Monthly Archives: February 2015

3 posts

Automate QuickBooks Backup

It’s not unusual to see small companies assume their nightly backup works correctly, until they find out the hard way. It seems to me that loss of business data frequently involves QuickBooks, so I created a short film instructing users on automating their QuickBooks backups.

This QuickBooks backup process uses the native process in QuickBooks with a bit of a twist. It keeps seven days of company files available for recovery in an online off site location, out of your building. Seven days helps to alleviate the problem of catastrophic data entry errors, allowing a business to reconcile and/or revert back to a previous day’s company files if necessary.

Test your backup at least once a month. Do a complete trial recovery from your backup file copied to one of your QuickBooks client computers. Then, close the recovered company file and delete it and the copied backup file. You will not want to confuse your trial restored company file with your production company file.

Now the film.

Solve QuickBooks Performance Problems

Intuit created a four part series of QuickBooks Support Knowledge Base articles that in their entirety provide a reasonably complete guide to dealing with QuickBooks performance problems. Unfortunately Intuit did not publish the entire compliment of information into some sort of downloadable guide. One must labor through Intuit’s QuickBooks Support website’s confusing navigation to obtain the information.

I completed this page for a reference that may help you to locate the solution to your QuickBooks performance problem. I also compiled all the pages into a downloadable guide for your convenience. Make no mistake, all the credit goes to Intuit for publishing this information.

Resolve QuickBooks Performance Issues:

Part 1 – Overview When working with QuickBooks over a network or with a large company file, you may experience certain types of performance issues relating to slowness, taking a long time to open, or other similar behavior.

Part 2 – Improve QuickBooks performance on your network Many types of networks are in use today to run QuickBooks. Not all of them will run QuickBooks effectively.

Part 3 – Manage your computers You can increase the performance of QuickBooks by enhancing your server and workstations.

Part 4 – Manage your data file If you are having issues with the performance of your QuickBooks installation, your company file may be the root cause.

Download your copy of the Improve QuickBooks Performance Guide here

QuickBooks for MSPs and IT Service Providers

Data/Voice NetworksThe ugly secret is out. When you move your clients to a typical QuickBooks hosting provider, you eventually loose your clients. But, it probably won’t happen right away. If you’ve done any QuickBooks work, you know that QuickBooks requires on going support, a lot of on going support.

Every time your client calls your QuickBooks hosting provider, your QuickBooks hosting provider experiences another targeted sales opportunity. Eventually, you loose control and your client will receive all of their computer systems support from your QuickBooks hosting provider. It’s the next clear ASP industry wide agenda, called HaaS or hardware as a service or Secure Remote Desktops.

You can capitalize on two potential pitfalls with the ASP model. First, you never know where the data center for a particular “ASP” might be located. I know one “ASP” that’s data center is in their office. Second, your client’s required to upload their QuickBooks company files to the ASP’s data center server that might be shared among several customers. Security and down time are recurring concerns for the typical ASP business.

The Painless QuickBooks approach is very different. Your data center applications including QuickBooks are totally under your control in data centers owned by Amazon, Google, Intermedia or Microsoft. You are not an ASP, however, you own your own private cloud from which to grow and scale up your IT business. You can easily transfer this model to your clients and maintain the excellent customer service they are accustomed to.

Data Center based applications deliver well documented competitive advantages for businesses. Your clients can benefit from all of these competitive advantages.

  • Eliminate costs of purchasing powerful servers that require security and skilled IT staff to be available 24/7/365
  • Save money that they would typically spend on high performance workstations by utilizing consumer grade equipment
  • Stop frustrating manual upgrades to individual computers by receiving upgrades performed once on a single server
  • Reduce office space demands by gaining access to company applications regardless of employee’s location
  • Remove backup and recovery liability with enhanced application and data backup snapshots taken at regular intervals
  • Work from a smart phone, an iPad, a Windows or Android tablet with complete cross platform application compatibility
  • Mitigate risk in a computing environment of rapidly changing technology and security issues
  • Lower costs per transaction through economies of scale in infrastructure, people and tools
  • Redeploy your time and talent to focus on your core business activities rather than complex Information Technology

We would like to help you move out in front of your competing QuickBooks hosting providers. Please contact us when you’re ready to make your move.