Adventures In QuickBooks

My business is starting to get large enough that I feel I need to keep records in something more elaborate than a manila envelope in a frequently knocked-over drawer. (The fact that it is still a very, very small business doesn't speak well of my mental powers, then...) So I looked into getting some software. I got a free trial of QuickBooks 2004 and I liked it a lot... until I saw the price tag. Even at Sam's Club it costs nearly $150. Needless to say I could not afford that right now. I'm having to stock up on yarn to make enough goods to meet the increased demand at Christmas, and I stubbornly refuse to go into debt (I'm in enough debt already, thank you very much).

So I had an idea-- I'll get QuickBooks 2003, for much much less! Wrong. On eBay, QuickBooks 2003 is going for $100 or more. QuickBooks 2002? $80. And QuickBooks 2002 is being "sunsetted" next year-- it will no longer have tech support. I asked my dad, the Bargain Emperor, to keep an eye out for QuickBooks for me in his travels through the thrift store yard and bid sale scene. My dad was able to give me a copy of QuickBooks 1999. It was only the disk, though, with the serial number written on it.

I loaded it up on my computer and it wouldn't read the file I'd set up in QuickBooks 2004, but that was just as well because I'd already screwed up entering my inventory and would have had to do it over again anyway. I re-entered everything and now it is working fine-- for now. Unfortunately it did not come with a registration code, so it has only twenty uses unless I can register it at a website that, alas, no longer exists anyway.

The QuickBooks 1999 is only an interim solution. I will have to get a newer version sooner than I can afford it. So as much as I hate to beg shamelessly for money, I thought I'd put a donation link on the sidebar, and if any of my readers would like to donate a few bucks toward my QuickBooks fund, I'd sure appreciate it.