[yankeeaccountant]

Hey guys,

Funny story, I was on a interview/meeting with a former client, who is growing by leaps and bounds. They are opening franchises all across the country. During my meeting, I sat with one of the owners and a person that I hadn’t met before. We start talking about the CPA exam, of course I am lamenting about how tough the scoring is and how I am waiting till the end of June for scores on 3 exams—then, of course, then I have to add, that the pass rate hovers around 41-42% and that the Bar is about 60%. Great….the person I hadn’t met is the legal counsel and VP of Franchising! Insert my big fat foot into my mouth. Can you believe this?! I didn’t say anything derogatory about the Bar, but still not cool. Geez, I have been unemployed for 3 1/2 months and all I guess I have lost my good sense!!!

Ok, the real purpose of this post is to get an idea of what you think of accounting software for small business. They are still growing but are probably going to pull in 1.5 to 2 million this year. Mostly consisting of franchise fees and royalties for revenues. On the expense side, they have regular operating expenses and then AD Fund expenses that need to be separated since they are reported annually to the franchisees. Currently they manually cut checks and wait on their financials from their accounting firm. However, they envision being able to produce reports for expenses for in house meetings and monitoring. They also want to be able to enter their revenues as well.

I have worked with Mas 90 and Great Plains and like them very much. I have also used the Quickbooks, Quicken etc. My inclination is to recommend Mas 90 but since they are growing it may not be cost effective. Does anyone have experience and could recommend accounting software ? It needs to be user friendly.

Appreciate all the help.

Thanks!!

[kb24]

yankeeaccountant

I don't have any suggestions about the accounting software, but I also have a lawyer bar exam story. We have a good friend who's going through a midlife crisis i.e. divorcing his wife of over 25 years and moving cross country to CA where he can be with his newly found high school love who's also a lawyer. He's planning to start a small practice similar to the one he currently has, but first he has to pass the bar exam. A direct quote from him in January was “I'm not going to study. I never study for these exams and I do great”. While I was studying for my last exam, my husband received an email from him because our friend is trying to organize a golf trip in CA around his bar exam. I think he's a great guy and love him to death, but there's a part of me hoping he doesn't do well. Am I evil?

FAR 4/1/11 - 89
AUD 4/15/11 - 85
REG 4/29/11 - 80
BEC 5/13/11 - 85

[yankeeaccountant]

@kb24,

Not evil at all. Just too funny. I would feel exactly like you-seriously!!! I guess the 20% difference, makes all the difference. I am guessing he never studied all day and then look down at his clothes and realize that he was still in his pajamas…..but all along not even paying attention, because FIFO and LIFO were on his brain!!!

[kb24]

Have you been spying on me?

FAR 4/1/11 - 89
AUD 4/15/11 - 85
REG 4/29/11 - 80
BEC 5/13/11 - 85

[yankeeaccountant]

@kb24,

You too??? haha. No spying, just living the wannabe cpa life. let's hope we will be turning that around soon!!!!

[Anonymous]

I'm not familiar with Mas90, but we are a $4 billion dollar company and we use Great Plains, so I'm wondering if that is too much for a small business. Also, these systems can get VERY expensive, so you really dont want to use something that's more than what you really need. Depending on the complexity and frequency of transactions, I would stay with something like Quickbooks until my business really had outgrown it.

[tableleg]

I would go the Quickbooks route. They will see what they need and it make a better long-term decision. Doesn't sound like an overly complex set of books. Would Quickbooks handle it? Maybe an industry magazine might have some solutions.

Who knows. If they have a iPad, there might be “an app for that”. 🙂

[gomdolyi79]

I would try Creative Solution Accounting (CSA) and UltraTax CS by Thomson Reuter. They are great to use for small business clients.

BEC 2010 Q3 91
FAR 2010 Q4 88
REG 2011 Q1 90
AUD 2011 Q2 93

[yankeeaccountant]

Thanks to everybody who posted. I really appreciate your feedback. I have alot of good info to work with.

Good luck with studying or waiting for scores !!!

[Author]

Replies