Intuit releases Quickbooks Simple Start 2008 for free

by Brad Linder Oct 16th 2007

Looking for some cheap but effective accounting software for your small business? The field just got a bit more crowded. Last year Microsoft began offering a free version of its accounting software, and this year Intuit has followed suit by providing a free download of QuickBooks Simple Start Edition.

Up until now, Intuit had been charging $100 for its starter accounting app. By offering a free version, Intuit stands to gain some small business customers who might have otherwise gone with Microsoft. And the only reason either company offers any software for free is because they plan to make money down the road, either through advertising, selling your data, or enticing you to upgrade when you outgrow the limitations of the free software.

But for a free application, Quickbooks Simple Start is pretty powerful. Here are just a few of the things you can do:

Create and manage invoices
Analyze your income and expenses
Manage multiple accounts, vendors, and services
Run sales, transaction, tax, and expense reports

If you want to access some of the more advanced Quickbooks features like payroll management, Quickbooks Simple Start will urge you to upgrade to Quickbooks Pro, which will set you back about $180 - $200.
[via AppScout]

Tags: accounting, intuit, microsoft-accounting, quickbooks, quickbooks-simple-start, small-business

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

John Laur said 2:39PM on 10-16-2007

This is a lot better than their old free version that some braindead person decided to limit to 20 customers/vendors. The limit seems to have been removed according to the FAQ.

chris russell said 9:30AM on 10-17-2007

I just upgraded from qb2006 to 2008.Lost 3 months of data.Intuit tech support is nice but completely lost.I think this is another case of rush to release and let the customer be the unpaid beta testers.DON'T DO IT!!!

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