Small business software grows up: intense efforts for product improvements.EXECUTIVE SUMMARY * Microsoft's introduction this year of its small business accounting software is challenging the two leading competitors--QuickBooks and Peachtree--to step up their efforts with products that are ever-more technologically powerful, * The competition will be intense because "Microsoft (Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA, www.microsoft.com) The most successful and influential software company. Microsoft's software and Intel's hardware pioneered the PC and revolutionized the computer industry. Small Business Accounting (MSBA MSBA Maryland State Bar Association MSBA Minnesota State Bar Association MSBA Missouri School Boards' Association MSBA Minnesota School Boards Association MSBA Master of Science in Business Administration MSBA Microsoft Security Baseline Analyzer ) is technologically more advanced than either QuickBooks or Peachtree and its price strategy is hard to beat: It's bundled free in selected 2006 versions of Microsoft Office Microsoft's primary desktop applications for Windows and Mac. Depending on the package, it includes some combination of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access and Outlook along with various Internet and other utilities. . With more than 400 million users of Microsoft Office worldwide, even if only a small percentage of them upgrade to the 2006 version, the new accounting program could be in the hands of millions of users by the end of the year. * With products as complex and customizable as SBA SBA abbr. Small Business Administration Noun 1. SBA - an independent agency of the United States government that protects the interests of small businesses and ensures that they receive a fair share of government software, it's not prudent to rely fully on assessments of reviewers or colleagues. The only way to be sure a product works best for you or a client is to test it with your own accounting data. * If you're going to buy QuickBooks or Peachtree, purchase the accountant's editions. They contain nearly all the additional functionality found in the various other versions of the product and they're typically priced lower. * The stakes in the competition for small business accounting software are high. The current estimated market of small businesses is between 15 million and 25 million, with 500,000 to 2 million new businesses starting each year. Clearly, small businesses will be the winner as their accounting tools continue to improve. If you think small business accounting (SBA) software has made enormous technological leaps in power, speed, sophistication so·phis·ti·cate v. so·phis·ti·cat·ed, so·phis·ti·cat·ing, so·phis·ti·cates v.tr. 1. To cause to become less natural, especially to make less naive and more worldly. 2. and flexibility in recent years, you ain't seen nothing yet. In each of the past few years, the Years, The the seven decades of Eleanor Pargiter’s life. [Br. Lit.: Benét, 1109] See : Time two leading SBA products--Intuit's QuickBooks and Sage Software's Peachtree--have challenged each other, making their products stronger and easier to use as they battle to expand, or at least maintain, their already huge customer bases. But now the competition is entering a new, more intense stage as giant Microsoft has entered the field with two winning strategies. In many ways its new Microsoft Small Business Accounting (MSBA) product is technologically more advanced than either QuickBooks or Peachtree and its price strategy is hard to beat, as it's bundled free in the 2006 version of Microsoft Office. A five-user stand-alone version sells for $149. With more than 400 million users of Microsoft Office worldwide, even if only a small percentage of them upgraded to the 2006 version, Microsoft's new accounting program could be in the hands of millions of users by yearend. To put that in perspective, consider that currently QuickBooks is the leading purveyor (World-Wide Web) Purveyor - A World-Wide Web server for Windows NT and Windows 95 (when available). http://process.com/. E-mail: <info@process.com>. of SBA software, with 90% of the market and an estimated 3 million users. Peachtree, with 9% of the market, reports more than 1 million users. The remaining 1% is made up of a half-dozen other products. To help determine which product is best suited for you and your clients, we will focus on QuickBooks' and Peachtree's new features and only briefly mention the new advances of some of the other products. Since all the functions of the MSBA are new, we will examine only its key functions---especially those we rate superior to its competitors. For an overview of the key functions of the three leading products, see "Product Comparison Chart for Selected Features," page 51. Caveat [Latin, Let him beware.] A warning; admonition. A formal notice or warning given by an interested party to a court, judge, or ministerial officer in opposition to certain acts within his or her power and jurisdiction. : With products as complex and customizable as SBA software, it's not prudent to rely fully on assessments of reviewers or colleagues. The only way to be assured that a product works best for you or a client is to test it with your own accounting data. INTUIT'S QUICKBOOKS Intuit in·tu·it tr.v. in·tu·it·ed, in·tu·it·ing, in·tu·its Usage Problem To know intuitively. [Back-formation from intuition. offers 23 versions of its accounting software, but most are just lighter and less expensive versions of its primary product, QuickBooks Premier Accountants Edition 2006, which more than 250,000 CPAs use. Unless otherwise noted, all QuickBooks references in this article refer to QuickBooks Premier 2006, which is missing some specialized spe·cial·ize v. spe·cial·ized, spe·cial·iz·ing, spe·cial·iz·es v.intr. 1. To pursue a special activity, occupation, or field of study. 