QuickBooks

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.

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!

When Two Accounting Apps Listen to Their Customers (And Actually Do Something About It)

Earmark Team · July 22, 2025 ·

Picture this: It’s 2021 at ‘Appy Camp, and Ben Stein from Keeper is standing at a bar, drink ticket in hand, ready to exchange it for a well-deserved cocktail after a long day of conference sessions. But when Alicia Katz Pollock rushes past—bass guitar case slung over her shoulder, racing to join the evening’s music circle around the fire—and tosses him her drink ticket with a hurried “Can you get me my drink?”, Ben doesn’t hesitate. He heads to the bar, discovers they’re not accepting drink tickets, and simply buys her a drink anyway.

That spirit of going above and beyond would prove fitting. Three years later, Ben’s company, Keeper, just launched an integration with Anchor that’s making accounting professionals everywhere take notice. When Katz Pollock brought together Stein and Tal Ben Bassat from Anchor for a special episode of The Unofficial QuickBooks Accountants Podcast, the conversation revealed how real software partnerships actually happen.

The story isn’t about corporate strategy meetings or market research. It’s about two companies that actually listened when their customers said, “We want these apps to work together.” And then they did something most software companies don’t: they made it happen…

…like chocolate and peanut butter…better together!

When Customers Become Your Product Team

Here’s what most software companies get wrong: they build features based on internal roadmaps instead of user requests. But when Stein’s team at Keeper and Ben Bassat’s team at Anchor started getting the same message from customers, both companies did something simple. They listened.

“Really, the idea came from our mutual customers,” Ben explains. “This is something that our customers asked for and Anchor’s customers asked for. We have a lot of overlapping customers and we want to keep them happy.”

Ben Bassat’s approach at Anchor takes this customer focus even further. “Everything we do on Anchor comes from our clients. Every feature, every development we have,” he says. “Our product team spends full days speaking to customers about what they need.”

The proof came after they launched. Stein admits it “caught my team off guard” with the response. “We go live with the integration, and all of a sudden, our support team was just inundated with dozens of tickets from Anchor customers and Keeper customers that were super excited about getting this up and running.”

This customer-driven approach creates a simple but powerful advantage: when your users tell you exactly what they need to work more efficiently, you don’t have to guess what to build next.

How the Integration Actually Works

For those not familiar with these tools, here’s what they do.

Anchor handles contracting and billing. Accountants can create proposals with multiple pricing tiers, get electronic signatures, and automatically invoice clients monthly. The invoices sync to QuickBooks Online. Keeper manages your bookkeeping workflows and checklists. It integrates with QBO so you can review transactions, ask client questions, and track your monthly procedures without jumping between systems.

Now here’s where the integration gets useful. When a client receives a proposal in Anchor, they can choose from different service packages and even agree to automatic annual price increases. Once they sign and connect payment information, the integration takes over automatically.

Based on your Anchor settings, the system auto-configures a client in Keeper, applying templates, creating tasks, and setting properties—all without manual work. “Once the client signs the agreement, Anchor will take the upfront payments. So you’re already clear on that. And then your team gets a notification and they start to work on Keeper immediately,” Ben Bassat explains.

This eliminates what Ben Bassat calls the traditional approach: “someone in your back office who starts organizing the onboarding process.” No more Excel spreadsheets tracking tasks. No more manual emails. No more wondering where each client stands in the pipeline.

Future updates will include amendment management. When you add services in Anchor, it will automatically trigger new workflows in Keeper. The integration keeps evolving based on what users really need.

Why Specialized Tools Beat All-in-One Platforms

Both companies made a conscious choice to focus on what they do best rather than trying to build everything. “No one can do everything perfectly. It’s not possible,” Ben Bassat explains.

His philosophy is clear: master your core function, then integrate with others who’ve mastered theirs. “Our approach on Anchor is not to give people a half-baked CRM experience or half-baked project management or practice management experience because it will not be as good. Keeper spent years developing their product.”

Stein agrees, recognizing that building billing software is “enormously complex.” Meanwhile, Keeper has spent years perfecting practice management and client communications that are “so deeply coupled to each other” that splitting them across multiple systems would create problems.

