As I’ve often said, it is possible to save quite a bit of money on the more expensive software, such as QuickBooks and Microsoft Office, by buying them from eBay sellers.  I have saved substantial amounts of money that way over the past several years, including some times where I bought an earlier version of a program in order to be able to buy the newest version from the manufacturer at their much lower upgrade price.

The most expensive version of QuickBooks is their heavy duty Enterprise Solutions (ES), which used to come only in a 10 user version that cost $3,500.  I have been using ES for our books here since it first came out, but only because I received a free copy as part of my ProAdvisor membership. For accountants who are not ProAdvisors and who have clients using ES, it could get expensive being able to support them.  Luckily, Intuit recently started expanding the flavors of ES, offering versions for 5, 10, 15 and 20 simultaneous users, costing as much as $9,000 plus another $2,000 per year for their service plan. 

The best aspect to this product line expansion, from a purely selfish sense, has been the introduction of a special single user version for professional accountants that allows us to work with client files from any of the other larger programs.  It retails for only $849.   

I am discussing this now for an even more selfish reason.  As a beta tester for the 2008 program, Intuit sent me a free copy of this special accountant version of the newest Enterprise Solutions program.  Since I already had a copy as part of my ProAdvisor update, this redundant copy has been put up for sale on eBay by Sherry at a huge discount off of the retail price.  The auction expires next Sunday, January 6, 2008. 

Labels: QB

- posted by Kerry M. Kerstetter, MBA~CPA~ATP~ATA @ 12/31/2007 03:21:00 PM Send this post:

The IRS says taxpayers collected only half of the $8B available for the refund of phone taxes.

The form to claim this refund is very intimidating, with all of its lines and the need to have phone bill info going back into 2003. I have found that this has been another big benefit of having everything on QuickBooks and keeping multiple years running in the same file. When preparing tax returns, clients who didn't use QuickBooks have had to settle for the tiny standard amounts of $30 to $60. For those with their data in QB, going back at least into 2003, I have been able to fill in all of the necessary data in Lacerte in about 12 minutes and the credits have been averaging several hundred dollars.

More from IRS.

Form 8913

Instructions for the 8913

Labels: Credits, QB

- posted by Kerry M. Kerstetter, MBA~CPA~ATP~ATA @ 10/16/2007 12:32:00 PM Send this post:

I recently took a survey for QuickBooks on their new Client Solution Center as part of their Certified ProAdvisor program.  While I like their new data conversion tool that allows people to import data from Peachtree, Microsoft Small Business Accounting and Microsoft Office Accounting, it does have a serious limitation, which I explained as follows in the request for additional feedback.

Your conversion tool should include the ability to convert from the QB Online format to the QB desktop format.  I have always advised against using your online service because of the inability to do this, and will continue to advise against your online service until it is possible to easily move data from the online program to the desktop one.

Labels: QB

- posted by Kerry M. Kerstetter, MBA~CPA~ATP~ATA @ 7/07/2007 11:46:00 AM Send this post:

Q:

Subject: transferring data

 

I use Quickbooks Pro 2005 and just got dsl at home.  I have it on my work computer also and want to transfer data to my home computer via the internet.  Can I transfer the data on the internet, I have been using pcAnywhere to transfer via phone line, but it takes forever.  Thanks for any information.

A:

I assume you are wanting to access your QB data from both your home  and work computers.  Trying to do that over the internet is going to be a slow and messy process.  Even the official online QB service, which is designed for this kind of direct access, is much too slow for my tastes; one of my many complaints about the online service.

What you need to do is work with the QBW file directly on each computer.  This will require that after each time you work in the file, from either computer, you backup the data into a compressed QBB file.  There are several ways for you to do this and have access to the QBB file from both of your computers. 

One way would be to backup the QBB file onto a portable storage medium, such as a CD-RW disc or thumb flash drive, which you can carry with you back and forth between home and work.  You would then restore the data onto the computer you are using.

Another way, and the one we use with most of our clients, is to store the QBB file on an online storage service, such as XDrive or MyDocsOnline.  You download a copy of the latest QBB file to the computer you are working on and restore it into your QB program and then work on it all you want. When you're done, you make a new QBB copy that you upload to your online storage.  This gives you the speed of working on the file locally, with access to the data backup file from anywhere in the world. 

