Accounting Technology

What Is QuickBooks Enterprise and How Can It Help Your Business?

QuickBooks Enterprise is a robust bookkeeping and accounting software solution for growing small-to-medium size businesses.

Designed to scale as your business grows, the software is tailored to your specific industry, with features that include:

  • Customized reports
  • Inventory tracking capabilities
  • Payroll services
  • Multi-currency capabilities...and more.


A step-up from QuickBooks Premier, QuickBooks Enterprise supports up to 30 simultaneous users. Add user licenses five-at-a-time; QuickBooks Enterprise grows with your business.

 

QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions works with your other Intuit management software, including:

  • QB Payroll
  • Intuit Payment Solutions
  • Field Service Management ES ... and more


This provides integrated document management, all in easy-to-read and easy-to-sort files. This means less printing of documents, for a greener, more secure office. Not only does keeping all your information "in-the-cloud" on a secure, hosted server save paper, it provides you with an added level of security and not having to dispose of sensitive documents.

 

AccountingDepartment.com Knows Bookkeeping Software
If you're going to take advice about bookkeeping software, why not listen to a company with experience? At AccountingDepartment.com, our full-time bookkeepers are well trained in QuickBooks. Yet, we recommend QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions for many of our customers, because it offers just what medium size, growing businesses need.

If you're ready to upgrade to QuickBooks Enterprise, you may want to work with bookkeepers who already know the software well and can even train you in how to read customized reports and get the most out of the program.

Call AccountingDepartment.com to talk about a software—and accounting department—upgrade with QuickBooks Enterprise and our trained, certified virtual bookkeepers.

Do I Have to Switch to Intuit Enterprise to Use AccountingDepartment.com for Bookkeeping?

Intuit Enterprise offers a lot of features medium size business owners look for that you just don't find in other software designed for accounting for small business. A step-up from many small business accounting software, Intuit Enterprise is for growing, mid-size businesses who need expanded capabilities, more user licenses, and integrated online bookkeeping solutions.

But you don't have to switch to Intuit Enterprise to use AccountingDepartment.com for your business accounting and bookkeeping needs—unless you want to! At AccountingDepartment.com, our bookkeepers and controllers are trained and certified in all versions of QuickBooks, QuickBooks Pro, QuickBooks Premier, and QuickBooks Enterprise. Each bookkeeper must pass a four-hour QuickBooks test before they are hired. Only 5 % of all candidates pass the test to become AccountingDepartment.com bookkeepers or controllers.

Whichever accounting software you choose, your data is hosted through our ASP (Application Service Provider) in a secure, weatherproof, disaster-resistant, and protected environment with regular backups performed. You own your data—if you decide to switch accounting software at any point in the future, we can easily transfer your financial records. And if, for some strange reason, you decide to leave AccountingDepartment.com, all your data will go with you.

Whatever accounting software you choose, AccountingDepartment.com can help you run it.

QuickBooks Enterprise: Should You Switch?

Selecting accounting software for an SMB is a personal decision that depends on a lot of factors:

  • Features you need
  • Industry
  • How many licenses you need
  • Budget
  • Bookkeeper's training

At AccountingDepartment.com, we can take that last concern off your plate, since our bookkeepers are trained in QuickBooks Enterprise, QuickBooks Pro, and all other popular accounting software packages.

 

But we often find ourselves recommending QuickBooks Enterprise for our customers in a variety of industries, including:

  • Professional services (doctor, lawyer, IT professional, computer programmer, Web developer, etc.)
  • Virtual businesses, including ecommerce websites
  • Large retailers
  • High tech companies, including alternative energy, software development and more
  • Creative technology (movies, animation, video game development)
  • Not-for-profits
  • Fast-growing venture capital and investment firms

Before you make the jump to the powerful QuickBooks Enterprise software, consider your business's needs and budget. Then remember that QuickBooks Enterprise may cost thousands less than competing software packages that offer the same features, including:
  • Multiple licenses
  • Payroll processing services, including direct deposit
  • Easy-to-generate and easy-to-read reports
  • Integration with other Intuit software
  • Customer, vendor and inventory tracking

Also, when you hire AccountingDepartment.com for your online bookkeeping services, you won't have to spend time training staff in QuickBooks Enterprise—our U.S.-based bookkeepers are already trained and certified. In fact, your bookkeeper and financial controller will supply you with the data you need, on a pre-determined schedule or when you request it, and can even answer your questions about using your accounting software to its full capabilities.

