about the essential boundaries every bookkeeper should establish to protect themselves and their clients. Whether you’re just starting your bookkeeping practice or you’re a seasoned professional, these boundaries are critical safeguards for building a sustainable business.

Client Relationship Boundaries: Who’s Really in Charge?

“Allowing clients to control the work we do and really treating us as employees” topped Wasek’s list of boundary violations. She explained that many bookkeepers, especially those transitioning from employee roles, fall into the trap of letting clients direct their work.

“The client shouldn’t be directing the work you do,” Wasek emphasized. “There should be proper diagnosis done by us as accountants and then we give the client our recommendations.”

This distinction is crucial: Are you following orders or leading the process? As Katz Pollock pointed out, “If you’re a bookkeeper with your own firm or your own practice, you should be the one guiding the narrative.” Otherwise, you might actually be functioning as an employee rather than an independent contractor.

Financial Boundaries: Know Your Worth

Both hosts shared strong opinions about working for free or undervaluing services. Wasek explained how offering free work “devalues our industry as a whole” and signals that you don’t value your own expertise.

Katz Pollock added a practical concern: “If you were willing to do it for free, why would I pay you $500 a month to do it?” This initial boundary violation creates expectations that become nearly impossible to reset later.

Another common mistake is marking down invoices without discussion. Wasek shared an example based on her own experience. “My fee was $10,000 based on all the time that I spent on it, but I don’t think they’re going to pay me $10,000, so I just charge them $5,000.”

She now recognizes this as a serious boundary violation, explaining, “We tend to project our own feelings about money to our clients.” Instead of assuming clients won’t pay, have an open conversation about pricing.

Katz Pollock offered a practical strategy for those who bill hourly. “I charge what I consider a reasonably high rate, and that allows me to give a discount. Then I feel like everybody wins. I’m still getting a satisfactory rate, and they feel good.”

The hosts also warned against becoming financially dependent on just a few clients. “What if one out of those three leaves and you were financially dependent on that client?” Wasek cautioned. This dependency traps bookkeepers in problematic relationships where they can’t enforce other boundaries for fear of losing essential income.

Security Boundaries: Protecting Your Clients and Yourself

“Having direct access to the client’s bank accounts or their bill payment” is a practice Wasek strongly discourages. She shared a sobering example of a client that embezzled $8 million through their in-house bookkeeper, who had unrestricted access.

Katz Pollock acknowledged the practical challenges, noting she sometimes needs bank account access to view statements or check images. Her solution involves strict controls: “We have a 1Password vault that nobody has access to except for me and my contracted bookkeeper,” plus explicit language in her engagement letter that they “will never take any action either on your behalf or at your request.”

Both hosts emphasized the importance of secure password management. “Nowadays, you need to have unique passwords for everything,” Wasek explained, recommending systems that limit credential visibility to only those who absolutely need them.

Email communication presents another security concern. “The bane of my existence is emails,” Katz Pollock admitted, noting important client communications often get buried. More critically, Wasek warned, “There are so many email scams going on right now where you think you’re talking to your client and they are not your client.”

She shared a chilling example: “One of my clients was a victim of an email scam with a vendor. He sent a couple of million dollars to this fraudulent vendor, and then couldn’t do anything about it.” This led her firm to abandon email entirely for client communications, moving to secure platforms instead.

Professional Expertise Boundaries: Know Your Limits

“Taking a client when you lack the required skills” and giving legal or tax advice without proper qualifications made both hosts’ lists of major boundary violations.

“Certain industries and certain types of clients are more complex,” Wasek explained, highlighting areas like e-commerce and nonprofit accounting that require specialized knowledge.

Both hosts stressed that bookkeepers should never give tax or legal advice without proper credentials. “If you don’t have a law degree and if you don’t have a tax designation, then you can’t actually back up and stand by the advice you’re giving,” Katz Pollock cautioned.

Instead, they recommended developing relationships with specialists and having prepared responses for common client questions. As Wasek suggested, “I would try to give them the right words to use to ask their CPA the proper question.”

Documentation Boundaries: Get It in Writing

“Not using engagement letters” was another boundary violation, both hosts emphasized. Wasek learned this lesson “the hard way” after initially “working on a handshake,” explaining that formal agreements “really set the tone for the entire relationship.”

A comprehensive engagement letter should outline services provided, responsibilities, pricing, payment terms, and procedures for ending the relationship. Katz Pollock recommended reviewing engagement letters annually. “I look to see if their scope has changed. How many checking accounts did I agree to and how many do they have now?” This gives a “tangible reason for raising our prices” beyond just annual increases.

Both hosts also advocated for paid diagnostic assessments before committing to new clients. This smaller initial engagement helps evaluate a client’s responsiveness and complexity before making longer-term commitments.

Personal Boundaries: Protecting Your Time and Energy

The hosts discussed the common issue of bookkeepers acting as “unpaid therapists” for their clients. Wasek recalled a client who “would keep me on for at least an hour” multiple times weekly, making it impossible to complete actual work. She learned to establish time parameters, saying, “I’d love to talk to you, but I have a meeting in 15 minutes.”

Another crucial personal boundary involves maintaining client confidentiality. “You never, ever, ever talk badly about either the business owner or a bookkeeper to another business owner or another bookkeeper,” Katz Pollock stressed. This includes avoiding sharing information between clients or discussing former clients with their new bookkeepers without explicit permission.

Wasek shared a situation involving partnership conflicts: “I had to terminate the relationship. I would rather this client think badly of me for leaving them without a bookkeeper than to attack the other partner or to tattletale.”

Building a Stronger Practice Through Boundaries

Throughout their discussion, Wasek and Katz Pollock emphasized that proper boundaries ultimately create more sustainable and rewarding businesses.

“I am a big believer in karma, and that when one door closes, another one opens,” Katz Pollock shared. “If you have a really large client that you depend on, and either they let you go or you just find it toxic, I don’t recommend staying.”

Wasek agreed, adding that when bookkeepers release problematic clients, they gain “so much more mental energy to devote to better clients.”

For bookkeepers looking to establish stronger boundaries, the hosts recommended:

Getting proper training to understand your expertise and limitations
Using engagement letters reviewed by legal professionals
Implementing secure technology solutions for passwords and communications
Developing scripts for common boundary challenges
Building relationships with specialists for referrals
Conducting paid diagnostic assessments before committing to new clients

As Katz Pollock concluded about maintaining professional boundaries, “It says way more about you than it does about them.” It’s a reminder that how you establish and maintain boundaries ultimately defines your professional reputation and the health of your practice.

To hear more detailed insights about these essential bookkeeping boundaries, listen to the full episode using the player below or wherever you get your podcasts.