Cloud based accounting software?

[SmithBuilt]

Anyone tried this yet? I'm really tired of Quickbooks forcing me to upgrade every few years. Plus I would like to be able to work on any device anywhere. I think QB's service at $40/mo is overpriced.

Does anyone have any direct experience with cloud based? Or know where I could find reliable info?

 

[Fulthrotl]

Anyone tried this yet? I'm really tired of Quickbooks forcing me to upgrade every few years. Plus I would like to be able to work on any device anywhere. I think QB's service at $40/mo is overpriced.

Does anyone have any direct experience with cloud based? Or know where I could find reliable info?

i use invoices to go, and neatworks cloud document service,
and mint, and am happy with them.

i do almost all my bookkeeping from my iphone.
bidding, invoicing, statements, tracking material, all of it.

 

[SmithBuilt]

So Mint takes care of your business accounting? Your accountant ok with your setup? Mine doesn't want anything but quickbooks, maybe time for a new one.

I'm getting the feeling that cloud based is not quite ready for prime time. The plans I've looked at so far will be more expensive than updating qb's every few years. And I'm not sure it's worth $360/year to be able to go mobile.

 

[mgookin]

i use invoices to go, and neatworks cloud document service,
and mint, and am happy with them.

i do almost all my bookkeeping from my iphone.
bidding, invoicing, statements, tracking material, all of it.

I just looked at http://www.invoice2go.com/Pricing

Is that what you use?

Does it give you accounting spreadsheets?

 

[Fulthrotl]

I just looked at http://www.invoice2go.com/Pricing

Is that what you use?

Does it give you accounting spreadsheets?

well, the app runs with a number of reports you can generate....

dashboard gives you an overview showing, by year,

total sales
number of sales
average sale
largest sale
sales by quarters
top ten customers
customers owing

each of those panes on that window drills to a detailed analysis, to the transactional level

in addition, these reports are available in real time:

sales by year
sales by quarter
sales by month
sales by customer
customer aging
sales journal
cash by customer
cash journal
expense journal
sales by item
profit and loss

nested into the main program are modules:

receipts to go
calendar to go
statements to go
sign to go
scan to go
maps to go

there is also a function where you can invite your
accountant to have access. there is no charge for this.

i use mint to track all my expenses. i can flag everything
and sort it anyway i want to, with multiple flags. all my
accounts are on there, and so when i want 2013 taxable
expenses, i can get them all in one swoop. so for quarterlies,
all i need to do is look at total income from invoices to go,
total expenses from mint, along with other household income,
and see what's been paid in witholding to date, what needs to
be paid, subtract the little number from the big number, and
mail it in.

i use neatworks, and have for a while, but i find that it's
redundant for all of my biz expenses, so i don't bother with
it, other than to scan all my paperwork so i have a backup
somewhere. i don't use it to sort and produce reports.

right now, i've got one T&M job running, $125k~$150k when
it's all in, and all invoices, receipts, blueprints, job photos,
email correspondence, prelim notices, lien releases, as builts,
is all neatly sorted in a dropbox folder, with a link provided to all
concerned parties. wholesale house wants to know what's up
with the job? here's your link.

customer, or their CFO want's to know what is going on with the job?
here's your link.

it's worked well enough that i'm doing it that way from here
on out.

i don't have an accountant, as i don't need one, based on
the volume of my business, and the simplicity of the accounting.

income - outgo = outcome

tax on outcome - withholding = check needed to be sent.

mail check in.
sputter about high taxes.

start next tax year.
shrug. go to work in the morning. it's a simple life.

 

[mgookin]

Thanks!

 

[hbiss]

Do you really want all your private information out there for anyone with a few smarts to grab? How about the IRS and the government? Not trying to be a conspiracy theorist but did anyone of you ever think about the reason for pushing businesses to store all their information on some remote unknown server someplace instead of in your office under your control on your own machine?

These are not just my thoughts but those of many accountants, IT people and all large corporations. Security is paramount and they pay millions to keep their information locked up. If you want to generate invoices from the job or take credit card payments that can be easily done without putting your whole business out there.

right now, i've got one T&M job running, $125k~$150k when
it's all in, and all invoices, receipts, blueprints, job photos,
email correspondence, prelim notices, lien releases, as builts,
is all neatly sorted in a dropbox folder, with a link provided to all
concerned parties. wholesale house wants to know what's up
with the job? here's your link.

customer, or their CFO want's to know what is going on with the job?
here's your link.

That's reason right there for you to have an accountant and an attorney. Sounds like you are inviting these guys in to look at your books. Unless you are generalizing in your explanation, a lot of that information is none of their business.

-Hal

 

[Fulthrotl]

Do you really want all your private information out there for anyone with a few smarts to grab? How about the IRS and the government? Not trying to be a conspiracy theorist but did anyone of you ever think about the reason for pushing businesses to store all their information on some remote unknown server someplace instead of in your office under your control on your own machine?

These are not just my thoughts but those of many accountants, IT people and all large corporations. Security is paramount and they pay millions to keep their information locked up. If you want to generate invoices from the job or take credit card payments that can be easily done without putting your whole business out there.



That's reason right there for you to have an accountant and an attorney. Sounds like you are inviting these guys in to look at your books. Unless you are generalizing in your explanation, a lot of that information is none of their business.

