Features

• Create a NACHA formatted ACH Origination File ready to be processed by your Bank
• Very easy to use - Menu Driven With Screen Prompts - No need to Import or Export data
• Distribute pays to an unlimited number of bank accounts at different financial institutions
• Automatic Pre-Note Incorporation
• Compatible with all Banks and Credit Unions that follow the NACHA standards

Features

• Create a CPA formatted 80, 105 or 1464 byte Origination File ready to be processed by your Bank or Credit Union
• Very easy to use - Menu Driven With Screen Prompts - No need to Import or Export data
• Distribute pays to an unlimited number of bank accounts at different financial institutions
• Automatic Pre-Note Incorporation
• Compatible with all Banks and Credit Unions that follow CPA standards

Features

• Create a CPA formatted 80, 105 or 1464 byte Origination File ready to be processed by your Bank or Credit Union
• Very easy to use - Menu Driven With Screen Prompts - No need to Import or Export data
• Distribute pays to an unlimited number of bank accounts at different financial institutions
• Automatic Pre-Note Incorporation
• Compatible with all Banks and Credit Unions that follow CPA standards

Features

• Create a CPA formatted 80, 105 or 1464 Byte Origination File ready to be processed by your Bank or Credit Union
• Very easy to use - Menu Driven With Screen Prompts - No need to Import or Export data
• Collect Payments from an unlimited number of bank accounts at different financial institutions
• Automatic Pre-Note Incorporation
• Compatible with all Banks and Credit Unions that follow CPA standards

Product Description

Peachtree Premium Accounting 2005 for Distribution.Peachtree Premium Accounting for Distribution 2005 Multi-User Value Pack is the advanced multi-user accounting solution small distributors need to meet their daily and long-term goals more effectively. In addition to solid core accounting tools, it includes premium functionality such as advanced pricing management, the ability to buy/sell items in different quantities, and customizable reports designed specifically to address the needs of distributors. Crystal Reports for Peachtree is also included, giving distributors even greater operational analysis. Peachtree Premium Accounting for Distribution 2005 Multi-User Value Pack is the ultimate solution for forward-thinking distributors! ... Read more

Features

• Advanced, multi-user, accounting solution for small distributors
• Meet daily and long-term goals more effectively; pricing management
• Advanced drop shipping; ability to buy/sell items in different quantities
• Customizable reports designed to address needs of distributors
• Crystal Reports for Peachtree included for even greater operational analysis

Product Description

The Certified Payroll program collects weekly hourly time card information, does all your taxes and deductions automatically and then prints the certified payroll reports. It can generate the U.S. Department of Labor WH-347 and WH-348 formats as well as many state formats including CA, CT, DE, MA, NY, NJ, OH, PA, KY, NV, and OR. There are also a number of other project labor, fringe benefit, and payroll analysis reports provided. The program also optionally integrates with QuickBooks Pro 2003 or above to reduce duplicate data entry. (Note: Certain QuickBooks requirements and considerations apply. To import time cards, you must use QuickBooks to do your payroll (weekly payroll period only). If you enter weekly timesheets in QuickBooks, you must use separate payroll items or service items to identify the prevailing wage work classifications.) ... Read more

Features

• Automates the certified payroll reporting process for contractors, subcontractors, construction managers, & suppliers.
• Collects weekly hourly time card information, does all your taxes and deductions automatically and then prints the certified payroll reports.
• Generates the U.S. Department of Labor WH-347 and WH-348 formats as well as many state formats.
• Optional integration with QuickBooks Pro or above to reduce duplicate data entry (see note below).

Features

• Works with Checksoft Personal, Quicken, Microsoft Money, and QuickBooks
• Create and manage checking, savings, credit card, and money market accounts
• Print custom checks; insert personal graphics; add digital signature
• Reconcile bank statement in minutes; see all account balances at a glance
• Create deposit slips; balance checkbook; print custom reports; import bank data

Reviews (1)

Good software, decent checks
My husband and I have been using home-printed checks for almost a decade.We find them to be far more economical than checks purchased through the bank.There are two separate parts here that need to be reviewed:the software and the actual checks.

