06/12/2026
If you work in city finance, you already know the QuickBooks workarounds.
Every year-end involves exporting to Excel to build the reports your auditor needs. Reconciling things by hand that should balance automatically. Tracking fund balances in a spreadsheet because the software does not actually do that part.
Intuit announced they are ending QuickBooks Desktop support in September 2027. Which means your city is going to be learning new software in the next year or two no matter what.
If you have to learn something new anyway, it is worth looking at systems that were actually built for how municipal finance works: fund accounting, utility billing, payroll, and audit-ready reports all in one place.
We put together a short guide that explains the difference between general accounting software and fund accounting, and what to look for when you are evaluating your options. No sales pitch, just the information.
Link in the comments.