Why QuickBooks Is Not a Business Tool
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@mike-davis said in Why QuickBooks Is Not a Business Tool:
I agree QuickBooks sucks to support. Getting people to switch is even harder...
I've actually had decent luck with that. QBs problems are such that it's often possible to make a business case for switching that makes sense. Relatively clear cost and risk issues that owners can understand.
Cost of software, lack of support, high maintenance costs, no hope of improvements, high risk of financial data loss.... mostly things you can assign dollar values to and compare against something else.
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We are a tiny shop with only one bookkeeper, the (obviously bad) accountant pushes him to use QB... Sounds like this is about the only semi-acceptable scenario. If the bookkeeper doesn't mind QB is it really that much of an issue?
I have zero knowledge of bookkeeping whatsoever, so if he likes it, I guess who am I to tell him otherwise anyway. I could say "hey, you should check out Xero one day. You might like it better than QB, it's supposed to be far superior."
To top things off I'm pretty sure his old fraternity bro is the accountant. Same reason we were paying $400/mo. for our POTs lines 3 years ago; a different fraternity brother was totally exploiting his "friend"
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@bnrstnr said in Why QuickBooks Is Not a Business Tool:
We are a tiny shop with only one bookkeeper, the (obviously bad) accountant pushes him to use QB... Sounds like this is about the only semi-acceptable scenario. If the bookkeeper doesn't mind QB is it really that much of an issue?
I have zero knowledge of bookkeeping whatsoever, so if he likes it, I guess who am I to tell him otherwise anyway. I could say "hey, you should check out Xero one day. You might like it better than QB, it's supposed to be far superior."
To top things off I'm pretty sure his old fraternity bro is the accountant. Same reason we were paying $400/mo. for our POTs lines 3 years ago; a different fraternity brother was totally exploiting his "friend"
If they are printing checks today in QB, that will be the sole fail of Xero that will kill them from looking at it!
I know it's a free product and all, but this just really seems like a huge miss to me. I know Minion Queen said it's coming, but really, this just seems weird to be missing day one, unless it's still in beta. -
@dashrender I basically just threw the Xero name in as a place holder, it could be anything. He does print checks so, yeah, Xero is definitely out.
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@bnrstnr said in Why QuickBooks Is Not a Business Tool:
@dashrender I basically just threw the Xero name in as a place holder, it could be anything. He does print checks so, yeah, Xero is definitely out.
Xero does do printing checks. It's WAVEapps that doesn't but again free invoicing program.
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@minion-queen said in Why QuickBooks Is Not a Business Tool:
@bnrstnr said in Why QuickBooks Is Not a Business Tool:
@dashrender I basically just threw the Xero name in as a place holder, it could be anything. He does print checks so, yeah, Xero is definitely out.
Xero does do printing checks. It's WAVEapps that doesn't but again free invoicing program.
Aww - thanks for the correction.
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A lot of accountants are on a referral scheme for QuickBooks/Sage/Xero and other tools, so recommendations are often skewed.
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@minion-queen said in Why QuickBooks Is Not a Business Tool:
@bnrstnr said in Why QuickBooks Is Not a Business Tool:
@dashrender I basically just threw the Xero name in as a place holder, it could be anything. He does print checks so, yeah, Xero is definitely out.
Xero does do printing checks. It's WAVEapps that doesn't but again free invoicing program.
Also Xero and QB are full on accounting systems. Waveapps is an invoicing and financial tracking program (very limited in what it offers).
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@bnrstnr said in Why QuickBooks Is Not a Business Tool:
We are a tiny shop with only one bookkeeper, the (obviously bad) accountant pushes him to use QB... Sounds like this is about the only semi-acceptable scenario. If the bookkeeper doesn't mind QB is it really that much of an issue?
With only one user, it's still not a good tool, but it's not nearly so bad.
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@bnrstnr said in Why QuickBooks Is Not a Business Tool:
I have zero knowledge of bookkeeping whatsoever, so if he likes it, I guess who am I to tell him otherwise anyway.
Because you know IT and what healthy business software looks like. Try reversing that statement... he knows nothing about IT or software, who is he to dictate what software the business depends on?
