Online Accounting Financial Services

Quickbooks and Coldplay

2011-11-18T21:57:00.001-05:00

First of all, I did not write this post, I enjoyed reading it, wanted to share it with soI posted it to my blog to give the author some credit. To contact this author click on the link at the end of the article . Anyhow his/her article begins as follows:

I heard an interview on XM Radio this week with Chris Martin and his cohorts in Coldplay.
Chris was talking about the challenge of creating really great music. He told the interviewer that his songwriting was influenced by the Beatles, Bob Marley, Nirvana. Their music, he said, was quite simple to play on the guitar — a 12 year old could play it — and yet was so well crafted.
Martin said, “Songs like that are easy to play, and impossible to write.”

That brought to mind something I heard once at a songwriting workshop: “Well-written songs are easy to learn and hard to forget.” Right on.
Now, to QuickBooks.

Good software should be, I think, like good songs. Easy to learn. Easy to play. Hard to forget. And almost impossible to create.

“Impossible to create” is a bit of an exaggeration, obviously. But it is hard to create a system that is intuitive to use, has a low learning curve, and sticks with you from one use to the next. That was Steve Jobs’ genius with the Mac, right?

I dabble in Pro Tools record studio software and also in PhotoShop. I find both of them hard to learn and easy to forget. CTRL/SHIFT/+ to toggle up the mixing console view??? What the heck.
I personally have found Microsoft Office products to be easy to learn and hard to forget. Maybe that’s just because I’ve been using them since way back in the last century. But there is a consistency and predictability to the user interface and controls that makes them pretty easy.

QuickBooks? Well, I think it’s in the middle there somewhere. It’s somewhat easy to learn if you have a bookkeeping/accounting background, and it is not chock-full of obscure ways to doing things. (Do you agree? Please comment below.)

Easy-to-use apps don’t come easy. The easier it is for the user, the harder it is for the designers and coders. The easiest thing for a development team is to just turn a bunch of programmers loose on the specs to make something happen asap. Judging from the end results, I don’t think Intuit usually does that.
Still, I’d like to see a version of QuickBooks appear sometime that is, I don’t know, a “classic” version, with far fewer features and options…just straight up general accounting for G/L, A/R, A/P, simplified Job Costing, and after the fact payroll. A system where you could put in a batch of cash-oriented transactions on one screen in one step, that would update the G/L, checking accounts, and customer/vendor/employee subaccounts all at one time.

Easy to learn; impossible to create? Maybe. Like a great Beatles song.

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2011-10-13T19:53:00.000-04:00

Budgeting Monthly

Most small businesses,that budget,do not consider the seasonal aspect of their business and the importance of budgeting monthly. Almost every business is seasonable, whether you sell apples or sell widgets and budgeting monthly is very important. So budgeting monthly is very important. Some quick tips to obtain the information to address the seasonality issue and to budgeting monthly is to use the same cash flows as last years or the average last five years(if you have them) and choosing the most relevant measurement base. Just go to last year's bank statement and you can find the cash flows then you will be able to budgeting monthly. While the other option is to sit down and brainstorm as to the timing by month of cash flows either by yourself or with a CPA. To budgeting monthly,either use a spreadsheet,or an accounting program like QuickBooks or your existing accounting software. If your accounting software does not offer budgeting, its time for you to realize that you graduated and need to upgrade software that offers budgeting by month.If you have any questions, do not take any chances with projections of your business , ask your CPA. Don't forget to budget by department. Its even better to find software that budgets a balance sheet and statement of cash flows by month. Software to budgeting monthly may cost a little more, but is well worth it. Nevertheless, QuickBooks and I am sure many other comparable(under $200) and similar priced accounting software will offer this monthly budgeting option. I hope you understand how important this feature to budget monthly or project monthly for next year or the succeeding years.

Sandor Lenner, CPA, MBA
www.SL-CPA.net

No More Free User for Your QuickBooks Online Accountant

2011-09-01T09:38:00.000-04:00

Intuit recently increased the number of users for some of the QBO subscriptions while at the same time discontuing the free user status for your accountant.

Why ?

How to Use Mutlitple Windows with QuickBooks Online

2011-04-14T23:14:00.000-04:00

Need Help Deciding on QuickBooks Online Simple Start, Essentials or Plus...

2011-03-31T18:16:00.001-04:00

This video will explain with examples and tips and help you decide as to which version of QuickBooks Online to purchase. The choices are:

1.QuickBooks Online Simple Start

2.QuickBooks Online Essentials

3.QuickBooks Online Plus

QuickBooks Online and PayPal

2011-03-27T21:55:00.000-04:00

The other day Intuit announced that they have an interface with PayPal and Bill.Com. I have tested the Bill.com interface and found this tool to be very useful and can definitely automate some of the daily manual tasks that are inherent in recording accounts payables, and paying them.There is a charge for this service, which is currently $9.99 per month and $.99 for each electronic payment.As far as the PayPal interface, its a little disappointing because its currently not operating and there is no information on its monthly cost, if any?, emphasis added.

QuickBooks Online Budgeting - How to Get Year to Date and Current Month Actual vs Budget

2011-03-21T22:32:00.000-04:00

The question of how to customize the budget option in QuickBooks Online is a common question. Here is my shortest video ever that will show you how to customize your budget to get current month and year to date information for actuals as compared to budget in less than two minutes.

How to Enter Vendor Bills using QuickBooks Online

2011-03-06T00:48:00.032-05:00

Accounts Payable Preferences

The first thing you need to do is to turn on the accounts payable feature in the preference section and then watch my short video, see below.

The following is a list of the procedures to you need to perform to set up this important preference.

1. Choose Vendors > Manage Bills.

2. This will bring up a Mini-Interview window. Say Yes to the question "Do you want to keep track of bills you owe, but wait to pay them later?".

3. Click Finish.

Once this feature is turned on you will be able to use the QuickBooks Online accounts payable features in your business.

The video below will show you how to enter a bill into Accounts Payable using QuickBooks Online. Just in case you need the instructions I have included the instructions to enter a bill below:

Choose Vendors, then select Enter Bill.

1. Vendor- The company that you owe the money to.

2. Ref # - Enter the invoice #

3. Amount Due - total amount of money you owe on this bill.

4. Terms - when the vendor expects payment. For example: "net 30" means payment is due in 30 days, that is 30 days after the invoice date.

5. Due Date - calculated based upon the Terms you have listed.

6. Memo - note on the bill. This will not appear on the bill payments.

7. Account Enter the category that the bill should be charged to i.e. supply expense,insurance expense

8. Click Save.

Procedure - Bills are generally processed by a bookkeeper who enters them as payables in QuickBooks. These bills should be paid every week or every two weeks.

