Home: Message List - Online Accounting

Re: Online Accounting

MYOB08 — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 21:02:05 GMT

Fair comments Alexig.

I do not know about how Q product works on a server, but if I have multi-users using MYOB Premier ~ I will recommend the free product xpunlimited ~ free for 3 users ~ after that you start paying ~ keep it in mind.

Re: Online Accounting

alexeig — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 19:09:05 GMT

So how come I can't figure out from their web site, if they offer layered permission levels for multiple users, or multiple ship-to addresses per customer, or how customizable their invoices are, if they have been around for 30 years? I must be dense!

How many Fortune 1000 companies are using them as their primary accounting solution? Can these companies be named?

MaJones: maybe they have a great accounting solution. It's unlikely but it's possible. My point was, I wouldn't want to buy one from a company with the web site like Appgen's.

Re: Online Accounting

majones — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 18:46:32 GMT

Actually, Appgen's been around for over 30 years, and they're actually a 4GL (development language), and the apps are written with their 4GL. The Custom Suite (the larger system, from which MyBooks Pro was built) is currently in use around the world by Fortune 1000 type companies. Multi-location retail, automotive dealership management... these are vertical solutions founded with Appgen and using the Appgen financial applications. You won't actually find something similar in the small business market that has the robustness, the breadth of distribution at multiple business sizes, etc. - especially for the price. And there's a worldwide network of developers who use the system to create unique and industry-specific applications for their clients; and using the proven financial applications as part of the solution.

Re: Online Accounting

alexeig — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 18:26:43 GMT

The price looks good. Checked them out and here are immediate questions that come to mind.
How mature are they (how long have they been in business, how many clients to do they have)?
Where is a feature list, detailed info about the product and editions? A few screenshots just aren't enough.
How good is their support?

From the look of it, they are fairly new, and you wouldn't want to trust your accounting data to a company that doesn't have a proven track of service and support.

Accounting software is mission-critical: not something you could play with for a year and throw away without regrets: switching accounting solutions is a huge pain in the neck, something you want to do once and stay with it as long as you can.

Sorry, Appgen is a no-go.

Re: Online Accounting

majones — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 17:59:17 GMT

Okay, then - checkout Appgen's MyBooks Professional (www.appgen.com). The offer MyBooks Pro Online for 5 users for $50/mo and then up from there. Has all the features of something much larger in terms of accounting software - not as many "bells and whistles" as QuickBooks. But if you're looking for hosted/managed or something different that's not running on your own system - this is an alternative worth checking out.

Re: Online Accounting

alexeig — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 17:50:04 GMT

Remote access would have been a good alternative, if you didn't want to free yourself (and your business) from constraints, limits, liabilities, dangers and problems associated with locally installed software, in the first place. Loss of data and access due to accidents and disasters such as fire, floods, earthquakes, theft-n-burglary, dog peeing on your server. If there is a hiccup in your computer (or DSL or router) and you are halfway across the world, you are less likely to get help than with a hosted application (i.e. when you explicitly pay for it to be up and running no matter what via SLA)? Also, locally installed software doesn't scale well and has a wonderful way (I've written about it before) of forcing you to routinely upgrade both the software and the hardware it runs on, as well as worry about the physical security of your servers and data. Hosted applications don't, as a rule - just think of Gmail and Google Apps.

Not to mention that QuickBooks (as well as its nearest competitors) is slow as molasses in multi-user environments, no matter the brand-spank-new dual-quad-core 64-bit 8GB RAM 2TB RAID5 server you just installed. Remote access won't solve that problem - but will force you to spend loads of dollars and hours on upkeeping your servers and IT infrastructure.

C'mon guys. The whole point is to outsource your bookkeeping software and data, free yourself and your business from severe constrains of existing accounting software for small businesses such as QuickBooks. Remote access makes you a slave not just to your accounting software, but also to your hardware and security system, whereas the idea is to free yourself as much as you can, from it.

If only you could... I know I can't: the nearest feasible SaaS proposition (NetSuite, InAcct, etc.) will empty your pockets to the tune of $10K a year - not exactly a sweet alternative to less than $1K (amortized) for QuickBooks.

We'll wait for Google to write an accounting module for Google Apps. Or someone else will.

Re: Online Accounting

clnshirtz — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 16:47:47 GMT

that is true, quickbooks online edition does not track inventory

Re: Online Accounting

FCPainter — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 16:42:48 GMT

We use our online banking combined with peachtree. We did look into a service that allows you to see your office computer's hard drive from remote locations, which we felt handled the same thing. Does anyone remember seeing something like that?

Re: Online Accounting

MYOB08 — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 21:46:07 GMT

Why not consider a programme like LOGMEIN FREE which will allow you to access your computer free. Many people use this, succesfully.

You can then choose a system, e.g. MYOB, based on its merit, and of course based on recomendations from your own accountant.

I also have vpn connections set up to access one of my clients site. They feel this is securer than LOGMEIN.
The IT guy charges a one-of charge to do this, around $400 - but I think he is expensive.
That could be another option.

Re: Online Accounting

alexeig — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 04:35:49 GMT

Fiirst,

All the solutions you mentioned, do the following:

billing and expenses
multi user

Payroll: seemingly, only QuickBooks Online Edition (QBOE) does payroll.

Trials: all except Billing Circle, seemingly.

Cheap/free accountant access: seems to be available for all of them, if not as a separate feature, then as an integrated multi-user access feature.

Data Backup: all of them, although the main question for me is, if they go out of business, become too expensive, go down, etc., how easy will it be for me to export all the data and import it into an alternative solution (locally installed software) so that the business doesn't stop?

Additional features:

Client access to their billing history, online payments: Billing Circle, FreshBooks.
Integration with payment processing services (Merchant Services, Authorize.net, PayPal, etc.): Billing Circle, FreshBooks, not sure about QBOE.

Most advanced e-commerce solutions have that, along with other book keeping features (sales tracking and reporting, some inventory tracking features), which makes me wonder if one of them (Amazon, eBay, Google) will finally present a viable alternative to Intuit solutions. I certainly hope so.