I am set up as a S corp, virtually no inventory/invoicing/etc. issues. I am looking for some software i.e. intuit that would make it easier to file annual tax returns, anybody got any ideas? Thnx in advance.
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I like Quicken Home & Business. I run it on a Mac, using Parallels. I used to run it on a small Dell laptop, but it was too cumbersome carrying two laptops when I travel. The Parallels solution works well. It's as fast as the Dell laptop, even under emulation.
And I used to used Quickbooks, but Quicken has better hooks to the various banks for downloading data. This includes my business bank account and credit card info. I haven't had to enter transaction data for years. The only transactions that are entered manually are business bills and invoices. I use the invoice function to match shows to merchant account payments. Each batch gets an invoice; I don't bother listing each transaction separately. And each invoice shows the total sale, the sales tax (by state), and gives me a semi-accurate picture of how much is due to various taxing authorities each quarter, monthly or whatever fool period they've got me on. I spent a full day reconciling and paying state sales taxes... ugh.
It has been over 5 years for me, but when I would do part time bookkeeping assistant type work for small businesses, most of them had Quickbooks. Many of them chose Quickbooks because they could find people to help them that already knew the program. What ever you choose make sure that all of it works together. bookkeeping, finances and taxes. Then all your information can work together and save you lots of boring work. So my answer is Trimline.
I was hoping for an EZ-up vs. Trimline response...lol.
That's kinda what got me started, but, they have so many flavors.
Have you looked at Quickbooks? It takes some time to learn the program and to set it up, but once you have done that it can be a big help.
Thanks for all the input. The tax part isn't so bad, except that I have to do it on a PC (vs. Mac) cause nobody writes programs for Macs. But, the day-to-day records are what I need to get a handle on. And, I don't want to spend an hour a week on it, nor, is it worth hiring a bookkeeper (especially in this day and age Jim)
I wouldn't hire a bookkeeper for last year; it'd be for next year's grimble! And that said, it's more of a data entry chore than anything. Sales summaries, inventory updating, customer updating, transferring sales data to Quicken, paying state sales taxes (I'm up to nine or ten states, I think).
Like you said Jim, "Getting the data together for year-end is the real bear. " Why hire a bookkeeper at that point? You did the hard part. I hate it too, and my degree was in Accounting (dad refused to pay for anything but finance or accounting ;) Tax accounting was my favorite part. Saying that, you really should be a control freak when it comes to your taxes for many reasons. I have used Tax Cut and Turbo Tax. Both are great, I just go with what is the cheapest option. It does help to use the same one year after year though because information is taken from last years tax info when you use the same program.
I've been using MacInTax (now TurboTax) from Intuit for 20 years. It's probably the best. I am a sole prop though, so I can't speak to the S-corp issue. If you use Quicken Home & Business or QuickBooks, the real job of gathering all of your expense and income data will be easier.
I've always found that filling out the forms was not the hard part. Getting the data together for year-end is the real bear.
Bookkeeping is the one task that I really should outsource. I absolutely hate it, but I'm a control freak.