 

What QuickBooks Accounting Software Training Should My Bookkeeper Have?

One of the biggest hassles to staffing and managing your own accounting department in-house is finding people trained and certified in the accounting software you prefer to use. Most bookkeepers are trained in QuickBooks, but many aren't.

When you call on AccountingDepartment.com for your bookkeeping, controller and accounting needs, you don't have to worry about training—or hiring for that matter.

Our employees go through a thorough, in-depth hiring process. We receive 4000 resumes per year and of those, only 500 go on to take our rigorous employment test, which assesses their knowledge of QuickBooks Accounting Software. Of those who take the test, 95% fail. The other 5% go on to receive QuickBooks Accounting Software certification from one of the top Intuit trainers in the country—and are re-certified every year that they work for OSI.

We currently have approximately 35 bookkeepers on staff, spread across the country so you'll always be able to get a bookkeeper in your region, but not in your backyard. We believe in personalized service that's not too personal—we don't want you to run into your bookkeeper at the doctor's office or even the bank. We find that off-site bookkeepers provide a higher measure of security, 
accountability, and anonymity that give larger business owners a peace of mind that their financial records are always kept confidential and secure.

Our plan is to keep searching the country for top bookkeepers and training them to meet our rigorous standards, until we have a staff of 200 employees within the next five to seven years.

Can one of our top bookkeepers help you?

How Can a Business Invoice Template Simplify Your Bookkeeping?

One of the benefits to QuickBooks Accounting software programs is access to a free business invoice template that is customizable to your business. A business invoice template has several benefits, including:

  • Streamlining the invoicing and bookkeeping process
  • Providing a consistent look for all your outgoing invoices
  • A customizable template provides the information your customers' need—nothing more, nothing less
  • Paperless invoicing with a business invoice template is one step closer to a paperless office

At AccountingDepartment.com, your professional, dedicated bookkeeper can create a customized invoice from a QuickBooks business invoice template that is easy to read, integrates with your bookkeeping software to track invoices and payments, and looks more professional than other invoices.

 

Some of the aspects of the invoice you can change include:

  • Invoice title
  • Fields
  • Personalized customer message
  • Balance forward
  • Account summary
  • Whether invoices are printed and mailed or emailed

Your bookkeeper can schedule invoices to go out each month with client information already filled in and total charges calculated. This helps minimize errors and saves time.

 

A customized business invoice template can help take your accounting department to the next level. Used in conjunction with Quickbooks software and the AccountingDepartment.com accounting department, which provides the same level of customization for all your bookkeeping services, the finances of your company will never run more smoothly.

Benefits of Custom Reporting Features in Your Business Accounting Software

Not every business is the same. But every business owner has a few needs that are similar. Business owners want to:

  1. Know the financial status of their company at a glance
  2. Have access to their financial data at any time, day or night
  3. Keep their financial data secure from unauthorized personnel
  4. Know their data is backed up and available in the event of an emergency

Let's talk about that first point, and how the custom reporting features in QuickBooks and QuickBooks Enterprise can help make it happen.

 

QuickBooks Enterprise Company Snapshot
The QuickBooks Enterprise Company Snapshot was first introduced in the 2009 edition of the software, and is just one of the custom reporting features. The feature allows business owners to track a variety of information that will give them an update on the financial status of their company at a glance, updated in real-time.

With the QuickBooks Enterprise Company Snapshot, you can view:

  • Income and expense trend graph for any time period selected
  • Customized list of reminders
  • Account balances
  • Money owed (sorted by customer, due date or amount due)
  • Vendors to pay (sorted by vendor, amount due, or due date)

If you just want to know how much is in your business bank account currently and how much money you can expect to see in the next month, this custom reporting feature will tell you in a few clicks.

 

Count on AccountingDepartment.com' full-service bookkeepers to keep your records up to date. Then choose the right accounting software so you can view those records easily, any time, from virtually anywhere.

What Custom Reporting Features Should You Look For in Business Accounting Software?

