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That’s really lame. Seems like Intuit puts a lot more effort into error-proofing their web apps than they do for their desktop software. I’m pretty sure you’d never get an error like that in TurboTax Online—it would just strip out the dollar sign automatically.

Not really surprising coming from Intuit I suppose. The new version certainly has some benefits over the older version however. I have been much happier with the interface in 09 compared to 08.

There shouldn’t even be an error message. Automatically remove any non-numeric character. Classic example of not respecting the user.

It would have taken more time to design the error message than to strip out invalid characters!

Two comments -

1) Also, the message doesn’t say what it doesn’t like – is it the $ or the comma, another non-numeric character? I’ll assume the decimal point doesn’t bother it.

2) My bank is even worse. If I want to transfer money, I can’t just type in “500”. It gives me an error message, saying I need to append the cents and make it “500.00”

Jason – how do you like Quickbooks Pro?

Geoff… Quickbooks pro is as cool as the other side of the pillow. Oh wait… were you asking me or the Jason who works @ 37 Signals.

Um… I wish I was getting $123k in an interest payment!

@ Jason—any and all opinions welcome, regardless of whether or not your name is Jason. We write a big check to Netsuite every month, and I question the ROI for us. Don’t think we need the horsepower they provide, and could use a little less complexity. We also use NS for CRM and know there are better services avlbl, but have stuck with them to “keep everything in one place.” Doubting the one-place-ness overcomes the inherent complexity involved in creating a service that is designed to provide both CRM and accounting for every kind of business.

Relative to the shortcomings I perceive in our current service, not recognizing a dollar sign seems tolerable.

It’s not that surprising: you can’t enter non-numeric characters into a numeric field. If it’s an accounting app, you know the numbers are dollars anyway, right?

Um… I wish I was getting $123k in an interest payment!

Notice the numbers – 12345678. Suggests maybe its not real.

@Fred but they are always telling us to get real!

@Geoff, in all seriousness, I do use QB Pro and find it is a pretty reasonable solution for the price, especially if you need all the bells and whistles. I don’t know how big your operation is (sounds like it is relatively large) but my company is probably slightly smaller than 37 signals with 7 people. Pro offers a lot of things we don’t need, but the few things it has over the “lesser” versions are needed. It does not require tons of $$$ for us to use QB Pro in the grand scheme of things.

However, there are plenty of little head scratchers like what JF pointed out in the package.

Shouldn’t you guys be using an app like xero.com for your books, anyhow?

There is no more hellish app on earth than Quickbooks. The inability to enter a dollar sign in your entries is just one of many inane and maddening design flaws in this godforsaken app. If there is justice in this universe, there will be a special ring of hell reserved just for Intuit where they are forced for all eternity to do my books over and over and over again in their own app.

@James – I think Jason’s point is that non-numerics can and should be gracefully scrubbed from an entry without throwing a dialog. This flaw prohibits, say, pasting an entry from your online bank statement. Surely, the designers should have anticipated the use of a currency symbol in a financial app.

I cannot believe that no one has yet attempted to make a better QuickBooks. What a massive opportunity!

I’m surprised that nim-wits like “James” exist in the first place. And that they take the time to comment on this. And that they are so matter-of-fact when they are actually wrong.

Holy cow.

Fred, maybe Jeremy was joking?

@Steve

Try AccountEdge once and you’ll be begging for Quickbooks. It’s almost as if the app designers took every basic time-honored UI concept and threw them out the window. Cmd/Cntrl – A to select all in a field? Nope – not here bub. Click a dropdown to view a selection of reports, and a “helpful” tool tip completely obscures the contents of the dropdown. And it also throws ridiculous dialogs instead of just scrubbing data.

I second the Xero call… Although I need to wait a couple of months till their multi currency is released…

Does Xero work with US banks?

Hi, Justin here from Xero. We have launched our Global version (http://blog.xero.com/2008/12/were-global/) so please do check out our free online demo. ‘AC’ – you can upload statements currently in OFX and QIF formats into Xero. Please contact me at justin.keen@xero.com if you have any further questions.