Accounting software

[pnagames]

right

it is time for us to consider the purchase of one of the accounting software that can work with Actinic

if i remember well the choices are either Quickbooks or Sage

which one people would recommend?

[acompton]

I tried to switch from manual accounts to Sage a few years ago and I found it complex and unwieldy to use. Sage seems to be more geared towards larger businesses that we are. Other people have told that QuickBooks is the one to use.

[george]

I always ask the same question at this time of year, also bought Sage Instant Accounts Plus a while back and found it unuser friendly to get into.

[acompton]

I always ask the same question at this time of year.

Do you always get the same answer?

[Stereo Steve]

We are probably going with Exchequer shortly. I'm meeting my accountant on Friday to find out why it's a good idea! It's costly but apparently is excellent and will do 'everything we could possibly want'.

Time will tell.

[JSnow]

I've been using Quickbooks for close on 3yrs now and it is by far the simplest and most user freindly package I've ever used.

The processes are quick and easy to follow, the reports are easily accessible and the document layouts are quick to customise. They also offer great telephonic support (in SA, I cannot speak for the UK).

If you're familiar with accounting, it takes approximately 3 days to become familiar with everything. It takes approx. 2 days to train new staff on the basics of Quickbooks.

What I like most is that the accounting rules apply but they are more lax than with other software. For example, if you make an error on an invoice (invoicing for 3,000.00 instead of 300.00 for example), you can simply open the invoice and amend it accordingly. Where, in my experience, other software forces you to create a credit note and then re-invoice.

If your business is small, 10 or fewer accounts persons, then this is the way to go. Bigger businesses will need something more rigid.

[george]

For example, if you make an error on an invoice (invoicing for 3,000.00 instead of 300.00 for example), you can simply open the invoice and amend it accordingly.

Bit of a coincidence here. I started to set up our company in the Sage software that we have and tried to amaend an account number I'd created (simply shorten it), also wanted to amend what department goods on an invoice were allocated to (re-juggled the department codes), with both tasks seemingly impossible. I'm going to call their support today with these questions so I'll see how they respond. I think altering invoices easily has to be a must.

What `level` of Quickbooks do you use fella?

[jont]

We are migrating to Merlin http://www.chatsworth.co.uk/merlin-software.htm in about 4 months time as it handles the sales side of things as well as accounting.

[pnagames]

Bit of a coincidence here. I started to set up our company in the Sage software that we have and tried to amaend an account number I'd created (simply shorten it), also wanted to amend what department goods on an invoice were allocated to (re-juggled the department codes), with both tasks seemingly impossible. I'm going to call their support today with these questions so I'll see how they respond. I think altering invoices easily has to be a must.

What `level` of Quickbooks do you use fella?

i wanna know what "level" you use as well as we still have not decide which one to go for

[Sean Williams]

We are migrating to Merlin http://www.chatsworth.co.uk/merlin-software.htm in about 4 months time as it handles the sales side of things as well as accounting.

Hmmm - seems a little overblown for a small business?
Can you just buy the modules needed, and does it work with Actinic?

We use TAS Books with stock control.
Good software - better from an 'accountants' point of view than Quickbooks (I'm told) but not as rigid as Sage.
We chose this 9 years ago and at the time it was either TAS or Sage as Quickbooks was still at the level of monitoring household expenditure.

The major downside of TAS is that there is no link to Actinic available, so we are looking to change and at the moment Sage 50 seems the way to go, although not perfect.

I heard a rumour that Actinic were developing their own add-on in the mould of Netsuite ...?
Provided it did Sales, Purchase, Stock and vat and can adjust for EU sales etc, then it would be perfect IMO. I wouldn't of thought many online businesses needed salesmen accounts, sales contact lists etc etc and presumably were it an Actinic product, all data flow would be integrated or at least two-way, unlike Sage.

[leehack]

Pan

I just went to your site to have a look for a game and the store sections area is empty. Only way i could get to have a look at things was to navigate to a product and then go from there. I think sods law was saying get back to work Hackett.

Sigh.

[TraceyHand]

I think sods law was saying get back to work Hackett.

did you want one of us to say it instead?

[JSnow]

I use QB Pro and just upgraded to 2008. The following gives you a comparison of the differences:

Quickbooks Package Comparison

A quick rundown of the differences:

QB Simplestart - Single User Only. Great if you are moving over from a paper based system. And where all your purchases and sales are cash based. It cannot handle account customers.
NOTE: Simplestart does not include the order processing module. You will therefore need to keep track of the orders you place on suppliers manually.

QB Pro - Multi-User. Handles both account and cash transactions. Great, if you process a large amount of transactions daily. Does stock control, etc.

QB Premier - Multi-User, multi-transaction. Premier includes the abaility to do stock control based on BOM's and run production runs based on the stock on hand. It will also automatically create orders for BOM items that you are short for that particular production run.

Hope this helps.

[OriginalTouch]

Just another piece of information for you.

We have been using Quickbooks for many years now and the operator interface is very simple for any user. Also, you do not need to pay any annual fees or make any upgrades if you don't need to. ie if you buy version (say) 2004, you can keep this for eternity, until you need any new facilities in new versions. This makes it very cost effective.

One word of warning though. Quickbooks is TERRIBLE at handling multi-currency and we have to manually make many adjustments to handle euros.

So much so that the latest version of Quickbooks has had the multi-currency facility withdrawn. So we have had to stay with an older version to handle any multi-currency.

If you intend using any multi-currency, read the small print first.

Quickbooks has many minor failings that you may need to manually adjust. However, its flexibility, price and user interface make it the best choice for small businesses and new users.

[george]

Cheers for the reply Jon.


What version do you use Sam?