QuickBooks Pro 2007 for Mac (Mac) [OLD VERSION] Reviews

• Nobody gets more blood per stone than Intuit

  
  By A1BDJK501QH72G on 2006-10-31
  I upgraded to this from QB 2006 for one and only reason: the form layout designer. That's a good thing, too, because that's about the only thing they added to this version aside from recompiling for Intel. I could tell from the screenshots that the layout app was kludgy and awful and rushed to market by a bunch of outsourced engineers who have little to no experience in Mac GUI design, but it was still better than the old method of simply typing in column widths numerically and guessing at how the application was going to interpret them. Is it $170 worth of better? Probably not. It's still pretty limiting with what you can do in terms of formatting (tracking or kerning controls would certainly have been nice since there's no way to tell it NOT to draw the label for each field, thusly making it impossible to pick up the slack with an Illustrator or InDesign built PDF background), and it seems to have a fair degree of difficulty in determining the appropriate baseline for OpenType fonts. You also have zero control over how form rows print, just columns. Definitely a step up, but it has so many annoying little quirks that it ends up being nearly as frustrating as the old method was anyway.
  
  Intuit has also seen fit to drop the once formidable printed manual from this release. Instead of a hefty tome full of in-depth knowledge, we now get a 100 page booklet which dedicates over half its space to installation and setup related tasks. Think they made up for it with a PDF version? Think again. The PDF is identical to the printed guide. Apparently Intuit wants you to use their Help content instead of a manual, which I might not mind so much ordinarily, but the Help files are pretty sparse, and searching for "Layout" in an attempt to figure out how I was supposed to re-order columns on my invoices using the new layout designer actually turned up NO results. Nice job.
  
  Since MYOB is pretty much unusable, Intuit knows they have a guaranteed cash flow with every new release regardless of whether or not they put any effort whatsoever into it. This one is no exception. If you don't need to customize your forms, don't bother paying for 2007. It still doesn't have mileage tracking, credit card processing or any of the other myriad features the Windows version has had for years.
  
  UPDATE: When generating an income tax report for 2006 (detail or summary makes no difference) QB 2007 thinks that EVERY SINGLE TRANSACTION I HAVE EVER ENTERED PRIOR TO 2006 took place on 03/07/06. These transactions are still recorded correctly in the individual account reports, but the figures it's telling me to enter into my return are obviously way, way, WAY off. This means I have to get out my calculator and go through everything manually--precisely the thing that I purchased accounting software to avoid. Good job, Himanshu.
  
  

• Download the trial version and decide for yourself

  
  By APRJDKS9CHS61 on 2006-11-06
  You'll have to search for the free download on the Intuit/Quickbooks web site, it's not obvious, but you can download a 30-day trial of QB Pro 7 for Mac and see if it will work better for you or not. There are about 5 steps to actually obtaining a download (log in at Intuit, request a download, wait for an email, click on a link, then seek out the actual download page you want, then download) but at least you don't have to shell out $160. first. (Note that Amazon had the best price for the new version, NOT Intuit, which of course does not offer a reduced upgrade price for prior users, whom they apparently could care less about). I jumped through the hoops and have been using the new version (trial) for about a week in my small business. Although the forms designer is idiotic in some ways, it does, after about 2 hours of fooling with it, allow you to generate forms and other documents that look much more graphically pleasing than Ver. 5 (my previous version, I skipped the previous upgrade). The forms can now include color graphics and photographs (tip: it seemed to me that importing a BMP file looked better than JPEG or TIF. No idea why). As a graphic design-related business, I thought this was worth the purchase price alone, although I stress the "engineers" at Intuit should ask someone from the graphics department for some input.
  If they'd actually included some additional "upgrade" beyond the forms designer, I'd have gone to 4 stars, but there isn't much else that is new in this release.
  I will say that the upgrade process went smoothly, no hitches. There is a "backup to Windows" option which also seems easier to use than in Ver. 5. It generated a file of over 100 mb. however, so I guess the days of emailing it to my accountant are over. Haven't tested to see if he can open this file on Windows as yet.
  
  

• Adequate, but disappointing

  
  By A1OTPRIV4B4P6T on 2007-06-01
  I originally purchased QuickBooks Pro for Mac (version 4) back in the '90s because I was impressed with the ease and intuitiveness of Quicken and wanted something just as easy (within reason) for my business. After using QB for a year or two, I was very disappointed to hear Intuit had discontinued the QB for Mac product.
  
  Fast forward a few years. After a temporary slump, the Mac is back on top with new and innovative products. I'm in love with my new PowerMac that significantly boosts my productivity. And I'm still stuck with an aging QuickBooks.
  
  Like other "fair weather friends" who abandoned Mac and then returned when it was hot again, Intuit decided to release an all-new QuickBooks for Mac Version 5. This one would run under the new Mac OS X! And... that's about it. While Windows users benefited from several years of upgrades and new features, the "new" Mac version did not.
  
  One of the advantages of using QuickBooks is the ability to bundle up your files and send them to your accountant for review. But not if you were on a Mac. Nope. Unless your accountant also had the Mac version, you were out of luck.
  
  Intuit expected us to be all excited over running QB under OS X and more than willing to pay full price for the privilege. That's right... no upgrade pricing. I couldn't see shelling out a couple hundred bucks for the same tired software with some lipstick slapped on it.
  
  So I stuck it out with QB4 running under Classic OS9 while Intuit released new versions each year. Each one having only a subset of the Windows version features. Each one requiring you to pay full price to upgrade.
  
  I finally broke down and purchased QuickBooks for Mac 2007 for these reasons:
  
  * I decided it was time to upgrade the rest of my
  apps to native OS X and stop using Classic.
  
  * QB for Mac 2007 finally added the ability to
  fully customize forms.
  
  * QB for Mac 2007 finally had a usable ability
  to bundle up and share records with an accountant
  using the Windows version.
  
  * My only other alternative was switching to a
  competitive application that was more expensive
  and more difficult to use.
  
  As much as I wanted to switch to another vendor, I relented and stayed with QuickBooks. And it works OK. The "Layout Designer" is awkward, but at least I can now make my invoices, etc. look as professional as the rest of my business.
  
  But when I decide to expand my business beyond myself, I'll have the problem of how to share QuickBooks with others... it still doesn't allow multiple user access, while the Windows version has for years.
  
  And get this... QB for Mac 2007 still does not have a timer feature so you can accurately time hourly work and add it to your records. I have to time my labor externally and manually add it into QB. The Windows version... you guessed it. Intuit claims there is no demand among Mac users for this feature. Considering how many creative professionals use Macintosh and charge by the hour, I find that hard to believe.
  
  As long as Intuit treats the Mac community like a bad smell from behind a couch, I will be on the lookout for a better product to replace QB. For now... it will do.
  
  
  
  

• Great for Medical Industry

  
  By A3FPSY1M6G7XIB on 2007-02-05
  I read through a lot of the criticism on this site - and I honestly have to say I don't agree with most of it for my practkce. As an owner of a three-person medical clinic, I have found that this version of QBP for Mac does absolutely everything I would want - the interface looks good and works well -- the ability to customize invoices is wonderful. Granted - we do simple billing with no variable rates, no stock prices as someone listed below, and no changes in product (i.e. therapy or testing). Statements look great, bookkeeping takes just minutes a week, and everything is compatible with my accountant. Download the trial and see for yourself if this is something you will use or not.
  
  

• A great program for the business owner that plans on never getting a new computer.

