What is QuickBooks 2012 Express Start?

March 27, 2012 by Ed Becker

Every year, Intuit tweaks and revises QuickBooks. With the 2012 upgrades, Intuit promises:

• a better and faster workflow
• enhanced insight into financial information
• further centralization data
• new ways to access data

All are welcome improvements for existing QuickBooks users, but what improvements does QuickBooks 2012 offer companies just starting out with QuickBooks?  Or to CPAs and bookkeepers who are regularly setup new QuickBooks files clients?

An innovative new feature for QuickBooks 2012 is the new Express Start.  With Express Start, a company setting up their new QuickBooks file (or a CPA / bookkeeper doing so on their behalf) can speed through the setup and start entering customers and invoices immediately.

Express Start requires minimal input:

• company name
• industry
• company type
• tax ID
• contact information

No information about fiscal year or Chart of Accounts or other questions need to be answered (as in past versions of QuickBooks).

Would you like to see the new Express Start in action before taking the plunge with it yourself?

Check out this short (less than 3 minute) video put out by Intuit UK. (Note, there are a couple of United Kingdom-specific fields shown in the video, which would be the IRS-equivalents for US customers).

Express Start should prove to be a time saver for both companies new to QuickBooks, and to CPAs and bookkeepers.  In a future post, I’ll be sharing more on how to get the most out of the Express Start feature.