QuickBooks Pro 2010
nearly all small business owners at one time or another have wondered if they should use QuickBooks or if they already use it, they may wonder is it the best? In all fairness, QuickBooks Pro has earned quite a bit of its hype, along with our TopTenREVIEWS Silver Award. It is a good and affordable accounting solution for small business owners.
This accounting software can provide most of the tools that small businesses need. They also offer many additional services (fee based) such as payroll services, credit card processing, POS systems and banking supplies. All extra services are compatible with their programs. Intuit also allows five users to use one copy at a time, which is a great money saving bonus.
This software is offered in several versions, including an online version starting at less than $10 per month. Intuit also offers Simple Start, Pro, Premier and Enterprise Solutions. We looked at the Pro version, which is the most affordable option for most small businesses. This program can handle all basic accounting features. It includes many useful tools that extend beyond basic bookkeeping such as document management, auto-check signing, email creation and invoice customization.
Ease of Use:
We found QuickBooks Pro to be the easiest accounting software to learn to use. It is even easier to use than Peachtree. When you first install this software it will take you through the set up process for moving your company data into the program or you can start fresh or view a sample company to experiment with the software. We looked at the sample company for this review and found everything incredibly easy to figure out and to top it off this software is “good looking,” meaning the interface looks up to date and the icons and links make sense and are easy to figure out. Even their additional tools, such as email campaign creation and custom invoice creation can boast a zero learning curve.
Help/Support:
This software comes with help files and Intuit offers support online. On the Intuit website you can find updates and downloads, installation help, FAQs and troubleshooting. For telephone support they offer two service plans, a month-by-month plan and an annual support plan. Their support plans include online data backup, data recovery and 24/7 telephone support.
Accounts Receivable:
The accounting software can do just about everything we were looking for and offers many customization tools that other software programs do not offer, such as highly customizable invoices and the ability to scan checks into the software. It also works with UPS and FedEx for shipping.
Accounts Payable:
With the addition of a credit card processing service you can easily accept credit and debit cards. It can also print checks onto a variety of check paper stock and it can apply electronic signatures to them.
Payroll:
This program works with Intuit’s payroll service and can be used to manage all kinds of payroll functions including pay schedules, pay periods, statuses, tax information and employee profiles.
Inventory:
This accounting software does provide basic inventory control. It doesn't however have as many options as their Point of Sale (POS) software does. If you are looking for a retail solution you may want to look at their POS software. This software can track inventory, set inventory levels, manage backorders, set re-order points and more. However, it cannot support product images yet.
Banking:
This program is compatible with over 3000 financial institutions. This means that you can securely download your bank credit card transactions and other transactions. Of course, like all other accounting programs additional fees apply for electronic transfers, electronic deposits and automatic payments, but the software is capable of handling these types of transactions.
Time Billing:
This accounting software can calculate time billing, including the ability to track time, mileage and expenses. It also includes a variety of reports for time spent on jobs and mileage per vehicle. To help keep your time billing accurate it can automatically link to job time schedules and load the information into an invoice.
Job Costing:
With this software you can track jobs, set them as active or inactive and create job estimates. It also provides numerous job cost reporting options; however, it does not seem to have the ability to drill down in a job report. For example, using some other products you can click on a customer name in a report and link to their profile or on an invoice number to access the actual invoice.
General Ledger:
QuickBooks Pro comes with a few general ledger reports and it can create reports most often used by accountants such as an audit trail, a journal, a general ledger and tax reports. The general ledger reporting options are not extensive, but we feel they are sufficient for most small businesses. If you need more traditional accounting functions Intuit does offer an accountant version.
Fixed Assets:
Intuit software can track fixed assets for tax and general inventory purposes. It can even track purchase price, whether the item was new or used when purchased, sale price if you choose to sell and depreciated value for tax purposes. However, the Pro version does not include the fixed asset manager; this module is available in the accountant and enterprise editions only.
Conversion and Updates:
This accounting software can import Excel and CSV type files.The values that can be imported include customer, vendor, item and chart of accounts. If you are importing from a Mac program, you can use Intuit Interchange Format type files. They even provide a toolkit to help you import your company information easily. If you want or need to upgrade to another version, Intuit has made it very simple.
