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Organizing My Business - Best Software Programs?

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writergirlk
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Now that my business is expanding I need a way to keep track of everything.

For accounting, I am torn between Quicken and Quickbooks and would love some opinions.

For keeping track of affiliate marketing and internet marketing I am looking for something that will help me manage accounts and passwords, my websites, etc.

They don't need to be free resources, but if there are some really good ones that ARE free I'll take a look at those, too.

I currently use spreadsheets.
Now that my business is expanding I need a way to keep track of everything.

For accounting, I am torn between Quicken and Quickbooks and would love some opinions.

For keeping track of affiliate marketing and internet marketing I am looking for something that will help me manage accounts and passwords, my websites, etc.

They don't need to be free resources, but if there are some really good ones that ARE free I'll take a look at those, too.

I currently use spreadsheets.
#business #organizing #programs #software
  • Profile picture of the author stma
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    Maybe the stuff from 37 signals?

    Simple small business software, collaboration, CRM: 37signals

    I'm thinking highrise might help you.
  • Profile picture of the author stma
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    Maybe the stuff from 37 signals?

    Simple small business software, collaboration, CRM: 37signals

    I'm thinking highrise might help you.
  • Profile picture of the author warriorprocessing
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    I'll chime in on QuickBooks. I provide merchant accounts that integrate with QuickBooks, and provide the QB software as well, and use the software myself, so I am quite knowledgeable. totalprocessing.com

    Quicken is really designed to manage personal finances. QuickBooks is designed for businesses.

    There are a few different options when selecting QuickBooks software. The two most common are QuickBooks Simple Start and QuickBooks Pro.

    Both in general allow you to track business finances, have a register to keep your banking in order, provide profit/loss and other business financial statements. Generate invoices, statements etc. Receive payments and with a QuickBooks Merchant Account process CC payments right within the software.

    Basically when deciding which program to choose ask yourself these questions:

    1- Do I manage employees?
    2- Do I need to track inventory?

    If you answered yes to either of the above you should use QuickBooks Pro. Cost around $199

    If the answer is no, use Simple Start, which can always be upgraded at a later time easily should your business model change. Simple Start is free.
  • Profile picture of the author RobinSkeen
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    Quickbooks all the way. It does everything except pour the coffee. Are you looking for maybe a time management/organizer type thing as well? I find if I actually get a handle on how I spend my time (less time on WF to start....oh well) then I can get better organized.
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    • Profile picture of the author writergirlk
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      Can quickbooks do personal finances as well?

      I don't have employees ...

      I think trying simple start is a good idea as long as it's easy to upgrade.

      I am also looking for something to organize aspects of my business such as passwords and affiliate information ... I heard of a software called Affiliate Organizer that I am considering.
  • Profile picture of the author IMer
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    definitely quickbooks for accounts

    Highrise (37 Signals) is a good, simple, easy online address book, we use all the time.
  • Profile picture of the author warriorprocessing
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    Yes QuickBooks can do personal finances. I use it for that as well. I simply set myself up as a business and use the check register basically and that is all. QuickBooks software allows you to setup multiple businesses and you can set yourself up as a business, and simplify it. I have 2 accounts for my personal finances. One is income, the other is expense. That's it. You can track CC usage etc.

    warriorprocessing.com Merchant accounts with free authorize.net and QuickBooks import

    totalprocessing.com QuickBooks Merchant Services - The only merchant account that fully integrates with QuickBooks. We offer free QuickBooks Pro or Simple Start software.
  • Profile picture of the author JLP
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    For keeping track of accounts and passwords: RoboForm if you don't already have. Be sure to Google for coupon, they usually have one available.
  • Profile picture of the author Darrel Hawes
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    Consider Quickbooks Online Edition as well... helpful if you have an outside bookkeeper.

    One caveat: the online edition does not do inventory tracking. Yet.
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  • Profile picture of the author Neil Morgan
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    Another recommendation for QuickBooks from me.

    Use the Professional version if you want to work in multiple currencies.

    Cheers,

    Neil
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    Easy email marketing automation without moving your lists.

    • Profile picture of the author Frank Bruno
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      I have some new software that will be released within the next couple weeks that will allow you to streamline your Internet business and increase your productivity that you may find useful.

