QuickBooks Pro 2008

I upgraded from Quickbooks Pro 2006 to Quickbooks Pro 2008. The upgrade was easy and I'm already using some of the new features in the new version.

Quickbooks has more than enough features for my business. My only complaint is I have to purchase a full new version every 3 years or lose features I use.

Quickbooks is a good product that will improve the efficiency of my business, but I am disappointed in two aspects of the product. First is the import from Excel feature. I had assumed that everything I would need to import information from an Excel file would be built into Quickbooks Pro. Unfortunately I had to spend $150 on third party software to accomplish this task. I will say that Quickbooks does a good job of setting up a marketplace for its trusted third party vendors, and most of the vendors offer free trials of their products making it likely you will find something to do exactly what you need it to do.

My second disappointment is the lack of formatting available for invoices. Many of the invoices my business sends out are multiple pages, and a 5 to 7 page invoice is not uncommon. I wish I could format the way the page number displays at the bottom (such as "page 3 of 7" as opposed to Quickbooks default of "page 3"). Also, while the total price of the invoice does not display on each page the blank box for it does which is pretty tacky in my opinion.

I probably could have spent more on software that would have worked exatly the way I want it to, but I had severe budget constrains as upper management was under the impression that Excel was the best program to handle our bookkeeping needs. Finally, In spite of its pitfalls I will say that Quickbooks Pro is a great improvement (and a relatively inexpensive one) over our previous accounting "system."

After using a traditional accounting package (A/R, A/P, G/L, etc) for 20 years, Quickbooks took some getting used to. Quickbooks is actually more complicated than our former software but it's ok. The main reason for our using it is the cost.

I upgraded only because I had to for continued use of the email and online banking features, but I'm a very light user of the software. I don't use many of the features. I find the new interface/layout poor in comparison to the older one. Yes, I understand the whole "this is how everything is related" concept of the new layout, but I don't need to see it on my home page. I don't like that I have to go looking for my reminders. There is a link on the right but it drops down to reveal NOT your reminders but link to a window...What the hell is that about???