QuickBooks Pro 2006 [OLD VERSION]

Other products 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 (118 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,163 in Software (See Bestsellers in Software)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #23 in	Software > Business & Office > Business Accounting > Accounting
  #91 in	Software > Personal Finance

Product Description

From the Manufacturer
Manage accounting tasks, payroll and routine paperwork quickly and accurately. It's the leading choice for fast and easy financial management. QuckBooks 2006 Pro includes everything in the Simple Start version of QuickBooks, plus tools for payroll, custom forms and inventory. With QuickBooks Pro 2006, you can:

• Boost efficiency
  Get direct access to key tasks and information from the new simplified Home Page.
• Share data
  Synch with Microsoft Office applications, including Excel, Word and Outlook, to save time and reduce errors.
• Manage customers, vendors, and employees easily
  Get access to contact information, balances and transactions — all in one simple screen in the Customer Center, Vendor Center, and Employee Center.
• Start fast and get help when you need it
  Get built-in tutorials and onscreen help. Start fast and get help when you need it, with built-in tutorials, onscreen help, and free QuickBooks callback support for 30 days following registration.
• Get all the tools you need in one package
  Pay bills, print checks, track expenses, manage payroll, create customized estimates, invoices, purchase orders and reports... track time, job costs, and more.
• Organize everything in one place:
  Including sales, expenses, business loans, and more.

Not sure which QuickBooks is right for you? Check this handy comparison chart.

Boost efficiency

Manage your finances faster from the simplified Home page The new, customizable Home page gives you direct access to key features, plus a clear picture of how they all fit together. No searching through menus — you're never more than two clicks from starting a new task. You can also choose to see current balances for your accounts in QuickBooks, so you know right where you stand without digging through multiple screens.

• Enter information once… use it everywhere
  Tired of retyping the same information on different forms? With Pro 2006, you won't have to do it again: Start typing a customer or vendor name — QuickBooks fills in the rest. Track job costs and hours — QuickBooks transfers them to invoices and paychecks. Create an estimate, then click a button to turn it into an invoice or purchase order.
• Calculate and recalculate totals instantly
  QuickBooks saves you time and errors by calculating all totals automatically, including sales tax, discounts and markups. No need to write formulas or do math. Make changes, and see the results instantly.
• Easily manage received payments and refunds
  QuickBooks makes it easier than ever to apply customer payments, including amounts that don't match your invoices. If a customer overpays you can choose to refund the difference or apply it to a future payment. If a customer underpays you can choose to keep track of what they still owe you or just write off the extra amount. Onscreen reminders help to ensure that overpayments, underpayments, discounts and credits are handled correctly. And now you can easily track refunds for credit card transactions.
• Enter data into familiar forms
  QuickBooks tracks and calculates your financial information automatically as you fill out checks, invoices and other familiar forms that look and work just like the ones you already use.
• Download bank and credit card transactions in as little as one step
  Don't have time to keep track of expenses? Let QuickBooks Pro do it for you. Download cleared checks and credit card transactions from your financial institutions, and enter them into your books with as little as one click. You'll have more detailed records, with a lot less time and effort.
• Email invoices, purchase orders and reports as PDF files
  Instantly send estimates, invoices, and purchase orders by emailing them as PDF files. Click a button to turn any estimate, purchase order, invoice or report into a PDF file and attach it to an email instead of waiting for the post office to deliver. Or save the PDF file as a snapshot copy of the report for future reference.
• Easily reconcile and "undo" a reconciliation
  Ever cleared a transaction in error while reconciling your register against your bank statement? Don't spend hours tracking down individual transactions—clear all the transactions in the last reconciliation in one click! You can also easily customize the layout of the reconcile screen. An improved reconcile discrepancy report shows you changes and deletions made to previously reconciled transactions.

