Rating: 
Summary: Reality and QuickBooks
Review: I'm a CPA and QuickBooks advisor, and I like QuickBooks. My clients like QuickBooks, too. I got it when it came out in 1991 and have used it ever since. I make my living working with QuickBooks, but I am trying here to be objective and tell you what I have learned over the years. I find that it is stressful for users to get used to QB and adapt to it. Even people who have wide computer use experience can have trouble, despite, or perhaps because of, that experience. You need to be patient and determined. I do fault Intuit for implying that it is easy to pick up. Furthermore, accounting is not a trivial subject that you can pick up in a couple of weeks or months. If you are not an experienced bookkeeper or accountant, you will have a learning curve with QuickBooks. Having said that, however, I did work with a Spanish-speaking immigrant who is an electrical contractor, and in spite of the language barrier and his lack of experience, he caught on and after a couple of months was (and still is) using it happily. If you have no accounting background, you will probaby need help with QuickBooks, and help will reduce your frustration level significantly. I have clients who use the QuickBooks merchant service and QuickBooks credit cards, and they are very happy with them. I recommend them if you have high volume. But I also have clients who use just the basic software, no payroll, no merchant or credit card service, and their volume is small enough that they are also pleased. If you have no more than 5 employees you can easily do payroll without the payroll service, and even in 2003 you are not forced to subscribe to the payroll tables. No one can afford to give away our services if we are to stay in business. And neither can Intuit. Consider all the costs involved in running a large call center. Why should those who don't need the support pay for it (as would be the case if support were "free"--included in the purchase price)? For those who are willing to take a bit longer to do manual payrolls, from within QuickBooks, we can do that without paying for payroll tax tables. We may not get all the bells and whistles that come with the payroll tax tables, but at least we can manage to get it done. As with everything else in life, there are tradeoffs to QuickBooks--cost vs convenience. Those who are truly small can manage quite well with Quicken. You shouldn't move up to QuickBooks unless you can afford not only the software but also support. I hate to say it, but if you're having trouble, you need to bite the bullet and get the support so they can walk you through your problems. One thing I have learned in my years with QuickBooks--if there is a problem, it is me almost all the time. I may not be looking at a situation right, or there may be some quirk about using the system, but 99% of the time it is me or my client. QuickBooks is very stable and I have had only one problem in the last couple of years that I blame on Intuit. I do sometimes find that Intuit hasn't thought through some feature or process, but these are the exceptions. The multi-user version is a bit slow, but the program has many features (you might call it bloat-ware but there is also the need to remain competitive and offer the features other accounting software does). The on-line help (the How-do-I buttons in almost every screen) is excellent and you need to explore it extensively. You need to get help when you set up QuickBooks. Especially with payroll. I hear from people who are just getting started with QuickBooks and they don't really want to pay for help in getting started up. And I hear from people who have been using QuickBooks for several years and their payroll and sales taxes are completely messed up. I have even come across people who have never set up and paid state unemployment taxes, because they didn't know they were supposed to. If you are going into business, you really need to find out about the taxes you need to pay so they don't come along a couple of years later to take a bite out of you when you don't expect it. I also find it very frustrating dealing with Intuit--submitting questions or comments. They do not respond. I wish they would.
Rating: 
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:
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.
Rating:
Summary: BEWARE!...INTUIT DEMANDS EIN, PRIVACY INVASION!!
