Are you planning to implement QuickBooks accounting software? Whether you are computerizing your accounting system for the first time or you are switching from another accounting software, QuickBooks accounting software is actually a good choice for small or mid-sized companies. QuickBooks comes in different variants such as QuickBooks Pro, QuickBooks Premier, QuickBooks Enterprise Solution, and QuickBooks Online. Each of these variants comes with specific features which are built to suit the needs of different categories of businesses. You should not bother yourself too much on which variant of the software will suit your business. That is why we are here for you. However, you should understand that QuickBooks accounting software can be broadly classified into two categories namely desktop application and online application.
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QuickBooks Pro, QuickBooks Premier, and QuickBooks Enterprise Solution are all desktop applications as you will need to buy and install the QuickBooks software on the system where you want to be using the package. On the other hand, in the case of QuickBooks Online, you will not need to buy or install any software. Your accounting system will be set up in the cloud on the QuickBooks platform. What you need is just a computer or any device that is internet-enabled. After your account has been set up, you can access your accounting information from any part of the world. You will gain access to your account by logging in with your User ID and your password. Therefore, you are not tied to any computer. You can even access your account and enter transactions on the go. However, it is important that you keep your login details safe so that another person doesn’t gain access to your account. Just like the desktop version of the software consists of QuickBooks Pro, QuickBooks Premier, and QuickBooks Enterprise Solution, QuickBooks Online for small business also comes in three variants namely Simple Start, Essentials, and Plus. The other version is self-employed such as freelancers. They have different features and their prices are not the same either.
What QuickBooks Accounting Software Can Help You Do
With your QuickBooks Accounting Software, you will be able to achieve the following among others:
- Add multiple attachments
- Customize email templates
- Your income-producing transactions in one spot
- View all banking transactions
- Track bounced checks
- See key reports in just one click
- Simplified customer forms
- Customer, Vendor and Employee contact information
- Simplified navigation
- Calendar View
- Lead Center
- Document Center
- Use report templates created by other QuickBooks users
- Customer Snapshot which provides key customer insights at a glance.
- Income Tracker that shows your income-producing transactions and unpaid invoices to help you follow up with customers on payment.
- Sales tax tracking.
- Memorize Transactions
- Save worksheet formatting when you export to Excel
- Create and Send Professional looking invoices and forms
- Track sales, sales taxes, and customer payments
- Send invoices and estimates from Yahoo!, Gmail, or Hotmail
- Track inventory, set reorder points, and create purchase orders
- Create and print deposit slips
- Print checks, pay bills, and track expenses
- Have Company Snapshot
- Create different reports: Financial Statements comprising income statement, balance sheet, cash flow statement etc.
- Import from Excel or other email address books
- Up to 3 users at the same time for QuickBooks Pro, 5 users for QuickBooks Premier and 30 Users for Enterprise Solution.
- Set individual user permissions
- Create a copy for your accountant
- Import from Excel, Quicken, Microsoft Office Accounting, and older QuickBooks versions
- Download bank and credit card transactions
- Pay W-2 employees and file payroll taxes
- Bank reconciliation: You can pull credit card and banking transactions directly into QuickBooks for reconciliation
Please note that the above is just the general features of QuickBooks Accounting Software. Specifically, let’s look at what you can do with each variant of the software. This will help you decide on which product will meet your business needs.
Features of QuickBooks Pro
QuickBooks Pro is the cheapest of the QuickBooks desktop application. However, the fact that QuickBooks Pro is the cheapest does not make the product inferior to other products. It is all about creating a product that will meet a certain category of businesses without necessarily paying for what they will not need. With QuickBooks Pro, you will be able to perform these basic accounting functions with the software. You will be able to:
· Enter and print checks
· Track sales and customer payments
· Track customer and vendor contact information
· Manage payroll and payroll taxes (This is an add on and will therefore require subscription)
· Create estimates and invoices
· Reconcile bank and credit card transactions
· Import list information from Microsoft Excel
· Add up to 3 simultaneous users to access the program at one time.
