Since the start of my business in 2012, I've been on the search for desktop business accounting software. I have used QuickBooks Pro 2013 for Windows for many years because QB is all that will be recommended to you by an American accountant. I have had my difficulties with QB over the years, mostly with upselling efforts, and lack of customer support if I ran into a really difficult problem. Switched to a Mac in 2018 and bought QB Pro for Mac 2016. Much better and far more streamlined than the Windows version. But I didn't want to pay another $180 - $300 for a newer copy (2019 R7 and higher) that would run on Catalina. I specifically don't, on principle, use any feature that would require me to buy another copy in three years.
I've looked at AccountEdge, MoneyWorks, all of the cloud offerings (don't want to use anything that I have to pay rent to access my financial data - who owns my company then??) and I felt stuck.
I had found Corona by R. Charles Flickinger and tried it a couple of years ago and couldn't make sense of it. Very hard to find that program on the internet. I'm posting this here to try to give him some exposure. I tried it in August and I understood how it worked after about a week of working with it. He had made many improvements since then. We exchanged many very long emails and I don't think I need his help now. I printed out the manual at a copy shop, double-sided. He's nice to work with.
Corona has some quirks, but not many. If you have multiple bank accounts, I think you would have to make multiple company files. They are very fast loading, however. Invoices are the best way to enter customer data; Sales receipts (cash entries) don't exist like they do in QB. There is a Cash screen, but I only use it to move AR pending entries to the Bank account. If you have a cash register, that's where you'd use the Cash screen the most. Credit card entries are made in the General section with journal entries.
Corona is much faster to use in daily life than QB ever was. My needs are simpler than they were when I initially setup my business and I was able to trim my account list greatly. I don't have to wade through the raft of inactive accounts, customers and vendors.
my 2c.
I've looked at AccountEdge, MoneyWorks, all of the cloud offerings (don't want to use anything that I have to pay rent to access my financial data - who owns my company then??) and I felt stuck.
I had found Corona by R. Charles Flickinger and tried it a couple of years ago and couldn't make sense of it. Very hard to find that program on the internet. I'm posting this here to try to give him some exposure. I tried it in August and I understood how it worked after about a week of working with it. He had made many improvements since then. We exchanged many very long emails and I don't think I need his help now. I printed out the manual at a copy shop, double-sided. He's nice to work with.
Corona has some quirks, but not many. If you have multiple bank accounts, I think you would have to make multiple company files. They are very fast loading, however. Invoices are the best way to enter customer data; Sales receipts (cash entries) don't exist like they do in QB. There is a Cash screen, but I only use it to move AR pending entries to the Bank account. If you have a cash register, that's where you'd use the Cash screen the most. Credit card entries are made in the General section with journal entries.
Corona is much faster to use in daily life than QB ever was. My needs are simpler than they were when I initially setup my business and I was able to trim my account list greatly. I don't have to wade through the raft of inactive accounts, customers and vendors.
my 2c.
