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19 Comments on Accounting/Transaction Software Switch
Erica,
I haven't yet found a program I care for either so I am going to follow your post with hopes you will find the answer here on Active Rain.......
To help with your search (and to save you s little money) quick books offers a free verision. Just go to there web site to down load
Tony
Hi Erica, I have taken a lot of time with Lone Wolf...it does have a huge number of issues to deal with. I am using an accounting software along with my own Excell version that I programed to meet my needs. It has population blanks to make it easy. Where did you find broker unlimited?
Quick books did not have some of the right account options when I reviewed that one. Do the Broker Unlimited meet guidelines for escrow accounts?
Nice post Erica.
Gary--see this webpage.
http://www.brokerunlimited.com/
It's 3rd party software that works together WITH quickbooks. I downloaded the free version of QB and that's what you can use to pay bills, etc. Every day checkbook stuff. Then you open Broker Unlimited and it integrates the back end transaction software into QB somehow. I'm going to try it. If I need a better (paid) version of QB it's $199 which I think is really reasonable.
How much is the broker unlimited and did you look at the broker lite version? Let me know what you think because I'm at the stage where I need to purchase something and I've been looking at Lone Wolf and Lucero. I only have 6 agents but I'm growing and I really want to automate the commission splits and accounting part of the business. I have several different splits for agents right now with the new and experienced agents. I really don't do trust accounts for the transactions as we use Disbursement Authorizations here but may start to do a trust account for leases.
Thanks in advance for your feedback on Broker Unlimited--
An update: I did switch, to Broker Unlimited (Decisions Inc). It runs with Quickbooks and I"m loving it!
Very interesting Blog. I just opened a brokerage and started using Quickbooks. Its seems way too vague for me. I am reviewing Lone Wolf and it sure seems to have all the answers. For those who have used it, Lone Wolf tells me I have free tech help for my montly fee. My question is, how is the tech help? I know I will need it.
I used Lone WOlf for about 9 months. It had good reports, but was way too complicated for me. I use QB plus purchased a plug in program for real estate, by Decisions, Inc. Go to the QB website and look up programs that work with QB and it's there. It's called Broker Unlimited. It's all I need!
Lone Wolf was very expensive, and I am sorry I wasted my money on it for set up plus the monthly fees.
QB + Broker Unlimited is perfect for my small firm (under 10 agents). If you use LW I recommend hiring an admin person just to administrate this complicated software.
PS--Lone wolf was a good program, but it's way too complicated in my opinion. That's just my personal observation. Tech Support was good, but if you constantly need tech suppport what does that say?
Thanks for the info. I looked up the Broker Unlimited program and I'm waiting to hear back from them for a free demo. I will let you know how it goes.
Hi Erica,
Can I ask you a question about this software? How much did you pay for it? CAn you email me? KristinMoran@Satx.rr.com. Thanks! Kristin
Kristin,
There are different options. There's one to outright buy the software and one if they host your data remotely, a monthly fee. I chose the latter option. I think it's worth it to me and it's so much less than the other programs I priced. It's very reasonable. If I were you I'd go to the website and see what their current pricing is. I signed up a while ago and am not sure current prices.
Erica
Oh thank God I checked AR. We just came back from franchise training and heard about LoneWolf but I could not stomach the cost. Then checked out RealBroker from Boran but again it was the cost. I have used quickbooks for many many years so I know it very well. I'll have to check out he BrokerUnlimited
Well, I did it. I invested in the Broker Unlimited propram to go along with Quickbooks. I invested in the lease expensive version, the "SE" edition. It runs $895.00 and $37.50/mo for remote hosting. After trying to record and post several realt estate transaction, I soon realized Quickbooks was lacking on the transaction side. The check writing and expense side is no problem in Quickbooks. With Broker Unlimited, now all functions of a real estate office can be handled without a bunch of other journeals or spreadsheets.
By the way, Judy(the president) at Broker Unlimited is a dream to work with
I will let everyone know how it goes.
Al--You're right, Judy is great! The tech guys are wonderful to. If I have any issues or questions I usually take a screen shot and email it to them. THey fix the problem or undo what I did, then email me how they fixed it. Simple.
Any software is an investment. This one is manageable and worth the money. You don't have to use all the modules--just the ones you want. I started out "catching up" by typing in a year's worth of data and I only put the bare minimum in. As the year went on, each transaction I entered I did more and more.
UPDATE? It's a year later, and I'm considering leaving Lucero (now owned by LoneWolf). How is it going?
Buying expensive software that is made for all types of businesses is difficult for me to use and to customize it to my specific needs. Again, I’m not spending my money to have to learn a system to get it to work the way I want it. I use Bookkeeping for Realtors from Owl Software, http://www.owlsoftware.com/bfr.htm. It is made specifically for real estate agents and it only costs $49.00. The software allows you to customize accounts and prints reports that make sense for my business. I was able to customize the expense account fields to match those on the IRS Schedule C form, and I have had no problems backing it up to a remote server. I was even able to get this software to run from my flash drive. They have a try before you buy offer. I highly recommend this software.
I have been using Broker Unlimited for 4 years and I am looking for a replacement. I have had to manually do 1099's for the past 2 years because my version no longer works with IRS standards. I'd love to know what everyone here is now using for their real estate back end software. I love Lone Wolf from what I have seen but I cannot justify the cost.
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