BlockTax QuickBooks Blog

You can get QuickBooks hosting and QuickBooks Terminal Server prices from many companies. It is surprising how much QuickBooks Hosting Prices and QuickBooks Terminal Server Prices vary, since the lowest price comes from a company with outstanding service (average response time under 15 seconds; 99.9% up time). The comparison is much more complex than the simple chart below. Personable charges $65 more per month for backup. QuickBooks from Home only offers the rate below for fives users, while other companies (including MyRealData) may charge less for five users than they do for the above price for one. Some companies also charge for tech support, which MRD does not.

                                                    SetUp  Monthly
ITX                                                $100    $58
Archer Accounting                        200      55
QuickBooks-Hosting                        0      45
Right Networks                                 0      45
Personable                                     94      40
QuickBooks from Home                  0      39
MyRealData                                    20      29

MyRealData is the low-price leader by a wide margin. However, they will cut the above and related prices by 10% if you go through me (and they do not me pay corresponding commission). They have similar low prices for more users, virtual desktops (with Microsoft Office and many other programs, including  QuickBooks add-ons) and dedicated servers. They now even support my in-house server with managed services. Their QuickBooks add-ons experience is especially impressive. They have terrific service, as they have been very effectively responding to us and clients, within about 15 seconds, for three years.  We get much more than 99% uptime, though our 10 users on one system use 40+ regular and pre-release (unstable) beta programs.

For more information on QuickBooks Hosting, and in-house / web server QuickBooks terminal server prices, please contact  www.BlockTax.com/Contact_us_for_QuickBooks_Accounting_Software.htm

I explained Why QuickBooks Terminal Server before. This is an Executive Summary on Why QuickBooks Terminal Server:

    
• QuickBooks Terminal Server runs fast because programs and data are the server. Less time is spent on slow network transfers. The QuickBooks Knowledgebase says, except for QuickBooks Terminal Server, "QuickBooks is a multi-user program, as opposed to a "true" network program. Network programs are typically installed on a single server or workstation, and then accessed from that installation by multiple users simultaneously. In contrast, every QuickBooks user on the network must have a separate, licensed copy of QuickBooks installed on their local workstations."     
• Use one fast free QuickBooks Enterprise Database Server Manager for Pro and Premier users.     
• One good server increases speed for all users.     
• Install programs once for all users.     
• Fully customize each program once (up to 100 preferences per program).     
• Backup only one system, for faster and easier backups and remote backups.     
• Increase safety and security of data, possibly with co=located server, as local systems are very insecure.     
• Buy fewer copies of programs used only occasionally.     
• Use older inexpensive PC, Linux or Mac systems for users, saving upgrade time.     
• Print on any printer.     
• Minimize anti-spyware and anti-virus program cost and time (users need less space).     
• Let managers, consultants and senior employees shadow user sessions to help and limit errors, for the fastest, easiest, most efficient and effective collaboration.     
• Better collaborate with accountants, by synchronized files for tax and financial statements.     
• Link a Linux server to run 10% - 25% faster and more reliably.     
• Better support QuickBooks-add-ons, so QuickBooks automatically does much more for many more users. Never enter data twice and cut Excel, Word, other program and pencil errors. This will let us capitalize on a U.N. committee report, estimating trillions in annual savings from common forms and Electronic Data Interchange. QuickBooks has common forms, 94.2% of small business accounting software sales (retail) and EDI. Four million companies use it and 50,000 QuickBooks ProAdvisors, accountants and bookkeepers may use it for 4 million more companies. 75,000  QuickBooks add-ons developers and improvements on the new user-to-user help can let users find customers, add supply chain partners and cut costs with international markets.     
• Convenience, so you access everything 24/7 from anywhere, with any basic system.
  Let inexpensive remote experts support and maintain, 24/7, with 15 second response time.     
• My fast access to top-level Intuit help and executives, though Intuit only supports QuickBooks terminal server for Enterprise.

This Executive Summary shows there are many very good reasons Why QuickBooks Terminal Server. There are are a wide range of very inexpensive QuickBooks Hosting Costs and QuickBooks Terminal Server Costs, as further posts will show. Please contact me at http://quickbooks-blog.com/ if you are ready for fastest, easiest and least expensive way to realize these benefits.

"Intuit is playing the web services game that Microsoft is talking" is an exciting post by Matt Asay. This relates to one more major battle in the Intuit Microsoft War, which should be important to use all. Matt is an interesting and astute writer on the open source business and computer industry trends. He was especially astute when linking to my quickbooks-blog, even before I got the http://quickbooks-blog.com/ domain. I certainly agree that, "Intuit has the same desktop legacy to overcome, and yet it is running circles around Microsoft in web services momentum. It has aggressively moved to the web, while still holding its place firmly on the desktop." I really like it because his "holding firmly" example links to my first Intuit Pushes Deeper Into Cloud post.

