Entered CNET Catalog: 09/26/2006
SKU: CNETQUICKBOOKSPREMIER2007
Manufacturer: Intuit Inc.
Manufacturer description
QuickBooks Premier Edition 2007 simplifies your everyday tasks and provides industry-specific and business planning tools designed to take your business to the next level.CNET editors' review
- Editors' Choice: No
- Reviewed on: 09/26/2006
Here's what's new. QuickBooks 2007's forms designer now has a preview window that shows changes as you make them. Let's say you're designing a packing slip to include the new company logo. When you check the Bill To box in the Print column, the Bill To box appears in the preview window to the right. In previous versions, you had to print the form to see if your design changes worked. Helpful? Yes. Earthshaking? No.
You'll find similar touch-ups elsewhere in QuickBooks 2007. For example, the Chart of Accounts--used to track how much money's coming in, how much is going out, and how much you have--has been simplified to reduce common errors that occur when you classify expenses. Specifically, the number of expense options has been sliced to 30, way down from 130, and includes only those mostly commonly used. Fewer choices mean fewer misclassified expenses and fewer headaches for your accountant come tax time. QuickBooks 2007 makes it easier to manage sales taxes. Plus, the program will learn how you describe common business expenses, then automatically categorize them to spare you from manual entry.
We tested QuickBooks Premier 2007, whose flowchart-style interface is pretty much the same as its predecessor's, aside from the home page icon for the Google Marketing Tools. Premier 2007 retails for $400 and is designed for small businesses with up to 20 employees; 5 people can use it simultaneously over a local area network. It also comes in various industry-specific editions for contractors, nonprofits, and other organizations. The $200 QuickBooks Pro can serve shops with 10 or fewer employees, with access for up to 3 people over a local network. It's a powerful package, although it lacks some of Premier's high-end analytical tools. For mom-and-pop businesses, the $100 QuickBooks Simple Start provides basic invoicing, check writing, and other accounting essentials.
The new Google services, which have little to do with accounting, signal Intuit's goal to turn QuickBooks into a comprehensive, small-business management tool. Granted, some of these services, such as the free business listing on Google Maps, are something a small-business owner could sign up for independently anyway. More intriguing, however, is the upcoming QuickBooks Product Listing Service, which remains in beta testing. It will allow QuickBooks users to automatically upload inventory information (such as, Tasmanian baby carriages), complete with photos and descriptions. The QuickBooks Product Listing Service then publishes this information to Google Base, which allows it to be searchable via Google. However, this isn't an e-commerce tool. While potential customers can find out via Google where your products are sold in town, they can't buy them at either the QuickBooks or the Google Web site. Microsoft Office Accounting 2007, by contrast, will allow you to manage eBay auctions within its desktop interface.
QuickBooks 2007 also includes the thorough Google Desktop search for scouring transactions and customer and vendor records. However, you can use Desktop to search QuickBooks data only from within QuickBooks, and the search respects permission levels to keep, say, an employee from inadvertently accessing the business owner's private data. Intuit has kept QuickBooks' own search engine as well.
Intuit's support is good yet pricey. You get 30 days of free support, after which assistance gets costly. For instance, a one-time support call is $49, but annual plans are available, too. Intuit promises to respond to support calls and online queries within an hour.
Should you upgrade to QuickBooks 2007? Yes, if you're a user of QuickBooks 2005 (or earlier) who hasn't already made the jump to QuickBooks 2006. But for those already using QuickBooks 2006, it may make sense to purchase the 2007 version only if you're interested in checking out the Google features.
User opinions
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User Rating: 
6/10
They lie on the support plan, you get no priority help!
Pros: helps keep organized
Cons: Intuit LIES!!! Even if you pay the annual technical support program, you STILL have have NO priority in getting technical support. SAVE YOUR MONEY and don't buy any extended support plan.
User Rating: 
3/10
Intuit should be ashamed... slow, slow, slow... buggy release
Pros: Friendly familiar interface
Cons: Slow, buggy, horrible tech support
Even with the fix, the software is unbelievable slow in a multi-user (3 or 4 users) environement.
If evaluating software from scratch, I would stay away from QB. If already a QB user, don't upgrade unless you have to. If you have to, you might very seriously consider a new accounting platform.
Our intial experience un upgrading to the 2007 version was HORRENDOUS. They released it wil major bugs... one of them was the module that dealt with banking and credit card transactions that come in online. We ended up with double and triple entries and multiple crashes. The customer support for this $2,000 peice of software was (you guessed it) from India... and the quality was horrible. No case numbers, no ability to escalate... we were told to do the same thing over and over again which we knew did not work. It took HUNDREDS of hours to straighten out the mess at huge cost to our company. How they could do a major release that runs business with this number of holes, I don't know.
No apology, no compensation, nothing.
My other complaint is that the software runs VERY slowly over our network... which is very high quality (we run VoIP).
You get to make the call. I recently received an offer to upgrade to 2008... are they kidding?
User Rating: 3/10
Poor Software and Worse Tech Support
Pros: Intuit makes it easy to say yes, everything seems to be right their at your finger tips; setup merchant accounts, get checks, just point and click.
