It doesn’t matter what size or type of business you have, if you’re in business then you have business finances to deal with. In this regard you have two options. You can hire an accountant and pay a lot of money or you can try and do it yourself. Now most businesses I know want to make as much money as possible and payout as little as possible, this alone makes doing your own business finances an appealing proposition. However, if you aren’t careful you can cause many more headaches for yourself, headaches that could cost you more than the money you saved. So I think most people that are thinking about doing their own business finances want to make it as goof proof and as easy as possible. To that end your only real option is Intuits QuickBooks small and medium business finance software.

 

QuickBooks is powerful, yet easy to use, this is important for that preventing costly headaches thing. It has all of the features that a small and medium business could want or need. It has plenty of help for those that have no idea what they are doing and that coupled with its clean user friendly interface makes it a great choice.

 

But, as an added benefit the data you enter in to QuickBooks over the year can easily be taken in to Turbo Tax so that doing your yearly business taxes is easier, faster and more accurate. In fact using the information in QuickBooks you can even get an idea of what tax time is going to cost you or how much you might be getting back. Even if you decide not to do your own taxes most tax preparation companies can still put your QuickBooks data to very good use which could save you a little money when it comes time to pay the tax preparer.

 

How QuickBooks Can Help You:

 

• Work flexibly with specialized tools for tracking inventory assemblies, creating purchase orders, setting multiple price levels, and accessing your data via the Web.
• Plan for success with a built-in business plan builder, Expert Analysis tool, forecasting and budgeting.
• Manage customers, vendors, and employees easily with access to contact information, balances, and transaction histories—all in one simple screen in the Customer Center, Vendor Center, and Employee Center.
• Boost efficiency with direct access to key tasks and information from the new simplified Home Page.
• Multi-User Pack available for up to 5 simultaneous users.
  Organize everything in one place, including sales, expenses, business loans, and more.
• Share data with Microsoft Office applications including Excel, Word, and Outlook, to save time and help reduce errors.
• Get all the tools you need in one package: Pay bills, print checks, track expenses, create customized estimates, invoices, purchase orders and reports – track time, job costs, and more.
• Start fast and get help when you need it, with built-in tutorials, onscreen help, and free QuickBooks callback support for 30 days following registration.
• Guaranteed easy — or your money back! QuickBooks is the financial management solution recommended by more accountants than any other, and we guarantee your satisfaction or your money back.

 

QuickBooks just keeps getting better and better. With the changes made to QuickBooks home page and the new customer center, vendor center, employee center and payroll centers not only has QuickBooks gotten better is has gotten easier and more “headache” proof as well.

