Customer Reviews

QuickBooks Pro 2004

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(25)

 

 

New features lured me to upgrade from QB 2001. The ability to email documents caught my attention. I discovered that the email feature in PDF format only utilizes Intuit servers so you keep no copy of the email note attached and Intuit now has yours and your customer's email addresses. In addition you have to register to use their servers and they need your telephone for all their associate businesses. Hope you have plenty of time for talking to solicitors because that is what you do if you enter your telephone number which you have to do if you want to utilize the email feature. Read the privacy statement and you will likely not care to use the feature. I don't know how they have the nerve to call it a privacy statement. QB software now over-rides Windows color scheme and forces you to use a pukie green header on each window. I just noticed another printer installed called "Intuit Internal Printer". I'm not sure what that is about. I've seen several pop up advertisements in the software. I recommend disabling the automatic updates or you will be bombarded with pop ups. Other than that, Intuit needs to take an ethics course. Everything I had before upgrading seems to function so I'm thankful for that.

Yes, this product has hidden costs like tech support, yearly tax tables, and upgrades, but it is still better than doing bookkeeping for a small business by hand.

Some of the other fees one doesn't think about are:

1. Printer checks, invoices (if you choose to use perforated forms or letterhead), and envelopes for both. No bank will supply QB checks for free...and they aren't cheap either.
2. To email your invoices you have to subscribe to "online billing" for a fee...However, I found that one can simply print the invoice, scan it and email it as an attachment.
3. To do direct deposit for payroll, one must subscribe to "payroll direct deposit" for a fee. (I haven't figured out a way around this one yet.)

Yes, there were some unpleasant tech support people--like there are everywhere, but I found the option of buying a year of tech support (appx. $350.00 ) to be very helpful for the first year I used this product. Support is available via phone, IM, and email. I found IM to be the best method. By the end of that year of support I was asking questions that stumped tech. support, or I was able to think of a better solution myself, so this product is not hard to figure out...but it does take some figuring out. And it is nice to have the cushion of support while you learn. (The manual is valueless-use the help button or better: buy "Quickbooks for Dummies".)

With all those costs, you can expect to drop about $1000.00 up front just to get this program up and running.

Hints:
DO NOT EVER load any balances in QB for payroll or customers. You should go back and do every single transaction individually and backdate it the original date of the invoice or payment or whatever. Run your old payrolls one pay period at a time-print them on blank paper with the old check number. You MUST use the payroll liabilities feature to pay all payroll taxes--you can adjust the amounts to match what you have already paid before using QB, otherwise your balances and calculations in QB will be messed up all year like mine were. Even if you have to load a YEAR'S worth of transactions, it is better to do them one item at a time rather than load balances. Start at or as close to your fiscal year as possible for conversion to QB.

DO buy tech support for six months or a year: it was well worth it, especially for 1099s and other headaches that one doesn't do everyday.

SURPRISE: 1099s will print for only ONE accounting code--I found that out the hard way. So for 1099s, USE ONE MASTER ACCOUNT, if you need several 1099 codes, list them as subaccounts of the master account. I.E.: 1099 Contractors, and have 1099 drafting, 1099 engineering, 1099 transporting as subaccounts.

You HAVE TO have internet access to use this product. Try to have a highspeed connection to the internet, it takes up to 30 minutes to d/l the updates and tax tables via 56K dialup.

DO NOT USE the "enter bills" and "pay bills" portion of the program. Just write the checks manually to vendors-that way you only have to do the work once.

Make no mistake, if you buy this or any other accounting program for that matter, you will cease to be a bookkeeper and become a baby sitter for a computer!

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. Lots of critical things left out such as tear-off-slip report for invoices and far too few custom reports.

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, I'm getting that information, just a moment, please hold,..." and ON and ON and ON until I had a headache from the netherworld.

And you'd 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 didn't 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. I'm getting that information. [click]

Intuit is penny wise and pound foolish. They have compromised so far on support by outsourcing that it had made me switch AWAY from Quickbooks for good.

