This may be in some of the other longer threads, but I wanted to throw out a few programs to those of you who are still small-scale like myself.

I bought QuickBooks a while back but it is wayyyy too complex for what I need.

I happened across www.outright.com, formerly called bootstrap I think. It's totally free and is a very BASIC way of tracking your income and expenses. You can generate reports, export your data, and you can even pull up your anticipated quarterly taxes that you might owe. It is very user-friendly and I just love how simple it is. The income/expense screens really just feel like entering transactions into a check register, MS Money, etc. It is also populated with all of the Schedule C categories, so when it comes tax time, everything is already "neat and tidy"!

Then there is www.shoeboxed.com which is a place where you can house all of your receipts and documentation. There is a basic FREE plan but you have to scan and upload all your stuff on your own. There are paid plans where you actually get pre-paid envelopes from the company and you mail in groups of receipts and they'll scan them for you. They also have a setup for scanning business cards.

The nice thing about these two programs is that they talk to each other. So you can import your Shoeboxed receipts into Outrigh, and when you look at an expense in Outright, the scanned receipt will come up too!!!

I haven't uploaded receipts yet but so far I am QUITE impressed with Outright. It is perfect for my current needs.

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Kari Thevenot, Virtual Assistant
www.yourlefthand.net

Thanks for the info. I was actually looking into some programs for a potential client...and free is always good!

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Kathy
www.theofficevirtuoso.com

Hi Kari

Thanks for sharing this information. I am going to checkout Outright and see what it is all about.

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Susan Myers
http://www.HavingAVirtualAdvantage.com

Thanks Kari!

Like you, Quickbooks was WAY TO MUCH for me. I can't wait to check these programs out. They sound fantastic.

Thanks for the info. I am going to check them both out and I agree with you both Quickbooks is alot to deal with.

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Tyeshia Harper
Guardian Virtual Assistance

Hey,

Thanks for sharing I looked at both outright and shoeboxed.com and you were right that the free version missed a few features.

Luckily my husband is a system programer so he has written us an accounts program that fits all our needs

Stacey

It's funny I should run across this thread.

I was just reading Tess's newsletter and in it she mentioned Outright. I think I will go ahead and set up an account today. I especially like the receipt scanning and that it integrates with Freshbooks.

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Delilah Smith
Caliber Virtual Services

I've looked at Outright before, but sadly it's for US only. Their FAQ states that they may be adding other countries in the future, but that doesn't help me now!

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Crystal Coleman, The Northern Edge

I've been really impressed with Outright, too, although it's frustrating that they don't have basic features like a bank reconciliation.

Also, if you're familiar with QuickBooks, there is a FREE version of QuickBooks Online that's a fully-functional, though fewer-featured version. And did I mention it's free?!?
http://oe.quickbooks.com/bookkeeping...nting-systems/

Deb Howard Greenleaf

Thanks for the info. I just looked at the Outright website. It a great alternative for clients not wanting to use Quickbooks. From what I've read, it seems really user friendly.

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Trena Stubbs of Apex Virtual Solutions
& Author of The Road to Going Virtual