Do You Prefer Quickbooks, Microsoft Or Another Small Business Accounting Software? Why Or Why Not?
I am starting a small business. I need software to invoice and track payments, track income and expense and basically keep everything organized for tax time. I’ve read positive and negative on all small business accounting software, so now I’m really confused. Oh, my business is a service one, so I will be invoicing for hours not items, if that makes any difference. Can you please give me some advice?
I’ve used quite a few accounting packages from Quickbooks to a full blown Oracle ERP system. I find that Quickbooks is a great application for businesses that don’t need a point-of-sale register type environment.
I work for a company that even makes plug-ins for it that will allow you to do credit card processing directly from Quickbooks.
The Microsoft product is too untried at this point, and the Dynamics line of software that they purchased from GreatPlains is far too complex to set up for a small shop.
I would highly recommend QuickBooks for you. I’ve used Peachtree, Microsoft, and QuickBooks before… QuickBooks has the easiest “invoicing from time-sheets” feature which would be ideal if you are billing by the hour. You set up “jobs” and “customers” and fill in your time-sheet accordingly… it’s really very intuitive and easy to use.
Good luck with your new venture!