Monday, September 28, 2009

QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions - Selecting an Integration Consultant

The Importance of Hiring the Right QuickBooks Consultant

Upgrading to QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions can be a nerve racking ordeal, particularly if you hire the wrong company to oversee your integration. Since hiring the wrong QuickBooks consultant could cost your company a lot of money, and possibly a job or two, we are going to focus on showing you how to make sure you hire the right QuickBooks consulting firm.

QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions: Consulting Issues to Consider

More and more businesses are switching to QuickBooks ES due to its flexibility, ease of use, and ultimately lower operating costs. These are all positives and they are all quantitatively true. QuickBooks Enterprise is easier than any accounting software out there - Period. This has been discussed at length in countless financial, accounting, and software periodicals, which have given the latest version rave reviews. This is probably why your company is considering adopting or upgrading to Enterprise, as they should be!
Though QuickBooks rise to fame was built largely upon the rapid adoption of its software by small businesses, larger businesses are beginning to recognize its superior value proposition and as such are migrating in record numbers, even large divisions of many Fortune 500 companies. In addition to maintaining much of the simplicity and ease of use that drove its accounting software to cult status, Intuit has done an excellent job of enhancing the robustness of their Enterprise grade product to be competitive with anything in their class, a key driver behind many of the recent larger business conversions. Intuit truly has built a better mousetrap, and it really does cost less.
Unfortunately, while it is easier to maintain and operate than competing accounting software, INTEGRATING the application or upgrading from a prior version of QuickBooks can be a different story, particularly if you do not do it everyday or were not trained specifically how to do it by Intuit themselves. This is where the value of a professionally trained and authorized Intuit solutions provider is worth their weight in Gold.
Your accounting system is the lifeblood of your business. It tells you how much money you have, who you owe money to, and more importantly who owes you money. The slightest glitch to this "financial ecosystem" can have grave consequences to a business, which reinforces the importance of following Intuit best practices protocol throughout the upgrade/integration process to ensure proper back-up of critical data, and other redundant efforts, the importance of which cannot be overstated. These are the types of procedures you upgrade is sure to receive when you hire a QuickBooks certified solutions provider to manage your company's integration.

QuickBooks Certified Enterprise Solutions Providers: Final Selection

Obviously the only company you should even consider letting get near your QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions integration project is someone actually certified by Intuit themselves. These companies and individuals have been professionally trained in Intuit's best practices, which means they are not "getting practice" on your project. They already know what they are doing.
While certification is good, not all certified providers are created equal. They have all met the "minimum" requirements or they would not have been certified by QuickBooks, but if you are like most you would probably prefer a little bit more in the way of credentials before allowing anyone near such a critical component of your business.
As such, when considering QuickBooks Enterprise consulting companies, look for firms that have been around at least 10 years. Look for references from companies comparable in size to yours. Inquire about their sale ranking with Intuit, a nice objective reference point of the company's success at keeping customers happy. If you follow this advice, you should be in good shape!

Denise Magee is one of the leaders in sales for Intuit's QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions. Let Quality Consulting and Billing quote you the absolute best price for the best service. We are a nationwide company. Offices are in Tampa and Orlando Florida and Chicago Illinois.