Small business accounting and project management

This post is bit of a deviation from my usual posts of cartoons and gadgets. At the beginning of the month I took the plunge (perhaps with concrete shoes) of setting up on my own as a freelance designer and every day I come across necessary things which I have no joy in doing (accounting, project management, etc.) which I’d like to take less time to do, and wish were easier to manage.

At the moment I’m looking into something (or a couple of things) that I can manage jobs with. As a consultant it’s a fairly simple process: I quote a client for a job, the quote is approved (or amended and approved), the job is done, the client is invoiced, the invoice is paid.

Fairly simple? Yes. Now, why can’t I find a software application that can help me record that process? I’ve had a quick look at MYOB BusinessBasics but, while it probably can do what I want, it seems overly complicated. Another one that appears interesting is Quickbooks SimpleStart, but they don’t seem to have a downloadable demo. Mark Boulton anncouned an application called Flow a little while ago, which looks quite interesting as well. But that’s not available yet, and I really need something immediately!

If anyone has any suggestions to a suitable solution, let me know. It’d have to work on a Windows machine though. Cheers!