QuickBooks Pro 2006 [OLD VERSION]

by Intuit, Inc.

Product Features

• New Customer Center that puts all your important customer information in one simple screen.
• New Vendor Center that shows all your vendors and what you owe them in one simple screen.
• New Employee Center that shows all your employees and what you’re paying them in one simple screen.
• New simplified Home page helps you get to your key activities in two clicks.
• The leading choice of small businesses for fast and easy financial management.

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000B8P8VM
• Item model number: 296536
• Date first available at Amazon.com: October 24, 2005
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (120 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,628 in Software (See Top 100 in Software)
  • #65 in Software > Business & Office > Business Accounting > Accounting

Product Description

QuickBooks: Pro Edition 2006 is the leading choice of small businesses for fast and easy financial management. Track money going in and out of your business more accurately. Routine tasks like payroll, invoicing, tracking bills and check-writing can be done in minutes instead of hours. With the click of a button, you can see past-due invoices or overdue bills. Or instantly see your entire business relationship with any customer or vendor. If you ever want to get in touch with them, all the contact information you need is right at hand. Also at your fingertips are invaluable customized reports. These reports let you slice data any way you wish. You’ll see what’s really going on with your business in a way never before possible. Isolate expenses. Identify your largest customers. Track your areas of biggest growth. The possibilities are endless. And when you need to share your data, you can easily import and export from Microsoft Excel and a number of other programs. QuickBooks Pro helps you enhance your professional image as well. You can customize and print professional forms. Easily add graphics and personal messages. Seamlessly print letters and envelopes with Microsoft Word. QuickBooks gives you the time, resources and knowledge you need to grow your business like never before.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

40 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Minor Upgrade, April 30, 2006

By 

Opinunated (USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: QuickBooks Pro 2006 [OLD VERSION] (CD-ROM)

Sadly Quickbooks 2006 is only a minor upgrade from Quickbooks 2003. Users should also be aware that they will be forced to upgrade this software. at considerable expense, every 3 years. Also payroll services are not included and cost $150.00 more PER year. See "QuickBooks Standard Payroll Subscription" on Amazon.

The upgrade from Quickbooks Pro 2003 went very smoothly. Unfortunately the software, with no notification to the user, adds a second user to the XP operating system, necessitating logging on as a particular user when your computer boots.

We've found no real benefits from this "upgrade". The software boots much slower thanks to the DOUBLING of the company file. New users may find the redesigned home page useful and despite a great deal of verbage - that is about all that is new here.

New users should take advantage of the 30 days of free support - after that Quicken's dubious support is very high priced.

Quicken's business model is important to understand. They do not tweak their software, from year to year, for increased useability. The only changes that Quicken seems to devote their programming talent toward are new features, some well implemented and some poorly implemented - I don't think it matters to them - anything that will suggest a reason to purchase or upgrade the software. How easy the software could function on a day to day basis seems to be never given a thought.

Secondly Quicken expects your purchase of this software to be the first of many purchases from them. New business owners often will need expert help to set it up. Quicken, will of course, provide you with the name of a certified Quickbooks consultant, who for a fee, will set up the software. The software now comes with an on screen tutorial that may help some new users but it seemed less than complete.

New business owners should test all competing software to see what works best for them. Quickbooks is not bad software but it doesn't seem to evolve in a manner that is really sensitive to user's needs.

New users should also be aware that Quickbooks update feature routinely downloads very sizeable files that seem to do little if anything. A high speed internet connection is strongly suggested.

79 of 86 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Stick with QB 2005 or Peachtree 2006, January 20, 2006

By 

SBJ400 "SBJ400" (Mt. Laurel, NJ USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: QuickBooks Pro 2006 [OLD VERSION] (CD-ROM)

I have to say I am utterly disappointed with Intuit and the latest version 2006.

I do small business networks. After having worked on 20 different companies all having problems with Quickbooks 2006, I can say with experience that this product has a long way to go.

