None of my blog posts here have received more comments than the one I wrote on QuickBooks 2009. I said, in short, that it sucks. And it does. In fact, it sucks so bad that I expect that we will see some major changes in the next version, if you are willing to pay for yet another upgrade.
I recently noticed an interesting workaround to one of the biggest points of "suckage" in QB 2009, which is the Online Banking center. Oh boy, does it ever suck. Like a ten-year-old trying to get the last little bit out of the bottom of a milkshake.
I use account numbers. However, if you have account numbers turned on, the QuickFill function doesn't work in Online Banking. It still works in plenty of other places, but they changed the way Online Banking works and for some reason they refuse to change it back. So they broke it, they know how to fix it, but they refuse to do so. Go figure.
Recently, though, I noticed a new tab on the Edit Vendor screen. I don't know if this has been there all along or if it just showed up during a patch. Either way, it does create a workaround. It's called "Account Prefill." Fill in the account (QuickFill works just fine here; again, go figure) here and when you download your transactions in the Online Banking center, the account will be prefilled for you. Of course, this only works if you don't have a bazillion vendors and you use the same accounts for the same vendors over and over. For example, every time I buy gas, it goes to a generic vendor called "Gas Station." So this just goes to the right account for Automobile Expense or Fuel and Transportation or whatever you choose to call it. Over and over, the same every time. This is fine.
However, if you go to Staples and buy office supplies and a new computer and a new desk, you might have a problem, since that's likely three different accounts. QB allows you to have three different accounts in "Account Prefill," but I haven't played with the function to see what happens if you have more than one. Maybe your dropdown list in Online Banking would be limited to those three?
So, as I said at the top, QuickBooks 2009 may suck a little less, but it still sucks. I wish Peachtree or Microsoft would create an easy-to-use, easy-to-change-to program that would let us communicate effectively to Intuit what we think of its programs, but so far they haven't done that, so we're all stuck.
Z
I gave up on the locally installed options. I spent years helping my father through all kinds of headaches with his local install of QuickBooks. This year that SaaS market has matured nicely enough that I got him moved over and now have my own business running on a cloud-based solution, too (WorkingPoint, though there are also others). Have you thought about moving to something online, or do you have a specific need to keep it installed locally?
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