Opinions on Quickbooks?

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jennypenny
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Opinions on Quickbooks?

Post by jennypenny »

After searching the forum, it looks like some of you use it. Are you happy with it? Which version are you using? Do you use an alternative? I'll need it for two businesses and our personal finances.

I'm also curious if any of you use it with Turbo Tax for small business income and expenses (like the itemized home office deduction).

halfmoon
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Re: Opinions on Quickbooks?

Post by halfmoon »

I've used QuickBooks Pro (desktop) on a PC for the past 20 years for client accounting, my own business, rentals and personal finance; before that I used software that no longer exists. I currently use versions 2014 and 2017 so I can have two company files open at the same time (can't otherwise). It's a true love/hate relationship. The cons first:

1. Intuit, the parent company of QuickBooks and TurboTax, is like a Russian hacker who sells Amway. Attempts to gather your data and market products and services to you are relentless.

2. QuickBooks Pro desktop is a RAM hog. I've never used the online-only subscription version because it's too limited for my needs. This keeps me from getting a nifty little laptop for meetings because it runs too slowly without sufficient RAM. My deadweight laptop has 16GB of RAM, and that's fine.

3. QuickBooks Pro for Mac is horrible, obviously designed by people who hate Macs and think you should be punished for buying one. My need to use QB professionally is the major factor tying me to a PC.

4. If you sign up for QuickBooks assisted payroll, it will integrate seamlessly into your QB file -- but you'll be required to update to a new version of QB every 3 years. If you don't sign up for their service, the software lets you calculate and enter the payroll yourself in a ridiculously difficult and clunky manner that won't produce payroll reports.

The pros:

1. It's absolutely ubiquitous and integrates beautifully with Excel. I use this feature a LOT to create customized reports and graphs. It also integrates to a degree with Word and Outlook, and of course with Adobe. You can import files (such as scans of receipts) into the program and sort them by vendor, customer, etc.

2. Even without exporting data to Excel, you can produce a variety of reports within the program. You can search for transactions using a large variety of factors, produce customer/vendor lists, track inventory (if you have the correct version), and so forth. There's a wealth of capability.

3. With so many users, there are numerous places to find help with issues online. There are also numerous places to vent your frustration, of course. I had the brilliant idea of starting a website called intuitsucks.org, but it's already taken. :evil:

Regarding the QB/Turbotax sort-of-automatic integration: this has never worked for me because my chart of accounts setups are too customized. I do use TurboTax, and it's certainly easier than doing taxes by hand, but it'll make you do the thinking for it in more complex areas such as Domestic Production or AMT depreciation. Sometimes I have to override its default choices. It's pretty good at calculating the home office deduction once you input your square footage and home data. After you prepare your taxes on TurboTax the first time, it carries everything forward to the next year and makes subsequent filings easier. I'm assuming that most any tax prep software does this.

Keep in mind with Intuit products that I haven't tried anything else for 20 years other than spreadsheets or pen and paper. YMMV.

RealPerson
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Re: Opinions on Quickbooks?

Post by RealPerson »

I have used QuickBooks pro for many years and have generally been quite happy with it. I then switched to QuickBooks online, which has been a nightmare. I strongly recommend you stick to the desktop version. Also, when you stop using QuickBooks, such as in early retirement, 😀, keeping your old data is easy. With QB online, keeping your data is much harder, especially if you had receipts attached to your transactions.

luxagraf
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Re: Opinions on Quickbooks?

Post by luxagraf »

I have no direct personal experience with QB, but my top client uses it extensively and so I've written programs that interface with it. And generally speaking it seems RealPerson's experience matches that of my client. The only reason I mention it is that QB has been steadily disabling features in the desktop version (no more API access in our case) to push people to the online version. My advice would be, check out the online version, see if it works for you and then use the desktop, but if the online version doesn't work for you than I would not commit to the desktop version. The desktop's days are numbered from what I can tell.

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jennypenny
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Re: Opinions on Quickbooks?

Post by jennypenny »

It looks like quickbooks doesn't work that well on a Mac, which is what I'm using. It's frustrating.

It's also frustrating because I've spoken with a couple of accountants and both preferred that I use QB if I was to become a client.

I think I'll continue to do it on my own for now (pencil, ledger, binder ... sigh, I'm such a dinosaur).

halfmoon
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Re: Opinions on Quickbooks?

Post by halfmoon »

Could you get your hands on a cheap PC and dedicate it to your business accounting only? I have a copy of QB 2011 I no longer use and would be happy to mail to you (or anyone else here if you don't want it). Anything older than 3 years isn't supported for linking to banking or payroll, but it's otherwise fully functional.

Any accountant I know would want you to keep you books on whatever software they use...which is usually QuickBooks. Working from your paper ledgers would take them more time and therefore cost more. Using Excel might be somewhere in the middle.

RealPerson
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Re: Opinions on Quickbooks?

Post by RealPerson »

jennypenny wrote:
Tue Dec 12, 2017 5:30 pm
...a couple of accountants and both preferred that I use QB if I was to become a client.
That surprised me. My accountant hates QB because you can delete transactions. He would like a software where a general ledger entry is used to make a correction instead of a deletion.

Excel is very questionable for bookkeeping, because with large data sets it is so easy to introduce an error without noticing. Plus, of course, Excel does not offer the double bookkeeping that is the standard today.

halfmoon
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Re: Opinions on Quickbooks?

Post by halfmoon »

RealPerson wrote:
Tue Dec 12, 2017 10:39 pm
My accountant hates QB because you can delete transactions. He would like a software where a general ledger entry is used to make a correction instead of a deletion.
Your accountant sounds like my accounting professor 30 years ago. He wouldn't let us use pencils because they could be erased; pens only. ;) You can certainly choose to make corrections with a general journal entry, but it would be a little cumbersome if you're just correcting a quickly-discovered error. The books can be closed through any chosen date to prevent more historic deletions, and all changes can be tracked through the audit trail regardless.
RealPerson wrote:
Tue Dec 12, 2017 10:39 pm
Excel is very questionable for bookkeeping, because with large data sets it is so easy to introduce an error without noticing. Plus, of course, Excel does not offer the double bookkeeping that is the standard today.
I was suggesting Excel only as a middle ground between a paper ledger and dedicated accounting software. Most people using a paper ledger aren't going to the trouble of double-entry bookkeeping. To catch potential errors in Excel, I insert simple proof formulas at the bottom of my spreadsheets. Adding numbers by hand carries a much greater error likelihood unless you go through a proofing process...in which case, you'd might as well use Excel.

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