I have clients using QuickBooks for Mac. I like to work from my office and they like to keep QuickBooks on their machine. Of course, I can take control of their machine with any number of applications and do my work directly on their machine.
An easier, free method is to simply share the data file using a Dropbox. With this method, each computer will have its own copy of QuickBooks for Mac and will simply open the data file stored in the Dropbox.
A caveat: The QuickBooks file can only be used by one person at a time. If it’s open and in use by more than one person, you’ll end up with “conflicted file” copies. I solve this by letting my clients know which days/hours I’ll be updating their books.
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Does the caveat still hold true with QB multi-user? I was wondering if QB takes care of conflict resolution with pro/premier mult-user.
Doug, I believe you are referring to the PC version of QuickBooks. Dropbox is not compatible with the Windows versions.
Kelly, why wouldn’t this work on a PC version? I am trying to do that.
Let me say that I’ve never tried it with the windows version. It *might* work, but not like a normal multi-user setup. Networking with the windows version requires a licensed copy of QuickBooks on the server. I used to use a hosted drive to share QuickBooks and that no longer worked after the change by Intuit. That’s what I was thinking about when I said it wasn’t compatible, but I could be wrong. If it does work, you still need to limit access to one user at a time.
Please let us know how it works out for you.
Kelly