Forum Moderators: LifeinAsia
I've read that Quicken's recent versions have gone downhill, something about export compatability? The CNET user reviews for Quicken & MS Money are god-awful. Any good alternatives? Or is it a lesser of two evils situation?
I use quickbooks since it does a decent job on invoicing and managing your accounts receivables. AR can be extremely important and we've found it's something you have to stay on top of at all times.
I just helped a client select a version of quickbooks. I think he went for the second version up which was about $199. He's doing a service type business and the $199 version did everything he needed at this time.
One final thought.... Make sure you are doing OFFSITE backups. You can do it any way you want, but you should be making copies of your QB data files and storing them away from your home. The IRS can be cruel and heartless if you try to say that you don't have the info they need.
cg
I have used QB for 3 years and it works perfect in every respect, gives great reports, keeps all of my records straight, is accountant friendly, and does seem to work well with eTrade and my online banking. I don't know about the Pay Pal or what type of link you are thinking about there, but it works well in every respect for me. I am currently running version 2007 Pro.
The IRS can be cruel and heartless
You shouldn't sugar coat it like that. You should tell them how they really are when you don't have the information they want. Just tell him straight :)
Don't need anything too advanced,
My wife has QuickBooks 2007 Retail, which is off the chart in complexity but vital if you do retail.
I use QuickBooks SimpleStart, which has all the accounting tools I need and it's very inexpensive. It can even email invoices if you don't mind sending your data through the Intuit mail server. (This last may be configurable, but I have other options for invoicing and never pursued it.)
We just burnt a DVD with both "prepare for accountant" files of both our business accounts and sent them off to the accountant (didn't like what came back, but that's another story!) It has many features you will use - charts, purchase orders, create invoices, accept payments, make deposits, so on.
First time in years I've had all my accounting to the PENNY. :-)
I am not sure what the reviewers are talking about in terms of exporting data.
If you use retail and try to synchronize it with a website, it's a nightmare. I have been able to import and export QB data, but the whole process is not very well thought out by the developers.
I use a very basic version of Sage but invoice directly from the websites and just import data into it. It works fine for reports for auditors and for chasing payments but is not too good at for detailed analysis.
