QB Pro Timer on Mac?

Summary

Premier 2005 program resides. We would like to install the QuickBooks timer on each of the MACs, so that each individual can track their own time and so that the time can be directly downloaded into QB. I have been told by tech support that the timer system will not work with the MAC OS. Has any workaround been discovered for this? If not, can you recommend any time and billing system, which would integrate with QB cross platform?

Question

The QuickBooks Pro Timer does not work on the Macintosh.

Answer

The QuickBooks Pro Timer does not work on Macintosh, so you have two choices. Really only one if you insist on using the QB Pro Timer, and it's not great.

1) Run Virtual PC on the Macs, and then use QB Pro Timer running under the Virtual PC. The problem with this is (a) expense of software and hard drive space (b) you have to run two OSs on the Mac and switch back and forth and (c) most Mac people hate it.

2) Get PCs for each user. Not an acceptible option for most Mac people.

So what to do... ?

I don't like the QB Pro timer solution because it uses IIF files to transfer the time to the QB data file, and you must "import" the timer data manually. Also, there is no preventing someone accidentally importing timer data twice, thereby doubling the time data in QB. It's just not a very good solution.

I would investigate BillQuick from BQE Software (www.bqe.com). They have a web-based time entry feature that could be used by all of the Mac user, and then you can combine all timekeeper data into the host before synchronizing with QuickBooks. You'd need a PC for the QB and BillQuick host, but you could leave all the timekeepers on Macs where they'd be happiest.