pat781•1mo ago

Question about switching from QuickBooks to something simpler for my coffee shop

I ran a small coffee shop in Portland for 5 years using QuickBooks and it always felt like overkill. Last month I finally switched to a plain spreadsheet and a cash register app that cost me $15 a month. My books are actually cleaner and it takes me 30 minutes a week instead of 3 hours. Has anyone else found that simpler tools work better for a small business or am I missing something important by ditching QuickBooks?

3 comments

3 Comments

brianreed1mo ago

You said "a spreadsheet is fine for now, just make sure you're backing it up somewhere safe" and that hit home hard. I backed up my spreadsheet to a flash drive once and then dropped that drive in a cup of coffee. Guess that's what I get for trying to go paperless at a coffee shop. I ended up using a free cloud service after that and it's been fine. For sales tax I just set up a separate folder for receipts and manually calculate it every quarter. It takes a little extra time but nothing like wrestling with QuickBooks. Honestly, if your shop stays small and you're good with numbers, a spreadsheet plus a cheap app is way less painful.

kai_webb911mo ago

QuickBooks can be a headache for a tiny operation but you might miss the inventory tracking and sales reports if your shop grows. A spreadsheet is fine for now, just make sure you're backing it up somewhere safe since losing that data would be a nightmare. Also keep an eye on sales tax, QuickBooks handles that automatically and messing it up with DIY tools can get expensive real fast.

karencampbell1mo ago

Sales tax in QuickBooks still needs you to set it up right or it will mess things up too.