I have used Quick Books Desk Top and the Quick Books online for many years. Having come into the profession from a corporate world in which I was involved with high end software and latterly dealing with Sage, Sage Online and Xero I have always been pleased to come back to Quick Books Desk Top: in my opinion a superb piece of software that set a bench mark and was widely imitated. I am at a loss to know why they have discontinued it.
I had many clients successfully and easily transfer to Quick Books Online: its multi user aspect greatly improved efficiency in my providing services to clients. Particularly when use is made of the integrated bank feed and the document input from the document scanning services.
Trying to retire and an old client has asked me to solve a mess in one of those corporate pieces of software!!!
The tax burden could be reduced if the abhorrent waste of public funds could be better controlled. E.g. recent announcement that £5bn + of the Covid Loans will not be recovered; latest army vehicle not fit for purpose costing £billions all wasted.
I once had a client in the same position as Lee and we were having constant discussions about whether IR35 should be applied. In the end the client did not like my advice that he should be applying IR35 on the basis as outlined in the case and found a Consultancy that took his money and concluded on the basis of MOO producing several pages of gumph 2 of which involved them not taking responsibility for their advice; his contracts did not go over 24 months (it is my belief if they do then MOO would be difficult to argue).
Personally I think IR35 should be scrapped and instead director / shareholders should be required to pay themselves at least minimum wage through payroll and then a suitable dividend tax for dividends (on the first £50k) paid out of Closely Controlled companies as at present. This should neutralise the decision whether to be employed or go self employed from a tax point of view.
Having been a big user of the Desk Top Payroll over the past 15 years and having come from a wide back ground of software use (over 40 years) I have always concluded that Quick Books Desk Top including the payroll is one of the finest software products I have ever seen. The Online Quick Books is no where near the standard of the Desk Top although it wins out with other aspects and new payroll is well specified.
I am absolutely incredulous as to how the powers that be at Quick Books can have arrived at this decision. As one of my clients who has a 6 user Quick Books Desk Top system stated: 'We are not pleased with this decision we shall be looking to move software supplier' - they are not interested in the Online Version.
I totally agree with this article and never have emails going to the phone. I also set my Outlook email download to 1 hour to avoid being distracted during the working day.
Another trick is to make sure you unsubscribe to unwanted email that keeps coming through.
I think I must be the same age as Simon and started just after Quill pens went out of fashion. Then and now one needs to quality check the calculations and output along with making sure the presentation is adequate. It is also easy to get lazy with modern tech e.g. 10% of functionality commonly used - I find a spell looking at functions quite often reveals some surprises.
There is also the current problem of over reliance on excel when safer software is available e.g. using Excel to budget when Sage 50 Forecasting may be a better choice. I could go on - a 'Best Practice' guidance would be welcome. I never use Excel for company accounts or tax work as the risk of a mistake in Excel is too high.
As a practising accountant I would have to say why would you want to do this when there are plenty of online accounting packages and add on apps that are more than adequate for any business.
We have enough to do keeping up with accounting standards and tax legislation.
Remember the old computer saying 'Rubbish in Rubbish Out' even when we have advanced systems like these. Small businesses still need professionals to ensure they have the correct information to use.
It is a shame that those who provide for their old age; build businesses; have private medical care and hence are giving to the country - are continuously plundered. Would it not be far better to reduce government expenditure e.g. Foreign Aid, HS2, failed IT projects etc etc rather than tapping into pensions and businesses. I would agree with all the points in the article.
My answers
I have used Quick Books Desk Top and the Quick Books online for many years. Having come into the profession from a corporate world in which I was involved with high end software and latterly dealing with Sage, Sage Online and Xero I have always been pleased to come back to Quick Books Desk Top: in my opinion a superb piece of software that set a bench mark and was widely imitated. I am at a loss to know why they have discontinued it.
I had many clients successfully and easily transfer to Quick Books Online: its multi user aspect greatly improved efficiency in my providing services to clients. Particularly when use is made of the integrated bank feed and the document input from the document scanning services.
Trying to retire and an old client has asked me to solve a mess in one of those corporate pieces of software!!!
Well done Gyles and Tim excellent coverage. Of course higher earners also face having the £40k reduced perhaps as low as £10k something else to check.
The tax burden could be reduced if the abhorrent waste of public funds could be better controlled. E.g. recent announcement that £5bn + of the Covid Loans will not be recovered; latest army vehicle not fit for purpose costing £billions all wasted.
I once had a client in the same position as Lee and we were having constant discussions about whether IR35 should be applied. In the end the client did not like my advice that he should be applying IR35 on the basis as outlined in the case and found a Consultancy that took his money and concluded on the basis of MOO producing several pages of gumph 2 of which involved them not taking responsibility for their advice; his contracts did not go over 24 months (it is my belief if they do then MOO would be difficult to argue).
Personally I think IR35 should be scrapped and instead director / shareholders should be required to pay themselves at least minimum wage through payroll and then a suitable dividend tax for dividends (on the first £50k) paid out of Closely Controlled companies as at present. This should neutralise the decision whether to be employed or go self employed from a tax point of view.
Having been a big user of the Desk Top Payroll over the past 15 years and having come from a wide back ground of software use (over 40 years) I have always concluded that Quick Books Desk Top including the payroll is one of the finest software products I have ever seen. The Online Quick Books is no where near the standard of the Desk Top although it wins out with other aspects and new payroll is well specified.
I am absolutely incredulous as to how the powers that be at Quick Books can have arrived at this decision. As one of my clients who has a 6 user Quick Books Desk Top system stated: 'We are not pleased with this decision we shall be looking to move software supplier' - they are not interested in the Online Version.
I totally agree with this article and never have emails going to the phone. I also set my Outlook email download to 1 hour to avoid being distracted during the working day.
Another trick is to make sure you unsubscribe to unwanted email that keeps coming through.
I think I must be the same age as Simon and started just after Quill pens went out of fashion. Then and now one needs to quality check the calculations and output along with making sure the presentation is adequate. It is also easy to get lazy with modern tech e.g. 10% of functionality commonly used - I find a spell looking at functions quite often reveals some surprises.
There is also the current problem of over reliance on excel when safer software is available e.g. using Excel to budget when Sage 50 Forecasting may be a better choice. I could go on - a 'Best Practice' guidance would be welcome. I never use Excel for company accounts or tax work as the risk of a mistake in Excel is too high.
As a practising accountant I would have to say why would you want to do this when there are plenty of online accounting packages and add on apps that are more than adequate for any business.
We have enough to do keeping up with accounting standards and tax legislation.
Remember the old computer saying 'Rubbish in Rubbish Out' even when we have advanced systems like these. Small businesses still need professionals to ensure they have the correct information to use.
It is a shame that those who provide for their old age; build businesses; have private medical care and hence are giving to the country - are continuously plundered. Would it not be far better to reduce government expenditure e.g. Foreign Aid, HS2, failed IT projects etc etc rather than tapping into pensions and businesses. I would agree with all the points in the article.