Bookkeeping and Inventory software

by ALYSON STANFIELD on JUNE 24, 2009

My recent series on finances has brought up the question: “What software do you recommend for keeping track of my art work and having the correct information for tax purposes?”

What you need are two different pieces of software: one for your inventory and mailing list database and another for your financial records.

Based on feedback I receive from artists, I speculate that these are the top three inventory-mailing list databases. They will keep track of your inventory, sales, and contacts.

1. Flick!
2. eArtist
3. Bento (Mac only)

Both Flick! and eArtist are formatted for artist use. Bento is like “FileMaker Light” and requires formatting, but I’m told it’s quite user-friendly. There areother options, but I narrowed down your choices based on what I'm hearing in the field.

7/6/09 Update per Ron's comment. I should have been more specific in the above paragraph. Bento is not an art management platform, but a general database. Therefore, it requires significant formatting–unlike the others here. Because of this, you can use it for all of your database needs-not just for your art inventory or contacts. Also, because of this, you can personalize it and make it look however you like.

See these related posts:

Things to look for in software
Database software for artists (list)

As I say in I’d Rather Be in the Studio! “Most of these options can handle every aspect of your art business except the detailed financial reports that a program like QuickBooks can provide.” (page 17)

So, for financial records, I recommend QuickBooks, although many people are very happy with Quicken. If you have a bookkeeper or accountant, I’d certainly ask them for their advice in this area before you purchase bookkeeping software. You want to be able to share files easily.

http://www.artbizblog.com/2009/06/bookkeeping-and-inventory-software.html

Egyptian officials to be tried in Van Gogh theft

INITIAL ARTICLE ON THEFT PRESENTED IN PREVIOUS BLOG –

Mon Sep 6, 11:48 am ET

CAIRO – Eleven culture officials from Egypt's government have been formally charged in last month's theft of a Vincent van Gogh painting from a Cairo museum that had no functioning security alarms.

The public prosecutor says he has referred the eleven Culture Ministry officials to trial on charges of negligence and harming state property. Among them is a deputy minister who says he appealed to his boss for funds to make security upgrades before the Aug. 21 theft but received little assistance.

The $50 million painting, titled "Poppy Flower," was stolen in the middle of the day from the Mahmoud Khalil Museum, where investigators found that no alarms and only seven of 43 security cameras were working.

If convicted the suspects could face three years in prison.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/ml_egypt_stolen_van_gogh

Egypt culture chief sleepless over Van Gogh theft

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Posted 2010/08/24 at 7:34 am EDT

CAIRO, Aug. 24, 2010 (Reuters) — Egypt's culture minister blamed "incompetent" security staff for the theft of a $55 million Van Gogh painting from a Cairo museum and said worries for the safety of the country's art treasures are depriving him of sleep.

A guard walks at the gate of Mahmud Khalil Modern Art Museum in Cairo, Egypt, August 23, 2010. REUTERS/Asmaa Waguih

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"I feel like I am working alone and that I alone spend time thinking of how to manage cultural affairs," the minister Farouk Hosni told daily paper al-Masry al-Youm on Tuesday.

"I can't work with these incompetent employees," he said. "I'm tired and I can't sleep, because I wake up in the middle of the night fearing for the artefacts and the museums."

The painting, known as "Poppy Flower" according to a statement in Arabic, was stolen on Saturday morning from Cairo's Mahmoud Khalil Museum, home to one of the Middle East's finest collections of 19th- and 20th-century art.

The museum houses works assembled by Mohammed Mahmoud Khalil, a politician who died in 1953, including paintings by Gauguin, Monet, Manet and Renoir, as well as the Dutch post-Impressionist master Van Gogh.

An early investigation of the theft showed "flagrant shortcomings" in security, with only seven out of 43 security cameras working properly, state media said.

Hosni, an abstract painter who has held the culture brief since 1987, said staff at the museum were guilty of negligence.

"The painting would have been stolen even if there were a thousand surveillance cameras, because of the negligence of the museum staff," Hosni was cited as saying by Al-Akhbar newspaper.

The culture ministry's head of fine art, Mohsen Shaalan, has been detained along with four other officials pending investigation for 19 days after being accused of "negligence and failing to carry out their employment duties."

Nine other employees were barred from travel.

Hosni said the ministry would create a central control room to monitor all museums, supervised by his cabinet, and set up a committee to review surveillance of museums across the country.

"We are currently setting up an additional 18 museums and they will all be supplied with state of the art security sensors against theft and fires," Zahi Hawass, secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities in Egypt, said in a statement.

http://www.newsdaily.com/stories/tre67k205-us-egypt-painting-vangogh/

OTHER INFO : http://www.interpol.int/public/workofart/default.asp