[ayoung]

Dealing with technical support from Intuit is an exercise in frustration.

I had problems with networking on Vista (still a problem) with Quickbooks 2007 very well documented on forums. I'm positive the person who answered my call had never seen the program and refused to send me to someone who could help and hung up on me. Calling back I was forwarded to a so called Supervisor who said there was no other level of support and it was a problem with my equipment, goodbye.

Granted it was an issue with the programs I use, Hamachi VPN every time I start-up the Quickbooks database software selects the Hamachi IP instead of the machines IP so computers on the local network can't see the shared files. Nobody I talked to even knew what a IP address or VPN was. I just wanted to know how to set the IP address permanently. But I guess they save money outsourcing tech support and need not worry about quality.

[jragosta]

As for the networking problem, one of the things I had to do was go to Microsoft's site and download the latest dot net client software. Also, you have to make sure that any routers in your system are set to NOT act as a DHCP server - you have to let the main server assign addresses.

HOpe that helps.

[ayoung]

I appreciate the reply.

The latest dot net software is loaded and all IP addresses are fixed.

To simplify the issue imagine having 2 ethernet ports on the computer one for internal network and one for external network each with in different IP ranges (internal 192.168.1. external 5...*). When Quickbooks starts the Database Server it picks one of these IP addresses somewhat randomly when it picks the external of course no one can connect.

I resolve that by disabling the external IP and starting the QuickBooks Database Server Manager and it picks the only port. I have found no way to manually set this for Quickbooks. Any suggestions would be great.

The other problem we continue to have is: On the same network XP machines login immediately to Quickbooks Vista machines take up to 3 minutes (yes we timed it for tech support). All machines are updated to latest Windows.

Maybe this is fixed in 2008 or 2009 but not real motivated to upgrade no compelling reason because I fear more problems than benefits.

I know this is not Mac related but it is nice to vent

[steinhorn]

The daily time entry function is in this new release. You have to access it from the program menu along the top of the screen. Unfortunately there are other functions I need that are missing.

[steinhorn]

The feature I see missing has to do with partial billing of estimates. This is not here and one MUST convert and estimate into an invoice for the full amount of that estimate. The Windows version keeps track of how much billing is done against an estimate. What a shame as it stops me from changing over. Furthermore, the conversion does not preserve custom reports or custom forms. I would be willing to recreate them if only the estimate feature was there. Looks like I will have to continue to run the Windows version in VMWare Fusion.

[jefferis]

NO COMPATIBILITY WITH TURBOTAX!!!!!!!!! For years, I've had to keep running Quicken to track my expenses and depreciable assets in order to export them (without retyping everything!!!) at tax time to turbotax. Same company but no interoperability between these 2 programs.
As a SOHO user, I'm small enough to want to save money and can handle the taxes myself. I'm not big enough to need to pay for a separate accounting firm. Yet this setup forces me to track expenses in one program, do real time time tracking in another, and do invoicing and income in QB. Even QB forum leaders agreed with me 3 years ago that this was ridiculous, but implied there isn't enough money in the Mac to make them spend the time on actually bringing the Mac version up to equivalency.
Looks like they spent most of their time and money on eye candy. It reminds me of the Mac Vista commercial where the PC guy ends up dragging all the money from development over to advertising. What a waste.

[macguyincali]

I've been using Quickbooks mac for 5 years and through several upgrades. I think it is the worst piece of Mac software I depend on every day. It is dependable and gets the job done, but it is absurd how cludgy and annoying it is to work with it.
The main issue with Quickbooks is that it forces you use non-natural ways of working with your computer:
a) Address book implementation. This is the most astoundingly obnoxious and over-complicated implementation I've seen anywhere. Instead of a simple (ADD from Addressbook) option where you could select a contact from your OS X address book and add it to Quickbooks (and sync it if necessary), it forces you to sync your entire QB address book with the Mac Addressbook. When doing so, it forces you to keep your individual client / company addresses in special Groups in your Addressbook. I already have my groups set up in address book that fit my workflow. I don't want to have more groups that apply to only one company. Why force people to change how they work with their mac. If I used QB's addessbook sync function, I'd end up with 30 or 40 groups. No thanks, I prefer the 10 specific groups I have now.
b) Reports. It is so hard to customize reports the way you want them. For example, I track my projects by jobs, not by company. There is no way to list jobs without having the company total appear. This is annoying as it makes it hard to read my reports. I typically work with clients once a year, not much more... my annual reports are annoying because it lists the job (just one per client in most cases) and then the total for that client--which is the same as the job. Just clunky. and there's no way to turn it off, that I'm aware of. Sure, there are times where I'd like to see all projects by client, but for me, most of the time not. The readability of these reports is pretty whack as well.
c) Data entry in invoice, bill mode, is clunky. If the field populates with a previous entry (which can be helpful at times), you have to go field by field to delete the entries you don't want. I think there is a way to specify that the fields don't populate, but I usually forget to use it and sometimes I just want to keep some line items and not all.
d) Invoice customization: I gave up using this as I could never get it to mimic my Excel or Tables invoices I've been using forever. I tried in QB 2009 Trial and I was very close to getting it to work, except for some reason, the transparent fields in Layout Designer ended up filled white, blocking my background image (which I used to create alternating shaded rows for readability of the line items).
These are just a few of the issues I've been having. This year I thought about switching to MYOB, but the prospect of transferring QB to MYOB seems daunting to say the least and, frankly, it didn't look particularly Mac-like either. If someone came up with a decent piece of Mac accounting software that had compatibility with QB and could EASILY import from QB, they'd have my money right now.

