QuickBooks 2010

QuickBooks 2007 Features End 5/31/10

Published April 27, 2010 | By Nancy Smyth

Just a reminder for those of you still using QuickBooks Pro 2007, Premier (any flavor – Contractor, Accountant, Manufacturing, etc.) 2007, and Enterprise 7.0 – certain features will no longer be available beginning on May 31, 2010. (See below for complete details).

You will need to upgrade to QuickBooks 2010 in order to continue to use the features listed below, however, if you do not use any of the features indicated – you can still continue to use QuickBooks 2007.

If you use QuickBooks Pro/Premier 2007 OR Enterprise 7.0 and need access to:

Assisted Payroll
Basic Payroll
Enhanced Payroll
Standard Payroll
Employee Organizer
Merchant Services
Billing Solution (formerly QuickBooks Online Billing)
QuickBooks Email
Bill Pay
Online Banking
Terminal Download
Technical Support Plans and Services

YOU NEED TO UPGRADE TO QUICKBOOKS 2010.

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Where can I get the best deal on a new version of QuickBooks?

Getting the best deal on QuickBooks 2010 will require some research on your part – check out the following companies:

Staples
Office Depot
Office Max
Best Buy
Amazon
Costco
Sam’s Club
Authorized QuickBooks Affiliates (Resellers)
Intuit’s website

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How long will it take me to install the new software and be up and running again?

That’s a difficult question to answer, process takes depends on how fast your computer(s) is, how big your QuickBooks file is, and how many computers you need to install QuickBooks on.

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Any tips or suggestions before taking the “plunge”?

Absolutely!

Don’t do an update on the same day that you need to get billing and/or payroll out!
Backup, backup, BACKUP your QuickBooks file
Make sure your computer meets the requirements of handling QuickBooks 2010
Read our Best Practices – Upgrading to a new version of QuickBooks post

Please feel free to post your comments or questions.

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QuickBooks 2010 & Enterprise 10.0 R6P to Fix Many Windows 7 Errors

Published April 22, 2010 | By Nancy Smyth

04/22/2010

Intuit has released R6 (as a manual update) for QuickBooks Pro 2010, QuickBooks Premier (all versions) 2010, and Enterprise Solutions 10.0. This manual update is available from http://support.quickbooks.intuit.com/Support/ProductUpdates.aspx?lid=UpdateDownloads%20%28SUB%20HDR%29

I attempted to download this update via the QuickBooks Automatic Update to find that the ONLY way to currently download the update is to use the link above.

Below are the Release Notes for R6P:

This latest QuickBooks Update offers improved performance, stability and functionality. Based on feedback, suggestions and recommendations from QuickBooks users like you, we’ve made improvements in a number of areas including:

• PDFs — We’ve resolved issues that previously impacted some 64-bit PC or Microsoft Windows® 7 users when creating PDFs.

• Payroll Capabilities — You can now start a payroll run, save the work you’ve completed and finish your payroll later. Your paychecks won’t be committed until you finish the entire payroll run.

• System Crashes — We’ve addressed various bugs that occasionally caused systems to freeze or crash.

We’ve also improved QuickBooks Reporting Capabilities, the Intuit Statement Writer and QuickBooks’ Back-Up Functions. Plus, we’ve fine-tuned a few areas. You’ll notice some functions will now load and perform faster. Finally, if you’re an accountant, we think you’ll especially like the improved performance of the Client Data Review feature.

