QuickBooks 2010 Document Management
QuickBooks 2010 adds an integrated Document Management System to QuickBooks that is very simple to use. This article gives a brief overview of this new feature.
A Document Management System (DMS) is a program that is used to store documents and/or images of paper documents. This can be a very valuable tool for your business. If you have a customer PO that relates to an invoice, you want to be able to find that PO quickly. If you are creating estimates for clients and you are creating supporting documents, you need to be able to access those documents when working with the estimate. A DMS system will help you organize this information and, if it integrates with QuickBooks, let you associate the documents with transactions or other records in QuickBooks.
UPDATE: See my article on QuickBooks 2011 and Attached Documents - the feature that will REPLACE QuickBooks Document Management
Update 9/20/2011: Intuit is making MAJOR CHANGES to this feature starting in September 2011. See this article on the changes: http://www.sleeter.com/blog/2011/09/quickbooks-2012-document-management/
The QuickBooks Document Management feature is a subscription service that is available for a fee (a limited amount of storage is available for free). You must be connected to the Internet, as your documents are stored in the Intuit Workplace. This is an online application center that Intuit uses to provide “cloud” based features.
Once you have set up the service with your company file, attaching documents to transactions in QuickBooks is simple – look for the paper clip symbol or an “attach” button.
Attaching Documents to Transactions
In this sample I’ve created an invoice. Look for the paper clip symbol in the upper right corner of the transaction window (sometimes it is hidden off to the side).
When you click on this symbol QuickBooks will connect to the DMS program via the Internet, and open the attachment window.
You can use this window to attach a document to the transaction, delete an attached document, or even view the attached document.
There are three options for attaching a document:
- Local Files opens a file dialog so you can attach a file on your computer. Note that if you are using an unsupported scanner, you would save your scan as a file and attach it this way.
- Scanner will scan the document directly from your Twain compliant scanner.
- Online Document Inbox (which is discussed later) holds documents that you have added before they are associated with a transaction or list.
Note that on the bottom of the screen you are told how much storage space you are using, and how much you have available. The fee you pay is based on the amount of storage you use.
Once you have attached a document to the transaction Note that the paper clip is now green – this tells you that there is an attachment.
Attaching to Lists
Lists have an “attach” button. Note the addition of an “attach” column that tells you that there is an attachment You can also double click in that column to attach or view attachments
In some lists you can see the green icon that shows that there is an attachment. 
Managing Documents
You can manage your files via the Doc Center icon in the toolbar.
This opens the Document Management Center window, which allows you to locate and manage the documents that you have stored in your document database.
The Document Management Center provides you with a number of filters to refine the view. You can, for example select just invoices, or invoices for a particular customer
You have the ability to enter descriptive information for each document.
Using the “Inbox”
You can add documents to your document database directly, without going through QuickBooks. In the Document Management Center, click Add Document to Inbox.
Click on the Browse button to locate the file on your computer, and enter the descriptive information.
The document now shows in your “Inbox”. 
Later, in QuickBooks, when you click the Attach icon, you can use the online document inbox option as the source for the document.
Sharing Documents
An important feature of the program is the ability to share documents with other users without having to give them access to your entire set of documents. Select the document in the Document Management Center and select the “share” action. This opens a window that lets you enter an email address and a message – QuickBooks will send a link to the document.
The person gets an email from notify@workplace.intuit.com (so you have to make sure that they can receive messages from this address) that provides a link – click on it and you are given a standard “open or download” dialog from your browser. You can, if you wish, “un-share” the document.
Good Points
- Easy to use, works right from within QuickBooks and the integration seems to be very smooth.
- Online storage means that you can see your documents from any web connected computer, even if you don’t have access to your QuickBooks company file.
- The viewer in QuickBooks itself will open the document in “native” mode for viewing.
- The online document manager provides a variety of ways to locate a document easily.
- It is very easy to see that there is a document attached to the list or transaction.
Bad Points
- Not local database, so you are depending on Intuit for security and backups. For some people this may be a problem. For others, it isn’t. You have to decide if this fits your business model. Note that Intuit has a very secure online database system.
- If you stop paying for the service, you will lose access to your documents.
- You cannot create non-QuickBooks records, so you can’t attach documents to something not related to QuickBooks.
- No ability to add your own columns to define other kinds of information to track with the documents.
