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Filed under: Business, Microsoft, Commercial, Freeware

Microsoft to discontinue Office Accounting next month

Microsoft Office Accounting Express 2008
Microsoft is killing off its small business accounting product, Office Accounting. The company will no longer distribute Office Accounting Professional or the free version, Office Accounting Express after November 16, 2009.

According to Microsoft's FAQ, the company as determined that free templates that work with Excel are a better option for small businesses than the Office Accounting application. That's kind of true, in that you can customize Excel templates any way you like. But Office Accounting provided a full featured suite of accounting tools that would be pretty difficult to replicate by building or tweaking your own spreadsheets. Really, Microsoft has determined that it's not worth continue developing this product for one reason or another, and I suspect more people will switch to using QuickBooks or another competing package of accounting software than will choose to use Excel.

Microsoft will continue to offer 5 years of support for Office Accounting, and users will still be able to bill customers using PayPal, although eBay and credit profile information from Equifax won't be available after December 15, 2009.

The move comes less than half a year after Microsoft discontinued its personal finance application, Microsoft Money.

[via ZDNet]

Filed under: Business, Productivity

Intuit releases Quickbooks Simple Start 2008 for free

Quickbooks Simple Start
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]

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