Are You Ready for Windows Vista Yet?

This Techie Says "Approach with Care"

As Microsoft releases Windows Vista, its next great operating system, should you make the plunge or should you be cautious? Dr. Bob Spencer offers this detailed look at the issues involved for accountants and other practitioners.

BONUS: Spencer's Dozen: Thirteen Reasons to Proceed with Caution.

What Intuit Has Learned about Windows Vista

Update on Earlier Versions of QuickBooks

QuickBooks 2007 runs on Windows Vista, but Intuit can not recommend or support the new operating system for running earlier versions of QuickBooks. However, now we know more as to the likely results of doing so, and are updating you so you can answer client questions. Read our latest information here - plus links to accountant resources on Windows Vista.

Numerous Tax Changes Now in Place for 2007 and 2008

Help Clients Stay on Top of Tax Choices

You add value to your tax services when you help clients stay ahead of recent tax changes, and may create new engagements to boot. Our tax authors Terence Myers and Dee DeScherer break down what lies ahead for both individual and business clients in the next two years.

Read their article and access a client letter you can adapt as needed to send to your clients.

The Lifetime Value of the QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions Client

Increased Opportunities for Consultation, Other Services

Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor and CPA Bruce Andersen has built his practice around QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions, so we asked him to consider what this kind of value the Enterprise Solutions client represents. Bruce reminds us these clients come in many sizes.

See how he calculates value for clients small, medium, or large in size.

BONUS: Use Bruce's Excel Workbook for your own calculations. (Available from article.)

Ten Strategies for Small Practitioners to Attract Enterprise-Sized Clients

How to Compete for Mid-Market Business

CPA Sandi Smith runs a small practice and knows what it means to reach out to larger clients. She offers ten practical strategies that show you how you can compete with much larger firms for mid-market business.

Read these practitioner-friendly strategies here to start reaching the larger clients who need your services.

More Resources Here

Useful Links to Help You Explore and Thrive in This Market

• QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions Marketing Kit includes engagement letters, more.
• Industry Consultant August Aquila advises the mid-sized practice on moving to the mid-market.
• Training resources offered to learn more about QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions.
• Learn more about data conversion from other systems.
• More resources for QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions.

QuickBooks Quarterly Review

Don't Leave Money on the Table

Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor Victoria Marechal shows why both you and your clients will find it pays to undertake this quarterly review of the books.

She offers you practical advice and a checklist for execution.

Month-End Review Checklist

Readers Wrote in to Request This Tip!

CPA Sandi Smith shares this month-end checklist that you can adapt as needed to give to your clients. Here is her advice and a link to the Word document for you to adapt for your own clients.

Search Engine Optimization

We Share Our Learnings with You and Your Clients

Intuit shares recent learnings about Search Engine Optimization with our readers. Download or print our special report. You can also share this resource with clients working on their own Web sites.

Start here to learn more about Search Engine Optimization.

QuickBooks Accountant Edition, Other Intuit Products Score with Readers at CPA Technology Advisor

2006 Readers' Choice Awards. You and your peers are big fans of Intuit software according to the 2006 Readers' Choice Awards, announced in the January issue of CPA Technology Advisor. This is an award with a difference: votes are from working practitioners. Accountants are asked to select their "favorite" products in several hardware and software categories. Results are based on popular votes.

Big Kudos to QuickBooks Premier Accountant Edition as Top Write-Up/Trial Balance Software. To quote Technology Editor Isaac M. O'Bannon, "Whoa Nelly!" He continues: "QuickBooks took this category by an order of magnitude, clearly dominating the other products among the more than 50 percent of voters who cited a product in this category. Although this is not a scientific survey, these results should finalize the debate over whether the professional accounting community has accepted Intuit."

Tax and Payroll Come in Winners. Intuit's professional tax software products, ProSeries and Lacerte, come in a close second to Drake Software. CPA Technology notes that Drake's users are loyal, coming in with 35 percent of the votes, whereas Drake has ten percent of the market and Intuit more than 45 percent. QuickBooks Enhanced Payroll for Accountants was the clear winner in the Payroll category.

