Watch Your Numbers!

Watch Your Numbers!
January 1994

Let's face it, we all have accounting needs. And, if you're not using a computer, you should make a new year's resolution to do so.

January is a great time to start using a computer-based accounting system. With the software installed now, you'll be ready to track your information from the very beginning of the year.

Home users may consider Quicken or Quicken for Windows. These products take electronic check books to new heights. My wife, Peggy, and I started using Quicken religiously a year ago. We dropped our monthly accounting time from over three hours to less than half an hour each month. Now, we have our Sunday afternoons free to do family things!

We not only reduced the time we spent on managing our check book, but we print gorgeous graphs and detailed reports to show us just how little we have left at the end of the month!

QuickBooks and QuickBooks for Windows are companion products to the Quicken line. QuickBooks is easy to use, and it includes business functions such as account tracking and invoicing. Both Quicken and QuickBooks are a snap to learn!

One-Write Plus is an easy small business accounting system that includes features such as payroll, invoicing, A/R, A/P, and an audit trail. I've used One-Write Plus for years and have enjoyed its features. Information can easily be exported to a Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet for more detailed analysis.

Peachtree is a popular product that is available in both DOS and Windows versions. Its most popular feature is the extensive reporting ability that it offers.

Whichever software product you select, ask about a periodic tax table update service. State and federal tax tables can change, and the update service will send an upgrade for your software with each tax change.

Also consider which support services are available for the product you choose. Is toll-free or fast turnaround telephone support available from the manufacturer? Are local specialists available to come to your office to help you? Using an accounting software can be more complicated than using a word processing or other general purpose software. Make sure that you're prepared!

Most importantly, use the software product that your accounting advisor suggests. If you would like to share your data files with your accountant, make sure that they can be read on your accountant's computer system!

For the last few months of 1992 I used QuickBooks instead of One-Write Plus. I loved QuickBooks: easy, fun, and simple to learn. But, then came December 31st. Our accounting firm wanted to review our year's history and I was forced to retype all the data into One-Write Plus or face a manual review of our books. I learned an important lesson the hard way.

In short, if you don't share your accounting data files with anyone, pick the software that you like best. Quicken, QuickBooks, and One-Write Plus are easy to use, and Peachtree is report-driven. But if you want to give your accountant a disk at the end of the year, you've got to match software!

David Stephen Murphy is President and CEO of Damar Group, Ltd. which presents computer training classes, publishes computer learning guides, and helps organizations do business on the Internet. The website is http://dgl.com, and Mr. Murphy may be reached at dave@dgl.com or 410.567.5366.

updated November 2, 1996
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