Features

• Design and print checks for all of your business and personal accounts.
• Easily setup your business and personal checking, savings and credit card accounts in minutes.
• Import online bank data or existing Quicken®, Microsoft® Money and VersaCheck™ transactions. *
• Manage your business and personal account transactions in one place.
• Reconcile your bank statement in minutes.

Product Description

Peachtree First Accounting 2005.Peachtree First Accounting 2005 makes it easy to automate your billing and payments. Ideal for small businesses who are upgrading from a manual or personal finance-based system, Peachtree First Accounting 2005 provides fast start-up, over 20 instructional demos, easy invoicing, convenient check writing, 35+ customizable reports and Peachtree Today the Business Resource Center that, along with other functions, gives you an instant snapshot of your business financials. And 30 days of free support for first-time customers helps ensure that you get started right! Now itâs easier than ever for small businesses to automate their accounting. ... Read more

Features

• Includes 30 days of free support for first-time customers
• Automated accounting for small businesses
• Easy invoicing; convenient check writing; 35+ customizable reports
• Provides fast start-up; 20+ instructional demos; multiple help options
• Peachtree Today for an instant snapshot of business financials

Reviews (2)

Unbelievably difficult
This software brings new and vast demensions to the concept "user unfriendly." It is unbelieveably difficult to use. Just try to set up a simple account and enter data....it's impossible for us non-Ph.D. in accounting people. But there is help -- you can call for support for hundreds of extra dollars. Or you can read the book that came with the program. It will help you learn how to open and minimze the little windows. A really, reallybig mistake to buy.

Terrible Software
My wife and I have spent the last four days attempting to understand and use Peachtree First Accounting for our small business. This is a very difficult piece of software to learn and use and I would strongly suggest you save your money and try something different.
We are now preparing to order a different software package and will be selling Peachtree to someone who perhaps has a degree in accounting. ... Read more

Product Description

Intuit Quicken 2004 Premier Home and Business.Quicken 2004 Premier HomeBusiness includes all the business features you need with the ease you want. And because it's from Quicken, Premier HomeBusiness provides familiar, user-friendly approaches to manage your business finances:Quicken 2004 Premier HomeBusiness includes all the business features you need with the ease you want. And because it's from Quicken, Premier HomeBusiness provides familiar, user-friendly approaches to manage your business finances: Create customizable estimates and invoices See where your business stands at a glance Generate business reports and graphs, including Schedule C Automatically track taxes for Schedule C Track accounts receivable and payable Track vehicle mileage, jobs and projects Write checks, print checks, or pay bills online* And more! Also includes everything in Quicken 2004 Premier to help you optimize your personal finances: Instantly set up and connect all of your financial accounts to Quicken to quickly and easily download your financial data directly into Quicken. Quicken 2004 works with over 2,000 banks, credit card, brokerage and 401(k) companies, so you avoid manually entering your financial transactions. You can be sure that Quicken is always up-to-date with your latest financial data. Schedule when you want Quicken to download your financial data so that Quicken is always up-to-date with your latest financial data. Track your investment holdings without taking the time to enter every historical transaction. You can decide to add in transaction details later for tax purposes or performance analysis. See your net worth over time with the Net Worth Monitor. View the breakdown of your net worth by cash, property, or stocks. See the average annual return for your entire portfolio and individual accounts compared to seled benchmarks for key periods (e.g. 1, 3, or 5 ... ... Read more

Reviews (26)

support
The support of this product is very poor. The first question from the company is about the customer's credit card number even if the product was just bought and it does not do what is described in the manual. I was trying to point out the problem with the program and the standard answer was: "Our product is flawless; the problem is with you". I am familiar with financial programs and accounting but after trying to use the program for two weeks I gave up and decided to return it.

Perfect for home based consulting business
I have a simple home-based consulting business with 2 employees and a small number of customers. Quicken Home & Business is the perfect accounting system for me. I was a financial officer for several companies and have used several high end systems. This is the easiest and most efficient accounting system ever made - an excellent product. If it covers your needs, you should consider yourself lucky.

Here are some highlights and pointers:

1. Data entry is extremely fast. As soon as you start typing, Quicken guesses what you are going to enter and fills it in for you. Check book entries are effortless. This is the most important feature of any accounting system because sole proprietors should not waste time with data entry.
2. Credit card transactions are automatic. Get yourself a separate credit card for business transactions and download directly into Quicken. I have used 4 different cards and the best integration is the with Quicken Master Card. It also earns you about 1% in airline awards or gift certificates. Just click on "one step update" and you have all new transactions ready to review.
3. Bank reconciliation is completely done for you. You never need to go through a bank statement again, matching up transactions. Quicken "one step update" downloads new transactions and finds the corresponding entry in your check register. You just confirm or add if it is a new transaction. When the monthly statement comes, you enter the ending balance and Quicken figures out which transactions cleared. You rarely need to even look at the bank statement.
4. Reporting is simple. Just choose from dozens of pre-designed reports and make small adjustments if needed. You can also export any report to modify it in Excel or Word if you prefer.
5. Invoicing is simple and quick. Just create descriptions for each service you offer and invoicing is a snap. Quicken tracks which invoices have been printed and tracks receivables effortlessly.
6. Tax reporting is easy. You can instantly produce a Schedule C and if you also purchase TurboTax (which I highly recommend), you can import data directly into your tax forms.
7. Manage cash between multiple bank accounts. If you choose a bank that is supported by Quicken, you can easily move funds between checking and savings.

A few pointers for using the product.
1. Don't confuse this product with other Quicken products such as Quicken Deluxe or Quicken Premier.
2. Intuit also produces QuickBooks, which is not a product I recommend. If you need the power of QuickBooks, there are other applications available that may be better.
3. Don't combine your personal and business financial data in one file. Quicken recommends you do this but you definitely should not. Instead, set up your personal Quicken file first. Then from the main menu, select File/New/New Quicken File. It is very easy to switch between your personal file and your business file and you will not have any problems with reports, tax forms etc. if you keep them totally separate. You do not need to purchase additional software licenses to have multiple files. I have 3 businesses and one personal file on my copy of Quicken Home & Business.
4. Create a liability account called "owners draw". Quicken does not explain this well, but this will become your owners equity account on your balance sheet. When you draw funds from the business (unless you do it through payroll), you assign the check or transfer to "owners draw" and this will accumulate on your balance sheet to show the true net worth or your business.

