Intuit To Launch $30 EMV Reader
Intuit, the brains behind Quickbooks, has announced plans to launch an EMV reader.
As many small business owner and entrepreneurs probably already know, October 15 is the date on which EMV liability standards will become universal. In an effort to make the transition a little smoother, Intuit is offering a mobile EMV reader for just $30 bucks. The reader is currently only available through pre-order, but this is expected to change in the upcoming months.
So, what programs are compatible with Intuit’s new EMV reader? In a statement made on Tuesday, Intuit said it will integrate sales transactions within Quickbooks Online and desktop Quickbooks, all though the GoPayment App. If you plan to use the EMV reader, you’ll need to download and use the GoPayment App on your smartphone. Support for the service will be announced at a later date, said a spokesperson for Intuit.
Intuit further added that just 42% of small business owners plan to transition to EMV technology. This begs the question: why aren’t they making the switch? One possible factor attributing to this trend is the simple fact that many small business owners have never even heard of EMV, let alone used it. In any case, the EMV liability date is coming, and small business owners need to make the switch.
EMV, which is essentially a new liability protocol, is a name derived from the combination of Europay, Mastercard and Visa. The purpose of EMV is to prevent credit/debit card fraud by implementing new security features. We’ve seen a disturbing uptick in cybersecurity attacks as of late — something Intuit hopes to reduce by launching its new EMV reader. It will in essence bolster the security features already existing in users’ cards, such as the magnetic strips.
“The biggest barriers for small businesses to become EMV-compliant are cost and lack of time or resources required to research terminals,” said Inuit’s Eric Dunn, who is the company’s senior vice president of payments and commerce solutions. “We want them to know we’re beside them on this journey to a more secure payments infrastructure, and are providing an affordable solution as well as equipping them with resources to ease any burdens.“
What do you think of Intuit’s new EMV reader?
Intuit Launched ‘Sync With PayPal’ App
Wouldn’t it be great if you could automatically important all of your PayPal data to Quickbooks? Well, now you can thanks to a new application launched by Intuit.
On May 19, 2015, Intuit announced the arrival of its Sync With PayPal app, which does exactly what the name suggests: it allows users to sync their PayPal accounts with Quickbooks. So anytime you receive a payment via PayPal, purchase a product or service, etc., it will automatically upload this data directly into your Quickbooks account. There’s no easier way to manage PayPal data than by using Intuit’s new Sync With PayPal app.
So, what prompted Intuit to launch a PayPal integration app? According to the company’s senior vice president for payments and commerce solutions, roughly 1 in 4 Quickbooks users also use PayPal. With such a substantial chunk of their userbase sending and/or receiving payments via the online payment processor PayPal, it only makes sense to create an app for it.
Sync With PayPal is available to download for free from Intuit’s app store. Some of its features include the following:
- Automatically import PayPal transactions, fees, taxes, tips and discounts into QUickbooks.
- Automatically sync customer information from PayPal into Quickbooks.
- Securely download other transactions and expenses into default categories within Quickbooks.
- Eliminate the need for manual data entries; thus, improving accuracy and reducing the risk of human error.
Of course, these are just a few of the many features offered by Intuit’s new Sync With PayPal app. You can learn more about the app and everything it has to offer by visiting the official Intuit app store at https://apps.intuit.com/cmsimages/promo/quickbooks/paypal.htm?cid=par_paypal_pr_4Q15ppalblog.
“Our collaboration with PayPal, and the app we’ve built as a result, further broadens our thriving payments ecosystem,” said Eric Dunn, Intuit’s senior vice president for payments and commerce solutions. “Intuit is committed to delivering a range of personalized best-in-class payments solutions for small businesses. Our open platform allows small businesses to use the tools of their choice and therefore operate efficiently in a frictionless environment.”
What do you think of Intuit’s new Sync With PayPal app?
How To Backup Your Quickbooks Files (The Easy Way)
As the saying goes, hope for the best but prepare for the worst, holds true in the realm of accounting. Hopefully nothing will ever happen to your important files and documents, but if it does, you should a second copy ready to get your business back online. Quickbooks offers a simple solution that allows users to backup their files, which we’re going to discuss further in this blog post.
Do I Really Need To Backup My Files?
There’s no rule stating that you must backup your Quickbooks files, but doing so will give you the peace of mind knowing that your data is safe in the event of hardware failure, software failure, device theft, flood, or a countless number of other disasters. Furthermore, Quickbooks makes it easy to create backups, with the entire process consisting of just a few simple steps.
Creating a Backup of Your Company File
To create a backup of your company file, open Quickbooks and choose File > Create Backup, at which point the self-help Wizard should launch. You can then click the Options button to specify things like the destination of your backup company file, how often you want to be reminded to backup your file, and whether or not to check your company file for damage before the backup is created. When you are finished with these options, click OK to proceed to the next step. Here, you’ll be asked to save the backup now, save the backup now and schedule future backups, or only schedule future backups.