2. functions found only in the accountant's edition. Because the underlying data structure and user screens are similar for all QuickBooks products, users can easily migrate to more powerful editions without reading the operating manual or reimplementing the software. A table listing the prices and the number of users the 23 versions support is shown in "QuickBooks Products," page 57. Screens: Intuit has reduced the number of setup See BIOS setup and install program. screens to 20 from 130. As a result, once it's loaded, it now takes only 15 to 30 minutes to get under way In addition, Intuit offers 30 days of free support with each purchase. The product now sports a clutter-free "screen center," a kind of home page, that displays folders for only the key features/functions a user chooses to activate (see exhibit 1, page 54). Each screen center mimics filing cabinets to provide quick and easy access to data on customer, vendor, employee and financial reports. For example, multiple copies of a check might be filed simultaneously under banking, vendor and job cost, simplifying a search for it. Likewise, a company's financial information is grouped so users can see all invoices, payments, credit memos A Credit Memo (short for "credit memorandum") is a commercial document issued by a seller to a buyer, indicating the products, quantities and agreed prices for products or services that the seller provided the buyer with, but the buyer returned or did not receive. , transactions, contact information and memos for a given customer either on one screen or on individual "subject" screens and other notations (see exhibit 2, page 55). Database: By switching to a SQL SQL in full Structured Query Language. Computer programming language used for retrieving records or parts of records in databases and performing various calculations before displaying the results. (pronounced sequel) standard database (not to be confused with the more powerful Microsoft SQL Server A relational DBMS from Microsoft that is a major component of the Windows Server System. It is Microsoft's high-end client/server database and is closely integrated with Microsoft Visual Studio and the Microsoft Office System. database), QuickBooks now runs considerably faster and is able to handle as many as 15 concurrent users In computer science, the number of concurrent users for a resource in a location, with the location being a computing network or a single computer, refers to the total number of people using the resource at the same time. on its Enterprise version, up from 10 before, making financial data more accessible for sharing, crunching, charting and reporting in other applications. Audit trail: QuickBooks no longer allows users to turn off the audit trail system. Now the system records and tracks all transactions--even errors that are reversed and corrected, something antifraud-conscience CPAs have been seeking for years. Mimic client screens: The accountant's edition lets CPAs create a screen that replicates any screen for any of the other versions of QuickBooks, making it easier to provide consulting via the phone. SAGE SOFTWARE'S PEACHTREE Sage Software offers 10 versions of Peachtree, but most are merely lighter versions of the primary product, Peachtree Premium Accounting Accountants Edition 2006. For purposes of this article, all references to Peachtree refer to that edition unless otherwise noted. Details on all the versions can be found in "Peachtree Products," page 60. Peachtree has been a long-time favorite of the CPA (Computer Press Association, Landing, NJ) An earlier membership organization founded in 1983 that promoted excellence in computer journalism. Its annual awards honored outstanding examples in print, broadcast and electronic media. The CPA disbanded in 2000. community Sage reports that about half its sales come directly from CPAs or their recommendation. CPAs who take my technology classes generally consider Peachtree more powerful than QuickBooks. Tracking parts: The software's strong suit is inventory It can track part identification by serial number or by a customer's stock keeping unit (SKU (StockKeeping Unit) The number of one specific product available for sale. If a hardware device or software package comes in different versions, there is an SKU for each one. SKU - stock-keeping unit ), which QuickBooks cannot. Manufacturers especially favor Peachtree's bill of materials The list of components that make up a system. For example, a bill of materials for a house would include the cement block, lumber, shingles, doors, windows, plumbing, electric, heating and so on. (BOM) assemblies, which are displayed in an indented in·dent 1 v. in·dent·ed, in·dent·ing, in·dents v.tr. 1. To set (the first line of a paragraph, for example) in from the margin. 