Chat with an Expert Recap: Alex Ayers from QuickBooks Mobile Part 2

Continuing our recap of our recent conversation with Alex Ayers from QuickBooks Mobile.  For Part 1, please click here. 

Luren: Perfect. So, now that we understand exactly what we can do, could you give us an overview of how it works?  Now everyone's going to have to put on their visualization cap, and sort of imagine what this experience looks like, but could you sort of walk us through the spaces within QuickBooks mobile and what people can accomplish in those areas.

Alex:  Yes, my storytelling abilities are going to be put to the test.  So, when we drop our small business owners into our dashboard it's really cool.  I like a lot of the design, we've kind of modernized our design and you'll get a nice message up top and it'll say, 'Hey, welcome back Rose' and whatever your business name may be. 

Nested right under that you've got these quick actions and they're going to be tasks that we have data on as being the ones that are most used. And so you've got quick actions at the top, you can scroll through them. You can add an invoice, you can snap a receipt, you can create a customer on the spot or you can draw up an estimate.  Maybe we're not at that invoice point yet from a small business to customer conversation, but you've got tons of things that you can do and it will open up a new screen when you select it. You can pop your customer's info in. You can pop your transactions info in.

I really appreciate the quick actions because one thing we know as we develop these apps is that we're not always in the foxhole. We're not always in the line of business with you guys. And we understand that what's most important is that customer in the business experience and so we don't want to be a part of the problem.  

We don't want to be fumbling at the cash register with the Quickbooks app.   We like to have those quick actions available to help, and so those are served up at the top.  Beyond that, those actions are also accessible in your Main menu, we just serve up the ones that typically are used quick and in a jiffy.

Underneath that, there's a huge benefit that I haven't touched on yet. And that's connecting your bank accounts.  That helps us visualize the data on your behalf to help you understand what the next best move is for your business. So, with that, if you do have a bank account connected, we pull those transactions in. I use our app meant for my personal finances, and I don't know what I would do without it. So from a small business perspective, QuickBooks serves that purpose.  And as those transactions come through from your financial institution and the connection that we have with them, you'll have the opportunity within the app to quickly review them.  And I mean, when I say quickly, it's like if your small business transactions had Tinder so you can swipe left for a personal transaction,  swipe right for a business one.

You can confirm the transaction, or if you want to you can exclude it. There's a number of different scenarios that would kind of play a role here; maybe you use a business card and you didn't mean to use that card. But whatever it is, categorizing those transactions as they come in to the bank feeds, is another thing that's served up at the top of the dashboard.  And outside of that card, you have the other cards.  Do you have a receipt to review? Is there a mileage trip that you want to review? Those are also there too if there's any action needed on your side. 

If you keep scrolling down and again, I'm going to kind of stay away from the menu because there's a ton of things that we can do on the menu that are also available on the web version.  So, once we have the quick actions scrolled through, you see the To Do cards with your transactions, your receipts, your mileage trips.

Then we have some reporting and that's kind of where we want to help you understand from a more macro, like up-top level, grand scheme of things, how are we doing from a money in and money out perspective? What's the income look like for this given month? What do the expenses look like?  Is there anything that needs to be reviewed that may be affecting those numbers? That's all visualized in a graph, ad you can also view your profit and loss report right there as well.

As you keep scrolling down and you see a little bit of a cash flow graph that expands to a three-month span. And that's really helpful, especially as you have lots of transactions coming in, maybe lots of transactions going out, you can kind of see how that balances. I'm a big fan of bar graphs, but I'm a big nerd too, so maybe that's not as exciting, but it's certainly helpful to a number of businesses.

And then beyond that, you have another, section for your invoices. And a section for your expenses. And you can get a little more granular with your business and your understanding of how your business is doing from a health perspective financially.

You've also got Bill Pay in there, and then at the bottom of our dashboard, that's where you'll see your connected accounts. And so at the top, we talked about those transactions that you could review and unlock possible deductions in those transactions, but then at the bottom, you see where those transactions are coming in from, you can see if there's any attention needed for any of those accounts that you may have connected.

And so overall, like I said before, we're embracing that small business persona that's more of a Checker.  The dashboard really gives you cards to scroll through and check your business.  And what we would love to provide is kind of a lighthouse.  We want to be that lighthouse where you're like, 'Okay this graph may not make sense. Where in my transactions, where in my QuickBooks account do I need some attention?'

And just to be fully transparent? There may be a situation where you got to go to the web to iron some things out, and that's something that we're hoping in an ideal state where we won't have to necessarily go to the web.  But overall, embracing that Checker mentality and what our small businesses are doing on the go and how they can still be tethered to their small business is where the mobile app shines. There are lots of things that can be seen on the dashboard, lots of things that can be beneficial for a small business on the fly.

