CustomBooks
We like that CustomBooks provides multi-channel inventory, cloud banking, multi-entry time tracking, and cloud commerce capabilities for unlimited users.
We don’t like its crowded user interface, though you can easily customize workstation panels. The application is cloud-based, so it’s available from any device but does not offer a mobile app.
- Includes inventory management and time tracking
- No costs beyond subscription fee
- Use multiple modules at once via tabs
- No user limits
- Crowded user interface
- No mobile app
- Less efficient with high volume of transactions
- Developer AccountingSuite
- Client OS Web
- Deployment Cloud Hosted
What Is CustomBooks?
CustomBooks is an accounting software that offers banking integration, budgeting, financial reporting, and accounts receivables and payables. Modules include built-in project and time tracking, sales and purchases, and inventory management. CustomBooks also has an internal sales tax module and functionality with AvaTax.
Our Ratings
| Usability - 8.4 | Has docking and tabs system within browser tabs to expedite data entry; offers robust customization of workstation views; crowded user interface; navigation involves multiple dropdown lists and submenus. |
| Support - 10 | Offers support requests, live chat, and hotline; well-organized Knowledgebase and CustomBooks Academy training resources; highly-responsive support works closely with users to resolve issues. |
| Scalability - 9 | Includes all accounting features required for small and medium-sized businesses; inventory management and cloud banking are more extensive than other accounting solutions; no mobile app is available. |
| Security - 10 | Allows clients to access encrypted financial data in a reporting vault; offers user permissions at the modular level to restrict access to specific reports, documents, etc.; easily export data in PDF, Excel, CSV, HTML, and more formats. |
| Value - 10 | Competitive pricing with advanced features like multi-channel inventory management, cloud banking, multi-entry time tracking, and cloud commerce. |
| Performance - 7.4 | Slight delay after clicking icons and links; may need to refresh general ledger manually to view new transactions; runs less efficiently when managing high volume of transactions/multiple bank feeds. |
| Key Features - 10 | Order and bill entry auto-adjusts your inventory records; data entry sometimes requires cumbersome navigation; reporting offers precise time frames and parameters for customization. |
Who Uses CustomBooks?
We recommend CustomBooks for CPAs and small to mid-level distribution businesses. CPAs benefit from multi-entity accounting, reporting on multiple companies in a standardized chart of accounts. Distribution companies can use CustomBooks powerful inventory management to automate purchase orders, calculate the actual cost of goods sold, and assign barcodes, serial numbers, and lots to products.
How to Create Sales Invoices
As with other features in CustomBooks, invoicing offers rich personalization, including dropship specifications, promise dates, and custom product fields. We also liked that the New Invoice screen includes a simple text line that shows the costs and margins associated with that invoice.
We would like to see a reduction in dropdown menus and secondary windows. For example, you need to navigate to a new window to search for a specific company to invoice. A dropdown list of your most recently-billed customers would be helpful, before sending the user to a separate window for the complete customer list.
Here’s how to create an invoice in CustomBooks:
- Go to the Sales category on the Home page.
- Click the Invoices icon.
- Click the Create option in the upper left-hand corner of the Sales Invoice screen.
- Select New from the dropdown list.
- Choose your Customer from the dropdown list.
- Enter your Customer ID, Invoice date, Invoice number, etc.
- Click the Add button in the lower portion of the screen to add invoice line items.
- Enter the quantity, expected delivery date, discount info, etc.
- Click Save to create a draft or the Post and close button to finish the sales order.
How to Do Billing in CustomBooks
We like that billing automatically updates your inventory records to reflect the items you’ve received. The software also makes automatic inventory adjustments during invoicing, which is important when monitoring your stock levels. What’s more, CustomBooks prompts you to apply the bill to a purchase order, ensuring your internal records are unified.
Generating a bill in CustomBooks looks like this:
- Go to the Purchases category on the Home page.
- Click the Bills icon.
- Click the Create option in the upper left hand corner of the Bills screen.
- Select New from the dropdown list.
- Choose your Vendor from the dropdown list.
- Enter the Bill date, Bill number, etc.
- Click the Expenses tab, then the Add button OR
- Click the Items tab, then the Add button.
- Click Save to create a draft or the Post and close button to commit the bill.
Creating an Income Statement
We found CustomBooks reporting easy and customizable–you can quickly specify whether you want reports to reflect cash basis or accrual accounting, specific date periods, and much more. But, again, we found navigation a bit confusing–to exit the report view once you’ve run a report, you need to click Restore default settings.
Regardless, running an income statement in CustomBooks is a straightforward process:
- Click the Reports link on the left hand navigation pane.
