August 10, 2024
by Stephanie Broom, Accounting Manager, Lucrum Consulting (lucrumconsulting.com)
Switched to QuickBooks Online, dealing with a mess and wondering if you’d be better
off temporarily going back to QuickBooks Desktop? You are not alone.
In fact, the situation is becoming all too common in light of Intuit’s recent
announcement that it will be sunsetting QuickBooks Desktop. Many organizations
have migrated to Online in a hurry and are unhappy with the result.
If reporting is a nightmare, missing Desktop features are causing trouble and the
whole experience just feels frustrating – there may be a better way. Read on for expert
accounting tips on how to approach this situation.
Before jumping straight to moving back to Desktop, attempt to solve the issues in
QuickBooks Online. Moving back to Desktop should be approached as more of a last
resort. (But one that might very well be needed). Here are a few things to think about
when trying to make Online work:
Key QuickBooks Goals: What are you trying to accomplish with QuickBooks?
Make a list of key goals and essential vs. desired features. Focus first on trying
to achieve the key goals within QuickBooks Online.
Ask questions like, “Do we really need or use that report we’re missing or is
there another way to look at that same data available in Online?” Is the “It’s the
way we’ve always done it.” trap the real reason we think Online isn’t working?
It may be as simple as getting used to a new normal when it comes to how to
read and look at the format of information. Or the investigation could still
reveal that Online can’t give the finance organization what it needs.
Reporting Workarounds: Reporting is one of the most common issues cited
once the switch is made to QuickBooks Online. Can your reporting woes be fixed
within Online? Online reports might require some adjustment in formatting or
filtering, but they might still provide the needed data. Another option might be
exporting data to Excel and creating custom reporting. Debt to equity ratios,
cash flow projections and more can all be built in Excel.
Upgrading Your Plan: A higher tier QuickBooks Online subscription might offer
the features that are missing. If an upgrade could fix the issues, that might be
easier than migrating back.
If attempts to fix woes in QuickBooks Online still aren’t fulfilling requirements, then consider temporarily migrating back to QuickBooks Desktop. Doing so can instantly solve for pain points – while buying the organization more time to properly plan the migration in the future, train staff before migrating, or even consider other options like QuickBooks Enterprise.
Look for these key indicators your organization is (or isn’t) a good candidate to move back:
Can’t Generate Essential Reporting: Move Back. If crucial reports are a nightmare or simply unavailable in Online, and this is preventing confident business decision-making, a temporary migration back to Desktop could help.
QuickBooks Desktop provides more options for the type of information that can be displayed in reports and how that information is displayed. QuickBooks Desktop Premier and Enterprise offers somewhere around 150 reports with industry-specific options, including forecasting reporting, many of which are not available in QuickBooks Online.
Reporting in Online is messy and time consuming in comparison to Desktop. This is especially true for Job Costing. QuickBooks Online spits out Job Costing Reports in multiple columns so that the information cannot be filtered or summarized. The report shows the parent company first, then the job-sub-customer(s). It requires a lot of formatting to remove the extra columns with the “parent customer.”
In QuickBooks Desktop, reporting by job is made easy (with a rollup report of all jobs). The bottom line is that organizations for which Job Costing is highly important will struggle with having to run 1 report per job in Online.
Accountant’s Tip: Understand Jobs vs. Projects in QuickBooks Online & Desktop
QuickBooks Online doesn’t have “jobs” like Desktop does. Jobs are instead considered a “sub-customer” and a sub-customer can be converted to a Project in QuickBooks Online. In QuickBooks Online, Projects can be marked as Not Started, In Progress or Completed. But they cannot be marked as “Inactive” like they can be in QuickBooks Desktop. We’ve run into issues with converting a sub-customer to a Project related to syncing labor time from QuickBooks Time; it will still show a project available to record time to even if it’s been marked as completed. This does not happen with QuickBooks Desktop. Once you mark a job as “inactive” it will not show up in QuickBooks Time as available to apply time to.
Hasn’t Been Long Since Migrating to QuickBooks Online: Move Back. Within a year of switching, moving back to Desktop is relatively smooth. Beyond that, historical data access might be limited. For example, you’d lose reporting like Bank Recs and can’t go back and access those reports or even rebuild them in Desktop. Pricing Estimates would need to be archived as well before shutting down the Online subscription.
At some point, you’ll need to turn off the QuickBooks Online subscription so you’re not paying for both. You will have read-only access for one year after cancelling, permanently deleting the instance or access to the information. Hence, the longer you’ve been Online, the harder it will be to temporarily switch back.
Integration Needs a Priority: Stay Put. Deep integrations with payroll or other software built in Online may mean it’s an even bigger headache to go back to Desktop. QuickBooks Online does have more integration capabilities with apps and software when compared to Desktop. If this is your scenario, it is likely better to consider workarounds and solutions in Online vs. a move back to Desktop, as it is unlikely to meet even short-term goals.
User Experience Disrupting Day-To-Day: Move Back. The new user experience in Online can significantly disrupt the way your team works in QuickBooks on a day-to-day basis – especially if staff wasn’t trained or prepared for it.
For example, take the ability to same-screen toggle between multiple windows in Desktop. With Desktop you can, for example, start a bank reconciliation and not have to close out of it to look up transaction details such as check payments or deposits (which is the case in Online). In Desktop, you can also enter transactions while the bank reconciliation is open and it updates instantly.
Compare this to the QuickBooks Online experience. Using the bank reconciliation example, you will need to have the bank reconciliation open in one browser tab and to record a deposit or disbursement, you would need to perform that in a second browser tab. It doesn’t automatically update, so you would have to make sure to refresh the screen where you made the deposit/disbursement entry then go back to the browser page with the bank reconciliation – and refresh that page as well to make sure the transaction that was recorded updates so that it will update on the bank reconciliations. (If your head is about to explode while trying to follow this workflow, that’s our point.)
Another example is the flowchart style menu available in Desktop, which makes it easy to navigate when trying to locate specific tasks that need to be performed. The QuickBooks Online menu requires an extra click on each menu to know what tasks are under each.
Moving back to Desktop should be a last resort, but it may be necessary in some cases. Here’s our advice:
While migrating back to Desktop is an option in the short term, focusing on mastering Online (even despite some of its shortcomings) or exploring another solution (eg. QuickBooks Enterprise) will serve your organization better in the long run. Take advantage of free trials, explore alternative solutions, and plan for a smooth transition.
Related Posts
As a small business owner you might need a small business loan to get you through a seasonal slow time, to fund a new product line, or to pay for equipment. While recording your loan and loan payments in QuickBooks Online isn’t difficult, there are certain steps you will need to take in order to
Read MoreThis page contains affiliate links, which means I will make a commission at no extra cost to you should you click through and make a purchase. Please see the disclosures page for more information. Are you running payroll in your small business? In this post, I’m going to share how you can streamline this process by connecting
Read MoreI’ve gotten some questions about how to handle a little quirk that happens when you use instant transfer to move money from PayPal to your checking account. While instant transfer allows you to move money the same day, there is a fee for this service. That means the amount you’re transferring out of PayPal won’t
Read More