These obviously aren't the only ways to work with a data file on multiple computers, but they are the ones that we have been using for several years.

Good luck.  I hope this helps.

Kerry Kerstetter
 

Labels: QB

- posted by Kerry M. Kerstetter, MBA~CPA~ATP~ATA @ 6/23/2007 08:54:00 PM Send this post:

As I'm sure all professional accountants can empathize with, one of the most frustrating things when working with clients' books, even those who use QuickBooks, is their over-use of Miscellaneous categories to describe their transactions, in spite of my specific repeated warnings against doing that.

Labels: comix, QB

- posted by Kerry M. Kerstetter, MBA~CPA~ATP~ATA @ 6/15/2007 01:04:00 PM Send this post:

Q:

Subject: transferring data

 

I use Quickbooks Pro 2005 and just got dsl at home.  I have it on my work computer also and want to transfer data to my home computer via the internet.  Can I transfer the data on the internet, I have been using pcAnywhere to transfer via phone line, but it takes forever.  Thanks for any information.

A:

I assume you are wanting to access your QB data from both your home  and work computers.  Trying to do that over the internet is going to be a slow and messy process.  Even the official online QB service, which is designed for this kind of direct access, is much too slow for my tastes; one of my many complaints about the online service.

What you need to do is work with the QBW file directly on each computer.  This will require that after each time you work in the file, from either computer, you backup the data into a compressed QBB file.  There are several ways for you to do this and have access to the QBB file from both of your computers. 

One way would be to backup the QBB file onto a portable storage medium, such as a CD-RW disc or thumb flash drive, which you can carry with you back and forth between home and work.  You would then restore the data onto the computer you are using.

Another way, and the one we use with most of our clients, is to store the QBB file on an online storage service, such as XDrive or MyDocsOnline.  You download a copy of the latest QBB file to the computer you are working on and restore it into your QB program and then work on it all you want. When you're done, you make a new QBB copy that you upload to your online storage.  This gives you the speed of working on the file locally, with access to the data backup file from anywhere in the world. 

These obviously aren't the only ways to work with a data file on multiple computers, but they are the ones that we have been using for several years.

Good luck.  I hope this helps.

Kerry Kerstetter

Labels: QB

- posted by Kerry M. Kerstetter, MBA~CPA~ATP~ATA @ 5/27/2007 07:06:00 PM Send this post:

Q:

Subject: Quickbooks on your wesbite...

Kerry,
 
You mention to stay away from Quickbooks Online and Quickbooks Simple Start, however, it seems in 2007, Intuit has only three options for Quickbooks now, QB Simple Start (I believe it replaces Basic and is $80), QB Pro ( $169) and QB Premier ($319).  Which would you suggest I use then?

A:

It was pure greed on Intuit's part that made them drop the relatively inexpensive Basic version of QB, which was perfectly suitable for most users.  So, now you are correct that the least expensive version is the Pro, which is what you should buy.

I don't even consider Simple Start to be a version of QB, so stay away from it.

Having just finished a messy partnership return for clients who use the online version of QB, my disgust and hatred of that service is at an all-time high right now. The "convenience" of having the file simultaneously available to several people ended up costing the clients a lot of money for the extra time it took me to clean up the data over what it would have been if I had been able to work on a normal desktop version of QB.

Of course, any decision as to which accounting program is best for you should be made in conjunction with your personal professional tax advisor; so be sure to check with him/her first.

Good luck.

Kerry Kerstetter

Labels: QB

- posted by Kerry M. Kerstetter, MBA~CPA~ATP~ATA @ 5/27/2007 12:41:00 PM Send this post:

Q:

Subject: Using classes with Quick Books

 

It sounds like you deal a lot with rental property.   I read your article on classes. I am a HVAC contractor and would like to know if this can be useful for my business?  I need to track my service, replacement and new construction jobs for residential and commercial accounts and split the labor materials and equipment to each profit center.

 

I am taking a quick books class on line Friday 

 

Any help would be appreciated

A:

It should be fairly easy to set up QB in such a way as to give you the types of reports you need.

I don't have time to give you details on this because that process will require some one on one consulting.  You should look for a QB pro advisor on the QuickBooks.com website and see if you can find one with some experience dealing with similar situations as yours.  S/he can then help you set up the file appropriately and train you on how to enter data and produce the reports you need.

