I have been in practice for a couple of years (AICB), doing accounts/self assessments for a few friends as a hobby and to help them out. I have recently been made redundant so have decided to start using my qualification trying to build up my client base (whilst studying Level 3 AAT)
I have my first new client - he wants me to take over his book keeping and vat returns,..he's been doing it himself up till now but just doesnt have the time to continue.
He has quickbooks, but I'm only used to using Sage and Excel!!......my questions are:
1. How easy is Quickbooks to use/pick up?
2. Am i right in thinking Quickbooks for accountants and book keepers is just a one off fee of £345 and i can use it for as many clients as i like? (am thinking that it's worth investing if i am to get more clients and also to save me in fuel costs, this client is 30 miles away) and of course gain flexiblity in working from home,
2. If i bought the accountants version - is their a tutorial on it that will help me learn my way around?
3. Would i be able to save his accounts to date onto a disk and upload it to mine? - Do the versions have to be the same? or can his be an older version? Could i then update his version with mine?
QuickBooks is very easy to set up and there is actually a quick set-up module when you start a new company each time. You can go through this by picking an industry, customizing your chart of accounts, and adding bank accounts.
QuickBooks Accountant is the recommended edition for bookkeepers. You have many more features available here, most useful is the Client Data Review center where you can adjust errors in a client's file such as reclassifying transactions, clear up undeposited funds, fix unapplied payments and credits, fix sales tax payments that were not paid through the Pay Sales Tax feature in QuickBooks. Take a look at this video for a better explanation. http://accountant.intuit.com/cdr.aspx
There are tutorials all over the net for QuickBooks Accountant. The best way to find them is right on Intuit's website. Michelle Long, CPA is a very popular resource here in the US and she has videos and blog posts that can help you. http://longforsuccess.com/
There are plenty of importing tools that you can use but if he already has QuickBooks, you can easily save a copy of his file as a portable file and upload it into your Accountant edition. Be careful to buy the right year for YOU so that your client can easily receive the updated file back from you (not all versions are compatible with each other) See the conversion list here: http://support.quickbooks.intuit.com/support/articles/INF13057
I hope this answers all your questions! E-mail me if you need more help! shamese@shubooks.co
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Shamese Shular
Certified Bookkeeper
QuickBooks ProAdvisor
FreshBooks Beancounter
QB is easy to use and is similar to Sage just with a different interface.
I only use QB Pro 2008, I have 2012 but haven't loaded it on yet. In my opinion you won't need Premier, I have worked on Premier in the past and for what you want it for its well over the top. If you want to back up and put it on his and then yours each month you will need to be on the same version else it won't work. If he doesn't want you to back his up, but you need to take a back up of his to start with to transfer all the files to yours then you could be on a more recent version than his. Its abit like sage, you have to be on the same version if you are both using it.
I got my Pro2012 off Staples at a special offer price of £99, and I can have up to 99 companies on it (I wish that would be nice). So if you buy it, I think its normally arounf £250, you can use it with other clients as you build your practice. You can get it from Amazon or Staples, but then I think it only comes with 30 days support. To be honest the support is really c***, and you will get better answers if you just post on here. There are a few of us on here that use QB.
Although I am trained on sage and do use it, for me when I was starting out it was a cost issue, ans QB does more or less the same for a whole lot less. Of course there will be hardened Sage supporters on here who will disagree with me. This is only my opinion of course.
Of course there will be hardened Sage supporters on here who will disagree with me.
No disagreement from me Amanda
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
Excellent thank you so much for your responses. Now the kids are back at school i have time to get organised! play with the system and get some business cards organised!
just one more question.............Am i right in thinking that there isnt a special quickbooks for accountants? When i look on amazon there is just Quickbooks Pro and Premier. Do they allow you to use for more than one client?
Obviously i want to make sure i'm buying the right one and not just a 1 company version. sorry to ask, its just i am so used to Sage and its limitations!
I think i will go with the Pro 2012 as that is what the new client has!
I believe that gives you 99 clients rather than unlimited but I think that for most people that's enough.
I'm actually going to be popping along to the QB roadshow to see what they have to say as although I swear by VT Accounts I don't want to end up alienating myself from too many potential clients after banning all Sage products from my practice due to the licensing issues (more like client tax) that you hint at in your post.
From past posts on here sounds as though QB support isn't great so after the initial registration support wears off I wouldn't bother renewing.
kind regards,
Shaun.
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
I think that's the version that they're giving away at the roadshow.
First sign of pay per client with the new software and it'll be back off my machine and relegated to yet another coffee mug coaster... Wonder whatever happened to AOL he says looking at what his coffee mug is perched on today.
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
Sheffield 20/09/2012 15:00 - 18:00 Sheffield City Hall London 24/09/2012 08:30 - 15:30 One Moorgate Place Ascot 26/09/2012 08:30 - 12:00 Ascot Racecourse Norwich 28/09/2012 08:30 - 12:00 The Open Southampton 01/10/2012 08:30 - 12:00 The DeVere Grand Harbour Birmingham 03/10/2012 08:30 - 12:00 The Custard Factory Liverpool 05/10/2012 08:30 - 12:00 Aintree Racecourse Edinburgh 08/10/2012 08:30 - 12:00 The Hub Bristol 08/10/2012 08:30 - 12:00 At-Bristol Newcastle 10/10/2012 08:30 - 12:00 The Assembly Rooms
To book a place you need to go to here :
http://www.intuitevents.co.uk/
All attendee's accepted to attend on the day get a free accountants version of QB worth £519 but not resellable.
