While we gain new features with the release of many new product versions, we also sometimes lose features that Intuit determines have either lost significant user acceptance or represent upgrade complexities. For 2022 you can say goodbye to the following features that were not brought over:
- Loan Manager
- Cash Flow Projector
- Scan Manager
Loan Manager
QuickBooks Loan Manager helped users calculate loan interest and payment schedules. Therefore, I have a hard time understanding why the Loan Manager would be dropped from the product.
I am aware that a lot of my ProAdvisor colleagues never taught the importance of this tool. I am probably remiss for not covering it better within Insightful Accountant. I think I have only addressed it regarding problems it might have had from time to time or other QuickBooks problems related to it… like having to move the file manually when you moved your Company file from one computer to another.
The Loan Manager created an amortization schedule for the duration of your loans and showed what portion of each of your loan payments applied to interest, principal, and escrow. It also lets you make a payment for the regularly scheduled amount due or additional payments that would pay down your loan correctly so that the correct values are reflected in your financial statements.
I understand not having a tool like this in QBO, but I don’t know why it would be dropped in the Desktop version. Instead, we get instruction to go to the Intuit help document for ‘Manually track loans in QuickBooks Desktop.’ While every accountant and bookkeeper certainly knows this process, the same can’t be said for every person using QuickBooks Desktop; that’s why Loan Manager was the tool of choice. It let the ProAdvisor, Bookkeeper, or Accountant set up the loan for the client, and then the loan would be kept correct month-by-month. Looks like there will be more 'bookkeeping' work ahead without Loan Manager in the mix!
I suspect that someone will build an App, which seems to answer everything these days. At least that’s the answer Intuit gives for the next one.
Cash Flow Projector
Back in 2013, I wrote about Cash Flow Projector, one of two tools that QuickBooks Desktop included for cash-flow forecasting. Unfortunately, the interactive Cash Flow Projector was a tool that not many QuickBooks users were even aware of at that time, nor even a lot of my colleagues. Perhaps the lack of awareness spawned the entire industry of ‘cash flow Apps’ that has been prolific over the past years since my article.
Cash Flow Projector required learning and a lot of work to get it right. It wasn’t a perfect tool, but it was a good tool, and it was essentially a free tool because it was included at no extra cost with QuickBooks Desktop. “No App to Purchase!” It made correct projections, gave you options, and allowed you to tinker with ‘what if’ so long as you understood the parameters.
I suspect that the complexities of this tool were its downfall. Too many people today want a ‘link to it App’ that does all the work for them. Attach it, and 15 milliseconds later, you have your numbers; you don’t really need to understand where they came from or how they got there; they are magical projections of the future just like “Mickey looking into the crystal ball in Fantasia1.”
Well, Intuit’s answer for those that ask the question after installing QuickBooks Desktop 2022 is, “Where is Cash Flow Projector?” Head over to the QuickBooks Desktop App Store.
Scan Manager
QuickBooks Scan Manager lets you easily scan receipts and documents and add them to your invoices, sales receipts, bills, and other transactions directly within QuickBooks Desktop after you have it set up. Although I must admit that I was never a fan of this feature, it always seemed to complicate multi-user functionality by delaying the time it took to save a transaction.
As of QuickBooks Desktop 2022, Scan Manager has been removed and replaced by the new Attach Documents feature. Of course, if you have been reading our articles on QuickBooks Desktop 2022, you know that Attach Documents is a feature based around the QuickBooks Desktop Mobile App, so that means if you are going to use that feature, you will need to capture your scans from the mobile device.
The Document Center still exists in QuickBooks Desktop 2022, accessible from Company > Documents > Document Center. So, you can still add documents to QuickBooks that you already have on your computer if you scanned them via your desktop or company-wide scanner or they were sent to you in an email. You just won’t be doing the scanning from inside QuickBooks. Also, know that the Mobile App portion of the Document Center is a separate tab from what you are accustomed to seeing.
You will find my article about the new Attach Documents feature in QuickBooks Desktop 2022 HERE.
So, as you put away your prior version of QuickBooks Desktop on the upgrade path to 2022, pause for a moment of silence for these three features that have been laid to rest. They gave us their best for the years they were with us. Some of us will have fond memories, and other QuickBooks users will wonder what we are even mourning over.
Footnotes:
1 - Fantasia is a 1940 Walt Disney Studio produced animated film staring Mickey Mouse as the Sorcerer's Apprentice, story by Joe Grant and Dick Huemer, produced by Walt Disney and Ben Sharpsteen.