As Katz Pollock puts it, QuickBooks Online is like “a multifunction printer where it can print and it can copy and it can fax, but it doesn’t do any of them really, really well.” That’s why we have an entire ecosystem of specialized apps that excel at their one thing, and then connect to create something more powerful than any single platform.

Building the Integration Right

This wasn’t just two companies slapping together a quick connection. It was Keeper’s first major integration, and both teams approached it with their full attention.

“It surprised me how involved it was,” Stein reflects. “Anchor sort of took the whole process very seriously.” Keeper had to modify their API and release new endpoints specifically to support what Anchor needed.

Ben Bassat’s team matched that commitment. “Our approach is to deliver the best we can.” The development included extensive customer research, with Anchor’s product team speaking directly to Keeper users to understand their expectations.

The mutual respect between companies is evident in how they talk about each other. Stein praises Anchor’s authentic customer approach, while Ben Bassat marvels at Keeper’s user loyalty: “Clients are in love with the company, with the product. It’s something you don’t see a lot.”

When both companies share the same standards for quality, the collaboration works better.

The Bigger Picture

The Keeper-Anchor integration is a model for how accounting technology should evolve. When specialized companies listen to their customers and collaborate instead of competing, they create something more powerful than bloated platforms trying to do everything poorly.

The overwhelming user response—support teams flooded with excited customers wanting immediate access—shows that accountants recognize good tools that work together seamlessly. You don’t need another platform that does everything adequately. You need best-in-class solutions that communicate perfectly.

As these founders envision a future with universal bank APIs and seamless connectivity between all accounting apps, they’re describing an ecosystem where your software works as hard as you do. Where signing a proposal automatically sets up workflows, amendments in one system update tasks in another, and tools anticipate needs instead of creating more work.

When software companies prioritize partnership over competition and specialization over generalization, everyone wins. Your clients get better service. Your team gets better tools. And you get back to what you do best: serving clients instead of wrestling with software.

Want to hear the full conversation? Listen to this episode to discover how customer feedback drove this integration, what’s coming next, and why the future of accounting technology is specialized, connected, and customer-driven.

QuickBooks Updates: Tap to Pay, Third-Party Integrations, and Training Opportunities for Accounting Pros

Earmark Team · April 23, 2025 ·

In the latest episode of The Unofficial QuickBooks Accountants Podcast, hosts Alicia Katz Pollock and Matthew “Spot” Fulton break down the most important QuickBooks announcements from Intuit’s March “In the Know” webinar.

Here’s what’s new, from streamlined payment processing to expanded integrations and professional development opportunities.

Upcoming Training Opportunities for ProAdvisors

Here are several important training opportunities that ProAdvisors should mark on their calendars:

Level Two Certification Virtual Conference (March 25-27) – This training offers 9.5 CPE credits and prepares you for the advanced certification that many firms now require. Alicia emphasized, “Level one is like what buttons do you push… Level two is really leveraging the resources, some of the more advanced features, being able to think creatively about how to use the features to solve problems.”

MailChimp Training – Two new trainings are available in the ProAdvisor certification portal: “Getting Started with MailChimp” and a “MailChimp Product Guide” for client conversations. These trainings help ProAdvisors understand how MailChimp (now owned by Intuit) can be used for targeted client communications.

Recertification Window (April 28 – June 30) – The hosts emphasized the importance of recertifying early. “If you certify much earlier, your chances are probably better than later to get that prize,” mentioned Matthew, referring to the weekly $250 gift card drawings for those who pass the test. Remember that ProAdvisor certification tests are open-book!

Construction Industry Training (May 8) – For those interested in the construction niche, Intuit is offering specialized training covering “the modern construction landscape, mapping the construction workflow, connecting field and office, and key technology solutions.”

Tap to Pay on iPhone Eliminates Hardware Requirements

One of the most exciting announcements is the new Tap to Pay feature for iPhone, available in both the QuickBooks Mobile and Go Payment apps. This eliminates the need for the $50-100 Bluetooth card readers that many users didn’t even know existed.

