Customer Reviews

QuickBooks Pro 2008 [OLD VERSION]

5 star:		(59)
4 star:		(25)
3 star:		(17)
2 star:		(19)
1 star:		(40)

 

 

I'd like to say first off that the tech support for QuickBooks Pro is poor unless you get an American on the phone. I guess for a program that costs less than $200 you can't expect unlimited free tech support from US reps but it would be nice if you could get one on the phone once in a while or perhaps pay a little extra to speak to Americans only. We decided to pay the extra for QB Enterprise, not because we really needed it but because of the Tech support plans. It's amazing how good the Tech support is when your willing to shell out a couple thousand $$ and then agree to a $750 a year renewal fee. Still though, it's much cheaper than talking to my accountant and the Enterprise technical support is generally outstanding. They will go out of their way to make sure you have everything you could ever need. You still will sometimes get a goof ball if you call at odd hours and very occasionally when you call during normal hours in but for the most part everyone you speak to is located in the US.

The product itself had some problems back in 2006 when they released this new type of QuickBooks. We quickly because frustrated with hosting issues, slowness, having to install it on our server, errors logging into the file etc..

2008 however has been very good thus-far. It's not that big of an improvement although I do appreciate the fact that it integrates with Outlook. The new help system also seems to have a pretty big improvement. Some of the other complaints I've read seem mislead and/or petty...some of this is no doubt the poor technical support from India. For example, one person mentions that after 8 years they still can't import transactions. Sure you can! We've imported AR and AP transactions using import through iif. The tech support person we talked to sent us templates on how to get this done and while it's pretty clunky it gets the job done. Sometimes I can't get the "exact" report I want or I wish it did something a little better but the problem is that all businesses are different and it's impossible to have a program that will please everyone all the time.

The things QuickBooks does well FAR EXCEED what it doesn't do. It makes accounting incredibly easy for a business owner, reports are pretty darn flexible. If their not flexible enough for you, upgrade to the Enterprise Edition and you get a Read ODBC driver that allows you to Query the database using SQL and make all sort of fancy reports in Access and Crystal. The biggest strength to this program is it's ability to be a jack of all trades. In one of the reviews someone is complaining about having to use Excel with QuickBooks to get the report they want but that is such a small gripe. The fact is that QuickBooks has a feature that allows you to export to Excel and customize things to your liking if you don't like exactly how they've done it. That's a benefit not a downside! They have taken the time to integrate with other products so well which I think is one of this products biggest strengths.

The woman who has to rebuild her file repeatedly sounds like she has data damage in her file, something that has only happened to us once in 6 years and it was very minor. She also says she's getting a switch to message several hundred times? That's not normal. I've seen QuickBooks running on several hundred of my clients PCs without seeing that error. I can tell you from personal every day experience that the product runs fast if you take the time to set it up right, have decent computers (1-2gb of RAM is standard these days), and a decent server if your using a multi-user edition to hold the data file and take the "brunt" of the workload.

If you have an anti-virus program make sure to have it exclude the QuickBooks processes! We had an issue with our file giving strange errors when we would open it that were similar to the switch-to message. The file was also running unbearably slow for a couple weeks. I eventually started booting the computers in selective startup and was able to determine the Anti Virus was at fault. I excluded the QBW32.exe process and everything has worked great ever since.

The bottom line is that for users that already have 2006 or 2007, this is a small upgrade that's probably not worth it. I think most people like myself become spoiled over time from how easy this program really is to use and find ourselves frustrated when it doesn't do everything just perfect.

If your looking for an accounting package for the first time, this is the one to buy look no further. QuickBooks is supported by so many accountants that choosing another version of software in my opinion is a poor financial business move. Not only do you have to go out of your way to find an accountant that knows how to use Microsoft accounting or any of the other small Accounting packages but you may also have to pay a premium for their help because they are such a rarity.

This program is incredibly simple, offers just about everything you could ask for in reporting, 3rd party integration, emailing, creating sales and purchase transactions, taking care of your taxes, automatically sending your file to your accountant, I could go on for a while. Get it, it's the only accounting software I would recommend to anyone. If only they would offer their US support for less $ I would have given this 5 stars. 5 stars for the program, 1 star for Pro tech support, 5 stars for QuickBooks Enterprise tech support if you can afford it.

