For example, taxes are a legal obligation that every corporation has to pay so it's important to keep track of what you have to pay. Doing this manually can be pretty time-consuming, which is why it's so convenient that the software also has a feature to be able to track these things. Quickbooks can also track things that are specific to the industry that you're operating in. There are tracking features for all of the employees in the company and a calculator for their salaries to be able to save on time. This software even has 200 templates to be able to get you started quickly.

This software was originally invented in 1983 but was only made for DOS since macOS and WIndows were not as prominent back in those days and really didn't exist. This version was explicitly used by medium and large-sized businesses. Computers were much larger back in the day and not as many were available. The software tracked some things back then but has evolved so much to the point where the initial release is almost unrecognizable.

Generally, Intuit, Quickbooks has added new features to the software every year because businesses are changing. There is a correlation with how macOS and Windows have evolved with the software of Quickbooks. There are going to be some differences between the two versions. but they both are generally the same product. As long as all the information you're putting in this business is encrypted and secure, things have only gone better for businesses and it's allowed them to see places where the company is bleeding to be able to fix them.

Quickbooks works by taking a lot of the information you give them and using it to give you better solutions for what you need to get done. Generally, this is something that you can hire to keep track of all of this and you can still do this with the Quickbooks software.



The difference is the level of optimization that someone is going to get from using Quickbooks. Usually, the accountant or whoever works the software is going to manage all of the data going in and out while also stopping data from leaking. We are currently living in the most sensitive time when it comes to security. Even big government agencies with billions of dollars in funding get hacked from time to time. This is partially why there are two different formats for the software. The desktop version guarantees that only people who have access to that PC can get your data.

a. QuickBooks Pro

This version of Quickbooks is $399 and offers a lot of tracking functions that will make your company much more efficient. That may sound like a lot for the program at first, but this version of Quickbooks is a one-time purchase and allows other people to use the account as well. This is a relatively good solution since it means that multiple people are able to check the numbers one what the accountant is putting in the system. It's very easy to set up and you have unlimited storage capacity for the information that is going to be online.

This version of Quickbooks also tracks reports and gives you some suggestions on what you should do for the future. Of course, you can go in your own direction, but the recommendations are going to be welcome for those who may not have the most experience managing any kind of business. It's going to be a nice way of presenting any information that you may want to show off to investors or clients, which can make all of the difference in your industry. The software also constantly updates to add new features or to add security so that your information is secure.

b. QuickBooks Premier

Unlike other kinds of products that Intuit makes, this one was made as a service. The price is $299 a year and gives you some of the best options that are available to a business. For one. you receive unlimited customer support, which is going to be very helpful when filing any kind of claim or bringing a security breach to their attention. This version also creates formats for sale orders so that the process of buying things can be a bit faster for the customer. You can share this account with up to five users along with the modifications and checks they may make to the system.

It also tracks things like inventory and timeslots for that inventory. This lets whoever is tracking the data notice when the discrepancies happen in the system.

c. QuickBooks Enterprise

Quickbooks enterprise is the priciest version of the software that you have to pay upfront. You are paying $1275 a year which is only going to be a big deal if you're going to be someone who is running a very small company. There aren't many things that this software doesn't have, which is going to allow you to track to the best of your abilities. There really isn't a lot of reports or other parts of the templets which aren't going to give you the things you need to set up your financials in the fastest way possible.



With this version of the software, you also gain 6 times the capacity of the other 2 previous software that you have to offer. There are so many things that you get to do, that there is almost nothing that you don't get to do. You get 6 industry-specific versions of the software which is able to educate you and tell you what the most important things in each of those industries are. You also have the benefit of giving this account information to 40 people in the company. This allows everyone to double-check the numbers and call out any fraud if it gets noticed.

d. QuickBooks Point of Sale

This version of Quickbooks works a lot with some of the biggest software and figures out their logistics. A lot of small companies use Amazon and Shopify due to their infrastructure and large consumer bases. This version of Quickbooks is going to teach you all about logistics and get a lot of the complicated parts out of the way first. You also get updates that come up automatically. You also give customers the option to make contactless payments. In the era of germs and viruses, this feature is going to have to become more and more available to respect the health statuses of people out there.

