Customer Reviews

QuickBooks Premier Edition 2009 [OLD VERSION]

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

While Quickbooks is still the leader in small business accounting software, the 2009 version really let competitors catch up. I think they really took a turn for the worse. A lack of usability is the biggest downfall of this version.

The new online center is just terrible. It is so confusing and I no longer feel like I understand what is going on with my accounts. There are too many extra clicks and workflow of updating accounts leaves the user out of the picture.

Live Community is a total waste. There is no way to get answers or help here. Opening your web browser and just Googling what you need help with is a much faster and more effective way to get answers. Yes Intuit, Live Community was a compete waste of development time and money as Google does it much better.

I do like the company snapshot. That is useful. I wish it were more configurable though with my own preferences.

All in all, if you have never used Quickbooks, it is still the best on the market. If you are a current Quickbooks user, there is absolutely no reason to upgrade. It will only frustrate the heck out of you.

Another review has mentioned the very poor user interface and online usability. I continue to have logon errors every time I use the software, and had to return to the 2008 version just to keep my company running.

Don't buy it if you have a version that is still supported by Intuit. Maybe they will get it right in 2010.

BTW, I have taught accounting at the graduate level, and have been a QuickBooks user for over 10 years.

I "upgraded" from QB 2006 to QB 2009. The salespeople at Intuit assured me that this would result in better performance of the database. It was nearly an identical experience, except that it crashed several times per day. I returned it, and am going back to 2006.

I recently upgraded to Premier 2009 and I called Quickbooks for help to resolve a problem with opening clients' file; error message will show. The helpline technician said that Quickbooks charge for support like this because I did not purchase the support service. I did not have this problem when I was using the prior version and I don't understand why Quickbooks cannot help their customers with this problem. They have terrible customer service. May be they think they have the "monopoly" and don't really care!!

I was a very satisifed customer of Quickbooks 2005 Premier Retail Edition, so even though I looked at some bad reviews of this version, I didn't pay attention to them. How bad could it be? I needed this new version to run Turbo Tax for my business taxes. I have encountered numerous configuration errors that Quickbooks will not help me with without a charge card and a service plan. Unbelievable. I have owned this for less than 10 days.

QB 2009 HAS A SERIOUS BUG ABOUT UPDATING PREVIOUS VERSION COMPANY FILES TO 2009. MANY PEOPLE ARE COMPLAINING ABOUT IT. WHEN WE TRY TO UPDATE FROM 2008 TO 2009, WE ALWAYS GET AN ERROR MESSAGE (-1,0). IT SEEMS THAT INTUIT HAS NOT YET SOLVED THIS PROBLEM. YOU CAN REFER TO http://community.intuit.com/post/detail/da2QmSJLKr3zBNacfAtdLo?ref_t=1&ref_id=c44VjAsw8qllvkab8P4pmk.

Intuit has a forced upgrade policy whereby they only support the current version and the prior two versions of their software. Despite what they insist to the contrary, I am convinced this is simply to drive their revenue stream. Anyway, I was a very happy 2006 user. I Liked the product but was compelled to "upgrade" since the online banking feature had been deactivated on May 31st in my 2006 version by Intuit. Having read many horror stories about all the problems people have had with this version, I was prepared for the worst. I generally am savvy enough to manage most computer issues on my own, so I take most warnings with a grain of salt. The complaints I read here and on Intuit's forums seem to revolve generally around installation, conversion, and the online banking functionality. Needing to restore my online banking service, I decided to risk the "upgrade" to 2009.

So the good news is that the installation and conversion of my file went off with out a hitch. Smooth, quick and easy on two PCs (both relatively new, one running Vista the other running XP). No problems there happily. I guess I am lucky.
The Online Banking is another story. Feeling optomistic about the patches that Intuit had made since the first release last year, i figured the bugs were pretty much sorted out. Not true. Although it is no doubt better than it was on first release last November, they still have a long way to go on this issue. Rather than go into great detail about what works and what doesn't, suffice to say it simply DOES NOT WORK RIGHT. If you have a previous version, you will hate this version. They have somehow completely redesigned the entire user/pc/bank interface and it simply stinks. They broke a perfectly good product. It takes far longer in terms of clicks, typing, checking and popup answering to do anything to process transactions using the OLB feature. The two biggest problems for me are with the auto renaming function and the autofill function. Renaming really just needs to be completely disabled, or at least have an option to disable the feature. When transactions download, the auto renaming feature makes it almost impossible to correctly identify the transaction. Second, the autofill feature that normally allows you to type the first couple letters of the account and QB would fill in the account name simply does not work. Autofill works the same as before everywhere else in the program, but in the OLB module it simply does not function right. Astonishing really because you would think it would be all the same code througout the program. Not So. Trust me.

Intuit, according to the forum on their website dedicated to OLB 2009 problmes, is aware of all these problems and is working on fixes. It is now June, 9 months into the release of this version. I expect we will be made to suffer for 3-4 more months and then be asked to buy 2010 to get a full fix. But who knows, OLB is so completely screwed up that they may make a good decision and fix 2009 for free. HA! I for one will be eyeing Peachtree and Microsoft's offerings in the comming months as these firms have been handed a golden opportunity to grow in a feild currently dominated by Quickbooks.

I've really been burned by Intuit in regards to their desire to make software obsolete and not let customers add licenses to past versions. We purchased 2007 Premier Edition and have been using it for 2 1/2 years. We needed to purchase and add one more user license to our installation due to company growth. We called Quickbooks numerous times and were denied the ability to add a license. We would have to upgrade to the 2009 version for all workstations. At $399 per user that just blew us out of the water. So in short, after 2 1/2 years of use, we have to re-purchase the entire software system because they end-of-life their product very quickly. We are moving to PeachTree.

The conversion from SBA 2006 to Quickbooks 2009 has taken 26 days thus far and I do not yet have my file back from the Quickbooks team. You can image that, if I ever get my file back, how many manual entries I will need to make to bring the books up to date. The conversion team does not respond to their own inquiry system. I have made nine entries over three weeks without a single response. The call center team in India is "not allowed to call the conversion team". The commitment before purchase was a five day conversion and I am at 26 days and counting. For a company aimed at small business, they seem to lack any real understanding for the urgency of a small business especially in these difficult economic times.

Bought this to upgrade from Peachtree 2008. Can't get the "conversion" program to work, and Quickbooks offers no meaningful support...I wouldn't recommend this version to users seeking an upgrade...maybe Quickbooks 2008 would be better...