Many small businesses use Quickbooks to make their accounting easy. It is so effective and easy to use that it currently dominates the market for small businesses. The fact that it is straight forward and does not require extensive accounting knowledge has made it the first choice for the majority of small business owners.
If you have a small business that is growing, you can take it to the next level with Enterprise Quickbooks 10.0. This is a software platform that is predicated on the ideas that made Quickbooks such a success. It has all of the same functionality and more, while retaining its ease of use and flexibility. This is now the standard for medium size businesses.
If your small business is starting to outgrow Quickbooks, moving to these quickbooks is a seamless transition for your company. Intuit knows that you would not want any disruption in your business simply to move to another accounting program and like so many things that it does, it has made this easy as well. Once you have installed Enterprise Quickbooks 10.0, all you need to do is open your Quickbooks company file and it will automatically be converted. Everything is brought along including inventory lists, vendor lists, transactions and user permissions.
There are options in Enterprise Quickbooks 10.0 that you won’t find in regular Quickbooks. When you move up to this software, you’ll have the ability to use inventory management for multiple locations. Having more than one base of business is one of the challenges that many small firms have when they start to grow. This software has the ability to grow with you.
Once you have installed this, you will then have advanced user permission capabilities. It will also allow users to access the system from remote locations in real time. This functionality is important for any business that wants to grow, and it takes the worry out of doing business from multiple locations.
If your small business has been using Quickbooks in the past, there will be little training involved in order to move to Enterprise Quickbooks 10.0. This is part of the seamless transition that is offered, and it helps to reduce costs. Having to train yourself and your employees on a new software system simply does not offer any profit. This problem is eliminated with a switch from Quickbooks to Enterprise Quickbooks 10.0.
If you have done any comparative shopping, you’ll know that it is very expensive to move to a different kind of software in order to do your accounting, inventory management and employee tracking. There is the cost of licenses, the almost inevitable problems that will arise from data conversion and the training that is involved when new software is used. You can save yourself all of these headaches by simply making the switch to Enterprise Quickbooks 10.0. Many small businesses have already made the transition from Quickbooks so that they do not have any disruption to their business as they are growing and moving up the ladder.
By: Mike Smith Faraone
Posts Tagged ‘Small Businesses’
Accounting Software
January 23rd, 2010
Bookkeeping is one of the most vital processes in any business. More than developing products and selling, it’s effective management of the flow of revenues and expenditures that ultimately makes a business fail or succeed. Don’t be discouraged if you don’t have extensive accounting experience – just invest in accounting software, and you’re good to go.
But with the many choices available, how do you know which kind is best for you? Here are some questions to ask yourself.
What is your budget? Determine how much you are willing to spend on your accounting software to help limit your choices. As a general rule, software programs with more features have higher price tags, so be prepared to spend more if you need a lot of functionalities. You would be surprised to find very good accounting software for amazingly low prices, though, especially the ones designed for small businesses. Keep your mind (and eyes) open.
Is it user-friendly? To cut the downtime in training your staff or yourself to handle the software, it has to be easy to use in the first place. Look for something that is simple with regard to three aspects: installation, set up, and navigation.
Does it have all the accounting modules and reporting categories you need? The most basic modules that accounting software must include are accounts-payable and accounts-receivable modules. You should also look for simple reporting categories that allow you to easily generate and print reports such as cash flow for a customized period, forecast reports, receivables reports, etc.
It’s a good idea to invest in slightly more expensive but very helpful expandable features; the software must be able to handle your growth (if you add a product line or more employees on the payroll, for example).
Does it offer after-sales support? Choose accounting software that comes with a complete FAQ package (for both technical and accounting topics), a toll-free call center, and maybe even live online support.
By: Eric Morris
Using the Cash Method For Tax Accounting
January 10th, 2010
When submitting tax figures to the IRS, there are 2 types of accounting methods to use. The 2 accepted methods are the accrual and cash methods. The business is responsible for choosing which method the company will use.
Many issues can be factored into the decision or the selection can be as easy as a personal desire. Bigger companies usually take more procedures into account like volume of sales, how much inventory is stored, number of sales, the past experiences of an accountant, and the list keeps going.
The cash method of tax accounting records all transactions and income at the time of payment. Even if the sale was made the previous year, according to the tax accounting books, the income is recorded when the payment is physically received.
For small businesses that may not pay a secretary or have an accounting staff, the cash method of recording tax accounting is fitting. With this method, accounts and sales are left open until the full payment is received. Using the cash method helps small businesses be aware of what accounts have been completed and closed and which sales have not been collected on yet.
The procedures of small businesses can range anywhere on the spectrum. Some are very rigid and have all paperwork filed within minutes of the transaction and some don’t have access to files or a computer for a day or two. When agreements or sales are completed on the road, outside the company walls, it takes discipline to get every sale receipt back to the file cabinet.
If partial payments are made over a long period of time, cash accounting will work well to show consistent income. When using cash accounting, these transactions reflect the cash flow accurately. Since cash accounting records each installment, the actual money received would be consistent and relatively even. Payment plans can last for several years if the product or service is very expensive. When longer plans are used for larger sales, this method will show more consistency.
When income from sales is needed to pay for operating expenses, cash accounting will accurately show the amount of money that was earned and can be used to pay those bills.
Once the tax accounting method on a cash basis is selected, it is next to impossible to efficiently change the method. If a change to the accrual method is desired, the cash method must have been used for the last two consecutive years. At that time, a formal request must be submitted to the Secretary of the Treasury. To make sure this process is done correctly and all the bases are covered, the owner/officer of the business should consult with a certified public accountant.
By: Joe Coffee