Customer Reviews

QuickBooks Pro 2005 for Mac

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

I actually kind of like this program. Accounting is a pretty awful task, but QuickBooks makes it fairly painless. It's pretty intuitive, and it's a pretty good program. I was very happy with version 6 for Mac, so I was happy to upgrade. After using it for a day or two, here are my thoughts.

Pros: Intuit has made commendable efforts to bring the look and feel more in line with Panther. Much of the program seems to have lost much of its OS9 baggage and now looks right. It's still pretty crash-proof and very solid. Formatting invoices has leapfrogged the PC version (finally!) now that you can use a PDF for your template. Unlike the PC version, you can (still) email invoices without going through proprietary hoops. The improved PC compatibility is a godsend (my tax people use the Windows version of course) and all of the 'lists' (so central to QuickBooks) have been improved--you can hide unused items, sort the list, etc. All wonderful and much-needed improvements.

Cons: I would love to have all the features PC users pay the same price for!!! Mileage tracking, where is that? Why can't I create a partial invoice (say, 1/3rd of my estimate to a client) like the Windows version can? Where are the video tutorials? There are simply tons of extra things you get in the Windows version that you can't get in the Mac version, even though Intuit charges the same price for the software.

That said, I have both PC's and Macs in my office, and we chose the Mac version, after trying both. Though it has more features, the PC version is a nightmare to use! I'd rather just track my mileage in an Excel spreadsheet than sit at that PC for another hour a day! But hey, don't listen to me, I find most PC applications to be that way. Basically, I think QuickBooks Pro 2005 for Mac is a great product, and I'm happy to support a vendor that put out solid and useful software for the Mac.

This just blows my mind. My cheapo Quicken (actually bundled free) has had great online banking support for years, but pricey Quickbooks PRO does not? What is that? This is 2005 -- I can't fathom how they could possibly release this product without online banking support. It's not like they don't know how to do it.

Other than that I really like it. I'm using it anyway as there isn't really an attractive alternative in my opinion, as they must know...

When I asked the customer service rep (CSR) when they were going to attempt feature parity with the PC version, he told me they put so much effort into getting it to look right that there was no room for: cash flow analysis (how hard would this be?), FedEx and UPS shipping, auto logs, and too many more things to list. The CSR said there were "a lot of thngs the PC version would do that the Mac version would not do. Payroll is another application that some reviewers have said would never post properly to QuickBooks. Other reviewers mention lack of online banking features.

I have used MYOB Account Edge(Mac) for years and it is a good application, but it ages differently than Quickbooks, and I am tired of fighting (and paying) my accountant over that. My copy of QuickBooks Mac is going back and I am taking my accounting functions over to the dark side.

As an Intuit user since 1988 (that's right, 16 years) I simply can't imagine a company that could do a better job of managing an outstanding product into abject failure.

Whether Quicken or QuickBooks, Windows or Mac, these products have drifted steadily downhill since 2000. They code is more bloated and bug filled with every new "release".

QuickBooks 2005 for Mac? Let's see....no Online Banking function; No Payroll Integration. I'll go no further....it's as useful as an Excel program without the ability to calculate cell formulas.

Save your money.

Intuit has hyped this new release a lot, but it falls well short of deserving the praise. The 2005 QuickBooks for Mac would be a definite improvement if there weren't so many little glitches and annoyances in it. Most disturbingly, accounts and numbers pull disappearing acts - they simply don't display on the screen sometimes. How confidant can you feel when you're looking at a Profit and Loss statement that has no numbers on it?

Even though the menus are touted as being redesigned to closely match those in the PC version of QuickBooks, some things are still maddeningly hard to find. And too many basic features are still unavailable. Intuit should have kept this under wraps a bit longer and made sure it worked before they foisted it off on users eager for an improved product. Let's hope they address the bugs promptly in a maintenance update.

I just got a new mac. Very pleased with its performance! I have been using Quickbooks 4 on Windows. While the mac version of quick books had some nice features (lack of Quick books ads, not so many navigation buttons that go to the same place) I did not like the fact that I had to manually type in the customers information all over again if the ship to address was different than my company. Might sound trivial, but when you create purchase orders all day long it adds alot of time. Also, no shipping feature. Have to manually type in your shipping addresses somewhere else because Quick books for mac does not have it! Custom invoices and purchase orders are not that custom. You have to use their form, can't change the size of the columns, You can insert a logo but have to put it where they put it! You can change the fields. The text is so small that you have to sit about a foot away from the puter to see it. With my other programs for mac I can go in and change the font size in that program. With Quickbooks I have to change my whole screen resolution. I called Quickbooks and was told that I could pay 100.00 for a month support or I could pay 350.00 for a year of support. I asked if this support would make the drop ship auto fill work and she said no. I said for 700.00 shirley I can find another program that works properly to start with! She said I could exchange the program for Quickbooks 5 for windows and just use my old PC for Quickbooks, and maybe by next year they would have better features of quickbooks for mac. I asked for a refund. She said I could send it back in 60 days if I wanted. Probably so I would forget about it and not return it. Seems like I read a 30 day money back garautee somewhere!
Overall, I am not pleased with my 300.00 investment. If I could rate this program with NO stars I would!

If you are planning on round-tripping between your Mac and a Windows version (i.e. between your accountant or bookeeper's PC using a windows version of Quickbooks Pro- DO NOT PURCHASE this product! Unfortunately, there are two major flaws with Quickbooks 2005 7.0. The first and most dangerous is that the more you round trip the more corrupt your data will become. Secondly, if you have memorized reports you will have to errase them before round tripping and they will not be saved.
Unfortunately Quickbooks does not tell you this before purchasing- infact they advertise this easy conversion between Mac and PC as a selling feature for their product.
If you do not need to have your accountant or CPA manipulate your data on their PC, then the program is a good attempt to make a Windows style program into a MAC-like product.

Because we have recently become totally Mac-based, we transferred our Quickbooks from an older PC to our new Mac G5. While Quickbooks is pretty effortless on the PC - allowing payroll to be processed directly from the single software - the Mac system requires other complimentary software - Aatrix Top Pay - to accomplish that simple task. This awkward and Byzantine requirement makes the investment pretty useless to us and something we regret spending the money on and taking the time to incorporate. It is really disappointing.

Bernie Krause, PhD
President
Wild Sanctuary, Inc.

Don't buy it. If you're on Mac, spend your money on PC emulator and use the PC version of QuickBooks. The Mac version doesn't seem to be designed to be used as a bookkeeping system for a business. You can't print deposit slips. You can print a deposit summary, but the bank is funny about requiring an account number and a routing number.
QuickBooks won't do payroll updates for the Mac version, so you have to jump through more hoops to get signed up with yet another vendor, then you get the software vs. software argument: "It's not our problem, it's theirs." "No, it's not our problem, it's theirs."
And that's the first day. I understand it gets worse from there, but I'm not sticking around for the ride.
Intuit has kindly set up an online forum so users can "share creativity" for working around problems. I thought that was what programmers were supposed to do. I thought I was supposed to spend my time running my business and using the software, not "fixing" it. But hey, maybe someone will buy that line and believe it's her fault the program is a dog.
Intuit has taken a page from the Gates book and gone MS one better on the QuickBooks for Mac version.

This new version is a complete joke if you need an accountant to check things over and make changes. Unlike the windows version, the mac version cannot create an accountants copy. This means that you can't make any changes to the file (like add new entries) until you get the revised file back from your account. In contrast, the windows version has had the ability to do accountants copies for years. This alone makes the program borderline useless in my opinion.