Quickbooks and quickbooks alternative?

[JHZR2]

I have an LLC for some rentals that I do. Im pretty new with it, but I have a number of tenants, so a number of income streams. Not many expenses, power, taxes, some upkeep... Maybe the more complex expense is when I drive back and forth to the property, which is just mileage. I have whatever my capitalization in the property is, I guess at some point Ill make upgrades, or cash some out, or roll the money into additional property (the most likely approach). As far as I can tell I dont need to do a lot more than treat the business account like I would any other checking account, as that tracks income and expenditures. Over time, it becomes my profit/loss basis, I guess.

Im tracking things in excel, but it has been recommended to use something more capable like quickbooks. That said, for me for now, to pay quickbooks $12+/mo or $349 for the new sw package on a desktop seems like a lot of expense. I dont mind paying once for a sw package, but I dont really like the concept of the continuous monthly fee for software.

So... any recommendations? Pretty simple situation, single party LLC so what is earned is mine, no employees, no payroll. What's the best bet for accounting without spending a lot of (recurring) money on sw?

 

[JeffKeryk]

I would start with the basic Quickbooks online. You can quit anytime if you don't like it.
$12.50 (or whatever it is) is dirt cheap.

 

[xgmad]

Most of these have monthly subscriptions, better to use excel than pay per month.

 

[JHZR2]

I would start with the basic Quickbooks online. You can quit anytime if you don't like it.
$12.50 (or whatever it is) is dirt cheap.

Yeah, it is cheap, but its still a recurring cost that Im not sure I even need. I could spend a lot of time and effort for naught.

Most of these have monthly subscriptions, better to use excel than pay per month.

That's my gut - if I could buy a copy of quickbooks, maybe better, an obsolete version that I could use as a start, I might. But Im pretty darn good with excel and it may well be good enough... But at the same time I dont truly know what Im missing....

 

[chemman]

Wouldn't you be able to claim the cost of Quickbooks as a business expense for your LLC?

 

[JHZR2]

Wouldn't you be able to claim the cost of Quickbooks as a business expense for your LLC?

Sure. But it doesnt mean its the right move or SW....

I dont need to invoice people. I don't need to do payroll. I need to track rent collected per door, expenses, some rudimentary tracking of sales tax, etc. I dont think I need a lot of complex stuff... But I don't know what I don't know....

 

[dishdude]

GnuCash is an open source alternative.

 

[Jethro_Bob]

Mabe use the onlive version for a month, see if it prompts for information your spreadsheets may be missing?

 

[Donald]

Yeah, it is cheap, but its still a recurring cost that Im not sure I even need. I could spend a lot of time and effort for naught.


That's my gut - if I could buy a copy of quickbooks, maybe better, an obsolete version that I could use as a start, I might. But Im pretty darn good with excel and it may well be good enough... But at the same time I dont truly know what Im missing....

The only thing an older version of QuickBooks would not have (if needed) would be current federal and state withholding if you had a payroll. If no payroll then look on Amazon or EBay for the older versions where no subscription was required.

I am a big fan of QuickBooks. Great product.

 

[Ursatdx]

I've used Qbooks for 23 years.
Never paid a monthly fee.
Have to upgrade(purchase new version) every few years.
It's a tool I need to conduct business.

 

[JHZR2]

I've used Qbooks for 23 years.
Never paid a monthly fee.
Have to upgrade(purchase new version) every few years.
It's a tool I need to conduct business.

No doubt. My FIL uses quick books for his businesses, it’s something he needs. I’m not so sure it’s something I need…

 

[Pelican]

No doubt. My FIL uses quick books for his businesses, it’s something he needs. I’m not so sure it’s something I need…

If you don't have payroll the only thing you need is recording income & expenses and reminders why not use just Quicken.
Intuit sold the Quicken division and is now a separate entity. I've used quicken for 20 yrs now and for my needs it is excellent.
It's around $40 and you don't need a yearly renewal unless you want to download data from your bank. Another financial software is Oracle.

 

[Ursatdx]

Sure. But it doesnt mean its the right move or SW....

I dont need to invoice people. I don't need to do payroll. I need to track rent collected per door, expenses, some rudimentary tracking of sales tax, etc. I dont think I need a lot of complex stuff... But I don't know what I don't know....

I use Qbooks like a check book register.
Don't use it for my payroll or invoicing.
Enter sales/expenses by category.
Reconcile monthly.
Accountant takes it from there. It makes it easy for him
so less expensive for me. It also allows me to use it's array of reporting tools
to help me see where savings may be had and to compare year by year performance.
Takes me about 2.5 hours per month to enter sales/expense data. I'm my own bookkeeper.
It really helps me understand the back end of my small biz. I know operations but keeping an eye
on cost of goods or payroll as a % of sales is key to helping me stay a profitable as possible.

 

[RhondaHonda]

$12.50/ month seems like a deal to me. How do you keep track of depreciation on capital expenditures now? My friend that has her own small accounting biz spends like $100k on software annually. After she told me that, my $50 for TurboTax or HR Block per year seemed a lot more reasonable!

 

[JHZR2]

I use Qbooks like a check book register.
Don't use it for my payroll or invoicing.
Enter sales/expenses by category.
Reconcile monthly.
Accountant takes it from there. It makes it easy for him
so less expensive for me. It also allows me to use it's array of reporting tools
to help me see where savings may be had and to compare year by year performance.
Takes me about 2.5 hours per month to enter sales/expense data. I'm my own bookkeeper.
It really helps me understand the back end of my small biz. I know operations but keeping an eye
on cost of goods or payroll as a % of sales is key to helping me stay a profitable as possible.

But excel is a fine checkbook register. Thus I don’t know what I need.

 

[JavierH19]

GnuCash is an open source alternative.

Never heard of open source accounting software. That's neat.

 

[JHZR2]

$12.50/ month seems like a deal to me. How do you keep track of depreciation on capital expenditures now? My friend that has her own small accounting biz spends like $100k on software annually. After she told me that, my $50 for TurboTax or HR Block per year seemed a lot more reasonable!

I haven’t yet. That’s what I need to figure out… thus why I’m asking…

 

[97K15004WD]

Open source is available. Linux packages are nice. I use QB (sunset version) and have no issues at all. No monthly subscription fee either.

 

[JHZR2]

I use Qbooks like a check book register.
Don't use it for my payroll or invoicing.
Enter sales/expenses by category.
Reconcile monthly.
Accountant takes it from there. It makes it easy for him
so less expensive for me. It also allows me to use it's array of reporting tools
to help me see where savings may be had and to compare year by year performance.
Takes me about 2.5 hours per month to enter sales/expense data. I'm my own bookkeeper.
It really helps me understand the back end of my small biz. I know operations but keeping an eye
on cost of goods or payroll as a % of sales is key to helping me stay a profitable as possible.

Thats a good perspective. Thing is, I dont have a lot of sales. I collect mo useful? I dont do large numbers of transactions. Thus why I dont really know what I need. 2.5 hours of time would be probably a half year's worth of entry for what I need..... Thus my confusion.

 

[Ursatdx]

I collect

If you have accounting software I sure do hope you don't run into any real unexpected expenses.
I use QBooks for a retail Biz that does 7 figures and I have 2 rental units under a separate corp.
Both on the same QB application.
Penny wise.........