| 3 QuickBooks Online Add-Ons that Maybe Required to Operate Your Business |
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| Written by SandorLenner,CPA | |
| Tuesday, 27 October 2009 | |
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There are 3 important QuickBooks Online Add-ons that may be important to the way you manage your business with QuickBooks Online. This article will discuss these QuickBooks Online add ons and will provide you with information that you should consider to make an informed business decision. This article will inform you of the additional expenses that may not be apparent when considering the purchase of QuickBooks Online.
There are 3 important QuickBooks Online Add-ons that may be important to the way you manage your business with QuickBooks Online. This article will discuss these QuickBooks Online add ons and will provide you with information that you should consider to make an informed business decision. This article will inform you of the additional expenses that may not be apparent when considering the purchase of QuickBooks Online. By way of background, the three types of QuickBooks Online products discussed are QuickBooks Online -free, QuickBooks Online Basic,and QuickBooks Online Plus. Please refer to my other articles that compare and contrast the functionality of QuickBooks Online Basic and QuickBooks Online Plus. Add-On for Credit Card Sales- For approving, processing, and recording credit card sales QuickBooks Online Merchant is required. By using MasterCard, Visa, American Express and other credit card types you can attract new customers, help you get paid quicker, and reduce your time in collecting payments, thus reducing collection risk from customers. These capabilities to accept credit card payments are called merchant account services. With a QuickBooks Online Merchant account, you can authorize and process credit card transactions with either QB Online Basic or QB Online Plus. The add-on ability to process & record payments from your customers, eliminates the need to manually record after-the-fact credit card sales in your QuickBooks. For this add-on, there is a onetime set up fee of $59.95 and a monthly fee of $19.95, along with standard authorization fees and credit card sales you need to purchase QuickBooks Online Merchant. When purchasing from a Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor there are substantial discounts available to you for these services. One positive aspect, is that the use of QuickBooks Online Merchant does save you money because you no longer need to lease phone lines and lease terminal hardware or software. It should be noted that for in store credit card sales, a merchant service card reader does not work and that a credit card reader requires QB desktop software, 2002 or higher. Intuit designed their product so you do not have to use a credit card reader. The alternative is not that bad, you have to manually type in the credit card number and enter the customer sale information usually included in an invoice. In a few moments, you are informed if the customer payment is approved or declined by the credit card company. (By the way, the other day, I made a credit card purchase in a major department store, and they manually took an imprint of my credit card and effectively, manually took the time to process my credit card purchase, so even the major department stores have manual processes) Payroll Add On- Having employees including yourself requires you to remit payroll taxes to the federal and state governments. Using a payroll software package or add-on makes this process easy for the typical business owner. Intuit, sells Payroll for QuickBooks Online separately. Payroll is not included with either QuickBooks Basic or QuickBooks Plus. Intuit offers these payroll products as of the date of this article (a) QuickBooks Online Basic ($9.95 monthly) and payroll ($9.95 monthly) and (b) QuickBooks Online Plus ($34.95 monthly) and payroll ($9.95 monthly),sometimes Intuit offers a 20% discount for Plus version. By purchasing QB Online Plus from a Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor there is another 20% discount available to you bringing the total discount to 40%. QuickBooks ProAdvisor discounts for special pricing are subject to change. Inventory Add On- Currently, both QuickBooks Online Basic and QuickBooks Online Plus do not offer an inventory accounting package. Many small businesses keep their inventories in Excel and record inventory amounts monthly,quarterly or annually in QuickBooks Online. However, alternatives are available; for instance, you can purchase an inventory add-on such as OE Companion which offers a 30 day free trial inventory accounting or you can obtain other inventory add-ons from the Intuit Market Place located on the Intuit website. I have not reviewed any of these add-ons and make no warranties or representations regarding their compatibility or suitability for your needs. We can look forward to the future, as Intuit is working on an inventory add-on. The article is introductory in nature and does not attempt to assess your particular business needs. It was written to make you aware of the additional costs and needs for three QuickBooks Online add-ons. Like any purchase of hardware or software, diligence should be applied to carefully evaluate your company's needs by either your CPA, accountant, or a Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor before purchasing an add-on or any software application. About the Author: Sandor Lenner,CPA-MBA has been providing small business accounting services for over 35 years. He is also a Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor and offers discounted QuickBooks software. QuickBooks Online Edition " Starting as low as $9.95 a month. Subscribe to my free monthly newsletter. I will not share your email with anyone. From the Webmaster: "Having the opportunity to share my hobbies and interests with so many people around the world gives me great satisfaction. 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