OpenDental for accounting vs QuickBooks

[khdilger]

An accounting firm which I am likely to work with uses QuickBooks. I am just starting my practice and am potentially using it based on their recommendations. I noticed OD has an accounting module. How capable is the accounting module in OD and how would it compare to a full blown program like quickbooks. How many people use OD for their accounting software?

[jordansparks]

Well, I use it. Even if nobody else it the world ever uses it, it was worth my time to build it. I hated QB reconcile that much. Maybe it's gotten better; I'm not optimistic. The OD feature has limitations. Reports are weak. You must prepend each account name with the account number because no separate field for the number. It won't print checks or handle payroll.

[drtech]

payroll is the main thing...if we could build payroll into it we could drop quickbooks

[afeuer]

We use both. I'm not sure how you could use open dental and not use the accounting module. How would you be able to keep track of billing and insurance claims and even keep track of who owes what? I guess you could transfer every patients balance manually to another software, but besides being error prone that would take way too much time. Open Dental has a nice deposit feature that we love. At the end of the week or when ever you go to the bank you just go to the deposit screen and match your checks up. It then can print a deposit slip up for you with your bank and routing number on it! We just take that and the stack of checks to the bank. It's super easy.

Now Quickbooks pretty much sucks. It's a bloated clunky software that we just haven't found a good substitute for yet. I can see why an accounting firm would like it, but it still is far from what I would want in an accounting software. We use it for everything that doesn't have to do with patients as that is where Open Dental's functions end. We use it to keep track of our checking and credit card accounts and payroll.

By the way I don't think OD needs to add more accounting features in terms of adding stuff not related to patients. It's not trying to be a full fledged accounting software. There are lots of other feature requests that would improve on the current accounting module before trying to take on a whole new role.

[savvy]

afeuer,
It seems you are misunderstanding this thread.
I'm pretty sure the poster and Jordan are referring to the Accounting feature found in the Manage Module in the second column of options under Tasks and Backup.

I'm currently using QuickBooks 2008 for both my general business accounting and payroll.
OD keeps track of the Patient accounting/insurance.
QB keeps track of the business finances.
The only OD data that I transfer to QB are patient payments, ie Deposits/Patient Reimbursements.
The payroll feature costs about $200/year for 3 employees or less and about $400/year for 4+. I also use Turbo Tax Home/Business, about $100/year through Costco. Between the two, my income tax filing takes about an hour.

I subscribe to the Detective Harry Callahan philosophy..........."A man's got to know his limitations."
I love OD because it is designed by dentists.
However, I'm not sure I want to rely on dentists to keep me and the tax man at a distance.

"Do ya feel lucky?
Well, do ya, punk?"

Cheers!!

[drtech]

Yes afeuer, you are talking about the "Account" which we all use. We are talking about the "Accounting" section in the manage module.