I generally work on one project at a time. I generally work alone, although I could see taking on one or two employees for single project situations.
I am using Quickbooks Desktop Pro 2021 for accounting, invoicing, etc. Support for this product ends on May 31st. It cost me about $400 back in 2021, and I get three years out of it. Since Intuit has gone to a ‘Software as a Service’ model, to get the same suite of services from Intuit is about $700 a year, an increase of about 500%.
Does anybody have a more reasonably-priced alternative for the small contracting/construction business?
In particular, is anybody just using Quicken Home and Business?
I ran a search on the word “accounting,” in the Business forum, and this one hasn’t come up for a while.
Thanks for any guidance you can give me.
Replies
As I wound down my taking jobs (retiring) I just manually used Quickbooks to make and print invoices. The checks I wrote for material and to subs were still located as before, so for tax purposes it might have been manual but the totals and details were easily printed out.
No upgrades of course, but also no expense for them.
I’m still milking 2013.
Same here. As long as the software works, use it
try xero
I don't like Quickbooks but continue to use it. I thought I also had to upgrade but I am still using my 2021 version. I think some features are not available like importing bank records- but I don't use that.
I don't like Quickbooks because I think it's overly complicated and have looked into many alternatives. Now I like it even less because they are trying to force everyone into a subscription based online version. The main reason I have stuck with it is the estimate and invoicing features. I don't think they are great but they work well enough. There are easier to use accounting software programs that are free like Fresh Books. However I have found none of them have good estimating templates. Every one I have looked into has a template that just has cost x quantity lines. In the end it comes down to what features you want.
I always did my estimating separately. Quickbooks was simply a way of doing the accounting necessary to feed the maul of the IRS. As a business major in college the software was easy to use for that purpose. So far as anything else, I think Quickbooks is a waste of money.
I am dealing with the same issue. I'm currently using QuickBooks 2015, but I first started using QuickBooks in 1997, so I have all that data that I would like to keep accessible. A large majority of my clientele is long term, so frequently its nice to be able to look up a job and see exactly what it was that I used, to either get parts, or whatever. I'm taking a serious look at FreshBooks, in fact just this morning signed up for a 30 day free trial. am currently looking into if I can pay someone to import the data, and clean up my file, I know nothing about accounting in 1997 when I started, so there is a lot of chaff in there.
WAVE small business software. Free unless you upgrade to pro which cost me $170 a year. I used to use excel spreadsheets but tax lady talked me into using WAVE, so I'm learning. Quickbooks keeps going up in price.
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Yeah, Intuit’s move to SaaS pricing has been rough for a lot of small contractors. A few alternatives worth looking into:
Wave Accounting – Free for basic accounting/invoicing, but no payroll.
Zoho Books – Low-cost alternative with solid features.
Quickbooks Self-Employed – If you don’t need full business accounting, this could work.
That said, software is just one part of running a business smoothly—making sure you have a steady pipeline of work is just as important as tracking the numbers. We actually help contractors like you set up systems that bring in more jobs and keep things running smoothly. Check us out here: https://www.startchapterone.com/form.
What kind of projects do you typically take on?
The fact that you're only trying to sell us something, gives me the feeling of not trusting anythiing you say. I'd appreciate it if you would leave us alone.
Startchapterone for a link and title brings to mind BANKRUPTCY.
All his other spam posts have been deleted but your reply gets right to the point!