Better than quickbooks?

[La Flama Blanca]

So ive recently passed my first year in business (November ) my total in sales for my one van was just over 72k. I dont know why it took this long to ask this question.
What bookkeeping/accounting do you use? I feel like my process is much harder than it should be and im really irritated about it all. Currently i take a call, put info on google calandar. Brother goes out to clean and puts how the customer paid, how much and gets email for marketing and to email receipt. I then take the info and put into quickbooks. Then i record his hours and once a week cut him a check. Oh hell im rambling ... i need a program that does everything listed all in one program or app:
Scheduling
Customer info
Invoices
Expenses
Accepts payments
Calculates taxes
Pays taxes
Has reports
Sends thank you letters and special offers

Basically ONE thing to help me run my business. Does this exist?

 

[aloha one]

So ive recently passed my first year in business (November ) my total in sales for my one van was just over 72k. I dont know why it took this long to ask this question.
What bookkeeping/accounting do you use? I feel like my process is much harder than it should be and im really irritated about it all. Currently i take a call, put info on google calandar. Brother goes out to clean and puts how the customer paid, how much and gets email for marketing and to email receipt. I then take the info and put into quickbooks. Then i record his hours and once a week cut him a check. Oh hell im rambling ... i need a program that does everything listed all in one program or app:
Scheduling
Customer info
Invoices
Expenses
Accepts payments
Calculates taxes
Pays taxes
Has reports
Sends thank you letters and special offers

Basically ONE thing to help me run my business. Does this exist?

GOOD JOB BRO..You should be Giving ADVISE....Not asking for IT! CONGRADULATIONS!~Spell Check BROKE!! lol

 

[bob_rugratz]

Do yourself a little favor and go check these out on your own, and leave this thread never to return. LMAO This subject is a trigger for drama lately. Just saying. hopefully it wont happen but it is highly probable. Just fair warning.

Great job on your first year! I was still working for beer money my first year! it was great.

hint : they all sync with QB, so that's important that you already have a base. You could try a couple actually. See which one fits you and drop the other. Good Luck!



http://tryhousecall.com/pro

https://www.thecustomerfactor.com/

http://www.servicemonster.net/carpet-cleaning-software/


http://www.kickserv.com/tour/quickbooks-online-desktop-integration/

 

[groutguy]

We have been using quckbooks online, it does a lot for us including paying employees and filing taxes. You can also set an appointment on the mobile app that sends it google calendar but it is not ideal because you can't see your google calendar from the quickbooks app. I also like the option to have my bank account connected to quickbooks and it automatically downloads my bank transactions which I can then easily match and assign to the proper accounts and balance the books.

I also want a program or app that will do everything the way I want, but I'm not sure it exists. It's frustrating because every time I try to get things perfect there is always some kind of software conflict or hiccup that prevents it. For example, I bought a new GPS that I thought would be awesome because I would be able to send my addresses to it from my google calendar on my phone, but the garmin app sucks a$$ and will not work the way I want it to. I'm not alone....they have a 1 star rating in the app store from people with the same frustration.

I signed up for the free housecall pro this weekend and am undecided if I will upgrade, but I will have to either upgrade or not use it at all because without the unlocked features it does not interest me at all. I already found one feature of housecall that drives me insane, the way it processes credit cards.... It takes it's fees out of the transactions, for example if you process a customers payment for the amount of their invoice, lets say $500. Your deposit will be 500 minus the credit card fee, so it would be like 487.85 or something like that. That creates a huge hassle for me when I go into quickbooks to match downloaded bank transactions. My current cc processing I use from quickbooks deposits the full amount charged and then bills me my fees separately, then I can easily match those deposits and assign those fees to the bank fees category in quickbooks.

Why can't everything just work good?

 

[La Flama Blanca]

Well i might just play a little more with quickbooks

 

[bob_rugratz]

We have been using quckbooks online, it does a lot for us including paying employees and filing taxes. You can also set an appointment on the mobile app that sends it google calendar but it is not ideal because you can't see your google calendar from the quickbooks app. I also like the option to have my bank account connected to quickbooks and it automatically downloads my bank transactions which I can then easily match and assign to the proper accounts and balance the books.

I also want a program or app that will do everything the way I want, but I'm not sure it exists. It's frustrating because every time I try to get things perfect there is always some kind of software conflict or hiccup that prevents it. For example, I bought a new GPS that I thought would be awesome because I would be able to send my addresses to it from my google calendar on my phone, but the garmin app sucks a$$ and will not work the way I want it to. I'm not alone....they have a 1 star rating in the app store from people with the same frustration.

