For You

You deserve high quality QuickBooks training and help, no matter which version of QuickBooks you use.  You have invested a lot of time and effort in working to make your business successful.  Whether you are just starting out, or have been in business for many years, you want an accurate financial reporting system.

If you need help just starting and setting up a QuickBooks, Marilyn can help you with your chart of accounts, set up invoicing, paying bills, sales tax, etc.  It will save you so much time and money in the future if your books are set correctly from the very beginning.

If you’ve been using QuickBooks for many years, Marilyn can help you move to the next level of expertise.  Maybe you think you have exhausted the capabilities of QuickBooks but don’t want to leave the comfort level you have established with software that is familiar to you.  There can be a number of options. It may be as simple as finding out there are functions within QuickBooks of which you are not aware.  Perhaps you will need to move to another QuickBooks package.  Or maybe there is an add-on package that will allow you to keep QuickBooks for your accounting and have the add-on fill the other need you have.

To help ensure that you get quality help and training, Marilyn attends anywhere from 2 – 5 national QuickBooks and QuickBooks related training seminars and conferences every year.  She spends, on average, about an hour each day on tech support websites, reviewing issues that may have come up from other ProAdvisors throughout the QuickBooks ProAdvisor networks.  The cost of belonging to these groups ranges up to $1,000.00 each year.  She frequently attends training on the web that relate to specific QuickBooks topics.

About Nimbus

Nimbus Consulting was founded by Marilyn Sudbeck, CPA to represent the future of small- to mid-size business computing.  The future of computing is “in the clouds.”  Nimbus is the rain cloud; Nimbus Consulting will be working with all of you who are rain makers.  However, our background is on desktop computing and, of course, we still remain strong consultants in desktop, laptop and server environments.

Marilyn began working with QuickBooks in 1995 when she recommended QuickBooks to a community college for small business software classes.  She was one of the first QuickBooks ProAdvisors, long before Intuit even offered certification.  In 2003, Marilyn left the corporate world and began consulting with QuickBooks full time.

She works with all versions of QuickBooks, all years of QuickBooks and many 3rd party add-ons.  She has taught classes at Colorado Free University, Red Rocks Community College and a computer learning center.  She has been a speaker at the Illinois Society of CPAs Business and Technology Solutions Conference, the Colorado Society of CPAs, the Sleeter Group National Conference for QuickBooks ProAdvisors and the Rocky Mountain Area Conference for Finance and Accounting Professionals.   She currently teaches QuickBooks seminars for CPAs in the Continuing Education area of the University of Denver Law School.

She is on Intuit’s national advisory council for Intuit Solution Providers.  The Intuit Solution Providers bring high level expertise to QuickBooks Pro & Premier, QuickBooks Enterprise, QuickBooks Point of Sale and QuickBase. Marilyn has worked with Intuit in developing training materials for consultants who want to become Certified ProAdvisors in Point of Sale.  She is working with Intuit in developing training materials for ProAdvisors who wish to become Certified in Point of Sale for version 10 (the latest version).

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Fishbowl Inventory

QuickBooks Inventory Management Software

Fishbowl Inventory is the #1-Selling Inventory Control Program for QuickBooks. If you enjoy using QuickBooks as your accounting solution but need better inventory control, then Fishbowl Inventory is the answer for you! Fishbowl Inventory was one of the first programs to integrate with QuickBooks and currently holds Gold Developer Status, Intuit's highest award for third-party integrators. Many organizations looking to track their assets also use Fishbowl as a powerful standalone solution.

Fishbowl Inventory, the #1-Selling Inventory Management Software for QuickBooks, just got even better with the release of Fishbowl 2011. Fishbowl 2011 offers new features, like cycle counting, report customizability and easy access to reports through a new favorites list. Plus, it’s more user friendly with its brand-new user interface and increased stability.

Searching for the right inventory solution to meet your company's needs can be a daunting task. Custom solutions can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars with installation and training, and other programs don't have all of the features and options you need. As shown in the diagram below, Fishbowl works with QuickBooks and handles all of your manufacturing and inventory control needs.

Fishbowl Mobile® Warehouse

Take your warehouse to the next level by incorporating powerful, easy-to-use bar-coding technology. Fishbowl Mobile Warehouse lets you view and adjust inventory levels from anywhere in your warehouse. Whether you are shipping, receiving or simply moving inventory from one location to another, Fishbowl will help you increase your inventory accuracy and worker productivity with ease! See all of the ways you can use Fishbowl Mobile Warehouse in your business.

