Well, I’ve officially given up the battle with Quickbooks. Partly because it makes my head spin, and partly because I’ve found something better.
A few wonderful readers had suggested outright.com, and after giving it a go, I have to say I’m in love. If you’re running a small business, particularly one that relies heavily on PayPal for collecting payments, it’s absolutely the way to go.
Outright lets you automatically import data from your PayPal account, as well as other credit cards. (This is a huge advantage over Quickbooks, which required me to create an invoice for each $30 sale, and then manually enter in PayPal transaction fees.) From there, it lets you see monthly profit and loss statements, and even tells you what you should be paying for your estimated quarterly taxes. I love that Outright gives you a graphical analysis of your data (perfect for visual learners). And, it’s totally free.
My only complaint so far is that Outright currently only lets me import my business bank account/debit card as a credit card. This means that, while it tracks all the expenses from the account, it doesn’t include income going into that account. (So when I’m depositing checks in there, that doesn’t register.) And I haven’t been able to figure out a way to manually enter those transactions. So, my numbers are actually skewed a little low right now.
But otherwise, Outright is a fabulous system for tracking your business finances. I’m not sure how well it would scale up as you started to take on employees or really grow the business, but for a one-person show who handles a lot of transactions via PayPal, it is absolutely amazing!
Don’t believe me yet – check out this little video from outright’s website.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=By6Zhk5IGoA&feature=player_embedded]
Megan Auman is a designer, maker, educator, and entrepreneur who has built a multi-faceted business around her passion for great design and sustainable business. Her 
outright changed my life. nft.
I was wondering about Outright. I totally need help! Let me know if you figure out how you input other income, OK? Thanks!
This looks like it does exactly what I need. Question: When it’s free like that, how do you get past trusting them with your bank login and all your info?
Agreed! I’ve been using it for about 6 months now, and I love it!
Easy easy.
If you scroll down, there’s an explanation about importing bank deposits. It looks like they’ll be supporting integration in the future:
http://community.outright.com/answers/downloading-transactions-from-bank-account-1005
I’ve been contemplating Outright vs. Quickbooks but the problem is my new shopping cart software can do an export directly to Quickbooks, and I won’t be running the majority of my transactions through PayPal. So I’m torn! I’ve heard lots of good things about Outright, and I’m intimidated by Quickbooks, but it’s sounding like Quickbooks might be what I have to go with.
Hi Megan,
I just wanted to say and a huge thanks for all the valuable info your sharing here. I found your blog last week and it is helping me take my business more seriously.
Outright looks really good, but I’m based in the UK. Can you recommend any programs that would work here?
Laura
I just downloaded GnuCash which is another free accounting program. I have heard some good things about it, but don’t know too much about the details yet…I do know it works with different currencies though!
Word up sista, love it
I have Mac Freelance but this is awesome
I’ve been thinking about using Outright.com; so glad to hear it’s good program. Thanks for the rec!
I love Outright too.
@megan To manually add Deposits: You can click on the “Income” tab right on your home page, and when the list of “Payments Received” is displayed, the top row will be empty. You can fill it out just like any other form, with Category, Customer, Description, and Amount.
Slow, I know, but with bank deposits (as opposed to PayPal income), maybe workable? Also, it will suggest categories, customers, etc. as you type, which simplifies things a little if you have income from the same sources.
Sarita Li
thanks sarita – i don’t know why it took me so long to figure that out. apparently my brain couldn’t process the simple solution!
The blank fields kind of blend in with the others.
I love the idea of how SIMPLE this web-based software is, especially since I’m really struggling to keep up with my PayPal transactions through Etsy!
Not being able to download bank acct transactions is a total bummer though–I sell on my main website too, so that has a lot of bank transactions with my credit card merchant acct.
Also, I don’t see how to do splits on the income pulled in through PayPal (i.e. how much of each sale was Goods, Shipping, Sales Tax–that kind of important stuff.) Maybe I’m missing it.
THANKS for the intro to this software–it has lots of promise! For now, Quickbooks it will be, but I’m keeping my eye on this!
