Alternative to Outright.com?

[Former_Member]

Since many of you who already have an outright.com account may have already received the e-mail this morning from outright letting you know that "New users are now charged $9.95 a month after a 30 day free trial" and "Outright customers may continue to use Outright for free through Dec 31, 2011".

So basically, if you were thinking about getting an Outright account to do your bookkeeping, you will now be charged $9.95 per month. And those who already have an account, you have the rest of the year to decide if it's worth paying the price. For most of us we are not making enough per month to be able to afford the almost $10 for a service like this, no matter how convenient it is.

Does anyone have an alternative to Outright? Another website that is FREE to do bookkeeping on? Or do you keep a notebook/binder at home and do it by hand? Use Excel? What are your strategies for keeping your money straight?

[Former_Member]

I have an Outright account, but it never connects to my bank properly so I don't really use it. I have a series of excel sheets I am using right now, based on this book keeping package I bought of Etsy:
http://www.etsy.com/transaction/41680037

[SockMonkeyBizzToyCo]

My only accepted form of payment is through Paypal therefore printing and filing receipts/ invoices is super simple (even shipping receipts). At the beginning of every month I input all expense/income data into an excel worksheet, make copies of all receipts and file them away.

[Former_Member]

www.mint.com is wonderful for seeing all account information in one spot, it does not do book keeping though.

[Former_Member]

Thanks guys for the suggestions so far! I know bookkeeping is something that doesn't get mentioned as much but I know how easy it is to get behind/lost.

If anyone else has anymore ideas, I'd really appreciate them!

[Studio11Charms]

The BEST way to keep your business finances organized and easy to manage is to keep it in a separate bank account. I have a separate bank account (just for my business expenses and transactions only). At the end of the year, All I have to do is press "print" and whoa la...no need to weed out what is personal and what is business. I LOVE it! Saves me a lot of time! Oh and I also a separate credit card for my business expenses as well.

[Former_Member]

I use my PayPal account card for all of my expenses. I haven't opened a separate bank account yet, but I will probably do that as soon as I'm making a decent income.

I think you have to pay to transfer money out of your PayPal account though? That might be a reason why I haven't done it yet and I'm still just using my PayPal card to pay for things when I need to.

[Former_Member]

I just purchased this bookkeeping spreadsheet from an Etsy seller:
http://www.etsy.com/listing/68276508/handmade-bookkeeping-spreadsheet-just

and this to help me keep track of goals:
http://www.etsy.com/listing/67893712/etsy-sales-goal-tracker-spreadsheet-2011

and a couple others: tips and cheat sheet.

they have a coupon for 20% off your order with this coupon code if anyone is interested: HM20OFF

I need all the help I can get and this seems to keep everything in a nice neat place.

[Former_Member]

im looking into that bookkeeping package also. curious how it works out for you.
V*

[Former_Member]

Vee41- I just purchased it this morning and have only used the Sales Goal Tracker. I really like it for the graphs and simplicity of it. I think it was only $1 for it.
I was going to sit down on Saturday to work on the main spreadsheet.

Will let you know how it goes or if anyone else purchased it and have used it, I'm interested to know how you like it.

[Former_Member]

I use FreshBooks and Kashoo for my accounting setup. I receive payment through FreshBooks and PayPal, then pull it all into Kashoo to watch all the magic happen. Works well!