Discussion:Accounting software for service business
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Discussion Forum Index --> Accounting Questions --> Accounting software for service business
| 12 May 2007 | |
| I'm working in Windows. I want a simple program that will produce accounting reports from my entries, as well as calculate business ratios., e.g. gross profit margin ratio. I do not deal with inventory, so don't need that aspect. I looked at a shareware prorgram called Instant CashBook 3 but it doesn't do the ratios. (Any other opinions on this program are also welcome.) | |
Actionbsns (talk|edits) said: | 13 May 2007 |
| Henry, you get what you pay for, whether it's free advice from someone on the radio or a piece of shareware software. I suggest you spend a little and buy Quickbooks. Once your information is in the program, you can run all kinds of comparisons and ratios. | |
| 13 May 2007 | |
| How big is this business?
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Bottom Line (talk|edits) said: | 14 May 2007 |
| Zion94 sounds like an ad. Henry, I agree with Action - you get what you pay for. I also recommend that small businesses use software that is commonly found. Around 90% of CPA's that specialize in small businesses use QuickBooks. There's got to be a reason why. You want a program that is easy to use, easy to get support for and that will grow with you. Try getting local support and training for some of the less common softwares. Additionally after your business gets gigantic and you have to go to an expensive software, the conversion from QuickBooks shouldn't be complicated since so many small businesses use it. The expensive software company will have already done conversions from QuickBooks and won't be learning on your dime. Talk with your accountant and see what your accountant recommends. | |
| 15 May 2007 | |
| Bottom Line, I trying to determine if a client of mine should move on from QB to another software. Their file is over 7 yrs. old and has been condensed which has helped with speed but it is still so slow. Sales/Repair business, inventory approx. $130,000, Sales close to 1 million, 8 employees---a small operation but needs speed and user friendly software. I love QB and recommend it to all my clients. Should we stick with QB & upgrade to 2007. 2 computers are networked. Hate to create a new QB company because of the inventory figures.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Dar | |
Actionbsns (talk|edits) said: | 16 May 2007 |
| Acctax, it's generally not a good idea to start a new company file and lose all your historical data. That said, Ihave two or three clients who also have very long lived QB data files. They are difficult to send back ups back and forth because of the size of the file, they slow down the computer incredibly, and they make it cumbersome to access features within QB. We are trying to decide the next best step. One client has a problem upgrading to newer versions of QB which we haven't been able to identify, but the file crashes every time we attempt to upgrade using a different computer as a test run. As for moving to 2007 - I would be hesitant to do that, if you can go to 2006. I really hate using version 2007, Intuit has dumbed down the program to such a degree that just getting the program to do things takes forever because of all the pop up screens asking me if I'm sure I want to do want I want to do, their new way of handling payroll and payroll tax payments is just plain frustrating. Just MHO, but I'm ready to toss it out the window, but I have clients using it so I can't. | |
Bottom Line (talk|edits) said: | 20 May 2007 |
| I agree with Action about QB's dumbing down. Took me awhile but I did find a button on the payroll module that can do what I want. Your first screen after Pay Employees has the list of employees. On the left side just above the employee list is a button that says "Open Paycheck Detail". I checkmark all employees then use the "Open Paycheck Detail". I never print paychecks without looking at all the detail anyway. There's a Next button at the bottom that allows you to move through all the employees. As for the tax payments, I use the "Create Custom Liability Payments". You do get a reminder about the dates not being right if you make payments less often than each payperiod but I've been able to get rid of most of the other nuisances.
