We’ve launched a set of new features to help you better manage and standardize the Chart of Accounts across your clients according to your own firm’s unique needs and preferences.
First, we’ve overhauled the
COA Templates
feature and added it to the client onboarding flow. Each time you create a brand-new QuickBooks company from QBOA or IAS, you’ll see an option at the very end to create, upload, or apply an existing Chart of Accounts template. If you choose to create or upload a spreadsheet, we’ve created a brand-new interface to help you easily turn that into a reusable template that will be saved in QBOA/IAS for future use. The new interface is loaded with features accountants care about, like easy batch select, subaccount insertion, and more. We’ve also added account locking, so you can set accounts to be locked by default in the template. Firms can create as many templates as they need (many firms like to have one template per industry) and then seamlessly apply those templates each time a new client is set up.When you set up a client with a Chart of Accounts Template, they only get the accounts you specify, plus a very small number of other accounts (Uncategorized Expense, etc.) But they will NOT get the large list of default accounts that otherwise come with a new QBO company.
We’ve also overhauled the
COA Import
feature. We know: this one needed some love. COA Import has been untouched for a long time. We rebuilt it from the ground up using the same new interface, and all the same new powerful tools and shortcuts, as COA Templates.Finally, we added a new
COA Export
feature. It's small but powerful, right next to the print button at the top of the Chart of Accounts. No more downloading from the Reports page: a single click of this button will instantly produce a file that is formatted exactly to meet the specifications of the new COA Templates and COA Import features, so any COA exported from one company can immediately be re-used for import or as a template with no modifications to the file.The new Export and Import features both support account locking as well.
Export & Import are ramping up across all QBO files now, while Templates is ramping up across all QBOA and IAS firms. Some access points update separately, so — for example — you may see the new Import experience on the Chart of Accounts page before you see it under the settings gear → import data menu. You should see all the features across all your clients in the coming days.
We look forward to hearing your feedback on these new features!
