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The most powerful QuickBooks ever! Able to meet your the unique needs of a growing business but at a fraction of the cost of other systems. Some of the key features include:

Up to 30 users working simultaneously in a file.
Over 120 built in reports.
Advanced managerial and accounting functions like budgeting, payroll, and job costing.
Advanced user setup and Audit trail to protect your data.
Over 200 integrated solutions to further enhance Enterprise's capabilities.
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Exploring the Features of Intuit QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions
by Selwyn van Rooyen
See below for an abbreviated version of Selwyn's article. Please click here or visit http://wynconsulting.com for the full article. This article is part of a series of articles detailing the features of the various QuickBooks editions. This article focuses on the features of Intuit QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions while other articles in the series focus on the features of QuickBooks Pro, Premier, Online Edition, Point of Sale, and the add-on Intuit Enterprise Suite of products.

Intuit QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions is now part of the Intuit Enterprise Suite and offers the most features of the QuickBooks line of products. It is focused squarely at companies in the low to mid-market with revenues greater than $1 million. Like QuickBooks Premier, it also comes in the same six flavors:

Contractor Edition – for building contractors or construction companies
Retail Edition – for companies in the retail industry
Non-Profit Edition – for not-for-profit organizations
Manufacturing and Wholesale Edition – for distributors, wholesalers, and manufacturing companies
Professional Service Edition – for legal firms, designers, architects, etc. in the service industry
Accountant Edition – for accounting and CPA firms (only available in a one-user license)

Your local Intuit Solution Provider (ISP) is often the best place to obtain QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions since they can provide expert setup and implementation services as well as can provide training to get employees up and running on the new system. ISPs also frequently run special promotional offerings, which provide a better overall value on the product than purchasing from the alternatives. Suggested retail pricing for the product is as follows:

$3,000 for the 5-user pack
$5,000 for the 10-user pack
$7,000 for the 15-user pack
$9,000 for the 20-user pack
$11,000 for the 25-user pack
$13,000 for the 30-user pack

The product is designed for larger companies with higher revenues which have more users accessing the system and entering many more transactions. It is also designed for companies with more complex needs in one business area such as those with greater customer relationship management (CRM) needs, inventory needs, field service management needs, or more complex reporting needs. It includes all of the features of QuickBooks premier (Click here for an article detailing the features of QuickBooks Premier), and then adds the following:

Much more granular user permissions – the user permissions are now based at the transactional level rather than giving broad access areas. ex. A specific user can be given access to enter and print invoices, but not to modify them or delete them.
More robust database – the database is built to handle more transactions and list items and consequently, reports run faster and data files can be larger without sacrificing performance.
The ability to consolidate financial statement reports from multiple QuickBooks company files.
Increased simultaneous users up to 30.
Lists such as the customer list, vendor list and item list can be much larger since they don’t have a set cap on the number of list items as Premier does. Intuit tested the list capabilities up to 100,000 list items, however there is no actual limit.
More tasks can be performed in multi-user mode without switching to single-user mode. These tasks include inventory adjustments and deleting list items.

The product also adds a suite of products including: (additional fees apply)

Sales Management ES – a customer relationship management tool to track more information about the company’s prospects/leads, opportunities, company contacts, etc. and offers checklists, workflows, etc. to help with servicing and following up on customers.
Warehouse Management ES – an inventory solution that extends the inventory functionalities of the product to allow multiple warehouses, lot #’s, serial tracking, and other more robust inventory features.
Field Service Management ES – a field service tool to manage field workers such as plumbers, HVAC repair workers, etc. The tool allows for more robust scheduling, on the fly invoicing and payment from the customer’s location, and a myriad of additional features.
Business Analysis ES – an advanced reporting tool that gives greater insight into the company’s business and allows for customized reporting capabilities.

Intuit QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions provides a package of features that are very robust at a very reasonable price point. The features the product offers are very comparable to other mid-market accounting software packages but in many areas, the product offers more features, in a simpler interface, with less IT and systems maintenance requirements.

Selwyn van Rooyen
Intuit Solution Provider
Advanced Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor
http://wynconsulting.com

Accessing Enterprise Solutions from a Remote Location

This statistic won't be a surprise to many. In 2004, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported there were 138.5 million employed Americans. It is estimated that at least 19% of them, or about 26 million work at home in their primary job at least once a month. This would certainly include a business using the Enterprise Suite. There are many options for using Enterprise remotely. Built right into the program, is a remote access service from Webex. Outside of the program the recommended setup is to connect from your remote location over a VPN and using Terminal Services. The following discussion is long. But it contains a dialogue about all types of remote solutions from services like LogMeIn to sophisticated network setups. After reading, you should get a good idea of what is involved with each and which will work best for you. This is a wiki, so please edit this article if you have information to add. If you have additional questions, please post them in the Enterprise Desktop forum.

