What accounting software do you like?

[BrooksCooper_]

We got our TTB last week so we are leaving the "spend money with no hope of income" phase and entering the "holy crap we are busy phase." Much excitement.

We use Mac computers. I bought Quickbooks for Mac but have learned that it won't import data from our bank's PDF or excel spreadsheets that I download. It will only automatically import banking data if I sign up for a $13/month program with my bank.

While that's not a break the budge expense it pisses me off.

Anyone else using accounting software on a Mac which is NOT Quickbooks? Cloud based solutions are fine, too - of course.
So, if you are on a PC but use a cloud based solution and like it I'd love to hear from you on that as well.

Thanks folks!

[briangaylor]

I'm curious as well. All I can add is that when I first searched these forums on the topic, quickbooks was not recommended as it is not suited for manufacturing companies buying raw materials at constantly varying prices. Apparently people have made it work but it causes you to rely on workarounds (which kind of undermines the idea of using an accounting system in the first place).

[BrooksCooper_]

Trying Xero

We are trying Xero - it's cloud based, does inventory management. It's a subscription - $30 / month.

1 month free trial.

I'll report back on our experiences.

[ChesterBrew]

I have a Mac Mini for our office computer, and am planning to use VMWare Fusion to run a copy of Windows that can then run Quickbooks. Time will tell if I'll regret that later, but my accountant uses Quickbooks so it's the path of least resistance for now...

[mdolemite]

If you're using a Mac and want accounting software that will handle manufacturing, you're not going to find anything good for a reasonable cost. No one is writing decent software for this purpose. You may want to look into Ekos Brewmaster as a solution. They're cloud based and work with QB online. QB online by itself won't handle mfg, but combined with Ekos, works great. Cost is also very reasonable. Two other alternatives for you are to run a windows QB Premier version on your Mac or Money Works Gold software. MWG will do manufacturing, but it's written for other countries and for it to really work, you need someone with a good understanding of accounting and a lot of patience to setup and to keep up to date. You're definitely not ready for OrchestratedBeer, although you may want to check out BeerRun, but there are some limitations. The other one out there is SWK, again, I don't think you're there for the size.

PS - a former client of mine who is Mac centric, found the Windows QB Premier version very easy to use. They just used a very basic PC and used it solely for accounting.