Accounting/payroll software for small businesses?

Mac5005

Mac5005

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 19, 2005
Location
Rocky Mount
I’m looking to switch from manual accounting and payroll to using some type of software/ semiautomated system.

Background.

We are a small business that designs and installs moisture control systems for crawlspaces.

We deal primarily with residential homeowners, and residential contractors, but sometimes commercial as well.

Typically we look at the job, send pics, info, and proposal to the customer. After speaking/ selling to the customer, if desired we then schedule the job.

When we complete the work, we then send an invoice to the customer, and are primarily paid by check.

About once a year, someone wants to pay with a card. So CC transaction isn’t a big deal.

We do all accounting/billing/payroll/tax/insurance manually.

We have 4 employees currently and will hopefully add a couple more soon.

What are some of the options and opinions you guys have on software that will aid in streamlining the accounting, and I’d really like to be able to set up direct deposit for our employees.

Anything to streamline the accounting, quarterly taxes, payroll, workers comp, etc would be beneficial.

One that also integrates with capital one, Lowe’s, Home Depot card usage would be a plus.

I’ve been looking into it some, but most of what’s on the web is hard to decipher what’s marketing and what’s real reviews.

Quickbooks, square, xero, wave, sage 50, etc.

Thanks in advance.
 
I (my secretary) use Patriot software for accounting, payroll (direct deposit), taxes, etc. Quick books takes care of the job orders and invoices. Works well and inexpensive for three employees.
 
I’ve always gone Quickbooks, then pay a CPA to manage the bookkeeping for $100-200/month so you can focus more on what you need to, rather than if you’re booking things properly. I have a buddy in Maine that I’ve routed any business your size through.

https://taxreliever.com/
 
Nothing useful to add here....
I find it interesting that most payments are still by xheck.
I absolutely hate it when i have to pay anything by check, and pretty much only use them for Scouts and Band dues.
 
We use QuickBooks for everything including payroll, taxes, sales, etc
Our accountant reconciles the books once a month
We've never used anything else, but are totally satisfied with it.
 
RatLabGuy said:
Nothing useful to add here....
I find it interesting that most payments are still by xheck.
I absolutely hate it when i have to pay anything by check, and pretty much only use them for Scouts and Band dues.
Click to expand...

Out of roughly 250 invoices a year, 1-3 ask about using credit card, 5-6 pay cash, the rest stroke a check. 1 PayPal question lumped in with credit card question
 
The ability to set up recurring monthly charges to specific customers would be a plus feature as well.

Ie: charging a recurring $19 monthly to specific customers cards

That feature would be worthwhile for us.
 
A use adp i Have used paychecks in the past but bbt bought adp so I went back to them just for simplicity


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karatejosh said:
bbt bought adp so I went back to them just for simplicity
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

When did that happen?
That will be a deal breaker to me and I'll drop adp if so.
 
Edit just checked...
I don't think that's accurate
ADP and TFC remain separate stick tickers..and adp has a higher market cap than trust.
So if anyone is buying anyone it's be the other way around, but wouldn't be legal because of SEC
 
We use Quick Books. Its fine. Not particularly "quick", but simple and effective. Used SAP at my old job, and it was the most complicated, cryptic pile of crap software I've ever seen.
Ron said:
When did that happen?
That will be a deal breaker to me and I'll drop adp if so.
Click to expand...
So whats your beef with BB&T?
 
Another for Quickbooks.

In my M&A days, this software was used by far the most when working deals with small business. This will be good if / when you end up hiring a FT accountant / bookkeeper as chances of them having experience with the software are pretty good. Also, I'd bet the support is pretty good as well considering the vast amount of users.

jeepinmatt said:
Used SAP at my old job, and it was the most complicated, cryptic pile of crap software I've ever seen.
Click to expand...

Oracle isn't any better, but both obviously WAY overkill for what he'd need.
 
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Most of my clients run Quickbooks or some version of Sage. Another great option is Netsuite but likely more than you need.

Oracle/SAP are fantastic systems but way more complicated that what you need.

There is a reason Quickbooks is the most used/prevalent option. Get it and dont look back. Easily servicable for companies with up to $100M+ revenue
 
Ron said:
When did that happen?
That will be a deal breaker to me and I'll drop adp if so.
Click to expand...