QB - Multi user from remote locations

Getting multiple inventory items to pull quantity from a single item
It is possible for multiple inventory items to draw from the same quantity. You may want to do this if you have a lot of parts that you sell under multiple numbers. and right now I have to receive them a couple under each number. It could take a long time to receive these items a couple at a time under each number. One of our community AllStars, CCRussell, offered this as a solution. He also included screenshots. His answer is followed by the entire discussion from the community.

Let's say you have part "Widget", and that is the real part.

You want to sell a Widget to someone, but you want to call it a "Cog" instead. Same part, just a different name. Add a group item, called "Cog", and give it one "Widget" part. Do not check the "print items" box, and do not add any other items to the group.

Here is an invoice, selling someone a Cog. But when you look at the balance on hand you will see that this sold a Widget. There is no separate balance on hand for a Cog. Note that on the SCREEN you see that it is a widget, but when I PRINT this, it shows only the Cog.

For every item that you want to sell this way you need to make one or more group items. If you also sell staplers and want to call them doohickeys, you have a stapler inventory part and a doohickey group part with one stapler. If you also want to sell a stapler as a wacky, you make another group item called wacky and assign it a stapler.

Getting multiple inventory items to pull quantity from a single item

Solving QuickBooks Problems on 64 bit Vista
by CCRussell

Here is an abbreviated version of CCRussell's article. For more complete details and screenshots. Read the full article

This information provided by one of our Community AllStars CCRussell. View this and other and other helpful blogs at http://qbblog.ccrsoftware.info/2008/10/solving-quickbooks-problems-on-64-bit-vista/

If you are trying to run QuickBooks on a 64 bit version of Microsoft Vista you will most likely run into printing problems. The following will work with QuickBooks 2007, 2008 and 2009. Please note that updates to Windows or QuickBooks may change system settings back to "defaults", which will produce these errors again. The best way to test this after any update is to try to save a report as PDF. If this fails you will need to go through these steps again.

QuickBooks has published a Knowledge Base article about this in their support web site – article 1007337 Please note the following:

If you have installed QuickBooks 2007 on the computer, and then either QuickBooks 2008 or 2009, there is a conflict between the versions. If you have this situation see Intuit Knowledgebase article 1011094.
If you are using the FaxTalk Communicator software you will find a conflict with QuickBooks.
The solution is Intuit’s solution has you start off by doing a “repair” of your QuickBooks installation. For most situations this is not necessary. The problem is not a damaged installation, it is an improperly installed driver (the “repair” will reinstate the error). However, if you want to do this, see KB article 1010399.

Solution 1 as outlined in article 1007337

Log in to your Vista system as a user with administrative rights.
Select the Control Panel from your Windows menu.
Select Printers from the Control Panel.
Locate the QuickBooks PDF Converter in the printer list, right click on it to get a menu, select Run as administrator, and then select Properties.
In the Properties window, select the Ports tab, then click the Add Port button.
Select Local Port and click the New Port button.
Enter PDF1 for the new port name, and click OK, then close the Printer Ports window.
Check the box by the PDF1 port then select the Advanced tab.
Select the Amyuni Document Converter 300 from the Driver dropdown box. The Print directly to the printer option is selected, which hides a feature you must change. Select Spool print documents and then un-check the Enable advanced printing features box.
Select Print directly to the printer again. Click Apply and then OK.
In the Printer window of the Control Panel make sure that the proper printer driver is selected as the “default” – not the QuickBooks PDF Converter. This is a step that Intuit left out in their article.

Reboot your computer – the changes won’t take effect until you do.

The additional steps that may be required:

Right click on the Windows taskbar and select Task Manager.

Select the Processes tab, find splWOW64.exe, and click the end process button.

Reboot your computer after this step.

If you run QuickBooks and get odd “printer error” messages, you may need to reset your QuickBooks printer preference file. Locate the file QBPRINT.QBP, which should be in your c:/program data/QuickBooks/2009 folder. Rename this file to QBPRINT.OLD

Solution 2

Download a different Amunyi driver.

This process is very similar to the one above, except that it has you install a different driver than the one you already have in your system. This is a 64 bit compatible version of the driver. Download the zip file from this location and save it on your computer: 64 bit compatible version

As before, run this procedure when you are logged in with administrator rights.
When you open this file you may be asked for a password – enter “amyuni”.
Extract the file to a folder in your computer, and run the file named “install.exe”.
You will get a warning that this is an unsigned program – go ahead and run it.
A window will open that will show the installation progress.
When it is complete and you click “OK” you may get a Vista warning saying that the installation might not have installed correctlyJust click the button that says the program installed correctly.