“This is huge,” Alicia explained. “Now all you have to do is pull up the GoPayment, pull up the sale, and all the person has to do is either tap their phone to your iPhone or tap their credit card to your iPhone, and it automatically pays.”

The financial benefits extend beyond hardware savings. Transactions processed through Tap to Pay cost just 2.5% compared to 3.4% for manually keyed entries. ProAdvisors can secure even lower rates for their clients through preferred pricing.

However, both hosts emphasized that the real value isn’t in the processing rates but in the automated reconciliation. “If your focus is on the rates versus the efficiency, then you’re actually paying attention to the wrong thing,” Alicia noted. “QuickBooks Payments has huge ROI because when you run the payment through it, it recognizes it, it pays the invoice, it puts it in undeposited funds, it batches the payments and it matches to your bank feed.”

This feature is currently available in the US, with Canada expected to follow later.

Third-Party Payment Integrations Expand

QuickBooks Payments is significantly expanding its third-party integrations, allowing more applications to use it as a payment processor. The growing list includes PandaDoc, ChargeOver, Notify, ServiceM8, Buildertrend, Lightspeed, Salesforce, BigCommerce, and many others.

“Basically, what happens is you go into the settings on these apps for the payment processor, and it’s going to now give you a choice,” Alicia explained. “So instead of just going to Stripe, you will now actually have choices… and QuickBooks will be on the list.”

A major advantage for bookkeepers is how QuickBooks Payments handles processing fees. Unlike other processors that deduct fees from each transaction, QuickBooks extracts fees as separate transactions. “When you see the money in the bank, you’re seeing the full payment on your invoices and they’re all batched at their totals, which makes it much easier for you to batch and reconcile,” Alicia noted.

Intuit is also exploring options to allow merchants to pass processing fees to customers—a feature many professionals have requested.

ProConnect Tax Planning Tools Enhanced

For accounting professionals who handle taxes, ProConnect Tax now offers enhanced integration with QuickBooks. The system allows you to toggle different tax strategies on and off to see how they affect clients’ estimated taxes and tax projections.

“They’re trying to create an environment where it’s more intertwined and you can start to be planning for quarterly estimate payments, better projections, that type of stuff,” Matthew explained.

Users can create multiple “what if” accounts to compare different tax scenarios, view federal and state tax implications, and even print estimated tax payment vouchers. The integration also incorporates Intuit Assist’s AI-powered insights to identify opportunities you might otherwise miss.

QuickBooks Live Expert Service Evolving

QuickBooks Live, Intuit’s $50 support service that allows clients to get simple questions answered, is being refined based on customer feedback. Initially seen as potential competition, many ProAdvisors now view it as a valuable addition to their service offerings.

“I actually now see it as a huge value-added service,” Alicia shared. “I have some of my high maintenance clients calling into it instead [of me].”

The service has important limitations that protect the ProAdvisor relationship: “They’re only answering the question that’s asked. They can’t contribute more information… they can only answer what has been requested of them.”

Intuit is now testing enhancements, including priority queue access and weekend support hours, which could prove valuable during crunch times.

Making the Most of These Updates in Your Practice

These March updates reflect Intuit’s commitment to creating tools that help accounting professionals deliver more value with less effort. For those looking to leverage these innovations effectively:

Focus on efficiency over processing rates when evaluating payment solutions
Consider introducing clients to QuickBooks Live for basic support questions
Pursue Level Two certification to enhance your problem-solving capabilities
Explore specialized training in high-demand niches like construction
Complete recertification early to maximize learning and incentive opportunities

The real value accounting professionals provide goes far beyond basic bookkeeping. These QuickBooks enhancements free up time to focus on the advisory work that truly transforms client businesses.

For more detailed insights on these updates and implementation strategies for your practice, listen to the full episode of The Unofficial QuickBooks Accountants Podcast.

Mastering Intuit Account Management: Essential Security for QuickBooks Professionals

Earmark Team · April 8, 2025 ·

Imagine waking up one day and discovering that you can’t access any of your QuickBooks clients’ data. That’s exactly what happened to one bookkeeper who found themselves locked out of their QuickBooks Online account, with no quick fix in sight. Suddenly, they were left in a lurch and unable to help their clients—a true nightmare scenario!

