QBO in 2025: The Good, The Bad, and How We’re Navigating It Together
The Reality of QBO Updates for Bookkeepers & Small Businesses
If you’ve been using QuickBooks Online (QBO) this year, you’ve probably noticed a lot of change, higher prices, new features, and a complete system overhaul for some users. As a bookkeeping team working in QBO every single day, we’ve been right there in the thick of it.
Here’s my honest take:
Price increases are frustrating, and they’re happening across all aspects of QBO.
Updates roll out without any real training, leaving bookkeepers and business owners scrambling to figure it out in real time.
If you’re paying your bookkeeper hourly, these changes could cost you more. If you’re on a fixed rate, it’s costing us more.
We’re essentially being forced to learn “on the job” with no heads-up, not great for efficiency, budgets, or sanity.
The Wins: What I Actually Like
Not everything has been bad. The new reporting tools are one of my favorite improvements. They allow for more specific, tailored reports, which means I can give my clients better insights into their business.
This has been especially helpful for my nonprofit clients who track individual funds. In the past, pulling those kinds of segmented reports meant more manual work and extra time in Excel. Now, we can create reports that give fund-specific visibility right inside QBO, making grant tracking, budget comparisons, and year-end reporting much smoother.
But (because there’s always a but)…
Reports don’t always update in real-time
Sometimes they glitch, which means double-checking everything before sending it to clients
The Struggles My Clients Are Facing
Clients on the completely overhauled QBO interface are lost, the layout is different, the menus are moved, and there’s been no training.
The new payment pass-through fee feature allows businesses to pass merchant fees on to their customers, but it comes with a $25 charge to the customer. This is ridiculous, and it sends business owners scrambling to find workarounds, which usually end with me hunting down a hidden setting to turn it off.
The new bank feeds are… not great. Too much clutter, harder-to-read matches, and the AI doesn’t seem to be making any difference.
Common Client Mistakes We See (That Updates Haven’t Fixed)
Misusing the invoicing system, making a mess that’s costly to fix
Entering bill payments and checks for the same thing (hello, duplicate transactions)
Connecting outside apps without telling us, which creates data chaos
How My Team and I Handle It
Since QBO doesn’t offer training for these changes, we’ve had to build our own SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) as soon as we figure things out.
That way:
My team has a consistent process
We can provide the SOP to clients who want to DIY instead of hiring us (saving us all time)
For certain situations, we’ve created step-by-step guides so we can give quick help.
Looking Ahead
I am cautiously optimistic about the new QBO features. I know they’re meant to help us, but without proper training, it’s going to be a slow adoption curve. I just renewed my QBO ProAdvisor certification, and not one of these changes was covered, which tells you how little communication there is between Intuit and the bookkeepers keeping their product alive.
For some clients, these updates might actually push me to recommend Xero instead, especially if they don’t need all the bells and whistles and want to keep costs down.
Need Help Making Sense of QBO or Thinking About Switching to Xero?
If you’re a small business owner who’s DIY-ing your bookkeeping but want to do it better, I’ve created a QuickBooks Online Beginners Guide designed to help you:
Avoid the most common QBO mistakes
Navigate recent updates without losing hours of your life
Set up your books so they work with you, not against you
Important: This guide covers the current/older version of QBO that most business owners are still using. Once QuickBooks rolls out the new system overhaul to more accounts, we’ll be releasing an updated beginner’s guide tailored to the redesigned interface so that you can transition without the chaos.
*** Limited Time: Get 25% off the current QBO Guide with code QBO25 at checkout.
👉 Get the QBO Beginners Guide – Save 25%
Prefer to ditch QBO altogether?
I’ve also created a Xero Beginners Guide that walks you through setup, key features, and best practices to get up and running without the overwhelm.
👉 Get the Xero Beginners Guide
👉 Get our Simple Bookkeeping Tracker
Need Ongoing Help Without Hiring a Full-Time Bookkeeper?
For clients who want more than a one-time guide, I offer a $150/month support plan. This includes:
1 hour of monthly technical support for QBO or Xero
Priority responses to your bookkeeping questions
Personalized guidance to keep your books clean and accurate
Does not include monthly bookkeeping services. For example, managing bank feeds or reconciling accounts
This plan is perfect for small business owners who want the peace of mind of having a bookkeeper “on call” without the cost of a full-time service.
