business accounting software

[myxpykalix]

people have recommended Intuit quickbooks pro but i'm wondering if there is something cheaper just as good out there. I know Sun offers openoffice free but i don't think it can do accounting like quickbooks.
The feature i'm most looking for is some type of calendar popup or notification to tell me what bills are due what days. Up to now i've been "old school" and just put things in the ledgerbook and wrote paper checks and mailed out.

I'm forgetting to pay some bills and i think i need to jump into the 21st century with my bookkeeping. I DO NOT want to use some service where you store your info "in the cloud" because we see all the hacking and spying going on and this is just another way for the govt to keep tabs on you....(hmmm...now where did i put my tinfoil hat...?)

[tri4sale]

Depending on your business, you might get buy with Quicken Home/Business I used that for a small business I ran on the side, but my primary business is run on Quickbooks. Not huge cost difference between the 2 programs. $170 for pro version is well worth investment.

[srwtlc]

Check out the free open source GNuCash. I see that it has scheduled tasks with reminders. If you try it, be sure you create a folder for saving your named account to in the save as dialog that comes up when creating a new account. If you just save it to say 'my documents', it will save a bunch of log, data, and backup files in that location.

I've only played with it a little, just looked like a decent free solution that is actively worked on and updated.

[johnh]

...and don't forget as soon as you connect any computer to the internet you are officially stored on the cloud. I have an elastic chin strap for my tin foil hat.

[richards]

I use gnucash for bookkeeping purposes, but it doesn't have all of the features expected in a "real" business accounting system. It doesn't have payroll, inventory control, purchase orders, or Point of Sale modules. It is a single user system. It locks the files to keep them from being corrupted if more than one person tries to use them at the same time. (I store the files on a "server" so that I can use any of my Linux computers as my bookkeeping "workstation", but no one else can do bookkeeping if I'm doing bookkeeping.)

A few hundred dollars is a small price to pay IF you need the additional functionality of QuickBooks or similar programs. Because I only generate one or two highly intricate invoices per month and because those invoices list customized services and because no "canned" system has the features that I need most, gnucash works perfectly fine for me.

[genek]

Jack I run quick books pro.. I just upgraded to 2014 I paid around $170.00 at staples home edition would work.. but pro keeps track of my inventory, customer accounts receivables, payables lets me do time runs, tacks everything and at anytime I can do a snap shot of the company and see how much I made per month and compare it to last year. I know which items are moving the faster than the others ..

[GlenP]

Here is another software and it works ok. If you want notification for bills I put mine in my calendar and sync it with my cell phone. Or just put them on your calendar on the phone. I have a smart phone so it is easy to do. I think this company offers free trial.

http://www.nchsoftware.com/accounting/index.html

Cheers,