Rating: 
Summary: User Friendly = YES!! Scalable with your business = NO!!
Review: I have the strange task of developing a piece of software that integrates into Quickbooks. I had also worked with Quickbooks for over 2 years on a daily basis as a bookkeeper.Quickbooks certainly is not going to last in the marketplace, unless they revise the whole data engine. They have some strange proprietary server that only allows x number of connections. The worst part being, transfering data from any computer other than the one where the file resides, means you can go make a pot of coffee while you wait to find a transaction. So.. the core of the software itself is outdated--as was mentioned--it roots from a simpler time when the software was made for the small business user who had only ONE computer. And at that time, it was probably the best package available, and because of that, more accountants know how to use Quickbooks than any other package. Unfortunately, times have changed, and almost every business has a small network of computers. Quickbooks simply does not work well over networks. At first, you will think I am nuts, but just wait until you have about 3 years of data. Anyway, its still very user-friendly, but Intuit needs to overhaul the core. It's too slow for daily business activities.
Rating: 
Summary: Award for the worst customer service.
Review: I have used Intuit's Quicken products for many years and have always been happy with them, so when I started a business a couple of years ago, I bought Quickbooks 2001. Immediately I felt betrayed when I found I could not do payroll without paying Intuit's high priced subscription fee. That was one of the main reasons for buying Quickbooks. I now do payroll manually and just use Quickbooks to keep the checkbook balanced and to send out invoices. Recently I tried to do an online update of my checking account and ran into some errors. I spent several hours with their incompetent tech support telling me it was a network issue. After some research I am told I will have to upgrade to 2003 to be able to use the online update feature. I am going to upgrade, but it is going to be to something that doesn't say Intuit or Microsoft on the box. That alone will be an upgrade. Do not buy. Terrible product, even worse product service. I would recommend a pencil and a napkin over this product.
Rating:
Summary: Abysmal Support Policies
Review: I have used older versions with some success. When reviewing the Intuit offerings on their WWW site, I reviewed their support policies. Their support policies are unacceptable to me. a. Their "free" support essentially covers installation and confirmation of known problems. They advise, If you call they require your credit card info first and then the "technician" will determine if the call is covered under their free support policies. Their policy should be insulting to any thoughtful person. b. Their 12 month pay support option for QuickBook Premier cost more than the product. c. They claim to support their message board (Their claim is in writing in the board display area) ... yet a cursory look at the pleas for help on the board shows posts that exist for weeks/months with no response. Microsoft will eat Intuit alive should MS decide to pursue development of Money to a full feature accounting/inventory system. Avoid Intuit Products / Policies ... especially Quickbooks! I'm off to explore other software options ...
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Summary: Quickbooks Requires Gator Spyware to Run
Review: I have verified that Quickbooks pro now REQUIRES the Gator SPYWARE to run. They don't tell you this, but it silently installs Gator, a long known spyware program, and if you uninstall the spyware with ad-aware or manually remove the spyware Quickbooks tells you that you are trying to open a document created with a newer version than your software. When you go to the automatic update online, it REINSTALLS Gator spyware. BEWARE. My intrusion detection system showed the PC with Quickbooks/Gator sending ten times the amount of information back to Gator than the pc's infected with the regular version of the Gator spyware. Spyware advice sites report that Gator sends the information you fill into forms back to them. Now imagine filling in a credit card number on a web form... BE AFRAID. BE VERY AFRAID.
