excel or stock cotrol prog help?

[oisin]

I am trying to figure out if it's possible to make an excel stock control program for a busy shop or is it better to go buy a ready made program?
Any one any ideas please? Or alternatives to suggest for that matter?

[rjfvillarosa]

I use Quick Books, for stock control and pricing, using Quick Books in this way makes invoicing very simple as well, it's all linked.
The only thing I find with Quick Books is that it can be a little invasive and nosey.

[oisin]

Are most of these programs like quick books a) international and b) is there any decent but free ones out there?

[rjfvillarosa]

Good question, I am returning to the UK soon and I wanted to take quick books with me.
First off as regards international, when you set the company up in Quick Books it asks a lot of information like SSN and EIN things like that but I am sure that most of that is because via updates it will help you select the right tax form and help you fill it out BUT I think that is mainly for the United States, I use it solely for stock control and invoice generating and for that the nationality or currency is imaterial. Quick Books can get as involved and complicated as you want it, I was born before computers so I still retain the ability to use a pen and paper and I prefer to keep my books on paper. I tried Quicken once but not being an accountant it completely lost me, it is not as easy to navigate as Quick Books
As regards any free accountancy software no idea, before I bought Quick Books I looked for a free program and I never found one, because I knew I was not going to use all the features of these programs I didn't want to pay big money for one, I gave the trial version of Quick Books a whirl and it convinced me to pay for it with it's ease of use.

[oisin]

Well I was born around the time they put a man on the moon, just before it in fact so I am okay with pen and paper. I am in France and a guy is looking for a computer technician. I go see him thinking great a job in hardware. he wants hardware software updates, ecommerce, and stock control. I know a little of all but not much of any one so I am trying to figure out if I should tell him to stuff it or gift wrap it. Anyway thats the aside. He mentioned using Access and having taught it in 97 I backed away and suggested excel might be easier or then again just buy one. Hence the question. I am winging it and as usual I come here to get my answers.

[rjfvillarosa]

Back last year I was looking at barcode scanners for my fatherinlaw and one company I looked at did a stock control program that was linked to the barcode scanner software, you could enter data manually or via the scanner and it was priced around $60 I think, what it was like and what else it could do I have no idea, try a google search for barcode readers, hardware and software, thats how I found it.