Welcome to the _Denali 5000!_ "Denali" is the codename for our next version of QuickBooks, and we are asking 5000 of our QuickBooks drivers to take Denali ONCE around the track! By participating in this test, you will _help us make QuickBooks better, get a sneak peek at the next version of QuickBooks, and have a chance to win your choice of a 7-day trip to Hawaii for two, a 42" plasma TV or $2,000 in cash!_
To participate in this test, you will need to download and install the Beta version of QuickBooks, update a copy of your current QuickBooks data file, do a few activities and then complete a short survey. You will then uninstall the Beta version and continue using your existing version of QuickBooks. For most participants, this will take 30 to 60 minutes. In case you experience any difficulty, we will have a team of support engineers available to help you.
If you are interested in helping us with this field test, please click on the link below to complete an online Non-Disclosure Agreement for pre-release software. You will then have access to The Denali 5000 website where you can download the software. Because of the large file size, high speed internet access is required. The Denali 5000 is open to current QuickBooks for Windows users only. The online survey is the official entry form for the sweepstakes drawing, and only the first 5,000 users who complete the online survey are eligible for the sweepstakes drawing.
Click this link:
formatting link
If clicking on the link doesn't work, please cut and paste the website address into the Address field in your browser. Thank you for helping us make QuickBooks a better product for you and the millions of other QuickBooks users!
-- The QuickBooks "Denali" Team
Please do not reply to this e-mail. This notification service is not designed to respond to e-mail inquiries.
A single prize will be given away to one Grand Prize Winner. The Grand Prize Winner will select one of the following three prizes: a 42" Plasma Screen Television, or a trip for two to Hawaii, or a cash prize of two thousand dollars ($2,000). To see the contest rules, click this link:
formatting link
If clicking on the link doesn't work, please cut and paste the website address into the Address field in your browser.
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This reeks of an email phishing scheme.
"Dear QuickBooks Customer," sounds a lot like "Dear PayPal Customer," or "Dear Ebay Customer," or "Dear Washington Mutual Customer,"....you get the picture.
For one thing, I don't even use Quicken, much less QuickBooks. I've subscribed to this newsgroup just long enough to post this and see what the story is with this thing.
I received the same e-mail. The fact that a Google of "Denali 5000" does not come back with any reference to QB leads me to conclude that this is a farce.
I am the program manager in charge of "Denali 5000" and I can assure you that this is a legitimate request from Intuit. In an effort to get
5000 people to participate in this exercise, we are offering one lucky winner a choice between a trip for two to Hawaii, a 42" plasma TV, or $2,000 in cash.
If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to email me at chris snipped-for-privacy@intuit.com or call me at 650-944-2635. We look forward to seeing your feedback!
Chris Rabourn
Allan Mart> >I received the following email today...
What a neat idea to send the invitation to non-QB users! One can just imagine the advertising spiel: Tested by 5000 specially selected beta testers to ensure that you get the very best!
I'll bet, though, that not one user who has had the temerity to point out any shortcomings in QB will receive an invitation. This is probably the only basis for selection: Exclude those who may say something true and nasty. Keep one's head firmly buried in the sand so the advancing MS hurricane can be ignored a little longer.
Actually Ken, we want users of all experience levels to participate in this beta testing process. One of the requirements for beta testing a product is that suggestions be submitted. We're not looking for users to say everything is perfect. We value our customer suggestions AND complaints. We want to find out how to improve the product so that it better meets customer needs. The new Denali version 2006 is vastly different from prior versions and we want your input to make it the best it can be. The invitation is open to all. Here's a link to apply:
Here are some of those and I don't need to participate in any beta.
It is unthinkable that a database related application has such severe limitations in terms of reporting (at least). In real life people need to see their data and put it on a piece of paper however it fits their needs and after 30 years of computer software development it is surprising for an application like Quickbooks to be such woefully inadequate in allowing a user to do all kinds of simple and sensible reports.
It is inexcusable that a report on Vendor Open Bills cannot show a column for Customer:Job. This cannot be a simple oversight because in the previous 2 or 3 versions there have been all kinds of irrelevant fields added in the selection list of the Modify Report window resulting in a confusing mess of dozens of fields that most of the time have nothing to do with the report being modified.
So, putting aside for a moment the issue of only showing available fields that have relevance in the report being modified, what is it that prohibits a QB developer from adding a Customer:Job field in a Vendor Open Bills report? Whatever it is it must be something that depends on the inadequacy of the basic software design of Quickbooks and not something that can be corrected or added easily.
If the new Quickbooks versions start using a more sensible basic software design built on a simple relational database model and not an archaic convoluted mess of a flat file database that is now, there may be hope that you can provide a useful software product for bookkeeping otherwise trying to get user feedback on which patches upon patches upon patches upon patches should be added on the next version is useless and a waste of everyone's time and effort.
You don't need a beta to know that a bookkeeping program should be able to sort correctly. Quickbooks doesn't. You don't need a beta to know that you should stop letting inexperienced people mess up the user interface and force thousands of people to change the way they use the program for no apparent reason. Why were keyboard shortcuts deleted in a previous version "upgrade" ? Was that the result of user feedback? Unlikely.
It will be very useful for everyone, developers and users alike, if you start with the notion that users have common bookkeeping needs and
*then* apply your knowledge, talent and resources to meet them with Quickbooks, rather than having completely inexperienced people coming up with some inadequate software feature and then asking for feedback for potentially improving it.
