QuickBooks 2009 to handle 100 currencies

Intuit shared details of bookkeeping app QuickBooks 2009 on Monday. With this release, the company aims to broaden the focus beyond the ledger book, providing a management center for small businesses that includes expanded online banking, support for transactions in more than 100 currencies, and 12 months of free Web hosting.

The applications are set to arrive in stores October 8.

(Credit: Intuit)

The 2009 release targets businesses that do work globally, whether that means say, shipping vintage Disney toys to eBay buyers in Japan or employing basket weavers in Uganda. At least 30 percent of QuickBooks users handle international transactions, according to Intuit.

Multi-currency support enables invoices, bill payments, and wire transfers in most of the world's currencies, with online updates and historical tracking of exchange rates. Wire transfers can be made in 100 currencies through QuickBooks Merchant Service, while the other features support 158 currencies. Users can add custom currencies, such as Ithaca Hours in upstate New York or Linden dollars for Second Life.

Intuit is also offering users a free Web site for 12 months at an Intuit domain name. Drag-and-drop page designs come from Homestead, a 2007 acquisition. Once the free period expires, monthly hosting costs are $4.99.

QuickBooks offers banking center capabilities, so users won't need to hop to banks' separate Web sites to check on the status of accounts.

Intuit says its Live Community peer-to-peer tech support, with 2.6 million users since its introduction in 2007, increasingly is being used for general business advice. The context-sensitive question-and-answer interface is docked along the right edge of the QuickBooks interface.

The built-in QuickBooks Messenger enables users of multi-user editions of the applications to chat with each other while logged in.

A new Company Insights view provides quick access to balances, money owed, reminders, and reports.

Expanded tools for accountants include Client Data Review to scan for client errors.

For $99, QuickBooks Simple Start Edition targets users with the most basic bookkeeping needs. The full-featured Pro Edition costs $100 more for one user, or a total of $379 for two people and $549 for three people. QuickBooks Premier, which offers industry-specific flavors, costs $399, or $749 for a pair of users and $1,099 for three-person access.

[farrellp]

QuickBooks 2009?slick solution or slippery slope? The new version of this popular small business accounting software comes with new bells and whistles that may or may not meet your needs. If a QuickBooks upgrade is in your future, figure out whether you want to stay within the family or check out more robust and scalable mid-market accounting solutions. What I haven?t seen is discussion of QuickBooks 2009?s ability to handle a higher number of concurrent users, higher overall transaction numbers and the like. That?s not a knock on QuickBooks accounting solutions. It?s just a reminder that every accounting software application has its limitations. QuickBooks can work well for small businesses whose needs are moderate. When it begins to move slowly, both in terms of processing information and generating reports, or when people have to start waiting in line to get on the system, it?s time to consider a QuickBooks upgrade?to another accounting software manufacturer. Paul Farrell, CEO, Wizard Productivity Systems LP; [e-mail]

[angelaang]

QuickBooks is doing some amazing things.
<a href="http://www.infinitelyvirtual.com/categories/applications/quickbooks-terminal-server.html">InfinitelyVirtual.com</a>

[pbulson]

Quickbooks 2009 -- be extremely careful about buying this software. Quickbooks lied to me 3 times on the phone saying that the online banking feature for 2009 is enhanced. After my purchase I found out that Quickbooks 2009 online banking 'enhancement' means that the program does not work with many banks including Bank of America. And I only learned this after 3 phone calls and when they made me purchase the $79 per month tech support option. When I wa finally connected to tech support, the poor guy in India told me the sales people lied to me and indeed this program does not work. He said a new Quickbooks software is coming out in late Jan but obviously this company has a problem with the truth. To add insult to injury, after removing the Quickbooks 2009, my data in Quickbooks 2005 is not retrievable. Also, Windows Installer continues to eat up my RAM looking for Quickbook.msi installation file. I am spending another few hours trying to find out how to end this program. I have already told my accountant I don't care if he uses Quickbooks, I never will again. Please some competitor step in and offer both something that works and some honesty in advertising!

[i803172]

You should try SAP Business ByDesign - its easy and ondemand and a great price I heard. There is a free webinar next week on practical tips how to move from Quickbooks to ByDesign from real customers who have done it. On the information I got it says email [e-mail] for more information - you could try this. I hope it helps you - sorry you had such a bad experience with QuickBooks - I only had good experiences with their help desk so far - so thats a shame.