July 14 Just Say No To QuickBooks Online

I get a lot of questions about QuickBooks Online. Sorry, at this time, I still do not recommend the QuickBooks Online version.  

If you have used the QuickBooks Pro PC version, then you become quickly aware that you have sacrificed quite few benefits for a whole lot more money.    In fact, you won’t find many Advanced QuickBooks ProAdvisors that recommend online...yet.    It’s typically accountants (not QuickBooks certified) who want access to your financial information on a more regular basis that do not understand what is given up on your end product-wise, or don't realize the value of what's been given up.  

 

Let me explain.  A practice typically only uses 15% of QuickBooks, as all Accounts Receivable is maintained in your practice management software.  There is no estimating, billing, invoicing or receiving payments in QuickBooks for a professional practice using practice management software.   It is much more important that the accounting system you use for your 15%, be easy to use, in the manner you need to use it, producing the fruit of the financial organization:  astute reports to enable wise future financial decisions at any time.

Many of QuickBooks Pro’s customization features are not available online.  You cannot move accounts in the manner you want in the Chart of Accounts as the entire list is in alphabetical order, parent and subaccounts.  The order I recommend is by the “weight” of the practice area, with Doctors Expenses always being last since those expenses are subjective.

The design of your chart of accounts is the most important aspect of the reports you can review.  Being able to inactivate any old accounts, vendors, employees, etc, is not available online. They can be deleted, which is odd.  This removes them from the list but you can restore them at a later date if needed.  This is not a smooth process.  

Customizing reports is not available online without purchasing add-on products.   The Profit & Loss reports I recommend, with expenses given as a% of income, is not available.   In fact, there are fewer reports and fewer modifications and filters available to use.

For example, if you inactivate a Balance Sheet account and it has a balance, QuickBooks Online creates a journal entry for you.  If you delete a Vendor and they have a balance, QuickBooks Online creates a journal entry.  I searched QuickBooks Online help and the alternate answers made me laugh but it is certainly nothing I would ever recommend.  

The online banking part is completely different and not as accessible to so many financial institutions as the desktop version (i.e. paying bills).   You cannot pay bills directly thru the online version to your bank (Direct Connect) as you can with QuickBooks Pro, without going thru the Intuit payment network, additional cost.

Since I recommend upgrading every two years, let's compare the costs.  The cost for the Essentials version ON SALE is $452.64 for two years vs. $189.99 (Costco) for the desktop version.    That’s a $262.65 difference, if there is no need for add-on products.  More money for less product.  A wise choice?

The only reason anyone converts to QuickBooks Online is because they want to access online.  As far as the CPA, they only need access quarterly (at most), so sacrificing for quarterly access seems a bit extreme.   There are much wiser choices and a variety of other options.

You can access your QuickBooks desktop version remotely, through GoToMyPC for $11.95 month ($114.72 annually).  You can access through Windows Remote Desktop or through logmein.com for free, which is what most practices do since they want access to their practice software as well.  

There are so many available choices for remote access that sacrificing product for convenience needs to be a moot point.  Yet, just last week, I had two phone calls from practices who were convinced to take their QuickBooks online by their CPA.  It causes me to wonder why a CPA would make such a recommendation when it is so clearly not the same product.

If you have used QuickBooks before, you will see quite visibly what you are sacrificing.  There is a reason I have not written a book specifically for the Online version.  There are too many tasks & features in either the Getting The Most Out Of QuickBooks or Advanced QuickBooks For Your Practice book that cannot be accomplished in QuickBooks Online.  

However, this appears to be the direction Intuit is taking with Intuit.   There may be a day when a desktop version is no longer available.  When QuickBooks Online evolves to equal a QB Pro desktop version, then I will recommend it.   Until then, absolutely not.