I wish that I read the reviews first
I tried to install this program a couple of days ago and was prompted to uninstall the previous version (Quicken 2002 Deluxe). I chose to do so. At the end of the installation process, I got the error message "Your program files may have been damaged. You will need to reinstall Quicken." I uninstalled using Add/Remove Programs and reinstalled with exactly the same result.

At that stage, having looked in vain for help on the Intuit site -- the solution to this error message did not work for me -- I went elsewhere and found dozens of negative reviews. Intuit seem to have hit rock bottom with this product.

So I decided to go back to using Quicken 2002, but of course it had been uninstalled and I can't find my original CD. So I chose to use the Windows XP System Restore function to roll back the clock. But although Quicken 2002 reappeared, my Quicken file no longer seems to work properly. The screen freezes and flashes when I switch from one account to another.

I called Intuit this morning and described my scenario. They offered to replace my Quicken 2002 at a total cost of $20 plus. It would take them two days to get it out of the warehouse and a further 7-10 days for shipping. Shouldn't they provide a free downgrade when their buggy software doesn't work?

I have been very impressed with this software.
This is first time I have used Quicken, and I am impressed with the sophistication of the software.It is very cool.Balancing my check book is easier then I thought, as well as, updating my investment portfilio. I did have to upgrade to a preffered online bank account to get automatic updates though. That cost about $3/month, but worth it.For my bank, online bill pay is another $3 more for 10 bills per month.Some investment accounts will not download to your quicken but the quotes will.Also, you definetly need to read Quicken 2004 for Dummies.It can take about 20 some hours to learn the majority of the programs with the book.I wouldn't even try without it.Once you learn it, if you have the time, it is worth it.At least so far for me.I just put in about 20 plus hours with it so far, and I haven't done too much on the business side, such as payroll.Good luck.

Intuit Stumbles on Quicken 2004
A major player in the personal finance software arena for years, Intuit and Quicken has helped thousands keep track of their personal finances.I have been a Quicken user since the early days (Quicken 1 and 2), have upgraded to new releases over the years and have always been very satisfied with the Quicken product.

Quicken 2004 Premier changed all that.

The release of Quicken 2004 was advertised as allowing you to get instant answers to questions like "Are my investments outperforming the market?" and "What is my return for the past 1,3 and 5 years?"Unfortunately, after upgrading from Quicken 2003 to Quicken 2004 Premier, the question I was asking most was "What happened to my data?"

Quicken 2004 has corrupted my personal finance information on four separate occasions (I know, "fool me once shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me" ... I don't want to even think about "fool me four times...").

My financial books include four checking accounts, several credit card accounts, some loans, several investment accounts, and a smattering of other accounts.No account type is immune to corruption.

In my checking accounts, one major problem is that Quicken 2004 insists on making up numbers (really, really, BIG numbers, like as big as your computer can handle), creating transactions with random dates to go along with the made-up numbers, and then inserting these transactions in the register.At one time my calculated net worth was too large to display (I wish ...); another time I owed more than the United States GDP. On another occasion Quicken 2004 erased all of the transactions from one checking account, strangely keeping a balance that looked to be about right. In another account, I have been overdrawn once due to a Quicken 2004 error.

In the investment accounts Quicken 2004 decided to change the ticker symbols of some stocks in the investment accounts to unknown symbols on more than one occasion.It's not clear when this happened; it may have been during the updating process when prices are downloaded into Quicken.This caused trouble not only in evaluating the portfolio, but the reconciliations of the accounts were very challenging, because I was never sure if the difference was due to my error, or if Quicken had changed a symbol in one of the dividend re-investment transactions (which it did on two occasions).

A few of the shortcut keys that Quicken power users have grown accustomed to, no longer work in Quicken 2004 (hitting the space bar to select a check during reconciliation, for example).These are known errors and "will be fixed in the next release".At least that's what I was told when I discovered the issue in Release 1.It has not been fixed as of Release 5.

I was given the above information on one of my several attempts to get help by calling customer service.I was helped by "Jennifer", although I suspect her name was really Neeraja, or Srividya or something similar.Customer service appears to consist of very bored people, who are very far away, reading answers in OK English off of scripts to solve problems you did not call with.I was told once to reload Windows (I did not).Most of the time, I was told to run the File/File Operation/Validate option within Quicken 2004 (I did several times).I don't remember ever having to run that option on earlier versions of Quicken; I'm not sure it even was an option with Quicken 2003.On another occasion, I was questioned quite closely about the type of printer I had.Apparently, printers have become notorious corruptors of data in Quicken 2004.So, who knew? (I'm joking -- they're not).In no case, did the call to customer support solve my immediate problem.

Sending in questions via email was better in the sense that I did not receive any wrong or useless information.In fact, I received no information at all.All emails went unanswered.Bug reports are never acknowledged, but they never have been.

Running Quicken 2004 requires some serious horsepower.Intuit will tell you Quicken 2004 can run on a Pentium 200 or higher machine with 32 MB RAM and 75MB hard drive space.I originally installed Quicken 2004 on a spare Pentium 233 MHZ machine with 100MB hard drive.Big mistake.When I fired up the software, the lights in the house didn't exactly dim, but I bet they wanted to.Quicken 2004 is unbearably slow on machines below the recommended 300MHZ limit, and I wouldn't put it on anything less than 700Mhz.Quicken 2004 seems to be doing a lot of disk I/O and window rendering and all of that thrashing around costs performance points.My copy of Quicken is now installed on a Dell Dimension 4600, 2.79GHz, 512RAM, 111GB free hard drive, Windows XP Professional.As you might expect, speed is no problem.

On the plus side, Quicken has done a nice job with the charts and reports.So, even if the numbers are wrong, they look marvelous.The screen gets real busy, though, what with the Menu Bar, the icon bar, the Quicken Home side window, the main register window, the transaction window and the maddening Inuit advertisements (`Try Turbo Tax - the #1 tax solution year after year") at the bottom, all showing up at once.Intuit will tell you that Quicken 2004 works with a Super VGA (800 x 600).It will, but the recommended 1024 x 768 with 16 bit color monitors will make your life more pleasant.Again, the numbers might be wrong, but at least you'll have a shot at seeing them.

