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Quickbooks: the missing link for small business Linux (NewsForge)
Robin 'Roblimo' Miller
suggests that the lack of the QuickBooks accounting package on
Linux is preventing many businesses from migrating away from Microsoft platforms.
"Last week I was talking with a small business IT consultant who switches clients' servers to Linux (and Samba) all day long without any problems, but finds few clients interested in moving their desktops to Linux. The reason? "QuickBooks," he said. While there are many small business accounting packages that happily run on Linux, including GnuCash, Quasar, SQL-Ledger, and AccPac, QuickBooks dominates this market. And its loyal users don't want to switch to another package even if it's just as good as -- or possibly better than -- QuickBooks."
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Quickbooks: the missing link for small business Linux (NewsForge) Posted Dec 16, 2004 19:34 UTC (Thu) by bdw (guest, #16047) [Link] It's possible to bridge the gap by running Quickbooks via Crossover Office while migrating to GNUCash or SQL Ledger. It may not be cost effective though. :(
Quickbooks: the missing link for small business Linux (NewsForge) Posted Dec 17, 2004 0:16 UTC (Fri) by freeid (guest, #22401) [Link] Hopefully the open source programs flourish or new ones come up. Intuit's prices, sunset policies, customer dis-service is appalling. They just had first-mover advantage and a huge installed customer base.
People would give a lot to get away from Intuit. Unfortunately the competition, Great Plains, Peach Tree, etc. just don't cut it.
Quickbooks: the missing link for small business Linux (NewsForge) Posted Dec 17, 2004 10:57 UTC (Fri) by klokwurx (guest, #18815) [Link] I couldn't agree more with the comments about Intuits arrogant approach to customer (dis)service, and the desire to see GnuCash flourish.I ran my incorporated company accounts on Quickbooks for 5+ years, (3 of them happily) but then the introduction of forced links to their site, their pompously aggresive attitude towards upgrades (sic)"Take this or else we remove your access to somethign you've grown to rely upon", and their complete disinterest in customer service, finally pushed me to the point where I said enough is enough. We now run our primary ledger tracking using GnuCash and have gone back to manual payroll. At least I am now back in charge of my own accounts. QuickBooks... you can keep it;...give me GnuCash and our manual process anyday. Interestingly, my accountant was never happier than when we kicked QuickBooks to the kerb. He positively hated our year-ends and always had to spend 2-3 days making manual ledger reconciliations before he would sign-off the books.
Quickbooks: the missing link for small business Linux (NewsForge) Posted Dec 16, 2004 19:57 UTC (Thu) by gurulabs (subscriber, #10753) [Link] Our company, Guru Labs, uses NetSuite Small Business. It is an extremely powerful web based accounting package.Website at: http://www.netsuite.com/ We migrated from QuickBooks in 2000 to NetSuite Small Business (at the time called, NetLedger). We use it for several hours each day and it works flawlessly with Mozilla/FireFox plus a pdf reader.
Quickbooks: the missing link for small business Linux (NewsForge) Posted Dec 16, 2004 19:58 UTC (Thu) by gurulabs (subscriber, #10753) [Link] BTW, NetSuite is owned by Oracle.
Quickbooks: the missing link for small business Linux (NewsForge) Posted Dec 16, 2004 20:01 UTC (Thu) by lwn@vendor.thewrittenword.com (subscriber, #6363) [Link] No, it is not owned by Oracle. They had a partnership agreement but that has since ended.
Quickbooks: the missing link for small business Linux (NewsForge) Posted Dec 16, 2004 19:59 UTC (Thu) by gurulabs (subscriber, #10753) [Link] I forgot to mention that it can import a QuickBooks data file, so migration can be done in minutes.
Quickbooks: the missing link for small business Linux (NewsForge) Posted Dec 16, 2004 20:42 UTC (Thu) by DopeyDad (guest, #26726) [Link] Wow -- this is eerie. Just before I came to LWN.net to check out today's headlines, I visited codeweavers.com to check on the status of QuickBooks Pro. Still "Bronze" ;^(
I've swapped emails with Jeremy White, CodeWeavers' head honcho, trying to get him to understand what a key application this is, but they don't seem to get it.
My advice: Visit their QuickBooks status page at http://www.codeweavers.com/site/compatibility/browse/name... and click on the "I need this app to run" link and register your interest.
This is the one app that I don't think has any close competition in the linux world.
Quickbooks: the missing link for small business Linux (NewsForge) Posted Dec 16, 2004 20:53 UTC (Thu) by freethinker (guest, #4397) [Link] ...and click on the "I need this app to run" link and register your interest.
If, that is, you are No free lunches at CW apparently.
