WSW - The Double-Sided Coin: Is the Grass Greener with QuickBooks?
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Introduction and Host Change
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Dan DeLong: Welcome to another workshop Wednesday, uh, where it's casual conversations for serious workflows brought to you by schoolbookkeeping. com where you can keep learning QuickBooks. Your way. Um, you may notice that Rachel, uh, has some explaining to do. No,
Matthew Fulton: I'm explaining to do. We
Dan DeLong: have Michelle. No,
Matthew Fulton: I'm Rachel. I mean, people are confused on who I am, I think, but that's okay.
Dan DeLong: Thankfully, I don't like talking to him at well. Fortunately, Matthew, uh, uh, volunteer, voluntold, uh, was nice enough to, uh, come in and fill Rachel's shoes. She's on vacation this week in, uh, in sunny Florida, which is where, where we're at here too. But, um, she's, uh, she's off with in the beach area or something like that.
Uh, didn't want to work at all, which I don't blame her. That's something, um, I wish I could do, uh, separate, um, [00:01:00] life. Um, so Matthew was, uh, was nice enough to, uh, to, to do the guest hosting duties today, uh, Matthew want to, uh, fill in, uh, And introduce yourself, uh, for, uh, for those that may, may not know.
Meet the Guest Host: Matthew Fulton
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Matthew Fulton: Sure.
Hello folks. Matthew Fulton here. My friends call me Spot. I am a cloud based accountant, uh, located out of Ventura, California, really kind of specializing in workflow. And I really love actually working with app companies that are trying to integrate to QuickBooks Online. I'm a nerd that really knows the API, the different pieces to connect together to make it work right.
And the most important for us accounts is making sure the data they're pushing Is good stuff so happy to uh to help fill rachel's shoes today Even how uncomfortable they might be?
Dan DeLong: That's right Fortunately, they're flat. Oh, thank you All right, well today, uh today our topic and and i'm glad matthew was uh was able to fill in today because [00:02:00] um, You know that he uh, he has a great Perspective, um, for, um, you know, the, the, the happenings and the goings on at, uh, at Intuit.
Matthew's Journey with QuickBooks
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Dan DeLong: How long have you been, uh, like a QuickBooks Pro Advisor and in the, in the accountant community side of things, uh, for
Matthew Fulton: Really since like 2014 is when I first got started doing all this, working with Parkway and ironically watching Power Hour with It was Hector and Michelle back then and getting involved into all of it.
And then it was around 2018 that I really started diving in and, um, using my voice more, I would say.
Dan DeLong: And you've been, um, you've been part of the Intuit trainer, writer network and those types of things. Um, Talk a little bit about what that program is, uh, and, and into it.
Intuit's Trainer Writer Network
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Matthew Fulton: So, unfortunately, the Trainer Rider Network has been sunsetted, uh, but it was one of the coolest opportunities I've had through my [00:03:00] professional career as an accountant.
It was something that you had to apply to, and You know, my partner in crime, Linda Artesani and I, we used to, we kind of met because of Intuit's own community where we'd both randomly go in and answer questions for people. It's kind of a way, like if I was having a bad day, I could go in there and try to help give other people answers towards things.
And the reason I'm sharing it is, The Trainer Rider Network, they kind of watched for people that were giving to community first before you'd get the invite to become part of it. And you had to apply, you had to actually try to teach them something new that other people didn't know, uh, to get approved and be part of it.
And then you became certified as somebody who could actually be an authorized teacher and educator throughout the Intuit realm. It was a great opportunity, helped build my business, uh, and made some amazing, amazing connections and friendships for sure.
Dan DeLong: And it kind of speaks to, you know, into its, um, [00:04:00] change part partnering.
Intuit's Relationship with Accountants
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Dan DeLong: Well, I mean, their, their intention of partnering with the accounting community, um, and you know, a lot of, a lot of Facebook posts and those types of things that I've, I've seen where they're people from the outside will say. Do they not even talk to accountants, right? Like there is an accountant community internally, right?