So, what's a body to do?Well, I'm digging through my files looking for my copy of Quicken 2003.I'll revert back to that.It worked fine, no funny stuff, had almost all of the features of Quicken 2004 and it was stable.In the meantime, I'll keep watching Intuit to see if they fix the new version, and begin to understand what customer service is all about. ... Read more

Product Description

Truthfully, you've been actively "planning" your business for months. You know your objectives and have a very clear picture of how you'll attain them. Still, the prospect of committing that plan to writing seems more daunting than any of the real business challenges that lie ahead.

Well, the entire process has just become a whole lot easier with Business Plan Writer Deluxe for 2004. This version combines powerful new features with proven techniques to cast your vision in terms that bankers and prospective investors understand and expect. By answering a series of questions in an "interview format", you'll be able to express your ideas cohesively and concisely - and win the praise and support of your readers.

Best of all, with example text for every section and so many real business plans to draw on, the toughest part of the writing job is behind you. The upshot: you'll complete your plan quickly and with absolutely no writer's block. ... Read more

Features

• Business planning guidebook, The Winning Business Plan included.
• Walks you through the planning process.
• Hundreds of sample business plans.
• Import financial data from QuickBooks Pro and Microsoft Excel.
• Includes Kiplinger's Business Attorney with 75+ essential legal documents.

Product Description

Create Checks and Manage Finances - For Home and Business! Works stand-alone and with Quicken, QuickBooks, Money and other accountingsoftware!

• One-pass check printing from Quicken™, Quickbooks™ and Money®
• Check Designer Pro™ - Unlimited Design Capabilities
• Create drafts and checks by phone and fax
• Checks sent by email feature!
• Schedule your bill payments
• Financial reports for home and business
• Create personal and business-size checks
• American CheckBooks templates & refills included
• Includes 100 blank checks!

Features

• Manage your finances more efficiently - Schedule your bill payments, collect recurring payments or service fees, or create a check draft for immediate deposit
• Track all accounts, check payments and receipts online from one location
• Import records from financial software or print filled out checks directly through QuickPass
• Send checks by email, or create new drafts by phone and fax
• Draw from 300 hand-crafted images to add to your checks, with Check Designer PRO

Amazon.com Product Description

Whether you're calculating a lease payment or yield to maturity,splitting a restaurant bill, or simply comparing the prices of different sizedpackages, the Financial Assistant will help evaluate financial problems quicklyand accurately.

If you know how to fill out a paper form, you already know how to use the MoneyMagazine Financial Assistant. Whether you work on Wall Street or are gettingready to buy your first home, the Financial Assistant will help you makeinformed decisions.

The Financial Assistant includes a collection of 45 problem-solving worksheets,conveniently grouped into 8 categories. Manage over 150 different financialdecisions including loans, leases, mortgages, marketing and investment analysis,personal finance, everyday math, savings, tuition, and retirement planning. There's no need to memorize obscure keystrokes or to understand complexfinancial terminology. Simply select the appropriate worksheet and fill in theblanks--the answers are instantly calculated for you.

The Financial Assistant provides customizable schedules for savings, mortgages,loans, depreciation, and more. At your desk or on the road, the FinancialAssistant can compare loans and interest rates as well as help you make informedleasing, renting, or buying decisions.

The Financial Assistant includes an optionally installable set of electroniclessons ("Money 101") created by the editors at Money magazine to helpyou invest, save, borrow, and spend more wisely. If you're interested in thebasics of banking and investing in mutual funds, or you just want to controlyour debt, the essentials of each lesson can be absorbed in just 10 minutes. ... Read more

Reviews (8)

Good but save your money
Okay maybe if your connection is slow or you don't have access to broadband you can buy this CD,but if not why bother?
OpenOffice.org is freely available online as is Firefox.
I use and love both so don't get me wrong here,but the price is a little too much but then again it goes to the developers.
Ooo is a great alternative to Microsoft Office and even Star Office.It does everything the same for free! I often do my homework and essays with Ooo Writer. And Firefox is what I am using to write this very review!It's one of the best Mozilla-based browsers besides the Mozilla Suite/Netscape 7 itself.

Open Office and FireFox, wonderful software, excellent value
Open Office reads and writes in MS Office 97/2000/XP formats for Word, Excel and PowerPoint and can export documents to PDF format.
One of the best advantages is inexpensive upgradability.I purchased Office 95 ($400+ dollars) in 1996.When Office 97 came out, my Office 95 software would not open office 97 formatted documents.I toughed it out till I purchased Office 2000 ($500+ dollars) now Office XP and 2003 have came out (do we see a pattern here)?I suspect that it will be much less expensive to buy a $30 upgrade to Open Office to read and writedocuments created by upcoming versions of Micro$oft Office.
FireFox: "ad ware" resistant, pop up blocker and tabbed browsing... love it.

Great products, great price, great source!
Open Office and Firefox are two of the very best of their kind.Both give users the ability to work with the same files, websites and so on that they're used to, without the worries of bad macros, spyware, and other problems associated with the proprietary products these replace.Better yet, they're both faster, more powerful, and more up-to-date than those old dinosaurs.Perhaps best of all, these programs look and operate the same on Windows, Mac, Linux and other platforms, making it much easier if you or your family needs the flexibility.

The fact you can buy this set for a tiny fraction of the cost of just the Office suite it replaces is almost secondary to all the other features -- Open Office would be tough competition for Microsoft even if it cost the same as MS Office.

Linspire, the publisher of this collection, is highly respected for making open-source software widely accessible; if you like Open Office and Firefox, their Linspire Linux is among the best.

Open Source Packaged and Marketed as It Deserves
OpenOffice.org and Firefox are both fantastic products lacking one simple ingredient. Despite their technical merits, the marketing efforts for these products have not been impressive... until now.

With Oooff, that has all changed. The products are finally sold next to other respected name brands on store shelves and through online retailers, like Amazon.com. Oooff is expanding the distribution channel of these open source products. Oooff will expose computer users that pay large sums for Microsoft Office and use the vulnerable, dull and underpowered Internet Explorer to the powerful alternatives they didn't know existed. Without a doubt, making open source software accessible is the first step in restoring a healthy and competitive software industry.

