AAUG Reviews

by Gary Miller, AAUG Member

For the Tax year 2008, Intuit’s improved Turbo Tax for Home and Business ups the ante with free efiling, an interview process that gets maximum deductions, and works for personal income taxes or self-employment. I liked the feel of it even more than last year, this version took me thru step by step with schedule C, assistance in categorizing all of the business expenses, great job with depreciation, as well as home office which keeps getting more complicated.

I used a CD version, and once loaded, it automatically runs an updater to make sure I had current forms, and tax information. And since this version focuses on one’s home and business, it tailors the interview process, since I was a sole-proprietor, it zeroed in for expenses and income areas. Obviously finding deductions is the name of the game, and it was great, and worked in our specific industry type. I also liked the vehicle deduction questions that helped compare actual versus standard mileage.

It creates W-2’s and 1099 forms too, that saved me time. Since we were a new small business, it showed up easy ways to get going, and keep records. As well as start up deductions too. This year included was efiling for up to federal returns.

I loved the way it imported my investment info, saving me hours to enter it. Most brokerage firms are included too. I saw that those with a 401(k) have the assistance to maximize contributions. (more…)

by Elaine Robinson, AAUG Member

Installation was a snap (see System Requirements below). Inserted the Quickbooks 2009 CD into the drive, read the “Read Me” file which suggested I make a backup copy of my old QuickBooks Pro 5 which I did. I then dragged the QuickBooks 2009 icon into my Applications folder. The QB app was 147.7 MB. If you do have an older copy of QuickBooks and it it open, close it. I opened the QB2009 by double clicking the icon. Product registration said I could use QB2009 15 times before registration was required or you could register it immediately. While registering, I found that there is already an update from 10.0f1616 to 10.0f1944. The update has a number of fixes so I chose to download it. Since I had used a previous version, I opened my company. Had I not, I could have chosen to open a new company. My old QuickBooks 5 company file was saved as “MyCompany”qb2009 with my company name instead of MyCompany. The application opened to my company’s Home page complete with a new looking window of icons in its newly redesigned interface.

The top menu bar, though very updated, looked familiar and when I checked to look at previous invoices, they were all there and they were marked with a PAID watermark except for one that was not. Looking good! Since I had owned a previous version, this new version was not at all alien to me. This is appreciated when you are in business and don’t have time for a large learning curve. Mac users can feel confident as this version of QB2009 was built for Mac users by Mac users. (more…)

by Gary Miller ,AAUG Member

A small businesses best friend is it’s accountant and it’s accounting software. I interviewed many bookkeepers and accountants to see which one is the most versatile. The quick response question in turn asked me was, what platform are you using. When I said Mac, they frowned, said I would be limited to Intuit’s Mac offering, QuickBooks for Mac 2007, MYOB, or a few small company’s products. So I thought, since I now own an Intel Mac, and can run Windows on it, why not rephrase my question, which is the best product for a retail business? Which one is expandable, meaning can do Point of Sale purchases, credit cards, and payroll. The quick response was QuickBooks 2008 Premier edition for Windows.

Knowing that I already had installed Parallels ( so I could run windows )on my Intel iMac ( first generation intel Mac,so not a screamer in speed), and Windows XP, I was ready to try out QuickBooks on my Macbook, first generation with Intel processor. Both Macs had QuickBooks for Mac, so comparisons would be available. Great.

In a few words, QuickBooks for Windows versus QuickBooks for Mac, is like Britannica versus WorldBook encyclopedias. And you must ask yourself, do you need the 200 # Gorilla or is a simple, adequate program ok. I wanted to try out the big guy, the world leader in bookkeeping software, that all raved about. The company I used has real data, (more…)

by Chris Tofteberg ,AAUG Member

I reviewed TurboTax last year and used it to do my 2006 taxes. In general I liked the 2006 edition except for a bad experience with the “It’s Deductible” feature. This year, Intuit fixed that and the program worked flawlessly.

There are basically only two tax software programs specifically for the Mac, TurboTax (five versions) and TaxCut (four versions). There are some online and/or free solutions that tend to be very basic and work fine if you’re using the 1040EZ form or have few investments or deductions. Most free versions require that the user have a limited gross income. Visit the IRS website at www.irs.gov for more details.

