Customer Reviews

MYOB FIRSTEDGE V3 FOR MAC

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

 

 

Admitting that I am not knowledgeable in accounting, let me present my brief impression.

Obviously, Intuit's QuickBooks or Quicken seems to be the product to go for accounting, but unfortunately not on Macs.
After many hours of research, I settled with FirstEdge. How did it turn out?

I've used this product for almost an year now.
Honestly, I don't think the user interface is impressive nor is it magically easy to use. I.e., don't expect this to be a "true" Mac software.
However, I've NEVER experience a crash, data corruption, or any sort of data loss.
This being a finance category product, I think reliability comes before any other feature.

There is no "magic" button and no eye-candy. But it does it's job.
I do want more, but I am satisfied in terms of it not causing any headaches.

The picture is missing, the title isn't spelled right (should be MYOB FirstEdge v3), but OK, I can live with that. If you are hesitating to buy from Amazon because of this, don't worry. The box arrived slightly dented because they sent it in a cheap bubble envelope rather than a box, but the contents were still intact, fortunately and if you buy multiple items together I'm sure they'll put it all in a proper box for you instead.

Yes, FirstEdge can do a lot more for you than Quicken/Quickbooks, and I am looking forward to exploring all the features. They say it will even process credit cards (for a fee), something which Quickbooks can't even do and that is much more expensive than FirstEdge. For me, I am switching from Quickbooks because I am just fed up reading other people's frustrations that Intuit provides bad customer service and an inferior product, and I'm afraid that my New User Edition of Quickbooks will soon run out of steam (i.e., it'll force me to upgrade or shut down). I used to have Quickbooks 4 before they started coming out with basically useless upgrades, so for a number of years I've been sitting on the fence. One person wrote that MYOB was not very good, and that kept me from switching. See what one negative review can do? Well, sometimes you just have to go with your gut feeling and this is one of those moments. If you are hesitating to switch from an Intuit program, I would recommend that you give MYOB a try, and they didn't pay me to say this. They sell their product all over the world, and hey, we all know how Quickbooks and Quicken work, and can it really get worse from there for this kind of money? I think this version 3 of FirstEdge is a great step forward.

I recently replaced my pc with a Mac. Consequently, I needed a new invoice program for my business. I downloaded quite a few trial programs, and for my purposes (being a service contractor) Firstedge was the best. You can fairly easily customize the invoice template to fit multiple configured windowed envelopes. I use a different financial program for bill paying, tracking etc. although this portion of the program seems quite adequate. Firstedge seems quite comparable to Quickbooks for Mac at about half the price.

I asked SPECIFICALLY if we'd be able to convert from QB to FirstEdge so as to use the Mac to keep our books. I was told, "Yes." I purchased the software. I couldn't figure out how to do the conversion so I paid Acclivity (MYOB is now Acclivity) to do the conversion. I got a file back and much of the data was missing. I called and asked why and was told that they had done the conversion as a favor (for $50) but that normally they cannot/won't convert QB'07 to FE. I told them that I purchased it BECAUSE they had assured me it was possible. I asked to return it and they said I was past the 30-day limit, so no, they wouldn't refund my money. We're now with QB 2010 for the Mac and doing fine and very happy with it so far. Mat, Soldotna, Alaska.

I have used the Windows version of Quickbooks and found it irritating. I have had MYOB/Acclivity's FirstEdge for a month now and find it less irritating, but just as difficult to use. It's extremely unattractive, very difficult to learn, unintuitive to use, and I dread opening it up. It's the lowlight of my day by far. It makes bookkeeping even worse than doing it manually. Will it be worth it? Time will tell. Tax time should be easier next year with all the records kept, but WOW it's a pain getting this program set up. Makes me mad just thinking about it.

I cannot even describe what a headache this software is to use. Once - or IF - you can actually figure it out it does work fine, but at nearly $100 a pop I would have thought this company would invest some money into user interface design. I have been trying to use this program for my small business for about two months now and I still can't figure out how to do simple things, like multiple quantities for services, apply discounts and credits to invoices, etc. I mean this is basic stuff and it doesn't even seem to be possible. There are multiple menus to interact with the same sections of the program, the descriptions read like they were written by a professional accountant who speaks English as a second language, the graphics are terrible and might as well be text links, I could go on and on!

On top of that, you have to pay $40 to even interact with someone at the company, at which point you've eaten up the savings of this program over others.

I'm chalking this up as a learning experience and am looking at other options. It looks like Quickbooks Online is the best deal and just in messing with it for the last hour or so I am blown away by how much more intuitive and user-friendly it is.

Final words - don't waste your money on this software. LOOK ELSEWHERE.

First Edge may not be as easy and fast as Quicken, but it is more reliable.