accounting

I have sold at least three different software packages in my previous business as a consultant and am truly amazed at the capabilities being offered by Simply Accounting Pro at such affordable pricing. I am starting a ditribution business and looked extensively at Quick Books Premier but then decided on Simply Accounting because of its completeness, ease of use and of course the cost. I highly recommend it and to those who don't care about accounting and want a simple way to track their transactions, like our friend who has given a poor rating to this package, I recommend using a spreadsheet. It is like wanting to drive and not wanting to learn the code!

Who are they trying to kid. If you don't care to know much about accounting, then don't bother trying this product. They tout the ease of use of this product because it "uses wizards." However, given that I'm a leading usability specialist, I can tell you that just because they use wizards doesn't mean that it's easy to use. As a matter of fact, it's laborious. Granted, my only experience is with the free trial period, but I went through the trouble of importing my QuickBooks file only to find out that Simply Accounting didn't import any of my accounts. So I had to try to set up my accounts from scratch.

The first thing that I noticed that might be trouble was that you have to create arcane 4-digit account numbers for every type of account you set up. Like I care what number it is, it's just a checking account!

I run a small consulting company, 3 people, and selected "professional services" as the type of company, yet the software set itself up for inventory, sales of inventory, tax on inventory etc. As I said, I set it up as a professional services company. We don't have no stinking inventory!!!

My first task in the free trial period was to send out an invoice. I never completed the task. The software had me jump through hoops, asking me to set up primary bank accounts (which I could not figure out), accounts for sales, etc. I finally gave up. As I said, I'm a usability specialist and I base my usability evaluations on how well the user can complete their task with the product, not on how many wizards the product has. Based on my (limited) experience with this product, this software failed to help me complete the most basic of tasks, send out an invoice.

While I despise QuickBooks and the way Intuit treats its users, I still haven't found a suitable replacement for the small business person. Simply Accounting certainly isn't a good choice, unless of course you are an accountant. But I'm not. I'm just another small business person who doesn't want to spend a moment more than I have to to manage my finances. I need to focus my time on my business, not contorting myself every which way just to use a piece of software.

In summary, though I was looking for anything that could even remotely replace the big gorilla, QuickBooks, sadly Simply Accounting isn't it.

Simply accounting is great and easy to use. I like it better than some other software in the market. But one simple problem, it is simple!