Software for your money

[sbug_adam]

so, from the perspective of a photographer who has a business what accounting software do you recommend

quicken, quick books, etc.. what others?

[pbyd]

Our studio started on Computers in 1998 and have been using Quickbooks. We are happy with it.
Wayne

[bondarnes]

Our first business computer (1985) used software that integrated with Peachtree (which I don't recommend), but when that computer died in 2000 I bought SuccessWare, but use Quickbooks for the accounting software. SuccessWare at that time did not provide a proper balance sheet or a P&L statement. They have improved it, but I am still running an older version and using Quickbooks.

[sbug_adam]

bondarnes, you guys used the same computer from 1985 to 2000??? wow!

So quickbooks is recommended would you say? I checked on amazon.com and read reviews for both quicken and quickbooks and they mostly received 1 star ratings which is disappointing.

[bondarnes]

Originally Posted by sbug_adam

bondarnes, you guys used the same computer from 1985 to 2000??? wow!

Yep, it was an NCR Tower running Unix with a huge 47mb (yes, megabyte) hard drive. After only five years we had to upgrade to an 85mb HDD. The last hard drive finally croaked and no replacements were available. In several ways the software was better than anything available today. I paid almost $23K for the thing with 5 dumb terminals and a couple of printers so I had to get my money's worth out of it.

[sbug_adam]

amazing.

can you vouche for any of the negative comments people make, mostly that the upgrade is not worth the money

[Tom]

Quicken Home and Business with H&R Block Tax Deduction Software

[sbug_adam]

Originally Posted by Thomas Campbell

Quicken Home and Business with H&R Block Tax Deduction Software

first of all, nice signature.. good stuff.

2nd, for a first time user do you recommend it.. hows the learning curve

[Tom]

I'm a first time user of all that. My accountant suggested it. I dont think the learning curve is all that much higher than anything else out there. It is made so a common person can use it.

[bondarnes]

Originally Posted by sbug_adam

amazing.

can you vouche for any of the negative comments people make, mostly that the upgrade is not worth the money

I use QuickBooks PRO. In the past when I had employees I had to take the annual updates to get the IRS deduction rates for each year. This year I have no employees so I skipped the update.I don't keep up with people's comments, so I can't speak to that. I will probably update every three years unless there are reasons to do otherwise.

The hardest part (time consuming), is to make yourself sit down at the computer and set up all your accounts properly and enter your bank info, etc. QuickBooks walks you through this, but it does take some time. I'm sure Quicken does the same.

Once you get all of this done, it only takes me a couple of hours a week to enter current data. You can probably do it in a half hour or less if your business is still small. The great thing is that at the end of the year all you have to do is print your reports and enter the numbers on your 1040 or give them to your CPA.

If you use a CPA, ask them which one they prefer and go with that.

[David Whatley]

I used QBpro for a business I had, and the company I'm now with uses PeachTree. I MUCH prefer QB Pro. And in all software programs, you have to set up all the information into them, but to me QB was a lot more user friendly.
DW

[dartlrt]

There is a similar discussion going on over at Sportsshooter.com http://www.sportsshooter.com/message...html?tid=32198

[sbug_adam]

just purchased qb pro home and business.. hopefully it will do the trick.

[bondarnes]

Let me know if you need help setting it up. No need to invent the wheel again.

[carrbowl]

I wonder if I need the Pro edition or if Home and business will work? My business is very small...