Good luck.

Kerry Kerstetter

Labels: QB

- posted by Kerry M. Kerstetter, MBA~CPA~ATP~ATA @ 5/15/2007 11:04:00 AM Send this post:

Q:

Subject: Quickbooks Question

Hello,

I have Quickbooks 2005 Basic and I need to backup just my calendar year for 06 is there a way to do that.
Please help. thanks

A:

There is no way to backup just part of the data in a QBW file.  It's all or nothing.

I'm not sure why you would even want to backup part of the file and possibly lose the rest.

If your data file is becoming too large for your computer to handle, there is an archiving function that allows you to remove the details from before a certain date that you specify.  You may want to do that for before 1/1/06 and then your file will only contain the details for 2006.  Check the QuickBooks Help function for more details on how to do this.

Good luck.  I hope this helps. 

Kerry Kerstetter

Labels: QB

- posted by Kerry M. Kerstetter, MBA~CPA~ATP~ATA @ 4/15/2007 09:47:00 PM Send this post:

Q:

Subject: I need to change a QuickBooks file name

Hey Kerry,

I have upgraded to QuickBooks Pro 2007 and loaded the files from 2002 and input all the checks from 2003 and 2004 to bring the file current. ( because I couldn't find the updated file you sent back to me from the 2003 taxes)

Now, I have the 2004 stuff entered and the files have the names associated with 2002.  I would like to change them and can't figure out how to do it and still keep them "on the radar" for QuickBooks.

If you think it's easy enough, I would appreciate your help, sent to me at home tonight as I'm just about ready to close this place down and head home to my other job. 

Gracias senor~

A:

While you are not in the QB program, use Windows Explorer or whichever file manager program you prefer (we use PowerDesk), to go into the folder where you have your data files. QB 2007 uses three data files for each company, with extensions of QBW, QBW.ND, and QBW.TLG

You can right mouse click on each file and select "Rename" to change it to whatever you  prefer.  As long as the file's extension is the same as before the change, the program will open it with no problem.

I hope this works for you.

Kerry

Labels: QB

- posted by Kerry M. Kerstetter, MBA~CPA~ATP~ATA @ 4/08/2007 11:20:00 AM Send this post:

Q:

Subject: Quickbooks Update/Conversion

Kerry:

I just got through reading your information on “Quicken vs. Quickbooks” and it was very helpful. I am a business administrator at a church just south of Nashville and we recently upgraded from Quickbooks 2002 to Quickbooks Pro 2007. We have used Quickbooks for 15 years.

Everything went great except the reports for one of our accounts will not convert over. It tells us that we will have to recreate all of the reports. We have four accounts in Quicken; Budget, Savings, Reserve and a construction pledge account. All of the reports transferred over with no problem except for the budget account. We have spent hours on the phone with Intuit support and they have not really been helpful. About the only thing we can get out of them is that since our reports are set up on a cash basis instead of an accrual basis they will not convert over. This is not really accurate since the other three accounts are all set up on a cash basis and all of the reports converted over just fine. 

The budget account is our largest account and has the most reports that are set up so this will be a major pain to redo all of the reports.

Any thoughts you might have on this? Have you seen this before and if so do you know a solution?

Thanks,

A:

I don't have any easy solutions for this kind of problem. Having been through very similar situations myself - especially going from Quicken to QB - I do want to share my experiences. 

First, I only work with Cash basis reports and have in fact been quite frustrated with the way in which most Intuit reports start off as Accrual and make us modify them to reflect Cash.

The first time I had the kind of problem you mentioned, I ended up spending hours and hours researching online tech support, user forums and having phone calls with Intuit.  The end result was the same as you had; the reports had to be set up from scratch in the newer program. However, when I did that, it only took about 15 minutes to set up the new report, and it turned out to be much more useful than the original one in the older program.

Needless to say, I was kicking myself for wasting so much time trying to iron out the automatic conversion process when it took so little time to just set up a new report from scratch.  Now, when I encounter similar problems, I just automatically design a new report form scratch to give the same info I want.  These usually only take about five minutes to do.

I'm sure this wasn't the answer you were hoping for; but if you were to just set up your reports, starting with the pre-configured ones in the new version of QB you are using, you will find that it takes much less time than you thought it would.

Good luck.