Tip - Bills should be approved by management or the owners prior to their entry into accounts payable by the bookkeeper. The approved invoice or billing should then be attached to the check and presented to management for signature when processing the bill for payment. This procedure and related approval can be performed either in a paper format or paperless format. If there is no prior approval of the bill before entry into QuickBooks payables there is the risk that unauthorized payments may be processed and paid.

QuickBooks Online Plus Auto Fill Feature

2011-03-01T21:04:00.000-05:00

This video will address a topic that I took for granted for companies using QuickBooks Online Plus or Essentials until a client today,expressed her frustration when entering a vendor bill.She was accustomed to QuickBooks Pro and the learning curve was frustrating here. So I thought other people might also be having a similar issue. Using the auto fill feature to search and populate the following fields in QuickBooks Online Plus.

Vendors
Customer
General ledger accounts

Please view this short video for using QuickBooks Online Plus or Essentials to see the two alternatives that you can select within the preferences and how to do it .

Using QuickBooks Online and Form 1099

2011-02-27T17:03:00.005-05:00

QuickBooks 1099 Time

It's QuickBooks 1099 time and you need to prepare your business’s Form 1099s which is due February 28. Hopefully you haven't waited for the last moment to use QuickBooks 1099 module, which is typically the case for most small businesses. Although this blog post is designed for users of QuickBooks Online, the QuickBooks 1099 tips may be used for other versions of QuickBooks and other small business accounting software. This article will not discuss what payment qualifies as a 1099 recipient or how to print the form 1099. It discusses a way to check the information and provides some planning tips for next year.

It's important to make sure that the information appearing in each form 1099 is accurate and represents the cash transactions that occurred for the year that has just ended. The furthest thing from your mind is to have a vendor or stockholder or any person who received the form 1099 to call you up to complain that the QuickBooks 1099 they just received is incorrect. Not only is that embarrassing, it’s a waste of time because now you have to amend the QuickBooks 1099 and probably pay fees to have the QuickBooks 1099 amended.

Verify the information being used to file the QuickBooks 1099 with the IRS

It’s important to make sure the QuickBooks 1099 information is correct before you send it out. You can perform this check by reviewing the information that is in the form 1099. Fortunately, QuickBooks 1099 makes this easy, by allowing you to drill down for each 1099 recipient and you will see the detail payments for each 1099 recipient before its transmitted to the payee. It's important that the information appearing in the form 1099 is an actual cash payment made during the preceding year. The information in the Form 1099 should not include accounts payable or anything else. You can verify the QuickBooks 1099 information in two ways. The first is look at the QuickBooks 1099 detail transactions comprising the 1099 summary amount directly from a 1099 report, and the second, is to look at the accounts payable detail as of December 31 to make sure that the payables are not included in the amounts being reported in the form 1099. From within QuickBooks Online you do this by drilling down on the amount shown in the summary QuickBooks 1099 form.

You can watch a very short video explaining the drill down procedure or skip the video and look at these screenshots. Here is the video

QuickBooks 1099 Planning Tip
The most important tip, is to plan to gather all of the payee information such as correct name, address and Taxpayer ID number in advance of preparing the form 1099s and more importantly to carefully read the IRS Instructions for Form 1099 –MISC and make sure that you are reporting the correct types of payees . The way you can do this, is to set up a policy and procedure for the book keeper to prepare a simple one-page new vendor setup form, that has the vendor’s name, address, email,website,tax payer ID number,account to be coded and budgeted amount for the year.The new vendor set up form should be approved by the owner . This form ensures that your bookkeeper is obtaining the vendor and the QuickBooks 1099 information timely and more importantly that only vendors known to the owner are being properly set up and paid.

If you are like most users, it’s hard to believe that you cannot prepare the Form 1096 from QuickBooks Online. We are waiting for Intuit to make that change to their QuickBooks 1099 drop down.

History feature in the Journal Entry Screen for QuickBooks Online

2011-02-16T19:08:00.001-05:00

Intuit is beta testing a history feature in the journal entry screen for QuickBooks Online. This is useful because it lets you track the changes you or your bookkeeper has made to a journal entry. In other words, the record is preserved, which provides a trail of the changes that were made to the journal entry. This is helpful and time saver because you no longer have to review activity log, if you need to find out the history of changes made to your accounts. I suspect that only accountants are using this feature, but in the event you want to monitor the number of times that your book keeper has changed a journal entry you can now do it without leaving the journal entry screen.This is important because the more changes that people make to the same journal entry is an indicator of problems they are having and is an indicator of inefficiency.

As a primer, an adjusting journal entry is created to adjust account balances. Adjusting entries are used for a variety of reasons, including booking depreciation or amortization, reallocating accruals and reversing accruals of prepaid income or expenses, adjusting interest, penalties, or discounts, and entering bank or credit card fees or interest.

QuickBooks Online Changes and Primer for 2011 - QuickBooks Online Plus Still Gets a + Mark

2010-12-30T11:20:00.001-05:00

QuickBooks Changes and Primer

During the fourth quarter of 2010, Intuit made some changes to its small business online accounting software and repackaged its four online accounting choices: (1) Simple Start,(2) Online Essentials, (3) Online Plus and (4) Online Plus with Payroll. For the most part, the QuickBooks choices and functionality have been improved with an added cost. If you are not familiar with QuickBooks Online or need a QuickBooks Online refresher, read on. Below are the key reasons to use the QuickBooks Online platform:

Instantly share financial data with your employees, accountant and other shareholders,partners or co-owners. You no longer a need to have a network
Manage your business from a PC or Mac with web access.
There's no software to install and no network to maintain.
Your company data is protected with daily automated backups.
Automatic upgrades are included in the price of subscription - never upgrade again. Includes customer support - no additional support plan needed.

Prior to making a decision to use QuickBooks Online, you need to decide between Simple Start, Online Essentials or QuickBooks Online Plus. This article will discuss the differences between these QuickBooks Online options. In the end, you are responsible for ensuring that you select the correct version which should work with the business that you operate. There was a free version called Simple Start, it was repackaged with a few more options and unfortunately, it's no longer free and not worth much as compared to the other two options. Sometimes, Intuit has it available on some remote websites, but for the most part it's no longer free. The Online Plus with Payroll version was not considered for this analysis because of it's basically the same as Online with Plus with the added payroll functionality. QuickBooks Online Essentials will be collectively referred to as "ONLINE ESSENTIALS " and QuickBooks Online Plus as " ONLINE PLUS ". Each major difference and brief comment is discussed below:

Online Simple Start - Limited to one user plus your accountant, free email support creates and manages your invoices with limitations and has over 20 business reports. This is not recommended for small businesses with accounts payable, inventory and the online banking needs. This is very elementary and has limited usefulness to a small business.