Or there was.
Matthew Fulton: They still, they still, they have their accountant council, which that's, um, one thing I always desired to be a part of, but was not able to achieve. They, they will pick different people, um, that. Align with their growth strategies the things that they're looking to do Bring them in as part of their council and they meet multiple times a year to kind of discuss and get feedback of what they feel Should be in the product or not or this or that or here or there so they they are trying to listen in certain ways [00:05:00]
Dan DeLong: Yeah, and and that That is something that, you know, kind of speaks to, you know, making the product better by working with, with folks who are the power users of, of, of QuickBooks.
Um, but oftentimes there's, you know, there's, there's differences of opinions of how that gets done.
intro (2): Yes.
Dan DeLong: I think that's probably the most, uh, uh, political way to say, to say that. Um, And you mentioned, uh, an interesting idea. There's, it's the, the people that are part of this council are people who are, um, in kind of, I don't want to say drinking the Kool Aid, but they, they understand the direction that Intuit is headed.
Um, whereas they're not there to, you know. Clutch their pearls about anything that might be going away. Um, just how can they continue to drive the growth in the direction that they're heading? So [00:06:00] those are the members of the, of the council that will, that will be part of that, like, you're not going to see somebody who loves desktop.
You know, 2015 holding, holding onto that as part of the council. Right.
Matthew Fulton: You know, I, the one way I've always tried to approach my relationship with into into products and especially, uh, being fortunate to have a platform and a voice to kind of speak for others at times, there's always a positive way to talk about a negative topic.
And it's a lot easier to try to work within the system to try to navigate it. Like I may be a small little. Rudder on this huge giant ship But all it takes is maybe a couple good ideas if other people hear it that might get it stuck in somebody's brain And it might get them to make or do certain things But either way it also has helped keep me in the know for my own business to better strategize What I should be [00:07:00] doing To be to be more successful within my own company long term so work within the system instead of against it I guess is the key
Challenges and Changes in QuickBooks
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Dan DeLong: Yeah, and that and that's sort of the the main topic that we wanted to talk about here today Is this this double sided coin of you know?
how entrenched does someone get with, with QuickBooks, right? And, um, is it, you know, the only tool in the toolbox or is it part of the toolbox? And there are other things that do things, things similar to QuickBooks. Do I, do I work with them, right? So there's, there's been this long degregated degradation or I don't know what the deprecation of, um, there's been things that have been going on for, you know, for quite some time, you know, probably since 2018 or even maybe even before that, that negatively impacted [00:08:00] the accounting, the accounting accountant community.
And, you know, you mentioned 1 that, you know, the trainer writer network is no longer. Yeah. Um, you know, things like pricing increases, um, the, the stop selling of certain, certain products that, that are very beneficial for, for, for accountants. Um, I'm trying to think of some of the, the other things. I mean, if you're watching on the, um, if you're watching on the, uh, the, the live feed there, what, what have you noticed in the accounting?
kind of negatively impacted. Right. And, and last, um, last, uh, uh, scaling new heights, uh, you know, I, I can't remember the event that was that, Oh, well, into it pulled out. Uh,
intro (2): that's
Matthew Fulton: why you didn't remember
intro (2): that.
Dan DeLong: Yeah. They were, you know, they, they were, they stopped sponsoring the event. Um, and [00:09:00] they were a very big part of that.
Um, you know, You know, to their credit, they didn't have to sponsor the event there. Their logo was all over the place at, uh, at scaling you height. So they really didn't have to. But, um, you know, that leaving that event, right? Like, uh, being a major part of it, you know, started me thinking, like, is there.
Exploring Alternatives to QuickBooks
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Dan DeLong: Is there a world where QuickBooks isn't part of it, right?
Like, you know, is the grass greener on, on the other side? Maybe it's time to look at Xero or maybe FreshBooks or Accounting Suite or some of the other cloud based, um, you know, Accounting applications, um, because I, QuickBooks is all I know, right? Like, I don't know anything else and that's kind of scary, right?