      I've been fine tuning it for several months and its almost ready for release and will blow you away at how much the software will streamline your business and save you mass amounts of time as well as allow you to stay laser focused on any task or project.

      I've been sharing this with my higher end coaching clients how to use it in their own business to increase productivity, streamline their business, and to stay laser focused.

      mrsleep99, When the time comes, I can show you how to accomplish what you need as you previously stated.

      Organizes my domains
      Automatically checks all of my affiliate accounts
      Tells me about payments coming
      Tells me about payments I need to make
      and more

      Frank Bruno
  • Profile picture of the author cclegg06
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    Anyone have experience with "Affiliate Organizer"? Would you recommend it?
    • Profile picture of the author native1
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      I use Affiliate Organizer and it is very useful. It was a great investment! I use it to organize my domains and expirations, passwords, sites, all kinds of things.
      • Profile picture of the author cclegg06
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        Thanks native1. Does it allow you to do any campaign tracking or help organize split testing records? Does it have a project management function?
        • Profile picture of the author native1
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          As far as I can tell it doesn't allow you to do split tracking or project management from a software standpoint. To sum it up it basically acts as a database of any kind of information you can throw at it. Here is a clip from the website affiliateorganizer dot com .....

          *****************************************


          A Few Examples Of What You'll Get..
          1. Save up to unlimited amounts of information about your affiliate and internet business -- without ANY technical know-how!
          2. Easy fill in the blank and save with just a few clicks!
          3. Keep track of all Your Hosting details Everything from Urls, DNS Numbers, Ftp information, User and Passwords associated, Bandwidth and Space, Start and End Date, Payment methods, Support information
          4. Manage your Websites-- with ease. View each one and its associated web host, FTP address, user and passwords, Start and End Date, Industry, merchants you have added, PPC running, reciprocal links, support email and phone numbers.
          5. Quick access to "Affiliate Merchants" the company, managers name, industry, join date, payment date, merchants keyword lists, affiliate links, 2 tier affiliate links, commission rates, stats login URLl, user and passwords, top selling product list, payment method and ROI quick calculator
          6. Manage an unlimited number of Outsourced Projects, and avoid confusion over what's in progress and what is completed. This includes keeping track of Where your outsourcing, user and passwords, coders name and email, project description, what site its for, total articles, cost, keyword list path, project completed path, quick access to keywords, Start and Finish date with Alert Notification System, phone and email support and more..
          7. One of the most Powerful Features of AO is the ability to Send yourself On screen "Tasks/Alert" messages for one time or recycling events -- automatically. Ability to set up a task and private message, assign it to a date and time, when notification should begin, whether it should repeat and how often. Options of email notification and on screen sound alerts. - Never forget another tele-seminar, deadline or anything! Email to Home or Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail.. any!
          8. Manage your "Keyword lists" -- Massive time saver -- Paste in your keywords lists, have a clear path to your keywords, assign keywords to a site, project or articles. Click off what ones you have used per project and know how many remain. Great for knowing what keywords you haven't used for articles or advertising campaigns.
          9. View all your "Domain Registrars" and instantly know which sites are registered on what domain. Logins and Passwords, support information and total urls.
          10. Stay on top of Projects and Ideas -- Got an idea? or a project?, provide name, know if its started or not completed, Assign a start and finish date using the Alert Notification System. Provide description, Action lists and comments.
          11. Set and Forget - Year Plan -- Set everything up for the year ahead, the year after and so on.. Attach the Alert Notifcation System to any date, time and event and never have to go back in again to check on what you have to do.. You will be alerted onscreen and via email.
          12. Keep track of All Software Purchased -- Never lose any information on software you have bought. Store the name of the software, its unlock codes, receipt, purchase date, download url, email and phone support, login and passwords.
          13. Manage your Contacts Save all your Contact information -- This includes, name, company, address, city, state, zip, home and work phone numbers, cell phone and fax numbers, email and additional comments.
          14. Keep track all Services Your Business Uses This may include, Autoresponders, Pay Per Click Advertising, Shopping carts, Site Build it Services, Ezine information, usernames, passwords, login urls, cost, payment methods and dates of payment.
          15. Backup and Restore -- instantly -- and never lose your most valuable business details again.
          16. Add Your Own Folders/Categories - Basically Keep track of whatever you want with your online business. ( New in 2.0 )
          17. Add Subcategories to your existing Folders, to Group things together
          ( New in 2.0)
          18. Protect your data with Password Protection upon Launch - Now no one can access your data even if they stole your computer. You name your password.
          ( New in 2.0 )


          ... and that's just the beginning!

