The reason I ask is my condo association just hired a management company to handle our business including our accounting. We had been doing it in house for many years on an older QB version.
Well this company uses QB Premiere 2008. We would like to be able to check their work maybe quarterly so could we buy QB Pro 2008 and be able to open this file, or would we need to have the exact same edition as they use, namely Premiere?
Your answer could save us a couple of hundred dollars!
Thanks
If you are going to purchase a new version of QB then get QB Pro 2009 not
2008. You can also have them send you a PDF of certain reports such as the General Ledger and you will not even need QB.
Yes. Pro can open Premier files and vice versa as long as the programs are the same YEAR. Pro and Premier all have the same database structure and can open file using the other program.
Since this is a new management company I suggest that you start out by checking their work monthly to make sure that you agree with how they are classifying expenses. Every management company has their own style so ironing out differences in the beginning is always a good idea. Relying on reports, etc is not the same thing as looking at the actual file on a regular basis. It also sets the tone that there is someone at the association still overseeing their work. They might not like it but that is the only way of insuring your funds are being used properly.
Thanks for the answers. Laura, you hit the nail on the head. They shouldn't have a problem with this. We're not going to be nudges as far as telling them how to do their job, but we will be insistent that we get to see the complete financial picture on our terms. And to me, that means being able to load the QB file and examine it at our convenience.
Just make sure that you make it very clear to them that you want access to your books whenever you want them. Our condo association was looking into switching to a management company a few years ago when the property manager was thinking of retiring. One of the things our CPA suggested was that we did not go with a company that used a proprietary software or one that would not allow us free access to the books. The CPA has seen too many problems with property management companies getting in over their heads and messing things up. She has also seen a fair amount of embezzelment because the condo associations were not looking at the books.
You can also open prior year's versions in addition to the current year. That is why I recommend getting version 2009. The management company can always decide to upgrade to the latest version this year forcing you to upgrade a second time this year.
Examining a PDF or printout of the general ledger will also give the association a pretty good idea as to how well the books are being kept and where the money is going.
It also sets the tone that there is someone at the
There are plenty of high quality vertical market property management aplications out there that run circles around QuickBooks with reguard to the task of property management. As you move up the R/E management company food chain one can only assume that these companies will be smart enough to take advantage of those software solutions.
Setting a criterion that the management company use only QuickBooks is nothing more than being a QB FanBoy fanatic and is counter productive.
I am more concerned with how well they do their job, and how responsive they are in seeing to the legitimate needs of the homeowners. Certainily not the file format of the accounting records.
>Haskel LaPort wrote: ...
Would seem more logical selection criterion, certainly. Proper bonding/certification, etc., should eliminate the charlatans pretty quickly.
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I'd like to thank everyone for the helpful posts. Much food for thought. We will probably go with QB Pro 2009 since it is difficult to find 2008 anymore, and where I find it, it is more expensive than the
2009 version, at least when it's on sale.We don't anticipate working with the file and returning it, simply looking at it, and having the manager make any changes we think appropriate. So 2009 would work for that, and if the mgmt. company does upgrade to 2009, we'll have that capability as well. We didn't insist that they use QB, but since they do and I'm familiar with it, I do want to have access to the actual file. It will also serve us in having a backup in case their backup procedures are inadequate. Or if anything unforeseen at this point makes us take back the accounting functions.
The other concerns mentioned have been looked into by other Board members, I am the one who has been designated to watch the financial stuff.
Thanks again for the discussion.
Michaels wrote: ...
I'm not saying don't, but it seems to me to lose the point of outsourcing the function if intend to pore over every line item to the point of being able to actually have individual items recategorized.
Sure, you'll want to oversee the overall financial statements, but the intimate details of poring over individual register items seems pointless to me.
Certainly as officer of various noncharitables and other organizations w/ outside bookkeeping, we review the financials and approve/question/maintain cognizance of the overall health of the organization but it's not effective to deal w/ every line item and whether the pencils were categorized as office supplies or miscellaneous or whether the paper clips were itemized independently of the staples.
IOW it seems to me the focus here is on the trees and not the forest.
imo, fwiw, etc., etc., etc., ...
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