11 QuickBooks Features That Suck Or Don't Exist

| 4 min read

11 QuickBooks Features That Suck Or Don't Exist

I thought a top 10 list would be great but since there are so many I've decided to go with 11 to show how ridiculous Intuit is with their program in certain areas. I've been working in QuickBooks longer then most of the world's population now. I'm in this environment about
35hours a week which is something I don't necessarily like to admit but I do enjoy bookkeeping. That's not to say I enjoy everything about it. Intuit always seems to find ways to make my life more difficult.

Don't get me wrong, QuickBooks as a program has come leaps and bounds since I first started using it. However, there are still a number of everyday features that seem to get under my skin every time I run into them or realize that they're missing. As to why Intuit has decided to opt against me on these points, who knows.

I do hope some of you can prove me wrong and that some of these issues have in fact been fixed. I use QuickBooks 2013 all the way to 2009 depending on the client. I may run into these issues regularly but forget they've been fixed in another version. But enough of that, let's jump into the thick of it...

  1. Improve the Environment - Intuit, you've made it too big in 2013 and are trying to force this idiotic side bar on the left to the users. Albeit this isn't as much of a disaster as Windows 8 (nothing is), it still throws every user I know for a loop because it doesn't feel natural. I'm thankful that at least this feature is customizeable. I also like a small 8-9 point font to fit more data on the screen, think 2012 and prior. Some users like the larger font but give us the option to change the sizing and spacing, programs aren't a one size fits all deal.
  2. Inability to do Arithmetic in Online Banking - When I'm in the online banking screen splitting up line items to different classes or jobs I can't divide, add, subtract, or multiply. Why has this feature never been added? Instead, I have an external calculator on my desktop to do all the arithmetic for me. The time wasted because this feature doesn't exist blows my mind.
  3. QuickBooks Payroll Online Conversion to Desktop - I've had this happen to me more then I'd like to recount. Sure, I can import my files over to the desktop but there's no way to import the payroll data if the client opted to use QuickBooks Payroll Online. Figure this one out Intuit because all I see here is another reason to not use your payroll service.
  4. Would you like to pay off this balance? NO! - QuickBooks, why do you ask me every time I reconcile a mortgage, loan, or credit card whether I want to write a check or bill to pay off the balance? No, I don't want to write a check for $300,000 to pay off the mortgage. Don't you not think I have an ACH setup monthly for the mortgage or I would rather pay my credit card through the card providers website? Turn this feature off please.
  5. No Class Warning In Online Banking - I can't even begin to tell you the amount of hours spent going back after a 300 item online banking
    import and failing to input any class tracking. When I tell QuickBooks that I'd like to be warned when I failed to class an expense or income I better be told this before I add 300 items to my check register without classes.
  6. No Class Warning When Making Deposits - Not only did you fail once with class tracking warnings but you've failed again with the deposits. If you forgot to put a class into the income line with your deposit QuickBooks will not tell you if you've failed to class the item.
  7. No ESC Button for Online Bill Pay - When I'm researching payments made via online Bill Pay and I decide to open a check which was generated from the QuickBooks Online Bill Pay the program does not let a user hit the esc button to leave this screen. What gives, are you just trying to annoy me?
  8. Job Costing in Online Banking - QuickBooks Online Banking without a shadow of doubt makes me efficient in QuickBooks but it's definitely not feature rich by any means. For instance, when I'm in the online banking add multiple screen QuickBooks has given me no way of also specifying whether I would like to add a job to the expense, thanks for creating more work Intuit.
  9. Mac for QuickBooks - A dumb downed completely different version of QuickBooks that actually costs more to buy compared to QuickBooks Pro. QuickBooks for Mac is the biggest joke Intuit currently puts out. I don't even understand how they even call it QuickBooks, give it a new name so I can stop explaining to folks why they need a PC for the correct version of QuickBooks.
  10. Get Rid of Proprietary QBO - Seriously? All of these files are run from a simple spreadsheet guideline, why do you find it necessary to charge banks for this download? Standardized this download please, having to convert CSV files to QBO files every week is growing old.
  11. The Inability to Assign Hot Keys - Last but not least is my be all end all most frustrating gripe, the inability to assign hot keys. Intuit you must have your reasons but the inability for me to assign hot keys to my own shortcuts is ridiculous.
Well, there you have it, 11 features that currently piss me off in QuickBooks. I hope my friend at Intuit reads this one and he takes some notes. My biggest problem with most of these features is that the mostly all
 relate back to saving time. QuickBooks doesn't necessarily lack the functionality to reach the end goal of classing all items on my P&L correctly or having hot keys. What they've failed at from my perspective is realizing where they can help people save more time. A product is never perfect and Intuit needs to realize this. 
At the end of the day though you just need to work with what you've been given and to be honest it's not all that bad. I still highly reccomend QuickBooks for Desktop to every small business owner and could never see myself going to any other accounting program currently out there. Cheers Intuit, just fix these problems please and stop getting under my skin.
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