Accounting & Bookkeeping & Small Business Forum

Guest · Posted: Wed Nov 10, 2004 2:11 pm Post subject: Quickbooks friend of foe ?

I notice that to become a efficient self employed bookkeeper you "must" know Quickbooks pro. My problem is that I need to master Quickbook ASAP and right now I can't afford to get the DVD training from UAC when I still paying for the 4 modules.
I have read mix opinion in "amazon.com" about quickbook, charging for everylittle thing that it become a burden to do business with them. They said that Intuit is self destroying by greed for bleeding his customer.
I still belive that QB is the answer for me but if you are a seasoned user of QB please give me your honest opinion and I will greatly appreciate your input.

Guest · Posted: Wed Nov 10, 2004 2:30 pm Post subject: RE: Quickbooks friend of foe ?

Based on some of the things that Intuit (producer of QuickBooks) is doing, you have to wonder what side they are on. In any event, they have a good software package for the money, and they 80% of the market share. If you're going to be a freelancer, they are the ones to go with, in my humble opinion.

Guest · Posted: Thu Nov 11, 2004 2:44 am Post subject: RE: Quickbooks friend of foe ?

Manuel:
The QB issue is a complicated one. One one hand, they are getting greedy with their upgrades and bells & whistles that cost extra. On the other hand, you don't have much of a choice if you want to service a large base of customers; QB has an enormous market share. A lot of small business owners use and a lot of them will buy it before they even talk to you.
Bottom line: you have to learn it, use it, and love it if you want a bookkeeping business.
I recomend buying it and spending some time with it, it is quite easy to learn. However, a lot of the details for some specific txs. you will only learn with experience.
Good luck!

Andrea

Guest · Posted: Thu Nov 11, 2004 6:36 pm Post subject: RE: Quickbooks friend of foe ?

Manuel-- I agree the best way to learn it is to jump in. If you have worked with any other package, Quickbooks is fairly intuitive. I started with a company 4 weeks ago, have never worked with Quickbooks and with my knowledge from other accounting packages, and knowing what should go where on a balance sheet and P&L have been able to figure it out. A great resource is QB's bulletin board. I regularly look at the questions that get asked and find some great resources there. http://www.quickbooks.com/support/boards/
Good Luck, Jack

Guest · Posted: Sat Nov 13, 2004 4:36 pm Post subject: RE: Quickbooks friend of foe ?

Here is an option to think about. You can buy QB Pro on Ebay for as low as $60. The catch is you probably won't be able to register it which means you won't be able to buy their services. However, it is a great and a lot cheaper way to learn quickbooks. In addition, I have found that you can do 99.9% of bookkeeping without any of intuits extra services/features. In my past experience, the tech support takes a long time to get through to, even when you have a plan. I have found that the message boards are about the best place to get any answer. I also agree with one of the other responders that the best way to learn is by just jumping in.

Good luck and best regards,
Becky

Guest · Posted: Mon Nov 15, 2004 10:42 am Post subject: RE: Quickbooks friend of foe ?

I was thinking about switching to peachtree myself. The main reason why a lot of people are using quickbooks is because it is easy to use. However the company's greed will ultimately be their biggest down fall because according to a lot of forums out side of this one people are recognizing the greed of the company and let me tell you this is a turn off. You can use just about any accounting software to set up someone's books. You may want to look into spread sheet software.

Guest · Posted: Mon Nov 15, 2004 11:06 am Post subject: RE: Quickbooks friend of foe ?

You people are awesome !!!!
This is my first time trying a forum, so I decided to try this burning question and what a delightful surprise. Your opinions will help me a lot. Thanks, Andrea, Cherrie Vega, Becky, Bryan and Jack Coate.

Guest · Posted: Thu Nov 18, 2004 1:12 pm Post subject: RE: Quickbooks friend of foe ?

Hello folks - I'm Canadian. I have just started using QB and the Accountant Premier. Having just come back from Inuit 2004 Discovery conference in Niagara Falls, Canada, I'm impressed with the company's willingness to listen to QB users. So far I have called them at least 6 times for help and they have responded in a both quickly and effectively. Unlike another famous acct'g software where I waited 30 minutes just to talk to the switchboard operator but I got to the technical which was more time! Yes, QB is expensive but I feel comparatively speaking it is worth the money. I don't know at this point if I can say Inuit is greedy. I still use SA software but I had to take on QB because I was missing out on business. So far I like it. Just my opinion for what it is worth.