I am wondering what other small business managers are using for accounting software.

We use Quickbooks here and we have outgrown it. It worked fine for a while but there are limits to the number of transactions that can be recorded in QB and some of the functions it makes available are not performed according to Generally Accepted Accounting Standards.

My accountant uses Peachtree Accounting. He likes it because it has an "accountants interface". That is precisely the reason I don't like it. It does not make things as easy as QB. Peachtree also has extremely small data fields for customer information.

When we started with QB we used it as accounting and contact management software. We may be at the point where we split those two functions. We looked at using Peachtree and ACT ! as a combination of accounting and contact management software too. But the interoperability of the software was very rigid and did not fit our model.

Does anyone have any experience with MYOB Plus? I understand this program is from Australia and was originally developed for MAC environments. We are windows :( based here.

Alan ~

Peachtree user here and I love it. I started using Quicken when we just had the one computer consulting business, but once we started Diversified Showcase we needed to upgrade. I used Peachtree for many years, when I was a bookkeeper, so I was pretty familiar with the product to begin with, but hadn't worked with it since it upgraded to windows. I find it so easy to use now. I don't use all the functions...just the basic ones.

The only other accounting software I have used were ones for huge corporations specially designed for multiple users and for the specific type of company that I was working for at the time. Sorry I can't help on any other accounting software.

Good luck with your search!

Lisa:

Don't you find the customer data fields Ridiculously short in Peachtree? Our Japanese client names and addresses simply do not fit in the field length they provide.

Alan

Alan ~

Luckily, I have not run into that problem yet. I have one client in Japan...who happened to be my exchange student for a year, but her name is very short and her address fits fine. However, I can totally understand the longer names and addresses.

Hi Alan

From the perspective of a developer, can I say that you have hit the devlopment nail firmly on the head. At the two extremes you have:

Easy hand-held, do it my way software
Accountant's interface, do it your way software

I recently tested both Quicken and Quickbooks to see where thay were at. I found their set-up and ease of use to be very high, provided that you are prepared to accept the built-in methods and structures which these programs impose.

In the past I have reviewed Peachtree, Solomon and a number of other accounting systems. Some of them have made strides forward in usability but none of them properly balance the needs of the person at the sharp end who has to enter live data in the working environment, and the needs of the accountant who must review, manipulate and post that data into the general ledger to meet local standards.

Also consider that we now operate in a worldwide environment with prospective customers just a microsecond away on the other end of an internet line. If we live or want to live in that environment, then we need to make sure that the chosen software supports multiple currencies, international standards for such things as addresses, telephone numbers and banking information. Many accounting applications insist on a 5-digit zip code and do not even accept a country.

Obviously, the ideal is to have an accounting system which is a balanced mix of those two approaches. You need a system which (a) separates the front office (sales/on-line sales/manufacturing or w.h.y.) from the back office, (b) allows you to designate which accounting functions are to be real-time, and (c) which functions will only update the general ledger when the accountant has reviewed the data and is ready to do the update - for example at month end.

We have looked at this and have tried to achieve such a balance. Our software does not have the lowest common denominator feel of Quicken or the Accountant's interface of the larger, more costly multiple currency software offerings. We are not there yet. Setting up a company within SBE is still difficult. We have absolutely avoided Payroll and country-specific tax precisely because we market internationally - there are too many variations to make such an approach practical. So we have quite a ways to go before we will be completely happy with SBE. For the time being, our customers have to run Payroll on a locally developed application and import the accounting results.

I hope that this has helped you understand some of the difficulties that software authors face. In the meantime, I can only suggest that you try TechnologyEvaluation.com (http://www.TechnologyEvaluation.com) who do compare many features of all kinds of software so that you, the end-user, can make an informed choice of which demonstration versions are worth downloading and reviewing.

Good luck...

Paul:

Thank you for that post. Very illuminating, from a development perspective. Your writing style is quite communicative!

Hello,

Very interesting thread and a topic that I work with on a daily basis. There is a definite path for companies that outgrow QuickBooks and Peachtree software. Typically these packages are developed with the small business in mind and offer only limited functionality.

As you grow your company will inevitably have more transaction, need additional functionality and need the capacity within the program to offer more users or user licenses. For example, a program like Peachtree typically only allows up to 5 users to remain completely stable.

Other programs out there that are manufactured by Best Software include BusinessWorks Gold, MAS 90 and MAS 500. Each of these solutions is created with a migration path in mind. So for example, someone who has outgrown Peachtree or QuickBooks can go to a product like BusinessWorks, and then onto MAS 90 and then MAS 500 as they continue to grow. Of course the downfall is that each of these solutions is substantially more expensive than your out of the box QuickBooks or Peachtree. However, from what I have seen, people tend to make a move when they truly are experiencing a pain from being boxed in to the tight parameters of the lower end small business products.

Hope that was helpful!

Scott Davis