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QuickBooks NOT for attorney client escrow account management
December 11, 2018

QuickBooks NOT for attorney client escrow account management

Diane Leigh Davison | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 3 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with QuickBooks Premier

I am a solo self-employed attorney running my own law practice. My accountant recommended I switch from Quicken to QuickBooks. I had been using Quicken since 1993. I also need my accounting software to organize the accounts for 4 nonprofits that I run, and all my various personal & business accounts.
  • Invoicing
  • Accounts receivable
  • Tax prep
  • Law practice escrow account management
  • Bank account mangement
  • Bank account reconciliation
  • Cost/lost me time to configure, learn, and manage.
  • Cost/lost me money.
I think Quicken for my purposes is superior to QuickBooks Premier. I selected QuickBooks at my accountant's urging. It took a significant amount of time to set up, migrate, learn, and maintain. After almost 2 years of use, I abandoned it and returned to Quicken. Easier bank account reconciliation and management of sub-accounts within an account, e.g. attorney client escrow account.
In my opinion, QuickBooks is poorly suited to handled attorney client escrow accounts, where client monies are physically co-mingled but must by law be minutely accounted for down to each penny. You must be able to look at your bank account balance and see all client monies in escrow at any moment in time with a client breakdown. QuickBooks is just not suited for this important task. My accountant tried setting it up several different ways, but none of them functioned with the ease and simplicity of Quicken, which is an account-based program.

QuickBooks Desktop Premier Feature Ratings

3.4
Accounts payable
9
Accounts receivable
9
Cash management
1
Bank reconciliation
1
Expense management
5
Time tracking
Not Rated
Fixed asset management
Not Rated
Multi-currency support
Not Rated
Multi-division support
2
Regulations compliance
1
Electronic tax filing
Not Rated
Self-service portal
Not Rated
Global Financial Support
Not Rated
Primary and Secondary Ledgers
1
Intercompany Accounting
Not Rated
Localizations
Not Rated
Journals and Reconciliations
Not Rated
Enterprise Accounting
Not Rated
Configurable Accounting
2
Centralized Rules Framework
Not Rated
Standardized Processes
Not Rated
Not Rated
Inventory tracking
Not Rated
Automatic reordering
Not Rated
Location management
Not Rated
Manufacturing module
Not Rated
Not Rated
Pricing
Not Rated
Order entry
Not Rated
Credit card processing
Not Rated
Cost of goods sold
Not Rated
Order Orchestration
Not Rated
End-to-end order visibility
Not Rated
Order exception Resolution
Not Rated
Not Rated
Pay calculation
Not Rated
Benefit plan administration
Not Rated
Direct deposit files
Not Rated
Salary revision and increment management
Not Rated
Reimbursement management
Not Rated
5.0
Dashboards
5
Standard reports
5
Custom reports
5
Not Rated
API for custom integration
Not Rated
Plug-ins
Not Rated
Not Rated
Role-based user permissions
Not Rated
Single sign-on capability
Not Rated

Using QuickBooks Premier

1 - Solo attorney law practice
1 - Accountant/ tax professional
Basic accounts knowledge and experience
  • Tax preparation
  • None
  • None
Ceased using it.

Evaluating QuickBooks Premier and Competitors

Yes - Quicken, at repeated urging of my accountant/tax professional
  • Price
  • Product Features
  • Third-party Reviews
I had an opportunity to purchase it at a significant discount
Discuss use with other similar practitioners.