What’s the best small business accounting, bookkeeping software for Mac?
I want to completely transition to Mac next month, having preferred my PowerBook to my Windows desktop for three years now. Only problem: after hours (and I do mean hours) of research, I can’t seem to find a viable alternative to QuickBooks Online, which only runs on Internet Explorer 6 or higher, and therefore unavailable on Mac.
I’d prefer not to run Boot Camp to quickly invoice someone or receive payment. Any ideas, small business Mac users? You’re my only hope, as a lack of accounting software is the only thing holding me back from fully basking in the Macintosh waters. Thanks in advance.
December 31st, 2008 at 3:45 pm
Double-Entry accounting sounds a lot more intimidating than it really is. So if you don’t mind using that method, I’ve found Gnucash to be a very powerful solution.
Not the prettiest thing on the Mac, but…
December 31st, 2008 at 4:33 pm
Have you considered online accounting software? It can be used from a Mac and a PC – at the same time. That way if you hire an accountant or bookkeeper he/she can just access your books online rather than having to email the data files around (which might not be compatible with your Accountant’s PC version of the software).
Check out our software: http://www.clarityaccounting.com
Or google “online accounting software”
December 31st, 2008 at 5:07 pm
No help with the bookkeeping software, but I encourage you to avoid Office 2008 for Mac. It’s a slow beast that constantly requires updates.
Rumor on the street is that iWork ’09 will be all web based, like any good app should be!
January 1st, 2009 at 3:26 pm
We’re just changing the companies computers from Windows PC to Mac. There’s been no real issue switching to the Mac except finding accounting software. We’ve been running a rather old version of Quickbooks on the PC, but the reviews for Quickbooks 2007 Mac version were off putting. We’re about to purchase Intuit Quickbooks 2009 and unlike previous versions it looks well thought out with lots of new features. Having the ability to import suppliers address using standard V-Cards, backup to Mobile-Me, iCal reminders etc will allow us to work in a familiar application and save time learning a new package. One problem – we can’t find a UK seller yet. Mind you it’s only the 1st Jan 2009…
January 4th, 2009 at 11:06 am
I’ve seen small businesses uses spreadsheets to manage their entire books. Just know it’s an option.
January 4th, 2009 at 11:11 pm
Glad to see another Mac fan. Now get Brooks to update to Macs. I’m on my 5th, started in 1985.
January 19th, 2009 at 10:24 pm
Time to join the virtual desktop world and become OS agnostic. Get VMWare fusion and run windows xp virtually on your mac desktop. This will eliminate the need to boot into windows (run xp as an application).Good friend and biz partner is running this on his MAC.Both Clay and I are running VMWare on Vista X64 and Craig is running VMWare on Linux Fedora Core. I prefer VMWare over Parralells in the MAC environment.
August 28th, 2009 at 8:19 am
Hi there
I am also looking for a bookkeeping software package that can be used virtually and have just found a website called freeagentcentral.com. A Scottish based company with what seems to be a very easy, logical system that is not too complicated.
Did you find something that works?
August 28th, 2009 at 8:20 am
Hi Laura. Shortly after writing this post, Quickbooks Online starting supporting Mac (specifically the Safari Browser) so I stayed with them. Hope that helps.
January 6th, 2011 at 10:53 am
AccountEdge is accouting/payroll software that works great with Mac’s. Go to their website and download a free trial version. Our company is switching from PC’s to Mac. If you stay with Quick Books, you will get conflicting info from Quick Books Customer Service re:whether payroll can be run on a Mac with Parellel windows. After talking with several CSR’s and getting conflicting answers, we chose to purchase AccountEdge. Their yearly payroll subscription is better priced and you get updates with the payroll service. Quick Books payroll service is $400.18 for one year and $199 for upgrades.
AccountEdge CSR’s are professional, knowledgable and their trial version was easy to navigate. I hope this helps…
February 22nd, 2012 at 1:27 am
I’m a software developer. For a while I used to use Parallels on the Mac so I could run my old accounting package on Windows XP on my Mac. But now all that’s changed, I now work for a company that makes bookkeeping software for the Mac and the iPhone/iPad.
While the online systems are great when you’ve got an Internet connection, our product is a clever hybrid of the two: online and local install. When you’re not on the network, perhaps flying back from a meeting, you can use our iPhone app to enter your expenses etc. When the device next finds a network connection, all the changes are passed to our Online Sync service. This service keeps track of all changes you make, merging changes in your other devices and Macs. You can enter information anywhere, and the system will sync across all your other devices.
I think this makes Easy Books a better solution than the online ones, it has outstanding support and it’s certainly a lot cheaper than most of these other packages too!
November 22nd, 2012 at 3:18 am
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