Why QuickBooks Is Not a Business Tool
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@dashrender said in Why QuickBooks Is Not a Business Tool:
@scottalanmiller said in Why QuickBooks Is Not a Business Tool:
If you really believe that not a single business class accountant exists in the entire city of Auburn, you've identified an enormous business opportunity.
Assuming you can convince the locals that you're that much better than those non competent ones.
Right, it sounds like there is an assumed culture of incompetence. This can be a trend in small, insular communities. Someone starts saying "it's different here" or "we aren't big enough" or "local matters more than quality" and bad things can start to happen. Soon people stop considering themselves to be real businesses or real professionals and start acting differently. Things that would be instantly not accepted in other settings become common place.
For example, six people recommended accountants that, apparently, I'd not consider minimally competent. Yet in Auburn, six professionals didn't just say that they were functional, but actually recommended them. The standards for competence and professionalism are totally different. A city of 20,000 with a lower bar for the entire city than a village of 4,500 just three hours away has. But the difference might be that a small town is small enough that they feel that they have to compete based on quality as people are used to considering going non-local. Auburn is just big enough to have that "local is more important than professionalism" feeling, but too small to get any professional services itself.
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Ithaca does something similar, they are the most extreme "do everything local" town in NY. But, Ithaca is 35K in the city and extremely highly educated, and 90K+ in the metro. So while it has the local effect to an extreme, it is able to temper it with 200-500% greater size, 20-50% higher average income and a white collar based market rather than a blue collar one.
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@scottalanmiller said in Why QuickBooks Is Not a Business Tool:
Accounting, like IT, has no advantage to being local to you. But getting accounting right, just like getting IT right, is critical for your business.
I disagree with this. I have a great business going because I focus on a geographic area. Most of my clients are with 5 minutes of each other. I offer no per trip charges or mileage charges. My business is growing at the rate I want it to. I can charge what the guys from cities an hour away charge and clients still choose me because it costs less for them when they don't have to pay for mileage. It's also very easy to socially network a geographic area and pick up new clients that way.
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Why does some schools still teaches QuickBooks? Is it even worth it teaching students how to use QuickBooks any of the alternatives?
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Whereas in Perry, town of 4,500, there is zero "do it local" effect and people will go to big cities hours away without thinking twice for services. So local accountants, banks or whatever have to compete by offering the same professionalism and quality that Buffalo offers in order to get any customers. So even thought they are small, and 100% blue collar / farming based they have extremely high end business services across the board with more than just one firm offering more than all of the city of Auburn seems to offer.
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@mike-davis said in Why QuickBooks Is Not a Business Tool:
@scottalanmiller said in Why QuickBooks Is Not a Business Tool:
Accounting, like IT, has no advantage to being local to you. But getting accounting right, just like getting IT right, is critical for your business.
I disagree with this. I have a great business going because I focus on a geographic area. Most of my clients are with 5 minutes of each other. I offer no per trip charges or mileage charges. My business is growing at the rate I want it to. I can charge what the guys from cities an hour away charge and clients still choose me because it costs less for them when they don't have to pay for mileage. It's also very easy to socially network a geographic area and pick up new clients that way.
Why are you driving at all? Unless a device is offline.
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@mike-davis said in Why QuickBooks Is Not a Business Tool:
@scottalanmiller said in Why QuickBooks Is Not a Business Tool:
Accounting, like IT, has no advantage to being local to you. But getting accounting right, just like getting IT right, is critical for your business.
I disagree with this. I have a great business going because I focus on a geographic area.
Right, it's great for the PROVIDER because it is bad for the customer. A local provider charges more and delivers less because the customer feels compelled to stay local. They will pay a premium for this and will get less for it. Just as you are with your accountant. Your accountant is doing GREAT because as the customer, you are willing to get screwed to work with them. You have to be paying too much, and you know you are getting too little. Yet your emotional ties to working locally regardless of the quality or competence forces you to sacrifice your own business to donate to your accountant - because you feel that their locality trumps their quality.