Quickbooks: the missing link for small business Linux (NewsForge) Posted Dec 17, 2004 18:36 UTC (Fri) by larryr (guest, #4030) [Link] It does not appear to cost money to create a customer account to vote with. Larry
It's not just Quickbooks, it's TurboTax Posted Dec 16, 2004 21:08 UTC (Thu) by havoc (guest, #2261) [Link] The problem seems to be tax filing. People generally roll TurboTax into their "Quickbooks" thinking. Come March, you fire up the TurboTax you just pulled out of your mailbox (which you paid for in your Quickbooks Pro bundle), and shortly there after, you're taxes are done, and filed electronicly.
SQL-Ledger actually has a lot of advantages over Quickbooks Pro, but it won't "do your taxes for you."
It's not just Quickbooks, it's TurboTax Posted Dec 16, 2004 22:04 UTC (Thu) by smoogen (subscriber, #97) [Link] I think it goes beyond taxes to branding loyalty. The people who use this are going to be people who do not take risks by nature. People in accounting who do get wiped out pretty quickly and some get to do hard-time :). So they usually end up being the last group to head towards many trends, and when they are on a trend it takes a major crisis for them to want to switch.
It is very much a heinz market (to steal from Bob Young)... no matter how much of it is Tomato Paste and Corn Syrup.. they will buy Heinz over generic because they psychologically feel better in doing so.
To change that you either bring Quickbooks+TurboTax directly to Linux or find a major flaw in TurboTax that will cause the market to truly think of alternatives.
It's not just Quickbooks, it's TurboTax Posted Dec 16, 2004 23:40 UTC (Thu) by British (guest, #19768) [Link] We are a little software engineering company in Australia and have to run m$ on a machine so we can run quickbooks pro 2004. We have GST(goods and services tax) here and need todo quarterly statements to the tax office and our accountants use it so it makes life simple. I really wish Inuit would take linux seriously but they don't, hell they don't even take other browsers seriously you need IE installed to run 2004 sigh :(
Quickbooks: the missing link for small business Linux (NewsForge) Posted Dec 16, 2004 22:04 UTC (Thu) by pksings (guest, #93) [Link] The real double standard in this is that Intuit uses Linux extensively in their own operations. And have some seriously good linux expertise working for them.
I emailed their customer support and informed them that as a linux user, I will not spend another dime with them until they have a version I can use with linux. That includes purchasing of checks and other financial supplies. It seems to me that the nice asking for linux versions has not worked so I'm going to vote with my wallet. Maybe they'll understand that.
PK
Quickbooks: the missing link for small business Linux (NewsForge) Posted Dec 16, 2004 22:08 UTC (Thu) by pksings (guest, #93) [Link] Sage thought that they had the Windows midrange market. Then M$ purchased Great Plains. So much for that.
I wonder if the financial numbers being in the red except during tax season is normal. I'm guessing that it is, they make a lot of money off of electronic filings.
Quickbooks: the missing link for small business Linux (NewsForge) Posted Dec 17, 2004 1:28 UTC (Fri) by blayne (guest, #19468) [Link] I run QuickBooks Pro 2000 under CrossOver on my Linux laptop. I have tried to convince Intuit to create a Linux version. No luck. I've tried to convince CrossOver to support QB better. The data part is secure and it does everything I need (printing invoices & checks, etc.), but the user interface is awful, with buttons missing and no help. I even signed up to pay to have CrossOver implement Gold support instead of Bronze. Several months ago, they said they would. Nothing yet.
For the last two years I've been saying that QB is the biggest thing keeping small businesses from switching to Linux.
Two days ago I realized I hadn't looked at GnuCash in a while. I checked it out and was pleased to see that it almost has a QuickBooks import, and it now does many of the things a small business needs, including accounts payable, accounts receivable, and payroll. At the rate it's going, I'll be switching to GnuCash before there is any decent QB support. It'd be great to have a decent open source accounting package for Linux.
BTW - I'm currently surfing around as a form of procrastination. I'm supposed to be entering a lot of old accounting data into QB, but I hate accounting.
No it isn't just QB, it's the services too Posted Dec 17, 2004 1:53 UTC (Fri) by huffd (guest, #10382) [Link] It must be a drop-in QB replacement or it won't fly, that includes the payroll tax table updates and the ready access to CheckFree with the ability to handle all of the bank imports.We must run QB on VMware until something from the Linux side matures.
Tried Quasar? Posted Dec 17, 2004 3:53 UTC (Fri) by Webexcess (subscriber, #197) [Link] I've been seriously considering switching to Quasar Accounting and Point of Sale. Their prices are much more reasonable and the software does most of what I need.
Their next release is supposed to be partially "open source" and is expected in early 2005, so I'm holding my wallet until then. I'd love to have something completely open source.. but business accounting software will never be a really sexy project I'm afraid.
