Questions

Web-based accounting for taxes/budgeting
Looking for a web-based accounting software (for personal/small business) that I a can use with either my Mac or PC. Don't think Quickbooks can do it... any ideas... Thanks!


                     —
 		  asked on Nov 26, 2008

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comments and reviews

try www.freshbooks.com


hate to recommend it given I work at Intuit :-) but you're right quickbooks on-line is only officially supported in IE. I understand that it might work with firefox on mac ... but I'm not sure it's officially supported.


#1 - posted on Nov 28, 2008 (4:24 pm)

Hi, Well if Brett wasn't objective, it will be hard for me to be too :-)...I was the GM for QuickBooks online. Care to describe what the issue is with that? I also just heard it will be compatible with Firefox in the next couple of months.


Otherwise, NetBooks is supposed to be somewhat similar and was founded by ex-Intuit folks.


#2 - posted on Nov 30, 2008 (4:31 pm)

Since running on your Mac laptop seems to be the main requirement for you, I suggest the approach we talked about ... buying Parallels (http://www.parallels.com/products/desktop/) or VMWare Fusion (http://www.vmware.com/products/fusion/) -- both $80 -- and then trying out QuickBooks SimpleStart, which is free: http://quickbooks.intuit.com/product/accounting-software/free-accounting-software.jsp


The main downside of this approach is that you'll only be able to use it from your Mac, though you won't need a network connection to work.


#3 - posted on Nov 30, 2008 (7:35 pm)

Hi Brett - this was really helpful. I think I may end up using VMWare Fusion to run IE/on-line quickbooks. However, this reminds me a bit of the old lady who swallowed a fly...


#4 (reply to #1) - posted on Dec 1, 2008 (7:20 pm)

Hi Paul - BTW, quickbooks online gets good ratings from others I've consulted - but don't know if I can wait until I can run it on my Mac with Firefox.


Thanks for your input...


#5 (reply to #2) - posted on Dec 1, 2008 (7:25 pm)

I don't know how complicated your accounting stuff is. But I have been running my small business with QBOE for 3 yrs now. I have a CPA/tax lady who works from Campbell (15 miles away), a bookkeeper in East Bay (20 miles away), a contracts/budgets/accounts mgr in Sacramento (70 miles away), and 6 spread-out employees who fill out timesheets (the farthest is in Michigan - I'm in California). I haven't had to back anything up, upgrade, or reboot in all that time, or do user support. I've been doing all my tracking, invoicing, payables, receivables, etcetera within QBOE. It's been working for me.


I still complain about the misery of having to use Internet Explorer (move to the 21st century people), and slow QBOE functionality upgrades from Intuit (example: freezing timesheets from employee back-date editing). But I'm pretty sold on online software as a service model - at least for a small business for which accounting is an annoying necessity.


#6 - posted on Dec 3, 2008 (12:52 pm)

Thanks Albert!


#7 (reply to #6) - posted on Dec 3, 2008 (3:09 pm)

last comment ... if you have to choose between vmware and parallels on the mac, my experience has been better with vmware. I've tried them both and can go into detail... but vmware has come out on top for me.... just FYI


#8 - posted on Dec 3, 2008 (10:39 pm)

Brett - thanks for the update. I was leaning towards VMware because my friend works there, but don't have any experience with either, so this is good info.


#9 (reply to #8) - posted on Dec 4, 2008 (10:43 am)


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