macintosh users who want to ( or have to ) useIntuit ’s QuickBookshave plenty of choices — we can launch the Mac , Windows , or WWW app version . One of those options belike pops out as an obvious choice , but as I recently key out , the least - obvious root is sometimes the best one .
My married woman and I are both professional writer . A few month ago , on the advice of our comptroller , we reorganized our small business as a corporation . We agreed to hold out a considerable amount of redundant paperwork in commutation for important fiscal and sound benefits .
Accountants love QuickBooks (even if authors don’t)
Our controller all but insist that we habituate QuickBooks so that she could well reckon and update our financial records . However , I do n’t like that the Mac versions of both QuickBooks and Quicken have for years lagged behind the Windows versions , and I find that expensive annual updates seldom sum up crucial features . of late , I also determine about themillions Intuit spent buttonhole to keep taxation regaining complicated . Despite my misgivings , I agreed to use QuickBooks to keep my accountant happy .
Initially , I assumed I ’d buy theMac version of QuickBooks 2013 ( ) , but when I readMacworld ’s critique , I discovered that the app ’s data files are n’t cross - platform compatible . So if I want to apportion data with my Windows - using accountant , I ’d have to back up my data point in QuickBooks for Windows format and broadcast her that file , which she could then “ repair . ” Once she finished with the single file , she would charge it back to me and I could reimport it . But in the meantime I would n’t be able to make any changes to my party ’s datum , because unlike QuickBooks for Windows , QuickBooks for Mac has no way to merge an controller ’s modification into an existing file . Grrrr .
Well , I thought , I ’ll just buy theWindows variation . After all , I have Windows 7 running on my Mac thanks toVMware Fusion ( ) . But before I clicked the Buy push , I saw the fine photographic print about licensing , which change my mind .
The Mac and Windows versions of QuickBooks 2013 cost the same—$250 — for a single - drug user license . But we would have two users — my married woman and I would both need to work in QuickBooks , sometimes concurrently , on different computers . Whether or not it would have been technologically executable for us to apportion a permission , I favor to stick to the letter of the law . So we would have had to give $ 500 , not counting the cost of future upgrades .
Outwitting file-format foibles online
Then I notice another choice on the QuickBooks site : QuickBooks Online , which is basically most of QuickBooks roll into a Web app . We would n’t have to mess with Windows software , or with exporting and importing data file , and our accountant could get at our data over the WWW , too .
internet apps typically offer less - convenient user interface than desktop apps , but in this slip , the cost won me over . Pricing for QuickBooks Online ranges from $ 13 to $ 79 per calendar month , depending on the features you need . I exit with the $ 27 - per - month QuickBooks Essentials plan , and my bookkeeper was capable to get me a brush aside rate of just over $ 20 per month for a year . This was the cheapest plan to allow multiple user at once . So , for a year ’s worth of Robert William Service for three users , we ’re pay less than one-half of what it would be to get a two - drug user license for the Mac or Windows reading . ( And , although we have n’t yet had needed it , we can also get at our account using QuickBooks Online for iPad ( ) . )
Although QuickBooks Online has all the feature we require , it has n’t been whole smooth seafaring . It ’s finicky inGoogle Chrome , my current browser app of choice . For example , even after instructing Chrome to let the site open soda pop - up windows , most of those windows are far too small and have to be resize manually . Check printing works , but you may adjust only the overall alignment , not the location of individual form constituent — some of which do n’t draw up aright on our check stock . But on the whole , the online version has been okay .
Sometimes the best Mac option isn’t a Mac app
I find it incredible that in 2013 I have to even think about different platforms using dissimilar data file formats . And I ’m astonish that given three options — the aboriginal Mac app , the aboriginal Windows app , or the Web app — the Mac version of QuickBooks turned out to be the worst choice for my business . But our book are in order and our accountant is mental object . And I ’ve watch that sometimes the good instrument for a Mac is n’t a Mac app at all .