Tried Quasar? Yes, needs better reporting Posted Dec 18, 2004 15:42 UTC (Sat) by peace (guest, #10016) [Link] We use the basic Quasar accounting package for general accounting and customers quotes and invoices (Quasar: www.linuxcanada.com). The one primary complaint our accountant has is the lack of reporting capabilities. Other than that she is quite pleased.
Quickbooks: the missing link for small business Linux (NewsForge) Posted Dec 17, 2004 7:46 UTC (Fri) by mcatkins (guest, #4270) [Link] I agree wholeheartedly with previous posters - I have to fire up VMwarewhenever I do accounts...
But, one thing noone has mentioned: I do my company tax return by emailing
Thus, if I change from QuickBooks, the new system must
1) be able to *export* data reliably in a form my accountant can deal with
OR
2) be *so* nice, I can convince my accountant to start using it too!!!
BTW: my accountant doesn't like QB, very much... is that common?
Quickbooks: the missing link for small business Linux (NewsForge) Posted Dec 17, 2004 11:05 UTC (Fri) by klokwurx (guest, #18815) [Link] You said your Accountant doesn't like QuickBooks very much and asked if that was common. "Yes" is I think (from my experience) the answer ... it is common. Ours *loathed* QB (with a vengeance), and every quarter (and especially year-end) almost begged me to stop using it.
Quickbooks: the missing link for small business Linux (NewsForge) Posted Dec 17, 2004 20:49 UTC (Fri) by TimCunningham (guest, #10316) [Link] Can something like this solve that problem? (I've never used it, so I don't know, but I ran into it today and remembered your comment)
Quickbooks: the missing link for small business Linux (NewsForge) Posted Dec 18, 2004 12:39 UTC (Sat) by mcatkins (guest, #4270) [Link] Maybe. But it looks as if the support for the business-oriented features of Quicken/Quickbooks might still be weak.
Quickbooks: the missing link for small business Linux (NewsForge) Posted Dec 17, 2004 8:02 UTC (Fri) by mcatkins (guest, #4270) [Link] The other reason why GnuCash isn't used more by businesses in Europe:Try searching www.gnucash.org for "VAT" !!!
Nothing found!
Quickbooks: the missing link for small business Linux (NewsForge) Posted Dec 17, 2004 11:12 UTC (Fri) by klokwurx (guest, #18815) [Link] Look in Appendix-C under "UK VAT" ... it is there. Basically youjust set up VAT accounts in GnuCash like any other form of input and output taxation. The appendix even tells you how to set up the accounts to mirror the VAT Return Form boxes so you just tranfer the numbers to the Return.
Quickbooks: the missing link for small business Linux (NewsForge) Posted Dec 18, 2004 12:40 UTC (Sat) by mcatkins (guest, #4270) [Link] Ahh. Now why doesn't searching their website find this...
Thanks for the pointer!
Quickbooks: the missing link for small business Linux (NewsForge) Posted Dec 20, 2004 5:21 UTC (Mon) by mcatkins (guest, #4270) [Link] OK - I've checked it now...
The Appendix is very helpful, but I could hardly say that it makes VAT
Thanks.
Quickbooks: the missing link for small business Linux (NewsForge) Posted Dec 18, 2004 9:23 UTC (Sat) by ThePythonicCow (guest, #11308) [Link] I have the same issues on the personal accounting side, with Quicken.Intuit (and Microsoft) have been pushing the banks, credit card and bill payment companies hard to upgrade to new interfaces, and I rely on this to get transactions downloaded. I look longingly at Gnucash once or twice a year, but don't trust that they are keeping up here, or really even can keep up. This rapid evolution and complication of critical interfaces both locks in customers, and forces me to upgrade to the latest Quicken releases, on whatever schedule Intuit dictates. And it forces me to keep a Windows box healthy. Intuit likely feels _no_ threat from Microsoft on the Linux side, so Intuit can neglect that market. It's not likely that Microsoft will outflank Intuit in the market for Linux financial software. It would take a big company, that could play with the top Credit Cards (MC, Visa, Amex, ...), the top banks, and the top billers (such as phone and electric companies) that also cared about wider penetration of Linux in small businesses and individuals with higher cash flow and computer savy. IBM anyone?
Quickbooks: the missing link for small business Linux (NewsForge) Posted Dec 20, 2004 14:16 UTC (Mon) by cpm (guest, #3554) [Link] If there is one place I feel that the "air gap firewall" is appropriate,it is between my book keeping and the financial institutions that I have to deal with, Esp those that want all of my money. There are those who tend to err in their own favor, such as the CC companies, and other rent seekers.
No, the lack of a paper trail is not something that I consider a feature.
"If you are on their side, and they are on their side, who is on
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