While you think you’re happy in QuickBooks Pro or Premier, I suggest it’s always worth looking at Enterprise Solutions. You may find that Enterprise could make life simpler in your business because of the extra features. I have a comparison chart that helps to highlight where the differences are. So before you skip this article, do take the time to see what features are new in 15 and whether or not they would be useful for you. Several of the new features in Enterprise have been on the wish lists for many for some time. The new features fall into 4 major areas:
1. More Data controls (a definite strength of Enterprise)
2. More Customization possible (another strength of Enterprise)
3. More Efficient workflow
4. More reporting options – this one is huge!
More Data Controls
Disallow negative inventory – In the past, QuickBooks would let you to sell inventory even if you had none (according to QuickBooks). I can’t tell you the mess this makes with your financial statements and how tedious (and expensive) it can be to fix! Now there’s a preference that will let you prevent that from happening in the future. You can use the item on estimates and purchase orders, but not sales orders, invoices or sales receipts. If you have 1 on hand, you can’t type a number higher than 1.
Disallow Sales to Customers with Overdue Payments – Definitely a good practice not to continue doing work, selling products to someone who hasn’t paid you. However, if you tolerate slow pay with some of your clients, there’s no option to choose who or how many days (perhaps in a future release).
More Ways to Customize Transactions
Total Columns on Forms – This has been on my list for a long time! You can total Quantity, Cost, Price or Amount (or all four) on sales and purchase transactions using the Subtotal item. In the past, you could subtotal only amounts. You can also use this on the Items tab for expense transactions
Print Footer on Last Page Only – Do you ever have an invoice that’s more than one page and you wish you could show the total only on the last page? Now you can! Customize the template and click on the Print tab (not the Footer) and select the option to show the total on the last page only
Show Cost Column on Sales Forms as a Column – Ever want an easy way to be sure your sales price is higher than your cost? With this new feature (found on the columns section of customizing templates), you can see the cost. Note that you while you can see the Cost on your screen, you cannot print the cost column on an invoice. (With the new Total columns feature, you could total your costs!).
Get Your Work Done More Efficiently
Sort on Columns in Transactions – Ever wish you could sort the columns on an estimate or invoice? You can sort on any column (ascending or descending) by clicking on the column header AND the document will print with that sort order as well. This can be a big help when you have a lengthy invoice.
Shade Lines on Printed Forms or Reports – While this may sound minor, if you have a lengthy invoice or report, this can make it much easier to read! When you click on the Print button on the Invoice ribbon bar, you can check the “Shade alternate table rows”
Search within Transactions – Ever need to see if something is on an invoice and having problems finding it? Now you can search!
Shortage Reports for Assemblies About time! If you deal with assemblies, you want to know if you have everything you need to build the assembly or not. While one may not be a big deal, when you have multiple assemblies and nested assemblies, keeping up with what needs ordering can be challenging. Now you can view a report by Vendor or by Item!
Stock Status Report now includes pending builds for subassemblies
Awesome Reporting Options
Get the reports you want with Advanced Reporting – If you’ve been complaining about reports you can’t get in QuickBooks, then Advanced Reporting may be just the solution. This very powerful reporting tool not only gives you more customization capabilities (including graphs), but also access to data you couldn’t pull into reports before! I was also excited to learn that it’s included with your purchase of Enterprise – not an add-on J
For database people used to designing reports, you’ll love having easy access to the QuickBooks tables! If you’ve not designed reports before, then you will want someone to help you with this. I’m hoping in the next release or two that the this module will be more user friendly, but anyone who has designed reports in MS Access or Crystal Reports or some other report program won’t have a problem. If you don’t have someone who can help you, contact our office – if we can’t get the report you want, we can put you in touch with our QuickBooks report consultants.