To be like, okay, well, my whole needs to abandon. Um, have you ever entertained any other? Type of absolutely counting.
Matthew Fulton: Um, [00:10:00] so sticking to the grass is greener kind of thing. I do believe there could be greener grass, but this is definitely one of those times. It's not a sod. It's seed. You have to, you have to plant the seed.
You have to water it a lot and it's going to have to grow and grow again if you want to transition because Uh, as vocal as everybody is about, Oh, we should just switch over. My favorite one is we should just all band together and create our own software. I love the idea of folks. You don't have any idea how much time, energy and money it would take.
It could be done. You just got to get some good backing. It's all about, it's not about just you changing your workflow. It's all of your clients and getting your clients to change their workflows they're comfortable with. So if you're really looking to transition away, I think one of the best ways to do it is you would.
You would figure out what your platform is that you'd want to go to. You would start only accepting those type of clients. And you would still have your grandfathered in old clients until you can [00:11:00] sunset them off, trying to use an intuitive term, to somebody else. And you make the transition that way so you're, you're not harming another company.
You can ask your best clients if they'd be interested in making the transition. Once you, again, it's got to take root. You got to make sure you understand the benefits of it. But there's an opportunity cost to doing all that And I think this is what comes down to intuit is they've done a great job of building this product that doesn't have a true equal comparison taking dollars away like Uh, probably like feature for feature.
They there isn't that there at the market. Um, Which makes it tougher to make the move. I don't know. What do you
Dan DeLong: think? Yeah, I mean, you know, um, I think we well we've had a guest um ash ben Beat, beat, uh, Ash from the UK. Yeah. Um, he, um, he actually has done a couple of YouTube videos where he's gone in and, and done a feature comparison of, um, you know, QuickBooks [00:12:00] Online versus Xero versus FreshBooks as far as like a feature, like, uh, reconciliation, for example.
You know, what does that, what does that look like? Um, you know, the devil is always going to be. In those details. Um, and you know, again, we
Matthew Fulton: find in the migrations from desktop to online, but I digress. So, um, sorry.
Dan DeLong: Yes. But, um, you know, there's, there's always going to be, you know, the, that opportunity costs that you're, you're talking about of like, you know, you can't just like.
Draw a line in the sand. It's like, okay, after this day, we're, we're, we're moving everybody, you know, like, uh, I remember that commercial was like, that's it. We're going off the grid, you know, like
intro (2): you
Dan DeLong: can't just do that. Right. Like it's, it's gotta be a slow process. So you're still going to have, you know, your, your feet on both sides of the fence.
Um, when it comes to even making a decision like that, And then the actual [00:13:00] option of doing that, um, because I was running around that, um, that scaling new heights, you know, and with, with my mind open, we're like, okay, this into, it's not here. Right. So nobody's watching me. Yeah. I'm going to go over and talk to.
You know, digits or something like that with it, you know, where they had this whole idea of maybe they're going to be, uh, a general ledger program or square might have their own, you know, general ledger program
Matthew Fulton: and a big push all the way around, right. That everybody's talked about creating their own and sticking it into these things.
Dan DeLong: But then you have that same problem of now you're so diversified in. In software that you've got, you know, maybe five clients on zero and you know Well, let's see. What version of zero do they need in in order to do that as what what i'm used to doing over in quickbooks um, so those types of [00:14:00] You know considerations is is really hard to manage during that time of transition, right?
The Future of Accounting Software
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Matthew Fulton: This is an interesting analogy if you don't mind real quick here for those who are watching live and kind of chime in through the Chats, I think most people would agree over time as you evolve your practice You recognize that it's difficult to support multiple accounting platforms, whether it's a desktop to online It's in qbo to a zero or fresh books.
And so I want to challenge everybody to think about it this way. If you can see that within your own practice, doesn't it make sense why Intuit as a company would want to get rid of a desktop realm and move it just to an online so they don't have to like be split in supporting different areas. Right.