Oooff is a great idea and contains excellent products. This is a good buy and will give you the comfort of knowing that by purchasing this product,OpenOffice.org and Firefox will have an even brighter future. Kudos to everyone at Linspire, and the developers for OpenOffice.org and Mozilla Firefox! :)

Great for Windows and Linux
If you use Windows this is the way to go.Free web browser that more than 10 Million people worldwide have switched over to.None of the security problems that Internet Explorer has.Popups blocked out of the box without not extra software.The office side saves you over 200 dollars paying for Microsoft Office.And it is completely compatible with Office formatted documents and more.If you have a college student on a budget that needs a office suite then this is for them. ... Read more

Features

• Print your checks with included checkbook cover, register and binding tape strips for easy assembly.
• Create Checks & Balance Your Checkbook
• Choose from over 20 check templates or create your own.
• Easily design your custom checks in one easy step.
• Add full-color background images, graphics, logos and fonts to your check design.

Reviews (1)

One Of The Best
There are a lot of applications of the web that claim to do this and almost all don't work and are truly bush league. This one works well and will keep you check book in balance. Prints especially good on a laser printer. Save a bundle and the hassle of going through your bank. It will pay for this price by eliminating your next check order, and then save hundreds over time. Many formats to choose from and will even print a supply of blank checks, and deposit slips. MICR toner is not mandatory from your bank, as most banks use OCR and also transmit electronically these days. Once set up, prints perfect checks identical to your Harland or other checks. ... Read more

Features

• Platform: Windows 98/2000/Me CPU: 233 MHz or higher processor Memory: 64 MB RAM (128 MB recommended for Windows 2000) Windows XP CPU: 300 MHz or higher processor
• Memory: 128 MB RAM Hard Drive Space: Minimum 80 MB hard disk space CD-ROM: 4x CD-ROM drive or faster
• Video Display: Color monitor with 800x600 resolution or higher (1024x768 recommended), 16 bit color resolution Number of CDs: 1 Other: Windows-compatible mouse and printer
• Encore/Riverdeep

Features

• Track projects; manage inventory; build a Web store; and more
• An easy-to-use, complete accounting solution for small businesses
• Get up and running in minutes using wizards
• Over 100 industry-specific templates to choose from
• Handle payroll in-house; prepare invoices; write checks

Reviews (3)

Back it goes!
I bought this software because it's cheaper than Quickbooks, and actually rated better (or so it says on the box).Although I hate several things about Quickbooks, I will be returning this and shelling out for it.The description you read here, and on the box, makes it sound like converting from Quickbooks is a breeze.Not so!I was under the impression that you would back up your QB info and then transfer it to SA.Nope...you actually "export" every little file from QB onto a disk, then "import" it to SA...and that just includes lists and your chart of accounts, that doesn't mean that it loads an up-to-date Accounts Receivable or Payroll ledger.That's all stuff you get to do by hand!Sorry, but I just don't have that kind of time, and to be honest with you, this software doesn't even seem worth it.Now, if I was just starting up a business and had never used a higher-end software like QB, or if I had a few weeks to do nothing but enter info from QB to SA, that would be one thing, but please!Consider this more of a low-budget accounting software...and remember, you get what you pay for!

Be Ware
After purchaing this software to change from Quickbooks, I learned the information in Quickbooks is not as easy to convert, and only converts names, etc. Also the customer service is also non-existant.After sitting on hold forever.I could get the software to work, kept giving me errors, keeping me in a continual look to keep entering information and than giving me an error.I sent the software back since I was unable to use and was unable to get the software update and tax update refunded.Be careful

Better than Quick Books
Beats Quick Books hands down at a much lower cost. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A bargain at half the price!
As a result of the low price I was not expecting much but sadly I was still disappointed. I had the opportunity to see the product's package at a local store. If the product only delivered the functionality displayed on its package it would be worth the price. Add in free tech support, how could you go wrong? You start by missing one of your primary objectives then you add some bugs and weak tech support. The package displays a beautiful printed bid, the product doesn't. The bid lacks formatting, has no grand totals and can't be tied to the customer database. Tech support acknowledged that the developers were unable to get the customer data on the bid but that they hoped they would be able to figure it out at some time in the future. As for bugs, if you try to print with your printer off you get a runtime error and the program ends. If you have a broadband Internet connection and you attempt to update the database you will spend some time closing a multitude of update complete message boxes before you can exit the program. Tech support couldn't answer questions about the product and despite promises never called back with the answer. There are other strange things such as "drop and drag" functionality that is implemented by selecting a record and clicking a button on the tool bar. On the bright side I guess it will save wear and tear on your mouse. ... Read more

Amazon.com Product Description

Packed with accounting basics plus powerful business management andInternet tools, Peachtree Accounting helps you better manage youraccounting and gives you insight into your numbers. Just minutesafter installing Peachtree, helpful features such as navigation aids, wizards, and an online tutorial make it easy for you to hit the ground running. To make your startup even faster, you can choose from among 75 examples thecompany profile that most closely resembles your own, and your books areinstantly customized to fit your business. There are also plenty of onlinetutorials.

With Peachtree you can set up to 13 periods in a fiscal year, and keeptransaction detail open for two fiscal and payroll years. You can easilymaintain and report on budgets, and you have the option to show or hide your GLaccounts on task screens. Quickly and easily provide your customers withestimates for their orders by printing quotes. Your quote does not update your accounting information until the quote is converted to a sales order or invoice.

Get a snapshot view of the overall financial performance of your business withPeachtree Accounting's Financial Manager. Unlike other accounting systems that requireyou to create special reports to review your business performance, Financial Manager gives you both a business summary and key balance information so you see the full picture in minutes, without creating reports. You'll review such popular ratios as cost of sales, profit margins, and more, as well as up-to-the-minute balances on cash, accounts receivable, and other vital information.

With the new e-mail alert feature, you can set the system to monitor keyelements of your operations and have a notification e-mail generated when certainconditions are met, to keep you operating efficiently. For instance, yourpurchasing manager can be notified by e-mail when an inventory item dropsbelow a certain level, or your payroll manager can be alerted when anhourly employee exceeds a certain number of hours. Access your Peachtreedata from both your desktop and the Internet using Peachtree WebAccounting. You and your off-site personnel can quickly and securely viewkey desktop accounting data and perform daily tasks such as enteringtransactions and running reports, all from the Internet. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Great except for the Payroll
The peachtree accounting program is rich with features, but it also lacks some very basic features as well.You vitrually cannot use the payroll feature without spending 150.00 more per year for a "optional" tax service.