- Click the Income Statement Standard link under the Accounting subheading.
- Select your time period from the Presets field or click the Period specific option in the dropdown list.
- Select your accounting method (cash or accrual), report type (summary or detail), and display by details (total, years, quarters, etc.)
- Click Run Report.
What Features Are Missing?
- User-friendly functionality: CustomBooks has many robust tools at your disposal, but performance and speed could be faster. This can pose problems in a system where multiple clicks are often necessary to complete different actions.
- Mobile app: Being a web-based application, CustomBooks is accessible from anywhere but does not offer an app. When we accessed the demo version of the software via smartphone, the site did not look especially optimized for mobile devices – font sizes were small, and occasionally nothing would happen after tapping a link.
Pricing Plans
| Plan | Pricing (Unlimited users) | Features |
| Start Up | $19/month |
|
| Business | $99/month | Includes all features in Start Up, plus:
|
| Professional | $249/month | Includes all features in Business, plus Inventory:
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| Professional with eCommerce | $349/month | Includes all features in Professional, plus eCommerce.
|
How long has CustomBooks been in business?
Yellow Labs Software, Inc. first launched CustomBooks in 2012. The software offers private customizations and extensions based on 1C:Enterprise, a development platform designed for automating financial and operational business activities. Yellow Labs Software, Inc. has 20 employees with three major product teams in core functionality, API, and customization projects.
Which businesses use CustomBooks?
75-80% of CustomBooks customers are accountants and CPAs. Businesses using the platform range from 1 to 20 employees in the distribution, logistics, agriculture, and light manufacturing sectors. A few examples of CustomBooks customers include The Good Chocolate and Independent Distribution Collective.
Alternatives
Summary
We recommend using CustomBooks if you are a CPA or small to medium-sized distribution company. This application offers inventory management, cloud banking, time tracking, and cloud commerce on top of powerful financial reporting tools. It’s the next step up for anyone that has outgrown their current accounting solution and needs to scale up without breaking the bank.
However, the application could be more user-friendly and often requires complex navigation to complete routine tasks. CustomBooks could also be better optimized for speed and performance, eliminating the delays that occur when clicking a button or link. A dedicated mobile app would make CustomBooks more accessible for remote users.
All and all, CustomBooks offers robust features at a low price point and is the obvious choice for businesses transitioning to a solution that integrates inventory, financial, and project management.
User Reviews of CustomBooks
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It's pretty user friendly with unlimited users
It had everything we needed. A lot of options had 60-90 days to onboard and we just didn’t have that kind of time. Price was also a huge part of the decision to go with this as well. They’re really easy to get a hold of and ask questions. I’ve got nothing but good things to say about them. It’s pretty user friendly with unlimited users. That was another big plus. I was going to have to license every user on some of the other software and you have to pay extra for each one. Since this is cloud based I can setup what the users can see and what they can do. I can just set up sales and have 5 sales guys where they have access to put in orders but they can’t touch the AR, AP and that kind of stuff. I like its ease of use; it’s pretty straight forward.
Pros
Ease of use, pricing, faster implementation, different levels of access for users
Biggest thrill is the never-ending expansion of functionality
Cloud-based Accounting and Bookkeeping Software
Pros
Biggest thrill is the never-ending expansion of functionality! And improvements to what is set up.
Cons
Balance sheet account reconciliations -- a tool or extension to make that easy would simply be remarkable! And/or access to the registers for those accounts, so I can easily find and see any duplicated entries and/or missing entries.
They treat me like I'm a million-person operation
Great guys. I can’t say enough about them. They are without a doubt an awesome company. From the owner Kurt down to Jay Lawson (the guy I deal with), they are amazing. I lean on Jay for so much. They know I’m a 1-man operation and they treat me like I’m a million-person operation.
Pros
Everything
Cons
Like any accounting software like QB or Peachtree, it's hard to integrate in with my computer... if I make PO files in my computer, I have to print either their sales order or their receipts and I have to scan them in and put them into my files here. I'm too small to have a server here. That's really the only knock I have but I feel almost all accounting software has this limitation so I won't hold this against AccountingSuite.
Incredibly helpful
AccountingSuite was incredible fit for me and my business at the time. They were incredibly helpful getting me set up and responsive to my individual needs. I would and do recommend them with the highest of confidence that they will be of service and satisfy the needs of any company.
Their support is second to none
Our software had not been updated since 2003. When I first came across AS online, I was a little skeptical of change, especially to a cloud based program. I was very impressed with the software and how simple it is to make it work for your benefit. It is extremely difficult to find an accounting program that a manufacturing company can easily adapt to, but we have found that with A.S.
