I had a lot of help from apples support discussions you might want to try that as you are dead in the water over here.

Did you ever find anything? I am a landscaper who uses a Mac. Would love more software to help with estimating and designing, but have not found anything but Quickbooks for Mac which has many, many glitches and can't be shared with my PC-owning accountant although they claim it can.

I have used QuickBooks for a number of years and have rarely had an issue importing and exporting financial files for PC-based accounting use. Just have the most recent versions and you shouldn't have any problems.

I would search the net and find all the software titles that interest you. Many of them allow trial periods so you can see if it will work for your needs before you pony up the cash.

Alternately, if you have one of the new Intel chip Apple machines, you can run Windows on the same hardware.

Have fun!

Jim

Here is a link that might be useful: QuickBooks Official Site

Most well developed nusery inventory/accounting applications are going to run you in the thousands of dollars. At that point you might as bite the big one and by a windows bassed PC. After all what's $500.00 more dollars? And please don't give me all the reasons you hate windows. It's your business and you need what your business needs. If Macs preform better in some areas and Windows in others, use both...

Probably the idea at Apple is that you could do it with their database software.

"Unlike software designed to only address a specific function, FileMaker is flexible so it can meet your needs for managing contacts, organizing inventory, processing sales orders, tracking projects and so much more as your business grows and changes."

Here is a link that might be useful: Small Business Management Software, Business Process Management Software - FileMaker

You know, I have thought of buying a PC and just might. Not only for business software, but for landscape design software. I don't think it's a bad idea. The Intel chip windows thing is still in beta testing, but I think that'll be fabulous when it happens. As for Quickbooks, my accountant and I both bought the most recent software and we both have been on the phone with tech support for hours. I'm using Quickbooks Pro 2006 and she's using the 2006 PC version. In addition, the program was crashing whenever I tried to delete a reimbursable group. Tthere have been several other glitches. It's good to hear that yours is working though. Maybe the next upgrade will help. I use Filemaker Pro for plant data and love it. Will check out that project tracking. Has anyone tried software by Peachtree?

I have looked for this in vain. For accounting, Account Edge works well on Mac. But inventory is a major problem, and I suspect that it's not just in the small business world.

You have the following issue unlike any other field:

* Your product's value varies with time. Consider:

A: I buy a seeding for 50 cents. I plant it in a 1 liter pot. Call it 50 cents for pot and fill and labour. So my cost is now $1.00 but my value is now zero. It's too small to sell. Indeed, it may have negative value -- sell it now and it damages my reputation.

B: At some point in the future it's salable. Now it's value is $2.50

C: In fall, if I haven't sold it, it may die when it freezes, and now my value is back down to zero, or even negative due to disposal costs. (This is part of the reason nurseries have fall sales: Anything is better than zero.)

* Add to this: Suppose that in transplanting, I get a 2 to 30 percent mortality rate depending on who is doing the transplanting. Now I don't even know my count.

* Or I transplant scots pine in the fall. They all die.

* Moose comes in and eats the top 2 feet of every 4 foot birch tree.

* Another addition: A 2 foot high pine in a #2 pot is worth $12, But if it's 3 feet tall it's worth $20. When does this happen?

I think that whatever wine makers use may be useful. Like trees, wines appreciate in value with time.

Or possibly other farm inventory programs -- look for programs that deal with crops that take over a year. Garlic. fruit trees.