Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Intuit — QuickBooks Premier

888-729-1996
From the June/July Review of Small Business Accounting Systems

Many factors contribute to QuickBooks being the most widely used small business accounting software in the world, with more than 3.7 million businesses in the United States alone, and with 250,000 professional accountants using a QuickBooks product. Being one of the earlier companies to market with such a system gained Intuit a strong foothold, but over the past 15 years the technology vendor has continued to improve its QuickBooks line, providing the ease-of-use components required by its user base, while also developing the accounting backend to the system in a way that would keep professional accountants satisfied. QuickBooks is now offered in several variations, with the primary off-the-shelf versions being QuickBooks Pro and QuickBooks Premier, while the low-end free Simple Start provides bare-bones bookkeeping for the smallest entities, and Intuit’s QuickBooks Enterprise provides a more scalable and robust alternative for companies outgrowing the capabilities of Pro and Premier. This review focuses on QuickBooks Premier, which is available in versions for several specific industries, including Accountants, Contractors, Manufacturers/Wholesalers, Nonprofits, Professional Services and Retailers. The system costs $449.95 for a single license; it costs $1,199.95 for a license that supports three concurrent users. QuickBooks supports up to five concurrent users with the purchase of additional licenses. QuickBooks also develops numerous add-on modules like payroll, point-of-sale, credit card acceptance and marketing, while additional options are offered for specific niche markets, including e-commerce, shipping management, website development, remote access, CRM and strengthened inventory.

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Online Accounting Tools Still Come Up Short

Thursday, May 22, 2008; Page D03

Few types of desktop software should be readier for replacement by the Web than personal finance.

The concept behind these programs is sound: Track your income and expenses through automatic downloads from banks, credit card issuers and other financial institutions to show where your money's coming and going, and how much of it you're likely to have later on.

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