Money, Money, Money
Sometimes we like to forget certain parts of the job of being an artist. We are also small business owners and with that comes everything that goes into running a business. Sales, marketing, and bookkeeping are a few of those tasks. I've written a few blog articles about marketing but I don't think I've written any about bookkeeping and accounting. Why? Well, because I'm not really good at it. I find it boring. I'm not sure what to do to make it more fun and interesting but I imagine having an easy to use bookkeeping software would be helpful in keeping me on track.
I use Turbo Tax and Mint.com and think they are excellent products (mint.com is free, check them out) so my first thought was to look into Quicken or Quickbooks since all of these products are made by Intuit. Of course they have various different flavors of Quickbooks and Quicken even has a home and small business addition to help add to the choices, and confusion. I know I don't need something that will do payroll and I don't see that in my near future so I can eliminate that but that still leaves lots of choices. So I'll ask you. What, if any, bookkeeping software do you use? What do you like about it and what do you dislike? I'd live to get some feedback from artists and non-artists.
Thanks.
Check out the gallery page - Future Relics Gallery
I use Turbo Tax and Mint.com and think they are excellent products (mint.com is free, check them out) so my first thought was to look into Quicken or Quickbooks since all of these products are made by Intuit. Of course they have various different flavors of Quickbooks and Quicken even has a home and small business addition to help add to the choices, and confusion. I know I don't need something that will do payroll and I don't see that in my near future so I can eliminate that but that still leaves lots of choices. So I'll ask you. What, if any, bookkeeping software do you use? What do you like about it and what do you dislike? I'd live to get some feedback from artists and non-artists.
Thanks.
Check out the gallery page - Future Relics Gallery
My wife is a bookeeper and uses, i think, both quickbooks and quicken and something else, and they all work well for her. The important part is starting with categories that match what the IRS wants to see, then always put the money in and out into those categories, so that taxes are quick and easy (HAHA sure :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Gary, keeping the IRS happy is a good idea.
DeleteHonestly... I've used Quicken and Quickbooks and I keep coming back to my Excel spreadsheet. I don't want to spend a lot of time tracking balances in accounts, just income and expenses and the spreadsheet lets me do that the simplest. I've also checked out Outright but didn't spend enough time with it to have a good feeling for how it works. Best part... it's free.
ReplyDeleteThanks Sue, I like free. That's why I use Open Office, not microsoft office, it has a spread sheet also & can save and read in MS formats so it's cross compatible.
DeleteBookkeeping: a pencil and an old ledger :)
ReplyDeletePs: thanks for the award, I am just now getting to reading all of my favorite blogs. Been a long weekend of house de cluttering!
You're welcome Tracey.
DeleteI am with you about disliking bookkeeping. I have always use a simple spreadsheet that I created in excel. Jeff has always used quickbook and likes it a lot. He is trying to convince me to give it a go. He says life will be much simpler for me if I do.
ReplyDeleteI am curious to hear other peoples recommendations.
Thanks Michele and Jeff. I'm interested to see what people say when everyone is done commenting. I suspect it's going to be a split at this stage. I do like simpler.
DeleteNever heard of mint, I'll check it out, and I do use turbo tax but no others.
ReplyDeleteYou should Linda, it's free to use so nothing is lost if you don't like it.
DeleteOne of my favorite personal finance bloggers just did a review of the latest release of YNAB 4 (You Need a Budget) money management software. You can read it at www.doughroller.net.
ReplyDeleteThanks Sue, it's a very comprehensive article.
ReplyDelete