2. a. format based on their level of bill of materials; further, each line item displays the cost for each component and the total estimated cost of the assembly. In addition, BOM invoices (see exhibit 3, page 56) provide the type of detail costing information many customers need. Auto-fill: Taking a cue cue, n a stimulus that determines or may prompt the nature of a person's response. cue Psychology Any sensory stimulus that evokes a learned patterned response. See Conditioning. from QuickBooks and Excel A full-featured spreadsheet for Windows and the Macintosh from Microsoft. It can link many spreadsheets for consolidation and provides a wide variety of business graphics and charts for creating presentation materials. , Peachtree provides an auto-complete feature that fills in fields as you begin typing based on past entries. Lookups: Peachtree has cleaned up a few annoyances. For example, ID lookup A data search performed within a predefined table of values (array, matrix, etc.) or within a data file. lists are sorted alphabetically al·pha·bet·i·cal also al·pha·bet·ic adj. 1. Arranged in the customary order of the letters of a language. 2. Of, relating to, or expressed by an alphabet. and provide an alert when you try to use duplicate DUPLICATE. The double of anything. 2. It is usually applied to agreements, letters, receipts, and the like, when two originals are made of either of them. Each copy has the same effect. numbers for quotes, invoices, purchase orders or credit memos. Invoice An itemized statement or written account of goods sent to a purchaser or consignee by a vendor that indicates the quantity and price of each piece of merchandise shipped. A consular invoice is one used in foreign trade. aging: Peachtree calculates and reports the aging of customers' invoices--helping to identify financially stressed customers in time to step up collection actions. Peachtree also calculates and reports the number of days it takes to pay invoices. Internal reviews: The software offers a built-in internal accounting review that evaluates up to 15 types of suspicious transactions and common mistakes, such as duplicate transactions and cash receipts and amounts posted to wrong account numbers; such tools are growing more common in higher-end applications. Banking: Peachtree downloads bank statements directly into the software, automatically matching existing items and creating those that are missing, such as service charges (see exhibit 4, page 56). Printing, filtering and drilling down: Users can print selected reports directly from commonly used screens. Likewise, single customer or vendor reports can be printed and drilled down and filtered. The software can save transaction searches, greatly speeding repeat searches. Design tools: Peachtree improved the tools that customize invoices, quotes and other documents. Job costing Job versus Process Costing Job costing (also called job order costing) is a fundamental part of managerial accounting. It differs from Process costing in that the flow of costs is traced by job instead of by process. : Billing capabilities were beefed up; contractors can bill customers at several different milestones in a job cycle: calculated on a percentage of the total estimated job revenue or the job completed. Financial reports: The premium edition includes Crystal Reports for Peachtree, a feature that assembles and formats financial reports. The high-end edition also can export reports in Adobe adobe (ədō`bē): see rammed earth. adobe Handmade sun-dried bricks formed from a mixture of heavy clay and straw found in arid regions. format, export templates to Word and Excel and produce e-mails that alert users to selected changes in financial conditions. The software contains an archive function so users can access detailed company data and financial statements from closed years. Reports can be viewed by department, location or product line with up to five account segments in the chart of account numbering scheme There are many different numbering schemes for assigning nominal numbers to entities. These generally require an agreed set of rules, or a central coordinator. The schemes can be considered to be examples of a primary key of a database management system table, whose table . The software contains a consolidation wizard Instructional help in an application or system development environment that guides the user through a series of multiple choice questions to accomplish a task. For the most part, wizards are more effective than the help menus found in most applications, which often border on the atrocious. for maintaining a separate set of books for each company yet still produce consolidated financial statements Consolidated Financial Statements The combined financial statements of a parent company and its subsidiaries. Notes: Because consolidated financial statements present an aggregated look at the financial position of a parent and its subsidiaries, they enable you to gauge , including budgets by company. It also tracks three-year budgets, employee raises and employee performance reviews. Conversion: Peachtree can automatically convert data from all versions of QuickBooks, so switching products is relatively painless pain·less adj. Free from complication or pain: a painless operation. pain  less·ly adv. .MICROSOFT SMALL BUSINESS ACCOUNTING (MSBA) 2006 MSBA offers a complete collection of features that CPAs and small businesses have long sought: a powerful database, true networking ability, extensive payroll, a secure audit trail, customization and deep integration with Microsoft Office. Taken together, these functions are unprecedented in the