You can use a program like QuickBooks (they have a cheapish online version) or if you're mainly doing it for your own knowledge you can create a spreadsheet that will allow you to sum columns. I use Excel at work and the OpenOffice version at home (it's FREE).
If you have any specific questions let me know and I'll try to help.
Thank you for your response, now I totally missed Excel it didn't even cross my mind.
The only problem I have with Excel is that I would have to keep updating everything by hand and I don't really have time to do this. It would be great if I could create a model, which could i could simply put in the package price, then take away what I paid out then leave me with a total for the profits etc. I have never been good at Excel spreadsheets!
Excel can be quite a poweful tool if used in the right way. If you were to use Access tables linked to Excel with pivot tables, it would mean that every time you changed something in the database, then you Excel spreadsheet would also be updated.
There are also a number of accountancy packages around. Quickbooks has already been mentioned but another alterative is to use Sage.
There are also various systems which allow you to download information direct from your site into a spreadsheet, or similar software package.
It really depends how big your business is, as to how much money you would look to spend to automate your business. If you are busy, and expanding, it can release a lot of time for you to spend on other parts of the business.
Excel is something to really consider if it achieves your needs, it is pretty simple to initially set up and the cost compared to other software is a fraction.
Organising records?