Now go through the steps in the first method with the noted changes:

In step 4 select the Amyuni Document Converter instead of the QuickBooks PDF Converter.
In step 5 you should already have the PDF1 port – so you can scroll down, make sure that it is checked, then click Configure Port instead of adding it. Skip steps 6 & 7.
In step 9 select the Amyuni Document Converter 2.51 instead of the Amyuni Document Converter 300, then continue as before.

Creating a 32-bit chroot for Installing Quickbooks Enterprise on an Ubuntu Linux Server
by Thumper

While Debian and its various derivative distros, including Ubuntu, are not officially supported by Intuit at this time - the bottom line is "Linux is Linux". The difference is the tools necessary to a particular Linux flavor used to accomplish the goal.

Some of what follows will be directly applicable to all distros and some will be Debian/Ubuntu specific.

One question that needs to be answered is what architecture is your Linux setup with - 32- or 64-bit? The 32-bit Quickbooks dataserver is equally happy with either - as is any 32-bit Linux program - but it does make a difference in the installation.

To run a 32-bit application in a 64-bit Linux environment there are two choices - Multilib and chroot. My own preference is for chroot for the following reasons:

It allows you to segregate applications in their own "jail" - which limits the impact a given application can have on the rest of the server.
It provides a (nearly) dedicated environment, that is (nearly) unaffected by other changes on the server.
I personally understand chroots - I personally haven't used Multilib.

Those first two items are so important you may wish to use a chroot even on a 32-bit server, just to help protect the dataserver installation. Following is a quick set of instructions for installation a 32-bit chroot on Ubuntu. The current Ubuntu version at the time of this writing is "intrepid" - you may replace with the appropriate version for your needs.

A chroot is a "changed root" - it is simply a directory tree that appears to be the new root folder. This is accomplished via the "chroot" command and other supporting utilities, such as dchroot and schroot. This example creates a folder named /qb2009 for the chroot - you may substitute any path you wish. If you want your chroot to be on a different drive than your root, create the folder accordingly. For example, if /var represents a different drive or partition, and that's where you want the chroot, then create /var/qb2009 or /var/lib/qb2009 or whatever suits you. Replace the following as appropriate.

sudo bash
apt-get install dchroot debootstrap
mkdir /qb2009
editor /etc/dchroot.conf
- Add this line: qb2009 /qb2009
debootstrap --arch i386 intrepid /qb2009 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu

Ubuntu has a default security policy of not providing typical superuser access, but rather encourages use of the "sudo" command for necessary tasks. Opinions differ, but we'll assume this is a good policy. However, most of what we need to accomplish requires superuser privileges, and typing "sudo" on every line, plus entering the password, gets old. So, I use a termporary workaround for intensive adminstrative activity.

First, we enter a shell with root privileges so we won't have to "sudo" on every line. Then some helper utilities are installed (if not already present on your system). Then the folder is created. Then the helper utility dchroot is configured with an alias. Finally, a minimal 32-bit Ubuntu is installed in the folder.

sudo chroot /qb2009

This command "enters" the chroot. Upon executing it, this particular session (not the whole system) now thinks the root directory starts at /qb2009. So executing 'cd /' will APPEAR to place you in a root directory, but in fact you will be in /qb2009.

Now the chroot needs to be configured. Some basic housekeeping.

dpkg-reconfigure locales

Now we need to be able to install some additional software

sudo editor /chroot/etc/apt/sources.list
Add the following lines:
- deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu intrepid-security main restricted universe multiverse
- deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu intrepid main restricted universe multiverse

sudo apt-get update
apt-get dist-upgrade

What you've accomplished at this point is to create a mini-environment. There's almost nothing installed in this chroot - which is exactly what we want. One of the exciting (well, some people find it exciting - others merely consider it useful) features of chroots is it allows you to control the environment. You can't affect services already running (well...you can communicate with them, and that's a good thing, because it will be used later) but you can define a dedicated path, other environment variables, and a controlled set of libraries and applications. This is a terrific thing - and something a software distributor like Intuit should eagerly take advantage of. For example, if it was determined that the Intrepid version of Ubuntu - or the Intrepid version of one or more libraries - was incompatible, and only the Hoary version was acceptable, a dedicated Hoary environment is easily installed by making the appropriate changes above. Now you can have a reasonably controlled environment for a program, without the compromise of a virtual server - and without changing anything on the host server. I still say that's exciting.

Now, keep in mind what happens in a chroot - nothing outside of the chroot is accessible. This includes some critical system files - so we need to make them available inside the chroot. This can be accomplished by copying the files - but that's inefficient. Instead, we take advantage of the "-bind" option of the mount command. This option allows an already mounted file/folder/partition/drive to be simultaneously mounted elsewhere. Links would not work - because the chroot cannot follow the link outside the chroot. But the mount command operates at a lower level.

