QuickBooks ProAdvisor Updates

QuickBooks 2004 ProAdvisor Certification Courses Now Available
Serve Clients Better. Now with access to the QuickBooks® 2004 ProAdvisor Certification course, you can start your certification in QuickBooks 2004. Certification distinguishes you from other practitioners and can help youbetter service and support your clients.

Top of the List. Members who are certified in QuickBooks 2004 will be listed at the top of the Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor Referral Database*.

Where. The course is waiting for all current members as of June 9 in their Course Locker. Find it by clicking on the “Member Resources” link found in the left-hand column of the QuickBooks ProAdvisor Member Site. Once you’ve logged on, look in the upper right-hand side for your Course Locker. (If you don’t find your course there, please call the ProAdvisor Customer Service number of 1-888-250-7279.)

24/7. These on-line courses allow anytime, anywhere access to improving your QuickBooks knowledge while being delivered in a self-paced format accommodating all levels and schedules.

*Note: For those ProAdvisors not already certified in QuickBooks 2003, Intuit will extend the window available for completion of the QuickBooks 2003 ProAdvisor Certification course through September 30, 2004. Remember, only members who are certified in QuickBooks 2003 or 2004 are listed on the Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor Referral Database.

New QuickBooks Resource Center
Just for ProAdvisors. Looking for QuickBooks information and resources specific to QuickBooks ProAdvisors all in one place? The QuickBooks Resource Center recently launched to link you to QuickBooks product comparison charts, peer tips and tricks, schedules of informational QuickBooks Webcasts, and more. Find the QuickBooks Resource Center on the QuickBooks ProAdvisor Members-Only Site. After you log into the site, click on the link, QuickBooks Resource Center, in the right-hand “Member Resources” column, just below the Course Locker.

QuickBooks Software Updates

Free QuickBooks Version Detector in Release 6 of QuickBooks 2004
Requested by Practitioners. Intuit’s new QuickBooks Version Detector lets accountants quickly identify which version of QuickBooks a client is using without having to open the QuickBooks file. The new QuickBooks Version Detector is part of Release 6 of QuickBooks 2004 and will detect versions dating back to 1999.

With this new feature, accountants can identify the version and year of a QuickBooks data file by simply mousing over it in a directory listing. Specifically, when the user mouses over the file listing, a message box pops open and shows

		version of QuickBooks that last opened the file
		file type
		file size
		date when the file was last modified

Some Existing Issues with Version Detector. As discovered shortly after release and as reported by some ProAdvisors, there is a bug/ flaw in Release 6 that affects the Version Detector. Users who have updated QuickBooks 2004 with Release 6 may not be able to get the benefits of the new Version Detector. We apologize for any inconvenience and direct you to the following link, where we are updating information on the issue and how it is being resolved.

Learn more about Release 6.

QuickBooks Software Tips & Techniques

Avoid a Call to Tech Support: Error in Accessing Information from Financial Institution
How to Respond. Our tech support group tells us that one relatively frequent source of calls is prompted by an error message arising when users attempt to access information from a financial institution via QuickBooks® financial software. QuickBooks ProAdvisors will want to know about this error message and its resolution, in case clients should raise the same questions. Here are the comments of the tech support group for dealing with this error message.

Learn more.

Master Tip: Troubleshooting Opening Balance Equity
Help Your Clients. Joe Woodard, Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor, is known to many from his side job as a professional trainer for seminars presented by Intuit and The Sleeter Group. (His full-time job is supporting his own QuickBooks clients in Atlanta, Georgia.) We asked Joe what topics he finds QuickBooks ProAdvisors ask him about, and he noted that some professionals come to him with questions on how to troubleshoot errors with opening balance equity. Here’s his take on how to troubleshoot such problems.

Read his detailed solutions here.

Tell Us What You Think

Have Dinner on Intuit - Member Survey
To Improve Our Program. Customer feedback is the key to how we constantly improve what we offer to you. We want to hear what you have to say about the QuickBooks ProAdvisor Program. Respond to our quick survey on how to make the program even better, and you could win one of three (3) one-hundred dollar ($100) prizes, for you to spend as you see fit, as our thanks!

Read the rules and regulations here.

Have Your Voice Heard - Reader Survey
To Improve Our Newsletter. We want to find out how we can improve our newsletter in meeting your needs. Please take our five-minute survey on how to make the newsletter better. Let us know what is going right – or wrong – with your QuickBooks ProAdvisor Program Newsletter.

Intuit News

Intuit Group Works with Banks to Create More Opportunities for You
Payroll Initiative Can Mean More Users of QuickBooks Financial Software. QuickBooks ProAdvisors will want to know that Intuit Payroll Services has been focusing on its relationships with large banks to provide a payroll solution to small and medium-sized business banking customers. Incentives are provided to both the bank and their business bankers to encourage referrals to Intuit Payroll Services.

