Intuit has just started the roll-out of Maintenance Release 6 (R6) Update for the 2021 QuickBooks Desktop product line. The changes, improvements and fixes elaborated below regard QuickBooks Pro 2021, QuickBooks Premier 2021, QuickBooks Accountant 2021 and QuickBooks Enterprise v21.0; however, the new feature specifically discussed is related to 'Plus' (subscription) versions of the software. Make certain to review the release notes carefully.
Be aware that each new update also includes all the changes from earlier updates. If you have automatic updates turned on, QuickBooks will download the updates for you and prompt you to install it. You can manually download the update from the Official Intuit QuickBooks Downloads and Updates Webpage (product/version specific). If you don't want this update automatically downloaded, NOW is the time to turn-off Auto Updates.
Release 6 (R6) - May 2021
What's Important in Release 6 (non-italics), Editor's commentary (in italics).
Vendor Bill Payment
Selected QuickBooks Plus customers may use QuickBooks Bill Pay, powered by Melio.
This is a new feature similar to the offering in QuickBooks Online, with this feature you will be able to send payments to your vendors, using your Debit Card, Credit Card or EFT, and will also have the capability to define how your vendor would receive the payment - via check or via an electronic transfer.
QuickBooks Bill Pay, powered by Melio gives you the ability to:
- Pay bills directly from QuickBooks while choosing how vendors receive payment.
- You can schedule vendor bill payments in advance of the due date.
- Bills are marked as paid automatically in QuickBooks to prevent duplicate payments.
- Payment methods include electronic transfers, credit and debit cards.
- Payment can be delivered as a bank deposit or paper check per your vendors' preference.
Insightful Accountant will have more about this feature in the very near future.
Bug Repair
Reporting
- Fixed an issue that prevented opening memorized reports created in QuickBooks 2018. Performing a Rebuild Data after updating to this release repairs memorized reports.
We have had numerous issues with 'memorized reports' in prior versions of QuickBooks in the past, typically they have required deletion in order to resolve the verify and rebuild from reporting those reports as errors. Perhaps this is an indication that Intuit is finally going to take the issue of memorized reports seriously and continue working on the problems that have plagued this functionality for many prior generations.
Should You Update?
The new feature is 'extremely noteworthy' in this release, but note that it is only for 'Plus' (subscription) users, so it won't even impact a lot of QuickBooks 2021 users. On the other hand, if you have been having issues with your QuickBooks Memorized reports not opening from 2018 versions after converting, then you may want to go ahead and update to R6. Otherwise, I don't see anything that won't wait for at least a week to give time to hear what others might experience if they go ahead and install it. In fact some of those noteworthy items might very well be good reason to wait to update, or perhaps not update at all, depending on your point-of-view.
If you aren't in a rush then hold off for a week to 10 days to see if anyone experience issues, so you may want to make certain that 'Auto-updates' have been turned-off inside QuickBooks until you are ready to proceed with this update.
If you do proceed with updating to R6, let us know if you experience issues by posting comments to this article.