- The product does not integrate with Microsoft Office, unlike other products (like PaperSave Plus, which I review in this article). If you have an email in Outlook, for example, you have to print it as a PDF and then attach it separately.
- This is a new product, while others have been around longer. I’m always nervous about new releases of products from Intuit. I haven’t seen problems, I’m just cautious.
Pricing
I had to dig around a bit to find this, it wasn’t listed on the initial web pages or announcements of this service. I believe the costs to be:
- Free for up to 100 MB of storage.
- $4.95 a month for up to 500 MB of storage.
- $14.95 a month for up to 1 GB of storage.
- $29.95 for up to 5 GB of storage.
I can’t translate these into the number of documents you can store in the volumes provided.
Is It a Good Deal?
Certainly it is worth looking at if you need this kind of service. This is an example of one of the “cloud” based applications that Intuit will be pushing very strongly. It is the direction that they are going to push in the future for addon products.
My biggest concern is that you cannot download a copy of your documents to a local drive. I am hoping that they will add this as a feature in the future (it wasn’t available in the beta test version that I reviewed). SmartVault has this feature, and they charge a fee, so I expect that Intuit will add a similar feature in future releases (hey, it is another source of income, and they don’t pass things like that up very often). And PaperSave Plus stores all your documents locally.
If you want local storage, or don’t have reliable Internet connections, look at PaperSave Plus (reviewed here). If you need integration with Outlook, look at PaperSave Plus or even SmartVault (more limited than PaperSave Plus in this regard, but better than Intuit), which I review here.
At this time the Intuit product has a lower per-month fee than SmartVault, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that company changes its pricing structure.
Category: Program Updates, QB 2010
About the Author (Author Profile)
Charlie Russell is the founder of CCRSoftware. He’s been involved with the small business software industry since the mid 70′s, focusing on inventory and accounting software for small businesses. Charlie is a Certified Advanced QuickBooks ProAdvisor. Look for Charlie’s articles in the QuickBooks and Beyond blog, as well as his California Wildflower Hikes blog.
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- Tweets that mention QuickBooks 2010 Document Management : Practical QuickBooks -- Topsy.com | October 1, 2009
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So, if I have 10 client (10 company files). I will get 100mb free for each client totaling 1 gb free space? Thanks.
David, that is my understanding, BUT keep in mind that those are separate stores of information – not a combined 1gb. And, please note, that you really should check with Intuit on this to confirm.
I have a client that prepares manual invoices for his customers. I understand that I can scan those invoices into document manager – but will it post them to customer accounts in Quickbooks? Do the customers and all the invoice items need to be set up in advance on Quickbooks? Thanks so much for your help!
Mirella, think of this as an electronic file cabinet. It is just a way to store a document in association with records in QuickBooks. It won’t “post” anything, it just attaches the document to a record. You would still add the customer, create the items, create the invoice in QuickBooks just like you do now.
Charlie,
Thank you so much. The “foreign-speaking” people at Quickbooks told me it would post everything and I didn’t need to set up the customers, items, etc. I had a feeling that would be too good to be true. You were a tremendous help. You should be on their payroll! Thanks again.
Mirella
No way am I spending the labor hours to scan documents into a cloud, pay per client and then have my data held hostage.
I have a bookeeping department that handles multiple clients. Many are non-profits and the federal grants state that we are responsible for securing the data. I can’t take the files with me when we evacuate for a hurricane! We tried InFile at first, when this concept first came about. It immediately bogged down and was unusable. We then purchased Sourcelink by Personables. WONDERFUL. They continue to improve it and support is stellar. We bought a version for each workstation and do not pay per client. We retain the data on our server. Best yet, if the CPA auditor has a copy, we can send them the QB data file AND all the backup documents. I love this.
Sara, that is why it is nice that there are options. QuickBooks has a programming interface that lets third party developers create programs, so you don’t have to pick just the Intuit option. Unfortunately there are a lot of limitations to that interface that make some kinds of tasks complicated. And they seem to be heading away from the desktop programming interface, pushing hard on just the web based interface like used in the document management system.
Your review was very helpful. I do have one question, though. If I have attachments on an invoice, can I email the invoice to a client with all of the attachments included in the e-mail? I am guessing at best the client would get a link to the attachments, but I would much prefer supporting documents to be attached directly to the e-mail.
Thanks!