• Improved setup interview. QuickBooks 2006 slashes setup screens by up to 80 percent so users could start using QuickBooks in as few as 30 minutes. When business owners first use it, they start by answering simple questions in a step-by-step interview. Throughout the setup process, the language is clear and simple, but if there’s ever a term or concept someone doesn’t understand, there’s help available every step of the way. Based on the way a business owner answers the set up interview, the QuickBooks Home page is customized for the specific needs of that business.
• Step-by-step help. QuickBooks gives users all the help needed to confidently complete their tasks. The QuickBooks Learning Center, available immediately after the interview, uses interactive tutorials to explain fundamental QuickBooks concepts and shows users how to use the program for their particular business. Plus, the Help feature allows users to enter questions in their own words and provides detailed help, tips and troubleshooting information.
• New Home page. The new Home page provides users a clickable, graphical overview of their key tasks and shows how they are related -- all on one page. It’s so easy to navigate that they’re never more than two clicks away from their most important activities. From the Home page, users can also see key account balances, further customize QuickBooks, change preferences and add products and services that work with QuickBooks.
• New Customer Center. The new Customer Center provides users with the ability to view add and edit all their customer information and transactions from one simple screen. Users can easily see all their customers and what they owe. Click on a customer’s name and immediately see all their entire transaction history, contact information and payment terms. The new Customer Center also lets users easily find all customers with open balances by selecting this choice from a dropdown list. It’s never been easier to maintain vital business relationships with customers.
• New Vendor Center. The new Vendor Center gives users an unprecedented look at all their vendors and exactly what they owe them from one simple screen. So without running separate reports or going to different screens, users can see exactly how much business they’re doing with each individual vendor. If a vendor calls to follow-up on a payment, quickly look up the bill, when it was paid and the check number it was paid with. It’s easier than ever to pay bills and provide vendors the information they need.
• New Employee Center. The Employee Center, like the Customer and Vendor Centers, makes it easier for users to find, locate and manage all employee data and payroll history. From one simple screen users can add employees, and track employee personnel and payroll information.
• New Payroll Center. With a subscription to QuickBooks Payroll, users can use the all-in-one view of the Payroll Center to easily pay employees, taxes and other payroll-elated liabilities, as well as file tax forms, and manage and track payroll expenses. With this service, users also get updates to tax tables and federal/state forms to stay in compliance.
• Improved customer and vendor management features. New customer and vendor list filtering and search capabilities provide significantly more control over customer lists, providing faster access to key information. Plus, users can now store multiple shipping addresses and e-mails per customer or vendor.
• Comprehensive financial management. QuickBooks: Pro and Premier Editions include all the QuickBooks functionality to complete routine tasks much more quickly. Paying vendors is as simple as filling out familiar on-screen checks. When users need to create a new invoice, they click a button and choose the products or services they want to invoice. As they use QuickBooks to create invoices, pay bills and enter expenses, all the data will be there to see and use at any time. Quickly run reports to get insight into the business and be ready for tax time in minutes.
• Easily generate customized reports. With QuickBooks, the status of a user’s business will never be a mystery. They can always see just what’s happening by generating clear and specific reports. Because every business is different, QuickBooks includes more than 120 tailored reports, which are searchable from the Report Center, to give users insight from every angle. And it’s simple to customize reports to focus on specific data.
• Give simultaneous access to multiple users as a business grows. Up to five users can work in QuickBooks: Pro and Premier Editions simultaneously across a local area network (LAN). Separate access permissions and passwords are easily configured. Five-User Value Packs are available for even greater value.
• Create and customize a business plan. Using existing QuickBooks data to easily create a business plan with 3-year projected financial statements and export it to PDF format for effortless distribution or to Microsoft Excel for further analysis. A plan review feature helps to ensure that a user’s plan is complete and accurate. *Premier only.
• Compare a business against industry standards. Using the Expert Analysis tool, users can assess performance trends for their company in important areas such as Profits, Sales, Borrowing and Liquidity, compared to updated data on companies with similar revenues (over 130 industries to choose from). *Premier only.
• Easily transfer data to and from Microsoft® Excel and Word. For years QuickBooks has integrated with Microsoft Excel and Word to easily share data and print memos and envelopes. When importing from Excel, users can simply assign columns in Excel spreadsheet to corresponding QuickBooks fields. To export to Excel, users need only to select the desired worksheet and QuickBooks automatically fills it in, replacing existing data with the new QuickBooks data. Users can save preferences for both importing and exporting and use them over and over again. In Word, business owners can easily create letters for collecting overdue payments and print envelopes using Word, without having to re-enter any data.
• Improved synchronization with Microsoft Outlook contacts. No more re-entering contact or job information in multiple places. With the new QuickBooks Contact Sync for Outlook, business owners can manage their data more easily and get in touch with customers and vendors faster. Simply download the free QuickBooks Contact Sync tool from the Intuit website and a “synchronize” icon will be added to the Outlook toolbar. Users can click once on this icon whenever they want to sync customer, vendor or job information between QuickBooks and Outlook.
• QuickBooks Add-On applications. For more specialized tasks or tasks specific to an industry, QuickBooks has an extensive community of developers who have built more than 400 applications that work with QuickBooks. Seamlessly sharing data with these applications provides the power, ease and comprehensive functionality of QuickBooks, plus the unique benefits of the Add-On applications, without ever having to enter data twice. QuickBooks Add-Ons (sold separately).
• Improved item management. For product based businesses such as wholesalers, manufacturers, and distributors, users can save time with inventory management and reporting to easily manage items in QuickBooks. They can now enter manufacturers’ part numbers as part of an item definition. When they need to order that part, they don’t have to look up that part number, saving time and helping to ensure accuracy. They can also save time while filling out forms — when users enter a description and then change the item field, they now have the option to keep custom item description or to have it updated using the item record.
• Improved Cost of Goods Sold management. More control over setting prices of goods provides better flexibility in managing part costs, enables users to manage cost increases in consumed parts and items more accurately. Improved pricing controls enable users to choose from a variety of different price rounding options, such as to the nearest $.49 or $.99.
• New Automatic tracking of activities in QuickBooks. Accountants and small business owners can have peace of mind knowing that changes to important QuickBooks data will always be tracked. With the new “always-on” audit trail in QuickBooks 2006, users can easily track any changes or errors that they, their employee, or their accountant may have made. Users and their accountants will also save time when trying to understand the work done by other users in the company. And, because QuickBooks 2006 is built on an industry-standard SQL database, the always-on audit trail will not materially affect the speed and performance.
• Payroll Services range from the easy-to-use QuickBooks Standard Payroll to the fully outsourced Intuit Complete Payroll Service an easy, affordable and pain-free way to outsource payroll.
• Intuit Merchant Account Service allows small businesses to process and authorize credit card payments from within QuickBooks.
• Employee Organizer puts employee information, guidance for key employment processes, access to current information on employment laws and critical reports right at their fingertips in QuickBooks.
• QuickBooks Billing Solutions is a convenient and simple way for small businesses to bill customers and accept payments via email from within QuickBooks.
• Support Plans include several options for QuickBooks users, including the Ultimate Support Plan, offering an unlimited number of phone and eSubmission incidents for 12 months.