Rating: 
Summary: Author of QuickBooks for Dummies Comments
Review: I kind of feel compelled to wade into this firefight because some readers will know me or of me and maybe, just maybe, I can be a little more credible than some of the other reviews. Before I get to that, however, let me make a couple of disclosures. First, I am the author of both QuickBooks for Dummies and Quicken for Dummies (so that might make you think I'm going to pander to Intuit), however, I am also the most prolific computer book writer in the world. (More than 150 books, most of which aren't on Intuit products.) Second, I'm a CPA (in Seattle area) and what I do is help small businesses do their taxes and get going with QuickBooks. Enough on that. Here are my considered comments:
1. SUPPORT...Tech Support from Intuit does, to me, seem kind of expensive compared to the old days when support was free. And I, too, have had the experience of calling with what I'm sure is a software bug--but then having Intuit say, "Dude, you got to pay." So that .... But I also know that many, perhaps most, of the problems that people have with QuickBooks stem from inadequate accounting skills or QuickBooks knowledge. In my opinion, then, the blame goes both ways. Yes, Intuit should be better in the way they manage their support programs. But customers should expect to pay for what often amounts to consulting and training. My suggestion? Buy a support program (they have several) and just consider that support program cost part of the cost of owning QuickBooks. You're still getting a great deal. 2. PAYROLL... As I've written about in my books, payroll has been a less than satisfactory component of QuickBooks. Part of that, again, is QuickBooks. But you have easy and relatively inexpensive payroll solutions that you can use in place of QuickBooks payroll if you have troubles. E.g., you can go to outside payroll service bureaus (like ADP and Paychex) where you're almost guaranteed to get good service. You'll pay probably several hundred to a couple thousand dollars a year for this service (depending on the number of employees and the frequency of payroll). But you know what? If you're having trouble getting your payroll done correctly, the service bureau route is a good approach. Tangential comment: If you add a good support program and work with an outside service bureau, your accounting costs do go up. But you know what? If you're running a small business with employees, you got to have a good accounting system. And a good accounting system costs money. 3. BUGS AND SUCH... I haven't found QuickBooks 2003 to be particularly or uniquely buggy. 4. FEE-BASED ADD-ONS... I agree with this point. But it's a bit like complaining your kids won't pick up their bedrooms. Yeah, it's an annoyance, but truthfully it's not really much more than that.. 5. FINAL COMMENT... OK, even considering everything said here and all the problems one has, QuickBooks is still a GREAT PRODUCT! It's easy to use. It's inexpensive (even after you add costs for support and payroll) as compared to the old days where you needed to hire a bookkeeper or CPA to do your books. And it can be a powerful tool for better managing your business. Steve P.S. If somebody has a quick question about QuickBooks, it's okay to email me. I don't know if it's kosher to stick my email address into this post so won't. But you can easily search on my name and locate contact information...
Rating:
Summary: Waste of money.
Review: I tried QuickBooks Pro 2003, and it is very hard to work with. I have a good knowledge of accounting and finance, but unfortunately my accounting background did not help. Waste of money.
I have to look for something else. Also, it performs very poor in a multi-user environment. thanks.
Rating:
Summary: Thanks!
Review: I want to thank you all for keeping me from making a big mistake! I was all set to buy this product before I read these reviews. I went back to a local store to re-look at the product and in their specs on the box I didn't see anything about having to subscribe to these services.
I was left with the impression that it was all in the box. as of now, I am still looking for software. My heart-felt sympathy goes out to you all, I have been in those shoes before.
Rating:
Summary: Intuit Blew It
Review: I was so pleased to read the other reviews BEFORE purchasing the 2003 version. I was so disappointed with 2002 and their support which is really just a sales pitch for their Payroll Program. I knew I was dealing with a salesperson when she exclaimed "Oh my, that's a lot!" to the information that our payroll was for FIVE employees. Why can't we have a basic business program that deals with the REAL necessaties of a small business instead of all this extra stuff we neither need nor want? It's like killing a mouse with a shotgun. And don't get me started on Microsoft!!!!
