Business Accounting help....

[SkyHog]

Anyone want to answer a really easy question using QuickBooks (I'm using PostBooks, but the idea is similar enough for this):

Lets say I have an account with $x in it (for ease, lets say $10,000) for business purposes. The money was received through stock sales.

I have to debit something to credit it somewhere it appears. What do you credit for an opening balance like that?

Additionally, lets say I bought $y in office supplies...envelopes, etc. For ease, we'll say that's $100.00. I assume I need to debit $100.00 from the bank account, and credit the office supplies account....but what if I don't want to credit it as having $100.00 worth of office supplies, or I don't want to track the supplies as an asset since they get used so quickly. Is that an option?

I know these are basic questions, and down the road shortly, I plan on having an accountant do this stuff for me, but until I start actually earning money, I'd rather do this myself first.

 

[smccray]

Opening the account, debit the cash and credit equity.

For supplies, debit supplies expense and credit either a payable or cash. you don't need to inventory supplies unless the amount on havd is a material amount.

Anyone want to answer a really easy question using QuickBooks (I'm using PostBooks, but the idea is similar enough for this):

Lets say I have an account with $x in it (for ease, lets say $10,000) for business purposes. The money was received through stock sales.

I have to debit something to credit it somewhere it appears. What do you credit for an opening balance like that?

Additionally, lets say I bought $y in office supplies...envelopes, etc. For ease, we'll say that's $100.00. I assume I need to debit $100.00 from the bank account, and credit the office supplies account....but what if I don't want to credit it as having $100.00 worth of office supplies, or I don't want to track the supplies as an asset since they get used so quickly. Is that an option?

I know these are basic questions, and down the road shortly, I plan on having an accountant do this stuff for me, but until I start actually earning money, I'd rather do this myself first.

 

[Jaybird180]

Not an accountant but IIRC this is called double-entry accounting and may not be best suited to all situations.

 

[Cap'n Jack]

Anyone want to answer a really easy question using QuickBooks (I'm using PostBooks, but the idea is similar enough for this):

Lets say I have an account with $x in it (for ease, lets say $10,000) for business purposes. The money was received through stock sales.

I have to debit something to credit it somewhere it appears. What do you credit for an opening balance like that?

Money from stock shares? There would be a liability (share holders's equity) for $10,000. The corresponding asset would be cash ($10,000)

Additionally, lets say I bought $y in office supplies...envelopes, etc. For ease, we'll say that's $100.00. I assume I need to debit $100.00 from the bank account, and credit the office supplies account....but what if I don't want to credit it as having $100.00 worth of office supplies, or I don't want to track the supplies as an asset since they get used so quickly. Is that an option?

I know these are basic questions, and down the road shortly, I plan on having an accountant do this stuff for me, but until I start actually earning money, I'd rather do this myself first.

Unless keeping a large inventory, the office supplies would be an expense account, debited from your cash.

I do have an MBA, but my experience in this is limited to my class work and some hobby type income. Doing double-entry is very appropriate for doing taxes; I suggest setting things up as double entry from the beginning, based on my experience.

I suggest you talk to a book keeper or accountant from the beginning. Doing it right from the beginning will save trouble down the road. Your local community college probably has book keeping for small business- consider taking the course. Your tax accountant would probably be able to help you.

 

[smccray]

Not an accountant but IIRC this is called double-entry accounting and may not be best suited to all situations.

I am a CPA :wink2:. I agree that double entry isn't suitable for all situations, but it's not that hard. I'm not familiar with post books, but quickbooks automates most of the entries that need to be made.

To the OP- I would recommend using software your accountant is familiar with and having a discussion with him/her about any methods specific to your situation. you need advise specific to your situation, not just advise from a web forum.

 

[wabower]

Depending on the nature of the business, Quicken will accomplish everything you need. Quickbooks and other bigger/fancier systems are overkill for a high percentage of businesses that are just tracking revenues and expenses and don't have a significant number of depreciable assets or complex inventory issues. All of the systems are based on the double-entry method, but some are simplified since cash is most-often the other side of whatever entry is being made.

