Office Accounting Professional 2008 (PC)

I run a small business, designing and developing software and have tried many different accounting solutions including Sage; this package is so much simpler to use and does it without losing any functionality.

What you get is exactly what you would expect to see in an accounts package aimed at the U.K. market including VAT and corporation tax calculations, Stock control functions, Customer credit management and even payroll functions. If used in conjunction with Outlook Business Contact Manager the customer management feature is much closer to a full CRM package. This package also integrates with banking functions allowing you to pay invoices directly using BACs and to import electronic bank staements and reconcile your bank statements.

As this is part of the Office suite there is a great deal of integration between this package and the rest of the suite. Creating custom invoices, quotes and letters is so simple using word. any infomation can easily be exported to excell for manipulation. If the functionality is not available in the package the solution uses a SQL server backend so it is a simple task to export the exact infomation you need and to extend the solution where needed.

The use of a SQL server database means this is a fully scaleable solution that can be installed as a 2-tier solution with the database sat on a server and muliple clients all accessing the same database.

In conclusion I can highly recomend this accounting package to anyone who runs a small to medium sized business who want to keep upto date with their account without having to spend too much time managing there accounting software.

Numerous other reviewers have commented to varying degrees on the simplicity of this software. All I will say on this matter is that as accounting software goes I wouldn't have thought such software could be made much easier. That said, you will need to have some understanding of what is involved in managing your own accounts for a small business - what you are expected to report back to Companies house in your annual accounts, how VAT must be accounted for, how to handle depreciation etc. I struggled with this side of things to start with personally having no accounting background (I had originally completed my company accounts just using a spreadsheet (Open Office Calc), but once I got my head around things, and with a little help from a friend I found MS Office Accounting to be an easy product to work with.

I want to concentrate a couple of other aspects of the software though.

Firstly, there are various versions of this software available. It would be well worth checking out what each version includes before opting to pay for the Professional version.

I managed to do my accounts for two years with the 'Express' version which is free. Simply download from Microsoft and away you go (there are UK and US versions so make sure you get the right one so that your tax and VAT etc are correct).

Most of the functionality is there in the Express version, but you will need internet access as MicroSoft wants to throw a few ads at you within the programme to entice you to upgrade and to compensate fro giving you free software. These ads are by no means intrusive, and are similar to those that you see at the top of the Opera web browser - what's more they are relevant.

So, what's missing from the Express version.

Not a lot really. The main difference that you see from the Microsoft version comparison page is that Pro includes over 70 reports, and Express includes only 20. One of these reports is a projected cash flow report which may be key for some businesses - personally I didn't miss it.

The inclusion of these extra reports does mean that the front page when you load up the software is a bit more interesting, presenting you with more data in an easy to read fashion in one hit.

Beyond what MicroSoft calls standard functionality there are more differences though.

If you want to track and bill employee time, manage inventory, buy and sell in foreign currencies or allow multi-user access to your accounts (which does require extra licenses, so you pay extra per user), then you'll need the Pro version. You will also need the pro version to manage Sales Orders and Purchase Orders.

What use is accounting software without management of Sales Orders and Purchase Orders?

Well, if you want to purely run your accounts, the version Express is fine. If you want an integrated solution whereby any SO or PO you generate is automatically entered into your accounts then you'll need the Pro version.

This bring me on to the next area I would like to comment on - integration with MS Office.

Obviously MicroSoft wants you to buy it's products rather than someone else's. But when there is a completely free, compatible and largely equivalent it would be nice to be able to use that.

I am an OpenOffice.org office suite user. This software works very well with both Word documents and Excel spreadsheets. These are the document types that Office Accounting uses for its reports and invoice and PO/SO templates. However if you select to manage your templates from within Office Accounting and do not have the required version of MS Office running you simply get a message informing you that you do not have the appropriate software installed.

Now, I haven't had a chance yet to play around with this fully, but the templates are just documents stored in a folder on your computer. It may well be possible to simply edit the documents with the Open Office applications and save them back to the appropriate place meaning you can create customised documents and reports without MS Office Word and MS Office Excel. I will revise my review once I have worked that out - that would certainly be a big saving for many people, though it would be nice, and more user friendly to be able to do it from within the software (frankly, MicroSoft was never going to do that though).

[Update: It seems that, although you can easily edit the templates, unless you can find a way of convincing Office Accounting that you have the correct version of MS Word installed. Unfortunately, this also means that you cannot use any pre-made forms that you may already have paid someone to create for you - unless YOU have the correct version of Word installed you can;t even select the template in the print dialog. This is a real limitation if you wantto present a branded image to your customers.]

All in all, this is a very good package for managing your accounts. If you have the MS Office suite anyway, you will find a very integrated business management solution in the Pro version. If you simply want to manage you accounts, then the Express version is certainly worth a look.

One last note that will save you some time (and a bit of effort/trouble) if you do go down the route of trying out the Express version and later to choose to upgrade to Pro. There is no need to uninstall the Express version to install the Pro version. The installations are identical from what I can tell, the extra features are simply enabled by entering the license key. In fact, if you do uninstall the Express version then install the Pro version, you may be unable to open your old company files (access denied errors). There is a way around this, but it is far simpler and quicker to simply enter the license key and Express becomes Pro instantly.

If you're starting a small business the most important thing to get right from the start is keeping accurate accounts- by the time Companies House and the Inland Revenue are breathing down your neck with their hot heavy breath come returns submission time it's already too late. This is an intuitive seemingly easy to use package with flow charts to help you through taking and placing orders, keeping an eye on cashflow, getting paid and even doing the payroll for employees. You can follow the process as simply or as complicatedly as you like. It would make it easy for people used to a paper system to easily adapt or for someone setting up for the first time to get into a routine with only the minimal advice of an accountant or book keeper.

Actually 2 weeks before my other half got his review copy he bought Sage accounting. He hoped to cut the amount of money he spent with the accountants next year. I'd be having a conversation while he typed away when suddenly he'd burst into a torrent of screams and curses- he's put through a transaction which was wrong or the work around to pay dividends had just gone up the spout. ~Then the phone line went dead. He couldn't see an easy way to get around the problem and started reentering the data again in despair. It took him just half an hour to reenter everything into Office Accounting Pro. Get something wrong- void the transaction of course- pay yourself a dividend, a doddle, go back to using the cash accounting scheme for paying VAT- works fine (not in Sage which was why the accountant was so expensive).

Now all that needs to happen is for Sage's stranglehold to be broken on accountants- although this program will export into Sage if needed. In the meantime I have peace and harmony at least.