Hi Everyone!

I am trying to think of a million things at once while still in my research stage. I have started writing my procedures manual (aka "The Company") until I think of a name & get going on my SP & DBA.

But one thing that I am trying to get aside is what accounting software do you use as a VA for your own record keeping? What I would like the software to do is keep track of my own expenses, reports of invoices, losses, etc. And hopefully keep track of client info, invoices, etc as well.

I know there is:
Quickbooks (I have used in past jobs. But find it to be too "bloated" and not as user friendly as they say.)
FreshBooks
Billing Boss (Free is good but it is secure enough?
Outright (Free again) but again secure enough? I know some VAs use it. What do you think?
Express Invoice

Thanks for your advice.

Jamie

I am primarily responsible for the accounting for our business (me and my sister) so I am interested in this as well. I hope someone can give you good advice that I can also use.

Hi!

Thank you for your support. I am hoping that some one will come along with some great advice for the newbies... it must be a slow period right for VAs on the boards? I hope not .

I will let you know if I find anything out.

Thanks,

Jamie

Jamie, I have used PeachTree Complete Accounting for years (also MAS 90 [way too spendy for a solo-preneur though!]). Since I have an accounting background I find PT suits my needs perfectly.

I think the majority go with Quickbooks Pro for their own bookkeeping and for clients. With QB's you will get all the reports you mentioned.

HTH a bit,

__________________
Jules, SunRise Virtual Solutions - WordPress Customization & XHTML/CSS Web Sites

While QuickBooks seems "bloated", it really provides everything a business owner needs. With any program, take advantage of trainings, webinars, etc. to learn how to quickly and easily navigate the program. I learned QuickBooks from an accountant as he set up the program for a nonprofit I worked for. Once I learned QuickBooks, I found that it was fast and easy to use and allowed me to pay and track all expenses, taxes, etc. I may be a little biased, but I love QuickBooks (as you probably can tell)... :-)

If you would like, and if you have not had a thorough QuickBooks training, I would be more than happy to do a training on Webex or Skype.

Regards,

Damon

Originally Posted by Business-Bytes

Jamie, I have used PeachTree Complete Accounting for years (also MAS 90 [way too spendy for a solo-preneur though!]). Since I have an accounting background I find PT suits my needs perfectly. I think the majority go with Quickbooks Pro for their own bookkeeping and for clients. With QB's you will get all the reports you mentioned. HTH a bit,

Hi Jules,

Thank you for the information, does Peachtree make you upgrade as QB does? Unless I could be wrong, but at least when I used it at other jobs, it would make you upgrade to use certain features.

Quote:

While QuickBooks seems "bloated", it really provides everything a business owner needs. With any program, take advantage of trainings, webinars, etc. to learn how to quickly and easily navigate the program. I learned QuickBooks from an accountant as he set up the program for a nonprofit I worked for. Once I learned QuickBooks, I found that it was fast and easy to use and allowed me to pay and track all expenses, taxes, etc. I may be a little biased, but I love QuickBooks (as you probably can tell)... :-) If you would like, and if you have not had a thorough QuickBooks training, I would be more than happy to do a training on Webex or Skype. Regards, Damon

Hi Damon,

I might just take you up on that offer, thank you. I have used QB Pro, but wouldn't QuickBooks Simple version, I believe it is sold for $99.00 usd, be good enough to start with?

Thank you to everyone for the great advice. I appreciate it.

Jamie

Hi Jamie,

I have only used QB Pro and QB Premier. I can honestly tell you that I used the exact same features on both of them (paying bills, reconciling bank statements, billing clients, tracking bills, processing credit card payments, time management and tracking, and monthy P&L, cashflow and annual tax reports). I have also used QB Customer Manager to track all of my client contacts, contracts, services and demographic information. I even put companies in there when they didn't select services so I could follow up with them in the future.

If a basic QB has everything that you need, then by all means go for it. I searched on QB's website and didn't find a basic QB. I like the updates from QB, but you don't have to take them. Once you buy, you don't necessarily have to update for the program to continue to work. However, if you process credit cards or prepare tax documents, you would definitely need the updates.

I've tried many other services, but found that QB was the best with regards to meeting my business and security needs but not truly as user friendly as it could be... and that could be intimidating to some. That's why I always offer training to new clients interested in using QB.

I'm hooked on QuickBooks as well...and I agree that you don't have to upgrade. As I told on another post...I had a contractor client that was still using Contractor Edition 2006....and it did everything that we needed. Not much had changed in comparison to my updated versions I used.

__________________
www.lloydbusinesssolutions.com
"Getting you back to what you do best"

Cool! Glad to hear that upgrading is not necessary.

Thank you!!

Jamie