In the quest to find a decent accounting solution for my sole-proprietorship (start-up), I tried and evaluated several trial versions of accounting software packages (QuickBooks Pro 2001, gnucash, gACC, MYOB, and Peachtree Accounting).
The good: Hands down, QuickBooks Pro is the easiest and most intuitive accounting package aimed at small businesses, on the market. I was able to setup the books, generate purchase orders, sales receipts, deposits, checks, with a minimum of effort. The only difficulty is figuring out the QuickBooks way of doing things, but once you do, things fly. I was surprised to find that it will even print out deposit slips (nice feature, especially if you take in a lot of checks).
The bad: Unfortunately it is also the most expensive software package in this class. Peachtree Accounting is about half the cost (but much more difficult to use [double-entry accounting]).
The ugly: Also, beware that the features included in this software package are a little misleading: Setting up payroll requires you to use their payroll update service ($). Setting up a "professional website" requires you to use their service ($). From the trial, I got the feeling that accepting credit cards also requires you to use an Intuit-affiliated merchant account ($?). I never went any further to investigate. Several "marketplace features" were discontinued.
Simply stated, QuickBooks is an intuitive, easy to use accounting solution for small businesses. However, I was disappointed in the QuickBooks Pro version, which charged a premium for features that either contained ongoing hidden charges, or are not likely to be used by most people. My advise: get QuickBooks 2001, not QuickBooks Pro.Get more detail about QuickBooks Pro 2001.
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