QuickBooks Routines Automate Repetitive Tasks

We told you about QuickBooks Routines in the December edition of our QB Talks webinar on December 19th, but we know that attendance was low that day because the holidays were well underway for many people and you still had shopping to do or travel plans or cooking or who knows what. Well we wanted to give you a brief overview of this new QBO Labs feature because it's 'really cool.'

QuickBooks Routines gives you the ability to automate repetitive tasks, set up custom alerts for when something important happens, and more. Routines allows you to enable powerful custom workflows through a simple "If this happens…" "then do that" framework.

In order to use this feature you have to turn it on within the QuickBooks Labs options, Gear Icon > QuickBooks Labs

Once you are in the QuickBooks Labs window you need to scroll down to the very bottom where you will find Routines, to activate it select, Routines for QuickBooks > ON (toggle to the 'ON' position). You probably want to take time to watch the short video on how this feature works, it really is a good explanation of the process because it uses live animation and demonstration within the product following the same steps we use here, but ("seeing is believing" as opposed to 'snap shots').

Once you install routines you access the feature by, going to the Gear Icon > Tools > Manage Routines to get started with the starting line-up of curated routine templates.

Remember, this is a QuickBooks 'labs' feature, which means that it is still in development, so not everything you are seeing will be just as it may turn out to be in the final version, there could be more, or perhaps a little less. Chances are in this case, if those of us using this feature give them a lot of great feedback there will be 'more' and that means more routine templates in the Manage Routines page when it finally rolls into reality.

It's a little hard to see the details of the page above, so let's take a little closer look at the routines being offered. We have somewhat 'cartoonized' them for you so that you can better get an idea of what's being offered.  You can notify your customers about receipt of payments, you can send past due invoice notices, you can send notifications about upcoming bills, and you can also 'selectively' mark invoices as past due.  This is where you will also find the link to request new templates and to send feedback straight to the 'development team.'

You can customize any of these routine settings you choose to make use of based on you and your client’s preferences. For example, if you choose to mark an invoice's memo when overdue, you can choose to have that routinely occur only with certain customers or only if the invoices are for a certain amount or higher, etc. You can also choose which message you want displayed when.

Let's look at another example of how routines might work, in this case you need to send your customer notice of an overdue invoice. In fact, you already have a routine set-up for this.

But you need to tweak it for this customer, so you edit the routine a bit, that's no problem.

Now you are ready to send the email overdue invoice notification. It's just that, shall we say 'routine' with the new QBO 'routine' feature.

Once you have created and saved any of the available routines, then all of your routines will appear under 'Your routines' located immediately below the Routines templates on the Manage Routines page.

Liz and I are certain that you will want to try this new feature from QuickBooks Labs and let them know what you think by using the special built-in feedback that goes straight to the 'development team'.

You can directly influence where this new feature is going and what it will offer when it finally 'goes live' within QuickBooks Online, so give it a try.  We both want to say "way to go, QBO, this is a great new feature."