- Doug
Doug, that isn’t an option at this time as far as I can see – and it doesn’t fit in the original framework of what they wanted to do, I think. Make a suggestion to Intuit, see if they implement it someday
I sure wish I had read some of these reviews before buying QB 2010, I upgraded based on the claim that files could be attached, no where did I see any reference to online storage. I always believed that their “sunset policy” was nothing more than a greed based way to extract more money from its customers who wished to use online banking or turbo tax, but this takes the cake, offering a new feature tha is very limited before they put their hand back in your pocket.
Terry, you may want to ready my reviews of PaperSave Plus, it is an alternative.
I don’t have a problem with the sunset policy – it is very difficult to maintain a particular version of a product for multiple years. However, I think that should be tied in with a means of getting updated copies at a better discount than what they offer now.
The “App” approach of charging a monthly fee for a service that is provided seems to be the way things are going these days, so I can’t find too much fault there. If there was stronger competition with their product then maybe it would be something that they would add as a feature, rather than as an added service. And charging an ongoing fee for something that requires online storage isn’t that unreasonable – they need to pay to maintain that storage, so you should pay to use it. My problem is twofold – that they don’t have adequate ways for you to make backups, AND that the advertising is a bit misleading – it should be clear that you need to pay for the service (the free amount of storage seems to be a bit small).
yes, you definitely will. I just got off the phone with them and they’re terrible, gave me the wrong answers to my question (Is DMS possible without using their servers?) and just aggravated me on the whole. Thankfully I found this forum. Unfortunately, it gave me the answer i was dreading. I have no use for online storage, it’s why i’ve built a network in my office. Not to mention the costs are ridiculous when compared to other web-based storage (google gives you 2 gigs for free!)
Is Document management something I really want? Absolutely. Is it something I will be forgoing until they get over the “cloud” buzz-word and let me host my own files on my own server, Absolutely. And i’m extremely disappointed by that because it’s something that would benefit my business greatly. Oh well. There’s always 2011 for them to finally get it right. Or i could use papersaveplus. I just wish there was a free trial i could use before jumping in with both feet.
John, unless there is a massive change in their corporate philosophy, I doubt that you will see them move away from cloud based apps. They are betting heavily on this.
Regarding PaperSave Plus – they have a 30 day money back guarantee, and they are good about that. I originally purchased the product (to do my review) and when done I asked for a refund, and got it without any hassle. I’m not currently using a DMS product but will be heading that way again later this year.
I WAS TOLD BY INTUIT’S PRESIDENTIAL OFFICE (520-901-3280) THAT IF ENOUGH PEOPLE CALL IN THAT IS THE ONLY WAY THEY WILL CONSIDER OFFERING AN OFFLINE OPTION OF DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT. HEY, THE GAVE THE OPTION IN QUICKEN 2007 AND PEACHTREE HAS OFFERED OFFLINE DOC MANAGEMENT SINCE THEIR 2007 VERSION.
EVERYONE…CALL THE PRESIDENTIAL OFFICE NOW AND VOICE YOUR DISSATISFACTION.
I called INTUIT’S PRESIDENTIAL OFFICE (520-901-3280) and shared my dissatisfaction with their online (cloud) version of document storage with no offline (local) version available – like Intuit Quicken offers. This service is not worth paying for when local hard drive space is so readily available. I told them the online storage should be an option for those without the local hard drive capacity – if anyone in that category still exists.
Thanks for the informative article. I am wondering if anyone knows if there is any way to integrate or somehow use the DMS feature with Google Apps? We are a small business that already pays for a Premier Google Apps account and having to pay for another site for document storage just isn’t what I want to do. I like the idea of Intuit’s DMS that allows others in the company to see the receipts/invoices that are linked in QB. Plus, like others here am a little concerned about not having any backup.
Tricia, I don’t know of any way to easily integrate thie with Google Apps
NO…NO…NO
Isn’t forcing us every other year to upgrade, enough to make money? The DMS feature is great but should be offered with an option to store locally at no charge. I already backup my whole pc ( including QB file ) remotely and do not need one more service to backup my data. I do scan contracts which would be nice to attach them within QB, but there’s no way I’d use this service for reasons actually pointed above.
Intuit’s implementation of this feature is insulting to users. I am surprised there is not more of an uproar. A local storage option is necessary. If you want to charge me, charge me for software to implement the cloud storage on my own web/data server. An overpriced cloud service as the only option is an insult. We do a lot of work overseas and most of our invoices are paper scans from Asia. Scans are much larger than electronically generated PDFs. Especially for certain corespondence. 100k or even 1M files are not uncommon. For that reason, our storage requirements are much higher that can be acommodated at reasonable cost.