Accountant Specific	Users may now add additional lines to a General Journal entry after using the Save button to save and stay in the form. Clicking the Save button at the top of any transaction gives a warning if the transaction date is prior to the closing date. QuickBooks Pro only: When setting up or editing the closing date, the field for confirming the password can now be edited.
Accounts Receivable	An Open Invoices warning now appears when receiving payments when using multiple Accounts Receivable accounts.
Client Data Review	Selecting or clearing unlinked transactions in Client Data Review will no longer jump sporadically to other transactions in the window. A warning message will now appear in Client Data Review when closing the unlinked transactions window with a check box selected in the first window and nothing applied to it. The Unexpected Error C=47 or an Unrecoverable Error will no longer display when applying credit memos to checks or credit card charges with different exchange rates in multi-currency files. QuickBooks no longer displays an unrecoverable error when applying two bill credits to one bill.
Company Snapshot	The confirmation message that appears when removing the “Recommended for You” widget from the Company Snapshot now gives the correct instructions to click Restore Defaults to add the widget. Company Snapshot reports for A/R Aging and Recent Transactions now load faster.
Database Server Manager	Database server manager utility now shows the correct QuickBooks release number.
Direct Deposit for Vendor	Help topics have been added for a new pilot feature, Direct Deposit for Vendor. This feature is being tested with a small number of QuickBooks users and is not currenlty available to QuickBooks users that are not participating in the pilot program.
Document Management	There is now an “Attach” menu item by right clicking a transaction in the Centers. New help content has been added for the drag & drop functionality of the Document Manager service.
File Operations	QuickBooks remains at the top of the screen when upgrading a file that uses data sync. Resolved an issue that was causes QuickBooks to hang after upgrading a company file from a prior version. When upgrading company files to QuickBooks 2010 the check font printer preferences are retained properly. Detection of data file damage is improved. QuickBooks now allows the use of whitespace and other characters in the company file name. QuickBooks unrecoverable error 20899 23098 no longer occurs when backing up a company file. QuickBooks no longer displays unrecoverable error 20898 16590 when opening a company file. QuickBooks no longer displays the error “Database Maintainance in Progress. Please try after some time” A more descriptive message is displayed when backing up a company file with a filename that is longer than 64 characters.
Form Templates	Company logo now appears properly when applying a new design to a template with an existing logo.
Google Desktop Search	(QuickBooks Simple Start only) Google Search no longer appears in the Icon Bar until it is installed on the same system.
Help	Help topics on printing from the Company Snapshot have been updated to specify that individual widgets can only be printed in portait and the entire Company Snapshot can only be printed in landscape.
Install	Installing QuickBooks 2010 using the Express Install option no longer leaves the icons and folders from your prior version on the system. The “Payroll for QuickBooks” icon created by the QuickBooks installer now goes to the appropriate payroll web site.
Intuit Statement Writer	Selected accounts under “Accounts in current row” will now remain highlighted when clicking on the Manage Accounts icon. Negative numbers formatted with parentheses will now align the last digit with numbers not included within parentheses. Microsoft Word 2007 users can now view and save files using the .docx and .dotx file extensions. Template files with the .dotx file extension can now be added to the Template Manager. Intuit Statement Writer will now allow users to filter by class when running Budget to Actual Statements. A new option has been added to Statement Properties that will allow you to select between Accounts or Accounts and Classes. Intuit Statement Writer will no longer overwrite information entered in the Excel header/footer each time data is refreshed from QuickBooks if Excel is selected in the Header/Footer Content control. New controls have been added to the Report Properties section of the Document Actions pane to allow users the option to use ISW or Excel Header and/or Footer information. An informational message will appear when users change the reporting basis of the Intuit Statement Writer report if a Budget to Actual Statement is included in the report. Multiple statements and supporting documents will now save as a single PDF file. The error message “Microsoft Office Excel is waiting for another application to complete an OLE action.” will no longer appear. Intuit Statement Writer will display a progress bar when creating statements from large QuickBooks company files. Intuit Statement Writer will no longer display the error message: “There is a problem with your Intuit Statement Writer installation. Please reinstall QuickBooks to fix the problem.” when opening. A Print Help button was added to the Microsoft Word ISW toolbar to advise users to print or Save as PDF in Excel. Cash Flow Statements will now display liabilities with the correct (Increase)/(Decrease) values. Intuit Statement Writer will no longer display the error message “Fatal Error: Method called with null parameter” when creating a report. Intuit Statement Writer will now display the correct calculated % values in grouped total rows. Vista users can now add the Word 2003 Addin when Intuit Statement Writer diagnostics detects the Office 2003 installation. Group Total Row will now display the correct value if a column is added.
Inventory	The Per Item Qty column can now be removed while customizing the build asembly template.
Invoices	Memorized Transactions is now available in the right click contextual menu when you right click while working on an invoice.
Licensing	User Licenses Icon will no longer reappear after it is removed