A Comparison of QuickBooks Online Essentials to QuickBooks Online Plus

Unless otherwise mentioned these features relate to both ONLINE ESSENTIALS AND ONLINE PLUS. For the most part, ONLINE PLUS has the features that you may need, regrettably only a few of these features are available in ONLINE ESSENTIALS.

Online Banking - If you don't use QuickBooks to enter all of your payments (I recommend using online banking) then by using this feature, your payments and receipts do not have to be entered into your cash register when you use online banking. Instead of entering then, you only have to review them. When you download from your bank, (from participating financial service providers) QuickBooks is able to compare the bank's transactions to your transactions in QuickBooks and identifies differences. The program assists you in managing your cash flow, because you know which checks have cleared the bank, which helps you understand how much money you have in real time and makes monthly reconciliations easier and less time consuming.

Importing - You can import your QuickBooks Basic, Pro, or Premier Edition desktop files (version 2000 and higher file(s). The import does not work with a Mac.

Estimates - Estimates can be created from ONLINE PLUS and then seamlessly imported to an invoice for billing. By using estimates misunderstandings can be avoided.

Paying your bills with QB is effective and a time saver

Accounts Payable-Manage bills to pay later. This function is available in ONLINE PLUS. It is a very important functionality, if you want to keep and maintain your accounts payable. I believe keeping the amounts you owe vendors in QuickBooks if very important. This function allows you to always know how much you owe vendors and print reports such as the Unpaid Vendors Report. You can enter bills and make payments separately, as a two-step process. This lets you keep your money in your business as long as possible, and it lets you track and manage your outstanding bills and either pay bills when they are due or a head of the scheduled due dates to take advantage of early payment discounts often given to businesses as an incentive to pay early. In summary, I can't over emphasize the importance of this feature.

Exporting - You can export transactions and balances to a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet only in ONLINE PLUS. This is a very important feature, since it adds greater reporting capabilities. It gives you flexibility is obtaining and analyzing different types of financial data. Unfortunately, this useful feature is not available in ESSENTIALS.Do not overlook the importance of this feature.

Class tracking - Within ONLINE PLUS, classes provide a system for categorizing transactions that goes beyond the normal ways of assigning transactions to expense or income accounts. With classes, you can categorize each detail line on a transaction. This lets you write one check to the office supply store for items bought for two different business units and still track the business unit for those purchases. For example, suppose you have a consulting business and an installation business. Class tracking is ideal for you if it is typical to have purchases and sales that include both types of work. By specifying the appropriate class on each detail line, you can run a Profit & Loss by Class report that will tell you if your consulting business is more or less profitable than the installation business.

Business tracking - You can use ONLINE PLUS to categorize data from different locations, offices, regions, or outlets of your company. You can assign each transaction to each business. By assigning a business to each transaction as you enter it, you can later see businesses on reports. Assigning businesses also lets you efficiently manage groups of transactions. A great use of this would be for different rental properties.

Time tracking - This feature is only in ONLINE PLUS and allows your employee, consultants and other workers, to enter their time into a time sheet for fee for service businesses. One interesting feature, is that add unlimited time sheet users, i.e. if you have offshore on local free lancers, independent contractors, and others all can use this feature and report their time to you in real time.

Invoicing - Adding fields to track more information on transaction forms is only in ONLINE PLUS. You can create your own custom fields to include on sales forms.

Reporting and Financial Statements - ONLINE ESSENTIALS provides 40 standard reports whereas ONLINE PLUS provides over 65 standard reports. A comprehensive analysis in a chart format of the reporting differences can be found at Intuit's knowledge base for comparison of the QuickBooks Online Products or send me an email and I will forward you the applicable URL.

Budgeting - You can use a budget to estimate future income and expenses. Moreover, ONLINE PLUS budgets' uses a format similar to a spreadsheet, with a horizontal row for each of your income and expense accounts, and vertical columns for each month or quarter. This feature is only in ONLINE PLUS and it does not provide a budgeted balance sheet or statement of cash flows. Also, there is no ability to budget or project based on allocations. You have to enter numerical amounts within the spreadsheet type interface. However, you can insert different amounts for each month as well as replicate monthly amounts in their spreadsheet like interface for any given number of months.

Form 1099 - The IRS requires that a taxpayer issue a 1099-MISC form to for nonemployee compensation providing the payments are to any noncorporate entity were equal to $600 or more for services rendered. This feature is only available for ONLINE PLUS. This too, is an important feature needed by most small businesses and will become even more important in the future, as more and more payments need to reported to the IRS. You must mail these forms to vendors by January 31 for payments made in the previous tax year. Don't forget that you must also mail these forms to the IRS by February 28 along with a Form 1096

Purchase Orders - With ONLINE PLUS, you can create and send purchase orders. This new feature offers an automatic tracking system for your business purchases. Customize your PO's with your business logo or your own numbering system

Inventory Accounting - This feature is only available with ONLINE PLUS. It provides the basic inventory functionality as to the amount of your items in inventory, sales and how much you have on hand.

# of Users -ONLINE ESSENTIALS provides access for three users plus your accountant (4 in total ). However, ONLINE PLUS provides access for five users plus your accountant(6 users). Online Plus can be expanded to 25 users for an additional cost, which is reasonable. The small increase in the number of allowable users is a minor improvement since last year

Web 2.0 and other new changes - Comparison to business trends and a new interface, new dashboard, I prefer the old drop down point and click menus. You can import your customer contact data from Microsoft Excel, Outlook and/or Gmail right into QuickBooks Online, hassle-free for all versions. The ability to read information and create invoices, see customer data and more, your Blackberry, iPhone™, or Android device™.

Price - Online Simple Start is $12.95 a month, ONLINE ESSENTIALS costs $24.95 a month as compared to ONLINE PLUS which according to the Intuit website is $39.95 per month. Online Plus with Payroll is $63.16 a month. However, if you purchase ONLINE PLUS by using a Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor you will receive a 20% discount, which is currently in effect at this time. Discounts and prices may change in the future. There are no annual contracts.

Recommend Online Plus

QuickBooks Online Recommendation - For the most part, ONLINE ESSENTIALS may be a choice, for smaller companies, as compared to ONLINE PLUS that should work for small to midsized companies. I recommend ONLINE PLUS, because there is much more value what you pay. Prior to any decision, you are able to test drive the software for 30 days for all four platforms and, then decide which is best suited for your business. And don't forget to ask you're Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor or CPA or accountant for help in making this important decision and to train you, otherwise you will have problems and waste time by incorrectly using this powerful small business accounting software.

