Best software for small business?

[boltfluter]

Hey guys,

New computer on board as old one died. What, in your experience is the best, most user friendly software for billing, printing invoices, and keeping track of sales for a small business. Been using Quickbooks, but seems way over kill for what I am doing. Open to any and all suggestions. Thanks guys!!

Paul

 

[Steve Blair]

Quicken Home & Business will handle most situations. It does not have Quickbooks' capabilities but is much simpler.

 

[boltfluter]

Quicken Home & Business will handle most situations. It does not have Quickbooks' capabilities but is much simpler.

Thanks Steve,

I will check it out.

Paul

 

[SS427]

If this is for your business Paul, I would think Excel would suffice, assuming you know the basics of using spreadsheets. There are all sorts of templates available on the internet for what you have in mind. If you don't know Excel though, it might be more hassle learning it than it is worth.

 

[boltfluter]

Thanks, will check it out.

Paul

 

[Tucker65]

Quicken Home & Business will handle most situations. It does not have Quickbooks' capabilities but is much simpler.

I used this when I had my side business going. I still use it for all my personal accounts and it is really user friendly.

John

 

[dcali]

If you want an online accounting product that isn't as annoying as quickbooks, try xero.com - it's what I use, and it's fairly painless once set up.

 

[Riesel]

I'm with those that are recommending Quicken and I would also get the book titled "Quick Books for Dummies". I'm not inferring anything here, but it was a real life saver when setting up. The program we got had no instruction manual and you had to go on line to get instructions....a real PITA.
I pretty sure you will like it.

 

[boltfluter]

Riesel,

Thank you for the info. Trust me I am a dummy when it comes to this stuff!

Paul

 

[CT10ring]

biz closed, but a fan of Quickbooks Online. If your office is separate from home and you do some work from home, it's great.
Client needs estimate Sun 8 a.m. & you are at home? knock it out. Good 1099 + other reports, etc. Easy to use.
kinda pricy. I stopped using a bookkeeper & it "paid" for itself
quickly.
great online help & questions from users with ready, useful answers...

 

[HillBilly98]

I have tried both the online version of quick books and the older that was simply loaded on the computer. I hated both. I agree they were over kill for my needs. I had a friend help me set up an excel spread sheet and use it for a while. Since I had my book keeper figure and send in quarterly tax payments, sales tax payments, unemployment taxes, and workers comp payments I asked if I could just provide them with an old school hand written business journal. Didn’t cost me much more for them to figure it that way lol.

Hope that helped

 

[Delfuego]

Suck it up and buy QB Pro and put it on a new, fast computer with a big monitor and a good workspace. Don't skimp on your business. Don't skimp on hardware and software. There much better places to save money. If you go cheap, you will gain aggravation. We live in the "information age". Unfortunately you will be at your computer more than any other piece of equipment in your shop (especially if you're successful).

Good luck!

 

[ToddKS]

Invest in QuickBooks pro. The most important feature is that most accountants use or have this software available. It makes life much easier come tax time when you can just deliver your QuickBooks file on a flash drive and let the accountants input the amortization schedules and the like based on the current law. The real effort is in setting up your initial accounts. Once that is done it is easy to use.

 

[DennisH]

I used this when I had my side business going. I still use it for all my personal accounts and it is really user friendly.

John

Did this version keep up with inventory "real time"?

 

[DennisH]

Any versions of Quicken for the money is hard to beat.

I owned a business over 30 years using Quicken. When my accountant figured out what reports it produced, he could do my accounting in less than 2 hours for the year.

FWIW, I started my business when all that was available was "penciled" in spreadsheets as big as my desk.

I started using Quicken when it operated with 2 - 5 1/4" Floppies! (I hope your not laughing). I ended using the "basic" version. My account started using it for "smaller" clients.

My sister uses "PRO" running a medium construction business, keeps up whit payroll & taxes, also produces instant 1099's. She has used it for years. The inventory feature was also handy for in house materials.

There are "fine" web based systems available, but you pay monthly for them. I have use them, and they are very good. I have used a system that cost $18,000 monthly, to a system that cost me $700 monthly. Both were fine and simple to use even as a one man operation.

The $18k system ran a business with 150 employees, inventories in excess of $1.5 million, etc., etc., etc.

There is a system for every need. JMO

 

[TC260]

When I started my landscaping business in '06 it was with QB and liked it. I had just left a large contracting company though and while they didn't use QB, I went into it knowing how I wanted things set-up and actually took a couple continuing ed classes to learn it better so that may have made using QB easier. That business is sold now and switched to Quicken since the additional functionality isn't needed any longer. I've never really warmed up to Quicken but it works well, the problem is with me being stubborn, not the program.