The following commands are executed still within the chroot.

touch /etc/passwd
touch /etc/shadow
touch /etc/group
touch /etc/sudoers
touch /etc/hosts
touch /etc/resolv.conf
touch /etc/nsswitch.conf
mkdir /qbdata
exit

These commands create "dummy" entries, or mount points, for later use. Finally, we exit the chroot. Now, to setup the mounts, we need to edit fstab. Since the above command sequence has only had one "exit" thus far, we are still in the superuser privileged shell, so no sudo commands are necessary.

editor /etc/fstab
Add the following lines:

/home /qb2009/home none bind 0 0
/tmp /qb2009/tmp none bind 0 0
/dev /qb2009/dev none bind 0 0
/proc /qb2009/proc none bind 0 0
/etc/passwd /qb2009/etc/passwd none bind 0 0
/etc/shadow /qb2009/etc/shadow none bind 0 0
/etc/group /qb2009/etc/group none bind 0 0
/etc/sudoers /qb2009/etc/sudoers none bind 0 0
/etc/hosts /qb2009/etc/hosts none bind 0 0
/etc/resolv.conf /qb2009/etc/resolv.conf none bind 0 0
/etc/nsswitch.conf /qb2009/etc/nsswitch.conf none bind 0 0
/qbdata /qb2009/qbdata none bind 0 0

If your server uses LDAP for user authentication, you should also add lines for the relevant files, like /etc/ldap.conf (you'll need to "touch" them in the chroot as well - something like "touch /qbdata/etc/ldap.conf" - to create the mount point first). You'll also need to install the LDAP authentication package(s) in your chroot.

Note that the above fstab lines won't take effect until you reboot your server. Alternatively, you can manually execute the commands yourself by typing, "mount /qb2009/home", "mount /qb2009/tmp", etc.

OK - now we have a chroot - let's add a tool to use it easily.

editor /usr/local/bin/do_qb2009
Add the following:
- #!/bin/sh
- /usr/bin/dchroot -c qb2009 -d "`echo $0 | sed 's|^.*/||'` $*"
sudo chmod 755 /usr/local/bin/do_qb2009

This is a magic tool. Any link, that points to this file, will result in name of the link being executed in the chroot. How about an illustration? After you finally install the Quickbooks dataserver (we'll get there, trust me) you'll need to start and stop it. Now, because it will be installed in the chroot, you'll have to enter the chroot to work with it. If that doesn't make sense - look at it this way.

/
/etc/init.d/[...]
/qb2009
/qb2009/etc/init.d/[...]
/qb2009/opt/[...]

Now, if you were to try to start the Quickbooks directory monitor, with "/etc/init.d/qbdbfilemon start" - from the standard root, nothing will happen, since /etc/init.d/qbdbfilemon won't exist. On the other hand, if you execute "/qb2009/etc/init.d/qbdbfilemon start", things will get more confusing, since that script will try to find things under /opt/qb - which won't exist either. The only way to make this work would be to execute "chroot /qb2009", followed by the "/etc/init.d/qbdbfilemon start" - and now the relative paths are correct and life is good.

But going through that, plus the act of starting (or stopping) the actual database server, is too much effort. So, let's create three new scripts to simplify it - both in AND OUT of the chroot.

Utility #1:

editor /qb2009/usr/local/bin/qb2009-start
Add the following:
- #!/bin/sh
- /etc/init.d/qbdbfilemon start
- /etc/init.d/qbdbmgrn_19 start
sudo chmod 755 /qb2009/usr/local/bin/qb2009-start

Utility #2:

editor /qb2009/usr/local/bin/qb2009-stop
Add the following:
- #!/bin/sh
- /etc/init.d/qbdbfilemon stop
- /etc/init.d/qbdbmgrn_19 stop
sudo chmod 755 /qb2009/usr/local/bin/qb2009-stop

Utility #3:

editor /qb2009/usr/local/bin/qb2009-restart
Add the following:
- #!/bin/sh
- /usr/local/bin/qb-stop
- /usr/local/bin/qb-start
sudo chmod 755 /qb2009/usr/local/bin/qb2009-restart

Now, while these don't do much right now (since we haven't installed Quickbooks yet!) - you should see they automate the startup/shutdown of the dataserver processes. Now for the magic.

ln -s /usr/local/bin/do_qb2009 qb2009-start
ln -s /usr/local/bin/do_qb2009 qb2009-stop
ln -s /usr/local/bin/do_qb2009 qb2009-restart

That's it. Now - whether you're in the regular environment, or within the chroot, simply executing "qb2009-start" or "qb2009-stop" will do so.

I like things simple.

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Last update: Jul 13 2009, 4:39 PM EDT by Selwyn van Rooyen (content history | content tools) (help)

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