Cons: No ACCOUNTING Protocols, you can delete and make a mess out of your accounts in a flash, and their tech support is -10
I have a limited use for the application, Invoice management, Statements, and Estimates. I have two types of invoicing, monthly contracts automated and daily manual; Quickbooks has a problem with this environment. There is only one invoice numbering sequence, so when you use your manual pre printed hand invoices, entering the numbers off of them into Quickbooks, then the automated invoices run, the automated invoices use the same number sequence, so you have to go back through and change all the invoice numbers before you print them; Peachtree used a different number set for automated invoices.
There are no standard Accounting protocols, you can delete deposits, invoices, credits, what ever you want, when ever you want and mess up your entire system. If you really love a lot of work - link it to your bank account and spend lots of time reconciling, trying to match everything up, and if you want some real pain - go for the credit card integration - wee!
I am currently running the application on a local workstation because their tech support could not help get it to install on an SBS 2003 server, and I am sick of spending "HOURS" of MY time teaching their tech staff how to communicate in English.
I even upgraded my software to acquire additional features, surprise I got someone that could speak English - only in sales - gee go figure?
Calling Peachtree today to see if they have made any progress.
User Rating: 
2/10
Disgusting!
Pros: Makes Intuit Richer
Cons: Bigger, Slower, Less Intuitive than '04 version
User Rating: 2/10
awful piece of software
Pros: stable and fast
Cons: not customizable, problems with e-mailing, no batch invoicing, no multi-currency support in the US version
- Also, there is no way to add multiple invoices in one invoice PDF file. The Send Batch function sends all invoice in one message, so you may end up with sending your client 20 invoices in a message. Isnt' ridiculous?
- Why on earth the Canadian version has a multi-currency support while the US version doesn't? Do Canadian are more capable of doing international business than Americans or Europeans? Intuit, stop this **** and try to be smarter in the future.
I will go for Simply Accounting or FileMaker Pro which is the best when it comes to customization.
User Rating: 3/10
Very limited for running your business with but for basic accounting it may work for you.
Pros: Stable in single user mode
Cons: Not stable in multi user mode, very poor customization tools
User Rating: 
7/10
Widely used in business and satisfactory for many
Pros: A lot of users, so support is available
Cons: Technically is not truely double entry bookkeeping
User Rating: 
4/10
Not worth the money
Pros: Easy to learn and use
Cons: Not worth $350.00 to upgrade from 2006 premier.
What really eats at me is the fact that I use the budgeting feature which is only offered in the premier version. And the cost to upgrade from Pro to Premier according to Intuit is worth $200.00. The $200.00 is not worth the cost. I have already decided that this is the last time Intuit will be getting any of my money. Microsoft office Accounting 2007 is just as easy to use in my preliminary results and is worth investigating more. Now is the time to start preparing your company to transition from Quickbooks to Microsoft office Accounting 2007 and send a message to Quickbooks that they are not the only easy to use accounting software on the block. Goodbye Quickbooks.
User Rating: 4/10
good stand alone product, multiuser feature has issues
Pros: as a stand alone product it's very good. New features such as mileage recording helps.
Cons: setting up in multi user mode is extremely painful and in my experience is not working
The biggest issue with this software is getting it to run in a multi user mode. After two phone calls to Intuit it still is not functioning properly. The problem seams to be in the the use of a database server manager that keeps "forgetting" where the company database file is located. This appears to be a bug in their software and calls to the support team has not resolved this problem.
User Rating: 3/10
Multi-ser mode seriously flawed
Pros: Some new features
Cons: Unstable, slow
User Rating: 6/10
Upgrade causes multi-user problems and isn't worth it - Great buy for first time buyer
Pros: A good accounting software
Cons: Multi-user mode/ hosting not so good, also only minor changes since 2004
One major problem is we have 2 companies and now- with the new edition -our server has to have Quickbooks open for multiple users to access the file (which also takes one of the licenses). If 2 users want to work in the other file they cannot.
Trying to talk with a Quickbooks represenative about this issue is like hitting your head against the wall, although they are nice. One will have you install it one way and the other the next way and neither way gets you to a better solution.
Anyway, overall Quickbooks is a good value for the money if this is your first software package, but I don't think it is worth an upgrade even from QB 2004
User Rating: 3/10
EARLY VERSION IS BETA
Pros: haven't found any
Cons: uses more memory
They keep adding non accouting BS without improving the accounting features. If possible I'd go back to 04 or 05 version.
I guess they figure they have to change something in order to justify charging you $400 a year for upgrades.
the only thing positive I've foung is that they brought back 1 feature from 2005 that they had deleted in 2006.
But the program crashes all the time. Sometimes your data is saved and sometimes it isn't, so be prepare to reenter info.
User Rating: 6/10
Needs Flexibility
Pros: Great Reports. Much Faster Than Older Versions
Cons: Needs Check Writing Flexibility
User Rating: 2/10
No one's home at Intuit
Pros: Sounds Great
Cons: No Sales People to take an order.
Three calls, all with the same result.
Bad, bad, bad.
