Looking for a decent management software

[Harold Mansfield]

I'm looking for some opinions for a business management software. I'm not opposed to Quicken, but word on the street is that it has gone downhill and the paid updates and solicitations are out of control.

I don't need to manage NASA, just a few basic functions:

*Create and Send Customized Invoices
*Create Proposals
*Integrated with Pay Pal would be nice
*Basic Accounting, and projections
*Project management would be great,

I want something local that I can install, not web based. Easy to use for accounting idiots.
What do you guys use or what do you suggest?

[Evan]

Quicken is best for your personal life, not business. QuickBooks would be their business program. Quicken also is very limited with the features that exist with its Home & Business version, which is what I use (but don't use the business side of it, as I use it mainly for testing).

QuickBooks provides you a lot more flexibility, and its interface is quite easy to use. Peachtree, it's competitor can produce some useful reports, but I have never liked the program and have always found issues with it. QuickBooks does have a PayPal plug-in as well.

As for what both programs are not -- they aren't useful at creating financial projections. There are a lot of variables that go into creating some pro forma financial statements, and these assumptions aren't handled best by a software program. That's not what they were primarily designed for, though I could see it as a useful function. As for project management, QuickBooks does have the ability to indicate the status of a project, and you can customize these "statuses", but its primary function isn't for project management.

If you have anniversary dates to deal with, QuickBooks can also "memorize" your transactions and prompt you when they need to be entered, or can do it automatically for you. You could do all your routine monthly billings in about 10 seconds.

[Steve B]

I think my wife is pretty happy with Quickbooks. We felt the need to update it this year (after 5 years). I didn't hear too much screaming or anything so it must have been a pretty smooth transition.

[Harold Mansfield]

I saw Peachtree. Amazing that there really doesn't seem to be a lot of products out there that look any good. Everything points at Quickbooks/ I was actually looking at this version...
Amazon.com: QuickBooks Premier Industry Editions 2010 [DOWNLOAD]: Software (http://www.amazon.com/QuickBooks-Premier-Industry-Editions-DOWNLOAD/dp/B002PDPIIE/ref=sr_1_13?s=software&ie=UTF8&qid=1282521376&sr=1-13)

[vangogh]

Quickbooks is probably going to be the consensus choice. When I was on Windows I had downloaded GNU Cash (http://www.gnucash.org/), though I never used it so I couldn't say whether it's good or bad.

You may also want to consider looking for more than one program instead of trying to find everything in one. For example I use a program called Billings 3 on the Mac for creating invoices. It also has time tracking and project management built in and generates reports, but it doesn't do accounting or integrate with PayPal or any merchant at the moment. For those things there are a few other choices.

[Harold Mansfield]

I went ahead with Quickbooks Pro.

[Steve B]

That's the version we have. I'm sure you'll be happy with it.

[Harold Mansfield]

That's the version we have. I'm sure you'll be happy with it.

Yeah, it's not bad. I've already sent out 2 proposals and estimates with it today and working on the last one. It's not too difficult at all.

[racheljackson70]

Quickbooks is ideal for small businesses. The only problem I had was integrating paypal, as you have to get a plug-in, and the data doesn't flow into Quickbooks very well. I'm glad you are finding it useful @eborg9.

[Harold Mansfield]

Actually the Pay Pal plug in isn't functioning properly at all. I'm still sending 2 invoices...one detailed from Quickbooks and one Pay Pal for payment. Still better than what I was doing before, but it would be nice to have that functionality working.

[Evan]

I haven't used the PayPal plugin in a few years, so I don't know how well it has worked with all of the newer versions. You have great flexibility with customizing your invoices too. Add some colors, move your logo, change the fonts, etc. I always customize all of those things. Just my nature of changing everything to be anything but "default".

[vangogh]

Evan is that with one the paid accounts with PayPal or with one of the free accounts? I have the business free one (I forget the name). I'm pretty sure I can send invoices with it, but since I'd had other ways to do that prior to having the PayPal account I continued with how I was always sending invoices. I looked once and PayPal did seem to offer some nice things, though I think some were only for the paid accounts which is why I'm asking.