Looking for recommendations for small business accounting software - your thoughts?
November 19, 2012 11:31 AM Subscribe
Looking for recommendations for small business accounting software - your thoughts?
I have a small creative consulting business. It's a one-woman operation at this point, but might expand in the near future. I do some hourly billing, some standard per-job billing, and some online sales of products - so money comes in in a variety of ways (PayPal, checks, Square, etc). I also do some purchasing for client projects that I'm reimbursed for on invoice.
Currently I'm just logging all my purchases and business expenses on Mint.com, but I feel like there has to be a better way, more tailored to the needs of small business owners. I'm happy to pay for it, as long as it's not extortionately expensive.
I'm on a Mac. I'm not crazy about Quickbooks on Macs, but feel free to try and persuade me otherwise if you think that's the best solution. Ideas please!
I have a small creative consulting business. It's a one-woman operation at this point, but might expand in the near future. I do some hourly billing, some standard per-job billing, and some online sales of products - so money comes in in a variety of ways (PayPal, checks, Square, etc). I also do some purchasing for client projects that I'm reimbursed for on invoice.
Currently I'm just logging all my purchases and business expenses on Mint.com, but I feel like there has to be a better way, more tailored to the needs of small business owners. I'm happy to pay for it, as long as it's not extortionately expensive.
I'm on a Mac. I'm not crazy about Quickbooks on Macs, but feel free to try and persuade me otherwise if you think that's the best solution. Ideas please!
If you happen to have access to Excel then don't overlook that.
posted by rongorongo at 1:40 PM on November 19, 2012
posted by rongorongo at 1:40 PM on November 19, 2012
My main business has custom software that was written for it, but I ran a side venture for number of years using Quickbooks and was quite pleased with it. Like yours, this business had inventory, A/R from various sources, A/P, and handled everything quite nicely. The check writting is a breeze and the reporting features are really well done. Literally press a button and you've got an income statement or balance sheet. The learning curve is also not steep.
The one thing I didn't like was that you had pay extra to use the payroll function and they wanted you to use their service. I'm a little vague on the details as it was a few years back, so not sure how it works now. I only had a few employees so I did the payroll numbers myself and incorporated the accounting into the system. But all in all I liked the software and it was pretty cheap.
posted by PaulBGoode at 10:00 PM on November 19, 2012
The one thing I didn't like was that you had pay extra to use the payroll function and they wanted you to use their service. I'm a little vague on the details as it was a few years back, so not sure how it works now. I only had a few employees so I did the payroll numbers myself and incorporated the accounting into the system. But all in all I liked the software and it was pretty cheap.
posted by PaulBGoode at 10:00 PM on November 19, 2012
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posted by DarlingBri at 11:43 AM on November 19, 2012 [1 favorite]