Quickbooks Cloud Partner

Quickbooks Cloud Partner

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We have finally decided that the Quickbooks 2002 we use for our own book-keeping has paid for itself and we are going to put it out to pasture

I am reasonably happy with QB generally and was looking at which version to get next. (We already have 2013 Pro which we use for client's book-keeping but we would need a separate licence to load it afresh onto another pc for our own book-keeping)

I spoke to QB support and they recommended we become a Cloud Partner and receive a copy of QB Online Accountant Edition. Provided we have at least 1 client sign up for online QB then this will be free of charge. I was told that the cost to a client signing up would be £4.99 to us and we could resell at any amount. It therefore seems to be the cost to us will either be £nil or £4.99pm depending on whether we find a real or fictitious client to sign up

Has anyone experience of the package - we have a single bank account, deal in a single currency, with around 80 purchases per month and 120 receipts from clients. We do run a sales ledger but not a purchase ledger, purchases being accounted for (so far as my book-keeping is concerned) when paid for. We do not run payroll through QB nor record stock or employee time. Is QB Online Accountant Edition fit for purpose - is it too small or too big and cumbersome

Insofar as being a Cloud Partner - are there any catches I should be looking out for

Many thanks

Replies (16)

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By fionahowells
13th Feb 2014 12:10

Free Trial

Why not have the free trial for 30 days and see what you think?  I think QBO is ok and would fulfil your criteria.  Re QB2013 - you can install on another machine without a problem but both versions of the software wont be able to access the same data at the same time, install the software then call up QB for a new code

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Replying to SteveHa:
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By martin.curtis
14th Feb 2014 17:25

Thanks Fiona

I wasn't aware that I could do that. It would be useful even if not for my own book-keeping but when my book-keeper is wanting to hot-desk. I shall ask QB for a code

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Teignmouth
By Paul Scholes
13th Feb 2014 14:30

£4.99 is a special offer

Hi - there's been a lot of comment on here over QBO's special offers.  The latest one is £4.99 for life, as long as you sign the client up before 31 March.  Thereafter, you drop back to the previous special offer which is still £4.99 but for 12 months only then you move up the full price - 20%.

For years QBs was our software of choice for us and clients but they were slow to get into the UK cloud and so, being a firm convert, I've signed up with other Cloud systems over the past 4 years.

Recently a QBs only bookkeeper who keeps the books for two of my clients wanted to move to the Cloud and so the obvious suggestion was that she go for QBO, especially with the 2 X £4.99 for life.  I also signed up for a trial so that we could compare notes and, what was telling is how out of date and cluttered it feels compared to the "proper" Cloud systems, ie ones built without the baggage of historical desk stuff.

I was shocked when the bookkeeper also felt as I did, with the deciding factor being that she liked the QBs payroll but it didn't integrate online and was fed up working around Flat Rate VAT that QBO (like QBs) doesn't handle.

As Fiona suggests, give the trial a go but can I also suggest that you give another Cloud offering a go as a comparison, there are over 20 to chose from, life is so much richer now than when we were stuck with just S*ge & QBs

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By martin.curtis
14th Feb 2014 17:30

Thanks Paul

You say that there have been lots of comments - I tried searching under all the obvious headings and couldn't (and still can't!) find any  sorry if you had to go over well trodden ground - I appreciate you taking the time to do so

If not the ubiquitous S*ge or QB which do you think are the best players for online bookkeping?

Regards

Martin

 

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Teignmouth
By Paul Scholes
14th Feb 2014 18:15

Hi Martin

There's was a thread last year, and maybe one or two since in which the mysteries of QBO's billing policy were explored and I have also spend some time on the phone with one of their guys because they have tended not to publish how it works for accountants. 

The most recent thread, that covers other providers too, is here:

https://www.accountingweb.co.uk/anyanswers/question/xero-vs-clear-books-...

I first signed up with FreeAgent (and then via Iris OpenBooks) over three years ago and moved a few small clients (and one large one) over to it, I then got into Xero this time last year and two S*age plus one QBs user moved over.  Finally, I discovered ClearBooks 6 months ago, which, for an all round package, I now find the best, because it enables far more tailoring of the system to suit each client, ie there's perhaps 30ish features you can turn on & off.  I have my own books on CBs as well as the 2 Ex-QBs clients I mention above, and two more in the pipeline.

As mentioned on the other thread, I'm currently working with CBs on their accountants' stuff, but the comments above are based on my own practice experience and I'd also add that the bookkeeper mentioned, discovered CBs without any prompting from me.

As a general point, Cloud accounting has made my, and my clients' lives so much easier that I would never return to desk based stuff and would not now act for a new client unless they operated their books "up there".