The other reason for excitement relates to new Intuit Microsoft War posts by Larry Dignan (Microsoft talks software plus services; Intuit actually does it) and  Dennis Howlett (Intuit: software and services. Are you kidding me?) at ZDNet. The four of us have different takes on the the likely significance and success of these Intuit Microsoft War efforts. However, what strikes me is how personal knowledge often colors what we can see. It is like three (four) blind men examining different parts of an elephant and describing completely different creatures.

I believe my age, CPA status and long computer use, management, programming and security experience, plus my close Intuit and IBM PC insider links, now let me see what others seem to miss in th Intuit Microsoft War.Few see the extent of this Intuit Microsoft War, its long duration, what happened so far and its surprising likely result. The Intuit Microsoft War was well under way almost 25 years ago, when Intuit selected its first venture capitalist. It had a unique contest. The winner had the best answer to the question, "What should Intuit do if Microsoft begins to compete with Quicken." When Microsoft did compete it was so soundly trashed that the then Microsoft President became an Intuit Board member.

The most important Intuit Microsoft War issue is who is fighting. It is really Microsoft against an alliance of Intuit, Google, IBM, Apple, Adobe, Yahoo, Sun and many others. A recent Fortune article on Intuit Chair Bill Campbell credited him with being the best top management consultant in Silicon Valley. Google long shared a parking lot with Intuit. Its venture capitalist said Campbell saved Google and made it a powerhouse. Google has the largest Linux server farm, but no one is talking about how Google and other Campbell clients have taken sides in the Intuit Micorosoft War. For example, Google and Sun have Star Office Suite and they and other have Linux. Their consortium has no need of Windows or Office, which will save many users $500.

The Intuit Microsoft War results should become increasingly devastating for Microsoft. Two years ago Microsoft introduced its third QuickBooks killer, after spending around $2 billion to buy and carry a big company  accounting company. Since then the QuickBooks share of small business accounting program sales at retail went from 88% to 94.2%. Microsoft is not even #2. Intuit NetPromoter customer satisfaction ratings dwarf those of Microsoft. Even if the companies used identical technology, Intuit efforts to link accounting program users would be far more successful than comparable Microsoft efforts to link users of Vista and Word. This already involves user-to-user help, where Intuit is way ahead. 7 million TurboTax users now answer 40% of TurboTax user questions, faster and better than Intuit can at peak times. It should soon involve natural language processing suggesting immediate answers to questions and the fastest, easiest and least expensive Intuit-assisted remote computer control and web calls and video. These user-to-user efforts have long been quickly growing into increasingly well-linked accounting, small business supply chain and customer prospecting efforts that have no need for Microsoft.

Standard QuickBooks and Quicken forms, Electronic Data Interchange and 75,000 QuickBooks add-on developers will use tools quickly coming from Intuit, Google, IBM, Apple, Adobe, Yahoo, Sun and Linux to create and improve these supply chains, customer prospecting and related personal relationships, especially since Linux web servers are far more prevalent than comparable Microsoft servers. This will produce the trillions in savings a U.N. Committee estimated long ago, as well as faster, easier, more accurate and less stressful decisions.

Intuit is approaching its Intuit Connected Services effort based on extensive customer input. For now, its users want it to let them keep their desktops, while increasing choices. Incidentally, it will terrifically improve privacy and safety, but users generally do not yet realize this. Unlike Microsoft engineers, however, Intuit engineers observe and interact with users during the usability tests it created. This customer directed innovation means Intuit very rarely makes consequential mistakes. When it does make users unhappy it can reverse course in 5 to 45 days. Its CEO can even write a temporarily offended user like me to, "Keep raising hell when Intuit does something wrong."

The entirely different Microsoft approach instead features long-term disasters like Microsoft Accounting (the official name of the third failed QuickBooks killer), Windows Me and Vista. It will take a generation before users stop asking why they had to waste so much money and time on Windows anti-virus and anti-spyware efforts.

This is not theoretical, as Intuit CEO Brad Smith recently spoke about already having such a network for even more millions of TurboTax users. Intuit research shows that program users would rather get answers from other program users, not Intuit, especially when answers come from those in the same industry. A network now connects TurboTax users via in-program links. Many TurboTax users gave answers to more than 40% of the questions of other TurboTax users, before Intuit personnel could do so. Moreover, Inuit experts say that average user answers were better than average Intuit support answers. This effectively cost Intuit nothing, as it improves service and cut costs.

The Intuit pushes deeper into cloud effort is like the very successful effort it made its #1 corporate priority in 2001. This let developers use a Software Development Kit to access QuickBooks desktop files. I am an independent Fort Lauderdale CPA and nationally known QuickBooks guru, with many years of heavy computer use, management and security experience. I have been a QuickBooks add-on consultant since  1998. My http://QuickBooks-Add-ons.com/ site soon had 10,000 links to these programs, with up to 75,000 hits a day. Many of its links need updates, but Google has more than two million comparable links for QuickBooks users and my consulting. This and the new SaaS offerings will be very good for Intuit due to QuickBooks upgrades. Intuit has long known that those using add-ons upgrade QuickBooks about twice as often as those who do not.