Yeah. I remember,
Dan DeLong: um, I remember in 2008, uh, that was the first, um, that was the first. Big push to, to QuickBooks online that they was trying and yeah, it was trying, cause they [00:15:00] had this 2010 vision. They wanted, you know, from 2008 to 2010 to, you know, start to start to push people in that direction, you know, and the way they positioned it to the employees is like, can you imagine not having to determine what version they're on when you support them, you know, They're just using it.
You look at it today, there's four different versions, of QuickBooks online, um, and who knows what their AB testing, uh, you know, on, on different, different aspects. Um, it, that vision didn't turn out exactly , you know, the way they, they painted the picture to be. Um, but it is. It is nice to, you know, if you know, they're using QuickBooks online, you have a general idea as to, you know, where to navigate and do all of those things.
And the fact that you can log in and see it for yourself without trying [00:16:00] to turn. Uh, turn a, a client conversation into a technical support of how do I get remotely connected to your, to your, to your computer in order to see what you're describing, which is that, that is a great advantage of, of the, of the cloud accounting, right?
So, um,
Matthew Fulton: There's a bigger one though, as well. And this was, I've always felt like this was where Intuit got it right.
Intuit's Acquisitions and Integrations
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Matthew Fulton: When they came to the QuickBooks online environment, they're like, okay, we're going to create this big database in the sky. That's going to hold all the accounting information. And instead of us having to build out these different iterations, like the pro or premier, where it's like one for construction, one for this and so forth.
We're going to open up our APIs to allow different apps. That specialize and can do certain things even better to connect and push data in. Now, what we didn't recognize was, but still an intelligent move on their [00:17:00] side is what we're also going to do is pay attention to which apps are the most like loved and cherished, and we're going to either buy, acquire, destroy, or copy them
Dan DeLong: sometimes.
All three.
Matthew Fulton: Um, so, uh, you know, thinking I always go back to, you have to remember publicly traded corporation. Publicly traded corporation responsible to their shareholders. Does that make me warm and fuzzy inside? No. Um, I wouldn't even buy their stock at the moment. It's down quite a bit, but it's, um, you got to remember that.
So the decision making is different and the responsibility of who they have to answer to is, is, is different than we have as small business owners.
Dan DeLong: Like I remember, uh, something that, that happened in, in 2018. And, um, the, the accounting community was up in arms. Like You know, uh, and I can't remember what it specifically was.
Uh, I think, I'm sure it was, had something to do with QB live and, and [00:18:00] which is very, a very touchy subject for, for, for those in the accounting community. Um, I know there was a lot of people that were at that time were like, okay, I'm out of here. This is, this is what, and, and you and Linda did, uh, did a Facebook live.
Um, and. And really kind of put things in, in perspective, you know, as a, as a cloud pro advisor. I mean, like all the things that you get for, for free. Right. Um, it reminded me very much of when I did work at Intuit and they stopped subsidizing the soda machines. There was such an outcry,
intro (2): I'm
Dan DeLong: not going to get my 25 cent soda anymore.
Matthew Fulton: It's the little things people, truly it is. It's always the little things that matter the most, but yeah,
Dan DeLong: but still, you know, they had, they had fitness centers, they had, you know, all these other great benefits of, of, of working there that people lost sight of because, yeah. You know, somebody was abusing the 25 [00:19:00] cent soda and just kept putting in, you know, getting, stocking up for the week, taking up all the soda.
So they stopped doing that. Yeah, it's kind of like a five for five. You have a really great, um, great perspective of all of these, these, these types of things to really, you know, Glass half full, you know, type of type of way of looking at things, um, because when these things happen, you know, and they will continue to happen, you know, and I'm always wondering, well, is this the straw that that breaks the back and makes people, you know, give up.
Right on, on that.
Matthew Fulton: So the area that's always upset me the most, because I, thank you for acknowledging and recognizing, I do try to, um, approach things from a positive perspective. The thing that upsets me the most, and I think most people, has been when they lie about stuff. And I'm using the word lie on purpose, okay?
