New Accounting Software

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raytaylor

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Topic # 150066 10-Jul-2014 11:53

I got a client who is looking at switching accounting software

They currently use Aurora
They purchased it about a week before MYOB acquired it ~8 years ago, and decided to kill the product

Basically they are a commercial kitchen repair company
So they are looking for something that
- Quotes
- Tracks Jobs
- Possibly even schedules call outs
- Keeps track of inventory stock and allows them to upload photos of items
- Invoices

Super awesome would be a web portal for clients to log in and check their balance

Another client who does the same thing for residential customers is using Accredo Mercury but I am thinking it would be nice to move them to the cloud instead.

Do you guys have any suggestions?

I am open to the idea of using Xero, but how does their 3rd party integration work? Are there two different portals to log into for different functions?

Ray Taylor
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mattwnz

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Reply # 1086348 10-Jul-2014 12:05

Maybe xero sales would be the best people to speak to, as they should know their products back to front.

amanzi

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Reply # 1086362 10-Jul-2014 12:15

Xero can take care of the accounting, invoicing, quotes and it also provides a web based interface for customers to view their invoices and outstanding balances. For the other requirements, you could take a look here to see if anything fits the bill: https://www.xero.com/nz/add-ons/
With the 3rd party integration, the customer would use a different app to access those features, but in the backend, information would be synced between Xero and the 3rd Party.
Stuart.

chevrolux

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Reply # 1086386 10-Jul-2014 12:33

Xero doesn't do inventory as standard I understand, you have to use an add-on.

I think Quickbooks does everything you need to do as standard.

All in all I personally am a bit unimpressed with Xero. To get any decent functionality you have to buy add-on after add-on, gets costly!

CYaBro

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Reply # 1086392 10-Jul-2014 12:56

Highly recommend looking at GeoOp and Xero.
We've got a few customers using this combo and they love it.
However I don't think GeoOp will do stock control so you may need to add something like Unleashed for that.

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littlehead

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Reply # 1086393 10-Jul-2014 13:00

Xero also doesn't do proper quotes by default. Xero's quotes are only re-skinned draft sales invoices that you apply a customised template to. They aren't treated any differently from normal draft invoices.

There are add-ons that do quotes properly though.

With most Xero add-ons there is a portal for the Add-On and then another for Xero. Whether staff need one or more portals would depend on what their job entails.

gwh

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Reply # 1086403 10-Jul-2014 13:23

raytaylor: I got a client who is looking at switching accounting software

They currently use Aurora
They purchased it about a week before MYOB acquired it ~8 years ago, and decided to kill the product

Basically they are a commercial kitchen repair company
So they are looking for something that
- Quotes
- Tracks Jobs
- Possibly even schedules call outs
- Keeps track of inventory stock and allows them to upload photos of items
- Invoices

Super awesome would be a web portal for clients to log in and check their balance

Another client who does the same thing for residential customers is using Accredo Mercury but I am thinking it would be nice to move them to the cloud instead.

Do you guys have any suggestions?

I am open to the idea of using Xero, but how does their 3rd party integration work? Are there two different portals to log into for different functions?

Hi Ray

we use Geoop and Xero to help run Rivernet. The only difficulty we have encountered is with keeping products current and synced between Xero and Geoop but it not a big problem.

Between the two systems we have a much better handle on workflow and finances than we had previously. We really like the ability to capture info including photos of jobs from the job site and transfer them into Geoop.

Our field techs never have to go near Xero, all they have to do is to use Geoop on their phones or log in from a computer. We've given some of our big clients access to their own jobs in Geoop. The only thing missing we'd really like is google calender sync. PM me or give me a call if you want more info

cheers
Glenn

Quinny

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Reply # 1086438 10-Jul-2014 13:58

We transitioned from Aurora (agree it was friggin awesome) to Infusion. http://www.infusionsoftware.co.nz/

Xero - $800 extra to give us only debtor and creditor names, contract management add on was hopeless for what we needed.
Infusion - all past invoices, all debtors and creditors, all client history everything inc general ledger copied over. It also had way better contract management (we run hundreds of invoices and multi million turnover and even the accountant now says Xero could not have handled what we needed with the job tracking detail we wanted).

You loose online but we have remote in, locked ips which works just as well. Does have online option but not cheap think $50 per user and we have 6 simultaneous users

Others mileage will vary but if you used Aurora and loved then Infusion is pretty much it re-written and updated. Xero is good for many companies but for us was not as good an option. 2 years down the track we love what we went with and have even convinced our accountant (who heavily pushed Xero) it was right move.

raytaylor

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Reply # 1086730 10-Jul-2014 21:04

Okay the infusion looks like it might work.

One problem - the IT company that provided the accounting software (we only provided the terminal server and environment etc) have just been told to bugger off.
They also are local partner reps for infusion

We came on after aurora was put in place when they did their last IT fit out, and so they want us to make a recomendation based on what we think would fit them going forward.

I'll get them to see if there are any alternative people selling infusion in hawkes bay

Xero wont work as multiple portals = too messy

Ray Taylor
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amanzi

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Reply # 1086757 10-Jul-2014 21:24

I have no idea how Xero compares to Infusion functionality wise, but not recommending Xero because: "multiple portals = too messy" seems pretty narrow-minded to me. I've seen many customers, with a wide range of technical skills, successfully manage several browser tabs with ease.

For me, the pricing and options on this page are far more messy: http://www.infusionsoftware.co.nz/products/compare-packages/ and from looking at the screenshots of the application, it appears to mix between native and custom controls on several size screens with tons of menus and options.

networkn

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Reply # 1086786 10-Jul-2014 22:21

Check out Moneyworks :)

ech3lon

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Reply # 1086827 10-Jul-2014 23:12

Another vote for QuickBooks, unless it has to be a "cloud" products.

If you need middle range accounting, there are Myob Exo (similar only by name, completely different product than Myob) also heard good things with Accredo.

networkn

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Reply # 1086834 10-Jul-2014 23:44

ech3lon: Another vote for QuickBooks, unless it has to be a "cloud" products.

If you need middle range accounting, there are Myob Exo (similar only by name, completely different product than Myob) also heard good things with Accredo.

I can't understand people liking quickbooks unless (usually) they have never tried anything else. It's a NIGHTMARE to support (because their support is so bad) and the product seems so badly written. It's as bad as almost any Sage product.

I must admit to being fairly impressed by the quick demo of Infusion I just looked at, but I don't see it replacing our Moneyworks.

raytaylor

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Reply # 1086854 11-Jul-2014 01:26

Quickbooks I find is really annoying to look after so have already ruled that out.
Slow across workgroup networks when the database gets large (this company has 10 techs so will be a couple of hundred megs after only a year

Ray Taylor
Taylor Broadband (rural hawkes bay)
www.ruralkiwi.com

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