Hi everyone!

I am in the process of getting a license and becoming a legit business. I want to keep my records on all order payments, purchases,expenses, etc. What do you all use to keep your information organized (ie, Quickbooks, excel)? And when would it be appropriate to hire an accountant (I don't have much money so the most cost-effective way would be great)?

Thanks in advance!
Tasha

We use QuickBooks...once it is set up correctly (you might need help on this front if you don't have a basic background in accounting) you shouldn't need any additional help. Turbotax Business automatically imports data from QuickBooks, it takes me about 20 minutes to do the business taxes.

I use an excel spreadsheet and do paperwork once a week. I don't use an accountant, I use turbotax and even though I don't import anything it doesn't take long to do the business taxes using the program.

Which quickbooks?
Happy Baking and Decorating,
Chef Angie

Please permit me to piggy-back off this topic.
If one gets the cakeboss software would that suffice for tracking these numbers or would one still need an accounting software along with it?

Actually cakeboss has most of the features she mentions. It tracks orders, payments, over due payments. There is a section for expenses such as insurance and rent. Additionally it tracks recipes, how much money you have in a cake and a costing structure.

It has a section for those who collect sales tax as well and also has a reporting component for all of the above.

The part that is missing is the "accounting piece" which I can use the reports from cake boss to complete my turbo tax and/or quick books. Check out the videos on cakes boss because if your small it may be enough to get you started. Also they have awesome customer service. If you have questions regarding a specific functionality they can help. PM me if you want to see some of the reports

Thank you for your responses FromScratchSF and sillywabbitz.

I'm just starting out with a home bakery so I don't have a lot of accounting paperwork just yet. I figured I would start with one software (one is all I'm willing to invest in at this time). I'm hoping to get a program that would be most advantageous to me at this stage of my business' development.

Wow. I'm totally old school. I will have to eventually, but for now I still do everything long hand in those green expense books.

It's the way my Grandmother taught me to do books, and then I took Accounting back in college, and that is the way I know, so I have never learned the computer programs.

This is how I keep my house accounts and I have notebooks with all my receipts kept in order and marked if they aren't legible.

I was learning spread sheets etc MANY years ago and we had a computer crash and I lost everything, including scanned receipts. I thought never again, and I went back to long hand. I know in two flashes what money is out and what is in and the balance between and everything is organized.

It makes my husband nuts because he is more into computers, and for a time being so was I. After the crash I just didn't want to go through losing everything OR keeping two copies, one on the computer and one in print.

Tami

If you have your accounts on your computer (or anything you can't stand to lose) make sure you have a back up drive. Most cost between $80-$200 (depending on how much memory it has and if you are using a Mac or PC). Completely worth the piece of mind. You just keep it plugged into your USB and everything backs up automatically once you set up the parameters.

Thank you everyone for the great advice! I didn't know about the business turbo tax. I think I will try Quickbooks as Cake Boss isn't made for Macs. Thank you again!

Speaking of back up drives.... I have Carbonite and I LOVE IT! It's like $40 a year or something and it has every single file on my pc backed up on their system. Every time I make a change to a file, it backs it up again. They also have a free app from which I can access, view, print, and email every file on my pc. It's indispensable.

If you had a fire, you'd lose your pc and your back up hard drive.