WSW - Podcast Mind the Gap: Solutions Beyond Intuit’s Suite
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[00:00:00]
Welcome Back Rachel
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Dan DeLong: Hello. Welcome to another workshop Wednesday, casual conversations for serial bookkeeping.com. Keeping you learning QuickBooks your way. After a two week hiatus, Rachel's back with us.
Mexico Trip Banter
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Dan DeLong: So to see you, I'm back and I
Rachel Dauchy: was in Mexico
Dan DeLong: and I
Rachel Dauchy: didn't get [00:01:00] stranded.
Dan DeLong: Yeah, with all the news of what might be going on now going on down there.
Some of us, one, one of the two of us was,
Rachel Dauchy: I was in Cancun and it's the opposite side of the country, so I think it's fine there. I don't know what do I know? But we were fine.
Dan DeLong: It's one of those things, you see the headlines and you associate, you know that it's right next door. I, had the same.
Issue living in Arizona when cartel stuff going on. Oh,
Rachel Dauchy: right.
Dan DeLong: A few years, few years ago. And people thought oh, are you gonna get beheaded soon? No, there's lots of pee. Yes. They're banging
Rachel Dauchy: on my door right now.
Dan DeLong: That's right. Gotta go. There's someone coming to be me.
But anyway, cartel [00:02:00] humor,
Rachel Dauchy: haha.
Dan DeLong: Yeah. Not to be not to take lightly the things that are going on there for those that might be Yeah. Closer to the, I'm,
Rachel Dauchy: I'm, it's very scary. Yeah, I'm sure It's very scary. I think it was mainly part of wire and we are in, so
Dan DeLong: Yeah.
Rachel Dauchy: Anyway, and Port
Dan DeLong: Verta is on the West Coast and you were on the.
Right.
Rachel Dauchy: Yeah. And more people on the west coast of the US go to Puerto. I knew a lot of people that went there. Cancun is very easy for us to get to here in the Midwest. But one thing I know is that they do a beautiful job of, tourism in Cancun. So we, felt fine.
Dan DeLong: Yeah. Yeah. And some of the resorts down there are are like.
Compounds in and of themselves, right? Yeah. You have everything self-sufficient. Yeah. So we're, glad you're here.
Series Recap And Today Topic
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Dan DeLong: And what you may have missed, [00:03:00] while you were off globetrotting is we, finished up our series on Intuit Accountant Suite. So we went through the, charges that they're charging and some of the features that are in there. And this really, so it leads us to our today's topic of, Intuit Accountant Suite is evolving into a practice management software for accounting firms.
Rachel Dauchy: Yeah.
Dan DeLong: Now we want wanna, as an accounting firm owner and one that has a team of, people you have a little bit more complexities than a solo practitioner or somebody just getting, so I wanted to pick your brain a little bit because you have that experience with [00:04:00] maybe some other. Processes. Or tools or workflows that, you've had to, overcome because Q-B-B-O-A was not a practical feasibly use, right?
Yeah. So as, intuitive account and suite is making these strides an entry point in a practice management software, established firms such as yourself, such as net deposited, might have already addressed some of these pains of a firm and needing to be able to work and collaborate with your clients.
So first question to Rachel, lemme pull up my notes here. So we wanna talk about just like what Sure. In general, right?
Practice Management Basics
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Dan DeLong: Because what does it, in general, what does it solve and what are the [00:05:00] key features of a practice management software for a firm that is dealing with multiple clients and potentially having multiple team members?
Rachel Dauchy: That's
Dan DeLong: a loaded question.
Rachel Dauchy: Yeah. No there could be a lot to that, but I'll just say very simply put, when I was. First starting out and it was just me. And I used to do a lot of there's an educator in our space named Mariet Martinez, and she's super knowledgeable and at that point I didn't really know anything.
And she told me, when you're first starting out and you are thinking about something like a practice management software. It could be as simple as a Google sheet, right? You have a Google sheet of. A list of your customer, your clients, and you've got their names, their addresses, what services you're doing for them their [00:06:00] EIN and it, can be as simple as that, right?