 

[jesse]

Call me crazy but I just use a spreadsheet.

 

[flyingcheesehead]

Additionally, lets say I bought $y in office supplies...envelopes, etc. For ease, we'll say that's $100.00. I assume I need to debit $100.00 from the bank account, and credit the office supplies account....but what if I don't want to credit it as having $100.00 worth of office supplies, or I don't want to track the supplies as an asset since they get used so quickly. Is that an option?

The "Office Supplies" account should be an expense account, not an asset account. The balance in that account doesn't mean you're "tracking them as an asset," the balance in that account simply represents what you've spent on office supplies.

Nick, I know you hate "closed source" software, but as someone who's been there - Just get QuickBooks. I started a business using something else and eventually ended up having to switch to QB. It was a royal pain in the ass to make the switch - Not because of QuickBooks, but because of having all the data in another package first. We had considered QuickBooks at the start but cheaped out, and lived to regret it. Ugh.

The other thing with QuickBooks is that most accountants seem to use it too - And it's nice to get your end-of-year wrapped up by simply sending them your QuickBooks file. That was another thing I learned the hard way: While a CPA can be expensive, they are worth every damn penny. And that's coming from someone who's always done his own taxes and not found it particularly hard. (I did do the sales taxes, payroll taxes, etc. for the company myself, as well, but the 1120S did me in.)

I'm of the opinion that Intuit is one of the more evil software companies out there, and I'll never buy Quicken again because of that (and the fact that there are plenty of worthwhile Quicken competitors on the market), but the simple fact is that QuickBooks is still the best product there is for small businesses. So, while it makes me feel dirty, I still recommend it.

 

[John Baker]

Why do you need it to be all complicated? Keep it as simple as possible.

Your start up capital is $10,000.00
Deduct your expenses from that $10,000.00 Keep proof of these expenses.
Add any money you take in to the $10,000.00, Show it as income. Keep a copy of all sales receipts to back up that income.

Set up your quick books to write your checks, (expenses)
You will be prompted by the program of what you have to do.

Don't forget to collect sales tax. Show it as such.

This stuff is not hard.

John

 

[SkyHog]

Money from stock shares? There would be a liability (share holders's equity) for $10,000. The corresponding asset would be cash ($10,000)



Unless keeping a large inventory, the office supplies would be an expense account, debited from your cash.

I do have an MBA, but my experience in this is limited to my class work and some hobby type income. Doing double-entry is very appropriate for doing taxes; I suggest setting things up as double entry from the beginning, based on my experience.

I suggest you talk to a book keeper or accountant from the beginning. Doing it right from the beginning will save trouble down the road. Your local community college probably has book keeping for small business- consider taking the course. Your tax accountant would probably be able to help you.

Thanks for the guidance. I got it figured out!

 

[SkyHog]

The "Office Supplies" account should be an expense account, not an asset account. The balance in that account doesn't mean you're "tracking them as an asset," the balance in that account simply represents what you've spent on office supplies.

Nick, I know you hate "closed source" software, but as someone who's been there - Just get QuickBooks. I started a business using something else and eventually ended up having to switch to QB. It was a royal pain in the ass to make the switch - Not because of QuickBooks, but because of having all the data in another package first. We had considered QuickBooks at the start but cheaped out, and lived to regret it. Ugh.

The other thing with QuickBooks is that most accountants seem to use it too - And it's nice to get your end-of-year wrapped up by simply sending them your QuickBooks file. That was another thing I learned the hard way: While a CPA can be expensive, they are worth every damn penny. And that's coming from someone who's always done his own taxes and not found it particularly hard. (I did do the sales taxes, payroll taxes, etc. for the company myself, as well, but the 1120S did me in.)

