What type software?  One for doing bids?  Spreadsheets?  Accounting?

Quick Books Constuction or Pro and  MS office suites w outlook.

Likely the most popular programs out there. Know where you stand at the touch of a button.

This will do for up to 50 or so employees, at which time you can look at other and more costly options.
easy to use and can make an accountant out of allmost anybody
Regular updates, industry specific, federal and semi local updates for governmental stuff.

Might seem costly starting out but cheaper in the long run and can easily be shared with other programs and your accountant.

If I were to start again I might look at some of googles on line stuff, office suites and on line storage. Lowest initial cost but havent tried it. Not sure what they might have for accounting software. MIght be an advantage with the newest smart phones and tablets etc..

You could also buy a web site for storage and E- addresses. My current ones have 100s of e-mails and mega storage capability which we use to back up or share portions of our info.. Oh yeah theres also the benefit of having a advertising web site that all the on line yellow pages will point to. Even if it just has your name, phone and a small blurb

heres the free version of MS  works. open office. ive used it for years

I'd strongly suggest reading the documentation first before diving in to set things up. That way you're likely to have less issues.

And do remember to take backups of the data and store them someone away from home.

Also watch out for updates, especially ones related to legislation changes, like tax rates, which are pretty complex in the US (compared to most countries).

Mike, you aren't kidding about the tax codes here.  You need to be a rocket scientist to understand them!  Good thing we already have an accountant.

Jerry, I always back up Jesse's to a hard disk.  Good point about online though, I'll look into it.

Thanks guys!

Mike NZ wrote on Dec 19^th, 2010 at 12:28am:


Geez, You really think so?  The last year I drove a truck I spent over 60 hours doing my taxes.  Talk about wasted productivity!

Jerry

Definately recommend Mozy or Carbonite as Jerry says. As careful as I am, I actually had an external drive crap out on me this year. Schedule a weekly backup at a minimum. Cost is minimal if you are careful to only back up the business data ( as opposed to programs and data).

Great idea Marc.  I think I'll look into that as well.

Open Office gives the same service as Microsoft Office, but free.  I've used both, and haven't found any difference in service.  I've not used either all that much, so am interested in input.

Jerry