QuickBooks Pro 2005

by Intuit, Inc.

Product Features

• Financial management software for small businesses
• Easily pay bills, print checks, track expenses, and much more
• Customize 100+ pre-designed forms to create a unique look
• Exchange data with Microsoft Excel and 325+ other software applications
• Track employee time and job costs; compare estimated costs to actuals

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00062AJOO
• Item model number: 284178
• Date first available at Amazon.com: October 25, 2004
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (80 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,516 in Software (See Top 100 in Software)
  • #60 in Software > Business & Office > Business Accounting > Accounting

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

QuickBooks: Pro 2005 includes all the financial-management features of Basic, plus improved tools and customization options to help you work more effi ciently.

Key Features:

• Get all the features of QuickBooks: Basic, like easily pay bills, print che cks, track expenses, and much more.
• Customize 100+ pre-designed forms to create a unique look.
• Exchange data with Microsoft Excel and more than 325 other software applica tions.
• Track employee time and job costs. Create reports comparing estimated costs to actuals.

Detailed Features:

Zip Through Routine Tasks and Taxes

• Pay bills, print checks, and track expenses automatically
• Invoice customers, apply payments, calculate sales tax
• Improved! Choose the right report every time with new, scrollable Report Na vigator
• Track inventory and create purchase orders
• Track employee time and job costs
• Improved! Run payroll and offer employees Direct Deposit
• Instantly create reports for taxes or your accountant
• Find key information about customer and vendor accounts instantly

Get More Done in Less Time

• Improved! Apply payments, over/underpayments, credits, and refunds
• Improved! Download bank and credit card transactions without typing
• Transfer data to and from Microsoft Excel
• Improved! Merge QuickBooks data with Microsoft Word documents
• New! Print labels and schedule pickups for UPS, as well as FedEx
• Share data with more than 325 business applications
• Give data access to as many as five users at once

Customize Forms, Pricing, and More

• Choose from 100+ professional, customizable forms
• Preset up to 100 price levels

Get Help When You Need It

• Improved! Find the right answers to your help questions
• Learn how to get the most out of QuickBooks

Product Description

QuickBooks Pro 2005 gives you improved tools and customization options that make managing your business finances even easier. QuickBooks: Pro 2005 gives you all the features of QuickBooks Basic plus improved advanced tools and customization options to help boost efficiency and improve organization. Features: 1. Easily pay bills, print checks, and track expenses 2. Improved! Manage customer payments more quickly, including over and underpayments 3. Improved! Manage Payroll and Direct Deposit¹ 4. Easily Transfer Data To and From Microsoft® Excel² 5. Improved! Easily create and print letters/envelopes in Microsoft® Word³ 6. Improved! Works with Microsoft Outlook and 325+ popular software applications 7. Easily Customize and Choose Professional Designs for Forms 8. Improved! Easily enter downloaded banking or credit card transactions 9. Improved! Easy-to-use Help Features 10. Automatically create a budget and project cash flow Also: Easily add up to 5 simultaneous users (requires additional purchases)* *Requires multiple copies of QuickBooks Pro or Premier Edition 2005 and local area network. Simply buy copies for the number of users you have or save with the 5-User Value Pack. ¹ Add-on services require subscription, EIN and Internet access for certain features including tax table updates. Transaction fees charged for direct deposit. ² Excel integration requires Microsoft Excel 2000, 2002, or 2003. Microsoft Excel sold separately. ³ Word integration requires Microsoft Word 2000, 2002, or 2003. Microsoft Word sold separately.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

186 of 194 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars QuickBooks 2003 and 2004 have more going for them, December 23, 2004

By 

J. Enzinna "JonnyFunFun" (Lockport, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: QuickBooks Pro 2005 (CD-ROM)

I've been a QuickBooks fan since starting up my company and realizing how much of a tremendous help QuickBooks was. I started out with QuickBooks 2003 and just a little while ago, I thought it was the time to upgrade to the latest and greatest. Well, I have to warn you that the latest, isn't the greatest. I still like QuickBooks 2003 much better, and in fact I sold my copy of 2005 on eBay and am continuing to use 2003. A lot of really handy features were removed from 2005, and many of them were the best features, like the E-Filing and E-Pay. I think I'm just going to stick with my current version of QuickBooks until Intuit gets on the ball again and puts these features back when they release 2006.

324 of 344 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars I'd pay more for USA based support, December 11, 2004

By 

R. Clark "lexingtonguy" (Lexington, KY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: QuickBooks Pro 2005 (CD-ROM)

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, 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 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.

36 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Yes, Intuit does leech money out of small businesses, September 4, 2005

By 

software geek (san diego, ca United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: QuickBooks Pro 2005 (CD-ROM)

I have used QB since 2000 when I started my business. The application is fine in many respects. But if you buy this, you should also factor in that upgrading the product is necessary if you want certain features to continue to work.

I did my first upgrade in 2002 when I learned you could email invoices directly from the program. This was a very useful feature that they introduced in the 2001 upgrade. In the 2002 upgrade, they also enabled emailing statements, also a feature I've found very useful. I am convinced that Intuit rolls out upgrades in such a way as to strongly encourage their customers to upgrade each year. Being able to e-mail invoices and statements should have occurred in one upgrade, not two.

Not only that, my 2002 version emailing feature stopped working earlier this year as the 2002 version is no longer officially supported. I have never heard of a product that disabled functionality in this way. When I initially upgraded, I had no idea that there was a built-in time bomb. But again, this is a way of "encouraging" you to upgrade. So if you want to use this program, be prepared to purchase upgrades indefinitely or else you may find you can't use some feature a few years from now.

When the email feature was disabled, I called Intuit and the gal that I talked to didn't believe me at first, but after checking, she acknowledged that yes that feature is disabled and the solution is to upgrade.

I have no particular problems with the software, but I do have problems with the policies of Intuit. If you buy it, expect you may have to upgrade. Intuit is very interested in revenue, which is fine and necessary for a company to survive. But they are interested in it to a degree which can alienate customers and which I suspect will cost them quite a bit of money in the long run, especially as Microsoft is just about to roll out their Small Business Accounting program - perhaps the first worthy competitor to QB.