-Hal

the irs wants to audit....?
i'm flattered.
here's your link...... :lol:

i appreciate your concern.... however....

first off, nothing in that dropbox folder isn't already public information,
or not of consequence to the principal folks involved.

sensitive information is not contained there. you have my invoices,
wholesale house invoices, and lien releases. and job progress photos.

armed with a cup of half decent coffee and an hour with a decent internet
connection, you could establish most everything in that folder about me personally
with google. you don't need the dropbox link.

ALL of my information on every cloud account is backed up in three places under
my physical control. rest assured i'm every bit as suspicious of the US government
as most of us are, but all i'm collating with mint is stuff the US government already
has access to.

and i'm sure if i lost all my data, the NSA could help me with a backup....

there's a difference between transparency, and buck naked. for example, the
hard drive this system runs on is encrypted, as are the backups.

the connection to the internet and everything else, on everything i own is VPN.
i run a packet sniffer which blocks connection to everything going out the port
that i haven't given the nod to.

every photo i've ever posted online has had the EXIF data removed. here,
or anywhere else.

my weakest data breach is the wifi temperature controller on my smoker. until
i can snug that up a bit, the smoker is on it's own wifi, mainly so it doesn't drop
my entire network from 802.11ac to 802.11b when it communicates.

so, if you hack r00t on my wifi, which is an 802.11b connection called SMOKER,
you can see what temperature my brisket is currently at. it's not encrypted.

but if the IRS want's to look at something, well, ok.
the california franchise tax board, they don't look, they just take the money out
of your checking account, and send you a notice about two weeks later that they
took it, entitled to, or not. so it's not a worry with them. they don't have the labor
to audit, they just take it.

i really don't need any secrets about me personally. for god's sake, anyone who
knows me knows i'm telling the truth. who would make up such bad shit?

i live in a world that is populated by honest, trustworthy folk. it hasn't always been
that way, but it is now. it took a lot to get there.

 

[mgookin]

Do you really want all your private information out there for anyone with a few smarts to grab? How about the IRS and the government? ..-Hal

They already have it.

 

[hbiss]

the irs wants to audit....?
i'm flattered.
here's your link...... :lol:

i appreciate your concern.... however....

first off, nothing in that dropbox folder isn't already public information,
or not of consequence to the principal folks involved.

sensitive information is not contained there. you have my invoices,
wholesale house invoices, and lien releases. and job progress photos.

armed with a cup of half decent coffee and an hour with a decent internet
connection, you could establish most everything in that folder about me personally
with google. you don't need the dropbox link.

ALL of my information on every cloud account is backed up in three places under
my physical control. rest assured i'm every bit as suspicious of the US government
as most of us are, but all i'm collating with mint is stuff the US government already
has access to.

and i'm sure if i lost all my data, the NSA could help me with a backup....

there's a difference between transparency, and buck naked. for example, the
hard drive this system runs on is encrypted, as are the backups.

the connection to the internet and everything else, on everything i own is VPN.
i run a packet sniffer which blocks connection to everything going out the port
that i haven't given the nod to.

every photo i've ever posted online has had the EXIF data removed. here,
or anywhere else.

my weakest data breach is the wifi temperature controller on my smoker. until
i can snug that up a bit, the smoker is on it's own wifi, mainly so it doesn't drop
my entire network from 802.11ac to 802.11b when it communicates.

so, if you hack r00t on my wifi, which is an 802.11b connection called SMOKER,
you can see what temperature my brisket is currently at. it's not encrypted.

but if the IRS want's to look at something, well, ok.
the california franchise tax board, they don't look, they just take the money out
of your checking account, and send you a notice about two weeks later that they
took it, entitled to, or not. so it's not a worry with them. they don't have the labor
to audit, they just take it.

i really don't need any secrets about me personally. for god's sake, anyone who
knows me knows i'm telling the truth. who would make up such bad shit?

i live in a world that is populated by honest, trustworthy folk. it hasn't always been
that way, but it is now. it took a lot to get there.

Ahhh yes. I see you're from California. That explains it.

They already have it.

That doesn't mean that you have to help them to whatever they don't have. Wow! Never seen such naive folks when it comes to running a business. :jawdrop:

-Hal

 

[Fulthrotl]

Ahhh yes. I see you're from California. That explains it.



That doesn't mean that you have to help them to whatever they don't have. Wow! Never seen such naive folks when it comes to running a business. :jawdrop:

-Hal

please, explain what "it" is. i'm from california, so please type slow. i'll try not to move my lips when i read it.

my reasoning is simple.... i don't know if i can put it in terms you will understand, as it requires
a basic level of freedom from fear.... but i am honest in my financial dealings. not "they didn't catch me"
honest... not "that's off the books" honest, but "rigorously" honest. i've included a definition of the word
in case you've not come across it.

that means i report cash work. that means i do a 100% accounting of where ALL my money goes.
i report all income. i report all expenses. i pay the taxes required on the taxable income.

and i don't look over my shoulder wondering if i'm gonna get caught cheating someone out of something.
and i don't have to ridicule people who are more honest than i'm capable of comprehending.

and that level of honesty has stood me in good stead for quite a while now. and, on a very practical level,
it opens doors. the people i do work for mostly do it on a handshake. and their enterprises are thriving,
and their bullshit filters pick up someone who is dishonest pretty quickly.

anyway, check out that word rigorous. it's made all the difference in the world for me.

: scrupulously accurate : precise
? rig?or?ous?ly adverb
? rig?or?ous?ness noun

 

[hbiss]

I rest my case...

-Hal