Inside this Issue

• A Message from Doug Sleeter
• Installing QuickBooks 2006 in a Networked Environment
• Product Review: SmartScan Barcode Translator by Baus Systems
• Awesome QuickBooks Add-ons for 2006
• Around the Web
• Tricks of the Trade
• Conference Sponsors

 

Installing QuickBooks 2006 in a Networked Environment

We're writing up a whole chapter on Networking QuickBooks 2006, so there is much to say, but here are the pertinent steps to keep you from getting in trouble when installing QuickBooks in a networked, multi-user environment. That is, when you want to store the data file on a server, and have other machines on the LAN share access to it in multi-user mode. I expect this will be how you will set it up in your own office for your own company file, as well as for your client files.

Product Review: SmartScan Barcode Translator by Baus Systems

Many QuickBooks users want to use barcode scanning to scan items directly into the forms in QuickBooks, but this is a feature that is not directly provided by QuickBooks. Baus Systems' SmartScan Barcode Translator is a great solution for speeding up the data entry process on QuickBooks forms. The Barcode Translator allows you to scan barcodes directly into any screen in QuickBooks where you would normally select an item from a list. Barcode scanning replaces the process of manually selecting your items and ensures fast and accurate data entry directly into your QuickBooks forms. By scanning a barcode you are assured that you are selecting the correct product code, this will increase your ability to maintain accurate inventory counts. QuickBooks can be set up to use the barcodes that are already affixed to your products or you can print your own barcodes and use a custom barcode numbering system. The Barcode Translator can be configured to automatically move the cursor to another field after each scan.

Awesome QuickBooks Add-ons for 2006

With all the changes and enhancements in the world of QuickBooks this year, I thought I’d take a minute to update my list of “awesome add-ons.”

So often, the developers of these solutions lack the marketing budgets to get the word out about their products. They have great solutions and they’ve done a great job of integration with QuickBooks, but nobody knows about them. So here we are with accountants and clients, desperate for solutions to real-world problems, and developers with great solutions, but neither party knows of the existence of the other.

At our recent QuickBooks Consultant’s Conference, we recognized this year’s winners in the Awesome Add-on category.

Around the Web

So You Want To Be a QuickBooks Consultant?

Intuit Completes Acquisition of MyCorporation.com

QuickBooks 2006: New Version of the Nation's Top-Selling Small Business Accounting Software Now Available

QuickBooks: Pro 2006 for Mac Tackles Time-Intensive Tasks

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".

Time Activity
"Hi All, (Goal: to print daily activities using time activity in QB and also seeing all the notes which may be extensive).

My office uses Time Activity within QuickBooks. At the end of each day, my staff print the days activities with extenstive notes to keep me informed. We are looking for a way to print only one day of this report which is not possible from either the daily time activty or weekly time activity. We changed from printing from the weekly time sheet which lets us wrap the notes to printing from report Job/Activity by person which does not let us wrap the notes. Any suggestions. I will be so appreciative in advance."

Bruce Andersen responds:
"Try 'Time by Job Detail' and open up the Notes field. You can set the date to anything..today, or one day or a week or whatever."

Deposit Details
"How can I find an individual payment in a deposit short of opening and reviewing each deposit?"

Mark Stricker writes:
"If you know the dollar amount search on the dollar amount and the payment and the deposit will show up. Make sure detail level is set to all and not summary. That's the default in later versions of QB."

Jan Tartoni says:
"I use the Deposit Detail Report. This is located under Reports / Banking / Deposit Detail. Select the dates you want to view, scroll down to find the entry you want to review, double click and it will take you to the entry. "

Joseph C. Livingston, Jr. EA offers:
"Quick Report for the subject customer filtered to date and transaction type (deposit)."

Joe Woodard adds:
"As you discovered, the problem with this report is that it does not allow word wrapping of the notes column. So, here is an idea but it's not perfect: Create an invoice template where the description is the only field that prints (with some other fields that are required by QuickBooks). Then put the time into the invoice and print it and then I'm very careful to leave the Invoice without saving. Unfortunately this only gets the detail of one job at a time, but at least you can see everything. It only shows the detail of unbilled jobs as well.

This is clearly an area where QuickBooks could/should provide a report to help with your situation."

Backup
"Does anyone know if you can backup QuickBooks for just a certain period or as of a certain fiscal year end? If not any other suggestions. I have a client that is selling a certain portion of the company and has been asked by the purchaser for certain years of QB data."

Mike Verucchi suggests:
"You can condense and eliminate years and then give them the file excluding the purged data."

Joseph C. Livingston, Jr. EA adds:
"The QB data base are not separable in the way you requested. You may want to instruct your client to provide the buyer only printed reports containing or limited to only the desired information."

To find a Sleeter Certified Consultant in your area, please visit:
http://www.sleeter.com/consultants/directory/search

If you would like to learn more about The Sleeter Group's Consultants Network, please visit:
http://www.sleeter.com/membership

Conference Sponsors

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

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