Rating: 
Summary: HIGH Marks from the QUICKBOOKS GURU
Review: I am a Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor and again, have beta tested the new version of QuickBooks. Frankly, I have ALL my clients on QuickBooks software and found it to be the best user package for the small business owner. The refinements in all areas including expanded reporting functions, easier and more comprehensive Bank Reconciliations, tracking all Income and Expenses/class, more options for templates etc and more options for backing up data. I love the remote access feature that I can conveniently reach my client's data screen and we can do online training or on-the-spot journal entries. QuickBooks still is NOT easy enough for most users to set up properly, accounting wise...but very easy to use once you have the initial set-up, it is a basic common sense approach. Basic training for everyday use is simple and straightforward. For the Naysayers out there....QuickBooks has basically become the standard for Accounting Software for small business for a REASON>>>because it continually improves the product. Intuit has also several add-on packages to customize YOUR business to your specific needs. This is more than any other comparably packaged price accounting software out there. They even are offering customized forms/products to let you stand out from your competition. "The QuickBooks Guru"
www.schiffmgmt.com
Rating: 
Summary: The worst version of QB ever
Review: I am a former QB advisor but quit when they wanted $1000 a year from me to maintain advisor standing. Every time you blink on this software there is a charge. I manage this software for a number of clients in all aspects of its applications and was forced to QB2003 for payroll updates. Gouging at its worst. This new version is the slowest it has ever been, crashes frequently and even when I email them with lists of complaints and bugs from the many upgrades I have done, they do not respond and downright lie to me. I would switch to an alternative accounting application in a heartbeat. Contempt for their customers seems to be the company mission statement of Intuit and I am actively pursuing an alternative to these parasitic incompetents.
Rating:
Summary: Response to QuickBooks Pro 2003 Negative Reviews
Review: I am surprised to read how virulently anti-Intuit many comments in the QuickBooks Pro 2003 customer reviews there are, how low the ratings of the product are, and the lopsided number of negative reviews. The emotional outcry seems to have taken a life of its own. Doug Sleeter, a QuickBooks expert of renown says, "These reviews certainly do not reflect the general opinion of users. If it did, the product would not be nearly as popular in the market." I recognize the frustration and anger the reviewers expressed about using QuickBooks and many of their concerns are compelling. I would like to address some of the criticism and clarify several issues that they mention. I have been a full time independent QuickBooks consultant for over ten years and during this period I have worked with and trained hundreds of clients one-on-one. The complaints about QuickBooks generally point toward its design and utility, payroll fees, and the cost and quality of support. BASIC NECCESSITIES Complaint: Several people said that they want a basic business program that deals with the "real necessities" of a small business. They described QuickBooks as "bloatware" and too complicated.
Response: What are real necessities for one type of business could be redundant and too complicated for other types of businesses. The basic tasks and simple layout of registers and forms (invoices, checks) in QuickBooks have remained the same since the early Windows versions. User preferences are customized to turn on or off functions and displays.
Historically Intuit has had a philosophy about QuickBooks of "one size fits all." It has been remarkably successful because of its versatility and is used in many industries. Now Intuit is bringing out various editions of QuickBooks that is designed for specific businesses, for example the new Contractor Edition is very popular. Many good business software programs are able to exchange data with QuickBooks. PAYROLL FEES
Complaint: Reviewers complained that now they have to pay extra for QuickBooks to do payroll and buy an upgrade if their version is QuickBooks 2000 or older.
Response: Intuit has offered a payroll tax table service for at least seven years. There has always been a charge for the service. The original service was called TTS (Tax Table Service). The company later came out with Basic Payroll Service, which has since been renamed Do-It-Yourself Payroll Service (DIY Payroll). Users do not have to upgrade their QuickBooks every year to do payroll. Although owners of version QuickBooks 2000 and older are required to pay for a new upgrade if they want to continue using DIY Payroll, the benefit of new features like emailing invoices, report enhancements, 3rd party software integration, remote access, and sales orders makes upgrading to the latest edition of QuickBooks worthwhile. SUPPORT
Complaint: There are many comments about the cost and quality of support.
Response: Paying for software support is a fact of life in today's economy, the same as expenses are incurred in maintaining a car. The cost of QuickBooks is inexpensive and if you factor a support plan into the purchase price, the savings by reducing your accounting fees and better financial management is still a good deal. QuickBooks has made finding "how to" information easier by including links to answers in most of its windows and with a comprehensive support database that can be accessed from within the program. Attending a QuickBooks class and visiting support groups on the internet like at Yahoo! help reduce the financial outlay for support.
My experience is that by showing patience and respect to the support specialist at Intuit, and by defining the issue well often brings good results. Intuit can and will make many improvements to QuickBooks. The fact is that the vast majority of users appreciate the many benefits they gain by using QuickBooks because it simplifies complex accounting tasks and it is one of the most user friendly software products ever made.
