Advice on accounting software
Steve Maas
I have been using Peachtree Accounting for my one-person engineering
consulting business for a couple of years. I'm still using version 3.0
and am reluctant to upgrade to 3.5 because every new version they've
created has had an unacceptable number of bugs. Still, there are feature
in 3.5 I'd like to have.
So, the questions are these:
1. Anyone have any opinions on Peachtree 3.5?
2. How does Quickbooks compare?
3. Any other suggestions for a good program?
As well as the usual general ledger, invoicing, etc., I need something
that does a good job of tracking project income/costs, creating account
statements for individual clients, financial statements, and payroll.
--
* --------------------------------------- *
* Stephen Maas, Ph.D., PE *
* http://www.nonlintec.com *
* Nonlinear Technologies, Inc. *
* PO Box 7284, Long Beach, CA 90807, USA *
* --------------------------------------- *
Dave Eastabrook
In article <1.0kk0b4?m...@gate.net>, Steve Maas <sm...@nonlintec.com>
writes
>I have been using Peachtree Accounting for my one-person engineering
>consulting business for a couple of years. I'm still using version 3.0
>and am reluctant to upgrade to 3.5 because every new version they've
>created has had an unacceptable number of bugs. Still, there are feature
>in 3.5 I'd like to have.
>
>So, the questions are these:
>
>1. Anyone have any opinions on Peachtree 3.5?
>2. How does Quickbooks compare?
>3. Any other suggestions for a good program?
>
OK - first I'd have to say that I know nothing about Peachtree. I tried
Quickbooks but it was needlessly complicated for my simple Scottish one-
man Limited Company so I use Excel (bank/invoice, expenses and assets
spreadsheets). But our small company tax requirements are, it has to be
said, quite straightforward, and my accountant just uses my figures for
the annual report, and tax and income calculations.
The reason I'm butting in here is just to say that before you buy *any*
software package these days, it's a good idea to check out if it's been
made year-2000 compliant by the software vendor. If it hasn't yet, then
you may find yourself needing to upgrade yet again in a year or two. In
fact at most, hopefully, in two years!
How do you find out? Mmmm - I'm a mainframe man - you could contact
Peachtree, check out their web-site if they've got one or generally
browse the many Y2K web-sites.
Excuse the intrusion - I'd hate to see you shell out now, only to have
to shell out again soon. OTOH - if 3.5 is Y2K compliant, and 3.0 isn't,
then you'll have to upgrade well before 1/1/2000 anyway, in time to
check out that you're using it in a compliant fashion (perhaps inputting
4-digit years instead of 2).
:Dave
--
Dave Eastabrook
http://www.elmbronze.demon.co.uk/ /IBM/ or /year2000/ or /telework/
Block Tax
Dave Eastabrook <ne...@elmbronze.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>The reason I'm butting in here is just to say that before you buy *any*
>software package these days, it's a good idea to check out if it's been
>made year-2000 compliant by the software vendor. If it hasn't yet, then
>you may find yourself needing to upgrade yet again in a year or two. In
>fact at most, hopefully, in two years!
Quickbooks 5, regular & Pro, are year 2000 compliant. Intuit announced
that QB DOS, which it has not undated for aboutr two years & will not
update, is not year 2000 compliant.
Mike Block, CPA, 275 E Oakland Pk Blvd, Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33334
Taxation is legalized theft! Please help stop this organized crime!
Block Tax
Steve Maas <sm...@nonlintec.com> wrote:
>I have been using Peachtree Accounting for my one-person engineering
>consulting business for a couple of years. I'm still using version 3.0
>and am reluctant to upgrade to 3.5 because every new version they've
>created has had an unacceptable number of bugs. Still, there are feature
>in 3.5 I'd like to have.
>So, the questions are these:
>1. Anyone have any opinions on Peachtree 3.5?
>2. How does Quickbooks compare?
>3. Any other suggestions for a good program?
>As well as the usual general ledger, invoicing, etc., I need something
>that does a good job of tracking project income/costs, creating account
>statements for individual clients, financial statements, and payroll.
Quickbooks has had the biggest market share of small business windows
accounting programs since it was introduced. Its now at 86%, due to
ease of use, ease of corrections, flexibility & power, not due to its
stale ads. Quickbooks Pro lets you track time & job cost by client,
job & sub job. The next 1/98 version will be multi-user.
Steve Huston
I have a small S corp with similar needs to yours. I've been using
QuickBooks V3 for a couple of years and really like it.
I hear that QuickBooks Pro has job costing, time tracking, etc additions
that you'd probably like.
I have heard on newsgroups that QB Pro had some troubles running on Win
NT. You should investigate that if you run on NT. I believe that Win
95 is fine.
You can get more info in comp.os.ms-windows.apps.financial.
-Steve
Steve Maas wrote:
>
> I have been using Peachtree Accounting for my one-person engineering
> consulting business for a couple of years. I'm still using version 3.0
> and am reluctant to upgrade to 3.5 because every new version they've
> created has had an unacceptable number of bugs. Still, there are
> feature
> in 3.5 I'd like to have.
>
> So, the questions are these:
>
> 1. Anyone have any opinions on Peachtree 3.5?
> 2. How does Quickbooks compare?
> 3. Any other suggestions for a good program?
--
Steve Huston Riverace Corporation
Email: shu...@riverace.com http://www.riverace.com
Specializing in TCP/IP, CORBA, ACE (508) 384-5708, FAX 384-3197
Expertise to help your projects succeed We support ACE!
Jim Baker
Steve:
Peachtree Complete Accounting for Windows (Version 4.0) has been on our
system for nearly five months. The package has performed flawlessly in the
Windows 95 environment. The vast majority of my clients run Peachtree, and
we have found that while 3.5 is an improvement on 3.0, it rarely justifies
the cost of the upgrade.
4.0 is a wondeful package... And in the CD-ROM version, includes a
multitude of extras not included in the floppy version... Including an
interactive, multimedia new company set-up that can't be beat.
I have yet to find a bug or glitch in 4.0, and we service it on our own
system, as well as dozens of clients. Our experience with Quickbooks Pro is
that it is fine for Amway reps, and the local coin laundromat... But for a
serious business, with any serious growth potential, we would advise
Peachtree. Unless you want to shell out for a more upscale, "professional"
accounting package.
One word of advice: Get the optional fixed assets module. A life saver!
Good luck
Jim
Steve Maas <sm...@nonlintec.com> wrote in article <1.0kk0b4?m...@gate.net>...