QuickBooks Online - Anytime, Anywhere. Easily Track Sales, Bills & Expenses. Try FREE for 30 Days!

Stockholder Loan Transactions in QuickBooks Online Essentials or Online Plus

2010-12-28T15:10:00.010-05:00

QuickBooks Online Stockholder Transactions

This video will will briefly explain a typical stockholder/business owner transaction and show you how to record the transactions for QuickBooks Online. For more information about each type of transaction i.e. capital investment,Stockholder Advances,Loans to the business,Draws,Dividends and Stock Subscriptions, please see my other post on this topic. The logic and general classification will be similar for QuickBooks Pro, Premier or just about any other accounting software program.

Big Tip..Make sure that you maximize the screen in YouTube while you view the video

Customizing QuickBooks Online(QBO) Reports for checks and other withdrawals

2010-11-30T20:18:00.001-05:00

What Happened to the Free Online Version of Simple Start ?

2010-04-29T22:29:00.000-04:00

QuickBooks Online accounting provides the essential accounting tools necessary to operate a business and the freedom to access financial information from work, the road or home. Simple Start is a free and bare bones version offered by Intuit, the maker of QuickBooks. Simple Start may be able to assist you in the operation of your business and even your personal finances. But before you start searching for Simple Start its important to know that Intuit has decided to begin to phase out the the free version of Simple Start.

As the Intuit website simply states, Simple Start can (a)Track sales, expenses & customers, (b)Instantly create invoices, (c)pay bills, & print checks and (d) Organize your finances in one place-ready for tax time. All this sounds good, but when you take a close look, Simple Start has serious limitations, but for some people or businesses, it might have a place.

Intuit has a free QuickBooks Online option, called QuickBooks Simple Start. Its free but has limited functionality. i.e. limited to 5 customers(but unlimited vendors) and lacks accounts payable recording and reporting,lack of budgeting,estimating,financial reporting and I can list more and more. Notwithstanding, these critical shortcomings, it may work for some.

I have installed Simple Starts on both Macs and PC's. My clients that use both Macs and PC's like the ability to use QuickBooks on either platform. I have seen Simple Start work for a few of my very small business clients, who use it to summarize their business activities for their tax returns rather than for real time financial information. If you use PC in your office and a Mac at home, you can share the data which is kept in the cloud. Most business owners really like this feature. I have been able to set up their chart of accounts from my PC and then my clients are able to instantly use the software.

During the sign in process for Simple Start, Inuit asks for your credit card. Don't think this is a scam to get you sign up or sell you more products. They actually do not charge your credit card, until you purchase it. You will quickly realize how well it captures your cash activities, and will probably want to upgrade to either QuickBooks Online Basic or QuickBooks Online Plus because of the software's function shortcomings.

Unfortunately, another shortcoming of both Simple Start and QuickBooks Online Basic is their inability to properly record and monitor accounts payable,monitor and pay multiple vendors at once.This is important if you want to be able to track your payables and be able to pay multiple vendors at one time Also, Simple Start does not offer a Statement of Cashflows. This statement shows you where and to what accounts your cash was spent.Its a very important financial statement to help a small business owner understand the sources and uses of cash in the operation of their business.

In summary, some people like Simple Start because its free and "simple". Once again, like all QuickBooks Online products it works with any PC and Mac. If you want a free version of Simple Start, simply visit my website and go to the Quickbooks online page and you will have direct access to an Intuit link for free a version of Simple Start, which is currently available as of the date of the writing of this blog post.

Learn how QuickBooks Online provides the essential online accounting tools to manage your business and the freedom to access your financials from work, home, or the road. Sandor Lenner, C.P.A./M.B.A has been providing accounting services for 35 years. He is also a Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor and works as a part-time consultant for a Miami Accounting CPA firm.

How to Reconcile Your Bank Account with the Automatic Bank Reconciliation with QuickBooks Online Plus for the First Time

2010-03-21T20:13:00.001-04:00

Reconciling QuickBooks Online Bank Account

If you just made the transition to use QuickBooks Online Plus, congratulations. Now I hope you want to use the automatic bank reconciliation that is included with QuickBooks Online Plus. The problem exists that there is no mechanism to enter checks that were outstanding in your bank reconciliation for the month prior to your conversion to QuickBooks Online Plus. After researching the Intuit website and Google there is no guidance for this fundamental topic.

The workaround is very easy. Before I get into the specifics, what needs to occur, is that the outstanding checks that exist for the month prior to your conversion QuickBooks Online Plus must be recorded into QuickBooks Online Plus. To accomplish this 3 steps are required.

QuickBooks Online Bank Reconciliations Tips

Step 1–Pick any day prior to your conversion date. For instance if you are beginning the year January 1, 2010, then select a date in December of 2009 and make a journal entry to temporarily add cash to the QuickBooks Online Plus bank account because in the next step you will have to reduce the cash by the amount of the outstanding checks in order for the outstanding checks to be reflected within the QuickBooks Online Plus automatic bank reconciliation. To accomplish this, prepare a journal entry as if you are making a deposit, with a debit to the bank account and credit opening balance equity account for the amount of the outstanding checks.

Step 2-- Temporarily set up a vendor to be used when entering the outstanding checks and call the vendor “Prior months outstanding checks”. Now, enter each outstanding check through the Enter bills (and the account being debited would be the opening balance equity account instead of a typical expense account) drop down menu within QuickBooks Online Plus and record a description such as “prior months outstanding checks” so that there is a trail relating to this adjustment. Be sure not to assign amounts to the expense accounts, since you are debiting the opening balance equity account. In summary, this entry sets up a temporary payable that you are about to pay in step three.

Step 3-- Now go into the drop down menu called “Pay One Vendor” and pay each bill using the date shown in your outstanding list. This step relieves the payable and effectively causes the check to be outstanding for the QuickBooks automatic bank reconciliation. Using Pay One Vendor is a better option to control the check number of the bill payment.

In summary, you have recorded the outstanding check without any effect on cash because the increase in the cash in step 1 is reduced by the decrease in cash in step 3. In addition, the account payable that was set up in Step 2 has been reduced by the payment in step 3, and the opening balance equity that is set up in step 1 is offset by the establishment of the payable which effectively debits the opening equity balance through step 2.

After I figured out how to accomplish this work around, it took 15 minutes to record the adjustments to have the QuickBooks Online Plus automatic bank reconciliation reflect the prior periods outstanding checks. The second month literally took 5 seconds to reconcile and the automatic bank reconciliation worked perfectly as intended.

Sandor Lenner, C.P.A. has been providing accounting services for 35 years. He is also a Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor and works as a consultant for a Miami Accounting CPA firm where he provides QuickBooks support and QuickBooks consulting.

