'Out Of Gas'
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Firefox News:
Today was supposed to be the official Firefox 3 Beta 4 Test Day. It was originally scheduled to end at 5:00 pm PST this afternoon (8:00 pm EST), though according to an apparent update Mozilla's schedule, the Test Day festivities have been extended until 6:00 am EST (3:00 am PST). An amendment to the Test Day page currently reads, "(We will use the Release Candidate for testing)!"
Do we have any Quickbooks fans in the house?
I really, really need to get a handle on my financial life. So, I've been logging things and crunching numbers and being kind of obsessed.
I need a process for keeping track of incomings and outgoings in some sort of rational way.
My fear about quickbooks (which I appear to have on my new computer) is that there are classes and consultants making a fine living out of its complexity. Is it really that hard? And is there an alternative?
Excel! It's what I use. Well, OpenOffice.
Kevin, I have an excel spreadsheet for collecting and summing checks, but I was hoping for a bit more functionality...like keeping track of expenses vs. income...maybe invoice production. etc.
QuickBooks does not have to be complex, bonny. I use it to track my brother's store finances and we keep it pretty simple. THe Help files are actually pretty helpful, I have found.
Another option if you just want to try things out is GnuCash, an open source double-entry system. It's got good help files, and it's aimed at personal finance and small businesses.
Have you used it, DX? Where did you hear about it?
I will look at both. I like that gnucash has customer tracking and invoices but I'll check out the quickbooks help files too.
I used to have a simple filemaker pro based tracking system but the maker went out of business...well to be honest, I stopped paying attention long before that, now I'm a bit intimidated by the options.
I do use it, and for someone who knows nothing about accounting, I found it very easy to learn. I first heard of it here. It's available for Mac, Windows, and Linux.
Can it import Quicken or QuickBooks files, DX? If I can convert my historical data it might be worthwhile to switch next time an upgrade looms at me. Free sounds a lot more cost-effective than paying for two licenses for one tiny company.