And, all it really means is how am I organizing the clients that I'm working on? So you can keep it as simple as something like that. And. Then you can possibly work your way up to something a little bit more complex. And that could be something like what they're building into, QBO or they've, sorry, they've built into QBO and now they're expanding on that, which they've got, customer profiles and we have tools such as a books close where it can even like, walk you through, these are the things you're supposed to be doing for each.
Client every single month. And some of that is really helpful because I remember before, like I, I came to bookkeeping really just as an accountant and I hadn't really ever done the whole picture together, like all of the things that [00:07:00] go into the financials. And so I, sometimes I wasn't sure am I doing all the things right?
And so it was actually really helpful to see. Some of the things in QBO and some of the other practice management software tools that. Have it all built in, like you should do this, and this. And so I was like, okay, great. Now I've got a framework.
From Sheets To SOPs
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Rachel Dauchy: Now some of these practice management softwares are complex that not only do you have your customer information in there, so you've got a directory of all of your, clients.
Now you've got. Client communication portal where you can, securely speak with them back and forth. They can upload secure documents into the portal and they can be saved in the cloud. And so now we use a practice [00:08:00] management software tool where it, we sort everything related to the client in there.
Not only just. Client information, but we want to document all of our processes. So now we have, our standard operating procedures for each client, each task, each thing. And that gets attached to each client's profile. So a step by step. Task list of all the things that we're doing. So really now a practice management tool for me is much more than just keeping myself organized in a Google sheet.
But like Marit said all that time ago, that in itself can be a practice management tool. So you don't have to get really complicated. Yeah. But something like that can help you. Get yourself organized, and it's really important to do that.
Dan DeLong: Yeah. And it's, [00:09:00] any term or workflow that we're really talking about here on the workshops, right?
Is that inventory management is or one company as another, right? They may, no, they may be just doing periodic inventory. You may be thinking of perpetual ongoing inventory management and until you have that. Communication of, okay, this is what you need and this is what is, it's one of the things, right?
Even
Rachel Dauchy: with
Dan DeLong: job costing, same
Rachel Dauchy: thing. Even with, sorry, you're cutting out a little. So I'm kind, I'm not exactly sure when you're done talking, but it's, sorry about that.
Scaling With Standards
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Rachel Dauchy: No, it's not one size fits all. Even you can have two. Franchise businesses that are seemingly the same they could be wildly different.
So the everybody has different functions and [00:10:00] how you do it. Maybe I need to look in that report with that client. Maybe I don't need to look in that report. So it's everybody has something different. And so as your firm gets bigger and you have a bigger team and you have more people touching the books, you really wanna make sure that you have a set of standards.
And especially if maybe person A goes on vacation or sick or has to go out, then if you have somebody covering for them, they can go in and they can look in the practice management tool and they can see all of the tasks that are right there. So at this point, we can't function without a practice. MIT management tool, did I just say practice Mint Man Practice management tool.
Dan DeLong: And, that really boils down to like purpose of a practice management software is for scalability. You talked about a couple things of, your, standard operating procedures [00:11:00] your, templates of task list, location back and forth so that if one person goes on vacation.
The other, another teammate or another person. Real, real, easy. Yep. So that's, really at the core of what these practice management softwares are, often, and you're getting some of that. In Intuit accountant Suite. You're seeing that come where you can you have greater control over the user profile or the, permissions.
You're, now able to do user groups, in your firm. So you're, able to group people together, team members with different access. So it point, but. Someone like you that might be in [00:12:00] a already established, that might take a step back based on something that you've already are using.
But what do you find are the main benefits of practice management software to your, in your team?
Rachel Dauchy: Sure.
Shared Inbox And Visibility
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Rachel Dauchy: So one example that I was gonna say is that, and I dunno if Intuit is there yet with for example, this. Need, which is. I don't necessarily want, and a lot of our clients don't understand.
They think that they can just email me or email a team member or call us on the phone, but then it gets siloed in that team member's email or that team member's. Voicemail box. So we really want a practice management tool where our client communication can see, be seen by everybody. And that way if somebody's gone, then the other person can jump in.