  
  By A5KMMY627T3W on 2007-06-27
  This is a great program, but it has one EXTREMELY annoying issue that has resulted in my decision never to buy this product again. The issue is that if you get a new hard drive, a new computer, or reformat your hard drive, the program will be virtually unusable and unlockable until you go through a very complicated process that thus far has required me to call tech support (located in India) every single time because it is so complicated that it is impossible to remember. They put into place the most rigorous anti-piracy code I have ever seen in a piece of software. So rigorous that even the legal owner is locked out without a key. If you are a small business owner like me, you update your hard drive (either due to a crash or a new larger upgrade needed for additional storage) or you upgrade your system altogether on a fairly regular basis. How many business people never need to upgrade their hard drive or get a new computer? Well, buyers beware: if you have this program, you will be getting yourself into a nightmare if you decide to upgrade your hard drive or change systems. Out of the over $5,000 worth of software I own, this is the only program that causes me this headache. Time is money to a small business owner, and I just don't have 3 hours to spend on fixing this program every time I upgrade my system just because someone at this company has a bug up their rear end about software piracy. merely uninstalling and reinstalling this program is not sufficient. You have to go into about 5 different obscure folders on your computer and either change or delete esoteric bits of data that you can never find without the help of Indian tech support. Oh--and by the way: you only get a little while of free support. Every time after that it costs you money. next time I go to buy small business accounting software I will buy another program or I will go back to handwritten recordkeeping if there are no other decent programs available for Mac.
  
  
• Probably their worst release
  By A3DM61ZR9290TF on 2006-12-18
  This is just a throw away for Mac users. Intuit has a long, long, long way to go to make this software functional. 2006 users, my advice: do NOT upgrade - once you do, you cannot go backwards with your data. Their Windows version is much much better, but I do not use windows. To make my point: They have serious problems with Estimates (showing clients your cost instead of your price), the Find dialog is totally unfunctional (has trouble finding clients and the dialog must be scrolled to enter information), printing Estimates and Invoices do not center on the page and they get cut off (even when you use the align feature), Estimates put 0.00 on every line not used for cost, problems with contacts and email addresses - I can go on and on and on.
  AND, their phone customer support is ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE . . . did I mention HORRIBLE - they have no clue what is going on, while their web site says that these are KNOWN issues AND they do not get back to you when they say they will. This is the most disappointing version of this product ever and I have no idea how they are going to fix it . . . but I am now stuck in it because I can not back save my data.
  Download the trial before you spend your hard earned money and decide for yourself . . . I wish I had!
  
  
• Maccounting
  By A2H68PG1III566 on 2007-03-22
  Most of the world still runs on PCs and as a Mac owner (and lover), it can be tough to find software for basic stuff like accounting. I'm a guy who makes a living making stuff sound good for radio, TV, video games and so on. As a freelancer, I need something to keep track of my business banking, credit cards, expenses and invoices and this program does just that and very intuitively, just like my Mac.
  I used MYOB--a Mac accounting program--but found it to be tricky and didn't end up with the comprehensive reports for my accountant that I expected and wound up going over everything expense by expense and invoice by invoice for hours. It could be that I didn't understand the program well enough, but support is extra everytime you call customer service for help, so no thanks MYOB. In fact, I put off doing most of my 2006 accounting until January 2007 because I dreaded trying to figure out MYOB again.
  Then I broke down and bought Quickbooks for Mac. It did everything I needed it to--a year's worth of accounting in a weekend and I never even cracked the manual. It allowed me to save the year as a PC file to hand to my accountant on a CD. A few days later he handed me back a CD with a Mac file of my adjusted accounting and my corp taxes were done and sent.
  I can't speak for anyone with really advanced accounting needs because I never got that deep into the program, but for my needs it's right on the money.
  
  
• Clunky but popular (I don't know why)
  By A19EES077FPQO4 on 2007-01-22
  I purchased this because my accountant said it is what everybody seems to use. I worked with it for a couple of days and then had had enough. If you started with this and knew nothing else I suppose you would be happy. Problem is I've used MYOB for years and when you go to this product there is a lot missing. It may be popular but then we all know that's not always an indication of what is best for the job. You really might want to check out MYOB. The cost between getting this and keeping it updated and MYOB and keeping it updated is perhaps $50 higher, but then if you are trying to work around limitations, trying to find features that don't exist, that $50 savings fast becomes at your own folly. MYOB allows 5 separate data files with no additonal upgrade, and for me that was where I am, and where I should have stayed. I had tried the QuickBooks trial but never could stick with it long enought before the trial would expire. Buying it did force me all the way thru its paces, it's just it has little to offer. Much of the time I spent in testing it was to try to find options. I'm not sure why most all the operations are menus deep and unintuitive but the time testing it is not in use but in trying to figure it out. Bad software on the surface, bad software in deep. Popular or not, I pass.
  
