Should I Switch From Desktop Pro to QBO For Service Company That Job Costs & Runs Many Reports

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@JoNet wrote:

Using the cloud is pretty buggy & you have to jump through many hoops to get files from the server to your computers. It's a work around but far from ideal.

 

What kind of hoops did you encounter to get files? Do you just use a cloud service to store your files and download files to your local machine whenever you need to work on them? Actually QBD Pro is not fit for your service business and I would recommend QBD Premier.

If you prefer to learn a new challenge, you may migrate data to QB Online.

https:// quickbooks.grsm.io/US

https:// quickbooks.grsm.io/us-promo

But you should consider to have a field service app and integrate it with your QBO later.

Hello, JoNet.

Aside from the information shared by Fiat Lux - ASIA, I'd like to add some additional info about the job costing feature, and how you can migrate the data if you decide to transfer from the desktop version.

QuickBooks Online offers the Project feature that works like the Job Costing option in QuickBooks Desktop. To learn more about this, you can watch a video tutorial in this article: Set up and create projects in QuickBooks Online.

You can also try our test drive to explore the QuickBooks Online interface and see how it works. Please check out the link for our test company here.

If you choose to move your data, these guides will help you with the process:

• Learn about converting from QuickBooks Desktop to QuickBooks Online
• Limitations when you convert from QuickBooks Online to QuickBooks Desktop
• Move your QuickBooks Desktop file to QuickBooks Online
• What to do after you move from QuickBooks Desktop for Windows or Mac to QuickBooks Online

Please feel free to leave a reply below if you have more questions regarding the details we've shared above. Me and my colleagues are here to help. Take care and stay safe!

Thank you for your reply Fiat Lux - ASIA

I work from two different locations during the week & I access all sorts of excel & PDF docs to get work done. Having to upload a file to the server to work on it from my local computers & then remembering that the newer version then needs to be downloaded to the other computer at the office so that I have a hard copy backup is a pain in the rear but again, it's a work around. Also, when using the cloud server, you cannot export QB reports to excel on your desktop, so I also have to pay extra to have Excel on the server, it's like having a separate computer desktop on my computer & the two don't talk to each other as easily as I would like. I also said it's buggy because QuickBooks constantly has error messages while being stored on the cloud but I never had that issue when it was stored locally on our network.

Re: "Actually QBD Pro is not fit for your service business and I would recommend QBD Premier." I did my due diligence & looked up the difference & with our very small business, QB Pro works great & we don't need all of the bells & whistles of premier. We track our project orders from vendors through an Excel document that I created years ago so that our estimator has access to it & there is no need for them to be in QB to do it. In my opinion, Premier is overkill for us.

All that said, my question is whether QBO is a viable option for us or if it will be the death of me. haha

Would you please tell me more about what you mean here: "But you should consider to have a field service app and integrate it with your QBO later." I'm new to this info so I'm not entirely sure what you mean.

Thanks again for your reply! :)

@JoNet 

If you still prefer to use QB Desktop and only need one user to access your QB Desktop file and/or Excel file at a time over the internet, explore this "cheap" solution. You can use the existing MS Office license om your machine to run. You will need another solution to have a simple private cloud network to access file in multiuser mode at the same time.

https://qbox.coraltreetech.com/?associate_code=FL-AF34

But if you decide migrating data to QB Online, explore this field service app as one of the options to integrate with your QBO.

https://jobber.grsm.io/quickbooks

@JoNet 

I think you will be more than happy with QBox.  It is specifically designed as a file-sharing solution for QB Desktop (QBD). I have been using it for many years for several different businesses and it has been rock solid.  The company provides fantastic support as well if you need it.  You just install QBox on each of the machines that have QBD and it syncs the updated company file between them - super easy install.  You need an email account for each machine that it is installed on.  The cost is very reasonable ($120/yr or $12/mo) and you can have as many installs as you need.  You can also download QB Excel reports to your desktop, no need to have Excel on a server.  I do not have any affiliation with QBox, I'm just a satisfied user.  The only downside is that two users cannot be in the same company file at the same time. 

It is my opinion that users that like QBD (I put myself in that camp) find QBO clunky and less functional.  If the primary reason to switch is remote access, you can always try QBox - no harm in that.

NO NO NO NO,

I was sold a complete lie.  QB Desk top for 19 years.  Going back to QB Desk Top. Support is mostly BOT that doesn't have answers.  Poorly organized for construction businesses.