This 2008 program is the worst intuit product I have ever used. Sometimes more isn't better: it is just more. More time, More space, More problems, More aggravation. I have been using Quick Books since 1997, on a verity of computers running different platforms. It is long on ascetic form and short on function. I use it for work so come January 1st, I am going to find another program. This program costs me about two billable hours for each account, and I simply can't afford to lose that kind of time. If you aren't using it for business and are essentially a novice and need all of the redundancies it may work for you just fine.

I purchased the 2008 product because we had acquired two new computers using the Vista Protocols, I also work for clients who are still using windows 98, and that is a nightmare, surprisingly one of computers it runs the best on is running the windows 2000me. After about a month of trying to get the 2005 edition to work with the vista and being informed that the 2005 product was no longer going to be supported by updates after the 2008 release we decided to switch.

Here are my problems if anyone has a found a work around I will be all ears, INTUIT, has none, although they are aware of them.

1. The 2008 edition uses a lot of third party software, Google search, spell check, their own automatic update service, etcetera, and if you use it in tandem with the quick books customer manager you also have a whole new can of worms.

2. When opening the program it goes searching and starts all of these other programs but not in an orderly fashion. So it will hit a "program busy switch to" error about every two seconds. This makes the time frame for opening the program about ten minutes long, but it isn't ten minutes you can go have a cup of coffee and return; it is ten minutes that you have to sit there and click on the server busy switch to button. I had to hit mine 121 times before my largest file loaded. YES I COUNTED EVERY FRICKING FRACKING TIME, and if frustration were a marketable commodity, I would be a rich woman.

3. After you have spent the last ten minutes trying to get this program to open, then you have to put in the password and try to get the file you need to work with open, another five minutes of the same stuff, to get that to open.

4. They have decided to locate the new files in the public area of your my documents folder, four folders deep, create a short cut when you get there and place it on your desktop, you will need it. This is different than the location of the QB 2005 files so it is almost impossible to open and convert the new files, it can't find them..You will get the 6123-0 error... The work around for this is....AND THIS IS IMPORTANT...REBUILD (Don't even bother with the verify button) on your tool bar [file-utilities-rebuild] YOUR 2005 FILES and save them to disk....THEN restore them to the 08 edition they will restore and convert in the same process, and they will go to the new location, and by the way the backing up in this program is a real nightmare but I will get to that in a moment.

5. The help screens are all online; make sure you have your ISP open and your account signed on before you hit the help button. While you are trying to open them so they can tell you the above information you get the accursed program busy switch to error, just keep hitting the button, if you hit the cancel button you will have to start the process over. It well may throw you offline or out of the program entirely.

6. after the thirty minutes or so it takes to open this program so that you can do ten minutes of work, it is now time to back it up. AND YOU NEED TO BACK IT UP EVERYTIME, back up files have the file extension of .qbb, these files can be restored and over written. The files you work with and open are .qbw files and these are read only files, they can't be overwritten or deleted. Now, remember that can't find the file error for whatever reason about one of every six times you try to open this it is either corrupt or it simply can't find it, just restore the .qbb file from your back up disk, I use a gigabyte USB jump drive and an SD card. Unless this is a brand new file that you have created in 2008, you will need to REBUILD the file every time before you back it up because you will get the can't copy headers - file not backed up error on back up about every other time you back it up. This requires two back up locations and another thirty minutes. UNCHECK the verify and back up option and choose the back up without verifying option, UNCHECK the date which installs a separate backup file each time you back up for three separate occasions. Save 1 with the dated file extension once a week and overwrite the rest.

This is a trade off between crash security, and computer space and your time. IF you have done the rebuild more than twice and it still doesn't back up, and then go to the company files, remember the icon I told you to store on the desktop, find the .qbw file and copy and paste it into your back up drive. THIS IS A VERY LARGE FILE MAKE SURE YOU HAVE ENOUGH ROOM ON YOUR BACK UP DEVICE. When your open file fails and only if you do not have a .qbb file to restore because it would not back up.

First Step: You will have first to go into the company files (remember that desktop shortcut) and rename the corrupt file that is in your company folder as it is a read only file and it can not be over written. I rename mine corrupt file so I don't make any mistake about which one doesn't work later.

