Q: Do I need to buy QuickBooks?
A: If you want to integrate The Edge and QuickBooks together, then you will have to buy QuickBooks; it is not included in the purchase price of The Edge.  

The QuickBooks integration is optional. The Edge is completely functional in the absence of QuickBooks and many stores elect to manually post to QuickBooks or another accounting program.

Q: What version of QuickBooks do I need?
A: From The Edge perspective, both the offline and online versions integrate in the same manner.  Whichever one you wish to use is up to you.  See Intuit’s website here for a comparison between the online and offline versions.

Q: How many copies of QuickBooks do I need to buy?
A: You must have at least one PC where both The Edge and QuickBooks are licensed to operate.  This is the PC where Set Up and Regular Posting is performed.  If you plan to use QuickBooks on multiple computers, you would likely need to purchase a multi-user license.  This is not a requirement for use with The Edge.

Q: How should I set up my chart of accounts in QuickBooks?
A: You should set up your chart of accounts according to your accountant’s recommendations.  The Edge support team can send you a simplified chart of accounts as an example. After you set up your QuickBooks chart of accounts, you will “connect” each of The Edge’s accounts to the corresponding account in your QuickBooks chart of accounts.  

Q: How do I get support for QuickBooks?
A: You get support for QuickBooks from Intuit, or perhaps some third-party support organization. Intuit provides a certain amount of free support with respect to getting your QuickBooks program installed, after which all support is fee-based.
 
The Edge Support Team will provide basic guidance to you in order to setup integration.  Beyond setup, we provide support with the mechanical linkage between The Edge/QuickBooks to ensure the link between the two programs is functioning correctly.

It is important that integration is managed and understood by your bookkeeping staff and / or accountant who can assist you with true accounting decisions.

Q: What about other accounting systems?
A: We are committed to providing our customers with every advantage that we possibly can.  QuickBooks has about 80 percent of the small business accounting market, and Intuit provides excellent support for developers, so it was an easy decision to integrate with QuickBooks.  At this time there are no plans to integrate with other accounting systems.  This is subject to change.

Q: Should I integrate The Edge with QuickBooks?
A: You should consider whether integrating will improve bookkeeping methods or save you time.  

Here are a couple questions to ask yourself. 

• Is your bookkeeping done off site?  The Edge cannot post to an offsite QuickBooks file without the addition of multi-store software.
• Is your bookkeeping done part time?  Part-time bookkeeping itself is just fine; it simply must be considered whether it would be efficient for your bookkeeping staff to learn the integration in order to maintain the books?

Q: When should I integrate The Edge with QuickBooks?
A: Plan to integrate once you are comfortable that your staff is operating The Edge every day effectively.    Also be certain you have completed The Edge New User Checklist.  
Example: If you have recently converted from another software system, have you:

• Completed a physical inventory?  
• Entered all starting receivable and credit balances?
• Are all repairs, layaways, and special orders entered and pending with accurate deposits?

Q: What if I use The Edge in a multi-store environment but the businesses are separate tax entities?
A: The Edge QuickBooks Integration operates under the assumption that all business postings are part of a single corporate tax entity.  The employs the use of “Classes” in QuickBooks to create some separation of store data, but this does not constitute a separate taxable business.

We would advise against integrating with QuickBooks if you use The Edge multi-store setup for the convenience of transferring records between two separate businesses.

Q: How does The Edge Post to QB when I do the X (x represents what you are inquiring about)?  
A: No matter type function you are trying to understand, you can get your answer from The Edge GL Report.

NOTE:  Find a day where you know a transaction of that type has occurred and run the GL report for that day only, with details.
If the transaction is from POS, you can choose the GL Report option “Group By Sale #” (uncheck other group options) to see the debits and credits organized sale by sale.

Q: What is the difference between Inventory Edge and Inventory QuickBooks?
A: The relationship between Inventory Edge and Inventory QuickBooks is a common cause of question and confusion when unfamiliar with our integration.  Here is a simple explanation:

Inventory Edge is the default asset account used to post all Inventory On-Hand that is entered into The Edge.

Inventory QuickBooks is a contra-asset account used to hold the credit side of new Edge inventory entered.  This credit is posted to QuickBooks and should be managed in QuickBooks as vendor bills are entered.  For example:

• In The Edge, items are entered with a cost value of the merchandise.  
• The Edge knows nothing of bench supplies, co-op advertising, credits, shipping costs, etc.  
• The Edge does not create the vendor invoice and has no direct link to Accounts Payable.
• So if you add a single item to inventory from an invoice to The Edge, and the cost is $1,000.
• The Edge posts a $1,000 debit to Inventory Edge and The Edge posts a $1,000 credit to Inventory QuickBooks.

At some point later the vendor bill is added to QuickBooks; for this example, the invoice is $1,050.00 ($1,000 in inventory and $50 in shipping).  You must expense the $1,000 to inventory QuickBooks (to knock the balance in the Inventory Contra Asset Account back to 0).  Expense the $50 to shipping or whatever expense account appropriate.