The Quickbooks TV ad

[dodobookends]

Ye Gods. Is it just me, or is anyone else fed up to the back teeth of seeing this advert?

Of course - so anyone without any experience whatsoever can just buy the thing, press a few buttons and Hey Presto, their accounts are done in an instant? Yeah, right.

It is seriously driving me up the wall.

It's not even a good product for experienced people like book-keepers and accountants. I hate the damn thing and only have a couple of clients using it. Yet I used to love the old desktop version which was completely different/better in so many ways and I used the desktop version for years to do in house book-keeping for our own and clients' accounts. Using QB without proper training is a recipe for very messy and inaccurate book-keeping!

But, it's not only QB on the make. With HMRC's making tax digital - which is like watching a car crash, there's also Kashflow, Sage, Xevo etc all advertising how simple their online systems are, which again, is very misleading as you really can't just pick up an app and do your book-keeping to the accuracy needed without proper training/research.

Very true, and that's why it riles me. One of my clients uses it too.

Oh well, no wonder the accountant on the QB advert is so thrilled - loads more work sorting everything out and a bigger fee to charge

To be fair I think QBO is very good and is my choice of online bookkeeping software for me and for clients. I am very careful who I let loose with it though and what I encourage them to do or otherwise.

It is horses for courses but I find it far better than freeagent, Kashflow, wave etc. The only other one that comes close is xero in my opinion.

are you all accountants/bookeepers then?
i have been bombarded with freeagent ads online - are any of these products significantly better than a simple excel sheet? I do desk based work with invoicing and travel / stationary expenses and just use excel. I pay my accountant a flat fee to turn the spreadsheet into certified accounts once a year and do my tax return.
Any arguments for moving to anything more fancy?

Stick with Excel unless your business starts to grow a lot and your accountant suggests that you move to an accounts package. Then go with their suggestion of which one to use.

museumum yes I'm an accountant.
If your affairs are very simple then excel will do the job fine. If you have more than 25ish transactions a month and use a dedicated business bank account for them then an online accounting system will more than likely save you time.

Different accountants like different packages so if you are tempted to go online ask your own accountant for advice on which one they like. Most of my online clients use QBO but I also have others on xero, freeagent, wave and others. I am happy to work with what my clients are happy using.

Your accountant may well be able to get you a cheaper deal on their preferred software too.