Small Biz Accounting Software (1 Viewer)

[glvsav37]

Hi all...I'm looking to change my accounting software.

I run a side graphic design biz after hours, out of my house. No employees or any payroll to track. I do have a few contractors I pay out monthly, a main checking account and biz credit card that I need to keep tabs on and categorize transactions. It also has to handle invoicing of course.

Currently I am using LessAccounting.com, but they have been getting very glitchy lately and I'm just going through and doing year-end and I'm finding it lost most of my contractor expense tags and I have to now go back thought my checking account and match up who I paid.

I used Quickbooks before that and frankly it was way too powerful and confusing for me.

Any suggestions for an easy to use suite that will do the basics?

 

[eoMMan]

I came in here to suggest QuickBooks but nevermind. No offense, but QuickBooks is one of the most user friendly and popular accounting softwares out there. Maybe you can take a class or an online seminar to get better familiar with it?

 

[BobbyLayne]

It's a part-time business with no payroll, so I could see why QB seems too complex. I'd probably run that kind of business in one Excel workbook with separate sheets for each contractor sub-ledger, one tab for revenue and one for expenses. Once you establish the chart of accounts it's easy enough.

 

[Abraham]

Fresh books

 

[Mr. Ected]

It's a part-time business with no payroll, so I could see why QB seems too complex. I'd probably run that kind of business in one Excel workbook with separate sheets for each contractor sub-ledger, one tab for revenue and one for expenses. Once you establish the chart of accounts it's easy enough.

glvsav, do you have any friends that are CPAs/accountants? Maybe one of them could set up a workbook for you in exchange for dinner or something like that.

 

[glvsav37]

Thanks guys. I'll give fresh books a look.

I'm not sure about the excel stuff bc the things lime like about using accting software is that it tracks purchases and expenses directly. I'm trying to reduce the amount of paperwork I have bc 1 I suck at paperwork, and 2 I just don't have the time to keep up with it.

Even though it's a side biz, it out earns my full time gig so I have to be diligent about P&L come

Tax time.

QB was ok-I used the online version, I hear the UX is different vs the desktop one (?) but without any real payroll, rent, or depreciating assets, it's just too powerful for what I need. Simple and idiot proof (I'm the idiot)

 

[Abraham]

Qb online is awful.

 

[eoMMan]

Qb online is awful.

Agreed.

 

[glvsav37]

OK..eoMMan and Abraham...you both agree the online version of QB i was using was te suck, so I may not be giving it a fair shake. i'm willing to give QB another chance...so whats the biggest difference between the online and desktop versions? eoMMan is behind QB form your 1st post and I'm game b/c my acct uses it. But for a small guy like me....can I cut through all the high powered crap easier then with the online version?

Also, I'm on a mac...is there any big difference between platforms?

Abraham....FreshB is offering a 30 day free trial, I'm gonna give it a test run and see how it is.

 

[kutta]

We use Quickbooks and it works great. Have you looked at Quicken? I was the treasurer for the school band and we used Quicken. I really liked it and it was very intuitive.

 

[None_More_Black]

May not be enough for your needs but many small online sellers use Godaddy bookeeping and like it.

 

[tri-man 47]

I would speak in favor of QuickBooks, though I'm not aware of how well it works - or not - with a Mac. Remember that you can find a lot of YouTube videos showing how to do various functions on QB. I introduce QB in a couple accounting classes I teach, and a woman who offers very good support videos and books is Michelle Long.

I don't view QB as necessarily high-powered. Just don't use what you don't need (the payroll module, for example, or on-line banking). And do spend time with some basic set-up. For example:

- During original set-up, carefully pick the right style of business (e.g., consultant; retail biz). Also define the type of business (sole proprietorship, most likely). The system will then default to a reasonably functional set of accounts. Delete accounts you won't need; add ones that seem to be missing.

- I strongly recommend using account numbers (not just names).

- Define your fiscal year (which might just be the calendar year).

- Set up your customers and vendors (incl. contractors). They'll then appear when you go into the Customer or Vendor modules.

Very useful for QB is to make use of Items and/or Classes. Again, videos would walk through these. These are system tools to sub-categorize activity (e.g., by contractor or by job). In most cases, you can go back and edit previous transactions to add detail as necessary.

Most of the activity in QB can be downloaded into Excel, which is helpful for review and organization.

Good luck!

 

[jon_mx]

Just plain Quicken 99 used to be a good simple program if you had a simple business.....but they mucked that up.

 

[eoMMan]

OK..eoMMan and Abraham...you both agree the online version of QB i was using was te suck, so I may not be giving it a fair shake. i'm willing to give QB another chance...so whats the biggest difference between the online and desktop versions? eoMMan is behind QB form your 1st post and I'm game b/c my acct uses it. But for a small guy like me....can I cut through all the high powered crap easier then with the online version?

Also, I'm on a mac...is there any big difference between platforms?

Abraham....FreshB is offering a 30 day free trial, I'm gonna give it a test run and see how it is.

I only used QB on a Mac a handful of times (99% of the time I have used QB it's been on a PC and this includes all of the versions going back at least a decade). For the most part, it's the same. You'll need to convert the file to be used on a PC if your accountant uses a PC. That's a fairly simple conversion that I believe is under "File" off the top of my head.

Regarding QB being high powered, yes, you can really do a lot with it but it really can fairly simple if you want it to be. For example, let's say you really don't have accounts payable. Fine. Don't use the bill pay/bill pmnt feature and simply put your checks into the QB check register. Really, the QB check register will be the most important and most useful piece of QB for you. The hardest part of it all will probably be setting up all of your various income and expense accounts which really isn't all that difficult once you get use to the chart of accounts in QB. If you have trouble, please post here or your accountant will be able to help you out. Once these accounts are set up, it's a piece of cake. For example, if you pay ABC Landscaping a check every month and post it to your landscaping expense account, the QB register will remember that you use this expense account for ABC Landscaping and once you start typing ABC Landscaping, it'll fill in the rest. It really does try to make your life easier.

I didn't like the on-line version mostly because you couldn't collapse and rearrange the various windows. You basically had to use back and forward to get around. The desktop based version is much easier with all of the windows and reporting. Also, the on-line version lagged for me as well.

Hope this helps.

 

[GoFishTN]

May not be enough for your needs but many small online sellers use Godaddy bookeeping and like it.

That's what I use. Quickbooks online was just too much for me, although it seems to be what CPAs recommend.

 

[sfflchamp]

I'm a CPA, quickbooks pro is good if you want to give an accountants copy to your CPA to work on and send you back your adjustments. I don't like quickbooks online.

Quicken is ok if your business is easy.