I signed up for the free housecall pro this weekend and am undecided if I will upgrade, but I will have to either upgrade or not use it at all because without the unlocked features it does not interest me at all. I already found one feature of housecall that drives me insane, the way it processes credit cards.... It takes it's fees out of the transactions, for example if you process a customers payment for the amount of their invoice, lets say $500. Your deposit will be 500 minus the credit card fee, so it would be like 487.85 or something like that. That creates a huge hassle for me when I go into quickbooks to match downloaded bank transactions. My current cc processing I use from quickbooks deposits the full amount charged and then bills me my fees separately, then I can easily match those deposits and assign those fees to the bank fees category in quickbooks.

Why can't everything just work good?

The gps thing is one of my things too. I eventually want to be able to sync all entered jobs into a program , and click next job and get live directions form where i'm at right then from the calendar. my current business calendar does this but has no other features as far as business software..only thing I see to do is enter/ save all the address into gps for the day then use them as needed. the cc processing thing. you may be stuck. because I think they all take fees right then out of each transaction. this insures they get paid. and doesn't require a account to hold money for them.. I cant see that changing. QB does it different because its all within the same program I guess. Might be easier for qb to change than the rest of the processors but who knows if that will ever happen. that's something they need to work out between each other maybe

 

[Mike Krall]

Desktop QB does all that except scheduling, and thank yous .

They have plug ins that may do the missing stuff and payroll is cheaper than online.

 

[wandwizard]

Questions for you guys. For say an O/O w/o employees such as myself, is it even necessary to have an extra program like Quickbooks if using some of these customer management programs? I just read much of the info on Customer Factor and it appears, with the reports you can generate, all I would need to do is print certain reports at the end of year right from there, and take them to my accountant, just like I've been doing for years with my Owl Bookkeeping software.

The only thing Customer Factor lacks is ability to market to existing customers accept, I guess, by e-mail. Been thinking lately, looking at the extreme expense of mailing a lot of pieces of promotions out every year, why can't much of that be handled digitally, at least to existing customers? I really liked that newsletter thing offered the other day, but no way I'm spending that kind of money to send out a printed monthly newsletter when I myself would much rather read it in digital format.I thought the samples were quite impressive. Just as impressive in digital format as printed, perhaps more so. As I understood it, that newsletter has a digital option AS AN ADD ON over and above the print version for an extra 49.99. Am I wrong? I've never done the newsletter thing and looks like I never will. I seriously doubt that a printed version will have any more chance of actually being read than a digital one these days. Actually, I think the digital has a greater chance of actually getting read.

 

[Grn Steamer]

@groutguy ...I read this thread hoping for some clarity...I currently use HCP and was just about to sign up for Quickbooks online because HCP says it syncs, and they recommend it....are you saying that you are having trouble reconciling HCP processed transactions with QB online?

We have been using quckbooks online, it does a lot for us including paying employees and filing taxes. You can also set an appointment on the mobile app that sends it google calendar but it is not ideal because you can't see your google calendar from the quickbooks app. I also like the option to have my bank account connected to quickbooks and it automatically downloads my bank transactions which I can then easily match and assign to the proper accounts and balance the books.

I also want a program or app that will do everything the way I want, but I'm not sure it exists. It's frustrating because every time I try to get things perfect there is always some kind of software conflict or hiccup that prevents it. For example, I bought a new GPS that I thought would be awesome because I would be able to send my addresses to it from my google calendar on my phone, but the garmin app sucks a$$ and will not work the way I want it to. I'm not alone....they have a 1 star rating in the app store from people with the same frustration.

I signed up for the free housecall pro this weekend and am undecided if I will upgrade, but I will have to either upgrade or not use it at all because without the unlocked features it does not interest me at all. I already found one feature of housecall that drives me insane, the way it processes credit cards.... It takes it's fees out of the transactions, for example if you process a customers payment for the amount of their invoice, lets say $500. Your deposit will be 500 minus the credit card fee, so it would be like 487.85 or something like that. That creates a huge hassle for me when I go into quickbooks to match downloaded bank transactions. My current cc processing I use from quickbooks deposits the full amount charged and then bills me my fees separately, then I can easily match those deposits and assign those fees to the bank fees category in quickbooks.

Why can't everything just work good?

 

[groutguy]

@groutguy ...I read this thread hoping for some clarity...I currently use HCP and was just about to sign up for Quickbooks online because HCP says it syncs, and they recommend it....are you saying that you are having trouble reconciling HCP processed transactions with QB online?