If you wish to save the backup to a USB flash drive, CD, DVD or some other external storage device, insert it into your computer and click Next. If you wish to save the backup file now, change the name of the backup in the file window and click Save. Quickbooks will then begin creating your backup file.
It’s important to note that backup company files don’t contain all elements found within Quickbooks. They contain all of the essentials that you’ll need to recreate the company file, including templates, letters, logos, images, Financial Statement Designer, Cash Flow Projector, etc.
How To Find a Company File In Quickbooks
Your company file is essentially the life blood of your Quickbooks account. It contains all of the information pertaining to your business’s accounting, including (but not limited to) payments received, payments sent, employee payroll, taxes, expenses, and more. If you want to access and use Quickbooks on another computer, you’ll need to transfer your company file to the new computer. But what if you are unable to locate your company file?
Quickbooks — like most programs and applications — has a default location in which it automatically stores users’ company file. Assuming you didn’t change this location, your company file “should” still be located here. Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows Vista users can access the default location by navigating to C:\Users\Public\Public Documents\Intuit\QuickBooks\Company Files. Windows XP users can access the default company file location by navigating to C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\(Shared) Documents\Intuit\QuickBooks\Company Files.
For Windows Xp users, you’ll notice the Company Files folder is a Shared Document. However, Quickbooks and Windows shows this folder as a Documents in the paths and addresses. So even though it is named as a Shared Document, no one else will be able to see it, unless you give them permission of course.
Hopefully, you can find your company file neatly tucked away in one of these default locations. If it’s not here, however, you can still find it, although it will take a few additional steps.
If you are running Windows 7, click the Start button followed by Search. If you are using Windows 8, scroll to the Chams bar in the upper-right-hand corner and click Search. Once you’ve opened the Search bar, enter the full or partial name of your company file. Here’s a tip for those of you who don’t remember what your company file name is: you can search for all files with a particular extension by entering the extension into the search bar. Being that company files use the .qbw extension, you should search for *.qbw, at which point Windows will reveal all files with the .qbw extension.
Qbw is an extension that’s used exclusively for Quickbooks, so this technique should find even the most well-hidden company files. Once you open it, try to remember where you save this time, or at the very least save an extra copy somewhere on your desktop.
Did this tutorial work for you? Let us know in the comments section below!
Intuit Launches PayPal Integration App
Quickbooks maker Intuit has launched a new app that allows users to sync their PayPal and Quickbooks Online accounts together. Dubbed Sync With PayPal (for obvious reasons), it’s intended to streamline the activities of Quickbooks Online users, allowing them to automatically update their accounting information with data harvested from their PayPal accounts.
PayPal remains the world’s largest and most popular online payment processor, boasting more than 165 million active users as of the first quarter of 2015, according to Statista.com. Of course, there’s good reason for this trend: PayPal is simple, easy to use, accepted at thousands of different stores, and it’s free to receive money. It only makes sense for Intuit to leverage the power of PayPal by integrating it into Quickbooks Online.
It’s estimated that nearly 1 out of every 4 Quickbooks users also uses PayPal. Up until now, these users have been forced to manually transfer PayPal data to their Quickbooks account. While this wasn’t necessarily difficult, it was still time consuming and tedious, whic his why Intuit has taken steps to simplify the process with its Sync With PayPal app.
Roughly 25% of Intuit Quickbooks users use PayPal and now they can use an app to import PayPal sales and transaction data directly into QuickBooks Online in real time. It’s called Sync with PayPal.
Sync With PayPal is currently only available to Quickooks Online users in the U.S. However, Intuit said it has plans to launch the app in the U.K., Australia and Canada by the end of the year. The app uses Intuit’s API capabilities to include both PayPal and Square as payment processing sources.
“Say goodbye to manual entry and hello to more time in your day with Sync with PayPalTM for Intuit QuickBooks Online. The Sync with PayPal app for QuickBooks Online is free and getting started is easy. How you choose to spend the hours you’ll save – on your business, your family, or yourself – is up to you,” wrote Intuit.
What do you think of Intuit’s new PayPal app?
Intuit Hosts ‘Small Business Big Game’ Contest
Intuit has announced plans to host its Small Business Big Game Contest for the second year. 2014 marked the first time the Quickbooks maker held the contest, attracting hundreds of thousands of participants from across the country. To learn more about Small Business Big Game and what it entitles, keep reading.
