QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions - Selecting an Integration Consultant

The Importance of Hiring the Right QuickBooks Consultant

Upgrading to QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions can be a nerve racking ordeal, particularly if you hire the wrong company to oversee your integration. Since hiring the wrong QuickBooks consultant could cost your company a lot of money, and possibly a job or two, we are going to focus on showing you how to make sure you hire the right QuickBooks consulting firm.

QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions: Consulting Issues to Consider

More and more businesses are switching to QuickBooks ES due to its flexibility, ease of use, and ultimately lower operating costs. These are all positives and they are all quantitatively true. QuickBooks Enterprise is easier than any accounting software out there - Period. This has been discussed at length in countless financial, accounting, and software periodicals, which have given the latest version rave reviews. This is probably why your company is considering adopting or upgrading to Enterprise, as they should be!
Though QuickBooks rise to fame was built largely upon the rapid adoption of its software by small businesses, larger businesses are beginning to recognize its superior value proposition and as such are migrating in record numbers, even large divisions of many Fortune 500 companies. In addition to maintaining much of the simplicity and ease of use that drove its accounting software to cult status, Intuit has done an excellent job of enhancing the robustness of their Enterprise grade product to be competitive with anything in their class, a key driver behind many of the recent larger business conversions. Intuit truly has built a better mousetrap, and it really does cost less.
Unfortunately, while it is easier to maintain and operate than competing accounting software, INTEGRATING the application or upgrading from a prior version of QuickBooks can be a different story, particularly if you do not do it everyday or were not trained specifically how to do it by Intuit themselves. This is where the value of a professionally trained and authorized Intuit solutions provider is worth their weight in Gold.
Your accounting system is the lifeblood of your business. It tells you how much money you have, who you owe money to, and more importantly who owes you money. The slightest glitch to this "financial ecosystem" can have grave consequences to a business, which reinforces the importance of following Intuit best practices protocol throughout the upgrade/integration process to ensure proper back-up of critical data, and other redundant efforts, the importance of which cannot be overstated. These are the types of procedures you upgrade is sure to receive when you hire a QuickBooks certified solutions provider to manage your company's integration.

QuickBooks Certified Enterprise Solutions Providers: Final Selection

Obviously the only company you should even consider letting get near your QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions integration project is someone actually certified by Intuit themselves. These companies and individuals have been professionally trained in Intuit's best practices, which means they are not "getting practice" on your project. They already know what they are doing.
While certification is good, not all certified providers are created equal. They have all met the "minimum" requirements or they would not have been certified by QuickBooks, but if you are like most you would probably prefer a little bit more in the way of credentials before allowing anyone near such a critical component of your business.
As such, when considering QuickBooks Enterprise consulting companies, look for firms that have been around at least 10 years. Look for references from companies comparable in size to yours. Inquire about their sale ranking with Intuit, a nice objective reference point of the company's success at keeping customers happy. If you follow this advice, you should be in good shape!

Denise Magee is one of the leaders in sales for Intuit's QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions. Let Quality Consulting and Billing quote you the absolute best price for the best service. We are a nationwide company. Offices are in Tampa and Orlando Florida and Chicago Illinois.

QuickBooks Enterprise Help

While QuickBooks is the easiest accounting software on the market, some of it is still not as intuitive as could be desired. Not to fret, there are experts out there that have been trained by Intuit directly in ALL aspects of QuickBooks Enterprise. You will know you are talking with one of these highly trained individuals as they are easily identified by the Intuit Solutions Provider designation, which certifies Intuit has recognized them as an expert in QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions.

QuickBooks Remote Support

Some Intuit solutions providers now offer remote QuickBooks support via WebEx and other similar desktop sharing applications. The net effect is instant gratification on your part as these consultants can instantly see the issue you are seeing right on your computer. It is literally just like having them there with you, except you do not need to wait for them to drive out to see you. In addition to saving time, this also saves money as these consultants are not wasting their time or gas driving around. It also makes it less cost prohibitive to contact them regarding smaller issues that were nagging, but did not necessarily justify a "house call".

QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions Providers

While you would be crazy to let anyone other than a genuine Intuit Solutions Provider get near your QuickBooks Enterprise system, you would also be well advised to make sure you spend some time selecting the "right" solutions provider, as some are definitely better than others. Variables that are important in your selection include experience, geographic coverage, and referral strength.

