Bootcamp, Windows Xp For Quickbooks

[milo]

I am expecting my first mac in a couple days. finally leaving the PC world. my wife and i run two small separate businesses and use quickbooks for a check register and payroll. i hear quickbooks for mac sucks, requiring an outside vendor for payroll, and is 5 years behind the PC version. how hard and any adivise for me reagrding running windows xp on my new macbook pro amd getting quickbooks(PC version) to run. any instructions would be appreciated.

[Kelly]

Welcome to Macapper!

I have never used Quickbooks on the mac before, and I've briefly used it on the PC. I think there is a demo version for the mac, what I would suggest is getting the demo and trying it out first, if it doesn't meet your expectations then you can install Windows if you'd like, or try Crossover (http://www.codeweavers.com/products/) to run the Windows version on your mac.

You really have 3 options.
• Install Windows via Bootcamp, dual boot the laptop with Windows and OS X. It's easy, but it can be time consuming if you plan to use the OS X more than Windows, because you'll have to boot between OS's.

•Run Windows in Parallels (http://www.parallels.com/), Virtual emulation with Parallels is fantastic! They have come a long way with emulation. I wouldn't bother with VMware, Parallels seems to perform much better than Fusion. Parallels allows you install Windows, or any other OS you'd like, in a virtual machine, this allows you to load the OS on your OS X install. Basically you'll run Parallels like any regular application and it'll let you run Windows inside of OS X.

• Crossover, Crossover allows you to install Windows applications and run them in OS X, it works fairly well. I believe Quickbooks is supported. Most software runs in Crossover with out a hitch. I know Quickbooks has worked in Crossover for Linux, so I don't see why it wouldn't run in OS X.

My choice would be to try Crossover first, and then try Parallels, if neither of those work, go to the last resort and install Windows via Bootcamp. '

[Jaysen]

Bootcamp is very inconvenient. As a business owner you know that small efficiencies go a long way in keeping things running smoothly. With bootcamp you must reboot your computer to switch from Mac to Windows. With parallels you just double click an icon and windows boots in a window. You can copy and paste between the 2 OS and share data files easily.

I had issues with crossover but you may not.

For the record, I have 3 businesses, and now 7 virtual machines in parallels. I am running a MBP17@2.16 with 2GB RAM. After optimizing the VM OS i can run full OSX and up to 4 VM before things start to get too slow. A newer machine with more memory and there would be no slow down.

[Jaysen]

On the quickbooks front...

intuit claims that the mac and windows formats are incompatible. You can export the raw data (bank accounts), but you lose all the program data (budgets, customers, etc) and will need to reenter it.

And QB for mac is not all that great if you compare it to QB for win. Check out the intuit forums.

I would engage your accountant to ask them about alternate solutions if you are opposed to Parallels or other "windows on mac" solutions. I am looking into moneydance as a compromise with my accountant.

Basically, unless you go with a "windows on mac" solution you should plan some time to reenter or start over with your books.

[Mcinc]

I have tried the Mac version of Quickbooks and if you have used the PC version before you will be sadly disappointed by the Mac version.
I have also tried VM Fusion with Vista, running Quickbooks Pro 2009.....not a happy marriage. So for now I'm running my business off of a PC laptop with Q/B Pro 2009. I checked out Crossover site and Quickbooks has not ben tested with their software, only some older versions, and they only got a Bronze recommendation, which they tell you not everything will work. Someone on another forum posted a link from Intuit's site. Intuit only supports Windows version of Enterprise Solutions and Q/B Premier running on a Mac under Boot Camp only. Myself, I'm going to try this route, if this does not work, then it is time to buy a desktop PC just to run Quickbooks.