Do I need quickbooks?
Or is excel enough for generating simple invoices and basic accounting?
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Jul 4, 2019
QuickBooks is a great business accounting software for small to mid-sized business owners. We are going to cover 10 reasons to use QuickBooks.
1. It helps save time on bookkeeping and paperwork. It automatically handles some of the easy bookkeeping tasks, saving you time and making your day easier.
2. Reports are very easy to generate and customize. You will always be able to see where you are business-wise. No need to worry about the health of your business, it’s readily accessible.
3. The price. QuickBooks is affordable no matter the size of your business. Accounting software can be costly and cumbersome, QuickBooks is neither.
4. Room to grow. Are you looking to expand your business? QuickBooks can help you provide all necessary documentation when trying to establish a business loan or line of credit. QuickBooks can generate a projected balance sheet, profit and loss statement and statement of cash flow in the format recommended by the U.S. Small Business Administration.
5. Customizable. If you can imagine it, QuickBooks can do it. They are always expanding the product to cater to different industries such as health care, contractors and non-profit organizations. An affordable accounting software that can be tailored to your needs!
6. Peace of mind. QuickBooks is a very stable, reliable and proven product. Hundreds of thousands of small businesses use QuickBooks as their accounting software. Their support is top-notch as well!
7. Communication. QuickBooks shares information with over 100 other business applications. This not only saves you time, it also reduces the possibility of mistakes being made.
8. Online Payments. Who wouldn’t like to receive their money faster? With QuickBooks, you can receive online payments by sending an e-mail an invoice or statement. With QuickBooks Online Billing, your customer can quickly pay you with a credit card or bank account transfer. Easier for both parties!
9. Accept credit cards. With QuickBooks Merchant Account Service, you can accept credit cards easily. QuickBooks Merchant Account Service is the only credit card acceptance service integrated with QuickBooks software, which means no need to re-key information. Your customers can choose between Visa, MasterCard, or American Express.
10. Pay your own bills online. Your current bank account can be set up through QuickBooks, then you can begin paying your bills online! No envelopes, stamps or paper checks! You will also be able to download your monthly statement from a participating bank for easier reconciliation!
Feb 21, 2014
I bank with Wells Fargo and have used Quicken Home and Business successfully. A comparison of it with other Quicken products is available here. https://www.wellsfargo.com/biz/financial_software/quickbooks/quicken_comparison. I appreciate the advantage of using the tools we are already familiar with. I once knew someone who used Excel as their word processor. I learned the value of picking the right tools the first time I built an outdoor swing set for my kids. A drill bit that was too small made drilling a hole through a beam of wood almost impossible. The right sized bit made all the difference. :-)
Feb 21, 2014
Hi Mike - There's lots of great answers here already as to why a cloud accounting solution will be more likely the better way to go. Here's a great comparison document to review many of the options mentioned: http://blakeoliver.com/small-business-cloud-accounting-software-comparison/
As for Xero, we are the global leader in online accounting software http://www.xero.com/us/accounting-software/ You can get a free trial of Xero and decide for yourself. An advantage over Excel is that by being able to access your data from anywhere - be it a PC, a Mac, a tablet, Android, iPhone, etc., you'll be able to connect all your banking, credit card and PayPal data to your accounting info, so that you can quickly reconcile your books which keeps everything up to date, for real time decision making about your cash flow, as well as generate invoices from client sites and get paid faster via our online payment options. Over 300 cloud providers integrate with Xero, including Harvest to further enable you to move your operation off desktop solutions and in to the cloud.
Lastly, if you're not already working with an accountant or bookkeeper, we highly recommend you do so as we know small businesses that do so are on average, substantially more successful when they utilize the skills and expertise of a financial professional. Here's a list of Xero advisors you might wish to consider: http://www.xero.com/us/advisors/?country=us&service=accountant.
May 8, 2014
One thing Leslie pointed out was that Xero has their own advisors for you to work with. That is useful information.
Wave also has their list and QuickBooks has their 20,000 member Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor program at http://www.findaproadvisor.com for their desktop and online products.
Feb 21, 2014
Hi Mike,
As a small business owner and entrepreneur for 15+ years, I would HiGHLY recommend an accounting system for your needs.
If you intention is to grow (which I hope it would be!), the ability to generate reports and information for managing your business and year end reporting for the IRS will make your life much easier. In addition, just having a nicely formatted invoice presents your company is a professional way.
There are a number of wonderful and simple to use platforms including Quickbooks for small businesses. Most platforms now have moved to a cloud based platform.
