Simple, fast, lightweight accounting software?

<p>Hi everyone,<br>

I'm currently creating invoices in Word, saving them as a PDF and emailing them to my clients. I organise everything in a folder on my desktop and I'm finding it more difficult to manage with the more clients I get.<br>

I'm wary of using a full featured accounting package like Quickbooks, and I was wondering if anyone can recommend a simple, fast invoicing tool?<br>

I find myself spending way too much time managing my invoicing and I'd love a tool that could give me more time to shoot, market myself, etc.</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

Http://www.blinkbid.com

 

I love it and so do my clients for estimates, revisions, confirmations, and invoicing. But it is billing software, not accounting

software.

<p>You can use Quickbooks online, the lightest weight version of it, for about the cost of two lattes a month. Not only is it an actual accouting system, it has mobile apps that let you create and email invoices on the fly. It will link up to your bank account and let you reconcile deposits against those invoices, and otherwise does a very nice job of letting you track your P&L and all of the stuff you need for basic tax activities. You will need to learn a few things about making journal entries and whatnot if you're going to go all they way into tracking equipment depreciation, etc.<br /><br />But it's very simple to use. You can also grant your favorite CPA easy remote access to help you configure it and pull reports. Nothing to install locally, it's not glued to a particular computer. If your time is worth more than ten bucks a month, this is a no brainer. Ellis's suggestion is a good one in the sense that it directly addresses the sort of work you're doing ... but if you want real bookeeping you need to do something else or something in addition.</p>

<p>I'm still using QuickBooks '99 so I don't know what the current version costs. But with the one I've got you can set up as much or little of it as you like. I use it mostly to print invoices. All I have to do is enter the information for the current job -- customer name, number of hours shot at what rate or which items sold at what price -- and it will then create an invoice, print the invoice, save it for future reference and let me look up for any given time period the totals, etc. I'm only using maybe 5 percent of what it can do but it's very easy.<br /><br />Lightweight? How much do pixels weigh?</p>

For me online bookkeeping services Zipbooks is the best. Most of its feature is still free.

Accounting software and invoicing software are completely different things. Accounting software contains things like General Ledger, Accounts Receivable Journal, Accounts Payable Journal, etc. Invoicing software generates and tracks invoices, including how long it took to be paid, how much that particular client owes, etc.

 

I created my invoicing system using an Excel spreadsheet. I use Word to grab info from the spreadsheet and plug it into an invoice form. I generate a PDF from within Word to email to the client. None of this connects to my accounting. I send a copy of the entire invoicing spreadsheet to my accountant, and imports the data into his accounting system to produce my tax filings, annual financial report, etc.

 

I suggest you talk to an account to figure out what you really need

Quickbooks, it's the standard for small business software. It's lightweight, fast and easy. Don't be wary.

You can also use a bookkeeping service to do both your billing and accounting for you.

That way you leave the accounting and invoicing to the bookkeeping service and you do what you know best (shooting and marketing yourself).

 

I use Quickbooks (QB) for my clients and also help a friend who uses QB for his business. And here are a few of my comments about QB.

• Quick summary opinion. QB is NOT as simple to use as the TV ads make it look.
  

• Yes, it has easy stuff like deposit a check/payment and record and pay bills and write checks.
  
  • I have not used the QB invoicing, so I cannot comment on it. But it appears that Matt and Craig have.
    

  [*]You do not have to use ALL of QB. Just as Craig uses the invoicing function, you could just use the checking account deposit and check writing functions. You can even use the checkbook function to track your business charge card purchases.

   

  [*]But there are stuff that is DIFFICULT to do unless you are an accountant, or at least have taken a couple courses in accounting and understand what to do. For this you could/should contract with an accountant to do these stuff for you, just as I help my friend.

  [*]Fixed Assets and depreciation is one of those tricky items. You can depreciate one way for your books and another way for taxes. ???? Huh...yes this makes for confusion by non-accountants. And QB does not do tax depreciation, you need your tax accountant to figure it out for you.

   

  [*]Do you have an equipment loan? QB does not set up the payments for that based on the loan. Because just like you home mortgage, the loan payment is both principle and interest, and while the payment amount is the same each month, the amounts of principle and interest changes each month. You would have to enter the principle and interest portions of payment when you enter the bill for the payment, each month.

  [*]Can't reconcile your checking account because of an error in entering the deposit or bill/payment/check amount. Easy for me to fix, which I had to fix for my friend, several times, but maybe/likely not for a non-accountant.

  [*]As for making journal entries, ONLY do those that are specifically setup or instructed in detail to you by your accountant.

  • Trying to unravel entries posted into accounts that they should not have, because you did not know where to post it, will cost you more, than to get help to do it correctly in the first place.
    
  • You can't get away with telling the IRS auditor that you just put an amount into a random account because you did not know where to put it.
    Yes that sounds STUPID, but I've heard it more times that I care to remember. Yes, fact can sometimes be more difficult to believe than fiction. Like someone using a match to see how much gas they have in the gas tank . . . duh, candidate for the Darwin award.
    

  [*]Almost anything tax related will require an accountant to help you setup and/or maintain.

  • Vendors that you need to prepare and send 1099 forms to.
     
    
    • QB does NOT print the 1099s, you need to export the data to another program to print the 1099 forms.
      

    [*]Which accounts are tax related and how.

    [*]Which things need to be separated into their own accounts for tax purposes.

    [*]etc.

I am not trying to take business away from QB, but to open your eyes as to some of the limitations of QB.

The field of accounting is just not as simple as some people think it is, or QB makes it out to be. Remember QB wants to make money off of you.

Used in conjunction with an accountant to guide you (and keep you out of trouble), QB is just fine.

But do you want to be a bookkeeper or shoot?

 

If you want to, give QuickBooks On-Line a try, to see how it works. The cost is relatively cheap. Then make your decision.

 

gud luk

Don't be wary of Quickbooks. It's easy. It's a necessary thing to learn as a part of you doing business, too. If you're really that scared of it, Quicken has a Home and Business version of their software that can be used as sort of a go-between and will help you with getting your taxes together at the end of the year.

Quickbooks is simple and easy. AND there are TONS of free material to help you use it, not mention their forum. You can start with the basic version and it will grow with you as your business does.