Hard to believe, but 2010 is getting ready to come to a close….You can always tell because the 2011 models of cars are being released, and so are the 2011 versions of accounting software.
The newest version of QuickBooks 2011 was released by Intuit at the end of September.  There are no significant changes to the interface, but there are some time-saving modifications to the program itself.  The ultimate goal of QuickBooks is always to have the small business owner spend less time working on their numbers, but still providing them with all of the data required to run their business.
Below I’ve listed some features of QuickBooks Pro 2011 and QuickBooks Premier 2011 which build on previous versions and streamline certain accounting tasks.

1. Simplified Start-up Process – Quick Start Center guides users through installation and lets them import business contacts directly from their Gmail, Yahoo or Hotmail webmail accounts.
2. Customer Snapshot offers a consolidated view of an individual customer’s purchase history, average days to pay, and outstanding balance. This helps small businesses make timely decisions on customer requests.

1. QuickBooks Search lets users quickly locate any customer, account, report or invoice details within their QuickBooks repository with a simple keyword search.
2. Customer and Vendor History provides at-a-glance views of important customer and vendor details, such as history, estimates and past orders, on a single screen.
3. Balance Sheet by Class provides a way for QuickBooks Premier users to separately track multiple funds, departments or locations in a single, easy-to-access report.
4. Batch Invoicing lets small businesses owners who often bill many customers for the same service streamline the process by creating one template invoice to send to all related customers.
5. Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail Integration allows businesses to easily send invoices, estimates, and other e-mails from their preferred webmail service directly from QuickBooks.
6. Collections Center helps users to quickly identify overdue and almost-due invoices, and then directly e-mail collection notices from their Outlook, Yahoo, Gmail, or Hotmail accounts.

 
I always look forward to installing the new versions of QuickBooks software, as they always manage to create something that I never thought of, but now realize I can’t live without!
Upgrading to the newest version is always optional unless you are running payroll on your system.  Then you must upgrade in order to receive the most recent payroll tax table updates.  If you are interested in saving yourself the time and expense of upgrading every year, try our remote or offsite bookkeeping service offerings as the upgrade is included in your monthly fee.