QuickBooks Enterprise (v21) - Four Feature Enhancements

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On September 8, 2020, Intuit has released the QuickBooks 2021 Desktop product line-up including QuickBooks Enterprise v21. Insightful Accountant spent months evaluating various pre-release versions of these products for months and in communicating with various Intuit personnel, including product managers and developers, so we could help you learn about the new products once released.

This article is one in a series designed to provide you with more details about some of the 'enhancements' made to QuickBooks Enterprise v21 to features released in either QuickBooks Enterprise v20 or slip-streamed into v20 over the course of 2020-2021.  The following features are detailed in this article:

  • Enhanced Landed Costs
  • Alternate Vendor Reports
  • Batch Delete Sales Orders
  • Sales Price on Barcode Labels

Enhanced Landed Costs

The Landed Costs feature was first released in 2020 within QuickBooks Enterprise v20.  The Landed Costs feature automates the process of allowing users to add the costs of shipping, freight, tariffs, import duties, insurance, and other miscellaneous costs into their actual item costs to provide them greater visibility into true product costs.

The QuickBooks Enterprise Administrator must turn-on the Advanced Inventory Landed Cost preference before setting-up Landed Costs. From the QuickBooks Enterprise File menu, select Edit, then choose Preferences, now select Items & Inventory, then choose the Company Preferences tab, now click on Advanced Inventory Settings, and then select the Landed Cost tab.

When the Landed Costs tab opens, click the Setup landed cost account button, this will open the Setup Landed cost wizard. In QuickBooks Enterprise v20 (last year) Intuit really only gave you the option of using the default 'new' Other Current Assent Account called Landed Cost Account which would be created to hold your landed costs until they were allocated to your inventory items.

QuickBooks Enterprise v21 (for 2021) gives QuickBooks Enterprise Administrators more control and flexibility over how they calculate and share landed costs. They now can select either an Other Current Assets account-type for use by the Landed Cost feature (as was the 'default type' released within QuickBooks Enterprise v20) or they can select a Cost of Goods Sold account-type (new for 2021).

Remember, we are talking about a 'holding account' that posts the offsetting value of the landed costs which have already increased the value of the respective inventory items to which those costs have been posted. This has no effect upon how 'costs' will be posted at the time of sales of the inventory, since landed costs included in the inventory items will post to the same 'cost' account to which the inventory item posts.

As the Transaction Journal above reflects the landed cost option for 2021 varies only in how 'the accounting' is applied based upon the selection the QuickBooks Administrator makes. Only the accounts to which the respective debits and credits are posted changes if the Cost of Goods Sold account-type is selected over the prior Other Current Assets 'default' account-type (as can be seen in the Account Type column above). The remaining 'mechanics' of the feature are unchanged for 2021.

Feature Availability: At the time of initial release, the Advanced Inventory Landed Cost feature is scheduled only for QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise v21 Platinum and Diamond subscription customers. The Landed Cost feature was rolled-out first to the United States and then to Canada during 2020, this enhancement for 2021 is being released similarly.

Alternate Vendor Reports

Another feature released as part of QuickBooks Enterprise v20 was Alternate Vendors which significantly enhanced the ability of inventory-centric businesses to make better purchasing decisions and improve profitability by allowing users to associate up to four (4) Alternate Vendors with each of their items. The feature also allowed users to assign unique vendor part numbers, costs, and lead times to each Alternate Vendor for each item. This give QuickBooks Enterprise Advanced Inventory users far more choice in their buying decisions.

While the feature itself hasn't changed within QuickBooks Enterprise v21, some of the reporting has been improved because some users of the Alternate Vendor feature almost immediately indicated that they needed alternate vendor information to be included in various inventory reports in which it was missing. 

QuickBooks took this feedback to heart and set the product development team to work so that two additional reports (Inventory Stock Status by Item and Inventory Valuation Summary) were enhanced by giving users the option of including alternate vendors as an extra displayed column using the standard report customization method.

To include the Alternate Vendor column on one of the enhanced reports, click the Customize Report button, then on the Display tab, scroll to select the Alternate Vendor column. For both reports you will find 'Alternate Vendor' listed near (or at) the bottom of the list of columns you can include in your report display.

You can easily add Alternate Vendors to either the Inventory Stock Status by Item (example shown here),

or Inventory Valuation Summary (example shown below) reports for 2021. 

Feature Availability: At the time of initial release, these improved Alternate Vendor reports are scheduled only for QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise 21.0 Platinum and Diamond subscription customers. Alternate Vendors were rolled-out to both the United States and Canada during 2020, this enhancement for 2021 is being released similarly.

