Accounting / bookkeeping software ?

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OK Sparky 93

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Hello all! Going through the second half of my first year. I have seen at least one thread about quickbooks. ??How many use some kind of software to keep all deposits and expense of your business? Or what method do you use?

Mike G
 
I carried no inventory and had no employees. Quicken Home and Business worked for me. @ptonsparky is correct in having your accountant setup whatever you use, and Garbage In, Garbage Out.
 
I use QB online, have an accountant that reconciles it every month. But its simple to use for small shop, snap pics of all receipts and email any that come to email. Very fast and efficient for me
 
I’ve decided to go with the QB online plus version. As far as a book keeper to help set up….. I went with their one time set up, which I am not sure if it was worth the $50 or not. There seems to be more to the software than what they covered.

Those of you that also use the QB, how did you go about having a bookkeeper help set up?
 
OK Sparky 93 said:
I’ve decided to go with the QB online plus version. As far as a book keeper to help set up….. I went with their one time set up, which I am not sure if it was worth the $50 or not. There seems to be more to the software than what they covered.

Those of you that also use the QB, how did you go about having a bookkeeper help set up?
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I did it myself, consequently the suggestion to have your accountants help. I am not familiar with the online version at all and my setup was ?? thirty years ago.
 
OK Sparky 93 said:
I’ve decided to go with the QB online plus version. As far as a book keeper to help set up….. I went with their one time set up, which I am not sure if it was worth the $50 or not. There seems to be more to the software than what they covered.

Those of you that also use the QB, how did you go about having a bookkeeper help set up?
Click to expand...
I found out somewhat the hard way, you need to set up your income expense accounts to same income/expenses that the IRS will have on your tax forms. QB default accounts it may set up for you may be close to that but you should double check and add or delete accounts (before you start to use them in transactions, they can't be deleted if they have been used in any transactions) to match what categories you will use when filing. You don't have to do that but it makes it a lot easier when filing as you don't need to decide what to combine and where when it doesn't match what IRS has on the form. If you want to track more details on a particular expense for your own purposes make it a sub account of one those categories the IRS has on their tax forms, the main category will still include it on reports generated for tax filing.

The newer you are at this the more likely you may have an accountant help you with setting it up. If you don't have them help you but they are helping you file your taxes it possibly makes it a little more work for them if not set up the way they would like it as they would need to sort more information and recategorize some items if not already sorted the way they would like it.
 
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kwired said:
I found out somewhat the hard way, you need to set up your income expense accounts to same income/expenses that the IRS will have on your tax forms. QB default accounts it may set up for you may be close to that but you should double check and add or delete accounts (before you start to use them in transactions, they can't be deleted if they have been used in any transactions) to match what categories you will use when filing. You don't have to do that but it makes it a lot easier when filing as you don't need to decide what to combine and where when it doesn't match what IRS has on the form. If you want to track more details on a particular expense for your own purposes make it a sub account of one those categories the IRS has on their tax forms, the main category will still include it on reports generated for tax filing.

The newer you are at this the more likely you may have an accountant help you with setting it up. If you don't have them help you but they are helping you file your taxes it possibly makes it a little more work for them if not set up the way they would like it as they would need to sort more information and recategorize some items if not already sorted the way they would like it.
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Yup, learned the hard way.
 
FYI quickbooks on line has the most conveniences and maybe easiest to use, but comes with a cost as well. Is a monthly subscription, always gives you latest software and features and is great for use over multiple devices.

That monthly fee adds up though. Basic accounting methods haven't really changed - like forever and all versions new and old still use that same basic accounting methods, it is the user friendliness that is what mostly changes over time on this kind of product.

I was using quickbooks 2007 until this year. got to point I really wanted to reorganize things (some were things I mentioned in previous post) I didn't like that I had set up even before I had 2007 but the original setup got transferred way back when converting to 2007. I considered QB on line but then figured wasn't worth the extra cost for me. Went to QB desktop version (basically what I had before but with 2021 user interface changes) and instead of transferring information from older version (that transfers things as is and if not set up the way you want you still end up with things you don't want) I kind of started from scratch, and hopefully got it the way I want it. Since it is still "new" I still have to add things here and there as I encounter them for the "first time"

Another reason I updated to newer version was I got a new computer last year and transferred 2007 to it, but it didn't play so well with 2007 for some reason. Particularly with wanting to print invoices - big PITA. ran program fine but ended up saving company file on a usb drive and then opening on my old computer to print the invoices, even print to PDF file would not work, until the end of year when I finally switched completely over to the newer version.

But that 2007 version didn't owe me anything as long as I used it, and on more than one machine over it's lifetime.
 
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For setup, there are quickbooks consultants. While some (most?) aren't CPAs, they know what needs do go where and can train on how to do things.

For expenses, there are services like Expensify that will do a lot of the paperwork involved- last time I used it, you could even take pictures of receipts and it would find the total. Later, you can sort the numbers and pull down a CSV or hook it directly into quickbooks (it's not very expensive, and there much be other companies doing the same thing).
 
zbang said:
For setup, there are quickbooks consultants. While some (most?) aren't CPAs, they know what needs do go where and can train on how to do things.

For expenses, there are services like Expensify that will do a lot of the paperwork involved- last time I used it, you could even take pictures of receipts and it would find the total. Later, you can sort the numbers and pull down a CSV or hook it directly into quickbooks (it's not very expensive, and there much be other companies doing the same thing).
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I believe the quickbooks online version has ability to take a picture or scan a receipt and automatically determine what accounts to enter it to. I haven't used it, would think it needs some parameters to be set up and even then if it can't determine which accounts to use would place the transaction into some sort of default account that you would want to review periodically and manually make adjustments to the entries
 
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