What’s New in QuickBooks 2013?
Intuit offers a variety of QuickBooks Financial Software for small to medium size businesses. Finding the right software will help a business save time and get organized.
As you can see in the illustration above, Intuit offers the right product at the right level to fit any small business needs. QuickBooks Online offers ease of access, anytime, anywhere with a low monthly fee and a 30-day free trial. Intuit also offers a QuickBooks Pro version for the Mac user. QuickBooks Pro is a desktop version and the most widely used version by small businesses. If your business requires multiple users in QuickBooks, it would be to your advantage to use the Network version of QuickBooks. Be sure that you have the required user license for the number of users you have. QuickBooks Premier is tailored to a specific industry (i.e. for Contractors, Manufacturing and Wholesale, Non Profits, Professional Services, and Retail). Enterprise Solutions is more for complex businesses thanks to its enhanced reporting customization. Whatever your business needs may be, Intuit has a software product tailored to fit your needs.
For more information on Intuit’s Software Products, follow the link: http://quickbooks.intuit.com/product/accounting-software/small-business-software.jsp
New Features in QuickBooks 2013
QuickBooks 2013 has a new look and feel on the home page, the icon bar, and on the forms themselves.
The Home Page has a new visual effect. The color scheme has been updated to a gray-scale color scheme, fonts have been increased, rows have been heightened, and a green highlighting effect has been added to make data stand out more.
The Icon Bar is now on the left and called the Navigation Bar. It gives you quick access to shortcuts, favorite reports, etc. with just one click anywhere in QuickBooks. The Navigation Bar can be expanded to view the icons or collapsed when not needed, as shown in the illustrations below:
Icon Bar Expanded:
Please Note: You can change the “My Shortcut” and the “To Do sections” and/or rearrange your icons, etc. But you cannot change the “Do More with QuickBooks” section nor can you remove it.
Icon Bar Collapsed:
You can expand or collapse the left icon bar by clicking the arrow at the top of the pane. You can also switch to use the top icon bar and the left open window list. Go to View > Top Icon Bar and then View > Open Windows List. See illustration below:
The icon bar is now on top and is basically a matter of preference for the QuickBooks user.
QuickBooks 2013 now has a new Ribbon layout, that shows your options instantly, much like the toolbars found in your MS Office Products. The Ribbon gives you instant access to the functions that you use on invoices, estimates, sales orders, etc. You can easily hide the Ribbon when you are not using it.
Fonts have been increased and spacing has also been enhanced in QuickBooks 2013. Since the font sizes are larger, rows/lines have been widened which makes for easier readability.
In the upper left hand corner, as shown on the invoice illustration below, you can click to maximize the window and see the invoice at full screen.
Other enhancements have also been made to the Customer and Vendor Centers. Tabs have been added for quicker access including the new to-do’s and note tabs. The edit window has been updated with visual improvements that now let you choose which fields to show. The new green highlighting allows you to see the data that you are working on easier.
There have also been some minor updates to the Company Snapshot and Inventory Reports.
Some of the more advanced and enhanced features with the Premier Edition, Accountant’s Edition, and above include:
– Batch enter transactions by groups or paste, and save more than 1,000 transactions from Excel into QuickBooks.
– E-mail journal entries to clients directly from the QuickBooks Accountant Edition; clients simply “click” to import entries automatically from the e-mail attachment.
– Lists such as the class and customer lists allow for 10,000 items to be entered, and the chart of accounts now allows 100,000 items.
Now, go ahead and explore the new and improved QuickBooks 2013. See for yourself what QuickBooks can do for you, your employees, and your business
Cindy McGuckin
Cindy McGuckin is an IT trainer with over 20 years of experience. Cindy currently manages the IT Training Department at Trident Technical College, she's a Member of the Association of IT Professionals, Charleston, SC chapter and the Treasurer of the South Carolina Association of Continuing Higher Education.Cindy is a Microsoft Office and QuickBooks expert and her online courses have received hundreds of 5-star reviews. Her no-nonsense approach to teaching complicated topics makes her classes engaging and interesting.