Or if God forbid [00:13:00] one of our clients is inappropriate screaming at them or something like that, then I have eyes on to what's going on and I can intervene. Luckily nothing like that's ever happened before, but that's something that I actually didn't realize when I was first starting again, when I was just using that Google sheet.
It was really for organization. And so as you grow a little bit, you realize oh, okay, now I have a little bit more different needs than just organization Now I want, enhanced communication. And I don't think you tell me, I don't know if the new practice management ability in QBO has any kind of shared inbox.
And so if they don't that, makes me conclude that it's not quite there yet for what I would need because I really need that ability of having a shared communication tool. Me that's crucial. But again, for a solopreneur, even somebody that's just got like [00:14:00] one. Extra person. They, might not need that.
So that's, one good example.
Dan DeLong: Yeah. So that to speak to your, question, right? It's getting there. I don't know that it's totally transparent. I know. It makes sense what you're saying, right? To have that bird's eye view from someone who is a firm owner or the primary admin of the firm inside of Intuit Accountant Suite, to be able to, see and identify those bottlenecks that might be occurring in that com, that communication either between team members clients.
As, as well. Being able to see that would be, super helpful as a server myself. The team things is where it gets, it's [00:15:00] it's not a standard operating procedure for me. Like collaborating. With other people in, in, from the firm side of it. So knowing, I know you mentioned, and then that will, kind of tag them in that communication. Yeah. But it doesn't who can see what you know by default without looping them into the conversation. That's, something I'm, not a hundred percent sure of. Jess, I'm sure that is. If it's not available, it's something that's, on the roadmap because they're hearing Yeah
Rachel Dauchy: I'm sure it's because I know they're in contact with.
One thing that I do and appreciate about Intuit is that they have these accountant councils and they speak to accountants a lot about what's needed, for their firm. I know that they do that, and so they're not. [00:16:00] Dumb. It's just that they can't do all things all at once.
Things have to be scheduled and rolled out and what have you.
Secure Portals And Files
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Rachel Dauchy: But one other thing that I thought of that I know would be really beneficial for you, and this I know and to it has or QuickBooks online has, is that the storing of files and shared back and forth between client and yourself.
Because not only is that helpful for security, you really don't wanna ever email things back and forth. Like right now I'm going through a nightmare with a client, an older client. This is, we did a, very substantial cleanup, but they did, they cho chose not to continue as a regular monthly client, but that's a whole other thing. But, he keeps coming back to me like, I can't find in my email. I can't find my email. I'm like I didn't email. All of these statements to you, right? They're in the, cloud file and I had to send standalone Google [00:17:00] Drive kind of file.
But if he would've been in our practice management tool, everything would've been in there for him to retrieve organized nicely. And and that's what we do, standard for everybody. And everybody knows to do that. There are it really, streamlines things so you're not wasting a whole bunch of time which time becomes, very, it's finite.
You gotta be really mindful about the time spent.
Dan DeLong: Yeah. You either gonna you day, you only have the capacity to do so much in a day. So if you want more. Of that time, you either need to have another team member do that, or you need to streamline your processes to save your time. So it's those are essentially the choices that you have.
But let's [00:18:00] and
Rachel Dauchy: I mention that client has emailed me over and over and over and over Here you go.
Dan DeLong: Yeah.
Rachel Dauchy: Three weeks later, where is it? Here you go. You
Dan DeLong: know, and
Rachel Dauchy: three weeks later, here you go. It's and whereas could just say here, look, they're in your portal.
Here you go. So it's, sometimes it can be hard.
Dan DeLong: Yeah. And, just like this scope creep where, clients extend the, scope of your, services without. An engagement in place, right? There's this thing of communications creep, right? Where you know Yeah,
Rachel Dauchy: yeah.
Dan DeLong: You, you text somebody one time and now that's their communication to directly text you back.
So it, it is part of a challenge to. Heard those cats and say, Hey, [00:19:00] this is how we're gonna be communicating with you. All of these things are gonna be available in your client portal if you have a request. Yeah. Oh, hi Ollie. Your dog showed up on the chair behind you. Ozzy.
