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QuickBooks Pro 2003

QuickBooks Pro 2003

List Price: $279.95
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: QuickBooks - quickly unsupported
Review: Support even for the add-ons that require a monthly fee stops after 3 years. Do not think of this as a purchase, think of it as a 3-year lease.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Quick Rip-Off Books
Review: I'm a tax professional and have recommended QB to over 100 business clients over the years. Last year I upgraded my own QB to 2003 so that I could continue to review clients bookkeeping in my office. BOY WHAT A MISTAKE! The worst part is the payroll interface which is a complete rip-off. I downloaded my "free" tax table which was included in my 299.99 price but now I can't run my year end payroll reports without subscribing to NEXT years tax table! Tax tables are FREE to the public in PUB 15 from the IRS and are only updated ONCE a year. Most states only update once a year if at all so the line about constant change is bogus. The only constant is Intuit's need to collect money. They added insult to injury by telling me that they could bypass the need for tax table update if I would pay $75 and up to speak with a techie! That borders on extortion. I am switching to Peachtree (located in Atlanta with support 'MADE IN THE USA')and am suggesting that my clients do the same as I will no longer review any accounting prepared using Quickbooks!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Run Away From Intuit
Review: No support. Run away from this company. if you have trouble (and you will) know that they are impossible to reach and won't talk to you without a credit card number. A paper ledger book is better than an Intuit product.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Alternative to QuickBooks
Review: As a previous user of QuickBooks I have to say that the product is decent, but it has gotten way too expensive, and their customer service has declined over the years, and you really shouldn't have to pay to get your product up and running. The good news is that there are other alternatives that are less expensive, offer free training and have better customer service. Check out Simply Accounting, it's about a third of the price, has been reviewed and actually beat QuickBooks and for those of you that may speak Spanish it is actually fully bilingual. Their website is www.simplyaccounting.com

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Another upgrade to a very good product
Review: Intuit has issued another annual installment in its QuickBooks series. The changes from 2002 are mostly cosmetic for most small business users. The program comes in five versions Basic, Pro, Premier, Contractor, and Accountants Edition. If you are a contractor it is time to step up to the new Contractor edition.

Simplicity and ease of use are the mainstays of QuickBooks. People who have come to QuickBooks, for the pure ease of use will not be disappointed. If you purchase the additional services such as Merchant Card Processing, Payroll and Online Banking which integrate directly into the program you will save considerably on your routine accounting work. However, you need to be prepared to pay rates that are sometimes considerably higher than the lowest cost provider, as only a few select providers are directly integrated into the program.

As with the last couple of years, you can not run payroll out of the box, you need to subscribe to one of Intuits "Payroll Services" The additional fees for Payroll range from tax and form updates at $169 (annually) to fully outsourced payroll services including printing of payroll checks for considerably more. The ability to maintain your own tax tables have long been a feature of many competitor products..

Who should be buying one of these programs? Companies who are in the retail, contractor and service businesses who are willing to pay slightly higher prices for some services, to gain the ease of use. Or people who are willing to forego the integration to use QuickBooks many other easy to use features, such as invoicing and accounts receivable, Billing and accounts payable, and overall accounting. People who use existing versions of QuickBooks will not be disappointed in 2003.

Intuit has done little to satisfy the existing critics of the program. Indeed, QuickBooks is even more tightly integrated to outside suppliers than in the last several versions. While these vendors are all top of the line, it makes it difficult to use a lower cost provider.
Small manufacturers and other companies that build assemblies from inventory parts are once again disappointed as support for manufacturing inventory is once again omitted.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Avoid QuickBooks if possible
Review: My experience with the company has been extremely negative. Buy this software only if you are comfortable with the lease concept of paying for software, and if you're willing to work with a company that does not really care about its customers.

This product forces customers to purchase expensive "tax table updates" every year and then, when Intuit needs an extra jolt of income, to purchase an update of the entire product - hence QuickBooks 2003. Once you're in their software, it becomes difficult to change, so Intuit is able to arbitrarily set its price for the "updated tax tables" and product updates, and it does, relentlessly, in its favor. If the company would explain the concept up front, it would be ok - simply say that the software is leased every year for a certain fee. But it isn't sold that way. Beware - their method of automatically charging customers' credit cards every year for the update is aggressive - when you work with Intuit, you definitely need to read the fine print.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: QuickBooks Pro 2002
Review: Well, I have just spent 2 hours reading reviews on various Quick Books products,and was very supprised at the number of negative reviews. I have used Intuit products for years. I was using tax software back in the days of Mac-in-tax (before Intuit owned it). I do income tax preparation and keep my business records on Quick Books 2002 for windows. I don't know how I could survive with out their products. I also use Pro Series for income tax preparation, as well as Turbo tax for all the "freebes" I do for family and friends. (All of which are Intuit products). I can not recall ever having any of them crash.

In another life when I was Controller for a large Corporation, we had to buy new software to solve the Y2K problem. The company purchased a BIG NAME accounting package. The up front cost with trainning and set up was $50,000! That's right, 50 THOUSAND, and I was never able to get a financial report from it. I had to "run" the general ledger, then pick the data out and enter it in Excel to get a financial statement. Then, I discovered Quick Books when I started my own business. I was amazed that for a few hundred dollars I had a very competent accounting program that gave me INSTANT financial reports in almost any configuration I could think of. I will admit there is a learning curve to using the software, but you have that with any new software. I was able to teach myself how to use the software,(no calls to tech support though there were times when I really wanted to). With a little work, I was soon very proficient with it. The information is availible in the documentation. However, that route is not for the faint of heart. I would recommend that new users who can afford it get some tranning before striking out on your own.

All in all I must say that Intuit products, or at least the ones I have used are excellent,and very inexpensive when compaired to many alternatives. But that is only my personal opinion, but one that comes from experience, and I don't even own the stock, but that is another story.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: I am done with QuickBooks
Review: As a small business owner who employs between 5-8 employee at any given time of the year, I need an easy to use and relatively inexpensive accounting program. My accountant does all my tax forms except for monthly 941s. So basically, I only need to use QuickBooks for payroll and writing checks.

I have used this program, in its various versions, for the past 5-6 years. However, this year I am switching to SimplyAccounting.

QuickBooks $169/year tax table update is ludicrous. On top of that, their support is outrageously priced.

Intuit, you just lost another customer.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Misleading Packaging and Information
Review: After using QBpro 2002 for two years, I opted to upgrade to 2004 since it would be updated and would, I assumed, contain the new 2004 federal tax tables which I would need in doing the payroll. Imagine my surprise when setting up my payroll to find that QBPro 2004 does NOT have the 2004 tax tables and for me to down load them it will be an additional $169. Conversation with a company rep explains that it was impossible for them to include the tables as they are still waiting on some states. Since the primary focus is the federal taxes, Income, SS and medicare, I find this unacceptable as SS and Medicare rates have not changed in years and the federal tax has been known for months. I find it unacceptable to pass something off as "up dated to 2004" and then not be completely updated. I for one will not be purchasing any Intuit products anytime soon. Since I had opened the product to install it it cannot, of course, be returned.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Financial planner regrets using QuickBooks
Review: I've started using QuickBooks several years ago - and have regretted every minute. As a financial planner, I have heavy experience in finance and accounting. Even I find QuickBooks almost indecipherable. I continually recommend that my business clients stay clear of QuickBooks. In fact, starting January 1, 2004, I am ditching QuickBooks in my office in favor of (in my opinion) a much better application.


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