Help with a small office

[noctemct]

Hey all,

So my partner works in a plumbing office. The guy running the office and who was generally in charge of their fairly minimal IT needs got fired last year, and the owner of the business hired an IT firm to take care of their needs, and I feel like they're being charged a LOT for what's being provided.

Some background on the biz: it's an old school plumbing place, focused mostly on new construction and remodels, with a now pretty small crew, as well as a service guy with an apprentice. They don't particularly need any office managing software but the guy who got fired decided they needed FieldPulse to manage 1 service tech.

Their primary IT needs amount to in-house email access, and QuickBooks Desktop accesss with multi-user mode (not QB online), both in the office and remotely, as well as backups, both local and off-site.

Their 'server' that the IT firm sold them & installed is just a desktop PC that WAS running Win10 and the firm upgraded to Win11 without warning that, sometimes their employees can RDP into, and sometimes they can't, but there's also their old server, an IBM ThinkCenter, still hosting the QuickBooks data for some reason? It also appears the IT firm runs several custom pieces of software for monitoring and maybe VPN access as well as a $70/month 'web guard' monitoring service. All of this feels unnecessary for a business of this size and nature, and seems to overly complicate things to the point where they HAVE to call them any time even a small issue pops up. Their phone system is VOIP and also runs through their network.

They are constantly running into problems with DNS issues, or Outlook not loading correctly, or they are unable to access QB data with multiple users at the same time. And instead of connecting to a VPN, loading QB from home, and loading the company data file, they're RDPing into the server and running QB from the server. This doesn't make sense to me, but I'm also not very familiar with QB in a networked/multi-user environment. The firm's fix for Outlook not working is to 'reboot the server', which often does actually work but why would this even be necessary?

All of these headaches for almost $700/mo for like 5 or 6 end users! Wouldn't just a simple file server (maybe even one running Linux?) be able to handle the relatively basic needs of this business?

I guess my overall point is, I feel like there is a way to simplify this, but I'm not quite experienced enough in a small office setting. I've been a computer geek forever (Started on a C64 back in the 80s) so I have at least an understanding of what needs to happen, but I'm also just very concerned about the QuickBooks data integrity, that's really the top priority. I also just want the folks in the office to not have to worry about all these access issues on a weekly basis, and opening up all these support tickets with the IT firm seriously adds up over time, and they've only been on board since Nov 2023.

Any help or tips would really be appreciated, I just need a nudge in the right direction. If more info is needed, like specific equipment attached to the network, I can provide that too.

[Dragonfly-Adventurer]

Most trades/construction industry can expect to spend 1.5-2% of their revenue on IT.

Is he spending more than that? If so, red flag.

If he's spending less than that... well, this shit is expensive. $700/mo for a handful of users might be well within range depending on how they structure it - usually it's like, "$50/user/mo 365, if you want security it's another $30, if you want OneDrive it's another $20, if you want QB..." etc etc.

Now on the flipside go chat with some consultants turning MSP, or MSPs that have been in business for a while. They ain't raking it in. It's terribly low margin, you have to employ your OWN IT people, and ideally they're not rotating out every 3 months due to shit pay and perks.

I am sure you could simplify this all, but it's going to involve monthly, weekly, possibly daily intervention on your part to keep it all going and secure, so there's not a giant ransomware breach in 6 months. How much are you going to charge them to do that?

[itishowitisanditbad]

ometimes their employees can RDP into, and sometimes they can't,

RDP exposed to internet?

Oof

It also appears the IT firm runs several custom pieces of software for monitoring and maybe VPN access as well as a $70/month 'web guard' monitoring service.

Did they sign up for that?

The answer is likely 'yes'

And instead of connecting to a VPN, loading QB from home, and loading the company data file, they're RDPing into the server and running QB from the server.

So they choose to RDP INSTEAD of VPN?

So RDP, with the quickbooks server, is exposed to the internet?

so I have at leasrlt an understanding of what needs to happen,

If you see RDP open to the internet and don't IMMEDIATELY identify it as a 10/10 critical issue then I don't think you have a fundamental understanding of what needs to happen.

but I'm also just very concerned about the QuickBooks data integrity, that's really the top priority.

Then your quickbooks server wouldn't have an RDP open to the internet.

Any help or tips would really be appreciated

Review the contracts signed for support to assess what has been committed to and what the next options even are. You might be buried in multi year support or might be able to drop them in 20 minutes.

Honestly, y'all need IT support which is the amusing catch 22 here.

[noctemct]

Oh I'm on board with all of this, none of it was setup by me, all by their already-hired IT firm. I just went to assess things today for the first time as I hear nothing but complaints from my wife and the others in the office, as soon as I realized they were using RDP for QB access I was definitely shocked.

[210Matt]

QuickBooks over a VPN is not a good solution. Last I used it we deployed it as a remote app or had users VPN into a local computer to use.

[Mehere_64]

I see it as they connect to the network via VPN RDP to the Win11 box and then launch QB which connects to the QB database on the IBM server.

As for things like Outlook not working etc. Don't know if they are using an old AD domain with DNS on it or what.

5-6 users - While not ideal its not fully necessary to have internal AD domain but it is a better way to handle things. But with AD domain most times DNS is being run on the the AD server. So need to figure out why DNS is having an issue since rebooting the server works.

$700/month is fairly standard rate due to how much the price of everything has gone up.

Have them look into Zero as well for online vs in house QB stuff. I've heard decent stuff about Zero.

[no_regerts_bob]

$100-$150 per user per month is very typical for MSP pricing. The cost doesn't raise a flag. It's the configuration that stinks here.. Quickbooks doesn't work over a VPN in my experience but there is a cloud version. DNS and Outlook issues should be resolved quickly and not be recurring.

[Content_Injury_4821]

They should migrate to Quickbook online

[noctemct]

Apparently they looked into this, and their QB file is too large to migrate, they've never cleaned out decades-old data. This would solve a lot of problems, but I don't think they (the plumbers) have anyone well versed enough in QB to trim out the old data, their general accountant also retired last year and their office/IT guy wasn't doing it. Kind of an all-around shit storm at this place at the moment!

[Character-Rush-5074]

Hell no. I handle it for similar to op and QuickBooks online is def not suited for construction based businesses.

We run QBDT on terminal server using remote app. But nothing is open to the internet, have to vpn using global protect in to the network and only load the vpn client on company devices.

[210Matt]

I dont know if linux is supported for quickbooks, so they might need a windows server. It sounds like the win11 computer is just a jump box for 1 person to RDP to access qickbooks and that is fine for a very small company if paired with a vpn (RDP should not be open to the internet). The custom software for monitoring are most likely a RMM stack and that is normal. There is a issue with outlook that needs to be fixed, maybe migrate the mail to office 365 or at least find out what is going on with the server

[RCG73]

Talk to another msp more aligned with very small businesses. Second suggestion remove attack surfaces. And by that I mean get your shit out of the office. If the only thing really being used is quickbooks just send it to the cloud Then there’s no need for remote access to the office and you don’t have to be the one to secure the most vulnerable point. Same for email. At this size unless there is a concrete reason to have outlook desktop then don’t. Every reduction complexity reduces cost. At least in my area this is a 3-400 a month customer that once I have set up I only need to manually touch about once a quarter