Intuit Announces QuickBooks 2006: A Giant Leap in Simplifying Business
Press Release

 Most Significant Launch Since QuickBooks' Creation in 1992 Takes Simplicity to New Heights

   MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., - August 24, 2005 - Intuit Inc. (Nasdaq: INTU) has reinvented QuickBooks®, the nation's leading small business management software. QuickBooks 2006, available this fall, is the result of a multi-year development effort. Building on Intuit's trademark ease of use, the 2006 release simplifies key business tasks, saves businesses time with new inventory management and accounting controls and delivers faster performance for mid-market businesses.

  "We spent 13 years observing and working with small businesses so that we understand how they really work," said Brad Smith, senior vice president and general manager of QuickBooks. "From new single page views of critical business information to easier and faster navigation, and powerful new features for product-based businesses, QuickBooks 2006 incorporates lessons from the real experts - the more than 3 million small businesses and 230,000 accountants using QuickBooks everyday."

  Simplifying Key Business Tasks
QuickBooks 2006 simplifies work with a single, visual view of the entire business and key tasks, customized for each company's needs. Enhancements include:

Simplifying Work with Customers, Vendors and Employees: QuickBooks 2006 organizes all important customer, vendor and employee information into a single page for each: a Customer Center, Vendor Center and Employee Center.  Previously, users had to search for data, such as contact information, in one place and then move to another area to see transactional information, such as unpaid invoices. Now, all the tasks and information that belong together are grouped together - making it easier for users to find and act on it.

Simplifying Business Workflow: Other packages fail to give users a single view of how key business tasks fit together, making it difficult to understand workflow and get to the right place to do work. QuickBooks 2006 solves this problem with a new, customized One-Click Home Page that includes only the activities that are important to that business. A single, clickable map of business activities - including invoicing, timesheets and bill payment - helps users automate more of their business work in less time.

Simplifying Set Up: QuickBooks 2006 slashes set up time by up to 80 percent so new users can be up, running, and simplifying their business with QuickBooks far faster.

Right for Specific Types of Business
In 2001, Intuit was the first company to deliver Right for Me solutions - QuickBooks versions for different industries and different-sized firms. Intuit continues to lead the industry with precisely targeted versions that meet specific needs of specific business types. This fall the QuickBooks 2006 line will add new capability for three types of businesses: mid-sized firms, product-based businesses and accountants.

Faster Performance for Growing Businesses - QuickBooks is the only product family that grows with small businesses from startup to mid-market. From Simple Start to Enterprise Solutions, QuickBooks gives small businesses a growth path with a single platform that eliminates the need for any data migration, changes to business workflows, or new product training. QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions 2006, built on a new industry standard SQL database, gives customers a 50 percent increase in concurrent users and up to a two-and-one-half increase in performance on real-world tasks - so more mid-market firms will save more time with the simplicity of QuickBooks.

Automates the Work of Product-Based Businesses - QuickBooks 2006 offers powerful new inventory capabilities automating the key tasks of product-based businesses such as manufacturers, distributors and wholesalers. For example, Available-to-Promise, a feature previously available only in packages costing thousands of dollars more than QuickBooks, reports the exact amount of inventory on hand, where it is committed, when it is needed, and when more will arrive.

In the past, businesses were forced to sort through piles of open sales and purchase orders - all while a customer was waiting on hold - to guesstimate the quantity that could be promised and when it would arrive. QuickBooks 2006 simplifies a company's ability to commit to product delivery dates, or to borrow inventory tagged for later delivery on less critical orders.

QuickBooks 2006 will be available this fall. Watch our website to take advantage of discounts and special upgrade prices!

     Be sure and check out our tips section and archived newsletters for valuable information for your small business! And be sure to sign up for our newsletter so we can keep you apprised of tax law changes that may affect your bottom line!

We prepare this information as a convenience to our clients - readers agree to hold Grey Business Solutions, employees, and article contributors harmless in the incidence of errors or omissions.