This also partly relates to why Inuit should point to its track record for add-ons, as well as online security. I once sold accounting software with source code. Users of such programs found that most software updates made their add-ons not work. However, in the seven years that Intuit has had the SDK there has been no known case where a QuickBooks or SDK update made a QuickBooks SDK add-on stop working. I was personally involved in the one widely reported case of a non-SDK add-on not working after an update. It involved a payroll tax report program competing with an Intuit offering. Despite this, Intuit fixed the problem only five days after I wrote Brad, counting the two weekend days before Christmas.

QuickBooks Networking: The QuickBooks Knowledgebase says, "QuickBooks is a multi-user program, as opposed to a "true" network program... installed on a single server or workstation, and used... by multiple users simultaneously.  In contrast, every QuickBooks user on the network must have a separate, licensed copy..."

QuickBooks Network Performance: Computer programs constantly execute thousands of microinstructions. When local programs use server files many instructions go across networks. The instructions acknowledging these instructions, data transfers, screen updates and printing go back across networks. Transfers in computer memory can be 100 times faster than network transfers, especially if several use network files at once. QuickBooks 2006 and later limit transfers with a Database Server Manager. Local computers send macro instructions to the Manager, which runs microinstructions with no network delay. However, you still have lots of instructions, data, display and print transfers. Expert Tip: Even without QuickBooks terminal server, the QuickBooks Enterprise Database Server Manager is much faster than comparable Premier and Pro program. It supports up to 20 users compared to 5. Therefore, experts install the Enterprise Manager even if users have Premier or Pro. We do it legally because Intuit charges for client copies of QuickBooks, not the Database Manager. Please let us know if you want a copy of this, as our three QuickBooks Certified ProAdvisors have it.

QuickBooks Terminal Server Speed: Many programs, including QuickBooks, run faster under a QuickBooks Terminal Server. The local PC runs as a dumb terminal. It uses  QuickBooks on the server and data on the server. The only thing sent to the server is keystrokes. The only return is CHANGES to user screens, which rarely changes much, and occasional prints. This can cut network transfer volume more than 99%. User data entry speed limits operations, but this can speed QuickBooks and other programs, especially if your fastest computer is a network server.

QuickBooks Terminal Server - Other Advantages: There are big QuickBooks terminal server advantages besides speed. You do not install and customize many programs on each user computer. You also can use many copies of one program at a time. For QuickBooks Premier you can have 2 or more times the normal 5 user limit, except to the extent two users do need the same file at once. You also can use Macs, old PCs or low cost reliable Linux systems to access QuickBooks on Windows terminal server, locally or remotely. This made QuickBooks for Linux desktops a reality for us years ago, with big savings on virus and spyware program costs and time.

QuickBooks Terminal Server Support: Intuit only supports terminal server with  QuickBooks Enterprise, but has QuickBooks Terminal Server information in its  Knowledgebase. I have 48 years of heavy experience as a CPA and in programming, using, installing, supporting and managing computers and programs. Among my friends and local (Fort Lauderdale) computer techs is the second person on the original IBM PC project. I have gone to monthly computer club meetings for more than 30 years, including meetings of specialists in small business and terminal servers. However, for terminal server I want the fastest, easiest and least expensive QuickBooks Terminal Server support, from experts with 10+ years of experience supporting hundreds of QuickBooks Terminal Servers, with thousands of users of all QuickBooks versions. They constantly monitor and maintain my server and normally respond to Skype messages in less than 15 seconds.

Speed Up QuickBooks, also known as QuickBooks Performance Troubleshooting, is the fastest, easiest, most productive and least expensive way for you to substantially Speed Up QuickBooks. It helps you organize your efforts in ways that save you time and help you concentrate your efforts.

I created a Speed Up QuickBooks page for my blocktax.com site. In January 2006 I was proud to let Scott Wilder copy it for the Intuit QuickBooks Library, now at http://www.quickbooksgroup.com/qblibrary/Tips/speedup.html.  Since then I have often written about Speed Up QuickBooks, the contributions of others to this effort and the many related QuickBooks changes. All this made updates to Speed Up QuickBooks long overdue.

A QuickBooks employee, Community Guru Nic, took a very innovative approach to Speed Up QuickBooks. He calls it QuickBooks Performance Toubleshooting at "How to troubleshoot performance issues". I did not see it initially. However, QuickBooks Performance Troubleshooting adds 40 pages to Speed Up QuickBooks, plus many good links to additional information. QuickBooks Perfomance Trobleshooting also organizes this in ways that save you time and help you concentrate your efforts in productive ways.