· Add simple user permissions to restrict users from specific areas of the program
· Access more than 100 built-in reports
· Import data from Microsoft Excel, Quicken, Microsoft Office Accounting, and prior versions of QuickBooks
· Track accounts payable including tracking bills and setting due dates
· Track inventory including setting reorder points & creating purchase orders
· Download banking and credit card transactions into QuickBooks
· Track sales and purchases in multiple currencies
· Create and report on budgets
· Time tracking
· Access Lead Center
· Create and have calendar view transactions and global To-Do’s
Nevertheless, you will not be able to do the following using QuickBooks Pro:
· Advanced inventory controls
· Sales orders
· The ability to create a business plan
· Forecasting sales and expenses
· Creating industry-specific reports
In addition to the fact that you will be limited to 3 users, QuickBooks Pro cannot meet the need of a manufacturing business that needs to create a bill of materials. If you want any of the above five features, QuickBooks Pro will not be a good choice. You will have to opt for either QuickBooks Premier or QuickBooks Enterprise.
QuickBooks Premier
QuickBooks Premier has all the features that are contained in QuickBooks Pro. In addition, QuickBooks Premier is industry-specific. The software is tailored for use in the specific industry which includes the following:
· Contractor Edition: The contractor edition is meant for building contractors or construction companies.
· Retail Edition: Retail Edition is for the use of companies in the retail industry
· Non-Profit Edition: This edition is specifically for not-for-profit organizations
· Manufacturing and Wholesale Edition is tailored for distributors, wholesalers, and manufacturing companies
· Professional Service Edition: This edition is for service industry such as legal firms, designers, architects, etc.
· Accountant Edition: This is for accounting and CPA firms.
Therefore, with QuickBooks Premier, you will be able to select an edition that is suitable for your company. In addition to the features listed under QuickBooks Pro, QuickBooks Premier has the following additional features:
- Number of simultaneous users is up to 5
- More built in reports
- More advanced inventory controls such as unit of measure conversions and bill of material for assemblies of inventory products
- Change orders on estimates
- Customer specific price levels per item, not just fixed percentage
- Multiple billing levels for employees
- Reporting: balance sheet by class, previous reconciliation reports, forecasting, business planner, industry-specific reporting
- Sales orders
- Create cash flow projections
- Track workers compensation
- Increases functionality of journal entries by adding reversing entries
- Adds accountant specific features such as fixed asset manager
- The ability to create a business plan
- Forecasting sales and expenses
- Creating industry specific reports
- Inventory Center
- Batch Invoice for Time and Expense
- Closing date exception report
- Accountant Center. (This applies to Accountant Edition Only)
QuickBooks Enterprise
QuickBooks Enterprise provides more complex features that are not available in QuickBooks Pro and QuickBooks Premier. QuickBooks Enterprise also comes in six variants just as QuickBooks Premier. That is, you will be able to select any of the following editions.
Contractor Edition: The contractor edition is meant for building contractors or construction companies.
· Retail Edition: Retail Edition is for the use of companies in the retail industry
· Non-Profit Edition: This edition is specifically for not-for-profit organizations
· Manufacturing and Wholesale Edition is tailored for distributors, wholesalers, and manufacturing companies
· Professional Service Edition: This edition is for service industries such as legal firms, designers, architects, etc.
· Accountant Edition: This is for accounting and CPA firms.
Besides the features already mentioned under QuickBooks Pro and QuickBooks Premier, QuickBooks Enterprise provides these additional features:
- Much more granular user permissions – the user permissions are now based at the transactional level rather than giving broad access areas. ex. A specific user can be given access to enter and print invoices, but not to modify them or delete them.
- More robust database – the database is built to handle more transactions and list items and consequently, reports run faster and data files can be larger without sacrificing performance.
- The ability to combine financial statement reports from multiple QuickBooks company files.
- Increased simultaneous users up to 30.
