QuickBooks Online Accounting, a Huge Success in a Big Franchise

I was fortunate to have met Katalin Reimonn by telephone when she helped me transfer a client's books from their desktop version to QuickBooks Online. I have had several clients choose QuickBooks Online to have access to their accounting records from anywhere they could establish an internet connection. The online application is not quite as robust as the desktop versions so I never envisioned it being used on the scale Katalin described to me. She changed my perspective of the product and I want to pass it on to my readers. Katalin is a QuickBooks Online sales consultant who has also been involved in network security for almost 15 years. This is the story in her own words....

I am currently working with some very large franchise outfits and this is working well for them. Let’s take a look at my biggest franchise which is a diagnostic walk in lab environment. I started working with these folks about a year ago, they were really thorough and we had several conference calls and practice sessions in one of my trial accounts. Once they saw the value in using QuickBooks online instead of using the desktop software we decided to move forward. They implemented the online service into their franchise handbook and gave all the new franchisees my contact information to assist in setting up their new accounts. I worked with my immediate manager on setting their discount structure, then the calls started…

The reason why this franchise uses the online program instead of the software version is because the corporation is listed as a “non-billable” reports only user on each and every franchise account. The designated corporate user gets to log into any franchise, from any computer, anywhere to pull and customize reports on that location only. Once they pull the reports they need they can then export that information into an Excel spreadsheet and run a cumulative report on all locations without the need to bother the franchisee. So corporate is getting the low down on how each location is doing from startup to ongoing activity.

The other added plus is that each franchise owner can add the Phlebotomist and office manager to the user base and does not have to be at that location to review the activities in the account. A lot of these franchise owners have several locations and several online accounts. The "anywhere, anytime" access is a plus when running multiple businesses and multiple locations. Also, this franchise happens to be what we call a “simple service business”, which to us means basic accounting practices so all their needs are fulfilled in the online account. They do not use inventory, job costing or purchase orders which are functions we don’t have.

When we designed the set up practice for each new franchise I received an upload file of the basic chart of accounts. This made it easier for the new accounts to follow some standard accounting practices. Once a new franchisee calls me we set up a time and day for me to start the new account with their particular information, location, email, phone, address etc. Each account is labeled as such; “New Franchise Corporate Name – City, State”, (I use the franchise name and the city and state so when corporate logs in they know which account they are logging in to).

So far this has been a huge success and there is close to 100 new franchise accounts already setup and active.

If you want to find out more about how Katalin is implementing this, you can contact her at katalin_reimonn@intuit.com.

Robert Guild is certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor in Austin, TX who conducts CPE courses for CPAs and individual training and group classes to QuickBooks users.  His company Accounting Insight maintains a sixteen station QuickBooks lab, providing hands on training.  You can contact him directly at rguild@accountinginsight.biz