Good Programs For Small Businesses

Hey guys, here is what's up. I am a fresh college graduate and so far I have been unable to find a job. In the meantime I am wanting to get my dad some type of Mac and teach him how to use it at our family convenience store. He is still using the ol' pen and paper system. I have nothing against that but he puts in alot of time at that store and I am hoping this will be something to help him get done sooner. I need some software suggestions. The only thing I am currently familiar with that would be beneficial is Microsoft Excel and Word.

Thanks for the help,
Goose

Since you're already familiar with MS Office for the Mac, we can skip that. For a small business, there are many applications which may be helpful. However, rather than listing them here, it would be best and more convenient for you to just access the Mac App Store when you get your Mac. Select "business apps" as a category and scan through the literally hundreds of applications that are available. The store lists the application description and in most cases has user reviews which you can read and get some idea of whether or not the application is any good.

I forgot to mention... the Mac App Store application selection icon is standard on all newer Macs so you can't miss it.

Can you be a little more specific on what he is doing by pen and paper? Double-entry bookkeeping? Inventory levels? Something else?

That will help us suggest programs that might help him.

chas_m said:

Can you be a little more specific on what he is doing by pen and paper? Double-entry bookkeeping? Inventory levels? Something else?

That will help us suggest programs that might help him.

Click to expand...

The one thing he does every day by pen and paper is the daily report to figure out how much the bank deposit will be.

I don't have the exact sheet with me but here is an example

Sales by department:
Grcoery
Deli
Fuel
Lottery

- Start money (the money put in the register at the beginning of the day so you have money to make change with)
+ End money (the money taken out that will be used to start the next day)

= Deposit for the day

chscag - Thanks I will check on the App Store.

Although I am sure there are a number of programs that can do this easily, because I'm familiar with it I'd suggest setting up either Numbers or Bento to make a nice custom form that does the math automatically.