Tech Tip–Review of Financial Programs

January 6, 2010 by
Filed under: Tech Tip 

Today’s tech tip is about money and keeping track of it. As I move full force and full time into freelance life, I’ve been thinking about how to best manage my finances. I’ve read the horror stories of audits and other nasties. I want to make sure that everything is in order.

I recently began experimenting with two free web applications, QuickBooks and Outright.com. Free is always good, but perhaps more importantly, I wanted an easy-to-navigate program. I don’t have an accounting background. All I want is a way to keep track of income and expenses.

I tried QuickBooks first. The set up was easy. The free option allows you up to five clients. At this point, I was satisfied with that, however, the set up required credit card information in case I do want to upgrade. I wasn’t very thrilled with that, but did it anyway.

After setting up my business, I did some customizing including categories for my business needs. One note before I go further: this could be a make-or-break option for you: Chrome is not supported. You can only access your information on FireFox or that other browser.

The site had several annoying pop-ups for simple tasks like going to my check register. I found the site slow and buggy at times. What is making me thing otherwise about using QuickBooks is that it costs to get bank transactions online. I don’t have a lot, but it sure would be nice to have those updated. Of course, that option is available if you want to upgrade. For $9.95 a month, I’m not sure.

To its advantage, QuickBooks integrates well with my tax software. The tax issues are well-covered. I can create and send invoices and track payments. but not estimates.

Outright.com is the new kid on the block. It has a simple interface that works with Chrome. Transactions are uploaded each night and categorized for you. You can customize income and expense categories. The site did a nice job of updating my transactions, noting the description well. The program does learn over time so the more you work with it, the easier it will be.

Reporting features are weak. QuickBooks definitely wins hands-down in that department. For a one-person freelance operation, it fits the bill. One feature I especially like is seeing my profit prominently displayed on the top of each page.

Bottom line: If you’re making a move toward an LLC or your finances are more complicated, QuickBooks is probably your best bet. However, if you have very simple accounting needs, Outright.com cannot be beat.

Tech Tip Review of Financial Programs

Read More

Tags:

Comments

If you found this page useful, consider linking to it.
Simply copy and paste the code below into your web site (Ctrl+C to copy)
It will look like this: Tech Tip–Review of Financial Programs

Comments are closed.

Bad Behavior has blocked 313 access attempts in the last 7 days.

ss_blog_claim=b574bc13e92f4e5033673da9646122c5