Inventory, invoicing, and billing

capsaicin

capsaicin

This has to be the sexiest topic ever posted:) Do folks generally use Quick Books for this or are there any cheaper systems for really small companies like mine?
 
Right now I just have invoices and spreadsheets that I've built with Excel and Word and I change and move them around manually. Not exactly efficient but it works...for now.
 
Cheers
 
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Quick books. And it's great. Takes time to get set up right an you've gotta keep on too of it..

at 1st it felt like overkill for my meager sales - now it's invaluable.

And especially now at end of year when all I have to do is send a file to my accountant instead of showing up with 2 lbs of receipts (I actually did that last year and he threatened me with physical violence)
 
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fwiw, we got QB in 2000 for our electrical biz with employees.  About 2003-2004, QB put out a new version and no more updates for our version.  So we were forced to buy the new QB version. 
 
My other gripe is paying about $200 a year (last time I checked which was around 2004) for the employee tax table updates.  We have 1-2 employees and it just ticked me off that employers have to pay that every year for updates, and to buy a whole new version of QB was not that much more! 
 
~kay,  off the soap box as most people looking at this will not have employees to deal with right away.  For us, we don't buy the yearly payroll tax updates and I manually enter the payroll information.   
 
The electrical biz has about 10,000 parts and pieces, so we've never used it for inventory.  I have about 5 products in the food biz that I sell to the stores and enter invoices for.  I've been trying to enter sales as items trying to keep track and it has helped when looking to see what's sold.   
 
We utilize maybe 20% of QBs potential with inventory tracking and all that.  If you spend the time with the program it can do wonders.  If you hate it like I do, well...it'll give you sales reports and employee earnings for quarterly reports.  Or it can be a critical operational system in your business integrated with inventory tracking, generate PO's when product is needed, etc, etc, etc,....
 
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Thanks salsalady.
 
I like a good rant(though a mild and respectable one by my standards) and the reasons for your dislike have been the reasons for my hesitation. 
 
But I guess by waiting I am only putting off the inevitable. It sounds like the program to do what I want by your description of its inventory capabilities.
 
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If I might make a recommendation:

Budget in a couple hundred bucks & hire a consultant to get your initial setup done - trust me on this. I spent the better part of 3 weeks dicking around with it and some things I got right, some I got wrong. The ones I got wrong meant undoing that house of cards & rebuilding it.

I probably burned 60 hours - and I want close
To havin the right setup.

I then spent $200 and a master QB gal had me set up perfectly in a matter of a day or two.

Best $200 I ever spent. Seriously.

And my company was almost a year old, so we had a lot of data to enter - you're so new it should be a snap to get you up & running.
:cheers:
 
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Lucky Dog Hot Sauce said:
If I might make a recommendation:

Budget in a couple hundred bucks & hire a consultant to get your initial setup done - trust me on this. I spent the better part of 3 weeks dicking around with it and some things I got right, some I got wrong. The ones I got wrong meant undoing that house of cards & rebuilding it.

I probably burned 60 hours - and I want close
To havin the right setup.

I then spent $200 and a master QB gal had me set up perfectly in a matter of a day or two.

Best $200 I ever spent. Seriously.

And my company was almost a year old, so we had a lot of data to enter - you're so new it should be a snap to get you up & running.
:cheers:
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Quickbooks is almost as tedious to learn as Autocad or Photoshop, and it is massive overkill for most soho businesses. It's like they intentionally engineered it to be counter-intuitive. Intuit used to have a simpler product called Home & Business that was by far a better for for small biz's, but of course it was less expensive and cutting into their profits so they axed it.    Looks like they still have it, Quicken Home and Business...It lacks inventory management iirc. 
 
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Thanks for posting that info, PD.  That's a pretty good price.  Does it say if tax tables etc are included for payroll and how much it would be to download the ongoing yearly tax tables for payroll?  
 
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salsalady said:
Thanks for posting that info, PD.  That's a pretty good price.  Does it say if tax tables etc are included for payroll and how much it would be to download the ongoing yearly tax tables for payroll?  
Click to expand...
 
I just chatted w/ a Intuit rep and he said you would need to subscribe to the payroll service, no matter which version of QuickBooks you get.  So if you get Pro 2014 it would be an extra $199/year (enhanced service) or $99/year (basic service): http://www.amazon.com/QuickBooks-Enhanced-Payroll-2014-Download/dp/B00E7XBEV0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1389725383&sr=8-1&keywords=quickbooks+payroll+service+subscription.  Don't know which one you need, but it sounds like either way Intuit will get your money :(
 
I ordered QB Pro 2014 last night.  I say always get the download, not the physical media.  It will always be available and backed up in your Amazon S/W Library along w/ your serial number.
 
Ken
 
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Having used QB since 1996 I agree with most everything SL has to say about it.  I always feel ripped off when they sunset old versions - this year they tried to make me upgrade to 14 (from Pro 2010) because they said the IRS changed the 1099 tax forms (delivery drivers) and 2010 would not print them correctly.  Well I'd already ordered my 1099 forms so I tried one.  QB lied - they worked fine.  (insert snarky anti Intuit comment here)  Ultimately you get out what you put in - much like life :)
 
Overall QB is great for what we need and really helped us when we were starting out.  We don't use the inventory tracking as much as we should, mostly because we're still hand counting and using excel spreadsheets that I created years and years ago (that still work and I prefer their layout).  QB meshes well with our point of sale software (AccuPos) so when we moved from the tinkertoy cash register to the touchscreens we stuck ourselves with it.  
 
We do not use QB payroll any longer.  As we grew we made the decision to switch to a payroll provider (ADP).  I use their software to input payroll and they send the checks the next day (and take care of all IRS related tax forms and filings).  It's far more expensive - about $60 per pay period - but having them on the hook for all tax filings is a nice tradeoff.  I will say that after having used ADP for several years now I think they are a ripoff too and I will likely be moving our payroll back in house and will end up paying Intuit for the QB tax conversions again.  Pick your poison right?  
 
A quick tour of waveapps impressed me.  Were I starting out I'd definitely look into using that.  Currently there are so many tools available to small businesses you can just about run your whole operation from a smart phone.  Were I advising anyone I'd caution against Intuit only because they find ways to nickel and dime you along the way each and every year.  
 
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