Good Morning Gentle Readers,
Those of us who advocate a free market understand that the market doesn't always give us the best product at the best price. Anyone old enough to remember the ill-fated Sony Betamax can attest to that (Yes, Mac users will smugly point at Windoze machines and snort in agreement).
In general, markets provide a range of products at varying levels of quality and price with a rough correlation between the two. A steak at Lenny's may be adequate if you're hungry, but it isn't going to be on a par with Ruth's Chris' Steak House (this site makes you hungry). The prices of each tend to reflect the value we place on the quality of each.
That said, Quickbooks is the Denny's of accounting/bookkeeping software. It's decent enough and seems to have improved over time. It is comparatively less expensive and it isn't as difficult to use as some software packages that are superior, such as Peachtree.
One major annoyance is that QB wants you to upgrade every year and sometimes it almost seems as though that bias is genetically hardwired into QB. I suppose it could be more difficult to run older versions of QB than it is and I suppose Intuit could have included an automatic software uninstall function that would purge QB at midnight every December 31, thus forcing everybody to upgrade (I'm thinking fear of a harsh market rebuke is the only reason they didn't).
The Problem
When you try to install QB 2005 (any version) the first thing QB wants to do is install Flash Player 7. If you have a newer machine (or sometimes even an older machine) it is likely that you have Flash Player 9 installed. That triggers the computer equivalent of cognitive dissonance and an install failure. The user is then instructed to go to the Flash site and download FP version 7. Good luck.
This happens repeatedly no matter what strategy you use. Don't waste your time with safe mode or by logging in as the Administrator because neither will work. I'd skip Tech Support at Intuit because they're probably not going to know the answer and if they do they're going to ask for a credit card number.
The Fix
So there you are with your expensive copy of QB 2005 that won't install on your brand new computer, fuming because you figure QB has just snookered you into popping for a 2006 copy.
It turns out that if you go to the Control Panel and then:
click on Add/Remove Programs
click on Add New Programs
Make sure the QB disk is in your CD/DVD drive then.....
Click on the CD or Floppy button and follow the prompts
click to enlarge screenshot
Quickbooks should install without further problem.
Quickbooks Integrated Payroll
I would opt for a different service. QB payroll is clumsy to use and leaves you hanging in the afternoon breeze when it comes to preparing certain state reports. Go with a full service firm that handles all aspects of your payroll, including automatic tax deposits.
I'll spare you all but a summary of the hypocrisy play where in Act I Intuit buys the best tax prep software ever and pulls it off the market to prevent competition with TurboTax. Act II: Intuit's CEO throws rocks at Bill Gates for his alleged role as a monopolist.
As Ever,
The Wine Commonsewer
Photo Credit (unless otherwise noted): ©TWC, all rights reserved
