Customer Reviews

QuickBooks Premier Edition 2008 [OLD VERSION]

5 star:		(33)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have supported and installed Quick books for about 8-10 years in small companies and cannot believe what I am seeing. My experience until QB 2006 was great. However with QB 2006 version and currently QB 2007 we are starting to look at other accounting options. This is based on a string of technical and support issues ranging from poor support and long hold times. Speaking with scripted Indian support and lack of resolution has really hurt the image of QB in our eyes. I appreciate beta testers would have a great experience having great familiarity with the application but from a newbie user standpoint QB can be a disaster. Enough said.

If you are using Quicken 2008 R2, R3 or R3 and want to convert the data to Quickbooks 2008 you SHOULD NOT BUY Quickbooks 2008 at this time. Intuit has known about a problem that their questionable QA department did not find since early November, as indicated by the following posting of a message in the Quicken Community Forum:

"You cannot convert Quicken 2008 data to Quickbooks at this time. Quicken 2008 introduced stronger encryption for data files and Quickbooks is not able to read the new file format.
There is an R3 patch for Quickbooks coming soon that should resolve this issue. "
The Quickbooks support team informs me that they are aware of the issue but have not idea how long it will take to obtain the encryption API from the Quicken team and put it into the Quickbooks Convert module - although it would seem like something that should be easy it appears that it will take weeks (more - they have already know about this for several weeks) to perform this simple feat! And then QA will have to install Quicken 2008 and actually test to see that this works this time (that is if QA is actually performing the tests they should, which is questionable since if they were this problem would have been found prior to releasing Quicken 2008 R2 or R3 or R4 or Quickbooks 2008 - since it came out after Quicken R2 was released).

I've been a user and a Beta tester of QuickBooks for many years. QuickBooks has always been perfect for me - a small business owner. I use it for all my accounting needs, including payroll. The only time I need my CPA is for a final year-end review of what I've done in QuickBooks. With each new release of QuickBooks, Intuit adds great new features and usability enhancements, and this one is no exception. As a Beta tester, I was able to compare the 2008 version with the 2007 version. Do the upgrade. It's well worth the cost of the new version! (And conversion was clean and simple.)

Only been using product for one week, and so far so good. The only EXTREME Negative has been the software registration process. Could not complete it online - had to do it over the phone. And based on where in the world that call was answered from, I am making my own guesses as to whether the company name, address, etc was spelled correctly.
btw: The message you get from the registration screen that you have to actually get on the phone and call to register, says that you will be given a code to complete the registration process - they neglected to mention you will also need to plan on being on the phone for 10 minutes and spelling things out like you were talking to a 4 year old before they will give you that code (customer rep said the servers were overwhelmed / down - no doubt in my mind. Probably has an overseas outsourced operations staff in the room next to the person who anwered my call).
One more complaint - make that two: why did I have to give my US company information to someone in a foreign country? Do I have any recourse against this software vendor if I start getting marketing calls from Europe and Asia?

Based on the beta testing, Intuit has improved QB again! The nicest feature for me is the new invoice creation tasks. You are now able to create an invoice from billable time w/o creating the invoice and selecting each individual time line. You can now select ranges prior to the creation. Kudos.

The downside for me (but a small one) - Same old UI. I wish it had a more quicken like interface and direct connections to the banks. Yes, I know they can download transactions, but the transactions still go through a 3rd party I believe and they don't show up on the bank's web site immediately.

2008 Quickbooks is great!!! The new security system for customer credit card numbers really makes Quickbooks 2008 secure.

The new interview walks users through setting up everything from new Customers to Venders every aspect of the program.

I have been using Quickbooks for over 10 years and each update has inproved this product. I recommend it to all my small business clients because it makes the accounting process so much easier and accurate.

I've been a QuickBooks user for the past 10 years and I have kept a keen eye on Intuit as they have consistently improved QuickBooks with each new release. The new QuickBooks 2008 product is one of the best versions I have used to date. I'm now using the Premier 2008 product which has the most comprehensive reporting capabilities I have seen in any financial management application. In my opinion, QuickBooks is a leader in the small business accounting product space. Managing my IT consulting business has taken less time and has become easier by using QuickBooks. I recommend it to anyone wanting a powerful, but easy to use financial management application.

Regardless of what financial management application you choose to adopt, be prepared to work with an accountant to set up your business. It's better to start off right than to learn about problems with your set up later and then have to go in to fix things. It's also a good idea to spend some time reviewing the the features you need from a financial management application and then select the product version based on the feature set you need as QuickBooks and its competing products have different versions based on features and QuickBooks also has different versions targeted to specific business types. I started out with QuickBooks Pro and then migrated to QuickBooks Premier once it came out as I wanted the additional reporting features and because it better supported my consulting business (through the Professional Services Edition).

If you are not already working with an accountant who knows QuickBooks, then the QuickBooks Professional Advisor Program is a good place to start as you can find someone who has completed QuickBooks training and who knows the software. One you have your business set up in QuickBooks, the learning curve of using the software takes a couple of hours to get comfortable with its basic functions. The interface is intuitive and easy to learn with transactions being based on forms, so when you make a payment you will see a check form; when creating an invoice you will see an invoice form, etc. The software handles the double entry accounting in the background so you can focus on the task you want to do rather than trying to figure out what to put in the ledger.

The software works well over a network, but be aware that the software response will be affected by a slow network, slow computer, and multiple users logged on at the same time. The data is stored in a single file, but access is supplemented by a database manager that runs in the background on your computer. The best performance will come from installing the data file on a server or a fast workstation that is not heavily used. Set the backup reminder in QuickBooks to remind you to backup your data and be sure to keep a copy of your data file in a safe place in the event you have a server/computer crash. As an IT consultant, I recommend you contact your IT support person and have him/her go over your computers and network before you run any type of application across a network.

Best wishes for running a successful business!

Anthony S. Harbour, MEd, MCSE
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I have used Quick Books for years and this new version is very useful in running any business. I would recommend it to anyone in business.

I'm no computer whiz and I use parallels to run the PC version of QB Premier 2008 on my MacBook Pro (OSX 10.4) and it works great. I have not had any problems with the different operating environments, even accessing/saving my data file from the OSX platform.

Otherwise, QB continues to turn out a very user friendly and business efficient solution to accounting. I very highly recommend it.

I got the opportunity to use Quickbooks 2008 recently for a nonprofit and having absolutely no accounting background, I was worried about the power of the program and how I could even get started. Wow, was I surprised! This software walked us through every aspect of our business and even has a "coach" tool that helped me when I was trying to determine the steps needed for things from entering a donation to creating a sales order and receiving stock! If you have held off in purchasing this software because of price, I believe it's well worth the current price if not several times the same!