Rachel Dauchy: Ozzy.
Dan DeLong: Ozzy, Sorry. It makes an appearance on the on the workshop.
Rachel Dauchy: Yeah.
Dan DeLong: Just management apparently.
Rachel Dauchy: Yeah, he's,
Dan DeLong: but so the communication screen is something that can be solved by that because they're gonna have, with most practice management softwares, they're gonna have a place to go to be able to see their engagement in letters, to see their communication, make future requests to you so that you.
And your team and the client.
Onboarding And Proposals
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Dan DeLong: But, backing up before they even. Become a [00:20:00] client. Do you, find that a practice management software with the onboarding of potential new clients like engagement letters and discovery call forms and those types of things, or do you feel that is outside of the scope of what a practice management software would, do for that?
More of a proposal software.
Rachel Dauchy: It really almost doesn't matter what I think about that because the developers out there are developers. This is like such a this is like something that is, is a big thing. And I was gonna bring this up, is that all those practice management softwares out there are also not the same.
Some include the proposal stuff, some include a CRM, some. Include this, that and the other. And so it's not apples to apples. And so that's the problem that I had is [00:21:00] I was using one and it had all these things and then we ended up switching to something else that there was some overlap. But ultimately I needed the things that were in a practice management software B, and I had to get rid of A.
And so now I would really like to go back to A, but I need that one thing that B could do. So it's really hard. And then I have a separate. Proposal software that I would love if something like that were integrated with the practice management tool. But again, that kind of stuff isn't really up to me.
I'm not a developer. So it really, until now, that's what I think Intuit ultimately is trying to do. They're trying to be the one stop shop to do all the things, but unfortunately what they end up serving us is a subpar version of. Some of the things with the. With the proclamation that they're gonna eventually give us all the things.
And I'm like [00:22:00] but the problem is these people can do this part of it really well. And so we have to navigate that landscape and determine how much are we gonna spend? What's overlapping with the other thing? And you know how, I don't want too much because I don't want things I'm not using.
So that's where it gets really, tricky is I love the idea of consolidation, like I've told this to you before. Then you have that old eighties thing where you've got like the TV and the VCR built in and then what happens when the VCR breaks, like you still have the tv, but then you can't use the VCR.
Were you supposed to buy a whole new brand new VCR? That's, I guess what people did. So that's, that to me is, I spent a lot of time looking at that stuff. It's, a lot. Yeah. That,
Tool Overlap And Integrations
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Dan DeLong: that's what I've been seeing is that there have been, practice management softwares for the, client communications and the work [00:23:00] flows and those types of things.
And then there's billing software that. Yeah. Like their preferred, partner or, yeah. He doesn't like, he does not like that at all.
Rachel Dauchy: Yeah. Hold on one second.
Dan DeLong: So, you, we have these, we have it. That's fine. Live, live workshops. And is it the FedEx driver or UPS is here?
Rachel Dauchy: Yeah. And I was gonna say, look, we, I do use a proposal software with a built-in billing. But again, you can just send a recurring, some invoice or sales receipt from Qpa. Yeah. So it's not like this one can't do it and that one can, it's just that I like the features of this one thing better 'cause it bundles more [00:24:00] things together and has more customization.
So that's really what it boils down to. And luckily a lot of these, apps integrate now where I can connect A to B and using a tool like Zapier, or maybe it syns natively with QBO. And that's why a lot of us have become integration specialists. I can integrate really anything with anything at this point.
Yeah. That's a unintended consequence. I, think it's cool now, so I don't need a one-stop shop.
Dan DeLong: Yeah, that's, and that's what, you described earlier before. Before Ozzy started barking his head off was the, issue that, when you need something right now, some promise of, hey, it's on the roadmap is not that's not a workable solution when it becomes something that you need today.
So yeah. [00:25:00] This promise of the future of, Hey, it's on our roadmap at an undisclosed time with an undisclosed future that you may or may not solve. You have a need today. And, that's one of those things, that we're, that's the state that we're in is. When you need a cha when, you have a need for more is that Yeah.
