Hi people. I'm looking for some kind of (preferably free) software/app for managing accounts, invoices, payment history etc, time spent working, company contacts, to do list etc. I dont want to use Outlook and I'd like it to be offline, or online but compatible with Google gears? Any ideas or suggestions people?

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QuickBooks.
Yes, it costs $200.
Yes, Intuit is not consumer-friendly.
But, it is a real accounting system and can make tax-time much easier.

There are many others out there, but I would spend some money on one to get support.
Windows - Peachtree (from a UK company)
Mac OS X - MYOB

You need a real accounting system, in my opinion and not just an invoicing system (of which there are myriad).

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Dave Barnes
+1.303.744.9024
http://www.marketingtactics.com
sitting in my basement with my iMac

I've been using Freshbooks.com. It cost about 14/month and does time tracking, online invoicing and some light accounting. It makes it super simple to create estimates and turn those into invoices. It is also easy to apply your time to invoices/projects. They have a free trial for you to check out.

Take a look at Ubuntu Linux. I just recently setup a box with this os and in my (limited) spare time I've been checking it out. I've been very impressed with the user interface and the software (all free!).

Ubuntu comes with a long list of software recommendations for nearly every purpose and will automatically download and install the applications that you choose.

I may be converting more of my Windows computers to Ubuntu soon.

- Hank Castello
CompuSolver.com

I use freshbooks & I'm testing Saasu. Each come with a trial limit and are recommended.

This list might be helpful too The Top 10 Open-Source CRM Solutions - Inside CRM

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is there any free software?

I would cast my vote for Quickbooks, as well. It is fully customizable, and you can set up each client with different rates, etc. You can track hours, at various charge rates, as well. As Dave said, it's an accounting system, very easy to learn, and they have a support forum, besides the formal support they offer from Intuit.

An investment I'm very happy to have made.

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I spent some more time thinking about my answer.
It only responded to part of your question.

I don't think there is one application that will do all that you want.
I personally use a number of applications to accomplish all these tasks. For example:

QuickBooks - to provide a complete accounting system that tracks all the money in the business. Using QB means that I spend 1 hour prepping for my annual visit to my tax-prep guy. For me, this makes QB (or any other full-featured accounting system) worth it. When I first started in business, I tried using Quicken (i.e., the checkbook approach) for my accounting. Utter failure. Switched to QB after 9 months of pain.

OfficeTime - to provide an easy-to-use timer for the 2 people in the business. I would use the timer in QB except that there is not one in the Mac version. We manually enter our labor into QB once a month. And, yes it is annoying.

NowX - to manage my contacts and calendar. It is a contact manager and not a PIM such as Outlook.

Things - to implement the GTD philosophy. Really easy to use. Not the most powerful GTD software, but easy to use.

The total cost of these apps is $400 USD. I believe in buying software so I can get/demand support. Our business grosses $100K/yr so spending $200/yr on these apps is not a huge cost for us.

I am sure there are free or inexpensive applications out there. Spend some time at VersionTracker.com looking for them. Download and try them. My advice would be to pay attention to the ratings and the data of last update. You want recent and high-rated software.

__________________
Dave Barnes
+1.303.744.9024
http://www.marketingtactics.com
sitting in my basement with my iMac