While the standards and practices for bookkeeping, in general, are the same, bookkeeping needs in different industries vary widely. And not only are there industry differences, but there are differences in the business accounting software needs of every business owner based on:

  • The size and revenue of his company or companies
  • How many companies he owns
  • How much involvement he has in the financial aspects of his business
  • What type of business it is (i.e., service, retail, ecommerce, even a not-for-profit)

Most business accounting software packages offer some level of custom reporting features. What custom reporting features should you look for? Keep in mind—you may not need all these features in your business. But this list will let you know what features are available in top programs like QuickBooks Enterprise and what you could look for in business accounting software:
  • The ability to view the financial records of multiple companies at one time
  • The ability to export data into Excel (or import from Excel)
  • Customize content in each column
  • Complete control of content in each row
  • Customize size of columns
  • Offer custom reporting for financial reports to board of directors v. internal reports
  • Ability to sort data in columns by any parameters

Keep in mind, what some programs do as a part of "standard" reporting may be advertised as custom reporting in other business accounting software packages. It's important to know exactly what capabilities you're getting—regardless of how those capabilities are classified. Bottom line: Does your business accounting software give you the information you need, when you need it, in the format you require.

 

What's the Difference Between Bookkeeping Software and Tax Accounting Software?

Owners of medium-to-large size businesses don't want to concern themselves with the nuances of bookkeeping and accounting—that's why you have an accounting department, whether it's in-house or outsourced. We may be biased, but at OSI, we highly recommend outsourced accounting to meet all your company's accounting needs for less money than in-house staff.

However, you probably want to have some input in—or knowledge about—the financial software you're investing in. For many people, the difference between tax accounting software and bookkeeping software isn't quite clear.

Here are some of the key differences between tax accounting software and bookkeeping software, so you can sign off on your company's next financial software purchase with confidence.

Bookkeeping Software
Sometimes called business accounting software, bookkeeping software helps you and your bookkeeper track and manage your company's Account Payable /Accounts Receivable (AP/AR), balance sheets (profit & loss statements), and more. You can track bank balances, send invoices, and various other tasks. Popular business accounting software includes:

  • QuickBooks Pro
  • PeachTree
  • QuickBooks Enterprise

Tax Accounting Software
Tax accounting software, or tax preparation software, should interface with your business accounting software and permit you to file your company's quarterly taxes electronically. QuickBooks permits your bookkeeping and accounting department to calculate your taxes right in the program and then export the data into tax accounting software for easy e-filing.

 

As you can see, the accuracy of your tax accounting software hinges on the data stored in your bookkeeping software. That's one reason why it's important to hire a bookkeeper you can trust to manage and track your business' everyday income and expenses.

Does Your Tax Accounting Software Interface with Your Bookkeeping Software?

Your day-to-day and monthly bookkeeping records play a significant role in your company's filing of quarterly taxes. To quote an old programming adage, "Garbage In, Garbage Out." If your bookkeeping files are a mess, you may be missing out on business deductions you should receive. Or worse, you could be setting yourself and your company up for the dreaded tax audit. And the last thing you want, if your bookkeeping files are inaccurate, is the IRS examining your books, right?

Or, to look on the positive side of things, if your bookkeeping records are accurate and up-to-date, you can maximize your deductions and be sure you're paying the right amount of taxes or even receiving the largest refund you are due.

That's why it's important that your bookkeeping and tax accounting software can interface directly for a seamless transition between the two. For instance, you can file your taxes electronically through a program like TurboTax, importing data directly from QuickBooks.

Your bookkeepers and accountants can also give your tax accountant access to your QuickBooks files in order to easily prepare you taxes in QuickBooks. Then, your tax accountant can export that data into a tax preparation software program to file your quarterly taxes electronically.

That's why it's important that your bookkeeping staff works together with your CPA or tax accountant at tax time and that your business accounting software easily exports into your tax preparation software.

When you hire a virtual accounting department through AccountingDepartment.com, we will make sure you have the software you need, and work hand-in-hand with your tax accountant to ensure your taxes are accurate.

Does Your Accounting Software Include Payroll Software?

Payroll processing is one of the most important financial functions of your company. You could imagine what a catastrophe it can be when something goes wrong with payroll processing; it can severely damage company morale, cause your employees to lose faith in you and your company, some quality employees might even quit if they don't receive a paycheck on time. It's clear that you need reliable payroll processing you can trust for your business.

You may think of your accounting and bookkeeping departments as separate from payroll, which may be handled by another firm. Why not bring payroll and accounting all under one umbrella with financial accounting software that integrates with payroll software from the same manufacturer?