QuickBooks Online Plus is a Helpful Tool for Small Business Owners to Monitor their Business by Product Line,Service Line,Division,Project or Property

2010-03-05T18:25:00.000-05:00

Several months ago, I decided to focus in QuickBooks Online accounting. The more I'm exposed to this accounting program the more I learn how dynamic and how helpful this program is for many of my small business clients. The most outstanding feature of QuickBooks Online is the ability for multiple users to access their accounting software from any location,any office, any time, as long as they have Internet access. As I've mentioned in a previous blog post, Simple Start by QuickBooks is a very stripped down version of QuickBooks Online and has limited functionality, yet it can be used in certain situations, and best of all, its free. This particular blog post deals with QuickBooks Online Plus.

Recently, I was asked by one of my clients to assist them in the preparation of Form 1099 for their various real estate agents who worked on different properties here in south Florida. It was very simple question, and the answer is yes. QuickBooks Online is able to print out 1099s as well as track and accumulate all the information for each of my clients selling agents across different properties.It also keeps basic personal information for each contractor. The question that the client asked me, was whether or not QuickBooks Online Plus would be able to handle multiple projects since he represented different properties and want to track each property's profitability as it related to his business. The answer, once again, was yes, it he can handle multiple properties through its class tracking functionality. Then I was asked another question whether or not the QuickBooks Online Plus can print 1099s for each selling agent who worked on different properties while using the class feature. In other words, does the class feature work, when issuing 1099s for subcontractors and allow the client to monitor the activities for each selling agent for each property. The answer was again,yes.

The class feature is often confused and under utilized, but it is a very important and dynamic functionality that most small business owners should be using to monitor their profitability by project,division,product line,service line and etc.

QuickBooks Simple Start Can Help Very Small Businesses

2010-02-03T12:29:00.001-05:00

Learn more about another QuickBooks Online option, called at QuickBooks Simple Start, its free but has limited functionality. i.e. limited to 5 customers(but unlimited vendors). I have seen this accounting software work for a few of my very small business clients, who use it to summarize their business activities for their tax returns.I have just installed three Simple Starts or Macs. To learn more about Simple Start and to compare it other versions just click here to get Simple Start.

Some people really find it useful and it's really free. Like all QuickBooks Online products it works with any PC and Macs. Grab it now !

QuickBooks Online No Cost Offer? - Pros and Cons

2009-11-30T17:38:00.001-05:00

Like any other consumer I was interested in knowing exactly what was being offered for free by QuickBooks. An old finance professor of mine in an introductory finance course taught us the “no free lunch theorem”, which basically states that, there are no free lunches. I think what we have here, is a quick lunch rather than a three course meal. This article will address the pros and cons of QuickBooks online free version which was launched in October 2009.

Like any other optimist, I'll begin with the pros before the cons concerning the QuickBooks Online free version software.

Some of the positive aspects are as follows:

• Easy set up which includes many sample chart accounts with different companies in different industries.
• It is web-based which provides anytime and anywhere access and includes automatic backups at the Intuit's servers.
• The ability to print expense checks.
• Basic financial statements with some other supplemental reporting capabilities
• iPhone compatible with read-only rights and the ability to invoice customers on the fly.

Some of them that negative aspects are as follows:

• It is only limited to five customers.
• Lacks the ability to use form 1099s.
• No statement of cash flows -- this is important, because this financial statement portrays the sources and uses of your business’s cash from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.
• Only one user access and your accountant does not have free online Internet access.
• Does not export to Excel.

When you're using this software you're actually using the bare-bones version of QuickBooks which is called QuickBooks Online Simple Start. For a detailed analysis of all of the features please feel free to click this link and you'll be directed to Intuit's website(you will be asked to sign in to use the website) that compares and contrasts the different features of QuickBooks Simple Start as compared to QuickBooks Online Basic and QuickBooks Online Plus.

As I mentioned above the setup is relatively easy, however there is one aspect that deserves discussion and a word of caution. The setup begins with a simple registration, completion of a company profile which includes selecting an industry, classifying your source of revenue as a customer, client, patient, etc... Towards the end of this process, Intuit requests billing information, i.e. Credit card information which they clearly state that it will not be used unless you purchase the software. To Intuit's credit this is very clear on the website after you press the submit button and you receive a receipt indicating that the price is free.

So in summary, unless you have a very small business with less than five customers or it's not important to track revenue by customer, then this version might be suited for your purposes. In addition, another use of the software would be to perform a write up of the accounting transactions which generally occurs after the fact, which means it's not used for real-time purposes. An example of a write up, would be to prepare the year-end tax return or to prepare a financial statement long after the transactions have occurred .

Notwithstanding the above, since there is no expiration period for the free use of the QuickBooks Online Simple Start, it does provide a good mechanism to test and more importantly use QuickBooks Online for more than 30 days. It should also be noted that QuickBooks Online Basic and QuickBooks Online Plus, both offer a 30 day free period to test drive the software. My experience is that 30 days may not be sufficient. So the remaining option is to either use the free 30 day period for QuickBooks Online Basic and QuickBooks Online Plus and if you need more than 30 days then purchase QuickBooks Online Basic for $9.95 a month or QuickBooks Online Plus for $34.95 a month. This is a viable option, since the software can be purchased on a month-to-month basis. The website clearly states “No contract, cancel anytime”.

Learn more about how QuickBooks Online can help your business and why not obtain this free accounting software before Intuit ends this free offer.

Intuit - Affordable New Tax Software For Small and Home Based Businesses Tax Preparers

2009-11-12T12:53:00.000-05:00

In September 2009, Intuit released a new web based tax software called Intuit ProLine(TM) Tax Online Edition (beta) for tax preparer's and those individuals that need a comprehensive, low-cost and Web based 1040 tax program. This software is designed for low volume users whose customer base does not justify an expensive PC or networked tax software. Similar to other web-based software programs, and similar to QuickBooks Online, this program permits the tax preparers to work any time from anywhere providing they have web access. Intuit has many years experienced in the tax preparation business and has its TurboTax ,Pro Series ,and Lacerte brands. Intuit understands its customers' needs and has the foresight to know that many of the tax software applications are heading towards "cloud computing" and this tax software is another example of a Web enabled program.

How it Works- Behind this program is the concept of simplicity, and Intuit accomplishes this by setting up 3 basic workspaces for the tax preparer. These workspaces are "input"," review" and "file". The "input" workspace is where the preparer enters tax information such as W-2, 1099, Schedule A and B,etc ..It is easy to find the proper form. When you open up the form you're able to make multiple data entries by using a list and total feature in the software. The second workspace, is the "review" section which provides the preparer with a diagnostics summary and a list of tax suggestions. The third workspace, is "file", which permits the tax preparer to electronically file the return or to print out the tax return for manual transmission to the IRS.

