Here are the various options if you want accounting software for an Apple Mac.
Apple Mac computers are increasingly popular. However, the range of software applications available for the Mac has traditionally been a lot smaller than that available for Windows PCs. Apple Macs are particularly poorly served in the area of business software, with far fewer financial applications available compared to the range for Microsoft Windows based PCs. However, the future for the Mac looks a lot brighter. Recent Apple computers have been wildly popular, and as a result an increasing number of business software applications are available. The other important development is the rise in popularity of web based financial applications. Since these are used over the Internet they can normally be used with any type of computer, freeing up a Mac user from the lack of software availability.
Intuit QuickBooks for Mac is one of the best and the most popular Mac accounting software packages. The software has been designed specifically for the Mac, so it has the standard intuitive Mac user interface. QuickBooks contains the usual small business accountancy features, such as the ability to raise invoices, pay bills and track company expenses. For medium sized businesses or small businesses with several staff QuickBooks allows multi-user access to the company financial data.
QuickBooks for Mac offers a whole host of other options, including an optional Payroll module. There are also time and mileage trackers which help to keep a lid on company expenditure. The time tracker functionality is especially useful for creative Mac based businesses as they can easily track the time spent on projects being created for different clients. QuickBooks has many time saving built in features, such as the ability to take Credit Card and Debit Card transactions within QuickBooks itself.
QuickBooks takes advantages of other benefits of the Mac operating system. It can reuse the business contacts stored in the Mac address book, so the data doesn't need to be re-keyed. It also supports the MobileMe backup solution so there's less chance of a disaster causing essential business financial information to be lost.
Other commercial accounts packages for the Mac include Myob AccountEdge and FinanceToGo. AccountEdge is popular with small businesses that have an e-commerce enabled website, as the website products can be managed from within AccountEdge. AccountEdge can then be used to track orders and the profitability of each product line.
FinanceToGo imports accounts from Quicken. It supports the standard double-entry accounting and has multiple currency support. Like QuickBooks it also uses the familiar Mac based features including the address book.
For companies on a tight budget, there are a range of free Mac accounting software packages.