- Lists such as the customer list, vendor list and item list can be much larger since they don’t have a set cap on the number of list items as Premier does. Intuit tested the list capabilities up to 100,000 list items, however there is no actual limit.
- More tasks can be performed in multi-user mode without switching to single-user mode. These tasks include inventory adjustments and deleting list items.
- Enhanced Inventory Receiving
- Images in the Item List
- Improved Multi-User Functionality
- FIFO Inventory Valuation
- Serial Number/Lot Tracking (This is available for people that subscribe to advanced inventory only)
- Stock transfer between different locations.
| Looking for help or do you want to implement QuickBooks and Sage 50 in Nigeria? Talk to one of our experts to quickly resolve your QuickBooks problem! Call 08024768668 or 08155554892 |
System Requirements for QuickBooks Pro, QuickBooks Premier, and QuickBooks Enterprise
Operating systems supported:
· Windows 7 SP1, 8.1 Update 1, or Windows 10 (all 32-bit & 64-bit)
· Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, 2012 R2, or 2016
· 2.4 GHz processor
· 4 GB of RAM (8 GB recommended)**
· 2.5 GB disk space recommended (additional space required for data files)
· 4x DVD-ROM drive (4x DVD-ROM drive may not be necessary if you are downloading from the internet)
· Payroll and online features require Internet access (1 Mbps recommended speed)
· Product registration required
· Optimized for 1280×1024 screen resolution or higher.
Database Servers:
• Windows: Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows 10, Windows 8.1 (update 1) or Windows 7 SP1 (Enterprise and Professional editions only)
Note: Windows Home Server 2011 Edition is not supported.
• Linux: When using QBES Database Server-only installation – OpenSuse 42.1, Fedora 23, Red Hat 7 (Update 2)
**For QuickBooks Enterprise. The following RAM will be required.
• 0-5 Users: 8GB RAM
• 10+ Users: 12GB RAM
• 15+ Users: 16GB RAM
• 20+ Users 20+GB RAM
Software compatibility
• Microsoft Office:
• Office 2016 (including Outlook 2016) both on 32 and 64-bit
• Office 2010 and Office 2013/365 (including Outlook 2010 and Outlook 2013) both on 32 and 64 bit. (Note: Office 365 is only supported when it is locally installed, not the web version.)
• Preparing letters requires Microsoft Word 2016, 2013, 2010 or Office 365
• Exporting reports requires Microsoft Excel 2016, 2013, 2010 or Office 365
• Contact Synchronization with Microsoft Outlook requires Outlook 2010 (32 bit)
• Synchronization with Outlook requires QuickBooks Contact Sync for Outlook
• Mozilla Thunderbird Email Client
• QuickBooks Point of Sale 2015 V12.0, V11.0, V10.0
• Adobe Acrobat Reader
• Payroll and other online features and services require Internet access with at least a 56 Kbps connection speed (DSL or cable modem recommended).
• Internet Explorer 11
Disk space:
- 5GB of disk space (additional required for data files)
- Additional software: 60MB for Microsoft .NET 4.6 Runtime, provided on the QuickBooks CD
- Additional requirements for Intuit Data Protect in QuickBooks Connected Services offerings (applies to the US only)
- Require minimum 4.0GB RAM
Twice the size of the largest file is set to back up + 100MB or twice the size to restore the backup. Space is only required from in the work folder. And the folder is LocalApplicationData+”Intuit\Intuit Data Protect”
Windows:
- US version of Windows (if using US QuickBooks software), the Canadian version of Windows (if using Canadian QuickBooks software)
- Regional settings are supported when set to English (United States/Canada) with keyboard setting to US/CA only
- Administrator rights required for the server computer when hosting Multi-User access
- Natively installed – means it was installed on a particular system or environment that it was designed for. This also means it doesn’t need to run in a virtual environment or emulation software.
