Review by RLC

As a user of Peachtree that switched to Quickbooks beacause it was so clunky and my accountant hated Peachtree and used Quickbooks, I find this version to be at least usable. The interface is much improved. I prefer Quickbooks for the reports, intuitiveness, export to Excel, online banking, and much reduced ad pitching. For my use, QB is far superior in these aspects and I can quickly fire of an accountants version of my books for the accountant to work his magic on and then easily reintegrate his changes. These things weren’t as good for my purposes in Sage 50. I also prefer the predetermined business templates in QB.

That said, if Sage were all I knew and my accountant actually used it and didn’t grumble when had to give him paper copies rather than a digital file, I would think it an acceptable solution for a simple small business. As it has an adequate charting engine, the budgeting features are sufficent, and the standard reports are as one would expect.

Tech support is good for both companies. I also prefer how QB doesn’t beat me up with emails and phone calls when the newest version comes out. Sage (Peachtree) was relentless about it if I didn’t have their maintenance agreement for tech support and upgrades. QB sends little reminders every once in a while or lets you know of the new features in new version on the initial popup window upon opening. That said, this is knowledge from about 2 years ago with Sage (Peachtree), I can’t speak to the new Sage until the initial year is up.

Essentially, it will come down to preference in the interface and what files the accountant can take for each user.