Small Business Accounting Software

Your business, no matter how small, needs an effective accounting management system to sustain its day-to-day viability and establish its long-term financial goals. But when you are already multitasking as the CEO, the manager, and the salesman, you don’t really have time to be an accountant too, do you? Yes, actually, you do.

With a good small business accounting software program, you can still manage your cash flow hands on, without spending too much time. A few clicks here and there, and you can forecast revenues, pay bills, and generate reports. But what functionalities should you look for in accounting software? What do you really need and what can you do without? Read on for some tips.

Look for user-friendly software. Choose accounting software with an interface that resembles its traditional paper counterparts so that you can immediately navigate your way around it. The more familiar the layout of the software is to you, the easier you can intuitively explore its functionalities.

Internet and e-commerce features can also be important. If your small business relies on sales and orders via the worldwide web, you definitely need accounting software that seamlessly connects to e-Commerce functionalities. Find something that you can easily hook up to your bank’s online payment portal, for example, so you can automatically track payments made to you and bills you have to pay.

Search for compatibility with frequently used programs. If most of your records are Windows based, find small business accounting software that easily synchronizes with Microsoft Excel and other Microsoft Office applications. Such a feature will let you integrate your existing records without the risk of corrupting data. There are also specialty accounting software programs available for other platforms.

Examine the professional reports included in the software. Beware of some software packages that can generate hundreds of kinds of reports – you probably won’t use more than half of them, so why pay the extra price? Concentrate on essential reports instead, such as statements needed for tax filing and time-billing reports, if you use such.

There are other extras worth considering. If your business is quickly expanding, it might be a good idea to invest in expandable, multiple-user accounting software that integrates payroll functionalities, inventory tracking, job costing, and other productivity features. These types cost a little more, but are definitely necessary for any fast-growing small business.

Accounting Software provides detailed information on Accounting Software, Day Care Accounting Software, Small Business Accounting Software, Free Accounting Software and more. Accounting Software is affiliated with Free Small Business Accounting Software

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Eric_Morris

By Eric Morris

Small Business Accounting Software - How to Buy

Small business accounting software / Small business bookkeeping software -- How to buy.

There are lot of small business accounting / bookkeeping softwares out there. If you are a small business owner looking for a good software, you are bound to get overwhelmed by the endless list pretty quickly. Which one to buy? What features do they come with? Should I get all the features or just the ones I need? The questions go on and on without answer. If this is what is happening to you, don't despair. There is hope. Read on. By the time you are done reading this short post you will be armed with all the knowledge you need to make an informed buying decision. First some questions about you.

1. How big is your business?

Small business as defined by Small Business Administration is any business that is privately owned and employs less than 100 employees. Good enough. If we analyze this definition a bit closely we will quickly see that 100 employees is a big number. Assuming that you are paying $3000/month to each employee you are paying out $300,000/month as salary. If you own a business this big chances are you will not be looking for an accounting / bookkeeping software via internet. Sales agents from software companies will be waiting at your door to sell their software to you. Going by the fact that you are searching for a small business software on the internet you probably own a much smaller business. How much smaller? I think you own a business that has less than 5 employees. Most probably even less. Just one employee. Yourself.

2. What are you selling?

Are you selling a material product? or just services? Do you make the product or just buy it pre-made? Do you have a real store or you are selling via your web site? How do you find your customers?

3. How much is your data volume?

If you have a thriving business then you will have good data volume. How much it it? How many orders per month? How many new customers per month? How do store the data? How much data? What is expected growth rate of the data

4. Do you have a web site?

Nearly all businesses, big or small have web sites these days. Do you have one? If not your should get one. Would you like your software to integrate seamlessly with your web site? Would you like to be able to access your small business accounting / bookkeeping software via the internet?

Your choice of small business accounting / bookkeeping software will depend upon the answers to above questions. Assuming that you have one person company you want something that is easy to use, some that can be accessed remotely form anywhere and it can grow with your company. Right? ... Right!

OK, one more thing that we did not discuss. Underlying technology. Even though it may not be visible, it is very important to know what kind of technology your small business software is using. After all it is the bed rock on which the software is built. Things may get a little complicated here but I will try to make them as simple as I can.