I had a client ask me today about the safety and security of the QuickBooks document management function (given the well-publizied security breaches these day). I contacted ProAdvisor support and they actually could not find any information about where the data is hosted, what the backup facility was, what backup procedures are in place, or any other information that would be standard for someone considering a “cloud” application. Obviously this makes me uncomfortable in recommending QuickBooks Document Management to anyone. Has anyone else ever seen a description of where this is hosted and what their security/backup protocols are? This may apply to all Intuit Workplace Apps if the hosting is at the same place.
Steve, a very reasonable question to ask. In fact, I’ve started asking some people at Intuit about this, we’ll see what I come up with. I will say that Intuit is very focused on this kind of thing, and given their involvement with TurboTax I’m sure that they have good policies in place. But, that is an assumption, and not always the best thing to do. We’ve seen some big companies, like Microsoft, stumble in the past year…
Charlie – An update to my post last October about PaperSave. The version I had did not allow me to attach documents to invoices I created. It only allowed attachments to vendor invoices. It looks like the version you tested added this ability and it is listed on their website. As for my experience getting a refund, it shouldn’t make any difference whether I contacted them by phone or email. They handled it very poorly, plain and simple. If you get the chance, check out Sourcelink – it really is an excellent program, and as I mentioned before, the customer service is top notch.
Katherine, I’ve talked to a number of people who had used the older version and weren’t satisifed with the program, and also who had complaints about customer service and refunds. When I ran my test, I used the newer version (as you noted) which performed much better, and that had more features. I had no problem getting technical support AND I had no problem getting a full refund. I’ve talked to their President on occasion since that time, and he is very concerned about customer service and refund issues. In talking to other users since that time, in general it seems that the company realized that they had a problem in the past and has made efforts to improve support and customer service. While there was no excuse for any problems you had when you dealt with them, overall I’d say that the company has realized the problems and has implemented new policies to resolve the issues. At least that is my experience.
There are a number of alternatives for document management, and everyone should find the one that works best for their situation. We are fortunate to have a variety of programs available.
Hi Charlie, I am in the process of evaluating this new feature. We are on Enterprise 10. Some of the work required seems redundant since we receice numerous documents in PDF format through email and efax. It looks like we have to save the document locally then attach to a QB file. Is there a way to send the document directly to the online document inbox without saving it first?
With the scanning feature where do you scan to. We use diffent scanners but I was trying to find a file within QB to send the documents to.
Any tips would be appreciated. Thanks.
Kathy
Kathy, I believe that the latest version of Document Management (being renamed to “Attached Documents”) allows you to save Outlook emails, so you can possibly use that feature if the documents are coming through Outlook. But that might not work as well as you would like. Other than that, yes, with Intuit’s system, you would have to save the documents locally first, then attach them. For scanning – select a standard folder and always use the same location so that you know where to find things when attaching.
As a PaperSave user for 5 years, I would not recommend it. It is slow, difficult to understand, expensive for what you receive, has horrible tech support and crashes often.
When the QuickBooks portable file or an accountants copy is sent to the CPA for audit or taxes will the be able to click on “attach” and view the document?
Linda, it depends on a number of circumstances. You asked this in the discussion on the 2010 product, but note that there are differences between this feature in the 2010, 2011 and 2012 products (I’ll have my review of the BIG changes in this product for 2012 in an article in my other blog at http://www.sleeter.com/blog/ on September 19th).
If you use the feature that lets you store the documents on the local computer (in 2011 and 2012) then you will NOT be able to see the documents if you get a portable company file or accountant’s copy. The documents aren’t accessible anywhere but on the client’s system.
If you use the feature that lets you store the documents in the cloud, I believe that the QBM will work for you, BUT the client has to give you THEIR online login credentials to their account. Sometimes people don’t do that.
For the Accountant’s Copy, I have to admit that I’m not sure. I haven’t looked at that, and it is a very, very good question. I believe that if you store the documents in the cloud you SHOULD be able to see the attachments, if you have the login credentials, but I’m not certain.
And, all this is going to change in the future. If you want to work with a client file and attached documents, I highly recommend going to SmartVault instead.