To all our loyal clients and friends:

We wish you the very best in the coming year. We appreciate your support. Here’s to a happy, productive 2012!

From all of us at Abaca.net

You may have recently received an email with the following subject line:

“YOUR INTUIT ONLINE PAYROLL FREE TRIAL”

This is NOT a legitimate Intuit email and you should not open the attachment as the ZIP file contains a virus.

Here is the text:

More and more, we are being asked how to make QuickBooks work for a particular industry or a related, but non-accounting function like CRM or Scheduling.

No doubt, the most seamless solution would be integrated from start to finish so that prospects and clients are entered only once. This solution does exist and is usually found in high-end, prohibitively-expensive solutions.

However, integrative solutions from smaller, innovative companies are getting better and better.

For a list of QuickBooks-compatible third-party solutions, hold down the Ctrl key and click on the following link: Third Party Apps

Abaca.net staff members are proficient in a number of these applications. For a free consultation, call us at 800-626-5929.

Customers have reported receiving a fake QuickBooks Security Update. Below is a copy of the fake email.

You will not be able to access your Intuit QuickBooks account without Intuit Security Tool (IST) after 31th of October, 2011.

You can download Intuit Security Tool here.

After a successful download please run the setup for an automatic installation, then login to Intuit QuickBooks online to check that it is working properly.

This is the end of the fake email.

Information

On the Internet, “phishing” refers to criminal activity that attempts to fraudulently obtain sensitive information. There are several ways a scam artist will try to obtain your social security number, driver’s license, credit card information, or bank account information. Here is our QuickBooks Online commitment to you, as well as some steps you can take to make sure your data is safe and secure.

Our commitment to you:

What we (Intuit, the makers of QuickBooks) won’t do

1. We will never send you an email with a “software update” or “software download” attachment.
2. We will never send you an email asking you for login or password information to be sent to us.
3. We will never ask you for your banking information or credit card information in an email. We will never ask you for confidential information about your employees in an email.

What we’ll do

1. We will provide you with instructions on how to stay current with your Intuit product, and we will provide you with information on how to securely download an update from your computer.
2. If we need you to update your account information, we will request that you do so by logging into your account.

Here’s what you can do to protect yourself from a phishing attack:

1. If you suspect you have received a phishing email from Intuit, please forward it immediately to spoof@intuit.com. We will look into each reported instance.
2. Make sure you subscribe to an anti-virus software and keep it up-to-date.
3. Make sure you have updated your web browser to one that includes anti-phishing security features, such as Internet Explorer 7 or Firefox version 3 or higher
4. Make sure that you keep up to date on the latest releases and patches for your operating systems and critical programs. These releases are frequently security related.
5. Do not respond to emails asking for account, password, banking, or credit card information.
6. Do not open up an attachment that claims to be a software update. We will not send any software updates via email.

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7. Make sure you have passwords on your computer and your payroll files.

Here are 3 common methods that phishers use in their emails

1. Spoofed email address.Don’t reply to unsolicited email and don’t open email attachments. It’s easy to fake a From or Reply To address, either manually or with spam software, so never assume an email is real by looking at its header. You might be able to spot fake addresses by checking for domain name misspellings, but this isn’t foolproof. Some email service providers combat the problem of spoofed addresses by using authentication techniques to verify a sender’s integrity.
2. Fake link.When in doubt, never click on a link in an unsolicited or suspicious email. Scam emails can contain a hidden link to a site that asks you to enter your log on and account information. A clue: if the email threatens you with account closure if you don’t log on soon, you could be the target of phishing. You may be able to tell if a link is real by moving your mouse over it and looking at the bottom of your browser to see the hidden Web address – it will look different than the one you see on the surface.
3. Forged Website.If you must visit a financial site, like your bank or credit card company, enter its known address into the browser location field manually. Use a browser with an anti-phishing plug-in or extension, like FireFox version 3 or higher or Internet Explorer 7. These browsers warn you about forged, high-risk sites. Phony Web sites mimic real sites by copying company logos, images, and site designs. Malicious webmasters can also use HTML, Flash or Java Script to mask or change a browser address.

Visit security.intuit.com to get the most up to date information about phishing. Forward suspicious emails to spoof@intuit.com.

Normally, we greet new software releases with a yawn and a suspicious eye, but this time we feel that Intuit has really listened to end users and has added some 5-star improvements:

Here are a few of the new and improved features:

***** NEW!  Enhanced Inventory Receiving – Manage new inventory received by entering item receipts and bills related to each other or to purchase orders. Achieve reliable inventory counts, regardless of the order in which transactions are entered.

ACHTUNG! Although we love the new improvements to Inventory Receiving, we want to caution our clients not to go all weak in the knees and turn this on immediately. You really need to understand how it works in depth before you use it, and how it potentially affects historical transactions and average costs. Our recommendation, at this point, is to only use it with a new data file. More on this in future blog postings.

NEW! Faster Form Completion – Find items in your sales forms based on item detail, including custom fields, directly from your sales order, invoice, or sales receipt. With the click of a button, populate the selected items into the form you’re working on.

***** NEW! Automatic Price Adjustments – Set a default percentage or dollar amount markup for your items. When costs change, choose to increase sales prices by your markup amount, or have QuickBooks automatically make the changes for you.

ATTENTION, SI’L VOUS PLAIT! This one might be the whole reason to upgrade from Pro or Premier to Enterprise. How long have users been asking for a simple, automatic way to increase sales prices based on ever increasing costs?

IMPROVED! More Price Levels. Now you can add up to 750 different prices in the price level list.

