Microsoft Office Accounting Express
The program's setup wizard asks first if you
want to start a new file or import from QuickBooks or Money, then
prompts you for some company details (including which add-on packs you
want). Setup will also include your online banking access and tools for
your accountant.
An Outlook-like interface greatly simplifies navigation and data
entry. Customer and vendor records are exceptionally thorough and
flexible, with company, contact, and financial details, as well as
user-defined fields. Simple record forms are available for service and
non-inventory items. There is, however, no inventory tracking.
Transaction forms—invoices and quotes—are simple, clean, and modifiable
in Word (though some operations in Word were a bit patchy). When I tried
to modify letter templates, generate letters, or export forms to Word, I
got error messages and could not complete those operations.
Payments received and refunds can also be
processed. Users can create basic time entries and time sheets, based on
employee records. (These records tend to be a bit on the bare-bones
side, owing to Microsoft's dependence on ADP for payroll processing.
Manual processing is possible, but kludgy.) You'll have to pay for ADP's
services, of course. You can also modify and create a stable of reports
appropriate for the level of service the program provides. You won't
find Open Invoices or Missing Checks, for example, but staples such as
Balance Sheet and Profit and Loss are available.
What really sets Office Accounting Express apart from its competitors
is the add-on services it offers. You can, for example, set up your
items for sale on eBay and pull in PayPal and other payments for
processing. ProStores offers this with StoreSync, but using it is not
nearly as comprehensive or easy as Office Accounting makes the task.
Equifax reports help you gauge your customers' and vendors'
creditworthiness, and merchant accounts are available. All these pieces
are easy to set up and use, though they do involve extra fees. Still,
since users didn't pay for the basic software, they should have a little
extra cash kicking around. Integration with Office, particularly
between Outlook and Business Contact Manager, allows a real-time shared
database and tools such as marketing campaigns and access to Office
Accounting data and forms.
Office Accounting Express offers an extraordinarily easy path to
Microsoft Office Accounting Professional, which costs $149. Designed for
more complex businesses, Professional contains 40 additional reports
and cash-flow forecasting, class tracking, a company home page offering a
birds'-eye view of finances, job costing, and more. In addition, it
allows inventory management, multiuser sharing, and multiple currency
support. (We reviewed what became Microsoft Office Accounting
Professional when it was simply Microsoft Office Accounting (beta); we'll be updating that review soon.)
Microsoft's product pairing is smart. New accounting software users
who need more than Intuit's bare-bones (but capable) SimpleStart can
take on a wisely crafted entry-level accounting program at no expense
and easily upgrade it if necessary. Office Accounting Professional is
roughly comparable with QuickBooks;
and costs about the same, but we prefer it for its advanced Office
integration, overall design and feature set, and add-on business
services.
Office Accounting Express is difficult to
compare with other products in this class because of the unusual eBay
and PayPal integration. But those benefits aside, I rate it between
Intuit's SimpleStart (entry-level accounting for business users who want
the very basics) and Intuit's QuickBooks Pro (which offers better
reporting and inventory tracking and more payroll options). Your mileage
may vary, of course, but it's hard to argue against at least trying
Office Accounting Express, which is quite an attractive proposition at
the low, low price of free. Of course, the time you'll spend
implementing it isn't free, but I think it's an investment that's likely
to bear fruit.
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Microsoft Office Accounting Express 2009.rar
Microsoft Office Accounting Express 2009.zip
Microsoft Office Accounting Express 2009.zip
Microsoft Office Accounting Express 2009.zip
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