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 used Peachtree while working for a Plastics manufacturer years ago and remember it as having some limitations (though can't remember offhand if it was inventory, AR/AP, etc).  I have never used Quick books but doesn't Quickbooks have the ability to connect to banks (doing electronic payments, etc)?  When is the year of the last version of Peachtree versus Quickbooks? 

Paula

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

robmints wrote:

Robmints,

Purchase orders - Can be done on QB though I've never used it.

Invoicing - Can be done & you can use items (materials), labor (if you use timesheets) w/ associated rates & track sales tax as well as mark-ups. Keep in mind all this would need to be set up in advance.

Inventory - Can be done on QB though I've never used it.

Packing Slips - Can be done on QB though I've never used it.

UPS Ticket - I've never seen this, make sure this is available if someone told you that.

Weekly Journal - Can be done on QB, but only as good as the information you put in as you probably already know.

Load on more than one machine - You can get as a 5 user package. This allows you to allocate rights to certain aspects of the books. For instance someone can enter bills while someone else is entering invoices. Just be careful, you cannot have two people doing the same thing at the same time. 

FYI, the database file (books) gets large very quick. If you plan on taking the file home with you on a laptop, just remember that it's a live file & that you need to freeze the copy in the office if you are working off-site. Otherwise you would be overwriting entries by the office staff. Also, don't plan on using floppies, my file is somewhere around 30-40 MB.

The one nice thing about Quickbooks is that I can give the file to the Accountant & he uses the information & reports to generate what's required for filing taxes, 1099, W4's...etc., but it's only as good as the information inputted into the file. FWIW, if you can get a copy of the software from a friend, I would try it out & set up a test company. I found that I got better at using the QB features each time I set up a company (3 so far & should be doing it again in a month or so).

Dear George, Paula, and Chris,

I got Quickbooks Pro. Just did the tutorial. George is right, getting started is the hard part. I think I am going to start with a little sample company with just a few customers and vendors so I can make some mistakes. One thing, support is outsourced, you know what that means. I'll need to have my India Indian translator standing by.

Rob, I got one of the Indians the other day.

He asked where I lived, I told him, he asked me to repeat it, then spell it. I asked where he was from and he said Missouri. BS, anyone in Missouri knows where Tulsa Ok is and how to spell it both words.
(roll eyes)

Marshall wrote:

Marshall

What...you couldn't hear the Missura accent? 

That was my chief complaint with Dell (that and the fact that my computer sucked)....all the tech guys were Indian and would get pissy if you had to ask them to repeat stuff (won't even get into their whole attitude towards women....).  . 

Sorry Mints...that is a big drawback in my book....but unfortunately, it seems like more and more companies are going that route...my sister who works for GE said that they did it too in their parts departments. 

Paula