Pros
Too many to list but right off the top of my head, but their support is second to none! I couldn't ask for a better group to work with and train us on this software. Any time I have encountered an issue or didn't understand something, they were always just a phone call away. If the software didn't do exactly how I wanted it to, my suggestions were taken into consideration OR I was shown a different way to do things that would work for me and I would get the same results. Our company definitely gets their moneys worth! A.S. is much more affordable than a major competitors cloud based software and it does SO much more for me than theirs could! I feel very fortunate to have found this company and this software and especially the people I have had the pleasure of working with!
Cons
There's really nothing negative to say! Every issue that I have encountered has been accepted graciously and I've always felt that my opinions were important.
The convenience of the Cloud
AS is a robust, nicely-designed, and affordable package which has the convenience of the Cloud.
Pros
There's really nothing 'best' about it because there are so many positives: the staff at AS is excellent, the software is nicely presented/designed aesthetically, the functionality is robust . . .
Cons
There are some minor omissions in screens/lookups.
Accounting Suite is an affordable icloud accounting system
Accounting Suite is an affordable icloud accounting system which include inventory system.
Pros
the software has more than meeting our accounting needs at this stage and glad that it keeps developing with new features so we can grow with them.
Cons
Sometimes we stumble on bugs with the software but technical support is always there to help. Some need time to fix but they will update the status.
- Industrial Conglomerates
The most functions/modules I like are the Sales, Inventory and reports
Overall, the AccountingSuite is a very good accounting software. It gives us many functions such as sales orders, purchase orders, invoices, payments, etc., specially the inventory and reports which are so helpful for our distribution business. The software is easy to use and very convenient to work on multi pages on the same time. It improves our operation efficiency and save time and costs.
With the solutions they are working on, I believe AccountingSuite will be getting better and better.
Pros
The most functions/modules I like are the Sales, Inventory and reports.
Cons
If the print forms can be more editable (customizable), that will be better.
WHERE HAS THIS BEEN ALL MY LIFE
AccountingSuite is a highly innovative, incredibly intuitive, web-based accounting software that has found a way to maintain all of that integrity while keeping fluid with the market and staying incredibly affordable!
Pros
The affordability, cloud solution and the overall intelligence of the software is a wonderful breath of fresh air in the world of accounting! When you talk to the developers, they're not just software people, they have backgrounds in accounting and you can tell by how versatile, yet simple the software is! The only question you're left with is WHERE HAS THIS BEEN ALL MY LIFE!!!!!
Cons
Everything is on the ground floor. While that is an exciting place to be in a relationship with such a great company, it's also a little frustrating. There are little glitches that need to be ironed out. However, when you call, you make suggestions or have an issue they have to help you with and, BOOM, it's fixed, changed or revised in a way that SCREAMS they are soooooooooooo listening to you! Also, the verbiage takes some getting used to. If you're not an Accounting professional, this probably won't matter much to you. However, as someone who has been doing accounting (sadly, mostly QuickBooks for the past 20 years), changing my jargon has been challenging. You say 'payments', I say 'checks or debits'. And so, on. So, I really have to switch gears to wrap my brain around how it's worded on AccountingSuite as opposed to how I'm used to referring to something. However, I will say, the jargon they use actually is correct and makes more sense than the jargon I've unfortunately become accustomed to!
Accounting Suite was the only option that fit perfectly with our small business
It was very hard to find an affordable accounting software that included all the features we needed. Accounting Suite was the only option that fit perfectly with our small business. Most softwares require upgrading plans in order to get all the features. We found Accounting Suite to handle everything from complex inventory with large assemblies to simple everyday tasks. Customer support training and set up assistance was amazing. They walked us through it all. We are very happy with the switch and highly recommend it.
Pros
We sell large assemblies and that is a rare feature to find unless it's a high end very complex and expensive software. We had almost given up on integrating inventory management and accounting together but with Accounting Suite it's all in one place and running very smoothly.
Cons
The few hick-ups we encountered the team is already working on improving.
- Textiles, Apparel & Luxury Goods
Best product for the money
AccountingSuite is a one stop shop online accounting system that can link directly to your bank account, credit card, etc. Not only that but it is a true ERP… creating quotes, managing items, creating POs, sales orders, invoices, etc. And it is customizable for your individual needs.
Pros
AccountingSuite is accessible at any time - no software to install and no software updates to worry about. All that is needed is internet access. Customer service is responsive and helpful, and the training offered is FREE and awesome! They do a great job with ensuring that their customer has the tools needed to be successful with AccountingSuite. Not only does it handle all the accounting functions, but it also manages inventory. Best product for the money!