Reporting:
This small business software can create a wide variety of reports and lists. It also can create graph reports and has a useful and customizable company snapshot screen which shows a good collection of general reports such as sales reports, account balances and expenses. All in all the Pro version provides over 100 reporting options.
Summary:
QuickBooks Pro is excellent, intuitive software for accounting. We liked how easy Intuit makes it to move data into the software, even from Peachtree. They also offer good support documentation so even people that are not familiar with accounting terms can learn to use the program and manage their company more efficiently than they could have ever imagined in very little time.
Friday, April 8, 2011
Sage Peachtree Complete Accounting Review
When it comes to the best accounting software for small businesses, Sage provides some of the most capable and comprehensive all-in-one accounting programs available. Sage’s Peachtree Complete Accounting, our TopTenREVIEWS Gold Award winner, yet again tops our review list. It can do just about everything we were looking for and much more, including audit trail reporting, tools for managing fixed assets, job cost modules and PDF and email invoicing.
Sage provides numerous accounting programs in the Peachtree family of software including Peachtree First Accounting, Peachtree Pro, Peachtree Premium, and Peachtree Quantum and Peachtree Add-ons. Peachtree Pro may be sufficient for some small business, but we found Complete Accounting a more comprehensive package. Sage Peachtree Complete Accounting is also available in a multi-user version.
Even though QuickBooks Pro is likely the most widely recognized name in small business accounting, we discovered that Peachtree Complete does just a little more. For example, it offers a few more inventory options and good fixed inventory tools.
Ease of Use:
This accounting software is not the easiest to configure. The trial version we looked at came with a handful of sample companies that were already configured so we could run reports and so on. However, we noticed that not every company had the same control panel options. What we learned is that you have to first configure a feature and many features actually required the running of a setup wizard. After initial configuration, the button or icon for that feature will appear in the control panel. We found this confusing and sometimes the wizards would not even run. Someone who is new to accounting software may have a hard time getting their company account set up the way they want with automated payroll, project management and automatic deposits. We recommend that you get help when first setting up this software, which is a good idea no matter what accounting software you choose to use.
Help/Support:
Like most accounting software providers, direct contact support requires that you subscribe to one of their support plans. Free support includes a resource center and a comprehensive help section embedded in their software for quick access. Online they have some FAQs, updates and upgrades and some basic accounting information.
To get telephone, email or chat support you have to sign up with one of their three service plans. They also provide Sage University, which requires a Business Care subscription. The university provides anytime and real-time training, lunch and learns and style guides.
Accounts Receivable:
Sage's Peachtree Complete Accounting accounts receivable section is in their Customers and Sales module. Through this control panel you can manage customers, add inventory, set sales tax, and calculate finance charges. You can also deposit funds and perform credits and returns easily. In terms of reporting, you can save time by running one of about 50 pre-defined reports.
Accounts Payable:
Peachtree's accounts payable section is powerful but simple; you can manage vendors, write checks, enter bills, void checks and process credits and returns. You cannot, however, create custom checks per vendor; you can only make global changes that affect the layout and color of all checks.
Payroll:
Sage Peachtree Complete Accounting comes with payroll tools, though we had to consult the help files many times to figure it out. In the employees and payroll tasks sections for one company we only saw three buttons: employees, users and 1099s. When we clicked on one of the employee names it showed their general and additional information but there was not a benefits tab or an obvious way to alter their benefits or pay. After consulting the help pages a few times we discovered that you have to run the payroll set up wizard to add benefit information initially, we found this frustrating. To add to our frustration, running Windows 7 we could not get the payroll wizard to run.
Inventory:
In terms of inventory, this accounting software does just about everything we were looking for, including tracking stock location, re-order quantities, preferred vendors and more. It can also sort by UPC or SKU, which is necessary if you use a scanner and UPC barcodes for identifying stock. One feature that we would have liked to have seen is the ability to add an image to stock files.
Banking:
With Peachtree you can write checks, void checks, make deposits and reconcile accounts. To set up direct deposit you have to use PeachSync and like most programs, the direct deposit service requires a subscription.