Kerry Kerstetter

Follow-Up:

Thanks for your response Kerry...That is what I figured and we will start making the new reports. We, like you, spent way too much time

trying to solve the problem when we could have recreated the reports by now.

 

God bless...

Labels: QB

- posted by Kerry M. Kerstetter, MBA~CPA~ATP~ATA @ 4/03/2007 11:55:00 AM Send this post:

Q:

Subject: Quicken versus Quick Books

 

KMK:

 

I liked your comparison of Quicken vs QB on the webpage http://www.taxguru.org/qb/qbvsquicken.htm as I am considering that exact question now for a non-profit (daycare) company.  I have been doing books for a church on Quicken for a number of years and have found it satisfactory but I admit that I may not know what I'm missing.

 

I have a question about QB that maybe you can answer for me.  Can QB exchange files with an earlier edition of QB?  I know that the 2002 version of Quicken that I am available with will not do a "Save to an earlier version of Quicken."

 

Thanks for your time,

A:

QB data files have always been the same as Quicken's.  You can roll them forward to a newer version of the program, but can't roll them backwards to an older version.  Thus, you need to be careful of upgrading data files, because you can't go back after you've moved forward.

I hope this helps.

Good luck.

Kerry Kerstetter

Labels: QB

- posted by Kerry M. Kerstetter, MBA~CPA~ATP~ATA @ 3/30/2007 10:55:00 PM Send this post:

Q:

As far as changing the payroll taxes from the payroll expense account, should I go into payroll item lists and edit each account and create one new account called "Payroll Taxes" for all the different taxes or create an account for each tax? Or create sub accounts for each tax under a payroll tax account?

A:

For the QB payroll set-up, it is completely customizable, starting from how the program comes, with all of the liabilities lumped together and all of the payroll related costs lumped together. 

At a minimum, we need to separate out the gross wages from the payroll taxes because one of the basic reviews IRS does is a match between the wages expense deducted on the corp tax return and the total from the W-2s for the year.

For reconciliation purposes, I like to have sub-accounts that tie into the tax forms.  On the expense side, I like to set up a sub-account called Payroll Taxes under the main Taxes expense account.  Then, under the Payroll Taxes account, there should be a sub-account for each payroll tax form:
941 (FICA + Medicare)  
940 (FUTA)
SUI (State Unemployment)

Then, those company expense items in the payroll item list should be edited to be mapped to their new sub-accounts.  Items reflecting withholdings from the employees' checks, such as Fed and State income taxes and their share of FICA + Medicare, should not be mapped to the expense accounts. Those need to be mapped to the appropriate liability accounts.

Similar to the sub-accounts for the payroll tax expenses, I like to have sub-accounts under the Payroll Liabilities accounts that correspond to the various tax forms:
941 (FICA + Medicare + FITW)
940 (FUTA)
SUI
SITW

The balances in these accounts can then be reconciled at the end of each month to agree with the payments that need to be sent in.

I hope this isn't too confusing.  Until a few years ago, I was actually able to make all of these changes in my QBX version of client files.  For some reason, the QB programmers removed that capability a few versions ago, and those changes can only be done on the master QBW file.

Assuming the program hasn't been changed too much, if you make those edits to the payroll items now, they will be effective for all payroll entries in your data file, including all prior years.  This will make doing the 2006 1120S even easier.

Kerry

Labels: QB

- posted by Kerry M. Kerstetter, MBA~CPA~ATP~ATA @ 3/03/2007 12:21:00 PM Send this post:

Q:

Subject: Quickbooks for Investing

 

I noticed that you stated QB is fine for recording investments and don't need Quicken's ability to track fluxuating values in the stock.  I agree, and from a business point of view, your costs don't change daily and remained fixed.  When you sell the stock, you derive your COGS from this data.

 

However, I noticed that you didn't mention other costs associated with the purchase and sale of individual blocks of stock, such as commissions paid on purchase and on sale?  How well does QB record this information.  Do I have to do a PO every time I buy and a Invoice every time I sell, just to have a place to add commissions to the costs, or does QB have an easier way to handle this?

 

Thanks!

A:

When you make the entries for stock purchases, you need to post the total cost, including commissions.

