

Best Basic Accounting Software for a startup? - mrmartin

Most small businesses I know use Quickbooks but other than the trusty Excel spreadsheet is there something a bit more robust for tracking expenses,travel etc?
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philiphodgen
If you are a business, you have an accountant. If you have an accountant, use
a tool that the accountant can handle. They all know Quickbooks. Use the PC
version or the Online version. The Mac version is shit and my business is all-
Mac so I would use it if I could. You will have payroll. QB Payroll is
painless and relatively cheap. I'm a tax lawyer and I won't touch doing
payroll tax stuff. Too nitpicky.

Kashflow in the UK is good. Xero is another to look at. But only if your
accountant is using them.

Do. Not. Be. Your. Own. Accountant.

Also, if you have any outside Investors they will want clean financials. QB
operated by an acccountant. If you hope to bring in Investors later and you
have shit financial records -- or just amateur hour financial records -- the
natural thought in Mr. Wallet's brain is "They can't handle their own money,
why should I give them mine?"

All comments above learned the hard way, via pain. :-)

I have no particular love for Intuit. QB is the Windows of small accounting
systems. The Mac version is the despised bastard offspring despised and
ignored by it's mother. But until you're bigger or until a plausible
alternative arrives, use it.

I think the break-point will be at a couple of million of revenue. Above that
and growing? Migrate to an industrial-strength package with dedicates
bookkeeping people in house.

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soyelmango
Good advice here from philip.

To put it another way, these "accounting" packages are more about book-keeping
and report generating - all useful, but no substitute for the advice from a
human accountant who can advise about tax-efficient structures for your
particular circumstances.

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faramarz
<http://www.getharvest.com> might be what you're looking for. there's a lot of
buzz about the company right now.

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shadowz
Harvest is great. We use them to track our time as well as to bill our
clients. However, I think OP is asking more accounting rather than
tracking/invoicing clients apps.

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iworkforthem
I like FreshBooks(<http://www.freshbooks.com/>), it can link up to my time
tracking app quite easy. And with it, I can outsource tasks and manage the
billing quite easily. Invoicing with pdf is also helpful too.

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soyelmango
If you're in the UK, try <http://kashflow.co.uk/> \- there's a free 2 month
trial to get you hooked!

(I'm not affiliated, just a happy user)

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SnootyMonkey
Less Accounting is very good for a small business or startup.
<http://lessaccounting.com/>

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AlokG
Is Nola Pro good? <http://www.nolapro.com>

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sophistihip
without a doubt <http://www.outright.com> free, awesome, and it generates tax
forms and such automatically. we use it to track our expenses.

