Question 1

What is Qota?

Accepted Answer

Qota is accounting software built for unions. It brings the general ledger, suppliers, invoicing, bank, per capita, budgets and financial statements into a single tool, designed to be used by an elected treasurer with no prior accounting training.

Question 2

Who is Qota for?

Accepted Answer

Unions of every size — from a small union run by one person to a union with many locals and several employers — as well as the organizations that bring them together: federations, central councils and confederations.

Question 3

Is the application available in English?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The application is available in French and in English, and each person picks their own language. French remains Qota’s reference language, and our team answers in both.

Question 4

Do I need accounting knowledge to use it?

Accepted Answer

No — that is the whole point of Qota. You record concrete actions — pay a bill, collect dues, remit per capita — and the accounting engine generates the balanced entry behind it. You never type a debit or a credit by hand. That said, we do recommend basic accounting training: it will help you read your financial statements and answer for them before your members.

Question 5

Which accounting method does Qota use?

Accepted Answer

Accrual accounting. Payables and receivables are native: a committed bill appears in your treasury before it is even settled, which gives a faithful picture of the union’s position.

Question 6

Can I bring over an existing set of books?

Accepted Answer

Yes. An import wizard handles the chart of accounts, opening balances and bank statements in CSV or Excel: upload, column mapping, validation, preview, then confirmation, with a line-by-line error report.

Question 7

Can you migrate the data from our current software?

Accepted Answer

Yes, as a service on quote. Write to ventes@qota.ca describing the software you use and the volume to bring over, and we will come back with a proposal. If you would rather migrate it yourself, the import wizard stays included in your plan.

Question 8

Is per capita really built in?

Accepted Answer

Yes, natively. Each organization’s rates, the period calendar, employers and locals are part of the data model. Qota computes the per capita owed to each organization, produces the Monthly per capita report to attach to the payment, and keeps the obligation distinct from the payment so both can be followed separately.

Question 9

Does Qota connect directly to my bank account?

Accepted Answer

No. You upload the statement downloaded from your institution (OFX, QFX or CSV) and Qota automatically matches transactions against your entries. No third-party service ever gets your banking credentials.

Question 10

Can I print cheques?

Accepted Answer

Yes, on pre-printed cheque stock ordered from your institution. Qota prints only the variable data — payee, amount in figures and words, date — with three standard templates.

Question 11

How much does Qota cost?

Accepted Answer

The Essential plan is $49 per month per union, with unlimited users and 2 GB of storage. The Advanced plan, at $119 per month, includes the optional modules and raises storage to 10 GB. Unions averaging fewer than 10 members over the last 12 months get Essential at $24 per month. For now the only module available is Sections, which can also be added to Essential for $15 per month.

Question 12

Do I pay per user?

Accepted Answer

No. The price is fixed per union. You can give access to the whole executive, the oversight committee and your external auditor without changing the bill.

Question 13

My union has locals. Is Essential with the Locals module enough?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The Locals module is added to the Essential plan for $15 a month, so $50 a month in total. You get management of your locals, budgets and spending tracked local by local, and automatic per capita allocation across them. The Advanced plan only becomes worthwhile if you also want other modules.

Question 14

How do I pay for my subscription?

Accepted Answer

By credit card, directly in the application. If you go with yearly billing, we can also send you an invoice to settle another way — handy when the disbursement goes through an executive resolution.

Question 15

Is there a free plan?

Accepted Answer

No. Qota starts at the Essential plan, $49 a month. Write to us if you would like to see the application before deciding.

Question 16

Can I get more storage?

Accepted Answer

Yes, by adding the optional Advanced document management module: it unlocks additional space, at a cost. Without it, you stay on the 2 GB of Essential or the 10 GB of Advanced.

Question 17

Is billing in Canadian dollars?

Accepted Answer

Yes. All displayed prices and all billing are in Canadian dollars, with no currency conversion on your statement. The invoice is issued in the union’s name, not in the name of the person managing the subscription.

Question 18

Where is the data hosted?

Accepted Answer

All data is hosted in our cloud provider’s Canadian region.

Question 19

Is Qota compliant with Law 25?

Accepted Answer

Qota is designed around Law 25 and PIPEDA: a designated privacy officer, a transparent privacy policy, access and rectification rights, and notification in the event of a confidentiality incident.

Question 20

Who can see my union’s data?

Accepted Answer

Only the people you invite, with the access level you grant them module by module. Our support team sees none of your union’s data by default: support access must be explicitly consented, is time-bounded and is recorded in your audit trail.

Question 21

What happens if we stop using Qota?

Accepted Answer

Your data stays exportable to PDF and Excel until deletion. Deleting a union is an owner’s decision: it goes through archiving, a retention period, then a definitive purge — never an immediate wipe from an accidental click.

Question 22

How do I contact technical support?

Accepted Answer

By email at support@qota.ca, or from the Support page of your union inside the application. That page also lists your affiliated organizations’ contacts for accounting support, which is a different need entirely.

Question 23

What is the difference between technical and accounting support?

Accepted Answer

Technical support is us: bugs, questions about the application, access. Accounting support is your federation, your central council or the confederation: questions about accounting practice, rates, obligations. Qota shows both in one place without conflating them.

Question 24

Do you help with getting started?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Every new union gets a free one-hour session to walk through Qota with us. The application also includes a guided fifteen-step onboarding that automatically ticks off what you have already done. To bring over the data from your current software, we offer a migration service on quote.

Frequently asked questions