New Office Accounting Software

I have had small clients before that utilizes spreadsheets like mirosoft excel (or even worse, manual journals) to record accounting transactions, out of which they prepare financial reports.

Why not yet automated? There can be three possible reasons:

1. Their transactions can be very simple and volume of transactions very low that it renders more efficient to use spreadsheets rather than use any simple software (like a GL system) available in the market, to process those transactions;
2. They don’t have enough fund to invest in a fully licensed GL system; or
3. A conservative accountant who’s not willing to adopt the latest technology.

Sad to note, though, that the last reason is often the case for these companies, or maybe a combination of any or all of the three, but that the third is oftentimes present.

For companies that cannot afford a system, especially for those that are on the start-up phase yet, Microsoft has the latest (announced just this week!) special offer:

Microsoft^R Office Accounting Express 2007 is everything you need to make your small business idea flourish. Whatever your idea, take it further with these great features:

Save time on everyday tasks Create quotes and invoices; track expenses and employee time Enter data once and share it seamlessly with other Microsoft Office system programs Manage payroll and taxes with ADP’s integrated payroll service

Get a complete view of your business Store and organize all your customer, vendor, employee, and financial information in one place Get business insights with over 20 customizable reports Easily share your books with your accountant through Office Live

Grow your business online List items on eBay, track sales activity, and download and process orders Email invoices and get paid faster with PayPal Monitor your customers’ business credit in real-time through Equifax

Microsoft^R Office Accounting Express 2007 is free and available for download (although I believe it’s currently available for U.S. businesses only). It will also be included in the 2007 Microsoft Office release. Microsoft, however, offers more system functionality (like fixed asset manager, multicurrency support, more types of reports, etc.) if you “pay” and upgrade to Microsoft^R Office Accounting Professional 2007.

That should be the catch there, huh. Though, it’s a good headstart for small and start-up businesses. What do you think?