2012 Review of QuickBooks Premier 2012
Customer, Vendor, and Employee Management is supported with “Centers” to manage each of these groups. A new center for Leads has been added this year to track prospects, and to leads to customers when a sale is made. A customizable “Customer Snapshot” gives the user a dashboard of the sales activity and history for a given customer. Additional functionality can be found by integrating QuickBooks with Intuit’s QuickBase or third party applications Customer Relationship applications. Integration with Salesforce.com is also supported.
Inventory and Purchasing features support light manufacturing need for a Bill of Materials feature with Assembly items. There is no book to inventory report; however this information is available to users with External Accountant user rights in the Client Data Review menu (discussed later). Inventory is limited to Average Cost and a single location. Additional functionality can be added with the upgrade to QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions or third party applications.
e-Features included in the product add substantial value with online bill payment, integration with Intuit Merchant services for credit card processing, ability to download bank and credit card transactions. Subscriptions are also available to QuickBooks Connected Services which allows you to process transactions from a smart phone, back-up data online, and store documents online, calculate commissions, and online time &billing. Fees for connected services vary based on the number of users and services needed.
Remote Access is supported through “QuickBooks Remote Access” which is free for the first year, plans start at $3.95 a month thereafter. Other remote access options include purchasing QuickBooks form an authorized hosting provider.
Management Features: 4.75 Stars
Dashboard Overviews are available by selecting the Snapshots icon and customizing the snapshot for the individual user. There are 3 customizable dashboards available, company, payments, and customers.
Reporting functionality has been enhanced with two new features the update existing Excel worksheet feature that allows users to update existing worksheets that have been previously customized. Contributed Reports allow users to post report formats for other users to use. Other options include the purchase of QODBC which will allow users ODBC access to their files $149.00. Another option is to purchase QuickBooks Statement Writer, formally called Intuit Statement Writer $149.00. This report writer uses an Excel interface to create customized reports. It should be noted that this program is included in QuickBooks Accountant version.
Security in QuickBooks Premier is based on individual user rights based on transaction type. A predefined External Accountant role is used to access Client Data Review and advanced accounting reconciliation features normally included only in the Accountant’s version.
Integration and Import/Export: 4.75 Stars
Data Transfer is available within QuickBooks using Excel, iif, web connect files, and timer activities files. Additional imports are available with the purchase of various third party applications.
You can import contacts from Outlook, Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, or Excel. You can also import an items list from Excel.
Online Accountant Transfers are also available free of charge for PAP members that now include both uploading files for accountants and downloading accountant changes.
Help and Support: 5 Stars
Built in support features include in product help files links to online tutorials, training, and assistance finding a local advisor. The QuickBooks website has additional information and telephone support (outside of US) is available, some support calls will be routed to US based representatives. Links to the QuickBooks Community offer a wealth of information and the ability to get additional support.
Summary & Pricing
QuickBooks Premier offers users significant value with accounting, office management, integration, document storage and reporting options that will fit the needs of most small businesses. The large number of users has created a huge trained workforce and is also responsible for a huge number of third party applications. If a company outgrows QuickBooks Premier they can easily upgrade to QuickBooks Enterprise with additional functions and capacity.
