Monday, February 23, 2009

QuickBooks for MAC 2009

This is totally different from my usual topic of food -- but I am so upset about this experience that I had to share it on the hope that I can save somebody else money and aggravation. I recently switched from a PC to a MAC. Although, I had just bought the latest QuickBooks for PC only a year and a half ago, I purchased the 2009 QB for MAC and converted over my PC data. I've been very happy with QB for my PC and have used it for years without incident. But the MAC version--what a nightmare! 

To start with, this software is way backward from even the 1999 version of PC Quickbooks without many features -- particularly, the inability to select which credits I want to apply to an invoice or to unapply credits to an invoice to name just one. But even worse, this software is full of bugs. When I received multiple invoices and applied credits, if I went back to look at them afterwards, they were changed -- different invoices were checked, different credits applied, partial payments were created. Payments I received one and two years ago were now marked to pay for random invoices in the future (i.e. a 2007 payment was now marked to pay a 2008 invoice). My books have become completely messed up. I don't know which invoices are legitimately paid and which not. I don't know what payment paid what invoice. And the credits are applied to all kinds of random partial payments. 

And it gets worse. I called the tech support department for help and they told me that it was something I had done that messed things up. Even though I told them I'd been using PC quickbooks for years without a problem, they still didn't believe me. He said there was no way there could be a bug in the program and the only way he'd help me was if I'd purchase a service plan. I told him I wasn't going to pay Quickbooks to fix a bug in their program and the guy was very rude. I asked how I could report a bug. I was willing to supply examples and documentation of my problem. He told me there was no way to do this and that the problem was mine, not a bug. I then hired, at my expense, a QuickBooks expert to help me and after hours of trying to clean up my books and having them get messed up again every time I received a payment, she told me she had never seen a problem like this and that the problem was with the program. 

I ended up having to throw away this program that I paid good money for, put out more money to buy Windows, install it as a separate partition so I could use my old QuickBooks for Windows. While the PC version is working fine, my data is still all messed up thanks to MAC QuickBooks. 

If you think it's just me, check out the reviews on
amazon.com. Everybody is having problems. I am warning you -- DO NOT BUY THIS PROGRAM. Not only will you waste your money, but your books and data will get completely messed up.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

I join you in my disappointment in the QB system for MAC. After using this for four months I plan to discard it at the end of next quarter. This will be a huge undertaking but the system is just not reliable.
All tasks that used to be easy on PC version are impossible on the MAC side.
I would like to warm any consumer who purchases this software. I am a complete fan of the MAC operating system but would, with no reservations at all and with complete conviction warn all not to purchase this software. It is very unreliable!! I have recently had all my printer drivers blown out my downloading a QB update. In addition, simple daily tasks are cumbersome and most importantly, unreliable. From an accounting point of view, it is unintuitive and again, unreliable. I can not emphasize unreliable more. It is not a matter of getting to know the software..... it is unreliable.
Need I say more....

Mama Wild Bear said...

I too have just recently switched to QB 2009 for Mac after having used QB 2006 Windows forever. There are aspects of the program I do like (mostly not having to launch Windows under Fusion and then run QB for Windows). There are also very obvious time savers missing. Like, where's the Banking - Transfer Funds option? So simple, yet not there. Also, every month I have to adjust my sales tax payable due to an early filing discount offered by my state. In windows, you choose Vendors, Pay Sales Tax and click the "Adjust Sales Tax" button. In the Mac version? Nowhere to be found. Instead I have to do a general journal entry to adjust the tax due, go to the pay sales tax window, do some subtracting to make the check amount be correct - very time consuming. Speaking of paying bills - no option to enter the check number when paying bills. It just uses the next one, assuming that I'm on top of things and in sequence. Nope - back to the register to manually fix the check numbers. And estimates and invoices? Only the first line of each item shows on the screen. No way to view the entire invoice on screen at once. I have to click separately on each line to open it up, read the paragraph, click elsewhere to close it and then click on the next one to read it. Yikes! Mostly, I'm struggling to learn workarounds for things I used to know how to do in Windows and need to find a new way in Mac. However, I'm sticking with the product. If no one buys the Mac version, they will stop developing it. They're already up to R6 and the thing just recently got released - at least they've been fixing lots of bugs. They are good about their 60 day guarantee though. If you buy it and just can't deal, you get your money back.

Susan Hooven said...

Ditto on the negative conversion from PC QB to the Mac 2009 version. I've come across so many glitches that I can't keep track of them all. Problems customizing forms, applying credits to invoices and transferring money between accounts are ones that immediately come to mind. I too was given the Service Plan sales pitch when calling tech support. If Intuit doesn't come out with fixes soon, I will abandon ship too. And as long as I have to recreate my books to fix this mess, I will be looking into non-Intuit software.

Unknown said...

I have to date not been able to use my MacQuick Books 2009 like I used to use my Windows QuickBooks. It does not follow any logic or the way Quick Books work for the PC. I have already spent $200 for a Mac2009.
I hate it. Waste of time. In the past When I have contacted QB for Help which I paid for they wasted my time and blamed me for the issue.
Do not buy it

Unknown said...

I also join all in disappointment in QB for Mac. I am a longtime QB for PC user and switched to MAC on January 1st. I'm so far into the fiscal year now it would be difficult to switch but next January 2010 I am back to the PC version. Basically after diligence and much effort I find QB for Mac to be very unreliable and at least 10 years behind the PC version. I am enjoying my switch to a MAC operating system but will not continue with QB for MAC. Actually, I am shocked that Intuit allows something so problematic to be on the market. For this reason I will not likely trust Intuit on much else in the future. They have caused me a year of misery and errors for all my clients. I am constantly on the phone with support for fatal program errors that cost me time and aggravation. Intuit is, in my mind, a crap company to put this on the market!

Unknown said...

Don't buy it -Mine crashed 5 times the first day -at least they refunded me. Quickbooks for Mac 2009 is horrible.