In the past, tax preparers have purchased TurboTax software and pirated the tax software to prepare hundreds of tax returns by using TurboTax. In order to capture and capitalize from this market, Intuit designed a low cost tax software for a preparer that wants to prepare a tax return in the dining room of a client or their own dining room or from any location with web access. The value proposition is that this software is low priced and simple to use. Although the Intuit website currently offers the beta software for 2008 at no cost, I've been unofficially informed that Intuit will sell the software on a pay-per-use basis of $16 per tax return. This price is not currently shown in the Intuit website.This tax software becomes an affordable alternative for the tax preparers whose practice cannot afford to purchase the Pro Series or Lacerte brands.

Some of the features of the software include the following: (a) 1040 only- single user (b) Pay per return (c) E - file or paper file for two states. It is expected that by the end of the 4th quarter 2009 that filing will be available for most of the other states. (d) Data conversion (e) Status tracking with the IRS (f) Notes and listing features and totaling capabilities embedded in the various forms and schedules(g) Diagnostics and suggestions and (h) Support from Intuit Like any other new software, the concerns at this point relate to the fact that the software is still in beta.

Notwithstanding the hundreds of users that have beta tested the software, there are invariably issues arising from any new software release and, only with the passage of time can the software achieve its expectations. Also, like any other web enabled software the connection and performance is dependent on the web connection, and quite frankly may result in sluggish performance. Also despite the Web-enabled software, there are taxpayer's homes that may not have web access which would prevent the tax preparer from entering the tax information "on the fly". Not a major issue, since the preparer can prepare the tax return later, or back in his or her the office or home.

I commend Intuit for producing a web-based tax preparer software for new low volume users as well as making it easy for those individuals that have used "pirated" versions of TurboTax in the past, to legally use a low-cost and affordable tax software.

Sandor Lenner,CPA has provided accounting services for companies for 35 years. He is also a Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor and provides QuickBooks support and business accounting services. As an Intuit Authorized Affiliate, he can offer you discounted QuickBooks and Intuit software. He works as a part-time consultant for Susan Missal Lenner, P.A.

Converting QuickBooks for Mac to QuickBooks Online

2009-09-17T15:32:00.005-04:00

Several months ago Intuit, the manufacture of QuickBooks, released a new version of QuickBooks Online that runs with the Safari web browser. This new version of QuickBooks presents a multiuser alternative for existing users of QuickBooks in a Mac environment, as well as future users of QuickBooks for Mac. It is now possible for Mac QuickBooks users to run multiuser versions of QuickBooks for a reasonable monthly price, and have unattended backups and software updates included in the monthly price.

Besides the Safari interface, QuickBooks Online has been optimized for the iPhone. The iPhone app is basically a read only application, however some added features exist for customer, vendor and employee information as well as the ability to create and send invoices. Another benefit for Mac users of QuickBooks is that there is no longer a wait for updates to the Mac version of QuickBooks.

Installing QuickBooks Online (without the need to convert QuickBooks for Mac files to QuickBooks online files) is relatively easy and straightforward. However, it gets a bit complicated when you need to convert an existing QuickBooks for Mac file to a QuickBooks Online file. Intuit does a reasonably good job of facilitating the online installation.

Manually converting your QuickBooks for Mac file to QuickBooks Online is not that difficult, as long as you carefully follow the instructions and generally takes about 30 minutes. You cannot directly convert your QuickBooks for Mac file to QuickBooks Online. There is an intermediate step that requires you to convert your QB Mac file to a QB Windows files and begins with the drop down menu in QuickBooks Mac. The process begins, by selecting the File menu and then selecting “Back up to QuickBooks for Windows” within the QuickBooks for Mac software. Upon completion of this process, the file is sent to QuickBooks and you receive a notification when the process for converting the QuickBooks Mac to QuickBooks Online is completed. Initially, I was surprised to observe that this process is performed at the Intuit level rather than in real time. A suggestion to facilitate this process, is that in the event you do not receive timely notification of completion from Intuit, I suggest that you contact tech support and ask them to look into the status of your conversion and request that they expedite it for you. Generally, when I have called tech support, and they are very accommodating. They will facilitate the process, although they generally do not give any time guarantee and attribute the potential delay to their busy servers.

Overall the manual conversion process takes approximately 30 minutes (exclusive of the Intuit conversion) and my clients have been happy with QBO. One client was disappointed that the vendor type classifications are not available in QuickBooks Online. The workaround for this is to use one of the fields in the vendor profile as the vendor type. So far, my clients are happy to have multi-user access, the ability to work from anywhere and unattended and automatic backups, despite a slightly sluggish performance attributable to the web connection.

Two words of caution, the first of which is that QuickBooks Online currently does not support inventory applications and the second, that the conversion may require the services of your accountant or CPA to affect a smooth and orderly transition to the QuickBooks Online platform.

As long as you understand up front the limitations of QBO, then you should find the QBO platform acceptable and more importantly, a helpfully financial tool to operate and monitor your business.

3 Important QuickBooks Online Add-Ons that You May Need to Run Your Business

2009-09-03T16:52:00.018-04:00

There are three QuickBooks Online Add-ons that are important to the way you operate and manage your business. This article will discuss three QuickBooks Online add-ons and will provide you with information that you need to consider in order to make an informed business decision about purchasing QuickBooks Online. This article will inform you of some additional expenses that otherwise may not be clear to you prior to buying QuickBooks Online.

By way of background, the three types of QuickBooks Online products discussed are QuickBooks Online -free, QuickBooks Online Basic,and QuickBooks Online Plus. Please refer to my other articles that compare and contrast the functionality of QuickBooks Online Basic and QuickBooks Online Plus.

Add-On for Credit Card Sales From Customers - In order to approve, process, and record credit card sales you need to purchase QuickBooks Online Merchant. Accepting Visa, MasterCard, American Express and other credit card types can attract new customers, help you get paid faster, and save you time in collecting payments. This ability to accept credit card payments is called a merchant account service. With the QuickBooks Online Merchant account, you are able to authorize and process credit card transactions with either QuickBooks Online Basic or QuickBooks Online Plus. This feature automatically records sales from customers, effectively, in real time, thus eliminating the need to manually record credit card sales in your QuickBooks accounts. For this feature, there is a onetime set up fee of $59.95 and a monthly fee of $19.95, along with standard credit card discount and authorization fees. By purchasing from a Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor there are substantial discounts available for these services.

