My husband formed a partnership. A subcontracting timber falling business. Until I can afford QuickBooks in a few weeks, what would be the best accounting software that I could download off the net for FREE?? Thanks So much!

Why don’t you just wait until you can get QuickBooks? Why do you need one right now?

Have you looked into the QuickBooks Simple Start program? If you don’t have inventory or payroll this is the cheaper way to go.

You can download a trial version here http://quickbooks.intuit.com/product/about_quickbooks/trials.jhtml

Or you might consider the online version. You will see it available at the above link also.

If you decide to get QuickBooks in a few weeks you can just wait and enter all the info then.

Good luck!

Question:
“Why is a good understanding of accounting important for running your own business?”

Maureen Costello
Wholesale Distributor

Topics covered in this video:
Understanding business accounting, cash flow, taxes, loans

Transcript:
I think that if an entrepreneur doesn’t have a good understanding of accounting there will be a very high probability of failure. Accounting is the way you keep track of how well your business is doing. It’s how you keep track of your cash. If you run out of cash, even if your sales are growing and your profits on the books are high, you’re out of business. You can go bankrupt even with a successful business. So the only way you’re going to know is if you do really good accounting, do cash flow projections and really watch your cash. So that’s number one.

Secondly, you have pay taxes; you have to be in compliance with the tax laws. If you’re not very good with accounting you’re going to have problems with the IRS. They too can put you out of business. So you want to be sure you know what you’re supposed to be doing from an accounting point of view. Also, you won’t be able to get bank loans if you don’t do a good job at accounting because you have to have financial statements that you can bring to a bank that are in the format that they are accustomed to, in order to gain their confidence to loan you money. So there are a number of reasons why being familiar with accounting and making sure you have very good accounting for your business are important to you.

Duration : 0:1:26

Technorati Tags: account, accountant, accounting, accrual, balance, bank, basis, benefits, book, bookkeeping, business, cash, controls, employee, find, flow, help, income, internal, keeping, learn, liability, loans, payroll, quarterly, reconciliation, returns, sheet, software, Start, starting, statement, tax

Duration : 0:2:12

Technorati Tags: accounting, business, small, software