Every small business accounting / bookkeeping software essentially does one thing. It store data. Data is information about your business. Customer names, addresses, products, orders, invoices ... all are examples of data. So for a small business software to work efficiently it should be able to store data efficiently. Not only that, it should also be able to modify and retrieve data efficiently when you need it. After all what is the use of a black box software that cannot provide you the data when you need it. You still with me? Good.

There are two ways to store data.

• Flat file
• Relational

Flat file method uses flat text files, much like notepad files, to store data. It is old and archaic.

The reason: it cannot hold any relationships among data entities. e.g. you want to store customers name and their invoices. You know that one customer can have many invoices. So to store customers and their invoices you will have to repeat customer name each time you store an invoice. Just like below.

customer1 -- invoice1

customer1 -- invoice2

Problem with this approach is that you have to repeat the customer name every time you want to store an invoice. This is not efficient.

Relational method uses relationships to store data. It is more efficient. Look at the same example that uses relational method. It uses customer name only once.

customer1

-- invoice1

-- invoice2

Elegant isn't it? You bet. It is much cleaner, more efficient and easier to read. If you are still with me we are almost done. The whole point of the above song and dance was to show you that relational storage method is superior to flat file storage method. It should be an important factor to consider when you buy your small business computer software. Now, there are five major small business accounting / bookkeeping software.

Quickbooks from Intuit , Simply Accounting, Peachtree (again from Intuit), Sage and Microsoft Small Business Accounting Software. Agreed?

Now the bombshell. None of these small business software use relational storage method! Can you imagine? Wait there is more. All these are propriety software written by the big companies who use large scale ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software that runs on unix (not windows or mac) and uses relational database (relational storage method) to run their own businesses. Did you get what I just said. Let me rephrase. All these so called best small business software companies DO NOT USE THEIR OWN SOFTWARE. They use relational storage software, but they sell you non relational storage software in the name of small business software. The reason? Relation storage method is very expensive. Well not any more!

There are many new small business software now available that use the relational method. These are based on open source relational databases and are accessible from anywhere via Internet. More over they use GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles). These new breed of software are called small business ERP software. They knocks the pants off the old and archaic so called best small business accounting / bookkeeping software listed above. Your next question would be... "Can you tell me a name?" Well of course. You can try TooLERP for starters. It is elegantly written using mysql relational database and apache web server.

Nick Wayne is ERP Accounting software specialist with 20 years of consulting experience in large ERP consulting space.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Nick_Wayne

By Nick Wayne

Choosing Small Business Accounting Software

If manual bookkeeping isn't enough for your business, it's time to choose the best small business accounting software. To keep the various government agencies happy, you need records and you have to furnish reports. Filling out government forms isn't very productive. But actually some accounting work is productive.

The right financial accounting software can help you as a business owner or manager to make better decisions. Up-to-date information that's accurate and in a form that's easy to understand may be the difference in success and failure. But how do you choose software that will help your company without being to costly?

The first step to choosing the right software is determining what you need from an accounting package. Most every company requires the core accounting functions. That would include the general ledger plus bank reconciliation, accounts receivable and payable. Any accounting software will include those, but you may need much more.

For example, even a small construction company needs job costing records tied to the accounts receivable, cash and ledger systems. Whatever your industry, make sure any package you look at can handle your special needs.

Often free accounting software may be just right for a home based business. Several companies offer free software with all the basic functions. Then you can upgrade to a more professional system as your needs grow. Beware of free software though where there is no upgrade capability and no support. You can very easily get stuck and lose data and realize you got what you paid for ... nothing or worse.

Several out-of-the-box software packages offer very sophisticated software that can handle most company needs. Look at Peachtree, Quicken and Microsoft for professional accounting software. These companies have many choices for different size companies and for specific industries.

Larger companies may need custom software for very special accounting needs. That will only be true for larger companies, since the major small business accounting software companies probably have just what you need ready to go and already proven by many other companies.

If you know what you need from an accounting system, the hardest part of the selection process is done. Very often small businesses can quickly choose from one of the two or three top software companies. They probably already have software that will do the job for you.