When you sell stocks, you can either post the gross sales price to the SalePrice Income account and the Expenses to a sub-account for selling costs under that; or just enter the net sales price (gross less commissions) into the SalePrice account.  Since more and more 1099-Bs from brokers are reporting the net sales price instead of the gross price, the latter approach may be easier when it comes to reconciling the QB reports to the 1099-Bs.

Your professional tax advisor should be able to help you set up the accounts and sub-accounts in your QB file that will enable him/her to more efficiently prepare your Schedule D.

I have been posting these transactions through checks, deposits and general journal entries.  I have never used POs or invoices to do this. 

Good luck.  I hope this helps.

Kerry Kerstetter

Labels: QB

- posted by Kerry M. Kerstetter, MBA~CPA~ATP~ATA @ 2/11/2007 08:01:00 PM Send this post:

Q-1:

Subject: Multiple Quicken files

 

Dear kerry

I read your web site and blog with great interest.  I use Quicken 2006 DeLuxe for my personal finances on one machine, and I also use it on an older machine to keep books for our home owners association.  The old machine is on it's last leg and I was thinking of trying to do them both one one machine.  I couldn't find anything in Quicken help on how to do it.  I first thought I could create a seperate directory and do a backup and restore, but was afraid the data would get comingled.  Would this work?  And what about all the saved reports, and categories, etc.   I hope you can help.  thanks.

A-1:

You can have an unlimited number of company Quicken files on the same computer and switch back and forth between them.  Before I made all of our clients upgrade to QuickBooks, most of them were on Quicken and I had hundreds of their files on my computer.  I like to set up separate folders for each client just for ease of locating; but each client folder had multiple Quicken data files, covering their personal and corporate finances, as well as multiple years.  As long as each company file has a different name, the program doesn't mix them up.

So, all you need to do is copy the Quicken data files to your new computer, either directly or via Backup & Restore.

Good luck.

Kerry Kerstetter

Q-2:

Kerry

I really appreciate you quick response.   Thanks so much.  Do the reports, categories, etc follow the data files?  That is, are the reports, categories, etc. for my personal quicken file seperate from the ones for the homeowner reports?

A-2:

Each file will have its own saved reports and other data, with no reference to any of the other files.  There is no commingling of any kind between the data files because you can only have one open at a time.

As I said, I used to have literally hundreds of different Quicken client data files on my computer and would switch back and forth between them with no problems.  It's that way currently with QuickBooks data files.

Good  luck.

Kerry

Follow-Up:

Kerry

Thanks a lot for helping.  If I could, I'd steer some business your way.

 

 

Labels: QB

- posted by Kerry M. Kerstetter, MBA~CPA~ATP~ATA @ 2/02/2007 10:45:00 AM Send this post:

Q:

Subject: Stocks

 

Kerry,

 

I have made the dividend entries as I understand your instructions.  Of course the balance in QuickBooks does not agree with the balance on the statement for this account.  Since I only pay tax on the dividend income, I assume this in not a problem.

  

P.S.  I see my question made your newsletter so I don't feel too dumb!

A:

Most non-accountants are confused as to the proper way of handling reinvested dividends; so I thought your question was perfect for educating others.

If you are referring to the market value of the shares, you are correct that the stockbroker's statement will not match the figures in your QB because QB is strictly a record of your cost basis, or what you have invested into the shares.

However, the dividend income reported by the stockbroker for the previous year should match what you have in your QB and is the most important way we have of double-checking the accuracy of the QB data.

Kerry

Follow-Up:

Kerry,

 

My dad just had his 88th birthday.  He is a retired accountant so I thought you might enjoy seeing his reply.

He is much better on the computer than I am.  He teaches classes at the senior center!

Thanks for sending Kerry's reply.  I am impressed with him and his explanation.

Your QB is more detailed and accurate, as he said.

Over the years I have become accustomed to the automatic steps taken by

Quicken and MS Money and forgot I ever used a General and other Journals.

In MS Money,  my portfolio page shows in each investment the number of

shares owned,  The total value as of the last entry date and the amount

of gain.  This is a backward way to arrive at the investment cost, but

arrives at the same answer.

 

 

Labels: QB

- posted by Kerry M. Kerstetter, MBA~CPA~ATP~ATA @ 1/28/2007 07:05:00 PM Send this post:

Q-1:

Subject: Quicken

 

I googled a question that I had to do with categorizing multiple business income/expense transactions in the same file without having to make subcategories galore. Your site came up and I want to thank you for your tips that helped me sort out these issues. For some reason I never thought of using classes for that.

