Positive
- The new 2010 has been cleaned up and runs faster. Their design deserves credit for avoiding a steady increase
in size and corresponding reduction in performance.
- The interface has not seen radical alteration, making the headaches of upgrading for the end user manageable.
- Intuit's tech support is top notch. Their staff quickly resolves problems.
- Their support for specialized needs is impressive, from functions as broad as payroll to inventory management for
distributors.
- Continued support for legacy systems running Windows XP.
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Negative
- Updating or installing multi-user versions is tricky. Quickbooks requires a management server constantly
be operational. If you're hosting your quickbooks file on a Windows Server this is a less severe imposition, but
if you're using Network Attached Storage, or a non-windows Operating System the difficulty rises quickly.
- Cost above five users: Up until five users you'll pay under $200 per license, but to go to six users will
raise the total price to a startling $3000.
- Data loss during updates: Quickbooks updates to their data files can cause total data loss. Thankfully their
mandatory backup system will mitigate this, but your time spent recovering comes with a price.
- Quickbooks has no backwards compatibility. If your accountant and your company use different versions you will
not be able to work together.
- Live Community, the new help assistant for Quickbooks blocks use of the standard window controls, obscures
navigation buttons, and refuses to close. Once it's turned off your experience will improve greatly. Until then
be prepared for needing to navigate using tab keys.
- Three step activation process: Installing requires three time consuming steps to activate. First you must
have complete records of dual product codes. Second you must complete a mandatory multi-page survey revealing
details of your business type, contact information, number of employees, etc. Third you must call them by phone
within 30 days, this is the most time consuming part, requiring at least 20 minutes between hold music and a
repetition of much of what you've already done.
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