I just signed up for the free housecall pro this weekend and just started messing around with it. I charged my own credit card 5.00 as a test, and created a $5 invoice for myself in quick books. Now when that charge for $4 and change appears in my bank how do I reconcile that? I will call them now and ask before I upgrade, I don't want to knock them because I don't know enough about the quickbooks sync to judge just yet.

 

[bob_rugratz]

@groutguy ...I read this thread hoping for some clarity...I currently use HCP and was just about to sign up for Quickbooks online because HCP says it syncs, and they recommend it....are you saying that you are having trouble reconciling HCP processed transactions with QB online?

He inputs the full amount in qb if processed though qb. But if he processes through hcp then the amount is lower because of the cc fees. I think he should ask hcp about that one. Surely they have ran into this before.

 

[groutguy]

I did call, but I don't believe the girl I talked to understood my concern. I did sign up for the full service and will play with it to see if it will work for me, if not I will cancel it.

I will report back.

 

[crash1big]

We tried QB online and didn't like it. Not near as many features as the desktop version. The desktop version does all we need it to. We found the payroll to be comparable to others and QB offers pay-as-you-go workers comp.

 

[Nev]

I just signed up for the free housecall pro this weekend and just started messing around with it. I charged my own credit card 5.00 as a test, and created a $5 invoice for myself in quick books. Now when that charge for $4 and change appears in my bank how do I reconcile that? I will call them now and ask before I upgrade, I don't want to knock them because I don't know enough about the quickbooks sync to judge just yet.

You need to create an Expense Account in QB for the credit card fees. Here is a video which is similar to how I do it:

 

[Jose Holguin]

I've been having problems with QB simple start and HCP synchronizing, not happy right now.

 

[groutguy]

You need to create an Expense Account in QB for the credit card fees. Here is a video which is similar to how I do it:

Yes, I already have that expense account set up in quickbooks and have been using it for years. But when companies take their cut from the deposit amount they can't be automatically matched to the invoices. The video does show the work around, however I'm just bumming over the added steps. We have no sales tax on services here so all my invoices and receipts are nice round even numbers, but that will now change.

 

[bob_rugratz]

Yes, I already have that expense account set up in quickbooks and have been using it for years. But when companies take their cut from the deposit amount they can't be automatically matched to the invoices. The video does show the work around, however I'm just bumming over the added steps. We have no sales tax on services here so all my invoices and receipts are nice round even numbers, but that will now change.

I got it , add fee on top of each ticket each time before check out. done!

 

[Mike Krall]

Questions for you guys. For say an O/O w/o employees such as myself, is it even necessary to have an extra program like Quickbooks if using some of these customer management programs? I just read much of the info on Customer Factor and it appears, with the reports you can generate, all I would need to do is print certain reports at the end of year right from there, and take them to my accountant, just like I've been doing for years with my Owl Bookkeeping software.

The only thing Customer Factor lacks is ability to market to existing customers accept, I guess, by e-mail. Been thinking lately, looking at the extreme expense of mailing a lot of pieces of promotions out every year, why can't much of that be handled digitally, at least to existing customers? I really liked that newsletter thing offered the other day, but no way I'm spending that kind of money to send out a printed monthly newsletter when I myself would much rather read it in digital format.I thought the samples were quite impressive. Just as impressive in digital format as printed, perhaps more so. As I understood it, that newsletter has a digital option AS AN ADD ON over and above the print version for an extra 49.99. Am I wrong? I've never done the newsletter thing and looks like I never will. I seriously doubt that a printed version will have any more chance of actually being read than a digital one these days. Actually, I think the digital has a greater chance of actually getting read.

QB does accounting well, but if you already have a program keeping track of your books there's no need to switch.

 

[Blain]

Yes, I already have that expense account set up in quickbooks and have been using it for years. But when companies take their cut from the deposit amount they can't be automatically matched to the invoices. The video does show the work around, however I'm just bumming over the added steps. We have no sales tax on services here so all my invoices and receipts are nice round even numbers, but that will now change.

Grout Guy....Square also deducts the fees from daily deposits. To resolve your accounting issues, simply add a deposit for the fees as a negative & select the existing payment(s) from your customer on the same deposit screen. See attachment...

 

[akleenerimage]

Groutguy...when hcp puts the info into your system is is tagged with the invoice number so when you are doing your reconciliation it is easy to match. What I do when I'm doing the bank matching is just click on all of the deposits shown and exclude them. Since hcp has already done the transaction in qbo