NEW! More Multi-User Activities – Now complete more activities in multi-user mode:

- Define custom fields

- Set a closing date

- Make deposits

- Change any list sort order

NEW and Improved Features – QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions 12.0

1.    NEW!  Calendar View.  Integrated calendar feature lets you easily view timely information, including invoice and billing dates and other scheduled tasks.  Improved To-Do List captures your most relevant dates and displays them in the Calendar View.  Past due transactions are automatically flagged.

***** 2.    IMPROVED! Excel Integration Refresh.  Save formatting and save time. Now when you export your QuickBooks reports to Excel, simply refresh your previously saved worksheet and your formats will be applied to the new report.  QuickBooks remembers your Excel formats so you can work seamlessly.

ATENCION, POR FAVOR!  If you spend a lot of time in exported spreadsheets, you will love this long, over-due improvement. It’s a real time-saver.

3.    IMPROVED! Memorized Transactions.  Let QuickBooks do your most frequent and time-consuming tasks for you.  In addition to automatically executing recurring transactions like weekly and monthly bills and invoices, you can now easily select which transactions to run and which to postpone. Includes new bi-monthly option.

4.    NEW! Document Center (formerly Attached Documents, now a NEW feature).  Get organized by scanning and attaching receipts, estimates and other important business documents to your QuickBooks records with drag and drop ease.  The new QuickBooks Document Center lets you store files locally on your hard drive.  A major advantage at tax time.

5.    NEW! Lead Center.  QuickBooks helps you create and manage your valuable business leads.  The new QuickBooks Lead Center also easily imports and tracks your existing leads. When a lead becomes a customer, move all the lead information to the Customer Center with a single click.

6.    NEW! Batched Invoices for Time and Expenses.  Now you can invoice multiple customers for time and expenses in one convenient batch.  Create a single invoice for customers who share regularly scheduled expenses and QuickBooks will process them, no additional reentry needed.

7.    NEW! Batched Time Sheets.  Now you can process multiple vendor and employee time sheets in one convenient batch.  Create a single time sheet for employees and vendors who share the same work hours, and QuickBooks will process them all with no additional reentry.

8.    NEW! Popular Reports.  QuickBooks gives you access to report templates created by other QuickBooks users in your industry. Search by popularity, user rating and industry.  Choose the template you like and QuickBooks will populate the report with your business data in one click.

9.   NEW! Inventory Center – Easily find and locate inventory tasks by accessing your inventory items and reports all in one place with QuickBooks Inventory Center. Now add a notes field or image to each item for quick identification.  (note: image capabilities available in ES only)

QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions Advanced Inventory

***** NEW!  Serial number or lot tracking – conveniently track serial numbers or lot numbers right inside QuickBooks.

- Enter serial numbers and lots at the time of purchase, transfer, or sale – this means no additional data entry is required for reliable tracking.

- You can track defective lots through assemblies and subassemblies , in stock on shelves, and customer purchases with new reports.

NEW!  FIFO Inventory Costing – Now you have the flexibility to work in FIFO costing in addition to average costing for tracking inventory.  Easily switch between costing methods whenever you want.

Track inventory in multiple locations – Track inventory through multiple warehouses, trucks or piles, transfer items from one location to another, and get detailed reports by location.

If you have questions, or would like a demo of QBES 12.0, call us at  800-626-5929 or email Elizabeth Way at eway@abaca.net.

Happy Upgrading!

Squeamish about using a credit card in certain on-line situations?

Use a fake one.

No we’re not advocating anything illegal. “Virtual” credit cards have actually been around for a while. The idea is to use an alternative credit card number that is linked to a real credit card or to a checking account. If this credit card number is stolen, it leads thieves to  a data dead end instead of your personal information.

This type of virtual credit card can also be limited to a single purchase or have a purchase ceiling.

Check with your bank to see if they offer this service for free. Or expect to pay a 2-4% fee

Email security scams are popping up like tulips at Keukenhof. One of the latest appears to come directly from Intuit instructing the recipient to download an update or another saying that you will not be able to access your Intuit QuickBooks account without the "Intuit Security Tool" (IST(tm)) after 10th of April, 2011.

Some scam giveaways are misspelling, strange grammar or foreign date formats. We say don't read your email when you're too tired to concentrate. And, if there's even a scintilla of doubt, don't open the email.

According to Intuit,

Here's what you can do to protect yourself from a phishing attack:

1. If you suspect you have received a phishing email from Intuit, please forward it immediately to spoof@intuit.com. We will look into each reported instance.
2. Make sure you subscribe to an anti-virus software and keep it up-to-date.
3. Make sure you have updated your web browser to one that includes anti-phishing security features, such as Internet Explorer 7 or Firefox version 3 or higher
4. Make sure that you keep up to date on the latest releases and patches for your operating systems and critical programs. These releases are frequently security related.
5. Do not respond to emails asking for account, password, banking, or credit card information.
6. Do not open up an attachment that claims to be a software update. We will not send any software updates via email.
7. Make sure you have passwords on your computer and your payroll files.

For those old enough to remember the disaster that was the original ACT! to QuickBooks link, here's a another idea. Karen Fredricks, author of 11 CRM books and world-renowned ACT! expert, has worked with a developer to bring her vision of the link to life.

For more info, click here: ACT! to QuickBooks Link .

Effective February 18, 2011, Intuit is offering the following Add Seat Promotion:

5->10 Users: $2,500 $2,000 plus the adjusted FSP – everyday price

10->30 Users: $3,500 $3,000 plus the adjusted FSP

5->30 Users: $5,500 $5,000 plus the adjusted FSP

Note that the price is for the software only and that a prorated Full Service Plan fee will be added to this dollar amount. 

Annual prices for the Full Service Plan are as follows:

For help determining your prorated FSP cost, contact us via email or by phone 561-737-3999.

This promotion expires March 31, 2011.

Everyone at Abaca.net wishes you and your family a happy and prosperous new year.