QuickBooks Premier Professional Services Edition 2009 Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Keeping track of one's time and expenses in their service business should, in theory, be a simple endeavor. Quickbooks Premier Professional Services Edition 2009 goes out of its way to make it difficult by having a steep learning curve and providing screens which are not user friendly. Quickbooks offers a "free" download of their companion instruction book which I recall being over 200 pages in .pdf format to explain the workings of their program, which is a tip off of the program's complexity and poor engineering. After rejecting the software I searched the Net for other time keeping programs and found programs costing a fraction of its cost which are easy to use. The other programs keep track of time and expenses in a straightforward manner without the need of spending weeks trying to figure out how to use software. For my money if software doesn't pass the KISS (keep it simple, stupid) rule it's not worth the money or the effort to figure out, since we're not programmers. If ease of use hasn't been designed into the program it's a sure sign of bad design and engineering. In a word, look elsewhere.

Click Here to see more reviews about: QuickBooks Premier Professional Services Edition 2009

Premier Industry Edition offers industry-specific features and financial planning software to take your business to the next level. Monitor and gain insights into your business performance. Easily manage customers, vendor and employee info. Business planning tools are tailored to help you grow your business.

Designed For Professional Services Firms
View unbilled time & expenses on one screen; transfer to an invoice Now you can decide who to bill by seeing all clients with unbilled time and expenses on a single screen. Instead of creating an invoice from scratch, simply open the Invoice for Time & Expenses screen and select the client and job combination. Outstanding billable time and expenses are transferred directly to an invoice.
Analyze profitability by project with Project Costing Reports Reports like Billed vs. Proposal by Project, Cost-to-Complete by Job, and Job Costs by Job and Vendor help you stay on top of which projects are most profitable.
Track unbilled time & expenses with customized reports Access Billed/Unbilled Hours by Person , Unbilled Expenses by Project, Expenses Not Assigned to Projects to keep track of your employees' time and expenses for billing.
Allow employees to enter billable & non-billable time online, from anywhere with an internet connection Time Tracker for QuickBooks, an optional subscription service, is the fastest, easiest way to collect and record billable and non-billable hours into QuickBooks Pro and Premier for accurate invoicing, payroll and reporting purposes. No more paperwork! Employees or contractors only need an internet connection to submit billable hours. Download timesheets right into QuickBooks with one click.
Track financial information in one place
Track sales & expenses Get rid of the piles of paperwork. Easily enter customer payments & bills from vendors. Since QuickBooks organizes everything in one place, you'll be able to access all past payments & bills for each customer and vendor with just a few clicks.
Pay bills & print checks Easily create and print checks. Aggregate all your checks to be paid and print them in one batch. QuickBooks will keep track of each check so you can keep tabs on where your money is going.
Create & e-mail invoices Use the data you already have in QuickBooks--such as customer contact info & products/services--to make creating invoiced a snap. Choose from pre-designed QuickBooks templates or customize the layout yourself.
Organize data on customers, vendors, and employees all in one place No more hunting through piles of files or trying to remember where you stashed that important paper. QuickBooks organizes all your important small business information in one place, giving you easy access to a complete picture of your business.
Import data from Excel, Quicken/ Quicken for Mac, and Microsoft Office Accounting Get up and running fast by importing data from the tool you use to track your finances now. However little or much data you currently have, you won't have to start over from scratch.
Save time & be more efficient
Reduce data entry by downloading your bank & credit card transactions into QuickBooks Save time and avoid data entry errors. Instead of typing in your bank and credit card transactions, download them securely from over 3000 participating financial institutions and easily import them into QuickBooks.
Enter bills and set due-date reminders QuickBooks helps you ensure you pay your bills on time. Record bills as they come and set a reminder to make sure you pay before the due date.
Export data into Excel Export data from QuickBooks reports to Excel spreadsheets so that you can do more complex analysis or graphing in Excel.
Track international sales & expenses with multiple currency support QuickBooks supports all global currencies and does all the currency calculations for you. You can even download exchange rates or do wire transfers from right in QuickBooks.
Manage products & inventory
Create purchase orders You can create purchase orders in seconds by selecting from vendors and inventory already in your QuickBooks. When you get the inventory in-house and record it in QuickBooks, QuickBooks will remember you have an open purchase order and automatically match the PO to the inventory bill.
Track inventory Easily track your inventory to avoid overbuying and backorders. Indicate re-order points for each inventory good and turn on reminders to automatically let you know when its time to reorder.
Advanced Tools to track raw & finished goods QuickBooks Premier and Enterprise Solutions help you address your more complex inventory & product management needs including: tracking both raw materials & finished goods, adjusting inventory as you creating bills of material (BOMs), and receiving inventory in one unit of measure and selling in another.
