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Over the last couple weeks I have helped a few companies upgrade their QuickBooks to QuickBooks Pro 2009. Both had been using it for the most basic of tasks (bank account reconciliation), but not for the many features available to them. I spent over half an hour going over some of the features available, and how they could really benefit their business.

This weekend I noticed that QuickBooks 2010 is now available (in Canada) and I went through the process of upgrading my 2009 copy to 2010. If you are currently using QuickBooks (any version) or if you are not using any business financial software, here are a few reasons that you should consider getting QuickBooks 2010.

Company Home Page- It's easy to find the tasks you need the most from the QuickBooks Home Page. This page is arranged the same way that money flows within your company, and there are even arrows that illustrate the flow. Starting at the left, you can create Estimates for your clients. From there you can create invoices, record payments received, create sales receipts and record deposits. If you keep track of inventory you can create purchase orders (that transfer information from estimates), record the inventory received, and enter the bills for the inventory received. There are other sections such as company management tasks (accounts, items & services) and banking (writing cheques, reconciling accounts, entering credit card charges).
Company Snapshot - The Company Snapshot helps you save time and manage cash flow so you can make better business decisions. In a single screen it shows information like: income and expense trend, which customers owe you money, what bills need to be paid, and select account balances.
Quickly Find Anything - With the customer centre QuickBooks collects all transaction types (Estimates, Invoices, Sales Receipts, Payments, etc) and displays them in one area. You can use the new search functionality to quickly find the invoice you did for "that one customer in St. Adolphe" and when it was paid.
Sales Tax Made Easy - You can setup different types of items in QuickBooks for the services and products you offer. Some services and products have different tax settings and QuickBooks has the ability to handle any tax combination your product/service may have. QuickBooks 2010 for Mac will also help you prepare accurate returns by calculating the tax as you work, and it will show you reports that look just like your sales tax returns - with all the right amounts already filled in. New with 2010, you can click a single button and the tax return is sent with eFile!
Multicurrency Functionality - The multi currency feature lets you transact seamlessly in any number of currencies from around the world - without worrying about looking up exchange rates or getting your calculator out to convert currencies.
Compatability with Windows 7 - Microsoft has been working hard on the replacement to Windows Vista, and Windows 7 will be pre-installed on all new computers starting in late October. Previous versions of QuickBooks aren't compatible, and Intuit does not offer support for Windows 7 with prior versions. QuickBooks 2010 is being supported and after my installation I found it works quite well.

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