Mac OS X Accounting Software for Canada?
For as long as I can remember I’ve been running the Reinvented bookkeeping through Quicken for Home and Business. This is a enhanced version of Quicken with some basic small business features — invoices, accounts receivable, etc. — added on. It’s easy to use, and although I get no respect from my accountant, it served my purposes well.
When I made the switch from PC to Mac several years ago, I was in mid-financial-year, so I bought a copy of Virtual PC for my Mac; this lets me continue to run Quicken for Home and Business, albeit in a somewhat glacial fashion, as Virtual PC has to constantly pretend to be a PC, which makes it quite slow.
In recent years my aforementioned accountant has been pressing me to move to a more adult bookkeeping solution, mostly because when I hand over the Quicken data dump at the end of each year they have to expend considerable manual efforts slurping the data into their Big Accounting System. There is also some apparent discomfort with the lack of “double entry” features, which I believe is related more to addiction than to real practicality, but I’ll play along.
And so, yet again, I’m looking for some basic accounting software for Mac OS X. That works in Canada. And imports digital data from my credit union. And that I can save files from that my account can import.
And those four features seem not to exist in any software I’ve been able to find.
QuickBooks was an early favourite. There’s no specific Canadian version, but they claim that the U.S. version supports unique Canadian features like the GST. But then I read the reviews. And made a couple of calls to Intuit (the company that makes QuickBooks) and found (a) that the U.S. version for the Mac I would be forced to use won’t output data that can be imported into the Canadian PC version my accountant would be using and (b) that the U.S. version doesn’t support import of Canadian financial institution data and (c) that “support” for GST isn’t exactly elegant.
So now I’m trawling for recommendations from others: are you keeping your accounts on a Mac in Canada? Are you happy? If so, what software are you using?
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Now that we are in 2010 I cannot imagine that we ( Mac Users) still have no other option then to revert to a windows app. I am using Quicken for my personal banking, in fact that is the only thing I still do on my PC. I tried I-Bank but it is not made for Canadian Financial institutions.
Quicken worked well but you do not want to deal with the after sale service..... I am not a business so I do not want to buy a 300$ business version.....
Any options , please tell me that someone found something.
I do graphic design as a freelancer on the most current software and I replace my Mac every three years. I've been using MYOB on a Mac since 1995. The program works perfectly for me, Except it doesn't run on Mac OS X so I'm still running an old computer using OS 9 for nothing else but my few measly entries per month to keep the taxman happy.
What's with the capitalist system that I can't find up-to-date software that is as good as the old MYOB on my current computer. Why do I have to keep an extra computer around because our great economic system doesn't provide what people in business need?
I am have recently found a program called YNAB (You Need A Budget), though I am a bit of a newbie at personal financial accounting software, it seems to be relatively user friendly. It accepts quicken file formats and is able to synch to the iPhone! Again I don't have experience with accounting software so if someone more experienced than me can test it out please let me know if it was worth it for you.
you could always segment the drive with boot camp and run windows on the partioned drive! Haha! They win!
Anyone out there tested Luca?
http://cutedgesystems.com/software/Luca/
I am a newcomer to iMac and love it, BUT I would like to find an accounting system for my small business which includes 1 0r 2 employees, so need a payroll feature. I now use Quickbooks Pro 2010 on my old PC. Can anyone help?
@Jeanne Ann Mervyn:
There's a freeware payroll program by Pangea!
http://osx.hyperjeff.net/Apps/apps?f=payroll
I also cannot believe there is no Mac, Canadian accounting software. I have a small business- all Macs- My bookkeeper uses Simply. I have run in to all sorts of trouble viewing my financial info. Initially I ran parallels and simply 2009- then she upgraded and I could no longer view the data with the 2009 software- I finally bought a pc laptop and installed Simply Accounting 2010. Well, that doesn't work either!!
I looked here to see if there was something new re mac accounting......This is ridiculous.
any solutions yet?
@Renee Lutwick:
Have a look at accountz!
"In tools you can choose the VAT regime in which you want to operate the software with VAT/General Sales Tax codes available for all European countries, US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand."
http://www.accountz.com/accountz/business-accountz-independent-review-he...
I just used GNUCash for this for the first time. Alas, it does me no good with the accountant -- there doesn't appear to be a useful way to get data out of it and into the accountant's system.
GNUCash seems to work, and it's real double-entry, for those so obsessed. Also, it does tax splits reasonably well (but not perfectly) and the multiple currency support is not bad once you get used to its quirks (I bill mostly in the US, so this was important for me).
But having to print out a PDF of the general ledger to send to the accountant just sucks.
I have Express Accounts - NCH Software for my Mac. It is ok, it reminds me of Simply Accounting, some similar features, however it does not have Payroll. Not many accounting software for Mac do. Xero does but you have to subscribe and it is webbased. I like to buy a software application where I am not paying a monthly fee, that is why I chose Express Accounts and so far after testing many of the other software recommended on this discussion, I have resorted back to Express Accounts and will have to figure out how to continue doing my payroll for 1 employee…loved Xero for this.
There is a way to use Quickbooks or Simply Accounting on your mac without parallel operating systems, or emulators.
A service found at www.packetservice.com allows you to use Quickbooks or simply accounting on your Mac or ipad.
I've been using MYOB/Accountedge. I refuse to run windows on my Mac not only that the combined cost to run both parallels and windows is unforgiving. I've been following this problem and wish quickbooks would come up with something as I prefer it's user friendly design. In the mean time MYOB is working great aside from there help menu which is usually no help at all. Stick with MYOB it is the best option.
If your mac can accept a dual boot into windows… you can have quickbooks on the windows segment and log in when you need it. Alternately, I have an imac and have installed VMWare Fusion so I can switch between mac and pc software without rebooting… mac is awesome for graphics but business software still is developed more extensively for pc. Another option if you have a pc running quickbooks as well as a mac… you can remote from your mac using logmein.com or microsoft remote desktop. Cheers.
OK, there are 2 'proper' accounting applications for the Mac for Canadian business:
Both have trial versions and both supply you with a copy for your accountant in either Windows or Mac, if needed.
1. http://ca.accountedge.com/products/
2. http://cognito.co.nz/
Hope this helps:)
Erin
Hi Everyone, if you want to use Simply Acounting or Quickbooks on your mac in Canada check out http://www.packetservice.com they have a hosted version avaialbe on your Mac and iPad.
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