Ask HN: Do you use online accounting software?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=463923

by kaiserama • 17 years ago

1 5 17 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

I absolutely hate quickbooks, but it's mostly my own fault as I just don't put forth the effort of doing my books on a monthly basis. I think it would be less painful for me if, I didn't have to fire up my PC and use the horrible UI either, and rather just imported my bank statements and do everything online.

So I'm curious what others use. I have looked at IAC-EZ which seems like a good solution, however if I've learned anything its that there's usually something better that I just haven't heard before.

The only features that I would want beyond QB is to sync with bank account and have online access...and to suck less.

The business I'd use this for is a very simple consulting side business.

Thanks in advance!

jcapote• 17 years ago

I've been using freshbooks.com and I'm loving it

kaiserama2• 17 years ago

I looked at this and think I'll use this for timetracking/invoicing, but from everything I've read it doesn't handle accounting tasks. One of the reasons I'd like a full accounting application is to have it estimate my quarterly taxes (so I wouldn't have to pay my accountant).

jacquesm• 17 years ago

No, I would never put critical financial information online, I just about trust my bank not to mess up with my account information but that's as far as it goes.

But that really is my only reason 'against', on the other side of the ledger (pun intended) there are plenty of 'pros', such as the ability to stay current with the tax rules without upgrading your software.

If you use an online accounting service make sure they allow you to export your data in some common format so that you can back it up yourself. Most of these companies will of course do their very best to make sure that you don't lose your data (one should assume) but if anything should happen then you, not they, are responsible as far as the IRS is concerned.

kaiserama2• 17 years ago

Great points, thanks for the reply. I will likely ask my accountant what his opinion is, of course I'm pretty sure I'll know what he has to say, but it'll be interesting to hear his reasoning.

RobGR• 17 years ago

You might look into various bank's online software. Some banks have a "business account" that has a really simple accounting system built in, that is a double-entry system with 4 accounts. I think Wells Fargo is one such bank.

Another thing you might look into is installing and configuring SQL-Ledger or LedgerSMB. Setting that up turned out to be too much of a time sink for me, given what I expected to get out of it. That was several years ago however, and since then I have picked up more common sense bookkeeping and the code has progressed a lot.

Ask HN: Do you use online accounting software?

Related Stories