Monthly Archives: October 2009

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!

email-marketing

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.

email-marketing1

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

email-marketing2

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”.

email-marketing3

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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.

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?

navigation

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.

view-menu

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

favorites-customize

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.

customize-favs

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

customize-favs1

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

customize-favs2

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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.

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.

add-edit

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.

add-edit1

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.

add-edit2

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

add-edit3

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

add-edit4

add-edit5

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.

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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.

add-edit7

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.

add-edit8

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

add-edit9

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.

add-edit10

In the Customer/Job List, you cannot access the following elements:

  • From the Address Info Tab
    • Ship To Address
    • Email Cc info
  • From the Additional Info Tab
    • Preferred Send Method
    • Price Level
  • From the Payment Info Tab
    • Preferred Payment Method

In the Vendor List, you cannot access the following elements:

  • From the Address Info Tab
    • Email Cc info
  • From the Additional Info Tab
    • Billing Rate Level
  • From the Account Prefill Tab
    • Account selection

So what is this Intuit Workplace App Center?

Well the Intuit Workplace App Center is where you can buy or try for free, 3rd party software that lives on the web rather than on your computer. Otherwise known as “hosted” or SaaS (Software as a Service) programs that you don’t own, but rather pay a monthly fee to use this software and all the data is stored on servers owned by Intuit.

Anything that you can currently try for free, will most likely incur a monthly fee for continued use at some point and unless you are connected to the internet you cannot access anything that you have stored in them.

The App Center is accessed via the Icon Bar at the top of QuickBooks

app-center-icon

When you click on the App Center icon, a browser window opens directly within QuickBooks that takes you to the home page of the Intuit Workplace App Center where you can browse through about 25 different programs in 4 categories:

  • Apps that help you run your business
  • Apps that help you to manage your work
  • Apps that help you to grow and manage your customers
  • Apps that help you to reduce your costs

app-center

For those of you who like to own your own software and have that data live on your computers, the Intuit Marketplace still exists with hundreds of beefy applications that really extend the power of QuickBooks – visit http://marketplace.intuit.com to see a complete listing of 3rd party programs that perform a wide range of functions that you cannot obtain directly from within QuickBooks.

Of course, once you arrive at the Marketplace you’ll see the same apps featured there as on the App Center – not to worry, there really are other programs available – use the “Search” feature in the upper right corner and type in some key words.

In my opinion it’s a real shame that Intuit seems to have forgotten their long-time developers (many who have been around since 2002).

From another very reputable blogger (who is both a ProAdvisor & IDN Developer) who has been putting Enterprise 10.0 through it’s paces – while I’ve not even installed it yet.

http://qbblog.ccrsoftware.info/2009/09/quickbooks-enterprise-10-0-not-ready-for-prime-time/

Search…….

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