I'm of the opinion that Intuit is one of the more evil software companies out there, and I'll never buy Quicken again because of that (and the fact that there are plenty of worthwhile Quicken competitors on the market), but the simple fact is that QuickBooks is still the best product there is for small businesses. So, while it makes me feel dirty, I still recommend it.

I actually moved everything into OpenERP. Much better, methinks. I have QuickBooks (an older version) from my time with High Desert Networking, but honestly, it sucks, and its not intuitive, and its hard to figure out how to do simple ****.

OpenERP is much better. Its very similar to SAP in many ways, and SAP seems to make more sense to me.

As for spending money on Accounting Software? Not happening. In fact, our corporate bylaws forbid spending money on closed source software unless there is not a comparable open source solution....goes this way:

1. Free Open Source
2. Free Closed Source
3. Paid Open Source
4. Paid Closed Source

So in order to even consider QuickBooks, we'd first have to exhaust every possibility through FOSS, Free Closed Source and POSS.

I'd just start using the budget application I wrote for personal use first to see if it works.

 

[Cap'n Jack]

You can probably set it up in MySQL (rule #1) or SQL Express (Rule #2) with a nice front-end to make it easy to setup various assets, liabilities, and expenses and make entries.

 

[Trapper John]

As for spending money on Accounting Software? Not happening. In fact, our corporate bylaws forbid spending money on closed source software unless there is not a comparable open source solution...

Pretty easy to get wrapped up in what color to paint the barn, meanwhile the door's open and the horses are getting out...

 

[SCCutler]

Nick:

Establish a relationship with a good CPA, and do what they say, including choice of software. You will save so much money, you cannot even imagine, not to mention how much "brain damage" you'll avoid.

Just sayin'...

 

[flyingcheesehead]

Pretty easy to get wrapped up in what color to paint the barn, meanwhile the door's open and the horses are getting out...

Yup. To put such a thing in one's corporate bylaws is silly. To run a successful business, you must always use the best tools possible.

I have QuickBooks (an older version) from my time with High Desert Networking, but honestly, it sucks, and its not intuitive, and its hard to figure out how to do simple ****.

It may not seem easy, but that's mostly because it kinda forces you to comply with standard double-entry accounting practices, which themselves don't always make sense. (LOL - This is reminding me of some of the "accounting voodoo" that the CPA's put into the QuickBooks file - Moving money from an account called "Current Portion Long Term Debt" to another one called "Long Term Debt - Current Portion" )

Of the packages that keep you honest, QuickBooks is by far the easiest to use IME.

Also, I actually got my current copy of QuickBooks for free when I bought a new Mac. It was the "New User Edition" but that meant you had to "register" it after 30 uses. When I called to "register" they just gave me a code to type in and it didn't cost me a dime... Just added me to their junk (snail) mail list, which meant a flyer advertising the new version about once a year.

 

[SkyHog]

Yup. To put such a thing in one's corporate bylaws is silly. To run a successful business, you must always use the best tools possible.

I disagree. To run a successful business, one needs to spend money as if its their own, and wasting money on software because it has a Brand Name is usually not money-wise, IMHO.

It may not seem easy, but that's mostly because it kinda forces you to comply with standard double-entry accounting practices, which themselves don't always make sense. (LOL - This is reminding me of some of the "accounting voodoo" that the CPA's put into the QuickBooks file - Moving money from an account called "Current Portion Long Term Debt" to another one called "Long Term Debt - Current Portion" )

Of the packages that keep you honest, QuickBooks is by far the easiest to use IME.

OpenERP works much the same functionally, but it doesn't feel like a 3rd grader wrote it. I really like it so far, and it makes this whole thing much simpler to work out (and still forces "Correct behavior."

I'd rather spend my money on operating the business, rather than trying to learn a software package that is only intuitive to those that have taken a training class in it.

 

[SkyHog]

Nick:

Establish a relationship with a good CPA, and do what they say, including choice of software. You will save so much money, you cannot even imagine, not to mention how much "brain damage" you'll avoid.

