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Joined:
March 2006
Posts: 186
Location: The State of Hockey | I am wondering of those here who run a business what bookkeeping software do you use? I need to get a program that will keep tract of the funds, purchases and payroll. What do you like/dislike, etc.
Any advise is appreciated,
Mike |
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Joined:
November 2005
Posts: 1126
Location: Omaha, NE | Depends quite a bit on what sort of business you are planning on running, but I've been relying on Quick Books for years and am not looking to change.
The big factors:
- It is very, very easy to use. It helps be get new people up to speed quickly.
- You can start small and cheap (couple hundred bucks at Staples), and then easilly scale up from there (we currently run a multi-user networked version).
- Every city in the country has accountants who are skilled in its use. Don't underestimate the importance of that: My accountant not only knows the system backwards and forwards, we have them set up where they can access my files directly over the net. They do all our bank and credit card merchant account reconciliations remotely. Very handy stuff.
One thing to note: I stopped using QB for payroll a few years ago, and went to an outside payroll service. I would never think about going back. |
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Joined:
December 2001
Posts: 10583
Location: NJ | I tried to use quick books.
it was quicker for me to just continue entering everything into a ledger by hand |
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March 2008
Posts: 2683
Location: Hot Springs, S.D. | I too, do it all on paper. I don't have any employees, and it's just easier for me to do it the old fashioned way. I buy the "Dome Simflified Monthly Bookkeeping Record" and TRY to keep it updated weekly. I keep all bills and reciepts in a file, write down every transaction in a book that I keep by the register, and that's it. Of course, if I could ever afford to hire some help around here so I could take a day off, things would be different. (I'd have to get quickbooks, and I'd have time for a life!) |
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December 2006
Posts: 6995
Location: Jet City | I used MYOB
http://www.myob-us.com/
I use a Mac once I leave my real job though. |
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October 2006
Posts: 5575
Location: big island | my wife is an accountant for our local hospice and she also runs her own payroll services business from our home. she swears by and sometimes, at, quickbooks. |
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August 2002
Posts: 8307
Location: Tennessee | QuickBooks |
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November 2006
Posts: 2241
Location: Simpsonville, SC | +1 |
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February 2005
Posts: 11840
Location: closely held secret | Bookkeeping? |
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November 2003
Posts: 11039
Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub | Q'Books |
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Joined:
November 2005
Posts: 4832
Location: Campbell River, British Columbia | "The State of Hockey"? is that in Canada?
In which case my wife the bookeeper recommends Simply Accounting (Sage) if you can't get into her fav Accpac.
YMMV |
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Joined:
December 2001
Posts: 7232
Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | I have used and installed several over the years, these are the most popular I found.
- Quickbooks has a learning curve, but is very good.
- MYOB has less of a learning curve and it probably my favorite.
- MS Money can even be used, depending on how big and how your accounts are setup.
- Real World, very corporate powerful.
- PeopleSoft, again very large corporate.
I like MYOB the best. It has TWO features that MANY pieces of software lack and they are a WORKFLOW design and being INTUITIVE. The icons were arranged in the order in which things happen in your business, for the most part, so there wasn't a lot of drilling through menus to find the obvious. Also, it was intuitive and you can pretty much use it within an hour of install.
If you go to sell a product that isn't in the inventory yet as example, you can enter it on that sales screen so you can do your sale anyway, and then asks if you want to add this item to inventory. Not like so many packages whereif you try to sell something not in inventory, you have to do add it to inventory, which means having all the info about the product available, etc etc etc.. in the meantime.. the Customer get bored and leaves.
MYOB is not like that. Or I guess I should add the caveat, it wasn't like that. I haven't used it in several years, but I can't imagine them doing anything but improving, so I would check-em out. |
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Joined:
March 2006
Posts: 186
Location: The State of Hockey | Thanks for all the input. This gives me a good direction to start and what features to look for.
FYI, Minnesota is the "State of Hockey" |
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OT: Small business bookkeeping software advise wanted
