Quick Tour through Quickbooks

QuickBooks is accounting software targeted at assisting small businesses in organizing their financial bookkeeping. It is developed by Intuit® and was first released in 1992. It is currently the #1 selling accounting software package for small businesses.
Uses can include:

• Expense tracking
• Invoice preparation
• Financial Statement preparation
• Inventory tracking

Competitive products include:

• Simply Accounting By Sage®
• Peachtree® by Sage
• Microsoft® Office Accounting Professional

There are 4 flavors of QuickBooks currently offered:

• QuickBooks SimpleStart-
  • Print checks, pay bills, track sales and expenses
  • Create estimates & invoices
  • Accept credit cards
• QuickBooks Pro- All QuickBooks SimpleStart functionality, plus:
  • Payroll capabilities
  • Interoperability with Microsoft® Office
  • Inventory tracking
  • Download capabilities for credit card & bank transactions
• QuickBooks Premier- All QuickBooks Pro functionality, plus:
  • Business planning & forecasting tools
  • Advanced pricing capabilities
  • Advanced cost tracking tools
• Enterprise Solutions- All QuickBooks Premier functionality, plus:
  • Multiple user capabilities (up to 20 concurrent)
  • Increased capacity for inventory tracking
  • Advanced reporting tools (including financial statement templates)
  • Employee Organizer tool

There are also some targeted functionality products that allow businesses to use QuickBooks as a complement to less feature-rich accounting software:

• QuickBooks Payroll (including Basic, Standard, Enhanced, Assisted, Online, and Direct Deposit variations)
• QuickBooks Point of Sale (including Basic, Pro, Pro Multi-Store, Merchant Service, and Gift Card Service variations/add-ons)
• Customer Manager
• Invoice Manager
• Credit Card Processing
• Other various transaction and remote services

Additionally, Intuit released an online service called QuickBooks Online Edition in 2001, which has gradually matured into a best-in-class accounting service for small businesses.
There are many other helpful online resources for finding out more about QuickBooks and what it can do to improve your business. Some of these include:

• QuickBooks' Support site
• QuickBooks Support Forum
• Jennifer Thieme's Expert QuickBooks Articles on Ezine Articles (http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Jennifer_A._Thieme)

Finding the best accounting software for your business can be a challenge. If you would like more information on how you can "make technology your #1 employee", go to the TeknoCoach website ( http://www.teknocoach.com ) and check out our solutions and services.