Just sayin'...

Once I get money flowing (negative or positive), I don't plan on doing any of this anymore, which is why I don't want to spend money on a crappy software package. I'd rather limp through until I can just hand the whole thing off to someone else.

 

[flyingcheesehead]

I disagree. To run a successful business, one needs to spend money as if its their own, and wasting money on software because it has a Brand Name is usually not money-wise, IMHO.

That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying "Use the best tool for the job, regardless of whether it was written by a corporation or a bunch of collaborating individuals." Corporate bylaws are not the place to be making software decisions, either... And I would say that any company that writes something to the effect of "the company shall not use any open source software unless there's nothing else available" would be making the exact same mistake you are.

I'd rather spend my money on operating the business, rather than trying to learn a software package that is only intuitive to those that have taken a training class in it.

I've never taken a training class in QuickBooks or any other accounting package. I learned the basic principles of accounting while working for some small businesses in high school and shortly thereafter, and used both Peachtree and MYOB prior to moving to QuickBooks. QB is by far the most intuitive of those.

Once I get money flowing (negative or positive), I don't plan on doing any of this anymore, which is why I don't want to spend money on a crappy software package. I'd rather limp through until I can just hand the whole thing off to someone else.

If you have someone else doing the simple bookkeeping, you're going to be spending a lot of $$$ and drastically reducing your profits, something that's not good in the early stages of the business when you should be focusing your money on reinvesting in growth. The more you can do yourself (and doing it the right way will save you money) the better.

I really do wholeheartedly agree with what Spike said:

Establish a relationship with a good CPA, and do what they say, including choice of software. You will save so much money, you cannot even imagine, not to mention how much "brain damage" you'll avoid.

 

[SkyHog]

That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying "Use the best tool for the job, regardless of whether it was written by a corporation or a bunch of collaborating individuals." Corporate bylaws are not the place to be making software decisions, either... And I would say that any company that writes something to the effect of "the company shall not use any open source software unless there's nothing else available" would be making the exact same mistake you are.



I've never taken a training class in QuickBooks or any other accounting package. I learned the basic principles of accounting while working for some small businesses in high school and shortly thereafter, and used both Peachtree and MYOB prior to moving to QuickBooks. QB is by far the most intuitive of those.



If you have someone else doing the simple bookkeeping, you're going to be spending a lot of $$$ and drastically reducing your profits, something that's not good in the early stages of the business when you should be focusing your money on reinvesting in growth. The more you can do yourself (and doing it the right way will save you money) the better.

I really do wholeheartedly agree with what Spike said:

The bylaw merely states that all thing equal, free software is to be used over commercial, and then outlines the order of preference. For packages without a comparable FOSS package, there's nothing that prohibits its use. But, take OpenOffice compared to Microsoft Office: any reason to pay, when they're identical?

If you checkout PostBooks, you'll see that it is exactly the same as QuickBooks, which is why I'm not using it anymore. But if you like QuickBooks, PostBooks does just fine.

Now, PhotoShop has no true equal. The Gimp won't cut it, so PhotoShop would work just fine with the bylaw.

Why a bylaw? To avoid quick decisions where an equally featured free package works just fine. Seen it too many times in big business. Its the only reason a company would run Windows Server for a web platform. Or Oracle instead of Postgres.

 

[flyingcheesehead]

Why a bylaw? To avoid quick decisions where an equally featured free package works just fine. Seen it too many times in big business. Its the only reason a company would run Windows Server for a web platform. Or Oracle instead of Postgres.

Why a bylaw when you're small enough to be making all the purchasing decisions yourself? And why a bylaw when a corporate policy document will work?

 

[denverpilot]

Why a bylaw? To avoid quick decisions where an equally featured free package works just fine. Seen it too many times in big business. Its the only reason a company would run Windows Server for a web platform. Or Oracle instead of Postgres.

Informix kicks Oracle and Postgres' butts up and down the yard for very little money, and is more stable than both too. Just sayin'...

