Small Time Contractor Software

Doug Herlihy

Hi everyone. I was hoping I could get some feedback on construction software. I've been using Quicken Home & Business 2002 for years. All I use it for is to enter invoices which I print out and staple my reciepts to. This worked fine in the past but I'm doing more business now and just doing tax prep this year I'm desiring a better system. I don't want to mess with Excel and I don't want to have to program everything into a do-it-all program. I've looked at Quickbooks a little but a lot of the stuff that it says it does is over my head. I want a simple program that is designed for residential contractors that does:

Customer data
change orders
simple contract printing connected with customer
expense tracking, being able to enter tools bought, materials for a job and stock materials that can report for taxes
Simple estimate printout
Invoices and customer payments
Limited bells and whistles that I wouldn't know how to use in the first place.
Sub contractor management.
Geared toward someone like me that does all types of trades for one client.
Simple payroll (might just use a service once I hire)
Adjustable tax rate by reciept management.
Tracking auto use.
Uses Windows printing, not some crap internal print generator like Quicken.

Basically I do interior remodeling and some decks. Full guts down to little handyman jobs. I'd love to come home with my reciepts from the day and the knowledge of what I did and sit in front of the PC and enter it all in simply. I'd like it to ask me questions possibly. I'd like to enter a reciept and have categories already there for whether it's a tool, material, expendable etc. Basically a program for carpenters who aren't flippin accountants. Quickbooks sounds rather complicated and most people that I hear using it also have to use multiple other programs to supliment it to make it work.

Price wise I'd be looking for something under $300. I do use the 2009 National Repair & Remodeling estimator. It's ok but I havn't had a chance to really apply it to a real project yet.

Any suggestions or ideas I haven't addressed would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Doug

marlow

this is kinda what I was looking for all. Still havent got over and done my intro yet but suffice it to say I know Seth Holdren and his alias BROOS MAWT

Aggie67

Yikes. I have had bad experiences with all-in-one types of software. Luckily I haven't lost money with them. I'm of the opinion that there becomes a point where you won't find a better system than you dealing with 4 or 5 separate packages (Quickbooks, your favorite estimating software, Word, Excel, AutoCad, and a good project management software package).

The all-in-ones I've had to deal with are Timberline's full suite, SAP, and JBA.

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LNG24

The quickbooks software you are using is OLD. Go get yourself Quickbooks PRO for Contractors. It is an excellent program. Only thing it won't do are material takeoffs. For running your business, you won't find any better. I love the e-mail and on line payment system for my stuff, but this is only good if you do a lot of small billing and collections. For me its snowplowing, lawn maintenance, various repairs and a few large construction projects. It use to be used for billing out over 100 snow plowing accounts and large excavating jobs.

I also use it to run my Real Estate business. Only thing I don't use it for is my Property Management business, but that is because QB does not have a commercial PM software.