Now we're getting somewhere. Since they're manufacturing, they have labor. How is/will payroll handled? Once you get into payroll situations your accounting system is now at the mercy of the vendors. You have to maintain updates for payroll tax tables. Trying to manually keep up with them is a risky proposition. Additionally, most vendors require periodic updates to the underlying accounting package in order to keep the annual tax table updates. For example, quickbooks is every three years. MAS 90 requires annual maintenance fees for the application which includes payroll tax updates. Peachtree is either three or four years, as I recall.
Then there's the inventory issue, which depending on the size of inventory can influence your decision on the package purchased. Based on where you're going with this, you're not really asking a technical question, you're asking questions that are ultimately accounting questions. Those questions need to be answered or at least developed before selection of an accounting package. On Tue, May 11, 2010 at 9:01 AM, Ben Scott <mailvor...@gmail.com> wrote: > On Mon, May 10, 2010 at 8:30 PM, Jonathan Link <jonathan.l...@gmail.com> > wrote: > > I know a SOHO who generates $300,000 annually in profit, so again, it's > all > > a matter of perspective. > > True enough. > > > You hadn't described budgetary requirements, except to say that > Quickbooks > > is "expensive." > > Good point. > > They don't really have a budget for this, except so say that they > have very modest needs and want value. In other words, keep things as > cheap as possible without sacrificing useful functionality. I think > that's a smart approach. > > (It's a small manufacturing company which was rescued from financial > collapse by the owner of my nominal employer. They have two or three > full-time employees, plus a part-time office worker. The GM is also > tasked from my employer. Guess where IT comes from. ;-) ) > > > However, accountants fees can quickly make the expense of > > of QB incidental. > > Unless the cost of the accountant is somehow proportional to the > cost of QuickBooks, I don't really see that as relevant. Paying a lot > for QuickBooks just because something else costs more is not good > business sense. > > Now, it may be that using QuickBooks would lower accountant fees, > since QuickBooks is the most common package. That's a good point, and > something that normally would be worth investigating. However, due to > the ownership situation described above, my employer is also loaning > our accounting staff. So accountant fees are zero. Unfortunately, we > can't use the ERP software my employer runs for this other company, so > I'm looking at other software. > > In any event, I've found that examining alternatives to "what > everyone else does" often pays off. The smaller the business, the > more nimble they can be, so this is an opportunity. If your stance is > "Just use QuickBooks", well, that's valid, but here I'm interested in > hearing about alternatives people have tried. :) > > -- Ben > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ > ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~