In case you missed it last year, Small Business Big Game was a contest in which small businesses compete for a chance to win a free ad during the most watched professional sporting event on television — yes, the Super Bowl. With the average cost of 30-second ad now exceeding $4 million, and the cost for a 60-second ad exceeding $8 million, that’s a pretty substantial reward to say the least. Intuit lived up to its promise by rewarding Quickbooks user Goldiblox a free ad spot.
Many people were asking how Intuit could afford to give away a free ad spot during the Super Bowl. After all, they are still required to pay for the ad. The general belief, however, was that it was a one-time deal, with Intuit closing the doors on its contest after the 2014 Super Bowl.
It appears this isn’t’ the case, however, as Intuit is planning to bring back its highly popular Small Business Big Game contest for a second time this year. The rules are pretty much the same: the campaign will be open to entries and voting starting on June 1st. The top 10 finalist based on number of votes will be revealed on Sept 3rd, all of whom will receive a paid tip to Intuit’s Quickbooks Connect Conference where the top 3 winners will be publicly announced.
One key difference with this year’s Small Business Big Game is that both small business owners and accountants are allowed to enter. So if you’re an accountant who’s looking to nab an ad spot during the Super Bowl, sign up on June 1st!
“It takes courage every single day to be a small business owner, and it’s important that we celebrate their determination and recognize their ongoing contributions as the backbone of our economy,” said Rancic, small business author, advocate and co-owner of Xo, G Wine and RPM restaurant group. “The return of QuickBooks Small Business Big Game fuels small business success while giving them a voice to be heard on a national platform that will inspire, educate and connect them in a big way.”
What do you think of Intuit’s Small Business Big Game contest?
Intuit Now Servicing 80% of US Small Businesses
Intuit remains the undisputed leader of accounting and financial services for small business owners. According to a recent report, it services approximately 80% of all small businesses in the U.S., which is far more than any other financial software provider.
The Small Business Administration (SBA) estimates there to be some 27.9 million small businesses operating in the U.S. — a number that’s expected to grow even higher in the years to come. Running a successful small business isn’t an easy task, as many entrepreneurs struggle to keep up with their revenue and expenses. Intuit aims to make this process a little easier with its wide range of software and services like Quickbooks Online, Quickbooks Desktop, etc.
In a recent interview, Jim McGinnis, Vice President of the Accountants and Advisors Group at Intuit, gave some insight into two key markets targeted by Quickbooks: the 400,000 accountants who work directly with small business owners to help them with their finances, and the five million or so small business owners who are currently using the Quickbooks software. Even so, this means roughly 15 million small businesses are not using Quickbooks, meaning there’s plenty of room for Intuit to grow even larger and more dominant.
Quickbooks has launched a new tool to help reach these 15 million small business owners — Quickbooks Online Self Employed. Located at http://quickbooks.intuit.com/self-employed/, it’s optimized specifically to meet the unique needs of self-employed workers.
But Intuit’s services aren’t limited strictly to the U.S. As noted by Nikhil Arora, India as a prime market for Intuit, as it attracted 100,000 new Quickbooks users just last quarter. This means Intuit now has a total of 841,000 paying Quickbooks users worldwide — an impressive number to say the least!
“The rapid year-on-year traction that Intuit QuickBooks has experienced in India is indeed very encouraging. Intuit is the world leader in cloud financial management solutions, available in over 124 countries. Last quarter we added 100,000 new QuickBooks subscribers and now we have 841,000 paying subscribers worldwide,” said Nikhil Arora, Vice President and Managing Director of Intuit India, in a recent press release. “Our vision is to become the operating system behind Indian small business success by delivering powerful solutions on the cloud. We will continue to work on empowering small businesses in their journey to success. Today we serve one out of five practicing chartered accountants in India and by 2020 we are looking at one in four small businesses to be using Intuit products and services.”
Intuit Wants To Help Developers Create Apps
The mobile app marketplace continues to grow with each passing year, presenting new opportunities for developers. As small business owners and entrepreneurs look towards the cloud for solutions, there’s an inherit void to be filled with apps. Well, Quickbooks maker Intuit is hoping to fill this void by helping to educate developers on how to create apps.
In a recent report published by Intuit, the company found that approximately 600 million small businesses operate in the cloud. The Application of Small Businesses found that the average small business spends $630 per year on software solutions, and that they are willing to spend even more money in the following years. But the most interesting take away from this report is that nearly half of all small business owners rely on their smartphone as their primary device to run their business. That’s a pretty substantial amount considering the fact that there are more than 600 million small businesses that utilize the cloud.