New shiny object tool that might be out, there have, is that the solution or is it, let's just bridge with manual processes until this year comes to light. And then we can evaluate a workforce or not, but at least we have a manual process. If, we don't need
Rachel Dauchy: Yeah. Need to need that
Dan DeLong: feature.
AI Hype Fatigue
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Rachel Dauchy: I almost would rather, I almost would rather not know, stop telling me over and over you're gonna be coming out with this one thing. [00:26:00] When it's not working or or you say it's eventually going to, and it's like when, because I, all it does is just make me more and more annoyed because I use another tool that does work.
So you are making me think okay, then maybe one day down the road, what then I have to switch my whole process. Yeah. Because like the, my prime example that I'm thinking of is. We have all this ai working in QBO right now, like in the bank feeds, and I'm like, I don't see it.
I, don't see it at all, actually. So when 'cause if you say now, but it's not really happening. I, it, to me, it I, I don't wanna say un unravels trust, but it just makes me think I'm not even gonna bother with that because. I see it's not working very well and there's a lot of hype without a lot of delivery.
[00:27:00] So meanwhile, I don't really see a lot of the other apps that I use with a lot of wait around and see this is gonna be awesome. It's, a little bit more this is the product I need, it works, it gives me support. Great. Without a lot of fanfare. Yeah. So that I know has turned a lot of people off specifically with into it, but.
They're lucky that I don't wanna say luck, but it's a positive attribute that they have this strong general ledger and the fact that they can add all this other stuff, great. But why don't maybe get it working perfectly and then unveil it?
Dan DeLong: Never, that will never happen. That's not the nature of, the, product development.
Season that, we're in. Yeah, I
Rachel Dauchy: know they have to hype it up so they can sell shares of stock. I get it. I get [00:28:00] it. But,
Dan DeLong: It's not, just that.
Old School Release Cycles
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Dan DeLong: The in, in desktop days, right? They had a k. Of every year there would be. And so had that understanding that there would be, a development phase.
There's an alpha, then there's a beta, we have beta testers, and then they flesh out the potential issues and then that's what they release. And then they have maintenance releases for the, oh, we did these things because, a sub, a subset of users, they still can't. Find all the weaknesses in the sense, so to speak.
So QuickBooks online
Rachel Dauchy: Yeah you're right. And that's like regular product development, which you're absolutely right.
AI Bubble Reality Check
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Rachel Dauchy: I guess probably what we're seeing now is this whole like AI bubble, like AI is gonna do it all from, sometimes I feel like people that aren't really in it every day, they weren't really seeing the issues.[00:29:00]
It's I listened to something yesterday and they were comparing it to like the, the.com bubble of. A lot of things like they just said were gonna happen. And then it didn't really, but a lot did happen. But there were some things that didn't. I think a lot of, there's not a lot of realistic talk about AI right now.
'cause I think there's gonna be a lot of again, unintended consequences or new things that spring up from this. Or new needs. Or new. Yeah. Cottage industries or whatnot. So there's a lot of unknown. So that, that I think is what I find resentful. It's gonna be great. And then, but what you have right now isn't working at, at all.
So it's that might be its own little different thing.
Intuit Intelligence Popups
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Dan DeLong: Yeah, it's, as far as the, AI piece goes I probably have a workshop on this a little bit deeper was Intuit intelligence [00:30:00] was just announced and it is being, what's, the best way to describe it? It, is being.
Annoyingly visible, right? Yeah. Oh, it's
Rachel Dauchy: so annoying. Meanwhile, like you can't even get my rule correct. Like my rule,
Dan DeLong: like clippy
Rachel Dauchy: that I set up is not even correct.
Dan DeLong: I thought Clippy from Microsoft office was annoying because he would always be like, Hey, what are you doing? You, send an email you need help with?
Rachel Dauchy: Yeah.
Dan DeLong: Into it like as soon as you I know where I'm gonna click, but then the into intelligence drawer shows up. Yeah. Hey, wait a minute. I would, yeah. I didn't, who asked?
