Let's talk QuickBooks

The short of it is this: Intuit has been pushing hard for a few years now toward QuickBooks Online (QBO). They have also discontinued most desktop products. You can still get QuickBooks Enterprise, but even that is expected to go away sooner rather than later. There are alternatives to QBO, but it is an industry titan for a lot of reasons. It has its quirks for sure, but I typically recommend QBO for 3 main reasons:

• It’s a website. Access anywhere you have internet and a web browser. Also, if your pc dies and it's not backed up, you won’t lose everything.
• Multi-user and accountant access is super easy. No need to send accountant copies or backups. No need to switch to multi-user mode. Just grant access to who needs it.
• There are tons of online support articles and instructions. In my experience, QB support reps can be very hit and miss. Google is your friend here, and very likely, someone else has already seen and fixed the issue you’re seeing. Plus, Intuit has a lot of instructions on how to set up and/or fix things.

Now that’s not to say that QBO is for everyone. If you use the desktop product, the look and feel will be different on QBO, so it won’t be a seamless transition. There is a conversion process to migrate the data, but even then, not everything makes the conversion (although its much better than starting from scratch). Also, there are tons of add-ons, so the cost can really start to go up. And an example for alternatives, AppFolio is great for property management.

I believe the main 2 reasons for this push to QBO are:

• Intuit makes more money.
  • The monthly subscriptions and add-ons are a great revenue model. It seems everything is on a subscription basis now, and a big part of that is the continuous and relatively consistent revenue.
• Product control.
  • QBO is a cloud product, so all the data lives on Intuit’s end. We then access via a web browser. QB desktop is installed on your pc/server, so its effectively in an “uncontrolled environment” from Intuit’s perspective. That means more technicians and support staff needed on their end and a broader scope of issues to figure out.
  • I’ve been in IT for 6 years now and more often than not when I get a call for help, its regarding QB desktop. Different operating systems, frequencies of updates, add-ons, extensions, et c. From an IT perspective, QBO is massively easier to maintain.

To note, I’m an IT guy not an accountant. So, I know how to fix QuickBooks, but not how to use it. That’s where our accountants come in. If you want help or have questions, please reach out to us at qbhelp@sorgecpa.com. It is tax season, so please give us some grace in responding. But coming out of tax season, we’re more than happy to help with setup, cleanup, advisory, et c.

Happy Tax Season!

Jesse