Accounting programs

Spotted Owl · #1 01/21/11, 12:41 PM

We have 5 different businesses that we run out of the house here and need some help. Each has to be their own entity for insurance reasons among others.

What is a good accounting software program to use. They way we have been doing things has been working but is getting to be a lot of hassle.

Do you use accounting programs and what do you use. What do you like and dislike about what you have. Do you have a system that works well if you don't have a program. Tax time is a killer and it would be nice to simplify things on other fronts as well. Is there a program that will handle all the businesses or do you have to buy a set up for each one. An accountant for what we do would be a huge cost and having taxes prepared every year would also be a major cost.

We are totally confused about this stuff. Seems the more we look into it the worse it gets. We are not over the digital divide yet and are only slowly working our way into the foothills of the climb.

Thanks for any help you might have.

Owl

Nevada · #2 01/21/11, 01:45 PM

The gold standard for open source (free) business accounting software is TurboCASH. It's got a steep learning curve when you are new to it, but there is help available at the user-supported forum. There are also tax plug-ins available to help with payroll accounting.

If you want to spend a bundle on an accounting application, look at QuickBooks, but its learning curve is just as steep.

Mickie3 · #3 01/21/11, 01:58 PM

Quickbooks has several packages and lots of people like them. Have you checked into their packages to see if any would suit your needs?

Mickie3 · #4 01/21/11, 02:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nevada

The gold standard for open source (free) business accounting software is TurboCASH. It's got a steep learning curve when you are new to it, but there is help available at the user-supported forum. There are also tax plug-ins available to help with payroll accounting.

If you want to spend a bundle on an accounting application, look at QuickBooks, but its learning curve is just as steep.

Quickbooks is not all that expensive, unless you are trying to use it to run a good sized business and have 30 people using it at once, etc.

I have set up QB for others and the learning curve, as far as I could see, was not any more difficult than using multiple checkbook registers.

As for TurboCash, never knew anyone that actually used it, however, the reviews I found on it said it was geared to a retail operation only and less useful for other types of companies. While FREE is nice, it may be worth a few dollars to have something that you don't have to "monkey around with" to make work for your company.

po boy · #5 01/21/11, 02:10 PM

I used Quick books for 16 years in my business. Easy to set up. If you have employees, the payroll function is simple and it makes paying weekly, monthly and quarterly payroll taxes as well as reports very easy. P&L and balance sheets can be done in seconds. If a CPA does your taxes, just give him a back up.

If you have five different tax id #'s, you can run them separately in quick books....

Nevada · #6 01/21/11, 02:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mickie3

As for TurboCash, never knew anyone that actually used it, however, the reviews I found on it said it was geared to a retail operation only and less useful for other types of companies. While FREE is nice, it may be worth a few dollars to have something that you don't have to "monkey around with" to make work for your company.

TurboCASH has the largest user base of any business accounting application in the world. The fact that it's open source doesn't necessarily mean that it needs to be monkeyed with. It seems pretty solid to me. I know that it handles multiple companies too.

As business accounting software goes QuickBooks isn't prohibitively expensive, but it's still a few hundred. That's certainly enough to consider an open source solution.

I really believe in the TurboCASH product.

KIT.S · #7 01/21/11, 02:50 PM

My CPA office uses QuickBooks, and I would recommend it. Costs about $200 for a program that will be updated for 3 years. Then you have to buy a new one. Payroll runs an additional about $130 per year for updates. You can get a free sample to use with a few customers, a few vendors and I think a couple employees at
http://www.freeonlineaccountingsoftw...oks%20download
And it's very nice to have a client with QuickBooks give us an accountant's version or backup for us to prepare the income or payroll tax returns. Cheaper for the client, as it takes us less time. I work with dozens of clients, and am experienced enough to give assistance over the phone if they run into something awkward on QB. You may find someone in your vicinity who can do that, too, then if you do have a problem, they can guide you out of it.
I've never had the chance to use TurboCash, so don't have any insight on that. No program is perfect, but free sounds good, too.
Kit

lhspirited · #8 01/21/11, 03:34 PM

I use quicken to track expenses and track expenses in different categories for different entities, my home, my business, and I'm volunteer treasurer with our farmers market. It would be cheaper and less complicated than quickbooks which I use also as volunteer treasurer for our food co-op. For that I need AP and payroll so it's the better option.

Laura
www.growgreatvegetables.com

Spotted Owl · #9 01/25/11, 07:45 PM

Thanks folks. We'll look into both the Turbo Cash and the quick books.

Owl