Monitor performance & gain insights
Generate reports with one click to see how your business is doing Get pre-designed, customizable business reports to gain insights into your business. See all available reports in one screen to easily choose the right one. Drill down with one click to see the detail behind the numbers. Export any report to Excel--your QuickBooks formatting and formulas go with it. Access industry-specific reports In QuickBooks Premier and Enterprise Solutions.
Create budgets to keep your business on track Create a working budget automatically, based on your recent spending history. Adjust figures individually or across line items. The spreadsheet-style format makes it easy to see the results of your changes. Refer back to the budget to see how your actual spending compares to your original budget.
Get a real-time snapshot of your business, in one central location with the Company Snapshot Stay on top of your business- see who owes you money, who you owe money to, important reminders, and income/expense performance, all in one centralized location
Easily create a business plan; Forecast sales and expenses Build a professional business plan quickly by answering step-by-step questions. QuickBooks fills in the numbers based on your QuickBooks data. You can export the projections to Excel for further analysis or save it as a PDF file. Click a button to create a forecast of income and expenses for the coming year, based on your existing QuickBooks data. Increase or decrease line items by any percentage to adjust for future changes.
Manage Employees
Manage payroll & payroll taxes ; offer Direct Deposit (paid subscription required) Intuit QuickBooks Payroll Services, QuickBooks Payroll for Mac powered by PayCycle, and Payroll for QuickBooks Online save you time by eliminating steps and giving you the tools to get your payroll done right.
Automatically populate and print 1099s for independent contractors and federal filing Create and print 1099 tax forms for you and your independent contractors.
Track time & billing
Track employee time and expenses Track time by employee, service, and customer with timesheets in QuickBooks. When you select a client to bill, QuickBooks automatically reminds you of unbilled time and expenses for that client.
Assign different billing rates for different types of employees QuickBooks provides the flexibility of setting different billing rates by employee and service type. You can set a fixed hourly rate for each employee or create custom hourly rates by service.
Allow employees to enter billable & non-billable time online, from anywhere with an internet connection Time tracking is automatically included with QuickBooks Online Plus. Time Tracker for QuickBooks Pro and Premier, an optional subscription service, is the fastest, easiest way to collect and record billable and non-billable hours into QuickBooks Pro and Premier for accurate invoicing, payroll and reporting purposes. No more paperwork! Employees or contractors only need an internet connection to submit billable hours Download timesheets right into QuickBooks with one click.
Attract Customers & Manage Customer Relationships
Track customer information and related transactions Keep customer contact and transaction information in QuicKBooks, so you can follow up on past-due accounts and answer customer requests faster. See contact information and complete transaction history for any customer.
Accept credit card payments right in QuickBooks Process credit card approvals right in your QuickBooks software. If you use Intuit QuickBooks Merchant Services, the data is automatically recorded in QuickBooks when you make a sale. And, it has no teaser rates, no hidden fees, no cancellation fees, and no long-term contracts.
Easily create a professional website with customizable templates and drag-and-drop tools. Save time with easy-to-use website creation tools including customizable templates, one-click publishing, and website hosting. Everything is included to get your site live within minutes. Point-and-click, drag-and-drop tools. Know how well your site is doing with website tracking and statistics.
Create & customize professional-looking invoices and other forms with advanced customization tools Create professional-looking forms by choosing from more than 100 expertly designed forms, including invoices & sales receipts. You can also customize the templates by adding your company logo and tag line to present your business uniquely to your customers.
Create sales orders & track back orders QuickBooks helps you and your customer keep track of backordered items. Invoices, sales orders, and other sales forms show which items have been invoiced, which items have been backordered, and the quantities backordered.
Set price levels QuickBooks Premier and Enterprise Solutions help you address your more complex pricing needs such as customize prices for different groups of customers or jobs (i.e. corporate, loyal, high-volume, etc.) with more price levels (up to 100).
Multiple Users & Multiple Locations
Work simultaneously with other QuickBooks users on your company file Multiple-user functionality enables more than one person to work on a company file at the same time, increasing collaboration and productivity. It ensures that all users are working on the most up-to-date data.
Set individual access levels for each user Restrict access for other users to only certain parts of your QuickBooks data so that employees only see the data they need to get their work done. For QuickBooks Pro and Premier, you can restrict access to 9 broad categories. QuickBooks Online Plus and Enterprise Solutions restrict access on a more detailed level to specific tasks and information. Customize each user's access level to view-only, create, modify, delete, print or any combination thereof for Enterprise Solutions.
