I find this book helpful just when I'm about to tear my hair out! It's usually at that point when I remember that I have it. Sometimes I feel the author assumes you know a little more than you do, so you have to go back and track down the subtle steps that take you to the end goal, but overall it has been very informative. Instructions are clear, and I love the "tips" and "warnings" in the margins - they have helped me avoid what could have been some pretty hairy un-fixable mistakes.

I decided that January 1, 2005 was a good time to start using Quickbooks Pro for my small business. I'd been using MYOB FirstEdge, but found it was rather limited in some areas. Whenever I think about starting to use new software, I browse around on Amazon for a good book on the package in question. This book stood out as probably a good resource and I was not far wrong. However, I have a couple of complaints. Firstly, the author's instructions on how to enter beginning balances is vague at best. Secondly, her discussion of complex issues such as how to set up Quickbooks for sales tax recording and reporting, is somewhat lacking. The book that came with the software actually does a better job at explaining Quickbooks' rather quirky method of sales tax accounting.

By all means buy this book. It has some really helpful material and is worth the purchase price. But don't pre-suppose that this book is ALL you will need in order to start using Quickbooks efficiently.

I decided that January 1, 2005 was a good time to start using Quickbooks Pro for my small business. I'd been using MYOB FirstEdge, but found it was rather limited in some areas. Whenever I think about starting to use new software, I browse around on Amazon for a good book on the package in question. This book stood out as probably a good resource and I was not far wrong. However, I have a couple of complaints. Firstly, the author's instructions on how to enter beginning balances is vague at best. Secondly, her discussion of complex issues such as how to set up Quickbooks for sales tax recording and reporting, is somewhat lacking. The book that came with the software actually does a better job at explaining Quickbooks' rather quirky method of sales tax accounting.

By all means buy this book. It has some really helpful material and is worth the purchase price. But don't pre-suppose that this book is ALL you will need in order to start using Quickbooks efficiently.

Ms. Ivens writes clearly, properly, and intelligently on QuickBooks software. The screen shots are legible, unlike those in some other computer books. The index is detailed, and thus useful. I counted only two typos in the 572 pages.

My company, Transpower Corporation (a commercial and custom software manufacturing and systems engineering company in metropolitan Philadelphia), did its first QuickBooks installation in 1999. I purchased Kathy's book QuickBooks 6.0--The Offical Guide; this helped to make the installation go smoothly. It's been five years since, and QuickBooks has changed considerably. So I purchased both of Kathy's current titles, QuickBooks 2004--The Offical Guide, and Running QuickBooks 2004 Premier Editions. Both are excellent and I recommend them to all computer consultants operating in the small business space, which QuickBooks has taken over by storm. (Unfortunately, QuickBooks is not so applicable to medium or larger businesses because 1) there is a five user limit for Pro/Premiere editions and a ten user limit for the Enterprise edition, 2) it does not work with Windows Terminal Server, and 3) it allows only seven custom fields). After reading both books, I've come to the conclusion that for most small businesses the Premiere editions (with their specialization) make more sense than the less expensive Pro edition.

Kathy provides many useful tips in her books. They go way beyond what is supplied in the manuals shipped with the software.

I agree with the guy who said it's not a guide. Don't buy if you are confused by Quickbooks interface and plan to learn how to use it properly from financial point of view. To get the guide, simply print out the help pages.

I bought this book to learn how to use QuickBooks properly after my accountant noticed a few major issues with how I tracked things in my company file. I found this book worthless for a beginner trying to learn how to use the product. Also, it doesn't seem to provide significantly more detail than QuickBooks online help. The only thing I've used it for so far is learning a good account naming scheme...