Customer Reviews

QuickBooks 2005 For Dummies

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

People rather commonly write me and ask whether they should get this book, QuickBooks 2005 for Dummies, or the QuickBooks All-in-One Desk Reference for Dummies. So let me post my standard answer to this question...

If you want help with tbe basics--say you're brand new to QuickBooks or small business bookkeeping and you just want to get started--I recommend QuickBooks 2005 for Dummies. QuickBooks 2005 for Dummies doesn't delve into every nook and cranny. Rather, it gives you enough information to do reasonable small business bookkeeping for your business ... and with a minimal amount of headache and heartbreak.

If you already know the basics of QuickBooks or want to be as sophisticated as possible in your accounting and financial management, I recommend the QuickBooks All-in-One Desk Reference for Dummies. That book covers everyhing the regular "QuickBooks 2005 for Dummies" title does... and then a whole lot more. The QuickBooks All-in-One Reference for Dummies, for example, does delve into every nook and cranny... and it covers related topics, too, such as using QuickBooks data to do financial analysis.

Hope that helps...

Steve Nelson

I have had my Quickbooks software for almost two years now. The only part of the whole entire download I could ever figure out how to use was my employees information files, and sending invoices. I own a construction company and have no bookkeeping education, and figured my investment was a very big waste of money. The language was geared towards college graduates in the field. The different catagories did not pertain to my business needs...and without understanding what those catagory titles meant to begin with...I may have well been reading greek. My last resort before scrapping the whole intire software and hiring a firm to do my bookkeeping, was to buy the Dummies book for Quikbooks. Within the first hour of reading a few pages..and scimming over topics of importance to me and my company..I was entering invoices that had been paid, setting up ledgers, writing payroll checks etc. My first dealings with the Dummies books was years ago when I happened across one that was Internet for Dummies. Every Dummies book since then has been nothing short of a blessing to me. They ALL are so brilliantly worded and illistraited, that it is as if someone is standing right in front of you talking to you in every day lamen language. I truly believe that anyone who has a problem with anything where there is a Dummies book to help on that subject...you'd be a fool not to buy it. I look forward to having my own library section of Dummy books and will continue to learn learn learn!

The Quickbooks 2005 for Dummies Book worked quite well for me... Well written with plain english explainations it got me going. It is understandable even if you don't understand the accounting lingo. This book does not assume that you are an expert at operating a computer either. It is great for beginners that have to do the accounting for a small business themselves and yet don't have a lot of accounting experience. It explains everything needed to perform the most needed accounting functions of a small business.
The only reason the book I didn't give the book 5 stars was that it doesn't cover some of the more advanced features of Quickbooks 2005 which I still need to learn. But this book was written for the person that needs to computerize their small business accounting quickly.

I was greatly pleased with the thorough explinations in this book. Easy to read and follow. Written in 'layman' terms.

Not all of the Dummies books are great, but this one is. I have both this book and also the official green book which came with the software. I rarely used the official book, but I used this book often. Of course, how many people (other than me) are using the 2005 version in 2009! Well, I am still using 2005, and it works great. I do not use the payroll portion .. QuickBooks makes sure that you pay them big bucks each year to update the tax rate tables .. you cannot do this yourself. So, my bookkeeping service does my payroll for me. For everything else, this software works great, and has never-ever crashed. When I first installed it, I did NOT register it on line. I called them and got a code number to type in, and I'm glad I did because I have gone thru several computers since my first installation, and I worry that if I had used the on-line method, the day would come that they say they no longer support this software... and they won't let me install it on a newer computer. Again, the only drawback of this book would be if you don't have the 2005 version of QuickBooks, but if you do have the 2005 version, this book is something you need to have!

There are so many ins and outs with QB, you are better off taking a class. The payroll functions in the program are worthy of a week long class and this book doesn't make the grade. If you don't have the payroll module, then the book would rate 2-1/2 stars.

The book is extremely helpful to me as a part time bookkeeper. The merchant offered a great: price, customer service and delivery time. I would definitely buy from this merchant in the future.

I am a network administrator, so I don't use this book directly. It seems to serve my end user's purpose though, so from that perspective it's a good book.

All of the 'dummies' series of books have been helpful. This one is no exception. Whenever the 'docs' from any program are written for programmers, I turn to this series to find out how to really run the software. It should be included with the software package.