My Favorite Newbies – QuickBooks 2018 Desktop

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“Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens. Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens. Brown paper packages tied up with strings. These are a few of my favorite things”1

Each year, I begin my favorite newbies article with the aforementioned excerpt from "My Favorite Things," which was composed for "The Sound of Music." The song emphasizes the simple things in life. And even though there are some sophisticated and fancy features for QuickBooks Enterprise Advanced Inventory users, I still like many of the little things this year on QuickBooks Desktop.

So, here are my favorite "newbies" and why they are my favorites:

Multi-monitor 'Sticky Pop-ups'

I hate having to track down a QuickBooks pop-up modal window that manages to hide anywhere but where it should be. With this year’s new Multi-monitor support, you may not get a lot more convenience than if you already had multiple monitors. But you do get what I refer to as "sticky pop-ups."  

When you elicit a feature in QuickBooks that generates a pop-up window requiring a response, it pops-up where it should be – on top of the window it is associated with.

One of the best examples I can use is the QuickBooks Backup function. Just the other day, I selected to back-up QuickBooks. Because I had previously opened QB across multiple monitors, and the last time I backed it up I had to drag the Create Backup window to the right-hand monitor, the Create Backup window didn’t remember where it should be. 

This time, I only had QB displaying on a single monitor, and yet the Create Backup window appeared in my right-hand monitor even though QB wasn’t open on that monitor. I’m sitting there waiting and waiting for the window, only to recognize it’s somewhere other than where it should be.

Well, the new multi-monitor support in 2018 QuickBooks Desktop puts an end to all of that "find me if you can" window nonsense. And that’s why Multi-monitor support is one of my favorite newbies.

Chart-of-Accounts Search

Just how is it that we have gone all these years without Chart-of-Accounts Search? Today, I was at a client's office and he asked, “Just where is that account you're talking about?”

For some odd reason, the guy had sorted his Chart-of-Accounts by balance, absolutely nothing was where it should be. I finally had to resort the list to find the account I was referring to. 

If we had been using QuickBooks 2018, I could have easily searched for the account I needed by entering the name (or a portion of the account number) in the new search box at the top of the list.

His frustration (and mine) at finding an account would have been so easily resolved. That’s why the Chart-of-Accounts Search is one of my favorite newbies.

Cash-Accrual On-report Toggle

The Cash-Accrual On-report Toggle may well be my favorite newbie in QuickBooks 2018 desktop. I'm one of these people who looks at a lot of reports on both a cash and accrual basis. Typically, I leave Summary Reports set to default to cash and, of course, by default QuickBooks displays detailed reports on an accrual basis. 

Yes, you're only saving the step of clicking the Customize Report button to be able to change the accounting basis. But the ability to just click back-and-forth, cash the accrual, accrual then cash, then back again, etc., right on the face of the report is super easy and super cool.  (“Super cool,” that’s an accounting term, don’t you know?)

Forget Me Not – Payroll Liability Reminder

Yes, I admit it, in my old age, I'm getting more and more forgetful. I need sticky-notes to remind me of this-and-that, pop-up alerts on my computer and alarms on my phone. 

So why wouldn’t I love the new Payroll Liability Reminder in QuickBooks 2018?

The fact that it starts reminding me seven days prior to a payroll liability coming due is "super cool." That way, I don’t forget and spend the money on something else. Uncle Sam tends to frown on that. 

Hey, when you're my age, you'll forget things, too. That’s why I'm betting the Payroll Liability Reminder is one of your favorite newbies, too.

QuickBooks 2018 Desktop Itself

Yes, my most favorite newbie is QuickBooks Desktop 2018 itself. I'm ecstatic we have a new year of the desktop product line for Windows – Pro, Premier, Accountant, Enterprise and Enterprise-Accountant. 

Thank goodness there was no, "Sorry folks, we got rid of Pro this year" announcement or “QuickBooks Desktop is now subscription based only.”

Last year (2017), QuickBooks for Mac lovers were greeted with the disappointing news – no more Mac version. The economics of the ‘Mac’ just no longer made sense.  

I know what I've heard the higher ups at Intuit say, and I know that Intuit has its head in the cloud with two million QuickBooks Online accounts generating as much as $50 each per month. With the continued growth in QBO, this could be the year in which total QBO revenues exceed total QB-desktop revenues, despite the much larger number of desktop product users. 

When that finally happens, what's the future of Desktop? Only time will tell.

While Desktop lovers continue to get a few new features, Intuit is devoting more and more resources to QBO. So, I for one am thrilled we have another year of QuickBooks (desktop).

Thank goodness.

1-"My Favorite Things"; Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The Sound of Music (1959), Composer Richard Rodgers and lyricist Oscar Hammerstein.

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