Customer Reviews

Quickbooks(R) 2003: The Official Guide

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

There are a few tips and shortcuts in the book that are handy but don't look to it to help you figure out how to use Quickbooks to customize your business. There are few examples of how the various features can actually be used and, most dismaying of all, no analysis of how the things you're instructed to do actually affect your accounts.

The time that you will save using the shortcuts in the book will pay for the cost of this tome many times over. Yes, much of the basics in here are covered adequately in the manual but the truth is that even one time-saving idea from this text can easily justify its purchase.

For the power user the are many notes on how to get more from your quickbooks pro. Saving the cost and pain of migration to a more advanced package also makes this text worth while.

There are separate sections for Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, and Payroll. These sections will walk the novice through account set up and statement creation. The Tips, Cautions, and Notes will insure that you will not create conflicts in your books that will befuddle your accountant and cause your audit expenses to rise. Worth the time and effort to read if you use this software package.

As a new business owner, I needed a financial software to handle all my accounting. Quickbooks and this book was the answer for me. The book is easily organized, with an appendix and topical listing and explains enough to me to accomplish the task at hand. While other reviewers find this book limited in detail, as a new business owner, this book worked wonders for me.

This book rates with the likes of Adobe's manuals which are famous for talking about features but not giving you "How to" instructions. (At least it doesn't keep referring you to another page!)
Typical of this level of instruction writing are statements such as-"Use the Write Checks window". There is no such window normally visable. You have to go to - Banking -then choose Cheques. This is a minor example but you get the idea. The book is not "Task Orientated". Yes, there are some step by step instructions, but most of the instructions are in paragraph form and presume you know how to reach the "Write Checks window".
It has a great deal of information and could be useful if you are an intuitive person when it comes to computer programs.

This book lacks the detail that I expect for a companion book to the manuals. It is best described as an alternative to the bundled manuals but in no way superior.

I looked this book over trying to find out:

1)How to apply paymentint with and deal with a non-intuit merchant account (to take credit cards).

No help

2) I tried to learn more about customer:jobs and how to apply a single payment from a customer across more than one job.

No help.

This book handles all the things that one can readily get from the manual that comes with quickbooks, but in a more hand-holding way. That's nice, but I'd like a bit more. The items above should be pretty common problems but they are ignored in this text.

If you are doing more than simple intro things, this book comes up short.

I bought this book after buying another book that wasn't very helpful. I should have bought this one first and saved myself time and aggravation.

This book does the best job of explaining Quickbooks and how it works, and what it does, and why it does it that way, and how to make it do things a different way if what you want to track in your bookkeeping is a little different.

The author not only knows Quickbooks, she knows accounting, and best of all, she understands how small businesses work. She knows that we don't all follow the same formula. By the time you finish reading a couple of sets of instructions in this book, you understand how much more flexible Quickbooks is than you thought (or than the authors of other books understand).

Buy this book and you'll have exactly the books and reports you need. Mrs. Ivens is an amazing writer.

I spent a long time in a bookstore reading through books on Quickbooks when I first installed the software. I knew in 1 minute this was the book I had to buy (from Amazon, it was cheaper than at the store).

Anyone counting on the other books is struggling harder with Quickbooks than those of us who were smart enough to buy this book. Kathy Ivens writes as if she knows you, and knows exactly the questions you have.

Her hints and tips about setting up the software are pure genius. She explains the bookkeeping theories behind every suggestion she makes.

This book is replete with real-life bookkeeping tasks and the best way to perform them - and why you should perform them that way. When she gives choices about doing transactions, she explains exactly what the ramifications are of each choice - so you can make decisions based on your own business, and your own bookkeeping needs.

This is a brilliant example of how to write a book about using software.

The best thing about this book is that it saves you money on accountant fees. The writer explains the bookkeeping processes so well that you don't have to keep asking your accountant to set up the way transactions are handled, you can figure it out for yourself (and it's so clearly explained, you'll be right).

The next best thing about the book is all the tricks to get the software to do things exactly the way you need it to. If you're not a bookkeeper (and most small business owners aren't), some things aren't self-explanatory, such as how do I handle sales tax in more than one state. Not only does this book show you how to set up your books to handle these problems, but the writer walks you through the steps, explaining why you do it the way you do it.This is a bookkeeping education in addition to learning the ins and outs of Quickbooks.

The best thing about this book is all the great information that isn't available from QuickBooks -either the help files or the support site. Miss Ivens shows you how to work around the QuickBooks limitations, how to do things the help files say aren't supported in Quickbooks, and even gives realworld examples to make it easy to do the same things on your own books.

Her writing is clear as crystal and very conversational, so it's a pleasure to read the book. My accountant loved the fact that she explained what QuickBooks is doing in the background with the General Ledger when you create transactions. He went out and bought himself a copy, and is now recommending it to all his clients.

This book, filled with great tricks to get more out of Quickbooks, is also a good basic primer on understanding bookkeeping. This is the only book you need if you're running a business with Quickbooks - you can throw away the books that came with the software.