low-end accounting software industry. Customization: One of the most important features in any accounting system is the ability to easily customize it to meet your needs. With more than 100 user-definable fields, MSBA offers more customization possibilities than its competitors. See exhibit 5, page 59, for a customized home page. As expected, Microsoft has designed MSBA to be tightly integrated with other Office applications; for example, its documents are maintained in Word and all financial data export to Excel for analysis, formatting and charting; even what-if analysis is a breeze. The most impressive integration is with Outlook; all MSBA documents and reports can be e-mailed. Further, Outlook shares and updates contact data in both directions: its contact data can be sent to MSBA and MSBA contact data can be sent to Outlook. Its calendar data post as billable time with just one click. Scalable database: MSBA operates on the Microsoft Database Engine (MSDE MSDE Maryland State Department of Education MSDE Microsoft Data Engine MSDE Microsoft SQL Desktop Edition MSDE Microsoft Development Environment MSDE Military Scenario Development Environment MSDE Microsoft Sql Server Desktop Engine MSDE Microsoft Database Engine ) database, a lighter version of Microsoft SQL Server, but still far more powerful than QuickBooks' SQL. MSDE, which holds electronic data in much the same way a filing cabinet holds paper documents, with records organized by folders, can accommodate huge volumes of transactions with no performance slowdown For articles with similar titles, see Slow Down (disambiguation). A slowdown is an industrial action in which employees perform their duties but seek to reduce productivity or efficiency in their performance of these duties. . By comparison, all other entry-level accounting systems use databases that degrade TO DEGRADE, DEGRADING. To, sink or lower a person in the estimation of the public. 2. As a man's character is of great importance to him, and it is his interest to retain the good opinion of all mankind, when he is a witness, he cannot be compelled to disclose considerably as transaction volume grows, forcing customers at some point to switch to a more expensive, higher-end product. It's unlikely any small business would ever outgrow outgrow verb To change the relationship with a condition or structure by dint of ↑ age or size; while children outgrow clothing, and certain behaviors, they rarely outgrow diseases–eg, asthma MSBA's database. Network: MSBA offers a true networking environment that lets multiple users access the system simultaneously with more advanced record-locking instead of rudimentary rudimentary /ru·di·men·ta·ry/ (roo?di-men´tah-re) 1. imperfectly developed. 2. vestigial. ru·di·men·ta·ry adj. 1. file-locking technology, so multiple users can access a file at the same time. Audit trail: Like the latest edition of QuickBooks, MSBA boasts a secure audit trail that cannot be turned off to make a correction; the system preserves all entries, making it difficult for an unscrupulous user to kite the system. Paperless environment: With its built-in electronic document handling, MSBA is the first low-end program to completely support a paperless environment. Users can attach an unlimited number of documents, worksheets, bitmapped images See bitmapped graphics. , sound clips and even movie clips to any transaction or item. Exhibit 6, page 60, shows an example of an attached handwritten hand·write tr.v. hand·wrote , hand·writ·ten , hand·writ·ing, hand·writes To write by hand. [Back-formation from handwritten.] Adj. 1. image displayed with a sales order The sales order, sometimes abbreviated as SO, is an order received by a business from a customer. A sales order may be for products and/or services. Given the wide variety of businesses, this means that the orders can be fulfilled in several ways. . Payroll: To produce the payroll module, Microsoft turned to ADP (1) (Automatic Data Processing) Synonymous with data processing (DP), electronic data processing (EDP) and information processing. (2) (Automatic Data Processing, Inc., Roseland, NJ, www.adp. , which developed the most comprehensive program ever provided for small businesses. The cost, including state forms, is $169 a year or $229 for electronic filings. The payroll system actually resides on ADP's servers and interfaces, via the Internet Internet Publicly accessible computer network connecting many smaller networks from around the world. It grew out of a U.S. Defense Department program called ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network), established in 1969 with connections between computers at the , directly to each user's MSBA. THE REMAINING SBA PRODUCTS Although QuickBooks and Peachtree hold 99% of the small business accounting market, the remaining 1% still represents a large enough niche market A niche market also known as a target market is a focused, targetable portion (subset) of a market sector. By definition, then, a business that focuses on a niche market is addressing a need for a product or service that is not being addressed by mainstream providers. for a few other vendors to hold their own. Here are the highlights and improvements for these programs. M.Y.O.B.: Sage Software, Peachtree's owner, also owns M.Y.O.B., an Australian Australian pertaining to or originating in Australia. Australian bat lyssavirus disease see Australian bat lyssavirus disease. Australian