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QuickBooks Desktop moves to subscription model

askwoody.com

11–20 of 66 posts

Re: QuickBooks Desktop moves to subscription model

#11
post #6

Good. Hopefully this will cause more people to leave Intuit and search out alternatives. This is just one more reason to add to the list.

Have you tried getting a bookkeeper to use GnuCash? Xero has a following as does SAGE/peachtree but not the good open source options. I did and it failed. No reason except everyone in the CPA and bookkeeper business uses and knows QuickBooks. I have up and use and pay the kings transom for QBO so i can focus on my business and not play transaction level bookkeeper myself.

I have! I ended up having to export my entire general ledger as an excel file for them to have any hope of using it. It cost me a ton of money and time to massage into a format that an accountant could work with, they are too expensive per hour to ask them to learn an entire new software program that I'm the only of their customers to use.

Now I just use quickbooks. I have never had any issue.

Gnucash is great and works fine for personal bookkeeping, but I wouldn't suggest it if you have an accountant.

Re: QuickBooks Desktop moves to subscription model

#12
I used Quickbooks desktop and found it antiquated; create an export and email it to your accountant? No thank you. I then tried Quickbooks Online and it was hands-down the worst piece of software I've ever used. I ultimately landed on Xero, which is "good enough". To echo a number of other comments on this page, my accountants were generally slaves to the software. I actually had to change firms going from QBO to Xero as my existing accountant said they only worked with Quickbooks.

This is all a reminder the current tax system in the US is an unnecessary game made unnecessarily difficult.

Re: QuickBooks Desktop moves to subscription model

#13

Good. Hopefully this will cause more people to leave Intuit and search out alternatives. This is just one more reason to add to the list.

In my first business, I spent a lot of time doing my own bookkeeping under the guise of saving money. I've used Xero, Gnu, Wave, etc. At some point, I calculated the effective hourly rate I could earn building my business. Moving to a traditional bookkeeper and QuickBooks was a logical result of that analysis.

Re: QuickBooks Desktop moves to subscription model

#15
I use Quickbooks Online, an overpriced, poorly designed piece of garbage for the business I run (small business, lots of online transactions). For instance, the official PayPal app is problematic, my accountant says, because of the way transactions are recorded on the QBO ledger (the issue is mentioned here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kT5zKWBXtQU). This means manual processes, which sucks for me in terms of extra time and costs (paid to my accountant to manually reconcile these transactions).

QBO is so bad that sometimes the Intuit support people I talk with have trouble figuring out answers to simple questions about how to use the software.

Trying to undo certain transactions is an exercise in frustration for me and my accountant. Once my bank got involved when it upgraded its online front end and back end, and certain transactions wouldn't sync to QBO. Of course, no one in front-line customer support on either side wanted to own the problem and it took weeks to resolve (only after I visited the bank in person with my laptop to show them what I was seeing, and the bank itself was able to get the attention of the integration team at Intuit).

I would dump QBO if I could. I only use it because my accountant insists. It's the same for most small business accountants in the U.S., which really limits the possibilities for new or established competitors.

Re: QuickBooks Desktop moves to subscription model

#16
post #6

Good. Hopefully this will cause more people to leave Intuit and search out alternatives. This is just one more reason to add to the list.

Have you tried getting a bookkeeper to use GnuCash? Xero has a following as does SAGE/peachtree but not the good open source options. I did and it failed. No reason except everyone in the CPA and bookkeeper business uses and knows QuickBooks. I have up and use and pay the kings transom for QBO so i can focus on my business and not play transaction level bookkeeper myself.

Sounds like an opportunity. Especially since a bookkeeper could be anywhere in the world.

Re: QuickBooks Desktop moves to subscription model

#17
post #16
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you tried getting a bookkeeper to use GnuCash? Xero has a following as does SAGE/peachtree but not the good open source options. I did and it failed. No reason except everyone in the CPA and bookkeeper business uses and knows QuickBooks. I have up and use and pay the kings transom for QBO so i can focus on my business and not play transaction level bookkeeper myself.

Sounds like an opportunity. Especially since a bookkeeper could be anywhere in the world.

It's tough to do bookkeeping or accounting for businesses in multiple jurisdictions, as tax and accounting laws vary, and mistakes can be very costly. In addition to that, accounting and bookkeeping are often regulated professions with various restrictions.

Re: QuickBooks Desktop moves to subscription model

#19
post #15

I use Quickbooks Online, an overpriced, poorly designed piece of garbage for the business I run (small business, lots of online transactions). For instance, the official PayPal app is problematic, my accountant says, because of the way transactions are recorded on the QBO ledger (the issue is mentioned here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kT5zKWBXtQU ). This means manual processes, which sucks for me in terms of ext…

Besides banking, what are your other "must-have" integrations?

Any sense as to why QuickBooks is so entrenched with accounting firms? I've seen Xero mentioned more often lately, and curious how they broke through the QB barrier to entry.

Re: QuickBooks Desktop moves to subscription model

#20
post #15

I use Quickbooks Online, an overpriced, poorly designed piece of garbage for the business I run (small business, lots of online transactions). For instance, the official PayPal app is problematic, my accountant says, because of the way transactions are recorded on the QBO ledger (the issue is mentioned here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kT5zKWBXtQU ). This means manual processes, which sucks for me in terms of ext…

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