BS: Small business accounting software

Subject: BS: Small business accounting software
From: theleveller
Date: 12 May 12 - 06:07 AM

The company I worked for went into liquidation a couple of weeks ago so myself and couple of colleagues have set up our own business to take over some of the clients. It's been a few years now since I ran my own company so is there any new accounting software available that's easy to use and cheap? I've previously just used Excel but I'm sure there's something better now.

Subject: RE: BS: Small business accounting software
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 12 May 12 - 07:27 AM

Some (actually quite a few) years ago we looked at whether we needed something more sophisticated than paper and pencil, and found that a lot of accounting businesses were single-person operations who wrote their own "programs." Credentials (especially the believability parts) were vague for a majority. Within a very short time we saw several of those "liquidated," - leading to our conclusion that if you really need a program it may be difficult to feel that you've found one that will outlast your business, without going to the better known "establishment" programs.

There is, of course, the option of just hiring an outside "bookkeeper" to take care of it all for you with whatever program the keeper uses.

A lot depends on whether you'll have to provide a lot of details to your customers since some programs can make it a lot easier to fill in the blanks for those kinds of reports. If transactions are fairly simple the reports likely will be similarly simple, so you'll have to decide how much program you need for that.

There's also some impact from whether or not you're in a "regulated industry" that may require audit information to a government agency. It's less a problem from the amount of information you'd need to keep than for being able to organize it the way the lunatics running the government agency demand it be done.

If you sell products to the public, keeping track of sales taxes charged/received/sent in to the gov can be burdensome, and if you sell merchandise to resellers you may have to keep track of "exempt" sales for them. If you sell services to the public there sometimes are some rather strange rules that depend on the kinds of services.

If you employ "office help" or similar, there's a fair amount of extra tracking for wages and withholding and the like, and of course for "employee benefits;" but part-time "contract" employees generally are just a once per year form to the IRS with copy to the worker. How the "partners" in the business take their pay would also be a consideration.

From what I've seen, there's been little change in recommendations among the "major players" over the last decade or two, with the same ones appearing at the top of the published rankings and in about the same order. Lots of smaller programs have come - and mostly gone, although there's never been a shortage of them.

Recently published "comparisons" are about the same as 15 or 20 years ago when we looked fairly seriously. The Peachtree suite (with more version options now) sits near the top, as "most versatile for a wide range of businesses" but with "some learning curve" and somewhat higher price; and Quick-Books appear to be still around and rated favorably for really small businesses. ("She" decided to use Quick Books - Quicken - for her "official" records, and it was basically her business; but I backed it all up in Excel, and we used the Excel recordes at tax time. Her cheap "My Invoices" program did make it easy to send "officious looking" invoices to her custormers.)

A search for "businss software" or "accounting programs" with "reviews" added to either, or something similar, should fill in the blanks.

And note that the ones I mentioned are "an observation" not a "recommendation."

And of course I'm in the US. Canada or the UK may pose different requirements, and even some states here have "different" rules.

John

Subject: RE: BS: Small business accounting software
From: Crowhugger
Date: 13 May 12 - 12:04 AM

Check with your accountant. Some are uncomfortable with Quickbooks, which doesn't really close off year ends, i.e. you can freely enter things into ancient fiscal periods, which is a bit weird once year end should be closed. I know some folks who swear by Simply Accounting, which I've never used but friends say it's great for people who understand bookeeping principles but slower to learn for those who don't. It closes off year ends, has flexible reporting. So I'm told.

Software selection is a challenging thing to do--it takes a lot of work to fully understand your options, but time well spent, very well spent.

Subject: RE: BS: Small business accounting software
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 13 May 12 - 05:40 AM

I quite agree with Crowhugger, speak to your accountant before you buy any accounting package, because it could save you fees if the accounting data you prepare can be imported from a backup into your accountant's system, which takes a few minutes, without any need for manual input - which can take hours.

That said, if your accountant is of the old school where accounts are still prepared on pieces of paper - they are still out there!! - then excel spreadsheets should be fine, and you can of course tailor them to provide all the information you need. You might even find a free downloadable Excel bookkeeping system on the internet.

The important thing to remember is to backup daily, to a flash drive so that if your computer goes down your accounting records are still available.

TAS Books is very good but not cheap to buy once the trial period is over, although the support people are pretty good.

I personally dread receiving records on Quickbooks.

Subject: RE: BS: Small business accounting software
From: Bill D
Date: 13 May 12 - 12:57 PM

A long list of free programs here

scroll down to 'accounting'.

"Ace Money" is/was popular

Subject: RE: BS: Small business accounting software
From: SINSULL
Date: 13 May 12 - 01:02 PM

Quickbooks is very popular but can limit you. Be careful as well about accepting credit card payments thru Q. It may not be secure.

Subject: RE: BS: Small business accounting software
From: theleveller
Date: 13 May 12 - 01:22 PM

Thanks for the advice. Might wait until we have an accountant and see what fits in with his/her system.

Subject: RE: BS: Small business accounting software
From: gnu
Date: 13 May 12 - 06:50 PM

Find software that fits YOU. Ask similar businesses what they use. Hit the internut. And know THIS... you MAY not need an accountant. Having said that, it's probably a good thing to go through the first year with one.

I just used excel after paying an accountant $650 in my first year to essentially tell me where to report what and, even then, I had to do all the work. After that, I did my own, but my business was rather simple. It was just consulting engineering.

Don't take my advice, though. Others here know far more than I do. Unless yer as cheap as me. >;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Small business accounting software
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 14 May 12 - 04:51 AM

Consider open -source .... free Linux based.

www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/reviews/5692/1/

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

why contribute to Gates and Jobs estates when it has been done as well or better for free?

Subject: RE: BS: Small business accounting software
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 14 May 12 - 05:11 PM

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accounting_software.

Especially see the list of software at the bottom of the page.