 

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By martin.curtis
14th Feb 2014 18:25

Thanks again

A pretty solid endorsement. I shall take a long look at Clear Books next week

Cheers

Martin

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By AANM
15th Feb 2014 14:47

Doesn't work on Macs
Just wanted to add that QBO doesn't work on Macs. I moved clients to QBO only for them to find it didn't work on Macs and support don't have a clue how to solve it. Like Paul said it's a pain to use compared to Iris. You need to go through at least three steps to post and pay invoices even if they appear in the bank feed. I have spent more time correcting errors on QBO than on any other cloud software. There is a reason why its 4.99 a month. All of us who signed up are just guinea pigs till they get it right :-)

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Teignmouth
By Paul Scholes
15th Feb 2014 20:48

Macs
Hi AANM - that's strange, you are in a web browser, so shouldn't make any difference. I only use Macs and got to look around QBO, but never did any work, which bits didn't work?

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By AANM
16th Feb 2014 08:52

Chrome is the preferred browser
For QBO but chrome is very unstable on Macs so it crashes every five minutes or so. For older Macs you can't even install chrome to start with so I have not been able to use it on those and qbo support tried to do it remotely with no success.

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Bobby Chadha
By Bobby Chadha
17th Feb 2014 10:26

Hi All,

Bobby here from QBO. I'm a QBO user and an employee, I also use a Mac book pro.

@AANM I have not encountered any issues on my Chrome browser whilst using QBO on my mac the same goes with the QBO clients I serve (apart from pop up blockers etc). I have also checked with the support team and we are not experiencing widespread issues with Chrome.

Regarding price with QBO, check out the link on the post by Paul above.

I would always advise to have a look around the product but also get your clients to also have a look. We are very lucky now days to have such a great choice of providers to choose from, with my Accountant hat on, its a great time to be a buyer, its even better that firms such as Intuit, CB, Xero ,FA ,SAGE are all wanting to sell and promote via accountants hence the discounts given to accountants and other offers.

Cheers,

Bobby Chadha

Product Manager QBO Accountants.

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By AANM
17th Feb 2014 11:11

I can only report on my experience
Bobby I actually remember telling you about one of my client's difficulties with installing QBO on her Mac at one of the QBO conferences in the summer. You put her through to support who couldn't help. I have had to take over their bookkeeping because I was initially so excited about QBO I migrated all their data without knowing it wouldn't work on their mac. That has been my experience, I wish it has been smooth sailing but it hasn't.

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Bobby Chadha
By Bobby Chadha
17th Feb 2014 11:24

Hi AANM,

 

I cant recall :( sorry, DM me your name it may jog my memory :), with browser issues its possible that its limited to the machine the client is using, if it works on IE and Safari then it most probably may be an issue with her browser settings.

If you want to contact myself directly, feel free to DM me. I'll be more than happy to troubleshoot and get it sorted.

Cheers, Bobby

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By Charlie Carne
19th Feb 2014 09:29

@AANM re Safari on Apple Mac

I have a number of clients using QBO on a Mac without any problems. It works fine on Safari, though Chrome is the preferred browser and I've not seen any issues installing Chrome on a Mac. Compared to installing a desktop accounting product, having an extra browser is much less cumbersome!

If you really don't want Chrome, QBO does work now on Safari. There was a brief period some months ago when QBO launched their new version that used the latest web technology, but Safari was behind the curve and Apple launched safari v6.1 later than they'd intended. The original version of QBO worked on Safari 6.0, but the latest version of QBO needed Safari v6.1, as QBO made use of the latest technology that Apple only incorporated into Safari v6.1. Since the launch of Safari 6.1, I've not seen any problems.

NB minor edit added 19/2/14 for clarification

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By coolmanwithbeard
19th Feb 2014 00:23

Try again..

Having just signed a client up in the last couple of weeks I can confirm that the latest version of QBO is much better - as I speak existing clients have not been migrated to it but for the one new one its great, much faster and easier to use

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By AANM
19th Feb 2014 10:48

Will try again....

I guess five months is a long time in software terms....I must admit it was so stressful with those two I have stopped putting MAC users on it as a rule. I will get them to log on again and see how it goes. Bobby I will PM you if I have any problems.

 

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Bobby Chadha
By Bobby Chadha
19th Feb 2014 13:54

PM me if you have any Q's

@ Coolmanwithbeard, that's great to hear, PM me if you have any burning questions around the product itself, I'm quite handy with QBO :)

@AANM, yup drop me a message whenever you like, if you want a drive through the new QBO, I'm happy to take you through it

 

Cheers

Bobby Chadha

Product Manager QBO Accountants.

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