Multi-Currency	Realized gain/loss now calculates properly after assigning credit card refund/credit to an invoice with Multi Currency enabled. Added transaction validation to prevent the use of more than one type of currency in a single transaction. Resolved an issue where the balance sheet can become out of balance after entering a discount or credit memo to a transaction in a currency other than the home currency. When printing or sending a form, The currency symbol will now reflect the currency used in the transaction rather than defaulting to the currency symbol used in the operating systems regional settings. No longer get the message that the bank account and supplier need to be the same unless bank account is home when creating a check with a home currency bank account and a foreign currency supplier. Memorized deposits entered in a forign currency will no longer default to an exchange rate of 1. They will now pull the correct exchange rate from the currency list. QuickBooks will no longer display the message “to write a check using foreign currency bank account, the currency of the payee receiving the check must be the same as the currency of the bank account” when recording an expense, when the last bank account used in QuickBooks was a non-USD account.
Payroll	Added a checkbox that allows setting/unsetting of job costing for the payroll item being edited. You are no longer prompting to send paychecks when closing the online banking center. In the add/edit Payroll Item wizard, the Agency Accnt Number field for any payroll items that share a PaymentTemplate with the FUTA or Federal Withholding Payroll Items are no longer displayed. There is now a new preference in the Paystub Printing Preferences to print the “Company Phone #” on the paystubs. This satisfies the requirement for Washington and Oregon to have the Employer’s Phone number on the paystub. Long email addresses now show correctly on Paystubs. QuickBooks will no longer display the error 13912 19895 when accessing the Payroll Center. A Finish Later button now appears in the Enter Payroll Information window allowing you to save paychecks as drafts. Draft paychecks will then appear in the same window highlighted in yellow. When choosing the Custom Setup option to add a new payroll item, the “Add new payroll item” screen, Health Savings account has been added to the Deduction selection and the Company Contribution selection. Draft paychecks now show correct sick/vacation available values in the Preview Paycheck window. Changing the account on a payroll item will now generate a prompt asking if you want to change data. The paystubs for the most recent payroll completed before signing up for View My Paycheck are now sent to the View My Paycheck service. When using the new Tax Table, you can setup 4 new Health Savings Account TT type payroll items and they will now appear in the Excel workbooks in the Tax Tracking Type column as:HSA Company Taxable, HSA Company NonTaxable, HSA Employee Taxable, and HSA Employee NonTaxable. QuickBooks no longer prevents changing the state unemployment rates for the current year. A progress bar will now appear when sending paycheck information to ViewMyPaycheck.com from files with more than 80 employees. The Income Subject To Tax column has been added to Liability Adjustments. The Payroll Center will no longer display a yellow triangle with an exclamation point for some customers. QuickBooks no longer displays incorrect Year to Date amounts in the preview paycheck screen when a paycheck has been reverted during this editing session.
Payroll: Assisted Payroll	Corrected the QuickBooks calculation that was backing out some tax amounts when sending payroll. The Pre Send payroll confirmation report will no longer incorrectly display the AEIC amount added to the total liability. The Pre Send report will now correctly match the post send report. Assisted payroll customers that have been unable to pull up the Account Maintenance page will now be able to access the page.
PDF	Addresses an issue with the QuickBooks PDF Converter activation code used in the last release that was preventing QuickBooks from saving PDF files successfully.
Printing	The print dialog box for printing labels now has a “Number of Copies” option.
QuickBooks Error Reporting	Email address can now be included in the information that is sent to QuickBooks engineers whenever QuickBooks experiences a fatal error.
QuickBooks Merchant Services	Payment Method Type can no longer be changed from Credit Card to E-Check, Gift Card or Other in CM Credit Card Refund. Editing the memo field on an eCheck transaction no longer prompts to be re-processed “Close Tool Bar” link on recieve Payments windows has been replaced by a “Close Toolbar” button for better visiability.
QuickBooks Online Banking	Changed the name of the Online Banking Icon in the “Icon Bar” to Online Banking Center. “System argument exception: parameter is not valid” no longer occurs when accessing the Online Banking Center. Large-dollar-amount debits in .qbo files now import correctly.
QuickBooks Online Billing	Downloaded QBBS payment creation no longer fails for payments with a discount and sub-account
Reports	When creating and memorizing reports from the Transactions tab of the Customer Center changes made will now be retained and column headers will display properly. Memorized reports now retain filters for custom fields. Sales Tax reports no longer fail with the error “Too many transactions in group”. Additional Vendor Details are now reflected in the Unpaid Bills Detail Report. Reports now displays a No in the Uses Direct Deposit column for any employee that has the Use Direct unchecked.
Reports Center	Payroll Liability Balances Report now shows correct data when date filter on the Report Center is changed.
Startup	The QuickBooks Pro/Premier icon no longer appears in the Taskbar when loading QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions. QuickBooks no longer causes the computer to restart or display a blue screen when opening after installing a previous update.
Users and Permissions	Users without permission to view Time Sheets will receive a single message telling them that they need Time Tracking permissions if they attempt to use a weekly Time Sheet

