I Switched to Digits After 25 Years of QuickBooks. Here’s What Happened…
Yep. I actually did it!
After twenty-five years of using and supporting QuickBooks as a ProAdvisor, I finally pulled the plug. This past January, I decided to move my own business over to Digits.
To be safe, I ran Digits in parallel with QBO for three months to see if it could actually handle my needs.
The verdict is officially in: I’m never going back.
If you’re feeling the “QBO fatigue,” here’s exactly how my first 90 days went.
WHY I LOOKED FOR A CHANGE FROM QBO TO DIGITS ACCOUNTING
I didn’t leave QBO on a whim. Like many of you, I’ve been feeling a slow-burn frustration for years. My “breaking points” included:
- The Bloat: The software feels heavy and cluttered.
- The Fragility: Bank feeds seem to break in QBO too easily.
- The Mystery: Changes to the program appear overnight with zero documentation or explanation.
- The Noise: Constant in-product advertising for loans and services I don’t want.
- The Support: (Or lack thereof). Getting actual help has become a Herculean task.
WHY DIGITS?
I’d been hearing buzz about Digits for a while. I watched some deep dives by Jason Staats and an interview with founder Jeff Seibert. They weren’t just talking about “cloud accounting”; they were talking about a solution built from the ground up for the future. I was sold. I signed up for their partner program and jumped in.
THE SETUP: A FEW LESSONS LEARNED
Digits gives you three ways to start: a fresh file, a QBO conversion tool, or a CSV import. I opted for a “fresh start” for the new year. I exported my Chart of Accounts from QBO, connected my banks, and let Digits get to work.
Pro-tip from my “Oops” moment: Digits is thorough—it will pull as much bank data as it can find. I ended up with a bunch of pre-January data I didn’t want.
- The Fix: I reached out to support, and they showed me how to define a specific start date for the import. I suggested they make this a more obvious step in the onboarding process, and they were quite receptive. Once I reset the date, Digits re-categorized everything perfectly.
WHAT ABOUT OPENING BALANCES?
This is usually where people get nervous. Don’t be. Digits makes it easy to create a journal entry for your beginning balance sheet.
One small catch: To make sure your reconciliations are airtight, you’ll need to enter each bank and credit card balance via its own journal entry rather than one massive “lump sum” entry. It takes an extra minute, but it’s worth the accuracy.
IS THE DIGITS AI ACTUALLY ANY GOOD?
In a word: Wow.
Everyone claims to be “AI-powered” these days, but Digits is AI-native. It took about 10 minutes to import and code all of my January transactions with startling accuracy. I heard of a case study where they categorized four years of data in four hours. Based on my experience, I believe it.
NO-TOUCH RECONCILIATIONS (REALLY!)
In month one, I spent maybe five minutes helping the system finalize the bank and credit card accounts. Since then? It’s been hands-off. Digits downloads the statements automatically, nails the categorization, and just waits for my final “thumbs up.”
And if you don’t like how the AI coded something? Just change it. Digits learns from your edit and applies that logic to all future (and past) transactions if desired. It’s the most “teachable” software I’ve used.
THE GAME-CHANGERS
Here is why I’m sticking with it:
- Real-time Bookkeeping: It’s 24/7. No waiting until the end of the month to see where you stand.
- Live Insights: You get instant views on runway, cash burn, and project-based accounting.
- Better Reports: You don’t “run” reports; they are just live.
- Connectivity: It plays nice with 12,000+ banks and platforms like Stripe and Gusto.
IS DIGITS FOR EVERYONE?
Not yet. If your business requires complex inventory management, heavy-duty invoicing, or deep sales tax calculations, you might want to wait. but for startups, service-based businesses, and cash-basis companies, it’s a dream.
NO LOOKING BACK…
I thought leaving the QBO ecosystem after two decades would be a gut-wrenching decision. In reality? Digits made the move exceptionally easy.
How about you? Are you sticking with QBO because you love it, or just because you’re used to it? Have you taken a look at Digits yet?
Drop a comment below—I’d love to hear your “accounting software” horror stories or success stories!
