Microsoft office accounting 2008 review

Invoices, for example, contain fields for contact information, terms, salesperson, shipping method, tax group, and price level, as well as "other. However, I like QuickBooks' forms better, particularly invoices, which integrate with shipping couriers and display a customer history.

Other tabbed content areas contain their own sets of tasks and data. Banking, for example, lets you set up online banking and bill-pay if your bank allows it , write checks, make credit card charges and deposits, transfer funds, and reconcile accounts. These are fairly typical features for such applications, with the exception of MYOB , which doesn't offer standard online banking.

Office Accounting's time-billing capability is weaker than those of its competitors. You can create time entries and time sheets and make an invoice based on time entered. But there's no timer, and you can't post time against a job. Peachtree Complete and QuickBooks Pro offer both. Payroll is another weak area. Microsoft offers three options, but not the one commonly offered by competitors, where you buy payroll tax tables and calculate and run payroll within the accounting program.

You can create and print your paychecks in the program, but you either have to process payroll on your own or use the rather complex Excel-based Manual Payroll Calculator. If you want someone to take the task off of your hands, you can subscribe to Payroll for Office Accounting.

You send in your hours and the service does your payroll and taxes. QuickBooks Pro, with its many options, is the winner here overall. Inventory tracking isn't a tool that everyone requires. Office Accounting is fine, though as is QuickBooks Pro for an eBay seller or a small business selling limited items. You can track inventory, services, non-inventory items, and kits collections of items. But unlike Peachtree Complete 's inventory tool, it doesn't include multiple price levels and cost methods, or item history.

Office Accounting's reports are fairly typical for this class of software, but Peachtree offers more. The group is light in inventory, jobs, and time billing wrap-ups but covers other content areas of the program very well. The reports offered, like those of its competitors, are appropriate for the program's features. Office Accounting has a set of built-in integration tools that make it unique in this group of applications.

Like its competitors, it integrates well with Microsoft Word and Excel for mail merges and report expansion. BCM makes it possible, for example, to turn appointments into billable time and create quotes and invoices in Outlook. This is a terrific set of tools, especially for service-based businesses. You can even monitor your customers' credit worthiness for a fee. QuickBooks Pro does not have that precise set of integrated tools, but its extensibility is impressive in its own right, with its Outlook contact-management synchronization, the QuickBooks Solutions Marketplace, and Point of Sale integration.

Microsoft Office Accounting Professional is a solid, creative small-business accounting program worth considering. It has the best interface going and doesn't have any serious drawbacks, unless you need strong inventory tools.

It's not as good across the board as QuickBooks Accounting Pro Edition , but it may be all you need. It's a good choice for frequent eBay sellers, companies whose inventory needs are modest, service professionals, and businesses that want to stay within the Office Accounting family.

More Tax Software Reviews:. Excellent 4. Bottom Line Microsoft Office Accounting Professional is a good choice for small businesses that need integrated online sales capabilities, want a familiar, Microsoft Office look and feel, and have simple inventory-tracking needs.

Pros Familiar Outlook-like interface. Invoices, for example, contain fields for contact information, terms, salesperson, shipping method, tax group, and price level, as well as "other. However, I like QuickBooks' forms better, particularly invoices, which integrate with shipping couriers and display a customer history. Other tabbed content areas contain their own sets of tasks and data. Banking, for example, lets you set up online banking and bill-pay if your bank allows it , write checks, make credit card charges and deposits, transfer funds, and reconcile accounts.

These are fairly typical features for such applications, with the exception of MYOB , which doesn't offer standard online banking. Office Accounting's time-billing capability is weaker than those of its competitors. You can create time entries and time sheets and make an invoice based on time entered. But there's no timer, and you can't post time against a job. Peachtree Complete and QuickBooks Pro offer both. Payroll is another weak area. Microsoft offers three options, but not the one commonly offered by competitors, where you buy payroll tax tables and calculate and run payroll within the accounting program.

You can create and print your paychecks in the program, but you either have to process payroll on your own or use the rather complex Excel-based Manual Payroll Calculator. If you want someone to take the task off of your hands, you can subscribe to Payroll for Office Accounting. You send in your hours and the service does your payroll and taxes. QuickBooks Pro, with its many options, is the winner here overall.

Inventory tracking isn't a tool that everyone requires. Office Accounting is fine, though as is QuickBooks Pro for an eBay seller or a small business selling limited items. You can track inventory, services, non-inventory items, and kits collections of items. But unlike Peachtree Complete 's inventory tool, it doesn't include multiple price levels and cost methods, or item history.

Office Accounting's reports are fairly typical for this class of software, but Peachtree offers more. The group is light in inventory, jobs, and time billing wrap-ups but covers other content areas of the program very well. The reports offered, like those of its competitors, are appropriate for the program's features. Office Accounting has a set of built-in integration tools that make it unique in this group of applications. Like its competitors, it integrates well with Microsoft Word and Excel for mail merges and report expansion.

BCM makes it possible, for example, to turn appointments into billable time and create quotes and invoices in Outlook. This is a terrific set of tools, especially for service-based businesses. You can even monitor your customers' credit worthiness for a fee. QuickBooks Pro does not have that precise set of integrated tools, but its extensibility is impressive in its own right, with its Outlook contact-management synchronization, the QuickBooks Solutions Marketplace, and Point of Sale integration.

Microsoft Office Accounting Professional is a solid, creative small-business accounting program worth considering.

It has the best interface going and doesn't have any serious drawbacks, unless you need strong inventory tools. It's not as good across the board as QuickBooks Accounting Pro Edition , but it may be all you need. It's a good choice for frequent eBay sellers, companies whose inventory needs are modest, service professionals, and businesses that want to stay within the Office Accounting family. More Tax Software Reviews:. Excellent 4. Bottom Line Microsoft Office Accounting Professional is a good choice for small businesses that need integrated online sales capabilities, want a familiar, Microsoft Office look and feel, and have simple inventory-tracking needs.