QuickBooks

The number of features in quickbooks is the best part about it. It provides all functions required by a small business including financials, payables, receivables, GL, Cash management and asset management. Payroll is also catered to a lot of extent but this is somewhat limited to some regions and cannot be used all over the world. Another feature that I like is the option to customize the invoices and output documents as per your needs. This gives real flexibility to use the system generated documents that can be sent to clients, suppliers etc. This semi ERP also has the functionality to import bank statement which is really helpful to enter missing transactions from bank statement into the system quickly and error free. This feature is especially useful for people who want to use quickbooks to maintain their personal finances. They can simply import their bank statements or credit card statements into quickbooks, assign relevant accounts and accounts are updated. Last but not least, one of the best features is the availability of real-time updated financial statements and the ability to drill down from statement balances to journal entries. This really helps in review and analysis of accounts in the best and easiest possible manner.

The biggest downside of quickbooks is obviously lack of segregation of duties and the option to deleted / updated account balances or transactions without and restriction. This puts real limitations to the use of the software for organizations with multiple users. You have to rely on the trustworthiness of the users or alternatively, keep paper based printed vouchers to ascertain and ensure the accuracy of the data. Another point is the somewhat area specific features of quickbooks that makes it difficult to be used all over the world with the same ease. Quickbooks is more US specific with US based terms that are sometimes difficult to understand outside US. It is also somewhat expensive, the cloud based version with all features costs more than a lot of opensource accounting ERPs that are easy to setup and have more features but will cost less to run.

Overall, this is a very good software to be used for personal financing or for small businesses where the owner is also the manager. If you want to keep a check on your finances personally, this is a very good software with more features than anyone needs to use. The flexibility of the software and the number of modules ensure that no small business is denied any working freedom due to lack of features whether it is a manufacturing concern or service provider. The built in default business specific chart of accounts also help alot to first time users to setup their books of accounts. Alternatively, people can go for open source software that are free and have more features and security but setting them up requires alot of technical IT help and you do not get any support when some error or bug is encountered. To summarize, this is a very good software and i highly recommend it for small businesses.