Sorry partners with mutual interests lol either way it’s cheaper for me now and works well


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EugeneTheTJ said:
Oracle/SAP are fantastic systems but way more complicated that what you need.
Click to expand...

Seeing those referenced and ADP, really had me questioning who was picking out software for some of these folks. Nothing wrong with them, just extremely complex and more than likely paying for services that aren't and won't be used.
 
rcalexander105 said:
Oracle isn't any better, but both obviously WAY overkill for what he'd need.
Click to expand...

Oracle would be awesome, would cost more than his revenue for 5 years and would take a department to use the damn thing, then Oracle would come in with a renewal rate even higher that would take more money. Then tell you that you need and Oracle specialist to customize it for your needs at 500/hr.
 
Maybe my post was confusing and the

rcalexander105 said:
WAY overkill for what he'd need.
Click to expand...

was glossed over.

No GD way I'd recommend that product...period. Much less for a small business. Shit is only for the big boys.

And Oracle sucks donkey balls for anything project related...it just can't handle the data. Don't believe me, we've got a 250+ slide PPT deck our CFO presented to Oracle execs on how bad it sucks and all the recommendations to fix it.
 
rcalexander105 said:
Maybe my post was confusing and the



was glossed over.

No GD way I'd recommend that product...period. Much less for a small business. Shit is only for the big boys.

And Oracle sucks donkey balls for anything project related...it just can't handle the data. Don't believe me, we've got a 250+ slide PPT deck our CFO presented to Oracle execs on how bad it sucks and all the recommendations to fix it.
Click to expand...

Im a QB guy to about $20mil. Beyond that, I’ll still take an antiquated AS400 based ERP system for damn near any sized business. Only thing I’ve ever appreciated Oracle/SAP for is data aggregation at the corporate level in excess of $1bil in revenues. Even then you still need to account for a few mil in ‘rounding errors’ due to complexity of mapping.
 
UTfball68 said:
Only thing I’ve ever appreciated Oracle/SAP for is data aggregation at the corporate level in excess of $1bil in revenues.
Click to expand...

Yea...about that

upload_2020-7-20_14-49-33.png
:sniper:
 
UTfball68 said:
I can't make out what that says...but I'll just go ahead and agree with you. My appreciation was more with the BI+ bolt on than the actual ERP.
Click to expand...
Lol, had to make it that small to get all in.

Essentially, agreeing on the data aggregation. Picture is consolidation workbook. Each column is a separate company / legal entity with it's own "set of books". FML...should've been an engineer
 
rcalexander105 said:
Maybe my post was confusing and the



was glossed over.

No GD way I'd recommend that product...period. Much less for a small business. Shit is only for the big boys.

And Oracle sucks donkey balls for anything project related...it just can't handle the data. Don't believe me, we've got a 250+ slide PPT deck our CFO presented to Oracle execs on how bad it sucks and all the recommendations to fix it.
Click to expand...

I'm just messing around. We use it. My last company used it and I was on the team with implementing the quoting portion.

Oracle exec's I'm sure could care less about the PPT. They take our kernel and rename it and call it theirs and that it is "superior"
 
Quickbooks is what most small contractors use. The last two "larger" contractors and the current I work for use Computer ease. Which is designed for a Contractor but we also do over 10M a year and it would be over kill. I think Quickbooks is the way to go.
I think the other software is way more than you need and you'll have to go through training to set it up, always calling for support until you figure it out.
Quickbooks you'll probably be able to figure most of it in a week plus you most likely won't change they way you keep your books as long as they were in good order to begin with.
 
For those of you that own your own small business or work at a small business - if you don't mind me asking, how much do you all pay for outsourced bookkeeping/CPA services?

I am a CPA, former Big 4 Manager, and currently work in the small to mid-market transaction world. Given the nature of my work, I see a lot of companies likely similar to those you know and work for. A lot of them do outsource their accounting function and it has been a consideration of mine to leave and start my own shop providing these services.

Just curious, setting up my own shop has certainly been a consideration and wondering how feasible it would be.
 
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