Quickbooks Accounting Software

When it comes to financial software, Intuit, makers of Quicken and Quickbooks, wrote the book and enjoys a leadership position in the marketplace. If you have a small business, you know there is alot of record-keeping involved, from payroll to expenses to taxes. Without adequate accounting, you can find yourself in a lot of problems quickly. Some people opt for the help of an outside accountant, sending them copies of bills and checks each month. Some people use a payroll service like ADP to handle taxes and paperwork associated with employees. But if you have a head for numbers, there is no reason you can't handle all of your business accounting with a software package like Quickbooks. Although there are some competitors out there, in our opinion, the best accounting software for small businesses is still Quickbooks.

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Other business accounting software programs include MS Money, Peachtree Accounting, MYOB Business Essentials, Cougar Mountain, Simply Accounting Pro, Small Business Manager. Prices for most range from $100-$300. Quickbooks is available for both Mac and Windows computers. Like Quicken, Quickbooks comes in several flavors. There is a basic Simple Start edition for $49, which allows one user at a time, lets you print checks, pay bills, and track expenses, do invoicing, accounts receivable, and sales tax. The Quickbooks Pro 2006 edition is $199, and allows up to 5 simultaneous users, while also handling payroll, direct deposit, and payroll taxes. They also offer an online version of Quickbooks so you can access and manage your accounting data from any computer, allowing you to work from multiple locations (your accountant can login as well). This is $19.95 per month. They also offer a Quickbooks Premiere Edition for $399 for a single user, $1399 for 5 users. However, if you are really a small business, will you have 5 accounting people working on your files? Probably not - so think about how many different users will really need access to your accounting info prior to purchasing. The premiere version really only adds inventory assemblies and business plans and forecasts - for many businesses, you may not need these extra features. Quickbooks also offers a special package focussed on retail sales, called Quickbooks Point of Sale. "Track inventory automatically as you ring up sales. See what's selling, when it's selling, what needs restocking, and more. Ring up sales faster. Scan bar codes or type a few keystrokes to add items accurately to sales receipts. Process credit and debit card transactions1 as you ring up sales. Provide great customer service. See each customer's purchase history as you ring up sales, and suggest additional purchases based on past preferences. Sell and redeem gift cards. Start fast and get help when you need it. Answer a few questions in the simple Setup Wizard, import your inventory, customer and vendor lists from Microsoft Excel4 or QuickBooks financial software, and you're ready to start ringing up sales. Save hours on bookkeeping." The multi-store version sells for approx. $1199.

Download Quickbooks

If you are looking to download Quickbooks for free, you may run into trouble. Like all software, Quickbooks is protected by copyright laws and copy-protection built into the software. Intuit does allow you to download Quickbooks at their secure website once you purchase it, meaning you can get it within a matter of minutes if you don't want to waste a trip to the office supply or software store. Personally, I like buying the retail version of all software, since it is easier to move it to a new computer, keep track of documents, CD, and serial numbers and such. Quickbooks 2006 is the current version, with annual updates meaning Quickbooks 2007 will be next years version. For most people, there is no compelling reason to upgrade the software each year unless you are an Intuit shareholded and want to pad their income statement with your hard-earned dollars. In general, if you are happy with the version of Quickbooks you are using, you will not need to purchase an upgraded version for at least 3-4 years. I know people who are using versions more than 6 years old. The only problem is that Intuit sometimes retires old versions and no longer offers support for them, sometimes requiring an upgrade if you are installing or transferring data to a new computer and need technical assistance.

Quickbooks Features - Quickbook Tips

What is Quickbooks? What does Quickbooks do? Quickbooks is designed to handle all the accounting needs for a small business. You enter your customer, supplier, and inventory information once, and from then one paying bills, invoicing customers, processing payments, and tracking inventory is a breeze. Everything is automatically connected in terms of accounting, so creating an invoice for a customer creates an automatic entry in your accounts receivable account, while receiving a payment reduces your accounts receivable and increases your checking account balance. All the double-entry accounting entries are handles for you, so you can get by with just a minimal knowledge of accounting. Many people still choose to have a professional accountant oversee part or all of their bookkeeping needs - that is up to you, and the enhanced versions of Quickbooks allow multiple people to access and maintain your files, as mentioned above. Quickbooks comes with a lot of reporting options built-in, making it easy to check inventory levels, see who owes you money, check customer orders, and track supplier payments. Income statements and balance sheet reports are just a click away, totally customizable by whatever time period you want to cover - monthly, quarterly, year to date, last two years, etc. Comparison to prior years also can point out good and bad points - how much did spending on travel go up or down? how much did we spend on maintenance? why is our internet bill half of what is was last year? Show sales graphs by customer or by product or by region. As you can tell, Quickbooks does more than just basic accounting - when properly used, it can give you insight into your business, allowing you to make changes and improvements in how you operate, earn and spend, and more. For online help using Quickbooks, or if you are looking for Quickbook tips and suggestions, check out QuickbookUsers.com. They offer fee-services to restore data, solve problems, and let you talk to a Quickbooks expert - most cases are about $50. They also have a free forum where users can post questions, review past problems and solutions, and generally get help with any problems they might have.

Buying Quickbooks at a Discount - Cheap Copy of Quickbooks

There are a number of online sites that sell Quicken for prices cheaper than the Intuit website. Software-Discounts.com offers the 2006 Pro version for $169 instead of Intuit's $199 price. Amazon.com sometimes offers discounted versions as well. You can also try a comparison shopping site that checks prices on several sites at once and shows you the best deals.

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