QuickBooks is an accounting software package developed and marketed by Intuit. QuickBooks products are geared primarily to small and medium businesses and offer on-site accounting applications as well as cloud-based versions that accept business payments, manage and pay bills, and payroll functions.
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History
Intuit was founded in 1983 by Scott Cook and Tom Proulx in Mountain View, California, USA. After Quicken's success for individual financial management, the company developed similar services for small business owners.
Initial release
The early Quicken software does not work as a "double entry" accounting package. The initial release of QuickBooks is a DOS version based on the Quicken code base. Both Windows and Mac versions share a different code base that is based on In-House Accountant, which Intuit has acquired. This software is popular among small business owners who do not have formal accounting training. Thus, the software immediately claims up to 85 percent of the small business accounting software market. It continues to dominate most of these markets. Professional accountants, however, are dissatisfied with early versions of the system, citing poor security controls, such as no audit trail, as well as nonconformities with traditional accounting standards.
Next release
Intuit tries to bridge the gap with these accounting professionals, ultimately providing full audit tracking capabilities, multiple entry accounting functions, and enhanced functionality. In 2000, Intuit developed the Basic and Pro versions of the software and, in 2003, began offering industry-specific versions, with workflow processes and reports designed for each of these types of businesses along with trade-related terms.
Options now include versions for manufacturers, wholesalers, professional service companies, contractors, non-profit entities and retailers, in addition to those specially designed for professional accounting firms that serve several small business clients. In May 2002 Intuit launched QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions for midsize businesses.
In September 2005, QuickBooks had 74% of the market in the US. Intuit Media Broadcasts June 19, 2008 said that in March 2008, the share of retail units QuickBooks in the category of business accounting reached 94.2 percent, according to the NPD Group. He also said that more than 50,000 accountants, CPAs and independent business consultants are members of the QuickBooks ProAdvisor program. At the time Brad Smith was the new CEO, though former CEO Steve Bennett had boosted Intuit's revenue nearly threefold and fourfold in eight years.
On September 22, 2014, Intuit announced the launch of QuickBooks 2015 with features that have been requested by users from previous versions. Increased revenue trackers, embedded records, improved sign up process and insights on the homepage are some of the most common changes to all versions of QuickBooks 2015.
In September 2015, Intuit released QuickBooks 2016 which contains some improvements to existing and new features such as batch transactions, bill tracking, sustained label feeder support, batch removal/canceling transactions etc.
In September 2016, Intuit released QuickBooks 2017 with several enhancements such as automated reports, smart searches and improved filter filter reports among other things.
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International version
This product version is available in many different markets. The Intuit, UK and Australia divisions of Intuit offer QuickBooks versions that support the unique taxation requirements of each region, such as GST, HST or Canadian PST sales taxes, European VAT for UK editions, and Australian GST sales tax. The QuickBooks UK edition also includes support for VAT Ireland and South Africa.
Mac version (OSX) is only available in the United States.
Features
Intuit has integrated several web-based features into QuickBooks, including remote access capabilities, remote payroll assistance and outsourcing, electronic payment functionality, online banking and reconciliation, mapping features through integration with Google Maps, Google's marketing options, and enhanced e-functionality -mail. through Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express. For version 2008, the company has also added imports from Excel spreadsheets, additional employee time tracking options, electronic fund pre-authorization, and new Help functions. In June 2007, Intuit announced that QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions will run on Linux servers, whereas previously Windows servers required to run.
QuickBooks Online
Intuit also offers a cloud service called QuickBooks Online (QBO). Users pay a monthly subscription fee rather than upfront fees and access the software exclusively through a secure login through a Web browser. Intuit provides patches, and regularly updates the software automatically.
In May 2014, QuickBooks Online had the most customers for online accounting platform, with 624,000 subscribers. compared with Xero, which reported 284,000 subscribers as of July 2014.
The cloud version is a product different from desktop version QuickBooks, and has many features that work differently than they do on desktop versions.
In 2013, Intuit announced that it has rebuilt QuickBooks Online "from the ground up" with a platform that allows third parties to create small business applications and gives customers the ability to customize the QuickBooks online version.
QuickBooks Online is supported on Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer 10, Safari 6.1, and also accessible through Chrome on Android and Safari on iOS 7. One can also access QuickBooks Online via iPhone, BlackBerry and Android web apps.
In 2011, Intuit introduced the UK version of QuickBooks Online to address the special VAT and European tax system. There are also customized versions for the Canadian, Indian and Australian markets, as well as global versions that can be customized by users.
QuickBooks Sales Points
QuickBooks Point of Sale is software that replaces the retailer's cashier, tracks inventory, sales, and customer information, and provides reports to manage its business and serve its customers.
Additional programs
Through the Solutions Marketplace, Intuit encourages third-party software developers to create programs that populate specific areas for specific industries and integrate with QuickBooks. The Intuit Developer Network provides marketing and technical resources, including software development tools (SDKs) for EDI.
The tax preparation software Inteke Lacerte and ProLine for professional accountants who prepare tax returns for life are integrated with QuickBooks in this way. Microsoft Office also integrates with QuickBooks.
Compared to other QuickBooks versions, fewer third-party add-ons are integrated with QuickBooks Online Edition. Although recently, seamless integration of QuickBooks is only offered by a handful of vendors.
In addition to additional products and online editions, Intuit released the Commercial Hosting Program, which allows commercial providers to offer hosted versions of QuickBooks Pro, Premier, and Enterprise. The Commercial Hosting program QuickBooks allows commercial service providers to offer lease licenses for the Pro and Premier editions of QuickBooks. Hosting allows businesses to use all features of the desktop version of QuickBooks as a service accessed via the Internet.
Criticism
The QuickBooks version of 1999 forced users to pay additional fees for payroll table updates. Version 2000 QuickBooks tries to force users to pay additional fees for tax payroll updates for each company file. After the boycott, this fee is converted to one cost per copy of QuickBooks.
In April 2006, Intuit disabled additional service functionality for QuickBooks 2003 in Bill Pay, Credit Card Download, Do-It-Yourself Payroll, Employee Organizer, Merchant Services, Online Banking, Online Billing, and Support Packages and Services. Since then, Intuit has disabled the equivalent functionality for all versions of QuickBooks about 30 months after it stopped selling it.
On December 15, 2007, the company released an auto-update version for OS X with a serious program error. The company repaired the update on December 17, but by then it had caused massive data loss for some users.
QuickBooks Online experienced an extended extinction on February 2, 2009, and again due to power outages on June 16-17, 2010. Many customers complained at the company forum, and threatened to leave the service to competitors like Sage. Brad Smith, CEO of Intuit, apologized for a series of blackouts, a total of about 60 hours, affecting most of Intuit's online products and technical support. The July 14 shutdown then resulted in Intuit's second CEO apology, referring to Intuit's "new online product", "designed for 24/7 availability", and "migrating aggressively" into two new data centers.
The online banking module QuickBooks 2009 has a big problem, generating hundreds of comments on several topics in Intuit Community discussion forums. The QuickBooks product manager uses this as an official thread to discuss the issue, which was completed in March 2009.
As of November 2014, QuickBooks users for OSX have reported compatibility issues with Apple's new operating system, OS X Yosemite.
Sponsors
QuickBooks is the official kit sponsor for Premier League club West Bromwich Albion for the 2014-15 Premier League season in England. They are also the official sponsors for Aston Villa for the 2015-16 Premier League season and 2016-17 EFL Championship, replacing Dafabet.
See also
- Quicken Interchange Format
- Comparison of accounting software
References
External links
- Official website
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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