Accounts and management software question

[Leslie Morris]

Hi Everyone

I'm in the process of getting up and running with my business and wondered if anyone had any advice on an accounts and management software. I've looked at Jewellery Design Management Premier but wondered if this is what most people use or maybe Excel?

Many thanks

Les

[BarryM]

That's a bit of a "how long is a piece of string" question.
Will you be VAT registered, will you have any employees (including yourself) where you need to register with the Revenue, will it be a limited co., a partnership or a sole trader?
If it is just you and no employees then excel would probably do to start with.

Is the system you are looking just for bookeeping, or do want to do stock control / pricing / costing etc.

It's a bit like asking "what car should I buy" with no other information available - it depends.

Sorry not to be very helpful but you need to be a bit more specific, also do you have a budget for software (and the hardware to run it on)?


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[ajda]

I agree with Barry, it depends on your business and what you need to control and record. I'm a big fan of "Open Office" - basically the same as Microsoft Office, but free of charge - and I do pretty well everything I want with spreadsheets in its equivalent of Excel. I'm a sole trader and my business affairs are pretty simple, but if I need any clever or complicated formulae, I phone my brother who's a bit of a wizard with spreadsheets...

[pearlescence]

what are you going to be doing? If you are going to be making and selling on a small scale as a self employed sole trade, no VAT, then you need a minimal system (I went on happily for many years simply with a basket into which I put every relevant piece of paper, plus a specific business bank account). Once you get into VAT it is more complicated and as for corp tax if you are going to be a limited company - yitch.
I've never worked out why some sellers at fairs and markets write down every single sale in a notebook - even sellers of cards costing £1...making work

[silverlining]

Due to your post I had a look at the Jewelry Management Premier thingy and got the free month trial to see what it is. It's meant to help with your pricing and stuff too.

Things I like and dislike so far,from playing with it:

I like the inventory and parts list,with reorder reminders. I've listed all my stones in it so far as I generally buy in bulk from Wards. It's handy to have the full purchase price and the part price for each of them,including p&p, to hand all in one place.

I don't like the fact that all the pricing is done in dollars and that certainly isn't helpful for accounts but I think they would have to be exported anyway? Not sure.

Unfortunately,that's as far as I've got playing with it so far so can't share anymore. I know there is much more to it than that.

I think it could be quite handy for some things,perhaps more useful for beaders giving the pricing using components, but it appears plenty of silver/goldsmiths use it too.

On the pricier version it appears that accounts are completed by exporting to Quickbooks as a link is given for this?

I guess whether it's worth the price for the software depends what you want to do with it. I'm still playing to see whether it's worth it at all.

Maybe try the free one month trial yourself to see if it's helpful at all? There are probably many ways of doing something similar but I quite like the idea of a specific system,but no idea if it will be worth it.

[Leslie Morris]

Thank you everyone for your informative replies. Your right I should have been more specific Barry, helps though to hear what other makers are using. I already have Excel so should plough on with that, possibly using the component breakdowns as headings from the JDM software layout.

Downloaded the JMP free month trial Silverling and has to be said it's ok but wish it did everything. If you work on a Mac you can't send anything to Quickbooks. Seems they haven't caught up with us Mac/ipad users yet, maybe in a few years.

I did notice that you can change the currency in the preferences setting to pounds sterling, if that helps?

Thanks again everyone, more research needed.....