Experiences with Quickbooks?

[Kiwi1234]

Hey everyone,

I'm a sole trader, doing ecommerce online. Have about 20 transactions a day (will be hundreds soon) so looking for a software to use.

I've tried Quickbooks, and really like the interface, the rule setting etc. Xero looks a lot more bland and boring (not that this is my only judgement for using a software, but it certainly helps).

Before I go full in and solely focus using Quickbooks, I'm wondering if anyone has had a bad experience with them? Not enough tools? etc?

As I obviously plan to grow I'd like to get it right first time. Any advice would be appreciated

Thanks
Oli

 

[@aiteoconsulting]

I'm a certified advisor for both Quickbooks and Xero and while both are pretty similar at what they do, I prefer Quickbooks overall. There are differences at the margins between the capabilities of both products - Quickbooks has better reporting & UI, and Xero has a larger range of add-ons.

 

[Kiwi1234]

I'm a certified advisor for both Quickbooks and Xero and while both are pretty similar at what they do, I prefer Quickbooks overall. There are differences at the margins between the capabilities of both products - Quickbooks has better reporting & UI, and Xero has a larger range of add-ons.

Thanks a lot Sir

Really appreciate your opinion. Going to save a lot of time getting it right first time

By the way is it easy to upgrade from a sole trader basic account to the higher ones? Considering I'm dealing with multiple currencies I realise I may need to upgrade my account, just wondering if it is easy and hassle free to do so (if you know?)

 

[@aiteoconsulting]

Hmmm. I haven't needed to arrange that before, but I believe if you already have a sole trader version of Quickbooks it might be tricky, though not impossible.

Intuit built the Sole Trader app on a different architecture to the main cloud offering and they are in the process of building it across to the new so that they can align properly. But I don't think that's done yet.

It would be fair enough to ask them if they'll do the migration for you - they have a team in charge of migrations (typically from other providers) but it should be a similar process.

 

[Kiwi1234]

Hmmm. I haven't needed to arrange that before, but I believe if you already have a sole trader version of Quickbooks it might be tricky, though not impossible.

Intuit built the Sole Trader app on a different architecture to the main cloud offering and they are in the process of building it across to the new so that they can align properly. But I don't think that's done yet.

It would be fair enough to ask them if they'll do the migration for you - they have a team in charge of migrations (typically from other providers) but it should be a similar process.

Thanks, well I only started today so not a problem if I can't migrate it, but yes might as well start on standard if that's the case. Thank you

 

[Mr D]

Had been using quickbooks for years. No more.
Every month they email me with a bill for 40 odd pounds giving a reference number. The account was cancelled early this year.
Every time I get in touch with customer services giving the email address and copying the message including reference number. Which is the correct reference number for that account according to emails when I signed up.
Every time they come back to me saying they cannot track any outstanding balance and confirm account cancelled. Asking if I have another account. When I gave them the reference from the email and the email address used quite how they think there may be another account they cannot trace is beyond me.

I cancelled because I found their support poor, since then their customer service I would say is very poor.

 

[Kiwi1234]

Had been using quickbooks for years. No more.
Every month they email me with a bill for 40 odd pounds giving a reference number. The account was cancelled early this year.
Every time I get in touch with customer services giving the email address and copying the message including reference number. Which is the correct reference number for that account according to emails when I signed up.
Every time they come back to me saying they cannot track any outstanding balance and confirm account cancelled. Asking if I have another account. When I gave them the reference from the email and the email address used quite how they think there may be another account they cannot trace is beyond me.

I cancelled because I found their support poor, since then their customer service I would say is very poor.

hmm... what are you now using instead? Maybe that was a one off problem, I agree customer service isn't too good but that is awful

 

[Mr D]

Sage.

 

[Kiwi1234]

Sage.

Alright thanks, I'll check it out too

 

[STDFR33]

Sage have done a lot of marketing for Sage One, and whilst the product and price look appealing, Sage are well known for sucking people in and racking the price up.

 

[Mr D]

Its also what plenty of training courses over the years have focused on.

There are other options. At the small business level some of us operate on there isn't a massive difference between the packages for the functions we want.
Could even use excel.

 

[johndon68]

Sage have done a lot of marketing for Sage One, and whilst the product and price look appealing, Sage are well known for sucking people in and racking the price up.

To be fair to Sage, SageOne pricing has remained pretty static since release (unlike that of Sage 50). I've been using SageOne Payroll for the last 4 years now and, having started off paying £5 a month it has only gone up to £6.

John

 

[Kiwi1234]

Sage have done a lot of marketing for Sage One, and whilst the product and price look appealing, Sage are well known for sucking people in and racking the price up.

To be fair to Sage, SageOne pricing has remained pretty static since release (unlike that of Sage 50). I've been using SageOne Payroll for the last 4 years now and, having started off paying £5 a month it has only gone up to £6.