Share data with Microsoft Office applications

One click synchronizes all changes to your contact lists in Outlook and QuickBooks

• Avoid redundant data entry with easy synchronization with Outlook
  Simply download the QuickBooks Contact Sync tool from our website and a "synchronize" icon will be added to your Outlook toolbar. Just click once on this icon whenever you want to sync customer, vendor or job information between QuickBooks and Outlook. No more re-entering contact or job information in multiple places. With the new Outlook sync tool, you can manage your data more easily and get in touch with your customers or vendors faster. Learn more about QuickBooks Contact Sync for Outlook.
• Transfer data to and from Microsoft Excel
  Pull in information to QuickBooks like large groups of customers, vendors and inventory items quickly from Microsoft Excel. Or use your company data from your QuickBooks reports and export it to a new or existing Excel spreadsheets with all Excel formulas and formatting intact. Anytime you export updated data from QuickBooks; Excel maintains your existing formulas and updates the results automatically.
• Merge QuickBooks data with Microsoft Word
  QuickBooks comes with a variety of standard customer and vendor letters that can be created in Microsoft Word and that merges in information from QuickBooks like customer name, address, and current balance. Select a group of customers or vendors in QuickBooks, choose a template, and QuickBooks merges the data to create a letter in Word. With just a few more clicks you can create standard envelopes with all the right customer information just as easily. If your business doesn't send invoices, QuickBooks can also create "Invoice Letters" that have the billing information for customers you need and you can any personal message to easily bill customers with look you want.
• Share data with more than 400 other business applications
  QuickBooks works with over 400 popular software applications, including industry-specific applications, in order to meet your specific business needs.
• Convert data from Peachtree
  If you currently run your business on Peachtree software you can easily convert your data to QuickBooks. In just a few steps you can start working in QuickBooks using your Peachtree information, including customer lists, vendor lists, balances, and inventory lists.

Manage customers, vendors, and employees easily

• Customer Center
  Find and follow-up on past-due accounts, and answer customer requests faster. See contact information and complete transaction history for any customer. Initiate new estimates, invoices, and other transactions, with customer information already in place.
• See key information all in one simple screen
  Spend less time hunting for specific transactions. View customer, vendor, employee and payroll information exactly the way you need it: with contact information, transaction histories, and balances, all visible in a single screen. Quickly find any transaction to answer questions—no need to run custom reports.
• Vendor Center
  Select any vendor to see purchase orders, bills and payments. Check your account status to avoid paying twice, paying for unreceived merchandise, or incurring late charges. Initiate new payments or purchase orders with one click.
• Employee Center
  Try an interactive example of the Employee Center See contact information for any employee, and a complete list of checks paid. And if you need to makes changes to personnel or get in touch with an employee, you can find employee contact information right on this screen.

Start fast and get help when you need it

• Get set up and running in as little as a half an hour
  Pro 2006 makes getting started so quick and easy, you could be working in as little as half an hour. Answer a few basic questions, and get a customized setup you can change at any time. Import customers and vendors from Excel, or enter them on-the-fly as you pay bills and record sales. If you're already using QuickBooks, your company file and preferences will automatically transfer.
• Get fast answers without leaving QuickBooks
  You'll find fast answers to most questions in the in-product, onscreen help. Type a question, choose from a list of topics, or search by keyword.
• Learn QuickBooks quickly with built-in tutorials
  Learn QuickBooks skills as you need them — in your own time, at your own pace. The built-in Learning Center offers short tutorials on basic and advanced features alike to help you get the most out of QuickBooks.
• Enjoy FREE support for 30 days from registration
  Have a question about QuickBooks? Talk directly with a QuickBooks support expert at no charge for the first 30 days following registration. They're available to help with setup, upgrading, using QuickBooks features, or any other questions or issues. Simply go online to submit your question, and a support expert will call you back.

QuickBooks Edition Comparison Chart

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

39 of 39 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

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.

Since Amazon deletes reviews which discuss "price" I'll be far less inclined to publish any more reviews at Amazon in the future. Amazon just deleted one of my top rated reviews (100% positively rated and, by a very wide margain, the most popular review of a particular product) because I mentioned price and Amazon's past discounts.

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

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!

69 of 75 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)

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.