Feedback From One Single Tiny User Regarding Software

1

Greetings.

I would like to start by saying I absolutely despise Intuit. Unfortunately, they have a product that works fairly well.

Following that, I am always looking for localized solutions, specifically linux based, that I can implement into my businesses. When I found Manager_io (forum automatically creates links and apparently I am only allowed two links per post), I was very excited, and I set it up, tested it myself, but i do not have a clue about accounting. So, my first piece of feedback is to make it a little more intuitive for small business owners who are not accountants. If that is simply not a target market, so be it. I pretended like I knew what I was doing for a while, and did not encounter errors in the application. Which meant my next step was to introduce Manager_io to my Accountant.

I hesitantly introduced it to her, with several other ghastly options such as gnucash. She reluctantly agreed to give Manager_io a try. And she did in fact give it a good run. She took three of our companies into Manager_io and began to dual-record everything, once in Quickbooks, and also in Manager_io. She kept noticing that Manager_io required far more steps to accomplish the same tasks. This became such an issue she began to get frustrated with the lost time, going through the extra steps Manager_io puts in front of her. She eventually came to me and told me she did not want to continue using Manager_io.

Today (2026.07.23) I saw my YEARLY fee paid to Intuit for $1,244.37. :: queue the weeping ::

I am just one user, well, technically, I am not even a user, I am just a business owner/technical support chap, trying to be as efficient as possible, who really wants to use your software, but is rebuffed by seemingly superfluous processes.

I will continue to watch Manager_io, and hopefully one day reintroduce it to my Accountant and convince her to give Manager_io another try. (FWIW, she works at a CPA firm where they too could use Manager_io for all of their Clients as well, but alas, not today.)

:: bows ::

Peace Be Upon You

2

Having switched from QuickBooks and Tally ERP to Manager, I found that reviewing the guides helps significantly in understanding the platform. Manager provides numerous capabilities absent in other software. Despite its simplicity, it is remarkably feature-rich and engaging to use.

Manager.io

Also, always put your confusion on the forum, help will come.

3

What exactly was the task which was inefficient to do in Manager?

4

I am an accountant, (semi-retired) and I have only been using Manager.io desktop for a few months, I chose it for a partnership, and entered everything since its inception 4 years ago.. I find it quite good, some teething probems to start and was assisted by the forum. I find the “clone” feature excellent, which I use a lot.
Another excellent feature is the AI query. It gives excellent answers.
I can’t imagine what your Accountant found frustrating.

I used to use Quickbooks desktop for a Company which later became Reckon. I did find that great too, but the nonsense over licencing was a pain when they cut short the years that it covered and changed it to paying every year, then I swapped to Reckon One - which is a totally different setup, still not a fan, the migration of history was an absolute debacle, but it is online and it suits our manager who does the invoicing from a different location from where I am. So I am not looking to change that.
But for the partnership, I am very happy with Manager.io.

5

Reckon One is too expensive for small business in South Africa, I am using Manager.io. I looked at Zoho as well, but it does seem to have the Payslip function nor does it seem to have a BOM function like Manager’s Inventory Kit.

6

Reckon One is cheaper here than Xero, MYOB, or Quickbooks, and it is online which is why I went that way for our company, I didn’t know about manager.io back then. Seeing that all our history is on Reckon, we will be staying there for now. Lots of teething problems though, seems to have settled down. But for our small partnership, for 4 years I used an Excel spreadsheet, but then found Manager.io and re-entered the whole 4 years on it, and quite happy with it. I don’t use inventory or payroll for that.
So as long as Manager.io works for you, that is good. Do you use the cloud version or the desktop?

7

currently I am on the desktop. I am still small. I will get to cloud when there there will be more users required

8

The cloud version of Manager.io in South Africa is nearly ZAR 1000 and Reckon is ZAR 500 by the way

10

I share your feelings on Intuit Quickbooks. I have been an avid user of Quickbooks for more than 20 years. I used to pay between $200-$300 for a desktop version which would last me for years. A couple of years ago, I had to switch to the online subscription version (my laptop crashed) and the fee was about $400/yr. I got my renewal notice recently and it has jumped to $800+ this year.

As such, I am switching over to Manager io. I am not an accountant but I have been doing my own books for a long time (self-taught). I don’t think anyone can dispute that Quickbooks is easier to use than Manager. Even with my long term knowledge for my business, I was a little overwhelmed with trying to set up things in Manager.

The online guides have not helped me that much. What has been extremely helpful is the use of AI. For anyone starting out with Manager io for the first time, I would highly recommend using an AI agent to ask all the questions you need, as it is very good at scanning the guides and Forum for you to answer your specific questions. As you grow your system, you can upload your chart of accounts, special accounts, anything really… to give you very direct answers to your questions. I use Claude for this purpose and I am progressing very well.

I hope this helps new users.