Updated February 25, 2015

QuickBooks for Mac 2015 Review

Item: QuickBooks Desktop for Mac
Rating: 8
Author: Shelly Robbins

Intuit Accounting Professionals Trainer/Writer specializing in QuickBooks for Mac, Meetup Groups Organizer/Founder, Adjunct Instructor at Bellevue College

The QuickSourceAccounting, 1-10 employees

Score 8 out of 10

Vetted Review

Verified User

Software Version

2015

Modules Used

Online banking, online payroll, invoicing, time-tracking, as well as the general accounting functions necessary to create financial statements

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I teach QuickBooks for Windows at Bellevue College, and I set up, troubleshoot, and teach QuickBooks for Mac to small business owners and their bookkeepers online and in the Seattle area. I am an Intuit Trainer/Writer and I teach QuickBooks for Mac once/year at the large national conference on QuickBooks, and at home I sometimes answer questions or perform file management/conversion tasks for others who support QuickBooks for Mac clients.

Pros and Cons

Online banking is easy and fun to learn, and saves data-entry for those little debits/ATM's on your bank statement.
Invoices can be designed to look nice and emailed with a "Pay link which speeds up cash flow; a #1 concern for new businesses.
Save money by using the online payroll that syncs in data so you don't have to enter complicated paychecks at all.

The #1 complaint is that setting it up right is a challenge. People waste time trying to figure it out only to realize that they don't know accounting so of course they don't know how an accounting program should be set up. Like any time you are in over your head, reach out to your network and find someone who can log onto your computer and walk you through it.
If you need to track the cost of wages to jobs you can't do it with the online payroll, but check for yourself because it's a function that landscaping companies and construction businesses usually need, so maybe they have added it by now. That would really help!
It's premise-based software and that means you take on the role of hardware admin, and it's a lot of work for what is increasingly becoming a smaller gap in the functionality between QuickBooks for Mac and QuickBooks Online.
QuickBooks for Mac 2015 has been updated consistently over the last 3 years and continues to provide for the bookkeeping needs of small companies using Macs in their offices. However, it has limited job costing functionality. It is similar in functionality to the 2010 version of QuickBooksPro which runs on Windows.

Return on Investment

My private consulting practice slowed down when I chose to only support QuickBooks for Mac clients because there are far fewer QuickBooks for Mac clients than their are clients using other QuickBooks. I chose instead to focus on online accounting options, apps that integrate with online accounting options, and sustainability accounting as a tool for business success.

Alternatives Considered

QuickBooks Online,QuickBooks Premier,QuickBooks Pro,QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions,Xero,godaddy

QuickBooks for Mac 2015 has been updated consistently over the last 3 years and continues to provide for the bookkeeping needs of small companies using Macs in their offices. However, it has limited job costing functionality. Outside of that limitation, it is similar in functionality to the 2010 version of QuickBooksPro which runs on Windows.

Likelihood to Recommend

It's easy and fun to use QuickBooks for Mac when it is set up right. It works well for the most part and has only a few bugs. I would rate it a 9 if it was able to do job costing for wages, and if there were more programs/apps that integrate with it.
But if you are choosing accounting technology QuickBooks for Mac might be a poor choice because an online accounting program, instead of premise-based software, will make it easier to collaborate with your bookkeeper, CPA, Advisor, etc.. The exception is running QuickBooks for Mac in a hosted environment which allows multiple users to access it. Of course if your internet connection is unreliable, you are not ready for online accounting software! In that case, QuickBooks for Mac is easy to use, just be sure it's set up right first.

Likelihood to Renew

I support clients who use QuickBooks for Mac and renew my own QuickBooks for Mac license yearly so that I can stay up to date.