The program severely restricts your ability to create tax tables on a global basis and it is time consuming to do this be each company set up.

I see this "flawed" marketing approach as the largest weakness.No this is not software for a Fortune 500 company.But it will do the routine bookkeeping functions of a good size company.

But when you add the cost of the "annual" tax service.There are better programs in the 300 to 500 price range that will give you more felxability.

So for the price its a good value if you dont have a large payroll.

Feeble and Buggy
PeachTree Accounting has been a disappointment on a number of fronts.

To start, it has bugs.The program has made GJ entries on its own.The entries are locked in some way.I can not open them to view, edit, or delete them.As a result, my numbers are not accurate.

Secondly, the documentation is atrocious.For example, there is a button labeled "prepayment" on the receipts window.There is no explanation anywhere, in PeachTree documentation or otherwise, describing how this button works.In fact the button is very counter-intuitive and seems to have nothing to do with prepayments/deposits.I have yet to figure it out.Unfortunately, the program doesn't let me reverse entries that have been made using this button.Again, my books are not accurate.

Thirdly, the search function does not allow seaching by Payee.It only allows searches by Vendor, which is a separate field.Therefore, if you write a check to Pep Boys, but do not enter PB as a vendor, it is not easily possible to find the transaction.

Fourth, the program forces you to close all windows and change accounting periods every time an entry for a month outside of the current period must be recorded.

Lastly, it is obvious that this company is trying to make its living selling support contracts.Every time you call while under warranty, they push the extended support is pushed hard.The lack of documentation and general opaqueness of the product make it hard to use without the support contract.There must be a better product out there.

Sincerely,

Gary Kulp

Inexpensive professional accounting package
In the quest to find a decent accounting solution for my sole-proprietorship (start-up), I tried and evaluated several trial versions of accounting software.Of the commercial accounting packages I evaluated, Peachtree accounting 2002 is most inexpensive, given the features.Unlike QuickBooks, it uses heavy-duty double-entry accounting.

Unfortunately it is not always the most intuitive accounting package to use.I would go so far as to say there is a degree of difficulty in using this package.Luckily, Peachtree includes a tutorial and several help files.I found myself referring to them often in the beginning, then less frequently as time progressed.

Using the included setup wizard, I was able to setup the books in about 30 minutes.Unfortunately, my business doesn't neatly fit into the example companies, so I had to do some customization.In any event, I was soon able to generate purchase orders, with a minimum of effort.Like QuickBooks, it can print out deposit slips.

Peachtree Accounting 2002 is a full-featured accounting package, with better inventory management than QuickBooks.It has good scalability and can grow with your company, but be warned, time will have to be invested in order to conquer the learning curve before you can become productive.

But don't take my word for it.You can download a trial version from (...) to try it out yourself.I would recommend spending a day putting in the numbers and seeing if it is right for you.

An Easy-to-use Integrated Management Software
I first encountered Peachtree Accounting (then called PAW) in 1995 when I started off a company.Being NOT an accounting major, I found it pretty handy and was pleased that it provided us with good info about the company (so were other shareholders).I pulled out from the company shortly, and my partner, an engineer by training, picked up the accounting work with my several hours' tutoring and several sheets of additional manual.He survived and got not much problems with auditors.

This year I started my own company distributing appliances.I chose Peachtree Accouting 2002.With 2 weeks' dedicated working (to back tracked two months+ of transactions), I finally set up the system, putting all company activities, including inventory movements, into the system.It went very well.Now that I felt truly comfortable, knowing I can get timely and meaningful insights of the company.Truly a worthy-of-praise software.If they are talking about ERP, I think that's it.We tried to use some ERP software in my former company, we bumped onto difficulty just trying to work with one module.

Like any good software, Peachtree Accounting is great.What causes failure is the implementation. In my last company, I asked the financial controller to use Peachtree with a newly established subsidiary.She and her accounting manager tried to persuaded me to wait for a soon-to-come heaven-sent ERP system.I stood firm, nominating an accounts supervisor to champion the project.She ended up giving us the year end financial report two working days after closing.So don't let your kingdom-builder accountant talked you out.How good it is you can get timely information from the system, without having to ask your accountant who could store his/her precious numbers down in scattered Excel files?Ask them,"If they can make it, why can't you?"

Lession learnt: if possible, always go for Peachtree Complete.It allows multi-user access.You could have someone input customers' info, then another staff line up servicing schedule from another workstation.The best is the value pack which allows unlimited users' access.You've got to planned for growth and division of labor - with you overlooking the big picture using such an integrated software.I gave it a 4-star because it didn't support Chinese characters input in my area. Otherwise, 5-star is truly beyond doubt. ... Read more

Features

• Complete tax solution for small business owners
• Improved Schedule C interview; improved error check
• Extra assistance on depreciation, business expenses, and more
• Forms for self-employment, corporations, partnerships, estates, and non-profits
• Free after rebate: H&R Block tax advice, TaxCut Personal State, and e-filing

Reviews (10)

Use At Your Own Risk
I selected this product because it was the only comprehensive business product I could download (why pay for and wait for shipping if you can avoid it?).

I experienced many of the problems of the other reviewers, including:

--Gaps in the interview process that simply refer you to IRS instructions.

--Software refused to launch after installing state product, requiring a reinstall. Fortunately, I had already printed out a draft of my return, so I'm just looking at having to do some data entry rather than start from scratch.

--State product for my state (NY) was worse than the free, fill-in version of the form available from the New York State website. Not only did it simply display the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance instructions instead of walking me through my return, but the "updated" form refused to print because, according to the software, it wasn't approved by New York State.

Fortunately, TaxCut offers a no-questions-asked refund, which I took them up on for the state business product. Because the refund is for a downloaded product, I didn't have to mail any disks back or fill out any forms to get my refund.

I'm sticking with TaxCut, bugs and all, for my federal return because it is less than half the price of TurboTax , and because I don't want to pay for and wait for shipping of a product I have no way of knowing is any better.

Here's what I suggest for other intrepid souls who wish to use TaxCut to file their business returns:

--View the product for what it is: simply an aid to filling out your own taxes.

--Become thoroughly familiar with your own tax situation; get tax books and download the IRS forms and instructions as well. Don't rely on the software to know anything you don't--and be pleasantly surprised when it does.