  
• Disappointing
  By A32T2KWIL39PZ0 on 2007-06-12
  Quicken for Mac works so well. It is disappointing that Quickbooks for Mac does not download bank information as well. Many banks, including Commerce, do not support Quickbooks. The good news is that I can download bussiness bank information into Quicken then import it to Quickbooks. The downside is that it replaces the Quickbooks file completely each time.
  
  
• Absolute Junk - Do not buy this product.
  By A2J9T5SNXEBDO5 on 2008-01-07
  This product looks exactly the same as 6.0, 2005, 2006, etc. and does not work any better and for your money you get laughable feature updates. If the version you have works then do not spend $200+ to upgrade. They say it is compatible with the newest version of Mac OSX (Leopard 10.5) but it crashes on my machine significantly more than the previous version did in 10.4. This is an absolutely worthless upgrade.
  
  The one thing that I was hoping for is not even included and they do not tell you when you buy it. You can not do online bill payment like you can on the PC side. Its cross platform compatibility is an absolute joke. When are they going to step into the 21st century and finally make one file format that works across both platforms? We have been able to open .doc and .pdf files for eons without issue.
  
  Their customer support is an absolute joke. No one there has the slightest clue about mac's or about accounting. You are basically on your own. Their online help is laughable. When the software spits out an error code you can not even look it up on their crappy web site. I think that I would be better off doing my accounting on a paper ledger. After the untold hours of crashing, incompatibility, and thousands in extra money that I have spent in accounting fees because of incompatibility I would be better off hiring my own team of accountants in India or China.
  
  I hate to recomend another product from a company as lousy as intuit but I would suggest running parallels or VMware Fusion (to run XP or some other MS OS) and buy a copy of Quickbooks for the PC. It woks better and has better support... well at least for the first 6 months that you own it. Then they will upgrade to 2009 and quit supporting the version you have. All you will have to do is plunk down another $200 for the upgrade that will probably not give you anything more than the last version.
  
  I also hope that you are not a victim of the version of quickbooks that is deleting important information off of customers desktops. If you are good luck with their brain-dead phone support.
  
  In all my 20 years of computing I have NEVER seen a more lousy piece of software than Quickbooks for the Mac nor have I ever seen such shameless upgrade practices as the ones that Intuit makes their money on.
  
  -Matt
  
  
• watch out for sunset
  By A35U4H8ZCGGNQ4 on 2007-08-06
  I am or was a QB 2004 PC user, FYI Intuit has a 3 year sunset policy that turns off all online features. (check website for a partial list) This includes little things like emailing invoices. Support stated that losing the ability to email was not stated in the sunset policy, but didn't care because it was no longer supported, so even if it was broke they wouldn't fix it. I was told by senior support that ALL products have a 3 year life and will die. - So if you need a long term program, look somewhere else, if you like keeping up to date then its does the job.
  
  
  
• share files with Windows? Well...... sort of maybe
  By A1QLTOZGGEYNV5 on 2007-03-22
  Once again QuickBooks dangles promises to us Mac folk that just don't add up. If you're like me, your accountant and bookkeeper are on Windoz - that's why I was psyched when I thought I would really be able to share my Mac QB files with them, and vice-versa. Mistake #1 - I give my bookkeeper a backup from QB 2006 before I updated to 2007. BIG mistake. QB is not backward compatable. So when my bookkeper sent the file back to me in Mac format, (after spending hours updating it), I was not able to import it into QB 2007. To me, this is nuts. But the helpful tech person we spoke with, suggested that even if it had been '07 this sharing business between Mac and Windows versions is sort of a one time deal. This wasn't intended to be a back and forth thing, between Mac and Windows. Huh? So what's the point? Here's my work-around: I bought a used XP box on eBay and am trading my Mac '07 for Windoz '07.
  