Batch Delete Sales Orders (Enterprise Accountant Version Only)

This enhancement Some found for the first time as part of the QuickBooks Enterprise v21 ‘new release’ was actually slipstream updated into QuickBooks Enterprise v20 R7 (May 2020) update for the QuickBooks Enterprise Accountant Only version. This feature allows (only) Accountant Users to void or delete unlinked Sales Orders in a fashion similar to the batch void/delete for invoices, bills, and checks.

To access Batch Delete/Void Delete from the Enterprise Accountant version, select Accountant from the QuickBooks Enterprise menu, then choose Batch Delete/Void Transactions.

Previously you could batch delete/void invoices, bills and checks. A variety of options are available for showing or filtering the transactions after you have selected the transaction type. The newest type of transaction for use with this feature is 'Sales Orders' and by default the 'Show linked transaction' checkbox will be checked. Linked transactions will be displayed in the bottom portion of the window (as can be seen in the example below).

There is definitely a learning curve to using this feature. For example, you can not delete Sales Orders that are linked to any other transaction.

In reality this feature is only good to delete Sales Orders that were generated for which no sale was actually ever made, and which which remain open. Rather than leave them open, or even close them, this tool allows the Accountant to 'Delete' them.

Even when deleting Sales Orders where the tool is totally applicable there are 'warnings' and 'precautions' built-in, including a backup before delete.

 As you can see, there is good reason this feature is found only in the Accountant Version of QuickBooks Enterprise… it is an extremely powerful tool that requires professional judgment during use. While it’s designed to give accountants better management over their clients’ files, and a more efficient way to batch delete sales orders, the data removed by this tool can not be undone.

Because some data impacted by use of this feature may still have unintended consequences, great care must be taken before batch deleting or voiding Sales Orders. Thank goodness there is that 'backup' built into the process so you can restore your file if you find out that those unintended consequences have corrupted your data.

Feature Availability: The Batch Delete/Void Sales Orders feature is only available within the U.S. versions of QuickBooks Enterprise Accountant v21 and QuickBooks Enterprise Accountant v20 (Maintenance R7) or newer products.

Sales Price on Barcode Labels

Last, but not least, we have the addition of 'sales price' to the Barcode label feature. This enhancement found in QuickBooks Enterprise v21 is the option of including the sales price of an item in addition to Item Name and Item Description on printed Barcode labels.

This just happens to be, in my opinion, the most simplistic of the enhancements this year, but it is one that many Enterprise Users have been asking for ever since Barcode labels were first released. A user selects the option of adding the sales price in the same manner as in selecting Item Description to be printed on the barcode label.  From the QuickBooks Enterprise menu bar select File, then choose Print Forms and then select Labels , then check the box next to Include item sales price (as shown below).

Including Sales Price on the Barcode label provides customers with greater pricing visibility for inventory items. It also eliminates the need of producing an additional 'price label' which many users have been required to do until now.

Feature Availability: At the time of initial release, the Barcode Price Labels feature is scheduled only for QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise v21 Platinum and Diamond subscription customers.

That concludes our look at the enhancements made to these four features within QuickBooks Enterprise v21.  For an overview of all of the new and improved features check out our summary at QuickBooks Enterprise v21.  You might also want to check out Insightful Accountant's summary of QuickBooks Desktop for 2021 along with other related features in the 'Related Links' at the bottom of this feature.

Editor's Acknowledgements

Special thanks go out to my good friend Laura Madeira who allowed me to cross-check my articles with advance copies of her features to make certain that we were consistent in providing accurate information regarding the 2021 release. Laura, and her co-author Karen Siewert, have written three separate articles this year covering different aspects of the QuickBooks 2021 release, please be certain to check them out at Intuit's Firm of the Future blog:

I also want to thank the following Intuit personnel for their dedication in providing information, numerous briefings, and responding to my questions, as well as in guiding the actual product developments within QuickBooks Desktop and this release: Rachna Arya, Nipun Bhatia, Aditya Dixit, Sowmya Murthy, Madhumita Tayade, Muthuraj Thangavel, Tulasi Vijay Kumar Thulluru, and Raman Verma. I also want to say thanks to Michelle Berg, Mindy King, and Shawn Sturgeon from Intuit for additional product briefings and information along with the various members of Intuit's Alpha & Beta Product Testing Teams for QuickBooks 2021.

Of course, there are entire teams, composed of hundreds of Intuit personnel behind all of these people that make the magic happen and we so often forget to say, thank you, to them, so to all involved, “Thank You for Another Great Product."

 Note: Some images used in this feature are displayed directly as provided by Intuit, others may have been modified from the source material Intuit provided.