Peachtree vs. Quickbooks accounting software
I am currently using Quickbooks for another business but not using it for my ecommerce retail music book business. I'm tracking everything manually at this point but am trying to make a decision on accounting software and the inventory aspect is my main area of concern. It seems that Quickbooks' lack of costing methodolgies (uses average cost only rather than LIFO/FIFO options) is a serious drawback since our product costs do fluctuate from time to time. In my research of Peachtree, I see that it is more flexible and allows other cost methodologies. Can anyone else share your experience in regard to this issue tell me about any other accounting software that you might recommend for a small retail business? Thanks.
More accounting questions
We are an ice cream company that manufactures and sells via both wholesale and retail. Currently we are seeking an integrated solution with an accounting software and our new POS (point of sale) software.
Our POS has an excellent and extremely detailed database of all inventory that comes into the plant tracks it through to sales, plus both retail and corporate customer tracking. It generates POs for our wholesale accounts and tracks receipt of our ordered items. It links all of our retail stores. Also our accounts receivables from our wholesale accounts. We can pull detailed reports that we need not just for our internal use but also for FDA.
Ok great right but...
We were using Quickbooks but daily receipts, AR, tax and current value of our inventory daily had to be entered manually. We are considering Mybooks. Have not received an email response yet to our question about importing daily data. Our POS (6th Sense) operates on a MAC/unix network. It can export to any number of industry standard formats.
Help we are looking for something not just for today but that we can continue to grow the company. We also do not want to spend $10,000 to import daily data if we can help it.
Thanks,
OfficePax shared contacts shared calendar remote access email
I am currently beta testing a new program which is very promising. It's called OfficePax and it offers shared contacts shared calendar email timesheets invoice management and much more. Check it out!
http://www.officepax.com
Few thoughts about non-hosting solution
Hi,
Well I agree with your points on hosted solution, let's assume a business owner buys a in-house hosting e-commerce solution and in order to do so he has to plan for the following.
a. Hardware
1. Server - $$$$
2. Internet connection - atleast DSL/Cable with dedicated IP address - $$$
3. Network Management - $$$
b. Softwares
1. OS - $$$
2. Firewall - $$$
3. Backup plans - $$
4. Maintenance against virus, spam, hackers etc - $$$
5. Credit Card softwares such as Payflow Pro/Authroize.net etc - $$$
Oops I forgot to add the most important thing "Time" the business owner got to find some valuable time to setup the hardware and software mentioned above (remember he is just 2 employee size company OR he has to spend $$$$ for hiring consultants to setup the above)
Now should the business owner figure out all of this OR should he focus on his core values, i,e business ?
So there is Pros and Cons in both ways, identify what you have and what you can afford and then move forward. I have worked on both kind of solutions, of course "one size doesn't fit all" and hosted solution may not fit all business owners neither hosting at your own location may not fit everyone ...
QuickBooks getting more serious about small enterprises
I have to admit to not testing it personally, but I like the fact that Intuit just announced that its Enterprise 6.0 product is now based on a SQL database and supports up to 15 concurrent users (it has been limited to 10). They also claim that it's three to five times faster.
I think one of the problems with QuickBooks is that it has been easy to outgrow it. This may help businessess that would have had to migrate to another accounting platform.
Anyone out there beta test the new QB enterprise software? I'd be curious to hear reactions.
Taking the jump to MS SBA
Well today my new MS Small Business Accounting arrived today and I'm going to install it. I am migrating from Quickbooks due to a lack of support and flexibility on the part of QB, and the fact that they are more interested in selling me new stuff than to support the stuff I already bought. If anyone else is in the process of this migration, feel free to contact me with ideas or questions!<p> I was never able to do the importing and exporting properly to get good automation with my ecommerce websites, and with any luck, I should be able to do that now or will go down trying. I feel that I shouldnt have to spend all my time on the computer, and with luck, this solution should do the trick. I may document the struggle on my website if it gets interesting. Any software I develop is free to anyone who wants it... no warranty! :)
John ka0osk (MSSBA/OsCommerce/UPS/DHL/ebay?/POS)
www.midwesttent.com