Time Billing:
Within this section you can create expense quotes, daily and weekly time tickets, and sales invoices. However, like the payroll tools it took a bit to figure out.
Job Costing:
Finding the jobs or project section in Sage Peachtree Complete Accounting was difficult at first. We opened up a few demo companies and some would offer that section and some would not. What we learned is that you have to set up a section before the option will even appear in the main menu, which is nice in terms of not cluttering up your screen with unused icons, but not so nice when you are trying to figure out how to even configure or set up that section.
General Ledger:
Peachtree has excellent General Ledger Entry choices. You can change accounting periods, make ledger entries, and register accounts. There are seven reports available in this section.
Fixed Assets:
This software application can manage up to 200 fixed assets. It can also calculate depreciation and tax reporting. QuickBooks Pro does not have this module in the Pro version, you have to upgrade to the accountant or enterprise version to get the fixed asset manager.
Conversion and Updates:
Sage provides an easy to use conversion tool for converting from QuickBooks 2008-2010 (Pro through Enterprise) to Sage Peachtree Complete Accounting. Other versions and Quicken can be converted manually by exporting data to a compatible file type.
Reporting:
Peachtree provides quite a few reporting options for all of its sections. For example, in the inventory section there are around 20 pre-defined reports or you can also build customized report groups. It also provides Crystal Reports and a variety of job or project reports. Unique to this program is the audit report, which is similar to a journal entry report; it tracks users, actions, transaction IDs, date, amount and more.
Sage reports that Peachtree Complete Accounting can support up to 200 fixed assets and associated reports. However, we could not find fixed asset reports in the demo version and customer support would not answer our questions about how to run these reports without a customer ID.
Summary:
This software can do almost everything and it is a good all-in-one accounting product. It even includes many useful, printable forms to negate the necessity to have another program to do that for you.
We recommend that you try the free trial version for this software and view a variety of the sample companies so you can get a good idea as to what Peachtree is capable of. In addition, it could be worth the extra investment to have a Peachtree representative help you with the initial configuration of the product so you can get it set up and running with all of the modules and features that you need.
The fact that you may need a bit of helping setting up this software does not mean this software is less than stellar. In truth, most accounting programs are complex and do require a bit of forethought, time and assistance to get it configured perfectly to suit your needs. Once you get Sage Peachtree Complete Accounting working for you though, you will find more time and less stress in your work day.
When it comes to the best accounting software for small businesses, Sage provides some of the most capable and comprehensive all-in-one accounting programs available. Sage’s Peachtree Complete Accounting, our TopTenREVIEWS Gold Award winner, yet again tops our review list. It can do just about everything we were looking for and much more, including audit trail reporting, tools for managing fixed assets, job cost modules and PDF and email invoicing.
Sage provides numerous accounting programs in the Peachtree family of software including Peachtree First Accounting, Peachtree Pro, Peachtree Premium, and Peachtree Quantum and Peachtree Add-ons. Peachtree Pro may be sufficient for some small business, but we found Complete Accounting a more comprehensive package. Sage Peachtree Complete Accounting is also available in a multi-user version.
Even though QuickBooks Pro is likely the most widely recognized name in small business accounting, we discovered that Peachtree Complete does just a little more. For example, it offers a few more inventory options and good fixed inventory tools.
Ease of Use:
This accounting software is not the easiest to configure. The trial version we looked at came with a handful of sample companies that were already configured so we could run reports and so on. However, we noticed that not every company had the same control panel options. What we learned is that you have to first configure a feature and many features actually required the running of a setup wizard. After initial configuration, the button or icon for that feature will appear in the control panel. We found this confusing and sometimes the wizards would not even run. Someone who is new to accounting software may have a hard time getting their company account set up the way they want with automated payroll, project management and automatic deposits. We recommend that you get help when first setting up this software, which is a good idea no matter what accounting software you choose to use.
Help/Support:
Like most accounting software providers, direct contact support requires that you subscribe to one of their support plans. Free support includes a resource center and a comprehensive help section embedded in their software for quick access. Online they have some FAQs, updates and upgrades and some basic accounting information.
