Sunday, July 21, 2013

Xero Badly Beating QuickBooks and QuickBooks Online, Retweet by Xero CEO

 Mike Block / Quickbooks-Blog writes:   Xero Badly Beating QuickBooks and QuickBooks Online is the title of my recent Xero Automatic Accounting Blog post. There is no longer any doubt about this. Here is a very brief summary.

QuickBooks Online (QBO) seems to be growing quickly (80% a year). However, there are now four million Quickbooks (QB) desktop users, down from 4.8 million. This drop is about three times the number of QBO users, so QBO seems to be simply (and badly) cannibalizing QB desktop users.

Xero is badly beating QuickBooks for many resons. These include:

  • Automatically downloading all bank and credit card entries nightly
  • Using rules to automatically assign entries to accounts
  • Providing an outstanding interface (the first beutiful accounting software, vs my always preferring an hour at the dentist to an hour with QBO)
  • Giving unlimited users fast, low-cost and very reliable online access
  • Encouraging add-ons, with a consistent, free, industry standard interface, instead of making a leading developer write, "The Demise of the Quickbooks Third Party Developer?" (frequent changes in incomplete and buggy add-on interfaces, with a top one costing a minimum of $1,000 a month)
  • Enlisting key partners, instead of cutting back
  • Placing professional accountants first, instead of badly damaging users ($1 billion a year) and the most competent QB professionals (Advanced Certified and Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisors)
These are some reasons why the former head of the QuickBooks ProAdvisor program is now with Xero. One other reason involves Xero CEO Rod Drury. Part of what makes him so outstanding can be seen from this Retweet, by this Xero CEO, of my Xero Badly Beating QuickBooks and QuickBooks Online post (https://twitter.com/roddrury?refsrc=email07:45 AM - 15 Jul 13).
These are also some of the reasons why my 11 years as an Intuit insider ended, though they featured (very partial list):
  • Intuit CEO Brad Smith: You’re fantastic Mike. Absolutely fantastic!
  • Former Intuit CEO Steve Bennett: "Keep raising hell when Intuit does something wrong."
  • Steve told Brad to contact me after hiring him, before Brad even reported for work. Brad wrote, "...told by many Intuit executives … that you have been quite open to taking the time to assist Intuit, are a tremendous voice of reason and are one of our most impactful and innovative Professional Advisors.”
  • Countless fast email exchanges with two Intuit CEOs and their top assistants, even on weekends. 
  • First Intuit website QuickBooks blog by a non-Intuit employee.
  • Three time Intuit QuickBooks Ask the Expert, mainly for Speeding up QuickBooks.
  • Repeatedly won #1 Top Tester prizes for pre-release QuickBooks testing. I had 412 points, vs 215 for the #2 tester, so Intuit stopped point counts.
  • QuickBooks errors expert - On 7/28/11 Google had 272,000 links to web pages with QuickBooks errors and Mike Block or BlockTax
  • Two Blocktax web pages copied to Intuit QuickBooks Community web library.
  • Charter member of Intuit QuickBooks and Tax Advisory Councils.
  • (for far more on this see BestQuickBooksCPA.com)
  • 07/15/2013

    Xero Badly Beating QuickBooks and QuickBooks Online

    Few seem to realize that Xero is badly beating QuickBooks (QB) and QuickBooks Online (QBO).

    We often hear that QBO is growing very quickly, at up to 80% a year. However, it is not growing fast enough to cover severe Intuit QB desktop losses. There once were 4.8 million QB desktop users. Intuit recently told me there were now only four million users. This 800,000 drop is about three times the total number of QBO users. Therefore, it seems that QuickBooks Online creates few new users, as opposed to cannibalizing QuickBooks desktop users.

    QuickBooks add-ons:

    This is very important, because Intuit surveys showed that those with QuickBooks add-ons were far more loyal and far more likely to upgrade much faster. It also is very important because no company can satisfy all users. Despite this, QB changed its add-ons interface FOUR TIMES, in little more than 11 years, without giving any add-on full access to all data. One recent interface required a 20% revenue share, with a $1,000 per month minimum charge. I am not even sure if this includes a marketplace.intuit.com listing, which once cost about $5,000 a year (with test and review costs).

    This is one reason a top QuickBooks add-on developer recently wrote, "The Demise of the Quickbooks Third Party Developer?" As he said, “Intuit founder Scott Cook [said]... he had to “fight” with his team to open up the QuickBooks system to others. People wanted access to their data, and their frustration would finally be removed... because the people worked hard to put in their data, and it belongs to them – NOT you…. [vs] we decide what data is important for you, not you…” I commented on this at (July 13, 2013 at 10:59 pm).

    Xero is growing 50% faster than QBO (120% a year). It has a free add-ons lists and a free industry standard RESTful add-ons interface. As a result, QB, add-ons are down 20% (marketplace.intuit.com, even if we count many old dead add-ons) to 50% (Google links), vs a more than 100% annual increase in Xero add-ons (now around 250). This precisely parallels what happened years ago, when QB beat Peachtree (now Sage), after Peachtree drove away their add-on developers. Thus was a big reason why QB soon became so dominant and why Xero is now badly beating QuickBooks and QuickBooks Online.

