What's New For QuickBooks' 2014 Small Business Products

Tax season is upon us, and most small businesses are in the process of preparing their taxes. If you’re a QuickBooks user, there are some changes to its Small Business products you’ll want to know about for 2014.In QuickBooks Pro and Premier, and the QuickBooks Online versions for small businesses, the main changes are email, interface, and bank feeds.Email: Email is one area where Intuit has received a fair amount of criticism, especially when it comes to support and integration. They’re hoping to fix that with some of these changes.According to Intuit, QuickBook’s manufacturer, the 2014 small business products now allow you to add multiple attachments, customize email templates to include customer or job information, and see prior email conversations. The Customer Center has a tab for sent email allowing you to see a history of emails you’ve sent to clients from QuickBooks. The 2014 version also allows you to send a customer payment receipt via email. Interface: Although it’s not as large an overhaul as in 2013, QuickBooks made a few changes. There’s a little more color on the navigation page now, and the left-hand navigation bar now allows users to customize the “view balances” tab. Other changes include the ability to cut and paste detail lines in transaction forms; an improved Search window; an improved Company Information window that is now called “My Company”; and integration of apps into the “My Company” window. Bank Feeds: Intuit says the improved bank feeds, a new online banking feature, will pull in all your banking transactions from multiple banks and accounts so you can view and categorize them for tax time. Reviews have also noted that this version provides more room to work in, and uses color to highlight different transactions and features.Users who purchased the early versions of QuickBooks’ 2014 small business products tended to have criticisms ranging from installment problems and long waits for support help to problems with the mailing service. By now the company has made several revisions to the products, however, which might have resolved some of those issues.