Community Discussions

Quick books or Peachtree? Maybe something else? Manufacturing company, all by hand right now. Should I consider something else? Sorry, but I am trying to get all the input i can. Thanks.

Mints

I think Quicken instead of Quickbooks is the one I was thinking of and I believe Quicken is a more universally used one in terms of credit card companies, banks, etc.

Paula

Paula,
Thanks.
I don't have an agreement with a credit card company. We are closer to a wholesale business. Both the Quickbooks and Peachtree are 2005. I'm looking at the "Complete" versions and the "Premium" versions specificly for manufacturing. But since we have been doing this stuff by hand, I have no idea what would be best.

Mints

What about down the road?  Are you considering adding paying by credit card as an option?  What specifically are you looking for in the software...accounting, inventory tracking, shipping paperwork, etc.?

Paula

We switched to Quick Books at our church Rob and it has been a fantastic program.  Our new treasurer is also the owner of a gas station and a repair shop with her husband, it is a off the highway busy sucker with a place to buy food and everything, 24 hours, towing service, etc.  She also uses Quick books for that entire business and she swears by it.  The entire program easily fits onto a laptop.

I cannot comment on Peachtree sorry.

C

Mints,

I used to use Peachtree back in 1994 & found it very hard at that time to use. I switched to Quickbooks Pro that year & have never looked back for the last 10 years. The one thing you do need to think about about is how often you are going to call their help number, I think they charge for help desk support.

I think more importantly, you need to look at how you're going to invoice & keep track of financials. Let me know if you have anymore questions.

Thanks all.

8 empolyees, 100 customers, 100 vendors, 5000 parts.

Inventory is seat of the pants right now. I would not mind it being tracked, but that sounds like a lot of work.

I would like to enter an order, print an invoice, packing slip and a UPS ticket (that enters it into the UPS record for pick up).

Inventory OK.

Also I would like to able to issue po s and pay invoices from the po s.

No payroll, it is done outside. Just a weekly journal entry.

Use it on more than one machine or load it on a external hard drive so I can take it.

what am I missing?

Mints

There is software out there that will adjust your inventory on the basis of a shipping ticket or with invoicing....wouldn't have to be separate entries.  The rest sounds pretty standard stuff you are looking for.  I set up inventory for a food distribution company years ago and that is how it worked but this was customized software.  There are more prepackaged options out there now. 

I'd be happy to do some digging around online tonight and see what I can find, if that helps any. 

Paula

Paula wrote:
Paula,
You have helped me plenty already. I'm pretty well set on the Quickbooks. I'm crying at the price, but when you get these programs you invest a tremendous amount of time setting them up with all the inventory, customers, employees, and vendors. Not something I would want to pick the wrong one and be sorry. Thanks very much for your help.

Mints

You are very welcome.  And, like OPE, think of it in terms of your time being worth buying the 'higher end' package because of the time it will save you in the end (so you have more time to spend on your OPE....)

I hope you'll update us once you get it up and running on how its working out.  I envy you the set up as I enjoy doing things like that...starting from scratch and making it all work, headaches and all.  ).  Have fun! 

Paula

Yup, I was President of the Administrative Council of the church at the time we bought it and I had to twist a few ears and bend a few arms but  we went with it AND the laptop to boot and it was expensive but worth every penny IMHO and we have not looked back since and when the council started getting the impressive breakdowns on  the new monthly expense reports the program provided us with that silenced all of the critics talking behind my back lol....

C