Barclays Clearlybusiness

I am a Quickbooks user as well as a PAP person for since 1993.

I was introduced to Clearly Bookkeeping at the begining of this year with a commitment to sell £1,500 + VAT worth of software to potential clients. This I class it to be very hard sell and tactics employed is ugh *&$£%. This is rather difficult especially when we are in direct competition with Barclays who are selling these packages directly to their clients.On subscription to Clearly Bookkeeping's we would access to Barclays database of clients in SME business in the area with the view to train and receive potential clients. This hasn't resulted and eventually I returned all the materials to Clearly Bookkeeping and cancelled my membership with them. My main area of concern is that I am on their general email system where all participants post their comments and seek advise on "how to." I do view as getting help on the cheap and I do get zillions of this every Monday morning. It takes me a few hours each Monday to peruse through and at time I would like to help but at times I felt that it wasn't worth the effort as it is false economy albeit cheap. At times suggestions put forward are fundamentally incorrect and I do feel sorry for these people offering assistance with the full knowledge of what it means.

Clealry Bookkeeping is an exact copy of Quickbooks except for a few tweaking of Americanism, the inclusion of a few icons here and there and access to Companies House which is accessible via the internet anyway. Other than that, there is inmaterial difference or added qualities in Clearly Bookkeeping. Implementation is somewhat behind Quickbooks.

Quickbooks updates their programmes via the internet and access to a assistance via the PAP is instant. Clearly Bookkeeping uses Quickbooks help line and at times there are queues, but access to the PAP for assistance is instant.

I rest my case

Chris Thanks for the return comment. Bottom end or top end it's still a heck of a bundle of notes for the privilege. Since 1979 I've seen them all and believe me I found one thing out and that's you can get the job done expensively or reasonably. The "Quick" way is expensive in my eyes. Really though the discussion is about professional use of programs so the client does not come into the frame here - like a good client he/she buys the package the accountant recommends. The are 5 million quick users but the vast majority are the bottom end. You are asking me and us to do what we already can for five times the price - it doesn't add up.

John
Leads me to think that you've only looked at the bottom of the range Quicken products, which are primarily aimed at the individual user personal finance market, rather than the QuickBooks integrated accounting range which are firmly aimed at the business market.

Intuit doesn't design QuickBooks software specifically for accountants to use. They design it for real people end users and have cut out accounting jargon, which often leaves unfamiliar professional accountants all at sea. Even the terms debit and credit are regarded as jargon by Intuit.

With over 5 million QuickBooks users Worldwide, there's a lot of satisfied users out there.

As far as records at the end of the year are concerned, we just get disks, CD's or even just emailed data files, load them into our inhouse copies of QuickBooks software and have access to every entry made during the period complete with full drill down facilities. We can export a trial balance and any other reports we want straight out to Excel at the click of a button and import into our own systems. Its as simple and as difficult as that.

If clients data needs modifying, we can often do it and export the updated file back to the client for merging the into their own system without interrupting their daily usage of the program. With Premier Accountants Version, I can work on their data online as if I was in their office and prepare bespoke reports for them run on their system.

No way would I be prepared to pay £1k up front for the priviledge of quite likely not getting a good return on it. The accountng software element of the ClearlyBookkeeping package is pure QuickBooks.

1000 quid! - they must be bonkers. Quicken is not quick for professionals - its stiff and purely for the amateur. Get Money Manager/Final Accounts and under £200 quid - it beats the pants off anything Quicken.

We were approached by our business manager to take the Clearly Business stuff. After reading through it I felt quite sorry for the bank manager - having to peddle some software and such an awful agreement to sell £xx p.a.

Had the bank come up with a no strings (targets) package we would have accepted it, and it would have worked much better for Barclays, us and our mutual clients.

As to the Quickbooks (and variants) - just ask their head office what software they use to run their UK operation............

Ultimately we need to recommend software that a) we ourselves understand, b) our clients will actually be able to use. That way we can provide adequate support at a reasonable price, and, hopefully, receive records at year end that we can make use of.

One of the main problems with low cost software, is that it is difficult to charge enough for all the training that is required, as this cost appears to the client out of proportion to the software cost.

