QuickBooks Online

Overall I am beyond happy with my choice to put QuickBooks Online at the core of my businesses accounting functions. The cost is extremely reasonable for the power and huge capabilities it has.

Vorteile

Easy to use whether you have no accounting experience or you are a pro.

The user interface is logically laid out so you can get where you need intuitively.

Between the very complete built in functionality and a robust App Store of add-ins for specific needs it Quickbooks Online can provide a solution to any accounting need

You can go it alone or seamlessly incorporate external accounting services depending on your strengths, comfort level and desire to directly engage in specific accounting processes

It’s cloud based so you do not have to deal with local computers and storage that have to be maintained and backed up to secure your business critical data. This also means your can access your data from anywhere you like.

Two step verification for log in so your data is very secure.

The Quickbooks Online mobile app is excellent and lets you input receipts and expenses easily and immediately so you never get behind.

Nachteile

I had very few issues. Mostly surrounding my inexperience with accounting. It would be nice if Intuit would have some General Accounting Practices videos to get complete accounting novices up to speed on the basics like setting up a book of accounts and how to categorize expenses properly.

We initially moved from QuickBooks Pro Desktop to the Online version to allow for our new Online Service Management System (RazorSync) to easily export invoices into QB for processing. In that regard, QB Online has worked well and met expectations. It's obviously an evolving product and there have been many changes to it over the time we've been on the service; some good, some not-so-much. The reporting module is very limited and unless one of the canned reports is close to what you want it's a struggle to obtain some information in a format that's useful. All those issues aside however it's been a good solution for our company and we expect we'll continue to use it.

Vorteile

It's wonderful to have access to our accounting system from any Internet-connected device. Integration with our Service Management System (RazorSync) has allowed us to turn Service Orders into invoices and send them via QuickBooks Online quickly and easily, which has absolutely improved how quickly we get paid on jobs. The Payroll module makes it easy to pay our employees and calculate the necessary withholding and taxes due.

Nachteile

The reports in the Online version are clunky and horribly limited. Recently Intuit modified what was included in the package we were in and limited the number of accounts we're allowed to have in the Chart of Accounts without paying a higher fee, so we're stuck not being able to add new accounts unless we want to go to the "next tier". Last year we needed to reprint some older tax forms that weren't showing up so we were forced to contact support for assistance. We finally got what we needed done but it took contacting two different support reps as the first one obviously wasn't familiar with the product and made changes to our accounting data that had to then be fixed by the second rep.

QBO has been life-changing for me and my practice. I have clients all over the country, without QBO is could not have grown my business at the same rate.

Vorteile

I love the QBO eco-system. The eco-system allows me to offer more resources and solutions to my clients.
QBO doesn't have to do it all for all industries, it just has to partner with 3rd party app developers that are specialists in their industries.

Nachteile

There is a lack of communication from Intuit / QuickBooks. For example, if a user can't access their company file, they don't know if it's a QuickBooks issue, an internet issue, a browser issue or user error. I wish QuickBooks would send an email that says QBO is down for an hour. And if a function is not working, let us know, keep us informed of progress made.

The auto-bank download is a must-have in any tax software. The Desktop version requires some steps to manually visit the bank for the download but can be done. QBO is a solid software for small businesses.

Vorteile

Good tutorials available, auto-banking transaction download (though it does not work for some banks or credit unions in BC) is a great feature, easy to MATCH or TRANSFER funds. Easy to set up bills and to invoice out of the program.

Nachteile

A little bit glitchy - sometimes fields get lost, or report titles get shifted and cut-off. Multi-currency requires the user to go online externally to grab exchange rates. It's confusing to issue customer refunds. The tax module (GST, PST) works okay. Bank reconciliations are difficult when there's anything done out of the ordinary, whereas a manual reconciliation would get the job done quicker.

First, when I moved my business from Quickbooks desktop to Quickbooks Online, it cost me thousands of dollars in accounting fees to fix all the errors that QBO introduced. The transition was a nightmare, and took months to sort out. Inuit was ZERO help during this time.

Since then QBO has gotten worse, not better. There are constant sync issues with bank accounts and credit cards, and QBO staff always recommend that you call your bank or credit card company. But these are QBO issues, and can only be resolved by QBO engineers, sometimes with the help of the bank or card company in question. It's ridiculous to ask a consumer to get involved in those kinds of issues, and a complete waste of time.

I have had numerous times where a credit card purchase showed as being processed, but only months later we found it didn't and lost the money - thousands of dollars in total. QBO and Intuit Merchant services take no responsibility.

Recently QBO forced Paypal as a payment option, and users cannot turn it off. But payments come in with no name associated with the payment. QBO insists this is a paypal problem, but it is not. A client receives an invoice online, pays it online, and then Quickbooks cannot match the payment to a name, but won't let you turn off paypal as an option. If clients pay an invoice just using your email, using paypal without QBO, then payments match. Clearly QBO has a big problem here.

Vorteile

It is convenient when it works. You can theoretically sync your bank accounts, credit cards and client payments, saving time in accounting and eliminating a lot of data entry

Nachteile

Merchant Services is expensive and unresponsive. The software has many bugs, and often won't sync with accounts for days or more. Tech support is hit and miss, and often I will resolve an issue before they can. In line ads are extremely annoying, and QBO treats its customers as a product, rather than a customer. There is no service level agreement and Intuit takes zero responsibility if they lose your data. They no longer have a phone number you can call. You have to wait for a callback, and many times they don't call back.