Travelling Internationally: Options for Calls, Texts, Internet, Working Remotely, and Paying in Foreign Currency
Wow, it’s been almost a decade since I wrote these posts and a lot has changed!
Travel International Data: Tep Wireless vs. T-Mobile Unlimited Data vs. Verizon Global vs. Telestial
Should I Use My Credit Card Overseas? Credit Card vs. Amex Prepaid vs. Travelex
Now more than ever has being able to work remotely or stay connected while travelling been so important. It has to be seamless. Needing additional devices for data or having to rely on Wi-Fi sources for Internet access is impractical and unreliable.
Because I use so many Google services for my business and personal use, it seemed logical to switch to a Google device such as the Pixel smartphone. This has made upgrading to newer phones so simple and headache-free. But also paired with Google Fi, a no contract phone plan, it has made travelling and working abroad so much easier. Included in my plan, I am able to use the data in over 200 destinations for only $10/GB. This is capped at 6GB, after which data is free. Texts are already unlimited and not restricted when travelling outside the US. If I need to make any calls, I can easily hotspot my phone and use my laptop’s browser; otherwise, it is only 20¢/min for calls made directly on my phone. 5G is already pretty prevalent in Europe, Mexico, and the Caribbean so Internet bandwidth isn’t a problem. Most Android and iPhone® devices work with Fi, so it is easy to use the phone you already love.
I still use my favorite credit card for purchases abroad since there are no foreign transaction fees and it has chip-and-pin technology, needed when using self-checkout in grocery stores, for example. Even though I hardly use cash in the U.S., when travelling there are instances where I need to have foreign currency available. This could be for small purchases from local street vendors or farmers markets. Or it is just piece of mind knowing that I can go to practically any ATM to withdraw cash in any currency. With the Wise account/card, I can make 2 withdrawals of up to 100 USD each month for free. The only fee would be what the ATM charges, if any, and it would be at the real exchange rate, not some other inflated bank rate.
They even have an international business account. You can effortlessly pay international invoices, vendors, and employees — with the real exchange rate, in 80 countries. And it is 6x cheaper than old-school banks, and 19x cheaper than PayPal. This is a win-win for companies in the US that need to pay workers in foreign countries. The transactions can easily be added to QuickBooks by turning on multi-currency and linking the account in Banking.
Share and Work on QuickBooks Files Without Networking With Qbox
There are many ways that I have seen my clients use to
share
their QuickBooks file with an accountant, CPA, or just themselves so that they can have work done in the file in a location other than their primary workplace. Or course, we are talking about QuickBooks for Desktop, which in order to have multiple people work in the same company file simultaneously, you have to have a hard-line network connection with the file hosted on a server (optimal) or have your file hosted in the cloud with a paid subscription. Sometimes, you may just need work done in a QuickBooks file but not necessarily simultaneously with someone else. In this scenario, I have seen clients send backups to their accountants and then just stop working in their file until they get the changes back and then restore the backup (not very optimal). Rarely do I see clients send accountant's copies electronically to their accountants and I haven't seen anyone use the Send General Journal Entries feature that started in the 2013 version of QuickBooks. Maybe theses processes are too complicated or misunderstand for the average user.
As an avid Dropbox user, I tried accessing my QuickBooks file on multiple computers in the past, but this caused headaches such as conflicting copies of the same file. This was probably a result of syncing issues. Now, I just keep my file in there to keep it "backed up" into the cloud, but only access it and use it on one computer.
Recently, I discovered
. This is a free (using the Basic plan) service that shares your file like Dropbox, but actually locks the QuickBooks file (Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files too) when in use so that there aren't any conflicted copies. I tried the whole process from installing on my laptop and opening my existing QuickBooks file and it was a very easy and seamless process. Keep in mind that you still can only have one person open the file and work in it at one time. Once finished, the changes are synced back into the cloud while alerting the other user that the file is currently locked and cannot be used to make changes. There is also a great feature where you can just open the file in read-only mode so that another user can at least look at stuff but any changes won't be saved. I have super fast Internet and my QuickBooks file size is pretty small, so the syncing didn't take that long. However, it didn't sync as fast as Dropbox, which has a preference to not limit bandwidth, so I am wondering if Qbox has some sort of limit in place. Other than that, I'm pretty impressed with this solution to a problem that has existed for a very long time.