Accounting Package

[AmithS]

Hi Dave A,

Which version on Quick Books do you use, Startup or Pro ?

Thanks

[Dave A]

I'm using Quickbooks Pro 2003. I think there are some changes in terms of features for Pro nowadays, so the main trick is to find the package level that suits your immediate and medium term needs.

[sgafc]

If you have a fair grasp of accounting, Pastel is good. But for people whom lack accounting skills, Quickbooks is the best! Many times our clients who use Quickbooks, financial records would be incomplete, but we can put together some of the info, and still produce a decent set of books. My 2006 Pro(Accountants) version is user friendly(Time for an upgrade Dave), and very interactive, with its Q& A section, navigators and "interviews. The financial statement, however is not IFRS compliant, so rather speak to your accountant about a proper set of financial statements. But Quickbooks can produce all the necessary reports that your accountant can use.

[Dave A]

(Time for an upgrade Dave)

The day is coming, to be sure. But as I have to get a minimum of 5 licences to match my current setup, there's going to need to be a compelling reason

[sterne.law@gmail.com]

I like Quickbooks - no annual support fees. You'll have to pay (buy a new copy) to upgrade if you ever need to, but I'm still running on Quickbooks 2003 without any complaints.

There are a number of versions. You'll have to check the features to figure out which one you want.

The payroll module is a similar deal to Pastel.

QUICKBOOKS all the way. No yearly fee. You will probably never need support - it's that easy! Excellent reporting, smashing user friendly features.

[ethan1066]

cbsnw a contractor business solution really have a good accounting package..just visit this site and see their solutions ....
http://www.cbsnw.com/

[QUINN]

I have just fired my bookkeeper, and started using TurboCash. link

Its free and easy to learn.
Does anyone have any experience with this system?

[AndyD]

I use Simply Accounting. I only use it for generating bill of materials for a product I manufacture, apart from that I don't know much about accounting. I only know how to fumble my way around Simply because it's built on Accpac which was around before M1cr0s0ft products were an itch in their daddy's nether regions. My bookkeeper uses Excel and my accountant imports from there to Pastel.

Thanks for the link Quinn, I'm downloading TurboCash to give it a whirl for my bookkeeper.

[jinxster]

This is an oldish thread and I think last years prices were used or alternately another supplier.

Pastel Xpress 1 multi company user licences is R 1300 ex VAT or so (from Pastel).

To be honest since Softline has taken over Pastel and on more and more of their products I am afraid to say they are becoming increasingly devious and unethical.

Reasons, Pastel tell you to send your bookkeeper to a course (which is not free) and use intimidating tax clauses to frighten you into making sure this happens.

You send them then next year... Softline Recruiting phones them up and markets your employee's skills you spent money on to another company. Who needs to replace their bookkeeper who was placed somewhere else by Softline Recruiting as well.

Based on that principal, my advise is to avoid Softline completely.

On another note. Smaller businesses who really just need cash books can use accounting packages from their own banks. However most banks are still expensive (QWill is R99pm on the lowest option).

My vote is for TurboCash, Quickbooks, Omni Accounts (can work in 3 years at any given time of year).

Im not a big fan of SAP, however it is a good many site scale package.

My personal view for smaller business who use Pastel and Payroll / VIP ... rather use a pen and paper and fire your bookkeeper. They try to empower the employee more than the employer. When that happens... just get rid of em.

Why in Pastel should I be worrying about sales codes of staff if I dont even have licence for the business intelligence software? Some suppliers arent VAT registered and use invoice numbers that get used more than once, eg they use a Croxley duplicate book. Some persons use your account number as your invoice number. Pastel doesnt support this. Their business intelligence software is based on what they think is intelligent not on what you want, so you end up exporting to Excel and doing your own reports anyway.

And lastly.. why do they consolidate cashbook entries on a debit and credit basis. (Eg you got 100 000 debits and 30 000 credits so they post the 70 000 debit to your bank account... you say that is fine, but then why use computers, then we may as well use a pen and paper.

[SilverNodashi]

jinxter, I want to add to this. Quickbooks started edition cost R999 last time I check. I'm not an accountant but wanted to know what's going on in our books at any given moment. So when I started my business, I acquired quickbooks professional (to help with our stock keeping) and ran the books myself for a long time before I got an accountant to take over. The first accountant refused to work on Quickbooks and told me that unless I use Pastel my books won't be accepted by SARS. Well, she's lost the job Another accountant told me that she'd be willing to try it so I brought her license as well and she's currently doing other company's books on QB as well.

My main reason for QB back then is that out of all the options I tested, including Pastel; Quickbooks, TurboCash, Quicken, Omni Accounts, etc. Quickbooks was the easiest to get working and understand. I'm a developer by nature so I understand workflow very well, but not accounting yet I could get the books setup and it's been running for a lot of years with great success We currently sell & support Quickbooks to many of our clients and IMO it's the best option if you don't have much accounting knowledge but need to manage your own books. Our accountant currently only checks the books at the end of the financial year and then sign it off (her partner is a CA) then send it in to SARS. We've had no problems so far.