Microsoft Office Accounting Professional 2008

List Price: $199.95 Discount Price: $99.93

Features:

• A complete accounting solution that helps small businesses save time managing everyday financial tasks, get organized, and grow their business online
• Familiar Microsoft Office interface that's easy to set up and use--no training is needed
• Deep integration with other Microsoft Office programs helps streamline necessary but time-consuming and repetitive accounting tasks
• Keeps all of your financial data and business information in one place, making it easy to find the information you need to make better-informed business decisions
• Features to help you easily sell online, get paid faster, and gain easy access to credit reports

Customer Reviews:

Not for everyone, but just right for me [Posted on 2008-06-25]
I've read the other reviews of this product here, and there are clearly a lot of negatives. Some people find this program too big, some find it too small.
I found it just right.
When I contemplated self-employment, I had several concerns, including whether or not I could actually keep the wolf from the door that way, but my largest was the thought that I would have to keep records of some kind. I don't have a talent for that. When my sixth client sent me a contract, I searched diligently for a book called, say, "The Smallest Amount of Accounting Knowledge You Need to Avoid Getting Thrown in Jail," but didn't find such a thing. All the books I could find seemed to imagine that I was -- well, an accountant.
Office Accounting Professional 2008 doesn't assume this. It is bossy software.
You know what I mean about bossy software. It reminds you to apply payments to invoices and nags you about putting in people's names correctly and won't let you charge people for "June."
In general, I don't like bossy software. Bossy word processing programs often just don't understand complex syntax and don't have as large a vocabulary as I do, and I really don't need my computer to warn me that I haven't been properly introduced to websites.
But the bossiness of this software means that someone like me can put her data in correctly enough to send it off to the accountant -- and there is a system for doing that, too.
I scoffed at the set-up poster, by the way, but it was nice to have some large paper showing all the steps in order. I had no trouble getting the software installed, everything was done by wizards, and overall I found the whole package reassuring.
Now, I have no employees, and I have no interest in eBay, so I sympathize with those who felt that there were more parts to this than they needed. However, I found that this package has just the amount of power I need for keeping track of hours, jobs, clients, income, and expenditure. If I have employees some day, I won't have to learn new software. I can foresee needing to use the banking features, so I'm glad they're there. The extra features don't hamper my use of what I currently need, and I've had the experience before of spending more on trading up than I would have if I'd bought something more powerful to begin with.
I would strongly recommend this package for small businesses.

Good product but for businesses not individuals [Posted on 2008-07-11]
This seems to be an excellent product, but it is clearly designed for the business user and not individuals, thus, I am not able to really evaluate it fully.

Good use of SQL 2005 Express [Posted on 2008-07-17]
This is an easy to install and run accounting package for small businesses. It has all of the tools necessary to manage inventory, accounts (rec. & pay.), as well as payroll (for an ad-on monthly fee).

SQL 2005 is installed on the backend as the database. This wouldn't be a good solution for larger shops that have database know-how, but is great for the non-techie.

Unsure, trouble installing with Vista [Posted on 2008-07-17]
I have had trouble installing this with my new Windows Vista system. I'm not sure that this reflects a problem with the software, or something about my Vista setup. I will update my review if/when I am able to install successfully.

For the small business owner [Posted on 2008-07-19]
If you are a small business owner looking for a software program to help you keep accounting of your business transactions - this software is something you should consider. There are some features you may find to be not as useful - but for the most part if you're looking for something as simple as tracking accounts receivable, accounts payable and inventory try MS Office Accounting Pro 2008.

Click here for more details and discount information...