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What’s New In QuickBooks 2011 and Enterprise Solutions 11.0?

Chief Mechanic · September 19, 2010 ·

After spending some time exploring QuickBooks 2011 and Enterprise Solutions 11.0 to discover the new features and changes, we came up with this table summarizing what we found. Most of the items in the table are links to articles in our KnowledgeBase.

We’ve broken down the changes into our opinion on the different levels of importance:

Blockbuster – a major addition whose absence could be a deal-breaker for some firms
Enhancement – a significant improvement but probably doesn’t rise to the level of Blockbuster for most firms
Tweak – a subtle improvement
Marketing Gimmick – an effort to sell more Intuit products or services
Cut Back – a reduction to the level of service in the prior version

Unfortunately, we didn’t come across any features that we’d characterize as blockbusters. Having been forced to give users ways to shut off some of the Marketing Gimmicks introduced in QuickBooks 2010, Intuit smartly decided not to overdo the Marketing Gimmicks in the new 2011 version.

Applies To	New Feature / Change	Importance
All	History tab on selected customer & vendor transaction windows	Tweak
All	Stamp on paid customer invoices shows date paid	Tweak
All	Batch invoicing capability to send a invoice to a group of customers, such as billing for a membership fee	Enhancement
Premier, Enterprise Solutions	Balance Sheet By Class report to support fund accounting, commonly used by non-profits or government entities	Enhancement
Pro	Reduce the maximum number of users in a multi-user configuration from 5 to 3	Cut Back
All	Online forms customization tools	Marketing Gimmick
All	Intuit Data Protect service replaces Online Back-up to backup to Intuit's secure servers	Tweak
All	Attached Documents replaces Document Management to attach documents to lists & transactions within QuickBooks	Enhancement
All	Collections Center to facilitate sending bulk emails to customers with overdue or pending invoices	Enhancement
All	Support for web-based email services to send forms	Tweak
All	Removal of support for QuickBooks E-mail unless you subscribe to extra-cost services	Cut Back
Premier Accountant only, Enterprise Solutions	Ability to work in 2 QuickBooks files from the same version -- but only applies to narrow range of products	Enhancement
Enterprise Solutions	Track inventory in multiple locations using the extra-cost Advanced Inventory online service	Enhancement
All	Addition of new Shipped From Address to allow tracking different "remit to" and physical locations	Tweak

The columns are sortable, so you can find what we think is important and what applies to your configuration by clicking on the appropriate column.

(+1 rating, 1 votes)

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.

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Has the Cancellation Policy For QuickBooks Online Edition Recently Changed?

Chief Mechanic · September 19, 2010 ·

Yes. According to Intuit:

Effective September 16, 2010, all QuickBooks Online subscribers who cancel their service agreements will have their QuickBooks Online company data converted to a read-only format, which will remain accessible for 15 days from the date of cancellation. This change will impact customers activating new QuickBooks Online subscriptions, starting September 16, 2010, and will also apply retroactively to customers who have canceled their subscriptions since September 16, 2009. Before canceling a subscription, please have your clients export their data or save reports to their computers as needed for tax purposes.

Since most, if not all, Online Edition subscribers that cancel the service have probably just completed a successful export process, the impact of this change is negligible. Previous versions of the cancellation policy gave subscribers more leeway to solve problems discovered after canceling.

Under the new policy, it’s important to make canceling the service the last action you take. Be sure to record all transactions, export your data, and test the reliability of the exported data before canceling. Adequate testing may mean an extra month of service fees, but that price will seem cheap if you cancel and discover a problem with the data outside the 15 day window allowed under this new policy.

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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 Intuit Data Protect Service?

Chief Mechanic · September 18, 2010 ·

Intuit Data Protect is a new extra-cost service introduced with QuickBooks 2011 and Enterprise Solutions 11.0 that allows users to back up data to Intuit’s secure servers. It replaces QuickBooks Online Back-up.

Current users of Online Back-up who upgrade to QuickBooks 2011 can continue to use that service or can cancel and sign up for Intuit Data Protect. New subscriptions will only be offered to Intuit Data Protect.

Online Back-up has storage-based limits of 5, 25, and 75 Gb. Intuit Data Protect offers 2 simplified tiers:

Backup QuickBooks company file data for $4.95/month
Backup any data on a PC up to a 100 Gb limit for $9.95/month

Users can keep up to 45 days of backups, but all backups over the 45 day period count toward the 100 Gb limit when backing up any data on a PC.

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Intuit