QuickBooks is an accounting software package developed and marketed by Intuit. First introduced in 1983, QuickBooks products are geared mainly toward

small and medium-sized businesses Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) or small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are businesses whose personnel and revenue numbers fall below certain limits. The abbreviation "SME" is used by international organizations such as the World Bank ...

and offer

on-premises On-premises software (abbreviated to on-prem, and incorrectly referred to as on-premise) is installed and runs on computers on the premises of the person or organization using the software, rather than at a remote facility such as a server farm ...

accounting applications as well as cloud-based versions that accept business payments, manage and pay bills, and payroll functions.

History

Intuit was founded in 1983 by

Scott Cook Scott David Cook (born 1952) is an American billionaire businessman who co-founded Intuit. Cook is also a director of eBay and Procter & Gamble. Early life Cook holds a bachelor's degree in economics and mathematics from the University of So ...

and

Tom Proulx Thomas Proulx is an American computer programmer and entrepreneur. He was a co-founder and first programmer of Intuit and a pioneer of usability testing in the 1980s.Suzanne E. Taylor and Kathy Schroeder, Inside Intuit: how the makers of Quicken ...

Mountain View, California Mountain View is a city in Santa Clara County, California, United States. Named for its views of the Santa Cruz Mountains, it has a population of 82,376. Mountain View was integral to the early history and growth of Silicon Valley, and is the ...

USA The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. After the success of its Quicken product for individual financial management, the company developed similar services for small business owners.

Initial release

The initial Quicken software did not function as a "

double-entry Double-entry bookkeeping, also known as double-entry accounting, is a method of bookkeeping that relies on a two-sided accounting entry to maintain financial information. Every entry to an account requires a corresponding and opposite entry to ...

" accounting package. The initial release of QuickBooks was the DOS version that was based on the Quicken codebase. The Windows and Mac versions shared a different codebase that was based on In-House Accountant, which Intuit had acquired. The software was popular among small business owners who had no formal accounting training. As such, the software soon claimed up to 85 percent of the US small business accounting software market. It continued to command the vast majority of this market as of 2013. Professional

accountant An accountant is a practitioner of accounting or accountancy. Accountants who have demonstrated competency through their professional associations' certification exams are certified to use titles such as Chartered Accountant, Chartered Certifi ...

s, however, were not satisfied with early versions of the system, citing poor security controls, such as no audit trail, as well as non-conformity with traditional accounting standards.

Subsequent releases

Intuit sought to bridge the gap with these accounting professionals, eventually providing full audit trail capabilities, double-entry accounting functions and increased functions. By 2000, Intuit had developed Basic and Pro versions of the software and, in 2003, started offering industry-specific versions, with workflow processes and reports designed for each of these business types along with terminology associated with the trades. Options now include versions for manufacturers, wholesalers, professional service firms, contractors, non-profit entities and retailers, in addition to one specifically designed for professional accounting firms who service multiple small business clients. In May 2002 Intuit launched QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions for medium-sized businesses. In September 2005, QuickBooks had 74% of the market in the US. A June 19, 2008 Intuit Press Release said that as of March 2008, QuickBooks' share of retail units in the business accounting category reached 94.2 percent, according to NPD Group. It also says that more than 50,000 accountants, CPAs and independent business consultants are members of the QuickBooks ProAdvisor program. By then Brad Smith was the new CEO, though former CEO Steve Bennett had nearly tripled Intuit revenue and quadrupled earnings in eight years. On September 22, 2014, Intuit announced the release of QuickBooks 2015 with features that users have been requesting from the past versions. The release includes improved income tracker, pinned notes, improved registration process and insights on homepage. In September 2015, Intuit released QuickBooks 2016 that contains several improvements to the existing ones and new features such as batch transaction, bill tracking, continuous feed label printer support, batch delete/void transactions etc. In September 2016, Intuit released QuickBooks 2017 with several improvements like automated reports, smart search and improved viewing of report filters among other things. In 2017, Intuit released QuickBooks 2018, adding features such as mobile inventory barcode scanning, multi-monitor support, search in the chart of accounts, etc. On September 17, 2018, Intuit announced the release of QuickBooks 2019 with some unique features requested by its users, including a history tracker for customer invoices, the ability to transfer credits between other jobs of the same customer, payroll adjustment feature, and more. On September 16, 2019, QuickBooks 2020 was launched with the aim to improve the reliability and experience of using the software. All the desktop versions - Pro, Premier, Accountant, and Enterprise - include new features like the ability to add customer PO numbers in email subject lines, send batch invoices to customers, automatic payment reminders, collapse and expand columns, easy QuickBooks version update etc. On September 4, 2020, Intuit rolled out QuickBooks 2021 with improved payment process and automated features. All the desktop editions in this version have streamlined bank feeds, automated receipt management, rule-based customer groups, payment reminders, customized payment receipts, data level permissions, and batch delete sales orders.

International versions

Versions of this product are available in many different markets. Intuit's

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

, British and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

n divisions offer versions of QuickBooks that support the unique tax calculation needs of each region, such as Canada's

GST GST may refer to: Taxes * General sales tax * Goods and Services Tax, the name for the value-added tax in several jurisdictions: ** Goods and services tax (Australia) ** Goods and Services Tax (Canada) ** Goods and Services Tax (Hong Kong) **G ...