QuickBooks Wins on Client Side. For small and mid-range businesses, QuickBooks comes out on top, the readers say.

QuickBooks Wins in Niches. QuickBooks also comes out on top for Retail/Point of Sale, Construction Accounting, and Nonprofit Accounting.

QuickBooks 2004 Support Ends by June 2007

Affects Software and Services. The discontinuation affects both the 2004 financial software and some related services. See our article for more background and even discounts available to clients still on QuickBooks 2004 and who need to upgrade.

Online Banking Now Available in QuickBooks Online Edition

For QuickBooks Online Edition clients who want to integrate online banking functions into their bookkeeping, Online Edition has new help: An automated feature that automatically downloads bank and credit card transactions each night, reducing manual data entry and making it easy to keep accounts up-to-date. Over 2,900 financial institutions are supported and set-up is easy with a short, guided start-up interview. The automated online banking feature is included in the price of subscription and is available now.

New Self-Employment Tax Savings Calculator Free Online

Intuit has learned that only 37% of the sole proprietors they asked are aware that they could potentially save on taxes by incorporating, while 72% find the tax savings benefit appealing, once they know of it.

The Self-Employment Tax Savings Calculator helps sole proprietors estimate their potential tax savings as an S-corporation, simply by entering their business income and fair market salary. You can send this link to clients or use the tool yourself with clients if they have questions about this kind of tax savings. This calculator is brought to you by MyCorporation, Intuit's online incorporation service.

www.mycorporation.com/taxcalc/

Duct Tape Marketing - the Book

Marketing fiend John Jantsch led last year's Marketing Camp and publishes his marketing advice and tools in his Duct Tape Marketing Newsletter.

Now he's just released Duct Tape Marketing - The World's Most Practical Small Business Marketing Guide.

In addition to the book itself, a bonus purchase includes over $450 worth of coupons and discounts on marketing tools and services inside the book and more.

News on QuickBooks Easy Estimate May Affect Some Clients

Who Is Affected? Typically, clients who use QuickBooks Easy Estimate are not using QuickBooks, and it may be unlikely that you have clients who are using the cost estimation software. But in case you do, the product is being discontinued. Intuit confirms that it will not be releasing a QuickBooks Easy Estimate 2.0, and the product is not supported on Windows Vista.

Intuit bases that business decision on the cost of resources required to engineer the software to operate on the Windows Vista operating system. Clients can use the existing software indefinitely on the Windows XP operating system.

QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions: Accountant Edition and Multiple Users

Win a New 4G iPod Nano. We're interested in learning more how you view QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions: Accountant Edition and the need to accommodate multiple users. We would like you to answer no more than ten questions in our five-minute questionnaire.

One Lucky Winner. All of you who take this very short survey will be entered for a chance to win the grand prize: one of the new, 4G iPod nanos, available in your choice of silver, aqua, light green, or, while supplies last, the special edition red iPod nano.

Read the Rules and Regulations

Take the survey

Mario Nowogrodzki, CPA, CITP, and Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor

Mario Wins Big with QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions. Over the last few years, Mario Nowogrodzki has added over 30 QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions clients. As it turns out, at least two out of three are new to QuickBooks and came on board because of Mario's record with his existing client base.

Therefore Mario has plenty of experience in converting clients to QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions from other packages, ranging from commercial enterprise-level accounting packages to home-made UNIX systems. "We have never come across a client where we could not accomplish what we set out to do," Mario says. Learn more here.

Keeping You in Charge

We publish the Intuit ProConnection Newsletter for you each month to give you the information and tools you need to succeed as an accountant, bookkeeper, tax preparer, technology consultant, or related practitioner. You control your subscription, and we want to make sure it works for you.

For general matters or issues, you can mail letters and comments to Intuit Inc., Customer Communications, 2800 E. Commerce Center Place, Tucson, AZ 85706.

STAFF
Brandon Wilson, Publisher
Bill Teague, Managing Editor
Amy Munson, Web Production

PLEASE BE PATIENT: RATES SURVEY IS ON THE WAY

We know you are eager to read the results of our 2007 rates survey, and we will share them with Intuit ProConnection readers shortly.