cattle dog a medium-sized, compact working dog used for control of cattle. product with a worldwide following of about 500,000 users. It's available in five versions (two for Windows and three for Mac) and costs from $99 to $399. A single-user version sells for $29; a three-user version for $129. New features: The product can accept short shipments, partial shipments and back orders and still track all purchase-order items. It can handle sales on items not yet received, allows negative item counts as a preference, receives inventory without knowing cost, tracks inventory received into multiple warehouses or specific locations within a warehouse and handles items moved from one location to another while a new location report tracks inventory levels. In addition, M.Y.O.B. added multiyear budgets, support for multiple locations, the capacity to maintain up to seven years of transactions and the ability to print ready-to-file W-2s and W-3s on plain paper. Users can drill down on income statements and balance sheets, produce year-to-date Year-to-date (YTD) The period beginning at the start of the calendar year up to the current date. amounts on paycheck stubs stubs The shares of equity in a firm that is financed almost completely with debt. Stubs are often created when firms go through a leveraged buyout or pay big cash dividends in order to fend off a takeover. and handle scheduling of recurring re·cur intr.v. re·curred, re·cur·ring, re·curs 1. To happen, come up, or show up again or repeatedly. 2. To return to one's attention or memory. 3. To return in thought or discourse. transactions, batch e-mailing, exception testing, discrepancy DISCREPANCY. A difference between one thing and another, between one writing and another; a variance. (q.v.) 2. Discrepancies are material and immaterial. tracking, auditing and subtotaling of time-and-billing reports by job. NetSuite: Unlike the other products, NetSuite is Web-based. It has about 9,000 customers and uses the Oracle database. It rents for $99 a month for one unlimited user and 10 limited users; each additional unlimited user costs $49 a month. Advanced modules, such as customer relations management (CRM (Customer Relationship Management) An integrated information system that is used to plan, schedule and control the presales and postsales activities in an organization. ) and e-commerce e-commerce, commerce conducted over the Internet, most often via the World Wide Web. E-commerce can apply to purchases made through the Web or to business-to-business activities such as inventory transfers. , are available for $199 to $449 a month. New features: NetSuite has added spellcheck, duplicate detection, transaction merging, electronic fund transfers to vendors, publishable dashboards (data screens), key performance indicators Key Performance Indicators (KPI) are financial and non-financial metrics used to quantify objectives to reflect strategic performance of an organization. KPIs are used in Business Intelligence to assess the present state of the business and to prescribe a course of action. , escalation es·ca·late v. es·ca·lat·ed, es·ca·lat·ing, es·ca·lates v.tr. To increase, enlarge, or intensify: escalated the hostilities in the Persian Gulf. v.intr. and follow-up follow-up, n the process of monitoring the progress of a patient after a period of active treatment. follow-up subsequent. follow-up plan workflow The automatic routing of documents to the users responsible for working on them. Workflow is concerned with providing the information required to support each step of the business cycle. capabilities in CRM and just-in-time inventory ordering. New add-on A purchase of additional goods before payment is made for goods already purchased. An add-on may be covered by a clause in an installment payment contract that allows the seller to hold a security interest in the earlier goods until full payment is made on the later goods. solutions include lot management, multiple budgets and allocation The apportionment or designation of an item for a specific purpose or to a particular place. In the law of trusts, the allocation of cash dividends earned by a stock that makes up the principal of a trust for a beneficiary usually means that the dividends will be treated as capabilities. NetSuite also can handle non-inventory and service items and other charges in assemblies. Simply Accounting: This software is available in three versions that are priced from $49.99 to $699.99 for up to six concurrent users. It has about a million customers. New features: Integration with Microsoft Outlook For the e-mail and news client bundled with certain versions of Microsoft Windows, see . Microsoft Outlook or Outlook (full name Microsoft Office Outlook , a new form designer, new report sorting and filtering options, the introduction of 25+ performance indicators, warnings for duplicate form numbers, one-step allocations, the ability to export and re-import information (such as price lists) to Excel, twice as many (20) payroll-deduction fields, job categories, integration to handheld devices, a new departmental trial-balance report and inclusion of salespersons' names on quotes, orders and invoices. SMALL BUSINESS WINNER As you can see, small business accounting systems are becoming very powerful and sophisticated. And with the introduction of MSBA, the competition will become increasingly intense. The stakes are high: The current estimated market