director of parish ;nance services for the diocese.
“In the past, and prior to our parish and school
conversions, it might have required months before the
Chancery of;ce was able to view each parish’s or school’s
;nancial results. There was much downloading of data from
diskettes or e-mail and the stitching together of reports,”
said Koniers. “Now with our platform and the use of newly
programmed not-for-pro;t reports by the Right Networks
folks, parish information can be downloaded individually, or
in a consolidated format, by the PFS of;ce instantly.”
“When you turn the corner on the problem, you discover
that unless you gain easier access to the data, you’ll never
solve the problem and it is going to continue to be expensive,”
Sleeter said.
Working with QB
FROM PAGE 22
CATCHING CLIENT MISTAKES
Having greater access to a client’s data can help catch and
resolve client mistakes, some of which may be more costly
than others.
“Accountants work with so many different clients, but
almost all clients make mistakes that are very, very common,”
acknowledged Victoria Dolginsky, QuickBooks Accountant
Edition product manager at parent Intuit.
According to Dolginsky, there are about 4. 5 million
businesses using QuickBooks and about 97,000 accounting
;rms that work with small businesses and help them with
QuickBooks.
Some common mistakes include, but are not limited to:
numerous old accounts, customers, vendors or items within
lists; a growing balance in undeposited funds; payments that
are not applied to invoices; unapplied vendor credits; and
incorrect or inconsistent inventory procedures.
One significant mistake that a client with inventory
could make, noted Woodard, is to improperly merge inventory
items. This will distort data and is irreversible.
Ruth Perryman, owner of consulting and training concern
The QB Specialists, added, “I love Intuit, but QuickBooks is
unfortunately marketed as a product that you can purchase
and start using without any help whatsoever. Nothing could
be farther from the truth. Even the most simple businesses
struggle with crucial features like how to use undeposited
funds and properly enter credit card transactions.”
Perryman said that her company uses QuickBooks
Enterprise Accountant’s Edition 10 for its bookkeeping,
along with Intuit Merchant Services, Billing Solutions, Check
Solutions and Time Tracker, as well as the Intuit Online Payroll
(formerly PayCycle).
NEW TOOLS
Looking to make QuickBooks even easier for accounting
professionals in serving their clients, Intuit has developed many
tools. Among the more popular is the Client Data Review tool.
Client Data Review, which was introduced in 2009, with four
new tools in 2010, helps accounting professionals be more
productive when detecting and correcting client data errors.
Features include a tool to quickly reclassify transactions,
real-time data refresh as corrections are made to the client’s
data, and the ability to track changes to the QuickBooks lists,
'A LOT OF CONSULTANTS ARE GETTING INTO THE ADD-ON MARKET.'
including added, deleted, merged or edited.
“I think there is a lot of [room for] improvement in the
way CPAs and their clients work together with QuickBooks,”
said Mark Stricker, an Advanced Certified QuickBooks
ProAdvisor at CPA firm BIK & Co. “I meet new business
owners all the time who tell me that their accountant does
not help them at all with QuickBooks. The CPAs allow their
clients to struggle with it all year, and then they are too busy to
help them ;x it come tax time.”
BE SMALL BUT PLAY BIG
The QuickBooks consulting market is poised for growth,
but there’s no doubt that the market isn’t what it used to be.
Today, in order to grow a consulting business, consultants
must be willing to change with the times and be well-versed
in third-party add-ons, ;nd ways to differentiate from the
competition and be masters of networking.
“What’s happened is the idea of being a full-time Quick-
Books consultant doesn’t exist. Now it is more QuickBooks
consulting plus something,” said Gregory of Bottom Line
Accounting Solutions. “A lot of consultants are getting into
the add-on market. That is how I see a lot consultants growing
their business.”
Since the launch of the first QuickBooks software
development kit for third-party developers in conjunction
with the release of QuickBooks 2002 products, the universe of
third-party add-ons has caught on like wild;re. It is estimated
that today there are more than 450 add-ons available. (For
some of the most-recommended add-ons and applications,
see page 26.)
Add-on products have become necessary to many small
and midsized businesses as they provide businesses with the
speci;c tools and functions they need.
Intuit Partner Platform director Alex Chriss noted that
more recently, the company opened the doors to all developers
and independent software vendors interested in building
online applications on the platform. The IPP gives developers
the opportunity to build Web-based applications, as well as
Software-as-a-Service businesses, and to focus on developing
on-demand software solutions that solve unique problems for
the small and mid-market businesses using QuickBooks.
“What we are getting from the CPA market right now
is that a lot of people are interested in learning how these
add-ons work, because they can go in and actually make a
fair amount of money implementing third-party add-ons,”
said Chris Farrell, vice president of sales and marketing for
Virtual Software, an add-on for a Web-based time-and-
expense reporting platform that seamlessly integrates with
QuickBooks. Virtual Software even takes the power of
paperless to a new level by seamlessly integrating with another
add-on for document management — SmartVault.
ADD-ONS AND INTEGRATION
Stricker of BIK & Co. agreed, and said that the latest role as a
QuickBooks Pro Advisor is to recommend and implement third
party add-on programs. One of his favorites is SmartVault.
“Since I’ve seen the value of having a system like this
;rsthand, I understand how valuable a system like this would
be for our clients,” said Stricker, who is a member of the
SmartVault Af;liate Program. Bene;ts of the program include
discounts on the software that can be passed on to clients, as
well as a commission for referring SmartVault.
According to Eric Pulaski, chief executive and founder
of SmartVault, there are about 150 members in the Af;liate
Program.
Pulaski said that one of the bene;ts of using SmartVault
is its ease of use. Not only can documents be accessed any
time from anywhere via a Web browser, but SmartVault helps
streamline work;ow and increase productivity. In addition,
SmartVault transforms QuickBooks into a paperless system
that is simple to use and intuitive. An integrated SmartVault
toolbar enables users to attach and view documents from
more than 30 QuickBooks transactions. It also offers built-in
organization of ;les and source documents. “We do document
management and ;le sharing so it is a safe place where CPAs
and clients can store documents and make it easy to share
data,” he said.
Meanwhile, document management solution provider
Cabinet NG offers its CNG-Books. CNG-Books expands
QuickBooks’ productivity by integrating QuickBooks data
entry with Cabinet NG’s document ;ling process. CNG-Books
unites QuickBooks transactions with the correct business
documents to make ;ling, locating and sharing documents
easier and secure.
“There’s a growing number of QuickBooks consultants,
and what helps differentiate one from another is how much
value are they bringing to the client,” said James True, vice
president of business development for Cabinet NG.
Also integrating with QuickBooks is Tigerpaw
Software, which offers an all-in-one business software system
that integrates contact management, sales and marketing
automation, service management, and inventory control.
For QuickBooks users, Tigerpaw offers two-way integration
that automatically enters invoices posted in Tigerpaw into
QuickBooks. For QuickBooks Premiere and QuickBooks Pro
(versions 1999 to 2010), data, such as accounts receivable,
general ledger, payment and accounts payable data, can be
sent from Tigerpaw to the accounting system.
Megan Hartman, corporate integrations project manager
See WORKING WITH QB on 25