Um, you can only say, oh, sorry, we made a mistake so many times. Just flat [00:20:00] out. I don't care who hears it. I stand by my words on it. When they misrepresent their intentions, that is where they lose the faith and trust. No like and trust. Well, we know you. We still kind of like you, but I don't trust you anymore.
Yeah, I just don't. Um, but, but some of this stuff like they've done, I remember like with QB live when it first came out. I can tell everybody when these new shocking things happen, the shock and awe still hits me, but I usually like process it behind the scenes first, think about it. And then I started to recognize, well, what they're actually kind of doing is if into it's going to, this is an old conversation, but if they're going to charge this amount for their services, they just raised the floor, the pricing floor, the minimum anybody should ever charge.
They just set that for us. And we should always be charging more because we'll be able to provide more. So there's, there's always ways to benefit from it. And respectfully with their development. I want to thank them for the all the Modifications updates [00:21:00] upgrades and such they do they keep me busy and working because I have to always help fix things all the time Their evolution their products been great, but it definitely keeps me busy and paid helping to solve things.
Dan DeLong: Yeah as uh, you know There's no, um, there's always, and that was always a, uh, a concern, you know, as an internal employee. We're like, oh, if we're going to fix all this stuff, they're never going to need me. Well, there's plenty of people who will still learn things for the first time, uh, or, or need to know, you know, well, where.
It was over here. Where is it now? Um, to, to keep us, you know, gainfully employed. Now, if you try to talk to somebody today, um, you know, that may be a, there may be a chat bot or something that gets in the way of, of reaching a human. Um, but the, the whole idea is, is that the, the humans are the ones dealing with.
The difficult situations, you know, the things that an [00:22:00] article or a guide, you know, should help, you know, those, those are going to be fed technologically through, you know, an interaction, um, but because that's, that's what's doing it, you know, the rising ocean is, is raising all of our ships, uh, when it comes to, okay, this is really what we should continue to do, you know, in order to continue to stay ahead of the value, uh, that, Transcription by CastingWords That is coming up behind us where that's the minimal viable product, right?
Whether that's QB live full service or the QB is live assisted or whatever it is that, that seems to be in competition, uh, with, with that. It's just be doing, be doing more, more than what we're, um, you know, than what you were doing before, right? Like, you can't rest on your laurels, uh, and, you know, and, and continue to, well, I'm just going to be living in the bank feed and categorizing transactions.
Well, [00:23:00] 99 percent of that can be. Can be automated these days
Matthew Fulton: just because you don't need continue education credits doesn't mean you shouldn't always be continuing your education Right and one of the things you kind of mentioned was like the support side So to bring it back on the double sided coin of this this is where The communities that exist throughout Facebook and other realms where you can lean into other people to ask your questions and get support from people that are in the product that are fellow accounting professionals that understand these things.
You can lean into them to try to get answers. And then. You know, when, when we're fortunate, like Dan, you've got connections with people internally. I do as well as well as other friends, maintaining those relationships helps us help our communities. When there's a unique challenge that somebody really needs that extra support and they need to get.
Deeper in, we're able to [00:24:00] do that by helping to talk about invoke conversations, try to, again, approach things from a positive perspective, calm the masses. When there's no reason to think that Armageddon is coming because the price increased by 5. Um, by doing some of that stuff, we can actually help more people in the bigger picture.
Is at least that's, I feel one of my responsibilities.
Dan DeLong: Yeah. I mean, And that's always been, um, you know, my perception of, of, of what you bring to the accounting community, Matt, is, is that perspective of, you know, this is not the death of a thousand cuts, uh, is just another cut, uh, yeah, but, uh, you know, this is, this is the direction that, that Intuit is going.
Here's the things that we always, um, yeah. We still have, you know, take stock and what, what we do have. Um, and, um, [00:25:00] Femi actually put a, an interesting comment and I wanted to kind of unpack that. Um, I don't think that's ever the case. And I don't understand about the accounting community. We're providing a service in a parallel as a business owner, paying me to develop software when there's a DIY, no code products available, they have.