In a recent episode of The Unofficial QuickBooks Accountants Podcast, hosts Alicia Katz Pollock and Dan DeLong dove into the important but often overlooked topic of Intuit account management. This article breaks down the key takeaways from their discussion, equipping you with tips on how to:

secure your QuickBooks account,
set up reliable backup access methods, and
manage client relationships effectively using Intuit’s management portals.

Exploring accounts.intuit.com: Your Personal Command Center

Many accounting professionals use QuickBooks every day, but not everyone takes the time to explore the powerful management tools that are often overlooked. One of these gems is accounts.intuit.com, which acts like your personal command center within the Intuit ecosystem.

When you navigate to accounts.intuit.com (using the same credentials you use for QuickBooks Online), you’ll find a comprehensive dashboard that organizes your entire Intuit footprint. It’s a centralized hub where you can manage everything from security settings to document access.

The Sign-in and Security section represents your first line of defense against unauthorized access. Here, you can:

Update your user ID
Change your email address
Modify your password
Enable two-step verification (critical for security)
Set up authenticator apps
Use biometric security (fingerprints, facial recognition)
Monitor account activity across all devices

As Dan emphasized in the podcast, “Turn on your 2-Factor Authentication. Do it. Especially for accountants and ProAdvisors in the accounting community, your login is potentially connected to a lot of sensitive information—social security numbers, credit card information, EINs, a lot of personally identifiable information is there.”

The Activity Log displays every login attempt and includes details about the device, location, browser, and timestamp used, making it easy to spot any unauthorized access.

The Business Profile section shows a complete history of every QuickBooks client you’ve ever worked with.

For those concerned about privacy, the Data and Privacy section allows you to download your personal data, delete information if desired, and correct any errors in your profile.

The Products and Billing section displays all QuickBooks packages and services you subscribe to—including Online, Payments, Payroll, and more. What makes this view powerful is that it consolidates information from across multiple QuickBooks Online Accountant (QBOA) logins.

The Documents section provides access to attachments across all your client files. Rather than logging into individual client accounts to retrieve documents, you can access, download, and add new files directly through this centralized hub.

Leveraging camps.intuit.com for Product-Based Management

While accounts.intuit.com organizes your Intuit ecosystem from a user perspective, camps.intuit.com (Customer Account Management Portal System) provides a different view—one organized by product rather than by user profile. This portal serves as the external-facing view of Intuit’s customer relationship management system.

When you log into camps.intuit.com, you’ll see tabs organizing your Intuit ecosystem by product type: QuickBooks Desktop, QuickBooks Online for Accountants, QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Payments, and Intuit Online Payroll. This organization makes CAMPS valuable when you need information about specific services rather than specific clients.

For QuickBooks Desktop users, CAMPS reveals all versions you’ve used over time, including those purchased for clients. “I see all of the different QuickBooks desktop accounts that I’ve had,” Alicia notes during her exploration of the portal.

Creating a Backup Access Method: Your Emergency Entry Point

Understanding these portals is important, but equally crucial is ensuring you always have access to your clients’ data. During the podcast, Alicia shared a concerning story about a bookkeeper who completely lost access to QuickBooks Online.

“I was on a call with Roundtable Labs, and Alexis Sadler was telling us a story about how one of her bookkeepers lost complete access to their QBO. They would go to log in to QBO, and it was just flat out not working. And they were completely locked out. My blood ran cold because it was like, well, shoot, if I get locked out, I literally can’t do my job.”

The solution? Create a backup access method that functions as your emergency entrance when the front door is locked. Alicia recommends: “Go add yourself as a different email address to your teams inside QBO. So when you’re in your QuickBooks Online for Accountants and you look on the left-hand side, it says team. Add yourself as a team member, give yourself full access to your books.”

This simple step ensures that even if your primary login becomes locked, you still have a way to access your clients’ data and continue providing services without interruption.

Understanding the Primary Admin Role: Who Should Control the Account?

