QuickBooks Pro 2001

Perfect product

Threw it away

No good!

In the quest to find a decent accounting solution for my sole-proprietorship (start-up), I tried and evaluated several trial versions of accounting software packages (QuickBooks Pro 2001, gnucash, gACC, MYOB, and Peachtree Accounting).The good: Hands down, QuickBooks Pro is the easiest and most intuitive accounting package aimed at small businesses, on the market. I was able to setup the books, generate purchase orders, sales receipts, deposits, checks, with a minimum of effort. The only difficulty is figuring out the QuickBooks way of doing things, but once you do, things fly. I was surprised to find that it will even print out deposit slips (nice feature, especially if you take in a lot of checks).The bad: Unfortunately it is also the most expensive software package in this class. Peachtree Accounting is about half the cost (but much more difficult to use [double-entry accounting]).The ugly: Also, beware that the features included in this software package are a little misleading: Setting up payroll requires you to use their payroll update service ($). Setting up a "professional website" requires you to use their service ($). From the trial, I got the feeling that accepting credit cards also requires you to use an Intuit-affiliated merchant account ($?). I never went any further to investigate. Several "marketplace features" were discontinued.Simply stated, QuickBooks is an intuitive, easy to use accounting solution for small businesses. However, I was disappointed in the QuickBooks Pro version, which charged a premium for features that either contained ongoing hidden charges, or are not likely to be used by most people. My advise: get QuickBooks 2001, not QuickBooks Pro.

I have been using QuickBooks since the early 1990s. I checked out PeachTree, but found that it was far less intuitive than QuickBooks.Since one of Intuit's goals with this software is a product that serves both the CPA and the non-accountant, ease of use is a critical factor. One reviewer wrote that he was disturbed that QB was not a true "double entry" accounting system. Frankly, he missed the point.QB is indeed an upgraded upgrade of Scott Cook's little software program that enabled his wife to balance her checkbook. As such, it maintains the "register" feel throughout. Your checkbook is a register, as are your asset and liability accounts. But the software design forces you to make a double entry, even if you have no idea what that is. That particular reviewer simply does not understand how to use QB well enough, if he claims that the data they are bringing him is "out of balance" -- the software changes no data whatsoever if you switch from cash to accrual reports. It changes only the presentation of the data.I have run many kinds of businesses on this software, from engineering firms to non-profits. In each of those businesses, I have taught the engineers and programmers and board members how to use the software themselves. Its passwords protect damage of critical data, and QB built-in backup system makes it ever so simple to protect month and year end finals.QB is especially useful for people who know nothing about accounting. It is one of the few software packages on the market that comes with a very good hard copy manual -- and that manual doubles as an Accounting 101 textbook. You really don't need their tech support all that often, because the manual is good.Be sure you take advantage of things like the ability to export all reports to Excel, and mail merge to send out dunning notices.If this were a ten-star review, I would give QB nine stars, deducting a little for the fact that some things in this upgrade (e.g., the ability to print out the time sheets that support your invoicing) should have been a free upgrade to correct that defect in Pro 99. And minus a quarter star for radically changing the navigation. The new one is not bad, it's just that the old one was perfectly good.Other than that, if your accountant says you should not use QB because it's not a true accounting package, find another accountant. Because it means you've got one who wants to pad his billings by making you use something that keeps you dependent on him. QB gives you the ability to do most of your work yourself, thereby saving much of the money he wants to charge you. Think about that when you decide to buy.And yes, I am an accountant who helps clients run their businesses using QuickBooks!Note added on 8/15/2001: Recently, my company started manufacturing small items to sell. This pointed up a weakness of QB: It does not handle manufacturing well. Its inventory feature, on the other hand, is great. -- We have written procedures that allow us to work with the software to track inventory as it originates as raw materials and works its way up the chain.This is an example of how QB can adapt when necessary. It's not designed for manufacturing, but with a little ingenuity, it goes there too.

Four years ago, I sang the praises of Quickbooks, even getting several people using it as their accounting software. No more. The program gets worse and worse. Reports are harder than ever before if you want anything non-standard. They recently doubled the subscription price for their tax tables (yes, you pay annually to get new tax tables, currently ...) and, worse yet, disable the tax tables you bought and paid for after they "expire." There is no free support. Their tax table had an error that would not allow the correct percentage to be entered for my state and to report the bug and ask for a fix I was told I had to pay for the privilege.This latest version (I've been using it since around version 5) even goes so far as downloading third-party advertising under the guise of "updates" that it displays while you work on your books, and keeps a background task running all the time for gathering the updates.As I said, worse and worse, look elsewhere. I am an unhappy customer. Ricky

I had used Quicken for my personal service business for many years; but Y2K issues and need for a better payroll system and some other feaures drove me to Quick Books Pro '99. Now I find that QPB 2001 has many postive responses to the criticisms built in. There are several navigators, but they can be tamed and kept off screen. Many more user preference choices. Choice of default bank account for various tasks. And, especially, the drop down menus much altered, so what had seemed a hash is now more rational. I am experiencing enough similarity with earlier structure that my learning curve seems easy, but design and organization improvement make use more rapid and less stressful. More report choices than I can shake a stick at. To me, worth the money, and the conversion was easy.