I'm not actually running a web hosting business--or intending to anytime soon--but I'm an accounting student curious about the industry.

How do you, as an owner of one of these companies, keep track of your transactions and financial information?

How is your company structured? Are you incorporated? How many employees do you have?
Do you have staff dedicated to accounting and finance, or do you take care of it yourself?
What kind of software do you use--Quickbooks, just Excel, old fashioned journals and ledgers?
Do you actually prepare financial statements, and on what timetable? Yearly, quarterly? What fiscal year do you use?
If you're willing to share, about how many accounts do you have, and what is your gross margin on sales?


It's just curiosity, because I don't see much discussion on these sorts of topics here, and it's often an area somewhat neglected by small businesses.

1.)Self-Proprietorship
2.)Myself or my accountant
3.)Quickbooks & Excel
4.)Quarterly
5.) I'll be retired by 30. :)

1.) Schedule C, will be an LLC in a few weeks
2.) I do, currently, and we also have an accountant checking things out
3.) ClientExec does invoicing and keeps detailed records, beyond that I maintain a journal and balance sheet with Excel
4.) Quarterly as well
5.) We have no intent to sell stock at this time

1) LLC, soon to be C-Corp
2) Just myself, I'm planning on hiring an office manager to take over the day-to-day bookwork
3) Quickbooks Pro 2005 + H-Sphere
4) Yes, Monthly, and I check 'unofficial' reports weekly
5) We are in the XXX's of acounts

1) Incorporation. Team of 3, growing.
2) I have an accounting firm handle the entire accounting cycle.
3) QuickBooks is what they use.
4) Monthly financial statements
5) High XXX range.

Originally posted by qwidjib0
1.) Schedule C, will be an LLC in a few weeks
2.) I do, currently, and we also have an accountant checking things out
3.) ClientExec does invoicing and keeps detailed records, beyond that I maintain a journal and balance sheet with Excel
4.) Quarterly as well
5.) We have no intent to sell stock at this time

He didn't ask about stocks? :confused:

But he DID say the word share! :)

Hell Perner,


1) Currently I have one company structured as an L.L.P that is Optical Intelligence. Nevertheless, I will be registering UniServe Hosting as an L.L.C within the next week. Currently it's just me and my partner.

2) My mother is an accountant herself and does the books for my business. Nonetheless, we're not a company or corporation such as Nortel Networks :p but hopefully one day.

3) For all the accounting and bookkeeping she uses Simply Accounting Professional. Also, Simply Accounting 2005 PRO 5-User is Priced at $699USD so $700USD. It's not your basic or cheap quickbooks/cantax software. It has a bunch of useful features.

If your planning on obtaining your CGA, CA etc i'd suggest you learn Simply Accounting Pro.

4) Yes we prepare financial statements and this is done monthly.

5) I'd rather not disclose such information at this time.

Hey Rman,

If you'll be retired by 30, how old are you now ? :stickout:

Hey Rman,

If you'll be retired by 30, how old are you now ? :stickout:

I'm 23. If you'd like to know anything else, please feel free to drop by www.ryanmangers.com and be sure to follow up if you have any additional questions or comments! ;)

Even if you don't plan to do your books, learn as much about it as you can. It's the best thing you can know about your business.

Zak