If you are a QuickBooks user, you will want to read this article regarding new features available in the new release of Intuit’s QuickBooks 2009. As a Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor, I am always intrigued from year to year what benefits these new releases bring to the end-user experience. In years past, with exception of few, I have always advised users who were on a current year’s release to skip a year (sometimes two) before updating to the latest and greatest release of this software. The logic being why spend money every year, unless there is a specific benefit for doing so. In other words, don’t upgrade just for the sake of upgrading. The new QuickBooks 2009 release is an exception to this rule for many end-users.

So why do I take this position? What new functions and features are available that makes it worth considering an upgrade?

• Client Data Review (CDR) - While this new feature is geared towards helping your CPA, Accountant or ProAdvisor find issues, it certainly benefits the business owner and end-user responsible for keeping the books. Why? These tasks can be handled in a more efficient manner. Saved time equates to money saved! CDR allows you to quickly troubleshoot account balances, review list changes, quickly resolve issues with Accounts Receivables or Accounts Payable, and resolve issues with Sales Tax, Inventory, Payroll, and Bank Reconciliations. Note: The CDR feature is only available in QuickBooks Premier Accountants Edition. However, your QuickBooks Pro or Premier data can be opened in the QB Accountants Edition (perhaps installed on your provider’s laptop) which allows for adjustments to be made and then re-opened in QB Pro or Premier.
• Improved Bank Reconciliation - This is personally one of my favorite improvements. From the reconciliation screen, you can now sort any of the available columns in ascending or descending order. This new feature has already proven to be a tremendous time saver for me as I tend to sort by the “Amount” columns. Again, saving time equates to saving money and allows you to do other things.
• Company Snapshot - Another favorite…You can now display a snapshot of your business, showing at a glance, account balances, A/R, A/P, reminders, and a cool bar graph showing income vs. expenses for time periods you can set. No need to pull multiple reports with this extremely useful information at your disposal every time you open QuickBooks 2009.
• Online Banking - The entire online banking interface has been drastically improved. Additionally, the end-user experience is much improved. QuickBooks has given us the ability to automatically map transactions to the proper QuickBooks G/L accounts to improve accuracy. There is also a new wizard which simplifies the online banking setup experience.
• Have you ever found yourself attempting to close a report or some other window in QuickBooks only to accidentally click on the top right “X” thereby closing the QuickBooks application? We all have done this more times than we might care to admit. QuickBooks heard us, frustrated users, and did something about this annoying little “feature” (or lack thereof). Yes, if you click to close QuickBooks by clicking on the “X”, a nice little dialog box opens asking, “Are you sure you want to exit QuickBooks?” Simply click, “Yes” or “No” So simple, yet so very useful.
• How about a neat little feature new to QuickBooks which allows instant messaging between other users logged into QuickBooks?
• If you already have a website, this feature will likely not be of interest to you. However, if your business does not have a website, without question, it should. And here’s the good news. QuickBooks offers you a FREE template-based website via QuickBooks. Intuit, who originally teamed with Homestead (a provider of website services) and then last year acquired Homestead, offers QuickBooks customers the ability to quickly and easily create a free and functional website to reflect your business. While this feature will not be for the majority, it can certainly be of use for a minority.
• The NEW Intuit Statement Writer (ISW) - OK, I admit, this feature is for accountants and CPA’s (and you must utilize QuickBooks for Accountants 2009). But it IS a great feature, allowing you to create very nice financials statements for your clients. ISW is a separate application within QuickBooks and it uses Excel to display and build your reports. Therefore, you need to be comfortable with Excel. A free 30 day trial is available. The cost of ISW as of this writing is $149.95.

There are some additional new features of which the jury is still out for me. These features are multi-user currency and an improved accountant’s copy (I’ve never been a fan of the accountant’s copy in the past), just to name a few. However, I am completely sold on the eight features I have mentioned here. QuickBooks 2009 is by far the best feature-rich major release I’ve seen in a long time. If you would like to purchase any flavor of QuickBooks 2009 at a discounted price, with free shipping, please visit the QuickTrainer Web Sites Product Page.

#ilm