The software is easy to use and does offer some nice features.In particular, I like the ability to add pictures to your checks.

I wasn't as impressed, however, with the actual check paper.The check book kits were a good idea and easy to use, but the paper is not perferated well enough.A high percentage of the checks ended up ripping as we were pulling them from the book.This was true no matter how slowly or how carefully you removed the.

All in all, I think I'm going to continue using the software, but I'll buy a different brand of check refills. ... Read more

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 Review

MYOB Plus offers the benefits of an integrated, all-in-one system without the steep learning curve of other business management packages on the market. MYOB focuses on keeping track of where your money is going and where it's coming from, without the hassles of knowing a debit from a credit (although this knowledge is helpful to any businessperson.)

We test-drove MYOB Plus from start to finish, tackling as many tasks as possible, from initial company set-up to invoicing clients. Two approaches made us feel comfortable immediately: the New Company File and Set-Up Assistants were both typical wizard-like interfaces that walked us through selecting our company type, creating records for customers, and choosing our accounts. The second method, which we used for general sale and project entry, is a handsome graphical interface that presents the user with types of tasks in common language such as "Receive and Spend Money."

Just about every type of business is represented; we set up a freelance writing company, but there were also countless options for other types of businesses as diverse as landscaping, pet grooming, copy centers, religious organizations, restaurants, and many more. Each company type comes equipped with a set of common accounts for that type of operation (ours included specific accounts for "Writing Income," "Editing," and"Consulting").

After setting up the initial company file, diving into sale and project descriptions was easy. Projects (or jobs) are stored with numeric references and can be tracked throughout their progress. Activity slips that are tied to specific employees made it easy to figure out billable hours and job completion. The integration between sales details, accounts, purchases, payroll, and jobs was truly seamless, which lent a comforting feeling of control to the entire process. The invoicing process was superb: an inviting screen with clear options helped us create a professional-looking invoice, complete with an automatically tracked invoice number, which we were able to export (to file, fax, or e-mail). The output is a clean PDF file that prints clearly.

While MYOB Plus follows all standard Windows conventions for file management, copying, pasting, and other commands, we found certain portions of the interface to be confusing and awkward. When entering a new customer, the only text field present is one for the customer name. Other fields only appear after pressing Tab or Enter; clicking the mouse on the next field label has no effect.

Despite certain UI inconsistencies, we found this package to be extremely accessible, even to novice accountants, sales managers, project leaders, or any combination of these. --Emilie Herbst ... Read more

Reviews (9)

The ONLY OPTION For Multiple Currencies
MYOB is the only small business accounting package that can handle multiple currencies.Neither QUICKBOOKS nor PEACHTREE can handle multiple currencies.If you have customers or suppliers paying or billing in different currencies this is really your only option in a sub-$500 accounting package.The other big MYOB plus is its report generating capability - you can pretty much customise whatever you want.They currently have a $100 rebate offer (unlike QUICKBOOKS you do not need to be a prior user to qualify) so this is a screaming buy.Also note that MYOB is the market leader in pretty much every major market outside the U.S.MYOB spend their budget on PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT for major upgrades whilst most of their competitors spend their budget on ADVERTISING to support relatively minor annual upgrades (think about that for a minute...).

Software for an invoiced based business only
I purchased this product based on previous reviews and reading the back of the box. This product is not for the retail store. If your business is based on invoicing single customers for projects or jobs and parts used, then this is your product. If you have any other sort of need, then avoid this product. I was sadly dissapointed to find this out after I already purchased it. There is no way to reconsile the inventory if you don't track each sale by each item number and by each customer. Anyway, live and learn.....