QuickBooks 2010 – Email Marketing, No Windows Vista or 7 Support

Published October 8, 2009 | By Nancy Smyth

Email Marketing is something else that Intuit has built into QuickBooks 2010.

From the Customers menu choose Email Marketing OR from the Online Services choose Email Marketing. Your default browser will launch.

The first thing that I noticed about this was that it was very slow and then I got this error message that explained it all!

Firefox is my default browser and this requires Internet Explorer. {sigh}

So I followed the instructions and copied the url from Firefox and pasted it into Internet Explorer, unfortunately it was even slower to load in Internet Explorer and instead of the error I received I received another window wanting me to install an Active X component.

So I go ahead and indicate that I want to install the Active X component and receive the usual Internet Explorer Security Warning.

And I choose to Run the Active X component. The next message box that I received was even more disappointing – there is no support for Windows Vista or Windows 7. Guess this isn’t ready for “prime time”.

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Now really I’m very confused and if anybody can help me out, please post an answer…

If this is an “internet or browser based program” why does it work or not work depending upon which operating system you have? I thought one of the bonuses of internet based software was that it was compatible with all versions of Windows and Mac’s too?

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If email marketing and staying in touch with your customers/clients is important to you I would suggest that you check out Constant Contact (that’s what we use for our email newsletters and have for well over 3 years); for a free 60-day trial, click here.

*Constant Contact is a web-based newsletter, email promotion, email event notification, and survey creation tool. Internet access is required and it supports Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7.

I’ll keep you posted about the Email marketing option in 2010.

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QuickBooks 2010 – New Customizable “Favorites” Menu

Published October 6, 2009 | By Nancy Smyth

Another new feature in QuickBooks 2010 is the ability to create your own “Favorites” menu – I have to admit my first thought was “ok is this an accounting package or a web browser?” I’m beginning to get very confused.

It could be just me and the fact that I’ve used QuickBooks for a very long time (since version 1 in DOS) – but I do have to ask……….

How many different ways do I need to have in order to get to the exact same place?

I mean, come on now, we have:

the normal menu’s that have been around forever
keyboard shortcuts (or am I the only one who still remembers and USES them)
the Home Page (which we can customize)
“centers” for Customers, Vendors, Employees
the Icon Bar with shortcuts to this, that and the other thing……..

isn’t this new “Favorites” menu a bit of an overkill? What’s next – a utility like “Speedial” which I use in Firefox to organize all my Favorites?

