Has anyone completely moved from QBooks to Excel for their business?

I did and then Microsoft updated Excel and I went crazy. My life is in shambles, I hear you loud and clear good buddy. Please continue the fight without me.

I agree that QB is bloatware (why don't they let you configure menus for just what you need, and let the unneeded bloat lie in the weeds?). But, other than payroll, what do you need to upgrade for?

Gil Faver wrote: ...

Intuit revenue stream comes to mind... :)

:(

As for the original question, much would, I think, depend on what one is doing that one actually needs a QB-like product for. A one-person consulting firm could pretty easily convert to a spreadsheet probably (I don't follow what an Excel upgrade could have done to the other respondent's spreadsheet that wouldn't have broken so many other existing spreadsheets it would have been a patch) that other than the pain in developing the database structures or the bulk of dealing w/ the size of separate ledger pages if choose that as an implementation model, it would seem fairly straightforward.

W/ payroll, product, etc., things start to get more complicated, obviously. Where the breakeven point would be is hard (as in impossible) to tell remotely.

My example was roughly 10 years of the single consultant after "retiring" -- started at '99, updated to '00 and stayed at that point. Never could get invoicing worked out at level of detail required by primary client so always exported data to Excel for invoicing, anyway. As business tapered down and began to work less and less, gradually placed more and more of actual transactions in Excel and QB became essentially only a repository for tax summary year end reports.

At this point, have begun trying to reorganize the old QB to account for the current farming practices and all -- it's debatable that there's enough return for the effort as opposed to simply making journal entries on a spreadsheet but guess I'll slog on for a few more months and then see how it goes before making a final determination...

Some musings---for what they're worth.... :)

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Gil Faver wrote: ...

I know, simply couldn't resist the obvious...

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the question to the OP was "what do YOU need to upgrade for?"

On Feb 15, 11:30 am, "Gil Faver" > calendar years old.

Thanks to all for the response(s).

The self defined config would make sense, but... I don't use payroll but do use invoices, estimates, payments, deposits, customer lists, item lists, and other components for a service and repair shop.

Why I need upgrades is a good question and may be difficult to answer. However, here goes: First, I am not a QBooks expert by any means.

I support a number of customers who use QBooks and they usually use the most current version which naturally contains all the new things we really need.....I have purchased the service call pack from Intuit which 'allows' me to call them for application problems, which are usually installation related. It used to be that installation problems were rare and pretty well documented. I find that not to be the case any longer and some of the installs need to be done both via QB and Microsoft(.net being an example as is Flash).

I usually can get past windows/ file location/storage/backup issues without a call, but need to call for help at least once or twice a month. Customer pays, they do their regular work and I do the phone time. Works for me.

New customers seem to always have the new product.

I was 'upgrading' to keep pace with what the customers were doing, but, with the $$$$ call in package I no longer need to deal with it. Of course, if I do not upgrade, I am missing out on all the enhancements that I don't need....

The mandatory obsolescence of the product is particularly unnerving and causes grief for people who have a problem and find that QB will not even take a call if the package is more than 2 calendar years old.

I stated my needs above and, while they are pretty basic, I probably need advice from others, hence the post.

I really like the self config idea--hell, they could even charge me more for it! The performance hit alone from 2006 on up is very noticeable for me.

I hope this helps a bit.

Thanks Bob