Quicken Home and Business for a C-Corp?

D. Huey

Hi - I have a pretty simple corporation (c-corp) with one employee (me, the owner). A small number of clients, a service business (no inventory), and no complicated payroll needs.

Will Quicken Home and Business work for my needs? I'm currently using Quickbooks online but suspect it's overkill for what I need.

I need to be able to:

- download bank transactions
- send out simple invoices (theoretically I could do these outside the program but easier if they're tracked within it)
- allow accountant access (again theoretically I could share my data file with my accountant)
- separate views, so I can see accounting information for my company view, and for my personal view

Happy to hear anyone's thoughts on this!

MontanaKarl

Yes, it can do invoices.  This support article shows the form designer portion to create your invoices:
https://www.quicken.com/support/how-design-invoice-home-business

Note, too, that Quicken offers a 30 day trial of sorts... you have to pay... but if you're not happy with the product fitting your needs, you can contact support within 30 days to get a refund.

MontanaKarl

Yes and no. 
Being a C Corp, you do not want to combine that activity's transactions with your personal ones in a single Quicken (QDF) file.  The C Corp has to file its own corporate tax return and be separately auditable.  Its tax lines are different.  Etc etc.

However, you can have as many data files as you want with Quicken... so simply have one file for the C Corp and another file for your personal finances.  The caveat there is if your C Corp has been using Cash Accounting - rather than Accrual - since Quicken cannot do accrual.  If you have been using Accrual in QB (and check your last corp tax return to see if your accountant checked the box for cash or accrual) - then there is a process you and your accountant would have to go through with some IRS form to notify them of your change in accounting method.  I have a dim memory that for some entities, the method cannot be changed.  (I'm NOT a CPA, and my memory is bad LOL)

You cannot allow your accountant to have concurrent access, because Quicken is not a multiuser program like QB Online or the Accountant feature of QB desktop.  So, you would have to send your QDF file to the accountant if he/she needs to modify your transactions/reports.  (Can send via could, physical thumb drive etc). This is another reason to keep your personal finances in its own QDF file so that you can move forward with your own stuff while the accountant has the C Corp QDF (and you cannot do anything... as there is no way to merge anything you do with what the accountant might do while he/she has the file).

No need for separate views for C Corp vs personal, since they would be in separate files anyway.

D. Huey

Very helpful! Thank you.

Do you happen to know if Quicken Home and Business can do invoicing?

Using separate data files for the home and the business makes sense to me.

MontanaKarl

Yes, it can do invoices.  This support article shows the form designer portion to create your invoices:
https://www.quicken.com/support/how-design-invoice-home-business

Note, too, that Quicken offers a 30 day trial of sorts... you have to pay... but if you're not happy with the product fitting your needs, you can contact support within 30 days to get a refund.

MontanaKarl

P.S. You didn't say if you were on Windows or Mac.  Quicken Home & Business is a Windows-only product.

NotACPA

The OP's profile says Mac.

MontanaKarl

NotACPA said:

The OP's profile says Mac.

Thanks for pointing that out.  It's hard when people don't use signatures... and I didn't think of going to someone's profile to see what they list there as their platform.  Good tip for future replies!

D. Huey

Mac user :) OK, so just use Premier and accomplish (on the Mac) what you described above? Thank you for your help.

Jim_Harman

There is no Home & Business for the Mac, thus no invoices. 

jacobs

You could purchase virtual machine software (Parallels) and then run Quicken Windows Home & Business in a Windows virtual machine; there are many people who do that. But it does entail setting up additional software and at least dipping your toe into running Windows, and some people don't want to do that. 

Management at Quicken seems to be actively considering or planning for a Mac Home & Business version of some sort, but it's likely a long way off, if it comes to fruition.