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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]

Filed under: Utilities, Productivity, Web services

Setting up a virtual office with web tools

Google Calendar
During the six months I've been writing for Weblogs Inc, I've only met with coworkers twice. But that doesn't mean we don't communicate. Bloggers make liberal use of email, chats, and other tools to keep in touch with one another. But the truth is, there's a whole world of tools out there that are making it easier than ever for teams to collaborate on projects, be they websites, software design, or entrepreneurial ventures.

Alex Iskold at Read/WriteWeb has a great tutorial on using software to set up a virtual office. Some of the software is commercial, while other programs are freeware. And while Iskold gives his recommendations in each category, he also lists alternate programs you might want to check out.

The article covers communication tools (Skype), project management software (BaseCamp), presentation tools (GoToMeeting) for showing coworkers what's on your display, Calendars (Google), Code repositories for software developers (CVSDude), accounting software (Quickbooks), and a backup system (ElephantDrive).

What do you think? Do you work in a virtual office? How does it compare to your old office job? Is it easier or harder to get work done? How important are Web 2.0 tools to your collaborative efforts?

Filed under: Google

Google-Intuit QuickBooks partnership rumored

google intuit partnershipGoogle and Intuit have been rumored to be entering into a partnership. The news will supposedly be dropped at 1:15pm Pacific time. Michael Arrington dropped some news today that Google could be integrating into QuickBooks 2007. This would supposedly allow small business users to add listings of their businesses to Google Maps, and create and manage AdWords campaigns, as well as post listings on Google Base.

The conference is scheduled for 1:15pm Pacific, with Google CEO Eric Schmidt, and Intuit President and CEO Steve Bennett speaking on the partnership.

Stay tuned as the news unfolds.

UPDATE: Google has in fact announced a strategic partnership with Intuit, which is designed to help small business owners promote themselves online. The new partnership will see Google's services built into most Quickbooks 2007 products.

Small business owners will have the option to list their businesses on Google Maps, create and manage Google AdWords campaigns, and post their products for sale on Google Base. The Google integrated Quickbooks 2007 will be in stores this fall. No word on the 2007 pricing as of yet.

Partnering Google products with Intuits small business products is going to make some small businesses very happy at realizing the potential that Google's products have for the bottom line.

Filed under: Internet, Web services, Google, Googleholic

Googleholic for August 29th, 2006

googleholic
In this issue of Googleholic we cover:
  • Google has too much money
  • Webmaster Central blog
  • The Google Tower
  • How Google Profits from Spam
  • Google's look into hydropowered electricity
  • Google's next online applications
  • Google Maps Red Light Camera detection
  • NYC parking locator
Tuesday's Googleholic...Starting off the week right...

Read more →

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