Anyway, I think you're missing what they're saying. By-Laws are structural. Procedures for operational decisions go in procedures manuals.

Example : "Aircraft will be pre-heated by all members below 40F." That doesn't go in the by-laws. It goes in the Ops Manual.

By-laws describe how your Corporation remains a Corporation. Not how to run it.

By-laws say: "Annual meetings will be held and documented by the Secretary."

The Ops Manual(s) describe(s) that Board meetings will utilize Roberts Rules of Order, where they're held, who attends besides the Board, what constitutes a Quorum, etc.

You don't want to be changing the by-laws of the Corporation to match situational circumstances, or leave things in them that can trigger the piercing of the Corporate veil. By-laws typically have to be filed with the State of Incorporation every time they change.

Easier to say: "All officers of the Corporation will adhere to the current Operations Manual, published at X.", in the by-laws.

By-laws require votes of the Board to change them. Ops Manuals do not necessarily require anything more than a manager's approval. Changing by-laws that are too detailed can become a hurdle later on.

That's my understanding of it, anyway.

Example: If the by-laws have no "emergency" clause for lack of a quorum, the Board can stop anything by simply "forgetting" to show up. I was involved in a good organization that had interest wane in the meetings that required a certain number of Delegates to form a quorum, written into their by-laws. Money couldn't even be spent by the Officers to mail a letter to Delegates asking them to show up just once, so they could fix it to keep the thing running. It was messed up. Eventually they stumbled into an accidental quorum at one meeting and got the inappropriate items out of the by-laws, finally.

That's what I think the general idea here for what others are saying. Keep only business-contiuity items in the by-laws or you can get strung up in them and find them difficult to change if the business continuity plan tasks like "How to replace a deceased or incapacitated Board member," don't exist in the by-laws.

 

[SkyHog]

Informix kicks Oracle and Postgres' butts up and down the yard for very little money, and is more stable than both too. Just sayin'...

Anyway, I think you're missing what they're saying. By-Laws are structural. Procedures for operational decisions go in procedures manuals.

Example : "Aircraft will be pre-heated by all members below 40F." That doesn't go in the by-laws. It goes in the Ops Manual.

By-laws describe how your Corporation remains a Corporation. Not how to run it.

By-laws say: "Annual meetings will be held and documented by the Secretary."

The Ops Manual(s) describe(s) that Board meetings will utilize Roberts Rules of Order, where they're held, who attends besides the Board, what constitutes a Quorum, etc.

You don't want to be changing the by-laws of the Corporation to match situational circumstances, or leave things in them that can trigger the piercing of the Corporate veil. By-laws typically have to be filed with the State of Incorporation every time they change.

Easier to say: "All officers of the Corporation will adhere to the current Operations Manual, published at X.", in the by-laws.

By-laws require votes of the Board to change them. Ops Manuals do not necessarily require anything more than a manager's approval. Changing by-laws that are too detailed can become a hurdle later on.

That's my understanding of it, anyway.

Example: If the by-laws have no "emergency" clause for lack of a quorum, the Board can stop anything by simply "forgetting" to show up. I was involved in a good organization that had interest wane in the meetings that required a certain number of Delegates to form a quorum, written into their by-laws. Money couldn't even be spent by the Officers to mail a letter to Delegates asking them to show up just once, so they could fix it to keep the thing running. It was messed up. Eventually they stumbled into an accidental quorum at one meeting and got the inappropriate items out of the by-laws, finally.

That's what I think the general idea here for what others are saying. Keep only business-contiuity items in the by-laws or you can get strung up in them and find them difficult to change if the business continuity plan tasks like "How to replace a deceased or incapacitated Board member," don't exist in the by-laws.

Interesting. Because my bylaws do all of what you said bylaws should....and they describe the process by which software is bought.

So apparently they can do both.