I guess what I really don’t like is the fact that QuickBooks is getting so “busy that it’s making me dizzy” with all the graphics, icons, shortcuts, etc. I for one used to really like the older more simple interfaces.

If you want to remove the Favorites menu from the top of QuickBooks, first click on the View Menu and uncheck the Favorites Menu option.

But not everyone is like me, so let’s go and explore the Favorites menu.

When you click on the Favorites Menu option, the first thing that you see is a “Customize” option

From the Customize Favorites option, be prepared to be totally overwhelmed from the amount of “shortcuts” you can choose from, use the vertical scrollbar to view all your choices. When you see something you want to add in the Available Menu Items side, click on it to select it and then click the Add button.

This will add the item to the Chosen Menu Items side.

Sometimes I have a rather odd sense of curiosity about things – and I wondered exactly how many “Available Menu Items” there were in the Premier Account Edition that you had access to —— would you believe it was an astonishing 507 items? Of course there were many that were totally redundant; for example the Chart of Accounts was listed 3 different times:

Under Lists -> Chart of Accounts
Under Accountant -> Chart of Accounts
Under just plain “Chart of Accounts”

And I could add all three instances to my Favorites menu

Frankly I think that being able to add the same item 3 different times is a “bug” and I’m going to report it as such.

But back to my original question ————

How many different ways do I need to have in order to get to the exact same place?

Not a “favorite” in my opinion.

1 Comment

QuickBooks 2010 – Rapid List Entry (Add/Edit Multiple List Entries)

Published October 5, 2009 | By Nancy Smyth

The Add/Edit Multiple List Entries is another new feature in QuickBooks 2010; where you can work with Customers, Jobs, Vendors, Service Items, Inventory Parts or Non-Inventory Parts. I can see this as being a very useful feature, and so far my favorite new feature in 2010.

New QuickBooks users will be able to quickly add these list entries (speeding up setup time) and existing users can also benefit when they need to update say their item list with new pricing, change preferred vendors, change Expense or Income Accounts.

Access this feature from the Lists menu -> Add/Edit Multiple List Entries to display the following window. Using the List drop down menu, you can select to work with the following Lists – Customers (and Jobs), Vendors, Service Items, Inventory Parts, and Non-Inventory Parts.

Let’s say for instance, that I wanted to work with my Service Item (Cost Code) List, I would select that list from the drop down menu (1), and then I would want to click the Customize Columns button (2) to be able to work with all the specific elements within the item (3). Once the Customize Columns window (3) is open I can see a list of available columns that I can work with as well as the chosen (default) columns.

I would probably want to select or choose to work with all of the columns that are available – and I would do this by clicking on each item in the Available Column (1) and then click the Add button (2) – this action moves the item element from the Available Column to the Chosen Column window.

Once I had moved all of the Available elements to the Chosen Columns, I would click OK

I would also want to move things around so that the columns more accurately matched the layout of the actual Item Record

Once I had arranged the order of my Chosen Columns, I would then click the OK button so that the flow of data entry would be more consistent with how data would be entered if you set up the items individually.

Once you have the Item List entries displayed, it’s very easy to update costs, change expense accounts, preferred Vendors, etc. and save all the changes with a click of the button.

For example, let’s say that you wanted to change the Expense Account associated with ALL of your items, you would first click into the first cell that contains the Expense Account and using the drop down menu that appears – change the account.

Next, right click the newly selected account and choose the Copy Down feature. This will replace ALL of the existing entries with the new account.

And ALL of your Expense accounts have been changed to reflect the new one that you just selected. Very cool!

As with all good things – there are also bad; and by that I mean that we start running into problems with Customer & Vendor record elements that aren’t accessed through this process. Now this doesn’t mean that the feature is worthless, it just means that you can enter most of the basic information but will still need to edit Customer, Job, and Vendor Records individually to complete the rest.