Luren:  So if you had to describe what it would look like for someone who spent a day away from the office, they've come back to the office and now they're ready to sync all of their items they've completed, and their tasks that they've done in the QuickBooks mobile app. What would that look like for them?  Does it happen automatically or do they have to do some of this stuff manually? What is the distinction between what can be done in the app and the QuickBooks program.

Alex: I think we talked about the bank transactions and that's totally a per small business owner decision. And so, if you do decide to link your bank accounts, that's going to provide a lot of insight simply from an integration standpoint of those bank accounts. But with that being said, if you don't, then there's going to be some manual transactions that you'll need to put in there.  

But also, it's totally fine if all you want to use the app for is generating invoices, you know what I mean? So either way, whether you're on the web or mobile, if you connect those accounts, they'll show up. And so that's something that away from the office, in your sleep, during dinner, that's something that we take care of with that integration and partnership with your financial institution.

Another cool thing is that more present on the web version - not so present on mobile - but you can start to see these things with rules and auto-categorization. And so that's another level of automation that we want to really lean into.  I have a problem where I go to Dunkin Donuts quite a bit through the week. I can't really expense that. But let's say I did want to expense that, then I could set up a rule within my Quickbooks that's attached to my bank account that is being drained for coffee every week.  And it can automatically categorize that Dunkin visit into a category that shows up on my Chart of Accounts and you know that my accountant will eventually be disappointed at the end of the month with me. And they're going to say, 'Hey, Alex, you know you spent too much money on coffee.'   

And so that's another level of automation where for every time that I get coffee since I do it, so often, I don't have to go in there and manually categorize it.  The program is going to go 'Oh, cool. You're having another coffee. We're going to categorize it the same way we did with your 52 other coffees this month.'

So that is also a level of automation that I think is really cool within the app and it's something that you can do and set up on mobile and get working for you as we strive to fit within your business model and not make it too hard on you to fit within our app. Beyond that, something that I like to pay a little bit more attention to is the mileage.  Sometimes the app may not understand fully when you want it to track or when you do not want to track it. And so a lot of the times when I want to test out our Mileage feature, or I want to maximize that tax deduction, what I would do is just kind of make sure before the trip that it is tracking.  And a lot of that stuff can be automated - for example, you can just have it always on for all of your trips. It's totally a preference.

The other cool thing that I like, let's take ourselves away from the office and we're out in the wild.  We met with a client yesterday in the office. They came to our office at all. And we discussed an estimate. Now I don't know how many of our small businesses here utilize estimates as a part of their business practice, but let's say we sat down, we talked about an estimate, we get our estimate pulled together.  It's not totally solid yet, it's still just in the estimate stage.

I send it over to my customer and I say here's the estimate, and hopefully it's okay with him, and once it is finalized, we're good.  The next day I'm in Cabo and I'm definitely not in the office and he goes, 'Hey, just talked to my other partner. I think we're ready to make this estimate an invoice.'  And that is totally something that you can go to your mobile app, and go to that estimate that we sent and just go cool, here's the estimate. And right on that estimate, when you pull it up within the mobile app there will be a blue little button and it'll say Convert to Invoice. Once you do that, you have a new invoice that looks a whole lot similar to the estimate that was discussed.

Now, you have the opportunity to change it in the invoice. If he says, hey, actually we want this or that - awesome, no problem. The estimate is now edited and the invoice will reflect the updated terms and then you hit Save. Hopefully, the instance of your customer that's attached to the invoice has their email already on the QuickBooks platform. That's something that you guys are going to have to collect and do. But once I convert it, that is something that I no longer need to go to the office for.  That is a business transaction. It's something that I'll have on my phone and it's something that with really just a click and then any editing needed and then another click - you just converted an estimate to an invoice, and you are now procuring payment. And with that invoice, you can it's a pay enabled invoice, that customer can now go in, pay your invoice, and you can still enjoy your cocktail in Cabo.

Luren: I think that's the perfect way to wrap it up. Everyone with a cocktail in Cabo.

Alex: Yeah. Thats what we want, for our small business owners, we want you guys to be so confident that you're running your business with a cocktail in Cabo.  We're not there yet, but we are working hard.  And with the sidecar experience we have with the mobile app, you can definitely spend some time on that online platform and leverage the mobile app to take care of those things, for sure.

Luren: Removing some of the tasks that become tedious after a while when you do them regularly when you do them over and over again, making some of these one-click features like that estimates to invoices. I cannot stress how beautiful that experience is when you're building an estimate and then converting it,

Alex: Right? And I've yet to successfully track a trip with my laptop. So I continue to use this mobile device.

Luren: I want to thank you for joining us today. Alex. This was a fabulous conversation, full of so much rich in-depth knowledge about our QuickBooks mobile app. Thank you to everyone who hung out with us today, and I hope you have a wonderful day.

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