QuickBooks 2004 review
Bookkeeping that keeps up with your business

While the annual upgrade to QuickBooks arrives with the usual amount of marketing hype, the 2004 version of the small business accounting package offers new features indeed, even enough to qualify as the finest QuickBooks product yet. This update to an already wonderful program makes for quite the business program.

The producers of QuickBooks have bolstered the usual Basic price ($200), Pro ($300), and Premier ($500) editions with new industry specific versions for retail, services, and manufacturing firms as well. QuickBooks 2004 is a family of accounting products and services that will more than prove to serve your small business well.

Like it has always been, QuickBooks Basic is an entry level choice for small proprietors that are accustomed to paper or spreadsheet ledgers. Upgrading to the Pro version allows you to customize and e-mail forms and reports, print shopping forms, as well as import and export Microsoft Excel data; while QuickBooks Premier can create purchase orders, budgets, forecasts, and also business plans for loan type applications.

The new Cash Flow Projector addition in the Pro and Premier versions will help small businesses predict cash flow in advance and also allow them to experiment with what-if analyses. This proves to be a worthy edition that is both easy to understand and easy to use.

A less than stellar but still welcomed new Business Checklist serves up information about local, state, and federal requirements and will also provide helpful data on incorporation, partnerships, permits, licenses, as well as finding funding and tax help and also managing business type finances as well.

The new Loan Manager will store loan information, calculate amortization, and break down principal and interest. Another welcome addition, Vehicle Mileage Tracker, actually monitors mileage and expenses in the standard way, and alerts you during invoicing when there are miles that need to be billed.

With the Premier addition, a helpful Fixed Asset Tracker will monitor assets by name, serial number, acquisition date as well as acquisition date, and disposal date to assist you with taxes. This awesome program now supports up to 100 price levels, which will give businesses better control over prices and the discounts that apply.

In order to save time and postage, you can now generate and e-mail purchase order, sales order, sales receipts, credit memos, and reports from within the QuickBooks program. A new packaging slip and shipping label feature will automatically enter information from invoices so you won’t have to retype it.

The actual integration with Microsoft Office has also been improved. You can import list data from Excel simply by assigning a spreadsheet column to a QuickBooks field and export QuickBooks reports to Excel spreadsheets complete with formulas and formatting.

You will be happy to know that I found no problems installing, configuring, and even running QuickBooks 2004. The program is actually very similar to last year’s, with an intuitive interface that relies on accounting flowcharts and organized pull-down menus. The program is easy to navigate and use, with the Fixed Asset Tracker, Loan Manager, Vehicle Mileage Tracker, and adjustable price levels will work exactly like you would expect them to.

It’s really no surprise that QuickBooks remains a powerful small business solution for 2004. Not only are the new features convenient, but the industry specific version capabilities are tempting ways to meet company needs. This is one program that’s definitely worth you attention.