what accounting software do you use?

BossDog

BossDog

KnifeDogs.com & USAknifemaker.com Owner
Staff member
I have been using Quickbooks 2009 Premier Retail version. It's real easy to not like but it gets the job done.

Anyone using anything else?
 
Quickbooks Pro is your best bet really,.. free stuff around but QB is still top dog. Its easily managed and adaptable to what you need.
 
I have my QB so messed up I am going to have to hire a CPA to get it untangled. Dead serious. Man I hate keeping books and my wife just leaves the room when I start to show her something. She learned after I taught her how to use the weed wacker that when ever I showed her something, she owned it.
 
A few more kibbles to snack on...............

Here are some things I have learned over the years. Use what you can.......discard the rest.

What you choose as an accounting system depends only on what kind of person you are. THE most important thing is to keep good records, no matter how you do it. It's better to have good information in a spiral notebook, than to have crappy information in a computer. Don't let anyone tell you how to do it, choose the method based on what YOU are reasonably willing to do. Lots of people push us into computers when in fact, it is either not necessary or just not practical.

Next, choose a method, then stick to it. Don't change in mid-stream. Make changes at the end of the year if you can last that long.

Remember that there are ALWAYS two sets of books in a business. The ones that somebody can use to do your taxes, and the ones that you can use to make good choices. They are not always the same. (and I'm not talking about anything illegal!)

Quickbooks: An excellent computer based accounting system for small and some medium sized businesses. It is generally easy to learn and use.
It has some limitations:
First limitation is that it's computer based: GIGO. Garbage In, Garbage Out. If you are not good at sitting and entering things, don't go there.
Second limitation: Quickbooks sucks at keeping inventory of any kind. It just does. It also sucks at doing invoices and some other stuff. I have done what my accountant suggests.........I keep my checkbook register on Quickbooks. It is something that you can do faithfully and it is not overwhelming. He then takes that information, along with my physical inventory and some other things he asks for, and does all the tax work. You can use Quickbooks, or any other computer application and get alot more out of it. But you have to decide if you want to be a knifemaker or a bookkeeper/accountant. Quickbooks is excellent software if you use it according to what you are comfortable with.

Invoices Plus: A really cool little application that requires a paid license to use. It is really good for keeping inventory and making invoices. Very easy to learn and limited in its scope. You don't have to be a geek to use it.

There are other things out there. As I said before, only choose to do things that you will stick to.

Now, the second set of books...............
I have an MBA in Cost Accounting. Complicated stuff like petroleum refining and assembly line internal costing. You can make a cost system that is really overwhelming. Usually, it's not necessary.

Keep good records for each project you do. I have little spiral notebooks that I keep in a tray with each project I'm working on. Just write stuff down as you go. In a spiral notebook, pages don't get lost. You can staple receipts to a page and they won't get lost. You can make notes to yourself about mistakes you made, or shortcuts that saved you time or money or aggravation. At the end of a project you can take a few minutes and add some things up. This has nothing to do with the accountant or anybody else. It is for your own information. It's simple, clean and easy. This way you know how many belts you use, or how much time you spent doing a certain kind of grind or working with a certain handle material. It gives you good practical cost information that you can use to help decide what you want to do the next time. Then when you go to do a similar project in the future, you can dig out your little notebook and see what happened the last time. For those of us with CRS disease (Can't Remember Stuff!) or worse, CRAFT disease (Can't Remember A Freakin' Thing!) those notes can be of real help.

Whatever you end up doing, keep it simple, do it consistently and be in the knife business, not in the accounting business. You will be alot happier and you'll impress both your wife and your accountant.

IMHO...........

Thanks

Tim
 
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Tim,
I agree. I've learned most of that the hard way unfortunately. Book keeping is the worst part of the job. I keep putting it off every week and that makes it worse.
 
Hate but must use Quickbooks.
The worst if you want to auto export/inport data from a web site or something.
fmg
 
Now, we do not have to cut checks to employees because we don't pay ourselves, so I created a database in Access tailored to our business. I have a table with the knife inventory in it. It contains: model, serial, handle material, steel, other specs, asking price, sold for price, method of payment, customers name.
Then, I have another table for the customer base that has the customers name and mailing and contact info.
Lastly, I have a table that I enter in the expenses to run the business. It is simple with who got paid, for how much, when, method of payment, type of expense (office, materials, supplies, travel, food, etc.)

But, I do like Excel, so when I have to tally something, I usually make a query for what I want and paste it into Excel for sum or average, etc.

and anything's better than quickbooks! LOL
 
Like Rocksalt, I have an MBA.

I have taken the H&R Block Tax course along with an additional 120 hours of tax training.

My accounting and tax software....CPA.

Guys do yourself a favor. Become a legal business entity. Keep good records and take the information to your CPA every quarter.

The amount it will cost to use them you will save over the course of the year by using them.

Besides if something goes wrong and the IRS wants to chat with you....they talk to your CPA first.
 
Les is right on the money with his last post.. My wife keeps everything we do on Quick Books Pro... Even our personal stuff. We e-mail it to our accountant every quarter and he looks everything over for us. Costs a few bucks, but his advice for the following quarter usually offsets the cost... We then are all squared away by the end of the year and know exactly what to expect...
 
As mentioned a little here and there, something like quick books, is easily digested by an accountant. I'd suspect the accounting tab would be quite a bit more if one dropped off a box full o stuff every quarter.

Good luck with it boss, and sorry I missed that thread, Craig
 
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