Equally important is understanding the Primary Admin role—the person with ultimate control over a QuickBooks account. When creating a new QuickBooks file for a client, should you designate yourself or your client as the Primary Admin?

Alicia takes a clear position: “Your primary admin is the person who is responsible for the account… some bookkeeping firms will say, well, I’m the one who’s doing all the work, I’m the one paying for the subscription. Therefore I am the primary admin. But really, Intuit’s platform is that the primary admin should be the business owner, even if they’re not the main user.”

Alicia continues, “You’re the person who’s creating the data, but you don’t own the file. They own the file.”

Dan explains the technical reality: “The Intuit definition of who the primary admin is, is, in reality, the first person to touch that service.” This means whoever initially set up the QuickBooks account automatically becomes the Primary Admin unless changed.

There are limited exceptions to this best practice. Alicia notes: “I do have one exception to my rule about the business owner being the primary admin. And that’s if they’re working with QuickBooks Commerce, because QuickBooks Commerce integrations can only be set up by the primary admin.”

When client relationships end, the question of Primary Admin status becomes especially sensitive. Some accounting professionals resist transferring Primary Admin status, believing they “own” the file they’ve built. Alicia says, “Don’t be that person. That’s petty. You’re burning bridges. It’s the client’s data. They paid for it. They didn’t just pay for the service. They paid for the results. And the results are the data.”

Dan reinforces this point: “Intuit will side on the business owners side… provided they provide the legal documents that are necessary. So it is a losing battle when it comes to that.”

Only the Primary Admin can transfer this status to another user. If the original Primary Admin is unavailable, Intuit has a legal process requiring proof of business ownership—but this takes time (typically 7-10 business days) and requires documentation.

Master Your Intuit Ecosystem Today

Navigating Intuit’s account management options goes beyond the QuickBooks interface, offering essential tools for security and data management that many accounting professionals overlook. By visiting accounts.intuit.com and camps.intuit.com, you can manage your entire Intuit footprint and implement important security measures to safeguard your clients’ data.

Take some time to log into accounts.intuit.com and camps.intuit.com. Set up two-factor authentication, create backup access, and make sure each client’s Primary Admin status aligns with your relationship. These simple steps can help you avoid stress and business disruptions down the line.

For a deeper dive into these topics and more QuickBooks insights, listen to the full episode of The Unofficial QuickBooks Accountants Podcast.

Hidden QuickBooks Updates in March 2025 That Will Change Your Accounting Workflow

Earmark Team · March 27, 2025 ·

Keeping up with the changes in QuickBooks can feel like a full-time job. Thankfully, Alicia Katz Pollock and Margie Remmers-Davis are here to help you out!

In this episode of The Unofficial QuickBooks Accountants Podcast, they dive into what they’ve discovered in March 2025. They cover everything from minor tweaks to major updates that will change the way accounting professionals use QuickBooks.

“What Margie and I do is we have a Google Doc that every time we notice something is different, we go ahead and take a screenshot and drop it in the doc,” explains Alicia. This method helps them keep an eye on both official updates and those cool experimental features that might disappear before you know it.

Let’s dive into the most notable QuickBooks changes they uncovered this month.

Menu Improvements

Several interface enhancements make QuickBooks more user-friendly and efficient for daily tasks. One of the most notable improvements is the addition of a submenu for Reports in the left navigation bar.

“Every item that you hover over has a submenu that takes you to the tabs for that thing. For years, reports never had that dropdown,” Margie explained with obvious relief. “Thank heavens… hallelujah that they did this!”

The bookmarks feature has also been enhanced. Users can now edit bookmark names, which Alicia appreciates for fixing formatting issues: “When I bookmark the Reminders list, it always comes in in all caps, which triggers my OCD. I like being able to edit the bookmark and get it into regular case.” However, Margie expressed concern that custom bookmark names might create confusion during support situations.

For accountants working with clients considering Intuit Enterprise Suite, there’s now a quick link under the Accountant Tools briefcase labeled “Intuit Enterprise Suite referral.” This makes it easier to schedule meetings with Intuit sales representatives to evaluate if the suite is right for your clients.