[macguyincali]

Here's some more fun "features"

a) I needed to merge two vendor names and I started with the record with the most complete records. I changed the name to the record. QB informs that there is another vendor with the same name and asks if I would like to merge. Of course I do. Now the merged record has no contact information. Sweet. Great merging.

b) Also, when you're entering a bill / or invoice or what have you and a dialogue pops up (vendor doesn't exist would you like to create a new one, or what have you) it takes the focus off the invoice you're working on and then when the dialogue is dismissed, you have to use your mouse to get back to the original invoice to edit it. Tabbing doesn't work... in fact, QB does a swell job ignoring virtually every navigation convention that OS X (and most 3rd party applications) use.

c) Can't look up previous invoices while you are currently creating an invoice. Gee, I can't imagine why I'd want to go back and look at previous invoices while I'm getting a new invoice ready. Nope, you have to quit whatever you've entered and then look through your previous invoices. Seems reasonable. Here's some more fun "features"

[GeneonMAC]

Have been using QuickBooks for MAC 2007 for a while now. It converted by using my accountant's version of QuickBooks 2007 for Windows. Once we figured out which version was needed (they have a converting program buried in the utilities area), it was not too bad. As far as "back and forth" between MAC OSX and Windows, it's really not a big deal. There is a backup option on the MAC side that allows you to back up a Windows Version (*.qbb) backup that your accountant can easily "restore". In the same way, you can restore from his backup to the MAC side.
Given how much better the MAC OSX is that Windows, it's been much easier for me.
GOod luck.

[ngcomputing]

The Address book sync does not work. The sync dialog box (which does not have a cancel button) hang when you exit the program, causing the user to force quit. When the program is restarted, the sync dialog pops up again. It doesn't feel good when you can't access your company file because you can't cancel sync to get back in and turn it off.
Download and VIGOROUSLY test the trial version before you drop cash on a buggy program. The problem exists as of Dec 31st, 2008. BEWARE!

[kimesk]

I've used QB for as long as it's been out, however I cannot recommend 2009 to anyone. I recently installed it, it takes forever to start, invoices take about 30 seconds to record. So now I'm in the middle of rebuilding the data as was suggested on Intuits website, this process at the rate it's going it will be about 12 hours to finish. I'm not making this up it really will take 12 hours.
I'm a dedicated Mac user, never owned a PC. I'm not going to change platforms I'm going to trash Quikbooks and look for something else.

[jlinjpn]

For years I have watched Intuit virtually ignore the Mac market as they developed their products. Clearly there is an ulterior motive in not providing important features that Windoze users take for granted:
* Credit card processing
* Multi-user capabilities
* Cross platform data files
* Online bill pay
I'm looking for an accounting program produced by a company that wholeheartedly supports the Mac, something that Intuit obviously does not. I can't see the point of spending a few hundred dollars on an inferior product, in the hope that Intuit will be encouraged to add the features their competitors added long ago to their products.

[jragosta]

I'm in the same boat. I'm buying another company and will need to put in new accounting software. I can live with a single user accounting system for a while, but would very strongly prefer multi-user and I want to use Macs. I haven't started searching yet, but I'll be looking for a new accounting system and will scrap the Quickbooks that they're using now.

Quickbooks is a terrible program on both platforms - it gives bizarre results, it is a pain to manage, and it arbitrarily stops working at random times for no apparent reason. Even something as simple as moving the data file from one computer to another cost me more than a day (most of a weekend). If you want to use the Mac version, it's even worse - Intuit hasn't cared about Macs for years (Quicken Mac was a decent program at one time, but even that has gone downhill).

Any recommendations of a good multi-user accounting program that properly supports Macs and doesn't offer the Pain in the Rear factor that comes standard with Intuit products?

[surtur]

Why do companies bother to put out cr@ppy software for Macs?
Why do people continue to buy it? Because of the reviews in Macworld... I say stop buying quickbooks and buy anything else until they put out a half-way decent version.