Rachel Dauchy: And it obscures my little, my view on my like little cursor and I'm like, go away. Go away. Yeah. It's,
When AI Actually Helps
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Dan DeLong: but I've had, some mixed results with that.
Like I've actually tried to give it, the benefit of the doubt, right? Because I was. Struggling works, and we'll [00:31:00] have another workshop about the Modern Reports updates, on, that in the future. But I knew what, the answer was. I just couldn't find it in the report. So I asked Intuit intelligence.
I'm like, where'd this number come from on this report? And then it, I don't know, maybe a minutes tell. What it was doing is I'm running this report. I'm like, oh. And then it gave me a breakdown from an explanation of where that number count of the underlying data that, that fed into that. And I was like, wow, that was actually really cool.
And then yesterday I'm like, ah, it worked so great the last time. I'll use it again. and and I asked it. And it could not figure it out. I knew what the pro, I knew the answer. I just [00:32:00] needed a report to back it up.
AR Aging Edge Case Fail
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Dan DeLong: And and so I was asking it and it was basically, so the situation was that the customer had applied an invoice or applied a payment to a future dated invoice and they were running.
Oh,
Rachel Dauchy: okay.
Dan DeLong: They were running a, so it was last year and they paid for an invoice. And so they're running their AR aging report and the payment is still showing on the report. The problem is when you have this situation where you're paying future dated invoices, and you have, and you're not including all dates, that report will show.
It will show that. But if you look at the transaction, it says everything's a plot.
Rachel Dauchy: Why are they even doing that? Was it an accident or a mistake?
Dan DeLong: That's another, that [00:33:00] workflow thing that we're, working out together. They, solved it. Didn't have these, didn't have these problems in dose talk.
This is, where how many
Rachel Dauchy: times have you heard that one?
Dan DeLong: Yeah. So I, intuit intelligence to say, because I knew what the problem was, but I didn't know what the answer was. And so it would not identify what the answer was because it was like,
Rachel Dauchy: oh
Dan DeLong: There's nothing applied on this day.
I'm like, no, it's not applied on this day. Yeah, it's dated in different dates. Why is this showing on the report? And it couldn't answer me.
Paywalled Prompts Model
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Dan DeLong: So I got a little frustrated going back and forth my all allocation of 25 prompts in order to ask the Intuit intelligence. So mixed review, oh, you have to mention
Rachel Dauchy: on the prompts.
Dan DeLong: Yeah. The, you have an allotment of 25 [00:34:00] questions that you can ask and then you can ask more, but you gotta pay for it, right? Because that's how they're mono. That's their, that's how your meter thinks, because I, think that's the state of where we're in when it comes to AI and prompts is that of cell phones, right?
Where at first it was like. How many minutes do you get?
Rachel Dauchy: Yeah.
Dan DeLong: I
Rachel Dauchy: was just gonna say are there, rollover prompts?
Dan DeLong: Exactly. And then I'll, we'll see that. And then we'll also and then we'll see plans setting have unlimited prompts. So that's how they're metering. Because there is this thing called an AI credit that somebody's gotta pay.
And, they tried this, this whole thing of here, everybody uses how to sell it. People get used to using it for free [00:35:00] and then now they know how to sell it. But now people don't wanna pay for that. No. They were used to using it for free. Now we're no longer the product.
Now you're the customer.
Rachel Dauchy: Yeah,
Dan DeLong: but we,
Rachel Dauchy: well, and I already paid for another AI tool, so it's like I'm not gonna be paying for 5, 6, 7 AI tools.
Dan DeLong: Yeah.
Integrated AI Tradeoffs
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Dan DeLong: The, promise of a, and we're, way off the practice management topic, but the promise of AI in QuickBooks is. Is the, promise of any other tool that's deeply integrated into QuickBooks, right?
You're gonna have a little bit more, stability, presumably, right? You're gonna have a little bit more security because everything is already in QuickBooks that's already yeah. Great behind rails of [00:36:00] bad actors that, that might be out there. You have the context of the AI engines being trained with other use data use of the software.