Financial Tracking Enhancements

A much-missed feature has returned to fixed asset management. When creating a fixed asset, users can now check a box labeled “create a category to keep track of depreciation,” which automatically creates two subaccounts – one for the original value and one for depreciation.

“This lets you see the net book value for that one fixed asset on the chart of accounts,” Alicia explained. “For my small business owners who might just have a couple fixed assets, it’s really great.”

The split transactions interface has also received a significant upgrade. “It used to be a tiny little window. Now it fills up your screen,” noted Alicia. The redesigned interface allows users to split transactions between different chart of accounts categories and map to different product and service lines simultaneously.

For businesses using payroll, there’s a new section for employer tax expenses in the payroll settings. “Now you have the ability to create micro expense accounts for literally any one of your employer taxes,” Alicia shared. This feature is particularly valuable for larger companies that want detailed expense tracking without relying on external spreadsheets.

Perhaps most helpful is a new warning system in the banking feed that prevents duplicate revenue entries. When users attempt to categorize a deposit for a customer with open invoices, QuickBooks now displays a warning message: “This client has open invoices. If this deposit is for that invoice, record the payment and receive payment first.”

Payment Processing Innovations

GoPayment, QuickBooks’ mobile payment solution, now offers Tap to Pay for iPhone users. This eliminates the need for the $50 Bluetooth card reader previously required for accepting payments in the field.

“You can hold your phone in your hand, log into GoPayment, dial up an order, and then they can just tap their credit card or tap their phone to your phone,” Alicia explained. This feature is particularly valuable for businesses that take payments on the go.

For businesses concerned about merchant fees, there’s a clever workaround. “If you turn off your merchant services, your customer still can pay using merchant services, but they pay the fees,” Alicia explained. This option is found under the “Manage” and then “Payments” button on the right side of an invoice.

The Business Network is also enabling easier payment information sharing between QuickBooks users. “Find your business network settings and put in your ACH information. Then that will just make it easier on everybody and you’ll get paid faster,” suggested Alicia.

Important Account Limitations to Watch

Recent changes to the QuickBooks Checking deposit account agreement introduce several transaction limits that could impact business operations:

ATM withdrawals limited to 10 per day
Daily purchase and withdrawal limit of $10,000
Funding transaction limit of $5,000 per day
Limits on instant transfers: “Up to five instant transfer transactions per day and per week, and up to ten instant transfer transactions per month”
A new 3% foreign transaction fee

“I’m definitely checking in with them myself because I don’t know what this means for me,” Alicia noted, particularly concerned about the instant transfer limits. “Are they going to start charging me or are they going to just slow down everything after the first five for the week?”

For those concerned about these limitations, Alicia mentioned alternatives like Anchor (flat $5 per transaction) and Forwardly (free transfers), which Margie confirmed her company recently switched to with positive results.

QuickBooks Payroll is also changing how it handles tax payments. “They’re going to start withdrawing your taxes when you run your payroll. So you have to have your payroll and your taxes funding available in the checking account when you run payroll,” Alicia explained.

Glimpses of Future Developments

The hosts spotted several experimental features that briefly appeared before disappearing again, offering clues about future QuickBooks developments:

A column labeled “approval status” temporarily appeared in transaction lists, even in QuickBooks Online Plus accounts (typically an Advanced feature).

A dedicated column showing which rule applied to banking transactions briefly appeared in the banking feed.

For a moment, some users could create profit and loss reports with columns for custom fields, possibly related to the upcoming migration away from legacy tags.

Alicia also revealed she’s beta testing a completely redesigned banking feed experience expected to launch later this year. “I’ve been beta testing it and I like it,” she shared, noting that the upgraded split transactions interface seems to be a precursor to this larger overhaul.

Staying Current with QuickBooks Changes

These ongoing improvements and experiments show how crucial it is to stay updated with the latest QuickBooks changes. This way, you can better serve your clients and avoid surprises when logging into their QuickBooks accounts.

If you want to hear more about these updates and what’s on the horizon for QuickBooks, check out the full episode of The Unofficial QuickBooks Accountants Podcast.