Oops, now drifting - what was the original question? Ah, the accountants version - my problem is that I don't want to enter a few journals to tidy things up - my clients can cope with a list of journals that they can input themselves. I want to sort out the mess that is there, so that reports come out the way they should, usually this means re-entering data.

I joined the programme since last year and I am yet to put a finger on one recommendation from the local barclays manager in spite of constant reminders and promises of local programmes, not to mention the 200 business cards he took from me!. Okay, I got a few enquiries through the website, but that was it.The product itself is brilliant and I would happily recommended it when appropriate,commitment or not.There is practically little or no difference between it and quickbooks, it says so on the package ! Oh and one thing, if you recommend a fellow Accountant who then joins the programme, you do not get a commission ! I tried it but they would'nt pay up. It seems the commitment is lop-sided.

Like many others I find it is always dissapointing when bank managers start churning business to create a financial dependency culture with SME's. Dubious mortgage advice and overdraft limits etc for starters. These control freakery confidence tricksters are always at this. At least Barclays have come out and admitted as much with this accountants as tied agent SME accountancy advisors grooming programme. I received an invitation to a seminar in return for my possible consideration about joining the local Barclays' accountant panel and did not go. My first thoughts were that this was Quickbooks with a new wrapper and Intuit can offer professionals something more independent and better anyway. I see nothing here to change my opinion. However it is an interesting concept- accountant as tied agent. One for the future perhaps?

We have a client who purchased this. When they needed support, it proved to be a nightmare. We have subsequently persuaded them to change to VT and they are delighted.

Our independence is of the up most importance to us and I can honestly say that if clearly bookkeeping forced us to make the purchases up to £1000 then we would and immediately resign from the scheme. The small profit we receive on each sale is not worth compromising our reputation or upsetting a client.

As to whether we receive more recommendations from Barclay’s I know they are about the same. We had a very strong relationship with out local branch before we went on the scheme and that has continued. I would hate to think they were recommending us just because we paid.

However, we have received some work from non clients who have found our name on the website. Nothing to write home about though.

We registered with the program back in January and have recommended it to a number of clients as an alternative to Sage. All the clients that have used it seem to like it and we have found it to be much much better than QuickBooks.

Two problems though:

Firstly, does the £1000 sales commitment impinges on your independence? I have been assured that they will not pursue this if you do not meet their target; and

Secondly, the helplines. It is very difficult to get through, whether it is to talk about your account or with a technical query. This has improved somewhat though and continues to do so.

The acid test - would we do it again? Defiantly.

Clearlybusiness is a branded version of Quickbooks for Barclays; how it can be much better than QB beats me entirely; if you check QB2003 premier / accountant edition you will find that not much beats it. I do not therefore know how Simon has arrived at his comments.

The accounting software is pure Intuit QuickBooks.

The accountants version provides you with tools to effectively be an on-site part-time management accountant for clients running QuickBooks software without even leaving your desk.

QuickBooks Premier Accountants version has the same facilities.

We have Barclays coming in next week to give a demonstration of ClearlyBookkeeping.

During the sales patter given before the demo was booked, I was informed that if we didn't hit our annual sales target of £1000 we would be invoiced for the outstanding value. The alternative to this was for us to purchase however much software it would take to ensure we hit the target, which we could sell to our clients when they requested it. This, obviously, would make it harder to hit the following years target and so the problem is just carried over to the next year.

I would also like to ask Simon if he thinks he has received more, less or the same number of introductions from Barclays since he joined the program in January? and can he honestly say that if Barclays start pushing him to make his sales target that he wouldn't sell ClearlyBookkeeping to a client that didn't need it or for whom the product wasn't best suited?

We were approached but decided that prepurchasing stock or making up for a shortfall of £1,000 wasn't something we were prepared to commit to, especially given that they couldn't guarentee the number or quality of leads that they would send to us.

Much as I hate to say it, I think maybe Barclays should take a leaf out of Sage's book.

John Clough
Numerica Business Services
Tel: 023 8070 2345
john.clough@numerica.biz

Sorry, it was too early in the morning.

The presentation I had clearly said 'Give us money or we cannot recommend you to our clients'

It is just an up to date copy of QB.

Sage & QB each have their strengths and I like to be free to recommend the most appropriate