Quickbooks

From Wikicpa

QuickBooks is an accounting software product developed by Intuit, Inc.

There are several different versions of the software tailored to specific industries, however the underlying program remains largely the same with the chief differences being the box or inclusion of an industry specific setup guide.

First launched in the early 1990's, QuickBooks quickly took hold as the market leader in small business accounting software. The software was popular amongst small business owners who had no formal accounting training. At the time, software packages were designed for use by accountants and cost $400 or more.

Today QuickBooks has the largest market share of accounting products for small businesses in the United States. Small businesses use it to track expenses, prepare and send invoices, prepare financial statements, track inventory levels, and many other tasks. It is available in a range of versions, from those suitable to startup businesses up to larger businesses with up to 15 simultaneous users. It also comes in customized versions for different industries such as contracting, professional services, manufacturing, wholesale, and even a specialized version for nonprofit entities. It is available as desktop software or a hosted online edition.

QuickBooks doesn't require its users to understand double-entry book-keeping or standard accounting procedures. Most transactions are recorded using on-line screens that closely resemble paper based forms such as invoices or checks. The best users for Quickbooks are those companies with light inventory needs (no major requirement for signficant multi-user order entry), light job costing. The system is readily adaptable to many different industries where there is no significant need for something industry specific.

The use of Quickbooks Classes (similar to departments) within Quickbooks, will allow many businesses to produce very satisfactory job costing, non-profit (fund accounting) and other departmental type reports.

1 Major competitors
2 Positives
3 Negatives
4 External links
5 References

[edit]

Major competitors

[edit]

Positives

Basic- has new "Simple Start" version that is extra easy to setup
Low cost- single user pro version is less than $180 from most warehouse stores - cheaper with rebates.
Simple to setup with many wizards and example accounts.
Many people know and use the software (easy to find a CPA or bookkeeper who is skilled with Quickbooks).
While somewhat expensive to upgrade (~$200+ / year) - the ongoing costs are far, far less than more expensive software which can easily cost $2,000+ in annual maintenance for very similar functionality.
Exceptional features for the price. As an example - payroll users can print fileable 941, 940, etc -- a feat which many large accounting systems charging thousands more have yet to accomplish. Most of the accounting features are written with the non-accountant in mind and generally protect you from simple errors (though not always).
You never close or have to worry about any type of yearly/monthly maintenance with Quickbooks.
Their huge user base means the software will be around for many years.
Provides resources to connect with other QuickBooks users and Small Businesses at QuickBooksGroup.com

[edit]

Negatives

Quickbooks (along with other accounting software) is constantly encouraging users to upgrade or renew their software licenses while adding modest additional functionality or content. Users of QuickBooks will find their software support being "Sunsetted" three years after release. The program will still work but technical support and updates will no longer be available in most cases. Customers upgrading from a sunsetted version currently receive free support to convert their company data file to the current version. Some optional features may require an upgrade every year.
Users will sometimes have to save their reports or output as a PDF (Portable Document File) file, by printing to the Intuit Internal Printer (Driver) and selecting Save to File. Some screen views and reports are only printable in this way while up to 140 customizable reports are printable directly from the program.
Payroll users are forced to not only subscribe to a tax table plan (the underlying tax tables are NOT user maintainable - so you are forced to manually calculate taxes or pay Intuit an additional fee to receive the tax tables), but since the versions of the software are regularly "Sunsetted", you will find that the tax plan you subscribe to suddenly will stop working unless you purchase an updated version of QuickBooks (additional fee).
Quickbooks reports are generally not easily modifiable. The system lacks a link to an external report writer such as Crystal Reports or any other popular reporting tools.
While there may be no formal transaction limits beyond which you CANNOT use Quickbooks, one popular rule of thumb that is followed is 300-500 transactions per month. Once you exceed that transaction limit you may find after a year that your system slows down and forces a data purge.

[edit]