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I am a Quickbooks Consultant. Do not want to discuss costs. Love to use QB.
Nobody says you have to UP GRADE. The job of a Salesperson is to sell.
Are you happy with the version you have now. Each year the newer version gets more complex
In other words, if you bought a new car last year and the salesperson called and told you about the
NEW this years model, it is tempting, BUT
LUCKIEST

I must be missing something. I don't know where whatever salesperson you spoke to was coming up with the numbers you quoted.

You can buy Quickbooks Premier 2008 for up to 5 users on the QB affiliate site for $359.96, discounted from the list price of $449.95.

Here's the link: http://quickbooks.intuit.com/?img=217&kbid=1550&sub=&priorityCode=3969702399

Thanks Humble Pie, that was a helpful answer. While I think that QuickBooks became a seriously overweight behemoth of a software not only because of the extra non-essential features, but also because of poor, irresponsible programming techniques (their data sharing implementation across multiple users goes against most accepted principles, and recommendations), the bottom line is that Intuit stopped caring about its customers, and abuses its hold on the market.

I am considering the alternatives, among them MS Accounting Pro, and NetSuite, and if we switch, we'll probably keep both books for 6 months or so, until we are sure that all business processes have been duplicated. The 1st step would be to try BofA online payroll solution (really, ADP), and see how easy it is to implement within QuickBooks. From there, switching will be easier.

One thing for sure: I very motivated to switch at the moment.

I was a bit off: a 3-user version of QB Premier 2008 is $959.96, 2 more users are $359.96 each, so 5 users come out to $1679.88. Still quite a bit more than a 5-user version of QuickBooks Premier 2006 for $1195, neh?

I am not sure about the incompatibilities that you mentioned. I was the treasurer of an $800K per year non-profit using Windows XP Professional. We used QuickBooks Pro 2003. As of last summer we were still getting free updates from Intuit and the software worked well. We had a CPA on the Board who I asked to check into upgrading to 2007. He investigated and said there was no reason to waste the money.

Well I did say that QB 2006 and prior versions were not Vista compatible, and not certified for Windows XP Pro, but I never said it couldn't work for Windows XP. For the majority users, it works, as it still works for me, even as it poses a huge security risk for its users.

However for many network and domain environment users, nearly all versions of QuickBooks prior to 2007, are incompatible. The reason is, these versions of QuickBooks require local administrative privileges both to install and to run on a networked computer - a huge security risk, a practice strongly discouraged by Microsoft and independent experts, as it opens full access to the computer, to potential hackers, virus and malware infections. Which is why these versions of QuickBooks are incompatible with Vista, and never got a "compatible with Windows XP" certification from Microsoft.

Think about it, Intuit released at least 4 versions of QuickBooks during the Windows XP era (2003 through 2006, at least), and none of them were certified by Microsoft as compatible. And now that 5 years later, they released a certified compatible one, they are asking twice the money. Of course! It makes great business sense!

Granted, the vast majority of QuickBooks users are small businesses who don't follow security guidelines until there someone makes them. Enter Windows Vista: administrative access is strongly discouraged, and unlike XP, there is now a way to temporarily invoke administrative access without logging off - sweet! Unix had it since 1972, and Microsoft finally heard the call!

So it's not that QuickBooks wouldn't work on XP - it would, for most small businesses, even if exposing its users to significant security risks.

The answer to the original question is "yes".

The real question is, what is the cost effective alternative to QuickBooks, that is also faster, more secure, with better support and upgrade policies? And no, there is no simple answer to that question, and probably won't be for a while. For some people, some alternatives may work - but on a majority of us, QuickBooks has a choke hold.