The Sleeter Group has some good info on the new features of the latest version of QuickBooks.

New Features of QuickBooks 2007

Awesome QuickBooks Add-ons for 2007

Q:

Subject: Question re Quick Books 2007

 Kerry,

You said in last weeks E-Mail to upgrade to 2007 so I am

 

I checked the QB website and they said for me to upgrade to Pro 2007 (the Basics edition was phased out in 2006) will cost $199.00 as an upgrade.

 

Is there any place to get it cheaper than that?   I thought if you already owned QB, you could download a cheaper update than $199.00….should I check Sam’s Club and just buy the software again? 

 

Thanks for your suggestion,

A:

2005 was the last year they sold the basic version. That was a shame because it did everything we needed for tax return purposes, so I always recommended that one.  I guess Intuit was so upset that so many buyers were choosing that inexpensive version that they had to dump it in order to squeeze more money out of buyers who now only have the Pro version on the lowest price end.

$199 is the regular retail price.  Historically, it’s always been possible to beat the normal retail prices  at warehouse clubs, eBay and via the banner ads on my websites.

As a test, I just checked those prices and here’s what I came up with.

Sam’s Club shows it as available on 10/16/06 for $158.18.

Clicking the square banner on my blog, it had the Pro 2007 program as $169.96.

 An eBay search came up with a bid price of $120 and a BuyItNow price of $169.99.

Since you have a Sam’s Club right there in Springfield, I would probably pick it up there and not have to worry about shipping costs.  We have to drive 1.5 hours to reach a Sam’s in person, so I would probably buy it from them online.

I hope this helps.

Kerry
 

Follow-up:

Kerry,

 

Sam’s Club in Springfield did not have the 2007 version, but were selling the 2006 Pro QB for $149.98……I’ll go online and see if I can buy it….

 

thanks for the info.

Q:

Subject: Big Red Consulting / Quickbooks Question

 

Hi Kerry –

 

Came across your comments on your website concerning Big Red Consulting‘s tool to transfer transaction files between companies and was looking to purchase that. I am, however, always a bit hesitant on downloading a third party tool that comes in contact with company files etc. Also curious on your experience on this tools functionality.

 

– Essentially have two copies of the same company and need to update one computer with some but not all transactions for some vendors (payments, address changes etc) and also invoices. Simply said Computer A contains 90% of the invoice/payment transactions but need to update it with the 10% that is on Computer B without wiping out/replacing the 90% info that is on Computer A.

 

The Big Red website seems to indicate that this is what this tool is designed to do but wanted to see what your experience is on this.

 

Very much appreciate any feedback on this…just want to be sure to get the right tool the first time.

 

Best Regards,

A:

I purchased my first programs from Big Red in April 2002 and have never had any problems when using them.  They have always performed as advertised.  Neither have I ever heard of any problems from others who I have advised to use those programs to perform their specialized tasks.

To be on the safe side and to protect the integrity of your original data files, it would be a good idea to make copies of them to work with in any process that you may be unsure of.  That way, you will always have to option of going back to the pre-modified state.

I hope this helps you feel more comfortable in utilizing the handy tools that Bid Red has for working with QB files.

Good luck.

Kerry Kerstetter

Follow-Up:

Thanks Kerry – Appreciate you get getting back to me.

I haven’t received my copies of the 2007 QuickBooks programs yet. I’m assuming they will be here some time this coming week. I have been looking over some of the announcements and descriptions of new features. One in particular caught my attention.

Since we have most of our clients using various versions of QuickBooks, we normally have them submit their data via the Accountant’s Review function. As anyone who has worked with these special files can attest, it is frustrating to have to deal with the restrictions the program places on the files the clients send. It’s also frustrating when clients make changes to data in time periods for which we’ve already finished the tax returns.

According to this description from Intuit, we will be able to do more with the files clients send us.

Exchange, review and adjust a range of transactions in the client’s prior period accounting using the All New Accountant’s Copy and they can continue working in their ongoing QuickBooks files. After your receive the Accountant’s Copy from the client you can:

Add, edit and delete most transactions in the prior period

Add new transactions

Add and edit the chart of accounts

Add new customers, vendors and items

While you work in the Accountant’s Copy clients can continue to work in their QuickBooks files but are restricted from making changes to the periods you are working on. Send your adjustments back to clients, and then they can review and automatically integrate them into their files.

Since these improvements will only be effective for the 2007 and future programs, it will become increasingly frustrating to have to continue working with client files created using earlier versions. For some reason, many of our clients are still using the QB 2002 and 2004 programs.

I just received notification from Intuit that the 2007 programs will start shipping to us Certified Pro Advisors on October 2, 2006. This is almost a month and a half earlier than the 2006 programs were shipped out last year.

I like to pass this along for the benefit of those who are considering buying copies of the “latest” version, either as first time users or upgraders.

Intuit has posted some info on the new 2007 versions:

Premier Accountant Edition

Premier

Pro

As has been quite obvious, I am a huge fan of the QuickBooks programs and try to pass along any tips and useful guides that I come across. I was a little concerned about the reliability of this CD-ROM self study course because both the email that I received advertising it and the table of contents that you can click on from their website have the following picture:

For anyone unclear on why this would concern me, while Microsoft did attempt to purchase Intuit 15 or so years ago, that was shot down by the Feds on anti-trust grounds and QuickBooks has always been produced by Intuit, a company completely unrelated to Bill Gates’ behemoth. I wonder about what else isn’t accurate in a course about QuickBooks if they can’t even keep this basic fact straight.

Q:

 Subject: Quicken Question…

I have Quicken 2005 and haven’t figured out how to make it do a particular thing.  Maybe you can help me with it.

Let’s say I have 4 different accounts:

 

Child 1 (10%)

Child 2 (20%)

Spouse (30%)

Self (40%)

 

I want to create a transaction say of $1000 into Quicken (somehow) and have it split the $1000 out by the percentages and place the money into each account.

 

Child 1 ($100)

Child 2 ($200)

Spouse ($300)

Self ($400)

 

When a certain person uses their money, it should come from their account and they should not be able to draw out more than is in their account.

 

Do you know of any way to do this?

 

Thanks,

A:

There may or may not be a way in which to automate what you want in Quicken.  Having switched all of our clients over to QuickBooks, I haven’t used Quicken in so long I can’t advise anyone on this.

The best thing would be to work with your professional tax and accounting advisor, specifying what kinds of reports and other info you are looking to be able to produce. S/he should then be able to help you tweak your accounting program in such a way as to accomplish that goal.  You should already be providing your tax return data to him/her via your Quicken data files; so this wouldn’t be something entirely new for him/her to help you with.

Good luck.

Kerry Kerstetter

Follow-Up:

Kerry,

Thanks for the information and for taking the time to answer my question.

I’ll check with an accountant to see if such a thing can be done.

Thanks again,

When to Use Portable Company Files in QuickBooks 2006 – It’s taken a while, but more and more clients are finally learning to use this new smaller file format instead of  the old QBB they have been used to for the past several years. 

Q:

Subject: BACKUP RESTORE PROBLEM

 

PLEASE CAN YOU HELP ME WITH THIS PROBLEM THAT I AM HAVING WITH MY BACK UP QBB FILE,I RECENTLY HAD TO DO A COMPLETE INSTALL OF MY OS  AND HAD TO INSTALL QBOOKS 2006 AGAIN NOW I CANT RESTORE MY BACKUP FILE IT SAYS UNABLE TO DERTERMINE VERSION ON QBB FILE AND WILL NOT RESTORE BACK UP PLEASE HELP THANK YOU

A:

It sounds as if you didn’t run the “Update QuickBooks” function after you reinstalled the program.

If the QBB file had been made with an up to date version of QB 2006, it might not be accessible with an un-updated version.  Some of the changes they make during a version’s year on the market are major enough to cause problems like the one you have.

After you have the program install all of its to-date updates, try to restore the QBB file and you should have better luck.

Let me know if this works for you.

Kerry Kerstetter