Dammit Jim! Im a Technician not an Accountant!

Accounting is a word that will make most computer technicians shudder. We start our own computer businesses because of our technical prowess, we can build a complete computer in under 15 minutes and know how to fix most computer issues that come our way. We don’t get into this business to be sitting at a desk counting numbers.

However, as I have mentioned in the past, when you start your own business you become not only the computer technician but the manager, marketer, secretary and accountant as well. In this article we’ll explain why you need to do it and show you how to get started.

Why do I need to do accounting?

Think of your business like a styrofoam cup that has holes in the bottom, there are a few big holes and a lot of little ones. Now, think of the money that you earn (income) as water that is being poured into the top of the cup. Your business expenses are the water that is escaping though the holes in the bottom.

To run a successful business you need to keep the cup full at all times. If you are losing water (spending) quicker than you are pouring water into it (income) then you are going to run out of money.
This is where an accounting package can help you. I am sure you are aware of the big holes that are draining your money such as buying stock, marketing and rent but without an accounting package its hard to keep an eye on all the little holes like water, electricity, gas and bank fees. An accounting package can help you keep an eye on the financial health of your business.

Its often not the big holes that get you, but the little holes which drain the money and at the end of the year you are wondering “where did all the money go?”.

Another advantage of accounting software is that it can keep track of your invoices such as who has paid and who hasnt. There is nothing worse than doing the work, then forgetting about the invoice and never get paid. They can also track the cash that you receive on you onsite jobs.

The best feature of course is the “Profit and Loss” report which can show you, in either a positive number (hopefully) or a negative number how your business is doing

Getting Started

For new businesses, I recommend Quickbooks Simplestart. Its a basic accounting system that is free, straight forward and wont confuse people just starting to do their own accounting. The free version only allows you to have 20 customers but you can upgrade cheaply ($99.95 USD) when you hit that amount.

To download Quickbooks Simplestart, click HERE (thanks to greggh for the link).

I also recommend that you install it and enter fake information into it first. Do some fake invoices as if you were invoicing a real customer, give some refunds, move some money around and do some reports. That way you don’t have any wrong entries in your real copy that you can install after you feel comfortable with it. The website also has a bunch of video tutorials to show you how to use it.

As your business grows you can always upgrade your Quickbooks version to a more capable version that can handle credit card payments, payroll etc.. My only gripe with the Simplestart (or Easystart as its called in Australia) is that you cannot email invoices, the earliest version that can support emailing invoices is worth about $500 more.

However, I called up Quicken and asked them what format the emailed invoices are sent in and they responded with “PDF format as an attachment”. So to get around this limitation I installed a copy of PDF Creator, used the print function in Quickbooks and chose PDF Creator as my printer. PDF Creator turns it into a PDF, I attached it to an email myself and bobs your uncle, I saved myself $500 and you can do the same too.