A-1:

I'm glad you found that tip useful.  I'm actually amazed at how many people still overlook the ability of Classes in Quicken and QuickBooks to easily handle several different businesses in one data file. 

Good luck.

Kerry Kerstetter

Q-2:

Thanks for your response. I do have one related question.

Because we provide childcare, I need to send a report to each client at the end of the year and have used classes to separate them. If I isolate the different business accounts with classes, the Deposits I record will not appear because the transactions are split in classes for each client (Income:Private Clients/name) under each deposit.  Is it suggested to record deposits in a separate account then record the total deposit again in the business account applied to, or do you know of another way?

Thanks.

A-2:

It shouldn't be necessary to double enter anything ion order to be able to produce those reports.  I used to print those out with Quicken with no problem.

Unfortunately, it has been so long since I've done anything with Quicken files except covert them to QuickBooks that I am too rusty on the detailed steps to be able to explain how to produce your desired reports. 

This also brings up the fact that you would be better off upgrading to QuickBooks for the reasons I laid out in this article a long time ago.  You wouldn't lose any of your data and it would allow you a number of different ways to produce the detailed client/customer reports you are having problems with in Quicken.

Good luck.  I'm sorry I couldn't be more help.

Kerry Kerstetter

Labels: QB

- posted by Kerry M. Kerstetter, MBA~CPA~ATP~ATA @ 1/06/2007 04:44:00 PM Send this post:

Q:

Subject: Stocks

 

Kerry,

 

I am trying to straighten out a stock account that my dad gave me in 2004.

 

He says with Quicken and Microsoft Money he can enter a dividend payment showing the number of shares and the price paid for them and the entire shares held are updated to that price.  Thereby keeping it up to date of the last purchase.  Is there a way to do that on Quickbooks? 

A:

For reinvested dividends in QB, you need to use the general journal to make entries where you credit the Dividend Income account and debit the asset account for the stock.  This will keep a running tally of the total amount you have invested in those shares and accurately reflect your actual cost basis. 

If you sell all of the shares at one time, we can just apply the total amount in that account against the sales price to get your gain or loss. 

If you only sell part of your holdings, we have to manually take the total amount in the account and divide it by the total number of shares you owned before selling some off to compute the average price per share and then make the appropriate journal entry for the number of shares you sold. 

QB isn't as automated as Quicken is in regard to tracking stocks; but it is actually a lot more accurate in keeping the proper documentation of the correct cost basis.  Quicken too frequently inflates the book values of stocks to their market values, which is wrong to do before you actually sell the stock.  This is one of the many reasons why I prefer QuickBooks over Quicken. 

I hope this isn't too confusing.  Let me know if you need any more help in understanding this.

Kerry

Follow-Up:

Thanks.  I will do my best!

Labels: QB

- posted by Kerry M. Kerstetter, MBA~CPA~ATP~ATA @ 1/02/2007 08:13:00 PM Send this post:

Q:

Kerry:

What do you think about the new versions of Quickbooks as I am thinking of upgrading. Do you like the online version?
 
Thanks
 

So far, the 2007 QB program has been working well.  I have been using it for our stuff and haven't had any problems.  It's supposed to have a more powerful Accountant's Review capability, but I haven't had any clients use it yet. 

In spite of Intuit's heavy promotion, I have never been a supporter of their online QB service because the data is not transferable to the desktop program, making users prisoners.  I have told them for several years that  I would be more willing to recommend their service if the data could flow in both directions.  I reviewed the service in my blog a few years ago.

In spite of that, I do have one client in Oklahoma who has been using the online version for a partnership for a couple of years and I have used it to prepare a couple years of partnership tax returns.  They like it because everyone can have access to the data without having to send files back and forth.  While I was able to get enough data for the tax returns, I found it much more difficult to work with than the desktop program and I am still advising against its use.  It also still has al of the limitations I mentioned in 2004.

I hope this helps.

Kerry

Labels: QB

- posted by Kerry M. Kerstetter, MBA~CPA~ATP~ATA @ 11/14/2006 11:25:00 AM Send this post:

The Sleeter Group has some good info on the new features of the latest version of QuickBooks.