John

Thanks for the information guys, I will definitely consider the options

 

[STDFR33]

To be fair to Sage, SageOne pricing has remained pretty static since release (unlike that of Sage 50). I've been using SageOne Payroll for the last 4 years now and, having started off paying £5 a month it has only gone up to £6.

John

I think they've only kept it static because they had a lot of ground to make up in the cloud market.

 

[Newchodge]

I used Quickbooks for a couple of years. It was rubbish. I haven't used the Cloud version, but the desktop one threw up a number of issues which Quickbooks produced workarounds for, which just about worked, but they never fixed the problem. In payroll, for instance, if an employee started mid-year with zero previous income, or some income but zero tax paid the system could not deal with it. The workaround was to enter 1p as zero was not an option.

 

[Kiwi1234]

I used Quickbooks for a couple of years. It was rubbish. I haven't used the Cloud version, but the desktop one threw up a number of issues which Quickbooks produced workarounds for, which just about worked, but they never fixed the problem. In payroll, for instance, if an employee started mid-year with zero previous income, or some income but zero tax paid the system could not deal with it. The workaround was to enter 1p as zero was not an option.

hmmm, how long ago was this? I would assume they would have fixed that by now, especially on the Cloud?

Also what are you currently using/would recommend?

 

[Pish_Pash]

I use Quickbook desktop version - it's fine (though my payroll requirements are as about as basic as you can get - 1 salary payment one a year...I use HMRC payroll tool) ...it's not perfect, but it does what I need it to ....but the best bit is - no subscription - in my opinion, anyone offering an accounts software package on subscription can go away quickly - that's akin to asking me to have a love child with them ...i.e. where I have to pay the maintenance.

 

[Chart Accountancy]

I would steer away from Quick books, if you are doing ecommerce. I presume you receive payments through PayPal, I recommend you look at FreeAgent.

 

[Newchodge]

hmmm, how long ago was this? I would assume they would have fixed that by now, especially on the Cloud?

Also what are you currently using/would recommend?

I am told that the Cloud version does not compare with the desktop version, but I wouldn't put any money on it. I use Moneysoft Payroll Manager for payroll and Quickfile for accounts. I would not recommend either as everyone has different needs, but they suit me fine.

 

[Kiwi1234]

I would steer away from Quick books, if you are doing ecommerce. I presume you receive payments through PayPal, I recommend you look at FreeAgent.

Yes I'm doing a lot with Paypal, Quickbooks seems to handle paypal well, but I'll check out FreeAgent too, what does that offer with paypal that quickbooks doesn't?

 

[johndon68]

I would not recommend either as everyone has different needs, but they suit me fine.

And therein lies the problem with any thread like this, people use, and in threads like this, often recommend, the software that suits them, which doesn't mean it suits the person asking the question.

Personally, I use Sage 50 which I know gets a lot of bad press on the forum but I've used it for 20 years now so know it inside out, it's technicalities don't bother me and I can enter data as fast as on any other package I've tried over the years but it doesn't mean I'd necessarily recommend it...

John

 

[Kiwi1234]

And therein lies the problem with any thread like this, people use, and in threads like this, often recommend, the software that suits them, which doesn't mean it suits the person asking the question.

Personally, I use Sage 50 which I know gets a lot of bad press on the forum but I've used it for 20 years now so know it inside out, it's technicalities don't bother me and I can enter data as fast as on any other package I've tried over the years but it doesn't mean I'd necessarily recommend it...

John

Alright, but for a business with lots of transactions going through daily, such as ecommerce, which would you recommend - is what the point of this thread is really

 

[johndon68]

Alright, but for a business with lots of transactions going through daily, such as ecommerce, which would you recommend - is what the point of this thread is really

It's still not that simple though, an ecommerce business selling tangible products may well have completely different needs from accounting software (such as stock control and order processing) than a business selling digital downloads...

You could get recommendations for twenty different packages but, the truth is, unless you try them for yourself, you'll never know which one fits you best...

John

 

[scstock]

I've been using QuickBooks since 1999. It's fine, it's what I'm used to.Used to do Payroll through it, but that meant paying a subscription to always keep up with the latest version, which rarely offered anything meaningful, so now using an obsolete version and processing payroll using Payroo.

I also use a plug in to push and pull data between our FileMaker Pro databases and QuickBooks, which works great (took a bit of setting up initially). FileMaker also talks to our website , so this keeps the inventory levels in sync (mostly!) on all systems.

 

[Kiwi1234]

It's still not that simple though, an ecommerce business selling tangible products may well have completely different needs from accounting software (such as stock control and order processing) than a business selling digital downloads...

You could get recommendations for twenty different packages but, the truth is, unless you try them for yourself, you'll never know which one fits you best...

John

Sure, but I'm new to business so don't even know what I SHOULD look for, hence why I'm asking around. But I basically just need it to track profits, and make sure everything's ready for HMRC. Which from what I can tell Quickbooks looks good for, but ill check out others too

 

[johndon68]

ill check out others too

With all the free trials around, that is the best thing to do - sure, you might waste a bit time to begin with but better that than running headlong in to one package and then finding it is missing something that you need.

