This is a
heads-up for QuickBooks 6.0 and QuickBooks 99 users who rely on Intuit's
tax tables for their payroll needs. Be advised that the company will no
longer support these versions after the end of the year. Most registered
users already have received written notice from Intuit, but it's my
experience that some are still dragging their feet in hopes of some last
minute miracle.
There will be no tax table
updates for QuickBooks 6.0 and 99 after Dec. 31, 2002. You can prepare
your payroll by manually calculating and entering payroll withholdings for
each paycheck, otherwise you must upgrade to QuickBooks 2002 to continue
using the Basic Payroll Service, now called "Do-It-Yourself
Payroll."
In a Jan. 24, 2000 column I
advised users to hang on dearly to these versions and not upgrade to
QuickBooks 2000 lest they be forced to maintain an ongoing Internet
connection to verify their paid subscription before each payroll run.
Since that time Intuit has revised its methods of delivering their tax
table service, but you'll still have to purchase a program update to
continue using their current tables. You also may need to upgrade you
computer system and add Internet connectivity for certain QuickBooks
features.
QuickBooks has been around
for many years and versions 6.0 and 99 still run well on older Pentium
systems with 32MB of RAM. The new system requirements for QuickBooks 2002
are a 350 MHz Pentium II processor with 64MB of RAM.Realize this is a
minimum system requirement, meaning that QuickBooks may run slow on a
system with this configuration and more processing muscle would be ideal.
For the small business doing
routine accounting tasks QuickBooks Basic 2002 should suit your needs just
fine. The upgrade price is $100 for the software plus another $129 for the
annual tax tables. Intuit also offers QuickBooks Premier 2002 ($300
upgrade) and QuickBooks Pro 2002 ($180 upgrade) that offer more advanced
functions such as estimating, time tracking and job costing. New to all
versions of QuickBooks is the ability to e-mail invoices and statements.
Also new this year, Intuit
will reinstate their tax table updates on diskette. Previously, the
company required all tax table subscribers to renew their tables via the
Internet, but with QuickBooks 2002, you can now elect to receive your tax
tables by mail on diskette or download them online. If you don't want to
be bothered with payroll chores, Intuit will process your payroll for a
fee.
If you're staunchly opposed
to upgrading your QuickBooks 6.0 or QuickBooks 99 but you still need to
pay your employees, you might consider QuickPayroll. Previously known as
QuickPay, QuickPayroll is a standalone payroll program designed to
integrate with Quicken, not QuickBooks. The software is free, provided you
subscribe to the tax table service for $99 annually and the system
requirements are less stringent for QuickPayroll than for the new
QuickBooks 2002.
QuickPayroll provides all the
functionality of the payroll module included with QuickBooks, except that
it's a standalone product, rather than integrated into the bookkeeping
software. It even looks similar to the payroll routine in QuickBooks. If
you decide on this route, you'd run your payroll and liabilities checks in
QuickPayroll and then add these entries manually to your QuickBooks
register so that your bank statements will reconcile.
It may be a hassle to fix
something that isn't broken by upgrading a perfectly good bookkeeping
system, but Intuit insures that their tax table subscriptions are the
"best way to stay compliant with changing federal and state payroll
regulations." If you want payroll with QuickBooks, you'll have to
upgrade.