Where do you get your information? Is it from an anonymous source on the Internet? Is it from someone you know? Is it from your great aunt in Poughkeepsie who once worked for a company similar to yours and is not hesitant about telling you the correct way to do things?
I can't do much about your great aunt. You can listen to her if you want, and you might, especially if you’re in the will, but be careful about the information you receive online. Just because it's online doesn't make it so and just because someone somewhere took the time to answer your question doesn't mean they even answered the right question.
Today, while answering questions on the (Vendor's Name Withheld) boards, I corrected several incorrect responses to questions. How do I know they were incorrect? Well, they just were. But did the people asking the questions know this? Probably not, or they wouldn't have been asking the question in the first place.
(Vendor Name Withheld) likes people to think they can just pick up the software and get to work on it and not bother consulting anyone who's proficient with not only the software, but also with accounting. Then, the people who have purchased the software with this understanding try using it and they get stuck. Since they're still under the illusion that this software sets itself up and then does everything for you and there's no need to consult a professional, they go to the (Vendor Name Withheld) forum and post questions. Sometimes the questions are too complex to be answered quickly or the questions themselves don't make sense, and the answers - even if they're right - make even less sense to the questioners. It's chaos, with some people getting the correct and proper responses and other people getting the wrong responses or none at all. Or multiple varying responses, some of which don't even address the question asked.
“But’” they cry out in exasperation, "I paid a lot of money for this! It should just work!"
Yes, and while I'm sure it was a lot of money for you, it's not really all that much, it's an out-of-the-box solution that doesn't do everything one might wish (I'm still trying to get mine to structure my days a little better) and besides, there's a reason some of us went to school and worked in this field for years. It's not just numbers. Don't I wish.
And yes, life is not fair, but we'll cover that another time.
Here's the thing. Sometimes, when you're running a business, you're going to have to do things you don't want to do. Pay a ProAdvisor to get it right. Hire an attorney to keep you out of hot water. Find a marketing consultant to figure out what you could be doing to increase your visibility. Get an accountant to do your taxes. All of these things can be painful because they're expenses, and none of us likes expenses. (If some of the questions are an indication, not all of us even understand what an expense is.)
But how much time are you spending trying to figure out software when you don't know a debit from a credit? How valuable is your time? And, if you're getting free answers online, are they correct? Or is it a shot in the dark?
How much of that time should you be spending growing your business instead of trying to figure out how to make something “work”? I won't say it's a pet peeve of mine because I picture a peeve as some sort of small animal and I don't need another pet, but your business needs you to make the best use of your time. It's okay not to know how to do everything yourself. It's okay to make sure the answers you get are good answers.
The software does, in fact, work quite well. But it’s a tool and, like all tools, works better in the hands of someone who knows what to do with it. I can go out and buy a hammer, but that doesn’t make me a carpenter. It just makes me more likely to need a doctor when I try using said hammer without help. Hiring a carpenter would be cheaper in the long run.
