Not another Quickbooks Online price hike

Is there anything more frustrating than purchasing an item for more than you expected to pay? Like taking a $1 candy bar up to the cashier with exact change in hand only to find out the price was $1.50.  Today I was talking with a colleague and he was explaining how frustrated he has been with the local gas company. For the last three months, his utility gas bill was much higher than it had ever been. He called the gas company as was told by a representative that the readings on his gas meter were higher, that was that, and she could do nothing for him.  Frustrated, he did a 3-year comparison of his gas bills and found his reading had never been so high. He took that information back to the gas company and through several phone calls and investigation by the gas company, found out the gas companies readings were being double counted for the last 3 months. The gas company recalculated and refunded, to my colleague, the overpayment.   We are not all so fortunate (no the cashier would not take by $1 for the $1.50 candy bar). Moral of the story, know what you are paying for.

Are you a heavy QuickBooks Online (QBO) user? If so, you better listen up. I’ve been expecting this for a few years and started to doubt that it was coming, but here it is: Data usage pricing for QuickBooks Online. The makers of QuickBooks Online, Intuit, has created another version of QuickBooks Online called Advanced. Previously in the other versions of QBO (Self-Employed, Simple Start, Essentials, and Plus) you could have as many classes, categories, and accounts as you wanted. You were only limited by the features of each version. Now, it doesn’t matter what version you have been using, if you exceed one of the new usage limits, you will automatically be thrown into QBO Advanced beginning April 10, 2019.


So what are the limits?


CHART OF ACCOUNTS
250 accounts with Simple Start, Essentials, or Plus | UNLIMITED with Advanced


CLASSES AND LOCATIONS
40 combined in Simple Start, Essentials, or Plus | UNLIMITED with Advanced


BILLABLE USERS
1 with Simple Start | 3 with Essentials | 5 with Plus | 25 with Advanced


If you are a QBO user and exceed these limits, be prepared for a dramatic price increase with QBO Advanced. Current Intuit prices for QBO subscriptions are $20 for Simple Start, $40 for Essentials, $70 for Plus, and now $150 for Advanced.


Real world example: I do work for a local Non-Profit, who we just moved to from QuickBooks desktop to QBO Plus eight months ago. They only have one user of QBO but the move was prompted by 3rd party software as well as convivence of anywhere, anytime access. Because of the nature of the non-profit, they heavily use accounts/categories and classes. They have over 350 accounts in their chart of accounts and over 40 classes. With the new usage limits, they will be forced into QBO Advanced. Their monthly subscription cost will go from $60/month to $150/month. That is over $1,000 in increased annual costs, just for the subscription! The non-profit now has to make a decision before April 10th whether to pay the additional cost or put the candy bar back and switch back to QuickBooks Desktop.


If you don’t know where your QBO usage fits, Intuit has made it easy for you to monitor.  While logged into QBO,
select the gear icon in the Toolbar, then Account and Settings, then Usage. If you have multiple companies, you will need to check the usage for each company.


This post is not to discourage businesses from going to QBO Advanced. My business is focused on Intuit products and supporting small businesses who use Intuit products. However, I do want you to make the best software decision for you and your business. There are options and ways to save money by using Intuit products. If you are thinking of using or currently using QuickBooks and wonder if you are getting the best bang for your buck, give us a call at (850) 725-5696 and we will walk you through all the options and find the best fit for you. Mike McVay, Accountant - Mike@MikeMcVay.com

McVay has options for QuickBooks Price Increases. McVay offers FREE or reduced fee monthly QuickBooks Subscriptions for new clients. We are also starting to use other online accounting software that are close to the current QBO platform at a lower price. 

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