It does offer great features for a free online accounting program. Also, 1099 e-filing is only $5 or free if the 1099 recipient signs up with Outright.
OH yeah! Totally love Outright….it really is easy to use, free, and simple enough to understand.
It changed my outlook on my business quite a bit when I first started using it.
Heidi
I *just* started using Outright last week. I love it. It almost seemed to good to be true, so I’m glad to hear so many positive comments about it!
I signed up right away when I saw this post and I’m so happy I did! I’m still learning it but I had been adding the numbers to an excel file manually to sort of track my income/expenses and now I can see it in a chart super fast! I also like that it sort of feels like the old Quicken program so that on the income/expenses page you can add fields with the date, item name, description and category. Just like writing it in a bank account check register! This is very cool so far and I’m so happy you suggested it! Thanks!
Anna
I love outright.com!! It can get addicting to go look at your graphs!
Beccijo
http://www.etsy.com/shop/theenchantedcupboard
WOW! Seems like a great product. How is it with inventory tracking? Does it allow you to print inventory sheets in various formats such as current, sold, consigned and wholesale inventories?
hey traci -
unfortunately it doesn’t have an inventory function. but as far as basic bookkeeping goes, it’s pretty fantastic!
I started using Outright at the first of the year with my resolution to be more organized and turn my “hobby” into a legitimate business . I can proudly (with just a little bit of surprise) say that I have stuck with my New Year’s resolution (a first) and am well on my way. Outright is a major reason- so easy to use…and I love watching that green bar go up every time I import my Paypal info-lol!
I also started using Outright a couple of months ago and am really happy with it. Great customer service, too!
So many of you love the software–that’s so great! I’d really love it to work for my craft business too.
How have y’all been dealing with the no bank acct downloads (all manual entry?) and also the split-transaction situation? For example, say you have a PayPal deposit that is $30, but $25 of it is merchandise, and $3 of it is shipping/handling, and $2 is sales tax? I like to see those as separate line items. Or another example: a credit card expense for your craft materials is $50: $30 of it bead supplies (i.e. an inventory item which you deduct only once the finished item is sold), $20 of it is office supplies (deductible right away).
Just curious if anyone had any work-arounds… or do I need to stick with Quickbooks…? I’m likely asking too much for free software, but I was wondering how so many of you are working that out.
THANKS for any advice!!
I’ve read all the comments which brings me to the question no one asked: where is the catch?? I will sign up (not done yet) but wonder why for free? Quickbooks is a pain and not for free, in fact pretty expensive. I know, I sound very sceptic although I will jump in and hope this happy “break” will work for me too!
Will let you know….. promise!
The “catch” as in how does Outright build a successful business giving stuff away for free?
It’s easier than it sounds. As Anne pointed out above, “1099 e-filing is only $5 or free if the 1099 recipient signs up with Outright.” Outright.com also states that they may introduce a fee-based tier in the future, while the basic book-keeping system will always remain free. They have also partnered with shoeboxed.com, a fee-based service that scans and itemizes all your receipts and automatically imports the information to your Outright books.
Giving stuff away for free is the basis of viral marketing– make a terrific product, give it away for free, it becomes wildly popular, and then the few people who pay for extra services, and the advertisers, make up for all the people using the service for free. Cool, right?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123335678420235003.html
[...] accounting software review: outright.com [...]
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I don’t think it is free. It costs $9.95 a month to use. Right?
I have been going back and forth for years now about how to handle my accounting on my own. I cannot justify paying someone, however I am a registered corp, not an llc, which does make the accounting question more complicated. As I work on a mac there are few options. I have been looking at gnucash, quickbooks and outright, but find that none fulfill all my needs. Granted…gnucash I am not sure cannot so the job but I was intimated by the complexity of installing it on a mac. I would love some advice…FYI, I work as a consultant in fashion but do not have any inventory, however I do take on freelancers. The icing on the cake would be something that helps at tax time filling more than just a simple 1040.
Thanks for the help!