  
• not if you've used qb for windows
  By AM0GBASQZMS4W on 2007-05-12
  If you have taken or considering taking the plunge to migrate from a pc to mac. beware! Intuit has NOT put in the attention to its products for mac. Data transfer is hit or miss, but the user interface is old, frustrating and three steps back from its windows component. I had to keep my pc to run the business instead of migrating to all. Waste of money.
  
  
• Not as good as QuickBooks Windows experience
  By A1I2S55T0R9DTX on 2007-03-14
  We have used QuickBooks on a PC since the 1990's. We loved the way Inuit made accounting accessible for people without degrees in accounting. QuickBooks for Mac is TERRIBLE in comparison. If you plan to use the payroll features, it is unusable. QuickBooks Mac payroll redirects you to the internet, where it is handled by PayCycle (an independent company). Payroll is not integrated at all in the Mac (instead import/export operation). On the PC, it is part of the QuickBooks application. We could not get job costing to work, and the tax calculations made no sense. We were paying TONS of money to PayCycle, so fortunately the taxes were filed automatically. We finally reverted back to QuickBooks for Windows and are MUCH happier with Intuit handling our payroll.
  
  
• Miserable
  By A23DHORLRVQFTY on 2007-08-24
  Intuit has treated Mac users as second-class for years and this release is one more example. There are dozens - maybe hundreds - of things this release of Quickbooks doesn't do that have been available in the Windows version for years. Example? You can't even sort a register in this version! From an accounting point of view...well, let's say it's a waste of money. If you want a professional accounting application for the Mac that most people can use with a little investment in learning, buy MYOB/AccountEdge. PLEASE do not waste your money on Quickbooks.
  
  
• Keeps getting better
  By A3J7MX8QN3817N on 2006-11-09
  I know, every year another upgrade. Well face it, that's the way it is! At least Intuit makes improvements every year (not like Microsoft!)- sometimes they are noticeable (like the very cool layout designer) and other times they are "under the hood" (like the export ease to a windows file and back again to a mac file). Having been a user for almost 10 years and being a major campaigner to get QB upgraded past version 4, I am so happy (and willing to upgrade yearly) that Intuit has a new found appreciation for us Mac users. The best part of this upgrade is the seamless transition for the new processors. I can use it on my G-5 and my MacBook Pro!
  
  
• Better, but still issues
  By A2INGC7OYIO4N6 on 2007-01-12
  Its nice that Intuit is continuing to update Quickbooks. I have been using the Windows verison for years, generally in Virtual PC (SLOW!!!!), and have looked at the Mac version each time a new version has come out. This one finally got enough of the funcitonality to be useful, namely being able to share files with the Windows version (for my accountant) and online downloads. And it was universal binary. So, I ordered a copy and shifted over to it last month. The transition seems to be fine. It read my QB2005 files, and all the data looks good.
  
  However, yesterday, I went to print some 1099 forms. Fire up Quickbooks, go to the print forms menu.. no 1099 item. Bring up the online help, it said to go to the print forms menu and pick the 1099 item.. well, its just NOT there. I suppose I should try contacting Intuit tech support about it, but my last encounter with them, a few years ago, was not exactly pleasant.
  
  So, I dont know what other features are missing, but I wont be surprised if there are some.
  
  
• Going Downhill
  By A523LW0NYIO9I on 2007-02-05
  I recently upgraded with this product from the Pro version of 1998 and in that time they gutted the power of the program requiring a subscription service to process payroll at a minimum of $25/mo when the user could do it before. This is a substantial cost impact for a small business with only a few employees (in my case, the payroll service would cost me $6.50 per paycheck!) Quickbooks makes big promises but is now segmenting their products so as to keep the revenue coming in and costing the small business more!
  
