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This section provides a quick introduction to the basics of using ManagePLUS. We suggest you work through the lessons in the order presented, which is roughly the order you’ll follow when using ManagePLUS with your own QuickBooks records. As you grow comfortable with ManagePLUS you will find yourself cycling through these steps, or at least part of them, repeatedly.
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“Must I always follow these steps in this same order?”
No, ManagePLUS is very forgiving of the order in which you do things. However, the order is important while working through the tutorials: performing the steps in a different order may cause you miss important concepts or information.
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It’s based on a “farm business” example. Why? The tutorial lessons are based on a sample QuickBooks file (MP Farm Example.QBW) containing transactions from a farm business. Why did we choose that business type? Here are some of the reasons:
| · | We wanted to use a commodity-based business for the example, because businesses which buy and sell commodities provide lots of opportunities to “show off” the special quantity handling and reporting features of ManagePLUS. Farm and ranch business transactions frequently deal with purchase or sale of commodity-based items.
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| · | We needed a business type with clear examples of cost centers and profit centers to demonstrate ManagePLUS’ management accounting features. Most farms and ranches are pseudo-manufacturing businesses with clearly obvious profit centers (crops, livestock, produce, etc.) and cost centers (machinery, labor, and management areas which incur costs while providing services to the profit-center parts of the business).
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| · | While we could have based examples on an imaginary factory making an imaginary product (i.e., “widgets”), using a real-world business type promotes more realistic examples. We needed a business type for the examples with a simple enough business model to be fairly accessible to (comprehended by) all readers, and farming/ranching seemed a reasonable fit.
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What QuickBooks version do I need for the tutorials? As this is written, the sample files provided with ManagePLUS are compatible with U.S. desktop editions of QuickBooks, 2006 and later.
ManagePLUS itself is compatible with U.S. desktop editions of QuickBooks 2003 and later; however, the sample files we provide are not compatible with those earlier versions, because we no longer test ManagePLUS against QuickBooks versions earlier than 2006.
ManagePLUS is also compatible with Canadian and U.K. QuickBooks versions 2004 and later. However, we do not yet supply sample files compatible with those versions.
 | This information is subject to change without notice. For current information, please visit our Web site or email us at info@goflagship.com with your QuickBooks compatibility questions. |
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