So that, that does seem like it, a greater advantage than. I'm just gonna take this report, put it in a PDF, an analyze and put it in my chat, GPT or Claude or whatever, and then have it analyze those datas again. So that's, and that's the, that's the, flip side of this coin that we have, whether integrated into a software or.
Does something that you already know outside of the software. And so yeah.
Practice Tools Tried
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Dan DeLong: Bringing this back to practice management, [00:37:00] what practice management software have you evaluated and used, if you don't mind me asking, and you tell it.
Rachel Dauchy: Oh sure. So aside from Google, like Google Workspace, which I still use, I, at first I was using Financial Sense when it was just me.
And and I did because, I was referred to it by somebody like maybe Scottish John or something like that. But it was just me at that time. And Scottish John is somebody that we know and he's from Scotland, so I call him Scottish John. So he but, and financial sense is really great and I know a lot of people use it.
And, I used it when it first came out and it really is. Designed really for teams. And so for me it was overkill. I didn't really need it, so I ended [00:38:00] up not using it. But I do know that it is really heavy with, accounting and bookkeeping tasks and you can really put every single, workflow in every single task. It's really cool. Talk about swap out swap out one person, bring in another person. I think that's where it's very strong. It's really for what needs to get done. That I think is probably where the strong point is for that. Then I switched to when it was called keeper.
And I was using Keeper. And this was before Keeper had a lot of the functions that it has now, and now it's called Double and it's really popular. A lot of people use 'em. But I started using, it was primarily a close, the books at the end of the month tool, like that was it. And maybe a couple [00:39:00] reports.
Double vs Client Hub
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Rachel Dauchy: Then I ended up switching to Client Hub, which I also love. It's not set up like a spreadsheet like. Keeper slash double is, it's really more of a. Customer directory, but a lot of the tasks are in there via a tag, so you can search and put together all these tags and it'll pull up what you need.
It is engineered completely different than something like Keeper. But then we really, needed to go back to the spreadsheet, style with the month end close task. So we switched back to Keeper, and now we're with Keeper Slack. It's now double and we're really happy with double Now it's got a secure client login, cloud folders, communication tool, and as well as a month end close tool, and it syncs to QBO.
So if I make the [00:40:00] changes in. Double it syncs instantly to QBO. So at this point you don't even really need to go into QBO. And then it also now has a receipt capture tool where you can scan with the OCR scan, the receipts, you can send it to QBO. And it's really unbelievable what some of these tools can do now.
And it's all practice management. And again, I can create a zap from. My either I use Anchor and ignition because of the firm that I purchased. We use both, but I'm gonna consolidate into one. But you, the second a client signs a proposal, creates a new profile, a new customer profile in, in double and, in client hub, but that it'll do that too.
So they're really. Remember what I said before is that they're not apples to apples. They're different. Like the user interface is completely different. The functionality is completely different. It's geared [00:41:00] keep a double is geared more for month end close. I feel like client hub is geared more for client communication, client form storage.
C just. Client information, not necessarily doing any accounting tasks in there. If they're able to add that, would be awesome. But, and they, and actually I think client hub now does have a receipt capture tool. I could be wrong, but but they, but you can use both as a full practice management software.
But then there's a whole bunch of other ones out there that I'm not super familiar with. There's carbon, which I know nothing about, but I know a lot of people like it. And just all kinds of stuff so that I, can't even speak to 'cause I'm not an expert.
Feature Creep and Obsolescence
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Dan DeLong: And do you find that there are [00:42:00] some connotations of some.
Some of those practice management software or dependent on, where their strong suit is, the flip side of that is of the things that they don't do well. But, 'cause I, like, I'm thinking as you're talking about that I'm, I know there's the, this tool called Uncut, right?
Where, you know it's right. Started as an option of. Identifying uncategorized transactions. Yeah. If that's where they started and then they started adding on, oh, if we can do this, then why can't we do start adding on those other things that maybe they're not, it's not, part of their special sauce.
Do you find that yeah, and like some are just limited in. Or because they're, adding on and [00:43:00] into areas that, that are new to them or do you feel like there's a call practice management, softwares can't do X?
