[Macworld]

Post your comments for First Look: QuickBooks for Mac 2012 here

[scott2si]

I'm not so sure that Mac users are going to be so quick to embrace QuickBooks this time around. From my point of view, it seems like Intuit has burned their last bridges with Mac users. And it sounds like QuickBooks 2012 for Mac has only caught up to QuickBooks 1995 for Windows.

Plus, QuickBooks for Mac can't hold a candle to AccountEdge, which many users think is the best accounting package for the Mac.

Anybody who believes that Intuit cares about the Mac platform hasn’t been paying attention to how Intuit has treated all their loyal Quicken customers of over 20 years. Intuit is really a bad company that makes bad products and has bad customer service (straight to you from India)!

I personally wouldn’t give Intuit one more penny of my money if my life depended on it. (Haha… okay, well maybe if my life depended on it, but that would be the only chance that Intuit would have of seeing my money!)

Even after all these years, QuickBooks 2012 still doesn’t offer multi-currency support, payroll support on the Mac, the ability to create purchase orders from estimates/invoices, online billpay, the ability to lock transactions before sending them to your accountant, parity with the Windows products, cross-platform file compatibility, and much much more. I'm just scratching the surface here.

Personally, I will only support GREAT COMPANIES that make GREAT PRODUCTS and WHOLEHEARTEDLY SUPPORT THE MAC… such as AccountEdge (for business accounting) and iBank (for personal finances).

Sure, AccountEdge and iBank both have their problems too, but at least they CARE about their Mac customers and WANT to continually make the best products for Mac users. Personally, I will be using AccountEdge and iBank from now on.

Intuit has shown their true colors, and they honestly deserve to be abandoned by all Mac users. After all, they have abandoned us many times in the past.

[tenmiler]

I own Quickbook 2011. I'm really surprised this article doesn't even address the biggest issue people have with this product: Incompatibility with Quickbooks for Windows. Anyone who uses an accountant needs this, and many people, myself included, were given a free copy of the PC version of QB Pro, to use with virtualization software, just to address this.

How an article simply talks about the window dressing is a waste of time.

AS for AccountEdge, I tried this product and found the interface to be horrendously designed. iBank is a sister to iBiz, which is from IGG software, and while they seem to have a better product in iBank, iBiz creates giant application files (up to a gigabyte or more), has clunky filesaving, and in fact was excoriated for simple MATH errors that left uncaught could cost a company money.

I understand Intuit's Mac software is incompatible across the board due to a very old core software engine it's written with.

Has this changed? Will people finally be able to write extensions and plugins like a PC user is?

I really hope you'll cover this.

This post has been edited by tenmiler: 07 September 2011 - 04:33 PM

[John__B]

But still no Quicken for Mac with feature parity with the Windows version. Having Bill Campbell on the board of directors is an embarrassment.

[JMHammer]

Why does Intuit insist on producing a product for the Mac with the same name as a product for Windows and about the same price as that Windows product but with file formats that aren't 100% compatible and with feature sets that aren't the same?

I truly don't get it. If I buy Microsoft Word, I get about the same product regardless of the platform. Files created by my colleague down the hall who prefers Windows are fully interoperable with my Mac's version of Word. But QuickBooks... no. It's nonsense, and I'm tired to Intuit's approach here. They should focus on their Windows development and then hire a small firm to port each new version of QuickBooks over to the Mac platform.

[billthecat]

I hate QB but it's the only accounting app that let's you track income and expenses along different lines of business (classes).

[Ian]

Payroll, payroll, payroll.... anything less than the option to utilize this option is a serious joke... I have to use BootCamp and if I am going to that effort, I might as well do all of it on the Windows side of my machine. Sorry Intuit, you FAIL.

[bettercitizens]

JMHammer, on 07 September 2011 - 06:30 PM, said:

Why does Intuit insist on producing a product for the Mac with the same name as a product for Windows and about the same price as that Windows product but with file formats that aren't 100% compatible and with feature sets that aren't the same?

