Quickbooks, Peachtree Accounting, or some other?

[wetzel]

I am preparing to launch my shop and I am about to purchase my accounting software. I know enough about accounting that I feel like I can manage without having to hire a book-keeper if I have a good package. I am also hopeful of saving time and expense at tax time by keeping all my ducks in a row with a package my accountant will be able to easily access.

 

As far as I can tell, the small business accounting software market in the United States is dominated by QuickBooks Pro and Peachtree Accounting, who seem to have about 80% and 15% of the market respectively.

 

I am having a hard time choosing because as near as I can tell both software packages have earned the antipathy of their users. It seems like there is a sense in which your accounting software comes to 'own' you. For example, it seems that neither package will let you download or manually enter publicly available payroll tax tables. In order to do your payroll, you have to subscribe on a yearly basis for several hundred dollars.

 

There seems to be an excellent oscommerce contribution for Quickbooks (QBI Import) and one in the works for Peachtree Accounting (Peachtree Accounting).

 

I need to make this decision this week, Quickbooks, Peachtree, or some other solution.

 

I figure that many store-owners here have faced the same decision. I would really appreciate any advice you can give :D

[Bertouli]

Hey Wetzel,

 

Why are you bothering with paid accounting software when you have an open source shop? That sounds like saving on the front and throwing out money on the back. I have tried Quickbooks as well, nice package, but not adjustable to OSC.

 

I would advise you to take a look at Turbocash (www.turbocash.nl). this is an open source international accounting package that I have installed recently.

 

Pieter Valentijn is the developper of a great link between Turbocah and OSC, which links your stock, orders (invoices) And Customers. CHECK IT OUT:

http://www.oscommerce.com/community/contri...earch,turbocash

 

Works like a charm. :)

 

Cheers,

Bert

 

 

I am preparing to launch my shop and I am about to purchase my accounting software.  I know enough about accounting that I feel like I can manage without having to hire a book-keeper if I have a good package.  I am also hopeful of saving time and expense at tax time by keeping all my ducks in a row with a package my accountant will be able to easily access.

 

As far as I can tell, the small business accounting software market in the United States is dominated by QuickBooks Pro and Peachtree Accounting, who seem to have about 80% and 15% of the market respectively. 

 

I am having a hard time choosing because as near as I can tell both software packages have earned the antipathy of their users.  It seems like there is a sense in which your accounting software comes to 'own' you.  For example, it seems that neither package will let you download or manually enter publicly available payroll tax tables.  In order to do your payroll, you have to subscribe on a yearly basis for several hundred dollars.

 

There seems to be an excellent oscommerce contribution for Quickbooks (QBI Import) and one in the works for Peachtree Accounting (Peachtree Accounting). 

 

I need to make this decision this week, Quickbooks, Peachtree, or some other solution. 

 

I figure that many store-owners here have faced the same decision.  I would really appreciate any advice you can give :D

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

[radders]

Hi Bert,

I see several people recommending turbocash but cannot find anyone who has actually used it successfully with their oscommerce shop in a production environment. Having spent a week setting it up I am still lost as to how to use it as there is no documentation (only movies). I'm not an accountant. Maybe that is the problem.

 

Regards

David

[wetzel]

Hi Bert,

I see several people recommending turbocash but cannot find anyone who has actually used it successfully with their oscommerce shop in a production environment. Having spent a week setting it up I am still lost as to how to use it as there is no documentation (only movies). I'm not an accountant. Maybe that is the problem.

 

Regards

David

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Okay, so I will try to set up with TurboCash instead of Quickbooks or Peachtree.

 

Although David does seem to have a point that there are still unresolved problems. I have been combing through the threads and it does seem that many people have had difficulties getting TurboCash up and running with full osCommerce integration. Some have had success though (Mibble, who is a big booster, and a few others).

 

There seems to be a problem of inadequate documentation support for the install and a bit of laxity on version control over at TurboCash, so that people are mistakenly installing buggy components, when better versions are available. There doesn't seem to be a good 'install manual'. I am hoping things have improved since last Fall when a lot of this activity was going on.

 

Now that I am leaning towards TurboCash, I am hopeful to have a couple of concerns laid to rest:

 

1) Are there any problems for USA based businesses? Although USA GAAP seem to be very similar to accepted accounting practices in Europe, will there be problems due to being in the United States user base? (If you choose United States at the TurboCash website, for example, you get a non-functioning mess, it seems, but if you choose UK, the site is very useful). Is there a successful USA based Turbocash user out there?

 

2) My site and databases are all remote. Is this a problem with TurboCash? I saw some mention of 'direct database connections' which I don't know much about. I always use PHP functions to connect.

 

I am at a stage in my business where it is a big problem if setting up this system takes more than ten or fifteen hours, so any tips or hints would be most welcome.

[Guest]

the longest part is matching up your current chart ofa counts with that of turbocash, unless you use the generic chart of accounts available with the application, then it takes (after downloads) about 10 minutes to download your store info into TC. need to make sure you have three files, the complete application, the turbocash php files which go into a protected area on your osCommerce site, with the turbocash.php file pointing at your admin/includes/configure.php file and the osCommerce Plugin which gets installed on your local computer to complete the integration. The osCommerce Plugin needs some minor configuration, pointing it to where you placed your turbocash.php file on your site, once it connects then you need to check the order status' info you wish to download, then away it goes.