Accounting Software

Rennie Heuer

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Perhaps I'm being optimistic, but I think it's time I kept better track of my business income and expenses.:rolleyes:

I have been using Quicken Home & Business and maybe I've just not worked hard enough at it, but it seems to be a bit clumsy. I also have Microsoft Office Accounting. It offers lots of good stuff like direct links with PayPal, but it is not as automatic as Quicken in downloading transactions from my bank and reconciling them. Several additional steps involved. I don't find it easy to work with.

I know lots of people use Quick Books, and it seems as though that might be a good middle ground between the simplicity of Quicken and the vast array of options of MS Accounting.

For those of you tracking your business expanses - which product do you use? Or do you just throw everything into a shoebox and hand it to the accountant at the end of the year?:D
 
Got it!

I took the unanimous advice of all here and purchased QuickBooks. Amazon had it on sale for $99 and I had some "points" saved up on a credit card that I turned into a $50 gift card for Amazon so the program set me back a whopping $49. :D

It took a little time to set up and convert all mu Quicken info. It doubled up on a number of transactions so I had to go line by line deleting them. Also had to clean up the chart of accounts and memorized transactions. The most aggravating part of the whole process was registering. You can't just do it automatically on line like every other program in the world. Noooooo, you have to call the 800 number and listen to all the sales pitches for the add-ons first. Then you speak to someone who was obviously a drop out from customer service school ask me all the same information I already input before I got the "Call us at 800-" screen. I was on hold for nearly 10 minutes waiting for the code I had to type in. Then, once typed in, I was asked to shut down the program and restart it to make sure it "took".:huh:

I like intuit's programs, but as a company they are very difficult to deal with. Actually, I like the ones I've worked with in the past. The jury is still out on QuickBooks. We'll see.:rolleyes:
 
I don't use quckbooks, I use a program called Swift Express Accounting... it was a lot cheaper than quick books, and probably not as powerful as QB, but works for me for now... I don't actually like it, just what I have for now.
 
I am in a different situation I know, but I could not find anything that fit my needs so I did something wild and crazy...I took Microsoft and made my own Accounting Software. I even gave it its own name...Fiscal Flock. It works well, but it lacks the glossy look of the other programs, maybe as I get better at Excel I can work it so that it looks a little better.

My advice is...customize your own accounting software. It will match your business perfectly and the education you get from creating it is far more valuable then anything you could buy.
 
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