QuickBooks 2021 - Maintenance Release 3 (R3)

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This is not the typical 'Release notes' kind of maintenance feature. It includes 'release notes', additional information not included in the release notes, and personal commentary all in one.

Early in September (2020) Intuit announced the release of their 2021 product line of QuickBooks Desktop (QBDT).  I think I wrote about 17 articles covering my various summaries and feature-by-feature reviews of the new, different and enhanced changes for the year. It's not unusual for there to be an early 'maintenance release' with a few bug fixes and one or two 'tweaks', but this year we have some additional enhancements and even a couple of new 'slip-stream' release features finding their way into the new year products first thing.

So this article isn't so much of just a 'release notes' update as it is a summary of the changes, improvements and fixes that were included in Maintenance Release 3 (R3) for QuickBooks Pro 2021, QuickBooks Premier 2021, QuickBooks Accountant 2021 and QuickBooks Enterprise v21.

Advanced Bank feeds (all QBDT 2021 versions)

R3 updates will include enhancements to further improve the capabilities introduced for 2021; for example, refreshing all accounts from a bank with a single click, customer:job assignment via rules, and more. 

 - Sync All accounts: Flexibility to sync/refresh all accounts for a bank in one go.

- Use Hotkeys and Shortcuts: QuickBooks Users can navigate through the bank feeds workflows easily with the following keyboard shortcuts.

  • Calendar shortcuts ( + , - , T, W, K, M, H, Y, R, Alt + down arrow ) - On transaction lists, and add details views.
  • Standard shortcuts ( Ctrl C, Ctrl V, Ctrl X, and Ctrl Z ) - All text boxes and type-able combo boxes
  • Add a new line ( Shift + L ) - on Add More Details/Match to existing screens.
  • Delete the last line ( Shift + R) - on Add More Details/Match to existing screens.
  • Batch actions ( Ctrl + Alt + B ) - Batch actions in transaction list and rules list
  • Create new rules ( Ctrl + Alt + R) on Rules list
  • Save and add to register ( Ctrl + S ) on all detail screens.
  • Cancel ( Esc ) - All windows

- Automated categorization using AI: QuickBooks will now assign an account to those transactions that are unrecognized, based on Artificial Intelligence.

 - Automate customer:Job assignment: You can now assign customer:job to your expenses from the transaction table.

  • You can also create money out rules with a customer:job assignment.
  • You now have the option to assign customer:job when you modify transactions in bulk. 
  • You will be able to mark customer:job assignment as “billable” from Edit > Preferences > Time and Expenses > Mark all expenses as billable

 - Add transaction details faster: Your transaction list entries for Accounts/Payee etc. will now take a single click to open the drop-down. 

- Save your column customizations: If you’ve customized the columns, they will be retained the next time you come to banking.

- Add rules for Both(Money in and Money out) - that way you could create a rule that’s applicable to both income/expenses.

- Add the remaining amount in your next split line: When you’re splitting a transaction across multiple customers or accounts, when you 'Add More Details' your remaining amount will be automatically inserted into the amount of the next line.

- Several Minor Issues fixed:

  • Rules will now support special characters (like &, $, etc. in your account names).
  • You can now sort by Date or Amount on the ‘Match to existing transactions’ window.
  • Both the filter and sort actions will now work together on the main transaction table.
  • Graphic glitches with transaction list filter resolved.
  • Performance and stability improvements have been made.

Receipt Management (Plus, ES and Accountant)

The following enhancements were made to Receipt Management:

 - Email: Users can now register an email ID for the company file. All the receipts sent to the registered email ID will be presented to the user which can be reviewed before adding to the register.

- Batch Actions: Users can now perform batch operations on uploaded receipts via Mobile/Desktop/Email, with batch actions.

  • Edit: Users now can select multiple receipts and edit Vendor, Account, Bank/Card, and Date of the receipt and delete multiple receipts in a single go.

- Vendor Name Match: The partial match of vendor name is supported now while finding the pending transactions.

- Custom Columns: Ability to customize the column in the For Review/Reviewed tab.

  • You can now customize the columns to only see the relevant details.

- Memo Field: The memo field will be stored now in the underlying transactions.

Scheduled Statements 

  • Users will now be able to send statements to customers who are dynamically added to the group after the group has already been sent statements.

Inventory Aging Reports (Enterprise Solutions Advanced Inventory - FIFO Only)

Even though QuickBooks Enterprise affords users with advanced inventory capabilities and functionalities, including  FIFO 'cost' methodology, it has not provided reporting that gave inventory-centric businesses critical information related to "how old 'in-stock' inventory was", or "how much money is stock in inventory and where the business should focus to minimize losses."

While accountants and sophisticated users have combined data from a variety of QuickBooks reports like the Inventory Valuation Summary and FIFO Cost Lot History by Item, along with other data to help them determine the aging of items, this required a great deal of Microsoft Excel experience, or the use of 3rd-party tools to produce true 'Inventory Aging' information.

With Release 3 there are two new 'Inventory Aging Reports' being introduced to provide inventory-centric businesses using the FIFO 'cost' methodology with information about the value of inventory items in stock, based on their aging (using the purchase/acquisition date) of each item.

These new reports are the, 'Inventory Aging Summary' report and the 'Inventory Aging Detail' report, Each report provides insights like age, acquisition value, quantity, and average days in stock of each inventory and assembly item. These reports should help these businesses decide which batch of a particular item should be sold first.

Note: These reports do not appear in the Inventory Report list of Enterprise Advanced Inventory users who have not activated the FIFO 'cost' methodology.

User Management         

Users can send a 'Request for Access' to the Admin of the Company File when opening the company file or by signing in to My Company on the Company Information screen.

When creating a new company file, the Admin must create or add an Intuit account to the file within 28 days and should no longer receive persistent messaging to do so.

Having an Intuit Account attached to the company file makes it easier to connect and maintain product features and services.

You can read more about this in a blog post just written by Laura Madeira for the QBO Blog, 'Intuit account - Why now for QuickBooks Desktop?'

Bug Fixes      

Yes, there are routine things to discuss also, and one of them is that we are told that the following bugs got resolved in R3:     

  • Fixed an issue that caused a crash when creating a Payment Receipt template.
  • Fixed an issue causing a crash while restoring a company file backup.
  • Fixed an issue that caused a crash when closing the company file after adding contacts in the Customer or Vendor center.
  • Fixed an issue where the number of attachments to an email were not shown correctly after an attachment was removed while using the 'Combine all forms to recipient in one email' option in the 'Send Forms' window.
  • Fixed an issue with Advanced Bank feeds where, if a user had M/D/YY as their system date format, the current date was getting used for recording the transaction.
  • Fixed an issue with Receipt Management where create new transactions used to fail if the bank account name included special characters.
  • Fixed an issue where date and amount columns were not getting sorted on the 'Match to Existing transactions' window.
  • Fixed an issue with Receipt Management where all the receipts are not listed in the dashboard if a large number of receipts (above 1000) are uploaded.

Should you update?

Some of you may actually just be getting your subscriptions to 2021 fulfilled now with R3, so you won't realize that this is an 'update at all' from the initial release versions.  Others may not have installed the released they downloaded, or may not have done much other than explore the 2021 version without converting their data.  For many they always await the R3 update before they every really 'try out' the software for the first time, and certainly before they convert any company files.

If you want to wait a week to ten days to see if anything odd is reported relative to R3, then by all means do so. If you proceed, please let us know if you find anything odd by posting your comments here.