Quickbooks – a quick summary

I am a Quickbooks qualified Pro-Advisor and have extensive experience of other packages too so I am in an ideal position to give you this summary.

• Quickbooks provide both desktop and online systems.

• Quickbooks is an American product originally and is designed to be user friendly to the non accounting professional.  It uses very clear terms which we all use in our day to day lives, such as ‘write cheques’ and ‘receive payments’.

• My feeling is that Quickbooks is a happy medium between the rigidity of Sage and the relaxed hi tech Xero.  In my opinion it is way too easy to make a mistake in Xero, even for the qualified accounts professional.

• Quickbooks online allows the direct import of bank statements and I personally found the bank reconciliation much easier than in Xero.

• Quickbooks reports are easy to produce and keep for future use. I was disappointed however, that on importing data previously memorised reports were not available as the reporting function is different.   Customising and producing professional looking reports is easy in Quickbooks online in particular.

• Quickbooks is the only programme on which I have used payroll extensively.   Both desktop and online systems are somewhat limited on auto-enrolment. Otherwise I found the desktop version a little cumbersome to use, but the online version is easy to follow and efficient.

• As a Quickbooks Pro-Advisor, I have access to free support on Quickbooks online and I have found it helpful and quick on all occasions. You can call or do an online chat.  Both work well.

• As a payroll user, Quickbooks online is invoiced monthly.  Without payroll the desktop versions can be used indefinitely.   Quickbooks online is paid for by monthly DD.