small business laptop help...

flip665

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Jun 16, 2013
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so heres what im trying to do....

we're opening a farmers market in early summer and i'd like a dedicated 'laptop' to track sales, expenses and the like... my parents have gotten a business loan to take care of start up costs (im a parent myself so this isnt a lemonade stand venture)

having not a lot of experience in this field would a walmart laptop suffice?

we're looking at an:
acer aspire cloudbook 14
hp stream II (horizon blue?)

both have 32/2gb memory

i dont know what i need it to do atm, but i definitely need some office/spreadsheet programs (to track sales/profits/expenses yada yada)

anyone have any input? thanks.
 
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I would not use a HP Stream or Chromebook laptop for business purposes even for a small business. Instead I would go for a "real" laptop that does not use a low end CPU like Intel's Atom CPU lineup.

However, it is not necessary to spend a lot of money on a laptop to keep track of expenses and revenue either. I recommend you consider the following 15" Asus laptop for $370. It has a Core i3-5010u CPU which is far more powerful than what is in the laptops you are looking at; even though it is considered a weak CPU compared to Core i5 / i7 CPUs. It comes with 4GB of RAM which can be upgraded and a 500GB hard drives so storage is not going to be an issue compared to something with only about 32GB of storage space. It also has a 1080p screen...
Mar 30, 2015
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If you're just using office programs those should be fine. If you need really long battery life though, look for an Acer Chromebook- those things go up to about 14 hours these days. But yeah, get something cheap- they usually have good battery life and it will probably get beat up.
 

CelicaGT

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Jul 22, 2013
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I would suggest something windows based. Chromebooks will come with access to a full office suite but their functionality is based on a persistent internet connection (if this has changed someone correct me). In addition with windows you will have access to a full swath of accounting and payroll software that will help you with tax calculations, payroll etc etc. I do not know if Chomebooks have this stuff (yet).
 
I would not use a HP Stream or Chromebook laptop for business purposes even for a small business. Instead I would go for a "real" laptop that does not use a low end CPU like Intel's Atom CPU lineup.

However, it is not necessary to spend a lot of money on a laptop to keep track of expenses and revenue either. I recommend you consider the following 15" Asus laptop for $370. It has a Core i3-5010u CPU which is far more powerful than what is in the laptops you are looking at; even though it is considered a weak CPU compared to Core i5 / i7 CPUs. It comes with 4GB of RAM which can be upgraded and a 500GB hard drives so storage is not going to be an issue compared to something with only about 32GB of storage space. It also has a 1080p screen so a lot of information can be displayed on the screen.


http://www.amazon.com/F555LA-AB31-15-6-inch-Full-HD-Laptop-Windows/dp/B011KFQASE


There is no MS Office included so that must be purchased separately. However, there are free office suites out there that can suffice your parent's needs. One of the more popular one is OpenOffice.

https://www.openoffice.org/
 
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