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So after reinstalling & uninstalling my Peachtree over a dozen times and it still not working, I've had it. I love peachtree, but from what I'm seeing online their installation is riddled with problems, across many versions and years. I find it stupid to waste $200+ a year to upgrade just for the sake of upgrading & they no longer support my version.
So my questions to quickbook users:
Have you had any installation problems? Are you constantly hounded to buy an upgrade? What, if any problems have you had?
-------------------- Chris Welker Wildfire Signs Indiana, Pa Posts: 4254 | From: Indiana, PA | Registered: Mar 2001
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Kissy, You can count on upgrades every few years. Its just business. We have been much more profitable since we put away the stacks of Hand written papers and went computerized with QB. We have had no problems. We even use the online payroll service. Sales tax at the mere click of a button...sweet.
-------------------- Bob Sauls Sauls Signs & Designs Tallahassee, Fl
"Today I'll meet nice people and draw for them!" Posts: 765 | From: Tallahassee, Fl | Registered: Jun 2009
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We use Quickbooks Online. Love it. Our plan costs $39 a month, never any upgrades etc. it's all automatic and you can access it from any computer. It also allows us to give a login to our book keeper who can log in (she's in another state) and let's her do what she has to.
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oops,...I misread this and was referring to quicken not quickbooks by accident,...they are both written by the same software company,....
Quicken is a good functioning program,..I have a client who I deal with on a daily basis and it has posed no problems,...The one time he did complain about the popup window to upgrade I showed him where he could just slow down and read it and it had a box to check to make it go away,...the one thing i suggest to be wary of is their attempt to charge you to automatically download and sync to your banking accounts when you can do it for free manually, with most banks,....the only way I see that it would be practical is as if you had ten or more accounts,.,
edited to add,...it only cost him $79.00 for the home and small business version and he uses that that to run two businesses and his three personal acounts
[ March 10, 2012, 02:32 PM: Message edited by: Tim Barrow ]
-------------------- fly low...timi/NC is, Tim Barrow Barrow Art Signs Winston-Salem,NC Posts: 2224 | From: Winston-Salem,NC,USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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before you go for the $400 QUICKBOOKS........you really need to look at QUICKEN HOME & SMALL BUSINESS version. for small owner operator business, this is all you need. QUICKBOOKS is a total large business program with employee, FICA, stocks & bonds investments and a ton of styff you pay for but will never use. i had a friend who had QUICKBOOKS, and they let me barrow their copt and load it back when i was looking for a bookkeeping program. i loaded it played with for a couple weeks and decided it was WAY MORE THEN I WOULD EVER USE. i was money in, money out, receipts and expenses....nothing more. i deleted the QUICKBOOKS & bought QUICKEN home & small business. simpler and way less money outlay.
-------------------- joe pribish-A SIGN MINT 2811 longleaf Dr. pensacola, fl 32526 850-637-1519 BEWARE THE TRUTH.....YOU MAY NOT LIKE WHAT YOU FIND Posts: 11582 | From: pensacola, fl. usa | Registered: Nov 1998
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Old paint, I think you're spot on there. A friend of mine bought quickbooks Six years ago, never installed it and sold it to me pretty cheap. It's great but I only use about ten percent of its features. Don't see any reason why I would ever want to upgrade either. Can understand people wanting to upgrade graphics software to keep up with import facilities etc. but not accounting stuff
-------------------- Kevin Gaffney Artistik Signs Kinnegad County Westmeath Ireland 044-75187 kevingaffney@eircom.net Posts: 628 | From: Ireland | Registered: Oct 2003
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its called "appearances!" some people buy programs cause it the "ticket" if you been told how many other people have it, so you follow the crowd and spend more money for something YOU WILL NEVER USE ALL OF IT. 1992 i got my 1st computer. little 386 DX40 with a 20-30 meg hard drive!!!! the guy who built this computer for me, loaded his corel draw VER 3... on it for me. over the years since then i have learned to repair and build my own computers, have had hands on with almost ALL SIGN CAD PROGRAMS, SIGN-LAB, FLEXI, SIGN WIZARD, CAS-MATE, INSPIRE, EURO-CUT, PROCUT & GERBER and i got a copy of LETTER ART when i bought my 1st plotter. i turned down a GERBER 4B and found a ROLAND PNC-1000 for way less money, cut 15, 18 & 20" vinyl, and instead of paying $100 per font, i found that with the roland and i could CUT RIGHT FROM COREL V3, that i then had use of every TTF font on my computer. while others got these high dollar programs. no matter which program i was introduced to, seemed COREL........was where i always went back to.........to this day, it is STILL MY ONLY design, cut program!!!! so buying a $400 when all you need is a %100 program........seems the way to go.
