Microsoft has updated its Office Accounting software, and just like last year, the company is offering free and paid versions. Office Accounting 2008 will set you back $199, while the slimmed down Office Accounting Express 2008 is available for free.

If you run a small business with international clients, you might want to shell out a few bucks for the professional accounting package with support for things like multiple currencies and multiuser access. But if you're self employed and are just looking for a way to manage accounts, track invoices and bill payment, and a few other basic business features, the free version looks pretty nice.

The 2008 edition also includes Spanish language support and integration with new online banking services.

[Thanks Gregger!]

You can access your bank account online, and your credit cards, student loans, mortgage payments, etc. In fact, you can pretty much handle all of your financial transactions online these days, which is great. There's just one problem. You have to visit approximately 21,874 websites in order to do it. And that makes it difficult to get a good picture of where your money is really going.

Mint wants to be the one-stop shop for all your online financial needs. You can access all your accounts from one page, and Mint can send you e-mail and SMS reminders when bills are due, and Mint claims it can save you thousands of dollars by offering financial advice. For example if you've got a high interest credit card when you qualify for a lower interest one, Mint will tell you. The basic service is free, the financial advice comes with the paid version.

It's sort of like an online version of Quicken, without the Quicken name. So why should you give your bank and credit account numbers to Mint? We're not quite sure yet. The company's been in beta for a few months now, but it really doesn't have a track record yet that would make us comfortable giving it all of our personal information. We know, it's kind of a catch-22. They won't get a strong privacy record until lots of people reliably use their service without getting ripped off. But people might be reluctant to sign up until the company's been around a little longer.

That said, Mint claims that it found an average of $1000 in savings for each user during the initial beta period. And that might be reason enough for some people to try out the new product.

The leader in personal finance is getting set to launch a strong presence online. All startup finance applications start shaking in their winter boots.

Intuit is getting ready for their winter launch of Quicken Online, a web based version of their personal finance application. If you have worried about security in the past with the recent slew of online financial software, Quicken should ease your mind. Intuit has a strong following due to their consumer trust for desktop applications, and they have been working hard to build that same trust for their web based application. So far it is known that this application will hold basic balance charts, reports, and bill payment services.

Quicken Online is currently in closed testing modes, with beta set to open the middle of September. Look out for further discoveries closer to September.

[via webware]

Rafe Needleman got this crazy email from Charles Schwab (the brokerage firm) indicating that he'd have to change his Quicken password to his Schwab password in order to keep getting Schwab data on Quicken. Read that again. An online service is requiring an end user to change their desktop app's password to match their online info, just to keep getting data. Wow. You think people were a little miffed by that Yahoo/Flickr login issue? C'mon people, this is ridiculous. Who thought this would be a good idea, really? The kicker is that Schwab tech support explained to a justly concerned Rafe that all this was for his "convenience." Yes, well, weak password like "doggy" and "kitty" are more convenient than safer passwords. And it would sure save you a lot of time in the morning if you left the keys in your car too. All ideas I have no doubt Schwab would heartily endorse.