Rachel Dauchy: Like that's a perfect example that you just gave of unca. 'cause I wouldn't ever use uncut.
Now that can be done in double, and not only can it be done, it could be done. Faster and better. And that's where the technology moves really fast. Like whip fast. Yeah. Because, that, that was rendered pretty obsolete pretty quickly because now even I think does even QBO have a way Yeah.
Of
Dan DeLong: yeah. To
Rachel Dauchy: the client and, yeah.
Dan DeLong: Yeah.
Rachel Dauchy: So if we talked
Dan DeLong: about the books close, you're gonna have, here's Uncategorized transactions, here's transactions Without a payee. Yeah you can send a request to the client like, who is this? They answer it Exactly. You fill it right in [00:44:00] there.
Rachel Dauchy: Exactly.
And now in Double What you Can do instead of, you can just. Group a whole bunch of them together and then send them all at once. So you're not like sending them individually. So they Yeah, they do become more efficient. And then but, and then I can think of a couple other I don't really wanna like name specifically, but like, unfortunately then something else is caught up to what they're doing and then they do it better.
So then I have to let that go. And that's something like, I feel bad, but I can't pay for every single thing. I have to consolidate as much as I can again, without, repetition. Yeah. And so if you, your software costs. Yeah, and like I, it bundles in that. Then I'm like, oh, okay, great. Now I can like auto fetch or something like that.
There was one fetch tool that I was [00:45:00] using. Then I didn't eat it anymore because then this other thing was touching it better. So it's really just I'm like, I feel bad, but feelings isn't really part of it, like unfortunately.
Dan DeLong: All right.
Rachel Dauchy: It just is what it is. If I had if I had it my way, my, some of my clients that.
Maybe have bad feelings took it out on me. Maybe, that, maybe I could, maybe I we could live in a better world, but I, don't know. I, unfortunately, it's just like the nature of the beast, but,
Dan DeLong: right.
Rachel Dauchy: But that's one example of literally how the technology moves really, fast, faster than what Intuit can do.
'cause I feel like Intuit is bogged down by. A big enterprise that sometimes the smaller guys and gals can can move faster.
Dan DeLong: Yeah. [00:46:00] Yeah. They're a little bit more nimble.
Wrap Up and Next Guests
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Dan DeLong: Yeah, so this is, this has been a great discussion. I think we could probably, continue this for another hour or so, but we do have to wrap up.
We are gonna have if, you've been paying attention. Or watching or, listening to us, that school of Bookkeeping is a big fan of method, the CRM. So we are gonna have them come on in early April to talk about how you can customize your own tool using using method.
So they'll be joining us. Then, so we're, using this as a. As a, launching point for that comparison, or we add those or augment your practice management inside of, into an accountant suite with method. So look forward to that Next [00:47:00] week. We are going to have speaking of fetching we are going to be relay joining us, because their their reconciliation chef's kiss.
So being able to what? Yes.
Rachel Dauchy: I didn't know that.
Dan DeLong: Yeah, so well combining that with QuickBooks online, right? The wow, the rec the AI feature when you're using Relay is, really great and core features, I'm gonna have my my relay rep joining us. So it'll be the three of us next time really talking about what Relay.
Has done. And then they'll join us again later in the month, to talk about some of the core features working on their paid products that they have. So the reconciliations made in heaven [00:48:00] with relay. Wow. I'm excited.
Rachel Dauchy: I have some relay accounts for my firm that I haven't reconciled in a while
Dan DeLong: alright.
Rachel Dauchy: That'll be great.
Dan DeLong: We'll do a little short demonstr with with mask. I'm gonna create a video so that we can talk through the process. 'cause I did multiple reconciliations with a relay connected account in QBO, properly, with, in. In seconds. It was pretty amazing.
These two things when they, cohesively joined together, it's like the Wonder Twins, form of, shape of a reconci affiliation done in seconds. So it's actually cohesively work together. And we'll talk a little bit about that. Yeah. Very cool. Next time on the workshop.
So appreciate you all [00:49:00] joining us or listening with us today. We'll see you next time on the workshop Wednesday. [00:50:00]
