Thursday, December 19, 2013

Why Quickbooks Pro 2014 Sucks

There is no question that Quickbooks is an AMAZING tool.  If I had to do everything manually that is offered through Quickbooks, I’d be dead in the water with tracking work, billing clients, doing taxes, etc.

That said, I am constantly ASTOUNDED by the basic functions that are not addressed, or the horrible, horrible hoops one so often has to jump through to get things to work.

Several months ago, Intuit “sunset” my version of Quickbooks (2010).  This is to say, they wanted more money from me, so they cut off some basic services (like being able to e-mail invoices) so I could no longer get by with a product that is only three years old.  I can understand sunsetting products because you can no longer keep up support on ancient software (i.e. Microsoft shouldn’t be expected to still be actively supporting Windows ‘95), but to cut basic functions (that require NO direct support to the customer) is tantamount to gouging the customer.

I got another e-mail from Intuit this week that stated “Oh, by the way, if you want to generate 1099’s and you have anything older than Quickbooks 2013, you’ll be doing that BY HAND because the IRS slightly changed the formatting and we’re not going to make the minor changes in your ONLY THREE-YEAR-OLD PRODUCT that would address the situation.”  Pretty douchey, Intuit.  But since I have many, many 1099’s to generate, I decided to pony up the cash for the newest version (2014).

Be aware: Intuit sends out e-mails stating “we’ll give you a 20% discount on our product!” but the product sells for $20 less than that “20% discount” on Amazon every day.  This is to say, Intuit often tries to sell suckers their product for $249 when they (Intuit) are also selling it for $178 on Amazon.

Anyway, I just set up Quickbooks Pro 2014.  On the upside, everything seems to have transferred over without issue.  Again, this is huge, and serious kudos are in order for Intuit getting this part right.

However, the first thing I wanted to do was invoice a customer.  The new setup required me to associate a new e-mail account with the company file, but they WILL NOT let you use an e-mail address that doesn’t have it’s own outgoing SMTP server.  I realize this could be justified by saying they are trying to minimize spamming, but who in the world would use QUICKBOOKS as their spam vehicle (especially when there are so many other FREE and EASIER ways to do it)?!

Like millions of people, I use Gmail to filter all my e-mail (the spam tools and search tools are just so much easier than maintaining your own e-mail accounts on a web server).  It’s great that Quickbooks has updated their software so that you can use Gmail directly from their software, but you can ONLY use your main Gmail address.  In other words, even though I have an account called “info@mybusiness.com”  that I use from Gmail, I can only use “mymaingmailaddress@gmail.com” to send e-mail from Quickbooks.  The only way to use my business address (info@mybusiness.com) would be to actually set up the address on my web server, and this would require setting up a program to check that address (rather than just having e-mail addressed to that address forwarded to my Gmail account).

ANYWAY, this was not made clear until I was asked to enter my e-mail password when sending an e-mail/invoice to my client.  The send failed.  But here’s the kicker… the e-mail window has ONLY two options “send now” or “cancel.”  Thus, there was NO WAY to save the rather lengthy e-mail I had composed to my client!  What kind of freaking nonsense is THAT?!  You have an e-mail composer that doesn’t have the option to SAVE.  Come on, Intuit.

Intuit also now has the Intuit Payment Network.  I’m not going to go into what I think about Intuit getting into banking, but I do think that it’s INCREDIBLY annoying that they have the e-mail composer defaulted to placing ALL THE INFORMATION about how to use the Intuit Payment Network right SMACK DAB in the middle of your e-mail!!!  Why isn’t this information at the end of the e-mail?  Luckily there are ways to turn it off, but there doesn’t seem to be any way to MOVE the information (I actually would like to let my clients click the link to pay me by credit card, but I don’t wan that message RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF MY FREAKING E-MAIL!).

What Intuit needs to fix with Quickbooks:

  • Make it so you can SAVE THE FREAKING E-MAIL YOU JUST WROTE in the compose window (add a “save” button to the “send now” and “cancel” options)
  • Make it easier to edit/move the “Intuit Payment Network” default text  (--I get that you want me to use your service, but putting this text in the MIDDLE of my damn client e-mail isn’t going to get me on board!)
  • When I search for help, don’t direct me to ASTOUNDINGLY STUPID POSTS FROM IDIOTS in your “Community Help,” especially when those posts contain NO ANSWERS
  • Make it so when you view “sent e-mail” from the customer information panel, you can actually READ the e-mail (not just that you sent it)!