what version of quick books should I buy under these circumstances:
One off client uses Quickbooks Pro 2010. We have just met client and quoted for the job. We will need to view their back up here in the office so they will provide disk or Email copy for us to restore to view figures.
What do you reccomend?
Replies (15)
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Accountants Copy
I am assuming that this is local software as opposed to a cloud solution?
If so Quickbooks has an "accountants copy" feature which lets you take a copy and work on it while the customer carries on using the software. Any journals you create can be imported back. Ideally, you should get the same version as your client.
This is from the Help in Quickbooks:
For accountants only
With Accountant's Copy you can work on your client's company file at the same time as your client. Your client can do the day-to-day tasks in the current period, while you make adjustments to prior periods in a special version of the company file called an Accountant's Copy. Your changes can later be imported into your client's company file.
What an accountant can do in the Accountant's Copy
What a client can do while an accountant has the Accountant's Copy
Note: If the restrictions on using Accountant's Copy won't accommodate your situation, you can convert an Accountant's Copy to a regular company file. You will lose the capability to work on a file at the same time as your client.
Exchanging Accountant's Copy files with your client
Your client creates the Accountant's Copy of their company file and sets the dividing date.
Your client sends you the Accountant's Copy transfer file (.QBX) and continues working on transactions after the dividing date.
You convert the Accountant's Copy transfer file (.QBX) to an Accountant's Copy working file (.QBA) and then work with transactions on or before the dividing date.
You export your changes and send your client an accountant's changes file (.QBY).
Your client reviews and imports your changes into their company file, or they can choose to reject your changes.
Captain
If this is the only client you are going to have on Qb its going to be expensive for a one off job!
why not just visit the client and take a PDF copy of every report you need or may need??
View Clients's Data
Cleo
Quickbooks stores data for each company in a company file with an extension of QBW.
So XYZ Limited's file might be XYZ.QBW (but you can choose any name).
If you client provides you with a copy of their QBW file and you have a version of Quickbooks you will definitely be able to load that file and have full access to the information using your version of Quickbooks. You can have as many companies as you wish but can only work on one at a time.
In addition to this, there is the "Accountants Copy" feature (I mentioned above) whereby your client would generate a copy that you can modify using your copy of Quickbooks. The changes you have made can then be imported at the client's end (the client can continue to use his system, just as normal).
If cost is an issue (as mentioned by another poster) then as well as PDF, all reports in Quickbooks can be exported to Spreadsheets very easily.
Hope this is clear.
Captain
Ledgerscope
Sorry for the blatant plug, but this scenario is one of those that we created Ledgerscope for.
Accountancy firms can handle clients' Sage 50 and QuickBooks data without the need to have the software themselves. It's all handled securely over the Web.
First three jobs are free so you can trial.
Adrian
[email protected]
Question for Adrian
Hi Adrian
I just looked at Ledgersope's website. When it says "Your client uploads the accounting data securely over the Internet." does that mean uploading the .QBW file please?
Captain
Reply to Captain
No. Ledgerscope emails the client. The client then clicks the provided link which runs our data extraction software. This "sucks" all of the transactions out of the client's QB software and securely uploads them to Ledgerscope.
The accountant can then login to review the tb, drill into balances and make adjustments etc, before exporting final tb to their accounts production software (eg IRIS).
Let me know if you need more info.
Otherwise use excel
If all the above fails let your client download the key documents into excel, and you pick them up from there.
alternative buy 2012 pro or premier. if you are not able to update the your clients copy with the changes made in the accounts copy, you will have to write down the journals for them to update their accounts, back dating them to the end of their year.
crude I know....
Quickbooks 2010 Pro is on Amazon fir £79.00
http://www.amazon.co.uk/QuickBooks-Pro-1-user-PC/dp/B003FZBSRQ/ref=sr_1_...
QB 2010 Pro is £79 on Amazon - see above link.
Trust me you WILL be able to read your client's data file, and make journals locally, which can then be uploaded into your clients data (using the Accoutants Copy feature). You should not have to resort to Excel.
Or, adopt the approach put forward by Adrian above.
Captain
Don't you need QB premier to use the accountant's copy features?
as the accountant?
I have a very similar scenario with just one client on QB Pro 2012, joining the proadvisor scheme which gets you the free software just isn't worth it for only one client.
I am tempted to have a one month trial of QB which will cover this year-end and alongside it, try out Ledgerscope. Will have to either use ledgerscope going forward or buy a copy of the cheaper Pro version but the client updates regularly so that'd be a repeated cost albeit every 2-3 years.
Adrian, I assume one can't make changes on ledgerscope then send them back to the client? Not the end of the world if not, but would be handy.
Also, what if I/you extract the client's data and then they say a week later, "oh I've just made a couple of changes", does the user have to use another credit to get the up to date data?
Thanks
Accountants Copy
Luke
I just checked and if both customer and accountant have QB 2010 Pro there is no need for Premier.
Of course, if the customer later upgrades to 2012 then, to maintain compatibilty, the accountant will have to upgrade as well.
Captain
Sending changes back to the client
@Luke That's a good question. The answer is that Ledgerscope keeps a list of all of the adjustments you make in journal entry format. This list can be sent to the client for them to make the changes (via Export to Excel).
A credit relates to a particular client and year end job, so if you need to re-upload with fresh data, in the scenario you mention, you will not use another credit.
Let me know if you have any more questions.
Thanks Adrian
Sounds interesting, will discuss with the client when the year-end comes around.
Thanks Captain
My client is currently on QB Pro 2012 with a monthly support fee which automatically gives them upgrades as they are released so it would be a regular cost for me. I'd just rather not for just one client.
With regard to the Accountant's Copy feature where you can make changes whilst the client still works on their copy, QB told me that was only available with premier. With both using QB Pro they would have to stop working while I had their file if I wanted to make amendments as I went.
Thanks for looking into it for me.
Where is convert option ??
I am using QuickBooks Pro 2012 but the option to convert an accountants copy to a company file is missing from my program so I have an accountants copy backup (.qbx) which I am unable to even attempt to convert because the option is not in my program.
The only options listed within File > Accountant's Copy are as follows :
> Save File
> Import Accountant's Changes
> Remove Restrictions
Can someone kindly explain what I am doing wrong ??
Many thanks.