WAY TOO BUGGY!!!
Networking it is a disaster, random crashes, issues with corrupted databases after upgrading and patching that made the databases unrecoverable.

I think the most offensive thing of all is that INTUIT does not fofer trial version of their software. If you could test drive this version before comitting your dollars to it, you would not purchase it!!! HEY, maybe that explains why Intuit does not offer a trial version.

PEACHTREE software offers trial versions in 3 flavors...on CD, downloadable from their website and even a realtime version that requires no downloading or installation. Peachtree/Sage software is not afraid to let you see exactly what their product can do.

Intuit dropped the ball this time. Their support is expensive as well. I also found their help desk to know less than I did!!!

If you have the 2005 version...STICK WITH IT> DO NOT UPGRADE!!!
If you have 2004 or less, just buy a copy of 2005. It is rich in features and discounted heavily since it is an older version. YOU WILL BE GLAD YOU DID!

68 of 74 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not a real accounting program., July 14, 2006

By 

Charles Warman (Wichita Falls, TX) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: QuickBooks Pro 2006 [OLD VERSION] (CD-ROM)

I'm a sole practitioner CPA and maintain about 20 separate sets of clients' books in my office. Since both Intuit and Sage (Peachtree By Sage Complete Accounting 2007) have "professional advisors programs" which aggressively solicit CPAs to shill for their software, I should also state that I'm in no way affiliated with either of them, nor any other software company (the fact that it's necessary for me to mention this demonstrates where the accounting profession is headed, but that's another story).

I realize that I'm swimming upstream here, but I truly despise QuickBooks. My clients who use it routinely bring me sets of books which they have messed up so badly that I generate hefty fees by unraveling their errors. The reason, I believe, is that QuickBooks is not a legitimate double-entry self-balancing accounting package. I strongly suspect that it's merely a dressed-up, aggressively marketed version of Intuit's checkbook program, Quicken. Because of this, it's far too easy to make serious errors which the software itself will not detect. A few examples:

A single click will convert your books from cash basis to a sort of quasi-accrual basis. A client once brought me his books which had a cash-basis balance sheet, an accrual-basis P&L, journals and ledgers which were some of both - and he had no idea why nothing balanced (and if you don't know what I'm talking about here, that's all the more reason to avoid this software).

Another issue is that no QuickBooks accounting period is ever really closed. This "feature" allows my clients, many of whom don't really know what they're doing, access to prior years' files, all the way back, in order to "fix things." Consequently I constantly must check to be sure that prior years' balances, for which tax returns have already been filed, haven't been altered. This lack of program control over prior years' data is an inexcusable security defect.

Out-of-balance conditions are often forced to an account called "Opening Balance Equity," an account which frequently has entries appearing from nowhere. It's simply a program-generated force-balanced "plug," which is unidentified and untraceable. Beware the OBE account!!

Both Intuit and Sage have terrible tech and customer support. Both companies gouge their customer bases unmercifully by means of expensive annual payroll updates and discontinuance of support for older versions of their software. Nevertheless, I do my best to steer my clients toward Peachtree. It's by no means a perfect solution, but it's at least a "real" double-entry system, and therefore more idiot-proof, more powerful, and generally bug-free. The learning curves of the two programs are now roughly equal, since Peachtree has added an optional interface for non-accountants.

Finally, I'm not bashing the company, just this product. I've been using Intuit's professional tax return preparation software (ProSeries) for many years, and I'm entirely happy with it. But my bottom-line professional opinion in this case is that QuickBooks is simply not what it claims to be. Use Peachtree (Peachtree By Sage Complete Accounting 2007), use MYOB, use the new Microsoft package - any of which are preferable to this over-hyped and under-powered dog of an accounting program. I keep a recent version of QuickBooks on my computer ONLY as an accommodation to my clients who refuse to switch.

I originally reviewed QuickBooks 2001. As far as I can see, six years have changed nothing significant regarding QuickBooks Pro. One can hope the new upscale versions are better; me, I'm not going there unless forced to by recalcitrant clients.