Rating:
Summary: Very bad product, joining equally bad Quicken'03 and TTax'02
Review: I could only chuckle seeing as the ONLY positive review about QB2003 comes from someone who has a business depending on it (the Nancy Schiff review). I know the program in and out, not only from user's experience but (as a 23-year-in-business software developer) also programming-wise. I can tell you the last two versions are examples of absolutely horrible "bloatware"; comments about them working slow are right on target. So are gripes about Intuit sub-par "support" and the fee structure hidden at the time of purchase and becoming apparent only after many users have no way out. As a sign of things to come, Intuit is embroiled in probably the biggest software user revolt of the present time, see the article and is losing customers by the thousands because of this. Somehow they thought they are another Microsoft with a lock on the market, and are surprised now when tax software users are going to other packages rather than swallowing Intuit's (absolutely horrible) scheme.
In short, Turbotax2002 installs the "C-dilla" spyware on the user's computer behind the user's back, compromising user's privacy and messing up with the computer on several levels (including apparently low-level sector data on the hard drive, so the spyware cannot be eradicated even by reformatting). Being stung by vicious press reports and users jumping ship by the thousands, Intuit quickly put an uninstaller on the market but it also disables Turbotax (logically) so all those ex-users are simply lost to competitors. I don't want to go on a long rant here, but as someone watching the industry trends since the very beginning of the PC era in 1981 I can see the writing on the wall for Intuit if they keep on doing what they are doing, both in QB (bad support, too many fees), in Quicken (the horribly cluttered 2003 interface) and now the spyware addition in Turbotax. I personally would think twice about pinning my business on Intuit long term. I have seen so many former "invincible champions" going bust (dBase, WordPerfect, what-have-you) it wouldn't surprise me at all if people were asking in 2006 "what's Quickbooks"? I have been using all three lines of Intuit products (QB, Quicken, Turbotax) for many, many years. However, effective just this month I have replaced ALL THREE with competing software and consciously left ALL Intuit programs forever. From what I hear, an awfully large number of people are doing exactly the same. Just my 2c :-)
Rating: 
Summary: Upgrade? No thanks!
Review: I currently use QB Pro 2000 and was checking into upgrading. After reading the reviews, I have decided not to and perhaps switch to an alternate product. The only "positive" review, Ms. Schiff's, was very helpful in my decision not to purchase the upgrade. Ms. Schiff's "review" was only a blatant advertisement for her company.
Rating: 
Summary: I like Quickbooks!
Review: I do the books for a small business using Quickbooks Pro 2003 and I love it. The program is logical and elegant. In most cases I'm only limited by what I don't know or have forgotten about the program. My only knock is that I would appreciate a broader search feature, but I am not unduly troubled by the minor limitations it has now. I find everything I need with relative ease.
Rating:
Summary: I'd rather deal with Tony Soprano
Review: I don't have a problem with the way Quickbooks works, but paying [$$] a year for the tax tables is pure (...). When I was forced to upgrade to QB Pro 2003 it at least came with the payroll tax tables for the year. This year if I wanted to upgrade to QB 2005 they wanted [$$] for the upgrade and [$$] additional for the tax tables. Every year they come up with a clever new way to cheat their customers out of their money.
Utterly shameless.
I've been using QB since 1996 and this is the last year I will use this software.
Rating:
Summary: I was forced to buy this
Review: I have been a Quickbooks user for 5 years. It is not the best written application and crashes much more frequently than it should. I was forced to buy this edition so I could continue to get payroll upgrades. Intuit has a habit of doing that. Two years ago they forced me to buy tax upgrades and pay for State upgrades despite the fact Texas doesn't have a payroll tax. I am looking for alternatives so I won't be forced to pay yet again next year.
Rating:
Summary: I like it.....so what!
Review: I have been using Quickbooks for almost 7 years. I bought my first copy in 1996. Every two years or so I upgrade. Now I have the 2003 edition and the same quality I have come to expect from Q books was right there. This is a very intuitive piece of software and I was not disappointed. Any gripes that are not about the software but about the Intuit corporation are inappropriate and detract from such an innovative piece of code.
Rating:
Summary: Exceptionally Poor Product
Review: I have owned the "Pro" version of this product for all of two weeks. If I can still get a refund, I will. Here are my list of problems: The application crashes often in my windows XP environment. I have 40 other applications on my machine and not one of them has crashed. Quickbooks touts that it is compatible with ACT! and Outlook, but only with older versions of either applications. I went to install the Timer and while it installed on my machine fine, I was amazed to find that the only way to make copies of the Timer for legal distribution was on a floppy. I don't have a floppy on my machine. I have never needed one before Quickbooks 2003. I am willing to pay for support on a "pay-as-you-go" basis, but then I expect such service to be 24-7 not 6-6/M-F. This application is going out of date, Quick. I am not impressed. (Also, Kathy Levin's 'The Offical Guide' has less value than the enclosed manual. Skip this, too)
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