Doug Zandstra CPA EA Accountant Grand Rapids Michigan

Thursday, 17 June 2010

Last tax season I received a thumb drive with a Quickbooks data backup and the thumb drive had a virus on it. My accounting practice could have been put completely at risk if I had let a virus disrupt or destroy my server. Additionally, I have files and data that are very sensitive, I can't imagine writing letters to all of my clients informing them that their financial information may have been compromised.

That is why I am no longer exchanging quickbooks disks with clients. Fortunately there is a simple solution, that makes a lot of sense.

Quickbooks Online

Manage your books from Anywhere :As the business owner, you can manage your books from anywhere. For business owners who travel regularly or business owners doing their books at night at home (like so many of us), this is a real benefit.

Automatic Updates : The site is hosted by Quickbooks and the interface is constantly being updates with new features and advances. In the 2 years that I have been using it myself, the features have evolved to closely rival the desktop features
FRAUD / EMBEZZLEMENT MINIMIZATION : in the 20 years that I have been doing accounting, I have worked on dozens of embezzlement cases. In almost all of the cases, there were several things that contributed to the embezzlement:

Lack of oversight
Lack of internal controls
Lack of transparency
Lack of an audit trail
Deliberate concealment of financial transactions.

Using Online Quickbooks does not guarantee that these circumstances go away, but certainly gives even the most trusting business owner the ability to review the financial transactions as they are processed buy the bookkeeper. There is no excuse for the business owner or CPA to peek over the shoulder of the bookkeeper once a month and make sure that the bank accounts are reconciled. If the business owner lets the CPA set up the audit trail and user settings, the risk of embezzlement will be lower
Employees can work from anywhere :QuickBooks Online is especially good for businesses with a distributed workforce. If you have employees or independent contractors working from home or from remote locations they can have access to the software as needed (up to 3 simultaneous users, plus your accountant or up to 20 users for an additional fee). For instance, you or your employees can create estimates directly at a customer's site using a laptop.

Timesheet Reporting : You can even give hourly employees or independent contractors the authority to log in for the limited purpose of filling out timesheets. Then you can process payroll or contractor payments easily.

No More Thumb Drive Data Sharing With Your Accountant : QuickBooks Online makes it easy to share data with an outside accountant. For instance, if your accountant helps you close or balance your books each month or quarter, you don't have to hassle with exchanging data. Your accountant logs in from his or her office and can nip errors in the bud by following an activity log.
Simultaneous Collaboration with your Accountant : Your accountant can even log on simultaneously with you to show you how to do something.

No More Data Crashes : You get the advantage of your data being backed up offsite.

Monthly Costs are Lower Than Annual Renewal Costs : You pay a lower recurring monthly payment, instead of paying a software license fee up front.

No More Software You do not have to install software on your hard drive. The online application is designed for do-it-yourselfers and walks you through a wizard to help you get set up.

Support Is Included You get support included in the monthly fee. The website says that if you submit a question via email, they usually get back to you within 30 minutes.

Works With A Mac or Apple - There is only one other accounting package that I am aware of that supports Apple and Mac

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