Bookkeeping Software Reviews
 For many small business owners, bookkeeping software is a "must have" item to keep their records in order. They make record keeping very easy, and they automatically generate all of the financial records you need to track your businesses finances.
Many accounting forms are set up so you can send you data to them and they can do your taxes based on the information from your accounting software.
The problem comes when trying to decide which piece of small business accounting software to use because there are so many to choose from. There are a lot of choices, with prices that range from $30 to well over $1,000 dollars.
There are also some free accounting software programs that are available as well. So how do you decide which one to choose?
One thing you need to do is determine what you need from your software, and not pay for the features that don't make sense for your business. It does not make sense to spend $1,500 for a piece of software when you can get the job done for $250, or less.
Side Note: Insider's Guide To Your Own Virtual Bookkeeping Business
Peachtree Accounting Software
 While there are a lot of similarities between most software programs, where Peachtree really sets itself apart is the level of reporting you get. If you like to do in-depth analysis of your company's finances, then this is the way to go.
Peachtree is really good with helping you to track and manage inventory supplies. It ranks very high in tracking inventory numbers and storage locations. It generates reports so you can keep track of inventory on hand, and inventory turnover. This helps you to keep from having too much money tied up in your inventory.
If you are in a business where you bill for your time, there is a time tracker built right into the system. You can generate invoices and billing records that accurately reflect the time you spent on each clients projects. That is something that not all of the bookkeeping programs do well.
Peachtree offers all of the basic features you would expect with a bookkeeping program. It handles Accounts Payables, Accounts Receivables, Billing, Bank Transactions, and Payroll. It also generates over 100 different reports that will let you analyze and track your businesses performance.
Quickbooks
 Another of the more popular bookkeeping programs is Quickbooks by Intuit. Like Peachtree, Quickbooks has been around for awhile and every release brings improvements in the way thee program functions.
It offers excellent ease of use, and has very good customer support. One feature that is nice is the ability to customize the program for service based versus product based businesses. The reports that are generated can differ based on the type of business you are operating. For instance you don't have to the same inventory concerns in a service based business as you would in a product based business.
Another nice feature is the Job Costing function. This allows you to do job costing projections before you agree to do a job to see if it is economically feasible. You can make adjustments to your projections before beginning a job to make sure that it is profitable for you.
If your company has a lot tied up in fixed assets you should know that Quickbooks is not designed to track that. You can list fixed assets for reporting purposes, but it is not a built in feature in the accounting part of this software.
Overall Quickbooks is a good program, and is one of the most popular in its price range.
GnuCash
 GnuCash is one of the top rated free accounting software programs. It offers many of the features that are available in other software packages, and might be a good choice for small businesses that are just getting started.
GnuCash offers checkbook style journal entries, and it supports double entry accounting. That makes it easy to enter transactions, and makes sure that all of your accounts are kept in balance. You will be alerted when an error is made.
That saves a lot of time going back weeks later to find and correct mistakes. GnuCash supports multiple currencies, allows you to track vendors and customers, and do invoicing and billing. It also lets you set up different billing terms for your customers.
GnuCash is designed to work with other bookkeeping programs like QuickBooks. If you are moving from another program to GnuCash you can import the information and avoid having to re-enter all of the information. It also supports the Open Financial Exchange protocol that is used by many banks, you can download your bank activities directly into your program.
The downside of GnuCash is that it is not as polished as many of the commercially available bookkeeping programs. Although there are a wide variety of reports available, it is more limited than other programs.
There is documentation and Wikis available to help you work through problems, but there is not the amount of customer support that you will get from programs that you pay for.
If you would like more information on side-by-side comparisons of bookkeeping software, go to: http://accounting-software-review.toptenreviews.com/.
Points to Keep in Mind…
- Bookkeeping software automates the bookkeeping process, and can reduce errors.
- Many accounting firms can use your software records to prepare your business tax returns more quickly.
- The price of software can vary greatly according to what features you need for your business.
- Free bookkeeping software may have all of the features you need, but may not be as easy to use as more expensive programs.
- Before you buy your software, determine what features and reports you really need, otherwise you may pay for features you will never use.
- Some bookkeeping software has different setups for service industries, and industries with physical products.
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