To learn much more about small business accounting software, visit http://AccountingSoftwareTrends.com where you'll find help for choosing systems and more.

Al Bullington is a CPA(retired) who also spent 15 years as a project manager with Fortune 500 companies. His main work focus now is small business start-ups.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Al_Bullington

By Al Bullington

Small Business Accounting Software - How to Buy

Small business accounting software / Small business bookkeeping software -- How to buy.

There are lot of small business accounting / bookkeeping softwares out there. If you are a small business owner looking for a good software, you are bound to get overwhelmed by the endless list pretty quickly. Which one to buy? What features do they come with? Should I get all the features or just the ones I need? The questions go on and on without answer. If this is what is happening to you, don't despair. There is hope. Read on. By the time you are done reading this short post you will be armed with all the knowledge you need to make an informed buying decision. First some questions about you.

1. How big is your business?

Small business as defined by Small Business Administration is any business that is privately owned and employs less than 100 employees. Good enough. If we analyze this definition a bit closely we will quickly see that 100 employees is a big number. Assuming that you are paying $3000/month to each employee you are paying out $300,000/month as salary. If you own a business this big chances are you will not be looking for an accounting / bookkeeping software via internet. Sales agents from software companies will be waiting at your door to sell their software to you. Going by the fact that you are searching for a small business software on the internet you probably own a much smaller business. How much smaller? I think you own a business that has less than 5 employees. Most probably even less. Just one employee. Yourself.

2. What are you selling?

Are you selling a material product? or just services? Do you make the product or just buy it pre-made? Do you have a real store or you are selling via your web site? How do you find your customers?

3. How much is your data volume?

If you have a thriving business then you will have good data volume. How much it it? How many orders per month? How many new customers per month? How do store the data? How much data? What is expected growth rate of the data

4. Do you have a web site?

Nearly all businesses, big or small have web sites these days. Do you have one? If not your should get one. Would you like your software to integrate seamlessly with your web site? Would you like to be able to access your small business accounting / bookkeeping software via the internet?

Your choice of small business accounting / bookkeeping software will depend upon the answers to above questions. Assuming that you have one person company you want something that is easy to use, some that can be accessed remotely form anywhere and it can grow with your company. Right? ... Right!

OK, one more thing that we did not discuss. Underlying technology. Even though it may not be visible, it is very important to know what kind of technology your small business software is using. After all it is the bed rock on which the software is built. Things may get a little complicated here but I will try to make them as simple as I can.

Every small business accounting / bookkeeping software essentially does one thing. It store data. Data is information about your business. Customer names, addresses, products, orders, invoices ... all are examples of data. So for a small business software to work efficiently it should be able to store data efficiently. Not only that, it should also be able to modify and retrieve data efficiently when you need it. After all what is the use of a black box software that cannot provide you the data when you need it. You still with me? Good.

There are two ways to store data.

• Flat file
• Relational

Flat file method uses flat text files, much like notepad files, to store data. It is old and archaic.

The reason: it cannot hold any relationships among data entities. e.g. you want to store customers name and their invoices. You know that one customer can have many invoices. So to store customers and their invoices you will have to repeat customer name each time you store an invoice. Just like below.

customer1 -- invoice1

customer1 -- invoice2

Problem with this approach is that you have to repeat the customer name every time you want to store an invoice. This is not efficient.

Relational method uses relationships to store data. It is more efficient. Look at the same example that uses relational method. It uses customer name only once.

customer1

-- invoice1

-- invoice2

Elegant isn't it? You bet. It is much cleaner, more efficient and easier to read. If you are still with me we are almost done. The whole point of the above song and dance was to show you that relational storage method is superior to flat file storage method. It should be an important factor to consider when you buy your small business computer software. Now, there are five major small business accounting / bookkeeping software.

Quickbooks from Intuit , Simply Accounting, Peachtree (again from Intuit), Sage and Microsoft Small Business Accounting Software. Agreed?

