New Features in QuickBooks 2010 - Forms Design Wizard

Well, I cannot wait to play around with this feature. From the webinar that I watched, you will have many more ways to customize your invoices in 2010 version. I usually use the layout designer and it looks like there will be many more templates to choose from as well. I still have not loaded my company into 2010 version. I have been reading other ProAdvisor's blogs and there are still some kinks that need to be worked out.

I should be settled in next week to get working on my paperwork that will be shipped down here to sunny Florida. I will have lots of time to play around in the program and will update this blog once I have actually used the new version. I think I will steal from Joe Woodward's rating system and come up with my own and rate what I think is good and bad in 2010 version.

So stay tuned......

Lynda

Check out my website www.artesanibookkeeping.com

Enterprise Solutions Custom Fields

Back to a feature that I will definitely use for one of my companies is the new custom fields. I have a real estate company that I use all of the custom fields available. Now they have added more and allowed us to make drop down lists for selections. For example, I have a custom field for "Pets" that I have a blank space that I manually type in dog or cat for my selection. Now I will be able to make a customized drop down list where I can select "dog" or "cat".

Okay, so that won't save me a ton of time, but I am sure I will be able to use this new feature for other areas of some of the companies that I use.

Lynda

Check out my website www.artesanibookkeeping.com

New Features in QuickBooks 2010 - Electronic Signature

Okay, now for a feature that I am definitely not in favor of:

Adding an electronic signature

So, I may be "old school" but I think you should sign every check in your business. I don't believe in having a signature stamp either. I have done forensic audits for far too many businesses and find that this is an area where you need to be diligent about your record keeping. It is too easy for a staff member to write themselves a check and use a stamp and this new feature in QuickBooks allows for you to save a digital signature and have it pre-print onto a check. There is NO SECURITY using this method. There is no controls in place for your business. So unless you plan on being the only person with access to the signature and checks for your business, I would skip this new feature entirely.

Lynda

Check out my website www.rhodeislandbookkeeping.com

New Features in QuickBooks 2010 - Favorites

QuickBooks 2010 has added another new feature similar to many programs on your pc. It nows has a "favorites" button where you can store your favorite areas of QuickBooks that you use. You can save favorite reports there too.

While I understand that some may need to use this new feature, I am not sure that I will use it. Of course, I was slow to be a believer in the Home Page. It wasn't until a staff member asked me to stop shutting it off because they use it before I started using it. I liked the old way of using the icon bar and did not see a need for it. Then I found the home page to be such a useful tool when I taught QuickBooks. So, maybe I will use the favorites area of QuickBooks 2010. Only time will tell.

Lynda

Check out my website www.artesanibookkeeping.com

New Features in QuickBooks 2010 - Save button

So, I was on "vacation" last week. It is my annual move back home to sunny Florida trip. We take a long ride with all of our pets. We arrive in Southwest Florida and we unload, unpack and then do all of the cleanup and yard work required for being away from our home for 5 months.

So, you might ask, how do we run RI Bookkeeping, LLC from sunny, warm Florida? Great question. Virtually, of course. The master plan is to get business up and running down here stay put. That is what I would love to do. This is my home.

This past week, I watched a webinar regarding the new exiting changes in QuickBooks 2010. It was hosted by Joe Woodward from Scaling New Heights. The handout for the webinar was not available before the webinar started, so I scratched many notes about the changes that will effect my practice. I will blog about some of those changes this week. I found the webinar informative and anyone can watch it, since it was recorded. I also enjoyed the webinar because Mr. Woodward rated the changes and then shared his wish list for future changes to QuickBooks.

One of my new favorite features is the save button. I have a client who has a very lengthy billing process. Sometimes things come up while I am billing. But I used to have to finish the invoice or I would lose everything if I had not completed it. Now there is a save button that allows me to save my work and return to it at a later date.

Lynda

Check out my website www.artesanibookkeeping.com

Has anyone had trouble with the Live Community QB Forum?

I have been answering questions on the QuickBooks forum (aka Live Community). It is a service that ProAdvisors (and others) do for free to help people with the QuickBooks program, their data files, and sometimes regular accounting questions.

We do this so we can get listed on a Leaderboard. The more questions you answer, they make you a contributor, then an allstar. I managed to answer many questions that got me to allstar. In the process, I noticed that my profile did not have the "Advanced ProAdvisor" label that I earned from taking the long, difficult test. Others had it, but I did not. So I inquired as to why this was and asked them to fix it. Well, fix it they did! They made me an entire new identity, with the new Advanced ProAdvisor label and wiped out my old one. BUT, they also wiped out all of my questions and answers! Now I have zero, I am no longer an allstar. Hours and hours of my time have been wiped away.

I have contacted the appropriate people over there who "try" to fix it. It was actually fixed once, when I logged in, my answers were back, but now they are gone again.

Has this happened to any other ProAdvisors out there?

Lynda


Check out my website www.rhodeislandbookkeeping.com

Error Codes

Has this ever happened to you? Error 15240: HRESULT XXXXX The Payroll update did not complete successfully.

Agghhh! What happened? Isn't this frustrating? And it always seems to happen when you are busy or in a hurry. If you go to the error code page in QuickBooks at Error Codes, you can search by your error code for a very detailed answer.

Sometimes I have followed the steps to correct the problem only to find it does not work. I get very frustrated (and my lack of patience shines through) and in the end, I just reinstall my program and it usually fixes the problem. Of course, that is a last result, but thusfar, it has not failed me.

So, check out the error code page at Intuit. When this happens, it can usually be fixed by following their directions.

Lynda

Check out my website www.artesanibookkeeping.com

A tribute to my old cat, Zoidman....