Review: I've used Quickbooks for 8 years and LOVE the program, HATE the lack of customer service. I was forced by Intuit to upgrade this year because they would no longer sell me the payroll tax tables for my older version. Purchased QB2003 directly from Intuit. I asked lots of questions regarding payroll, specifically if the new tax tables came with purchase of new program. Was told they did. Was also told there was a 'conversion problem' with payroll from my old version & new one. It was HIGHLY recommended by sales that I purchase 'tech support' because I would only get one phone call & then it would be $75-$150 per call. ONLY AFTER I PAID and received the product did I find out about the EXTRA charge for this yr's tax tables, AND THERE WAS NO CONVERSION PROBLEM, and I WOULD HAVE TO GIVE INTUIT MY CLIENTS' EINs to Intuit or they would not give me the tax tables. IMHO Intuit has no 'compelling business reason' to have this confidential information about my clients. The EIN is comparable to the business entity's social security number. This is NOT public information![.] Try getting the EIN of a local business from the IRS. One uninformed sales person even had the nerve to tell me the 'government required' that I give up these numbers to Intuit. Absolutely untrue!!! I DO NOT DO PAYROLL ONLINE, nor do I contract it out to Intuit. What would you think if I sold you a car, you paid, but before I would deliver, you'd have to give me the social security numbers of your neighbors?? Until this policy changes I will not use Intuit's products nor will I recommend their products as I have avidly for 8 years.
Rating:
Summary: Lacking Compatibility Mac/Windows
Review: If most other windows applications can be made cross platform by using a C compliler then why is Quickbooks neglecting to keep their windows version and mac version fully compatible with one another and have identical features? Quickbooks could be great but they suffer from windows arrogance. Having developers on the mac side would dramatically improve their user interface since Mac sets the standard that windows has always copied and rather poorly I might add. Check out the new G5 64 bit Macs. They run faster, cooler and quieter than any wintel box I have ever had. I work with Apple and Intel. I expect my software to do the same. Microsoft is smart enough to do so. Why is Intuit so blind?
Rating:
Summary: Popular doesn't mean approval
Review: In response to the previous review in support of Intuit, the writer stated '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."' Windows is also the #1 operating system, but many would agree that that doesn't make their company great. The reviews definitely do give the story of the average user - whether they keep using it anyway or not. After many years in working with them from Quicken, Quickbooks, and Turbo tax, I have to say that they provide the WORST customer service of any software or online provider that I have come across. The lack of customer service comes across in their upgrade strategies, the way they accept feedback (or don't) on their website, and their support both in chat as well as paid service. The only other company that I have come across that comes even close to providing the same terrible service, is AT&T broadband. Do I keep using Intuit products anyway? For now, yes. Do I continue searching and hoping for an alternative so that I can get away from this company? YES! Many, many years ago when I bought my first copy of Quicken it was to get out of the chains and lack of service by Microsoft. However, Intuit has amazingly become even worse than their original competitor. I would *love* for Intuit to turn themselves around, but I don't believe it will happen and I am waiting for the day when I can purchase competitive products.
Rating: 
Summary: Intuit, always thinking of new ways to charge you more.
Review: Intuit has done it again with quickbooks 2003. I just noticed that one of the new features is that you can print W-2s on blank paper. When you try to do this operation you are told that you need to subscribe to their payroll service $$$. Intuit has got to be the worst example of [messing with]their customers I've ever seen. Pretty good program, lousy company. Try other programs before you settle on Quickbooks and get locked in.
Rating:
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:
Summary: Very good product, reasonable price
Review: Let me preface this by saying that I have absolutely no vested interest in giving QuickBooks a positive review. That aside, the program delivers everything one would expect, and while not perfect, is reasonably user friendly. It seems so fashionable to criticize QuickBooks, but it's an admirable piece of software. The complaints regarding having to pay a fee for payroll, while somewhat understandable given that Intuit is not as upfront as they could be, are largely unjustified, as all accounting programs charge for this service. The Intuit fees are signifcantly less than what one would normally have to pay for third-party payroll service.
Rating:
Summary: QuickBooks Upgrade problems
Review: My 3 year old QuickBooks suddenly stopped working. A dialog box asked me to re-enter my long-lost old registration number. Intuit said that QuickBooks only operates for a limited number of times before it requires one to re-enter the registration code. Even though they believed that I did not have a "pirate" copy, I was told that they did NOT HAVE any way to give me my registration code. That meant all my data was locked up forever. I protested that this effectively stopped my business. Was there no solution? Well....I could upgrade for $... And if I did upgrade, they would immediately give me a code to unlock my data! I paid the $ on my credit card....Bought Peachtree. Transfered the data.[...]
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