Studio Bookkeeping/Accounting Program

[mrguitarguy]

Hi,

I work for a studio and I'm looking for a bookkeeping program to use. We've recently changed a lot of things and our old system has always driven me crazy. I'm looking for something that will print receipts, keep client profiles, alert me of any overdue balances, etc. I've heard god things about Quickbooks from business owners, but I'm really curious what other studio owners and managers out there are using. Is there a program specificaly fr recording studios that does this type of thing?


Many thanks!

[gallerytungsten]

Quickbooks is a reasonably good and relatively easy to learn accounting program. You can customize it as needed to do everything you mentioned.

There are a number of specialized studio programs I have seen (can't recall the names offhand, but google and you'll find.) With the ones I've seen, they generally have a bunch of additional functions, such as a gear list, label printing, session scheduling, and so on.

The thing I like most about Quickbooks is that you can get up and running pretty easily with it. That way, you spend most of your time working, and as little as possible doing bookkeeping. Prior to using QB, I checked out every accounting program under $1,000 that I could find. Most of them drove me crazy almost instantly, as they wanted you to enter all kinds of data before you could actually do any work in them. Quickbooks lets you enter stuff "on the fly" as you need it.

The think I don't like about Quickbooks is that Intuit's support is kind of hit or miss. On occasion they have been very helpful. Other times they dropped the ball. There have also been a few serious bugs reported in recent versions of Quickbooks. So if you get it, don't be swayed by Intuit's "upgrade fever." They come out with a new version pretty much every year, and it's mostly fluff additions.

[Cornchuck]

I 3rd the use of Quickbooks pro. Easy to use and your accountant will thank you.

[Taproot]

If you are using Macs, I warn you, DO NOT go with Quickbooks. It is highly inferior. Zero customer service. I recently switched to MYOB Firstedge $99. Very simple, but HIGHLY effective and does all it claims to do, unlike QB.