New Features of QuickBooks 2007

Awesome QuickBooks Add-ons for 2007

Labels: QB

- posted by Kerry M. Kerstetter, MBA~CPA~ATP~ATA @ 10/31/2006 09:50:00 AM Send this post:

Q:

Subject: Question re Quick Books 2007

 Kerry,

You said in last weeks E-Mail to upgrade to 2007 so I am

 

I checked the QB website and they said for me to upgrade to Pro 2007 (the Basics edition was phased out in 2006) will cost $199.00 as an upgrade.

 

Is there any place to get it cheaper than that?   I thought if you already owned QB, you could download a cheaper update than $199.00....should I check Sam's Club and just buy the software again? 

 

Thanks for your suggestion,

A:

2005 was the last year they sold the basic version. That was a shame because it did everything we needed for tax return purposes, so I always recommended that one.  I guess Intuit was so upset that so many buyers were choosing that inexpensive version that they had to dump it in order to squeeze more money out of buyers who now only have the Pro version on the lowest price end.

$199 is the regular retail price.  Historically, it's always been possible to beat the normal retail prices  at warehouse clubs, eBay and via the banner ads on my websites.

As a test, I just checked those prices and here's what I came up with.

Sam's Club shows it as available on 10/16/06 for $158.18.

Clicking the square banner on my blog, it had the Pro 2007 program as $169.96.

 An eBay search came up with a bid price of $120 and a BuyItNow price of $169.99.

Since you have a Sam's Club right there in Springfield, I would probably pick it up there and not have to worry about shipping costs.  We have to drive 1.5 hours to reach a Sam's in person, so I would probably buy it from them online.

I hope this helps.

Kerry
 

Follow-up:

Kerry,

 

Sam's Club in Springfield did not have the 2007 version, but were selling the 2006 Pro QB for $149.98......I'll go online and see if I can buy it....

 

thanks for the info.

Labels: QB

- posted by Kerry M. Kerstetter, MBA~CPA~ATP~ATA @ 10/09/2006 09:40:00 PM Send this post:

Q:

Subject: Big Red Consulting / Quickbooks Question

 

Hi Kerry -

 

Came across your comments on your website concerning Big Red Consulting's tool to transfer transaction files between companies and was looking to purchase that. I am, however, always a bit hesitant on downloading a third party tool that comes in contact with company files etc. Also curious on your experience on this tools functionality.

 

- Essentially have two copies of the same company and need to update one computer with some but not all transactions for some vendors (payments, address changes etc) and also invoices. Simply said Computer A contains 90% of the invoice/payment transactions but need to update it with the 10% that is on Computer B without wiping out/replacing the 90% info that is on Computer A.

 

The Big Red website seems to indicate that this is what this tool is designed to do but wanted to see what your experience is on this.

 

Very much appreciate any feedback on this...just want to be sure to get the right tool the first time.

 

Best Regards,

A:

I purchased my first programs from Big Red in April 2002 and have never had any problems when using them.  They have always performed as advertised.  Neither have I ever heard of any problems from others who I have advised to use those programs to perform their specialized tasks.

To be on the safe side and to protect the integrity of your original data files, it would be a good idea to make copies of them to work with in any process that you may be unsure of.  That way, you will always have to option of going back to the pre-modified state.

I hope this helps you feel more comfortable in utilizing the handy tools that Bid Red has for working with QB files.

Good luck.

Kerry Kerstetter

Follow-Up:

Thanks Kerry - Appreciate you get getting back to me.

Labels: QB

- posted by Kerry M. Kerstetter, MBA~CPA~ATP~ATA @ 10/07/2006 02:22:00 PM Send this post:

Exchange, review and adjust a range of transactions in the client's prior period accounting using the All New Accountant's Copy and they can continue working in their ongoing QuickBooks files. After your receive the Accountant's Copy from the client you can:

Add, edit and delete most transactions in the prior period

Add new transactions

Add and edit the chart of accounts

Add new customers, vendors and items

While you work in the Accountant's Copy clients can continue to work in their QuickBooks files but are restricted from making changes to the periods you are working on. Send your adjustments back to clients, and then they can review and automatically integrate them into their files.