-------------------- joe pribish-A SIGN MINT 2811 longleaf Dr. pensacola, fl 32526 850-637-1519 BEWARE THE TRUTH.....YOU MAY NOT LIKE WHAT YOU FIND Posts: 11582 | From: pensacola, fl. usa | Registered: Nov 1998
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I use quicken.. and then for $39 a month you can get a book keeper or in some cases a CPA to handle it all.
Then pay a little more to get the taxes done accurately. And avoid all those hidden fees of quickbooks. Avoid the upgrades nonsense. and the other useles for play that goes along with it.
-------------------- Leaper of Tall buildings.. If you find my posts divisive or otherwise snarky please ignore them. If you do not know how then PM me about it and I will demonstrate. Posts: 5274 | From: Im a nowhere man | Registered: Jul 2001
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I think I found the problem. For some idiotic reason, the C drive is the recovery section & D is the main drive. Peachtree will install on D, but a database thing installs on C, can't change it & the software won't find it cause it thinks it's all on D. If I'm having this much problems with this software, I know some of the real finicky ones are going to throw a fit so back to the computer guy to re-do with C being the main drive. For now, a friend lent me a spare & I'm installing software so I can actually work this week.
-------------------- Chris Welker Wildfire Signs Indiana, Pa Posts: 4254 | From: Indiana, PA | Registered: Mar 2001
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I've used Peachtree for years and got tired of the cost of the updates every year or two and the fact that I couldn't load it on my desktop and my laptop so I could work on things while on the road. Last year, I found year old versions online for dirt cheap. Now, I'm going to update to last year's software when I do my upgrades and I can even buy one for each computer without breaking the bank.
-------------------- David Harding A Sign of Excellence Carrollton, TX Posts: 5084 | From: Carrollton, TX, USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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I do use an older version of Quickbooks Pro and unless you have a need to do payroll, it's pretty much once and done. No annoying reminders to perform updates, etc.
I've had computer problems that effected the program. But, knock on wood, a simple re-installation and restoring the backup took care of everything.
Like Joe said though, you really don't need pro unless you're doing payroll. And, unless you want to get into tracking a whole lot of detailed information, basic quicken would even be fine too.
Havin' fun,
Checkers
-------------------- a.k.a. Brian Born www.CheckersCustom.com Harrisburg, Pa Work Smart, Play Hard Posts: 3775 | From: Harrisburg, Pa. U.S.A. | Registered: Nov 1998
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"...there are no limits when you aim for perfection..." Jonathan Livingston Seagull Posts: 7014 | From: Highgrove via Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia | Registered: Dec 2002
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I have been using QuickBooks for many years and use the payroll to write checks for myself and my husband (rarely lately ). Every year I have to pay for the payroll update, $299 this year. The good thing is that is does all the calculations for FICA, MediCare and withholding. Also, it creates the 941 reports to the IRS and unemployment reports for state and federal government, and W2 reports for year end. I figure that's worth $299. However, now I have to also upgrade to 2012 QB program for another $179. I am using currently 2009 version. My CPA does my tax return - I just upload my QB file to their secure site.
-------------------- Jean Shimp Shimp Sign & Design Co. Jacksonville Beach, Fl Posts: 1266 | From: Jacksonville Beach, Fl. USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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Jean, the thing is those payroll taxes are only a few formulas. IRS Circular E will give you not only the federal withholding tax tables, but the formulas. Years ago, I had to use Quickbooks at work & figured out how to update the formulas myself. (For 5 employees, I didn't think it was worth $200) I think they've since closed that because the last time I saw QB, I couldn't figure out where I did it.
