Dan/Дмитрий ([info]icedrake) wrote,
2005-10-19 11:07:00
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Accounting software suggestions wanted

Edit: Okay, screw inventory control. I just want a sales/invoicing program.

If you have experience with small business accounting and inventory control, and if you're happy with your accounting/invoicing/inventory tracking program (or programs), can you recommend them to me?

If you're curious, my needs are

The needs:

I'm looking for a program or a set of programs that will allow me to do
the following:

1) Inventory control that does not mandate purchasing. We produce everything from scratch as part of the manufacturing process, and have no sub-assembly related items. I need to have the option of having inventory magically appear.

2) Fudgeable accounting. We operate a small business, and don't want to have to reconcile every single penny. Most accounting programs we've seen require us to manage double-entry accounting, which is time-consuming and almost completely unnecessary under the circumstances.
How'bout an invoicing program that doesn't track inventory in any sort of mandatory fashion? I want to be able to sell stuff without the software choking on it. I know what's in the cheese cellar better than it ever will, thank you very much.

3) Invoicing. Plain and simple, professional-looking invoices.

4) Exporting to and importing from some universally recognised format. Comma- or tab-separated lists would probably do the trick.


Thank you!

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  • 18 comments

[info]the_nita

October 19 2005, 18:24:09 UTC 6 years ago

I think item 2 will be your hardest issue. Most systems don't want to admit to any level of fudgefactor.

[info]icedrake

October 19 2005, 19:46:07 UTC 6 years ago

Oh, I know. Which is why I am almost 100% sure I don't want a double-entry accounting program. Quicken, for example, doesn't have that restriction in the personal edition. I don't know about QuickBooks, though.

[info]the_nita

October 19 2005, 19:57:47 UTC 6 years ago

I'm pretty sure QB (which is what I use) does require it.

Good luck with your first audit though.

[info]icedrake

October 19 2005, 22:01:15 UTC 6 years ago

Oh, the accounts add up; I just don't give a damn if they add up *in* the goddamned program. What none of the ones we've dealt with are set up to do is deal with a *producer*. They all expect you to take in inventory, make something out of it, and sell the product. The fucking stupid piece of shit we use at the moment expects you to have ONE product per raw material! (I'm a bit frustrated with it at the moment; can you tell?)

[info]nobodyhere

October 19 2005, 18:29:38 UTC 6 years ago

Hello! How's the new job/new home going?

Just a quick suggestion, you might be able to get away with creating an Access database and defining a few forms to do what you want. I've never heard of a program that didn't require double-entry accounting.

You may also be able to tweak an existing program to do what you want. Create a supplier called Meadow Creek Dairy to account for the things that magically appear. Create an account called Reconcile (or petty cash, or whatever) to add or subtract what you need to to reconcile the discrepancies you don't care about.

[info]icedrake

October 19 2005, 19:48:19 UTC 6 years ago

On a Mac? I dread the idea of Micro$oft products on Mac, seeing as how some haven't been supported or updated since 2000. I'll look into it, but I instinctively dislike the idea of Access. Not to mention, I'd have to create invoicing from scratch.

[info]nobodyhere

October 19 2005, 20:19:46 UTC 6 years ago

Yeah, that's not so good.

I've ended up quitting every type of accounting software I've tried because they're more work/more detailed than what I really want, which is why I thought of creating something yourself. Access sucks for many things, but is good for quick startup time. (Maybe there's something similar on Mac?) Right now I'm down to an Excel spreadsheet that allows me to know to around a hundred dollars' granularity what's coming in and going out. Of course, that's not very useful for a business.

[info]margaretlam

October 19 2005, 22:09:33 UTC 6 years ago

One spreadsheet isn't particularly helpful. But various spreadsheets will help. What you're doing is what camp was kind of like. Spreadsheets backed-up by good o' pen and paper records never fails. IM me and we can chat.

[info]icedrake

October 20 2005, 00:27:10 UTC 6 years ago

I think this is a bit beyond Excel, or at least my skills with Excel. A few hundred client accounts of various types, with a dozen or so product types, each with numerous pricing categories, and all that with an unpredictable number of orders per client, unknown times until payment, varying shipping costs... You get the idea.

I'm thinking a dedicated invoicing program is the way to go.

[info]olletho

October 20 2005, 01:11:13 UTC 6 years ago

I'm using a spreadsheet myself but it grew with the business which doesn't sound as big as what you describe.

I find OpenOffice easier to work with and more flexible then Excel.

[info]nobodyhere

October 20 2005, 13:58:24 UTC 6 years ago

Have you considered contacting another dairy and asking what accounting software they use?

[info]icedrake

October 20 2005, 14:10:03 UTC 6 years ago

Erm... Umm... I don't know. I'll have to check. Great idea!

[info]olletho

October 20 2005, 01:08:53 UTC 6 years ago

No material costs at all?

Not buying the milk? How about the feed for the cows then?

There aught to be a way to make some existing software work for you.

[info]icedrake

October 20 2005, 01:15:09 UTC 6 years ago

The milk part is handled as a separate business, and does not affect the picture. Yes, there is a way to get around the problem with the current software. It just happens to be excruciating and to take longer than maintaining the entire set of accounts by hand would have. No, I am not exaggerating.

Oh, did I mention more error-prone than the manual approach, as well?

[info]olletho

October 20 2005, 01:51:00 UTC 6 years ago

Bizarre.

But doesn't one business 'buy' the milk off the other? (quotations to indicate no money need actually exchange hands) I'm just thinking that programs like these usually dislike empty feilds.

I'm interested in what programs you find 'cuase one day I'll probably have to upgrade my system so it might survive an audit or at least someone else doing it.

[info]icedrake

October 20 2005, 02:10:56 UTC 6 years ago

The problem isn't that I can't create an account for "milk" and set the unit price to zero. The problem is that after that, it expects me to ALWAYS use a certain amunt of milk to produce a certain amount of cheese. Worse yet, it expects me to use a DIFFERENT type of milk for every single type of cheese I produce. It expects me to never discard any cheese. It expects the cheese to not lose weight during the aging process.

Just take my word for it -- the program is not set up for food producers, no matter how much we might like it to be.

[info]olletho

October 23 2005, 15:41:45 UTC 6 years ago

that would fail miserably for jewellery too. And probably more manufacturers as well.

Huh, wanna bet the program designers only talked to accountants?

[info]icedrake

October 23 2005, 17:05:56 UTC 6 years ago

No bet. In fact, I'll bet they weren't very helpful accountants, either :)
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