Minding my own business
My hobby business as an online bookseller reached the stage where it was returning serious income and so I needed an accounting package to keep track of things and see if I had to pay income tax.

Not being an accountant, and not having a lot of spare money (or time!) to spend on dud software, I was a little dubious about these things, but I am pleased to report that MYOB has filled my needs perfectly.

That's probably because MYOB was aimed precisely at small businessmen like me. It is easy to learn, the user interface is intuitive and welcoming, and it is supremely powerful. It will keep my accounts for me, as well as help me grow my business, with a wide range of reports and analysis tools.

The manual and the various start wizards held my hand as I did tasks for the first time, until I gained the confidence to fly by myself. And I needed confidence, because even simple activities such as entering my first invoice filled me with the horrors. What if I got it wrong? Would my customers laugh at me? Would my accountant slug me thousands of dollars to unsnarl the mess when the time came to prepare my tax return?

Happy to report no mess, no fuss, no worries. This is not the hassle I feared - in fact it is kind of fun, and I frequently look through the reports to see my business growing before my eyes.

Thanks, MYOB!

Great Product...
I have been using MYOB for a number of years, and have just upgraded to Acoounting Plus, and love it.

The product is getting better all the time, but the user interface has some shortcomings. For instance you cannot view another time billing screen, without closing out the current one, which is a problem if you store notes, and are billing a client based on time. In this case you have to stop the billing timer in order to see the notes on another item.

The MDI interface works well, and all screens are refreshed at once if you change details. I am also able to remove entries and re-enter them which is good since I am an engineer and not an accountant.

I am finding that MYOB is good for keeping an eye on cash flow - something important for all businesses.

Wish List...
1. Integration with outlook (Contacts, Contact Logs etc)
2. More MDI, where more than one of each screen can be open at once
3. ToDo screen that comes up on startup ONLY if there is a ToDo.

Overall a good product

GREAT FOR SMALL BUSINESS!
Not too complicated to learn.
Even manufacturers can use it...you can take inventory and combine it to make "new" inventory.Nice feature NOT found in QuickBooks.

You can even use this as a manual entry POS software for small biz checkout.

Downloads or uploads text file spreadsheets.

Much less expensive than oter MRP systems. ... Read more

Amazon.com Product Description

MYOB Plus 12 is your complete business accounting, tracking, and payroll solution. Loaded with features, it's ready to help you take control of any and every facet of your business, from customer accounts, inventory, and accounts payable to purchase orders and more.

An indispensable tool for small business owners, MYOB Plus 12 lets users create and track everything imaginable: customer accounts, banking, sales, POs, and so on. It also generates comprehensive reports so business owners know exactly where they stand at any time.

With additional network licenses available, MYOB is ready to be shared across a peer-to-peer network so multiple users can enjoy its many merits. A business owner, for example, might want the company's payroll manager orinventory manager to share the MYOB accounting and tracking system. With MYOB Plus 12, it's possible. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Multiple Warehouse Location and Inventory Sub Categories
I've implemented the system in three different types of users.
1. Household financial management - I've migrated from Microsoft Office
2. Subdivision financial management - The Home Owners Association never had an accounting system in place since 1994 until I joined two years ago.
3. Motorcyle Parts Retail Store - I setup three years ago Microsoft Profit and last year migrated to MYOB.

The first two were just perfect. Everything that I needed were present in the software. On the third however, when the business really became good that we had to open four separate outlets and correspondingly four storage warehouses, I cound not find in the system the option of having more than one Warehouse location.

Recently, I'm about to implement on an aircon and refrigeration business where multiple warehouse and parts sub-categories are required in the inventory, I'm again having difficulty making the setup perfect.

Also, I want to see that Philippine Tax table and other government mandated deductions for payroll are captured so that we can also effectively use the Payroll module.

I hope MYOB will look at my comments. I will also be interested to enter into some business relationship with MYOB since I am bringing their business to the Philippines. I still have other friends I intend to help and I consider MYOB as a good option.