--Check your completed return carefully for any anomalies (mine inexplicably included a form I didn't need).

--Do not purchase the state product; you'll do much better with the interactive forms available from your state website.

Worst software I've ever tried to use
I purchased this software based on reviews I read on Amazon where Turbo Tax wasn't rated as highly on the day I was researching. In reading the reviews today, I am gratified to learn that my problems were common among other users.
The problems I encountered were extreme difficulty installing the software and then not having updates available yet.When they finally were available, then I had trouble getting the updates to download and function properly.I had a problem getting assistance because the help people operate on East Coast time so they aren't available in the evenings when I'm working on this. I cannot believe that any product related to taxes would provide such limited hours of support.Long and short - after about 6 frustrating days, I gave up on TaxCut.I went to the IRS and my state website and downloaded extensionforms as I had run out of time, patience, and sanity.For the aggravation I just experienced, I want to warn anyone else that this software is horrible.Since I had to do so much uninstalling and reinstalling, my computer is noticeably slower than before my Tax Cut experience.I hope that I didn't screw up my computer as they had me doing all kinds of things to it to try to get the software to download.They said the registry was not fully installing for some reason.Now I think maybe my computer was trying to tell me something - like "please don't load this garbage into my hard drive" -STAY AWAY FROM TAX CUT HOME & BUSINESS!

Worst program EVER
If this product even exists next year, I will be amazed.

This program is by far the WORST program I have ever used. The interface is bad. The installation is buggy. The data entry only "remembers" the first letter of what you type and you don't find that out until later in the interview process. The updates disable the program so it no longer loads. The tax forms are still "out of date" and "unapproved" even though it is days before the corporate filing deadline. And then there is that slight problem of it not printing.

Oh, and I tried installing this on three different computers with three different configurations (XP-Pro, 98, NT).It doesn't work on any of them!The fact that it does not work (in different ways, of course) really shows its bugginess... I would have almost thought the install on my CD was bad if it was consistently sucky.But no.This is just a horrible piece of software.

At one point I did get some semblance of the software to run (no printing, but I didn't know that until I finished the effort), but in the so-called "interview" it just lists off almost random questions that you have to figure out what the hell they mean.If I was that much of a tax-wiz, I wouldn't need a program like this! I expected some layman's-language guidance, but instead get random quotes from the IRS form. With no explanation, even when I click on the supposed "help" (which tells me how to use my mouse or tab in the program - gee that helps).

I am absolutely taking them up on their 100% guarantee and getting a refund. This embarrassment of a program should never have seen the light of day, and can only be horrible joke of some kind. Run away from this program, and get a refund if you already wasted your money on this.

Buggy and Crude, and That's the Good News!
I had been a faithful TurboTax user since 1996, but this year decided to give TaxCut a chance as I do not like the way Intuit does business, and was hoping for a better option. Unfortunately, I will have to go back to TurboTax next year as TaxCut is very substandard.

I have a moderately complex tax return (including a Schedule C business) and have a fairly firm understanding of the tax codes that pertain to me, which was a good thing, as the interview is NOT complete in several important areas, and presumes that you know how some specifics apply to you. This was especially true in business deductions, and the dreadful Schedule D interrogation. I had one issue on a broker statement that was never addressed in the interview, nor was any help available on how the program wanted it entered (it was a 'cash in lieu' transaction). I checked the help pages and indexes, but it had no idea. I finally had to essentially do my Schedule D by hand and make sure the numbers were correct, as the only way to enter it was as a dividend (which it technically was not.) I have never had problems like this with TurboTax. I am grateful that I had no foreign taxes paid this year; I don't think I would have had the patience for that.

Another problem I had was with the entries for the form 8606 ('Nondeductible IRAs') which couldn't figure my basis from my 2002 return plus my 2003 contributions. The verbiage used to ask the questions in the IRA interview BEGS you to make an error in entering the basis. When I used the 'show form' function, unlike TurboTax, it will not show the IRS form, it shows the IRS form plus a lot of TaxCut worksheet entries intermingled with the real form which is extremely annoying, when all you really want to do is look at the real form to see what the program is doing for certain entries.

The interface itself is laughable. It takes up about the middle half of my monitor, and there is no way to maximize it. Why on earth TaxCut would ignore huge bands of space on the sides of the presentation and make the font small and hard to decipher in a central window is a mystery to me. Beware of the interview. If you have anything other than an extremely simple return, it is inadequate, and you will need help (I recommend the J. K. Lasser "Your Income Tax 2004" book) figuring out how to enter some data.

My overall biggest complaint, though, without doubt, was the error check at the end of the program. After I finished entering my data, it said I had nine errors that had to be corrected, and ten warnings, that I should examine. In all cases the 'errors' were due to things TaxCut did not do correctly. For instance, it imported my 2002 TurboTax results and saw I filed Schedule C-EZ, but this year I needed a regular Schedule C. TaxCut was not smart enough to delete the C-EZ, and in fact came up with a paragraph long explanation of where I needed to look for entries pertinent to the C-EZ and manually delete them or change them to refer to the new Schedule C, and only then could I delete the Schedule C-EZ (which was, at any rate, empty.) The other 'errors' were because TaxCut doesn't grasp what 401K contributions do to your W-2. I wrestled with fixing these errors for about two days. Ugh.

I can't recommend this product. I gave it two stars only for the simple reason that after all was said and done, it did compute the taxes correctly, and the state taxes were actually a snap.

Save yourself a headache, buy TurboTax instead. I don't like Intuit either, but I like staying sane more than I dislike Intuit. Never again will I use TaxCut.

BEWARE of the Business Product
TaxCut Business has many problems.I am suprised that it is even on the market.This product does not even deserve 1 star!

The interview is not exhaustive.The user must have a fair amount of tax knowledge to adequately utilize the software.The interview does not suggest forms that should be used.

The update process corrupted my data.A long session with tech support concluded with me re-entering the return.

After this pain, for some reason, I decided to stick with it and download the state business product.After much work, the return would not print because the forms had not been approved by the state.When I asked customer service about this, they assured me that approved forms would be available in a few weeks.Well, as of this writing it is 3/9/04.Business returns are due on 3/15/04.Exactly how long should I wait for "approved" forms?

All in all, the product is difficult to use.If you are not an advanced computer & software user, you will really feel some pain.

