George Kaplan is not your typical Certified Public Accountant, in that his Salem, Massachusetts office doesn’t offer typical accounting services. “I’m more of a consulting shop,” he says. “I offer business strategy services, and one of those strategies is to recommend QuickBooks software solutions to my clients and make sure they use the products correctly. Once they have clean data, then we focus on making good business decisions.”

In practice since 1987 and a Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor since 1997, George looks for closely held companies that are interested in growth or improving their profitability. Which is why he likes QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions, because it can offer so much—not just to his clients, but to him as well.

Benefits for Both Client and Accountant

“Enterprise Solutions is great on several levels,” according to George. “First, it enables me to offer a growing client an alternative. Prior to Enterprise Solutions, we would have to look at something else. Now when they reach that point, instead of spending $50,000 or $100,000 dollars on a new system, customization, conversion and training, they can upgrade to Enterprise Solutions for a whole lot less—and not just in purchasing the product, but maintaining it as well, which can be painful with competing products.”

Another big benefit to business owners using QuickBooks, George feels, is the peace of mind they

enjoy upgrading with a brand they trust. They have tremendous confidence that the product isn’t going to blow up on them, he says, and that they can rely on Intuit’s technical support team to back them.

There is a big benefit for George as well: the ability to stay with his clients as they move to the next level. “By having Enterprise Solutions available, I can maintain business relationships that I’ve had for many years, as opposed to clients that grow to a certain size and then have to go to another software vendor,” he says. “Enterprises Solutions keeps me in the picture. I have a product that can solve their growth challenges, and if they choose that solution, my services continue or grow.

When Less is More

A great example of when a more expensive solution isn’t always better is one of George’s own clients, Jim Lerner. Jim is in the unique position of being CEO of two widely divergent companies with two very different accounting systems—QuickBooks Pro and Great Plains. This situation gave him a daily side-by-side comparison of the two products, and Jim was surprised by how much better QuickBooks worked compared to the other much more costly and complex system.

Lenox-Martell, a beverage company, was using Great Plains. It does $7 million annually selling and servicing beverage dispensing systems, icemakers, and walk-in refrigerators, and selling soft drink syrups. The sales model is simple. Customers

ProAdvisor® Helps CEO Make Better Business Decisions for His Two Companies Using QuickBooks® Enterprise Solutions

CASE STUDY

Page 1

ACCOUnTAnT PROFILE• CPA and business strategy consultant

in practice since 1987• Located in Salem, Massachusetts• Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor® since

1997; recommending Enterprise Solutions since 2004

• Helped CEO of Lenox-Martell and Gym Services convert their systems from Great Plains and QuickBooks Pro, respectively, to QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions

“Enterprise Solutions enables me to offer a growing client an alternative that didn’t exist before. Now, they can stay with a brand they already know and trust, and I can keep long-time business relationships going while growing my practice.”

George Kaplan Strategic Business ConsultantCertified QuickBooks ProAdvisor

BUSInESS CHALLEngEThe CEO of both a beverage company and an exercise equipment company wanted one financial management solution that would fit both firms and be easy to use, but not cost a fortune to own and maintain.

His CPA wanted a solution that would meet his client’s reporting and growth needs while making it possible for him to maintain the valuable business relationship.

SOLUTIOnQuickBooks Enterprise Solutions of-fers Lenox-Martell and Gym Services: • Up-to-the-minute reporting for

critical business solutions• Low licensing costs and

quick installation• High performance for multiple

users and platform stability• Short learning curve for new

employees to use the system

BEnEFITS FOR THE ACCOUnTAnT• An affordable upgrade path that helps

retain clients with growing businesses• The opportunity to maintain long-time

business relationships• A way to increase consulting hours and

grow his practice

BEnEFITS FOR THE CLIEnT• At-a-glance insights into company pro-

cesses and profitability• Ability to make faster, smarter business

decisions• Familiar ease-of-use and significantly

lower installation and support costs

QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions enables Lenox-Martell/gym Services to:

• Get accurate business data in a more timely fashion

• See business details in real-time

• Work more efficiently using one accounting solution

CASE STUDY

ProAdvisor Helps CEO Make Better Business Decisions for His Two Companies Using QuickBooks® Enterprise Solutions • Page 2

don’t have to order in advance; the company’s delivery drivers simply determine onsite what’s low and replenish as needed from their fully stocked trucks. They enter the information into a handheld computer and print out an invoice right there.

