Rental Property Investor · Baltimore, MD · Member since 2013 · 281 posts · 257 votes
I am hiring a virtual assistant to help manage my books. I would like to collaborate with my VA on a single Quickbooks file. What version of Quickbooks should I use? Desktop or Online?
For the Desktop version I assume we'd have to save the QB file in the cloud, which could be a pain. But I have heard bad things about QB Online.
Quickbooks Online all the way. I get there's features that Desktop has that Online doesn't, but I simply can't express how convenient the mobile app and realtime collaboration is with Quickbooks Online... Especially with a VA involved.
No interest in ever going back to Quickbooks Desktop files. The power of doing everything on my phone when I'm in the field whenever I need it - send an invoice, send a receipt, setup a new tenant, accept credit card payments, see which tenants have paid and which haven't, take pictures of receipts, add delayed charges - so, so, so efficient to use Quickbooks Online.
Matt, I would stay with QuickBooks Desktop for the real estate industry. The biggest challenge is reporting. You can enter all the details no problem, but getting reports and customizing a challenge. Not to say that in couple months or years the reporting capability will be robust as the QuickBooks desktop version.
Quickbooks Online all the way. I get there's features that Desktop has that Online doesn't, but I simply can't express how convenient the mobile app and realtime collaboration is with Quickbooks Online... Especially with a VA involved.
No interest in ever going back to Quickbooks Desktop files. The power of doing everything on my phone when I'm in the field whenever I need it - send an invoice, send a receipt, setup a new tenant, accept credit card payments, see which tenants have paid and which haven't, take pictures of receipts, add delayed charges - so, so, so efficient to use Quickbooks Online.
However, you could take your laptop with you and do the same thing, and it would save you over $400.00 a year. But I understand a laptop would be a tad bit hard to put against your ear.
It does sound like a good move on your part Justin. QuickBooks always seems to improve every year.
@Brad Polvorosa I went through so many and it was a nightmare. I'm paying my accountants person to do everything right now. Its somewhat expensive. I spent so much time and money trying to get it done cheap. I recommend having someone educated do it for a year or two, then start looking at this option. Get things on track first.