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Today, won't be about QuickBooks either . It was a pretty rough day because I had to put my cat to sleep. He had cancer and we have been caring for him for awhile with his illness. He took a turn for the worse about a week ago. He stopped eating and drank very little. You could see the sadness in his eyes.

This was a cat who was mine all mine. He and I were best buddies for 17 1/2 years. He would give me "kisses" and head butt me when I asked. He was my best friend. It was so hard to see him in pain. He would look at me with such sad eyes, like "help me". He had a large tumor on his belly that could not be treated due to his age. He lost a lot of weight in the last week. How I struggled with the decision to put him down. We were with him in the end and he actually put his paw out for the vet when it was time. Almost like he knew and he was at peace.

How I will miss him! He was the best cat ever, right till the end. The picture I use for my Spark page is a picture of him when he was healthy.

I know he is in heaven with my son right now. I told him to be sure to take care of Mikey for me.

I love you Zoidy!

Lynda

Check out my website www.rhodeislandbookkeeping.com

The Russo 5K

Well we had a wonderful long weekend. My husband and I hosted a road race in Bristol, RI at Colt State Park benefiting RISCPA. It was in memory of my beloved son who was tragically killed last August by a hit and run driver. He was only 23 years old and I wanted to do something in his memory. He used to volunteer at the shelter. He loved all creatures, but especially cats and kittens. I have many more pictures at the website, Russo 5K. We felt this was a wonderful way to remember my Mikey.

On another positive note, you really find out how lucky you are to have many good friends. You know the ones who jump in when you are trying to organize a road race. I am so fortunate to have so many of these good friends. We also got to spend some time as a family and be with Mikey's best friend and family. Time is so precious and sometimes it is good to shut off the computer, put away the QuickBooks and do some good in our neighborhood. We raised over $1,900.00 in net proceeds to help the animals in Rhode Island. The race went off without a hitch, which is amazing since we were newbies. I have run in many of these but never hosted one. I am so glad I had the holiday to get the posting of the race times up on the web.

So, Mikey, we are thinking of you! We miss you dearly. And we plan on remembering you year after year with this memorial road race.

Lynda

Check out my website www.artesanibookkeeping.com

I have a customer and a vendor and it is the same company, QuickBooks won't let me enter it!

In QuickBooks you are either a vendor or a customer, but not both. So, you will need to have two separate names for this vendor and they have to be unique. So, if you have ABC Company that you owe money to, name it ABC Company-v, which will let you know that this is the one to use to track money you owe to your vendor.

For ABC company that owes you money, call it ABC Company-c, for the customer. That way when you are entering invoices, you will use this customer card and not apply it to the vendor. This will keep both accounts separate.

Tomorrow we will address this issue when no money changes hands and you use the barter system between the companies.

Lynda

Check out my website www.rhodeislandbookkeeping.com

QuickBooks won't open!

I received an interesting call from a past client. She told me that she had "fried her computer" and had to get a new one. The computer had to have all of its programs reinstalled. She installed QuickBooks, found her data file and opened it. Yeah. All was working well and then one day, she cannot get her program to open. She called me, very frustrated and about ready to throw her new computer out the window.

So, my first question was, "did you register your product?" She said, "yes, it is registered". Well, what she meant was it was registered on the first computer, but she never followed the steps to re-register it. I had her open QuickBooks and read the screens to me and sure enough, she had not registered it with this new computer. A few simple screens later and she was good to go.

So, moral of the story, when you reinstall the program, continue to follow the steps to re-register it.

Lynda

Check out my website www.rhodeislandbookkeeping.com

Upgrading to a newer version of QuickBooks

I met with a client recently who purchased QuickBooks 2009. Prior to this purchase, he was using QuickBooks 2004. He upgraded his data file after installing the program and found his PC was running at a very slow pace. QuickBooks took forever to load. He contacted me and wanted to know, "I have been using this program for one month. How do I go back to the 2004 version?" The quick answer is you can go back by restoring the backup copy that you made the last time you used the version. You will then have to recreate all the data you entered for the past month. QuickBooks data files are not backwards compatible. Of course, this is not the answer he wanted to hear. Once I met with him I found out that his PC was just not beefy enough for the newer version of QuickBooks. Not that he wanted to hear that either, but he was using a very old computer and QuickBooks 2009 is a much larger program than the 2004 one. I did persuade him to go forward with the new PC and the newer QuickBooks.

This happened approximately one month ago and I am happy to report that everything with my client is running well. He now loves the new program and all that it can do. Plus the added benefit is that all his programs run so much faster. He can't believe the difference!

Lynda

Check out my website www.artesanibookkeeping.com

Online banking with bill pay

Today is Friday, so I can vent.

I really dislike the way some banks to business. I have seen it with clients that use debit cards and do not watch all of their transactions. I had a client who went to Starbucks and used her debit card to purchase some specialty coffee. With that purchase, she bounced her checking account. She uses that debit card maybe 5-10 times per day for everything. Well, bounce, bounce, bounce. Each small purchase received a $39.00 NSF fee. Wow! It turns out she should have had the money available and it was not because of an error where her car payment came out twice (for over $500), this made her balance low and all of her troubles began. We eventually had to go to the bank and sort this whole mess out and it took two months before the duplicate entry was reversed. They also did remove all the NSF fees. My biggest pet peeve is "why did they let her keep debiting if the money was not there?" Well, apparently it was to collect all of the NSF fees.

We have an interesting case of a young man who is suing Citizen's Bank here in Rhode Island for the same type of problem. He did not have the bank error, but felt that the bank did not let him know they were extending him credit in the form of covering debit card purchases when his account dropped below the amount he was charging. And if in fact this is a "loan", then a charge at the local coffee shop of $3.00 makes the interest and fine of $39.00 illegal. I cannot wait to see the outcome of this lawsuit.

Lynda

Check out my website www.artesanibookkeeping.com