Alternatives to QuickBooks?

Posted on October 30, 2013 by Oleg Volk

I am looking for a simple program capable of downloading and consolidating credit card and bank transactions, to do simple accounting, including preparing data for tax forms. Has anyone successfully used open-source (such as GNUCash 2) accounting programs for these purposes? Or a simple and reliable commercial software (I don’t need most of the features found in QuickBooks)?

This entry was posted in advice requested. Bookmark the permalink.

10 Responses to Alternatives to QuickBooks?

  1. Will says:
    October 30, 2013 at 2:26 pm

    If you are willing to consider “cloud-based” bookkeeping, you might take a look at Xero. Their plans run as low as $19/month and I understand at least some of their plans can do what you are seeking regarding credit card as well as bank transactions. Their site is: http://www.xero.com

    I have not used them yet but like what I see.

    • Steve says:
      November 3, 2013 at 1:40 am

      And in a year of $19/mo payments, where you have to keep paying forever to be able to access your data, you will have spent as much as it would have cost you once to buy QB, which you can keep and use forever.

      QB can be as robust, or as simple, as you need it to be.

  2. jfh says:
    October 30, 2013 at 6:07 pm

    My knowledge on quickbooks is dated now, and I am not up to speed on the Home & Business version of Quicken–but if it does CC, then I would suspect that is all you would need.

    The main difference, of course, is that Quicken is oriented to the non-business person–i.e, not done from a double-entry perspective.

  3. Mr Galt says:
    October 30, 2013 at 10:21 pm

    I long ago gave up on Quicken and Quickbooks as over-priced bloatware.

    I now primarily use Moneydance which is a very nice program and is closest to the functionality of a Quicken, but it is a Mac app so if you are PC bound that will likely not be an option.

    I have also dabbled in GNU Cash for my wife’s business and it works pretty well. The only downside to that, is if you need to import existing transactions from another software accounting package. It does have “support” for that – it’s just not always that great. If you’re starting from scratch, I think its a nice alternative (and the price is right).

  4. Mr Galt says:
    October 30, 2013 at 10:26 pm

    Just a quick follow-up to my last comment. It appears that Moneydance now *does* have a PC version, but it’s $50 a copy. Of course, GNUCash is still free. 🙂

  5. Cory Brickner says:
    October 31, 2013 at 9:49 am

    I do work for the parent company, so there is some amount of bias: http://outright.com/

  6. James Eggert says:
    November 2, 2013 at 10:50 am

    Go with gnucash. It works fine under XP Pro, even better under OpenSuse 12.3. I’ve dumped all Microsoft and Apple software from my business computer. I avoid all Google software except the search engine, which I only access through Startingpage. Surveillance Valley violated my trust by openly embracing fascism and enabling FedGov to abrogate the Fourth Amendment. Opt out.

  7. Lyle says:
    November 4, 2013 at 2:31 pm

    Any standard spreadsheet application of the old Lotus 123 type is more than enough to do everything you need. You can set it up with any number of categories and sub-totals, and have it do all the totaling. The computer “spreadsheet” is after all simply a digital analog of the standard bookkeeper’s paper spreadsheet of yore. MS Excel is much more powerful and will do everything you could want and more. Just copy it to a thumb drive at the end of the year and hand it to your tax preparer. Maybe have that person help a little bit in your set-up.

    Quickbooks has some nice features, but it is far more expensive and it doesn’t do much of anything that can’t be done (with a little thought put into it) from Excel or other spreadsheets. It’s just more “pre-set-up” from the start.

Comments are closed.