Choosing accounting software for small business with complicated requirements

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BayMarineElectronics

8 posts

Wannabe Geek

#103364 5-Jun-2012 20:13

Hi everyone

About a year ago I started managing a small business (Bay Marine Electronics) which has been running Quickbooks for the last 12 years or so and there are still parts of the company file from the original owner (the business was also sold in 2002). We track over 1400 items in stock and about the same number of customers, although most of the customers are obsolete.

Although Quickbooks has been doing a pretty good job of invoicing and tracking stock levels, there are parts of the program which just dont work for us (probably due to a corrupt file or something, I have had the Quickbooks guy come for a look with no positive outcome), and other parts which do not suffice for our needs (CRM and job tracking).

There is one feature of Quickbooks which is absolutely critical - since we track so many items and customers, occasionally one gets invoiced out accidentally in lieu of another. I need the ability to easily change a past invoice, not delete and re issue due to the complex nature of most of our invoices.

So I am looking for a new accounting program with the following requirements:

Stock/inventory managment
CRM features - scheduled phonecalls and follow ups
Job scheduling and tracking - must have some sort of calendar we can easilly see when things are booked in
Multi user - 2 concurrent users
Ease of use - one of the users is in mid/late 60's
Invoices editable, even really old ones
The ability to Import goods - ie different tax codes
Really I'm not wanting to spend more than $800 per year

I have so far looked at these options:

Xero
I know everyone here loves Xero, but by the time I add on a Inventory module and a job tracking module (although I am mindful Xero has just bought WorkflowMax) this pretty much blows the budget. Plus does anyone have any experience of running multiple add-ons for Xero?

Moneyworks
I really like Moneyworks - it is a nice piece of software to use. With one exception. Editing invoices after they have been closed is very, very painful. might be lacking in the job schedulling department too.

NCH Software Suite
Again I was very impressed by NCH Softwares Accounting, Inventory managment and CRM Programs. I was completely dumbfounded that not only do they not talk to other programs, they dont talk to each other!!!

MYOB
I rang MYOB this afternoon, but was told they no longer do CRM software to go with their Accounting stuff. I didn't really check any more than that. maybe still an option?

There are a ton of other options, and I would love some feedback on some of them, in particular:

Infusion
So Easy Accounting
Greentree (are they really expensive? I am always cynical of companies which don't have pricing on their websites)

Thanks for you help :)

Rob

mattwnz

20045 posts

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#636350 5-Jun-2012 21:07

So the only reason you wouldn't use xero is because of cost? If it does anything else you want, and you have complicated requirements, then it is possibly still the best value. It can also save in time for your Accountant, so there are possibly hidden savings with it.

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amanzi

Amanzi
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#636384 5-Jun-2012 21:57

mattwnz: So the only reason you wouldn't use xero is because of cost? If it does anything else you want, and you have complicated requirements, then it is possibly still the best value. It can also save in time for your Accountant, so there are possibly hidden savings with it.

I have to agree, based on your requirements it sounds like a Xero-based solution would work well for you. Obviously it would cost more than $800 a year, but there are lots of hidden costs with onsite software - e.g. hardware costs, backup costs, remote access, support, business continuity, security, etc... These are all handled by Xero and are included in the price.

I run Xero across several companies, all with multiple add-ons (iPayroll, Vend, CRM, Google Apps) and have no issues at all.

One issue you will come up against with Xero is editing old invoices. Once an invoice has been paid and reconciled in Xero, there are very limited changes you can make to the invoice - typically just changing the account on each line item. If you need to change more, then you'd need to void the invoice and re-enter it. But I believe this is done as a safeguard rather than a limitation, in fact I can't think of any valid reasons why you would want to edit an old invoice that has been paid for. So perhaps you need to re-think why you need to edit old invoices?

tdgeek

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#636408 5-Jun-2012 22:21

No, you CANNOT edit old invoices. These old invoices are in the tax system, in the reconciled balance sheet figures, in the past P+L accounts. These old invoices are now past documents, you cannot edit them. Sure, if you are not altering the amount invoiced, it will still mismatch to debtors records. Apart from bad accounting practice, you don't want that picked up by an IRD audit.

You need to credit the invoice and re-invoice. Clean, upfront, reconciled

An option to look for is if you can template the invoice if they are complex, or a system that allows efficient input.

BayMarineElectronics

8 posts

Wannabe Geek

#636452 6-Jun-2012 05:11

Hi Guys
Thanks for your replies, I appreciate the help!
With the pricing for Xero, as I understand it looking at their listed add-ons, I would be looking at the following per month:

Xero $49
Unleashed Inventory $95
WorkflowMax $49

Which makes $193 per month, or $2316 per year. Is this correct?

I realise I can get some cheaper pricing by using a local agent for the software, but at the moment we aren't even in the ball park.

With the invoice editing, I realise it is bad accounting practice to change old invoices. In our case it isn't changing any values of the invoices, rather changing what items were sold and to whom. In this way, we aren't actually changing any tax values as we are on a cash basis for tax, only Acrual values are changed.

