In the fast-moving Web 2.0 accounting software world, Intuit’s offering, QuickBooks Online Edition, is finally ready for Prime Time. Here are 10 reasons to try “QBOE”:

1. Collaboration. The hallmark of Web 2.0. Sure, you don’t want 100,000 “friends” looking at your books, but giving your financial team anytime, anywhere access to the books can accelerate the design and execution of your accounting system. Read: you get better data faster to make management decisions. This holds true whether your team is located in the same city, around the U.S., or all over the world.
2. Scalable. Start small or jump in with big numbers. QBOE can handle companies from start-up to $10 million in sales, maybe more.
3. Feature rich. You can track time, profit centers, and job costing; customize reporting; make estimates and recurring invoices; download online banking transactions…the list goes on and gets better every month.
4. Continuous improvement. Intuit’s not standing still. If the future of small business accounting is on-demand, software-as-a-service (SaaS), they’re investing heavily in a product that will help them maintain market share and protect the value of their QuickBooks brand.
5. Quick starting. Getting started is easy and fast. We’ve got a great rep who helps our clients. You can be up and running at a basic level in a matter of hours.
6. Full general ledger. A bona fide general ledger system opens the door to more effective financial management – even for small, simple start-ups. QBOE is an easy way to access a “real” accounting system vs. the pen and paper, spreadsheet workarounds that we often start with.
7. Affordable. For a 4-user package, pricing starts at $11 per month with an annual subscription and a permanent 40% discount if we recommend you to our rep. At the time of this writing their most expense package is $39.95 per month, but you probably don’t need all those features (e.g. we don’t recommend their payroll service). The biggest cost savings, though, are in reduced IT costs: upgrading your server/workstation networks to accommodate remote access, multi-user QB 2007 desktop versions can cost thousands of dollars.
8. Security. I wrote about this last week. Suffice it to say that Intuit’s data security protocols are probably better than those of most small businesses. Use a secure user name and password unique to your QBOE account. For additional peace of mind, download a copy of your QB Online file every week or so.
9. Customer service. So far their service has been out of this world. I’ve e-mailed them “how to” questions and received e-mail responses within hours, usually followed by phone calls. Answers were quick and definitive.
10. Desktop import/export. You can’t flip back and forth between working in QB Desktop and QB Online, but you can upload your existing QB desktop into QB Online. You only get one chance to do this, however – when you establish your QBOE account.

So what’s the bad news? Don’t look further if QuickBooks desktop is working great for you right now and meeting all your needs. If you need detailed inventory tracking, purchase orders, or online bill pay directly through QuickBooks – these features aren’t yet offered. If you’re on a Mac operating system that’s not PC-enabled, you can’t use QBOE. And finally, while the look and feel of QBOE has improved, as well as it’s reporting, it’s not as fast, clean and sharp as QB desktop.

Your business’ specifics will determine whether QBOE is right for you. You can talk with their reps, and our expert QuickBooks consultants can help you, too. But in general, QBOE has definitely come of age and we now recommend it without reservation for many types of businesses. And for the record, as spelled out in section 24 of our service policies, to avoid conflict of interest we do not accept any commissions for referrals to any third party vendors, including Intuit products and services.

To test drive QuickBooks Online Edition yourself, click the “Launch the Demo” icon on their sample company page.