Labels: QB

- posted by Kerry M. Kerstetter, MBA~CPA~ATP~ATA @ 9/30/2006 04:26:00 PM Send this post:

I just received notification from Intuit that the 2007 programs will start shipping to us Certified Pro Advisors on October 2, 2006. This is almost a month and a half earlier than the 2006 programs were shipped out last year.

I like to pass this along for the benefit of those who are considering buying copies of the “latest” version, either as first time users or upgraders.

Intuit has posted some info on the new 2007 versions:

Premier Accountant Edition

Premier

Pro

Labels: QB

- posted by Kerry M. Kerstetter, MBA~CPA~ATP~ATA @ 9/14/2006 09:41:00 PM Send this post:

As has been quite obvious, I am a huge fan of the QuickBooks programs and try to pass along any tips and useful guides that I come across. I was a little concerned about the reliability of this CD-ROM self study course because both the email that I received advertising it and the table of contents that you can click on from their website have the following picture:

For anyone unclear on why this would concern me, while Microsoft did attempt to purchase Intuit 15 or so years ago, that was shot down by the Feds on anti-trust grounds and QuickBooks has always been produced by Intuit, a company completely unrelated to Bill Gates' behemoth. I wonder about what else isn't accurate in a course about QuickBooks if they can't even keep this basic fact straight.

Labels: QB

- posted by Kerry M. Kerstetter, MBA~CPA~ATP~ATA @ 9/07/2006 03:24:00 PM Send this post:

Q:

 Subject: Quicken Question...

I have Quicken 2005 and haven't figured out how to make it do a particular thing.  Maybe you can help me with it.

Let's say I have 4 different accounts:

 

Child 1 (10%)

Child 2 (20%)

Spouse (30%)

Self (40%)

 

I want to create a transaction say of $1000 into Quicken (somehow) and have it split the $1000 out by the percentages and place the money into each account.

 

Child 1 ($100)

Child 2 ($200)

Spouse ($300)

Self ($400)

 

When a certain person uses their money, it should come from their account and they should not be able to draw out more than is in their account.

 

Do you know of any way to do this?

 

Thanks,

A:

There may or may not be a way in which to automate what you want in Quicken.  Having switched all of our clients over to QuickBooks, I haven't used Quicken in so long I can't advise anyone on this.

The best thing would be to work with your professional tax and accounting advisor, specifying what kinds of reports and other info you are looking to be able to produce. S/he should then be able to help you tweak your accounting program in such a way as to accomplish that goal.  You should already be providing your tax return data to him/her via your Quicken data files; so this wouldn't be something entirely new for him/her to help you with.

Good luck.

Kerry Kerstetter

Follow-Up:

Kerry,

Thanks for the information and for taking the time to answer my question.

I'll check with an accountant to see if such a thing can be done.

Thanks again,

Labels: QB

- posted by Kerry M. Kerstetter, MBA~CPA~ATP~ATA @ 8/30/2006 03:45:00 PM Send this post:

When to Use Portable Company Files in QuickBooks 2006 – It’s taken a while, but more and more clients are finally learning to use this new smaller file format instead of  the old QBB they have been used to for the past several years. 

Labels: QB

- posted by Kerry M. Kerstetter, MBA~CPA~ATP~ATA @ 8/22/2006 04:08:00 PM Send this post:

Q:

Subject: BACKUP RESTORE PROBLEM

 

PLEASE CAN YOU HELP ME WITH THIS PROBLEM THAT I AM HAVING WITH MY BACK UP QBB FILE,I RECENTLY HAD TO DO A COMPLETE INSTALL OF MY OS  AND HAD TO INSTALL QBOOKS 2006 AGAIN NOW I CANT RESTORE MY BACKUP FILE IT SAYS UNABLE TO DERTERMINE VERSION ON QBB FILE AND WILL NOT RESTORE BACK UP PLEASE HELP THANK YOU

A:

It sounds as if you didn't run the "Update QuickBooks" function after you reinstalled the program.

If the QBB file had been made with an up to date version of QB 2006, it might not be accessible with an un-updated version.  Some of the changes they make during a version's year on the market are major enough to cause problems like the one you have.

After you have the program install all of its to-date updates, try to restore the QBB file and you should have better luck.

Let me know if this works for you.

Kerry Kerstetter

 

Labels: QB

- posted by Kerry M. Kerstetter, MBA~CPA~ATP~ATA @ 8/19/2006 12:22:00 PM Send this post: