The corporate accounting scandals have raised our profession up in terms of public profile and as a target for ridicule. I doubt, however, if we will ever catch up with the number of lawyer jokes floating around. They have too much of a head start.

Economic issue squeeze – The media, in their effort to only report bad news about Bush, don’t want us to hear another example of Reaganomics working in real life:

“Just for the record about the tax cuts’ long-term impact, budget officials now forecast the deficit will be about $100 billion less than expected this year because of rising federal tax revenues from a growing economy.”

They would prefer to continue harping about how destructive tax cuts for the evil rich are and completely ignore how they stimulate economic growth for everyone.

Louisiana’s inheritance tax going away — mostly

Day of Reckoning For Social Security

More Bad News for Social Security

Families, Deep in Debt, Facing Pain of Growing Interest Rates – Classic double edged sword. What’s good for savers is bad for borrowers.

HAL bankruptcy trustee kicked off plane by pilot – I don’t know if this is a trend or not; but people are finding more creative ways to get back at people who they feel are ripping them off. There have been a number of recent stories about doctors refusing to treat lawyers and politicians (and their families) who were not supportive of limits on malpractice judgments. Now this case where a pilot is unhappy about how things are looking for his company pension plan.

Pork Alert: We’ve Only Just Begun

Florida to Tax Home Computer Networks – It sounds stupid that Florida rulers would just now think about applying a 1985 state law to levy communications taxes on people who have two or more computers networked together. Of course, that state has a reputation for not being the sharpest knife in the drawer; so who knows?

House kills DemonRats’ bill to tax rich, fund programs

Stephen Moore’s Prescription for Ending Fiscal Malpractice in Washington

Gas Coupon Scam to Loot bank Accounts

N.Y. Property Tax Follies

The following is a rather lengthy discussion that will only be of interest to other accountants who work with multiple QuickBooks files.

Intuit has finally implemented a feature in QuickBooks 2004 that I have been requesting for years and years.

I receive dozens of QuickBooks data files from clients every week. While a new version of the program is issued every year, most people hold onto their versions for several years before upgrading. The frustrating thing for me has been that there has been no way to distinguish which version of the program the files I receive were produced in. The file names look exactly the same, with nothing to distinguish a 1999 file from a 2004 or any other year. It then involves a lot of trial and error, with different versions of QB, for me to open the file without converting it into a newer version than the client can use.

Several weeks ago, I received an email from QuickBooks with the following announcement:

Subject: QuickBooks ProAdvisor Alert: Intuit introduces QuickBooks Version Detector for Accountants with QuickBooks 2004

(This Alert email is being sent to you because you are a valued

QuickBooks ProAdvisor(SM).)

***************************************

Key Info

***************************************

* Audience Affected: QuickBooks(R) ProAdvisors, and their clients who

use older versions of QuickBooks (back to 1999).

* Notification: Intuit’s new QuickBooks Version Detector (included in

QuickBooks 2004 Release 6) lets QuickBooks ProAdvisors quickly

identify which version of QuickBooks a client is using, without

having to open the QuickBooks file.

* Timeline: Mid June

* Action: QuickBooks ProAdvisors that have “QuickBooks Update” enabled

on their computer will automatically receive the QuickBooks R6

update from Intuit which includes the version detector feature. If

you do not have “QuickBooks Update” enabled, you may visit:

http://proadvisors.intuit.com/cgi-bin6/DM/y/eWAC0FGJY60FR50eoF0AB

to download the QuickBooks R6 update for free.

Intuit introduces free QuickBooks Version Detector for Accountants

with QuickBooks 2004

Intuit’s new QuickBooks Version Detector lets you quickly identify

which version of QuickBooks a client is using, without having to

open the client’s QuickBooks file. QuickBooks Version Detector

works with your QuickBooks 2004 software, and will detect QuickBooks

versions dating back to 1999. The version detector is included,

along with a variety of other improvements and fixes, in

QuickBooks 2004 Release 6.

Simply “mouse-over” a client’s QuickBooks file to identify the

version and year. A message box message appears, showing the:

* Version of QuickBooks that last opened the file

* File type

* File size

* Date when the file was last modified

Every couple of days, I would go to the manual download page and look for Service Release 6. It was finally up there as of a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, this new feature wasn’t working properly. I installed it multiple times on my main computer and it just wasn’t working. I noticed that other QB pros were also unable to get it to function properly. Based on this advice from Intuit, I ran the Update QuickBooks function once again. I noticed a small file being downloaded and installed. This time, the version detector feature seems to have been properly activated. It works from within all of the QB programs, not just 2004. It also shows up when I’m looking at files in “My Computer” and Windows Explorer, which is what I had really been hoping for. I can now verify the proper version of QB to use before even starting up the QB program.

Updating QB Programs

In a similar vein, while I do think it’s worthwhile upgrading to the newest version of QuickBooks each year, users shouldn’t wait more than three years to do so. Intuit has recently started sunsetting (aka retiring, orphaning, abandoning) versions of QuickBooks that are more than three years old. The most recent case was QuickBooks 2001, which was officially retired as of April 30, 2004. Anyone using the 2001 or older programs should just go ahead and buy a copy of the 2004 program and be set for three more years rather than try to get by via picking up a cheap copy of the 2002 or 2003 program from some place like eBay.