  
• Pile of antiquated junk
  By A3DZISC3KSJ17P on 2007-05-04
  I upgraded from 2005 for only 3 reasons.
  
  1) I wanted a universal binary version for my new macbook pro. 2005 had a habit of crashing every now and then.
  2) I wanted to be able to synchronise my address book with the OS X address book.
  3) I hoped that they had updated some of the antiquated interface behaviour.
  
  The result. I got none of the above.
  
  1) It still crashes. Probably more often..
  2) Absolutley useless. It insists on using quickbook entries rather than OS X address book entries. And given half a chance it will even screw up your address book replace correct addresses with random parts of an entry.
  3) Still an old fashioned piece of junk somewhat akin to my 10th grade COBOL project.
  
  
• Not done paying for it...
  By A34VBQKY7H17Q1 on 2007-01-09
  We got an Intel iMac, so had no choice but to upgrade to QB 2007. Now I understand that to do payroll, you HAVE to pay monthly fees to one of two outside companies to actually do payroll. Only doing a few payroll checks a month does not justify the ~$25/month fee for us. In our older version (QB 4), you used to be able to manually input the tax withholding info and generate tax forms (941, 940, W-2) to at least use as a guideline for manually doing IRS paperwork. Now... no way. You apparently cannot bypass this step and manually enter anything in payroll. You can buy an Excel spreadsheet on e-bay to do payroll, but we are not sure how to tie that in with QB. Intuit does mention this issue in small print, but we did not understand the roadblock this would be to using QB 2007. We are not pleased.
  
  
• A great product, but Mac users get a rough deal
  By A2L42QEWR77PKZ on 2007-02-11
  So why does it get 1 star. Well the PC version can do more than the Mac version. The Mac version is crippled, and for no real reason.
  You can not network this on a Mac (PC supports 5 users, Mac just 1).
  You can not create sales orders & custom price levels (but can on the PC version).
  You can not accept credit card payments in QuickBooks.
  
  I looked at MYOB (you can network MYOB) and at Quickbooks. Quickbooks won only because this was for at home. I use MYOB at work ( we have 7 people access MYOB AccountEdge). The interface on QuickBooks is cleaner. The Invoice LAyout tool a breeze. The option to backup to .Mac is great (for home use)
  When the developers finally stop cutting corners and make the Mac version as feature complete as the PC version it will be a good product. If you need any of the points listed above then choose MYOB and not quickbooks.
  
  
• Quickbooks fails after Quicken experience; MYOB seems better in some ways.
  By A26JY9JAQ2YQ9W on 2007-03-08
  I imported from Quicken for Mac to Quickbooks Pro for Mac and after 3 weeks of trying to make the result work, I gave up. The interface is far less intuitive than in Quicken (for example, entering vendor names by typing the first letters then scrolling through the choices with the arrow keys as in Q) does not work in QB, forcing one to guess at the exact vendor name the first time; and the imported names and addresses do not go automatically to vendors if they have been paid, and customers if they provide payments; rather they all go to an 'other names' list that, with a thousand or two names in it, cannot be simply dragged to the correct list; rather each one has to be edited individually. When I started forming invoices and quotes for customers, I found that QB would forget the customer's address, sometimes including it and other times yielding a blank field. Also the field lengths in QB are often shorter than in Q, resulting in incomplete import of memo fields. In addition, export capabilities are negligible; one can only export transactions and other details in a proprietary format that can't be used elsewhere, unlike Q which exports in a readable and massageable format. Overall it seems that QB has been written by a different company than Q, and to a large extent the programs are not compatible even though the import from Q to QB appears at first viewing to work OK. It is better to start a new financial year with new software and enter all data in again by hand rather than try to make QB use Q data, in my view. I have switched to MYOB AccountEdge at a rather higher cost, and find that this clean start at the financial year beginning works OK for me. The MYOB product is a little clunkier than QB with more fields to fill in and numbered accounts all over the place, and its Q import is a total joke (with repeated questions on where to allocate accounts for each transaction without an explanation screen) so that import of any more than 10 transactions becomes laughable) but its export abilities are wonderful and I think its inventory control is better than QB; also, it has not yet lost invoice addresses the way QB did on me. One has to input addresses in fields before memorizing tranactions however otherwise the memorized transactions in MYOB don't update. I have found that MYOB is about as intuitive as Q when it comes to entry of payee fields etc; while QB has lost that data entry ease entirely. QB may have an advantage if your goal includes payroll however; MYOB seems to have a pretty sad service unless you are prepared to pay all of the taxes yourself.
  
