# Accounting programs vs. paper



## magnolia2017 (Dec 5, 2005)

How many of you are using accounting programs suck as Quickbooks or Peachtree and how many prefer keeping paper records?

I have several years experience with Peachtree Accounting and a little with Quickbooks, yet I prefer to keep my records on paper and incorporate them into Excel spreadsheets. I find that these programs are a little too complex for my needs, and a little complicated to set up by the novice user.

Of course if my inventory and sales were to grow tremendously, I'd likely choose one of the two programs to manage my business.

So what about you? Which do you prefer and why?

Maggie


----------



## Amy Grisak (Sep 1, 2008)

I've used Quickbooks for years, and love it. (Although I'm curious about Peachtree.) It helped tremendously when I had a home-based body care products business (Montana Mercantile) where I had to keep closer track on what was sold. But even now, I really like being able to compare income and expenditures from one year to the next with a couple of clicks, as well as to look at profit and loss reports. 
Amy


----------



## Alice In TX/MO (May 10, 2002)

I use Quickbooks for the corporation and the trust. Although I respect what it can do for the accountant, I detest using it.

I use Microsoft Money for our personal bookkeeping and for the rental property business. Those accounts are much less complicated, and I like MS Money. It does everything I need it to do.


----------



## SouthernLiving (Sep 16, 2008)

We use Quickbooks for our contracting company. Its not difficult at all - if you can keep up with a checking register and are just a little bit organized you can work it easily. The nice thing about software is that you can run many custom business related reports without having to fool around with cell formulas. If you keep your records properly it will also make tax-time a breeze.


----------



## magnolia2017 (Dec 5, 2005)

SouthernLiving said:


> The nice thing about software is that you can run many custom business related reports without having to fool around with cell formulas.


I should have added that I have an accounting background, so setting up the cell formulas is a breeze for me. For someone with little computer or spreadsheet knowledge, I'd probably go with one of the programs.

One thing I will stress with any accounting program is to make sure it is set up correctly! At one business where I worked, a co-worker and I spent an entire week working with the accountants to straigten up a program that had been set up incorrectly. If you have any questions when setting up a program, seek professional advice. 

Maggie


----------



## Lazy J (Jan 2, 2008)

We opened a small Feed Store last year and decided to start using Quick Books Pro when we opened. We also started using QB for our Farm and Rental businesses and are very glad we did. The basics of QB are very easy, I am now getting into some more difficult accounting issues and am leaning on the QB expert at our Accountant's office.

I would HIGHLY, HIGHLY recommend starting with a software package for accounting as it may save you some hassles and will aid in keeping track of all expenses and income.

Jim


----------



## Alice In TX/MO (May 10, 2002)

As mentioned above, if you decide to try Quickbooks, get expert help on the set up. There are some quirks to the vocabulary and how the 'accounts' are set up. 

An account is NOT the bank account. An account is the category of where QB puts each credit or debit posted. 

If you don't know what it's asking, it will cost hours and dollars to get the file straightened out.

Don't ask how I know this!

Because I have two businesses in Quickbooks, each one has a separate list of accounts. Each has its own asset, equity, liability (which isn't insurance), income, and expense accounts. (an expense account is not where you get your lunch bill paid)

If you aren't an accountant already, get help!


----------



## chris30523 (Jun 11, 2005)

I keep my books the old fashioned way.Paper and Ink.I find I keep up with it better this way.


----------



## MN Gardener (Jan 23, 2008)

I use a spreadsheet I designed for our business. We have a small business and very simple accounting system so Quickbooks would be overkill. I do like Quickbooks, but when DH started the business he had accounting ideas that did not include Quickbooks, so I have just gone along with it to apease him! LOL


----------



## sisterpine (May 9, 2004)

Interesting stuff. I have been keeping records on an excell spread sheet with formulas that add/subtract/multiply as needed and i could get find out if i am in the red or black for any given area at a glance. UNFORTUNATELY i crashed my hard drive last week and had not backed up since FEB and have lost all of the data! YIKES it will probably take me weeks to get it back up and working right. No matter what system you use PLEASE learn from my error and back up frequently, sis


----------



## Alice In TX/MO (May 10, 2002)

If you have the bucks for it, there are companies that can recover your data from your hard drive. This happened to me.

It was $900. I was able to spread the expense out over three companies, and it was worth it to me. Mom had just passed away, and I could NOT deal with the stress.

Here's the company.
http://www.flashbackdata.com/


----------



## Graystone (May 1, 2008)

For the past 1.5 years I have done the bookeeping for a small 8 employee, including me, family owned business using Quickbooks. I probably use just a fraction of Quickbooks capabilty just for payroll, writing checks & check register, and keeping a list of customers. The business has an accountant that does taxes and quarterly reports for the gov.

I can't imagine the hassle of doing what little bookeeping I do on paper.

I keep the inventory on an excel spreedsheet.


----------



## MawKettle (Sep 13, 2006)

I'm using quickbooks for virtually everything at this point. 

I was desparate for a "single source" solution, rather than having three different systems (one for accounting, one for inventory management, and one for customer relationship management).........

In the QB version I'm currently using (manufacturing and wholesale)....it all works - not elegantly in some places - but all three tasks are being dealt with.


----------



## JGex (Dec 27, 2005)

We've used Quickbooks since 1999. I can't imagine trying to keep up with sales and our vendors any other way. I have also set up a file for our personal checking account.

We have a bookkeeper that comes in about twice a month to do all of the cleanup on stuff I don't want to fool with like reconciling the bank accounts and filling out all of our withholding paperwork and tax carp. I really like having that second set of eyes to look over my input.

Our bookkeeper has also just set it up so she can view our company files over the internet from the comfort of her own home. We trust her and with gas so high and her with 2 young uns, it works out well.


----------



## KBQuilter (Jun 11, 2008)

I'm a little late getting in on this thread but, I use Peachtree Accounting. I've used Peachtree since their version 2 (ages ago) and now am using their 2008 version. They have simple programs all the way up to really complex programs for your particular industry. Very dependable software and easy to set up and use - has password protection if that is a concern. You can customize your chart of accounts and just about everything else too. I think it's a super program (I use it at home for my business and at work).

Also, as for the "recovery of lost data" - backup, backup, backup - the first three essentials of any computer system.


----------



## Kim_NC (Sep 5, 2007)

I'm late too. We use Quick Books Pro and like it. It can be a little tough for some folks to set-up. We've done set-ups for some of our clients and taught them the basics for making entries, etc.

We back up our files to hard drives on other network computers, and also to CD or DVD.


----------



## MariaAZ (Jun 5, 2007)

I use an Excel spreadsheet for most of my business finances. I DO use a program called Rentright to manage our rentals. It's a pretty simple program; I enter income and expenses, the program forces me to choose a category. At the end of the year I can print income/expense reports by property. However, the program doesn't have the ability to easily manage general expenses (such as tools or equipment that is used for all the properties); only ones that can be attributed to a specific property. So, I use my Excel spreadsheet for that.


----------

