Money matters made easier.

You may not be interested in keeping detailed financial records--but the Internal Revenue Service, your bank and creditors are. Recordkeeping can be tedious, but you can make your life much easier by trading in your pen and ledger for a keyboard and disk. There's a host of software packages that do a great job of helping get your financial house in order. And you can buy a program that suits almost any situation, from preparing your personal income tax form to handling your business' invoices.

For instance, most accounting packages offer a general ledger along with inventory, payroll, accounts payable, accounts receivable and financial statement modules. Some have contact management features to help organize your workday and day-to-day demands, such as setting up the books, managing expenditures, preparing financial reports, paying suppliers and tracking revenue so you know how much cash you'll need to pay upcoming bills.

One useful feature is the ability to create customer-specific payment arrangements so that you can cater your billing methods to different clients. Many programs also provide sample charts of accounts and flexible fiscal periods. And while most programs have standard invoices, you may want one that also lets you create such forms from scratch, or at least import your business logo from a graphics software program.

Another handy feature is the ability to separate a large number of ledger accounts into cost departments such as sales, production and administration. This will help you to better analyze your financial results. It's also helpful to have a program that lets you export financial data to a spreadsheet, and to translate information from an income and balance sheet, a bar graph or pie chart.

Although price is another fundamental consideration, you can find accounting packages at street prices well below the $200 mark. A handful of programs you ought to eye include Accpac Simply Accounting 2.0, Pacioli 2000 2.0, Peachtree Accounting for Windows 5.0 and M.Y.O.B. 3.0.

At $199, Accpac Simply Accounting from Computer [Incomplete Text in Original Publiction.]

Associates International Inc., Islandia, N.Y., is a user-friendly program with a wide range of features, including modules that address cash basis and accrual methods of accounting.

Also available for the mid-range to large business is Accpac Plus Accounting. This program features modules for handling sophisticated accounting requirements, large transaction volumes and industry-specific needs. It is ideal for many types of professionals and businesses.

Dallas-based M-USA Business Systems Inc.'s Pacioli 2000 2.0 is easy to use once you've spent some time learning how to use it. Priced at $49.95, the package offers some top-notch features, including its revenues modules.

If you're looking for extensive on-line help, Peachtree Accounting for Windows 5.0 provides this and much more at a competitive price. The $99 package supports Dynamic Data Exchange, making it easier to export and import files from other Windows programs, such as Microsoft's Excel for Windows spreadsheet.

M.Y.O.B. is a little more costly than the other aforementioned programs, listing for $249. This software package from Teleware Inc., Rockaway, N.J., uses flowchart menus and features a contact manager for tracking phone calls and meetings with customers and suppliers. An audit trail feature lets you set up both changeable and unchangeable bookkeeping entries.

With the proper tax-planning software, you can even import data from your accounting program to help prepare your taxes. The right tax-preparation software can help alleviate the pain of sorting through piles of receipts and canceled checks.

A highly rated tax program that is used by many professional tax preparers and accountants is TurboTax. Infact, the software's developer, ChipSoft Inc. in San Diego, is so certain that your tax calculations will be 100% accurate that it will pay any penalty the IRS imposes as a result of errors on your tax return.

A new feature, the EasyStep system, guides users step by step through income tax preparation. It creates a return and decides which forms to file, and then prints and electronically mails the return. Also available are 44 optional state tax forms, which sell for $40 each. TurboTax comes in DOS, Windows and Macintosh versions; each sells for $79.95.

ChipSoft recently released Personal Tax Planner software to help the more than 2 million taxpayers who face the burdensome task of calculating their income on a quarterly basis.

Workers who are affected by the new estimated payment rules include self-employed professionals, commissioned salespeople and married couples where both members are working this year, but one was unemployed the previous year.

The Personal Tax Planner modifies the taxpayer's adjusted gross income, estimated tax payment and schedule as warranted by the new tax rule. Priced at $49.95, this program is available directly from ChipSoft (619-453-8722).

The ever popular Andrew Tobias' TaxCut tax-preparation program offers extensive tax advice, including a built-in expert module, written by Boston tax lawyer Daniel Caine. TaxCut is available in DOS, Windows and Macintosh versions.

Another feature, the on-line auditor, alerts you to math errors, as well as missing data and deductions that might draw the IRS' attention. TaxCut, which is produced by MECA Software Inc., Fairfield, Conn., lists for $79.95 and includes forms for filing taxes in 23 different states.

Although the majority of tax-related software handle only tax preparation, more and more of today's advanced programs now offer advice on a broad array of topics, including investment dividend income, estate taxes and insurance.

When it comes to personal money management, Andrew Tobias' Managing Your Money from MECA Software provides a potpourri of financial advice and assistance. The $219.95 software package is organized into modules that include banking, household budgeting, insurance planning, tax planning, stock and bond analysis and bill paying.

After tallying what you're spending, programs such as Managing Your Money can work out a monthly budget. Essentially, you create an electronic two-column ledger. One column is sources of income, such as monthly take-home pay, investment dividends and income from rental property. The other column is for monthly expenses, including mortgage or rent payments, property taxes, insurance, groceries, clothing, transportation costs and household bills. The latest version, 7.0, of Managing Your Money is ideal for businesspeople, since it handles invoicing, accounting, cash forecasting and direct-mail marketing.

Obviously, you want to buy a program that is able to provide the fundamentals of financial management, whether it's tax preparation or accrual accounting. But the key to choosing the best software is knowing what's important to you and your business.

TECH TIPS

A next-generation inkjet printer, the IBM Color Jetprinter PS 4079 is the first IBM desktop color printer that is Postscript compatible. Lexmark International Inc., a former IBM division, recently introduced the compact printer, which offers 360-by-360 dots-per-inch (dpi) resolution.

A screening method called Colorgrade allows the IBM Color Jetprinter to produce halftone productions characteristic of 600 dpi printers. The printer also handles any paper size, from envelopes to 11" x 17" paper, with one standard paper tray. The IBM Color Jetprinter PS prints on a variety of media, including plain paper, special coated paper, envelopes and inkjet transparencies.

Multiple users in a department or work group can connect to the printer and send data to it at the same time. The IBM Color JetPrinter connects to both IBM and Apple Macintosh computers. It is fully compatible with the IBM 4033 LAN Connection, giving local area network (LAN) users access to IBM OS/2 LAN Server, Microsoft LAN Manager, Novell Netware and AIX networks.

Other features include the standard 4 MB of memory that can be upgraded to 16 MB, memory compression for handling complex jobs and an operating panel that supports eight different languages.

At $3,495, the IBM Color Jetprinter PS 4079 is riding fast on the heels of Hewlett-Packard's (HP) PaintJet XL300, priced at $3,495 and $4,995 for standard and Postscript options. HP's color printer also provides laser-quality output on plain bond paper, transparencies and glossy paper.

As color printers become increasingly affordable and compact, more folks will be setting them on their desktops. Many personal users already are adding a touch of color to everything from college papers to business proposals.