  
• Where's the payroll?
  By A37GO2ZRKNPN7S on 2007-03-20
  I'm currently learning how to use this product; however, one of the first things I noticed was that the only way to do my payroll with it was to use a SERVICE. Now of course, this SERVICE wasn't free and with only 4 employees, the last thing I wanted to do was expend $20 a month on a SERVICE. Wasn't that the point of getting Quickbooks - so I could do it myself?
  
  Now I can understand that tax codes, percentages, etc can vary from state to state, but would it have been so difficult for them to just set up a section with the generalized accounts and have the user input the amounts for each account needed on their payroll checks. See, I'm not even asking them to have the computer calculate the amounts. Simple would have been fine with me.
  
  As for the rest of the program, it looks as though it will be fairly easy to use after I figure out the best way to set it up for my particular business.
  
  I'm disappointed that a Business program designed for the small businessman would omit something as vital as payroll.
  
  
• Big Difference from PC
  By A3VIZK79SG4B29 on 2007-03-25
  This version of quickbooks is more than enough to do the books for most home-based -> small sized company's needs. I have used the pro versions of quickbooks for P.C. as well as the wholesale/manufacturing versions for the P.C.
  I would like to see more mac versions, as we decided to use macs for our business to feel more secure (not running an intel chipset). This "Pro" version of quickbooks for Mac is ok, but since it is the only mac option there is no true comparison other than the p.c. version. So to compare the two, I would say it is equal to or slightly less functional than the p.c. version.
  
  We recommend this for a small company for sure, so if you are purely mac-based, you should get most of what you need within this version.
  
  
  
• No payroll
  By A3O89RKDWQWGYE on 2008-02-08
  For several years I used QB for Windows, but for the past couple I didn't use it and in the mean time all my Windows machines died or were replaced by Macs. So I got QB for Mac. One of the two major things I need it for, payroll, is not supported on the Mac. For those who don't know, the payroll feature is not just about paying employees (I have none but myself,) it's also about knowing how big a check to write to yourself based on what was on invoices; computing withholding; printing your check and the withholding checks to send to state and federal gov't; printing a W-2 at the end of the year; getting a breakdown on exactly what you were paid for. None of this is available on the Mac version. That is absolutely incomprehensible to me.
  
  On the bright side, it did cost more than the Windows version.
  
  I'm so angry at Intuit I will probably not even use TurboTax again.
  
  
• Great app getting even better
  By A23QPQKLXUF362 on 2006-10-12
  Intuit is really adding some helpful features in this version for Mac. Nearly every form is customizable with a built in design tool. The tutorials are very acute. The printing of deposit slips is very helpful and saves time.
  Over all, its just getting more intuitive (hence the name). The reports and the find function are still not very flexible, but they work. Its not perfect, but its a very solid tool that we work in every single day.
  
