A Guide to Industry-Specific Editions of QuickBooks (Part I)

Are you considering QuickBooks Enterprise for your business? Depending on the size of your business and specific accounting requirements, this could be a wise decision. The next question that comes up is: which edition of QuickBooks Enterprise would suit your organization best?

Currently, QuickBooks Enterprise has seven versions—apart from the one standard edition, there are six other industry-specific editions of this robust business management solution. Given that Intuit—the parent company behind QuickBooks—is constantly innovating QuickBooks features to make them better suited to certain industries. The six industry-specific versions are:

• Contractor Edition
• Professional Services Edition
• Manufacturing and Wholesale Edition
• Nonprofit Edition
• Retail Edition
• Accountant Edition

All of these versions contain features in the standard version as well as some added capabilities and tools that are specific to the industry. The best part is that these versions are available to organizations at no additional cost to organizations who choose to opt for them.

As one of the leading QuickBooks hosting service providers, we have many clients asking about the industry-specific versions of QuickBooks Enterprise and whether they should opt for specific editions. So, we’ve decided to take a closer look at three versions and outline all the features that come with each. (Check Part II of this series for details about the Nonprofit Edition, Retail Edition, and Accountant Edition)

Contractor Edition

The Contractor Edition is designed for any firm in contracting and construction. This version is designed to help clients with project management and advanced job costing. When businesses opt for this edition, they also get an Intuit Field Service Management subscription for one user, which offers enhanced scheduling capabilities. Added features include:

• The job costing center displays the three most and least profitable jobs and helps users understand how they can increase profitability.
• The item percent complete bar shows how much of any project is complete.
• The change orders feature is useful when you want to adjust an existing estimate. Customers must sign-off on the order, which prevents disputes about estimate changes later.
• Set custom billing rates for different employees in the organization and part-time employees hired for specific jobs.
• The contractor reports tool is designed specifically to give users a better idea about project profitability.

Professional Services Edition

The Professional Services edition is designed for a variety of businesses, including medical practices, legal firms, engineering companies, marketing agencies, graphic design companies, and architecture firms. The main benefit of this edition is that users can create comprehensive proposals and send extra reports.

Added features include:

• Users can create proposals along with estimates in this edition. The feature allows users to add specific details such as item descriptions, amount, rate, markup, estimated hours/quantity, and proposal class.
• The quick invoice feature displays all information about expenses and time for each project. Users can develop invoices directly using this feature, thereby simplifying the billing process.
• The item percent complete tool shows how much of any project is complete.
• Set custom billing rates for different employees in the organization. For instance, legal offices can set different hourly rates for paralegals, law associates, external consultants, and partners.
• Users can access over 18 additional templates for various professional service reports.

Manufacturing and Wholesale Edition

This edition is designed for wholesalers and manufacturers that rely on comprehensive sales reports and have to manage multiple users. The Platinum version includes other enhanced inventory management tools that can be of further use. Added features include:

• The sales order fulfillment feature includes specific details such as the sales order date, number, ship date, job number, amount to fulfill, and open amount, and it also indicates whether the sales order has been partially invoiced.
• Users can create bills and send items receipts for items received in inventory
• The backorder tracking features help monitor vendor and customer backorder
• Manufacturing reports designs specifically for manufacturing companies.
• The Manufacturing and Wholesale Edition allows includes building assemblies specific to the manufacturing sector.

Unmatched QuickBooks Enterprise Hosting Services

QuickBooks is an unmatched business management tool for small and mid-sized firms. Choose a reliable QuickBooks hosting provider like gotomyerp for premium QuickBooks Enterprise desktop hosting at competitive rates, but we lead our clients through each stage of implementation, including licensing, optimization, data migration, training, and continued support.

Our QuickBooks experts can guide you to the right industry-specific version of QuickBooks, along with other third-party integration and module add-ons for your firm. We also provide 24/7 technical support and customer service to all our clients so that you can save costs on in-house IT staff because you have a team of dedicated QuickBooks experts just a call away.

Call us at (877) 888-5525 to get started, or try a live demo today!