Finding Experienced QuickBooks Experts

Obviously in order to an expert in anything requires experience. With regard to QuickBooks, experience can be measured by the number of years a firm has been in business and by the number of customers they have serviced. The more the better in both categories, though a rough rule of thumb would be to look for QuickBooks consultants that have been in business at least 10 years. This typically takes care of the customer quantity issue on its own.

Local QuickBooks Enterprise Experts

When we refer to "local" in this criteria we do not necessarily mean that a QuickBooks expert consulting firm is domiciled in your geographic area, but rather that their firm is willing to work with clients in your area. A more experienced firm further away is better than a less experienced local one, particular given the advantages of remote support.
Expert QuickBooks Consultants Have Referrals - Check Them!
Do not make the lazy mistake of not asking your QuickBooks Enterprise Help consultant for referrals. If they have them they will be more than willing to share them with you. These are the type of individual you want working on your accounting system. Again, these companies and individuals take a lot of pride in their work and they love to share referrals and testimonials of other satisfied customers they have been able to help.

QuickBooks Enterprise Help Conclusion

There are plenty of ways to get QuickBooks help, but locating a reputable Intuit Solutions Provider is always the best. Make sure to follow the advice in this article with how to ensure the provider you connect with is worthy of your business. Remember, the time you invest upfront to select the right vendor will pay for itself many times over in the future as the quality of service you receive will be far in excess of the marginal amount of extra time it took upfront to identify the right Intuit Solutions Provider for you.

Making QuickBooks Customers Active, easily

Question:How can I make all our customers active with outdoing them one at a time ?

Answer: You can export the list as a .iif file. You can do this under File>Utilities>Export>Files to IIF. Select the Customer List. Save the file to your desktop and make sure you keep the extension .iif (always). You can then open this file in Excel. There is a column called HIDDEN. This is a Y or N. You can autofill an N all the way down the list. Then save and replace the file with the new data. Make a good backup of your QuickBooks file, then you can import the changes. You will find the import under the same utilities that you found the export under. If imports as a .iif not an excel import. If you need assistance we can help.

Denise Magee
Quality Consulting and Billing, Your Expert QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions Consultants
813-882-3225

Converting QuickBooks 2005 to 2009, 2010

Question: I own QB Pro 2009. I have a backup up cd for QB Pro Ver 5. How do I convert this data?

Answer: In many cases you can open your QuickBooks 2009 and click on FILE>OPEN OR RESTORE COMPANY> Then select the second option to restore from a backup file. It will then walk you through where to restore the file to. In rare occasions the file may not upgrade due to corruptions in the file. If that happens, you can contact us for further assistance.

Denise Magee
Quality Consulting and Billing, Your Expert QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions Consultants

813-882-3225

Reprint QuickBooks Invoice Without Saving Changed Template

Q: How do I Reprint a QuickBooks Invoice Without Saving Changed Template?

A: This is a Preference. Log in using single user mode, and Admin (or a user that has permission to change company preferences), click on EDIT>PREFERENCES, then click on General on left, then click on the Company Preferences Tab at the top. The last preference is Save Transaction Before Printing. Take off that preference. Now you can have that option when printing.

Denise Magee
Quality Consulting and Billing, Your Expert QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions Consultants
813-882-3225

Posting Inventory Items to a Job in QuickBooks

Q: Our company keeps a stock of certain building supplies on hand for small jobs. When we bill, we do not bill separately for these items. However, we would like them to show up on the job profit reports, how can I do this? So far the only way I've found is to make a general journal entry, however that puts them in the "no item" category on the profit reports. If I do an inventory adjustment it shows up on the customer center screen but not the reports for that job.Any other suggestions/ideas?

A: For inventory you actually need to enter it in as an Invoice since an Invoice is what relieves inventory. You will enter the items used as normal but sell them a $0.00. That way QuickBooks will apply the COST to the Job but not charge them anything.

Denise Magee
Quality Consulting and Billing, Your Expert QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions Consultants
813-882-3225

Condensing QuickBooks Data

Q: I use QB pro 2007. I want to delete(condense) all transactions before 12.31.07. I ran the clean up utility with this date. It seemed like it went fine. When I got back into QB, the data isn't condensed. What happened?

A: It won't. If you are having file issues, then you need to have a professional start a new file and if you want to have monthly journal entries brought in, than you can do that also. It is misleading in what that feature actually does. If you are not having file size issues, then there is no problem with keeping the file going. Mine has been going since 1997! If you need professional assistance, please let us know.

Denise Magee
Quality Consulting and Billing, Your Expert QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions Consultants
813-882-3225

Merging QuickBooks Customers, Vendors, Accounts, etc.