For instance, Intuit QuickBooks Enterprise easily integrates with Intuit Payroll to provide easy payroll processing, including direct deposit for your employees. Other features of the software include:

  • Payroll tax management
  • W-2 and 1099 form processing
  • Customizable reports to show how payroll affects your company's bottom line

There's less chance of bookkeeping errors when your payroll functions are automatically recorded in your financial accounting software. And it's easier to ensure paychecks (or direct deposits) go out on time when one firm handles it all.

 

Remember, payroll, bookkeeping, and accounting are all office functions that are easily outsourced to independent contractors. Why not rely on one firm—and one brand of software—to do it all?

What General Ledger Accounting Software Should You Choose for Your Business?

Your general ledger accounting software, part of our QuickBooks Enterprise suite, could be described as the heart of your accounting software. More than any other financial statement software, your general ledger accounting software shares the information you need to make important financial decisions about your company.

Your general ledger software:

  • Creates an audit trail for all business transactions
  • Helps your bookkeeper create balance sheets
  • Processes and tracks AP / AR and more
  • Helps your bookkeeper manage financial information in a number of ways
  • Makes it easy to track purchases and inventory at a glance
  • Assists your financial controller in spotting bookkeeping errors quickly, before they become a problem
  • Helps you or your bookkeeping staff easily spot fraud and embezzlement at a glance
  • A financial controller working hand-in-hand with your bookkeeper can then help you analyze the information you receive each month through your general ledger accounting software.

When you use AccountingDepartment.com for your bookkeeping needs, we don't leave you in the dark about the information your general ledger accounting software provides. Through monthly phone consultations, your financial controller explains it all, helps you make financial projections and set goals for the company. It also guides you through the decision-making process with the information you need to steer your company on to even greater profitability.

 

Benefits of Integrated Document Management for SMBs

It's bad enough that it sometimes feels like your sales and marketing departments barely communicate. Dropped leads, marketing programs that don't convert—these are typical challenges for a growing mid-size business. But your bookkeeper, financial controller, and inventory specialists should be on the same page. Or at least have the capabilities to be on the same screen when they input data into the financial accounting software.

Have you had issues in the past with integrating various financial functions of your company, including:

  • Inventory
  • Payroll
  • Taxes
  • Work orders and scheduling
  • Billing and mobile payments
  • Bookkeeping and accounting

At AccountingDepartment.com, we know that QuickBooks Enterprise is not the only solution to integrated document management, but it is a solution that has worked for our clients.

 

The QuickBooks Enterprise Suite comes with the functionality to handle all the above departments, and more. When you use AccountingDepartment.com for your virtual accounting needs, all your QuickBooks information and software will be hosted online through our secure API, password-protected, and transmitted using 128-bit SSL encryption—the same encryption used by top financial institutions.

Integrated document management helps a larger company in many ways:

  • Reduces bookkeeping and data entry errors
  • Reduces your carbon footprint and improves security when all authorized employees can view information "in the cloud," without printing documents
  • Lets you sort and review information in a number of ways to get an accurate financial picture of your company

If you're ready to switch to SaaS (Software as a Service) and a virtual accounting department, why not give AccountingDepartment.com a call? We can help you make the transition smoothly.

 

What To Look for In Business Accounting Software

Your company's choice of business accounting software may be different from the company next door. It depends on a lot of factors, including:

  • The industry you're in
  • The features you need
  • The size of your company
  • The type of accounting reports you require


At AccountingDepartment.com, our bookkeepers are trained and certified in all versions of Intuit QuickBooks,. We recommend QuickBooks Enterprise—and will help you make the switch if you desire—but we want you to choose the business accounting software that meets your needs best.

 

Bookkeeping Software with No Worries
If you have in-house bookkeepers, you have a lot of other concerns, too. Like how to back up your data, where it's stored, and whether or not it's secure. Did you know that when you use some online bookkeeping software packages, the service provider/software manufacturer owns the rights to your data that's stored "in the cloud?" If you decide to switch programs, you may not be able to transfer (or even save) your data easily.

When you choose AccountingDepartment.com for virtual bookkeeping, your bookkeeping software is still hosted in the cloud, but you own all the rights to your data. If you leave (and why would you want to do that?) you own your data and can export it to the business accounting software of your choice.