An Example of why we may need to do this> Often our suppliers will do an X with Y combo, under code XY. We get some XY's in stock, but after a couple of months sitting around the shop, somebody comes in and buys an X and Y, but since there is a ton of people in the shop the salesman is in a hurry and they are billed out as an X and a Y. i only find out about it when i do a stocktake and need to correct the numbers of X's, Y's and XY's. Since we bought XY's at a lower rate to X's and Y's, it does effect our bottom line.

Before you say it, yes there are a number of things wrong with our business systems! I'm trying to organise everything and in a perfect world I wouldn't need to go back, but I do.

Cheers

Rob

BayMarineElectronics

8 posts

Wannabe Geek

#638278 9-Jun-2012 16:36

Come on is nobody interested in saying anything unless it's exalting the brilliance of Xero?

I would really appreciate some feedback on some of the other options if anyone has any experience with them

Cheers

Rob

RedJungle

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#638294 9-Jun-2012 17:32

Really don't wish to be negative. But you're asking for full Accounting, CRM, Inventory management, Job Scheduling & Tracking, and they all need to work seamlessly with each other for less than $67 / month. I'm sorry, I just don't think it realistically exists.

BayMarineElectronics

8 posts

Wannabe Geek

#638310 9-Jun-2012 19:31

How about So Easy Accounting? For a one off price of, lets say $3000 would that do the job?

If I could use it for longer than 4 or so years I would be sweet. I dont know how much their upgrade costs would be, or if they like to spring update costs like MYOB, and its that kind of information which I really need.
Same with Infusion, are they a good company to deal with, or do they have hidden costs?

I'm really not too worried about IT costs as I'm pretty happy to geek it up myself, and have just upgraded a couple of the computers.

Regardless it would be a hell of a lot cheaper than going online.

BayMarineElectronics

8 posts

Wannabe Geek

#642207 17-Jun-2012 20:11

Hey All

I just thought I would let everyone know my (nearly) finalised choice.

By all accounts So Easy Accounting seems to be abandoned - One page of their website advertises the vitrues of their 2012 version to be released late October 2011, (http://learn.soeasyaccounting.com/~learnsoe/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=83&Itemid=154) but it seems that they have walked away from the project, and didn't return my contact request.

Infusion was also not an option for us in the end for 2 reasons: when I got a quote to install, the reseller insisted I needed 20 hrs training to use the system - which set off alarm bells in my head that it musn't be the easiest program to use, which were confirmed when my accountant advised me not to use Infusion as he has other clients who are moving away from it due to its difficult to use nature.

I also gave Xero a call. They confirmed that Stock tracking would be coming before the end of the year. This would greatly drop my cost of working with Xero as I wouldn't need to use Unlimited Stock control.

So the plan as it stands - I have taken a free trial of ProWorkFlow which integrates with Quickbooks and Xero, and will wait till the Xero stock managment is released.

Thanks all for your input

Rob

Zeon

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#642474 18-Jun-2012 12:39

All I can say is that while it looks to be more expensive, desktop software comes with a heck of a lot of other costs which you won't realize until you sit down and actually look at the spend over a logn period. Be that 2 hours of your time a week for backups, maybe an on site visit by a tech every year - it all adds up.

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SoEasy

1 post

Wannabe Geek

#662949 27-Jul-2012 14:13

Hi it is Ian from SoEasyAccounting here.
I have looked into the issue of our web page being a bit vague and hope to have that resolved. Thanks for letting us know that it was out of date.

The correct web page for SoEasy is www.soeasy.co.nz and we are still definitely around. We have been in development for 22 years and have one of the largest ranges of systems available.
We just released our web based version which is seriously impressive.
The key points of difference between SoEasy and our competitors are:
a) SoEasy can run on both your PC and the web
b) We are seriously fast! Our web platform is Server 2003/8 and SoEasy will operate on our web servers faster than your own PC (in most cases)
c) We have an easy to use functionality that has been honed over 22 years of 'in play' activity
d) You own your data. Don't like web based? You can move it to your PC
e) Very secure
f) Applications that will run on your PC, Mac, Netbook, Android Tab/Tablet, I-phone, Smartphone
g) SMS, Email, Fax, Print
h) Paperless office technology
i) Fully integrated from Cash Book, Accrual, GST, CRM, Jobs, Billing, Creditors, POS, Time Tracking and Web Page Integration
j) SoEasy includes concepts such as:
Import Bank Transactions, suppliers price books and invoices (Like JA Russel, MICO, Ideal..)
Reporting By Exception
Staff Performance Monitoring
Job Management
Profitability Management
Mico Minute Management (new concept of saving time)
Gameification

PRICE
====
No hidden costs.
a) Web based = monthly fee usually about $45 + gst per seat (inc support contract)
b) PC based = starting from $199 + gst up to $25,000 (average single user $499 + gst)
c) PC Based support starting form $19.95 + gst per month
d) Text messaging service starting form 20c / text and reducing depending on volume

We handle so many different types of business it is worthwhile checking us out.
We are based in Tauranga.

Thanks for taking the time to read and if you want to watch some videos check out www.soeasy.co.nz/sales

I will get in touch with you and see what we can do.

Kind regards
Ian