No interest. Um, what are your thoughts on, on that? I'm, I'm trying to unpack it and understand and, and Femi, if you, uh, you know, have anything additional to add, uh, that, that would give us more context about that. I'm trying to. Look at it from the perspective of the business. Does the business owner have no interest or does it they just don't care what you do?
Matthew Fulton: so uh knowing femi femi's actually, um, really Uh, he's working in developing an app as well as got a background within accounting which kind of brings more knowledge towards it so it's it's um, it's a good perspective. I mean we're seeing I we're seeing a lot more app [00:26:00] companies That are becoming service providers, um, you know, an example was Botkeeper as one, right?
Where back in the day was the, just this one piece of it, um, is trying to take a bigger piece of the pie. I think just as we talked about specifically, like with, uh, Intuit itself, um, it goes back to my prior comment of the, the statements were always, we're not going to do this. We're not going to do this.
We're not going to do this until it went further down. And then it was, okay, we're going to do this. Um, this is part of the reason why I listen to their corporate meetings all the time their quarterly meetings I I can tell you by doing that you get a better perspective of exactly what the corporation is planning than anything else.
So Yeah,
Dan DeLong: definitely give you an idea of where this ship is headed um so that you can brace for impact or Get on get on board, right? [00:27:00] um, I think um And that's, that's an interesting, um, concept of them partnering with app providers as long as they're, you know, in their, in their ecosystem, right? Um, you know, cause, uh, there's, there's several inventory, you know, applications, um, that are, that are in that same boat, so to speak.
Um, and. They acquired one. Uh, so it, I'm very interested to see how that's going to play out. Um, as, as to whether, um, whether they're not going to. further enhance their inventory, you know, the core inventory functionality inside of that, because they have so many other app partners, right. That are, um, kind of bundling QuickBooks online with their solution.
Um, [00:28:00] you know, I'm, I'm curious on, on, on that.
Matthew Fulton: Well, so I was recently talking to one of the apps because we're hearing more about how with Intuit enterprise solutions again Full disclaimer guys. I'm an API dork I really love working with different app companies when they're trying to understand which parts of the I just happen to know this API inside and out So I'm always in the developer area, looking at changes, things are happening and with enterprise, uh, solutions, a new version online, they're planning to, uh, open up new aspects of the API just for that realm.
And that's going to be interesting to see what they're doing there. What I will say though, is can you name one app that they have acquired that they're doing a better job than the app that was on a market?
Dan DeLong: Hmm. Let's see. Yeah. The question of the day, um. I [00:29:00] don't know. I mean, if you think of pay cycle, right?
Um, you know, that became, that, that became, uh, QuickBooks online payroll. Um, there was an online payroll for QuickBooks that existed and then they acquired Paycycle and that became The new QBO payroll, you know, there's, there's plenty of growing pains of assimilating, you know, an application like that, logins, migration, you know, trimming the, the services, those types of things.
But, uh, I think probably that was probably the, the, the best one, but there are plenty of others that were, that are, no.
Matthew Fulton: Well, your example is one of the, it's actually great. And Femi was saying that really happens and laughing. I love it. Um, Your example is a phenomenal one because let's look back to the QuickBooks online payroll, QuickBooks online payroll for accountants, like all the different analogies.
Even like I jumped [00:30:00] from the online payroll for accounts over to QuickBooks online payroll. So internal one, the separate versus wise, that migration process initially was atrocious. It was horrible. Think how long it has taken them to get this product built up. And I do want to say like the payroll that's in QBO now is.
Bitchin. My favorite setup is doing QuickBooks time with QuickBooks Online Payroll and QuickBooks Online Advanced, the trifecta pieces together. But it's taken time, so we, I draw attention to Which in and of
Dan DeLong: itself is three different companies that came into Yeah. Came into one, right? Like Tsheets and then Paycycle became QuickBooks Online Payroll and then QuickBooks in and of itself, because that wasn't Another service offering that they acquire.