On the plus side, the use of QuickBooks Online Merchant does save you money because you do not need to lease phone lines and lease terminal hardware or software. It is also important to note that for in store credit card sales, a merchant service card reader does not work and the use of a credit card reader requires QuickBooks desktop software, 2002 or higher. Intuit designed their product so you do not have to use a credit card reader. The alternative is not that bad, you have to manually type in the credit card number and enter the customer sale information typically included in an invoice. A few seconds later, you are informed if the customer payment is approved by the credit card company. (Even some national department stores still have manual processes. Yesterday, I was in a national department store, and they took my credit card and manually inserted the card for the credit card imprint.)

Add-on for Payroll - Payroll for QuickBooks Online is sold separately and is not included with either QuickBooks Basic or QuickBooks Plus. However, Intuit, offers the following solutions as of the date of this article (a) QuickBooks Online Basic ($9.95 monthly) and payroll ($9.95 monthly)or (b) QuickBooks Online Plus ($34.95 monthly) and payroll ($9.95 monthly),sometimes Intuit offers a 20% discount for Plus version. When you purchase QuickBooks Online Plus from a Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor there is an additional 20% discount available to you, which in total is a 40% savings. QuickBooks ProAdvisor discount pricing are subject to change.

Add-On for Inventory - Generally speaking, neither QuickBooks Online Basic nor QuickBooks Online Plus offers an inventory accounting package. Some companies keep their inventories in Excel and record inventory amounts monthly in QuickBooks Online. Alternatively, you can purchase inventory add-ons such as OE Companion which offers inventory accounting with a 30 day free trial or you can obtain inventory add-ons from the Intuit Market Place by going to the Intuit website. I have not reviewed any of these add-ons and make no representations or warranties as to their compatibility, effectiveness and suitability for your needs. On a plus note, Intuit is working on an inventory add on.

This article was written for the purpose of providing information to any prospective purchaser of QuickBooks Online. The article is introductory and does not attempt to assess your specific business needs. Diligence should be undertaken to carefully evaluate your particular needs by either your accountant, CPA, or a Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor before you purchase any software application or add-on.

A Comparison of QuickBooks Online Basic to QuickBooks Online Plus

2009-07-26T09:53:00.005-04:00

QuickBooks Online has three levels of online accounting choices: Simple Start(free version), Basic, and Plus. Before making your decision to use QuickBooks Online, you should decide between QuickBooks Online Basic or QuickBooks Online Plus. This article will discuss the differences between these two QuickBooks Online options. Ultimately, you are responsible for ensuring that you select the correct version which should be tailored to the business that you operate. There is also a free version called QuickBooks Online Simple Start. The free version was not considered for this analysis because of its limited capabilities. QuickBooks Online Basic will be collectively referred to as "BASIC" and QuickBooks Online Plus as "PLUS". Each major difference and brief comment regarding the option's capability is discussed below. The following article discusses the capabilities that work only with PLUS.

Importing -Plus allows you to import your Simple Start Edition, QuickBooks Online Basic, QuickBooks Pro or Premier Edition file(s) into PLUS only. Unfortunately this import feature does not work with a Mac.

Estimates - Estimates are important to avoid misunderstandings and can be created and then seamlessly imported to an invoice for billing. This feature is only available in PLUS.

Online Banking - Payments and receipts do not have to be entered into your QB register when you use Online banking. Instead of entering then, you only have to review them. When you download from your bank, QuickBooks is able to compare the bank's transactions to your transactions in QuickBooks and identifies differences. Plus assists you in managing your cash flow, because you know which checks have cleared the bank, which helps you understand how much money you have in real time. This feature is only offered in PLUS.

Exporting - With PLUS you can export transactions and balances to a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. This feature is critical for further analysis of your business.In other words, you can derive information otherwise not easily available to you. It's an important feature, that should not be be overlooked, since it adds greater reporting and after the fact analysis capabilities.

Class tracking - Within Plus classes provide a system for categorizing transactions that goes beyond the normal ways of assigning transactions to expense or income accounts. With classes, you can categorize each detail line on a transaction. This lets you write one check to the office supply store for items bought for two different business units and still track the business unit for those purchases. For example, suppose you have a consulting business and an installation business. Class tracking is ideal for you if it is typical to have purchases and sales that include both types of work. By specifying the appropriate class on each detail line, you can run a Profit & Loss by Class report that will tell you if your consulting business is more or less profitable than the installation business.

Business tracking - This feature is only in PLUS. You can use businesses to categorize data from different locations, offices, regions, or outlets of the same company. By assigning a business to each transaction as you enter it, you can later see businesses on reports. Assigning businesses also lets you efficiently manage groups of transactions.

Time tracking - With Plus you can enter your time into a time sheet when you bill by the hour i.e. consultants, website developers, SEO's, freelancers, sole proprietors, etc. This feature is only offered in PLUS.Invoicing - Adding fields to track more information on transaction forms is only in PLUS. You can create your own custom fields to include on sales forms.

Reporting and Financial Statements - BASIC provides 40 standard reports whereas PLUS provides over 65 standard reports plus customization and formatting. A comprehensive analysis in a chart format of the reporting differences can be found at Intuit's knowledge base for comparison of the QuickBooks Online Products.

Budgeting - You can use a budget to estimate future income and expenses. Moreover, PLUS budgets' uses a format similar to a spreadsheet, with a horizontal row for each of your income and expense accounts, and vertical columns for each month or quarter. This feature is only in PLUS.

1099 Reporting - The regulations of the Internal Revenue Service require that a taxpayer issue a 1099-MISC form to its workers for nonemployee compensation providing the payer is a trade or business and the payments are to a noncorporate entity were $600 or more for services rendered. This feature is only offered in PLUS.

Number of Users -BASIC provides access for one person and your accountant (2 users). However, PLUS provides access for 3 users PLUS your accountant for a total of 4 users. Plus can be expanded to 25 users for an additional cost, which is reasonable.

QuickBooks Support Services - BASIC includes support by email which is provided by Intuit as compared to PLUS support which includes callback and chat support and email support which is also provided by Intuit. PLUS support is better, but with BASIC you can resolve your questions by email.

Pricing - BASIC costs $9.99 per month as compared to PLUS which retails for $34.95 per month . However, if you purchase PLUS through a Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor you can purchase it for $21, which reflects a discount 40% discount, which is currently in effect at this time. Discounts and prices may vary in the future.

Summary - BASIC works satisfactorily for smaller companies, whereas PLUS works well for small to midsized companies. Prior to making your decision, you can test drive the software for 30 days for either or both BASIC and PLUS and, then decide which is the best software platform for your business. They are other disadvantages when considering BASIC and PLUS to a Desktop QuickBooks i.e. Pro, Premier, etc. The most significant disadvantage is that the Online versions do not provide inventory functionality. You may be able to overcome this disadvantage by purchasing an inventory add on. Prior making a decision of software selection its important for you to have a discussion with your CPA or accountant concerning which QuickBooks Online accounting package is best suited for you and your business.

