I am trying to officially start up a cake business. I have researched the health codes and approval process and understand that side of things. I am SCARED to DEATH about taxes and book keeping however! I have spent many years as Executive Pastry Chef over restaurants and country clubs, I was responsible for sanitation, production and scheduling but had NOTHING to do with book keeping/taxes. What programs is everyone out there using to keep up with the financial side of things? For those baking from home (and YES it is legal in my state of NC once your inspected and approved) how are you home bakers tracking your taxes/record keeping? Is cake boss helpful in this area or is cake boss just useful for placing customer orders and tracking customers?

I got cake boss for Christmas and love it. It keeps track of my rent, utilities and other expenses besides handling customer orders. It is great for clearing up all the scraps of paper I was using. I don't have any employees so don't have payroll taxes etc so I can't tell you if it is good for that. Plus their technical support was great when I ran into issues of my own making. Best investment my husband ever made for me.

i am looking for the same sort of thing. is quick books similar? I here a lot of people talk about that too. keep me posted!!!

thanks for the reply pattycakes nj, I have a few other questions about cake boss I wonder if you would be so kind as to answer?....

1. can I link customers.... i.e.
  a past bride Deidra loves to get her husband's bday cake from me
  Deidra's mom plans to get a baby shower cake from me for Diedra

with this program it tracks diedra's bday? or track her mom's bday? but if the reminders for diedra's bday pop up with diedra's contact info that is not so helpful as I am not going to call deidra and say "hey your birthday is coming up do you want to buy yourself a birthday cake?" however if it popped up with a message saying hey Deidra's mom's birthday is ________ and was linked to Deidra so I could call and say "hey I see your mom's birthday is coming up, can I help you with a cake for her?" that would be helpful.

2. can recipes be imported from master cook or will I have to retype everything into cakeboss?

3. what does a printed invoice show when you print it out for the customer... does it show individual items?

right now my invoices show item by item which I like
i.e.
vanilla cake 20 servings x 3.25 per serving = 65.00
gumpaste roses large 3 each x 6.00 = 18.00

etc..... so that way my customers see what the basic cake costs and what upgrades they have added to it so they understand exactly what they are paying for.

katiebelle74- oh, all the same questions that I have! we're at the same stage, it sounds like too! are you renting or building? I have a post up about my ordeal... i planned to build (the code stuff is nuts), now it looks like I might rent. ugh. so much to think about.

see if there are any business courses on near you. in scotland, i can attend some free seminars to help, and get extra advice as a new business too.
xx

Christy,
I am very lucky we already had existing space attached to our home that just needed to be modified so I now have a 500 sq.ft. bakery attached to my home. My background as a pastry chef and years of collecting tools has me pretty well set, it is just the "front of the house" and accounting type stuff I am lost on. I also have a million details I want to track and link together. Details! Details! Can't I just go decorate a cake??? LOL.