I am thinking about what I may need to do this year to ease the workload. I don't want to rent offices as where I am they are very expensive and don't want to be too far away from home as our youngest still needs collecting from sch, hence why I favour working from home.
I have thought about subbing work out but I use QB mostly and SAGE instants for a couple of clients. If I found someone to help me out occasionally as required, if they didn't have the same version of QB's as me would it be easier if I upgraded mine to Pro2012 and brought 2 licences or would you expect the person just to get their own version to suit mine?
What are peoples' opinions on this???
Many thanks
-- Edited by Amanda on Thursday 26th of January 2012 08:52:02 PM
The alternative is to offer more complex terms. For instance in a similar way to builders retention. So if the subby does £100 of work a month pay them 60% at the end of the month and retain 40% which would be paid quarterly (£120) a quarter, and from this take the installment. As James said you can offer credit with 4 installments, but this doesn't need to be monthly as long as it's paid within a year.
To be honest James, I didn't even think about credit licenses. Anyway, do folk still buy sage
Kris
-- Edited by kjmcculloch83 on Friday 27th of January 2012 02:41:41 PM
My personal opinion is if your paying you can set the requirements, within reason. Just like if a client came to you, as long as they are nice and you wanted the job, you would try and match their software (unless it was so out of date you advise them to upgrade anyway).
I guess you wont really know until you try, there are probably other bookkeepers out there with your versions, so I would stick an advert out and see what you get.
One thing I would say about subbing, get a letter of engagement, and checkout their refs/membership/quals.
Rather than buying software and giving it to a subcontractor who can then use your software to do work for others too why not look at setting up a VPN and allowing them to access your version. Often by using license control software so that only one person can access it at any time you can get round the need to by additional licenses.
The other option is to buy them the software but have them repay you from the work you provide. So take 30% off their fees until the costs are repaid. This is probably a more attractive option as the subcontractor doesnt need to fork out cash upfront for a new package but neither do you need to provide to software to them for free.
I did think of a VPN option, but depending on the internet connection and having to leave the computer on 24/7 (depending on the sub working hours) it could be hassle.
I like your second idea though very much and would like to hear if anyone else has tried it and had any suggestions/feedback.
Would it be deemed as a loan or installments though? Might need to be careful you don't fall into that category and need a credit licence or something daft?
Yes sale on credit, so if you said pay this back over the next 6 months by deducting your monthly bills, you are affectively giving them 6 installments on a sale.
You need a credit licence if you give more than 4 installments for a sale on credit.
Now you could just do it in 4 months/installments without a licence, but if it was Sage it might mean a 100% deduction
No Kris, I think more people are steering away from SAGE due to the cost!!
You can buy QB pro off of Amazon and although it only gives you I think 30 days support, that doesn't bother me as I don't really need the support.
Ideally if I could find someone thats got QB then thats job done for me. I may start enquiring and see where it gets me. Your tight I don't really want to buy the software for them to use at their hearts content on other people.
Not that familiar with QB but have you investigated the online Essentials version? Which gives you up to 3 users.
Haven't looked indepth at alternative suppliers but it seems like it might be an option. At £19/ month compared to several hundred for a more than one user desk top copy. It would give you between 18 months and two years worth of online QB, which will always be the latest version, and gives you a fixed software budget.
You also get the advantage that if you sack your subby, you just change their password and someone else can take over.
I have not been a fan of cloud software, or online storage but must admit, that I am slowly coming round to the idea.
Since we last spoke I've also been investigating this a bit. I think it's a road I will need to go down soon. I think I'm almost decided that I will go for a VPS. I can then install the packages I use on this and allow anyone subcontracting to access it. The benefits to this are that it is cheaper than buying extra packages, and it means that I can spread the work out over more subcontractors.
I've never looked at VPS I might need educating on this one!!
What about the licence issue as I only have one licence and its on my laptop, so if osmeone else is using it via VPS does this not break the licensing rules?
