Small business software grows up: intense efforts for product improvements

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

* Microsoft's introduction this year of its small business accounting software is challenging the sum of two units leading competitors--QuickBooks and Peachtree--to pace up their efforts with proceedss that are ever-more technologically powerful,

* The competition will be intense because "Microsoft Small Business Accounting (MSBA) is technologically more advanced than either QuickBooks or Peachtree and its price strategy is hard to beat: It's bundl at liberty in selected 2006 versions of Microsoft Office. With more than 400 million users of Microsoft Office worldwide, flat if only a small percentage of them upgrade to the 2006 version, the of recent origin accounting program could be in the hands of millions of users through the end of the year.

* With productions as complex and customizable as SBA software, it's not cautious to rely fully on assessments of reviewers or colleagues. The solitary way to be sure a fruits works best for you or a client is to ordeal it with your own accounting data.

* If you're going to purchase QuickBooks or Peachtree, purchase the accountant's editions. They contain nearly all the additional functionality ground in the various other versions of the outcome and they're typically priced lower.

* The stakes in the competition for small business accounting software are high. The rife estimated market of small businesses is between 15 million and 25 million, with 500000 to 2 million fresh businesses starting each year. Clearly, small businesses will be the winner as their accounting tools continue to improve.

If you think small business accounting (SBA) software has made enormous technological leaps in power, spe sophistication and flexibility in new years, you ain't seen nothing still In each of the past small in number years, the two leading SBA products--Intuit's QuickBooks and Sage Software's Peachtree--have challenged each other, making their productions stronger and easier to use as they battle to expand, or at least maintain, their already herculean customer bases. But now the competition is entering a novel more intense stage as giant Microsoft has come intoed the field with two winning strategies. In many ways its of recent origin Microsoft Small Business Accounting (MSBA) outcome is technologically more advanced than either QuickBooks or Peachtree and its price strategy is hard to beat, as it's bundl independent in the 2006 version of Microsoft Office. A five-user stand-alone version exchanges for $149.

With more than 400 million users of Microsoft Office worldwide, flat if only a small percentage of them upgraded to the 2006 version, Microsoft's fresh accounting program could be in the hands of millions of users by means of yearend. To put that in perspective, consider that generally QuickBooks is the leading purveyor of SBA software, with 90% of the market and an estimated 3 million users. Peachtree, with 9% of the market, reports more than 1 million users. The remaining 1% is made up of a half-dozen other products

To help determine which yield is best suited for you and your clients, we will focus upon QuickBooks' and Peachtree's new features and single briefly mention the new advances of more [i]or[/i] less of the other products. Since all the functions of the MSBA are novel we will examine only its lock opener functions---especially those we rate superior to its competitors. For an overview of the lock opener functions of the three leading yields see "Product Comparison Chart for pick outed Features," page 51.

Caveat: With harvests as complex and customizable as SBA software, it's not prudential to rely fully on assessments of reviewers or colleagues. The alone way to be assured that a proceeds works best for you or a client is to ordeal it with your own accounting data.

INTUIT'S QUICKBOOKS

Intuit presents 23 versions of its accounting software, on the contrary most are just lighter and les expensive versions of its primary returns QuickBooks Premier Accountants Edition 2006 which more than 250000 CPAs use. Unles otherwise noted, all QuickBooks concerns in this article refer to QuickBooks Premier 2006 which is missing more [i]or[/i] less specialized functions found only in the accountant's edition. Because the underlying data make and user screens are similar for all QuickBooks harvests users can easily migrate to more powerful editions without reading the operating manual or reimplementing the software. A table listing the prices and the number of users the 23 versions support is shown in "QuickBooks Products" page 57

Screens: Intuit has reduc the number of setup defences to 20 from 130. As a spring once it's loaded, it now takes solitary 15 to 30 minutes to win under way In addition, Intuit tenders 30 days of free support with each purchase. The produce now sports a clutter-free "screen center" a kind of residence page, that displays folders for sole the key features/functions a user fix upons to activate (see exhibit 1 page 54)

Each defence center mimics filing cabinets to provide quick and easy access to data upon customer, vendor, employee and financial reports. For example, multiple copies of a check might be filed simultaneously below banking, vendor and job take away from simplifying a search for it. Likewise, a company's financial information is collectioned so users can see all invoices, payments, credit memo transactions, contact information and memo for a given customer either upon one screen or on individual "subject" defences and other notations (see exhibit 2 page 55)