I could go on, but read the other reviews, some good points are brought up.

I'm on the way to return the product for a refund. ... Read more

Product Description

Myob MYOB Plus 2004 v.13.0 - Complete Product - Productivity Application - 1 User(s) Complete Product - Standard - English - PCRely on MYOB Plus for Windows to provide all the tools you need to run your business successfully and in less time. MYOB Plus has all the standard features you expect from quality accounting software with the added bonus of excellent business management tools designed to assure your business operates with financial intelligence, provides customer satisfaction, establishes personalized service and creates a smooth work flow - to get you home faster! Nice electronics is your source for everyday low prices on theMyob US MPURW - MYOB PLUS 2004 (V13)and all other Myob US Software - Misc ... Read more

Features

• Accept credit cards and offer your employees direct deposit
• Powerful accounting management tools to help you run your business
• Email financial and management reports, invoices, quotes, and orders
• Send reports to Microsoft Excel; create ready-made letters with links to Word
• Track your profit and loss and other financials with a click of the mouse

Reviews (5)

Payroll update feature exploits users.
This review applies to both MYOB Plus 12 and to MYOB 2004

This brief review supplements my other review of MYOB Plus 12. While I like MYOB in general, it should be noted that MYOB doesn't allow editing of payroll tax tables. You must import the payroll tables from MYOB, under the guise that MYOB cares about your tax tables being correct and up-to-date.

So, for example, in Minnesota in 2002, the wage base for state unemployment insurance tax was $21,000. This means that all wages up to $21,000 were subject to state unemployment taxes. Anything above that amount wasn't taxed for SUI. In 2003, the wage base was changed to $22,000.

In MYOB Plus 12 there is one single tax table for Minnesota UI. There sits the number $21,000 in its own little box. That's the table. But, you can't highlight it and change it to $22,000. That's all the update would need to do. And, many business users would know how to change this value, because this information is easily found on the state's UI site.

So, not able to change the silly number by yourself, if you go to MYOB's website and look for update options, you'll learn that tax table updates aren't free. You need to purchase the support option. Further, there is a basic support option for $90. That basic support option doesn't include being able to update the payroll tables! You need to purchase "complete" support to be able to update the tax tables at a cost of $250 per year.

If MYOB only cared about accuracy of the tax tables, why wouldn't they allow the basic support users to download the tax tables? Better yet, make the payroll tax tables free.

Needing to pay for payroll updates (and at the "Complete support" level!!) really bugs me. For this payroll "feature," I'll give MYOB one star. I don't like having my pocket picked! If you use MYOB's payroll function, you can't edit or import your own tax tables. You can only use tables purchased from MYOB at a premium price.

So, as the other reviewer pointed out, you'll need to pay for support. Be sure to update your tax tables during your 30 day free support service. But, then don't be surprised when you find yourself trying to highlight and change one silly little number and realize it costs you $250 to change it!

A ray of hope..... How to decide for yourself
I, like you, have been wading through the sea of worthless hyped information in search of a decent small business accounting package. I'm not an accountant, I am small business owner with a mission. When I asked my small biz friends what they were using the usual offer was to loan me a copy of their quickbooks cdrom. I declined each time while asking more probing questions. The #1 QB complaint was too many upsell ads followed by complaints about QB's cumbersome steps. All recommended at least 12 hours of self training before using QB. Three of five said they had quit using quickbooks pro. Two had outsourced accounting to a part time bookkeeper for about $1500 month. Over the years I worked in consulting. I was on the project team for installation and conversion of the worlds largest installation of Oracle Financials (at Zales Jeweler's). The moral learned was that consultants NEVER recommend something that cuts into future consulting revenue. So why do accountant's pitch QB??? Is it popularity, apathy or greed? Interesting that CNET reviews of QB don't display any score. CNET gives MYOB a 7.7 and SA is 7.0.So how could I possibly compare with that data?The answer is that it's not possible. While most people would give up and simply roll the dice on QB - My stubborn dedication drives me to seek a better answer.

Facts discovered so far:
1) ALL the old QB reviews are bad signs, Many of the old MYOB reviews were somewhat good with certain conditions.
2) MYOB offers a free flash tutorial & 30 day moneyback or you can take the trial download. http://www.myob.com
3) Small business owners are pioneers, control freeks, willing to give-up a steady paycheck to purse an uncertain path to their dreams. We take our chances and make our own money. I can't get ahead by just following the pack.
4) You will have to invest some effort to learn a new product. I planned on 12 hours over one weekend.
5) I need a good solid bookkeeping system. Advanced forcasting just does not apply in small business. We always want more and need to focus on better marketing & promotions. No accounting package would have forcasted my sales growth correctly. A good promotion can completely change your future. (You can really kick start sales with "Free Publicity" by my new friend Jeff Crilley (Fox News) and "Ultimate Marketing Plan" by Kennedy).
6) I will always have to pay for annual upgrades anyway.
7) You should expect tech support is usually a low paid warm body reading from the manual. Good training on my end is the better strategy for most issues. (search on myob training)

I downloaded the free trial from MYOB.com along with the tutorial. My control freek nature wants to make a program conform to me, but I have agreed to give it a chance using it as designed. Next week I will reload the system and begin using it for daily operations. So far it looks good for my service business...Try it yourself before cratering to QB. Your future may depend on it.

I wish you all the best in your endeavor,
David Cannon
President
CertTest Training Centers - Management Certification Training
http://www.certtest.com

Quickbooks Converters be cognizant...
I ordered this product knowing that it had a freely available Quickbooks converter.The Quickbooks converter, while simple, did not do what I had hoped:

1) For any bank accounts, it carried over the balance accurately but it did not carry the register.
2) Transactions carry over as "historical transactions."You will not be able to see the specific details of these transactions (apart from the balance) in MYOB.
3) Along with that, if you run a statement on any preconversion purchases, all it will say is "Preconversion Sale" which is confusing to a customer who has no idea you "converted."I have not found a way to edit this.
4) It didn't pull my customer data well.The data is all there but it put the customer name in the address field as well as the name field so my invoices come out with the name twice and then the address.
5) Also know that you have to pick a conversion date and it must be the first of a month.It will not accept any transactions dated prior to that conversion date.

