Discussion:New Business and Tax Software
From TaxAlmanac
Discussion Forum Index --> Tax Questions --> New Business and Tax Software
Newbus2007 (talk|edits) said: | 2 February 2008 |
| Hello,
I have just started my home-based business and will be doing taxes, bookkeeping and possibly payroll for individuals and small business owners (home based business). I have purchased Peachtree Accounting Software and for taxes I am using TaxAct 1040 Preparer's Edition. Has anyone in or around Milwaukee, Wisconsin used this software and what is your opinion of them? Also, any ideas on how to grow/advertise my business? | |
| 2 February 2008 | |
| I'm using it this year, but just found it doesn't handle 1040NR's
Kerry | |
Bottom Line (talk|edits) said: | 3 February 2008 |
| I'd push Peachtree and become one of their advisers. Seems like there aren't as many users of Peachtree as QuickBooks but if you become an expert, could be a good market. | |
| 3 February 2008 | |
| What tax software are you using to prepare returns for your business clients? | |
Newbus2007 (talk|edits) said: | 3 February 2008 |
| TaxAct 1040 Preparers's | |
Bottom Line (talk|edits) said: | 3 February 2008 |
| I believe what Lion's asking is what software do you use for 1120's & 1065's. | |
| 3 February 2008 | |
| There is a discussion board for users of Tax Act. | |
Southparkcpa (talk|edits) said: | 3 February 2008 |
| NewBus
If I were starting all over, I would use the products that have dominated the market. My Practice went from NO clients in 1997 to 100K in billings in 18 months by advertising as a QB's expert. QB's is still the MAC Daddy of book keeping. Like it or not. If you use QB's, you can do work for CPA's and transfer the file to them, do work in house for the millions of businesses using QB's, do your own work etc.... I would not use Peachtree. It has been bought and sold and in the last 20 years has had 4 owners and is expensive. Good program for clients in house. In my practice, I have over 100 biz clients, 3 use Peachtree, 3 use Master Builder, 4 Use GP Dynamics and guess what the rest use. Use QB's, limit you self to 3 or 4 different chart of accounts so you pick up efficiency. Become a Pro Advisor and market yourself as a QB's expert. I would also use Intuts Pro Series. Stay with the big boys. You won't be sorry. SP | |
Bottom Line (talk|edits) said: | 3 February 2008 |
| I also use Intuit products exclusively QB & ProSeries. Since the OP had already purchased Peachtree, I suggested becoming an expert. I've only had two clients that used Peachtree and somehow I managed to muddle through. Occasionally you hear of someone that's using Microsoft's accounting program too. Whatever software one chooses to use has pros and cons. I believe that in order to grow a bookkeeping business and make REAL money (more than $10/hr) you need to fully understand your accounting software and be expert enough in it to troubleshoot and train others. That's where the real money is. | |
| 3 February 2008 | |
| One thing to keep in mind. QB's and Peachtree are both designed to produce the same result. They are merely the tools. As long as you know accounting/bookkeeping it really is just a matter of which keystrokes you hit.
Excel, Lotus and Quattro Pro are also just tools. Use one, it';s easy to know the others. Learn Peachtree, become an expert, and also master QB's. Know their weaknesses as well as their strengths. That makes you more valuable to your clients. I don't care what accounting program you put me in front of, entering an accounts payable is still entering an accounts payable. I just need to figure out the keystrokes.. Good luck. | |
Bottom Line (talk|edits) said: | 3 February 2008 |
| Agreed | |
| 4 February 2008 | |
| Personally I prefer Peachtree over quickbooks. However, most of my clients prefer quickbooks so I became a QB proadvisor. I use both but I get a lot more business with QB set up or fixing problems than with Peachtree. For in house bookkeeping I use Peachtree, but for my clients who want to do their own books the majority of those use QB. I never really liked QB untill I decided to go ahead and take the proadvisor course and in doing so I learned a lot and I realized it's a much better program than I originally thought. One cool thing I started this year is being able to log into my clients computer in quickbooks and in peachtree, this has saved me a LOT of time going to my client's office or trying to walk them through something over the phone. Now I can just log into their computer and fix the problems from my office. Which makes preparing the tax return a lot easier because I've been reviewing the books during my slower times periodically during the year instead of looking at an entire year during the busy time of tax season. | |
Bottom Line (talk|edits) said: | 4 February 2008 |
| That's my project for this coming summer - learning how to log in instead of driving all over the place. I have a couple of clients that are computer literate so will start with them first. | |
| 4 February 2008 | |
| BL it's real easy, with QB they set me up for it, I just log into the QB remote access site, there's a place to send the client an e-mail invitation, they open the e-mail & follow it's directions and then it basically promts them to click to allow me to either share, control, or view the application. It is really easy. With Peachtree it was a little bit more set up work because I have to use gotomypc.com and set it up on their computer before it will work but once it is set up I don't have to send them an invitation, I can just log in. | |
| 4 February 2008 | |
| I generally recommend the QB Simple Start for new, small start-ups - nothing says "Try-me" like free! If they need something more, they can upgrade to Pro or another high end version, and I can use theor back-ups in my Premier Accountant version. I think Microsoft still offers their Accounting package as a free trial version as well. I am not sure about Peachtree, but the version I have for my 1 client who uses Peachtree was free after rebate. We went out at the same time & got the free version (peachtree pro accounting).
I would like to lean more about remote access in QuickBooks. I went to a seminar recently hoping to, but it was much more basic QuickBooks than I would like. Also, I just re-enrolled as a pro-advisor. Mostly because you couldn't beat the package deal, not becasue its ever gotten me any clients. I will however complete the 16 hrs of CPE. I hope to learn ways to use the program I might not know. | |
Bottom Line (talk|edits) said: | 5 February 2008 |
| I got a couple of clients years ago from being a ProAdvisor. I've never bothered to take the tests so haven't gotten any new clients through it for several years. | |
| February 5, 2008 | |
| There is at least one other discussion about logging into clients' computers remotely. I've used several methods, and I prefer the ones that allow me to login to clients' servers directly without having to tie up the client's computer. (That's what happens when you use the QBs remote access.)
NewBus, it sounds like you are a sole practitioner, in which case I would also recommend you pick one software package and become proficient in it. There's no doubt QBs has the small business market. You might want to check out Peachtree's discussion forum and compare it to the QBs' forum to see the types of businesses that use each one and also the number of users. | |
