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78 of 80 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not perfect, but still better than keeping books by hand, July 15, 2004
Yes, this product has hidden costs like tech support, yearly tax tables, and upgrades, but it is still better than doing bookkeeping for a small business by hand.Some of the other fees one doesn't think about are: 1. Printer checks, invoices (if you choose to use perforated forms or letterhead), and envelopes for both. No bank will supply QB checks for free...and they aren't cheap either.
2. To email your invoices you have to subscribe to "online billing" for a fee...However, I found that one can simply print the invoice, scan it and email it as an attachment.
3. To do direct deposit for payroll, one must subscribe to "payroll direct deposit" for a fee. (I haven't figured out a way around this one yet.) Yes, there were some unpleasant tech support people--like there are everywhere, but I found the option of buying a year of tech support (appx. $350.00 ) to be very helpful for the first year I used this product. Support is available via phone, IM, and email. I found IM to be the best method. By the end of that year of support I was asking questions that stumped tech. support, or I was able to think of a better solution myself, so this product is not hard to figure out...but it does take some figuring out. And it is nice to have the cushion of support while you learn. (The manual is valueless-use the help button or better: buy "Quickbooks for Dummies".) With all those costs, you can expect to drop about $1000.00 up front just to get this program up and running. Hints:
DO NOT EVER load any balances in QB for payroll or customers. You should go back and do every single transaction individually and backdate it the original date of the invoice or payment or whatever. Run your old payrolls one pay period at a time-print them on blank paper with the old check number. You MUST use the payroll liabilities feature to pay all payroll taxes--you can adjust the amounts to match what you have already paid before using QB, otherwise your balances and calculations in QB will be messed up all year like mine were. Even if you have to load a YEAR'S worth of transactions, it is better to do them one item at a time rather than load balances. Start at or as close to your fiscal year as possible for conversion to QB. DO buy tech support for six months or a year: it was well worth it, especially for 1099s and other headaches that one doesn't do everyday. SURPRISE: 1099s will print for only ONE accounting code--I found that out the hard way. So for 1099s, USE ONE MASTER ACCOUNT, if you need several 1099 codes, list them as subaccounts of the master account. I.E.: 1099 Contractors, and have 1099 drafting, 1099 engineering, 1099 transporting as subaccounts. You HAVE TO have internet access to use this product. Try to have a highspeed connection to the internet, it takes up to 30 minutes to d/l the updates and tax tables via 56K dialup. DO NOT USE the "enter bills" and "pay bills" portion of the program. Just write the checks manually to vendors-that way you only have to do the work once. Make no mistake, if you buy this or any other accounting program for that matter, you will cease to be a bookkeeper and become a baby sitter for a computer!
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