Warning if considering Mac Business - Definitely Not Ready For Prime Time

jimbean2

Given how well Quicken has performed with its Mac Classic and Premier versions, it’s baffling that they would position the Business version as a serious tool for business users. I attempted to set it up for my small business, only to discover it severely lacking even the most basic features needed for meaningful financial reporting. It cannot produce a balance sheet, and the net worth report is no adequate substitute. The sidebar is another frustration, as it lacks any grouping functionality to sort accounts by type. Additionally, accounts receivable is displayed under the vague label, "Client Invoices."

What’s also odd is that the program's tax reports only accommodates businesses that file a Schedule C. Many small businesses, including partnerships, file a Form 1065. It’s disappointing that Quicken has such a narrow vision of what constitutes a small business.

The most shocking issue, however, was that when I downloaded accounts from my financial institutions, the software literally deleted all history older than 12 months for each account. WTF?! How could Quicken allow this to happen without warning its users?

In the end, I was forced to abandon the Business version, reinstall Premier, and restore my accounts from backups. The entire experience was incredibly frustrating and disappointing, not to mention a waste of time. Quicken should be ashamed of releasing such an inadequate product.

MontanaKarl

What’s also odd is that the program's tax reports only accommodates businesses that file a Schedule C. Many small businesses, including partnerships, file a Form 1065. It’s disappointing that Quicken has such a narrow vision of what constitutes a small business.

No, not just schedule C… all business schedules for a Federal 1040… C, E and F. No, it makes absolutely no sense to handle a 1065 or any of the businesses you mention. Won’t happen. Quicken is not a general accounting package, but a personal finance package for individuals who file 1040s - and might have businesses that also file on a 1040 schedule (C, E or F). If you need to manage the finances for a S-corp, multimember LLC, partnership, etc, you need general accounting software. Or, if your usage is simplistic enough, need to track each such business in its own Quicken file as each business has its own EIN and two tax entities should never be mixed in one file in any financial/accounting package.

The most shocking issue, however, was that when I downloaded accounts from my financial institutions, the software literally deleted all history older than 12 months for each account. WTF?! How could Quicken allow this to happen without warning its users?

This has not happened to anyone that I know, myself included. Something is seriously wrong and you should report this via the report a bug feature with your log files etc if you have not uninstalled the product yet.

As to your other issues and frustrations…I agree, but I believe all of those things are on the product roadmap.

MontanaKarl

@jimbean2 About not seeing anything older than 12 months in your registers… which again, did not happen to me or anybody else as far as I know… Are you sure that you did not have a register filter on, such as this:

which would restrict the visible transactions to the previous 12 months (or whatever the date drop down was set to)?

Did you run any reports listing 'all dates' to discover that no transactions were reported prior to 12 months ago?

I just have a hard time believing that old transactions could have been deleted.