Intuit Canada Ltd., the maker of business, financial and tax management software solutions, today released its QuickBooks 2010 software suite with a goal of helping small businesses get back to work and paid faster.
Chris Davey, senior marketing manager at Mississauga, Ont.-based Intuit, said an Ipsos Reid survey, conducted on behalf Intuit, found there are 800,000 Canadians using financial management software solutions today. However, Davey says there are still1.6 million Canadian small business owners that “still need help.”
The goal with the new release of QuickBooks 2010 is to help small businesses, which Intuit considers to be organizations with 100 employees and less, get back to work and get to their successes “faster.”
Included in the QuickBooks 2010 suite are the QuickBooks EasyStart, QuickBooks Pro, QuickBooks Premier and QuickBooks Payroll, which are all now available through Intuit’s retail channel, including Staples, Office Depot, Future Shop, Best Buy, London Drugs, other retail shops and its Web site.
“With QuickBooks 2010, we’re helping small businesses save time and money and we’re also helping them make more money by getting paid faster and giving them a holistic view of their business,” Davey said.
QuickBooks 2010 is said to have a faster start-up time and the reporting features are about 25 per cent faster than the previous version, Davey explained.
Some of the new features in QuickBooks 2010 include a live community, which is a social tool within QuickBooks that connects users via an online forum where they can ask questions and get them answered. Live community can also be used as a professional networking meeting place for users, Davey added.
Company snapshot is another new feature that allows business users to have a single dashboard view of the business’ income and expenses. This feature also shows which customers still owe the business money and which vendors still have to be paid.
“This is a single view of the entire business all on the same screen,” Davey said. “Businesses can focus on getting paid and can now pay their vendors faster too, which also helps with more informed decision making.”
There’s also a new multicurrency function in the software suite, which includes more than 100 world currencies, to make it easier for businesses to keep track of any foreign sales, purchases or banking they may do.
To help businesses with their year-end taxes, Davey says QuickBooks 2010 also has a feature called tax centre. This helps business manage, track and pay GST, HST and other year-end taxes.
QuickBooks 2010 is also designed to integrate with Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express. Businesses will have the ability to send invoices or sales receipts in batches of three or four all at once, Davey said.
“This means less time is spent on invoicing and businesses can also have a greener business solution.” Davey added.
QuickBooks EasyStart is designed for new users and for those that have no accounting experience. The Pro edition is the one that most businesses will choose, Davey said. The Premier edition is designed for verticals such as accounting, contracting, manufacturing, professional services and retailers. Lastly, QuickBooks Payroll 2010 is designed for businesses who want to e-mail their employees their pay stubs over the Internet.
All QuickBooks products are now available. QuickBooks Pro is listed at a price point of $199.99, while Premier is $499.99.