Category: Troubleshoot
Good News and Bad News regarding QuickBooks Pro Desktop
Over the last three years or so, Intuit, the parent company of Quickbooks, has created a lot of confusion and frustration for their loyal customers like you and me. Instead of rehashing all of their B.S. pricing structure and bundles, here’s the final result.
If you are a current user of QuickBooks Pro Desktop: Good News you are safe. When you upgrade your version of the QB Pro Desktop, your new license is good for one year. Intuit wants us to pay an annual fee to use QB Pro Desktop. Yes, I hate it too compared to old school, but this is what I am doing in my real estate business.
Intuit wants you to buy their online subscription for $99 monthly fee and it can only use One Company File. (Investor Books is a company file. Tenant Tracking is a company file)
Meanwhile, I’m aggressively searching and creating an affordable simple alternative and will promote it as soon as I have thoroughly tested it.
thank you,
Mike Butler..
WARNING! – QuickBooks Did It Again!
WARNING! Do NOT Upgrade!
WARNING! Do NOT Upgrade!
13 min video
💡 NOTE
   To VIEW LARGER – CLICK ⛶​ on the lower right corner of the video
Recently I have received many requests from Registered Users –
“Should I Upgrade my QuickBooks?”
After many hours and days, seriously, spent with Intuit and QuickBooks support, tech team and their research and development, I am sad to report and warn you NOT to Upgrade to newest version of QuickBooks PRO Desktop.
Why? In the past year, QB has gone bonkers on their pricing structures and product bundles.
They try to force you buy their online version in the cloud which costs, last time I checked, $80 per month and you can only use 1 company file. Therefore, 2 company files would require you to pay $160 every month.
I only recommend using QuickBooks Pro Desktop version, which is a stand alone software program you install on your PC. In the past, you could purchase or upgrade to a new version and use it forever; but, I recommended to upgrade every 3 or 4 years.
QB has gone bonkers. Earlier this year, they began selling this product with an “annual license” forcing us to buy an upgrade every year. At the time, this was acceptable because it worked out to be about $20 per month and you get to use unlimited company files.
Yesterday, in helping a Registered User, I discovered QB no longer sells QB Pro Desktop Plus 2023 with a 1 user license. It has completely disappeared from their website.
From what I gathered, they are trying to force us to buy QB Pro Essentials, a 5 user license, for $799 for an annual license. THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS and Unacceptable.
If you’re like me, i can get by with a 1 user license.
So what should you do? If you have older versions, go to ebay or somewhere else and try to find and buy QB Pro Desktop 2019 or older. Do NOT buy 2020 or newer versions because you will get wrapped up in their hamster wheel and blackmailing your data until you sign up for auto-payments.
I hope QB finds this and makes some changes to be more user friendly for all of us. Until this happens, I am searching for a reasonable, affordable alternative.
Mike Butler
How To HUD Settlement Statements and Refi’s Question
QUESTION from Becky:
Hi Mike,
I just joined as an annual member today and have a few questions. I’m trying to get through as many videos as possible as quickly as possible in order to get the books done for a client of mine who has 25 LLCs, each with multiple rental properties and properties he has bought and sold. Unfortunately I don’t have time to watch the full series as I am in a major crunch at the moment.
I’m specifically looking for videos that will explain how to enter a HUD from a purchase when there is a loan involved and a line item referring to “improvement escrow account” as well as “down payment reserve account”
Also, what I am seeing him do on a regular basis, is take out a loan with the line items mentioned above, and then refinance a few months later. So i am looking for the refinance side of that as well.
Could you point me in the right direction on where to find this information?
Thanks!
Free Training – POWER LUNCH “Chalk Talks”
QuickBooks for Real Estate Flips How To Enter Repairs
QUESTION from Steve:
Hello Mike,
I looked through the Investor Books Manual and did not see this …
When doing a flip, the repairs will be a capital expense versus an ordinary expense.
How are you booking the repairs?
Steve
My Reports Don’t Look Right In QuickBooks Q&A
QUESTION from Sharon:
Hi Mike
I am the owner of your Investor Books PRO System software and have attended one of your seminars in KY a few years ago. Â I did have a girl doing my books who is no longer helping me and I am STUCK! Â I have a couple of questions that I can not seem to find the answer…
- How do I get an accurate report on what I actually took in on a property? Â I can go to income by property report – and that’s fine – but when I compare that to my the income detail report – the numbers don’t match? Â What I billed out isn’t important – it is what I actually took in (by property) that I am looking for?
- Once I can get my hands on the real amount of money I took in for each property – how do I take that income and  put it into Investor books so that I can see what my real bottom line is – ie income vs expenses…
I would appreciate it if you could point me in the right direction….
Thank you
Sharon B.