Using Quicken's Home & Business Software
I'm In Debt
- Posted:
12/18/2007
I've always been a notebook and pen kind of girl. And an obsessive list maker. I make lists for everything- groceries, to-do lists, activities I want to do with the kids next weekend- you name it, I list it! When I started working to get my finances back in order, I tried using my trusty notebook and pen. It was a good place to start, but I found it wasn't going to be enough!
I'm not sure if my husband and I have an excessive number of accounts that we pay each month or if we're normal and it just seems like a lot- but I found it hard to keep track of everything with just my notebook- especially because we live in a very country area where the mail system isn't quite as reliable as it should be. The mail probably loses one out of every six or seven envelopes we mail from our house! When I realized this was happening, I started paying more of the bills online if it was an option, and dropping payment envelopes into the big blue mailboxes in town rather than my own mailbox. Sad, but it reduced the number of companies that would call us several weeks later and say "We haven't recieved your payment..." and I knew that I had put it in the mailbox myself!
Because I also operate my own business, without the help of an accountant for now, I also had to get a better system for keeping track of all those business expenses and income. What a nightmare that can be!
I've started using Quicken's home & business software to manage it all and find that once I had time to really play around in the software, I enjoyed it much more than my notebook! I'm a crazy girl with about 4 different checking accounts, 2 savings accounts and a paypal account- and they do all serve a different purpose, but when it came to keeping each account running smoothly, well... not so easy! I was able to connect my accounts right to Quicken and it automatically updates through the online connection and keeps the information accurate. I can re-categorize anything, choose whether it's a personal or business expense, scan and save receipts digitally instead of in a big, unorganized shoebox, and view all the upcoming bills and upcoming income to see if there would be enough to make it all work and keep the numbers in the "green"! I'm still figuring it all out, but it seems to me this software has everything you might need, including tracking of investments- should I ever get to the point where I can do that!
Comments
