If you already use Quickbooks on desktop and think this will do the job in getting you online, forget it.
I currently use Quickbooks Nonprofit and use only invoicing, receiving, paying bills, writing checks, account balances. Basic bookkeeping. So I don’t need most of what’s available in all the other versions – next version up is double the price for stuff I don’t need. So this looked perfect. Not.
First off, you will not see in print anywhere on the package that this product will NOT let you import data from your desktop product. No, to do that you need minimally their Essentials product for another $189 (that’s the “upgrade” price). You can import excel or csv lists of vendors, customers, addresses, account lists, but not your nitty-gritty accounting information like invoice and check data. Helpful, huh? So if you haven’t used the desktop version for very long and have little to manually transfer or are OK starting over, it might work for you. Oh – and to import you must use Windows Explorer, not Mozilla or Chrome or Safari. You can use the product on any of those, but not import. Yeah, I don’t get either.
Secondly, I have more than one client that I keep books for. The desktop version allows me to set up and track individual companies. The online version does not – you get one company, no more.
They promote this product as “new” and clearly, they have a lot of work to do to get it up to par on their other products. I really wanted the online for the remote access, but this just doesn’t work. Back to the desktop…
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Thanks for the feedback Swimming in paper. QuickBooks Online SimpleStart is designed for the “Just getting started” business that wants to save time and organize all their finances in one place. The features are streamlined for customers who simply want to organize their finances, keep a list of their customer information, and create professional looking invoices. I’m sorry that this version did not meet your needs. For existing QuickBooks customers, and more established businesses in general, we recommend the Essentials or Plus versions of QuickBooks Online, or the QuickBooks Pro or Premier versions of QuickBooks Desktop available on http://Amazon.com, as you mentioned.
I am a business consultant and I keep running into clients that use this service. It is by far the worst way to spend your money! The desktop versions are expensive, but they have 2 major advantages. 1. You have full power of QuickBooks, the online version at best can do 1/10 of what the desktop version can do and 1/4 of the Mac version can do. 2. You pay once and you are done, yes it is expensive upfront but I’ve seen people pay 3 times the amount with the online monthly fee.
Another thing they do not tell you is it is not fully compatible with any current browser! I was just on tech support yesterday because to download a company file from online to a desktop version you need to ONLY use Internet Explorer 8 and prior. It won’t download the critical ActiveX controls you need with Internet Explorer 9! And if you use any other browser, you’ll find you’ll always fire up Internet Explorer to work on QuickBooks online because it is such a hassle otherwise.
Another fun tech support call was when I was trying to upload a desktop version to online. After waiting days for the process to complete I find out the Balance Sheet is off by over $500,000. No clue where to start to find out what happened. To navigate around the books in the online version is extremely slow and tedious. After making changes and hours upon hours of frustration, I told my client it was not going to work and attempted to covert back to a desktop version. Again, after days waiting for the process to complete I opened it and was not slightly surprised to find the Balance Sheet off yet again. So after wasting weeks and countless hours, we ended exactly where we started.
If you have 1 checking account to reconcile and maybe a credit card with absolutely no potential of growth, sure QuickBooks online will be a 5 star review and work great. If you want to spend your money and have something that is powerful and actually works, please buy the desktop version. I am a die hard QuickBooks fan, and it breaks my heart they would put out a product so painfully terrible.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Authors bio is coming up shortly. 
Not for current users,
If you already use Quickbooks on desktop and think this will do the job in getting you online, forget it.
I currently use Quickbooks Nonprofit and use only invoicing, receiving, paying bills, writing checks, account balances. Basic bookkeeping. So I don’t need most of what’s available in all the other versions – next version up is double the price for stuff I don’t need. So this looked perfect. Not.
First off, you will not see in print anywhere on the package that this product will NOT let you import data from your desktop product. No, to do that you need minimally their Essentials product for another $189 (that’s the “upgrade” price). You can import excel or csv lists of vendors, customers, addresses, account lists, but not your nitty-gritty accounting information like invoice and check data. Helpful, huh? So if you haven’t used the desktop version for very long and have little to manually transfer or are OK starting over, it might work for you. Oh – and to import you must use Windows Explorer, not Mozilla or Chrome or Safari. You can use the product on any of those, but not import. Yeah, I don’t get either.
Secondly, I have more than one client that I keep books for. The desktop version allows me to set up and track individual companies. The online version does not – you get one company, no more.
They promote this product as “new” and clearly, they have a lot of work to do to get it up to par on their other products. I really wanted the online for the remote access, but this just doesn’t work. Back to the desktop…
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|Jan 13, 2012 2:39:00 PM PST
Painful,
I am a business consultant and I keep running into clients that use this service. It is by far the worst way to spend your money! The desktop versions are expensive, but they have 2 major advantages.
1. You have full power of QuickBooks, the online version at best can do 1/10 of what the desktop version can do and 1/4 of the Mac version can do.
2. You pay once and you are done, yes it is expensive upfront but I’ve seen people pay 3 times the amount with the online monthly fee.
Another thing they do not tell you is it is not fully compatible with any current browser! I was just on tech support yesterday because to download a company file from online to a desktop version you need to ONLY use Internet Explorer 8 and prior. It won’t download the critical ActiveX controls you need with Internet Explorer 9! And if you use any other browser, you’ll find you’ll always fire up Internet Explorer to work on QuickBooks online because it is such a hassle otherwise.
Another fun tech support call was when I was trying to upload a desktop version to online. After waiting days for the process to complete I find out the Balance Sheet is off by over $500,000. No clue where to start to find out what happened. To navigate around the books in the online version is extremely slow and tedious. After making changes and hours upon hours of frustration, I told my client it was not going to work and attempted to covert back to a desktop version. Again, after days waiting for the process to complete I opened it and was not slightly surprised to find the Balance Sheet off yet again. So after wasting weeks and countless hours, we ended exactly where we started.
If you have 1 checking account to reconcile and maybe a credit card with absolutely no potential of growth, sure QuickBooks online will be a 5 star review and work great. If you want to spend your money and have something that is powerful and actually works, please buy the desktop version. I am a die hard QuickBooks fan, and it breaks my heart they would put out a product so painfully terrible.
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