Here are a couple solutions that I would suggest: www.getharvest.com and www.waveapps.com. They have simple to use formats and are FREE for their basic platform.
Hope this helps!
Feb 21, 2014
Bookkeeping can get complicated fairly quickly once you start handling returns, credits, transaction fees, etc. If you're going to be the only one handling your bookkeeping and accounting in the near future, then do what you feel most comfortable with -- an uncomfortable relationship between yourself and your accounting software means you probably won't use it at all, which is far worse.
If you're going to hire even a part-time bookkeeper at some point or have your taxes prepared for you, a well-kept company file in Quickbooks can make things much easier, but you'll need to educate yourself properly with the software to not make a mess of things.
For small and relatively simple needs, I would recommend a web-based solution like FreshBooks (www.freshbooks.com) which is far less complicated than managing a company file through the major accounting software packages out there like Quickbooks, Accountedge, etc.
Feb 21, 2014
Hey Mike,
A very good question...and you will receive many answers with may reasons. As a small business owner, professional accountant and an accounting software consultant, I cannot stress how important it is.
Having an accounting software is important on many levels...it assists in keeping your receivables and payable in order, creates financial reports AND if implemented correctly, captures business metrics that will provide you with information that will assist you in growing your company. To me, the business metrics are key in establishing your bench marks and your Key Performance Indicators. It is this information that you will look to, to assist you in growing your business.
Please be aware that accounting software is great to have and I highly recommend that you get yourself a bookkeeper, contract one if necessary...make sure they are good or you will pay for it in other ways.
A good bookkeeper will keep your year end fees down greatly. If you go to an accounting firm, they will charge you roughly 100/hour, maybe a little less and they generally do not care about small clients. Sorry, just being honest.
A good bookkeeper should run you between 40-65/hour. Since you are a small business, there may not be that much work, but at least it will be done correctly.
If you are knowledgeable in accounting, you could do it yourself. That being said, I am sure you would rather focus on growing your business then the admin. side.
Now...Quick books, and other software, is easy to setup and use but make sure that you use the software to setup some business metrics. Drop me a line and I can assist you in this if you would like.
Feb 21, 2014
In my opinion, you're better off starting with Quickbooks as doing your accounting on an excel spreadsheet can easily become quite cumbersome and reporting will have to be created, in most cases. Quickbooks has many useful built-in features, allows you to easily create professional looking forms and reports, and will grow with your business. Standardized charts of accounts can be quickly customized to suit your needs.
Feb 21, 2014
Hi Mike
QuickBooks is a very user friendly program and it is great for generating invoices, bookkeeping and reports that will help you see how your business is doing. There are many options to choose from according to your business needs. You can choose desktop or online to experience the Cloud which will help you to do all processings faster. Please let me know if I could be of assistance.
Rosa Moreno
Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor
RSJ Accounting Professionals
Feb 21, 2014
QuickBooks is a great tool for capturing your business activity all in one place. While other database and spreadsheets systems may be sufficient to run your day to day operations, it can get messy quick.
Most entrepreneurs utilize QuickBooks to generate invoices as well as capture cash flows activity. QuickBooks also allows user to "memorize reports" which provides business owners with customized reports that provides meaningful and comparable information (ie cash flows, payroll, gross margins etc). Regardless of the software you intend to use, you will likely need to customize reports in order to provide you with information that is most useful for your business/industry.
While there are other pieces of accounting software that may be more cost effective right now, QuickBooks provides users with extensive user support which in turn makes learning and growing with the software much more practical.
Feb 21, 2014
Quickbooks is a database while Excel is a Speadsheet. Databases are designed with special data structures to build relationships between data such as the amount of a sale and the person you are selling to. While you can create formulas in Excel to link cells it is easy to delete cells, rows or columns and thus interfere with the cell relationships. This becomes important over time as you create more and more invoices and may want to query to information in your database such as what are the total sales to this customer or what is the tax I have accumulated on my Sales. A database such as Quickbooks is written to accommodate this while an Excel spreadsheet is like a blank electronic whiteboard requiring you to build the system.
May 2, 2014
Actually the question should be, can I use Excel or do I have to pick an accounting and bookkeeping system. The answer is yes to the latter and you will find it easier to use at tax time. Excel is pretty limited. Many of the other answers have dealt with the advantages of having financial management software.
You can choose from QuickBooks desktop for PC or Mac, Peachtree, and a few others. I do have a few clients using Quicken Home and Business as it allows you to create basic invoices and handle your personal and business bookkeeping.