Your data is stored on a server in a high-security, ISO-certified building that is also storm and earthquake proof with generators and battery back-up power. Your data is backed up multiple times with back-up tapes stored off-site, and supervised 24/7 to ensure our server is always up and your data is accessible.

These are factors many people don't consider when they select business accounting software, but they are important considerations. Want to learn more about virtual bookkeeping? Contact AccountingDepartment.com today.

Does It Matter What Business Accounting Software You Choose?

Is all business accounting software the same? Not necessarily. One important factor—besides the capabilities it offers as standalone bookkeeping software—is how well it integrates with your other business software.

QuickBooks, the business accounting software most often recommended by AccountingDepartment.com, integrates with most Intuit software programs.

There's a lot you can do within QuickBooks Enterprise that other bookkeeping software packages just don't have the programming for. This includes functions related to:

  • Payroll (including direct deposit)
  • Customers & sales
  • Inventory (including multi-location inventory)
  • Merchant services & check solutions for payments
  • Field Service management, including mobile payments, billing, work orders, and scheduling
  • Warehouse management
  • Shipping and receiving


At AccountingDepartment.com, our bookkeepers are trained in the most popular bookkeeping software packages, and the choice of which software to use is always yours. But consider the advantages of integrated document management with QuickBooks before you make your choice.

 

QuickBooks Enterprise: How Can Your Growing Business Benefit?

Is your growing small business ready to upgrade its accounting software? If you're like the majority of small-to-mid size business owners in the U.S., you may have progressed from QuickBooks to QuickBooks Pro. But now you're ready for something more out of your financial accounting software, along with higher expectations (and more work) for your bookeeping department.

You may find that QuickBooks Enterprise and AccountingDepartment.com' virtual accounting department makes the perfect match for your growing small to mid-size business.

Why?

QuickBooks Enterprise supports up to 30 users simultaneously and lets you add more users easily, in batches of five, so it can continue to grow with your growing small to medium size business.

QuickBooks Enterprise also has a host of other customizable features for larger and growing business owners, including:

  • Combine multiple reports from different companies to retrieve a variety of financial statements
  • Track the quantity and value of inventory in multiple locations
  • Perform more tasks in multi-user mode and also to work on multiple company files at one time
  • Payroll and other functions a larger company needs
  • Upgrade from QuickBooks Easily


Best of all, the transition from your current version of QuickBooks to QuickBooks Enterprise is as easy as upgrading within different versions of QuickBooks Pro or Premier. The interface looks exactly the same, with reports generated in formats you're familiar with. The only difference will be the added features and added user capability you get with QuickBooks Enterprise.

 

AccountingDepartment.com Bookkeepers Know QuickBooks
It may be time to expand (or overhaul) your bookkeeping department perhaps with a virtual bookkeeping service like AccountingDepartment.com. It may also be time to expand the capabilities of your bookkeeping software. Your virtual accounting department can help you implement QuickBooks Enterprise and take over your day-to-day and monthly bookkeeping functions so you can do what you do best—continue growing your company.

QuickBooks Enterprise Puts Your Financial Data at Your Fingertips

One of the most important functions in financial accounting software for a business owner is the ability to easily view the information you need, when you need it. Easy-to-read graphs and charts that you can interpret yourself—or in conjunction with your financial controller—are at the heart of making successful financial decisions for your business.

For this reason, your financial accounting software should have a number of custom reporting features, so you can view financial reports from multiple businesses separately (if you have more than one), or your entire financial empire at a glance. QuickBooks Enterprise permits you to view combined reports for:

  • Balance Sheets
  • Profit & Loss
  • Statement of Cash Flows
  • Trial Balance.
  • Other information that is important for business owners might be:
  • Business checking account balance
  • Accounts Payable/Accounts Receivable
  • Profit & Loss by month, by quarter or by year
  • Customer buying history information
  • Outstanding invoices

Easy, Secure Access to Your Financial Accounting Software over the Web
Best of all, this information is all easily accessible to you over the Web, 24/7, through any computer with Internet access and the latest Web browser. (The latest browser is required because AccountingDepartment.com uses 128-bit encryption for your transmitted data—the highest SLL encryption available and the kind used by major financial institutions).

 

This means you can sort reports and view your company's important financial data whenever you want—and that really puts the control of your business in your hands.