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3 Important QuickBooks Online Add-Ons that You May Need to Run Your Business

09.24.2009 · Posted in Business News Article

This article will discuss three QuickBooks Online Add-ons, that you should consider prior to purchasing QuickBooks Online. These add-ons may be important in running your business. This article will inform you of some additional expenses that otherwise may not be clear to you prior to buying QuickBooks Online.nnIntuit, the manufacturer of QuickBooks offers three QuickBooks Online products. The products offered by Intuit, are QuickBooks Online – a free product, QuickBooks Online Basic, and QuickBooks Online Plus. Please refer to my other articles that compare the features of QuickBooks Online Basic with QuickBooks Online Plus.nnCredit Card Sales From Customers Add-On- In order to approve, process, and record credit card sales you need to purchase QuickBooks Online Merchant. Accepting Visa, MasterCard, American Express and other credit card types can attract new customers, help you get paid faster, and save you time in collecting payments. This ability to accept credit card payments is called a merchant account service. With the QuickBooks Online Merchant account, you are able to authorize and process credit card transactions with either QuickBooks Online Basic or QuickBooks Online Plus. This feature automatically records sales from customers, effectively, in real time, thus eliminating the need to manually record credit card sales in your QuickBooks accounts. For this feature, there is a onetime set up fee of $59.95 and a monthly fee of $19.95, along with standard credit card discount and authorization fees. By purchasing from a Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor there are substantial discounts available for these services.nnOne 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 QuickBooks 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)nnPayroll Add On- If you have employees including yourself, then you need to have a payroll package or add-on. Intuit, sells a payroll add-on for QuickBooks Online separately and is not included with either QuickBooks Basic or QuickBooks Plus. Intuit sells the following online and 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.If you purchase QuickBooks Online Plus from a Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor there is another 20% discount available to you bringing the total discount to 40%. QuickBooks ProAdvisor discount pricing maybe subject to change.nnInventory 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.nnThe 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.

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