, HST or PST sales tax,

VAT A value-added tax (VAT), known in some countries as a goods and services tax (GST), is a type of tax that is assessed incrementally. It is levied on the price of a product or service at each stage of production, distribution, or sale to the en ...

for the United Kingdom edition and Australia's

sales tax. The QuickBooks UK edition also includes support for Irish and South African VAT. QuickBooks Enterprise was withdrawn from the UKI market in 2014. QuickBooks Desktop is only available on a rental/subscription basis for users in UK and Ireland, and is to be withdrawn from sale with no desktop software replacement with the final version being the 2021 edition. The Mac (

macOS macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and lapt ...

) version is available only in the United States. Quickbooks announced that their products and service offerings for accountancy and small business customers will no longer be available in India after 31 January 2023.

Features

Intuit has integrated several web-based features into QuickBooks, including remote access capabilities, remote payroll assistance and outsourcing, electronic payment functions, online banking and reconciliation, mapping features through integration with

Google Maps Google Maps is a web mapping platform and consumer application offered by Google. It offers satellite imagery, aerial photography, street maps, 360° interactive panoramic views of streets ( Street View), real-time traffic conditions, and rou ...

, marketing options through

Google Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...

, and improved e-mail functionality through

Microsoft Outlook Microsoft Outlook is a personal information manager software system from Microsoft, available as a part of the Microsoft Office and Microsoft 365 software suites. Though primarily an email client, Outlook also includes such functions as Calen ...

and Outlook Express. For the 2008 version, the company has also added import from

Excel ExCeL London (an abbreviation for Exhibition Centre London) is an exhibition centre, international convention centre and former hospital in the Custom House area of Newham, East London. It is situated on a site on the northern quay of the ...

spreadsheet A spreadsheet is a computer application for computation, organization, analysis and storage of data in tabular form. Spreadsheets were developed as computerized analogs of paper accounting worksheets. The program operates on data entered in cel ...

s, additional employee time tracking options, pre-authorization of electronic funds and new Help functions. In June 2007, Intuit announced that QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions would run on Linux servers, whereas previously it required a Windows server to run.

QuickBooks Online

Intuit also offers a cloud service called QuickBooks Online (QBO). The user pays a monthly subscription fee rather than an upfront fee and accesses the software exclusively through a secure logon via a Web browser. Intuit provides patches, and regularly upgrades the software automatically, but also includes pop-up ads within the application for additional paid services. , QuickBooks Online had the most subscribers for an online accounting platform, with 624,000 subscribers. compared to

Xero Xero may refer to: *Xero (band), an Australian punk band *Xero (company), a New Zealand financial software company * ''Xero'' (film), an experimental 2010 German film *Xero (Linkin Park), an early name for the band Linkin Park, as well as a demo ...

, which reported 284,000 customers as of July 2014. The cloud version is a distinct product from the desktop version of QuickBooks, and has many features that work differently than they do in desktop versions. In 2013, Intuit announced that it had rebuilt QuickBooks Online "from the ground up" with a platform that allows third parties to create small business applications and gives customers the ability to customize the online version of QuickBooks. QuickBooks Online is supported on Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer 10, Safari 6.1, and also accessible via Chrome on Android and Safari on iOS 7. One may also access QuickBooks Online via an iPhone, a

BlackBerry The blackberry is an edible fruit produced by many species in the genus ''Rubus'' in the family Rosaceae, hybrids among these species within the subgenus ''Rubus'', and hybrids between the subgenera ''Rubus'' and ''Idaeobatus''. The taxonomy of ...

, and an Android web app. In 2011, Intuit introduced a UK-specific version of QuickBooks Online to address the specific VAT and European tax system. There are also versions customized for the Canadian, Indian, and Australian markets, as well as a global version that can be customized by the user. Quickbooks Online offers integration with other third-party software and financial services, such as banks, payroll companies, and expense management software. QuickBooks desktop also supports a migration feature where customers can migrate their desktop data from a pro or prem SKU's to Quickbooks Online.

QuickBooks Point of Sale

QuickBooks Point of Sale is software that replaces a retailer's cash register, tracks its inventory, sales, and customer information, and provides reports for managing its business and serving its customers.

Add-on programs

Through the Solutions Marketplace, Intuit encouraged third-party software developers to create programs that fill niche areas for specific industries and integrate with QuickBooks. Intuit partnered with

Lighter Capital Lighter Capital is a revenue-based financing lender that specializes in providing financial capital to small technology companies. Founded by Andy Sack, a Seattle-area entrepreneur, Lighter Capital was one of the first lenders to use revenue-base ...

to create a $15 million fund for developers designing apps for Intuit Quickbooks. The Intuit Developer Network provides marketing and technical resources, including

software development kit A software development kit (SDK) is a collection of software development tools in one installable package. They facilitate the creation of applications by having a compiler, debugger and sometimes a software framework. They are normally specific to ...

s (SDKs). Intuit's Lacerte and ProConnect Tax Online

tax preparation Tax preparation is the process of preparing tax returns, often income tax returns, often for a person other than the taxpayer, and generally for compensation. Tax preparation may be done by the taxpayer with or without the help of tax preparation so ...

software for professional accountants who prepare tax returns for a living integrates with QuickBooks in this way. Microsoft Office also integrates with QuickBooks.

Criticism

As of November 2014, users of QuickBooks for OSX had reported compatibility issues with Apple's new operating system, OS X Yosemite.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Quickbooks Accounting software Intuit software