23Sep 2014 by Nancy Smyth
QuickBooks 2015- The Good, Bad and Ugly, Part 1

QuickBooks 2015- The Good, Bad and Ugly, Part 1

QuickBooks 2015 - What's New?, QuickBooks Reviews
QuickBooks 2015 became available for purchase, beginning yesterday. Most years I spend hours writing about the new features in the upcoming version – but this year has just gotten away from me and while I did beta test QuickBooks Premier Accountant 2015 – time has simply gotten away from me. Plus the fact that no matter how many notes, screenshots, and comparisons you make during beta testing; the final product is often quite different. So what I’ve decided to do this year is a three part series called The Good, The Bad, and the UGLY and just highlight things in bullet points with a brief description. I may raise a few eyebrows over some to the things that I end up putting in each of the three categories, but so…
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09Sep 2014 by Nancy Smyth
QuickBooks 2015 Announced – Important System Requirements

QuickBooks 2015 Announced – Important System Requirements

QuickBooks 2015 - What's New?
QuickBooks 2015 was announced and release to Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisors yesterday - which means that end users will have it made available to them either the end of this month or the beginning of October; there are no firm dates as of yet. Before I start talking about some of the new features that I think are ok, good, or great - I want to address system requirements, which I feel is very important. QuickBooks 2015 does not support Windows XP As  Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor and 3rd party desktop developer, I still have clients and customers using Windows XP and I'm betting that you do too - and that's why I think this is important. Also, if you are running QuickBooks 2012 and need payroll or access to online banking…
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22Jan 2014 by Nancy Smyth
QuickBooks Tip: How to find “Notes” after an Upgrade

QuickBooks Tip: How to find “Notes” after an Upgrade

Questions from our readers, QuickBooks 2013 - What's New?, QuickBooks Tips & Tricks
A reader asked how to find notes after a recent QuickBooks upgrade. In earlier versions of QuickBooks, I kept employee notes of hiring, pay raises, etc in their files , either under notes or another field in their personal files (where payroll, addresses, etc were kept). Where do i find them now? or are they lost? Many thanks - Bill   ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hi Bill Thanks for dropping by and submitting a question :-) I have to admit that the first time that I opened a QuickBooks 2013 or 2014 file (after having used QuickBooks for years) that at first I thought all of my notes were lost as well. Any employee notes that you kept in QuickBooks 2012 or earlier - that used to appear in the employee record as…
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17Jan 2014 by Nancy Smyth

QuickBooks Timely Payroll Alerts, Updates & Issues for 2013 Payroll Tax Returns

Payroll Tips, QuickBooks Reviews
So here we all are scrambling to get all of our payroll tax returns completed for year-ending 12/31/2013 (myself included) and I just receive this information via my ProAdvisor membership. Issues: Form 940 for Year Ending 12/31/2013 - Schedule A Rounding Issues in QuickBooks 2011-2014 From the Intuit Payroll Support Knowledgebase Problem: You received an error on your 2013 Form 940/Schedule A indicating you have a difference that is greater or less than $5 between the Total FUTA taxable wages for credit reduction states on Schedule A and the taxable FUTA wages on Form 940 page 1, line 7. This error could be due to the way the wages are rounded on Schedule A. You can correct this by verifying the totals and overriding the wages on Schedule A.  For…
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23Sep 2013 by Nancy Smyth
QuickBooks 2014 is available, when should I upgrade – Q & A

QuickBooks 2014 is available, when should I upgrade – Q & A

Questions from our readers, QuickBooks 2014 - What's New?
QuickBooks 2014 can be purchased beginning today (from what I've heard) directly from Inuit websites or through Authorized Intuit Affiliate links – however, it won’t be in stores until the middle of October. Many companies will want to upgrade right away - some of you may already have access to the new version. It seems that each year when Intuit announces a new version of QuickBooks, I’m overwhelmed with phone calls and emails from clients and customers asking a multitude of questions about the new version.  Here is a list of do’s, don’ts and frequent questions. Frequently Asked Questions: Should I/Do I NEED to upgrade to QuickBooks 2014? I’m usually very conservative in regards to this question, especially the last few years with money being so tight for everyone, but…
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10Sep 2013 by Nancy Smyth
QuickBooks 2014 – Changes/Improvements to the Payroll Center

QuickBooks 2014 – Changes/Improvements to the Payroll Center

Payroll Tips, QuickBooks 2014 - What's New?
In QuickBooks 2014 the Payroll Center underwent a complete overhaul - which was badly needed in my opinion - and the outcome is both well-designed and useful, at least in my opinion. For years, we've lived with a cramped Payroll Center, that was so full of "stuff" that it was often difficult for users to figure out what the heck they were supposed to do in it or how in the heck they were supposed to even use it. [caption id="attachment_4297" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Right click to enlarge this image[/caption] In QuickBooks 2014, the Payroll Center has gone from cramped to organized and useful! [caption id="attachment_4298" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Right click to enlarge[/caption] It's new "tabbed" design splits out payroll tasks, such as Pay Employees, Pay Liabilities, and File Forms makes it…
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05Sep 2013 by Nancy Smyth
QuickBooks 2014 Announced-Biggest Improvement is COLOR!

QuickBooks 2014 Announced-Biggest Improvement is COLOR!