Overall, A Great Accounting Program
I feel MYOB is an excellent program for smaller service businesses and product-based businesses which track inventory on a average-cost basis. However, if you operate a product-based business which must track inventory on a LIFO basis, you won't be happy with the inventory-management features of this program.

MYOB doesn't support LIFO or FIFO. It can only track inventory on a rolling average cost basis (Quickbooks is similarly limited. Peachtree Complete Accounting has LIFO as an option.). While average cost inventory isn't bad, if you want/need LIFO, you're SOL with MYOB. MYOB help doesn't even mention the concept of LIFO!

(As an aside: LIFO, FIFO, and specific cost valuation methods are approved by the IRS under Regulations 1.471-3, where inventory is valued at cost. Average cost is probably approved for most businesses, as long as average cost is acceptable within your industry and as long as it fairly states a company's income. In cases where a company has aging inventory (such as wine, I suppose), average-cost might not be acceptable for IRS taxation purposes. But, if you're dealing with inventory that must be aged, you probably have a custom inventory program. Check with your accountant if you're unsure if you can use average cost for taxation reporting purposes.)

An annoying aspect of the program is the convenient list of drop down names for customers that is provided when entering sales. This works great if you have only a few key customers, but if you serve many, many different customers, you'll find the drop down list far too long to be able to quickly locate your most common sales accounts. It would be nice is there were some classification, categorization, or nesting of customers, so that only key accounts would display when adding sales. (Maybe there is, but I haven't found it yet.)

I tried creating a "customer" named "individual sale" and using it for multiple customers. But this method is inherently dangerous, because payments could be attributed to the wrong customer. So, you're stuck with long drop down lists.

Also if you're entering customer payments, there's no button to easily add a customer credit. (You can do it elsewhere.) If payments are made in excess of money owed, MYOB chalks it up to "Finance Charges," if you aren't careful. A button "create customer credit" would be nice. (For prepaid orders, when a payment is entered along with the sale, you're given the ability to immediately issue a refund or else create a credit. "Issue Refund" immediately opens your checkbook to write the check, which is handy. But, if customers overpay after being invoiced, it's a bit less convenient.)

Other than that, I like the layout of this program. There's a "bank" feature that allows you to "spend money" which mimics your checkbook. You can "make deposits" of "undeposited" funds, which essentially mimics holding checks and then depositing them. "Receive cash" is handy for entering revenue you want to match with a particular income account, but that doesn't relate to a customer payment for a product or service. (For example, if you're an Amazon associate, you might have an income account "Amazon Associate Income." Then, when you receive your Associate payment, you can use "receive money" to attribute this money to that income account.)

Sales are easily entered, as are customer payments. Payments for sales should be entered under the "Sales" section. And, you're allowed to allocate payments to multiple invoices in any way you desire. However, while your own invoice number is listed as you're allocating payments, the PO of the company making the purchase isn't available. You'll need to go to another window to get it. So, if a payment received only has the other company's PO number and not your invoice number, you'd need to do some clicking around to attribute the payment properly. It would be nice to show the customer's PO when allocating payments to various invoices.

Of course, you can create your own accounts, delete accounts you don't need, and examine balances in your accounts. When in doubt, for those who are more familiar with accounting, under "Accounts" there is a place to record journal entries directly. For example, if you must deduct $4 as a bank service fee and aren't sure where else to do it, you could manually credit your checking account $4 and debit the expense account "bank charges." (And, you could examine your balances in the expense account and checking account to be sure you entered it correctly.) You can create templates of frequently used journal entries. You can always delete a journal entry and start over or reverse transactions to maintain an audit trail. And, you can examine the transactions you've made.

For your starting set of accounts, MYOB allows you to import a set, create your own set, or start with a template set of accounts appropriate to various types of businesses, such as newspaper publishers, etc.