Cycle Counting

Fishbowl Inventory 2011 makes updating product quantities much easier with its cycle counting feature!

Scan In With the Receiving Module
With the simple scan of a barcode, you can receive inventory into your system as it comes off the truck, make adjustments to quantities being received, and enter tracking information in real time. Receive parts with serial numbers, lot numbers, revision levels and expiration dates. Fishbowl even suggests where to place your incoming inventory, helping your workers become even more efficient.

Scan Out With the Picking Module
Fishbowl lets you start and finish a pick order right from your handheld device. Instead of having to print a pick order, the program walks you through your warehouse telling you where to pick and the quantity needed to fill your order. Save time by combining multiple orders and picking them simultaneously. Pick inventory for sales orders, work orders, transfer orders and vendor returns.

Move Inventory on the Go
Keep your warehouse up to date by recording inventory movements as they happen. Many inventory discrepancies occur as the result of misplaced, moved, or poorly recorded parts. Rather than trying to keep track of which parts are moved to new locations and entering changes after the fact, Fishbowl Mobile Warehouse allows you to simply scan the location and part bar codes to record the move of your inventory. You'll save time by recording the movement of inventory as it occurs.

Retrieve Part Information
Quickly and easily look up part descriptions, UPCs, and real-time part tracking information. Use existing UPCs, serial & lot numbers, expiration dates, or Fishbowl-generated barcodes to manage your inventory with accuracy and efficiency. You can even assign new or updated UPCs. If you're using a wireless device and happen to leave your coverage area, your data is automatically preserved and ready to resubmit once the connection is reestablished. Also, Fishbowl’s security settings let you customize access rights by user. Fishbowl Mobile Warehouse runs on mobile devices with Microsoft Mobile 5 and 6.

QuickBooks Point of Sale

QuickBooks Point of Sale is probably the easiest of all the QuickBooks products to use. However, it is the most challenging to set up. If not set up properly there will be errors that can NEVER be corrected. Yes, they can be corrected going forward but the sales that were done incorrectly in the past usually cannot be fixed.

When you are opening a new retail store, or when you have purchased an existing store, you are making a substantial investment in everything from build-out to fixtures to inventory. You will have a lot of concerns on your mind. Having a POS system that is set up properly from the very beginning will help make your store easier to run.

Marilyn had 15 years of retail management experience before she became a CPA. So she truly understands, more than most QuickBooks ProAdvisors, what goes on behind the counter. She even installed a POS system in the store she managed in the 1980s. Yes, it ran on DOS, which she now refers to as Dinosaur Operating System.

She has worked on well over 150 installations. Many of these were original installations that she did herself. However, a great number were situations where she had to fix an incorrect set up. Read some stories at the end of the page.
Many of the issues relate to how the sales tax was set up in the Point of Sale. Most people do not understand how sales tax is supposed to work in POS. Because Marilyn is a CPA and has been a retailer, she understands how it should work and will set it up properly.

Marilyn is on the Intuit Solution Provider Advisory Council. The Intuit Solution Provider group primarily works with QuickBooks Point of Sale and QuickBooks Enterprise. However Marilyn has been working with all QuickBooks products since 1995. She also is co-authoring the QuickBooks Point of Sale version 10.0 training materials for other QuickBooks ProAdvisors who wish to become certified in POS.

Some Stories:

1. A POS advisor in Pennsylvania was exhibiting QB POS at a trade show. When people stopped at his booth to discuss QuickBooks he found out something very interesting. 100% of the people who set it up themselves or had it set up by someone who was not very knowledgeable “hated it,” “wanted to throw it in the ditch,” or ‘wanted to throw it in the trash.” 100% of the people who had a knowledgeable ISP or POS Certified ProAdvisor set it up “loved it.”

2. The POS system for a store had been set up incorrectly a number of years ago. They needed to have their books in order because they wanted to sell the business. The estimate to review and correct the errors was anywhere from $8,000.00 to $15,000.00. They needed to hire a specialized audit company to do this work.

3. Marilyn had set up the POS in a brand new store. Their bookkeeper came in after a month and changed the sales tax to a method that did not work in Colorado. One side effect is that the new method generated a lot more work for the bookkeeper. But there was no reason to redo the sales tax.

4. A very well-meaning board member set up a POS for a non-profit’s thrift store. But he/she missed a very important step. As a result the non-profit lost all their credit card sales from December through March when they called Marilyn to see why they were not getting bank deposits for their credit card transactions.