-------------------- Chris Welker Wildfire Signs Indiana, Pa Posts: 4254 | From: Indiana, PA | Registered: Mar 2001
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One of the things that torques me off about the accounting programs is they purposely make it so difficult to put in the payroll tax tables and formulas--they want to sell you the upgrades, which are quite pricey for small businesses. A couple of drop down menus would be nice rather than the obscure back door means of entering things. I guess that's their version of sending a low res .jpg for a proof rather than a vector file.
-------------------- David Harding A Sign of Excellence Carrollton, TX Posts: 5084 | From: Carrollton, TX, USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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If I remember correctly, aren't you an accountant also? If so, you may be sorely disappointed in Quickbooks. My accountant strongly recommends Peachtree for it's solid double entry accounting. Quickbooks does everything through a layman's metaphor and masks the double entry accounting behind it. It makes resolving issues extremely tedious.
-------------------- Paul Luszcz Zebra Visuals 27 Water Street Plymouth, MA 02360 508 746-9200 paul@zebravisuals.com Posts: 483 | From: 27 Water Street, Plymouth, MA 02360 | Registered: Jul 2003
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That's 1 of the reasons I don't care for Quickbooks Paul. The other is their marketing campaign they had a few years ago... "buy this software & in 15 minutes you'll be doing your own accounting". If you knew how many hours I spent trying to straighten out a company's books because the person knew nothing about accounting & bought into their marketing campaign.
Right now I'm using a laptop from a friend & my software installed in a couple minutes, perfectly. I'm now 100% convinced it's the C/D drive thing.
-------------------- Chris Welker Wildfire Signs Indiana, Pa Posts: 4254 | From: Indiana, PA | Registered: Mar 2001
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Not to hijack your thread Chris, but I have had some questions about it as well. I posted it up on signs 101, but didn't get too much in the way of help... here is my post:
Hey guys, I have QB pro 2005, and I think I need to set it up more for its potential... at least to give me a profit / loss margin.
I know it's too late to do it for previous years, but I want to try to implement something for this year moving forward...
Here are a list of fixes that I really want to fix:
- According to the software, I have a lot of money to deposit (over 400), with a grand total in the 6 figures (I only wish). How do I clear it out so that it reads more accurate?
- I want to set up purchasing from my vendors to deduct expendures (materials purchased to the jobs, and it would be awsome to track expenses to each job).
- I really want the correct way of recieving payments, and tracking it against the outstanding invoices. Currently, in the invoice, I have a line item set up for deposit, and a line item for payment (that way when I print an invoice for the customer, it showes up on the invoice)... Thanks in advance. Mark
So are these things that Quicken can do?
[ March 15, 2012, 07:30 PM: Message edited by: Mark M. Kottwitz ]
-------------------- Mark Kottwitz Kottwitz Graphics Ridgely, MD www.SeeMySignWork.com -------------------------- Imagination is more important than knowledge. -- Albert Einstein Posts: 746 | From: Ridgely, MD | Registered: Oct 2000
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Hiya Mark, It's been too long since I've used quicken to say it can any of what you're asking. My gut feeling though is I doubt it.
With some effort, QB Pro should be able to track just about anything and everything. But, the bigger question is it worth it? I ask because it takes a lot of effort to enter in and maintain that data - entering in purchase orders, tracking time, mileage, etc. and I would rather make signs than push paper.
-------------------- a.k.a. Brian Born www.CheckersCustom.com Harrisburg, Pa Work Smart, Play Hard Posts: 3775 | From: Harrisburg, Pa. U.S.A. | Registered: Nov 1998
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![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
). Every year I have to pay for the payroll update, $299 this year. The good thing is that is does all the calculations for FICA, MediCare and withholding. Also, it creates the 941 reports to the IRS and unemployment reports for state and federal government, and W2 reports for year end. I figure that's worth $299. However, now I have to also upgrade to 2012 QB program for another $179. I am using currently 2009 version. My CPA does my tax return - I just upload my QB file to their secure site.
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