I'm going to the Custard factory presentation in Brum on the 3rd.... Bet I see Stuart there. (you know the poster, has a pic of Stuart Little as his Avatar).
Shaun.
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
Looks pretty good, just had a look at the website. Worth turing up for the copy of QB. I wonder if they give it to you there and then or do you have to wait in the post for it?
I think that they give it to you on the day which is probably why they are being so restrictive over the number of places (Unbelievably the countries second city only gets 75 places!).
I'm same as you Amanda and attending means my boys got to stay at his Grandads overnight.... Why am I feeling that this is going to cost me big time even though the software is free!
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
*Each registered attendee who attends the entire morning session they have registered for, will receive a full single-user copy of QuickBooks Accountant Edition 2013 at no charge. The software is Not-For-Resale, and is valued at £519. In order to receive the free copy, delegates must attend the entire session in person and complete a voucher authorising Intuit to contact them at a later date, by phone, email or direct mail.
This is the only bit I'd be worried about...lol (that you can't get rid of them afterwards).
When I fill put the voucher I put the wrong telephone number on there!
I did read the small print, but to be honest I'm not bothered if they phone me, as the answer machine is on my desk and I vet all calls during the day so to avoid the Sales calls!
the questionaire was as you say very short (4 questions). The one that I thought was a strange question was the question about do you have an android phone? (yep, need one of those for Facebook and twitter... Oh yes, I don't have tthose either).
I replied to that one with a bit of additional info about why I was interested in attending and got a reply saying that they would be in touch shortly confirming the arrangements.
I assume that's the same as you got?
I think that they are just checking out that the people on the invite list are genuine practice owners rather than letting freebie copies slip through the net which should be going to people such as ourselves who will (if we like the product... Still has to pass my VT comparrison test) be their software pushers of the future in the great Sage fight back.
I'm not quite in the QB trenches yet but their licencing makes that a more likely event than the alternative.
Shaun.
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
I'm still a bit huffed they are only having one in Scotland and want to start them at 8.30am. This is clearly designed by someone in an office in the south of England with no children.
There are more people in the Midlands than the entirety of Scotland (5.6m in the Midlands, 5.2m in Scotland) and we only get 75 places so you should feel pampered at 150!
The choice of cities does seem pretty strange as well. I mean, whilst Liverpool is significant why choose it over Manchester.
Why Sheffield over Leeds?
The actual meeting doesn't start until 09:00. the 08:30 bit is just tea and biccies to meet the Intuit team.
Shaun.
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
While I accept that per capita you may be larger, think of the vast geographical area of Scotland and the mechanics of actually getting from one side of the country to the other and suddenly it becomes a very different story though.
QuickBooks is a powerful application that can help you manage payrolls, bills, invoices, and generate various reports.
As per your questions, here are the answers from the best of my knowledge:
1. QuickBooks offers various variants, including Online Module, Desktop versions, and Cloud Hosting option.
Further, the Desktop version offers industry-specific solutions depending upon the size and requirements of the firm. These are- Pro, Premier, and Enterprise.
You can find the difference between the three here- www.acecloudhosting.com/blog/quickbooks-online-vs-desktop-vs-hosting/.
2. QuickBooks does offer a one-off cost for some of its desktop versions, but the pricing varies as per the choice of the version you opt for. But, you can host it on the cloud servers of third-party hosting providers if you need multi-user access.
4. Yes, you can save the accounts and upload the same easily with QuickBooks. However, you need the same version as that of your client for the same. You can convert the files and upload them by backing them in the local server and then redownloading them in the newer version.
You do realise that this thread is getting on towards nine years old don't you?
I had actually forgotten QB. Back when this was posted Intuit were trying to move into the UK market but then they made it near impossible to buy desktop versions of their products so I lost interest completely in them. I know that they are now having another push directed specifically at the small business owners / self assessment. There is now never any mention in the UK of their desktop offerings which is a shame.
Shaun.
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
I'm very surprised that they still have the desktop version tbh, I was expecting them to phase it out once MTD VAT arrived. At £340 + VAT a year though it's still expensive. there must still be enough users wanting it.
Just looked at their website and the desktop link is at the bottom in the footer. Even when you click the link they are still pushing the cloud version, and you have to look on the right hand side to see details of how to obtain the desktop version.
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John
Any advice given is for general guidance and professional advice should be sought applicable to your circumstances.
Wonder why he didnt help the more recent QB query. Just looks like spam
Hi,
an interesting observation.
some of Kundan's earlier posts were not overtly advertising and he also genuinely tried to help people in some posts. For example, rather than just talking about QB he would also tell people to compare against Sage, VT, Xero, etc. So he survived on here where many others have not. This thread was purely about QB so not mentioning competing products may be forgiven. However, I believe that the signature is new and that has to go as its advertising / SEO.
I will remove the signature bar advertising but I do not think that any other action in necessary at this time.
Shaun.
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.