of small businesses is between 15 million and 25 million, with 500,000 to 2 million new businesses starting each year. Clearly, small businesses will be the winners as their accounting tools continue to improve. The Value of Industry-Specific Editions In recent years, industry-specific versions of QuickBooks and Peachtree have emerged to appeal to distributors, contractors, manufacturers, nonprofits and other organizations. While these products have some merit, in reality they have more to do with marketing and product positioning. In most cases they offer only a handful of additional features and reports relevant to each industry. Software for CPAs Only If you're going to buy QuickBooks or Peachtree, purchase the accountant's editions. They contain nearly all the additional functionality found in the various other versions of the product and they're typically priced lower. Both vendors offer CPA adviser/membership programs that include free copies of the software, training, CPE (Customer Premises Equipment) Communications equipment that resides on the customer's premises. CPE - Customer Premises Equipment credit, support and other benefits. These programs cost far less than the software itself. For example, QuickBooks consultants receive a copy of the QuickBooks Enterprise Accountants Edition, plus more than $3,500 worth of software, training and free product upgrades the following year for just $449. CPAs can join the Microsoft Professional Accountants' Network at no cost; it includes training, support and a copy of MSBA. And for $299 members also can subscribe to Verb 1. subscribe to - receive or obtain regularly; "We take the Times every day" subscribe, take buy, purchase - obtain by purchase; acquire by means of a financial transaction; "The family purchased a new car"; "The conglomerate acquired a new company"; Action Pack, which provides $25,000 worth of software--nearly all the Microsoft desktop application software for up to 10 partners and staff. J. Carlton Collins, CPA, president of ASA Asa (ā`sə), in the Bible, king of Judah, son and successor of Abijah. He was a good king, zealous in his extirpation of idols. When Baasha of Israel took Ramah (a few miles N of Jerusalem), Asa bought the help of Benhadad of Damascus and Research, LLC (Logical Link Control) See "LANs" under data link protocol. LLC - Logical Link Control , is an author, lecturer lecturer A person who is primarily–if not entirely—involved in the teaching activities of an academic center, who is not expected to perform research or Pt management; in general, lectureships are non-tenured positions and analyst of the accounting systems industry. His reviews can be seen at www.ASAResearch.com. His e-mail address See Internet address. e-mail address - electronic mail address is carlton@ accountingsoftwareadvisor.com.
Product Comparison Chart for Selected Features
QuickBooks Peachtree
Premier Complete
Accounting Accounting
Single-user pricing $399 $499
Five-user pricing $1,499 $999
Modules:
General ledger Yes Yes
Accounts payable Yes Yes
Purchase orders Yes Yes
Accounts receivable Yes Yes
Sales orders Yes Yes
Payroll Yes Yes
Inventory Yes Yes
Job costing Yes Yes
Fixed asset accounting Yes Yes
Point of sale Yes Yes
Report Writer Yes Yes
Bank reconciliation Yes Yes
Departmental accounting Yes Yes
Setup wizard Yes Yes
Export reports to Excel Yes Yes
Group reports for printing Yes Yes
User definable alerts No Yes
Secure audit trail cannot be turned off Yes No
Company financial dashboard Yes Yes
Ability to memorize transactions Yes Yes
Online banking Yes Yes
Sync customer and vendor data to Outlook Yes No
Attach pictures and documents to
transactions No No
Alternative part numbers No Yes
E-mail invoices Yes Yes
Track multiple warehouses No No
Track serial numbers No Yes
Cash-flow forecasting Yes Yes
Maintain multiple price levels Yes Yes
Time and billing Yes Yes
Time-and-billing integration to Outlook No No
Fixed asset accounting Yes Yes
Integrated Web store No No
Auto complete text fields Yes Yes
Calculates days-to-pay for each customer No Yes
Built-in internal accounting review
function No Yes
True networking environment that does not No Yes
need to be toggled on and off
Microsoft
Small Business
Accounting
Single-user pricing $149
Five-user pricing $149
Modules:
General ledger Yes
Accounts payable Yes
Purchase orders Yes
Accounts receivable Yes
Sales orders Yes
Payroll Yes
Inventory Yes
Job costing Yes
Fixed asset accounting Yes
Point of sale Yes
Report Writer Yes
Bank reconciliation Yes
Departmental accounting Yes
Setup wizard Yes
Export reports to Excel Yes
Group reports for printing No
User definable alerts No
Secure audit trail cannot be turned off Yes
Company financial dashboard Yes
Ability to memorize transactions Yes
Online banking Yes
Sync customer and vendor data to Outlook Yes
Attach pictures and documents to
transactions Yes
Alternative part numbers Add-on
E-mail invoices Yes
Track multiple warehouses Add-on
Track serial numbers Add-on
Cash-flow forecasting Yes
Maintain multiple price levels Yes
Time and billing Yes
Time-and-billing integration to Outlook Yes
Fixed asset accounting Yes
Integrated Web store Yes
Auto complete text fields Yes *
Calculates days-to-pay for each customer No
Built-in internal accounting review
function No
True networking environment that does not Yes
need to be toggled on and off
* Microsoft Small Business Accounting provides auto-complete text via
a drop-down window.
