Why QuickBooks Is Not a Business Tool
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@krisleslie The frustration is understandable. I am reminded of a 50k project I was called in for, where a business who was using QuickBooks Pro, was migrating to Microsoft Dynamics (Great Plains at the time), in preparation of business growth. The technical migration and implementation went fine, but it was the in-house accountant user which rejected it. I was brought in to help consult with the in-house accountant migration, but it was too late. The accountant quit. And the company hired a new accountant which only was familiar with QuickBooks, so back to QB they went... (I think the Enterprise version though, to allow for more concurrent users.)
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As a fellow certified public accountant, one thing I will say, I do believe SAAS accounting products is the future, but there are some major issues still. For example, one disadvantage, with the online versions of popular accounting software is the data entry lag. Could be caused by many, many different things, however, I have noticed it across many different systems in different locations. Granted most data entry these days hopefully is automated, however, there are still enough times where the online data entry lag is enough to make you want to throw the monitor out the window. Seasoned accountants are used to banging-out calculations on a mechanical 10-key tape, or spreadsheet as fast as possible. Sometimes the half second latency delay, on creating adjusting journal entries for 100 transactions, for whatever reason, just kills productivity.
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Dude that's ironic, Great Plains bank is calling me about refinancing my house....SMALL FREAKING WORLD
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@spiral said in Why QuickBooks Is Not a Business Tool:
As a fellow certified public accountant, one thing I will say, I do believe SAAS accounting products is the future, but there are some major issues still. For example, one disadvantage, with the online versions of popular accounting software is the data entry lag. Could be caused by many, many different things, however, I have noticed it across many different systems in different locations. Granted most data entry these days hopefully is automated, however, there are still enough times where the online data entry lag is enough to make you want to throw the monitor out the window. Seasoned accountants are used to banging-out calculations on a mechanical 10-key tape, or spreadsheet as fast as possible. Sometimes the half second latency delay, on creating adjusting journal entries for 100 transactions, for whatever reason, just kills productivity.
Web apps, coded correctly, are just as fast and responsive as locally installed ones. Just don't ask me what the percentage of well-coded apps actually is, I know it's quite low no matter what style of programming/coding we're talking about.
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lol. That's Awesome...
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Come to think of it I think I actually use to provide services to them back in the day when I worked enterprise banking....but they were tiny!
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That's one of those things, if you want fast calculations, etc, that can be done with modern web coding. Push comes to shove someone would build a lightweight app which still is using some of the code from the web.
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@travisdh1 I do believe they could be. But as SAAS providers scale to serve more customers, could the variable load on the servers change the user experience unexpectedly.
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@spiral the thing is that load can't be as bad as it use to be back in the day! Hell just getting a virtualized infrastructure saves $$, the switch to SSD's saves money, and I'm pretty sure people are using docker now days. When I look at VULTR that's a crazy example of getting the most bang for buck!
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@spiral said in Why QuickBooks Is Not a Business Tool:
@travisdh1 I do believe they could be. But as SAAS providers scale to serve more customers, could the variable load on the servers change the user experience unexpectedly.
Not on a well designed platform with proper growth planning. I can name two places doing just that right now, Mangolassi.it and SodiumSuite.
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@Spiral As a CPA, is there a package that you have used that is not hard to switch to if you're an Accountant that only has experience with QuickBooks?
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You are most likely correct about lag/latency issues, that this can be solved, as it has here. It is my experience thus far, that the popular small business SAAS products are not consistently there yet. It is not just the SAAS providers fault either. Because end to end, the entire stack is involved, there could be many different problems here, and some not immediately solvable yet because of location, ISP service availability, etc. For example, recently for a client, I had to deal with an issue with data entry lag in a freight carrier system, which was caused by an ISP peering issue between Verizon and AT&T. Owners of the business were livid, because there was nothing we could do, but wait until Verizon and AT&T fixed the peering point packet loss.
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@mike-davis I wish I had a good universal answer for that. Not until you analyze business needs, budget, personnel, environment, etc can you arrive at a conceivable solution. And even then, the most difficult variable is the personnel. The CFO or accountant of company could be top of their class at accounting, financial management and strategic planning, but if they are uncomfortable with their tool (accounting software) their productivity could decline. And if the company is paying the CFO or accountant a good salary to make critical decisions, they will get the tool they like, even if the tools is, from a technology point of view, inferior. It seems there is usually a comprise, but not always.
I hate to say, but as annoying as QuickBooks can be, it is the comprise in many situations I have dealt with. On the other-hand, there are many accountants who also despise QuickBooks, but for accounting type reasons, but prefer another solution with an entire different host of problems. For example, a few years ago, a couple clients where still using Accpac Plus. Accpac Plus has been unsupported for at least a decade, maybe two, and a wayyyyyy outdated DOS based accounting package. Nonetheless, some old-school accountants insisted on keeping it. The old-school accountants where masters at using it, and were superb at their job, albeit using an inferior outdated tool. I tend to think larger enterprises do not have this dynamic as small business do.
I will add, QuickBooks Online, does seem to be like the “gateway drug” which can pull some off of QuickBooks on the Desktop, and open eyes to the possibilities, but seems to be more effective with a younger group and only sometimes.
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@spiral i guess the way I look at the situation, I am an a CPA and said tool is flawed, then it shouldnt matter what tool is used since i know finance. Provided the tool can give me what i need i would use whatever works.
Quickbooks by far and wide is NOT technically the best system, yet we run to it blindly.
Surely someone makes systems better technically and realistically to meet needs.
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Be aware my iphone sucks
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@krisleslie said in Why QuickBooks Is Not a Business Tool:
Be aware my iphone sucks
Oh, we're all painfully aware of the issues with posting from telephone screens and/or personal assistants.
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@travisdh1 said in Why QuickBooks Is Not a Business Tool:
@krisleslie said in Why QuickBooks Is Not a Business Tool:
Be aware my iphone sucks
Oh, we're all painfully aware of the issues with posting from telephone screens and/or personal assistants.
Screw you and your elitist typing with fingers on a keyboard attitude.
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@jaredbusch said in Why QuickBooks Is Not a Business Tool:
@travisdh1 said in Why QuickBooks Is Not a Business Tool:
@krisleslie said in Why QuickBooks Is Not a Business Tool:
Be aware my iphone sucks
Oh, we're all painfully aware of the issues with posting from telephone screens and/or personal assistants.
Screw you and your elitist typing with fingers on a keyboard attitude.
lol
Did you SEE my posts from my phone the other day?
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@travisdh1 said in Why QuickBooks Is Not a Business Tool:
@jaredbusch said in Why QuickBooks Is Not a Business Tool:
@travisdh1 said in Why QuickBooks Is Not a Business Tool:
@krisleslie said in Why QuickBooks Is Not a Business Tool:
Be aware my iphone sucks
Oh, we're all painfully aware of the issues with posting from telephone screens and/or personal assistants.
Screw you and your elitist typing with fingers on a keyboard attitude.
lol
Did you SEE my posts from my phone the other day?