          *****************************************

          Hope that clarifies things for you a bit. By the way the owner Jon Mills seems to be a stand up guy and questions have always been answered as I had them.

          Good Luck!

          Jason
  • Profile picture of the author cclegg06
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    Thanks Jason. This is very helpful.
  • Profile picture of the author cclegg06
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    Thanks Dan... Good stuff!
  • Profile picture of the author keywordguru
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    For passwords, I use this program which is free:
    KeePass Password Safe

    Easy searching, folders, icons, the works. Keepass rocks!
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  • Profile picture of the author alloo
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    I've been trialing the primasoft programs and they are OK.
  • Profile picture of the author cclegg06
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    I picked up a membership to GTDagenda.com and have been happy with it. Not sure about the goals but the checklist function is perfect.
  • Profile picture of the author replicontimesheet
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    Originally Posted by writergirlk View Post

    Now that my business is expanding I need a way to keep track of everything.

    For accounting, I am torn between Quicken and Quickbooks and would love some opinions.

    For keeping track of affiliate marketing and internet marketing I am looking for something that will help me manage accounts and passwords, my websites, etc.

    They don't need to be free resources, but if there are some really good ones that ARE free I'll take a look at those, too.

    I currently use spreadsheets.
    I would suggest Replicon Inc for all your project management needs. For maintaining all your affiliate and internet marketing details, I would suggest you continue with spreadsheets either online or Microsoft's.
    • Profile picture of the author cclegg06
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      For accounting... if you're asking yourself the question I'd go ahead and make the leap to Quickbooks. As your grow further, and want to integrate your accountant and bookkeeper you'll be grateful you did.

      For password management I'd suggest LastPass. Great tool that I've been happy with.

      While I'm at it... I use oDesk for contractors, Harvest for non-oDesk contractors and employee hour tracking. Both of these tools import into Quickbooks nicely and streamline my profitability reporting.

      I've got five employees and three contractors running 27 contracts right now. We live in basecamp as a project management tool.

      My two bits... good luck.
  • Profile picture of the author David Keith
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    i use 3 main things

    lastpass - for online passwords and logins. you must have this or roboform. pretty much the same things, but lastpass works better on ipad so i chose it.

    quickbooks pro - pretty much my entire financial operations gets done here.

    Microsoft onenote - is my main organization tool. You can pretty much customize it to do anything. it does take some getting used to, but you can build your organizational system the way you want and the way that works for you. (i use the mobilenoter app so my onenote stuff is always up to date on my phone and ipad).
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  • Profile picture of the author Green Moon
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    I recommend Quickbooks as well, but if you have an accountant already lined up, I would talk to him or her to confirm what program or programs they are most comfortable with. For most accountants, that will be Quickbooks but if your chosen accountant prefers another program, it is probably better to use one that the accountant names.
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  • Profile picture of the author Green Moon
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    I recommend Quickbooks as well, but if you have an accountant already lined up, I would talk to him or her to confirm what program or programs they are most comfortable with. For most accountants, that will be Quickbooks but if your chosen accountant prefers another program, it is probably better to use one that the accountant names.
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  • Profile picture of the author Randall Magwood
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    When i read the title of this thread, i immediately thought of Quickbooks... and apparently alot of other people too. Try Quickbooks. It's a cool tool.
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  • Profile picture of the author therichb
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    Here you go with the ways of managing business with Tools:

    Projects: Basecamp, Trello, smartsheets
    Chat: Valerio, Livezilla, LiveChat
    Email: Zendesk, Kayako, Osticket
    Accounting: quickbooks
    CRM / Automation: Zoho, SalesForce
    Email Marketing: Getresponse, Aweber, Mailchimp
    Passwords: LastPass
    Money Transactions: Authorize.net

    I remember these at this moment. Will add more later
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