Is QuickBooks Desktop Pro right for your business?

Good more large companies

QuickBooks Pro Review

It works great for me to manage my business financials.

Pros

I like how easy it is to enter in entries and pull the reports that I need for not only business taxes, but also for keeping up with aging invoices and other critical financial information.

Cons

The cost of the software is something that needs to be re-evaluated.

General Contractor's review of QuickBooks Desktop Pro

Overall we are very pleased with this program. We use it for tracking our accounts receivable, our expenses and payroll. We will be longtime customers!

Pros

This software is so easy to use! We are able to invoice our customers and keep a running balance of our A/P and A/R so we can track our monthly income. Easy referencing for customers by their name, account number, address and any other identifying information to easily access the account you are looking for. We have also linked QB to our CRM and each invoice created and payment links to both programs so the sales team can track their accounts, without needing access to QB. We love this program!

Cons

The only issue I have had, is when we do link payments to our CRM program, sometimes there is 5-10 minute delay before it registers. I can't say if this is an issue on AL or QB, either way, if we need access to the updated invoice immediately, it is available in QB.

Learning Curve - Not easy to use for Non-Profits working internationally.

Pros

I love the in depth reports, the ease of tracking, and the simplification of our annual tax process.

Cons

I don't like the learning curve for the software, the variation between desktop and online versions, or the incompatibility with non-profit organizations, especially those working internationally.

A solid solution for small business accounting, if you can get past some of the issues

We are a small business that has had 3-4 users with QuickBooks Pro since 1997, adding Payroll in the early 2000s. Several years back, they changed licensing and started preventing us from getting the 4 users that we needed. In order to get past this, I had to jump through hoops via an annual phone marathon, speaking to multiple (usually 4-5 tech reps) to get the licenses updated and sorted out. This year, they forced us to move to the next level up, which they promised would eliminate this -- but now they charge us $2.20 monthly per employee for Payroll, which we had already paid for in the previous package. It just seems that they want to nickle and die you to death, and their support people are not always that helpful when problems arise. So why do I stay? Simply put, the software works, and it works quite well. Our 4-node network has had no problems keeping up with the size of the data, and our system still contains all of the data since 1997 -- and it performs perfectly. (Some reports can be slow from time to time, but only if you are running "All-time sales" reports or similar that have to look at lots of data. Otherwise, the system simply screams and does exactly what it needs to do. Our automation interfaces (using QODBC and simple VBScript scripts) reduce the workload for invoicing considerably, eliminating the need to hire another full-time position -- so it is still a worthwhile aggravation.

Pros

We have been using QuickBooks since 1997, and the product has certainly changed over the years, but it has remained very intuitive to learn and use over all of this time. More importantly, we have been able to automate large portions of our business using scripting and QODBC (which is a separate add-on that REALLY should be included) to streamline order processing and fulfillment.

Cons

The biggest downsides are stupid things within the user interface. Intuit likes to add advertising for upgrades right into the main menu bar. This breaks automation scripts relying on mouse clicks. Even if you remove the button again manually, it re-appears with the next system update, breaking your automation again. The other thing they do is present pop-ups on our database server via modal dialog boxes, further breaking the automation until someone actually logs onto the server and clicks OK to close the dialog box.