To get telephone, email or chat support you have to sign up with one of their three service plans. They also provide Sage University, which requires a Business Care subscription. The university provides anytime and real-time training, lunch and learns and style guides.
Accounts Receivable:
Sage's Peachtree Complete Accounting accounts receivable section is in their Customers and Sales module. Through this control panel you can manage customers, add inventory, set sales tax, and calculate finance charges. You can also deposit funds and perform credits and returns easily. In terms of reporting, you can save time by running one of about 50 pre-defined reports.
Accounts Payable:
Peachtree's accounts payable section is powerful but simple; you can manage vendors, write checks, enter bills, void checks and process credits and returns. You cannot, however, create custom checks per vendor; you can only make global changes that affect the layout and color of all checks.
Payroll:
Sage Peachtree Complete Accounting comes with payroll tools, though we had to consult the help files many times to figure it out. In the employees and payroll tasks sections for one company we only saw three buttons: employees, users and 1099s. When we clicked on one of the employee names it showed their general and additional information but there was not a benefits tab or an obvious way to alter their benefits or pay. After consulting the help pages a few times we discovered that you have to run the payroll set up wizard to add benefit information initially, we found this frustrating. To add to our frustration, running Windows 7 we could not get the payroll wizard to run.
Inventory:
In terms of inventory, this accounting software does just about everything we were looking for, including tracking stock location, re-order quantities, preferred vendors and more. It can also sort by UPC or SKU, which is necessary if you use a scanner and UPC barcodes for identifying stock. One feature that we would have liked to have seen is the ability to add an image to stock files.
Banking:
With Peachtree you can write checks, void checks, make deposits and reconcile accounts. To set up direct deposit you have to use PeachSync and like most programs, the direct deposit service requires a subscription.
Time Billing:
Within this section you can create expense quotes, daily and weekly time tickets, and sales invoices. However, like the payroll tools it took a bit to figure out.
Job Costing:
Finding the jobs or project section in Sage Peachtree Complete Accounting was difficult at first. We opened up a few demo companies and some would offer that section and some would not. What we learned is that you have to set up a section before the option will even appear in the main menu, which is nice in terms of not cluttering up your screen with unused icons, but not so nice when you are trying to figure out how to even configure or set up that section.
General Ledger:
Peachtree has excellent General Ledger Entry choices. You can change accounting periods, make ledger entries, and register accounts. There are seven reports available in this section.
Fixed Assets:
This software application can manage up to 200 fixed assets. It can also calculate depreciation and tax reporting. QuickBooks Pro does not have this module in the Pro version, you have to upgrade to the accountant or enterprise version to get the fixed asset manager.
Conversion and Updates:
Sage provides an easy to use conversion tool for converting from QuickBooks 2008-2010 (Pro through Enterprise) to Sage Peachtree Complete Accounting. Other versions and Quicken can be converted manually by exporting data to a compatible file type.
Reporting:
Peachtree provides quite a few reporting options for all of its sections. For example, in the inventory section there are around 20 pre-defined reports or you can also build customized report groups. It also provides Crystal Reports and a variety of job or project reports. Unique to this program is the audit report, which is similar to a journal entry report; it tracks users, actions, transaction IDs, date, amount and more.
Sage reports that Peachtree Complete Accounting can support up to 200 fixed assets and associated reports. However, we could not find fixed asset reports in the demo version and customer support would not answer our questions about how to run these reports without a customer ID.
Summary:
This software can do almost everything and it is a good all-in-one accounting product. It even includes many useful, printable forms to negate the necessity to have another program to do that for you.
We recommend that you try the free trial version for this software and view a variety of the sample companies so you can get a good idea as to what Peachtree is capable of. In addition, it could be worth the extra investment to have a Peachtree representative help you with the initial configuration of the product so you can get it set up and running with all of the modules and features that you need.
The fact that you may need a bit of helping setting up this software does not mean this software is less than stellar. In truth, most accounting programs are complex and do require a bit of forethought, time and assistance to get it configured perfectly to suit your needs. Once you get Sage Peachtree Complete Accounting working for you though, you will find more time and less stress in your work day.
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