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1 out of 2 people found this review helpful
1.0 stars
"Primitive functionality"
Pros: Looks pretty
Cons: Virtually no download of transactions.
Summary: If you have used any recent version of Quicken you probably take for granted that you can download your transactions from your bank, credit card company, or brokerage.
Astoundingly, Quickbooks makes downloading transactions either impossible or so painful that you will give up and type in transactions by hand.
Even if your financial institution produces QuickBooks transaction downloads, Quickbook's interface is painful. You need to stop on each transaction and answer three or four questions. There is no option to accept your entire monthly statement.
Even worse, Quickbooks only accepts *.IFF files for transaction input. If your bank produces a *.QIF file you can write your own converter (difficult) or buy one for $30 that works poorly.
Many institutions only deliver an Excel file. Amazingly, Quickbooks does not import these for transactions. I tried an Excel to *.IIF converter that worked so poorly it was useless.
Do not buy Quickbooks unless you want the endless drudgery of typing in transactions one at a time. Can it get worse? Yes. There is no way to convert back the Quicken.
- 3 replies to this review
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Quicken first started to disable Q-05 by stopping the QFX generation or reception while 05 was in full use. They then said use QIF. Just as it came time to pull the rug on 05 they issued a warning that the last fix was available and users would be advised to apply the package. Feeling that we were dealing with a reputable company we applied it thankfully. I have no idea what errors were fixed by it but it took function away from the users who purchased the product in good faith with the promise from Quicken would make use of QFX and QIF files. Its like GM putting out a mandatory modification which removed the ability to function unless you paid in advance for a month's use.
Then, figuring that they were going to do things for the better in Q2008 we purchased it and if we were not alert (I was not) we watched it chew up our history files so that we could not go bag to the, now lame Q2005.
It is far more than moving on to new function and doing a good enough job to provide a new release which would move the user community forward to better function. Turns out that the function added in the Q08 release makes VISTA look like a real easy sell.
I returned my Q2008 package and tried going back to 05 when I found out the bridge was burned.
I remember a case where IBM was going to try to withdraw user function and stop shipping a system. Users banded together and asked to have the system made public property and offered to form a group to take over maintenance. After all when we bought those levels, even if we understood there would be new product which would exceed the current levels. I doubt tht anyone thought that they had the right to destroy the function on our system.
I am looking for a replacement but MS does not encourage me since I read their EULA. Read in the light of Quicken's actions they reserve the right to do anything short of intentionally causing a fire in your computer. I want to see a publicly owned tool which is responsive to user needs and not to stockholder profits..
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QuickBooks is a bookkeeping and accounting software package. As such, your supposed to record sales when you invoice the customer and record expenses when you receive the bill. Your not supposed to record transactions after they have already cleared your bank account. However, it would be nice if QB could download the bank info and check cleared transactions when doing the bank reconciliation. I believe that capability is in the 2006 version.
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Don't understand why you want to import your banking transactions; they should have been entered realtime during the month; then balanced at month end. Simple process. If you are trying to use Quickbooks for personal finances you are using the wrong package... Quicken or a personal accounting package is what you need. I don't believe that simply downloading your bankbook into the accounting package provides an acceptable audit trail for CRA or IRS. Quickbooks is, I believe, intended for accrual accounting rather than cash accounting. It is a great package for its intended audience.
