Selecting the Right Bookkeeping Programs While your Business is Small...

Will no doubt save thousands of dollars later on if you need to change. Bookkeeping programs, unlike many things in a small business are data driven and done for not only the sake of the business but also to comply with the myriad or governmental rules and regulations.

Where's a story about what we did...

My office recently decided to update its bookkeeping programs which put me, as the office manager, knee deep in a stew of miserable bureaucracy. See, there are many financial software programs available with some quite expensive. This is not an area where try before you buy and shareware should even be considered.

We tried a number of bookkeeping programs previously and ended up with the ever popular Quickbooks. My thought with this was that it was also supported by Quicken, makers of the most popular tax preparation software so staying with 1 company would make tax time a little less strenuous.

Although Quickbooks is ok, I didn't like it much because it was to easy. By that I mean that some programs are built for absolute beginners and though it's great for that market, people seldom stay at that level for very long. So the program worked but it wasn't a stellar, must have, product for us. I don't know what idiot decided that we needed to uproot everything for new bookkeeping programs, but whoever it was very far away from the actual work which had to get done in the office.

There was nothing wrong with the bookkeeping program we'd been using all along, and to set up a new one was a hassle, and very risky given the potential of serious data loss or corruption. Everything would need to be recorded or transferred to the new bookkeeping programs. Originally, the boss had hired this computer whiz of a consultancy company to handle data transfer.

The problem is that although the data is basically the same for all bookkeeping programs, where it's placed and in what order and format matter a great deal. There is also limited interoperability between any two bookkeeping programs on the market unless you stay with the same company.

Now Quickbooks has several different levels of product that allow for a seamless upgrade when additional functionality and features are needed. The benefit of staying with a single company should be clear just on this one fact alone. The thing I wasn't happy with about the original program makes upgrading a snap. So like very6thing, it appears there's trade-offs to consider.

One thing that I especially like about the Quicken family of products and especially their bookkeeping programs and software is the support is covered. Go to the much more expensive options in this software category and we'd end up buying licensing every year and paying for support to find their bugs. No thanks!

We ended up staying with the Quicken line and focusing on the upgrade path. It's just easier and we now have a much wider range of features that were needed for the business. Care should be taken when you're first starting out in business to set your books up right and decide on a bookkeeping program to track your revenue, costs, expenses and profits

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