In Praise of Framers and QuickBooks Pro 2008

[Combs, Richard]

Rick Quatro wrote:
 
> I am getting ready to incorporate my business and my 
> accountant recommended QuickBooks Pro 2008. I was getting 
> ready to buy it, but I am a little spooked by the negative 
> reviews on Amazon and elsewhere. Does anyone here have any 
> feedback on it?

I think accountants would like nothing better than to have every one of
their clients using QuickBooks. They know it, their software works with
its files, and life is easier for them. QuickBooks is the "accepted
standard" -- the MS Word of business bookkeeping software (make of that
comparison what you will <g>). 

IMHO, it's way overkill for the very small business and, as Clint noted,
can be rather non-intuitive for someone with limited knowledge of
accounting and bookkeeping. But I don't know what to suggest as a
simpler alternative. Some version of Quicken or MS Money may be able to
handle an S corporation (if that's the route you're going), but I'm not
sure; the low-end versions I've played with could only handle sole
proprietorships. 

About 12 or 13 years ago, Quicken/Intuit bought Parsons Technology,
which made the bookkeeping software I was using, MoneyCounts Business (a
DOS-based program, for those who remember that). 

I was notified that MoneyCounts was going away and given an attractive
upgrade deal for QuickBooks. I bit. But after spending some time with
QuickBooks and seeing how much less user-friendly it was than
MoneyCounts (without adding much functionality to compensate), I decided
not to switch. I'm still using my 1994 version of MoneyCounts today,
running it on an ancient Win98 box. 

And here's the kicker: In 1999, Quicken notified me that my version of
QuickBooks wasn't Y2K compliant and would simply stop working at the end
of the year. My 1994 version of MoneyCounts had no problem at all with
Y2K. 

Happy weekend!

Richard 


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Richard G. Combs
Senior Technical Writer
Polycom, Inc.
richardDOTcombs AT polycomDOTcom
303-223-5111
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rgcombs AT gmailDOTcom
303-777-0436
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