Customer Reviews

Bookkeeper 2008 [OLD VERSION]

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

The software is awesome for payroll and basic invoicing, however, if you have any questions about it or problems, you might as well throw it away and get something else. I needed to import tax tables and did not get my follow up email with the .exe file required to install the tables. So I called tech support... 1st call - waited on hold for 10 minutes, second call - waited 40 min, third time - I called the product ordering line, finally talked to a real person, thought I was getting somewhere, they transferred me to the same line I was on before, waited 20 min, said forget them, I finally found a site where I could login and get the email with the .exe file resent. But I love the software. it works great. Just dont expect any help from the company outside of basic faq's on their website.

I've been using Bookkeeper since its inception and it continues to be a solid small business accounting product. The features you get for the price are still a better deal QuickBooks or Peachtree.

This latest release contains an improved interface and the ability to handle credit card swiping. New graphical reports are also a nice improvement.

For bill paying, I can track my payments made by check, credit/debit card and cash as well as tracking cash through ATM transactions. For sales, I can create several types of invoices that include payment history and aging. I can even email invoices to my customers. And with inventory I can track purchase orders and all transactions made against my inventory items. Payroll is a great bargain and handles fed, state and local taxes.

There are well over 100 customizable reports plus tax forms. The reports can be exported to Excel or text files and even saved as PDF files. I'm not sure what the other reviewer was referring to about not having inventory reports when there are half a dozen inventory reports showing all items and what's on hand, sales of items by customer and transactions per item. There is also an inventory worksheet to use when conducting inventory audits.

With all these features plus many others I didn't mention, Bookkeeper continues to be a perfect fit for small businesses.

I really like this product. It is easy to learn, and it has many more features than I would expect from a product in this price range. It allows me to track accounts payable and accounts receivable, it tracks inventory, and it prints invoices, purchase orders, and checks. It also allows me to process credit cards directly from the program. Payroll can handle hourly, salary, and bonuses. It has a good set of detailed reports, and it has the year end tax forms I need.

It is really nice to finally find good software that doesn't break the bank. It lets me do all of the things I need to do and I don't need to take a class to understand how to use it.

The bookkeeper 2008 works good for the most part. But what I dont like is that you cant get a report on the sales taxable amount and the wholesale amount seperately. It give the amount of tax collected, but not the amount that is taxed. It lumps everthing together, so when I go to figure the sales tax and all the other numbers I need it's a pain. I need to do the work manually that bookkeeper should do.

If you want a good chance to get frustrated, lose some money, well, buy a product from Avanquest. Just try to get customer service help..., or keep e-mailing them over and over again. I spent 3 hrs on the phone once. Never received my money back. Caveat Emptor with Avanquest!

I was not extremely pleased with the product. It keeps up with your inventory but I had problems doing a report to show what I had in stock. I have since ordered Peachtree Pro and am extremely pleased with this one. I have used Peachtree before.

I realize that my review is not about this product, but I think it is relevant to potential purchasers of Avanquest products. I do not know anything about this particular program, but have had considerable difficulty with Avanquest as detailed below. I think it would be exceptionally foolish to trust any business' data to this product given the terrible technical support.

I purchased My Ultimate Organizer 7.0 via download and subsequent key.

I am not making this up - the product displayed a message in Serbo-Croatian telling me the key had expired.

Four hours later with Technical Support and the problem is still not resolved (despite erasing the program, reinstalling, trying different keys, searching the Windows Registry, etc). It takes a full hour on hold to get a technical support representative and at the conclusion of the last session, I was told to contact Customer Service for a CD copy in the hopes that that would resolve the issue. Now Customer Service tells me Technical Support must send me the copy, although Technical Support says otherwise. I am out $30 for a program that is at this point, totally useless, and left adrift by Avanquest who has my money and refuses to help me.

I would purchase Avanquest products with extreme caution. If you have a Technical Support issue, you will have to wait a minimum of 60 minutes on hold (no 800 number), and then get fairly substandard service after that.

This software delivers a good value considering its price point. It's best suited for small startups. I'd be leery of trying to transfer records from an existing company into this database because it lacks many of the features of more expensive software. If you buy this program:

- Customer support is very expensive and (I've heard) not very helpful
- The free online Avanquest support forum is filled with mostly unresolved problems from frustrated users. Avanquest moderators have seemingly abandoned this forum.
- Don't expect features comparable to Peachtree

It's a good bare bones program. If you have higher level accounting needs, spend the extra money on a more advanced program.

Update:
Bookkeeper now has online support at http://cafe.softcity.com. This site seems to have better information on it than the old Bookkeeper forum.