Ask HN: Started a new business, need to keep track of finances.

2 points·mattwdelong··3 comments

I know Quickbooks is de facto standard with most businesses to keep track of finances. But before I commit to something, I really want to evaluate all potential solutions. What do you use for tracking your finances, and what do you recommend?

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As a basic income / expenses tracker, I've used both Less Accounting (http://lessaccounting.com) and Outright (http://outright.com). Outright flowed better for me, but YMMV. This was for a single-founder startup, with very modest requirements.

I'm about to start managing the finances on a startup I'm founding with a partner, and in order to keep the books in order, we'll be using QuickBooks. It's possible that Outright or Less could handle our needs, but I want to make sure that everything is recorded properly, including paychecks and whatnot. This is important when running a solo operation, of course, but since the income is all pass-through, it's not as big a deal. When there are multiple founders, I'd recommend something more substantial.

We liked freshbooks more than quickbooks, so I can say that it's a nice product.

But right now, I'm a big fan of what's going on over at Less Accounting. I think he's on the right track to the perfect small business solution. And the support level is unreal.

I should have mentioned, but I am looking for a solution that scales. I've checked out freshbooks before, and I think that it would be easy to outgrow. Plus, I am not just looking to invoice clients...I want to keep track of all of our finances.

I will however check out Less Accounting.

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