Overall, this is a very good program. The other reviewer pointed out the support options, and that's very true. But, to an extent, I think we'll run into that with most accounting programs today. You're asked to pay ... for annual support. You get 30 days of support free.

I took off one star because MYOB lacks LIFO inventory capability. If you don't need LIFO and you're comfortable with basic double-entry bookkeeping, MYOB might be right for you.

Peter Hupalo, Author of "Thinking Like An Entrepreneur" and "How To Start And Run A Small Book Publishing Company"

I threw Quick Books Away
I have been using Quick Books before MYOB and just did not like the interface at all. Took far to long to get around in it or to quickly find something or lookup a past entry. Search feature was poor at best.

MYOB is much easier to use. Straightforward approach to doing anything. Entry forms are much easier to use than QB. Something else that always bothered me was QB was always trying up upsale me with support at a zillion dollars a year. I had a simple question once that was NOT covered in the Qucik Books maual or online help. Quickbookss wanted $ to answer the question which would have taken less than two minutes! Really ... me off.

I haven't set up my books completly yet but have been working on it for the last three days non stop. I can tell you that as far as easy of use, it's light years ahead of QB.

Quick Books, their tech support, and their upsale attempts, are going in the trash this week. MYOB has made a GREAT product! I haven't used all the report features yet but I think for my needs (small business doing $500K or so a year) that it will be fine.

Anyone want to form a Quick Book haters support group? I'd be the first to join!

David

Not quite good enough anymore...
I've been using MYOB Accounting Plus for two years (started with version 10) and I'm getting tired of its inadequacies. It was a huge step up from Peachtree and One-Write Plus as far as program stability and networking, but it still does not suit my needs.

Pros:
-Great stability, never crashes or causes data loss
-Works well with a small network (additional [$$$] license fee per workstation applies)
-Easy to learn and operate
-Really neat customer support website that looks like it might help a few people

Cons:
-Must upgrade to newest version each year if using payroll functions (upgrade fee is about [$$$] less than full price of latest version)
-Customer service is separated into two groups...those who can't really help you with your problem but they can sell you some business forms and those who refer you to group one.
-Need help? [$$$] per year will allow you to get technical support, but don't expect much. They basically read out of the user's manual for you.
-Business forms are proprietary so no more free W-2s from Uncle Sam...expect to pay [$$$] for something that should be free with your yearly [$$$] upgrade
-MYOB claims it provides custom financial reports...I suppose if you call changing color schemes and fonts "custom." Expect to print out two or three reports to get the information that should be included in one report.
-Back to stonage bookkeeping when it comes to finance charges or discounts. Do you have customers that pay late or early? Might as well figure those finance charges by hand because MYOB does not keep track of them. And discounts aren't kept track of on the statements...I have to write mine in by hand.

Overall:
MYOB is a great package for small businesses that have 100 or fewer customers and a dozen employees. If you look for your business to grow then this package might impede that progress unless you can overlook the minor problems. Expect to work harder than the MYOB software package does.

MYOB PlusROCKS!
This product should be called... 'The Intelligent Business Partner'.

I got MYOB Plus so that I could figure out how to stop giving my accountant so much money to do my books.Little did I know that doing my own books would lead me to various time-saving procedures that makes my business processes more efficient.These accounting software companies like to talk about these 20,000 foot-level virtues of using their software but in this case, I've found it to be true.My staff and I save probably an hour a day using MYOB Plus as an estimates & invoicing tool.Bottom line, I can email estimates & invoices to customers right from MYOB - rather than doing this by hand, using fax machines, getting busy signals, re-sending, etc..I've also discovered something called a ToDo list which provides immeasurable value to the running of my business.

And, the reason I got it in the first place, I now have the ability to get financial reports whenever I want them - and at no extra cost.Of course, I've also discovered the really neat sales and receivables reports so I know who owes me what and when.