QuickBooks Products
Users Suggested
supported retial price
QuickBooks Simple Start 2006 1 user $99.95 *
QuickBooks Pro 2006 1 user $199.95 *
5 users $749.95 *
QuickBooks Pro 2006 for Mac 1 user $299.95 *
QuickBooks Premier Edition 2006 1 user $399.95 *
5 users $1,499.95 *
QuickBooks Enterprise Solution 2006 5 users $2,500.00 *
10 users $3,500.00 *
Online Edition 3 users $19.95/
+CPA month *
QuickBooks Basic Point of Sale 2006 1 user $799.95 *
5 users $1,499.95 *
QuickBooks Pro Point of Sale 2006 1 user $1,049.95 *
5 users $1,749.95 *
QuickBooks Pro Multi-store Point of Sale 5 users $1,399.95 *
2006 10 users $2,099.95 *
QuickBooks Premier Accountant Edition 2006 1 user $499.95 *
5 users $1,499.95 *
QuickBooks Enterprise Accountant Edition 1 user $849.95 *
2006
QuickBooks Premier Contractor Edition 2006 1 user $499.95 *
5 users $1,499.95 *
QuickBooks Enterprise Contractor Edition 5 users $499.95 *
2006 10 users $1,499.95 *
QuickBooks Premier Manufacturing and 1 user $499.95 *
Wholesale Edition 2006 5 users $2,500.00 *
QuickBooks Enterprise Manufacturing & 5 users $499.95 *
Wholesale Edition 2006 10 users $2,500.00 *
QuickBooks Premier Nonprofit Edition 2006 1 user $499.95 *
5 users $1,499.95 *
QuickBooks Enterprise Nonprofit Edition 5 users $499.95 *
2006 10 users $2,500.00 *
QuickBooks Premier Professional Services 1 user $499.95 *
Edition 2006 5 users $1,499.95 *
QuickBooks Enterprise Professional 10 users $2,500.00 *
Services 2006
QuickBooks Premier Retail Edition 2006 1 user $499.95 *
5 users $1,499.95 *
QuickBooks Enterprise Retail Edition 2006 5 users $499.95 *
10 users $2,500.00 *
QuickBooks Premier Wholesale Edition 2006 1 user $499.95 *
5 users $1,499.95 *
QuickBooks Enterprise Wholesale Edition 5 users $499.95 *
2006 10 users $2,500.00 *
* Does not include additional fees for add-on services such as payroll
tax service, support, training or online banking.
Peachtree Products
Users Suggested
supported retail price
Peachtree First Accounting 2006 1 user $99.99 *
Peachtree Accounting 2006 1 user $199.99 *
Peachtree Complete Accounting 2006 1 user $299.99 *
5 users $699.99 *
Peachtree by Sage Premium Accounting 2006 1 user $499.99 *
5 users $999.99 *
Peachtree (Online Accounting) 1 user $149.99/year
Multiuser $249.99/year
Peachtree Premium Accounting for 1 user $599.99 *
Construction 2006 5 users $1,199.99 *
Peachtree Premium Accounting for 1 user $599.99 *
Manufacturing 2006 5 users $1,199.99 *
Peachtree Premium Accounting for 1 user $599.99 *
Distribution 2006 5 users $1,199.99 *
Peachtree Premium Accounting for 5 users $1,199.99 *
Nonprofits 2006
Peachtree Premium Accounting Accountant's 1 user $499.99 *
Edition 2006 5 users $999.99 *
* Does not include additional fees for add-on services such as payroll
tax service, support, training or online banking.
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