Comments on: Should I Select QuickBooks Accountant Edition?

By: Charlie

Charlie — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 20:52:52 +0000

Mike, since you pulled that out of context, I am not sure exactly what they were referring to, but I believe that this is the section talking about the “multiple instance” feature. Where you can have TWO company files open at a time. See my article on this at http://qbblog.ccrsoftware.info/2010/09/quickbooks-2011-quick-startup-and-multiple-instances/

If you have TWO company files open at the same time, you have these limitations. An SDK program has no way of knowing WHICH company file to work with.

If you have ONE company file open at a time (on a particular workstation), no problem. I’ll note that I am a developer of SDK based software myself (www.ccrsoftware.com) and that I run the Accountant Edition all the time, including during development and testing of SDK products.

By: mike

mike — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 16:08:10 +0000

Great article. I was considering the accountant edition for my non-accounting business. However, it does appear that there are some restrictions, according to the Accountant Edition 2012 web page (fine print at bottom)

“The following features are unavailable in both instances: unlocking or purchasing additional features/seats, TurboTax integration, Intuit Data Services setup, applications that use the Intuit Software Development Kit (SDK) to communicate with QuickBooks”

I am mainly concerned with the SDK restriction because I use 3rd party software that interfaces directly with Quickbooks. Have you seen this limitation in your experience?

By: Charlie

Charlie — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 03:15:58 +0000

I rarely find a reason to NOT use the Accountants Edition, unless you are a non-profit and you want the non-profit stuff to show up without “toggling”, or things like that. I cannot think of a good reason to not use that edition.

By: Derek

Derek — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 03:05:18 +0000

Given this article is from 2009, would you still suggest the Accountant edition? Right now on quickbooks site it is cheaper than the premier. Any reason not to go with the accountant edition?
FYI this is for a technology consulting company I have started
Thanks! and great article.

By: Charlie

Charlie — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 23:02:30 +0000

Penny: You are welcome.

Mark: I am not an accountant, so I don’t use the Fixed Asset Manager to manage depreciation for clients. However, citing the Consultant’s Reference Guide from The Sleeter Group (http://www.sleeter.com/products/crg ) “using the Fixed Asset Manager, you can automate the calculation for depreciation and automatically create entries in QuicKBooks to record the depreciation”.

By: penny

penny — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 22:34:36 +0000

charlie thanks for your quick answer!
mark i’ve had exactly that same fear, that there’s no point in calling QB. good luck!

By: mark

mark — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 22:23:56 +0000

I have been investigating upgrading from Pro to accountants. It seems to be the only version that has integrated depreciation for fixed assets. What has been your experience using depreciation? Is it truely automatic and does it link to the asset? I have called Intuit but it appears that their sales people do not understand their own product and appear to be confused when I ask about fixed asset tracking.

By: Charlie

Charlie — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 21:59:06 +0000

Penny, I don’t have enough info to give you a really good answer. I’d guess that the Manufacturing and Wholesale Edition would work fine – or the Accountants Edition. Either one. Just not the Retail or generic editions, as they hide things you might want.

By: penny

penny — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 21:53:49 +0000

i am not so familiar with managing inventory in quickbooks (my main bookkeeping work has been with a non-profit and a restaurant) and i’m just starting to work with a client who has a catering business and an artisan roasted nut business. we want to keep track if the various types and sizes of nut inventories, plus factor in the costs of packaging and labeling product. my client purchased the 2011 premier edition, on the advice of someone who then decided he didn’t have time to help him with his bookkeeping. so now i want to make sure that we’ve got the proper version. i can’t really figure out if “premier” alone is sufficient for our needs. i suspect that “manufacturing” is sort of overkill for our purposes, and from reading your super informative post here it sounds like i should get the “accountant” version of premier. would you agree?

By: Charlie

Charlie — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 00:30:23 +0000

Desiree, the job costing feature would possibly be useful IF you are making one-of-a-kind items, or items per user order. If you are making the same items repeatedly then it might not be as useful. Hard to say without knowing a lot more about your business…