QuickBooks Pro 2005 for Mac

Rating:
Summary: An absolute joke
Review: As an Intuit user since 1988 (that's right, 16 years) I simply can't imagine a company that could do a better job of managing an outstanding product into abject failure.

Whether Quicken or QuickBooks, Windows or Mac, these products have drifted steadily downhill since 2000. They code is more bloated and bug filled with every new "release".

QuickBooks 2005 for Mac? Let's see....no Online Banking function; No Payroll Integration. I'll go no further....it's as useful as an Excel program without the ability to calculate cell formulas.

Save your money.

Rating:
Summary: A nice improvement over QB6, but still underpowered...
Review: I actually kind of like this program. Accounting is a pretty awful task, but QuickBooks makes it fairly painless. It's pretty intuitive, and it's a pretty good program. I was very happy with version 6 for Mac, so I was happy to upgrade. After using it for a day or two, here are my thoughts.

Pros: Intuit has made commendable efforts to bring the look and feel more in line with Panther. Much of the program seems to have lost much of its OS9 baggage and now looks right. It's still pretty crash-proof and very solid. Formatting invoices has leapfrogged the PC version (finally!) now that you can use a PDF for your template. Unlike the PC version, you can (still) email invoices without going through proprietary hoops. The improved PC compatibility is a godsend (my tax people use the Windows version of course) and all of the 'lists' (so central to QuickBooks) have been improved--you can hide unused items, sort the list, etc. All wonderful and much-needed improvements.

Cons: I would love to have all the features PC users pay the same price for!!! Mileage tracking, where is that? Why can't I create a partial invoice (say, 1/3rd of my estimate to a client) like the Windows version can? Where are the video tutorials? There are simply tons of extra things you get in the Windows version that you can't get in the Mac version, even though Intuit charges the same price for the software.

That said, I have both PC's and Macs in my office, and we chose the Mac version, after trying both. Though it has more features, the PC version is a nightmare to use! I'd rather just track my mileage in an Excel spreadsheet than sit at that PC for another hour a day! But hey, don't listen to me, I find most PC applications to be that way. Basically, I think QuickBooks Pro 2005 for Mac is a great product, and I'm happy to support a vendor that put out solid and useful software for the Mac.

Rating:
Summary: back to the stoneage!
Review: I just got a new mac. Very pleased with its performance! I have been using Quickbooks 4 on Windows. While the mac version of quick books had some nice features (lack of Quick books ads, not so many navigation buttons that go to the same place) I did not like the fact that I had to manually type in the customers information all over again if the ship to address was different than my company. Might sound trivial, but when you create purchase orders all day long it adds alot of time. Also, no shipping feature. Have to manually type in your shipping addresses somewhere else because Quick books for mac does not have it! Custom invoices and purchase orders are not that custom. You have to use their form, can't change the size of the columns, You can insert a logo but have to put it where they put it! You can change the fields. The text is so small that you have to sit about a foot away from the puter to see it. With my other programs for mac I can go in and change the font size in that program. With Quickbooks I have to change my whole screen resolution. I called Quickbooks and was told that I could pay 100.00 for a month support or I could pay 350.00 for a year of support. I asked if this support would make the drop ship auto fill work and she said no. I said for 700.00 shirley I can find another program that works properly to start with! She said I could exchange the program for Quickbooks 5 for windows and just use my old PC for Quickbooks, and maybe by next year they would have better features of quickbooks for mac. I asked for a refund. She said I could send it back in 60 days if I wanted. Probably so I would forget about it and not return it. Seems like I read a 30 day money back garautee somewhere!
Overall, I am not pleased with my 300.00 investment. If I could rate this program with NO stars I would!

Rating:
Summary: Terrible Software
Review: This new version is a complete joke if you need an accountant to check things over and make changes. Unlike the windows version, the mac version cannot create an accountants copy. This means that you can't make any changes to the file (like add new entries) until you get the revised file back from your account. In contrast, the windows version has had the ability to do accountants copies for years. This alone makes the program borderline useless in my opinion.

Rating:
Summary: Another lackluster Mac effort from Intuit.
Review: When I asked the customer service rep (CSR) when they were going to attempt feature parity with the PC version, he told me they put so much effort into getting it to look right that there was no room for: cash flow analysis (how hard would this be?), FedEx and UPS shipping, auto logs, and too many more things to list. The CSR said there were "a lot of thngs the PC version would do that the Mac version would not do. Payroll is another application that some reviewers have said would never post properly to QuickBooks. Other reviewers mention lack of online banking features.

I have used MYOB Account Edge(Mac) for years and it is a good application, but it ages differently than Quickbooks, and I am tired of fighting (and paying) my accountant over that. My copy of QuickBooks Mac is going back and I am taking my accounting functions over to the dark side.