Introduction

Thousands of small companies and nonprofit organizations turn to QuickBooks to keep company finances on track. And over the years, Intuit has introduced editions of QuickBooks to satisfy the needs of different types of companies. Back when milk was simply milk, you either used QuickBooks or you didn't. Now that you can choose milk from soy beans as well as cows and five different levels of fat, it's no surprise that QuickBooks comes in Simple Start, Pro, Premier, Online, and Enterprise editions, which, in some cases, are dramatically different from their sibling, as well as six industry-specific editions. From the smallest of sole proprietorships to burgeoning enterprises, one of the QuickBooks editions is likely to meet your organization's needs and budget.

QuickBooks isn't hard to learn. Many of the techniques that you're familiar with from other programs work just as well in QuickBooks—windows, dialog boxes, drop-down lists, and keyboard shortcuts, to name a few. With each new version, Intuit has added enhancements and new features to make your workflow smoother and faster. The challenge that remains is knowing what to do according to accounting rules, as well as how to do so in QuickBooks.