What Accounting/Invoicing Software Are You Using?

I've tried wave and freshbooks, have avoided Quickbooks online so far but tempted to give it a try.

I'm looking to start fresh with a new/better system for 2024, my needs are pretty basic:

Automatically import from accounts, categorize expenses.

Invoicing

Paying Contractors

Etc.

All normal - but the one thing I want to ensure I have and can't easily find is the ability to assign a payment that comes in automatically (meaning not one we sent an invoice for) to the client/operator.

Just curious what everyone in our business is using these days!

I use quickbooks online. I do the same things you have listed plus I do a vat return every three months with it. The only time my accountant accesses it is for year end accounts.

I do believe you could assign a payment automatically (if I correctly understand what you are saying), using the quickbooks 'rules'. I do this and it does speed things up. I assign affiliate payments like that (ie: as you say, that have not been invoiced in advance) as a 'sales receipt' in quickbooks. It is basically an invoice for a payment you have already received. So there is no need to retrospectively create an invoice as a 'sales receipt' has done that job. Maybe take a look at 'quickbook rules' before you commit to see if it offers what you need - there are bound to be videos, just make sure they are very up-to-date because the system has changed and improved a lot over the last two years.

It does import automatically from all high street bank accounts and the 'rules' I have created then sort most items out for me but I do manually 'apply' each item after that. I don't want things totally automated as otherwise an error could slip through. I have many bank accounts and some are not automatically imported: For instance, some long-term bank savings accounts are not always set up by your bank to use the API system to auto-import (that's not quickbooks fault) and I have other bank accounts with more esoteric banks that quickbooks don't support. In that case you can download into excel / CSV (or similar) and upload into quickbooks. 'Rules' will still work on those transactions once manually imported.

I think the cons of using quickbooks are the same as apply to any new system - there is a learning curve and inevitable frustrations, you need to set each one of those 'rules' up manually to start with as you go along, the bank import has not always been 100% reliable but they have improved this over time and it has been very good for the last six months or so.

I would recommend quickbooks online and if I had my time again I'd not change to another solution. As for a rating for them, it is pretty good - I'd give 8 out of 10.

Thanks for your input, very helpful. Seems to be the way to go, although fairly expensive for what it is. So far I've tried Wave and Freshbooks, I think I'll try Quickbooks Online next.

I actually think it's cheap or rather, it is worth it. It is only something like £240 if paid annually, it may be more now, I cant remember. You don't need anything more than the 'essentials' tariff unless you want loads of people to access it. I did pay monthly and then swapped to yearly. They are hosting a fair bit of data given they now have years of my accounts and I upload all invoices against the payments, bank statements against the reconciliation statements etc. So it becomes a complete historical reference. Any fecker ever investigates you - just point 'em to it and it's all there. It's a click of a button to submit the completed VAT return. Honestly, for what you get circa £300+ a year is peanuts, especially for an affiliate like you. If it was someone just starting up then maybe expense would be an issue.

UPDATE: I see you are in the U.S. but I think my UK-centric viewpoint still applies and Intuit is a USA-based company.

You raise some good points, I'm signing up for an account now. Time to start 2024 a bit better organized.

We use Quickbooks for general accounting. Hopefully, we will get some basic training in the new year to help utilize all features, tagging, etc. I do find QuickBooks to be unnecessarily complicated.

For invoicing affiliate programs, we use our app, which has an invoice generator and can track payments.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Pokerface

We use Quickbooks for general accounting. Hopefully, we will get some basic training in the new year to help utilize all features, tagging, etc. I do find QuickBooks to be unnecessarily complicated.

For invoicing affiliate programs, we use our app, which has an invoice generator and can track payments.

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I don't use tagging / tags. It probably does have options that are unnecessary for a lot of users. I just find the most efficient way to do what I need to do with it and ignore everything else.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MJM

I've tried wave and freshbooks, have avoided Quickbooks online so far but tempted to give it a try.

I'm looking to start fresh with a new/better system for 2024, my needs are pretty basic:

Automatically import from accounts, categorize expenses.

Invoicing

Paying Contractors

Etc.

All normal - but the one thing I want to ensure I have and can't easily find is the ability to assign a payment that comes in automatically (meaning not one we sent an invoice for) to the client/operator.

Just curious what everyone in our business is using these days!

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I started with Quickbooks in 2007 and stayed with it .I paid a hourly rate for the accountant to come to our office and set up our books and she made me like a coles notes of Quickbooks explaining different Scenarios ,journal entries etc.It was money well spent .

Our accountant uses clearbooks. Seems decent enough.

Excel spreadsheet for accounting.