For the record, I develop a piece of add on software for online sellers that integrates a number of platforms with Sage 50 (and Sage Instant) and, for the hundreds of businesses that use it, it works but, as I said mentioned earlier, the mere mention of Sage can cause much frothing and consternation on the forum.

John

 

[Kiwi1234]

With all the free trials around, that is the best thing to do - sure, you might waste a bit time to begin with but better that than running headlong in to one package and then finding it is missing something that you need.

For the record, I develop a piece of add on software for online sellers that integrates a number of platforms with Sage 50 (and Sage Instant) and, for the hundreds of businesses that use it, it works but, as I said mentioned earlier, the mere mention of Sage can cause much frothing and consternation on the forum.

John

Yeah I'll take a look. Going to ask a few other people in ecommerce that might help out.

 

[Chart Accountancy]

QuickBooks is not approved software by HMRC for VAT filing. It may be not relevant for you right now but you should still have it in mind if you have to register in the future. FreeAgent have a bank feed facility so you can link all your accounts and transactions will be downloaded automatically for you. The interface of the software is a lot more friendly. With Quickbooks, you will need more technical knowledge of Debit and Credits to be able to benefit from it. As suggested above sign up for free trials and see which one you like most.

 

[Kiwi1234]

QuickBooks is not approved software by HMRC for VAT filing. It may be not relevant for you right now but you should still have it in mind if you have to register in the future. FreeAgent have a bank feed facility so you can link all your accounts and transactions will be downloaded automatically for you. The interface of the software is a lot more friendly. With Quickbooks, you will need more technical knowledge of Debit and Credits to be able to benefit from it. As suggested above sign up for free trials and see which one you like most.

Yes I will take a look, thank you

I was also thinking possibly I should hire an accountant, and let them see my business and recommend what is best? This might be a better way of doing it rather than me guessing what is best for me?

 

[Chart Accountancy]

You will benefit from hiring an accountant as most accountants will include training and I ongoing assistance with the software. We support FreeAgent and include one account licence within our monthly accounting service. It may be an idea to shortlist at least two software packages, sign up for a trial and when you decide which one you like, you can then look to hire an accountant that can support you with your choice of software. If you decide to sign up with FreeAgent, we will be happy to help you. If you like the software, we can also assist with transferring your trial to an active account which is included in the accounting package. I hope this helps.

 

[Pish_Pash]

QuickBooks is not approved software by HMRC for VAT filing.

I doubt that very much...what list are you referencing?

 

[Chart Accountancy]

Unless they have changed something since the last time I looked at their VAT filing availability, it was not possible to file directly from the software to HMRC. It still says on their website:

• Generate your VAT return in one step - just copy the figures across to the HMRC website

https://www.quickbooks.co.uk/accounting-software/features/vat/

 

[johndon68]

This link suggests that you can do it from the Desktop version (the latest version at least):

http://quickbooks.intuit.co.uk/quic...esktop/landing/easier-vat-with-quickbooks.jsp

John

 

[Pish_Pash]

Unless they have changed something since the last time I looked at their VAT filing availability, it was not possible to file directly from the software to HMRC. It still says on their website:

• Generate your VAT return in one step - just copy the figures across to the HMRC website

https://www.quickbooks.co.uk/accounting-software/features/vat/

there's a big difference between what you said earlier"QuickBooks is not approved software by HMRC for VAT filing." (which infers a regulatory approval issue & might have scared many off) & what you're now saying...i.e. that the software is not integrated with HMRC VAT online submissions (which is a feature set issue) ....I've no idea the latest state of play regarding Quickbooks cloud offering & VAT filing, but I'd be very surprised if it can't (they are pushing Quickbooks on TV at the moment & part of their 'sell' is ease of VAT)

 

[johndon68]

The online version does support the online VAT filing: https://help.quickbooks.intuit.com/en_GB/kb/file-the-vat-that-i-owe/000001954_en_US:SALESFORCE

 

[Chart Accountancy]

I can not find them on the HMRC approved list of commercial software providers for VAT filing, see link below. I may just be missing to see them but the fact that Quickbooks website suggests that you have to copy the figures from the software to the HMRC portal suggests to me their software is not capable of doing the online submission. Of course they may now be working on this but it seems late compared to other providers that have offered this for years now.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publi...e-suppliers/vat-commercial-software-suppliers

 

[johndon68]

They are on the list:

Intuit Ltd QuickBooks 2010 VAT 100 0845 606 2161


John

 

[Chart Accountancy]

I have just seen them too so they must have it then but it is still not clear why they say on their website that you have to copy the figured and not just say 'file online' using the software.

 

[Chart Accountancy]

The online version does not support online filing either. Point 6 in their instructions say that.

6. Copy the amounts from your QuickBooks return to the HMRC webpage.

 

[STDFR33]

No version of QB files directly with HMRC. There is a link in QBO that takes to the login page at HMRC, but that's it - but it isn't too onerous to copy the figures across ... 5 minutes max??