I know some on here have issues with Google's security but I use their online office sweet which includes a calendar amongst other things. I use this as I can add events to it and it will be updated no matter where I am and I do not have to worry about my PC crashing as it is on Google's servers.

As for record keeping, I made my own spreadsheet in excel that I can choose different categories that either figure in tax or it does not and it itemizes the categories for taxes.

As for billing, I use yet another spreadsheet for invoices and I have developed a numbering system for keeping track of them based on the client and whether they are repeat customers.

Oh yeah, I use Openoffice.org for the spreadsheets and I use Google's online calendar, which are both free products.

j razz

I have three Chimps that take care of most things around the office.
I had a forth but he crashed the company car & never came back.

It's a tall order to get it all working together and still be simple.

I was looking at a groupware application called eGroupware that can do a lot of these things. I think it was an article on Toms Hardware about groupware that led me to look at it.

I was mainly looking out of curiosity. Our small office uses Outlook (but no Exchange) and we have our own IMAP server in house to bring in and distribute the mail. There wasn't a real need to change that, as very few of us would work with this stuff while away from the office. I'd like a central calendar but no one else here seems to share that opinion. These things become a lot more necessary when you've got more than 8 people.

IMO, the two most useful things to be able to share are an address book and a calendar, and ideally you want something that Outlook or Thunderbird can access.

Rob Mack

Why use anything but Quickbooks for invoicing?

The 2008 version finally integrates with Outlook so you don't have to e-mail invoices through Intuit's system.

There are many advantages to using purpose-built software for all bookkeeping, and it isn't expensive either. Works better multiuser too, compared to spreadsheets...

I am still pinching my arm trying to understand how on earth Microsoft could have avoided steamrolling the product everyone loved to hate, Quickbooks. Now the opportunity is slowly trickling away, as Intuit is patching the biggest idiot holes and there is less to complain about.

In the meantime, MS, in spite of having bought a top accounting software company, Great Plains, can't get their act together at all. Amazingly, their QB equivalent is worse, when they should have been able to literally wipe QB off the map with support (not "better support", just "support") and a product designed for users rather than for product managers.

And Peachtree? Ditto.

For all its faults, QB is still the best, I just can't understand it.

Note that QB's Customer Manager, or whatever it is called, is totally useless. I got it for free, used it for three days and promptly uninstalled it. If I told you how it works, you wouldn't believe me.

The best CRM database is still Goldmine. I have been using it for 10 years with multiuser access, and have about 10,000 clients and prospects in mine, never lost so much as a comma. It rocks! It comes with a dBase database, but is just as happy talking to a SQL database.

It doesn't need any support, which is good because there isn't any.

jrazz - if you weren't aware, Openoffice.org recently added an extension to import and export docs to Google:

http://extensions.services.openoffice.org/project/ooo2gd

In addition to using OpenOffice for my basic office app needs, I use Mozilla Thunderbird with the Lightening extension for calendaring. I can then link to my Google Calendar and share according to email address. I can then add a new event and can access it through Google Calendar or Lightening. Not as glamorous as Outlook, but it gets the job done.

Why anyone would still use the bloatware known as Outlook is beyond me.

But some feel they need it I guess.

Cliff Etzel - Solo Video Journalist
bluprojekt

I can think of two reasons. Not great reasons, though. The first is that they already use it, the second is that their clients use it.

I use Outlook every day, as do three out of the other four people in our office. It's not just an email program, it's the bulk of our institutional memory. We exchange so much information via email that this is a way that we store our company's knowledge in an historical way.

Don't get me wrong though. It's an incredibly frustrating program that needs to be nursed along.

Oh, and don't mistake Oulook with Outlook Express. What a stupid move it was to give the two such similar names.

Rob Mack