Accounting software?

F-Stop1.8 · Dec 10, 2008

What do you guys use? What is easily tailored for a photography business?

Or do you just pay an accountant?

Captain IK · Dec 15, 2008

QuickBooks is a very popular accounting program and easy to use. You don;t need to be a computer whiz or an accountant to use it.
I've been using it for 3 small businesses I own for over 10 years now and have no serious complaints. At least none that are entirely specific to QB.

jlykins · Dec 15, 2008

Quickbooks will work for most small businesses. That's what I use. It's not that expensive, and it will do wonders for keeping you organized.

Big Mike · Dec 15, 2008

I started using Quick Books this year, it seems to be pretty good but I'll probably have an accountant prepare my taxes.

I actually got Quick Books 'Simple Start' (the most basic version) free through an offer from the site where I get some of my promotional stuff from.

jlykins · Dec 15, 2008

It's always good to let an accountant take care of the Taxes when you have a business to factor in. Quickbooks makes it easier to get the info/forms together to take to the accountant though.

Captain IK · Dec 15, 2008

Good Point on the accountant. QuickBooks or any other small business accounting software, does not eliminate the need for an accountant's review...just reduces it.

jlykins · Dec 15, 2008

Yup, and to be honest programs like turbotax aren't really the most effective way for a small business to do taxes. There's simply too much info to file. Plus an accountant, (if you talk to him/her before december 31st) can take a look at your books and tell you "hey, you better go buy a couple of D3's and some more big glass, you need some write offs"! That's the best thing to hear from a CPA. Merry christmas to me. lol

IvyJade · Dec 17, 2008

I use Quickbooks on 4 of my businesses as well and have had no problems. As long as you start and leave nothing out it works great. Neglect and it shows....

reg · Dec 19, 2008

Big Mike said:
I actually got Quick Books 'Simple Start' (the most basic version) free through an offer from the site where I get some of my promotional stuff from.

It's free from Quicken, too.

Sorry to ruin the fun.

LarissaPhotography · Jan 4, 2009

I tried using Microsoft Office Accounting, which I think is Microsoft's version of QuickBooks. It drove me nuts. All I really wanted the program to do was let me track expenses in different categories and enter mileage. It was making me jump through hoops to do it, so I made a program to track that stuff myself. Being a really small business, we didn't need all the extras from the other program anyway.

kineard · Feb 13, 2010

I hate Quickbooks. If you make a mistake it is difficult to fix. My numbers are not adding up the way they are supposed too. Late invoices do not seem to show up sometimes. The free version is only good for 10 or 20 customers. If free is important try NolaPro. Something else I do not like about Quickbooks is they nickle and dime you by charging for every little feature that does not come with it. I have not tried PeachTree but it gets good reviews.