Is QuickBooks Right for You?

My intuition tells me your small business needs to use accounting software. And there is one accounting option that dominates the small-business market – QuickBooks. Is it right for you?

Ease of Use

A good place to start is ease of use. It’s all well and good for accounting software to have all the right features, but if those features are too hard to use, then they won’t do you any good. In the article “QuickBooks vs. Peachtree – A Comparison for Small Businesses” David Matthew, an ERP analyst with Software Advice, says, “QuickBooks is usually considered the easiest accounting software to implement for someone without an accounting background.”

Accounting Features

Many small-business owners aren’t accountants. They just want to know what’s happening on the financial side of their business without having to memorize technical terms and stare at balance sheets and income statements for hours on end. QuickBooks demystifies things like accounts payable and receivable so you can quickly figure out what you owe and how much other people owe you. Higher-end versions of QuickBooks automatically generate purchase orders, so you can quickly get the parts and products you need to make customers happy. They can also be customized for different industries, such as manufacturing, retail and service.

Inventory Management

Businesses need more than accounting software to do their jobs. They need a constant flow of inventory coming in and going out to customers. Intuit has wisely allowed third parties to add many features to QuickBooks. For example, Fishbowl Inventory is an inventory management solution that offers most of the features as high-end solutions for a fraction of their price, and it integrates seamlessly with QuickBooks. With this QuickBooks inventory control solution, whenever you scan a product in or out of your inventory, QuickBooks is automatically updated and it generates an invoice, work order or other documents you need. This eliminates double data entry. It also lets you track inventory in multiple locations, monitor supply chains and plan ahead for changes in demand.

The Secret Ingredient

What’s the secret ingredient that makes QuickBooks the best accounting software for your business? Only you can decide that. A lot of it depends on how comfortable you are with accounting, which features you need, and how much inventory you manage, as well as what price you’d like to pay. Even if you have to pay a little extra to get the software version with the right features, your investment should pay off as your business takes off!