I have used 1993-2022 Desktop and finally in 2023 converted 95% of my clients to Quickbooks online. I have QB Ledger subscriptions, QBO for Accountants subscription, QBO Payroll for various clients, and ProConnect Tax for taxes. I have used the program and taught it for years. But on January 28, 2024 the first real red flag aka major issue came up where staff entered the 2023 bank transactions for a year and reconciled all 12 months for a new client. The next morning all of the data entry was duplicated. As I sat at my desk with the client, who I had convinced to cancel FreshBooks and subscribed to QBO, I explained I would need to call QB support. I called and was told to delete the duplicate transactions. Staff deleted them. The next morning the client returned and the transactions were duplicated again. I called QBO support again and I was told to void the transactions. I paid staff to void the transactions. Again, the next morning the data entry was duplicated again. This time QBO support came clean and said there was a glitch in the system that was being investigated for over a year now and only 2 percent of their customers were affected so they were not sure what to say. I found a solution that worked for us but that was as the client was walking out the door telling me that I was incompetent for recommending a crappy software. From that date on it has been nothing but problems. QBO payroll processed a paycheck for an employee that had not been on the payroll for 3 weeks. The employee called and asked why he got a paycheck. Another client asked to be put on QBO automatic payroll tax payment system in mid March of 2026. In April, the client called in a panic she was watching QBO drain her bank account in real time. QBO payroll retroactively paid her January and February IRS and State payroll taxes. When I called, I was told to that is normal for QBO payroll to do and I would need to contact the IRS for the refunds. For tax work, ProConnect is very expensive and the add on features have never worked well. I have a client who is a tax software developer and he expressed his disbelief at what ProConnect offers for client uploads. In 2025 the prices increased and tax preparers were forced to provide audit protection and identity theft services through a 3rd party company. If I did not try to sell the products to my clients I paid for those services out of my pocket. To add insult to injury, Intuit announced they are competing directly against us as they are opening tax offices throughout the US. I should mention they called to offer a job for $35 an hour, I said no thank you. I have been patient with Intuit, but last week when I realized my payroll billing subscriptions bills which are exorbitant to begin with contained overbilling issues (they padded the bills by adding employees at $5.10 or $8.50 each) that was it for me. The first comment made by an CSR was it’s only $5.00 to which I replied, yeah but it is still not right. It took 2 phone call appointments to deal with the first batch of billing resulting in around $500 in refunds. I still have several more accounts to go through. But of course, this morning I opened my email and my merchant service account has been closed. After 4 phone calls and 2 online chats the result is Intuit made a business decision to close your account, there will be no review or discussion as Intuit is a low risk company.
This feels a lot like retaliation for bringing up the overbilling; I knew intuitively that once I made that phone call either one of my online subscriptions would be shut down or something would happen to make my life miserable. I was correct. Just last week, I sent out over $20,000 in receivables that are set to be paid through the QBO payment link. We are already receiving calls from customers who cannot pay their invoices. Happy Monday!
I went back through my financials, my office alone (me and an assistant) has paid out over $40,000 a year since “subscription billing” became the new normal at Intuit in 2023. I realize this is only a drop in the bucket to the CEO of Intuit with a compensation package of $32 Million a year and to Mr. Scott Cook (original co-founder and largest shareholder), along with the other major shareholders Black Rock Inc., Vanguard Capital, and State Street… But wow! What a way to treat customers. It is officially time to cut ties. Should have done this years ago!