Firewall and antivirus software compatibility
• Windows Server Firewall (all editions)
• Windows 8.1 Firewall (all editions)
• Windows 7 Firewall (all editions)
• Microsoft Security Essentials
• Avast
• AVG
• Symantec
• ESET
• Avira
• Kaspersky
• McAfee
• Bitdefender
• Malwarebytes
Note: QuickBooks Desktop will work with systems running RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks) but this is not recommended because performance issues may cause QuickBooks to operate slowly.
| Looking for help or do you want to implement QuickBooks and Sage 50 in Nigeria? Talk to one of our experts to quickly resolve your QuickBooks problem! Call 08024768668 or 08155554892 |
QuickBooks Desktop Vs QuickBooks Online
I mentioned above that there is also QuickBooks Online. Among questions we usually receive from clients is, “Between QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks Online, which one is better?” Others may ask it this way, “Which option do I choose between QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks Online? I believe they are still asking the same question. My answer is always “It depends”. That is, my recommendation will depend on what they actually want to achieve with the software. Therefore, If you are contemplating on which option you should go for, whether QuickBooks desktop or QuickBooks Online, the following will provide you a guide. It will be a comparison between the QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks Online. By the time you go through the point, you should be able to decide on which option is better for you.
Cost: Essentially QuickBooks Desktop is a one-time cost. That is, you just need to pay once and you continue to use the product as your own property. However, Intuit now has a subscription option for QuickBooks desktop, but you can still opt for a perpetual license. In the case of QuickBooks online, you will need to be paying a monthly subscription as long as you still like to keep your account active. The monthly subscription may appear small but over time, the cost adds up to be more expensive than QuickBooks desktop. QuickBooks Online is good for people who cannot afford to make one-time big payments for the software. It can help cushion your cash flow.
Software Installation: You will need to physically install QuickBooks desktop on either your laptop or desktop on all the systems that will be using the software. All the systems will need to meet the product installation requirements. Also, you may also need to invest in the purchase of a server if you are buying a multi-user license. QuickBooks Online does not require any installation. The setup is done on the internet. Your accounting information will reside on Intuit’s server.
Software Upgrade: If you buy QuickBooks Desktop, you will need to pay extra money to upgrade to a newer version. For instance, if you buy QuickBooks Desktop 2017 Edition and you want to upgrade to QuickBooks Desktop 2018 Edition, you will need to pay for this. But in the case of QuickBooks Online, you are always on the latest edition. The upgrade is absolutely free. You don’t pay any dime for this neither do you need to call any consultant to upgrade for you.
Industry-Specific Features: QuickBooks Premier and QuickBooks Enterprise provide industry-specific editions such as Contractor Edition, Retail Edition, Non-Profit Edition, Manufacturing, and Wholesale Edition, Professional Service Edition, and Accountant Edition. In the case of QuickBooks online, there are no industry-specific features. It is simply for general business.
Multiple Companies: With your QuickBooks desktop, you can create multiple companies within the software. This means that, if you have more than one business, you don’t need to buy separate software for each of your companies. QuickBooks Online only allows one company. If you want to set up an account for another company, you will need to subscribe to it separately.
Backup: Both software has automatic backup features. But the difference is that QuickBooks desktop allows you to back up on your system or external backup devices while QuickBooks online back up your data on Intuit’s server. You will not need to back up any data on your own. You will not be able to back up on your system or external devices.
Accessibility: The main attraction of QuickBooks is that you can access your account anywhere as long as you have access to the internet. You can even create, view, and send invoices from your smartphone. This makes it a good fit for business owners who are always on the go. You are not restricted to any particular system. For the QuickBooks desktop, you will need to be with your system where the software is installed before you to access your accounting information. If you run a multi-user license, you may not be able to access your accounting information if you move your laptop on which the software is installed away from the local area network that connects your system to the server.
Batch Invoicing: QuickBooks Desktop allows batch invoicing, a situation where you can send invoices to multiple customers at the same time. QuickBooks Online does not have this feature.
Customized Features: QuickBooks desktop provides more customized features than QuickBooks online.
Tracking: QuickBooks desktop allows you to track your transactions by class only while you can track your transactions both by class and location while using QuickBooks Online.
