QuickBooks Advanced: The Priority Support Wins!
Overall Satisfaction with QuickBooks Online Advanced
One of the companies I work for uses QuickBooks Online Advanced to manage the backend of a very busy retail store. Initially, we upgraded to this version for a higher user count, but we soon came to realize that there were many benefits to having the higher-level software. In tandem with more users came more granular control over who can do what, which enabled us to spread the duties out more effectively without granting permissions we did not want certain users to have. That is the primary benefit to this level of the software in my opinion.
Pros
- User access control: for reasons previously specified.
- Automation: we're able to automate a few key workflows that help remind the staff to get things done on schedule.
- On-demand training via the Priority Circle has proven invaluable. Staff can learn things on their own without straining IT (me) or reaching out for immediate assistance for issues.
Cons
- Price: People in the industry find QuickBooks to be expensive to start with and this version is the priciest.
- Lack of inventory control and/or warehousing systems.
- Lack of forecasting, which ties back to inventory. A lot of my customers look for these two things.
- The need for constant paid addons to get some common things done.
- The additional users plus deeper access controls is a major plus and pays for itself.
- It's a high monthly annual fee to pay for any company.
- There are a lot of aspects of the software we don't need or use, and perhaps, never will.
- Billing of customers is streamlined and mostly automated for us.
- Have used the priority support on numerous occasions with excellent results each time.
We were already well versed with the plus version, so it was a simple flip of a switch to upgrade to the advanced. As for learning the new things, the Priority Access was super easy, there's a button right in the portal for that. as well as a published phone number for direct call-ins. Some of the automation took a minute to figure out and set up, but the ones we use like automatic invoicing, automatic PO creation on stock-outs, incoming payment applications, etc., work very well and save us a bunch of time.
For our team, we have two companies using the plus version and one company using the advanced version. We have all 3 companies linked, so as long as a specific user has access to a specific company (by way of their user account being specifically added to said company), that user will see a "company list" on login. They simply choose which company they need to access and they are logged in. They can switch companies on the fly too. The principles monitor P&L and cash flow via their laptops and mobile devices while on the go from anywhere. I support all the users and the companies from any browser anywhere. You gotta love the cloud!
- QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise, QuickBooks Desktop Premier, Wave Accounting and Sage Business Cloud X3 (formerly Sage ERP X3)
QuickBooks Online is a no brainer; everything is going cloud so your accounting should too. That trumps the desktop versions of this software hands down. Price is a factor as desktop versions are bought outright and supported for about 5 years, so they are a little bit cheaper. However, you have to buy the upgrades, so it's really not any less expensive. QuickBooks Advanced does accounting really well and to reuse an earlier description, is the gold standard in accounting software. The priority support included in this level is seriously the best part of the investment.
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