Entered CNET Catalog: 03/09/2005
SKU: CNETQUICKBOOKSONLINE
Manufacturer: Intuit Inc.
Manufacturer description
QuickBooks: Online Edition lets you organize your company's financial information all in one protected place and manage it over the Web from anywhere, any time, with anyone.User opinions
Select a User Opinion to view: 1 2 3 4
User Rating: 
2/10
BAD PRODUCT, BADLY DESIGNED, SUPER SLOW, UNSTABLE
Pros: REMOTE ACCESS- BUT SLOW (APART FROM NET SPEED)!
Cons: SLOW, BUT NOT FROM CONNECTION, BUT FROM INTERFACE DESIGN
It is way too slow- and the internet connection is the least of its problems. Even if you had the fastest connection in the world the design of the interface is what makes it slow. If you enter in whole bank statements at a time or more than 3 transactions a day, it?s a headache. Example: To move from one line to the next in a deposit screen, you can?t just press the arrow key, you have to use the mouse (tab key does work- but only in one direction). Even with high speed internet, there were times that I spent quit a bit of time on a screen; only to have the data lost due to some kind of connection error. Furthermore you can?t open multiple screens at a time; the only go-around is to open multiple browsers, which is the real basis of the problem. Internet browser programs are extremely slow and unreliable and prawn to crashing and losing data. There is no high speed internet available on the consumer level that would make a browser program as fast as the desktop version.
Other problems with QuickBooks online- No exporting or memorizing of reconciliation reports; no importing any data; only being able to use electronic banking with their handpicked accounts; no setting up multiple files on one account like you can do on the desktop version- each company is a separate $45/month charge; no electronic bill pay; only one vertical shortcut menu- no horizontal shortcut menu like in the desktop version; and my biggest problem with QuickBooks, both desktop and online versions, you can?t customize security levels of different users! This is the only financial bookkeeping program that does not allow you to customize what you want an additional user to be able to view, access, or change in your book!
In conclusion the fastest and most reliable way to work remotely in QuickBooks is to use the desktop edition and access the file through some kind of network. This would require you to have a server at your main location. I considered QuickBooks online because I didn?t want to operate my own server. There are programs out there, that instead of offering an online browser based program, offer their server for you to access a company file- one such example is ?MyBooks? (who I?m not thrilled about for other reasons- but that?s a different review). Why QuickBooks doesn?t do this instead, I don?t know.
I would only recommend this product to high charging consultants that only work with two or three customers at a time, and have only a handful of projects a year. But even if that describes you, I would imagine that you?d have plenty of expenses to enter in, and trust me, it won?t be fun.
User Rating: 
4/10
Intuit Products not Secure
Pros: Good for Doing Accounting
Cons: Spyware can Access Files
User Rating: 
8/10
Good product!
Pros: A good basic, low-cost accounting software product for a small business on the go!
Cons: Not a full-service accounting software program
User Rating: 4/10
No import or export abilities!
Pros: No software to upgrade, easy to access via web
Cons: Can't import bank or cc statements