Action - regarding your file crash problem, have you tried verifying and rebuilding the data? Go to File in the upper left, come down to Utilities. At the bottom are options for verifying, rebuilding and cleaning up company data. Just a guess but may be worth a try. I had a client that changed from selling cars to leasing out the property the business had been located on. Same corp but entirely different type of business. (yes I know - don't own RE in a corp but he did this long before I met him). I set up a new QB file and journal entried the prior year trial balance. Renamed the old QB file "XCorp pre 2004". Kept the file on the computer for reference. Had another client that had published four magazines under one corp. He had set up a separate QB file for each magazine and the bookkeeping was a nightmare to try to combine. (once again before he met me-I introduced him to class tracking). We copied each file (using an identifying name such as Tampa mag old) to a new name on his computer. We then used the largest as a base and merged his customer list and invoices into the the new QB file. We used a third party software package that we found on the QB website. It's a Data Transfer Utility from an CPA in Texas. Costs around $99 and worked fine. Did this a couple of years ago and at that time there was a free sample that merged two customers. The only problem was that Notes attached to the Customers didn't transfer. I don't remember if it was possible to transfer the Inventory since I wasn't interested in that. | |
| 21 May 2007 | |
| Action, appreciate your advice. My brother's business upgraded to QB '07 & they hate it. The first few mths he talked about getting a website that stated the "QB Sucks". Nobody I know that has been using QB for the last 5 yrs or so like this version. Agree about the historical data & will try to find a QB '06 for client. I will suggest that client make multiple backups of data file, re-format hard drive and double RAM memory to see if that improves speed.
Dar | |
| 21 May 2007 | |
| Action, are you currently using QB '06? Client is using QB '04 & I have located some '06 versions. QB cust. svc. tech. told me a few min. ago that the major changes to QB occured in the '06 year and am wondering if the '06 version is still pretty similar to the '04 version.
Dar | |
Bottom Line (talk|edits) said: | 21 May 2007 |
| I believe the major changes were with 2005 instead of 2006. In 2005, QB changed to SQL programming language instead of the prior language (can't remember what it was). SQL has lots more capacity and allows the customer/vendor/inventory lists to be much larger. Also the audit trail runs in the background which also makes your data file much larger. However, if your client has an old computer, 2005 and newer QB may not run well on it because the program is so much larger. If I have a client that has an old computer, I keep them on QB 2004 because I don't want to overload their computer. Of course if they have payroll they have no choice but to move past QB 2004. The programming language difference really didn't change what we see on our computer screens. The big change to what we see is on QB 2007. | |
| 21 May 2007 | |
| Bottom, all in all, would you try to stay away from '07 and try for '06 on new computers. There are only 2 computers but they are networked. Her data file is a little over 95,000 KB.
Dar | |
| 21 May 2007 | |
| I too have had many issues with QB 2007. Many of them straignten out with reinstallation of .NET framework and Windows Installer Cleanup Utility / Installer 3.1 (see QB Knowledgebase article 1000268). Generally it works OK for me now.
I do still have issues upgrading client data files from older versions when the files are located on the server. If you move the files to a temporary folder on your desktop, they upgrade without issue and can then me moved back to the server. Not how it should work, but at least we can get our job done. I think the issue is in the .NET programming...I've seen other .NET issues with Intuit's PROSeries...hopefully they'll get this fixed in the next version. | |
Bottom Line (talk|edits) said: | 25 May 2007 |
| For a new client that has never used QuickBooks with a fairly up-to-date computer (last couple of years), I'd put them on 2007. Clients tend to flip out when their software changes so I try to lessen these changes. (Plus the only way you can find 2006 now would be through E-Bay etc) | |
| 30 May 2007 | |
| Bottom, have you ever used Fishbowl Inventory for Quickbooks? If so, what is your take on it. I called QB cust. svc. and they rate it highly.
Dar | |
Bottom Line (talk|edits) said: | 8 June 2007 |
| Never tried Fishbowl. I assume it's an add-on. What does it do? (I don't use many add-on's since I've been able to get QB to do just about everything my clients need.) | |
| 13 June 2007 | |
| It is an add-on. My client is going to purchase it soon. It is supposed to manage all inventory, invoicing and bar code scanning. The info somehow is supposed to merge in with QB which should keep the speed up.
My client took my advice on re-formatting hard drive, increased to 1.5 ram with QB '07. QB is running real fast now. Dar | |
