think about who you’re serving.
by ed mendlowitz
call me before you do anything: the art of accounting
i really used to hate quickbooks, but not anymore.
more: 26 value-added benefits clients need to know | stop pricing by the hour | getting by giving back | some mistakes i made | growing with a client | getting a referral from an adversary | start with the cash | why a break-even analysis matters
exclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.
when qb came out, most of my small business clients were using dos-based accounting software, and we were using similar software for our after-the-fact work. at some point we were getting new clients that had purchased qb and we needed to learn how to use it. the first few times i worked on such clients i started compiling a list of the specifics of what was “wrong” with qb.
during that period we got two clients that wanted us to convert them to qb. i quoted fixed fees, a completion date and a guarantee that if they weren’t satisfied, we would refund their progress payments and not bill the balance. we sent an accountant who had no direct experience with qb, but was adept with small business processes.
three minutes after she arrived at the client i received a call with my staff person in tears and the bookkeeper demanding that i send someone who knew qb. i calmly explained that i gave a completion date and a satisfaction guarantee, and this was the person who would get the job done. i further said that she was the best with accounting systems and adapting clients to the best system for them. qb was a tool and we needed to be sure it would do the right job for them before we went ahead with qb. she bought that and the job was completed right on time with such a high degree of satisfaction that they asked us to become their regular accounting firm.
around that same period, we took our entire firm to a daylong qb course. the room had over 700 people sitting there entranced with the qb magic. that indicated that not only was there something to qb, but we had better get on board, which we did.
we went on to become the largest qb consultants in new jersey, for a few years spending substantial amounts on advertising. and while we received many qb consultations and small business clients, we also obtained some very substantial clients, with fees for each one much higher than our annual advertising expenditures. we had for a few years a secret weapon for new business. i started loving qb, and still do.
the takeaway here is that you cannot ignore what’s new just because it appears different. you need to test it and give it a chance. another takeaway is that we need to be receptive to what clients want and adapt to their needs. at the end of the day, we service clients and their interests.
4 responses to “i used to hate quickbooks”
catherine kimball
i’ve been using qb since the first year it was presented to the public. i use it for all my clients, many of them s-corps, llc’s and partnerships, as well as sole-proprietors. it’s a powerful program that allows one to use only those features necessary for that company. that’s a plus. however, there are several minuses that come to mind quickly – the inability for qb to recognize a downloaded name from a bank transaction because of a date extension the bank adds on. why can’t qb be told to recognize a word (like sonora lumber) instead relying on the entire string (sonora lumber 090920194683)? quicken, a much simpler software, can be told to reccognize any downloaded transaction that has “sonora lumber” in the string. come on, qb – you can do this! i know you can! i’ve been asking this of them for years. but instead of changing a really useful capability, they waste their time of the aesthetics of the program and “how it looks”. not helpful! the amount of money i pay them every year with software renewal and payroll renewal, i would think this would be an easy fix – maybe they should ask quicken how to do it. . .
terri l wilson
very well said. even today we see hate for quickbooks and although i may not love every business decision they make, i have to think of what makes sense for my clients first. the most magical part of quickbooks is that you can take someone with zero accounting knowledge and train them to get it right 99% of the time. i have yet to find another software that is that user friendly.
scott hammer
quickbooks is a great software for many businesses- that’s part of what has made it such a standard. however, people who are frustrated should know that there are other options. many of them are just as easy to learn as qb. it might be worth checking out https://www.striven.com as an alternative. it never hurts have a stronger sense of what else is out there :)
jesse
quickbooks online is just plain bad and is hated by accountants that know better! quickbooks desktop however is an efficient amazingly designed software that is very powerful and useful to a wide range of business. quickbooks online must have been designed by programmers in some foreign country as it is incredible inefficient requiring many clicks to do functions that were one click in the desktop version. furthermore reports in quickbooks online frequently make no sense to an accountant and have been actually wrong (although they have corrected them in their new releases)! it is a sham how a company like intuit can have one amazing efficient software and at the same time offer this pos (not point of sale… piece of ___!). please kill qb online and start over using accountant’s input. second time is a charm!