This is also known as the "church effect." Studies show that the worst business arrangements are made at church. Why? Because the customers feel like they can't complain and should pay a premium and shouldn't expect the best work. They hire people out of guilt, pity or duty - not because they selected them on quality or reputation. The provider knows that there is no competition and has no incentive to do a good job.
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@dashrender said in Why QuickBooks Is Not a Business Tool:
Why are you driving at all? Unless a device is offline.
To prevent my job from getting shipped to India... When a computer doesn't boot, or one boots and then immediately blue screens like happened today, we send someone. Clients are willing to pay a premium for this. I also recycle their old gear. I noticed that other companies don't do that and clients don't know how to destroy drives or handle Ewaste.
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@black3dynamite said in Why QuickBooks Is Not a Business Tool:
Why does some schools still teaches QuickBooks? Is it even worth it teaching students how to use QuickBooks any of the alternatives?
Was it ever worth teaching? Any competent accountant can use anything. Teaching a TOOL is just silly. Even accountant schools - other than "something" needs to be taught just to be able to learn on. But no one but accountants should ever see QB, and accounts should only see it for the purpose of supporting businesses that refuse to convert.
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@mike-davis said in Why QuickBooks Is Not a Business Tool:
@dashrender said in Why QuickBooks Is Not a Business Tool:
Why are you driving at all? Unless a device is offline.
To prevent my job from getting shipped to India... When a computer doesn't boot, or one boots and then immediately blue screens like happened today, we send someone. Clients are willing to pay a premium for this.
That's "unless a device is offline", though.
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@mike-davis said in Why QuickBooks Is Not a Business Tool:
Most of my clients are with 5 minutes of each other. I offer no per trip charges or mileage charges. My business is growing at the rate I want it to. I can charge what the guys from cities an hour away charge and clients still choose me because it costs less for them when they don't have to pay for mileage. It's also very easy to socially network a geographic area and pick up new clients that way.
None of this explains why THEY would choose YOU. It explains why you take them on as customers. I think you've missed the point. I know why the accountants in your town take on customers. What we don't understand is why any people decide to be their customers.
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@scottalanmiller said in Why QuickBooks Is Not a Business Tool:
A local provider charges more and delivers less because the customer feels compelled to stay local.
That's not true in my business. I'm charging less than the guys an hour away because when I do have to install something, I don't have to charge drive time and the client doesn't have to pay me drive time. In addition, I have come in behind some really incompetent providers. In those cases the client gets more and pays less.
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@mike-davis said in Why QuickBooks Is Not a Business Tool:
@dashrender said in Why QuickBooks Is Not a Business Tool:
Why are you driving at all? Unless a device is offline.
To prevent my job from getting shipped to India... When a computer doesn't boot, or one boots and then immediately blue screens like happened today, we send someone. Clients are willing to pay a premium for this. I also recycle their old gear. I noticed that other companies don't do that and clients don't know how to destroy drives or handle Ewaste.
Does your accountant drive to you if your books go offline? Bench, not IT, has some value to being somewhat local. IT has none. Accounting has none.
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@scottalanmiller said in Why QuickBooks Is Not a Business Tool:
Not quite, because in theory desktops work just fine on their own without a server. The RDBMS isn't for administration, it's for arbitration. It's more like hundreds of users sharing a single workstation without different accounts. So you have to trust all other users not to mess with your files. And you have to trust that they will leave sticky notes saying what files they have been working on and if they can be changed or not. And they have to trust that you will honor their sticky notes.
It's "blind, full trust, anonymous users." It's utterly insane.Ok i see. My understanding was still a bit off then. That sounds just crazy. I investigated Quickbooks once but didn't like it. Thats why I could recommend Xero. I just didn't know how Quickbooks worked and why it was so bad. Thanks again for the explanation.
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@mike-davis said in Why QuickBooks Is Not a Business Tool:
@scottalanmiller said in Why QuickBooks Is Not a Business Tool:
A local provider charges more and delivers less because the customer feels compelled to stay local.
