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kk6mm
11-16-2011, 11:29 PM
Hi-Our chapter is looking for a program to computerize our finances. We have income from dinners, an annual aviation event, memberships, donations, etc. Our expenses include a lease, utilities, supplies, etc. We have checking and savings accounts. We'd like something that would enable us to categorize income and expenses, ie: donations for Young Eagles events, money spent and received from dinners, etc. Thanks for an help.

Anymouse
11-17-2011, 03:15 AM
Your best bet is probably Quickbooks. You may be able to get away with a standard version of Quicken though.

bookmaker
11-17-2011, 06:36 AM
I am a CPA and deal with a lot of software. Do yourself a favor and stay away from Quicken. Go with Quick Books at least. Quicken is OK if you just want to track your check book, but if you want to produce any kind of decent historical records, it is not the way to go.

Also, if you are not familiar with the bookkeeping process and computer accounting products, take a class on the software use at your local community college, or get someone who has good experience with that software to help get started and use to using it. Even the best accounting software can be extremely confusing to learn.

Trust me, I make a lot of money straightening out clients attempts to post their own books without some kind of training.

Dale

Mike Switzer
11-17-2011, 08:04 AM
The accountant for one of our businesses chose Quickbooks - I absolutely HATE it. (Quicken would be even worse)

I use an old version of MS Money for my engineering business & farm, while not perfect, it works OK, but Microsoft discontinued the product & no longer supports it.

I believe the treasurer for our flying club is using something from Peachtree, which he also uses for his business, he says it is better than Quickbooks.

Another thing to consider, if you want to email invoices Quickbooks will force you to purchase an upgrade every couple years, if you don't they will no longer allow access to the email function.

bookmaker
11-17-2011, 09:27 AM
I agree with Mike that there are better programs than Quickbooks. I don't particurlarly like Quickbooks either, but if cost is an issue, that is a place to start. Peachtree is better, but costs more and is not easy to learn either. If you are not experienced in accounting, the learning curve is steep on every system I have seen.

I am glad to see you are looking to keep good records. Regardless of what system you go with, get as much help and experience as you can. Otherwise, you will be a frequent customer at the liquor store.

Good luck.

Dale

Snowflake
11-18-2011, 12:30 AM
With respect to the authors behind Quicken, Quickbooks, etc., there is a better bang-for-the-buck option.Gnucash is an open-source Quicken replacement that will do everything your flying club would ever reasonably need. I haven't yet run across something I can't do in Gnucash that I wanted to do in Quicken. It can read the quicken-formatted files you download from your bank, too.

http://www.gnucash.org

Disclaimer: I am not affiliated in any way with Gnucash, other than as a satisfied user.

Anymouse
11-18-2011, 04:53 AM
With respect to the authors behind Quicken, Quickbooks, etc., there is a better bang-for-the-buck option.Gnucash is an open-source Quicken replacement that will do everything your flying club would ever reasonably need. I haven't yet run across something I can't do in Gnucash that I wanted to do in Quicken. It can read the quicken-formatted files you download from your bank, too.

http://www.gnucash.org

Disclaimer: I am not affiliated in any way with Gnucash, other than as a satisfied user.

Awesome!

I've been looking for a suitable replacement for Quicken since they've all but abandoned their Mac support. Best bet so far has been SEEFinance, but the updates to investment accounts is dog slow (like a minute or two per transaction). The other one I looked at, iBank, just doesn't cut it yet. I'll have to give GnuCash a whirl.

Steve Buss
11-18-2011, 11:45 AM
I know locally EAA Chapter 252 uses Quickbooks. I have not used it personally, so I can't recommend it one way or the other.

However, what may be of interest is a service called Tech Soup http://home.techsoup.org/pages/default.aspx

According to their site "TechSoup is a nonprofit with a clear focus: to make it as easy as possible for other nonprofits and libraries to obtain and use the technologies they need to achieve their missions. As part of that goal, we provide access to over 400 technology products donated by more than 40 companies - including donor partners like Microsoft, Adobe, Cisco, Intuit, and Symantec. All donated and discounted products are available to qualifying organizations for a small admin fee that partially subsidizes TechSoup.org operations. We also offer learning resources, including articles, blogs, and free webinars, and forums on nonprofit-specific topics led by expert hosts."


Might be of interst to check them out for your chapter, especially if you are 501(c)3.

Steve

kk6mm
11-22-2011, 11:51 PM
Thanks for all the tips. I downloaded gnucash and have begun working with it. Free is nice, but not necessary. I'll check out techsoup. Dale's advice about taking a course or getting expert help is well taken. I'm the chapter president and am trying to get something in place for our treasurer. I'm realizing that this is not as easy as one would think.
Jim