But, I understand the concern about over tightening ourselves. That was intentional in this case, but I think we've done an excellent job with the rest of the bylaws, making sure our quorum rules are straightfoward (and, for what its worth, there are 2 people with a large enough controlling interest to always hit the quorum, and they'll always be there)

Similarly, with the director's meeting quorum, it will easily be hit, thankfully, but not so easily that others can force things through.

 

[Dr. O]

I think everyone missed the point...
It's a small business... Why spend money on a computer and software?
Twenty bucks will buy a business ledger and a #2 pencil (assuming they still make them?)
Manual accounting is all you need until the business ramps up to supporting an accountant... Forget this double entry crap... You have the owners investment in business as the first 'income' entry (the 10 grand) followed by monies received... You have one page for income (including the first entry), lets say the left page and you have the facing right page for expenses...
As you pay bills you enter the expense on the right side and on the matching line on the left side show your new $$ balance remaining... Any reasonably bright 8th grader can do this... As one of the pages fills up faster (usually the expenses side, durn it you transfer the bottom line(s) to the top of a new pair of facing pages and away you go... You use numbered jobs/sales tickets in a preprinted triple copy pad... When an expense is entered to the ledger, a job number is attached to it so you can cross reference later... When a payment is entered, ditto... With a triple copy jobs/sales book you have one for the customer, one for the master jobs file, and one for the book keeper (you initially)... I ran multiple businesses this way for decades until some idiot convinced me I needed a personal computer and totally complicated my life... That is when I hired an accountant...

 

[SkyHog]

Why a bylaw when you're small enough to be making all the purchasing decisions yourself? And why a bylaw when a corporate policy document will work?

Because this corporation is not staying that small very long, and corporate policies can change much more easily than a bylaw.

I gave it a lot of thought. Its the only bylaw that isn't about meeting times or some other boring minutiae of the corporation.

But its binding so that should the day come that a new officer comes on board and wants to buy Adobe Acrobat, he will need to get board approval first, which should discourage him to the point of using one of the numerous free options instead.

It also keeps Windows (and Mac) out of the business without a pretty solid business case.

Also note, that I am not the only officer of the corporation as of our first ShareHolder and subsequent board meeting in March, so its not accurate to say I'll be making all of the decisions.

 

[SkyHog]

I think everyone missed the point...
It's a small business... Why spend money on a computer and software?
Twenty bucks will buy a business ledger and a #2 pencil (assuming they still make them?)
Manual accounting is all you need until the business ramps up to supporting an accountant... Forget this double entry crap... You have the owners investment in business as the first 'income' entry (the 10 grand) followed by monies received... You have one page for income (including the first entry), lets say the left page and you have the facing right page for expenses...
As you pay bills you enter the expense on the right side and on the matching line on the left side show your new $$ balance remaining... Any reasonably bright 8th grader can do this... As one of the pages fills up faster (usually the expenses side, durn it you transfer the bottom line(s) to the top of a new pair of facing pages and away you go... You use numbered jobs/sales tickets in a preprinted triple copy pad... When an expense is entered to the ledger, a job number is attached to it so you can cross reference later... When a payment is entered, ditto... With a triple copy jobs/sales book you have one for the customer, one for the master jobs file, and one for the book keeper (you initially)... I ran multiple businesses this way for decades until some idiot convinced me I needed a personal computer and totally complicated my life... That is when I hired an accountant...

I don't do anything on paper because paper burns, paper gets spilled on, paper is inefficient, and paper costs money.

Free software does exactly what you describe, but its quicker, more stable, more easily backed up, and doesn't cost money.

edit: no offense, but I'm going to guess you're more than 65 years old, right? (seriously, no offense, but I'm testing a theory)

 

[SkyHog]

BTW,

I'll take advice from anyone on any topic ever, but I can actually defend this decision, and it was an important one that I struggled with making. I felt it was important enough to warrant a high level ruling on it, and that means that it will be more difficult to waste money on software.

