Band financial software ?
 

Is anyone out there using some kind of financial software (preferably mac freeware :P) to manage your bands financial side ?

I'm the cashier, and I tend to be having a difficult time tracking the money. I've been using excel and it's getting pretty cluttered.

What I need to do:

Band gets money for gig, spread down into members and into a band fund. but sometimes we have a sub playing.

Someone buys something for the band, using his own money, band need to pay back.

Band needs to pay rent.


How are you guys managing all the calculations ?

Separate federal I'd number.... Separate bank account

Everyone gets 1099d

Any cash out is a check

Commercial bank accounts will send a scanned copy of deposits and checks

You could use Quicken or any of the book keeping software.

Its really not the software but knowing how to use it.

Do you and your band truly know what debit and credit means and what are "T-accounts" and how they are the basis of accounting?

I helped a friend set up his accounting software BUT before doing that we identified every potential type of transaction and made a complete list . . . from that list we made a guide on how to enter all transactions into the accounting system.

We then set up the "accounts" and entered 6 months of transactions (75 pieces of paper)

Your best friend is an experienced bookkeeper who will spend a day and help you set up your software and identify the accounts you need.

Keep the whole thing as simple as you can.

Remember to cross reference every entry you make into the system with each piece of paper . . . receipts, cheques etc.

Also you have to reconcile you bank account otherwise your books will not balance.

Many banks will let you download a spreadsheet format... No software required -- they do it for you

After being bookkeeper for a while I found out band members didn't understand the difference between "gross" and "net". We did all the books by hand, now I'd probably use Quicken.

Microsft Money is now a free dowload. It can help tremendously

Dumb question....

Is there an iOS cloud version of quicken yet?

According to PCWorld 2012 October, Intuit plans to have Quicken support it this year

Big +1. I have a saying (one of many): Never ask a computer to do something that I can't or wouldn't do myself, by hand!