What accounting software do you use?

[Jeff Wright]

If you sell your woodworking pieces or do furniture or cabinet making for pay, what accounting software do you use? If you use QuickBooks, do you use a version that is adapted to the business, or the standard off-the-shelf version? I want to be able to easily and quickly create income/expense statements, balance sheets, etc. as well as track individual jobs. Thanks!

[Paul Wunder]

Jeff,

Take a look at Quickbooks Contractor ($320). It will allow to to track all of your job costs by customer, name of job and will permit you prepare estimates or proposals for your customers and track costs against them. Quickbooks is really the standard for small businesses and has all of the usual financial reports and then some and a fairly easy learning curve. You can email proposals, invoices and reports. There is an extensive network of QB experts available and lots of support from on line communities should you have a need. I do not run a woodworking business, but I have designed/installed accounting systems for IBM and for Mom and Pop businesses.

[Tony Bilello]

I made my own spread sheets and just give them to my accountant at the end of the year.
My business is general woodworking including antique restoration and custom built furniture.

[Jeff Wright]

Paul, thanks for the info; I'm glad to hear the contractor edition is still available after having had a copy about 12 years ago. I will be anxious to see if it integrates with TurboTax to make things easier at tax time.

[Jeff Wright]

Thanks Tony. I agree that Excel is a powerful program. I've made many spreadsheets over the years. But I'm wanting to go with something already put together for the purpose. I can get pretty carried away building macros and pivot tables; I might not ever get back out in the shop!

[Paul Wunder]

Jeff,

Quickbooks will export its accounts directly to Turbotax Federal forms by line item, but in my experience I have found it unwieldy for the businesses that I have done taxes for. Often I have found the the choices that QB/TurboTax makes are not what I would choose. Of course, you may not have that problem.

Paul

[Gary Curtis]

I would look up QuickBooks forums and ask the folks there. Do a Google search for one. They might even have a few templates for woodworking/carpentry.

My wife had corporation designing clothes and costumes for the movie-tv business. Quickbooks made our accountant happy because of the way it synched up with IRS tax and report forms.

But it was a little inflexible. And ponderous. Here's another thought. If you know a WWing machinery dealer — preferably in a big town — ask what other professionals are using to do their books and to invoice.

[Jeff Wright]

I did locate a 2011 edition of QuickBooks for Contractors. There are some reviews that say it is kinda clunky to use. I also found a book written specifically for contractors using QuickBooks and purports to show you how to set it up to be user-friendly as a woodworker/contractor. Sounds interesting. Here is the link to the book: http://amzn.to/kyQmz7

[Curt Putnam]

Would Quicken Home & Business do the job for you? Beautiful links to TurboTax. You can always do sub-ledgers in Excel if you want to get really detailed and then just manually post results to Quicken.

[Jeff Wright]

Thanks Curt. Interesting idea.

[scott vroom]

I use Excel for our general contracting and cabinet business. I don't find it a problem to keep track of our revenue & expenses with a relatively simple spread sheet; it's a small 2 man business and the accounting isn't that complex. I've often found canned s/w to be inflexible and cumbersome; my spreadsheet is tailored to precisely fit my needs. Good luck with your business!

[Paul Wunder]

Jeff,

Another QB choice, might be any of the Premier versions. Definitely NOT CLUNKY. They all have job tracking capabilities and integrated reporting, but you don't have to choose your business type when you purchase because all of the business types are on the provided CD ROM and you can choose and re-install. If you were successful with macros and pivot tables, this will be a piece of cake for you. Home and Business versions are single entry and not robust enough for a business.

[Jeff Wright]

Wow, Paul, the Premiere route sounds like the way to go, that version plus the guide book I mentioned above. I like flexibility and options and that might give it to me. Thanks for the info.

[scott vroom]

Here's a link to Amazon reviews for QB Premier.....

http://www.amazon.com/Intuit-413899-QuickBooks-Premier-2011/product-reviews/B003YJ5FI6/ref=cm_cr_pr_btm_link_next_2?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=0&pageNumber=2

[Lloyd Kerry]

I use Simply Accounting Pro. I had QB years ago, but when I decided to upgrade to a newer version last year, it was on sale, almost half price at a local business supply store. I really like it, and I also use Excel to keep track of some material/labor costs, etc.

[Curt Putnam]

Would Quicken for Home & Business work for you? Nice tight integration with TurboTax. If you need more than it offers, don't forget that you can maintain sub-ledgers in Excel or whatever.

[Curt Harms]

If you use an accountant for tax prep, I would uses whatever he/she recommends. Saving an hour of accountant's billing pays for the software and he/she might set it up for you if you want.

[Paul Wunder]

Final points on QB Premier. CPA's love it. The software permits you to run standard accounting reports such as trial balances, financial statements and general ledger reports in formats that the accountant is familiar with. Also, the ability of the software to easily produce all sorts of historical reports is a great time and money saver depending upon how much detail you want or need.

You can track payroll by customer job and your hours by job. Excellent for future estimating as well as seeing how you did against your current estimates. You can track the history of materials cost by type, vendor, etc. You can easily compare costs for the same goods by vendor to see who gives the best pricing.

I recently sat through an IRS field audit of a small promotional firm whose books I set up (hundreds of inventory items; hundreds of customers and jobs. Two agents were there for more than two days. We were on QuickBooks Premier Manufacturing and Wholesale version and we were able to provide everything that they asked for sliced and diced every which way. The IRS left after poring through everything and made no changes to the tax return. (Of course, it helps to be honest)

P.S. I have no connection with Quickbooks or Intuit. It is just that after trying many other brands of accounting software for small firms I now mostly recommend only various versions of QB.

[Jeff Wright]

Thanks to everyone who has contributed ideas and personal experiences with the various solutions to accounting for business financials.

Paul, you mention the Premiere version as your favorite. Is there any advantage or downside to going with the Accountant version? The prices appear to be nearly identical. Do I get any additional horsepower out of the Accountant version (or less)?

Thanks again for the great insite!

[Paul Wunder]

Jeff,

I have never used the Accountants version because it is really geared to CPA's, etc who need to work with multiple Client company data files at the same time and perhaps different QB versions that their clients may have. I cannot speak with authority as to whether the Accountant version has more "recording features", but to me, that would be counter-intuitive, because the CPA's task is to evaluate existing client data not to create new data other than "adjustments" With a "regular" user version you can establish as many business entity data files as you need (Company A, Company B, etc.) but you cannot use them simultaneously. Never had a need for that.

QB, as do probably other vendors, offers a money back option after a trial period (30 days?). If you decide to give it a shot, my suggestion is to purchase directly from QB (Intuit) vs a local store if the price is comparable. The software is constantly updated and a download through Intuit will immediately yield the latest version rather than having to download updates after an initial install.

Paul