There's incredible inventory management as well. Knowing how much stock or commodities that you have at a certain time is going to allow you to make better decisions. This is also going to let you know what has already sold and what you need to get more of as you decide to buy more inventory. This program gives you the benefit of different eCommerce programs that make the usage through other platforms a lot more forgiving for the new companies that they were going to get out of.

e. QuickBooks Accountant

For the most part, the accountant version of this is going to be free and track a lot of the simple things that a company would want to look after. It does have the flaws of not using many of the features that many other parts of the company would use, but what you're still getting is a great product. Most people who are running very small companies won't need any more than what they are currently being offered. It's completely free, so it also gives the person purchasing the service to see if there is a practical benefit to using this service. Experience is also something that can be pretty handy for the service to provide.

It may sound a bit generic, but there are a lot of people who end up winning the experience of accounting and they just waste money due to that fact, it doesn't have to be like that in a lot of cases. Taxes can be where a company lives or dies. Unfortunately, taxes have nothing to do with innovation or whether or not you were good to your employees, it is almost always a matter of budgeting and only those with a lot of experience know how to gain the system.

a.Simple Start

Like how the name sounds, this version of the product is designed to help you get off the ground but wasn't made by businesses that are well established already. The most obvious benefit that you get from this is that it's completely free. If you have a decent computer at all, you will be able to run this very smoothly with no problems at all. Seeing things like income and expenses are largely the bare minimum of what you should get as a business owner. But you don't get much beyond.

b.Essentials

Essentials are for the people who are getting their feet off of the ground when it comes to the new company that they are managing. There are a lot of things that could be added. Things like employee timesheets are essential for making sure how much they should be paid while also making sure that they can work more or less. You can also see things like inventory and how much you are likely going to profit in the upcoming quarters. It isn't that much and you do have to pay for it at $40 a month, but it can be very helpful in setting things up if you've just started out.

c.Plus

Plus is for businesses that may be growing but are still considered to be very small. Here, you shouldn't be planning to go public anytime soon, and you should've paid off your first investors. This has the most amount of services for the small online Quickbooks software that you can get. The invoices, account team, preservation of company data, automation of workflows, and much more are well worth the $90 a month that you're going to have to pay to get things running. On top of this, you also get a ton of people to work on these projects with you.

d.Advanced

Advanced gives you some of the most options for other associates a the company to work on accounting with you. You are all working at the company, so they also have an incentive to make sure these numbers are in check. The income that you make is tracked so that you're able to see whether it goes up or down. You're also able to take a look at whether people deserve bonuses or overtime pay. Being that there are 40 people who can look at this, you really won't have that many mistakes that are being made.

MAC is a different operating system than windows. This was necessary to create because there are a lot of people who do use Mac OS only at work at not as personal computers. As a business owner, the accountant is going to get a much bigger screen to look at, but the practical changes are very similar. There are a lot of things to view with all of the versions to view but some things are also missing since MACs aren't intended to be modified that the same way a PC is. However, this is still a great option for whatever you want to do.

Quickbooks is a great service for anyone whether it be a big or small company or even the self-employed. Being self-employed literally allows you to give all of the benefits to yourself. At this point, Quickbooks allows it to act more like a personal advisor rather than something you use to track company information with. There are going to be times when it could tell you what deductions you should get, but it's largely about telling you about what you should get paid and recommendations with your clients.

Invoicing

Invoices are important for a lot of different reasons, but all you should know is to have them on hand at a moment's notice. You won't always have the need for them, but the client deserves a good invoice to be able to make the appropriate decisions. Quickbooks has a lot of templates to use as an invoice for your own company. Even if you aren't that familiar with them, the templates make this really easy to get them done in a small amount of time. Things like tracking assets and the amount of money you've spent are really important to see.