    Intuit Financial Services Sold:

    Intuit paid $1.3 billion for Digital Insight and related companies seven years ago. This let it sell software to small and medium banks. It also paid $170 million for Mint, which downloads all bank and credit/debit card entries nightly, in 2009 (six years after top Intuit execs agreed with, but never acted on, my suggestion that QB do this). Intuit also began a healthcare program. Together, they made up what should have been a very fast growing Financial Services division. However, Intuit bank software did not successfully compete with the Yodlee software used by Xero and many large and small banks. Yodlee also has FAR more users than Mint. Intuit recently sold Digital Insights, at a $320 million loss. It also announced it was dropping its healthcare division.
    This came about at the time that Yodlee announced a Yodlee - Xero partnership, so 40 million Yodlee users may soon see Xero ads. This is one more sign that Xero is badly beating Quickbooks and QuickBooks Online.
     
Posted on 3:46 AM | Categories:

How Is The Cloud Transforming Accounting?

GCE Cloud Company writes: The cloud is an enabler that allows companies to outsource technology and processes — such as transaction processing in the financial accounting function — in order to focus more energy and resources on their core mission.
 
Outsourcing using cloud technology frees up a company to better grow the business, make more money, and better handle the financial accounting function. The cloud allows companies to implement, program and enforce best practices into their workflow.
Does all this competitive advantage sound too good to be true? It’s not!

To understand how the cloud helps companies make money, consider the recent barrage of banking commercials from companies such as Allied Bank. These 30-second advertising spots show how banks take cash management out of the hands of customers, which allows their customers to focus on what they do best. More than offering ATMs around the world — this infrastructure is expected from all banks — these banks are offering services that companies can’t effectively perform by themselves.

Remember, you hire an expert to fix your car; it should be the same with your accounting processes. Don’t opt to do something yourself when you’re not the expert. The cloud allows companies to outsource financial management processes to the very best experts in the world without having to worry about maintaining training, credentials or staffing levels.

Cloud services allow companies to ensure that their financial data is managed, calculated and stored using best-of-breed products and technologies, some of which might otherwise not be affordable. The cloud also gives companies access to the most up-to-date software without the hassles of managing each new version. Furthermore, the cloud allows companies to store their data using the latest security configurations and storage algorithms, which they likely couldn’t afford in their own data center.
Here are six ways that the cloud is transforming the ability for companies to handle their financial accounting function:
  1. Increased agility: As the business world progresses at breakneck speed, companies need to be increasingly agile. This means having ready access to financial data to make decisions is critical; businesses can’t wait three days or a week for someone to build something in Excel that allows company officials see what’s going on. Company decision-makers need the data available in an appropriate format as soon as possible. Thanks to the cloud, the speed of access to actionable data will become an expectation.
  2. Predictive costs: With the cloud, companies can make better predictions for costs per user or per company. Rather than suddenly having to buy new servers, the cloud gives companies the ability to maintain predictable future costs, which is critical, especially when money is tight.
  3. The cloud is more than SaaS: Cloud technology has become so reliable that it just works without having to worry about the details. Companies can now safely outsource their entire transaction processing efforts, allowing them to completely focus on the core mission of their business, rather than mundane details such as accounts payable, billing and other accounting functions. Technologies such as Workforce as a Service (WaaS) make the cloud more than a data storage provider with an application to access data.
  4. Reduced implementation times: It’s common to hear horror stories about two-year implementations of financial accounting software, and people are rightfully scared. But some vendors discuss implementation in terms of weeks, not years. Thanks to improved technology, vendors can help companies take things off their plate faster than ever.
  5. Big Data services: Depending on the service you choose, reporting and data analytics is included. Remember, you get what you pay for — a lot of services are including Big Data analytics into their product suite.
Take advantage of the cloud to improve your financial accounting efforts and grow your business.
Posted on 3:45 AM | Categories:

Question: What is the deadline for submitting IRS Form 1040X to amend a federal income-tax return?

Tom Herman for the Wall St. Journal writes: Answer: The deadline typically is three years from the date you filed your original return. But this subject can be surprisingly tricky, and there are some exceptions to the general rules.
Generally, you have to file Form 1040X "within three years (including extensions) after the date you filed the original return" in order to get a credit or refund (or within two years of the date you paid the tax, whichever is later), according to the instructions in Form 1040X (available at www.irs.gov). 

"If you filed your original return early (for example, March 1 for a calendar year return), your return is considered filed on the due date (generally April 15)," the Internal Revenue Service says. "However, if you had an extension to file (for example, until Oct. 15) but you filed earlier and we received it July 1, your return is considered filed on July 1."
Unfortunately, you can't file an amended return electronically. You have to send it via old-fashioned snail mail.

The filing deadline can be different in certain cases. Among them: 

Bad debts or worthless securities. The time limit in these cases is "within seven years after the due date of the return for the tax year in which the debt or security became worthless," the IRS says. 

Mental or physical issues. The time limit can be "suspended" for "certain people who are physically or mentally unable to manage their financial affairs," the IRS says. IRS Publication 556 has details.
Carrybacks. You can file either IRS Form 1045 or Form 1040X to apply for a refund based on "the carryback of a net operating loss, an unused general business credit" or certain other items. See the instructions for Form 1045 for details on the deadline.
Posted on 3:45 AM | Categories: