7 Pros and 5 Cons of QuickBooks Online. Is it a Good Ideas for Your Business?
Introduction
What are the Pros and Cons of using QuickBooks Online? In my opinion, QuickBooks Online is the best of all the cloud-based accounting software. QBO can handle a wide variety of business types, and is perfect when multiple people are handling your books and they aren’t all sitting at the same location. Needless to say, I’m a fan.
Unfortunately, like any other complex software (accounting software has a lot of moving parts), QuickBooks Online has its own problems and issues. In this article, let’s take a look at the pros and cons of QuickBooks Online as it relates to a small business owner and the accounting firm sharing the various bookkeeping duties.
Why You Should Use QuickBooks Online. The Pros:
1. You Can Get on Anywhere There’s Wi-Fi
The most obvious benefit is the ability to log on and work from anywhere you have internet access. Because of this feature, accounting firms can work with, and on, client bookkeeping at the same time. We have a Bookkeeping Matrix we use to identify which tasks the client will handle, and which tasks we are responsible for.
2. You’ll Always Have the Latest Version
While QuickBooks is pretty solid software to begin with (they’ve been around as QuickBooks since the 90’s), Intuit constantly upgrades the software to take advantage of any new technology that might help. Plus, anytime there’s a problem, Intuit’s programmers will prioritize QBO since there are over 5 million users worldwide.
3. Data Security:
The previously mentioned 5 million users would be pretty upset if there was ever a data breach at Intuit. Intuit is also the home of Turbo Tax and 3 popular tax prep software used by professional tax prep firms.
Intuit has to maintain almost government level security to safeguard all of your private, confidential information, due to the higher exposure level.
4. Easy Collaboration:
We touched on this in Pro #1. With internet access, you can work on your books from anywhere. This also allows up to 7 users (plus the accountant) to work on your books at the same time FROM ANYWHERE.
5. Integrations:
Integrations are apps you can add to the software to allow you to perform a special function. A simple example is employee time tracking, or even invoicing.
Let’s pretend you have a plumbing business with 4 employees. Each employee goes on service calls, bills clients and collects money.
In this example the employee with the appropriate integration, the employees would be able to enter their time worked for payroll purposes, and also enter invoices into QBO when they provide service for a client, and apply any payments received against the invoice. By delegating these functions to the employees, you have freed up your accounting staff from having to enter this info at a later time.
Customizing your accounting software to better serve your business type is easy now because of integrations.
6. Customization:
You can make all communications from QBO your own. You can customize invoices, reports and even the look of your dashboard when you first open QBO.
7. Real-time Financial Reporting:
Due to its online access, you will be able to access financial reports from anywhere. This ability to get info from anywhere (there’s even an app for your smartphone) gives you the ability to make decisions on the fly. You even have the ability to create custom reports specific to your industry.
Cons of QuickBooks Online:
1. Monthly Subscription Cost:
The days of buying software once and using it for 10 years are over. This cost adds up over time, especially if you have multiple users and have included 2-3 integrations. In this case, you must extract as much value from the software as possible.
2. Limited Features:
QuickBooks Online is a software targeted to the largest niche possible. They want subscribers, so the software is created to be used by a “typical” business. They make the software available to as many people as possible. The integrations help with customization for specific industries filling in any gaps within the core software.
3. Internet Dependency:
QuickBooks Online is, well, online. No internet, no access. I have even tried using my phone with no internet access to see if regular phone service would work (kind of a bleeding edge dial-up I guess). No luck. You must have an internet connection.
4. Learning Curve:
This can be a real issue, especially since Intuit is constantly upgrading the product. The way we deal with this is really quite simple. Division of duties. Client-side clerks are taught how to do what they need to know. No additional fluff
There are also online classes available which make getting up to speed a lot easier.
5. Data Ownership:
This one is a yes and no. Yes, your data is housed on Intuit’s servers and legally they own it. They do, however, give you the ability to download your data in a desktop data file (.QBW data file).
You could conceivably create an automated process which would “download” your data file on a weekly basis. I have manually done the download and it does take a little time.
Conclusion
Small and medium sized businesses are choosing QuickBooks Online because of its capability to access their accounting data from anywhere they have internet access.
If your bookkeeping’s accessibility, integration capability, and collaboration features are important to you, then QBO would make it a great choice for anyone looking to take advantage of tools that make your life and business more efficient.
However, the software’s monthly subscription cost, intimidating learning curve, and dependency on the internet are stumbling blocks for some.
Before making a decision, it’s important to consider your business’s specific needs. Compare the pros and cons of using QBO to determine if QBO is a good fit for you and your business.