Learn how QuickBooks Online provides the essential online accounting tools to manage your business and the freedom to access your financials from your office, home, or the on the road,. Sandor Lenner, C.P.A. has provided accounting services for over 35 years. He is also a Certified QuickBooks Pon the road,visor and your offices as a part-time consultant for a Miami Accounting CPA firm.

How QuickBooks Online Can Help You Save Money?

2009-07-13T12:55:00.001-04:00

QuickBooks Online(basic) or QuickBooks Online Plus can save you money,time,streamline your accounting process and maintain a proper set of books for you and always be assessable in real time no matter where you are, as long as you have internet access. You can save money if you or a family member does the bookkeeping. QuickBooks Online also provides many basic business reports that will help you understand and operate your business. QuickBooks Online gives you a real time online accounting system and reduces your bookkeeping costs, if you or someone in your family does the bookkeeping.

You can also work from home,be on vacation, or work anywhere as long as you have a PC with an internet connection. And besides saving you money, you can have accurate and timely information anytime you want.

Its just this simple:
1) Pay your bills with a check generated from your computer
2)Pay your employees. You can also offer them direct deposit
3) Prepare bills and send invoices either by mail or email
4) Make and record the deposits
5) Reconcile your checkbook

Why pay a bookkeeper to do, what you or someone in your family can do. The result is that you can substantially reduce or eliminate a bookkeeper. With QuickBooks it's simple and cost effective. Millions of companies use this accounting software. It can grow with you and the entry level version is affordable.QuickBooks Online or QuickBooks Online Plus can be set up and monitored remotely. It works interchangeably with a PC or a Mac.

There is no need to pay a bookkeeper for something you can do. No need to outsource, just do it yourself and save money.Unless you have a large accounting department, then discuss this issue with your accountant or CPA who is knowledgeable of QuickBooks. Even the Online payroll add on is affordable and easy to use.

Your accountant or CPA can review your journals, general ledgers and financials from their office and provide answers to your questions in real time, or even correct mistakes also in real time. The web enable functionality gives your CPA or accountant the technology to quickly answer your questions as they arise.

Before you do anything, it's recommended that you consult with your accounting professional or CPA who can properly evaluate whether QuickBooks Online or a remote access platform is best suited for you.

Learn how QuickBooks Online provides the online accounting tools to manage your business and the freedom to access your financials from anywhere. Sandor Lenner, C.P.A. has provided accounting services for over 35 years. He is also a Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor and works as a business advisor for a Miami Accounting CPA firm and provides QuickBooks support and QuickBooks help.

What’s better for my business, QuickBooks Online Plus or QuickBooks Pro using remote access ?

2009-05-28T21:01:00.002-04:00

The purpose of this article is to help a typical small business owner understand the differences between using the remote access capabilities with QuickBooks Pro and QuickBooks Online Plus. A less expensive QuickBooks Online version is also available, however that software is not considered for this analysis. I did consider a more robust version called, QuickBooks Online Plus. Before we address the differences, its first important to understand the term remote access. The term remote access has been with us for a long time and has emerged to mean, according to Wikipedia ,a form of communication with a data processing facility from a remote location or facility through a data link. One of the more common methods of providing this type of remote access is using a virtual private network(VPN). The definition is further enhanced by the term remote desktop, which also according to Wikipedia , refers to a software or an operating system feature allowing graphical applications to be run remotely on a server, while being displayed locally. Remote desktop applications have varying features. Some allow attaching to an existing user's session (i.e. a running desktop) and "remote controlling" it in front of the user's eyes. Whereas, according to a Google definition, online accounting relates to accounting that can be done on the World Wide Web. I agree with both definitions, however there are important differences that an owner or accountant for a small business or even a midsize business needs to consider and they are addressed below.

Generally speaking, QuickBooks Pro with remote access gives you access to your desktop QuickBooks Pro accounting program and data while the QuickBooks Pro and data resides on your server in your office or your local hard drive. Whereas QuickBooks Online Plus is a web enabled accounting package with some advantages and some disadvantages, specifically less functionality for one of the most important parts of a business namely, no inventory capabilities. To some of you this could be important and to others not so important. Simply said, the benefits and drawbacks with a general ranking of each benefit or limitation of “online accounting” with QuickBooks Online Plus as compared to QuickBooks Pro is analyzed below.

Some of the major benefits are summarized and ranked by level of importance as follows:

1. No wired network required – you can connect with WIFI from anywhere in the world that has internet access and you can connect different department or offices in multiple locations.
2. Includes up to 3 simultaneous users plus your accountant. The cost to add another 25 users is a little more than $3 per month per user.
3. Offsite daily backup at Intuit servers
4. Automatic software updates and QuickBooks help support included in cost
5. Quicker and simpler sign in – Just press your Web shortcut key

Some of the major drawbacks are summarized and ranked by level of importance as follows:

1. Does not handle inventory and purchase orders, this rules out retail, manufacturing and distribution type companies

2. Lacks multi-currency functionality

3. Unable to open multiple QuickBooks windows in QuickBooks

4. No Company snapshot/dashboard in one desktop view

In summary, the importance of having simultaneous access from any location, allows employers, employees, owners, investors to collaborate, share and make informed and timely decisions because everyone gets the same information in real time, by simply using a typical web based sign-on. There is no time learning the remote access interface for sign on, for use with the remote software. Furthermore, your accountants can review your financials, journals, general ledgers, from their own office and answer your questions or even correct mistakes in real time. Further, you can easily outsource some of your accounting functions with QuickBooks Online Plus, as long as you set up a system to review the work product of the outsourced employee.

I am very impressed with the above mentioned benefits and for these reasons if there is not a need to account for inventories or multi-currencies then my inclination is for QuickBooks Online Plus to handle a typical small businesses accounting needs. A more detailed analysis of the functionality and data entry capabilities and performance processing will be the subject of another blog topic. Even if such analysis existed, I would recommend that you consult with an accounting professional who can best evaluate whether the QuickBooks Online Plus or remote access platform is best suited for your particular situation. When evaluating this software, its also important to determine how your employees will use the software in their to day to day activities and during a test period you should evaluate the speed in which the employees are able to enter the data and the computer/web processing(performance) speed of each relevant accounting process i.e. paying vendor bills, customer invoicing, record deposits, etc.

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Sandor Lenner CPA,MBA and a Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor who works as a part-time consultant with Susan Missal Lenner, P.A. URL- www.sl-cpa.net