It was the right decision at the time, and it will remain the right decision until someone somewhere comes out with a commercial, closed source software package that has no rival (note: I can only think of one so far).

 

[Trapper John]

Hope you've spent as much time and effort on a market study as you have on software.

 

[SkyHog]

Hope you've spent as much time and effort on a market study as you have on software.

We have spend quite a bit of time on it, actually. I think we're in a really good place for what we're planning on doing. The good thing is that we are actually starting in a place that won't yield the best results immediately, but will build a solid foundation for growth into markets where we will do very well in the near future.

The future is very bright for us right now.

Also note that this didn't take a lot of time to decide to save money where money could be saved. Lean is the way to go in most every aspect of business, IMHO.

 

[denverpilot]

I don't do anything on paper because paper burns, paper gets spilled on, paper is inefficient, and paper costs money.

Huh...? Computers burn, get spilled on, are inefficient, and cost money too. More money.

 

[CJones]

We have spend quite a bit of time on it, actually. I think we're in a really good place for what we're planning on doing. The good thing is that we are actually starting in a place that won't yield the best results immediately, but will build a solid foundation for growth into markets where we will do very well in the near future.

I saw on the news a few weeks ago that Iowa is considering legalizing 'home delivery' alcohol sales. Ready to franchise, Nick?

 

[SkyHog]

I saw on the news a few weeks ago that Iowa is considering legalizing 'home delivery' alcohol sales. Ready to franchise, Nick?

Nope. But that is interesting news. Which cities are Iowa and Iowa St Universities located in?

 

[Trapper John]

Nope. But that is interesting news. Which cities are Iowa and Iowa St Universities located in?

University of Iowa is in Iowa City, Iowa State is in Ames and University of Northern Iowa is in Cedar Falls. Those are the 3 biggest.

 

[flyingcheesehead]

until someone somewhere comes out with a commercial, closed source software package that has no rival (note: I can only think of one so far).

Just curious... What's that one?

 

[jesse]

Just curious... What's that one?

Photoshop

 

[SkyHog]

Photoshop

That's the one. Although, I suppose someone could make a case for Access, but I don't really know why anyone would use Access anymore...

 

[CJones]

Photoshop

What about Gimp?

 

[Obi Heed Kenobi]

We have spend quite a bit of time on it, actually. I think we're in a really good place for what we're planning on doing. The good thing is that we are actually starting in a place that won't yield the best results immediately, but will build a solid foundation for growth into markets where we will do very well in the near future.

The future is very bright for us right now.

Also note that this didn't take a lot of time to decide to save money where money could be saved. Lean is the way to go in most every aspect of business, IMHO.

All those damned yuppies at Wake Forest with their parents' money to burn, right?

I did have a long-winded post written, but I can tell you understand what you're doing, so I'll confine to my advice to this. Being as the corporate provisions have been raised, make sure you observe them all to the letter.

 

[Cap'n Jack]

Now, PhotoShop has no true equal. The Gimp won't cut it, so PhotoShop would work just fine with the bylaw.

Photoshop

What about Gimp?

OT- What's wrong with GIMP? It does almost everything I need and pretty much all Photoshop does. For stuff Photoshop or GIMP doesn't do, I'll use ImageJ.

I'd rather spend the $700 of flying.

 

[SkyHog]

OT- What's wrong with GIMP? It does almost everything I need and pretty much all Photoshop does. For stuff Photoshop or GIMP doesn't do, I'll use ImageJ.

I'd rather spend the $700 of flying.

I love The Gimp, but it doesn't output in Photoshop format, which my marketing people and my creative design people need to work. That's a killer for me. Plus, it crashes all the time on me when doing intensive work.

Those two reasons alone make it unacceptable for our use.

 

[Cap'n Jack]

I love The Gimp, but it doesn't output in Photoshop format, which my marketing people and my creative design people need to work. That's a killer for me. Plus, it crashes all the time on me when doing intensive work.

Those two reasons alone make it unacceptable for our use.

Either one is a valid reason.