Inside this Issue

• A Message from Doug Sleeter
• 2007 Accounting Software Consulting Conference Update
• New Data File Analysis Checklist - FREE!
• SourceLink Management Edition Released
• Tricks of the Trade
• Conference Exhibitor Ads

 

A Message from Doug Sleeter

I am really excited about all the developments in the Accounting Software Consulting marketplace. There seems to be a never-ending flow of new products coming into the market, many of which are very well targeted towards the needs of the small business enterprise.

This year, The Sleeter Group is focused on growing the quality and quantity of solutions in four technology areas including Inventory, CRM, Time and Billing, and Ecommerce.

We have developed several relationships with solution developers in these areas and we are committed to help these developers match their solutions to the needs of our consultants and their clients.  Fishbowl Inventory brings a particularly well-rounded, easy-to-use inventory solution for distributors and manufacturers, and it is well-integrated with QuickBooks. BillQuick is by far the best of breed in the Time and Billing area. They have filled out the space, and provided excellent integration with both QuickBooks and Microsoft’s Office Accounting. Legrand continues to impress us with their CRM solution, and many of our consultants have begun implementing this with their clients. In the ecommerce area, we’re still looking for the right solution. There are several products available in the market, but so far we have not found any that provide a good front-end, good merchant account gateway choices, good pricing, and a well-integrated connection to the CRM and/or General Ledger. Our search continues, and we hope to have good news in the near future.

2007 Accounting Software Consulting Conference Update

Mark Your Calendars for the Week of October 22nd,  2007!
The Sleeter Group’s Accounting Software Consulting Conference will be held at the Rio Suites Hotel in Las Vegas, NV  the week of October 22nd, 2007.
We will announce the specific event dates and begin accepting conference registrations in mid to late March. Be sure to sign up for our online newsletter at www.sleeter.com/newsletters in order to receive conference updates.  Companies interested in exhibiting should contact our office as soon as possible.

New Data File Analysis Checklist - FREE!

Sleeter Group Network member, Carol Garris of Transition Management Resources in Upland, CA, has developed a checklist for performing Data File Analysis. Data File Analysis is an important tool for QuickBooks Consultant’s to use to assess the health of a client’s QuickBooks file. Carol’s checklist was developed by following the procedures outlined in the The Sleeter Group’s QuickBooks Consultant’s Reference Guide. Carol has offered to share her checklist with our newsletter readers. Click on the link below to read a description of how Carol puts the checklist to work and to download the checklist. Thanks Carol for sharing this great tool!

SourceLink Management Edition Released

Personable has just released SourceLink 4.1. The Management Edition allows business owners to put monitoring in place so they can be notified each time transactions are entered that meet certain criteria (e.g. writing a check for more than $5,000). This product is a great tool that provides source document storage and linking to QuickBooks transactions.

John Higgins, CPA has contributed his thoughts on this new product.

Tricks of the Trade

Every day, members of The Sleeter Group’s Consultants Network tackle the day-to-day problems of their clients in the real world. The following are some of the more general problems and solutions that surfaced this month on our "Sleeter Group’s Consultants Network Forum".

Question: Can I Create A Budget by Item in QuickBooks?

I have a new client that puts on events.. BIG events! Their biggest client requires that the budget for each BIG event be quite detailed.  They are doing these budgets right now in Excel because they can have  200 line items in each budget. As you can imagine this translates to a very long P&L in QuickBooks – sometimes 30 pages.

I would like to know if there is a way to budget in great detail but have the P&L be more consolidated – but not totally consolidated.

If there were a way to budget by item and have multiple items pointing to fewer accounts then I could get the detail by item and the consolidated by account. A sales by item compared to budget would be ideal but since the budget tool does not permit you to budget by item what are my options?

Also, ideally each event would be a job but to date they have been using classes for each event. They are using QBES 6.

Jason Schroeder responded:

They could do an estimate for each event instead of using the budget function. It would allow them to compare what they estimated for each item vs. what they actually spent if they use items in the checks and credit card screens. The budget could be simply the revenue for the event and then a total of the items into a cost of services rendered account. That way the P&L would be short, but the planning can be detailed.

Question: How can I quickly change all the department names in the QuickBooks POS Item List?

I’m working on a POS installation for a retailer that has been using QB
financial to track inventory. I imported their items into POS which
worked fine, but every item’s department name is "QuickBooks Financial
Software". This retailer has three departments she would like to
separately track – handbags, luggage, and accessories. Is there an
"easy" (quick) way to change department names in bulk or do you need to
do change them item by item?

David Glantz Responded:

You could export the items to Excel, modify the departments (or any other
pertinent info), and import back into POS. Make sure you spell the
departments (and other fields) consistently as the import process will
automatically create all new departments. It won’t work for Assembly items
but doesn’t sound like that is an issue for your client. Use the default
inventory template. When asked what field to use to determine whether an
item exists, chose Item #. There are other nuances so feel free to write
or call if you have questions (we are in Marin County so we are neighbors).

There is also a semi hidden POS feature called List Edit which will allow
you to change inventory item fields directly in the Item List ala Excel.
It’s not as easy to manipulate the cells, of course, but it is functional.
You can turn this on in Item List by clicking on the pull down on the right
side of the Edit Item button and selecting Turn List Edit On. It’s a toggle
so you can turn it off by doing the same thing as before but selecting Turn
List Edit Off. Shhh – don’t tell your clients about it because it is way
too easy to mess up the data.

Steve Green added:

Ditto – but I would add that you should do this asap – once a sale is recorded in the QBPOS department – it will remain there – changing the department for an item will
not update the history and therefore distort historic reporting by department.

Conference Exhibitor Ads

This section features advertisements from paid sponsors of The Sleeter Group’s Conferences.

                                     

Adagio FX, a Sleeter Group Awesome Add-on for 2005 and 2006, brings drag-and-drop, presentation quality financial statement design to QuickBooks users and Advisors. Design any statement, as statement layout, formatting and design are completely independent of the chart of accounts. No "account mapping" is required. Completely automate month-end statement creation, complete with cover pages and notes.

                                     

Personable Inc, an Intuit Gold Developer and Microsoft Certified Partner, is a solid and certified QuickBooks solution provider for CPAs and accounting professionals. SourceLink from Personable is the leading document management solution for QuickBooks. Personable also provides safe, reliable and fully managed QuickBooks hosting service.

                                                      

Cabinet NG provides document management and workflow automation tools to small and medium businesses. Our plug-in for QuickBooks makes locating information simple and secure across organizations. Departments gain structured access to customer communications such as emails, invoices, and delivery tickets, and can automate workflow for common tasks. CNG is a QuickBooks Gold Developer. 

                                         

PGSoft, Inc. has been the leading provider of QuickBooks mobile data collection solutions since 2001.  PocketBooks is the complete accounting application you need to capture and complete every transaction on the spot—most all of your office accounting options including complete customer history— it’s like taking your office on the road.