Real time remote multi-location access service included Access your QuickBooks data remotely. Remote access is automatically built into your QuickBooks Online subscription, so there's no need to send files back and forth. For QuickBooks Pro and Premier, get up to 1 year free access to your QuickBooks data through WebEx. You can use Windows Terminal Services with Enterprise Solutions to allow password-protected access by authorized users.
Support for your product & data
Ask questions and get answers from experts and other small businesses like you, through Live Community, right in QuickBooks Ask a Question: Ask QuickBooks users like you for help on anything from how to use QuickBooks to how to grow your business. Chances are, someone else has had the same question you do. Discover Answers: See what others are talking about. You will be able to see Questions & Answers relevant to what you're looking for, so you can find your answer right away. Help Others: Give advice and share your own knowledge of QuickBooks.
Industry Specific Features
Create customizable reports designed for your industry Access over 150 industry-specific reports In QuickBooks Premier and Enterprise Solutions such as:--Profitability by Product for manufacturing and wholesale businesses--Job/ Project Costs for professional services firms & contracting businesses--Donor Contribution Summary for nonprofit organizations--Sales Tax Liability for retail businesses.
Easily Get Started
Import Data from Excel Excel templates make it easy for you to import your existing customers, vendors, or product information into QuickBooks. You can also assign each column in your existing Excel spreadsheet to a corresponding QuickBooks column. Save these settings to use again the next time you want to pull in data. You can even preview your data before you transfer it.
Import Data from Quicken, Peachtree, and Microsoft Office Accounting Access the Quicken conversion tool in QuickBooks to convert your data from Quicken 1998 through 2007. If you are currently running your business using Peachtree 2001-2008, Microsoft Small Business Accounting 2006, and Microsoft Office Accounting/Office Accounting Express, you can also easily convert your data into QuickBooks 2009.
Get Set Up and Running Quickly Answer a few basic questions, and get a customized setup you can change at any time.
Step-by-step Coaching for New Users to Help you Learn QuickBooks Faster Get up to speed on QuickBooks easily. The QuickBooks Coach guides you step by step, so you can learn how to use QuickBooks features faster and explore QuickBooks as you enter your data.
Learn QuickBooks Quickly with Built-in Tutorials Learn QuickBooks skills as you need them--in your own time, at your own pace. The built-in Learning Center offers short tutorials on basic and advanced features to help you get the most out of QuickBooks.
Upgrade your QuickBooks Effortlessly Easily transfer your existing data file into QuickBooks 2009. Your company file and preferences will transfer automatically. In just a few steps, you can start working in QuickBooks using your information, including customer lists, vendor lists, balances, and inventory lists.
Get Help When You Need It
Find Answers Fast Help functionality allows you to find the information you need quickly and easily. You'll find answers to most questions in QuickBooks in-product, onscreen Help. Type a question, choose from a list of topics, or search by keyword.
Connect with Other QuickBooks Users and Experts to Get Help and Share Ideas Connect with a vibrant community of QuickBooks users, QuickBooks experts, accountants, and Intuit employees. Instant access to a wealth of questions and answers to assist with QuickBooks and small business problems.
Reports With QuickBooks reports, you'll always know where your business stands. See who owes you money and how much. Find out who your best customers are and what they're buying. Learn where your business is profitable and where you're losing money. You can also customize report templates to best meet your needs.
QuickBooks Premier Reports
Profit & Loss StandardHow much money did my company make or lose over a specific period of time?
Inventory Stock Status by VendorWhat is the detailed information about each inventory item, organized by vendor?
Purchases by Item SummaryFor each item or service, how many has my company bought, and what is the total amount spent?
A/P Aging DetailWhich bills are due and overdue?
Profit & Loss Budget PerformanceHow do the actual income and expenses compare to what has been budgeted for the current month and year?
Statement of Cash FlowsWhat was the cash inflow (from profit and additional cash received) and cash outflow (cash spent) during a specific period of time?
Income Tax DetailWhat transactions make up each amount on my company's income tax forms?
Forecast OverviewWhat are my company's forecasted income and expenses each month?
Forecast vs. ActualHow did my company's forecast compare with its actual performance?
Closing Date Exception ReportWhat changes were made after the last closing date was set to transactions dated on or before that closing date?
Open Sales Orders by CustomerWhat are the open sales orders for each customer or job?

QuickBooks Premier--Professional Services Reports The following additional reports are available when you select the Professional Services version during the installation of Premier Edition.
Project StatusWhat is the status of all active projects?
Cost to Complete by Job DetailWhat is the expected cost to complete a particular job, and what should it cost to complete each item of that job? How much is each item over or under estimate?
Billed/Unbilled Time by PersonHow much time has each employee or subcontractor worked? What is the billable status of that time?
Project Costs DetailWhat expenses has my company incurred for each project?
Job Costs by Vendor and Job SummaryWhat are my company's job-related expenses for each vendor, subtotaled by job?
Unbilled Expenses by ProjectWhat expenses incurred for each project haven't been billed?

Click here for more information about QuickBooks Premier Professional Services Edition 2009