Technical Supports: QuickBooks Online has free customer support built into the monthly subscription fee. This is missing from the basic QuickBooks Desktop version
QuickBooks Vs Sage 50
Another question you may want to ask is, “Between QuickBooks and Sage 50(Peachtree), which one is better? The two accounting packages are equally good. However, your choice of a particular accounting software depends on your situation. However, as a consultant, I have a bias towards QuickBooks for two-three reasons:
Multicurrency: QuickBooks has a multicurrency feature. This means that you can transact businesses with your customers and vendors in multiple currencies. It is possible that you have customers that pay you in Dollars while your home currency is Naira. This is possible with QuickBooks. You can also create bank accounts in foreign currencies, that is domiciliary accounts. You don’t need to use a calculator to convert the currency manually. You just need to enter the actual dollar amount into the software and then specify the exchange rate. You can determine your exchange rate in case you don’t have access to the official exchange rate. You can also transfer funds from the domiciliary account into the Naira account. If there is any exchange gain or loss in the course of your transactions as a result of fluctuations in the exchange rate, the software will help you calculate it automatically and classify the entry in the exchange gain or loss account in your income statement. This is what you cannot achieve with sage 50. But if you don’t have any domiciliary account or you don’t intend to have one, this advantage of QuickBooks over Sage 50 may not matter to you. This means that you can choose either of the software.
Accounting Basis: Although IFRS requires that accounts should be prepared under the accrual basis concept, there may be a need for some organizations such as nonprofit-oriented organizations to also generate their reports on a cash basis. QuickBooks allows flexibility in the sense that you can run reports both on a cash and accrual basis interchangeably. But for Sage 50, you can only choose one basis. Once you have chosen a particular option, you cannot change it into another basis of accounts preparation. For instance, if you choose to prepare your accounts on an accrual basis, you will not be able to generate your reports on a cash basis and vice versa.
Class: QuickBooks allows you to prepare your financial statements based on different categories of your line of business. For instance, if you sell computers, phones, and accessories, you can generate an income statement for each of these categories of the line of your business as well as for the entire business. Sage 50 can do this one too but it requires someone who knows how to use segmentation while setting up the chart of accounts for you.
Import & Export: Both QuickBooks and Sage 50 accounting software allow you to export your reports to Excel but when it comes to importing from Excel or email address books, QuickBooks is better. While setting up your accounts, you can easily cut and paste from Excel into QuickBooks accounting software. This makes the setting up of the accounts to be simple and fast.
Besides the four points mentioned above, you may also consider the cost of the two software. Outside these, I think you can choose any of the accounting software for your business. But personally, I would love to buy QuickBooks accounting software.
How to Make Most of Your Investment in QuickBooks Accounting Software
The best way to maximize your investment in QuickBooks Accounting software is to hire a QuickBooks expert who can set up your books and train you on how to properly use the software. Unfortunately, there are many so-called “IT Experts” outside there trying to take up the jobs meant for accountants. Accounting software is peculiar and there is no way it can be successfully implemented by IT personnel. Computerization of accounting systems is more than just installing accounting software. The key success of any computerization lies in its implementation. You need someone who is very versed in accounting and at the same time has a good understanding of the software to implement your software for you. That is the only way you can actually enjoy the benefits of your investment in the software. In fact, most of the calls we receive from people revolve around how someone failed to implement their accounting software properly. They will be calling us to come and fix the setup. This usually leads to double costs on the part of the clients. What is worth doing at all is worth doing well. Therefore, it is advisable that you engage an expert as the difference is always clear. Unfortunately, many people don’t usually know the difference at the beginning until they later run into trouble. Our edge is that we are not just accounting software vendors, we are professional accountants, auditors, and tax practitioners.
| Looking for help or do you want to implement QuickBooks and Sage 50 in Nigeria? Talk to one of our experts to quickly resolve your QuickBooks problem! Call 08024768668 or 08155554892 |