Accounting Software (I enter the horrible world)

pencil

Hi all

I am setting up on my own and as such will have to get serious about my money's comings & goings.

I have spoken to an accountant and he recommended that I get 'quickbooks'.

Any anyone any experiance in using Accounting software & what do you think of quickbooks?

Also where is good to shop online for software (I have read the sticky thread but no info)

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gerire

It depends on what you need the software to do for you. if you need stock control aswell as accounting, TAS 3 is very complete and straight forward. If its just accounting, my mother is a book keeper and sweard by a package called the Big Red Book

pencil

gerire

It's for real simple bookkeeping & Vat returns. No Stock control or anything else.

Dun

gerire wrote:

If its just accounting, my mother is a book keeper and sweard by a package called the Big Red Book

And my aunt swore at it!

I'm afraid I've no experience of using accounting software, but if you're shopping on-line, be careful what you buy, as you would need one geared to the Irish VAT/Tax/accounting system, as far as I know.

Venom

pencil wrote:

gerire

It's for real simple bookkeeping & Vat returns. No Stock control or anything else.

The Big Red Book should more than fill your needs then. My boss bought the company that makes the Big red Book a few years back so PM me your phone number and I'll have one of the sales drones give you a ring and organise showing you a demo of the package. Wont cost you a thing and you will see what the software can do for you

boo4842

I'm an acountant myself and probably the most popular small business accounting software is Sage Line 50. That being said, I personally hate the product, and would not recomend it.

Quickbooks is extremely popular made by Intuit, who is a very respected leader in finacial software. Its very widely supported and a very good program. However, it was created for a north american audience, and am not sre if they have an irish specific version or not. I'm sure a retailer could tell you more than I.

I have not used TAS, but hear its also very popular.

Probably the best small business software I have used is Exchequer Enterprise. It is very user friendly, has links to excel and great drill down features. It is job costing forcused, and I think this is considerably more expensive than yor of the shelf packages, so may not be suitable for your business needs.

You really can't go wrong with any package, as they all work as basic bookeeping. The problem is once you start with one, it is so difficult to change to another one, that you will be tied down for a long time.

tibrok

I've used quickbooks for the last 6-7 years with no problems. Some of its strong points are
- its easy to drill down to and amend transactions
- its fairly user friendly with setup wizards, good help and well laid out menus/sections
- easy to use and flexible report generation.

The UK version is whats used here in Ireland(unfortunately the payroll features don't work here but is ok for Irish VAT etc) and costs circa €300 depending on version(pro or standard).

Dummy

Initially went with Sage Instant Accounts, then needed POP and SOP and upgraded to Line50. Love it. Very easy.

Was advised well at the time. Went with a Sage reseller (list is on the sage website), and when I call I am NOT a number but they know me and I know them and most important of all, they know their stuff.

If like us, when your business grows, your accounting solution must be able to grow with it easily and at minimum cost.