Victor Audit Report Released, QuickBooks Enterprises

Aug. 24, 2009 - PRLog -- Even CPAs often do not seem to understand QuickBooks, QuickBooks Enterprise and QuickBooks add-ons. I recently wrote this response to a Google News featured story, Victor Audit Report Released:

I did many CPA audits of government funded agencies in NY, NJ and Florida. I am a QuickBooks specialist and a former Rochester landowner, Oneonta farm hand and Florida elected official. This week I will again answer all “Ask the Expert” questions for the maker of QuickBooks.(http://tinyurl.com/knsg4o)

I had no personal knowledge of Victor before your August 22 Victor Audit Report Released story. It includes, “… kept the town’s financial records using Quickbooks Enterprise, computer software that’s better suited for small businesses… Fully integrated accounting software designed for municipalities would be more appropriate.” I only read the part of the audit report in the story, as the full audit is not yet on the linked Victor website.

This was shocking to two CPAs who know QuickBooks Enterprise. I most respectfully submit that Intuit, or the 47 QuickBooks Certified ProAdvisors within 25 miles of Victor, could easily win a suit over these damaging misstatements. The auditor seems not to understand QuickBooks Enterprise, which created the municipal financial records for audit and can assist with internal control.

QuickBooks fully integrates accounting. It has about 94% of the small business accounting program market. QuickBooks Enterprise is the very successful large version, for firms with up to 500 employees, who need up to 30 simultaneous users. The Census Bureau does not define large or small firms, but found only 18,000 firms with more than 500 employees in 2006. Victor had less than 10,000 residents in the 2000 Census, so it cannot come close to testing QuickBooks Enterprise limits. Moreover, the QuickBooks Enterprise, which Victor probably uses, costs about $3,000, or 3% to 5% of the cost of municipal software mentioned in the story. QuickBooks users are readily available anywhere, for far less than the cost of hard-to- find users of much less tested specialty software. Victor also need not convert data for new software. Such a conversion, and the related training and installation, may take up to a year, while requiring substantial consultant and audit fees, for a total of more than of 20 to 30 times the Victor annual QuickBooks cost.

QuickBooks Enterprise is uniquely suited to municipal accounting. It has full fixed asset accounting and an always-on audit trail. It probably has many far more extra internal control settings than Victor can use and far more than there are in competing municipal accounting programs. It also can combine reports from many QuickBooks files, on different fiscal periods (for the possible periods of different Victor funding sources). Auditors can work on an Accountant Copy, as Victor employees work on original files. Anyone can then quickly and easily merge in the audit entries. Other equally capable software is probably prohibitively expensive.

Perhaps most important, some of the THOUSANDS of QuickBooks add-ons are the fastest, easiest and least expensive way for Victor auditors and managers to get extra functions. They can have industry-standard big-company reports or automatic printing or emailing of QuickBooks reports, on any schedule. Victor can attach support documents to QuickBooks list items or transactions, to increase internal control and minimize audit time and cost. It can integrate GPS tracking to minimize vehicle misuse, while providing better service. Remote expense and time tracking, scale measurement, utility billing and more are readily available. There are even 13,000 Google references to: municipal OR fund + accounting + quickbooks + 'add-ons' OR 'interfaces'. Together the programs can have many hundreds of users at once, who batch QuickBooks work. This can make QuickBooks Enterprise suitable for organizations with many thousands of employees. They can get work done faster, with fewer errors, as there are no separate databases with duplicate inconsistent data and no posting errors or delays. Competing programs cannot do what QuickBooks Enterprise does, because few have add-ons.

I, therefore, again most respectfully, submit that Victor should keep using QuickBooks Enterprise (and possibly QuickBooks add-ons) to get the extra capability it wants, at minimal cost. My QuickBooks friends may even honor my request to treat Victor as an eligible charity, to reduce its QuickBooks Enterprise costs.

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Mike Block CPA, BlockTax QuickBooks, is nationally known for QuickBooks insider news and tips, QuickBooks Accounting Software, Free QuickBooks, QuickBooks Errors, Speeding Up QuickBooks, QuickBooks Performance, QuickBooks Shortcuts, QuickBooks tax cuts.