  
• Some problems are QuickBooks, some problems are Mac
  By A2IKG2DMREHMF8 on 2007-01-11
  I'm a long time user of Microsoft Money on Windows, and spend at least an hour a week entering bank statements, bills, etc. When I bought QuickBooks for Mac for my single-proprietor consultant startup, I thought I would switch to all my accounting with QB. After about 10 hours of pain, I abandoned doing personal accounting in QB, and decided the easiest path was double-entry (no, not that double entry). The pain inflicted by QB was:
  * Can't track current prices of stocks, etc. - just the initial and sale price
  * Can't easily split a paycheck (from another company) into tax, health care, etc - at best, it is a two-step process, after setting up an account for each category
  * Nearly impossible to mix business and personal expenses
  So, it is good for a business with separate bank accounts, separate credit cards, etc., but not for someone who is trying to minimize the time and expense of a part-time consulting business. But, when you pretend you do have separate accounts, it does the expected thing. It encouraged me to open a business checking account (luckily, free), which I wasn't planning to do.
  
  The Mac version is the source of the other problems. My biggest reason for going with QB was because my accountant encouraged it, mostly for the "review copy" option, allowing an accountant to make changes on his copy while I continue to use my copy. QB for Mac, while priced as high as the QB for Windows versions, does not have this feature. So, I will be making paper statements while my accountant works on the books for tax time. At least I can export a QB for Windows version, and import the result (at least, the docs claim I can do this)
  
  However, free software updates come about once a month. I wouldn't be surprised if I get the accountant's copy feature by February. But I'm not counting on it (I imagine it won't show up until QB 2008, if then).
  
  
• Registration takes forever!!
  By A3NLSXGCFI99RW on 2007-11-28
  Registering most software is a process that has been streamlined until it is mostly painless. Not so with Quickbooks Pro for Mac. After buying a copy, I could only open it 8 times before I HAD to register the product - the online registration process failed so I HAD to register by phone. After keying in my license info, I was put on hold for 5 minutes. The agent laboriously re-typed all of my information and tried to sell me more stuff. The agent balked when I asked to complain about this to a supervisor. The software seems OK, but Intuit's system for extracting information out of paying customers is odious and time consuming.
  
  
• Works but very disappointing
  By A113PK8YTB8BFK on 2008-02-11
  I switched from Money to Quickbooks Pro in 2007. It was a tough transition but worth it for my companies. Now in 2008, I've moved from Windows to Mac in a desperate bid to get computers that work reliably and meet our needs without paying homage to "Emperor Gates". The transfer from Quickbooks Pro Windows to Quickbooks Pro Mac has been absolutely painful. This is largely due to the substandard product that Intuit developed for the Mac. There is no accountant's copy (unless you're willing to send it off and then shut down all record keeping, invoicing or accounting while you wait for the file to come back), you cannot share files between more than one computer on the same network, the menus are not as easy to navigate (some options are actually buried 2 or 3 layers deep), the forms are not as easily customizable or turn out looking as clean/professional, and you can't customize the main screen so you have easy access to the features you use day-to-day. It's just generally more difficult to use on Mac and makes using the product even more challenging, and less worth while, then it was in Windows. I feel there should be more disclosure from Intuit about the serious discrepancy between the Windows and Mac versions of the "same" product. I honestly cannot recommend this product to anyone who does more then basic record keeping or works with a professional accountant. This is not really a professional, small business product.
  
  
• Intuit makes Microsoft seem user friendly
  By AMB3N3LVZ3RP8 on 2008-02-13
  The only thing worse that Quickbooks for Windows is Quickbooks for Mac. As users of both products, I agree completely with the multiple negative reviews posted earlier. Intuit's refusal to support bugs within their software is unethical. I'd say criminal, but since we all have to agree to a disclaimer that no piece of software comes with any guarantee to do anything, anytime, anywhere, there's no legal recourse.
  
  When are the consumer protection groups going to wake up and go after software companies for their refusal to take responsibility for their products, with Intuit at the head of the line? When are we consumers going to wake up and tell our accountants to take their requirement we use Quickbooks and give us some real alternatives?
  
  I suppose a big part of the problem is that there aren't any decent alternatives. Quickbooks seems to have killed most of them off - but you might take a look at the open source GnuCash program. Perhaps it can morph into a Quickbooks alternative.
  
  

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• QuickBooks 2007 The Official Guide
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• QuickBooks 2007 For Dummies (For Dummies (Computer/Tech))
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