The software in and of itself is decent.I have some minor issues with the fact that I can't use my scrolling mouse and that the form customization interface doesn't have tool tips but otherwise the interface is not too difficult to navigate and I haven't come across any major problems that weren't directly related to the conversion.

Not good for a beginner
Although it has many features useful for a small business, it is very difficult to work with. There is better accounting software, so please look around.

Nice Piece of Software
I've been pleasantly surprised by MYOB after being referred to it by a friend.I had never heard of it prior.It was simple set-up and it does everything I'd ever need (actually a lot more). ... Read more

Product Description

Kiplinger TaxCut Premium 2004 for MAC (runs OS 9.2/OS X.1 or Later).TaxCut Premium provides extra tools and advice to help you save money on your federal taxes. You'll get valuable tools for managing home ownership, investments, and retirement planning. FEATURES Includes everything from TaxCut Deluxe plus: ⢠HR Block Premium Tax Tips and Advice Save money with more than 25 new topics like Dividends, Capital Gains, and more.⢠Home Ownership Tools and Advice Extra guidance for homeowners with tools for Home Basis, Mortgage Refinancing, and more.⢠Investment Tools and Advice Tax-saving tips and tools for managing your investments, stock gains/losses, deductions, and more.⢠Premium Retirement Tools and Advice Make the most of your retirement savings with our collection of retirement resources and tools ... Read more

Features

• Kiplinger tax and financial planning library
• Fast, easy-to-use federal-tax filing software with money-saving tips
• Helpful investment, retirement, and home ownership tools and advice
• 25+ new topics like dividends, capital gains, and more
• Live professional tax advice online or by phone from a trained professional

Reviews (15)

Finally after years ....
Finally after years and years of amatuerish programming they have a half decent
product.3.5 stars .

Not Fast, Not Easy, Pray It's Accrurate
Most reviews I have read say that this is the best tax software for the Macintosh.That is a very sad state of affairs.

Burn me once, shame on you, burn me twice ...
I used H&R Block TaxCut for 2002 for Mac OS and it was really bad ... buttons didn't work, the update feature didn't work for California state, things didn't print correctly. It was very, very lame. I swore I'd never use it again ... but then Intuit managed to become even more arrogant last year (I forget what they did THIS time) and I got fed up with their taking Mac users for granted. So, based on some decent reviews here for TaxCut for 2004 (I saw these reviews about a month or so ago), I decided to give it one last try. Well, "last try" is right. This program just doesn't cut it, especially not for something as sensitive as doing one's taxes. The 2004 version is better than the 2002, at least (small compliment) but TurboTax is still far and away smoother, less buggy, clearer, and much better at giving you a sense that it's not bolloxing your taxes up. Examples: TaxCut's update feature is not clear; it prompts you to update the software at regular intervals (good), but instead of saying, "you're already up-to-date" it says "there are no updates planned" (confusing). I couldn't e-file my state income tax because of a bug (and judging from H&R Block's support website, this is a bug that appears in many places). Their solution was very consistent: print your return and mail it. So much for e-filing. There were several places where the software asked me to pick a number from a table, or decide which form to use. Isn't that what the software is supposed to do? It gives "error-check" warnings where there is no apparent problem (at least I hope there isn't; neither the Help or the error itself gave much of a clue). And there were several places where both the interface and the Help provide muddy and unclear instructions. TaxCut ended up wasting a lot of my time, turning a fairly straightforward return into an ordeal. As much as I loathe Intuit, I'm afraid that, for FY2005, I'm going to have to once again grit my teeth, curse under my breath, and pay too much for the greater confidence, fewer bugs, and smoother experience of TurboTax. GRRRRRRR.

Easy, quick and solid taxes for the Mac
This is my first time using tax preparation software, and after looking over many poor reviews for TurboTax on the Mac, I went with TaxCut.I found the product to be simple to use, very intuitive and filled with just the right kinds of "interviews" that made filling out forms and filing my taxes very easy.

I too had the problem of downloading the updates, and after trying to click the "get latest version" button to no avail I followed the directions to the TaxCut site where I was able to successfully download and install the updates.I filed my return electronically yesterday, and found out 12 hours later that it had been accepted by both Federal and State.

Overall an excellent product for the Mac, and one that I'll purchase again next year.

Don't buy this product!
It is clear that this product was not sufficiently or fully tested.

I am so frustrated that if I could throw a bushel of rotten eggs at the programmers and everyone else responsible for the time I'm wasting, I would.

I have completed my federal and state return, and I'm ready to file the return. But the program insists that I need to check for updates, which I have done already, and again, and again, and again just trying to find a way out of this horrible programming do-loop. ... Read more

Features

• Print out informative business reports for your home or business
• Create personal and business-size checks, for printing or sending by email
• Design and organize your own estimates, invoices, and statements
• Create new drafts and checks by phone or fax
• Track and manage customer payments

Reviews (2)

Nifty and Practical
This software provides a nifty and practical way to customize your own personal checks, rather than purchase pre-printed or bank checks. I went to an office supply store to purchase the actual black check supply, for around twenty-two bucks for 750 checks, and printed out my own quickly and simply using Windows 98 and an inkjet printer. Someone else who uses the same software gave me the idea of printing my photo on the checks as a customizing idea, as she did herself. Nice idea, I think, or perhaps a nice background, using a favorite photo.

I ran into one stumbling block when attempting to enter my bank account information in the step-by-step on-screen process; I had NO old checks from my account, and the setup requires that you enter the little hyphenated number which is found near the center of your checks. Upon contacting my financial institution for this number, I was disappointed to find that a representative there was unwilling to give me that simple, non-confidential information. It just so happened that while insisting to her that I needed it for printing my new personalized checks (as she insisted I only need the routing # and account #), I happened to see that it was printed on my deposit slips, which I still had left. In other words, if for some reason you too have no checks available, simply check a deposit slip from your account if you have one, and all the information will be there.

Great Product
This is a really great product for people who are tired of spending high dollars on bank checks.I've been using these checks and this software for years.The steps for entering your bank data in order for it to print on your check is very simple.You can print checks to carry around with you so that they can be handwritten in stores, etc. and you can print check amounts and vendor names with your various computer programs, i.e. Quick Books, Quicken, etc.You can put clip art on your checks, maybe a Christmas Tree at Christmas and so on.I get a lot of compliments from store merchants when using these checks, but my main objective for using them is the BIG SAVINGS !!! ... Read more