Right, my Polish builder friend has asked me to help him find some software to help with his business.

He needs contacts, quoting and invoicing functions. We are not talking about lots of jobs, so it doesn't really need to talk to an accounting package.

Could be windows or web-based.

I have no recent knowledge of this sort of thing, but I remember names like Goldmine and Act from yesteryear – not sure if they are appropriate.

Any suggestions / recommendations?

Paper, a smart phone and a PC with MS Office on it.

Excel for accounts and Word for everything else.

ACT was good then the company got bought and the package had horrible problems, its all over the net – if you go with the older one check it will run on whatever operating system he's using.
for accounts, quotes etc take a look at the Sage range, market leaders for a good reason – could go for an older version from ebay if needed, again check that its compatable with his operating system. The data will be easily importable in the main if the software is upgraded later.

Sage do a free program called Sage Invoicing. I'm self-employed and its ideal for me.

Sage Invoicing

We're just starting with Sugar CRM, very impressed so far.

Compiere looked pretty good when i checked it out a few years ago.

I've stuff from sage (no idea which one it was though -sorry!) and 'tis very good!

Thanks for the info folk. I spent a day installing and testing Sage Invoicing and it appears to be perfect for the job, with the option of upgrading to a paid for version with added functionality.

Just get to get the update so it works with Windoze 7

I knew there was a reason I was an Apple Fanboi 😆