The bank and its customers may benefit in many ways including a co-branded payroll solution, a dedicated sales team, QuickBooks connectivity, and eligibility for the QuickBooks Affiliate programs. Negotiations were recently completed with National Commerce Financial Corporation, which serves approximately 80,000 small businesses, primarily in the Southeast United States. Kick-off of the program is scheduled for early June. Intuit Payroll Services currently has similar relationships with several other banks across the US, and plans to build more relationships in the very near future.

Learn more.

QuickBooks Premier 2004 Makes Splash in Accounting Press
Value of Features. Recent articles in the professional press underscore the value of the features included in the 2004 edition and provide you with more ammunition for getting your clients to upgrade.

		In The Sleeter Group’s The Desktop Accountant, reviewer Doug Sleeter
		In The CPA Technology Advisor (the former CPA Software News), reviewer Mary Girsch-Bock gives QuickBooks Premier 2004 four and half stars. “Intuit has been offering quality accounting and financial software to customers for over 20 years,” Birsch-Bock writes. “QuickBooks continues to expand its vision, now offering businesses more financial and accounting options than ever before.” Read the article online.
		In Accounting Today, reviewer Ted Needleman looks at QuickBooks Premier 2004 as a possible solution for entry-level accounting software. Needleman, after noting the 2004 highlighted features like the cash flow projector, the fixed asset tracker, and the vehicle mileage tracker, says “Intuit makes some very sophisticated analysis very easy to do.” Read the article online.

QuickBooks Pro 2004 Wins CNET Editors’ Choice Award
Earlier this year, CNET gave its Editors’ Choice Award to QuickBooks Premier in its category, and now it does the same for QuickBooks Pro 2004. Your prospects are likely to read such consumer reviews, so you may want to read this article to prepare for when you present your services to the entry-level client. The review focuses on the value for the small business owner.

Editor Jeff Bertolucci notes, “An excellent accounting program for small businesses, QuickBooks Pro has plenty of bookkeeping tools for experts and beginners.” And a plus for first-time business owners, he notes that unlike competing products, “QuickBooks can convert a Quicken file during the setup process--a handy feature for small-business users who are upgrading to accounting software for the first time.”

Read the article online.

Read other consumer press on QuickBooks 2004.

QuickBooks Online Edition Wins Kudos
Stronger Acceptance for Online Solution. If you have clients looking for a sense of how it would be to work with QuickBooks Online Edition, consider sharing with them the review by Doug Sleeter in the recent Desktop Accountant from The Sleeter Group. The review states in part that the Online Edition “really deserves another look... this product has really come a long way.”

Learn more.

Summer QuickBooks 2004 Product Guide
Don’t Miss It. Most likely you have already received e-mail or print notification of the all-new Summer QuickBooks 2004 Product Guide for Accounting Professionals. If you missed your notification, here’s your chance to catch up.

Learn more.

Third Party Applications Make Life Easier

Customized Cash and Management Reports
Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor Bonnie Nagayama looks at QBData Viewer and QOBDC and applauds these new third-party resources for finding good solutions for your clients.

Learn more.

Dawn Scranton Book on Integration Consulting
“Earn More Than $100/Hr.” Claims Subtitle. Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor Dawn Scranton of Accounting Directors, Inc. sees solid margins for ProAdvisors who expand a core QuickBooks practice to include third-party solutions, and on the cover of her 82-page book claims to tell “How Certified [QuickBooks] ProAdvisors earn more than $100/Hr.” While Intuit has no stake in the book, and your editor is just starting to read it, high-powered ProAdvisors who provided back-cover blurbs are positive. They include Louis Gutberlet, Darryl Abrahms, Bonnie J. Nagayma, and Leslie Capachietti. Dawn, like those just mentioned, may be known to you from an earlier Advisor Spotlight.

The book, QuickBooks Add-on’s and Integration Consulting, is available through Dawn’s Web site.

Advisor to Advisor

Advisor Spotlight: Deb Niedermeyer, Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor
Deb Niedermeyer says it’s easy to build up a QuickBooks practice. She’s done it three times over the last eight years! With each move (for family reasons), she’s learned how to do it even better. Along the way she’s learned that clients like her customized approach, and how QuickBooks Do-It-Yourself Payroll makes her clients’ lives easier.

Learn more.

Firm Rewards Point Listing
If your firm accrued points under the Firm Rewards Program, please see the summary below. Shown are all points registered as of the point accumulation deadline of
November 1, 2003.

Reminder. You can redeem the points shown any time before July 31, 2004. The Firm Rewards Program offers many valuable rewards for participants who qualify.

For further details about eligibility, rewards, reporting and Terms & Conditions, visit accountant.intuit.com.

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