7 Replies

I’m assuming when you say “check on things from work” you are referring to DML Woodworks?

Nope…I’m referring to my day job. DML is just a part time business for me at this point.

David, since no one has answered I can only assume that one of three things is happening.
1. No one owns their own business,
2. No one uses accounting software,
3. No one visits this site to answer your question.
Personally, I used Quickbooks. It met my every need.

Perhaps we should add one more category on the above assumptions:
4-The accounting package they use is not the kind suited for the need at hand.

My wife is a bookkeeper – she swears by Xero. It is cloud based, has an enormous range of add-ons that can be used with it and, apparently, has a good user interface.

Not free though. Also, I am in Oz so I do not know what penetration Xero has in the US market. Being cloud based though, that may not be a big deal unless you want to interface to a local accountant.

Thanks for the feedback. I know it’s not an exciting topic!
I looked at QB online, and it seemed excellent, and has a solid history backing it up. Only reason I went with Wave was because its free to use. I’ll be checking out Xero as well, as it looks to be very capable as well. Thanks for the suggestion Tootles!

I have had several small companies and have always used QuickBooks Pro. Easy to learn and reasonable prices. I also use them for my personal bookkeeping with a simple program that is like a glorified checkbook system. The downside to this type of program is they continually try to sell you upgrades… which means “different”, which means sometimes you can’t find their new way to do something you need to to do. I still have my program from 2002 on my computer, but it no longer works because of a font problem. I keep it because about once a month an old customer from one of my defunct companies will call and I can look them up and sometimes help them out with their problems. If you are proficient with Excel, you can build your own system. However, if generating professional looking invoices, purchase orders, quotes, packing lists, statements and tax support data is your goal… get Quicken QuickBook Pro or one of the other programs.