I ordered Quickbooks 2003 pro edition based on accountant's suggestion. I then of course called in to Quickbooks as I ran into a probelm and decided on the $300+ annual support, which before any "support" was provided, seemed like a good idea. Turns out that the "support" kept me online for over 2 hours trying to solve a problem and at the end of 2 hours said he couldn't fix it. The only other time I called in to Quickbooks "support" was to cancel my "support" and was sent a letter saying that they can't cancel it and will continue billing me $29.00 a month.

I now pay someone who specializes in Quickbooks to walk me through any problems I come across.

Intuit forced me to upgrade from a very stable QB2001 product in order to continue to process payroll. Now, our custom utility to import shopping cart orders via IIF files no longer work. We follow the help file to no avail. We download Intuit's own examples and even Intuit's examples fail in 2004. Basically, Intuit's greed to get my $150 for an upgrade is now costing me hundreds per day as we have to manually re-key orders.

The ability to email invoices and statements to customers and then provide them with a login page to view their history should have saved me lots of time and money. If I am to upgrade to a new version of Quickbooks and then pay a monthly fee for the deluxe online billing service, the only thing I expect is the full functionality they advertise and a professional image that it would portray.

Instead, their Terms of Use state that, "From time to time, Intuit may promote and/or advertise other products and services through the Online Service, including but not limited to placement of Content and/or links to other sites or resources within Online Service forms, invoices and statements."

They have the right to advertise to me all they want, since I was a regular customer of their products, however trying to market through invoices and statements is ridiculous. They need to use their quickbooks users to advertise for them, not potentially bring down my reputation with my customers.

My review focused on this since it was the single reason I got the software and subsequently returned it. Don't get your customers hooked on something and then have to pull it. Export your quickbooks data to a database and have someone set up a SSL webpage for your customers to view their invoices and statement. Access or Filemaker would both work for this task.

The rest of 2004 pro was fine, but not worth the upgrade.

Intuit is a market leader but in a few more years I doubt it will be. FIRST AND FOREMOST DOWNLOAD A TRIAL VERSION OF THIS SOFTWARE. As obvious as it sounds, after downloading a trial version, use this software as you would day to day. I doubt you will find it user friendly or intuitive. Set up accounts (if you can figure out how) for owner investments in the business and returning that initial outlay to yourself or the partners that formed the business.

Try sending emails to your customers from within the software.
Try entering a one time cash/credit card sale from a customer you don't wish to track.

While I don't have a problem with any company trying to sell me additional services (we are business people, afterall) Intuit has become almost predatory in its practices. I happen to use UPS for my company's shipments but only FedEx is supported within Intuit's software presumably because Intuit gets a piece of the action from FedEx but not UPS.

This program is largely like shareware where a number of functions are crippled unless you subscribe to other Intuit services.

My sense of this product is that the yearly development cycle is solely focussed on creating new Intuit pay per use services and ease of use and functionality are not considered.

The $200 plus you are paying for this software buys you something that is only minimally functional. Ease of use is not a thought in its design.

Yes, this product has hidden costs like tech support, yearly tax tables, and upgrades, but it is still better than doing bookkeeping for a small business by hand.

Some of the other fees one doesn't think about are:

1. Printer checks, invoices (if you choose to use perforated forms or letterhead), and envelopes for both. No bank will supply QB checks for free...and they aren't cheap either.
2. To email your invoices you have to subscribe to "online billing" for a fee...However, I found that one can simply print the invoice, scan it and email it as an attachment.
3. To do direct deposit for payroll, one must subscribe to "payroll direct deposit" for a fee. (I haven't figured out a way around this one yet.)

Yes, there were some unpleasant tech support people--like there are everywhere, but I found the option of buying a year of tech support (appx. $350.00 ) to be very helpful for the first year I used this product. Support is available via phone, IM, and email. I found IM to be the best method. By the end of that year of support I was asking questions that stumped tech. support, or I was able to think of a better solution myself, so this product is not hard to figure out...but it does take some figuring out. And it is nice to have the cushion of support while you learn. (The manual is valueless-use the help button or better: buy "Quickbooks for Dummies".)