That's not true in my business. I'm charging less than the guys an hour away because when I do have to install something, I don't have to charge drive time and the client doesn't have to pay me drive time. In addition, I have come in behind some really incompetent providers. In those cases the client gets more and pays less.
But you've defined your accountants as incompetent. So compare that here. You are placing value in one case on replacing incompetence. But then embracing it in the other.
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@mike-davis said in Why QuickBooks Is Not a Business Tool:
@dashrender said in Why QuickBooks Is Not a Business Tool:
Why are you driving at all? Unless a device is offline.
To prevent my job from getting shipped to India...
So you're what? hiding the fact that remote access allows you to do all this work from off site in the hope that your customer doesn't realize it can't be done remotely, so they don't look to replace you with someone in India?
When a computer doesn't boot, or one boots and then immediately blue screens like happened today, we send someone.
This is the offline - and you just said - We send someone, that implies they weren't there, now I'm confused
Clients are willing to pay a premium for this.
For what? for you to be onsite? Do they really understand this, did you say - hey I can do this all remotely and I'll charge you 10% less, or I come on site for the current rate? If so, how are you saved from job exportation?
I also recycle their old gear. I noticed that other companies don't do that and clients don't know how to destroy drives or handle Ewaste.
What does this have to do with remote support. You do the remote support, then they make a pile and you go and pick it up - that's not really an IT job, that's a bench or some other type of job, that your company just happens to offer.
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In your examples of yourself, you are a provider. So doesn't apply. And your logic is that you fix incompetent service.
In the case of the accountant, they aren't competent and you are the customer. So both components are flipped.
And you do bench services with have a local component to them. Accountants have no such locality.
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@scottalanmiller said in Why QuickBooks Is Not a Business Tool:
That's "unless a device is offline", though.
For the times when we show up on site to do something that we could do remotely, I write that off as marketing. I've seen it happen where IT does everything remotely and the customer doesn't realize they are doing stuff in the back ground. The monthly reports get deleted before they are read. Next thing you know another provider swoops in and takes the client.
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@mike-davis said in Why QuickBooks Is Not a Business Tool:
@scottalanmiller said in Why QuickBooks Is Not a Business Tool:
A local provider charges more and delivers less because the customer feels compelled to stay local.
That's not true in my business. I'm charging less than the guys an hour away because when I do have to install something, I don't have to charge drive time and the client doesn't have to pay me drive time. In addition, I have come in behind some really incompetent providers. In those cases the client gets more and pays less.
Sure, so they don't have to pay drive time, because you said you don't charge it, though, really why not? My plumber sure does. But he can't work remotely either.
The question really is, why are you hurting yourself by wasting billable time driving to a client when remote access removes that wasted time?
I know the answer - the answer is - the clients you have want to see your face - because they too are bad at business. They don't understand that seeing is actually a waste and spending time and resources tracking you instead of trusting you to do your job. If they can't trust you, then they should fire you. This really boils down more about them than you, but if you picked different clients, you wouldn't have to drive much if at all.
Look at Gene - he works from home. Almost exclusively, unless there is a problem that simply can't be fixed remotely. He's been doing it for NTG for years.
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@mike-davis said in Why QuickBooks Is Not a Business Tool:
@scottalanmiller said in Why QuickBooks Is Not a Business Tool:
That's "unless a device is offline", though.
For the times when we show up on site to do something that we could do remotely, I write that off as marketing. I've seen it happen where IT does everything remotely and the customer doesn't realize they are doing stuff in the back ground. The monthly reports get deleted before they are read. Next thing you know another provider swoops in and takes the client.
Sure, but it is still not a value to the customer. It's a value to you as the provider.
This should all tell you how important it is for you as a customer to not be marketed to in the same way. Going on site wastes time and costs money and plays to bad business emotions of the customer. Makes perfect sense as the provider. I know why YOU do it. It's smart.
But as the customer, you don't want your accountant or your IT people doing this TO you. You want to look at your decisions as business ones, not emotional ones. If your customers were smarter about business, you'd not need to do that. It only has value because they aren't realizing how their own business works.
