Moving from Quickbooks to Quicken

As already noted, there is no direct way to get data from Quickbooks to Quicken.

But I think you might be able to get some data transferred by: exporting one or more reports (probably "transaction" reports) to delimited files, opening in Excel, reformatting as necessary, using xl2qif (or similar) to export to QIF files, and importing to Quicken.

Mr. Jan,

As a former HOA treasurer, I would strongly recommend that you NOT convert from QuickBooks for a number of reasons:

1. I found QuickBooks as easy to use as Quicken.
2. You get a lot more, and in my opinion, better reporting formats.
3. It's much easier to track association due receipts by owner, using Accounts Receivable which really isn't supported in Quicken Deluxe.
4. It's also easier to track vendor payments through Accounts Payable.
5. I much prefer QuickBooks income/expense reporting capabilities.

Having said all of that, I do use Quicken for my own personal finances and have for years. I just don't think it's powerful enough for tracking HOA activity.

Mr. Jan,

I left out the most important reason:

1. At some point, you will no longer be treasurer. Your replacement may not want to pick up these duties and the HOA board may again want to hire an outside bookkeeper. It will be a lot easier, and most likely less expensive, if they can pick up from where you left off in QuickBooks. I would doubt very much if that person would want or be willing to continue with Quicken.

If I can be of any further assistance, just let me know.

?Hi, Mr. Jan.

I've never used QuickBooks, but in my opinion, Quicken is not suitable for any third-party accounting situation.

By "third-party" situation, I mean one like your treasurer's job. In my mind, when we keep books for ourselves, that's a first-party situation and the accuracy and integrity of the accounting is nobody's business but our own. Second-party accounting would for a situation such as managing the finances of a close family member, where mutual trust is an essential part of the equation.

But as treasurer for your association, your accounting and reports. will be subject to scrutiny by officers and members of the association, plus probably lenders and other outsiders. In any such situation, accounting integrity should be guaranteed as much as possible by a system of internal controls, such as splitting responsibility for writing checks from the duty of recording those expenditures. Quicken's program offers absolutely no "internal controls" to assure that all transactions are recorded and reported properly. For beginners, any entry in Quicken can be deleted without a trace at any time. Anybody with access to the computer can make, change or delete any entry at any time for any reason, with no record of who did it or when or why. If any discrepancy ever arises in your association's accounting, you and the bookkeeper may be pointing fingers at each other, and even at other people; you will want a clear "audit trail" that will show who did what, when - and maybe why.

In olden pen-and-ink days, when I studied accounting and auditing, we learned to always use permanent ink so that erasures or changes would be evident. When necessary, we would "draw a single non-obliterating line through the incorrect entry, make the correct entry alongside, and initial the change". There's no way to create such a permanent record of corrections or other changes in Quicken. Even today, I could go back and change the payee on a 2008 entry in my system and there would be no evidence that the entry had not always read as it would now.

In my own books, this is not much of a problem. But if some third party were keeping books for MY company, I would want a more-secure accounting system than Quicken!

Since I'm not familiar with QuickBooks, I can't comment on your question about compatibility.

RC

Nicely put. In my accounting classes, the instructor always told us too never to erase or delete an entry either. BUT, I wonder in QB has anything inherent in it that prevents one from just altering or deleting an entry without anything else being generated to detect it after the fact either? I played with it for a while but didn't see any sort of 'audit' trail..

From another HOA treasurer and bookkeeper:

Depending on your tax reporting needs Quicken does NOT produce a Balance Sheet so you have no real way of tracking assets or reserve funds, for example.

Financial reports in Quicken in general are not very good.

A/P and A/R in Quicken is terrible (only available in H&B).

Your HOA is a business. You are better off using an accounting program that was designed for business.

QuickBooks does have an audit trail report. It is found under Accountant and Taxes. In earlier versions it could be turned off. As of 2008 or

2009 it is now perm on. There are also reports that will report deleted and voided transactions.

The number of transactions is not the issue. The nature of the business and any financial reporting/tracking needs really dictate it.

Is the bookkeeper an employee? Quicken can not do payroll checks or tax forms.

Why would sticking with Quickbooks cost any money? Doesn't the HOA already own a copy of the program?

And if she is not using the reports in Quickbooks then she is not using the program to it indended use. Look for reports in quickbooks that will match her reports. She may be exporting the reports from QuickBooks and doctoring them up. There really is no reason to not use the quickbook reports, imho.

Does the HOA also need to track reserve funds?

what tax return do you file? Have you discussed this with your accountant or auditor?

Thanks Laura - good stuff. Should keep RC happy as well as me!

Reserve Funds are equity accounts on the balance sheet. Typical HOA reserve funds are for Capital Improvements/Replacement Funds (for major replacement of common area) and Deferred Maintenance (painting, etc done on a cyclical schedule).

Since these accounts are on the balance sheet, this is another reason why Quicken or excel is not appropriate means of tracking your financials. You need a true double sided accounting system to properly track these funds (as well as your other expenditures).

In addition to the tax return you should also check your HOA & state by-laws concerning annual audits to make sure you are in compliance.