Converting from QB Desktop to Online?

If you are enticed by the convenience of QB Online and you want to convert from QB Desktop, please read on.

QuickBooks Online is not Desktop. Far from it! If you are expecting a similar experience to Desktop, lose that expectation and approach it as if you are learning an entirely different software. QB Online essentially has a mind of its own (until some features are disabled and preferences set.)  Unfortunately, many users learn more from fixing mistakes and troubleshooting the quirks in QB, rather than learning the correct way to begin with. This can be a time consuming and extraordinarily frustrating. If you’ve never used QB Online, I suggest giving me a call for a one-hour consult before you begin adding transactions.

How do you know if you should switch? QB Online has some cool features such as giving your accountant direct access to the same file rather than making a separate backup file. (But I will caution, just because it’s convenient for accountants, still doesn’t make it the correct choice for you.) QB Online also allows you to directly link to your bank accounts in real time and will automatically match payments and deposits.  There are many other advantages to QB Online and once learned, you will adjust to its quirkiness. There are several features in Online that I wish were available in Desktop (such as clicking a dropdown for recent transactions.)

One of the disadvantages is that QB Online is expensive, with different versions to choose from. You want to make sure the version you are getting is actually what you need, and prices go up with more features. It is a monthly subscription and is victim to price increases. On the other hand, QuickBooks Desktop is located on your local computer for a one-time fee. QuickBooks has been trying to convert Desktop to a subscription software, requiring annual updates, but they have not yet been successful since the two software programs are so different. In the past, QB Desktop was usable for many years, but payroll would not be updated if the version is more than three years old. We will see what they roll out for 2024.

The biggest disadvantage is QB Online’s ‘Very Bad Behavior’ with online banking and automatic categorization of transactions. QB Online will categorize all checks or deposits based on the last transaction entered if you don’t stop it before it starts! If not, you may suddenly find that every single deposit is tracking to only ONE customer, when you have 20 customers; and the deposits are booked to “Uncategorized” income. This can be maddening if you don’t understand the behavior. The difficulty lies in “fixing” transactions or adding missing information. It is  tearfully cumbersome to change every single transaction in QB Online after it’s been saved.

The last disadvantage I want to mention is that QB Online lacks the great reporting features that you can customize in QB Desktop, especially spreadsheet type reports. See my tip on “Budget v Actual” reports that can be generated in QB Desktop. (LINK)

Please call to help with your QB Online setup. I will provide 30 minutes of free consultation for first time users.