QuickBooks 2014 - What's New?
QuickBooks 2014 was announced yesterday by Intuit to the ProAdvisor Community, so if you are a Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor you should have received an email yesterday (mine arrived at around 2 p.m. EST).  If you are an active Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor, you'll be able to download QuickBooks 2014 beginning September 9th, on-line purchases are slated to begin around September 23rd, and you should see QuickBooks 2014 in retail stores starting right around mid-October. In QuickBooks 2014 the most noticeable improvement that you see as soon as you launch it is COLOR! When QuickBooks 2013 was released on of the most controversial topics of conversation when it came to the new version was COLOR - or rather the lack of it! Many people, myself included, really had a hard time working…
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18Jun 2013 by Nancy Smyth
QuickBooks Automatic Updates & Critical Fixes-What’s Your Policy?

QuickBooks Automatic Updates & Critical Fixes-What’s Your Policy?

General QuickBooks News, QuickBooks Add-Ons
A QuickBooks automatic update for QuickBooks Pro 2013, Premier 2013 (all versions or flavors - Contractor, Manufacturing, Professional Services, etc), and Enterprise 13.0 (all versions or flavors) - referenced as simply QuickBooks 2013 for the balance of this article, beginning right around June 3, 2013 with the last round of the update being released today, has created more problems than it fixed for many users and 3rd party developers. The QuickBooks Automatic Update feature has been around for years, you'll find this option when you open QuickBooks -> go to the Help menu -> and choose Update QuickBooks -> and click on the Options tab.  Here you'll see the Automatic Update option.  In all the versions (Pro, Premier, Enterprise)  - EXCEPT the Premier Accountant edition if you are a Certified…
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09Oct 2012 by Nancy Smyth
QuickBooks 2013 – Group Item Limit Increase

QuickBooks 2013 – Group Item Limit Increase

Customers & Accounts Receivable, QuickBooks 2013 - What's New?
In QuickBooks 2013, the Group Item limit has been increased to 50 in Pro and Premier – this means that a single QuickBooks Group Item can hold up to a total of 50 individual items! I’m a big fan of QuickBooks Group Items, I think that they are a HUGE productivity booster – but I’ve always had one gripe – they could only hold 20 items in previous versions of QuickBooks – which meant that you had to create more group items in order to accomplish what you set out to do.  This has changed with the release of QuickBooks 2013.  With the increased number of items that a group can hold, these item types will be even more powerful. While some of you may know, I’m not a fan…
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02Oct 2012 by Nancy Smyth
QuickBooks 2013 Revamped Employee Record

QuickBooks 2013 Revamped Employee Record

Payroll Tips, QuickBooks 2013 - What's New?
The Employee Record has been revamped in QuickBooks 2013 and that is one of the new changes in design that I really like!  For years we've had to navigate through the employee record through both tabs and drop down menus and in my opinion the overhaul was long overdue! For years the typical instructions for navigating through an employee record in order to change a rate of pay went something like this: Go to the Employee Center, in the employee list find this employee, double-click or click the Edit Employee button, now grab that drop down menu and choose Payroll and Compensation Info - no, no, no there is a drop down menu just above the tabs that say Personal, Address and Contact, and Additional Info.  It was quite a…
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27Sep 2012 by Nancy Smyth
QuickBooks 2013 Upgrade Do’s, Don’ts & Frequent Questions

QuickBooks 2013 Upgrade Do’s, Don’ts & Frequent Questions

General QuickBooks News, QuickBooks 2013 - What's New?, QuickBooks Add-Ons, QuickBooks Setup & Cleanup
QuickBooks 2013 can be purchased right now directly from Inuit websites or through Authorized Intuit Affiliate links - however, it won't be in stores until the middle of October. Many companies will want to upgrade right away.  However, it seems that each year when Intuit announces a new version of QuickBooks, I'm overwhelmed with phone calls and emails from clients and customers asking a multitude of questions about the new version.  Here is a list of do's, don'ts and frequent questions. Frequently Asked Questions: Should I/Do I NEED to upgrade to QuickBooks 2013? I'm usually very conservative in regards to this question, especially the last few years with money being so tight for everyone, but typically my answer is: If you are currently using a version of QuickBooks that Intuit…
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20Sep 2012 by Nancy Smyth
QuickBooks 2013 – Where Have the Colors Gone?

QuickBooks 2013 – Where Have the Colors Gone?

"Stuff" that drives me insane, QuickBooks 2013 - What's New?
QuickBooks 2013 has an entirely new look and I have to admit there are many things about the product redesign that I really like, however, the biggest issue that I have with the redesign is the fact that Intuit has removed the ability to change the color scheme of the software. Where oh where can my QuickBooks colors be, Intuit took them away from me…….ya, I know that sounds like a really bad rendition of an old song that went like this – “Where oh where can my baby be, the lord took her away from me, she’s gone to heaven I’ve got to be good so I can see my baby when I leave this world”. Color is an important part of our daily lives.  Did you know that…
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10Sep 2012 by Nancy Smyth
QuickBooks 2013 Announced

QuickBooks 2013 Announced

General QuickBooks News, QuickBooks 2013 - What's New?
Intuit has just announced the release of QuickBooks 2013 (today – 9/10/2012) - view the announcement here. I’ve been actively involved in working with QuickBooks 2013, as an Alpha and a Beta tester, since the end of June. According to Intuit, this year, a top request that they heard from customers like you was to make the product easier to use so you could work more efficiently – no additional features, just a better experience.  As Intuit began planning for the release of QuickBooks 2013, they determined that updating the look and feel was a key way to deliver on their objective to make QuickBooks easier to use.  They felt there was an opportunity to remove some of the complexity and clutter while also creating more consistency across the product.…
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