Has anyone completely moved from QBooks to Excel for their business?

Posted by brickrow on February 14, 2008, 9:22 pm

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I would sure like to---even though some of the pieces are really good,
the greediness of Intuit is really irritating.

It would seem like a bunch of templates and the ability to produce
printable documents is all that is needed. I went from a Word/Excel
method to QBooks about 10 years ago because I liked some of the
features. Now the bloat in the product has seemingly ruined it--at
least for me.

I looked at and studied MYOB and it seems to be OK too, but it also
demands you keep up with the newest release--even though its current
product, as does QBooks, might work just well for you. However, they
too won't even take a pay-for call if the product is more than two
calendar years old.

Just checking...
Thanks
Bob

Posted by Allan Martin on February 15, 2008, 11:05 am

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>I would sure like to---even though some of the pieces are really good,

> the greediness of Intuit is really irritating.

> It would seem like a bunch of templates and the ability to produce

> printable documents is all that is needed. I went from a Word/Excel

> method to QBooks about 10 years ago because I liked some of the

> features. Now the bloat in the product has seemingly ruined it--at

> least for me.

> I looked at and studied MYOB and it seems to be OK too, but it also

> demands you keep up with the newest release--even though its current

> product, as does QBooks, might work just well for you. However, they

> too won't even take a pay-for call if the product is more than two

> calendar years old.

> Just checking...

> Thanks

> Bob

I did and then Microsoft updated Excel and I went crazy. My life is in
shambles, I hear you loud and clear good buddy. Please continue the fight
without me.

Posted by Gil Faver on February 15, 2008, 11:30 am

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>I would sure like to---even though some of the pieces are really good,

> the greediness of Intuit is really irritating.

> It would seem like a bunch of templates and the ability to produce

> printable documents is all that is needed. I went from a Word/Excel

> method to QBooks about 10 years ago because I liked some of the

> features. Now the bloat in the product has seemingly ruined it--at

> least for me.

> I looked at and studied MYOB and it seems to be OK too, but it also

> demands you keep up with the newest release--even though its current

> product, as does QBooks, might work just well for you. However, they

> too won't even take a pay-for call if the product is more than two

> calendar years old.

I agree that QB is bloatware (why don't they let you configure menus for
just what you need, and let the unneeded bloat lie in the weeds?). But,
other than payroll, what do you need to upgrade for?

Posted by dpb on February 15, 2008, 12:04 pm

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Gil Faver wrote:
...

> I agree that QB is bloatware (why don't they let you configure menus for

> just what you need, and let the unneeded bloat lie in the weeds?). But,

> other than payroll, what do you need to upgrade for?

Intuit revenue stream comes to mind... :)

:(

As for the original question, much would, I think, depend on what one is
doing that one actually needs a QB-like product for. A one-person
consulting firm could pretty easily convert to a spreadsheet probably (I
don't follow what an Excel upgrade could have done to the other
respondent's spreadsheet that wouldn't have broken so many other
existing spreadsheets it would have been a patch) that other than the
pain in developing the database structures or the bulk of dealing w/ the
size of separate ledger pages if choose that as an implementation model,
it would seem fairly straightforward.

W/ payroll, product, etc., things start to get more complicated,
obviously. Where the breakeven point would be is hard (as in
impossible) to tell remotely.

My example was roughly 10 years of the single consultant after
"retiring" -- started at '99, updated to '00 and stayed at that point.
Never could get invoicing worked out at level of detail required by
primary client so always exported data to Excel for invoicing, anyway.
As business tapered down and began to work less and less, gradually
placed more and more of actual transactions in Excel and QB became
essentially only a repository for tax summary year end reports.

At this point, have begun trying to reorganize the old QB to account for
the current farming practices and all -- it's debatable that there's
enough return for the effort as opposed to simply making journal entries
on a spreadsheet but guess I'll slog on for a few more months and then
see how it goes before making a final determination...

Some musings---for what they're worth.... :)

--

Posted by Gil Faver on February 15, 2008, 12:24 pm

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> Gil Faver wrote:

> ...

>> I agree that QB is bloatware (why don't they let you configure menus for

>> just what you need, and let the unneeded bloat lie in the weeds?). But,

>> other than payroll, what do you need to upgrade for?

> Intuit revenue stream comes to mind... :)

> :(

the question to the OP was "what do YOU need to upgrade for?"