That's a good point.
Matthew Fulton: So I mean the I guess to play devil's advocate on this one of of if we look at how much the price has [00:31:00] increased on different things Over time and we've tried to look back as to what really has evolved Out of it. There have been some major enhancements. I'm afraid to say it because guys, it's not my fault If there is a price, they're they're gonna raise the prices again.
It's not my fault by saying this but um You know, we have seen evolution within the product. Um And it was nice seeing you at the Superbowl.
Dan DeLong: Yeah.
And, um, yeah.
Pricing Concerns and Smaller Businesses
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Dan DeLong: Um, so, one of the things that I've, I've heard, right, is that because these prices are increasing, um, the, the, the solopreneur, the freelancer, uh, the person that, you know, is, is a one man you know, so to speak, um, small, smaller businesses, you know, more than a hobbyist. Um, but actually this is their full time thing is kind of getting priced out of quick.
[00:32:00] Um, cause even the simple start is as 35 a month seems to be pretty, uh, a pretty high pill to swallow, but then if you need. Something like classes or, you know, inventory management. Now you're already in plus, even if you're only needing a, you know, one person, you know, to do that. Um, and that's, that's kind of been the, um, theme that I've heard from the accountant community is like, Hey, the, the, the smaller businesses is, are getting priced out of, of QuickBooks online.
And, uh, so next week, uh, we're actually going to have Kate Johnson joining us to talk about, The differences between FreshBooks and QuickBooks, right? So, and, and, and that's one of those things that, you know, that kind of industry might be where you start right with, okay, I'm done with this. And maybe I want to, maybe I want to, um, [00:33:00] specialize that's I was looking for the word there.
Matthew Fulton: It's also a way to make yourself unique out there also, right? Because one of the benefits of Intuit and all the things they do is they're kind of promoting for everybody and they help bring like knowledge of the product. So there's a lot, I guarantee you, there's a lot more pro advisors out there than there are fresh books or zero advisors.
Why not become that specialist, make your own niche with something that, you know, inside and out and help the companies that can truly benefit from that product.
Dan DeLong: Um, so we're going to have her come on and, and kind of give her an overview, right? So if you are at the point of like, okay, I'm going to look elsewhere, we're going to have Kate come on and talk about a really high level, right?
Like not, we're not going to. Dive deep into you know, each feature difference because there is going to be a feature difference There's going to be a difference on that. Uh, you know that that sort of thing across the board. So Um, you know, and we only have typically a half hour 45 [00:34:00] minutes on our workshop.
So where it's not a deep dive Um, so it is a 50 000 foot view of those differences, but that could be potentially be an option for those types of businesses that find themselves Um, you know, shopping out of their own pocketbook or wallet, uh, when saying, when looking at the, the, the QuickBooks online offerings and saying, well, I can't, I can't afford that.
Matthew Fulton: I just had my older sister call me and ask me, she's works as a controller for a larger construction company and they have a smaller company they've been using desktop for. And she's like, Hey, what are the other options that are out there right now? Cause a thousand dollars for this subscription for us to put 20 transactions in throughout the entire year.
And that's it. Thanks, Jim. Is absurd at this point, doesn't work for us. So those are the ones, for sure, that are different areas. So my answer to her was doing something like a QuickBooks, you know, ledger QBO Ledger. Yeah. Uh, where it's, it's cost effective. It gets into that one realm, but [00:35:00] there could be other ones that could use like a FreshBooks, a zero wave or something.
So,
Conclusion and Next Week's Preview
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Dan DeLong: so hopefully you can join us, uh, next week. Matthew, I thank you for, uh. Filling in today. It was a great lively discussion. I appreciate those that did comment, um, and their questions and we'll, we'll reach back out, uh, if we need to do further follow up, um, so everybody have a great week and we'll see you next time on the workshop Wednesday.
Bye everyone.