Doing this for business is really important and keeping track of these things sometimes whether the health of these companies will survive or not. For the most part, you really don't have to worry about this stuff, but when your company gets bigger it's very important to track these things for the authorities or other investors so that they can see just how big you've gotten. It's one of the smaller functions that you're going to have to do, but you will see a lot of growth if you make the right decisions after you examine why the numbers are that way.

Job Costing

Jobs are the very reason why you made this business in the first place, so it's obviously going to be one of the biggest priorities you'll have to manage. Jobs are by far the biggest expense that you'll need to provide as a small business owner. These people are also entitled to vacation and Medicaid by law which also costs a lot of money. This is why you should only have a select plan of people planned out and also only hire people who you know will make the company money. Even if someone is directly qualified for the job, that doesn't mean they can't make up for it later.

There are tons of times when someone wasn't qualified for the job only to have made up for with experience later. This part of the software is to add up the literal costs of what you are paying someone to work at your business. Of course, you always want to think of these people as people first and realize that they're employees second, but at the end of the day, they are there to make money. Maybe you have to lay off some of your workers because expenses are becoming too extreme. This section can show you how productive some members of your company are to make a rational decision as to who to keep.

Inventory 

Inventory allows you to be able to sell products or at least keep the production of your company running. Having inventory lets you use tools to be able to make more money which isn't something that always happens. In theory, if you have no inventory, then you'll never be able to make money. At the same time, there is such a thing as having too much money. When you have too much stock in something, you can't get rid of it and you will also have parts of your own business that will be damaged from getting too much.

Your inventory is something that you should always have some kind of idea of the state it's in. You need to be able to know whether you should need to get more, or whether you should be using more right now. If you don't have enough inventory at the moment, then you won't be able to make enough money in the future because you'll sell out. However, the point is to be able to make the appropriate business decision by tracking the inventory that's in your stock. You can even get notifications when the stock hits a certain level.

Manage Bills

Bills are a large part of what can be expensive for the company. Things like water and electricity are non-negotiable and will have to be paid for regardless of what the company wants to save money on. It's also important to pay those bills on time. Many utility companies have late fees for not paying the bill on time so that their customers actually pay the bill. It can be frustrating if you actually have the money but then just forget to pay it which is still your responsibility. Without those bills being paid, the business can't run in most cases.

There are a lot of bills that likely go into your business and Quickbooks have told you the most relevant information. Not only do you know the amount of money that you'll have to pay, but you also know the date, company, and company phone number. There are also options for canceling the utilities that you don't want to use anymore. Typically, those don't get used that often, but there's no telling when you will want to use one of those services in the future. It's also easy to see which services the company doesn't need anymore by going to this screen.

Track Expenses 

Expenses are a big part of what makes a company possible, if your expenses are higher than what you are earning, then you are losing money by definition. Generally, the way to avoid this is by making a good business model and reaching as many customers as possible. This is something that takes a lot of trial and error and won't happen on its own. This is why this function exists in the software to make the experience a lot more streamlined. More than that, the program can track where each expense is coming from and whether or not it's wise to put money in that expense.

Expenses have their benefits during certain years but it's not something you should be doing in excessive amounts, year after year. Try to establish a brand that can stand on its own and then the product is essentially able to advertise itself with the amount of money it will take to keep the business afloat. There could be services that you paid for in your company that you no longer think are worth the money. This information is designed to help you make better decisions, it will never make that decision for you with your consent.

Manage Contractors

Reporting

Reporting to government agencies is very important thing companies need to do to comply with the law. One of the biggest ones is reporting their finances in non-profits once they are able to make money from the public, This is done so that the average person is protected from any schemes, or they can look up the financials of these companies to be able to make their own decision. Much more immediately, they have to report their income and cash flow to the Internal revenue service. This is likely frustrating as a small business owner, but this is done to protect average people.



Some other reporting is done to be transparent to investors. If someone is putting money into your company, they are going to want to make sure that money isn't going to waste, You probably want to give them that information as fast as possible just so that you aren't sued, but that can be time-consuming even for the accountant. Thankfully, the reporting feature does this automatically, which is going to ensure that communication goes between both parties in the fastest way possible with no hiccups.

