Book keeping program question

Just curious as to what book keeping program ya"ll would recommend that"s simple and easy to use. Reason I ask is I had always done everything by hand just because it was simple, until I got married and my wife introduced me to the Quickbooks program she had. It has worked OK for me for a couple of years but to be honest it"s way to complex for my needs and I"m not "complex" enough on the computer to simplify it own to do only what I need. Basically all I need is something to help keep up with billable hours, payments, past due accounts, etc. on the customer side of things and help keep up with general company expenses on my side of things. Ultimately as long as it makes getting things together at the end of the year for taxes easier it would be a good thing.

What I don"t need is alot of complexity added on the "customer side" where it is constantly asking if a part if from my stock, whether I want to "enter" every part I try to put on an invoice that was bought from a third party, etc, etc, etc. Basically all the stuff that Quickbooks does that is a major hassel and I haven"t been able to figure out how to get around/turn off/or whatever because I don"t need it.

That said I"m getting ready to have to get my computer repaired or replaced, due to what I"ve been told are probably motherboard problems. So I"m either looking for a different, simpler program to use in place of the Quickbooks or advice on how to dumb down Quickbooks to only what I need. Since it"s looking like I"m gonna be redoing my computer and it"s still close enough to the first of the year to get evetything setup without alot of hassle I"m looking to see what"s out there. If I"m going to make a switch I figure now is the perfect time so any advice on what programs are available that you guys use, and what you like or dislike about them, would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Did you consider doing it all in excel?
I have used Excel to do a ton of things that quickbooks is too complex for. Quickbooks can be set up at a "low" level if you want and can be very easy to use if you keep it simple - but if you dont like quickbooks, give excel a try. You'll need to spend some time setting up some spreadsheets (worksheets in your workbook) and formulas and links but you can build an easy to use and workable data storage in it.

I would certianly think taking a lesson from someopne who knows Q-books would be a good investment. I anin't had much school housin, and find it very easy to use if you set it up right.

I don't use it to it's full capacity by any means. You can dumb it down and eliminate alot of it's options as I do.

I can't imagine anything simpler to use, if so I have never seen it. I have helped alot of folks after they get it, and are ready to toss it. They assume because it is set up, they must use it. There are several ways that make it user friendly, and I feel Intuit is hurting themselves everytime the upgrade, and switch the stuff around under different targets.

I will say Q-books has the poorest support you can find, first no english, and second and more important they want to sell you a support system, and (second again) in line, is they want to sell you a support system. That my friend is their only undrstanding of support.

But if you have it, I'm lost for a good explination why you can't make it work for you. Just a week ago, a body shop owner was complining because he disliked the Q-books, because he could never find any records. I assisted him for less than a half hr, and he just came uncorked at his secratary that was supposed to know the software and did not have a clue.

I asked him yesterday, if he had calmed down? He said that he did not need a secratary once I showed him that it was not hard to redo his information. He did not have his report center set up for vendors list / detailed. And then I showed him that by placing the mouse over the check (in the report) that he could view his check at a snap of the finger.

In all honesty his was set up to hate it, now I think his secratary will be hating me in the unemployment line. That is exactly what I did once I got the software, I got rid of my secratary, and saved alot of money twenty years ago.

I was gonna recommend quickbooks It is what I use for the bookkeeping. Print out a custom report, Other and capital reports take these three and my 1099's and that is usually all my tax attorney needs.

When I am doing work for customers and need to bill I have a template in Lotus 123. I am sure you could do the same in excel.

Works for me.

jt

Quick books ! once you get used to it you'll like it. That being said ,,I use it for tax info etc. But ,I use a dedicated repair shop program. Mitchell on Demand ,very pricey , but taylored to auto / truck repair industry , there are several others like it but they are all in the $100 per month price range .

Ill second what Iowa Northeast said. Get it set up right and it's simple to use.

You should be able to find a Quickbooks Advisor in your area that will tutor you and fine tune it for your use.

Also, when I got into Quickbooks years ago, I got a Quickbooks for Dummies book. It really helps you sort through all the options Quickbooks has built into it.

When I was working full time on equipment repair it seemed like I spent alot of time on the paperwork.Would of been better off using that time doing more work ! My wife was of no help.
Now many ,many years later someone told me some advice he heard and it does make good sense.
Hire a secretary to keep track of all the bookwork. They usually don't get paid very much this way you can spend all your hours where it makes the most $$.

