Best bookkeeping software for wineries
We are often asked, which is the best bookkeeping software for my winery?
We’ll cut to the chase and tell you that unless you are a very small or very large winery, QuickBooks Online will likely be the best option for your winery. However, depending on your preferences, a few other options could also work.
Let’s discuss why we prefer QuickBooks Online and what you should look for in bookkeeping software.
Choose cloud-based access
Our first tip is to ensure that whichever bookkeeping software you choose is cloud-based.
So, if we're talking about Quickbooks Online vs. Quickbooks Desktop, in almost all situations, Quickbooks Online will be the best choice for you.
Getting your accounting into a cloud-based system is just the way of the future. Even Intuit, the owner of Quickbooks, knows this, as they are rolling back their support for their QuickBooks Desktop versions.
The number one reason for this is access. With cloud-based software, everybody has access—your team, your accountant—without needing everyone to be in the exact physical location. Since the pandemic and the Zoom revolution, owners, team members, and third-party collaborators like accountants expect to be able to work from anywhere and not have to come to a single location to access information. If you’re not already on board with cloud-based software, it’s time to make the move!
Note: When it comes to cloud-based solutions, there are a few other small business accounting platforms you could use. Xero is the two most common after QuickBooks Online. There is no reason that we don’t recommend using Xero. QuickBooks Online is simply the platform that most are familiar with.
Bank feeds and bookkeeping
One of the other great things about going to a cloud-based system like QuickBooks Online is that your accounting software can easily talk to all of the other apps you use. The key integration for QuickBooks Online is with your bank. The automated bank feed feature in QBO simplifies the daily and weekly bookkeeping and makes reconciling a breeze.
However, there are some nuances that you need to understand about how it works. QuickBooks Online uses an algorithm to suggest vendors and categorizations in the bankfeed that may not be correct. You need to be aware of this and watch it carefully. Just because QuickBooks Online makes things easier, it can’t do the work by itself! (Not yet, anyway.) You still need to review the bank feed, review your profit and loss detail and other reports, and reconcile all your accounts every month.
Did I mention you still need to reconcile all your accounts every month? Even with the bank feeds feature? Yes, please so the reconciles and don’t ignore dealing with any unreconciled transactions!
Continuous features & updates
The other thing about Quickbooks Online that we like is it's constantly rolling out new things.
Even as accountants who use it daily, the new features often surprise us. Intuit actively invests in its software, and most of the features it rolls out are genuinely helpful and interesting.
However, we warn clients to take their time with any new features they adopt and to know that they don’t need to adopt every feature that QuickBooks Online offers. QuickBooks Online is still a solid foundation for your accounting, even when you are not using all the program's bells and whistles.
Automated receipts
One of QuickBooks Online's recent updates is the ability to send receipts directly to your file, which we think is really useful for most wineries. It also has extraction abilities, so it can pull information from invoices and receipts and put it directly into QuickBooks Online.
If you’re already using Dext or Bill.com, these platforms have the same functionality, so you may not need this function in QuickBooks.
However, if you aren’t currently using something like Dext, then this function in QuickBooks is worth looking into. The ability to attach PDFs to your transactions and extract the information from the PDFs to put directly into your bookkeeping software can save you a lot of manual time and effort. Additionally, having the PDFs in QuickBooks Online is an invaluable audit trail.
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QuickBooks Online features we don’t use
While QuickBooks Online is a very robust and efficient bookkeeping software for wineries, there are still features within the platform that we don’t use.
Let’s look at a few of them.
Inventory
The first QuickBooks Online function we don’t use is the inventory module. It’s not super robust and can make things way more complicated than they need to be.
For case goods inventory, we encourage clients to establish a single source of truth outside of QuickBooks Online for inventory information. This source of truth can be your POS system, like OrderPort, or a spreadsheet if you need to combine sales and depletions from several sources.
Having more than one sales channel is the reality for most wineries (wine club, tasting room, distributor, etc). But if you can record these sales in as few spots as possible, it will help you make inventory tracking and reconciliation easier. If you use more than one system, you can consolidate sales and depletions information into a spreadsheet. The alternative is to make adjustments in your primary sales system. This method works well with OrderPort. For instance, sales recorded directly in QBO can be recorded as adjustments at the end of the month to true up your physical count.
When you try to use the inventory module in QuickBooks, the inventory counts get tangled up with the inventory costs, and it can be very difficult to untangle. From our experience, it has been best to deal with this challenge outside of QBO.
Sales tax
We also don't use the sales tax module in QuickBooks Online. Sales tax can be pretty complicated in most states, especially in Washington, and we prefer to handle sales tax situations outside of QuickBooks.
Payroll
We don't use the payroll function inside of Quickbooks either. The payroll module works for many people, but it’s not our favorite. Instead, we recommend using Gusto. We can also recommend Cirrus Payroll if you are looking for a fully outsourced solution with excellent customer support.
Budgeting
There are budgeting functions in QuickBooks that you’re welcome to use. However, here at Northwest Wine Accounting, we use add-on programs for forecasting and budgeting with our clients. The one we like most is Fathom.
Fathom is only one of many excellent programs that pull data directly from QuickBooks Online that you can use if you want to up your game in terms of budgeting, forecasting, or reporting.
However, we should note that the QuickBooks Online reporting function is generally very good, and there is no requirement to have a separate reporting platform.
The best QBO subscription plan for wineries
Regarding subscriptions, QuickBooks Online has several plans that can work, but we generally find that the QuickBooks Online Plus plan is the best-fit for most wineries.
Let’s take a look at the options:
QuickBooks Online Simple Start: This subscription level is really too simple, and we don’t recommend it for your winery
QuickBooks Online Essentials: QBO Essentials can be a great option for your winery if you’re not using the budgeting function or classes. You can get away with Essentials if you don’t need either of these features.
QuickBooks Online Plus: This is our recommended plan for most wineries. It has everything you need and nothing more.
QuickBooks Online Advanced: QBO Advanced is more expensive and has many fancy features. Our clients typically transition to QBO Advanced when they have a large enough team to want to segment access for various team members. So, if you need to restrict permissions for different team members, then QBO Advanced is worth paying for.
Conclusion
In summary, QuickBooks Online is probably the best bookkeeping software for wineries. For most wineries, we recommend using the QuickBooks Online Plus Plan and then adding on external systems for functions such as payroll and inventory management.
If you have questions about your tech setup or simply want someone to manage your winery finances, we’re always here to help. Visit our Getting Started page to get in touch.
Until next time, happy reconciling!