I now wonder how I did all of this before I went with this accounting software. ... Read more

Amazon.com Product Description

A complete payroll system for your business, Payroll Made E-Z creates and generates reports for timecards, payroll, check register, employee listings, employee labels, QTD-YTD, deductions, workers' compensation, and child support. It even accrues vacation, sick leave, and personal days off. It automatically defines accrual calculations based on regular pay or regular plus overtime pay for each employee. Payroll Made E-Z features all the tools and detailed information that once required hundreds of hours and files, and thousands of dollars to obtain--now just a mouse click away! ... Read more

Reviews (6)

Software comes with 2001 tax tables!!!!!!!!
My copy of this software came with outdated tax table information!It will be returned faster than I can say "JUNK"!It turns out that the tax tables for year 2001 came with the software and to upgrade you have to pay more money.Essentially, you cannot use the software as it's provided to calculate any withholding for the current year!Save your money and time - buy another payroll program.

Barely adequate basic program
The basic EZ payroll program will calculate the amount of paychecks but that's about it; some reporting functions are there but are difficult to get adequate results with. Most irritating is the fact that many of the functions that the program ought to perform are not available on the basic version; you have to buy the upgrade to get them. As a result, much of the payroll information is "hidden" once it enters the program; the buttons for accessing it are mentioned in the "help" windows, but don't exist on the basic version.In my opinion the inexpensive basic version is little more than a come-on to hook you into buying the expensive upgrade. They should certainly mention that fact prominently in the ads.

Not very useful. . .
Product contains outdated tax tables."Upgrade" to current year's (2001) data, which you'll need if you want to withhold correctly, costs $100, from someone other than the software publisher E-Z Legal.And, the publisher doesn't support the program -- there's a third party author involved.

Great Payroll Program for a Small Business
Easy-to-use program supports up to 25 employees. Fast setup accounting system for any small business. Integrates invoicing, accounts payable, payroll, and checkbook. Prints W-2 and 1099 forms. Registration by phone at (949) 544-4250 is required to obtain a customer number to unlock the program. Upgrade is optional but not necessary. By far, the least expensive quality program available in the market.

I didn't like what I got . . .
This software is one of the worst things I bought last year.I tried to use it.It must be registered by phone or mail, internet is not an option.I called to register and got an answering machine with another number.I called there and spoke to a live operater who told me I had purchased the bottom end package and would I like to upgrade for $100.00."NO" said I. He told me I would never be able to update my tax tables unless I paid for the upgrade.The software came with the 1998-1999 tax tables, I bought it in 2000. Not very useful for payroll in 2001. ... Read more

Features

• Customize reports, prices and more
• Automatically track information for taxes and reporting
• Financial management system for businesses
• Import data from popular office software
• Easily manage accounts payable and receivable

Reviews (10)

Be careful before you buy Quickbooks
Not a bad software, but the caveat is that you MUST pay every year to upgrade in case you are planning to get new TAX TABLES.After your software is only one year old, it WILL NOT run the new TAX TABLES.Believe it or not.

No to the payroll part of this software
QuickBooks for Mac does a nice job in all respects except payroll.Do not buy this if you want to use the add on payroll software, TopPay by Aatrix.It has failed me miserably.Year end reports are incorrect and I have even had to resort to hand writing pay checks!Customer service can not be relied upon.I cannot stress how much time I have wasted trying to find and correct mistakes made in payroll.DO NOT BUY THIS IF YOU WANT TO USE PAYROLL.

Thoroughly Disappointing
As a long-time small business owner in the technology sector, I have seen my share of good and bad software and Quickbooks Pro 6 for Mac ranks right up there with the worst of the rollouts.The program is chock full of bugs, it is unstable, and although all of this is well documented, there are no fixes or workarounds provided by Intuit.

The interface for the payroll program that accompanies this software is quirky, counter-intuitive, frustratingly temperamental and the tax table costs are above and beyond the operating cost of the software and they are excessive.Although the software can be made to work, it is an arduous, tedious, and mind-numbing experience.

