C’mon, admit it. Don’t you just hate QuickBooks?!

Posted by briggsie on Jan 21 2010 2406 printer friendly

I hate QuickBooks Everybody's using it, and so are you, but c'mon, admit it, don't you hate QuickBooks? Well, maybe not QuickBooks, but Intuit? Every year, Intuit forces us CPAs to buy a new version of QuickBooks for ~$500, if we want payroll included. And much more, for additional users!!!! How? Because for us to be compatible with our clients’ QuickBooks’ files, we need the same year’s version. And if you are just starting up a CPA practice, you may have to acquire prior years’s versions to service clients using them. I’ve got one client still using QuickBooks 2002! That’s an oldie but goodie. I hate that marketing ploy, being forced to buy something every year. And now being forced to buy a separate payroll module, since Intuit will not update the tax tables for free every year in the program. And every year it seems that Intuit comes up with another feature to pay for. This year it’s the Intuit Statement Writer. No, it’s not included with the Premier Accountants Edition, as I expected it to be. There’s a fee with that edition, unlike the now defunct FSD, Financial Statement Designer, which was not all that convenient and easy to work in. Oh, by the way, the QuickBooks gurus refer to the Intuit Statement Writer as ISW, in the event that you do not want to appear like a deer-in-the-headlights when you hear the lingo in accounting circles.

Do you remember the good old days when QuickBooks was easy to work with? You didn’t need to know what a “source” or “target” was in QuickBooks, or round up a posse to find out how to execute something correctly in it. And I hate the marketing program of Intuit. All my clients have been lulled like sheep into believing that since they have QuickBooks, that all they need to do is plug in some numbers, and then everything will be magically processed in QuickBooks, producing records requiring no major adjustments, and, consequently, reducing my accounting fees at year end. Wonderful.

Have you noticed the newly evolved culture of QuickBooks specialists on the web, too? They even hold national conferences and seminars on QuickBooks. Wow. And they get all of this media attention. However, do they know anything about real accounting and taxes and the significant changes occurring in GAAP now?

You are probably a good CPA. You know GAAP, GAAS, and the Code inside out. But, honestly, do you really want to devote all that time learning the intricacies of QuickBooks to assist your small business clients who probably do not have the sheckles to pay you for this assistance in the first place, or who expect it dirt cheap? And do you really want to hire a new employee because of his or her QuickBooks abilities? Think again. There are a bunch of competitors out there, offering strictly QuickBooks bookkeeping services, cutting each other’s throats in pricing. You don’t have to be a CPA to be a Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor. There's no degree required. You simply buy the program, take the exam as if it were a CPE course, and voila: you’ve got a shingle to hang up, like millions of other people out there now.

Intuit does not appear to be very grateful to us CPAs, either. Did you ever receive a commission from Intuit for setting up all those clients on QuickBooks? I never did. I believe their standard discount to us is 20% off list for selling QuickBooks to our clients; however, most office stores sell the program at 40% off. That's gratitude!

I hate Intuit. Yeah, I hate QuickBooks, too.

Have a tax or an accounting question? Please feel free to submit it to William Brighenti, Certified Public Accountant, Hartford CPA Accountants [1]. For information and assistance on any tax and accounting issue, please visit our website, Accountants CPA Hartford [2], and our blog, Accounting and Taxes Simplified. [3]

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