Software to track expenses and supplies

[Ed Richards]

I am looking for some simple/cheap software to track photo expenses and keep track of supplies. Any suggestions?

[Keith Pitman]

Try Quicken; you can adapt it to a lot of things. Simplier still: Excel.

[Jerry Flynn]

Microsoft Excel or other spreadsheet would be the simplest.

You could also uses Microsoft Access - it provides some predessigned databases that may be adaptable to your purposes.

[neil poulsen]

I've used Quicken. It's easy to learn and us and has account capability with a lot of accounting conveniences. It's especially good for a cash-based system. (Versus accrual.)

[MIke Sherck]

I'll second the spreadsheet idea: it has a number of unique advantages.

<li>Most if not all Palm or pocket pc gadgets have spreadsheets, so you can keep track of things on the road using any one of a variety of tools, should you be so inclined.
<li>Spreadsheets are close to being a ubiquitous file format: practically any financial or database software product can import and export an Excel spreadsheet. This means that you can start with a simple spreadsheet and move the data to another package when you get rich and famous and your accountant starts to nag. You can also save summaries to your Palm or pocket-pc in case you don't want to leave home without it.
<li>Spreadsheets are simple: there isn't much of a learning curve or overhead when using them.
<li> Worst case, you can give the spreadsheet to your accountant and let them have at it.

It doesn't always pay to get too fancy, though. I wrote a little database app for my Palm which links to an encrypted PostgreSQL database on a Linux server through the IR port on my Thinkpad. It was fun. I'm not a pro and don't really need this sort of thing and haven't used it in the couple of years since I wrote it. So, naturally, I've forgotten the password.



Mike

[Paul Fitzgerald]

Microsoft Works, any version, has the templates you want and more can be downloaded from Microsoft. No learning curve needed and no computer overhead. Check ebay for it, always very cheap.

Have fun.

[james mickelson]

Pencil. Paper.