Second Step: Then go get the back up .qbw file, Edit copy and paste it into your company file folder, you can not use the program restore feature for a qbw file. Make sure you can now open the new company file, and then you can follow the next procedure to delete the old corrupt file.

DELETEING A CORRUPT FILE: From the explore computer screen, in the company file, right click on the renamed corrupt file, go to properties, click on the archive file button, then you will be able to delete this corrupt file.

If you already have purchased this program: things that I found helpful.
1. Open and sign on to your ISP account, go to intuit and create an account in the user community and set it up to notify you for the latest bugs fixes. IF you have Intuit mail read it before you ever open the program, this has saved me several hours.

2. GO to the help menu and shut off the automatic update. I manually update when I finish my work and this helps to speed up the start up process. Go to the google desk top and shut down the RSS Feeds and the other news feeds, the photo slide show and everything but the search line. You will need to open each of these gadgets and exit them. You can turn them back on after you are finished working if you want them.

3. Go to the preferences menu and shut off the centers and the sales pitches, these will get turned back on every time you update but if you shut them down after each update it will take less time to load your file and the sales pitches won't randomly appear every time you open the file. IF they had spent half as much time on the program as they did on the built in sales pitches it would have been a much better program.

4. Open a register, a report, or write checks screen, that you use all of the time, hit the view on the tool bar then add it to the tool bar, customize the tool bar to whatever you use the most, I use memorized transactions so I have that on my tool bar, you can move the icons up and down so the ones you use the most show, when I click on it, it directly opens the memorized transactions list, I removed the icons I don't use from the tool bar if you find you use them you can re add them. It would have been nice if that fancy new desktop had programmable buttons, just shut it down in the desktop preferences, unless you have no idea what you are doing and need instructions, the desktop icons open another set of menus which opens another set of menus until you finally get to where you need to go, it is the long way around, but it looks good.

Hope this is helpful.

I have been using Quickbooks Pro for over 10 years so I have found many good features but the loan manager for managing loans has a major flaw they can't seem to fix. The data files are stored in a separate file format & don't back up with a normal data back up. Then they don't transfer when you upgrade to a newer version. You can't access them because it moves all the other files to the newer version. I told them 2 years ago about this & they promised a fix soon. Didn't happen. Tech support told me to recreate the files manually, they were sorry.

I was forced to upgrade by Intiut's payroll service from QB2005 to QB2008. If you are upgrading from QB2005 or before you MUST read the following: This is a MAJOR upgrade with a change in your company file format. Before you upgrade you must backup your company file to floppy, second hard drives, CD, DVD, anywhere and everywhere you can. Please reread the previous sentence. After the install finishes it asks you if you will let it move your company file to a new QB directory. YOU MUST WRITE DOWN THE LOCATION OF THIS NEW DIRECTORY ON A PIECE OF PAPER because in the install step coming up QB2008 forgets where it put it. Preferably you will have QB2008 find and load this moved file rather than loading one of your multiple backups because your backup has a different file suffix. FWIW: My Windows Internet Explorer (XP Home-SP2) oddly found the moved file but didn't tell me the files' correct directory path. Really. I finally located the moved company file in a shared documents area which is not where Internet Explorer said it was. In loading this file for the first time QB2008 will convert the file to the new QB2008 format.

When I went to register my QB2008 the online registration failed because it claimed my IE wouldn't allow cookies which isn't true. Hmmm. What is Intuit up to with this? To register I had to talk to someone in India who was hard to hear and understand.

It seems that every few years QuickBooks changes their company file format and almost forces you to upgrade. BTW: The install program adds some advertising icons to your desktop. No problem. Just right click them and delete them.

The program menu in QB2008 looks completely different than QB2005. Looks like I'll be spending some time re-learning.

Intuit steadily increases the fees for payroll tax updates. If you read the reviews for the 2007 version, you'll see everyone complaining about the cost for these updates increasing to $200 (it was once $49). Now they've jacked it up to $350.

That bears repeating: PAYROLL TAX UPDATES ARE NOW $350 ANNUALLY.

And I expect them to keep increasing, because they have their users by the coin purse.

There are so many things STILL wrong with this program! I had the 2005 version and felt it was time to upgrade, but am very disappointed in the result. I feel like I spent $180 for no improvements. Maybe I should have taken a closer look at Microsoft Office Accounting?

