This is one thing to let your accountant choose imo. Only thing I outsourced right away (bookkeeping and taxes). I asked questions and learned what they were doing over time but it gets in the way of running the business to focus on that imo.
I agree on outsourcing bookkeeping and accounting.
Because bookkeeping and accounting are separate operations, I would specify Quickbooks.
Bookkeeping often moves in house before accounting.
A business owner needs access to the books independent of their accountants and bookkeepers because they need the ability to run reports and make forecasts themselves.
Keeping track of money should not be outsourced because when you run out of money is your business dies. The accountant’s business does not. You can not outsource caring.
We've used xero.com and freshbooks.com multiple times. Always been happy with both. Freshbooks mainly for recurring invoicing and xero for the accounting.
as a seed stage startup, I still using google sheets, i use adobe’s online pdf-to-excel converter to OCR bank statements and paste from excel to google sheets. I then sort by transaction description and bulk categorize everything using Google Sheets rapid row editing tools (drag down, paste across rows, keyboard). Far more effective system than any trash SaaS or paying $1k a month for Pilot to fuck up my books.
http://Pilot.com is a startup that does "Bookkeeping, CFO, and tax services for startups and small businesses." It is the founders' second startup, started in 2016, after identifying pain points using QuickBooks for their first startup. (I worked at their first startup but I do not work at pilot.com.)
This is one thing to let your accountant choose imo. Only thing I outsourced right away (bookkeeping and taxes). I asked questions and learned what they were doing over time but it gets in the way of running the business to focus on that imo.
I agree on outsourcing bookkeeping and accounting.
Because bookkeeping and accounting are separate operations, I would specify Quickbooks.
Bookkeeping often moves in house before accounting.
A business owner needs access to the books independent of their accountants and bookkeepers because they need the ability to run reports and make forecasts themselves.
Keeping track of money should not be outsourced because when you run out of money is your business dies. The accountant’s business does not. You can not outsource caring.
One of my biggest lessons from running a growing organization was: always have one level better financial advice than you think you need.
So, get an accountant from the beginning and let them decide and set it up right.
FWIW, I preferred zero to QuickBooks after using both.
No. Use Quickbooks.
It is the simplest thing that might work.
Every minute you spend debating it is an excuse to avoid working on what matters. It is called “playing house.”
And it is easy to find people who work with Quickbooks and your accountant has Quickbooks integration.
Good luck.
Thank you @brudgers
This article offers similar advice on using Quickbooks: https://kruzeconsulting.com/startup-accounting-software/
Your thought that "Every minute you spend debating it is an excuse to avoid working on what matters" is absolutely true and I appreciate it.
Best, -M
We've used xero.com and freshbooks.com multiple times. Always been happy with both. Freshbooks mainly for recurring invoicing and xero for the accounting.
I use https://copilot.money for my personal book keeping and am really happy with the insights it provides into my spending habits
Thank you, but that personal finance software isn't in the category I'm asking about.
as a seed stage startup, I still using google sheets, i use adobe’s online pdf-to-excel converter to OCR bank statements and paste from excel to google sheets. I then sort by transaction description and bulk categorize everything using Google Sheets rapid row editing tools (drag down, paste across rows, keyboard). Far more effective system than any trash SaaS or paying $1k a month for Pilot to fuck up my books.
Which will be great until Google locks you out of Google.
Have a backup.
Thank you @dustingetz
http://Pilot.com is a startup that does "Bookkeeping, CFO, and tax services for startups and small businesses." It is the founders' second startup, started in 2016, after identifying pain points using QuickBooks for their first startup. (I worked at their first startup but I do not work at pilot.com.)
Thank you @fragmede Their website is impressive and they have some useful resources (https://pilot.com/resources#).