QuickBooks Pro 2005

I just purchased this product to upgrade my Quickbooks Pro 2003. Unfortunately, this will be my last purchase of an Intuit product after having been a loyal customer for 12 years. Why? Because Im being forced to upgrade by Intuit or lose my ability to run the payroll feature (which I already have to pay a $200/year subscription fee to use). I have enjoyed using both Quickbooks and Quicken, but forcing me to upgrade at gunpoint is not something that sits well with me. Sorry Intuit, but time for us to go our separate ways. BTW: thanks Amazon for offering the upgrade $50 cheaper than direct for Intuit...one more nail in the coffin for Intuit and one more reason to remain a very happy Amazon stockholder.

although quickbooks is a good program, when i ran into a problem and needed guidance, Intuit informed me i would have to pay to get the assistance i needed. I had only purchased the software 2 days ago.Do not expect any technical assistance from Intuit. I would not purchase this again if i had known how little assistance was available. I could do everything i needed to do with microsoft money and get a lot more free assistance with problems. faith paton

Even when Intuits customer service was located in the United States, I received conflicting information and instructions which caused our company to lose $214.35 with no refund in sight. One representative said we had to purchase another copy of the program in order to have an additional license. Then a different representative said this was incorrect and to send the copy back without opening it. I did this and they refunded the shipping. Thats it. No one ever told me that Intuit does not refund extra license fees, they just kept taking my information and promising a refund. Then they changed their customer service to India who have no idea who these people were that I spoke with, but also promised a refund which never arrived. Warning---do not purchase an extra license just on their say-so.

Nice accounting package, always bugging me about upgrading though.

QuickBooks is the de facto accounting standard for small businesses, and justifiably so. Its relatively easy to learn and get up and running at a basic level, and if necessary, will provide sufficient data for an accountant to clean up and provide you with proper financial statements. Over the years, a group of bookkeepers well-versed in using the program has developed (mostly women, perhaps because they are over-represented in college accounting classes and often prefer flexible hours); they add value at reasonable rates, and are recommended for medium size businesses. Still, as with any computer program, the GIGO (Garbage In, Garbage Out) principle applies, and there is a tendency for business people who turn their bookkeeping over to these consultants to ignore accounting controls, especially segregation of duties. Such companies often suffer embezzlements, so its a good idea to have a CPA oversee the bookkeepers work and establish controls. Forewarned is forearmed. I buy a new version of QuickBooks every few years. What I dislike most about it are installation problems, resulting from its security features. Also, the program is backward compatible but not forward compatible, i.e., the 2005 version will read files created by earlier versions, but not files created by QuickBooks 2006 and later. So, if youre a consultant who relies upon files created by others, you have to stay up-to-date. As mentioned in other reviews, Intuit relies upon tech support located in India. I found the young man I dealt with to be quite competent (more so than the typical American tech support person), but had difficulty understanding him because of his heavy accent and his speaking too fast. Intuits greed is worth a mention. Once youre on their mailing list, they bombard you with advertising. More significantly, several years ago I noticed that after I installed it, the automatic update feature was quite active, with most of the communication going from my computer to Intuit. I suspect that they were sucking up company information for marketing purposes. This is a serious problem for CPAs (who have a legal duty to preserve the confidentiality of client information), as well as any company that wants to preserve the confidentiality of its own data. So, turn off the automatic update feature and run a spyware checker. And, never, never, never subscribe to the online version.

Two parts of my review, because Quickbooks is really a combination of Software and Services: 1. The software A mature blend of features that for many, will get the job done. Big improvements now are the ability to put invoice fields in TWO places on the print outs for tear-out-send-back-with-payment sheets. Why did it take YEARS for that basic feature that more than half of QB users use for payments!? 2. The support. Ok, here we go: To their credit, in 1999/2000 I made 3-4 calls to the call center for both technical and customer support related issues and was so impressed that I actually told others how good it was - and remember it today. The reps were humorous and helpful, and seemed to relate to my needs as a QB user. Now, in 2004, John (with an INTENSE Indian Accent) required me to spend 70 minutes on the phone, while repeating Just a moment, thank you for your patience, just a moment, Im getting that information, just a moment, please hold,... and ON and ON and ON until I had a headache from the netherworld. And youd think a 70-minute call would be over some intensely complex technical issue... BUT... this was a call to the billing department to ask about a charge I didnt recognize! I had my statement, card number, charge code, and amount in front of me. AND THEY NEVER COULD HELP ME. I hung up the phone without having my problem solved and disputed the charge with the Credit card company. The charge dispute process took 7 minutes. Flat. Done. Thanks FirstUSA for keeping your support top-notch. Back to Intuit: Hold a moment. Thank you for holding. One moment. Thank you for holding. Im getting that information. [click] Intuit is penny wise and pound foolish by outsourcing to this level. Update: Another call, November 2004, was even worse. Accent (and recording-like attitude) prevented us from doing business on the phone. I eventually appologized and hung up.

Highly recommend Quickbooks Pro for small businesses. I have been using Quickbooks since 1996 and other Intuit products including TurboTax for Business since 2000 for filing my corporate taxes. The key to using QB is the intial setup for your particular business.

I have no idea how this program works, because it will not load on Windows 7. Further research shows it may work on Windows 7 Pro, but that is not what I have. My previous version of Quickbook was great, and exactly what I need.

WHAT A BUNCH OF MONEY GRABBING IDIOTS! IF YOU ARE CONSIDERING BUYING QUICKBOOKS, DONT!!!!!!! I HAVE NEVER HAD SUCH A HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE WITH A PRODUCT. THEY TAKE FEATURES AWAY, ESPECIALLY WITH PAYROLL, IF YOU DO NOT BUY THEIR PRODUCTS. THEN WHEN YOU CALL TO ASK WHAT IS GOING ON, THEY TELL YOU THAT YOU HAVE NOT PURCHASED THEIR SUPPORT PROGRAM AND THAT THEY CANNOT HELP YOU!! I HATE QUICK BOOKS. THEIR IS NOTHING QUICK ABOUT IT AND THE SO CALLED SUPPORT STAFF ARE A BUNCH OF LIARS!!!

Its great for the size of small business Im running - Im not using all the features, but plenty for my needs.