I was in the same boat as you back in November. I went went Quick books again. I looked at Peachtree but didn't see any huge advantages and as I had been using some form of quick books for at least 15 years prior I went on board again with Intuit. NOW came the problem ! During Installation the data files were installed (by the program) in a folder un-accessable by me.(I am not super competent on these computer issues)Called Intuit support...They said they could fix the issue very quickly but it would cost me $38 to have them walk me thru it! I tried to say politely that I had just spent $200 for an upgrade and since it was not usable I thought CUSTOMER SUPPORT would help me through it! He said that for $38 dollars he would be glad to. Told him I would spend my money with someone else before giving Intuit any more $$$$. As it turned out it was simply a matter of copying the data files to My Documents where I had access to them. So simple a solution....so easy to address....He already knew what to do and was directed by his company to squeeze a little more $$ out of customer.Really lowered my opinion of Intuit.

I do taxes for a living and fix old rusty stuff to forget about doing taxes, use both Quicken and Quickbooks every day

Quicken is basically an electronic checkbook, very easy to learn and use, love it

Quicken Home/Business add invoicing and a few basic business kinda features, might handle what you need - shop the specials and it costs about $79

I use Quickbooks only because the clients use Quickbooks, real PITA unless it is set up properly and input is done exactly the way they force you to do it, for me it is very awkward to use but does get the job done eventually

IMHO

My wife is a book keeper by trade. She uses an Excel spreadsheet she created just for our needs.

It works pretty slick for her and the tax man, but I want to tweak it a little so it's easier for us to get info quick, like automagically telling us what our cost per head is for the hogs in the barn. It can be done easily, I just need to explain to her what I want done so she can change the program a little.

Books/paperwork has always been the worst part of having anything to do with farming. I was tickled to death, before we were married, when she told me she wanted to do the farm books after we got hitched.

I'm a lucky man.

Tim

I've been using it for years in my business, and I've never heard anyone say there's anything simpler to use.

The key is in how you set it up, initially. Many business consultants are skilled at Quickbooks, and your best bet would be to sit down with one, and tell her exactly what you want the program to do, and what you don't care about. And stand there as she sets it up, because the program asks questions and does the setup accordingly.

BTW, you will probably need Quickbooks rather than Quicken if you want to keep track of billable hours.

Andy, you could write my book also, mine was a instaltion problem as well, it did not upgrade. I heard seventy nine dollars a hundred times, I repeated my *6^%$&*()_)rear end, I will spend a couple thousand dollars in attorney fees. Then they came with thirty eight dollars, and I repeated my statment several times.

Finaly after a hr and a half, a lady from India got me up and going. The next time I booted up, it was gone. I then called again, and they told me a dozen times I did not register my product, and there was no record of me calling the day before. But for seventy nine dollares...... I stuck with my guns, and demanded they fix their problem.

After talking to seven different people, and no record of me calling them, a guy said .......I will let you talk to the lady that you talked to yesterday......HUMMMMMM, no record of me calling, but sure enough I was talking to the same lady again at no cost.

I asked her how many people in her office? She mentioned MANY MANY.

This is a scam in my opinion, and I should have reported it no doubt, but I was so sick of dealing with it, I pased it off. I know, I did not help the next guy, and I should be kicked.

Good thing you kept that a secret Tim. You'da had every farm boy in the country after her, had they known. . .

You are indeed a lucky man.

Paul

My wife is an accountant, and believes in Peachtree. She likes the way purchases and expenditures are itemized out, which makes them easier to access at later dates. She got accustomed to using it while working for a company that sells/ installs/ services telecom equipment. It seems to be, by the way she talks, that different programs work better or worse depending upon the business application.

For a simple cash business, it's possible to do it all on a spreadsheet. You do have to be careful, because it's very easy to insert a bad formula in a spreadsheet. Good and bad results look the same, you really need to be able to cross-check your results. For my business, I always check the cash on hand in my spreadsheet with my checkbook balance, if they don't match up I've made a mistake somewhere.

Another thing I do is to keep a paper ledger. Every entry goes into the ledger before it goes on the spreadsheet. That way I have a way to reconstruct the spreadsheet if I have a disk crash without a recent backup.

For anything but the simplest business, you probably need to use an accounting package, or stick to a paper ledger.

You might want to look at the freeware GnuCash program. It's a popular alternative to Quickbooks.
GnuCash