Intuit's "support" of this product is maddeningly incomplete and difficult to use unless you pony up the cash to purchase a kinder and gentler experience from them.Personally, I strongly object to this situation where the software has mission-critical bugs and crashes on a regular basis with or without loss of data and yet Intuit essentially forces you to purchase support by holding out the hope that you can get the software working properly through some personal assistance.

Despite my misgivings, I certainly gave this software the boyscout try--dutifully purchasing "support" and trying all of the inane solutions the support team could come up with--all to no avail.I'm told that their team is working on my problems and a solution will hopefully be available in an upcoming release--whenever that may be.Unfortunately, I have a company to run, so I am writing off all of my time and effort and retreating to other more reliable solutions.So, after a long and frustrating journey, I am writing this to serve as a lighthouse to others so that you may perhaps avoid crashing on Intuit's rocky coastline like I did.

I'd rather run Windows than Aatrix
Running Aatrix payroll is anything but user-friendly. Aatrix goes out of their way say how Mac-friendly they are, yet the integration into QuickBooks is not seemless. I gave up, and switched my license to Windows 2000 running under Virtual PC on my Mac.

QuickBooks for Mac itself is the same as it's always been - a very forgiving accounting program with a decent interface. If you don't need payroll, I'd give it 5 stars.

Review of QuickBooks 6.0 for the Mac
QuickBooks Pro 2004, produced by Intuit, is a software program that allows you to manage the fiscal side of your business, such as invoices, estimates, timesheets, and payroll, among other things.It also has the ability to export to Microsoft Excel, allows for automatic backups, and, of course, the much welcomed file conversion capability from previous QuickBooks' formats.The QuickBooks line has always been highly respected in the financial field, and I was eager to dive in and begin running it through its paces.

The computer requirements, according to the overlay emblazoned upon the front of the software package, is Mac OS 9 or Mac OS X as an operating system; however, Intuit's website states more defined "recommended" requirements of the operating system, i.e., Mac OS 9.2.2, Mac OS 10.2.7, or Mac OS 10.3 as the minimal OS.The recommended system RAM is 128MB, the required hard drive space is 100MB.In addition, a CDROM and color monitor capable of supporting millions of colors and a minimum resolution of 1024 X 768 is needed.Requirements for use of an "add-on" product named Aatrix Top Pay may vary from what is used by QuickBooks Pro 2004.

Installing QuickBooks Pro 2004 is relatively easy, just insert the CDROM, the contents should then automatically appear on the desktop once the CD spins up, and then simply double-click the "QuickBooks Pro 6.0 Installer" icon and installation begins.Here is where I discovered the exacting requirements of an operating system needed to run QuickBooks.I attempted to install QuickBooks onto my Macintosh running Mac OS 9.1 but the installation stopped itself and informed me that Mac OS 9.2.2 is required.Okay, easy enough to fix but I really wanted to use it on that particular Mac and I did--and still do--not want to upgrade to Mac OS 9.2.2, so I ejected the CD, walked over to my iMac, and began the installation process over.After installation, I double-clicked the QuickBooks icon and was greeted with a registration screen warning that the program requires registration before your 25th use of QuickBooks.After I selected the remind-later option, I was presented with the actual program screen.

Keeping in pace with the Macintosh graphical user interface, the interface is nice and simple, and really easy to navigate.This simplicity carries over to your options, which are to open a user's guide, sample file, or existing file, or to create a new file.That is as straightforward as it gets.

QuickBooks Pro 2004 is very configurable.Once you are up and running, if there is anything you do not understand, an answer may usually be found in the provided user's guide or the online FAQ file at their website.And, yes, you can even call for telephone technical support which varies from annual support plans to a per-incident charge.It's up to you.In fact, I find the program so user-friendly--and it is not surprising because of its long history in the industry--that it seems to fit users with varying degrees of experience.Any user level from beginner to expert should feel quite comfortable navigating through the application.