TurboTax Premier 2007 features a totally revamped interface and is much easier to navigate than the 2006 version. My 2006 return was automatically imported, saving much time entering information.

TurboTax works with Quicken and Quickbooks, which are both Intuit products as well. Manually entering forms and numbers as I did worked flawlessly and TurboTax clued me in to tax considerations that I might not thought of. Users having more or less complex tax situations can choose which version to use. The Premiere version reviewed here is smack in the middle of the bunch. (more…)

by Chris Tofteberg, AAUG Member

It’s hard to appreciate a software program thats only purpose is to do something you hate to do. Taxes aren’t nearly as fun as working with digital photos, you must agree. Despite this handicap, I enjoyed using TurboTax.

There are basically only two tax software programs specifically for the Mac, TurboTax (four versions) and TaxCut (three versions). There are some online and/or free solutions that tend to be very basic and work fine if you’re using the 1040EZ form or have few investments or deductions. Most free versions require that the user have a limited gross income. Visit the IRS website at www.irs.gov for more details.

This review discusses the Deduction Maximizer Edition of TurboTax 2006. There are four versions of TurboTax, with Deduction Maximizer being a higher-end personal version. I’m all about finding as many deductions as I can, and we’ll cover that extensively later. State taxes are also featured in this edition of TurboTax but fortunately I live in Alaska so I didn’t get to test that portion.

After launch and entering the basic contact information, TurboTax asks if you’d like to import last year’s return from either TurboTax OR TaxCut. Although I did not import last year’s return from TaxCut nor TurboTax (I had an accountant do my return last year), this is a nice feature and certainly helps get some TaxCut “switchers” although TaxCut offers the same feature. TurboTax also asks if you’d like to import data from Quicken. I don’t use Quicken much but I did try importing test data without any problems. (more…)

by Zach Manzella, AAUG Member

QuickBooks 2007 is excellent financial software for the small business. For $170.00 this software can save you its price many times over in time-savings and organization. QuickBooks 2007 comes with a CD for installation and an instruction booklet. Although the five inch by seven inch instruction booklet is less than one hundred pages, it contains easy-to-use instructions on installing QuickBooks and Setting Up Your Business. The other areas of the booklet that do not have enough information can be supplemented by going to a online community and asking for input or the online QuickBooks KnowledgeBase or printing information contained in the CD on certain topics. QuickBooks is a popular program, and therefore many small business people you meet will have stories or advise to share about QuickBooks.

Installation of QuickBooks 2007 was uncomplicated and very fast. The user is allowed fifteen uses during which the user must register the product. The software does a great job of leading you through the installation and to the beginning of setting up your company.

At the beginning of the company setup QuickBooks provides the user with a New Company Setup Assistant to walk the user through the five major areas of setting up the company: 1) General, 2) Income & Expenses, 3) Income Details, 4) Opening Balances, 5) Documents. The New Company Setup Assistant allows the user to go back to previous page or area to review or change information. The Setup is easy to navigate and comfortable for those of us who will remember something they need to add to the page seven screens before. (more…)

by Norman J. Brown, AAUG Member

This edition of Quicken has several features that are exclusive to Mac users. Quicken lets the user keep a comprehensive record of their finances. You can have access to all your assets and liabilities right at your fingertips. I first used Quicken 5 in 1994 and have progressed up to this current version. I have always found the software to be accurate and useful. With each new version it has become more user friendly. I have always found the UserGuide to be well written, easy to understand and simple to navigate in by using the index. I have been doing personal financial records since 1949 it certainly has become easier with tools such as Quicken 2007 for Mac.

Quicken continues to make your year end report to IRS much easier. If you are vigilant when setting up your accounts and entering your transactions as to payee and category the following reports are a breeze. Managing your bank accounts and credit cards. The QuickFill™ feature remembers each transaction and/or category you enter, so you only have to type recurring transactions once. Reconcile your Quicken accounts to make sure they agree with the bank/credit card statements. Transfer money between Quicken accounts. Quicken records the transfer in both accounts and updates your balances automatically. Schedule any transaction—from car payment that you pay every month, to an insurance premium that you pay twice a year, to a Permanent Fund direct deposit. When the bill/deposit rolls around, Quicken either reminds you about it or simply enter it for you automatically—whichever you prefer. (more…)