QuickBooks Pro 2008

A few small improvements, but mostly just more of the same

Another year, another version of QuickBooks from Intuit. Every time they release a new version I’m hoping that it’s the one that’s going to fix all of the little annoyances with previous versions, and every time I end up with the distinct impression that some things never change.

QuickBooks Pro 2008 certainly isn’t worse than previous versions, and it does offer some improvements over previous QuickBooks releases. In the end, though, the improvements just aren’t really enough to impress and probably aren’t worth the cost of upgrading.

The new features aren’t bad, per se. They’ve improved the importing of data from Microsoft Excel a bit, and they’ve added a conversion tool which lets you convert and import data from a wide variety of other accounting programs. Quicken, Peachtree, Microsoft Small Business Accounting, and Microsoft Office Accounting can all have their data imported, which is useful if you’re switching to QuickBooks or are trying to sync your data up between two different programs.

They’ve also added additional tutorials, easier setup questions to get you started faster, and a “coach” mode which helps you to learn how to do what it is that you’re wanting to do. All of these are very positive features in any accounting program, and make for a positive experience if you’re a first-time user of QuickBooks.

Unfortunately, the rest of the program is pretty much just more of the same. It’s difficult to format reports out of the way that QuickBooks displays them (exporting to Excel and then formatting them there is the quick and easy solution), and several bugs or inconveniences that were present in previous releases are still there in the new version. As with most programs, the “Help” menu isn’t much help at all… chances are if you can’t figure out how to get the program to do something, then the plain and simple answer is that it just doesn’t do what it is that you’re wanting it to do.

The “Help” menu does offer the “Make a Suggestion” option so that you can suggest to Intuit things that might be included in later releases, but that doesn’t really help you with any problem that you’re having with the program now and makes it feel more like an extended beta test than a true release version of QuickBooks. I’ve even read online where some people have called telephone support in order to try and get additional help and were pretty much told that they should make a suggestion to help fix the problem in future versions.

Ideally, QuickBooks Pro 2008 would be best suited for a beginner who is in need of accounting software and who isn’t going to ask a whole lot of it. If you’re in that situation, though, it’s likely that you’ll be able to find a cheaper software solution that can do the same things that you need without the bloated price tag associated with name-brand software. If you need more than just the basics, then stick with Microsoft Office Accounting or a more flexible software than this one. I can’t recommend the upgrade, and also can’t recommend it as a full version purchase.

Review by Cynthia Harmon