As a few examples of the user-friendly orientation of the program, I provide the following overviews.One of the main tasks of business owners is building and viewing reports, and this program offers of one of the easiest report builders because it's built in!Payroll is actually handled by Aatrix Top Pay, utilizing the information in your QuickBooks file, and the way it works with QuickBooks is among the best examples of ease-of-use.Invoicing is just a click away.You select items to bill your customer from within the appropriate heading's contextual drop-down menu and QuickBooks fills in the rest.One thing I do like is the capability to "personalize" messages in a document, i.e., bill, invoice, etc., so you can include a simple "Thank you for your business" or anything else you would like to say to your customers.You choose what customer messages to include from a drop-down, and, yes, you can add or delete messages at will.Nice feature.

Bottomline:Does QuickBooks Pro 2004 perform well?Yes.Do I recommend it?Yes. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Simple and efficeint
This software does what is needed.It is easy to use and not full of expensive traps like Quick Books and others.

oops discontinued product as of 12/31/04
Unless you need three weeks of payroll this program will not be much help.The customer service at accpac is very helpful so do not read this as a slam against the product line which sounds very good. ... Read more

Features

• A complete, fully bi-lingual, accounting solution for your growing business
• Multiuser ready, departmental accounting, time and billing, and more
• Perfect for more than 100 business types
• Get up and running in minutes using wizards
• Free setup support

Reviews (3)

What a complete package!
I have sold at least three different software packages in my previous business as a consultant and am truly amazed at the capabilities being offered by Simply Accounting Pro at such affordable pricing. I am starting a ditribution business and looked extensively at Quick Books Premier but then decided on Simply Accounting because of its completeness, ease of use and of course the cost. I highly recommend it and to those who don't care about accounting and want a simple way to track their transactions, like our friend who has given a poor rating to this package, I recommend using a spreadsheet. It is like wanting to drive and not wanting to learn the code!

Don't bother.
Who are they trying to kid. If you don't care to know much about accounting, then don't bother trying this product. They tout the ease of use of this product because it "uses wizards." However, given that I'm a leading usability specialist, I can tell you that just because they use wizards doesn't mean that it's easy to use. As a matter of fact, it's laborious. Granted, my only experience is with the free trial period, but I went through the trouble of importing my QuickBooks file only to find out that Simply Accounting didn't import any of my accounts. So I had to try to set up my accounts from scratch.

The first thing that I noticed that might be trouble was that you have to create arcane 4-digit account numbers for every type of account you set up. Like I care what number it is, it's just a checking account!

I run a small consulting company, 3 people, and selected "professional services" as the type of company, yet the software set itself up for inventory, sales of inventory, tax on inventory etc. As I said, I set it up as a professional services company. We don't have no stinking inventory!!!

My first task in the free trial period was to send out an invoice. I never completed the task. The software had me jump through hoops, asking me to set up primary bank accounts (which I could not figure out), accounts for sales, etc. I finally gave up. As I said, I'm a usability specialist and I base my usability evaluations on how well the user can complete their task with the product, not on how many wizards the product has. Based on my (limited) experience with this product, this software failed to help me complete the most basic of tasks, send out an invoice.

While I despise QuickBooks and the way Intuit treats its users, I still haven't found a suitable replacement for the small business person. Simply Accounting certainly isn't a good choice, unless of course you are an accountant. But I'm not. I'm just another small business person who doesn't want to spend a moment more than I have to to manage my finances. I need to focus my time on my business, not contorting myself every which way just to use a piece of software.

In summary, though I was looking for anything that could even remotely replace the big gorilla, QuickBooks, sadly Simply Accounting isn't it.

Great software!
Simply accounting is great and easy to use.I like it better than some other software in the market.But one simple problem, it is simple! ... Read more