How do you track your finances on your Apple device(s) for your BUSINESS?

[HappyDude20]

I used to use Mint.com to track my personal finances but at the end of the day just view them in my banking app.

Having just started my own company I am wondering how to best track all my financials with ease.

Surely there must be some superior method that the MacRumors community can agree on.

I can only guess that some stick to good old Numbers from Apple and heck, some many even do good old pen and paper with attached receipts.

Perhaps I’m missing something here.

Considering all of my payments come through from a digital payment processing company whether it be PayPal, CashApp, Google Pay, Apple Pay etc etc, I am ideally wanting to have everything in the form of tracking all of my financials via an app.

 

[0128672]

It depends on your business needs, whether you'll be generating and tracking invoices/receivables, business expenses, how sophisticated your reporting and tax needs might be, and whether you'll be working with an accountant. You might want to look at the various Quickbooks options at the very least to help figure out what your needs are.

 

[HappyDude20]

It depends on your business needs, whether you'll be generating and tracking invoices/receivables, business expenses, how sophisticated your reporting and tax needs might be, and whether you'll be working with an accountant. You might want to look at the various Quickbooks options at the very least to help figure out what your needs are.

Looking into quickbooks now.

The one time $350 desktop version seems better to me than the $15 per month online version…

 

[0128672]

Looking into quickbooks now.

The one time $350 desktop version seems better to me than the $15 per month online version…

There is a self-employed monthly option @$7.50/month. The advantage of the monthly plans is that you can start small with a smaller set of features and then increase if needed (such as adding payroll, office leasing etc). Of course whichever you choose, it's a business expense deduction.

 

[0128672]

Also, that Pro Plus desktop version is $349 a year, not one time.

Explore QuickBooks Desktop solutions | QuickBooks

QuickBooks Desktop is an all-in-one platform for your business. Explore features or make a seamless switch from QuickBooks Desktop to Online.

quickbooks.intuit.com

 

[SalisburySam]

It depends on your business needs, whether you'll be generating and tracking invoices/receivables, business expenses, how sophisticated your reporting and tax needs might be, and whether you'll be working with an accountant. You might want to look at the various Quickbooks options at the very least to help figure out what your needs are.

To pile on here, choose your tax accountant and then go with whatever product they might suggest both to financially run your company and to feed them for reporting and filing. If you are your own tax accountant, first of all good luck with that, and secondly start with Quickbooks and go from there as @WildSky suggests.

 

[Mousse]

I don't have a business. But I do all my financial crap on Excel, since I'm already proficient and have years of spreadsheets built up. I have it tailored to my exact needs and it costs me nothing.😊

Someone who's not a spreadsheet nut or accountant are better of using some sort of accounting software like Quickbooks or Peachtree. They can be customized to an extent.

There is a self-employed monthly option @$7.50/month. The advantage of the monthly plans is that you can start small with a smaller set of features and then increase if needed (such as adding payroll, office leasing etc). Of course whichever you choose, it's a business expense deduction.

If you need Payroll and have only a few employees, you can calculate it yourself and save a bundle. If you used Quickbooks to do payroll, the subscription is a better choice, since you'll have to upgrade the desktop version every 3 years to keep using payroll.

 

[HappyDude20]

There is a self-employed monthly option @$7.50/month. The advantage of the monthly plans is that you can start small with a smaller set of features and then increase if needed (such as adding payroll, office leasing etc). Of course whichever you choose, it's a business expense deduction.

$7.50 a month sounds best of all so far. But admittedly have never use Quickbooks.

Also, that Pro Plus desktop version is $349 a year, not one time.

Explore QuickBooks Desktop solutions | QuickBooks

QuickBooks Desktop is an all-in-one platform for your business. Explore features or make a seamless switch from QuickBooks Desktop to Online.

quickbooks.intuit.com

A year? Yuck.

I don't have a business. But I do all my financial crap on Excel, since I'm already proficient and have years of spreadsheets built up. I have it tailored to my exact needs and it costs me nothing.😊

Someone who's not a spreadsheet nut or accountant are better of using some sort of accounting software like Quickbooks or Peachtree. They can be customized to an extent.

I’m very good at using both Apple’s Numbers and Pages for the past 10+ years. Seems like this will be my choice for the time being.

 

[Mousse]

A year? Yuck.

If you only need a single user to access your file at a time the standard single user version of QB (1/3 the price) is enough. If you don't plan on using Payroll and on-line banking stuff you can buy the desktop version. The Pro version allows up 3 users, that's the only real reason for folks to go Pro.

I’m very good at using both Apple’s Numbers and Pages for the past 10+ years. Seems like this will be my choice for the time being.

It will be rough sledding at first, since you're pretty much building everything from scratch.😬 But once you've got a healthy collection of automated spreadsheets to do your bidding it's awesome.🤓 You might look into a hybrid system with an accounting software doing the heavy lifting at first until you've built up your stable of spreadsheets. It took me years to create/debug my collection, some of which I can't make heads or tails of anymore.🤫

 

[SalisburySam]

One (big?) advantage formal accounting software has is that compliance issues and alignment with GAAP are built in…they have to be to sell the product. Developing your own systems from scratch, spreadsheet or otherwise, is fine for keeping track of cash flow, but if you go this route be sure to build in whatever cross-checks, validation, data feeds, reports, etc. that both your tax accountant and the IRS/State want/need. Not having to worry about any of that and focus on your business operations is a huge benefit to commercial software, arguably worth far more than the licensing fees. imho.

Unless my business is developing accounting software, the last thing I want or can afford to do getting a business off the ground is spend a lot of time developing an accounting system, especially so as a non-accountant. Do it right, do it once, move on.

 

[HappyDude20]

One (big?) advantage formal accounting software has is that compliance issues and alignment with GAAP are built in…they have to be to sell the product. Developing your own systems from scratch, spreadsheet or otherwise, is fine for keeping track of cash flow, but if you go this route be sure to build in whatever cross-checks, validation, data feeds, reports, etc. that both your tax accountant and the IRS/State want/need. Not having to worry about any of that and focus on your business operations is a huge benefit to commercial software, arguably worth far more than the licensing fees. imho.

Unless my business is developing accounting software, the last thing I want or can afford to do getting a business off the ground is spend a lot of time developing an accounting system, especially so as a non-accountant. Do it right, do it once, move on.

Very true

But considering payments from my clients are pretty straight forward I’m willing to take the spreadsheet route at first.

But the $7.50 a month plan sounds like it would provide what you mentioned

 

[0128672]

Very true

But considering payments from my clients are pretty straight forward I’m willing to take the spreadsheet route at first.

But the $7.50 a month plan sounds like it would provide what you mentioned

Sometimes it's helpful to think backwards, that is, determine what you will need to do your business and personal taxes, and what business type you will be, i.e., independent contractor, etc. You will likely be required to file quarterly tax returns including your self-employment taxes.

Get to know those requirements at the IRS site and then determine how software can support those requirements in addition to tracking income and expenses.

Independent contractor defined | Internal Revenue Service

Review the definition of an independent contractor and related tax obligations.

www.irs.gov