“From my standpoint, Great Plains was difficult to use,” says Jim. “The software company that makes our delivery truck routing software had integrated Great Plains into their package, that’s the only reason we got it.”

Jim also found that Great Plains’ ongoing costs were painful. “Support was running us $10,000 a year,” he reports, “and when they announced that their new upgrade was going to cost an additional $20,000, I remember saying, ‘There’s got to be a better way!’ and there was—right on my computer.”

Jim’s other company, Gym Services, was being run on QuickBooks Pro. Gym Services generates just over $1 million annually repairing and maintaining exercise equipment for hotels, fitness centers, and others. Using QuickBooks Pro, Jim was able to easily run financial statements and sales and expense reports to help him make quick decisions.

But it was a different story over at Lenox-Martell. “When we used Great Plains, it would take our Controller so much time to set up, then run, reports using this FRX tool. I would get a financial statement around the 18th of each

month,” Jim states. “It was three weeks into the new month before I could make important decisions, and those were based on information from the previous month. I finally said, ‘This is insane! If I can get information instantly at Gym Services, why can’t I at Lenox-Martell?’ That’s when we made the change.” Moving to Enterprise Solutions With His

ProAdvisor’s Help

Making the switch wasn’t cut and dry for Jim. While he liked the simplicity and responsiveness of Pro, he needed a system that could keep up with the volume of invoices and data that Lenox-Martell could generate in a day. At the same time, Gym Services needed more people to be able to access the finances, which was putting a strain on the system. That’s when George stepped in with the perfect solution.

“From my experience working with Enterprise Solutions, I knew it was right for Jim’s unique situation,” George explains, “especially because of its ability to handle large data files. Lenox-Martell sells both beverage supplies and equipment, plus they also service that equipment so they generate a lot of sales orders and invoices. I knew Enterprise Solutions could handle the workload easily. Another plus for Lenox-Martell—moving to Enterprise Solutions from Great Plains was going to provide remarkable cost-savings on software licensing, maintenance costs, technical support and more.”

“The switch was easy on the staff, and the learning curve with Enterprise Solutions is gentle,” says Jim. “There’s nothing better than being able to get a new employee up and running quickly. On our old system, we had a trainer come in for three weeks. With Enterprise Solutions, the system is easy to learn, and support is there in case we need it. It’s made a huge difference.”

More Functionality Equals More Consulting Hours

George helps his clients with many things as they make the switch to Enterprise Solutions, including departmentalization issues, class tracking, customer job tracking, new business acquisitions and more. And with all its functionality, Enterprise Solutions always seems to have ways to push the data harder and get more out of it. It’s the same consulting effort, George says, just on a larger scale, which means greater work for his practice. Another big benefit with Enterprise Solutions, George says, is that this great myriad of processes can be handled in one piece of software versus competing products with costly modifications or add-on products.

“Enterprise Solutions has proven to be very helpful to my clients, because it’s a solution that can grow as they do,” George said. “And, it’s been valuable to my practice because it enables me to keep working with those clients and keep the relationship going.”

For more information about QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions for accountants, visit our Web site at http://accountant.intuit.com/es, or call 888-236-9501.For more information about Lenox-Martell, visit www.lenoxmartell.com.For more information about George Kaplan, PC, visit www.gkpc.com

Free DemoClick “Try it now” on http://accountant.intuit.com/testdrive for a free demo of QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions.© 2006 Intuit Inc. All rights reserved. Intuit, the Intuit logo, and QuickBooks are registered trademarks of Intuit Inc., or one of its subsidiaries, in the United States and other countries.

This case study represents the individual experiences of this customer. Intuit does not guarantee that results will apply to all customers.

FOR MORE InFORMATIOn

“I no longer have to wait three weeks to get a report that tells me what happened a month ago, like I did when we setup and ran reports in Great Plains. With the ease of reporting in Enterprise Solutions, I could now see reports daily, which has helped us make decisions faster and grow in different directions.”

Jim Lerner, Chief Executive OfficerLenox-Martell, Inc.Gym Services, Inc.