I have a small business that was not doing well the last couple years.
I have 4 employees and a few part timers. 
My business is in CNC Automation (CNC machine tools)
I had an analyst from a "turnaround" company IPA (International Profit
Associates) in

It was actually relative good to talk to somebody about my business
problems. I believe it helped. I understand that I need to change
things

However, IPA wants roughly $30,000 for initially installing a system
that is able to give me a "grip" on my finances which, besides
accountability of my people and lack of a marketing plan they found as
the biggest problem.

The things they found are valid but I believe they can be fixed in a
lower cost way for a small business like mine.

Here are my questions:

What alternatives do I have to IPA?
Right now I am thinking surrounding myself with a few individual
experts (accounting, IT person, business and marketing consultants,
even this forum her) to get professional answers to individual
problems that I am aware of

Does anybody know what financial system (reporting system, analytical
accounting system, MIS system) and or business planning system or
tools they install or recommend for a small business like mine?
Can these be purchased somewhere separately?
Can something comparable be purchased and installed (If it's
comparable elaborate why it does the same, or even better, convince me
that your alternative approach is better)
Again, I am willing to have outside help where needed but it must be
at a much smaller financial scale.
We are using Peachtree. I am certainly willing to upgrade to the
latest version which includes crystal report, a 3rd party reporting
system. However, Crystal report does no analytical accounting like for
example pFAAS.

However, can somebody tell me what would make the most sense for me?

(Since I also need to integrate my business and marketing planning in
a 2nd step, I do NOT want to end up with 14 different little $29
programs that are not integrated with each other or that require that
I hire an IT guy to keep them running.
I believe I want everything working around Peachtree and or Excel)

Regarding the financial system,
I want to answer simple questions about future cash available
How much profit I will make on something
Plus I would like to be able to understand and observe better some
typical balance stuff (ratio analysis, balance sheet analyses with
explanations for ?dummies?), stuff that somebody who would purchase
the business or would lend us money would look at.
However, I am totally open in admitting that I might not know what I need.
What is your proposal what a small business needs to have a grip on
the finances (on a daily, weekly monthly  ... base)

Again, in step 2 I would like to integrate business, marketing and
sales planning as well

Which program should I choose and why?

There is one additional task. right now I have a prospect and customer
database in Excel AND one a database in Peachtree. Who can help to get
them together (This could be answered later as well

Thanks

It sounds to me as if a vulture wants to sell you software.

If, as it appears, you have some expensive CNC machines, four
operators plus yourself, and a few people coming in to help with
packing and feeding transactions into the computer, then you have a
pretty controllable operation.

For each job, you can easily identify the cost of raw materials.
Similarly you know the machine time, and therefore the labour time.
(Sure, setup is another overhead, but you'll know it by gut instinct)

Pricing for you is dead simple, if it does not cover variable costs,
then don't do it, and if it does not go some way towards covering the
costs of the building, the 'part-timers' and the finance on the CNC
machines, then ...
- only take it on if you (and your crew) would otherwise be idle

The real emphasis that I saw in your question was 'Marketing'
As it happens, I know what that really means, and I suspect that you
and the software salesman are using it in its modern per-'version'.

If you need to increase sales, then you will already know that, if you
need to increase 'quality sales' (ie: sell to people prepared to pay a
premium) then you also know that.

A computer system will not help /you/ (repeat YOU) with increasing sales
- it might tempt you into wasted mail shots
A salesman ...might... help you, but they are expensive and unreliable
- also they are seriously likely to underprice sales, just to boost earnings

If you have any possibility of increasing sales to existing (good)
customers, then look at that first, if you can improve your 'client -
company' interface, like making sure the telephone is answered by
somebody sensible, then go for that. If your setup looks snappy, and
is reliable to deal with, you'll retain old clients, and 'accidental
new clients' will prefer you to the competition.

When it comes to stripping some contact names and addresses from
Peachtree to Excel, post the files on the net somewhere.

Finally, puffing up the balance sheet is only a cosmetic job, for
selling out or borrowing (against your house) from the bank.

My understanding is that these 'integrated systems' only pay off for
Large companies where they have lost control.

I doubt that your machine shop is a 'chaos zone'

First of all I completely agree with 'frde-ga' last thing you want to
do is buy some state of the art automated system that is way beyond
what your company (apparentely) needs.

If you are looking to streamline your financial operations, check out
financial packages like Exact. There are a lot of (much much cheaper)
alternatives to a $30k system!

I'd advise you to check out your nearest university, get in touch with
a big business/marketing stu'dy association and hire a couple of
students to do market research for you (could do the same thing with a
couple of financial students?) This will give you no final solution
but more of a second opinion before deciding to go on with installing
systems etc.
Good luck!