“This research provides concrete evidence of why developers should pay attention to the small business opportunity, and how they can go about creating game-changing apps,” said Avi Golan, vice president and general manager of the Intuit Developer Group. “We believe that developers hold the key to unlocking the true potential of the small business cloud. That’s why we’ve turned QuickBooks Online into an open platform with best-in-class developer tools and a dynamic apps store.:
So, how does Intuit plan to help developers build apps for small businesses? As you may already know, Intuit offers the single most popular cloud-based business management solution. With more than one million customers, Quickbooks Online leads the pack in terms of popularity. But Intuit isn’t stopping there, as the company recently launched a new portal on its website to help developers.
You can learn more about the Intuit’s initiative to help developers create apps for small businesses by visiting http://appcenter.intuit.com/promos/devopportunity. Here, developers can sign up for an account to explore Quickbooks Online tools and API. Some of the topics covered in the portal include software-as-a-service (Saas), simple apps, sandbox, PaaS, payments API, Azure, security, and more. Feel free to clink on the link previously mentioned to browse through Intuit’s developer center.
What do you think of Intuit’s new plan to help developers? Let us know in the comments section below!
Intuit Acquires SF Startup Playbook HR
Intuit has acquired San Francisco-based startup Playbook HR for an undisclosed amount. This is just one of many recent acquisitions made by Intuit, bolstering its portfolio of services and products. So, what does the Quickbooks maker plan to do with Playbook HR?
Playbook HR is a StartX accelerator company that offers services for hiring and managing independent contractors. As more and more small businesses seek independent contractors, there’s a growing need for services such as those offered by Playbook HR. Of course, it only makes sense for Intuit to acquire Playbook HR given its focus on accounting and business management software.
According to a recent report published by CareerBuilder, there are an estimated 10 million self-employed jobs in the United States. Granted, this number has declined in the past few years, but millions of Americans continue to work for themselves without the constraints of a parent company. And with analysts expecting this number to grow in the upcoming years, the need for self-employment management software is apparent.
Intuit Vice President and General Manager Alex Chriss cited the growth of on-demand services as being a challenge for both contractors and marketplaces. What exactly is an “on-demand” service? Well, one example is the surge of new transportation services like Uber and Lyft. Rather than calling a taxi, individuals in need of transportation can fire up an app on their smartphone to locate an Uber or Lyft driver. These companies use independent contractors as their drivers, employing tens of thousands of hard-working men and women in dozens of countries throughout the world.
“The rapid growth of the on-demand economy has created new compliance challenges for both contractors and marketplaces,” said Alex Chriss, Vice President and General Manager. “Our mission is to serve both sides of this economy. We want to make it easier for independent contractors to manage their finances and pay their taxes, and we also want to make it possible for on-demand marketplaces to manage their growing rosters of independent contractors and help them stay within the compliance guidelines.”
- Other recent acquisitions Intuit has made in recent years includes the following:
- Cloud-based payroll service provider Acrede
- Cloud-based bookkeeping software Invicto
- Small business appointment scheduling software Full State
- Data consulting firm Level Up Analytics
- Small business marketing and customer communications software DemandForce
How To Cancel a Payment In Quickbooks
Did you accidentally send a payment to the wrong vendor? This is an all-too-common scenario that thousands of business owners experience. No matter how hard you try to prevent it, accidents such as this are bound to happen. The good news is that you can cancel payments from within your Quickbooks account.
Before we start, it’s important to note than canceling a payment is not the same as stopping a payment. If the payment has already been processed, or if it’s being processed, you’ll need to contact the respective financial institution for more information.
If you’re using Quickbooks Online, you can cancel a payment in just a few easy steps. Each time you create a payment in Quickbooks Online, you are required to specify a delivery date. The recipient’s bank/financial institution won’t process the payment until this date, so as long as you cancel it before this time you shouldn’t encounter any issues. Furthermore, most banks have a 24-48 hour “processing time,” which doesn’t begin until the specified delivery date.
To cancel a payment in Quickbooks, access the Online Banking Center > Cancel Payments > and click the “Send Check” box for the transaction you wish to cancel. When you are finished, click “Close” to complete the process and exit out of the Banking Center.
Now go back to into the Online Banking Center and open the register associated with the account from which you made the payment. Scroll through the register until you find the transaction that you wish to cancel. Click the transaction to select it and click the Edit menu followed by “Cancel Payment.” Double check to make sure you are cancelling the correct payment and click OK.
So, how do you know if a payment was cancelled? You can find out by checking your Online Banking Center. Assuming the payment was properly cancelled, it should appear in your “Items to send” list.
For Desktop Quickbooks, you’ll need to access the bill or bill payment check in the register window, search for the transaction you wish to cancel, and click the “Go to” button at the top. Next, choose Edit > Void payment or Delete bill. Voiding a bill will change the transaction to $0, but it still keeps a record in your Quickbooks account. Deleting a bill, on the other hand, removes every trace of the transaction, including the record.
Did this tutorial work for you? Let us know in the comments section below!