In QuickBooks, you can merge names (if you have permissions to do so) by editing the name and making it exactly the same as the other name in which you want to merge them into. You can do this with most of the lists in QuickBooks such as the Chart of Accounts, Vendors, Customers, Other Names, Items, etc. Be careful since there is no undo to this action. Also, doing this merges any history all into one history. You can do this with some Items, however if you are working with any items associated with cost data, primarily inventory, I would highly recommend you not merge. What you can do instead is make them inactive and make an inventory adjustment to move any remaining inventory to a new item name/number. If you are merging Chart of Accounts, make sure they are not critical to working with your accountant since this does historically change your financial reports.

Deleting QuickBooks Payment and Deposit Transactions

Changing a received payment can be a little tricky. If the payment that you wish to change has already been posted in a deposit, then if the deposit has not been reconciled already, you can delete the deposit, make the changes to the received payment, then make the corrected deposit. If the deposit was reconciled, then you need to open the deposit, enter in a new line at the bottom and post it to the FROM ACCOUNT (pick any income account) and enter in the AMOUNT of the one line of that payment. You then need to click once on the line that you need to make changes to Once that line is highlighted, you need to click on the EDIT button from your main menu, then click on DELETE LINE. This will not change your deposit amount, but it will unlock your payment so you can edit it. Doing this will also not change your reconciliation. Once you have made the changes needed, you will need to edit that deposit again and click on the payments button in te header of the deposit window, select the payment to be deposited, then you will need to select the temporary income line that you put in as a placeholder and click on EDIT-DELETE LINE.

Memorizing QuickBooks Transactions

If you want to make things a little easier on yourself, look at using memorized transactions. You can memorize invoices, estimates, purchase orders, sales orders, journal entries, checks, bills, just to name a few. Why do this? SAVE A LOT OF TIME! Think about all those entries that are the same every month...Rent/Mortgage, monthly or yearly dues, insurance, invoices, etc. If you already have entered the transaction you wish to memorize then simply open the transaction up and click on Edit (from the main menu) then click on Memorize Trasaction. Once you are in the memorize transaction screen, then you can choose how frequently you want this transaction to repeat. You can also simply choose to not repeat it but rather keep it as a "template" to use later. Maybe you have a large invoice or PO that you want ot keep to use over and over again. If you have not entered the transaction in before, simply act as if you are adding the transaction in for the firs time, then instead of save and close, click on Edit, then Memorize "Transaction"(bill, invoice, etc.) Then unless you want to actualy add the transaction you just entered, close that window without making changes. You can also use the keyboard shortcuts CTRL+M is Memorize Transactions and CTRL+T is to Open the Memorized Transaction List.

Backing Up QuickBooks Data File- Best Practices

Recently I received an email from a client (Bryan...this is for you) that ended up with a severely corrupted QuickBooks file, so severe that Intuit was needed to fix it. He asked me to provide a “Best Practice” for backing up.If you have a server that backs up your QuickBooks file, great…but that is not good enough. In a previous forum post, I spoke a little about the .tlg file (transaction log file) that grows until you physically make a backup file. That is not the only reason for backing up. You also need to verify the file does not have corruptions in it. To backup in the new 2009 QuickBooks, this means clicking on FILE>SAVE COPY OR BACKUP. Keep the BACKUP COPY selected, then click on NEXT. When you see the button that says OPTIONS, under the LOCAL BACKUP button, click on OPTIONS. In there you will Browse for a location that you would have created a backup folder in, (hopefully one that is being backed up using other backup media/methods). The last important option in this screen is the COMPLETE VERIFICATION, (make sure this is selected). Then you can click on OK, and FINISH. You must perform a VERIFY DATA and do it frequently, possibly weekly. This is the only way you will know if you have any corruptions. In many cases, QuickBooks will be able to fix smaller corruptions. However if you do not fix them early, they can bloom into much larger issues causing more damage.

Error Code (-6000, -083)

This is an error that you can typically see on a server and it can occur while trying to open QuickBooks. This error can usually be resolved by shutting down your computer and restarting it. Thanks for the question Peter. I am glad it worked for you!

QuickBooks Payroll E-pay Update

Do you file EPay Taxes through Intuit Payroll? One of the latest updates is a must have. It now allows you to store your EFTPS Login Credentials so you don’t have any issues with remembering the information of making an error and missing your tax deadlines. If you would like assistance in setting up your Intuit Payroll account to manage your payroll fast and easy, let us know!