Accounting Software Suggestions

[aeramas]

I am helping a friend start up a new home business, and I was looking at cost effective solutions. As of now, I am going to setup a server running a SUSE Enterprise Sever with Windows XP Pro/Vista Home Premium in a Virtual Machine. That way he has one system that will double as an application/file server, with stability and scalability and robustness. I was looking for some accounting software (preferably open source) that would be reasonable for someone to learn, and utilize that is stable and cost effective. I was considering utilizing something that pulled info from a MySQL Db. I have several options, to choose from, I am just looking for some info on what software is good or not good.

[ethnicomm]

I don't know where you live but the common ones like Peachtree/Simply Accounting or Quickbooks have a lot of limitations on users and historical records. Sage charges for help - not sure about Quickbooks. They don't even have a community forum - so it will cost $ to get any issues resolved.

[shigamoto]

Quickbooks is expensive and if it is a small business I personally don't see the benefits of using it. Accounting software is not so much about the program as learning accounting. What's your friends take on accounting? There are very advanced programs but also more simple ones where in some cases you don't need to know that much about accounting.

Make sure that the accounting program is tailored for the country you live in, I'm thinking laws and accounting regulations. Good luck!

[prfb]

If it's just a one-man business, Quicken Home & Business may be sufficient. It's $90 in stores, but if you look around online you can get it for $50 with free shipping.

[aspdaddy]

The basic version of Sage is OK for a small/home business, has a limit of 999 different products (departments). Doesnt work with mySQL but it imports from csv fine. Ticks all the legal boxes.

[martinibuster]

Quickbooks Pro 2007 sells for $176 at Amazon, with so-called used copies going for $99. I like quickbooks, works great for the home office setting, and it lets you create invoices etc. If you're not managing a ton of employees, just a home office, then Quickbooks Pro should work well.

[pbradish]

Go out and grab Quickbooks 2007.

[bcolflesh]

Some free options:

[osalt.com...]