I truly don't get it. If I buy Microsoft Word, I get about the same product regardless of the platform. Files created by my colleague down the hall who prefers Windows are fully interoperable with my Mac's version of Word. But QuickBooks... no. It's nonsense, and I'm tired to Intuit's approach here. They should focus on their Windows development and then hire a small firm to port each new version of QuickBooks over to the Mac platform.

Intuit has been asked by many Mac users over many, many years to provide feature parity and file format compatibility with the Windows version of QB. Intuit keeps adding marginal features to each new Mac release while charging very high prices for the software.

I wish we had a team on the Mac like Team Pixelmator, call them "Team Kicks Intuit's A$$ on the Mac" that would create a great piece of software for a fraction of the price of QB. The software would need to support easy import of QB data. This is unlike AccountEdge that costs $499 minimum to have them import your QB data or if you do it yourself you have to have Excel and go through many gyrations to get your data from QB to AccountEdge. If we had "Team Kicks Intuit's A$$ on the Mac" creating great Mac Accounting software I would move from QB in a nanosecond.

[jltnol]

I haven't downloaded a copy yet, but I can tell you in NO UNCERTAIN TERMS... that is sucks just a s much as Quickbooks 2011 does... and as much as Quickbooks 2010 does... and as much as QuickBooks 2009 does......

[keithnteri]

Just one word. "Billings" That is what I use and I've never had a problem.

[claudio]

No one should buy Mac Quickbooks unless they have a tiny business which they never plan to expand. If you look at Intuit's website they have very extensive customized versions and add-ons on the Windows side which will never be available for the Mac. If you absolutely have to use Quickbooks and are willing to deal with the world's sleaziest company, read the reviews on the Windows version on Amazon before buying it and prepare to run it virtually.

[christianvz]

I do not know a small medium business that run ONLY on Mac... I run a small business and I have a mix between Windows and OS X and I couldn't find a solution to run my books on both platforms until I found a product called MoneyWorks Accounting Software from a New Zealand based company Cognito.

I WAS BLOWN AWAY! It runs on Apple Mac... It runs on Windows... seamlessly in my business environment. It has that "Macish" intelligence built into the software that any Mac user alway look for.

And you only pay a once of fee for your software... no annual surprises.

In my opinion there is no way I'm going back to the controlling companies who are selling below par software.. MYOB, QuickBooks etc...

There are great packages out there. You just need to keep looking. I found a great partner in MoneyWorks.

[jefferis]

Does it Export to TurboTax??? Does Intuit make TurboTax? Yes. How many years does it take for Intuit to get it to work with its main tax prep software? Going on 20 years and still no??? God help us and give us a third party app that does export. Here is my workflow: All my expenses are tracked in Quicken 2007 because it can export to TurboTax. All my time tracking, billing/invoicing and memorized annual billings are done in QB 2010. Only my income is tracked there because I can add that manually to TTax. I'll switch to iBank before I upgrade Quicken because it can export to TTax, but can anyone give me/tell me about a business program that does what QB should do? Track expenses, income AND can export to TurboTax? Because of years of depreciation schedules and home office expense, I'm kind of locked in to TTax, so I don't see a way out of this dilemma...

[yeungfeng]

I've used the damn thing for 13 years. QBP 2006 had an update that deleted all the data on peoples hard drives. Now I have to buy a new copy to be able to use Lion. Intuit doesn't care about Mac users (except their money) because they don't have to.

Every year I have some client that has multiple invoices that they pay part of one time and the rest the next time. QBP, in Jan., like clock work, shows all their invoice unpaid. 2 years in a row. I've paid for them to fix it. But it comes back. They suggest I not have people pay this way. I suggest that all of the comments on QBP that you read here are true and would never suggest someone use this for their business with a Mac. And I haven't ever owned a PC and wouldn't suggest anyone ever do that either.

My plan is to go with MoneyWorks Gold Accounting. Credit card processing with Square.

MacWorld should serve their readers by review software that does work, and work well.