I still can't format reports! The only way to get a report to look the way I want it is to export to Excel (thanks, Microsoft) and then format it there. Example: I create a report called Inventory Stock Status by Item. There is a column called "Order". There is no way, without exporting to Excel, to show ONLY the items that need to be ordered. And wouldn't it be nice if I could choose which columns to chow and what they should look like? Or to set up an amount in the Inventory Item, to show how many should normally be ordered? Not a chance!

So, you open the "Help" window. Not only is there no help there (except to find the link to "Make Suggestions"!), but the Help window moves your main window out of the way and then DOESN'T move it back when you close it. So you get a "little" version of your program left on the screen, after you can't find any help...

Then I went online to get "support". In about 30 minutes after asking for help, I get a call. The phone rings, and no one is there; then it rings again, and no one is there. Finally after the 4th try, I answer and, hooray!, there is a "support technician" that I can barely understand that knows NO MORE than I do. "Sorry, I can't find any answer to that question" and "It doesn't look like the program will do that", oh and the classic, "Perhaps you could make that suggestion and it will be included in a later release"

I suggest that you look elsewhere for an accounting program unless you find all this frustration personally entertaining.

Like many people, I am stuck with Intuit's endless forced upgrade cycle. If you want to continue to use payroll, you are forced to constantly pay for upgrades that offer no useful new features. Once you have years of company data, it becomes difficult to switch to something else, so you are stuck with choosing the lesser of two evils.

In my experience, each one of their forced updates is worse than the one before with QB 2008 truly being an exceptional piece of garbage. Intuit claims it is compatible with Vista, so when it arrived I installed it on a Vista machine. It installed OK, but then it wouldn't run. A quick google of the problem indicates that tons of people have the same problem. Intuit simply says the issue is Microsoft's problem and they can't do anything about it. Great, so I bought a product that claims it is compatible with Vista, but really isn't. Or, if there is an issue, Intuit feels it is ok to simply take your money without resolving it.

At that point, I tried to be fair. Vista undoubtedly has a slew of problems and so maybe Intuit might be doing their best. So, I turned to an XP box (that is currently running QuickBooks 2005) and attempted to install my QB 2008. In this case, it wouldn't even install! Back to google, and I once again find page after page of people with the same issue. It turns out that there are some registry keys with permissions set in such a way that QB 2008 can't install. Once again, Intuit claims it is not their problem, but is instead Microsoft's problem. So, I fix the registry entries and get the product installed. The first thing you need to do at that point is to go online and update your payroll. That process failed with additional error messages. What a great product.

Of course, once you finally get their product working, you then have to sit on the phone in order to get an activation code. I think at this point Inuit has stolen so much of my time that it is now worth it to switch to Office Accounting 2008 or something like that. Intuit clearly feels that they have their customers locked in and thus can force feed their customers a garbage product and then treat us all like garbage as we try to fix the issues. Since I have found so many other people with the same issues, I strongly suggest that any prospective buyer avoid this product if at all possible.

I upgraded from QB 2003 and am less than impressed. I have been using Quick products since quicken came out in the early '90s and this one is the worst I've seen.

They have eliminated the reverse journal button. They still don't show the debit/credit tag in the registers (and they reverse them with their increase/decrease BS). We are back to the pop-up advertising that won't go away. The user interface is a joke.

The portable file is okay but the backup restore function and file handling interface doesn't show you the path and QB will default your files to the bowels of your hard drive if you aren't careful. If you work with more than one company this can be a real pain.

All in all I think this is a product that has reached the end of it's life cycle. It is overticked, gimmicky and I will be looking for the next generation software (simple, accurate and easy to use) in the near future.

I have never reviewed a piece of software before. But Quickbooks 2008 may be the most poorly tested software ever released, (including Vista). I feel compelled to warn others away from this mess.

We made the mistake of upgrading to QuickBooks 2008 last week because Intuit stopped providing online banking support for our old version. Within one day we were reinstalling and restoring from backups almost constantly.

We have finally installed what appears to a stable copy on an old XP laptop.

This product should still be considered Beta. Avoid upgrading at all costs. Actually, we will be advoiding Intuit going forward.

The product is slow and buggy and INTUIT customer support takes forever to correct simple problems. I would switch if there was another integrated payroll/ accounting program that worked together.