| Do you need QuickBooks at this time? Are you | | | | tracking it via software. QuickBooks can help you |
| feeling swayed by the advertisements about how | | | | with this. |
| easy it will make things? | | | | 6. Change of Entity. You may have grown to the |
| QuickBooks is a full-blown double-entry accounting | | | | point where you should change from a sole |
| system. Although Intuit has done an excellent job | | | | proprietor to some other type, such as an |
| making double-entry accounting accessible to | | | | S-Corp. If so, then you need to be able to |
| many people, it still requires a certain amount of | | | | generate a balance sheet for tax purposes. |
| specialized knowledge to use the program | | | | QuickBooks can do that for you. |
| effectively. | | | | 7. Accounts Receivable. You may send a lot of |
| Brand new, solo, sole proprietors generally only | | | | customer invoices each week or month. |
| need a few things in their day-to-day business | | | | QuickBooks can keep track of these for you in a |
| accounting: | | | | very organized and easy to understand way. |
| 1. Accurate Bank Balances. Managing and | | | | 8. Lots of Business Debt. If you have many loan |
| reconciling the check register should be as easy | | | | balances, keeping track of them in QuickBooks is |
| as possible. Printing vendor checks is nice, but | | | | easy. |
| optional. | | | | 9. Job Costing. You perform work on a job-by-job |
| 2. How Much Revenue? Tracking revenue for tax | | | | basis. Maybe it's time to track revenue and |
| purposes is an absolute must. | | | | expenses for each job - this way, you can |
| 3. Expenses Tracking. Keeping track of all | | | | determine if you are making money on each job, |
| expenses in their proper categories is also an | | | | and which jobs are more profitable than others. |
| absolute must for tax purposes. | | | | QuickBooks does this. |
| Quicken can do all of these things, more easily | | | | If more than one of these applies to you, it may |
| and less expensively than QuickBooks. So can | | | | be time to make the switch. |
| Excel or even a paper based system. | | | | Final Thoughts |
| I'm not a big fan of switching people over to | | | | Switching to QuickBooks means better reports |
| QuickBooks unless their financial situation changes. | | | | and better tracking of financial data. For this, you |
| You might be ready for QuickBooks if: | | | | may need professional help - you may need to |
| 4. Employees. Perhaps you've grown to the point | | | | hire somebody to do the bookkeeping and/or help |
| of needing to hire people. Great! But you also | | | | with the setup. So switching accounting systems |
| might need a new accounting system to help you | | | | will cost more than just the price of the software. |
| with all of the payroll reporting & payment | | | | Before you switch, make sure that the additional |
| requirements. | | | | data is worth the additional expense. If some of |
| 5. Inventory. Perhaps your inventory has grown | | | | the above variables have come into play, it |
| to the point where you would be better off | | | | probably is. |