In part one of my automating the accounting department survey, we looked at feedback from small businesses in relation to automating:

• Accounts payable/bill paying
• Time tracking
• E-Commerce

Let’s take a look at the remaining survey topics now…

AUTOMATING THE ACCOUNTING DEPARTMENT: SALES TAX

Question: “What is your level of interest in automating your sales tax collections and reporting with products like Avalara, TaxJar or Vertex?

Here are the results:

RECAP:

• 53% said they don’t have to worry about collecting or reporting sales taxes
• 34% has little to no interest in automating this process
• 10% had moderate to serious interest in automating
• 3% said they are already automating

TAKEAWAYS:

• Sales tax is definitely a tricky topic, but to have over 50% of respondents report they don’t have to worry about them?
  • I’m not sure if these results are misleading a bit?
  • Is it possible that many of these businesses should be (but aren’t) dialed into the sales tax landscape that got uprooted in 2018 by the Wayfair decision?
  • Sure hope not…

AUTOMATING THE ACCOUNTING DEPARTMENT: MOVING FROM QUICKBOOKS DESKTOP TO QUICKBOOKS ONLINE (QBO)

Question: If you are currently using any desktop version of QuickBooks (Pro/Premier/Enterprise), do you have any plans to move into QBO?

Here are the results:

RECAP:

• Nearly 19% said they are already using QBO
• Over 62% said “no way, we’re sticking with QuickBooks desktop”
• 7% said they are planning to move to QBO in the next year
• 12% are thinking about a move, but not sure at this time

TAKEAWAYS:

• Wow! I did not anticipate the overwhelming response of businesses that have no intention of moving to QBO – over 60% feel that way!
• It’s important to note that Intuit is moving (and moving rapidly) in the direction of QBO, even if some businesses are choosing not to follow along
  • Intuit has been very candid in their updates to the investment community. The majority of their software development money is being allocated to QBO and not QB desktop.
  • I think we’re seeing that strategy in action as well – lots of new features rolling out regularly in QBO. The “new features” that have rolled out in annual updates of Pro and Premier over the last several years have been quite underwhelming to me.
  • If you didn’t know any better, you’d never know a desktop version of QuickBooks even existed any longer. You have to scroll way down to the bottom of their web site to find them listed.
• I recently held a webinar that discussed this very topic – “Moving to QuickBooks Online – Should I? Shouldn’t I“. We covered a LOT of ground to help educate everyone about “what to know before you go” as well as what to know once you get there. Hope you check it out!

OTHER AREAS OF AUTOMATION?

Is your business considering other areas to automate your accounting department?

If so, we’d love to hear about them!