Now the bombshell. None of these small business software use relational storage method! Can you imagine? Wait there is more. All these are propriety software written by the big companies who use large scale ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software that runs on unix (not windows or mac) and uses relational database (relational storage method) to run their own businesses. Did you get what I just said. Let me rephrase. All these so called best small business software companies DO NOT USE THEIR OWN SOFTWARE. They use relational storage software, but they sell you non relational storage software in the name of small business software. The reason? Relation storage method is very expensive. Well not any more!

There are many new small business software now available that use the relational method. These are based on open source relational databases and are accessible from anywhere via Internet. More over they use GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles). These new breed of software are called small business ERP software. They knocks the pants off the old and archaic so called best small business accounting / bookkeeping software listed above. Your next question would be... "Can you tell me a name?" Well of course. You can try TooLERP for starters. It is elegantly written using mysql relational database and apache web server.

Nick Wayne is ERP Accounting software specialist with 20 years of consulting experience in large ERP consulting space.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Nick_Wayne

By Nick Wayne

DIY Accounting Small Business Accounting Software Questions And Answers

Author: Terry Cartwright

A number of questions are asked by clients either before purchasing or after downloading the accounting software. Many of these questions and the answers are the same the most typical of which are produced here.



Why is the monthly profit and loss account not updating from the sales and purchases entered.



Updating the profit and loss account in the financial accounts file is automated. If the financial accounts file is not updating automatically the links from the sales accounting spreadsheet and or the purchase accounting spreadsheet are not working. This may be because the file names have been changed which breaks the links between the files.



The most common reason is the way the files were originally saved when initially downloaded from the website by opening the files first before saving them. When a file is opened first before saving the computer stores that file in a temporary internet folder and changes the links to temporary links within that temporary folder.



When that file is then saved it is those temporary links which are being saved and not the original links. Those temporary links would not be recognised by the other files which form the link structure. The solution is to delete the files and save the files again direct to your accounts folder without opening them first thereby preserving the original links.



Accounting entries on sales and purchases appear on the profit and loss account but do not appear on the list of expenses on the self employed tax return.



The self employed tax return required to be completed in the UK is dependent upon the sales turnover. Small business with total sales income exceeding 64,000 pounds for the financial year ending 5 April 2008 are required to complete the full self employed tax return while businesses with a turnover under 64,000 pounds may complete the short version of the self employed tax return.. Coincidentally the threshold is the same as the vat threshold.



In addition if the sales income is less than 30,000 pounds then it is not necessary to complete all the individual expense classifications. The excel formulae within the financial accounts file automatically fill in the short or full tax return and only fill in the detailed expense classifications if required to do so.



Does the package produce my quarterly vat returns when a vat flat rate scheme is being operated.



The user guide contains notes on how to enter the value added tax flat rate percentage on the sales bookkeeping spreadsheet. The bookkeeping single entry of the flat rate vat percentage on the sales sheet updates throughout the package including the subsequent months on the sales sheet and also each month on the purchases bookkeeping spreadsheet automatically calculating value added tax at the flat rate percentage and expenses value added tax paid on purchases at the zero vat rate producing a quarterly vat return.



Does the self employed accounting software package produce a balance sheet.



Producing a balance sheet is optional for self employed small business and not an essential requirement of completing the self employed tax return. The self employed package is based upon single entry bookkeeping and does not produce a balance sheet which requires double entry bookkeeping while the limited company package does produce a balance sheet as it is a legal requirement for a limited liability company.



As the self employed accounting software includes sales and purchase spreadsheets and also cash and bank spreadsheets it is possible to manually produce a balance sheet if required but the accounting software does not produce it automatically.



Do I purchase a new software package each financial year or can the accounting software be updated for more than one year accounts.



As the accounting software and payroll packages include the current financial year tax rules that enable the financial packages to automate the production of that years tax returns then each year has new tax rules embedded and being on excel rather than an accounting database then it is necessary to purchase a new accounting or payroll package each year.

About the Author:

Terry Cartwright, CEO DIY Accounting, a qualified accountant in the UK, designs Accounting Software on excel spreadsheets and Payroll Software for small to medium sized business providing a complete accounting solution and also supplies Company Formation packages for new limited liability companies

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/taxes-articles/diy-accounting-small-business-accounting-software-questions-and-answers-427540.html

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