Archive for July, 2009

QuickBooks on Windows 7 RC and Internet Explorer 8

Just a quick note on compatibility of QuickBooks and the latest Microsoft releases. I have the following setup:

• Microsoft Windows RC 7: This is the current “release candidate” for Windows 7, the successor to Windows Vista. It should be very close to what you see this Fall for the production copy. I’ve installed this on a Dell XPS410 32 bit Core2 system with 4 GB of RAM. I had reformatted the hard drive to do a clean installation rather than an update.
• Internet Explorer 8: This is the version of IE that installs with Windows 7. Even if you are using Vista or XP you may have this version, as Microsoft has been pushing it out through their update system.
• QuickBooks Enterprise 9.0: For this test I installed a client version of QBE 9 on the system, as this computer is not connected to a server yet. This is a US edition.

QuickBooks Multiuser Network Diagnostic Tool

Diagnosing network problems with QuickBooks can be a bit frustrating sometimes. In most cases I’ve not had much trouble, but sometimes you start working with a particular network that just doesn’t want to work the way that you want. Intuit has created the QuickBooks Network Diagnostic Tool to help.

QuickBooks Keyboard Shortcuts

If you are entering a lot of information into an accounting program like QuickBooks, you want to be able to keep your hands on the keyboard. Moving back and forth from the keyboard to the mouse just slows you down. That is why we have “keyboard shortcuts” in good Windows based programs – to minimize the time you waste with the mouse.

Information about the keyboard shortcuts in QuickBooks is available in many places, but I’m always surprised by how many people who just don’t know about them. So today I’ll review what we have available. Please note that this is a Windows-centric view of the QuickBooks world.

Graphics for your Company

I’m branching out a bit today to talk about a general business topic, not strictly related to QuickBooks. Let’s talk a bit about business graphics – specifically a company or product logo.

These days almost every business needs a graphic logo for their company and/or products. Contracting with a graphic designer can be expensive, time consuming, and sometimes very stressful. I’ve gone through this multiple times in the past 30 years of business, and I usually to not enjoy the process.