Here Comes Quicken 2009!

We just received the official email from Intuit - QuickBooks 2009 is now available for sale. They have also given us a link to allow our visitors to save up to 36% and get free shipping. Quite a deal!

We look forward to getting our copy in the next few days and kicking the tires, but Quicken just seems to get better every year and this year should be no exception. They say there is no major redesign - which means no large learning curve - just minor improvements and upgrades, such as including more banks in their online banking feature.

How to Unapply Credits

Recently, one of our Reno QuickBooks customers asked about "unapplying" credits in QuickBooks. While there are nicely labelled apply credits buttons, there are none marked unapply. This is the case for both customers (invoicing) and vendors (paying bills).

So here is how it is done:

For customers, it is a fairly easy process. Go to the invoice to which the credit was applied. Then click on the "Apply Credits" button. In the lower half of the new window that pops up is a list of Previously Applied Credits. Simply find the one, or ones you wish to unapply and click on the check mark next to it to make the check mark disappear. The credit will no longer be applied or tied to that invoice.

For Vendors, i.e. bill payments, it is not as clean and simple. The only way to unapply a credit in such a case is to Delete the credit. You can then re-enter the credit for future use and it will no longer be applied to that specific bill.

To delete the credit, go to your Vendor Center, click on the name of the Vendor, make sure the "Show" drop down menu says All Transactions, then find the Credit in the list and double click it. Once it is open you should write down or print any of the information you'll need to re-enter it later, then click on the Edit menu and click on "Delete Credit."

Need a copy of sent emails?

Until the most recent version of QuickBooks, which finally let us integrate the QuickBooks email function with Microsoft Outlook, one of the biggest frustrations of QuickBooks users who use the email function in Quickbooks was that once something was sent it was essentially gone. There was no way to go back to a "sent" folder and take a look at the notes that had been typed in messages to clients or vendors. Sure, you could look up the original invoice, p.o., etc. But you couldn't find the content of your message.

Of course, if you are like some of our clients who don't like using Microsoft Outlook for email - then you still have this frustration as well.

Unless, you use this great tip:

In your Preferences, go to the "send forms" section. Click on "Company Preferences," and then add your email address to the "Bcc" field. This will send a copy of every email you send out of QuickBooks to you, blindly, so that your customers & vendors aren't even aware that you are doing this. You may want to even set up a specific email address that you use only as your virtual "sent" box if you send a high volume of forms from QuickBooks.

As always, we hope this tip has been helpful. If you need more in-depth QuickBooks assistance, don't hesitate to contact our QuickBooks ProAdvisors in Reno at 775-348 9225 or our QuickBooks ProAdvisors in Sacramento at 916-216-4949.

Peachtree 2009 is available now!

While we focus much more on QuickBooks than Peachtree here in this blog, it is worth pointing out that the new version of Peachtree has just been released and is now available for purchase. We have only had a few days with it, but so far, the 2009 release is a significant improvement over prior versions of Peachtree.

Below are some of the new feautures Peachtree touts on their website. We look forward to using the product and giving a more thorough reviewe in the weeks to come.

New Features of Peachtree Complete Accounting 2009

Multi-Year Reporting*
Compare budgets and financial results across multiple years within your General Ledger reports and Financial Statements. As your business grows over the years, you will be able to use this functionality to get improved trending analysis, better research, and more accurate forecasts based on prior year activity.

Flexible Payroll Management
Access to a flexible payroll management tool for your business is available. Peachtree 2009 makes managing your payroll easier with set-up improvements and expanded offerings for benefits and deductions. These expanded feature improvements offer you a better way to account for items that you need to effectively manage your business.

Real-Time Error Alerts
Having data accuracy is critical to any small business. Within Peachtree, you will be alerted when using non standard AP and AR accounts upon saving the transaction or when using a non-cash account in the cash account field on receipts and payments.

Cash Flow Management
Easily analyze and forecast your cash flow with the use of the cash flow management tool. You will have the ability to know whether or not you will have enough cash to meet current and upcoming financial obligations by managing your cash flow from one location. Additionally, you will be able to export cash flow forecasts into Microsoft Excel.

Time and Expense Tracking
Peachtree 2009 allows you to locate your time and expense tickets through a quick list view, utilize a new invoice form specific for your industry, as well as customize the first day of your business week depending on how your company tracks time.

* See www.peachtree.com/disclosures for details

Final Reminder: Upgrade QuickBooks Now!

Those of you still using QuickBooks 2005 (pro or Premier) or QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions 5.0 AND processing your own payroll. Please, upgrade to the newest version of QuickBooks before May 31st. We have made this point before, but it is incredibly important to do this. If you don't, you will find that when you go to pay your employees in the first week of June, you'll be in trouble.

Please don't hesitate to call us if you need expert assistance in upgrading to the 2008 edition. And don't miss out on the opportunity to save 15-20% on your software by using our webstore. Don't be the person who calls on June 6th and says "my payroll isn't working!" (though, we'll still help even if you are that person).

Time to Update Point-of-Sale!

This post is just a quickie to let you know that there is a new update for QuickBooks Point of Sale Version 7. Release 3 includes a number of fixes which anyone running Point of Sale will want right away. Either update fom within Point of Sale, or go to the QuickBooks site and manually download this important update.

A little more about One-Write Plus

Now that tax time is over (for most people and small businesses), we've started getting an increase in requests to convert old One-Write Plus files into new QuickBooks files. We're always happy to help, as One-Write Plus is no longer supported by Sage Software, and really - it's about time to get out of that truly outdated software and start enjoying the benefits of a modern program with cleaner interfaces, more functionality, better reporting, etc.

In beginning this process, one of the first questions people ask is "What will come across and what won't?"

Well, assuming you have a One-Write Plus for windows file (as One Write Plus DOS files can be a little more challenging), the conversion is pretty straightforward from OWP to Peachtree to QuickBooks. In that process, all of your lists and balances will carry across, as well as historical Profit & Loss and Balance Sheet data. You will be able to see that you had $100 of Telephone Expense in 2007, that you currently owe AT&T $20, what your Sales Income was for January, that "Smith" owes you $100 - But you WON'T have the bill for AT&T or the Invoice for Smith that caused those balances to exist. (This is due to the conversion process summarizing all of that data in month-by-month journal entries).

We appreciate all of the people who have sought us out to help with this conversion process and are happy to answer any questions you might have. Please don't hesitate to call our QuickBooks experts in Reno or Sacramento to assist in your file conversion.