Simple to learn and use. Get started quickly. Step–by–step tutorials show you how to create invoices, record expenses, and more. Plus, data you've tracked in Excel spreadsheets can be easily imported into Simple Start.⁹

Grows with your business. Simple Start is part of a family of small business products and services designed to help you do everything from process credit card transactions to track inventory. As your business grows and your needs change, QuickBooks grows with you.

Track sales, expenses, and customers in one place. Track the money coming into your business, and from whom it comes. Track the money going out, and where it goes. Simple Start keeps all the information in one place.

Be ready at tax time. Use Simple Start for your bookkeeping, and you'll be tracking tax-related income and expenses automatically. At tax time, the Income Tax Summary Report puts all of your tax information at your fingertips.

Know exactly where your business stands. Profit & Loss, Sales, Expenses, and more: One click gives you essential reports using the simple transactions you've already entered.

Look more professional and save time. Create professional–looking estimates and invoices. You can customize them with a few keystrokes. Get totals automatically without writing formulas or doing math.

We're here to help! Simple Start is easy-to-use, but if you have questions, find tips and tricks in the in-product help and tutorials, and free online user forums.

Answer three easy questions, and you're up and running.

It's incredibly simple

Simple Start isn't someone else's idea of how you'd like your business to run–it's your idea. We listened to hundreds of small business owners talk about their difficulties and desires. You'll see what we mean, as soon as you try it. From the simple desktop to the familiar forms and helpful guidance, everything works just the way you want it to.

Import data from Microsoft Excel⁹

If you've been using Excel spreadsheets to track your sales and expenses, now you can import your existing data from Excel directly into Simple Start. You'll save time and avoid the hassle of manually entering your data.

Get up and running in three easy steps

Simple Start is so easy to use, you don't need a thick manual — just a QuickStart card that tells you how to get started in three easy steps. You'll be up and running in less than 15 minutes:

1. Insert the CD into your CD drive.
2. Answer three easy questions to customize Simple Start for your needs.
3. Start working.

No accounting knowledge needed!

Simple Start's onscreen forms look like the checks, invoices, and sales receipts you use in your business every day. The moment you see them, you'll know how to use them.

Get everything you need, and nothing you don't

Simple Start lets you create and track all the documents and forms you need to run your business efficiently, but it doesn't overwhelm you with tools you won't use and shouldn't have to pay for.

Get help and share ideas with other small businesses directly in QuickBooks

Now you can ask tens of thousands of other QuickBooks users and experts for help and get answers fast. The Live Community is built right into QuickBooks 2009, so you can ask your questions without stopping the work you're doing.

It's easy to move up from Simple Start to more advanced QuickBooks products.

Simple Start grows with your business

As your business grows, QuickBooks has a full line of small business financial software to meet your needs. It's easy to upgrade from either edition of Simple Start to QuickBooks: Pro, Premier, or Online Edition. All the information you enter into Simple Start can be automatically transferred to your new version of QuickBooks.¹⁰

Note: Simple Start is for new QuickBooks users. Simple Start cannot import data from prior versions of QuickBooks: Basic, Pro or Premier Editions, Quicken, or Peachtree.

Simple Start also works with other products and services to help you run your business better.

Trust the solution recommended by businesses and accountants

With millions of users, QuickBooks is the most widely-used small business accounting software. It's recommended by accountants over any other product. A 10-year history of continuous improvements assures you of the simplest, most flexible software for your business.

Simple Start makes it easy to track the money coming in and going out of your business.

Keep everything together in one place

Stop digging through piles of paper, switching applications, or searching through files to find the information you need. Simple Start organizes everything from customers and vendors, to sales, estimates, and invoices, to receipts, deposits, checks, and expenses—all in one place.

Create estimates, invoices, and sales receipts

With Simple Start you can easily create professional-looking estimates, invoices, and sales receipts just by entering information into basic forms. No more toggling back and forth between spreadsheets and a word processor to create bills and track them. To save you even more time, you can easily turn an estimate into an invoice, or an invoice into a payment.

Record your expenses quickly and painlessly

Tired of rustling through check registers and credit card statements to see where your money is going? Use Simple Start to write checks and track your expenses. Every time you pay a bill, Simple Start keeps your records up-to-date so you'll know where you stand.

Easily manage payroll yourself or get help with Intuit's Payroll Service (additional fees apply)

Intuit Payroll makes payroll easy so you can confidently focus on running your business. With over 1 million customers, you can be confident you're choosing the small business payroll leader.

Whether you want to manage payroll yourself or let Intuit handle the hassles for you, our flexible solutions help you easily manage your key payroll tasks: paying employees, paying payroll taxes and filing tax forms.

Learn More about our easy, time-saving Payroll Solutions.

Accept credit cards and debit cards directly in QuickBooks¹¹

With an Intuit QuickBooks Merchant Service account you can accept credit cards and debit cards directly in QuickBooks. There's no need to buy additional hardware or software. Eliminate the need for double data entry; just process the credit card and debit card transactions directly in QuickBooks and the data is automatically recorded in your QuickBooks software. Learn More or Apply Now

Make tax time a snap when all of your information is organized. No last–minute panic!

Get the numbers you need

Simple Start keeps track of tax-related income and expenses year-round as you write checks and receive payments, so there's no need to scramble at tax time.

The "Income Tax Summary" report helps you complete federal income tax forms. Print it out, and copy the totals to Schedule C and other tax forms. You can also give the report to your accountant or download the numbers into TurboTax®, the best-selling tax preparation software (sold separately).

One more click creates your "Sales Tax Due," which summarizes the sales tax you owe to your city, state, or county tax boards. It's really that simple.

Instantly create reports on profit & loss, sales, expenses, unpaid invoices, and more.

Essential business information at your fingertips

You'll always know where your business stands with Simple Start's reports. See who owes you money and how much. Find out who your best customers are and what they're buying. Click on any item in the report to zoom in for the details–all the way down to individual transactions.

Spend less time on your bookkeeping and paperwork and more time building your business.

Professional–looking templates you can customize

Choose from sales receipt, invoice, estimate, and credit memo form templates that you can customize to present a branded, professional image. You can change styles, colors, and fonts. You can show or hide fields. You can even include your company logo!

Calculate totals accurately and automatically

No more erasing and rewriting totals or double–checking calculations. Simple Start helps keep your transactions and records accurate by doing all the math for you, including sales tax, discounts, and markups. If you change a transaction, any figures linked to it update instantly.

Re–use information instead of retyping it

Type information about a customer, vendor, or product one time, and never type it again. Enter the first few letters on any invoice, check, or other form and Simple Start fills the rest in automatically. Easily create new estimates by duplicating and editing existing ones. And when you finish a job, click a button to turn your estimate into an invoice. Billing has never been so easy!