Even though QuickBooks Online (“QBO”) is our favorite accounting software, nothing is perfect. As everyday users, we are well aware of some of its shortcomings. Especially at this time of year, when the needs of accounting guidance push us too long for something more. Often when discussing with our colleagues, we find that many of them loathe QBO and they wouldn’t even consider leaving the comfort of QuickBooks Desktop, but…
“You cannot discover new oceans unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.” -Andre Gide
Meals and Entertainment
By default, the Chart of Accounts combined Meals and Entertainment into one account on almost all of our clients. Now that the Congress has disallowed the entertainment deduction, this is a huge nightmare. Most new clients have always combined these categories even all throughout 2018, after the entertainment deduction was disallowed. It seems like an easy fix, right? Just run through the transactions in 2018 and reclass the different transactions. But what about a client who has been using QBO for years and they want to maintain comparability for their year-over-year accounts… year, it’s a big tedious mess. Our best solution: Split the two accounts under one parent account that can be collapsed to compare prior periods.
Bank Feeds
Adding transactions from the bank feed doesn’t always list them under the proper vendor/customer account. For example, when a client uses the bank feed to add deposits that were received from a customer and then we go to print a cumulative statement of activity for that customer… not all the payments show up. WHY?!
Reconciliations
Why can’t QuickBooks reconcile itself? After all, this is 2019 and we are on the brink of artificial intelligence? Despite how frustrating reconciliations can be, they have actually come a long way. Especially now that QBO automatically selects transactions that have been matched or added from the bank feed. More than ever before, my reconciliations are going to an unreconciled difference of $0 on the first try!
Payroll
Why is QuickBooks Payroll so glitchy? Many clients have attempted to perform payroll on their own because they see a slightly cheaper cost. Some of them figure it out, but most crash and burn when it comes time to pay monthly withholding… especially with State and Local Taxes. You could try QBO Full Service Payroll or even opt for a professional Payroll provider, I wouldn’t blame you either way.
App Integrations
It’s so easy to ask, “does this app integrate with QuickBooks?” Almost always, the answer is “yes”. But that’s never the complete answer. You need to ask *how* the app integrates with QuickBooks. Does it support classes, divisions, items, and other optional features (which could be uniquely used in your business)? It is so often that we come across a client who hastily integrated a new app only to find it duplicated entries, added new balance sheet accounts, or caused chaos that went undiscovered for months. The best practice is to fully research and understand an app before you process the integration. Furthermore, work with you QBO ProAdvisor to try the integration in the Sample Company.
Overall
Despite numerous flaws, QBO is our favorite cloud-based accounting software. It’s the most user friendly, most integrated, and most powerful. What’s best is that the staff at Intuit listens to our feedback and they are always striving to make the software better.
Feel free to add a comment below on what frustrates you the most about QBO. Who knows, maybe we have a work-around!
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