Discussions

Can anyone recommend very easy to use accounting software for small businesses? What do you use? What do you like/dislike about it?

How do you define 'easy to use'? As in easy for people not familiar with accounting concepts to master? I can remember working with Quick Books and found it both easy and a little challenging because the module for making ledger adjustments was labelled something different.

check out Wave Accounting

Alvin Hansen said "How do you define 'easy to use'? As in easy for people not familiar with accounting concepts to master? I can remember working with Quick Books and found it both easy and a little challenging because the module for making ledger adjustments was labelled something different. "

By easy to use, I mean something that is self explanatory so it is easy to enter transactions. It needs to be obvious how to do that. I am getting that technology is moving too fast for me and I feel like I imagine my parents did when I was trying to teach them how to use a computer for the first time! I remember looking at a free trial for Sage accounting and thinking it was overly complicated and that was probably 15 years ago! I have a reasonable understanding of accounting concepts. Until now, I have always done everything using a paper based system, but I am finding that it is too time consuming now, especially when trying to total everything up at the end of the year.

tre86 said "check out Wave Accounting "

Will google that.

I'm not too crazy about quickbooks online, you are limited on report types and you can't do your own backup on any type of disk.  
I believe Wave accounting does not have payroll but you can use a software separetely to do it or combine.

I have many years experience with Quickbooks for simple to very complicated business applications and it can do it all. I just started using Wave and I'm sure once I get used to it that I will like it. At first glance I find it a little harder to do than QB, and it is not nearly as comprehensive, but it is free compared to QB which is $20ish or more per month. It really depends on how complicaed your business is, and what you think it will eventually be in the future. If you think that eventually you want a comprehensive program you might as well start with QB right off the start rather than switching in a few years as you will loose your history and have to learn it all over again.

I find Sage 50 really easy to use. I just took the accounting software course at ACC, and I prefer it much more compared to Quickbooks.

https://www.manager.io/ and free if using on Windows. Cloud based is a small charge. Have used Quickbooks and Quicken, way easier if you just have a small business or for personal use.  
 
My mother at 85 uses it as well and was very easy for her to catch on.  
 
Edited by PaulieCracker, 2017-04-16 09:19:35

Like someone else on this discussion, I have been using the paper accounting method and would like to learn an accounting software program for a small business. Rather than attend a complete course, I'm wondering if there is anyone out there willing to help with set up and training on either quick books, wave or other accounting program.

PaulieCracker said "https://www.manager.io/ and free if using on Windows. Cloud based is a small charge. Have used Quickbooks and Quicken, way easier if you just have a small business or for personal use.     My mother at 85 uses it as well and was very easy for her to catch on.     Edited by PaulieCracker, 2017-04-16 09:19:35"

manager is not in canadian price also does it work well for gst purposes

We record GST for seperate transactions to keep track of. Download it for free onto a Windows program and play with it to see if it is the right fit before buying a cloud based program. I am not sure but it does not automatically download your bank accounts and record your income tax lines, like Quick Books. If you are looking for a program to do taxes with, stick with Quick Books. For simple bookkeeping instead of paper ledger bookkeeping, Manager works and so simple.

besides quickbooks or sage which software accountants prefer their clients to use when you bring your year-end backup for income tax time that will be easy and quick to open your backup file.  
Quickbooks is getting expensive I find. I tried download manager.io and didn't work. Wave accounting software and other free softwares I would afraid that the app doesn't exist anymore. I am not comfortable with cloud usage when you can't make your own backup on a disk because something happens with clouds then all is gone you have nothing left.

I would suggest QuickBooks but not the online version. I'm a bookkeeper and it's very limited to how many screens you can have open at a time, which means that everything takes longer. It's not user friendly for those who want to multi task. I also agree that the reporting can not be customized like the PC version.  
 
If you ever need to hire a bookkeeper sent me a message.

SamaraNerman said "I would suggest QuickBooks but not the online version. I'm a bookkeeper and it's very limited to how many screens you can have open at a time, which means that everything takes longer. It's not user friendly for those who want to multi task. I also agree that the reporting can not be customized like the PC version.     If you ever need to hire a bookkeeper sent me a message. "

Actually you can have many screens open - but instead of screens its tabs. You can open as many tabs as you want. Move them around and to another monitor. Almost better than desktop in that sense.

SamaraNerman said "I would suggest QuickBooks but not the online version. I'm a bookkeeper and it's very limited to how many screens you can have open at a time, which means that everything takes longer. It's not user friendly for those who want to multi task. I also agree that the reporting can not be customized like the PC version.     If you ever need to hire a bookkeeper sent me a message. "

but I don't need a bookkeeper just a desktop software not costing as much as quickbooks and able to use on apple tablet or laptop