The bill payment process in Quickbooks is another example. Who sits down to do bill payments in a way that the bill payment window is useful? Nobody! And even if someone does, he/she probably has 5 bills to pay per month. Where is the Customer:Job field or the Memo field so that a user can tell which bills to pay by Job? Not all people do bill payments by date, especially in Construction, an industry that Intuit has chosen repeatedly to promote Quickbooks for.
Why not open a Bill Payment window, type in a Vendor name and see all open bills for that Vendor, along with the all important Memo and Customer:Job field, two fields that are ignored repeatedly in many QB windows and reports. Or why not enter a Bill and have a button to pay it immediately?
These are examples of very important features that are missing in Quickbooks. And instead of coming up with something half baked and having betas to get feedback, it would be better to start with what users would need to do their job *and then* develop the software features to meet those needs.
In any case, continuing to use the existing Quickbooks data structure will make any worthwhile improvement impossible to implement, and I'm pretty sure you know this better than me.
A data structure that takes a 185MB for a data file in version 2004 and converts down to a whopping 85MB in Enterprise 2005!!! is a blatant display of inefficiency. Why all this tremendous waste? No beta will ever be able to address this problem other than Intuit's choice to put some priority in product quality instead of unnecessary software bloat.
Why do reports have to refresh when a user changes the header? Why isn't a header accessible with one click as before? Why can't report filters be put on report headers automatically? Why do cash basis reports take so long to complete? Are they searching through tons of irrelevant data (see previous paragraph) wasting everyone's time for nothing? Why do P/L reports have *different totals* when they show just totals compared with when they're broken down by Job? It used to be fine up to version 2001 I think.
Intuit can't fix these problems and dozens of others with betas. You have to ask people what they need to run their business, then you have to develop features to meet those needs and then you can use betas to see if you met your goals. At this point Quickbooks is so inadequate at it's core that any additional patch work is a waste of time.
The spiel at the provided link invites one to apply to become a member of the beta test team but cautions "This is a very popular test so please understand that applying for this test does not guarantee that you will be selected for participation." The expected commitment is to "actively use each version of the software when I receive it. I will complete activities, as instructed, throughout the duration of the test."
Presumably the new beta version is a US version and therefore users of the UK version, such as myself, are not suitable applicants.
May I take it too that the basic design has already been decided, and beta testers are essentially merely being sought to test the decided on design and not to point out long-standing design flaws? For example, the oft-heard wish, nay need, for the ability to:
set default options on menus, and
modify the default QuickReports
have either been heeded or not in the new design, and there would be no point in beta testers re-iterating the need for these features. If my assumption is correct, you are looking for rather low level input, and this may not be of great interest to many users who really could have helped you design a top quality product. Tell me if I am wrong.
Does it now correctly keep cash basis books? Or are you going to put a disclaimer on the box? That it can't be used to keep cash basis books. You would tend to think that an accounting program would keep the books correct as input, not spit out useless garbage, but I realize your priorities on what need to be fixed are much different than your users.
Do the attached Internet services (banking, payroll, merchant, invoice and bill payment) of this version require early sunset of all prior versions? We understand you have to keep all those customer service employees in New Delhi on full employment.
Has it's interface been so mucked up that all users will have to go back to class to get any work done? You have to add value to the Pro Advisor's or they'll recommend the competition.
Have you changed the forms so much that we have to buy new checks only available from Intuit to use it? We know you have got to make money, with recurring fees.
Did you finally dump the flat file database engine and need to know if
5000 people at random can convert their files to a true client server 'nix based multi-user relational database? Now that would be exciting news and reason to join a beta test.
Frankly I wish Intuit would grok [1] Bruce Tognazzini; Then take a healthy dose of NBS Special Publication 500-75 Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 80-600199. When I see this in the product, I'll have confidence in it. Until then, I'll continue to think it is being designed by the marketing department and implemented by the janitorial department.
Come on, spill a little.
[1] See "Stranger in a Strange Land" by Robert A. Heinlein.
P.S. Sorry if this is harsh, it is just I'm forced to use your product day in and day out and this is what happens to my personality because of it. Frankly I'm wondering if I should talk to a lawyer about a class action suit because of the personality change I've experienced by having to use your substandard product.
I definately grok (also a Heinlein fan) what you mean, golden girl. Unfortunately, I am proscribed from enumerating any new features of the Denali version of QB's as it has not yet been released. I would just encourage you to apply for beta testing to find out for yourself and then you will be able to get your feedback directly to the product development folk. Plus, at the end of beta, you will get a free copy of the release version.
I would but for one little problem. Company policy strictly forbids the installation of beta software. It's a firing offense, without written permission. And they won't let me take the company file home because that is a different kind of security risk. I hope Intuit can get enough people in the class that have enough IT smarts to ban beta software, because I think these would be your highest quality data points.
And you have a spare CPU just sitting around that none of your employees is using and the time to reinstall everything on it. Oh yeah, and a QB key. Got to have that so the software license audit people don't get upset. Oh don't forget you'll have to call IT to get that spare system privdegeles to get to the QB directory on the server to copy the file to the local hard drive. Then you have to break the net connection so the system is isolated. IT will have to personally verify this. Now you can run the install program and not really worry to much about what might happen in the beta code. Sorry Allan my company is in business to make products not do free beta tests for Intuit. And rules for the protection of data, not just QB's data, are rather strict.
No 1 Prerequisite for all beta testers: They have to agree to accept that Checks and Credit Card charges are listed as transactions having an Open Balance in Quickbooks.
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