Accounting Woes

Since the dawn of banking, people have needed to balance their checkbooks. Business or personal, the need is the same. Then, with the advent of personal computers, accounting software like Quicken, QuickBooks, Microsoft Money, and various others simplified the process. No need to do math, just enter your receipts and verify with your bank statement at the end of the month. Then, during the last decade we saw the emergence of online tools such as Mint and QuickBooks Online for accounting. No longer do you need to manually enter any accounting data – just provide your bank account information and allow the website to sync your data. No need to balance your checkbook or do anything at all. Just sit back and take an autopilot approach to much of the accounting work. Now, during this past year, I have seen a huge surge in problems with this kind of software. Banking sites are increasing security, updating technology, and – in general – breaking compatibility with these services. What was previously a 30 second process to update your account now takes minutes, if it completes at all. Some accounts demand that you enter an access code sent to your phone. Even more annoying, some accounts ask you to identify all the street signs or cars or stores in a picture. In short, the solution is now becoming more painful than the problem it is intended to alleviate. I hope this trend soon reverses, I love the simplicity that integrating my accounting software with my bank offers, but I am getting tired of wondering if it will work today

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