Quickbooks vs Pastel

Posted on by

[UPDATE] Have a look at www.xero.com

In short: Quickbooks is better. It has more features and is easier to use.

Hopefully I can save you some time evaluating accounting systems. We’ve run both packages in our business and even had a consultant (who’s an expert in both) come and see us.

At some point someone (typically someone smart, with an accounting background) will tell you to use Pastel. For some reason it’s popular with accountants.

Have you ever heard about how, in software, when you have a bug you simply re-write the manual and call it a feature? Well, that’s what Pastel did.

So whenever someone comes out in favour of Pastel, they’ll cite the old marketing spiel about how you can’t go back and change transactions (a bug) as if that’s a good thing. They’ll say that Quickbooks makes it easier for someone to commit fraud. This is not true: Quickbooks has a full audit trail, so even if someone did go back 6 months to “cook the books”, they’ll leave tracks.


Now let’s just hope Quickbooks sorts out their Windows 7 incompatibility issues…

 

7 thoughts on “Quickbooks vs Pastel”

  1. I’m sorry Henk, but I have to get in your face about what you’ve said here, or rather what you’ve neglected to say.If someone wrote a product comparison review of your service with a competitor’s, that was this half-assed and subjective, you’d be as mad as a snake. Yes I read Christopher Roomes post and it’s better, but it’s still not fair and accurate or considered enough, AFAIC. And it’s so old, as to be pretty much useless. Single point to illustrate. "Pastel" is not a homogeneous moniker for a single product. Neither you nor Christopher specify which product you are comparing/slamming. Pastel Evolution, for instance, is NOT written in VB, but Delphi. Pastel Partner, and SOHO, are/were indeed VB-coded.I *do* agree about the ability to change transactions in QuickBooks, being a good thing. But then I also think most accountants are full of shit. And it’s *their* dogma which drives the "Change a transaction? Heresy!!" attitude.D’you know why it’s so difficult to get data from/into QuickBooks? Because their original database design was SO lightweight and shamatuerish, that it makes it very, very difficult to construct normal transaction data from/for it. Don’t take my word for it. Get the ODBC driver, open the database and try to make some sense of it. Honestly looks like the designer was pissed when he/she/they did it.Full disclosure. I was the Development Manager at Brilliant Business Systems for a number of years, around Y2K. During my tenure, we completed most of the groundwork of re-writing the Paradox-based Brilliant Accounting, into the SQL-server based product, which was eventually white-branded into Pastel Evolution.

    Reply ↓

  2. Thanks for the clarification Andre. I deliberately did not want to do a full-on review, but rather help entrepreneurs and startups (typically without full-time trained bookkeepers and with limited funds to pay "Pastel Consultants") to make a decision more rapidly. Speaking of Pastel consultants… why are there so many around?

    Reply ↓

  3. Gah. There’s a complex answer to that seemingly simple question.Some of the reasons are:1. The outsourcing mentality. Many business owners simply don’t want to own the skills, in house.2. In many instances, the software is easy to use at a interface level, but requires MUCH more to manage and maintain.3. Brilliant pioneered the recurring license fee paradigm in the SA accounting software space. And used a network of VARS to sell and support the package. The VAR gets a cut of the sale and a slice of the recurring. It’s an attractive business opp. 4. Pastel operated the paid support model. The quality was iffy, and remote. Business opp for a consultant to come on-site.There are more, I’m sure…:)

    Reply ↓

  4. I am just a "user" of Pastel and I started using Quickbooks. I leave all the technical jargon to you guys. From my point of view and from my experience with Pastel the most frustrating of Pastel for me is their licenses. It irritates the hell out of me if I have to renew my license every year. Try to install a client; you always require the license …etc. Not even talking about patches and updates. (And by the way, in my opinion there is not much of a difference between VB and Delphi as apposed to VB and C+.) Second to this is the pervasive database of Pastel…. do I need to say more. It takes Pastel about 1-2 years to catch up with QuickBooks features that have been there for a long time. So, from a client’s experience; for me, Pastel is a pain in the a….! Ask your clients what is their experience, (forget about the features of Pastel) with Pastel,…. you will probably be surprised…… Needless to say, I am slowly moving to Quickbooks.

    Reply ↓