Quickbooks Premier 2004

Data loss can be a big problem for any business, but sometimes it's an even bigger issue for home users. Think about all the family pictures you keep stored on your computer, the e-mails between family and friends, the home videos, etc. In today's world, most home computers contain data that you simply cannot put a price on.

Just for a moment, while you're sitting there reading this, think about what's on your computer. Maybe you have digital pictures celebrating the birth of your baby girl, or maybe it's a graduation video. I'm asking you....no, I'm begging you....if you have anything like that on your system and it's not backed up, back it up today!

Data recovery companies can help you, but the costs can be high, and in some cases the data is simply unrecoverable. A data recovery company recently received a case that really hit home with how important it is to back up personal data.

A gentleman sent his crashed drive into them for recovery, and over the phone, the symptoms he was describing didn't sound good. The drive had been making some unusual noises, wouldn't spin up properly, and was not seen by the system BIOS. This is usually indicative of a major mechanical issue with the drive.

The man said he would pay anything.....anything at all.....no matter how big the cost, to recover the data on that hard drive. Obviously very emotional, he then informed the tech that the drive had pictures of his daughter who had been killed recently, and he had no backup of them. It was probably one of the most heartbreaking moments imaginable. This was not someone's Quickbooks file, or a years worth of spreadsheet data, this was someone's life. This was one of the few things this man had to remember his daughter. You simply cannot put a price on something like that.

After much work, they were able to get a good image of the drive and eventually got to the point where a recovery of the data could be made. Everyone had their fingers crossed, hoping beyond hope that they had been able to make it work. You can imagine the excitement as a search for images from the recovered data was performed and thousands of pictures of this man's daughter were found. It was an unbelievable moment, and his reaction was beyond words.

While this particular case had a happy ending, 2 out of every 10 cases won't be so happy. It's just a fact within the industry that around 20% of the hard drives received will not be recoverable, either due to excessive platter damage or severe data corruption. Why even take the chance?

Please, go out and buy yourself one of the many cheap and affordable external backup devices available at just about any store. If you can afford it, buy two of them and keep them in two separate locations. This may seem extreme, but trust me, if you ever hear that "click of death" coming from your computer, you'll be happy to know your most precious data is safe and sound.

Quickbooks Premier 2004

“Intuit-approved and loaded with secrets, Quicken Press books provide you with recipes for financial success.” --Scott Cook, Co-founder, Intuit, Inc.

The only official guide to QuickBooks 2004, this information-packed resource teaches users of all levels how to manage their finances for business or home.

Covers QuickBooks Basic and QuickBooks Pro

Manage your small business with the only Intuit-authorized guide to QuickBooks!

This well organized, popular guide delivers all the information you need to maximize QuickBooks 2004. Learn to track customers, vendors, and inventory easily. Generate the right reports to manage your business. Understand the powerful features, and discover innovative workarounds for special circumstances. Chapters are organized to make this the ideal desktop reference for your bookkeeping tasks. Run your business efficiently and easily--even if you're a new business owner with no accounting experience--with the comprehensive coverage and easy-to-understand, expert advice in QuickBooks 2004: The Official Guide.

Inside, learn how to:

• Enter transactions quickly and accurately
• Analyze and manage finances
• Customize QuickBooks to match your own preferences
• Track money, time, mileage, and costs
• Create customized reports
• Track job costs by time and expense
• Manage employees
• Make tax preparation a breeze
• Streamline your bookkeeping tasks

Kathy Ivens is the author of more than 50 computer books and is a senior contributing editor for Windows & .NET Magazine. She uses QuickBooks to manage her own small-business finances.

About the AuthorKathy Ivens (Philadelphia, PA) has been a computer consultant since 1984, and several years ago she began writing books. She has authored, co-authored, contributed to, and ghost written more than forty volumes on computer subjects. Kathy is a frequent contributor to national magazines on computer topics, writing reviews and articles, and is a contributing editor for Windows 2000 Magazine and Windows NT Magazine.

Quickbooks Premier 2004 Photo

Quickbooks Premier 2004 Picture

Quickbooks Premier 2004 Photo

Quickbooks Premier 2004 Picture

Most helpful customer reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful.
Comprehensive Treatise on QuickBooks Pro 2004
By Ronald W. Satz
Ms. Ivens writes clearly, properly, and intelligently on QuickBooks software. The screen shots are legible, unlike those in some other computer books. The index is detailed, and thus useful. I counted only two typos in the 572 pages.

My company, Transpower Corporation (a commercial and custom software manufacturing and systems engineering company in metropolitan Philadelphia), did its first QuickBooks installation in 1999. I purchased Kathy's book QuickBooks 6.0--The Offical Guide; this helped to make the installation go smoothly. It's been five years since, and QuickBooks has changed considerably. So I purchased both of Kathy's current titles, QuickBooks 2004--The Offical Guide, and Running QuickBooks 2004 Premier Editions. Both are excellent and I recommend them to all computer consultants operating in the small business space, which QuickBooks has taken over by storm. (Unfortunately, QuickBooks is not so applicable to medium or larger businesses because 1) there is a five user limit for Pro/Premiere editions and a ten user limit for the Enterprise edition, 2) it does not work with Windows Terminal Server, and 3) it allows only seven custom fields). After reading both books, I've come to the conclusion that for most small businesses the Premiere editions (with their specialization) make more sense than the less expensive Pro edition.

Kathy provides many useful tips in her books. They go way beyond what is supplied in the manuals shipped with the software.

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful.
A Perfect Resource
By A
This book has the most accurate information on all the Quickbooks features, and the explanations are so easy to follow that it's like having a private tutor. No matter what you need to do, this book has instructions, even if you don't want to do things the way Quickbooks normally works. These workarounds, along with all the "insider" information and tips, make this book an incredibly useful, wonderful, guide to getting everything you need out of Quickbooks.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful.
Good overall resource but has some drawbacks
By Alan E. Cook
I decided that January 1, 2005 was a good time to start using Quickbooks Pro for my small business. I'd been using MYOB FirstEdge, but found it was rather limited in some areas. Whenever I think about starting to use new software, I browse around on Amazon for a good book on the package in question. This book stood out as probably a good resource and I was not far wrong. However, I have a couple of complaints. Firstly, the author's instructions on how to enter beginning balances is vague at best. Secondly, her discussion of complex issues such as how to set up Quickbooks for sales tax recording and reporting, is somewhat lacking. The book that came with the software actually does a better job at explaining Quickbooks' rather quirky method of sales tax accounting.

By all means buy this book. It has some really helpful material and is worth the purchase price. But don't pre-suppose that this book is ALL you will need in order to start using Quickbooks efficiently.

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