Friday, December 30, 2011

New QuickBooks 2012



The newest release of QuickBooks became available for download as of September 26, 2011 and will be available for purchase in stores as of October 9, 2011.


I must say there are some pretty cool new features that will definitely come in handy for your business.


Because Your Time Is Valuable


Remember the interview process when you first setup QuickBooks? In previous versions, the setup process required the completion of 20-40 questions making it really time consuming to get started (and somewhat stressful having to find all the answers). I always skipped and built the file from scratch. Having used QuickBooks since its first versions, I found this faster than answering the questions. They have now made it much simpler by asking only 3-4 questions. It’s straight forward and saves you time. Woo hoo!


A Better Visual


Along with an improved To-Do List, you can now view invoices, bills, and other important to-dos in a calendar view. Instead of pulling a report to view what has already been entered and when it is due, you can easily view it on the calendar. The calendar does not export or import with other calendars.


No Better Relationship


Excel is one of the major competitors to many bookkeeping software programs, but QuickBooks allows you to integrate with it by exporting reports to spreadsheets you can format as you please. QuickBooks now gives you another reason to export current data to an Excel spreadsheet. If you have an Excel sheet that is formatted and customized with fonts and colors, you can update the spreadsheet with QuickBooks data without compromising your formatting. This is one of the 2 features I’m most excited about since I use Excel with QuickBooks extensively.


A Reporting Community


The ability to create customized reports in QuickBooks has always been a great feature. The reports are the reason to even use QuickBooks to do your accounting. If you don’t know how to run reports, using QuickBooks it’s pretty dull and it defeats the purpose. Reports answer your day-to-day management questions, they are the best tool to make decisions and to check on your progress. Now, they offer even more choices with their Contributed Reports Library. QuickBooks now allows other QuickBooks users to upload reports so they can be shared with other users. They verify them prior to distribution, but once approved they become available in the library. Users know their popularity by their rating from other users. Initially, the library will start out with 1,000 reports.


A Future CRM?


In the past QuickBooks had a very simple program called Customer Manager that somewhat integrated with your current QuickBooks file. The program didn’t have success and it was discontinued. From my own experience using it, I was not surprised when it was pulled off the market. It seems QuickBooks has integrated similar CRM features within the dashboard inside your file. This is the 2nd feature I’m most excited about as I have struggled with finding the right CRM program for years. I’m impressed by how close QuickBooks is to becoming an all-in-one CRM integrated with Accounting with new features like the new Lead Center and Document Center.


The Lead Center lets you import current leads, track and follow up with sales leads and when they become a customer, move them in to the customer center. It can’t get any easier than that!


The Document Center is a great organizational tool (especially for tax time) because it allows you to simply drag and drop estimates, receipts, and other files to invoices and customer files. And no need to worry about storage because QuickBooks includes local storage with your purchase.


Now or Later?


Memorized Transactions is not a new feature, but one that has been improved. Memorized Transactions can be setup for recurring billing, invoices and estimates. Now you can review and process each transaction individually and also select which transactions to run now or later. You can also set up bi-monthly processing. I’m always so surprised to find clients that have been using QuickBooks for years and have no idea they can memorize transactions they enter over and over again. It saves you tons of time!


No Extra Work

The new Batch Timesheet feature allows you to enter the same timesheet for multiple employees that worked the same hours.




Friday, December 16, 2011

Accountants Versus CPAs


CPA or Certified Public Accountant and Accountant perform almost the same duties. But the fact is that all accountants cannot be Certified Public Accounts whereas all CPA’s are accountants.
An accountant is a person who looks after financial records. An accountant would have good knowledge about owner’s equity, cash flow, chart of accounts and balance sheet and how these are going to affect the business.
An accountant is responsible for the accounting works of an individual or a business firm. It is the accountant’s responsibility to issue financial reports. Accountants need not be certified professionals.
On the other hand, CPA is a professional who is regulated by the state. An accountant can become a CPA only if he passes certain tests conducted by the respective Institutes of a country. Though the requirements to become a certified Public Accountant varies from one state to another, the basic thing is that one has top undergo rigorous tests to qualify to become a certified profession.
When comparing the works of both the professions, an accountant cannot do the work that a Certified Public Accountant can do.
An accountant cannot do the same work as a Certified Public Accountant whereas a CPA can do all work of the accountant. Unlike the Accountant, the Certified Public Accountant has a higher position in the financial and business circles. It is the Certified Public Accounts who are capable of advising on the financial aspects of a company. The CPA are trusted more than an accountant in financial matters. Even if an accountant’s views are valued, the last word is always from a Certified Public Accountant.
More than passing the test, the CPAs have to flow a strict code of ethics. Every two-year, the CPAs should have to complete 80 hours of professional education to keep up the new trends in accounting.
Summary
1. All accountants cannot be Certified Public Accounts whereas all CPA’s are accountants.
2. An accountant cannot do the work that a Certified Public Accountant can do.
3. It is the Certified Public Accounts who are capable of advising on the financial aspects of a company.
4. The CPA are trusted more than an accountant in financial matters.
5. Even if an accountant’s views are valued, the last word is always from a Certified Public Accountant.
6. CPA is a professional who is regulated by the state.
7. It is the Certified Public Accounts who are capable of advising on the financial aspects of a company more than an accountant.

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