QB 2011

What Is the New History Tab In QuickBooks 2011?

Chief Mechanic · September 19, 2010 ·

For QuickBooks 2011 and Enterprise Solutions 11.0, Intuit added a History tab to several key windows in QuickBooks:

Enter Bills
Create Purchase Orders
Create Item Receipts
Create Invoices
Create Credit Memos/Refunds
Enter Sales Receipts

Unfortunately, it’s not included on the Receive Payments window.

The History tab can be quickly opened and closed, and shows a Summary, Recent Transactions, and Notes for the vendor or customer.

Here’s the History tab in its closed state. To open it, just click on the left-pointing arrow.

QuickBooks 2011 Enter Bills History Tab Closed

With the tab open, you can close it by clicking on the right-pointing arrow.

Each History tab contains intelligent links to functions that allow you to edit the displayed entity, edit notes, and prepare pre-filtered reports. For example, the Open Balance link in the Enter Bills window opens a pre-filtered Vendor Open Balance report, which is a modified Unpaid Bills Detail report for the currently displayed vendor.

By providing an easy way to display recent activity during transaction entry, the History tab will help to reduce the chance of erroneously recording a duplicate transaction.

(No Ratings Yet)

Does QuickBooks 2011 Offer New Online Forms Customization Tools?

Chief Mechanic · September 19, 2010 ·

Yes, beginning with QuickBooks 2011, users can take advantage of new online QuickBooks Forms Customization tools.

Methods to download and modify form templates available in earlier versions of QuickBooks are still available in QuickBooks 2011.

The new online tool is largely a vehicle to market Intuit’s forms that are un-related to accounting (such as business cards) and other services, such as purchasing a logo design by running a contest.

Access to the new tools can be found by opening the Templates window via the Lists->Templates menu selection and clicking on the Create Form Design… menu selection on the Templates button in the lower left corner of the window.

Here are screenshots of the first step of the forms design process and the Apply Design window to use a form design in QuickBooks:

QuickBooks 2011 Online Forms Customization

QuickBooks 2011 Online Forms Customization Apply Design Window

Users can edit and re-apply changes to forms customized using the online tool for a period of 30 days. After that period, any additional changes, including applying the form design to new form templates, will incur a fee of $4.99.

The new online forms customization tools don’t extend the capabilities of QuickBooks to customize forms. They simply provide a visual, online interface with a heavy dose of marketing for services that are unrelated to accounting software.

(+1 rating, 1 votes)

What Is the QuickBooks Attached Documents Service?

Chief Mechanic · September 18, 2010 ·

QuickBooks Attached Documents is a new extra-cost service introduced with QuickBooks 2011 and Enterprise Solutions 11.0 that allows users to attach documents to QuickBooks lists or transactions from within QuickBooks. It replaces the Document Management service introduced with QuickBooks 2010.

Versions of QuickBooks prior to QuickBooks 2010 don’t support attaching documents to list items or transactions from within the QuickBooks program itself.

The storage-based limits used by the older Document Management service have been replaced by limits on the number of items that can be attached to a list item or transaction. Users of the older Document Management service can continue to use that platform at pricing levels previously agreed to, even if they upgrade to QuickBooks 2011.

Pricing for the QuickBooks Attached Documents service is:

$9.95/month for 1 attachment per list item or transaction
$14.95/month for up to 5 attachments per list item or transaction
$19.95/month for unlimited attachments per list item or transaction

The principal advantage that Attached Documents provides is the direct integration from within the QuickBooks program. For example, a PDF copy of a vendor bill can be attached to the transaction that records the bill in QuickBooks. Documents are stored on Intuit’s secure servers and are accessible over the internet. For organizations conducting business in multiple locations or that need to exchange documents with an accountant, such as during an annual audit, the direct association of an attached file with an accounting transaction can provide significant productivity improvements because the association is made once and saved. Other storage systems, even cloud-based systems, require a user to independently maintain the linkage between a file name in a folder and an accounting transaction, something that becomes progressively harder with changes in personnel and increases in the number of filed documents.

(+2 rating, 2 votes)

What Are the Service Changes For QuickBooks 2011?

Chief Mechanic · September 18, 2010 ·

Starting with QuickBooks 2011 and Enterprise Solutions, Intuit has announced a variety of service changes. They are:

New terms for exchanging Accountant’s Copy files using Intuit’s secure servers
QuickBooks Email will disappear unless you’re an active subscriber to another Intuit supported service, such as QuickBooks payroll
QuickBooks Attached Documents replaces Document Management
Intuit Data Protect replaces QuickBooks Online Back-up
New terms of use and extra fees for online forms customization
Changes to the cancellation policy for QuickBooks Online Edition

(No Ratings Yet)

What Does the New Collections Center In QuickBooks 2011 Do?

Chief Mechanic · September 18, 2010 ·

QuickBooks 2011 and Enterprise Solutions 11.0 include a new Collections Center that enables you to quickly and selectively send bulk emails to customers with overdue or almost due invoices.

To access the Collections Center, start by opening the Customer Center, then click on the Collections Center link at the top of the window.

The Collections Center has 2 tabs: one showing Overdue invoices, and the other showing Almost Due invoices. You can selectively send emails to customers with invoices appearing on either list, and the techniques for doing so are the same. We’ll focus on sending emails to customers with overdue invoices.

Invoices are grouped by Customer Name, and you can sort the list by either Customer Name, the total customer Balance, or the Days Overdue. To sort by a particular column, simply click on the column header.

The Contact column contains the customer’s phone number, so the Collections Center could serve as a great tool for a call list. You can document a phone conversation with the customer or any other internal information (such as the reasoning for a decision not to call or send an email) by clicking on the icon in the Notes/Warnings column. This will bring up an editor that is positioned at the top of the note and has already added a date/time stamp. Previously recorded notes are saved and appear below.

QuickBooks 2011 Collections Center Notes

When you’re ready to select which customers (and for which invoices) should be sent emails, click the Select and Send Email link at the top of the Collections Center. If you want to return to reviewing the list, click the Back button.

QuickBooks 2011 Collections Center Send Mass Email

You can select which customers will receive emails by clicking the checkbox to the left of the invoice number. By default, all overdue invoices for all customers on the Overdue tab are selected, but you can easily deselect one or more invoices from any customer. If you remove the checkbox on all invoices for a given customer, that customer won’t receive an email. Selected invoices are attached as PDF files to your email and are sent using your selection of email client. To make sending forms easier, QuickBooks 2011 includes updated options for sending forms.

In the email form to the right of the list, you can change the default email message. Only 1 message will be sent to all customers currently selected, so be sure to craft a generic message that applies to all of your selections. If you want to send different email messages to different customer groups, you’ll have to select each customer group and complete the sending process before selecting another customer group.

When you’re satisfied with both your selections and email message, click the Send button. QuickBooks will notify you that the process is complete, but you can choose to block this message after the first appearance.

To manage the default messages for overdue and almost due invoices, QuickBooks 2011 has added 2 new message options. You can manage the default message for any form, including these 2 new options, by clicking on the Company Preferences tab of the Send Forms sub-menu on the Edit->Preferences menu selection.

The Collections Center is a valuable addition for businesses that want a unified tool to review customer invoices, document any discussions with customers or internal decisions, and easily send selected invoices to customers in bulk.

(+1 rating, 3 votes)

QB 2011

Accounting

Developer

Intuit