Program to keep track of daily expenses / income?

[Aj23]

As the title states, whats the best thing out there for keeping track of things year long? It'd be a lot easier to have things for the whole year and do them weekly or something, rather than go back and try to figure it all out later on.

Thanks

[sexyj]

Microsoft money

[flafson]

An accountant?

[NEMESIS_2008]

An accountant?

You mean bookeeper.

I use an excel spreadsheet. Customize it any way you want and it works wonders.

[faken]

You mean bookeeper.

I use an excel spreadsheet. Customize it any way you want and it works wonders.

Least expensive and most cost effective way. If you don't have excel just download openoffice.

[Lizz__20]

I use Kashoo. It's all online so you can access it anywhere. They have an iphone app too (but nothing for android yet). I do all the daily bookkeeping and then have my bookkeeper log in (you can create multiple accounts for no extra charge) a few times a year to make sure everything looks ok and do any end of year adjustments. It's $10 a month, but they have a free 1 month trial. I tried using quickbooks and it drove me mad - I find this very user friendly (except for a few minor quirks).

[matdwyer]

Indinero is the "mint" for small businesses.

Wave accounting could help too.

[MrKap]

Usually people just dump the receipts in a big pile, and then they input all into a spreadsheet.

[choclover]

If you don't mind spending a bit of money, I would strongly recommend Quicken or Quicken Home & Business. This product is great in that you can enter all your expenses and even use it to reconcile your bank accounts, credit card accounts, etc. Also, you can run a variety of reports that show your spending and even comparison reports that show how you are tracking to budget or to a different period (e.g. same period last year). I have used this program since the 1990s and I have found that it has more than paid for itself in the savings I have been able to achieve by being able to analyze my spending. It has also been useful in looking up things I have paid for when I want to take advantage of a warranty and need to know when I bought something.

You could also track this information in a spreadsheet but I don't think this will give you the same quality of information. A spreadsheet is a very raw tool and will require you to be expend extra effort in ensuring you are capturing the information carefully. It is also highlyprone to error.

[MrKap]

Interesting note in the wiki...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quicken

Quicken Online was a free, hosted solution (see software as a service) by Intuit. Intuit hosted all of the user's data, and provided patches and regularly upgraded the software automatically. Initially this was launched as a monthly paid subscription, and was a free service for over a year. During the year that it was free, it acquired over 1.5 million customers. It was discontinued on August 29, 2010 and users were encouraged to transition to Mint.com.
Intuit completed the acquisition of competitor Mint.com on November 2, 2009, and has announced that it will be transitioning users to that service from Quicken Online.

[theBeachBoy]

I use Quicken
learning curve is easy for basic stuff, and harder when you want to dig, but this program allows you to dig.. a lot!

otherwise there are free stuff like Mint and excel, but you ca get nowhere close to the level of data mining that Quicken does.

I also use Wave Acconting.

[MrKap]

Well, just to be fair,

Quicken can't do a couple of things that you'll need if you're self-employed or you run a side business: it can't create invoices or track your receivables. You could try QuickBooks, but that's sometimes overkill for a small operation. Here are four alternatives.

Here are a whole bunch of options.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/13679...ernatives.html

Even though Quicken themselves claim they can make invoices.

http://www.dummies.com/how-to/conten...customers.html


You didn't hear it from me, but you can make invoices in Excel too...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfCQoC1YeZo


If it helps, the time it will take you to figure out accounting would be better spent on your business. If you aren't established, by all means take on accounting and pull yourself away from your core strengths.

Otherwise, most people will drop a few bucks on an accountant come the end of the year.

[peacestar]

I just tested wave accounting and it seems like a great product. You enter your transactions or download your bank statement or credit card transactions and classify the transactions and give access to the accountant and all done. It is free but if you need the payroll option you have to pay $3\pay period per employee. I have not tested the payroll option.