QuickBooks Desktop Premier Reviews

Summary: I would definitely recommend QuickBooks to any company for managing their accounting needs. It does the job well and makes easy work of basic and advanced accounting tasks. One suggestion is to run the software from a workstation rather than a server and share the data files directly other workstations - it will run faster and more reliable.

Positive: The QuickBooks desktop product has evolved over the years to a highly robust accounting package that satisfies small or large business needs. It's relatively straightforward to use and easy to manage. Bank integration, accounts receivable and accounts payable work well and are reliable.

Negative: QuickBooks running over a network can have some trouble occasionally and need attention. Issues come up with the QuickBooks Database Manager and related services. Thankfully Intuit provides tools to address sharing issues and permissions which typically fix problems quickly.

I also have had some difficulty with recurring backups. Be sure to test the backup process and make sure it is working consistently.

Summary: Overall, Premier appears to be the most appropriate for our complex business tracking and forecasting but it does take help from our accountant to deal with those issues addressed above.

Positive: Our company has used Quickbooks Online, Quickbooks Pro, and QB Premier. We do prefer premier, as it most resembles the setup of the Pro version, and there is no monthly cost unless you pay for additional services, i.e payroll. Premier is fairly user friendly and flexible in what type of business it is most effective for. There are industry specific features built into Premier, where Pro did not have as much. Also, Pro had more limited reports available for our business (home owner finance/real estate).

Negative: Premier (like any software) has its limitations, especially for use with our particular industry. Regular real estate is perfectly straight forward to set up in QB Premier, but home owner finance (under contract for deed) is quite different and more challenging. In our office, we "repossess" homes every year, due to nonpayment or breech of contract. When this happens, if you are not very familiar with accounting, it is difficult to "clear" a balance owed. Additionally, we have loans that mature and are modified every 3 or 5 years, which requires special actions to modify correctly in QB due to limited loan setting options.