Rating:
Summary: User Friendly - Absolutely Not. Look at SIMPLY ACCOUNTING
Review: I wish I had evaluated Simply Accounting, PC Magazine's choice, prior to purchasing Quickbooks. It's only $40.00 and you can get a free demo over the internet to evaluate. Quickbooks can probably handle any transaction or any expense, in any manner you choose. The developers have clearly designed Quickbooks to accomodate any possible way you might do business, and for a wide variety of businesses. Now that sounds very positive yet you do NOT want to buy this software. Why - it seems no one at Quicken ever thought about day to day use. You can, given some effort, find a way to record sales and expenses the way you want. But its highly unlikely you can record any of that information in a user- friendly or intuitive manner - highly unlikely!!!!! For example: I had a number of items I wanted to add to my Quickbooks inventory of products to be sold. For sixty items - all from the same supplier, all very similar, I was forced to key in every piece of data and make a number of repetitive selections about how to handle them. Even routine paste and copy doesn't work within Quicken, easily. Not only doesn't Quicken easily allow pasting, it doesn't remember a thing you did previously. It was clear no one in the Quicken design team had ever tried entering 60 items into an inventory. In fact, I don't think you could make that simple task more difficult or less intuitive to do than what Quicken has created in this software. Another example of bad design: my business does phone and internet sales. Quicken provides/recommends a form for such sales. On that form you can put in buyers name, address, (no email/phone though), and the items purchased. That sounds OK - perhaps less than perfect but things get worse. Processing the credit card is disastorous! There are no provided fields for credit card or expiration date. I even subscribed to Quicken's merchant services (meaning credit card processing service). When you are ready to process the order you click "process credit card" (a Quicken exclusive for 2003) and you have a new screen with the amount of the sale entered for you from the preceding form but (if you can believe this) the fields are blank for the name/address of the purchaser you just filled out in the previous screen. So now you but you have no choice but to ask the customer for that information all over again. And NO ------ you can't start with the credit card screen first nor can you see the first screen. Now, what is even worse ------ is once the order is processed you have NO record of the credit card number used!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I find it impossible to believe that Quicken ever, even for a single minute, tried to see if this was a useable solution for those of us who sell a product and take credit card payments in full at the time of sale. To get around this ------- I write out everything long hand on a piece of paper, file a hard copy and then enter it in Quicken!!!!!! Uselsess software!!! Quicken also provides only paid support - so good luck with problems and I really doubt Quicken wants to know about problems. Their sole focus seems to be on selling you additional services. Also, be aware, every aspect of the program is laden with features that are really advertisements for additional Quicken services that will probably work poorly but you can never turn them off, even if you purchase them. The links within the program remain displayed. I wish I had evaluated Simply Accounting, PC Magazines choice, prior to purchasing Quickbooks. It's only $40.00 and you can get a free demo over the internet. I don't know if it is better but it would be hard for it to be worse than Quickbooks and at least you can try it out for free. The fact that there is NO SUPPORT without a fee keeps Quicken insulated from customer problems and this alone, given what little feedback they get, may explain such a poorly designed product. Hear no evil should be Quicken's motto. UPDATE: December 2003 Untuit had an online survey of some of its customers during November 2003 which I participated in. As can be imagined, my comments were not overally kind. To my surprise, I was contacted by Intuit, weeks later for an in depth interview over the phone. I was contacted by a "director" of the corporation who spoke with me for over an hour and a half concerning my complaints. Yet I was offered no solutions other than a call back from a product specialist which I received at the day and time promised. What is interesting is that in both cases I talked with very personable, intelligent individuals. Yet every issue I raised regarding the lack of user friendliness in the Product was or could not be addressed. In the end, I concluded my final conversation with Intuit (via the product specialist) with the remarks that I had talked with two Intuit representatives that where both clearly intelligent, motivated, and personable. Yet at the same time I was an unpaid "beta" tester of a product that was clearly not user friendly, at least in my case.
Rating:
Summary: PRIOR EDITION
Review: I would like to upgrade to QB Pro 2003. However, I am very concerned. I am now running QB Pro 2002. In 9/2002, I upgraded QB Pro 2002. My program never worked right after the upgrade. I run ME and the error message always said "Systems Resources Low......". I deleted the upgraded program and reinstalled the old program. Everything worked find. Tech support cost quite bit but were of little help. I keep my firm's books using QB but am leary about upgrading to QB Pro 2003. I may have to buy the full version to be safe.
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