IT should not be the sole decider of what software a company uses. But NO software should ever be chosen without IT's involvement and "okay". Basically, the accountant has been elevated to CIO in this case and is getting sweeping powers to determine core financial software for the company without oversight. Put it in a business perspective and it sounds crazy.
Why would an accountant be in a position to make such a decision? How could they have the necessary IT, software and business knowledge to do so properly? Easy answer - they can't, not reasonably.
It doesn't require accounting knowledge to get good accounting software. Just like you don't have to be a good novelist to know what a good word processor is like. And you don't have to be a stock trader to know a good spreadsheet application. Yes, some accounting software is better than others, and the bookkeepers should be involved in that decision, or really the CFO should. But involved is nothing like being the IT decision maker without oversight.
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@bnrstnr said in Why QuickBooks Is Not a Business Tool:
I could say "hey, you should check out Xero one day. You might like it better than QB, it's supposed to be far superior."
Keep in mind that "they might like it" is not the top concern. That it is "right for your business" is a much higher priority. The bookkeeper works for the company, not the company for them. And IT is there to represent the business' interests in regards to security, data protection, support, cost, etc.
Yes, the accountant needs to be efficient on whatever you choose. But they don't have to "like" it. That's not how business works. If it was, everyone would stay home and get paid to play video games all day.
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@bnrstnr said in Why QuickBooks Is Not a Business Tool:
To top things off I'm pretty sure his old fraternity bro is the accountant. Same reason we were paying $400/mo. for our POTs lines 3 years ago; a different fraternity brother was totally exploiting his "friend"
Right, QB is often a sign that something unethical is going on. Not always, by any stretch, but it is certainly a place to look for for something like that.
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@dashrender said in Why QuickBooks Is Not a Business Tool:
@bnrstnr said in Why QuickBooks Is Not a Business Tool:
We are a tiny shop with only one bookkeeper, the (obviously bad) accountant pushes him to use QB... Sounds like this is about the only semi-acceptable scenario. If the bookkeeper doesn't mind QB is it really that much of an issue?
I have zero knowledge of bookkeeping whatsoever, so if he likes it, I guess who am I to tell him otherwise anyway. I could say "hey, you should check out Xero one day. You might like it better than QB, it's supposed to be far superior."
To top things off I'm pretty sure his old fraternity bro is the accountant. Same reason we were paying $400/mo. for our POTs lines 3 years ago; a different fraternity brother was totally exploiting his "friend"
If they are printing checks today in QB, that will be the sole fail of Xero that will kill them from looking at it!
I know it's a free product and all, but this just really seems like a huge miss to me. I know Minion Queen said it's coming, but really, this just seems weird to be missing day one, unless it's still in beta.Xero is not free. And you can definitely print checks.
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@breffni-potter said in Why QuickBooks Is Not a Business Tool:
A lot of accountants are on a referral scheme for QuickBooks/Sage/Xero and other tools, so recommendations are often skewed.
Yes, when people say that "their accountant recommended it", they forget that their accountants are sales people, not their advisors (in nearly all cases.) The accountants are literally paid to sell this stuff. So ended up with QB is often a direct violation of the most basic of IT best practices... getting advice from the sales person.
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Well what this thread tells me is that their is a nice opportunity for a software company to develop something with the 1-2 user base in mind.
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@jmoore said in Why QuickBooks Is Not a Business Tool:
Well what this thread tells me is that their is a nice opportunity for a software company to develop something with the 1-2 user base in mind.
Wave does that. At that size, what they do tends to work great. Xero does a great job there too, if you need the power. Microsoft had a good product here, but decided Excel was better and exited the space. They were quite a bit better than QB when they were around (it was called SBA.) There are lots of options in the one and two bookkeeper space.
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There is Oracle NetSuite, as well.
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Zoho, always a good choice for the SMB market, has their own package that I have not used but is probably quite good:
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Ok I see. I suppose the other people need to work on their marketing then. I want to look at Wave then they sound interesting.
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The only other key player we've not mentioned is FreshBooks.