Bookkeeping

Bookkeeping is a lot of services that this program already offers rolled into one single major service. This largely involves keeping track of the people moving in and out of the company as well as taxes and salaries for a lot of the workers that are going to using these functions. This can show a lot of the growth that the company has had to go through. These things have real effects on companies and should be looked at every now and then. It's also important to have some larger perspective because many of these companies are growing as time goes on.

Industries change and there's no telling what people are going to face in the future. However, knowing what the situation was like in the past is going to show a lot of the future investors and employees that you're going to come across that they should be looking at all of the expenses and payments the companies have made. Some other times, you may have to do this for tax purposes and the tracking is also great for seeing a lot of the things like dealing with rising expenses.

Track Miles

Miles are incredibly important for wanting to save money on your business trips. In the new age of business, people are always afraid of getting on flights, or they simply buy them at the wrong time, which has the airlines panic selling tickets to scramble for money. Typically, you really should prepare for whatever kind of flight that you are going to go on. There are tons of benefits you get as a business owner for doing it. For one it allows you to expand in other markets and potentially learn about what is going to happen to the future of your business.

Buying all of your employee's tickets can be pricey and even then the flight experience could be pretty bad. Thankfully if you own a card made for flying such as American Express Platinum, this software can track those miles for you automatically so you don't have to keep track of them through other means. Plus, it's just a great thing to do for the people who work for you. You save money, get more out of your card, and take your employees to a place that they may never travel in the first place.

Taxes are an existential part of how the modern world works. Taxes pay for our roads, infrastructure, law enforcement, firefighters, and government subsidies. However, as a business, you have to pay income, corporate, and sales tax to the state. And once you begin making even more money, you then have to pay additional taxes to the federal government. There are ways to get this reduced, but generally, you want to pay the least amount in taxes possible. You and your team worked very hard for that money and it's only natural to share that money with them.

However, it's going to be an obligation that you have to deal with for as long as you run a company. It definitely won't be fun, but the other option of not paying them and committing crimes by doing so isn't the option either. Thankfully, you also get told when you have to pay these taxes, doing that is half the battle when it comes to getting rid of that problem. As you grow and expand as a business, your taxes will get higher, and that will make it more difficult to hire more people or give them the raises that you know that they deserve.

Tax deductions scream music to the ears of any businessman who's looking to save their yearly budget. These days you can get deductions for just about anything business-related. If you spent money on advertising, you can usually write that off as a business expense and in other cases, you can go on trips to expand. Things like these used to be completely written off in the US tax code, but times have changed and you can't get away with doing that as much. Whether it be for better or for worse, but what has also changed is the number of ways that you are able to save on taxes.

Right now, most businesses are in a transition because of the Coronavirus. Many of them have chosen to work from home and aren't using offices as their workspace, this means that you could write those studios off as a home office and save you some money on your taxes. At first, the tax deductions won't mean that much, but when it comes to brass tacks a lot of these deductions are going to allow you to make huge decisions in the culture of how you run your place. Definitely take advantage of this in the opening days of your business because it won't be like this forever.

Knowing how much everything is going to cost is just good business practice in general. The company won't last long if your expenses are higher than the earnings you're seeing in the business. Estimates are a way of seeing what is likely going to happen. Quickbooks wants to take all of the information from other sources and give you the best course of action to take. It's hard to know what the exact right option is, but at the lower level, there isn't much that hasn't been done before. Quickbooks is going to recommend slower, but ultimately more reliable practices in order to profit.

Not every business wants to go that route which is fine, but future business leaders should at least know what the most reliable strategy is before they make another decision that they are likely going to regret, it's not major to find things out that you don't like about the business or fit those results with the timeframe that you want, but that's just how it goes sometimes. Most young founders of small businesses don't have much financial mentorship before their this so having any help at all could make a massive difference in the end result.

As of right now, Quickbooks hasn't stated what new changes will be made, you have to see them in the future.