If you like the idea of being able to acess your data anytime and anywhere, you can go with QuickBooks Online (you can get SimpleStart for free at Fry's this week) Xero, Wave, Outright, Freshbooks, and others.
The important thing is you are going to be the one creating those invoices and doing the books so choose something that works for you.
Just so you know, I am an Advanced Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor and Quicken user with additional certification in their Online, Point of Sale, and Enterprise software, ranked #1 on the Find a ProAdvisor website for Seattle, have been certified in Xero, and listed on the Wave Accounting websites. I have accounts with most of the online providers as I like to be aware of options for my clients as I don't always take the party line.
Feb 21, 2014
I would say it depends on your business and also your payment methods.
I predominantly use PayPal to take payment and so make use of their tools (Money Requests). Any customer who wants to pay by check then I use excel to create an actual invoice. PayPal can do invoicing but I find Money Request easier.
I used to my accounting in excel exporting data from PayPal and my bank but now I use GoDaddy's free booking keeping program that imports my PayPal transactions automatically and to it I add my bank transaction via a manual file load (my choice it could be automatic) and that does all I need in terms of accounting.
I just give my accountant the end of year summary and he does my tax.
Feb 21, 2014
I want to add we manage all our projects using qdPM Extended. It has a one time cost of USD $195. There is also a free version called qdPM. Given what you do I thought you might be interested in those kind of tools as well.
(Disclaimer: I am one of the founders of qdPM)
Feb 22, 2014
I have to say with all these "use Quick Books" answer I personally did not like it as a solution. It is overkill for small services companies. I stayed with excel for 8 years until the ease of Godaddy's booking system convinced me to automate. It is web-based and Free but you can use their paid solution for tax. prep. https://bookkeeping.godaddy.com
May 8, 2014
If you are going to take payments via PayPal, then you want to make sure you can easily integrate it with your software program. I have several accounting clients in Seattle that use QuickBooks Online with PayPal.
Feb 21, 2014
Mike,
As a business I always recommend handling your books on an actual accounting system. Doing your books through Excel can become tedious and more work than necessary. Quickbooks is definitely an option available to you, but is not the only option. There are tons of accounting systems out there. It seems as if you have a new business, which mean you probably have a small amount of transactions. For our clients like this, we suggest Wave Accounting. Once you start to grow your company a bit we then suggest our clients move over to Quickbooks or Xero. If you have any questions on the ones I mentioned in here, please do not hesitate to reach out.
Feb 21, 2014
You need QuickBooks or something like it. If you are not comfortable enough to use it, a bookkeeper or accountant in your area would be more than happy to help you with your books, and teach you for free how to create simple invoices to be mailed/emailed out.
Feb 21, 2014
I believe that all but the VERY small should have a bookkeeping system. QuickBooks is user friendly and if in the future you plan on hiring a bookkeeper, most know the program.
I would not recommend anyone start a business without at least the basics of bookkeeping, or hiring a bookkeeper right away. I have cleaned up too many messes of business owners who believe they can do it themselves.
Feb 21, 2014
The answer is yes, you need accounting software. Whether or not it's QuickBooks, Fresh Books or something else is another question.
Consider that, if your business grows in any real way, you'll want the information structured from the beginning so it is easier to manage things as the business requirements change. Spreadsheets may help you get the job done now, but they're not very useful for getting to or using that data later.
Mar 25, 2014
QB once had limited capabilities, but now it is very robust. And you will have no trouble recruiting for this since just about every accounting pro knows this program. Do, however, make sure that pro sets this up for you. By guessing at things you will get about 80% right, and 20% wrong, yielding useless reports. Also rem that not all info must go into the accounting system; many newer firms make this mistake.
Apr 21, 2015
Most people consider me an Excel expert. I have nearly 20,000 hours of experience in Excel modeling and programming. I can unequivocally answer that you should use accounting software, and not Excel, for generating invoices and basic accounting. Many companies have nearly perfected invoicing software, and a pre-programmed solution will save you an immense amount of time compared to Excel.
Dec 31, 2019
Yes. Obviously, this is a modern era of accounting and business management. Everything is digitalized so, accounting software hosting in the cloud is an obvious idea to maintain the flexibility of your accounting information.
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Jan 22, 2020
QuickBooks is the most widely used and wanted Business accounting software present in the market. It has lot of various features which is not presented in other Accounting software or QuickBooks Competitor have. Integration with other online platforms as well as third-party tools.
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I think if you check when Intuit entered the on-line marketplace and the number of worldwide users of Quickbooks products you will see that Xero are the newbys