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| QuickBooks Pro 2001 | Accounting |
| The aptly named accounting
programs QuickBooks and QuickBooks Pro 2001 deliver new features and an organization
designed to give you relevant information about your business or law office. Installation is routine, and setting up the program for your firm can be accomplished through an interview Wizard. You will need your federal and state identification numbers, your bank account and credit card information. Once the set up is complete, you can use QuickBooks to take care of all of your accounting and also keep information up-to-date. QuickBooks can print checks on preprinted forms or on unprinted check blanks, which are much cheaper with the addition of a program called Check Magic. QuickBooks also has become easier if your business uses credit cards. You can still keep track of credit card charges manually, or if your credit card issuer allows it, your credit card statements can be downloaded directly into QuickBooks. A number of credit card issuers are presently participating, and the expectations are that many more will follow. I tried the service with QuickBooks own no-fee credit card issued by Citibank. After setting up the account with the information provided by QuickBooks and Citibank, I downloaded the statement into a “Reconciliation” window. In the screen, you match up the downloaded charges against the charges you input. You can add the charges to QuickBooks. There are two ways to pay your credit card charges. The first way involves using the “Reconciliation” window. The second way is paying the charges by check from the “Online Banking” window. Keeping track of receipts and payroll is easy and effective. QuickBooks will remind you when the taxes are due and allows you to write a check while posting these transactions to the correct accounts. Payroll begins with the preparation of W-2 forms for each of your employees. Withholding information for payroll is downloaded over the Internet. The first 60 days are free, followed by a subscription service of $129 per year. If you want to be thrifty and know the withholding tables have not changed, you can delay your subscription. QuickBooks allows you to keep track and make federal deposits. If you have properly set up reminders, QuickBooks will tell you when it’s time to prepare and submit your 941s. At the end of the year, QuickBooks allows you to print employee W-2 forms. When you set up a chart of accounts (a legal template is included), you can assign a line on a federal tax form to each account. If you use TurboTax for business (which prepares partnership returns, 1120s and 1120Ss), your yearly information can be transferred directly into the tax preparation program. At the end of the year, QuickBooks automatically transfers your income and expense account balances to retained earnings. There are various ways of inputting information to QuickBooks. QuickBooks integrates with Time Matters case management and Timeslips time and billing software to make life in a small firm much easier. Information is entered only once and carried forward into each program. The timeslips, generated in Time Matters, are billed in Timeslips and then transferred to QuickBooks. If summary information could be transferred, the process would be completely automatic. If you want detailed information transferred to QuickBooks, run the G/L Transfer Register report in Timeslips, and transfer the amounts manually into QuickBooks. A lawyer I know who uses these programs doesn’t use the automatic transfer. Instead, he finalizes his bills in Timeslips, and generates a summary bill for the amount of his fees and costs in QuickBooks, and sends them both to clients. Whichever method you choose, you can have the detail and automation you need without having to enter the information into several programs. A new QuickBooks Wizard lets you create a business Web site with the QuickBooks site solution and host it for $19.95 per month. You can bill clients online or by fax. QuickBooks offers users the ability to accept credit card payments through the QuickBooks Merchant Account. The cost is $30 per month and 2.52 percent of each transaction. The payments are deposited directly into your bank account and posted to the appropriate accounts. If you have an accountant, you can use the “Accountant’s Copy” feature to create an electronic file for your accountant to review. This allows your firm to make the ordinary daily entries while your accountant makes appropriate monthly or annual entries off site. The two copies can then be merged, and your books are kept up-to-date with minimal disruption to your firm. For about $100 more, QuickBooks Pro 2001 offers networking, an on-screen timer and various other features. Many of the features are not applicable to small law firms. Look at the feature comparison on Intuit’s Web site for more details. QuickBooks Pro’s time and billing features may be sufficient for a small firm. If you see a feature on the list that you want, (like networking), the extra money for QuickBooks 2001 Pro is definitely justified. However, QuickBooks Pro only allows networking of a maximum of five simultaneous users. |
Intuit (800) 4-INTUIT www.quickbooks.com Windows 95/98/NT 4.0 (Service Pack 3 or higher)/2000/ME Price: $249.95 Pro, $169.95 Pro upgrade, $149 regular, $89 regular upgrade. Reviewed by Steven Schmidt, shareholder, director and president of Business & Technology Law, Albuquerque, N.M. PROS CONS VERDICT |
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