With all the software packages out there for small business owners, which one should you pick? Xero, MYOB or Quickbooks? It’s not that simple for a manufacturer, even a small one like my business.

When I started The Refoundry, I struggled to decide because none of them seemed to calculate inventory and Cost of Goods Sold for manufactured products properly. So, I ended up doing all my books on a complex spreadsheet. When it came time to do my company taxes last year, it was horrible! I couldn’t even file electronically without using an agent.

Having learned my lesson after that very time consuming, end of year process, I decided that had to make up my mind and choose something this year. My soap maker was using Xero, but needed to add another manufacturing app to make it work. Given the size of their business, it made sense, but I couldn’t justify the additional cost for mine yet.

I also found Xero extremely restrictive at the lower level plans. It was cheap if you only had a few transactions a month like I do with my consulting business. However, The Refoundry did more than 300+ transactions last year. Also, I didn’t like how restrictive it was for things like customising the invoices.

With MYOB, it’s a more complex system and allows for a lot more customisations. While I used MYOB a bit at my last job, I still found myself looking at the help page too often because it wasn’t as intuitive. I also found it limiting to set up automations for future transactions.

Quickbooks was my favourite of all the packages that I tried, but it too had its quirks. For one, my bank was not on their list. So, I actually had to set up a new account with a new bank to download the transactions. I wouldn’t have bothered if it were not for the fact that it allowed the most customised features and automations for the price.

To be clear, none of these packages calculate Cost of Good Sold properly for a manufacturer. It will only do it if you’re reselling products. Instead, you have to add another inventory management package that integrates with the accounting software. I can’t justify that additional price tag or the time to set that up right now. Instead, I’ve decided to continue to do that part in a spreadsheet and manually transfer that over as needed via a journal entry.

So, is it Xero, MYOB or Quickbooks?

I chose Quickbooks because it was the most intuitive and would save me time later via the automations. Still, it certainly isn’t a perfect fit for my manufacturing needs, but neither are the others.