In need of Freeper help with changing my accounting software.

vanity | 4/13/12 | me

[w4women]

I use Quickbooks (Intuit) in my business. After learning about their decision to cut ties with the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, I must change my software provider and was looking for some recommendations from the smartest people in the world. Thanks in advance.

[zencycler]

It sounds like you already have the product installed. So aside from the nominal cost of future updates, I don’t see how changing now would matter that much.

If upon reflection, you still feel you must change, make it a slow, planned transition to another package. You might use something like Peachtree, or if you need significantly more functionality than you have now, you may want to go with something like AccPac or Great Plains.

But programs like Quickbooks or Peachtree are sufficient for most small businesses. So like I said, since you already have it installed, if it’s serving you well, just keep it, at least for now.

[FewsOrange]

If Quicken works for your business then stick with Quicken and make a donation to the American Legislative Exchange Council if you feel they need the money.

[Baseballguy]

I actually am in the software business. We provide both Accounting and Customer service.

[upchuck]

Take a look at GnuCash. Been around since 1998. And it's free.

[Keith in Iowa]

Do you have/work with a CPA?

If you do - they should be more than able to help you successfully switch to an alternative software.

[spel_grammer_an_punct_polise]

You may want to look at the following link and the sub-categories:

http://www.snapfiles.com/freeware/productivity/fwpersonal-finance.html

[tired&retired]

Another good reason many are leaving Quick Books is their decision to fully cooperate with the IRS. The IRS now requires a backup copy of all QB files if they select you for an audit. The IRS runs them through their own analysis with specially trained staff.

I’m a CPA and QB Pro Advisor!!!

[Buckeye McFrog]

Don’t go with Great Plains. We went on Quickbooks precisely because our accountant was tearing her hair out trying to use Great Plains.

[Ron C.]

Peachtree 'complete accounting' is highly rated by users, Quickbooks Pro is up there in popularity too, but do take a look at Simply Accounting, as it has very high user satisfaction rates, better than most others.

[Zakeet]

Quicken and QuickBooks are owned by the same company ... Intuit.

[cynwoody]

or Great Plains

According to the Wikipedia, "On April 9th the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation also withdrew their support for ALEC."

GP is a Microsoft product. We use it at our company, and I don't see us changing over this, Mr. Bill's liberalism being long known.

But programs like Quickbooks or Peachtree are sufficient for most small businesses. So like I said, since you already have it installed, if it’s serving you well, just keep it, at least for now.

That's good advice.

It's generally a bad idea to let politics intrude upon business decisions. It's hard enough to make good decisions just on the merits. There are a lot of very smart people in the world economy who make great products but who are abysmally ignorant about politics and do not comprehend their own interests. I'm perfectly OK with using their stuff, if it's what I need.

[FewsOrange]

I actually meant to say QuickBooks not Quicken, in other words stick with it if it works .

[BuffaloJack]

Don’t like Quicken?
Try Peachtree.

[WhoisAlanGreenspan?]

Interesting,
We're still running Quickbooks Premier Retail Edition 2004 and it's never been updated in any way, unless you count the changes in the exact way we use it.

We fired the accounting firm in early 2005. I do all book keeping and payroll in QB and a cheat-sheet I made in Excel for figuring deductions.

Not bad for spending about $500 eight years ago.

[zencycler]

Thanks, I didn’t know that about Great Plains. I was giving input based on the systems I’ve used, and knowing from experience the difficulties in making changes.