With all those costs, you can expect to drop about $1000.00 up front just to get this program up and running.

Hints:
DO NOT EVER load any balances in QB for payroll or customers. You should go back and do every single transaction individually and backdate it the original date of the invoice or payment or whatever. Run your old payrolls one pay period at a time-print them on blank paper with the old check number. You MUST use the payroll liabilities feature to pay all payroll taxes--you can adjust the amounts to match what you have already paid before using QB, otherwise your balances and calculations in QB will be messed up all year like mine were. Even if you have to load a YEAR'S worth of transactions, it is better to do them one item at a time rather than load balances. Start at or as close to your fiscal year as possible for conversion to QB.

DO buy tech support for six months or a year: it was well worth it, especially for 1099s and other headaches that one doesn't do everyday.

SURPRISE: 1099s will print for only ONE accounting code--I found that out the hard way. So for 1099s, USE ONE MASTER ACCOUNT, if you need several 1099 codes, list them as subaccounts of the master account. I.E.: 1099 Contractors, and have 1099 drafting, 1099 engineering, 1099 transporting as subaccounts.

You HAVE TO have internet access to use this product. Try to have a highspeed connection to the internet, it takes up to 30 minutes to d/l the updates and tax tables via 56K dialup.

DO NOT USE the "enter bills" and "pay bills" portion of the program. Just write the checks manually to vendors-that way you only have to do the work once.

Make no mistake, if you buy this or any other accounting program for that matter, you will cease to be a bookkeeper and become a baby sitter for a computer, but it's still better than doing books by hand!

Our business has been using Quickbooks Pro since about '97. This is a powerful program that I would replace with another if I could find one. Once you're hooked on Quickbooks it's like a drug--not that you have much pleasure or satisfaction--that gets destroyed at every turn. You will have to buy the full upgrade each year in order to keep your tax info. up to date--unless you want to do it all by hand while you thank you lucky stars that you paid 245.00 for your powerful automated financial software just a few short months ago. By the way, don't try using this software on more than one computer at a time--it is designed to prevent you from enjoying this luxury. You'll have to buy the 5-user edition for $450.00. Service? First you'll wait, then you'll pay through the nose for any help with the many glitches and anomolies in the system. The one thing they're good at is making money--getting you hooked--and getting you to pay. I can't believe that I am still using this infernal program--upgrading again for 129.00 plus dollars just to keep my tax tables, W-2s and tax forms updated--since I haven't found an adequate replacement for QB yet. It would be nice if our corporate moaning would reach the ears of Intuit--but don't count on it; actually at this point, in the interest of justice, I would much rather switch to another company. Don't get hooked. SAY NO TO QUICKBOOKS before it's too late.

I have been using quickbooks since version 5.0. I have always thought highly of the product and the features it provides, that is until my current version(Quickbooks Pro 2001) became sunseted. I from time to time am forced to email my invoices to clients, I have never really liked the fact that after upgrading I was forced to log onto the Intuit server to email but I lived with it. Today May 12, 2004 I needed to email an invoice per a clients request, the server informed me I would need to upgrade. I spent over 2 hours on the phone to learn that my only option was to upgrade, so I called sales and told them I willing to pay the extorsion money. Imagine my shock when I was informed it would take up to 10 days for them to mail me a CD. So here I sit a client I am unable to bill STILL unable to use the features I have already paid for.

Yes I did get the notices about needing to upgrade. I am in the Software industry myself and will always advise my clients to ONLY upgrade if there is a feature or fix in the new version that they require to run there business.

In my opinion what intuit is doing is with each new release they are putting in more and more hooks in order that they can force you to upgrade to the latest version, this in my opinion is a form of extorsion. They are in effect trying to shut your business down unless you pay the money they demand.

I dont use payroll, I track my G/L and write checks and invoices, track open invoice and recieve payments in Quickbooks. I have found a work around to the email issue that does not involve paying intuit a dime, and I can promise they will never collect another cent from me.

If you have not purchased this product, I suggest you dont, there are other options and switching to one of them later will be more painful than if you just buy one of the others now.

Good Luck.